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+Project Gutenberg's The Girl from Sunset Ranch, by Amy Bell Marlowe
+
+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 Girl from Sunset Ranch
+       Alone in a Great City
+
+Author: Amy Bell Marlowe
+
+Release Date: September 5, 2008 [EBook #26534]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+By AMY BELL MARLOWE
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+THE OLDEST OF FOUR
+  Or Natalie's Way Out
+THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM
+  Or The Secret of the Rocks
+A LITTLE MISS NOBODY
+  Or With the Girls of Pinewood Hall
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
+  Or Alone in a Great City
+WYN'S CAMPING DAYS
+  Or The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club
+FRANCES OF THE RANGES
+  Or The Old Ranchman's Treasure
+THE GIRLS OF RIVERCLIFF SCHOOL
+  Or Beth Baldwin's Resolve
+
+THE ORIOLE BOOKS
+
+WHEN ORIOLE CAME TO HARBOR LIGHT
+WHEN ORIOLE TRAVELED WESTWARD
+(Other volumes in preparation)
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Illustration: "CAB, MISS? TAKE YOU ANYWHERE YOU SAY."
+Frontispiece (Page 67).]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
+OR
+ALONE IN A GREAT CITY
+
+BY
+AMY BELL MARLOWE
+
+AUTHOR OF
+THE OLDEST OF FOUR, THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST
+FARM, WYN'S CAMPING DAYS, ETC.
+
+Illustrated
+
+NEW YORK
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Copyright, 1914, by
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+The Girl from Sunset Ranch
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                 PAGE
+     I.  "Snuggy" and the Rose Pony        1
+    II.  Dudley Stone                     14
+   III.  The Mistress Of Sunset Ranch     26
+    IV.  Headed East                      36
+     V.  At Both Ends Of The Route        45
+    VI.  Across The Continent             56
+   VII.  The Great City                   65
+  VIII.  The Welcome                      72
+    IX.  The Ghost Walk                   83
+     X.  Morning                          92
+    XI.  Living Up To One's Reputation   102
+   XII.  "I Must Learn The Truth"        111
+  XIII.  Sadie Again                     128
+   XIV.  A New World                     142
+    XV.  "Step--Put; Step--Put"          152
+   XVI.  Forgotten                       164
+  XVII.  A Distinct Shock                176
+ XVIII.  Probing For Facts               196
+   XIX.  "Jones"                         204
+    XX.  Out Of Step With The Times      216
+   XXI.  Breaking The Ice                227
+  XXII.  In The Saddle                   238
+ XXIII.  My Lady Bountiful               252
+  XXIV.  The Hat Shop                    262
+   XXV.  The Missing Link                271
+  XXVI.  Their Eyes Are Opened           279
+ XXVII.  The Party                       287
+XXVIII.  A Statement Of Fact             304
+  XXIX.  "The Whip Hand"                 311
+   XXX.  Headed West                     317
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET
+RANCH
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"SNUGGY" AND THE ROSE PONY
+
+
+"Hi, Rose! Up, girl! There's another party making for the View by the far
+path. Get a move on, Rosie."
+
+The strawberry roan tossed her cropped mane and her dainty little hoofs
+clattered more quickly over the rocky path which led up from the
+far-reaching grazing lands of Sunset Ranch to the summit of the rocky
+eminence that bounded the valley upon the east.
+
+To the west lay a great, rolling plain, covered with buffalo grass and
+sage; and dropping down the arc of the sky was the setting sun,
+ruddy-countenanced, whose almost level rays played full upon the face of
+the bluff up which the pony climbed so nimbly.
+
+"On, Rosie, girl!" repeated the rider. "Don't let him get to the View
+before us. I don't see why anybody would wish to go there," she added,
+with a jealous pang, "for it was father's favorite outlook. None of our
+boys, I am sure, would come up here at this hour."
+
+Helen Morrell was secure in this final opinion. It was but a short month
+since Prince Morrell had gone down under the hoofs of the steers in an
+unfortunate stampede that had cost the Sunset Ranch much beside the life
+of its well-liked owner.
+
+The View--a flat table of rock on the summit overlooking the valley--had
+become almost sacred in the eyes of the punchers of Sunset Ranch since Mr.
+Morrell's death. For it was to that spot the ranchman had betaken
+himself--usually with his daughter--on almost every fair evening, to
+overlook the valley and count the roaming herds which grazed under his
+brand.
+
+Helen, who was sixteen and of sturdy build, could see the nearer herds now
+dotting the plain. She had her father's glasses slung over her shoulder,
+and she had come to-night partly for the purpose of spying out the strays
+along the watercourses or hiding in the distant _coulées_.
+
+But mainly her visit to the View was because her father had loved to ride
+here. She could think about him here undisturbed by the confusion and
+bustle at the ranch-house. And there were some things--things about her
+father and the sad conversation they had had together before his taking
+away--that Helen wanted to speculate upon alone.
+
+The boys had picked him up after the accident and brought him home; and
+doctors had been brought all the way from Helena to do what they could for
+him. But Mr. Morrell had suffered many bruises and broken bones, and there
+had been no hope for him from the first.
+
+He was not, however, always unconscious. He was a masterful man and he
+refused to take drugs to deaden the pain.
+
+"Let me know what I am about until I meet death," he had whispered.
+"I--am--not--afraid."
+
+And yet, there was one thing of which he had been sorely afraid. It was
+the thought of leaving his daughter alone.
+
+"Oh, Snuggy!" he groaned, clinging to the girl's plump hand with his own
+weak one. "If there were some of your own kind to--to leave you with. A
+girl like you needs women about--good women, and refined women. Squaws,
+and Greasers, and half-breeds aren't the kind of women-folk your mother
+was brought up among.
+
+"I don't know but I've done wrong these past few years--since your mother
+died, anyway. I've been making money here, and it's all for you, Snuggy.
+That's fixed by the lawyer in Elberon.
+
+"Big Hen Billings is executor and guardian of you and the ranch. I know I
+can trust him. But there ought to be nice women and girls for you to live
+with--like those girls who went to school with you the four years you were
+in Denver.
+
+"Yet, this is your home. And your money is going to be made here. It would
+be a crime to sell out now.
+
+"Ah, Snuggy! Snuggy! If your mother had only lived!" groaned Mr. Morrell.
+"A woman knows what's right for a girl better than a man. This is a rough
+place out here. And even the best of our friends and neighbors are crude.
+You want refinement, and pretty dresses, and soft beds, and fine
+furniture----"
+
+"No, no, Father! I love Sunset Ranch just as it is," Helen declared,
+wiping away her tears.
+
+"Aye. 'Tis a beauty spot--the beauty spot of all Montana, I believe,"
+agreed the dying man. "But you need something more than a beautiful
+landscape."
+
+"But there are true hearts here--all our friends!" cried Helen.
+
+"And so they are--God bless them!" responded Prince Morrell, fervently.
+"But, Snuggy, you were born to something better than being a 'cowgirl.'
+Your mother was a refined woman. I have forgotten most of my college
+education; but I had it once.
+
+"_This_ was not our original environment. It was not meant that we should
+be shut away from all the gentler things of life, and live rudely as we
+have. Unhappy circumstances did that for us."
+
+He was silent for a moment, his face working with suppressed emotion.
+Suddenly his grasp tightened on the girl's hand and he continued:
+
+"Snuggy! I'm going to tell you something. It's something you ought to
+know, I believe. Your mother was made unhappy by it, and I wouldn't want a
+knowledge of it to come upon you unaware, in the after time when you are
+alone. Let me tell you with my own lips, girl."
+
+"Why, Father, what is it?"
+
+"Your father's name is under a cloud. There is a smirch on my reputation.
+I--I ran away from New York to escape arrest, and I have lived here in the
+wilderness, without communicating with old friends and associates, because
+I did not want the matter stirred up."
+
+"Afraid of arrest, Father?" gasped Helen.
+
+"For your mother's sake, and for yours," he said. "She couldn't have borne
+it. It would have killed her."
+
+"But you were not guilty, Father!" cried Helen.
+
+"How do you know I wasn't?"
+
+"Why, Father, you could never have done anything dishonorable or mean--I
+know you could not!"
+
+"Thank you, Snuggy!" the dying man replied, with a smile hovering about
+his pain-drawn lips. "You've been the greatest comfort a father ever had,
+ever since you was a little, cuddly baby, and liked to snuggle up against
+father under the blankets.
+
+"That was before the big ranch-house was built, and we lived in a shack. I
+don't know how your mother managed to stand it, winters. _You_ just
+snuggled into my arms under the blankets--that's how we came to call you
+'Snuggy.'"
+
+"'Snuggy' is a good name, Dad," she declared. "I love it, because _you_
+love it. And I know I gave you comfort when I was little."
+
+"Indeed, yes! _What_ a comfort you were after your poor mother died,
+Snuggy! Ah, well! you shall have your reward, dear. I am sure of that.
+Only I am worried that you should be left alone now."
+
+"Big Hen and the boys will take care of me," Helen said, stifling her
+sobs.
+
+"Nay, but you need women-folk about. Your mother's sister, now--The
+Starkweathers, if they knew, might offer you a home."
+
+"That is, Aunt Eunice's folks?" asked Helen. "I remember mother speaking
+of Aunt Eunice."
+
+"Yes. She corresponded with Eunice until her death. Of course, we haven't
+heard from them since. The Starkweathers naturally did not wish to keep up
+a close acquaintanceship with me after what happened."
+
+"But, dear Dad! you haven't told me what happened. _Do_ tell me!" begged
+the anxious girl.
+
+Then the girl's dying father told her of the looted bank account of Grimes
+& Morrell. The cash assets of the firm had suddenly disappeared.
+Circumstantial evidence pointed at Prince Morrell. His partner and
+Starkweather, who had a small interest in the firm, showed their doubt of
+him. The creditors were clamorous and ugly. The bookkeeper of the firm
+disappeared.
+
+"They advised me to go away for a while; your mother was delicate and the
+trouble was wearing her into her grave. And so," Mr. Morrell said, in a
+shaking voice, "I ran away. We came out here. You were born in this
+valley, Snuggy. We hoped at first to take you back to New York, where all
+the mystery would be explained. But that time never came.
+
+"Neither Starkweather, nor Grimes, seemed able to help me with advice or
+information. Gradually I got into the cattle business here. I prospered
+here, while Fenwick Grimes prospered in New York. I understand he is a
+very wealthy man.
+
+"Soon after we came out here your Uncle Starkweather fell heir to a big
+property and moved into a mansion on Madison Avenue. He, and his wife, and
+the three girls--Belle, Hortense and Flossie--have everything heart could
+desire.
+
+"And they have all I want my Snuggy to have," groaned Mr. Morrell. "They
+have refinement, and books, and music, and all the things that make life
+worth living for a woman."
+
+"But I _love_ Sunset Ranch!" cried Helen again.
+
+"Aye. But I watched your mother. I know how much she missed the gentler
+things she had been brought up to. Had I been able to pay off those old
+creditors while she was alive, she might have gone back.
+
+"And yet," the ranchman sighed, "the stigma is there. The blot is still on
+your father's name, Snuggy. People in New York still believe that I was
+dishonest. They believe that with the proceeds of my dishonesty I came out
+here and went into the cattle business.
+
+"You see, my dear? Even the settling with our old creditors--the creditors
+of Grimes & Morrell--made suspicion wag her tongue more eagerly than ever.
+I paid every cent, with interest compounded to the date of settlement.
+Grimes had long since had himself cleared of his debts and started over
+again. I do not know even that he and Starkweather know that I have been
+able to clear up the whole matter.
+
+"However, as I say, the stain upon my reputation remains. I could never
+explain my flight. I could never imagine what became of the money.
+Somebody embezzled it, and _I_ was the one who ran away. Do you see, my
+dear?"
+
+And Helen told him that she _did_ see, and assured him again and again of
+her entire trust in his honor. But Mr. Morrell died with the worry of the
+old trouble--the trouble that had driven him across the continent--heavy
+upon his mind.
+
+And now it was serving to make Helen's mind most uneasy. The crime of
+which her father had been accused was continually in her thoughts.
+
+Who had really been guilty of the embezzlement? The bookkeeper, who
+disappeared? Fenwick Grimes, the partner? Or, _Who?_
+
+As the Rose pony--her own favorite mount--took Helen Morrell up the bluff
+path to the View on this evening, the remembrance of this long talk with
+her father before he died was running in the girl's mind.
+
+Perhaps she was a girl who would naturally be more seriously impressed
+than most, at sixteen. She had been brought up among older people. She was
+a wise little thing when she was a mere toddler.
+
+And after her mother's death she had been her father's daily companion
+until she was old enough to be sent away to be educated. The four long
+terms at the Denver school had carried Helen Morrell (for she had a quick
+mind) through those grades which usually prepare girls for college.
+
+When she came back after graduation, however, she saw that her father
+needed her companionship more than she needed college. And, again, she was
+too domestic by nature to really long for a higher education.
+
+She was glad now--oh! so glad--that she had remained at Sunset Ranch
+during these last few months. Her father had died with her arms about him.
+As far as he could be comforted, Helen had comforted him.
+
+But now, as she rode up the rocky trail, she murmured to herself:
+
+"If I could only clear dad's name!"
+
+Again she raised her eyes and saw a buckskin pony and its rider getting
+nearer and nearer to the summit.
+
+"Get on, Rose!" she exclaimed. "That chap will beat us out. Who under the
+sun can he be?"
+
+[Illustration: "HELEN CREPT ON HANDS AND KNEES TO THE EDGE OF THE BLUFF."
+(Page 14)]
+
+She was sure the rider of the buckskin was no Sunset puncher. Yet he
+seemed garbed in the usual chaps, sombrero, flannel shirt and gay
+neckerchief of the cowpuncher.
+
+"And there isn't another band of cattle nearer than Froghole," thought the
+girl, adjusting her body to the Rose pony's quickened gait.
+
+She did not know it, but she was quite as much an object of interest to
+the strange rider as he was to her. And it was worth while watching Helen
+Morrell ride a pony.
+
+The deep brown of her cheek was relieved by a glow of healthful red. Her
+thick plaits of hair were really sunburned; her thick eyebrows were
+startlingly light compared with her complexion.
+
+Her eyes were dark gray, with little golden lights playing in them; they
+seemed fairly to twinkle when she laughed. Her lips were as red as ripe
+sumac berries; her nose, straight, long, and generously moulded, was
+really her handsomest feature, for of course her hair covered her dainty
+ears more or less.
+
+From the rolling collar of her blouse her neck rose firm and solid--as
+strong-looking as a boy's. She was plump of body, with good shoulders, a
+well-developed arm, and her ornamented russet riding boots, with a tiny
+silver spur in each heel, covered very pretty and very small feet.
+
+Her hand, if plump, was small, too; but the gauntlets she wore made it
+seem larger and more mannish than it was. She rode as though she were a
+part of the pony.
+
+She had urged on the strawberry roan and now came out upon the open
+plateau at the top of the bluff just as the buckskin mounted to the same
+level from the other side.
+
+The rock called "the View" was nearer to the stranger than to herself. It
+overhung the very steepest drop of the eminence.
+
+Helen touched Rose with the spur, and the pony whisked her tail and shot
+across the uneven sward toward the big boulder where Helen and her father
+had so often stood to survey the rolling acres of Sunset Ranch.
+
+Whether the stranger on the buckskin thought her mount had bolted with
+her, Helen did not know. But she heard him cry out, saw him swing his hat,
+and the buckskin started on a hard gallop along the verge of the precipice
+toward the very goal for which the Rose pony was headed.
+
+"The foolish fellow! He'll be killed!" gasped Helen, in sudden fright.
+"That soil there crumbles like cheese! There! He's down!"
+
+She saw the buckskin's forefoot sink. The brute stumbled and rolled
+over--fortunately for the pony _away_ from the cliff's edge.
+
+But the buckskin's rider was hurled into the air. He sprawled forward like
+a frog diving and--without touching the ground--passed over the brink of
+the precipice and disappeared from Helen's startled gaze.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DUDLEY STONE
+
+
+The victim of the accident made no sound. No scream rose from the depths
+after he disappeared. The buckskin pony rolled over, scrambled to its
+feet, and cantered off across the plateau.
+
+Helen Morrell had swerved her own mount farther to the south and came to
+the edge of the caved-in bit of bank with a rush of hoofs that ended in a
+wild scramble as she bore down upon the Rose pony's bit.
+
+She was out of her saddle, and had flung the reins over Rose's head, on
+the instant. The well-trained pony stood like a rock.
+
+The girl, her heart beating tumultuously, crept on hands and knees to the
+crumbling edge of the bluff.
+
+She knew its scarred face well. There were outcropping boulders, gravel
+pits, ledges of shale, brush clumps and a few ragged trees clinging
+tenaciously to the water-worn gullies.
+
+She expected to see the man crushed and bleeding on some rock below.
+Perhaps he had rolled clear to the bottom.
+
+But as her swift gaze searched the face of the bluff, there was no rock,
+splotched with red, in her line of vision. Then she saw something in the
+top of one of the trees, far down.
+
+It was the yellow handkerchief which the stranger had worn. It fluttered
+in the evening breeze like a flag of distress.
+
+"E-e-e-_yow!_" cried Helen, making a horn of her hands as she leaned over
+the edge of the precipice, and uttering the puncher's signal call.
+
+"E-e-e-_yow!_" came up a faint reply.
+
+She saw the green top of the tree stir. Then a face--scratched and
+streaked with blood--appeared.
+
+"For the love of heaven!" called a thin voice. "Get somebody with a rope.
+I've got to have some help."
+
+"I have a rope right here. Pass it under your arms, and I'll swing you out
+of that tree-top," replied Helen, promptly.
+
+She jumped up and went to the pony. Her rope--she would no more think of
+traveling without it than would one of the Sunset punchers--was coiled at
+the saddlebow.
+
+Running back to the verge of the bluff she planted her feet on a firm
+boulder and dropped the coil into the depths. In a moment it was in the
+hands of the man below.
+
+"Over your head and shoulders!" she cried.
+
+"You can never hold me!" he called back, faintly.
+
+"You do as you're told!" she returned, in a severe tone. "I'll hold
+you--don't you fear."
+
+She had already looped her end of the rope over the limb of a tree that
+stood rooted upon the brink of the bluff. With such a purchase she would
+be able to hold all the rope itself would hold.
+
+"Ready!" she called down to him.
+
+"All right! Here I swing!" was the reply.
+
+Leaning over the brink, rather breathless, it must be confessed, the girl
+from Sunset Ranch saw him swing out of the top of the tree.
+
+The tree-top was all of seventy feet from its roots. If he slipped now he
+would suffer a fall that surely would kill him.
+
+But he was able to help himself. Although he crashed once against the side
+of the bluff and set a bushel of gravel rattling down, in a moment he
+gained foothold on a ledge. There he stood, wavering until she paid off a
+little of the line. Then he dropped down to get his breath.
+
+"Are you safe?" she shouted down to him.
+
+"Sure! I can sit here all night."
+
+"You don't want to, I suppose?" she asked.
+
+"Not so's you'd notice it. I guess I can get down after a fashion."
+
+"Hurt bad?"
+
+"It's my foot, mostly--right foot. I believe it's sprained, or broken.
+It's sort of in the way when I move about."
+
+"Your face looks as if that tree had combed it some," commented Helen.
+
+"Never mind," replied the youth. "Beauty's only skin deep, at best. And
+I'm not proud."
+
+She could not see him very well, for the sun had dropped so low that down
+where he lay the face of the bluff was in shadow.
+
+"Well, what are you going to do? Climb up, or down?"
+
+"I believe getting down would be easier--'specially if you let me use your
+rope."
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"But then, there'd be my pony. I couldn't get him with this foot----"
+
+"I'll catch him. My Rose can run down anything on four legs in these
+parts," declared the girl, briskly.
+
+"And can you get down here to the foot of this cliff where I'm bound to
+land?"
+
+"Yes. I know the way in the dark. Got matches?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you build some kind of a smudge when you reach the bottom. That'll
+show me where you are. Now I'm going to drop the rope to you. Look out it
+doesn't get tangled."
+
+"All right! Let 'er come!"
+
+"I'll have to leave you if I'm to catch that buckskin before it gets dark,
+stranger. You'll get along all right?" she added.
+
+"Surest thing you know!"
+
+She dropped the rope. He gathered it in quickly and then uttered a
+cheerful shout.
+
+"All clear?" asked Helen.
+
+"Don't worry about me. I'm all right," he assured her.
+
+Helen leaped back to her waiting pony. Already the golden light was dying
+out of the sky. Up here in the foothills the "evening died hard" as the
+saying is; but the buckskin pony had romped clear across the plateau. He
+was now, indeed, out of sight.
+
+She whirled Rose about and set off at a gallop after the runaway. It was
+not until then that she remembered she had no rope. That buckskin would
+have to be fairly run down. There would be no roping him.
+
+"But if you can't do it, no other horsie can," she said, aloud, patting
+the Rose pony on her arching neck. "Go it, girl! Let's see if we can't
+beat any miserable little buckskin that ever came into this country. A
+strawberry roan forever!"
+
+Her "E-e-e-yow! yow!" awoke the pony to desperate endeavor. She seemed to
+merely skim the dry grass of the open plateau, and in ten minutes Helen
+saw a riderless mount plunging up the side of a _coulée_ far ahead.
+
+"There he goes!" cried the girl. "After him, Rosie! Make your pretty hoofs
+fly!"
+
+The excitement of the chase roused in Helen that feeling of freedom and
+confidence that is a part of life on the plains. Those who live much in
+the open air, and especially in the saddle, seldom think of failure.
+
+She knew she was going to catch the runaway pony. Such an idea as
+non-success never entered her mind. This was the first hard riding she had
+done since Mr. Morrell died; and now her thoughts expanded and she shook
+off the hopeless feeling which had clouded her young heart and mind since
+they had buried her father.
+
+While she rode on, and rode hard, after the fleeing buckskin her revived
+thought kept time with the pony's hoofbeats.
+
+No longer did the old tune run in her head: "If I only _could_ clear dad's
+name!" Instead the drum of confidence beat a charge to arms: "I know I
+_can_ clear his name!
+
+"To think of poor dad living out here all these years, with suspicion
+resting on his reputation back there in New York. And he wasn't guilty! It
+was that partner of his, or that bookkeeper, who was guilty. That is the
+secret of it," Helen told herself.
+
+"I'll go back East and find out all about it," determined the girl, as her
+pony carried her swiftly over the ground. "Up, Rose! There he is! Don't
+let him get away from us!"
+
+Her interest in the chase of the buckskin pony and in the mystery of her
+father's trouble ran side by side.
+
+"On, on!" she urged Rose. "Why shouldn't I go East? Big Hen can run the
+ranch well enough. And there are my cousins--and auntie. If Aunt Eunice
+resembles mother----
+
+"Go it, Rose! There's our quarry!"
+
+She stooped forward in the saddle, and as the Rose pony, running like the
+wind, passed the now staggering buckskin, Helen snatched the dragging
+rein, and pulled the runaway around to follow in her own wake.
+
+"Hush, now! Easy!" she commanded her mount, who obeyed her voice quite as
+well as though she had tugged at the reins. "Now we'll go back quietly and
+trail this useless one along with us.
+
+"Come up, Buck! Easy, Rose!" So she urged them into the same gait,
+returning in a wide circle toward the path up which she had climbed before
+the sun went down--the trail to Sunset Ranch.
+
+"Yes! I can do it!" she cried, thinking aloud. "I can and will go to New
+York. I'll find out all about that old trouble. Uncle Starkweather can
+tell me, probably.
+
+"And then it will please father." She spoke as though Mr. Morrell was sure
+to know her decision. "He will like it if I go to live with them a spell.
+He said it is what I need--the refining influence of a nice home.
+
+"And I _would_ love to be with nice girls again--and to hear good
+music--and put on something beside a riding skirt when I go out of the
+house."
+
+She sighed. "One cannot have a cow ranch and all the fripperies of
+civilization, too. Not very well. I--I guess I am longing for the
+flesh-pots of Egypt. Perhaps poor dad did, too. Well, I'll give them a
+whirl. I'll go East----
+
+"Why, where's that fellow's fire?"
+
+She was descending the trail into the pall of dusk that had now spread
+over the valley. Far away she caught a glimmer of light--a lantern on the
+porch at the ranch-house. But right below here where she wished to see a
+light, there was not a spark.
+
+"I hope nothing's happened to him," she mused. "I don't believe he is one
+of us; if he had been he wouldn't have raced a pony so close to the edge
+of the bluff."
+
+She began to "co-ee! co-ee!" as the ponies clattered down the remainder of
+the pathway. And finally there came an answering shout. Then a little
+glimmer of light flashed up--again and yet again.
+
+"Matches!" grumbled Helen. "Can't he find anything dry to burn down there
+and so make a steady light?"
+
+She shouted again.
+
+"This way, Miss!" she heard the stranger cry.
+
+The ponies picked their way carefully over the loose shale that had fallen
+to the foot of the bluff. There were trees, too, to make the way darker.
+
+"Hi!" cried Helen. "Why didn't you light a fire?"
+
+"Why, to tell you the truth, I had some difficulty in getting down here,
+and I--I had to rest."
+
+The words were followed by a groan that the young man evidently could not
+suppress.
+
+"Why, you're more badly hurt than you said!" cried the girl. "I'd better
+get help; hadn't I?"
+
+"A doctor is out of the question, I guess. I believe that foot's broken."
+
+"Huh! You're from the East!" she said, suddenly.
+
+"How so?"
+
+"You say 'guess' in that funny way. And that explains it."
+
+"Explains what?"
+
+"Your riding so recklessly."
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed the other, with a short laugh. "I thought the
+whole West was noted for reckless riding."
+
+"Oh, no. It only _looks_ reckless," she returned, quietly. "Our boys
+wouldn't ride a pony close to the edge of a steep descent like that up
+yonder."
+
+"All right. I'm in the wrong," admitted the stranger. "But you needn't rub
+it in."
+
+"I didn't mean to," said Helen, quickly. "I have a bad habit of talking
+out loud."
+
+He laughed at that. "You're frank, you mean? I like that. Be frank enough
+to tell me how I am to get back to Badger's--even on ponyback--to-night?"
+
+"Impossible," declared Helen.
+
+"Then, perhaps I _had_ better make an effort to make camp."
+
+"Why, no! It's only a few miles to the ranch-house. I'll hoist you up on
+your pony. The trail's easy."
+
+"Whose ranch is it?" he asked, with another suppressed groan.
+
+"Mine--Sunset Ranch."
+
+"Sunset Ranch! Why, I've heard of that. One of the last big ranches
+remaining in Montana; Isn't it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Almost as big as 101?"
+
+"That's right," said Helen, briefly.
+
+"But I didn't know a girl owned it," said the other, curiously.
+
+"She didn't--until lately. My father, Prince Morrell, has just died."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the other, in a softened tone. "And you are Miss
+Morrell?"
+
+"I am. And who are you? Easterner, of course?"
+
+"You guessed right--though, I suppose, you 'reckon' instead of 'guess.'
+I'm from New York."
+
+"Is that so?" queried Helen. "That's a place I want to see before long."
+
+"Well, you'll be disappointed," remarked the other. "My name is Dudley
+Stone, and I was born and brought up in New York and have lived there all
+my life until I got away for this trip West. But, believe me, if I didn't
+have to I would never go back!"
+
+"Why do you have to go back?" asked Helen, simply.
+
+"Business. Necessity of earning one's living. I'm in the way of being a
+lawyer--when my days of studying, and all, are over. And then, I've got a
+sister who might not fit into the mosaic of this freer country, either."
+
+"Well, Dudley Stone," quoth the girl from Sunset Ranch, "we'd better not
+stay talking here. It's getting darker every minute. And I reckon your
+foot needs attention."
+
+"I hate to move it," confessed the young Easterner.
+
+"You can't stay here, you know," insisted Helen. "Where's my rope?"
+
+"I'm sorry. I had to hitch one end of it up above and let myself down by
+it."
+
+"Well, it might have come in handy to lash you on the pony. I don't mind
+about the rope otherwise. One of the boys will bring it in for me
+to-morrow. Now, let's see what we can do towards hoisting you into your
+saddle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MISTRESS OF SUNSET RANCH
+
+
+Dudley Stone had begun to peer wonderingly at this strange girl. When he
+had first sighted her riding her strawberry roan across the plateau he
+supposed her to be a little girl--and really, physically, she did not seem
+much different from what he had first supposed.
+
+But she handled this situation with all the calmness and good sense of a
+much older person. She spoke like the men and women he had met during his
+sojourn in the West, too.
+
+Yet, when he was close to her, he saw that she was simply a young girl
+with good health, good muscles, and a rather pretty face and figure. He
+called her "Miss" because it seemed to flatter her; but Dud Stone felt
+himself infinitely older than this girl of Sunset Ranch.
+
+It was she who went about getting him aboard the pony, however; he never
+could have done it by himself. Nor was it so easily done as said.
+
+In the first place, the badly trained buckskin didn't want to stand still.
+And the young man was in such pain that he really was unable to aid Helen
+in securing the pony.
+
+"Here, you take Rose," commanded the girl, at length. "She'd stand for
+anything. Up you come, now, sir!"
+
+The young fellow was no weakling. But when he put one arm over the girl's
+strong shoulder, and was hoisted erect, she felt him quiver all over. She
+knew that the pain he suffered must be intense.
+
+"Whoa, Rose, girl!" commanded Helen. "Back around! Now, sir, up with that
+lame leg. It's got to be done----"
+
+"I know it!" he panted, and by a desperate effort managed to get the
+broken foot over the saddle.
+
+"Up with you!" said Helen, and hoisted him with a man's strength into the
+saddle. "Are you there?"
+
+"Oh! Ouch! Yes," returned the Easterner. "I'm here. No knowing how long
+I'll stick, though."
+
+"You'd better stick. Here! Put this foot in the stirrup. Don't suppose you
+can stand the other in it?"
+
+"Oh, no! I really couldn't," he exclaimed.
+
+"Well, we'll go slow. Hi, there! Come here, you Buck!"
+
+"He's a vicious little scoundrel," said the young man.
+
+"He ought to have a course of sprouts under one of our wranglers,"
+remarked the girl from Sunset Ranch. "Now let's go along."
+
+Despite the buckskin's dancing and cavorting, she mounted, stuck the spurs
+into him a couple of times, and the ill-mannered pony decided that walking
+properly was better than bucking.
+
+"You're a wonder!" exclaimed Dud Stone, admiringly.
+
+"You haven't been West long," she replied, with a smile. "Women folk out
+here aren't much afraid of horses."
+
+"I should say they were not--if you are a specimen."
+
+"I'm just ordinary. I spent four school terms in Denver, and I never rode
+there, so I kind of lost the hang of it."
+
+Dud Stone was becoming anxious over another matter.
+
+"Are you sure you can find the trail when it's so dark?" he asked.
+
+"We're on it now," she said.
+
+"I'm glad you're so sure," he returned, grimly. "I can't see the ground,
+even."
+
+"But the ponies know, if I don't," observed Helen, cheerfully. "Nothing to
+be afraid of."
+
+"I guess you think I _am_ kind of a tenderfoot?" he returned.
+
+"You're not used to night traveling on the cattle range," she said. "You
+see, we lay our courses by the stars, just as mariners do at sea. I can
+find my way to the ranch-house from clear beyond Elberon, as long as the
+stars show."
+
+"Well," he sighed, "this is some different from riding on the bridle-path
+in Central Park."
+
+"That's in New York?" she asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I mean to go there. It's really a big city, I suppose?"
+
+"Makes Denver look like a village," said Stone, laughing to smother a
+groan.
+
+"So father said."
+
+"You have people there, I hope?"
+
+"Yes. Father and mother came from there. It was before I was born, though.
+You see, I'm a real Montana product."
+
+"And a mighty fine one!" he murmured. Then he said aloud: "Well, as long
+as you've got folks in the big city, it's all right. But it's the
+loneliest place on God's earth if one has no friends and no confidants. I
+know that to be true from what boys have told me who have come there from
+out of town."
+
+"Oh, I've got folks," said Helen, lightly. "How's the foot now?"
+
+"Bad," he admitted. "It hangs loose, you see----"
+
+"Hold on!" commanded Helen, dismounting. "We've a long way to travel yet.
+That foot must be strapped so that it will ride easier. Wait!"
+
+She handed him her rein to hold and went around to the other side of the
+Rose pony. She removed her belt, unhooked the empty holster that hung from
+it, and slipped the holster into her pocket. Few of the riders carried a
+gun on Sunset Ranch unless the coyotes proved troublesome.
+
+With her belt Helen strapped the dangling leg to the saddle girth. The
+useless stirrup, that flopped and struck the lame foot, she tucked up out
+of the way.
+
+With tender fingers she touched the wounded foot. She could feel the fever
+through the boot.
+
+"But you'd better keep your boot on till we get home, Dud Stone," advised
+Helen. "It will sort of hold it together and perhaps keep the pain from
+becoming greater than you can bear. But I guess it hurts mighty bad."
+
+"It sure does, Miss Morrell," he returned, grimly. "Is--is the ranch
+far?"
+
+"Some distance. And we've got to walk. But bear up if you can----"
+
+She saw him waver in the saddle. If he fell, she could not be sure just
+how Rose, the spirited pony, would act.
+
+"Say!" she said, coming around and walking by his side, leading the other
+mount by the bridle. "You lean on me. Don't want you falling out of the
+saddle. Too hard work to get you back again."
+
+"I guess you think I _am_ a tenderfoot!" muttered young Stone.
+
+He never knew how they reached Sunset Ranch. The fall, the terrible wrench
+of his foot, and the endurance of the pain was finally too much for him.
+In a half-fainting condition he sank part of his weight on the girl's
+shoulder, and she sturdily trudged along the rough trail, bearing him up
+until she thought her own limbs would give way.
+
+At last she even had to let the buckskin run at large, he made her so much
+trouble. But the Rose pony was "a dear!"
+
+Somewhere about ten o'clock the dogs began to bark. She saw the flash of
+lanterns and heard the patter of hoofs.
+
+She gave voice to the long range yell, and a dozen anxious punchers
+replied. Great discussion had arisen over where she could have gone, for
+nobody had seen her ride off toward the View that afternoon.
+
+"Whar you been, gal?" demanded Big Hen Billings, bringing his horse to a
+sudden stop across the trail. "Hul-_lo!_ What's that you got with yer?"
+
+"A tenderfoot. Easy, Hen! I've got his leg strapped to the girth. He's in
+bad shape," and she related, briefly, the particulars of the accident.
+
+Dudley Stone had only a hazy recollection later of the noise and confusion
+of his arrival. He was borne into the house by two men--one of them the
+ranch foreman himself.
+
+They laid him on a couch, cut the boot from his injured foot, and then the
+sock he wore.
+
+Hen Billings, with bushy whiskers and the frame of a giant, was
+nevertheless as tender with the injured foot as a woman. Water with a
+chunk of ice floating in it was used to reduce the swelling. The foreman's
+blunted fingers probed for broken bones.
+
+But it seemed there was none. It was only a bad sprain, and they finally
+stripped him to his underclothes and bandaged the foot with cloths soaked
+with ice water.
+
+When they got him into bed--in an adjoining room--the young mistress of
+Sunset Ranch reappeared, with a tray and napkins, with which she arranged
+a table.
+
+"That's what he wants--some good grub under his belt, Snuggy," said the
+gigantic foreman, finally lighting his pipe. "He'll be all right in a few
+days. I'll send word to Creeping Ford for one of the boys to ride down to
+Badger's and tell 'em. That's where Mr. Stone says he's been stopping."
+
+"You're mighty kind," said the Easterner, gratefully, as Sing, the Chinese
+servant, shuffled in with a steaming supper.
+
+"We're glad to have a chance to play Good Samaritan in this part of the
+country," said Helen, laughing. "Isn't that so, Hen?"
+
+"That's right, Snuggy," replied the foreman, patting her on the shoulder.
+
+Dud Stone looked at Helen curiously, as the big man strode out of the
+room.
+
+"What an odd name!" he commented.
+
+"My father called me that, when I was a tiny baby," replied the girl. "And
+I love it. All my friends call me 'Snuggy.' At least, all my ranch
+friends."
+
+"Well, it's too soon for me to begin, I suppose?" he said, laughing.
+
+"Oh, quite too soon," returned Helen, as composedly as a person twice her
+age. "You had better stick to 'Miss Morrell,' and remember that I am the
+mistress of Sunset Ranch."
+
+"But I notice that you take liberties with _my_ name," he said, quickly.
+
+"That's different. You're a man. Men around here always shorten their
+names, or have nicknames. If they call you by your full name that means
+the boys don't like you. And I liked you from the start," said the Western
+girl, quite frankly.
+
+"Thank you!" he responded, his eyes twinkling. "I expect it must have been
+my fine riding that attracted you."
+
+"No. Nor it wasn't your city cowpuncher clothes," she retorted. "I know
+those things weren't bought farther West than Chicago."
+
+"A palpable hit!" admitted Dudley Stone.
+
+"No. It was when you took that tumble into the tree; was hanging on by
+your eyelashes, yet could joke about it," declared Helen, warmly.
+
+She might have added, too, that now he had been washed and his hair
+combed, he was an attractive-looking young man. She did not believe Dudley
+Stone was of age. His brown hair curled tightly all over his head, and he
+sported a tiny golden mustache. He had good color and was somewhat
+bronzed.
+
+Dud's blue eyes were frank, his lips were red and nicely curved; but his
+square chin took away from the lower part of his face any suggestion of
+effeminacy. His ears were generous, as was his nose. He had the clean-cut,
+intelligent look of the better class of educated Atlantic seaboard youth.
+
+There is a difference between them and the young Westerner. The latter are
+apt to be hung loosely, and usually show the effect of range-riding--at
+least, back here in Montana. Whereas Dud Stone was compactly built.
+
+They chatted quite frankly while the patient ate his supper. Dud found
+that, although Helen used many Western idioms, and spoke with an
+abruptness that showed her bringing up among plain-spoken ranch people,
+she could, if she so desired, use "school English" with good taste, and
+gave other evidences in her conversation of being quite conversant with
+the world of which he was himself a part when he was at home.
+
+"Oh, you would get along all right in New York," he said, laughing, when
+she suggested a doubt as to the impression she might make upon her
+relatives in the big town. "You'd not be half the 'tenderfoot' there that
+I am here."
+
+"No? Then I reckon I can risk shocking them," laughed Helen, her gray eyes
+dancing.
+
+This talk she had with Dud Stone on the evening of his arrival confirmed
+the young mistress of Sunset Ranch in her intention of going to the great
+city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HEADED EAST
+
+
+When Helen Morrell made up her mind to do a thing, she usually did it. A
+cataclysm of nature was about all that would thwart her determination.
+
+This being yielded to and never thwarted, even by her father, might have
+spoiled a girl of different calibre. But there was a foundation of good
+common sense to Helen's nature.
+
+"Snuggy won't kick over the traces much," Prince Morrell had been wont to
+say.
+
+"Right you are, Boss," had declared Big Hen Billings. "It's usually safe
+to give her her head. She'll bring up somewhar."
+
+But when Helen mentioned her eastern trip to the old foreman he came
+"purty nigh goin' up in th' air his own se'f!" as he expressed it.
+
+"What d'yer wanter do anythin' like that air for, Snuggy?" he demanded, in
+a horrified tone. "Great jumping Jehosaphat! Ain't this yere valley big
+enough fo' you?"
+
+"Sometimes I think it's too big," admitted Helen, laughing.
+
+"Well, by jo! you'll fin' city quarters close't 'nough--an' that's no
+josh. Huh! Las' time ever I went to Chicago with a train-load of beeves I
+went to see Kellup Flemming what useter work here on this very same livin'
+Sunset Ranch. You don't remember him. You was too little, Snuggy."
+
+"I've heard you speak of him, Hen," observed the girl.
+
+"Well, thar was Kellup, as smart a young feller as you'd find in a day's
+ride, livin' with his wife an' kids in what he called a _flat_. Be-lieve
+me! It was some perpendicular to git into, an' no _flat_.
+
+"When we gits inside and inter what he called his parlor, he looks around
+like he was proud of it (By jo! I'd be afraid ter shrug my shoulders in
+it, 'twas so small) an' says he: 'What d'ye think of the ranch, Hen?'
+
+"'Ranch,' mind yeh! I was plumb insulted. I says: 'It's all right--what
+there is of it--only, what's that crack in the wall for, Kellup?'
+
+"'Sufferin' tadpoles!' yells Kellup--jest like that! 'Sufferin' tadpoles!
+That ain't no crack in the wall. That's our private hall.'
+
+"Great jumping Jehosaphat!" exclaimed Hen, roaring with laughter. "Yuh
+don't wanter git inter no place like that in New York. Can't breathe in
+the house."
+
+"I guess Uncle Starkweather lives in a little better place than that,"
+said Helen, after laughing with the old foreman. "His house is on Madison
+Avenue."
+
+"Don't care where it is; there natcherly won't be no such room in a city
+dwelling as there is here at Sunset Ranch."
+
+"I suppose not," admitted the girl.
+
+"Huh! Won't be room in the yard for a cow," growled Big Hen. "Nor
+chickens. Whatter yer goin' to do without a fresh aig, Snuggy?"
+
+"I expect that will be pretty tough, Hen. But I feel like I must go, you
+see," said the girl, dropping into the idiom of Sunset Ranch. "Dad wanted
+me to."
+
+"The Boss _wanted_ yuh to?" gasped the giant, surprised.
+
+"Yes, Hen."
+
+"He never said nothin' to me about it," declared the foreman of Sunset
+Ranch, shaking his bushy head.
+
+"No? Didn't he say anything about my being with women folk, and under
+different circumstances?"
+
+"Gosh, yes! But I reckoned on getting Mis' Polk and Mis' Harry Frieze to
+take turns coming over yere and livin' with yuh."
+
+"But that isn't all dad wanted," continued the girl, shaking her head.
+"Besides, you know both Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Frieze are widows, and will be
+looking for husbands. We'd maybe lose some of the best boys we've got, if
+they came here," said Helen, her eyes twinkling.
+
+"Great jumping Jehosaphat! I never thought of that," declared the foreman,
+suddenly scared. "I never _did_ like that Polk woman's eye. I wouldn't,
+mebbe, be safe myse'f; would I?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," Helen gravely agreed. "So, you see, to please dad, I'll
+have to go to New York. I don't mean to stay for all time, Hen. But I want
+to give it a try-out."
+
+She sounded Dud Stone a good bit about the big city. Dud had to stay
+several days at Sunset Ranch because he couldn't ride very well with his
+injured foot. And finally, when he did go back to Badger's, they took him
+in a buckboard.
+
+To tell the truth, Dud was not altogether glad to go. He was a boyish chap
+despite the fact that he was nearly through law school, and a
+sixteen-year-old girl like Helen Morrell--especially one of her
+character--appealed to him strongly.
+
+He admired the capable way in which she managed things about the
+ranch-house. Sing obeyed her as though she were a man. There was a
+"rag-head" who had somehow worked his way across the mountains from the
+coast, and that Hindoo about worshipped "Missee Sahib." The two or three
+Greasers working about the ranch showed their teeth in broad smiles, and
+bowed most politely when she appeared. And as for the punchers and
+wranglers, they were every one as loyal to Snuggy as they had been to her
+father.
+
+The Easterner realized that among all the girls he knew back home, either
+of her age or older, there was none so capable as Helen Morrell. And there
+were few any prettier.
+
+"You're going right to relatives when you reach New York; are you, Miss
+Morrell?" asked Dud, just before he climbed into the buckboard to return
+to his friend's ranch.
+
+"Oh, yes. I shall go to Aunt Eunice," said the girl, decidedly.
+
+"No need of my warning you against bunco men and card sharpers," chuckled
+Dud, "for your folks will look out for you. But remember: You'll be just
+as much a tenderfoot there as I am here."
+
+"I shall take care," she returned, laughing.
+
+"And--and I hope I may see you in New York," said Dud, hesitatingly.
+
+"Why, I hope we shall run across each other," replied Helen, calmly. She
+was not sure that it would be the right thing to invite this young man to
+call upon her at the Starkweathers'.
+
+"I'd better ask Aunt Eunice about that first," she decided, to herself.
+
+So she shook hands heartily with Dud Stone and let him ride away, never
+appearing to notice his rather wistful look. She was to see the time,
+however, when she would be very glad of a friend like Dud Stone in the
+great city.
+
+Helen made her preparations for her trip to New York without any advice
+from another woman. To tell the truth she had little but riding habits
+which were fit to wear, save the house frocks which she wore around the
+ranch.
+
+When she had gone to school in Denver, her father had sent a sum of money
+to the principal and that lady had seen that Helen was dressed tastefully
+and well. But all these garments she had outgrown.
+
+To tell the truth, Helen had spent little of her time in studying the
+pictures in fashion magazines. In fact, there were no such books about
+Sunset Ranch.
+
+The girl realized that the rough and ready frocks she possessed were not
+in style. There was but one store in Elberon, the nearest town, where
+ready-to-wear garments were sold. She went there and purchased the best
+they had; but they left much to be desired.
+
+She got a brown dress to travel in, and a shirtwaist or two; but beyond
+that she dared not go. Helen was wise enough to realize that, after she
+arrived at her Uncle Starkweather's, it would be time enough to purchase
+proper raiment.
+
+She "dressed up" in the new frock for the boys to admire, the evening
+before she left. Every man who could be spared from the range--even as far
+as Creeping Ford--came in to the "party." They all admired Helen and were
+sorry to see her go away. Yet they gave her their best wishes.
+
+Big Hen Billings rode part of the way to Elberon with her in the morning.
+She was going to send the strawberry roan back hitched behind the supply
+wagon. Her riding dress she would change in the station agent's parlor for
+the new dress which was in the tray of her small trunk.
+
+"Keep yer eyes peeled, Snuggy," advised the old foreman, with gravity,
+"when ye come up against that New York town. 'Tain't like Elberon--no,
+sir! 'Tain't even like Helena.
+
+"Them folks in New York is rubbing up against each other so close, that it
+makes 'em moughty sharp--yessir! Jumping Jehosaphat! I knowed a feller
+that went there onct and he lost ten dollars and his watch before he'd
+been off the train an hour. They can do ye that quick!"
+
+"I believe that fellow must have been _you_, Hen," declared Helen,
+laughing.
+
+The foreman looked shamefaced. "Wal, it were," he admitted. "But they
+never got nothin' more out o' me. It was the hottest kind o' summer
+weather--an' lemme tell yuh, it can be some hot in that man's town.
+
+"Wal, I had a sheepskin coat with me. I put it on, and I buttoned it from
+my throat-latch down to my boot-tops. They'd had to pry a dollar out o' my
+pocket with a crowbar, and I wouldn't have had a drink with the mayor of
+the city if he'd invited me. No, sirree, sir!"
+
+Helen laughed again. "Don't you fear for me, Hen. I shall be in the best
+of hands, and shall have plenty of friends around me. I'll never feel
+lonely in New York, I am sure."
+
+"I hope not. But, Snuggy, you know what to do if anything goes wrong. Just
+telegraph me. If you want me to come on, say the word----"
+
+"Why, Hen! How ridiculous you talk," she cried. "I'll be with relatives."
+
+"Ya-as. I know," said the giant, shaking his head. "But relatives ain't
+like them that's knowed and loved yuh all yuh life. Don't forgit us out
+yere, Snuggy--and if ye want anything----" His heart was evidently too
+full for further utterance. He jerked his pony's head around, waved his
+hand to the girl who likewise was all but in tears, and dashed back over
+the trail toward Sunset Ranch.
+
+Helen pulled the Rose pony's head around and jogged on, headed east.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AT BOTH ENDS OF THE ROUTE
+
+
+As Helen walked up and down the platform at Elberon, waiting for the
+east-bound Transcontinental, she looked to be a very plain country girl
+with nothing in her dress to denote that she was one of the wealthiest
+young women in the State of Montana.
+
+Sunset Ranch was one of the few remaining great cattle ranches of the
+West. Her father could justly have been called "a cattle king," only
+Prince Morrell was not the sort of man who likes to see his name in
+print.
+
+Indeed, there was a good reason why Helen's father had not wished to
+advertise himself. That old misfortune, which had borne so heavily upon
+his mind and heart when he came to die, had made him shrink from
+publicity.
+
+However, business at Sunset Ranch had prospered both before and since Mr.
+Morrell's death. The money had rolled in and the bank accounts which had
+been put under the administration of Big Hen Billings and the lawyer at
+Elberon, increased steadily.
+
+Big Hen was a generous-handed administrator and guardian. Of course, the
+foreman of the ranch was, perhaps, not the best person to be guardian of a
+sixteen-year-old girl. He did not treat her, in regard to money matters,
+as the ordinary guardian would have treated a ward.
+
+Big Hen didn't know how to limit a girl's expenditures; but he knew how to
+treat a man right. And he treated Helen Morrell just as though she were a
+sane and responsible man.
+
+"There's a thousand dollars in cash for you, Snuggy," he had said. "I got
+it in soft money, for it's a fac' that they use that stuff a good deal in
+the East. Besides, the hard money would have made a good deal of a load
+for you to tote in them leetle war-bags of yourn."
+
+"But shall I ever need a thousand dollars?" asked Helen, doubtfully.
+
+"Don't know. Can't tell. Sometimes ye need money when ye least expect it.
+Ye needn't tell anybody how much you've got. Only, it's _there_--and a
+full pocket is a mighty nice backin' for anybody to have.
+
+"And if ye find any time ye want more, jest telegraph. We'll send ye what
+they call a draft for all ye want. Cut a dash. Show 'em that the girl from
+Sunset Ranch is the real thing, Snuggy."
+
+But she had only laughed at this. It never entered Helen Morrell's mind
+that she should ever wish to "cut a dash" before her relatives in New
+York.
+
+She had filed a telegram to Mr. Willets Starkweather, on Madison Avenue,
+before the train arrived, saying that she was coming. She hoped that her
+relatives would reply and she would get the reply en route.
+
+When her father died, she had written to the Starkweathers. She had
+received a brief, but kindly worded note from Uncle Starkweather. And it
+had scarcely been time yet, so Helen thought, for Aunt Eunice or the girls
+to write.
+
+But could Helen have arrived at the Madison Avenue mansion of Willets
+Starkweather at the same hour her message arrived and heard the family's
+comments on it, it is very doubtful if she would have swung herself aboard
+the parlor car of the Transcontinental, without the porter's help, and
+sought her seat.
+
+The Starkweathers lived in very good style, indeed. The mansion was one of
+several remaining in that section, all occupied by the very oldest and
+most elevated socially of New York's solid families. They were not people
+whose names appeared in the gossip columns of the papers to any extent;
+but to live in their neighborhood, and to meet them socially, was
+sufficient to insure one's welcome anywhere.
+
+The Starkweather mansion had descended to Willets Starkweather with the
+money--all from his great-uncle--which had finally put the family upon its
+feet. When Prince Morrell had left New York under a cloud, his
+brother-in-law was a struggling merchant himself.
+
+Now, in sixteen years, he had practically retired. At least, he was no
+longer "in trade." He merely went to an office, or to his broker's, each
+day, and watched his investments and his real estate holdings.
+
+A pompous, well-fed man was Willets Starkweather--and always imposingly
+dressed. He was very bald, wore a closely cropped gray beard, eyeglasses,
+and "Ahem!" was an introduction to almost everything he said. That
+clearing of the bronchial tubes was an announcement to the listening world
+that he, Willets Starkweather, of Madison Avenue, was about to make a
+remark. And no matter how trivial that remark might be, coming from the
+lips of the great man, it should be pondered upon and regarded with awe.
+
+Mr. Starkweather was a widower. Helen's Aunt Eunice had been dead three
+years. It had never been considered necessary by either Mr. Starkweather,
+or his daughters, to write "Aunt Mary's folks in Montana" of Mrs.
+Starkweather's death.
+
+Correspondence between the families had ceased at the time of Mrs.
+Morrell's death. The Starkweather girls understood that Aunt Mary's
+husband had "done something" before he left New York for the wild and
+woolly West. The family did not--Ahem!--speak of him.
+
+The three girls were respectively eighteen, sixteen, and fourteen. Even
+Flossie considered herself entirely grown up. She attended a private
+school not far from Central Park, and went each day dressed as elaborately
+as a matron of thirty.
+
+For Hortense, who was just Helen Morrell's age, "school had become a
+bore." She had a smattering of French, knew how to drum nicely on the
+piano--she was still taking lessons in _that_ polite accomplishment--had
+only a vague idea of the ordinary rules of English grammar, and couldn't
+write a decent letter, or spell words of more than two syllables, to save
+her life.
+
+Belle golfed. She did little else just now, for she was a creature of
+fads. Occasionally she got a new one, and with kindred spirits played that
+particular fad to death.
+
+She might have found a much worse hobby to ride. Getting up early and
+starting for the Long Island links, or for Westchester, before her sisters
+had had their breakfast, was not doing Belle a bit of harm. Only, she was
+getting in with a somewhat "sporty" class of girls and women older than
+herself, and the bloom of youth had been quite rubbed off.
+
+Indeed, these three girls were about as fresh as is a dried prune. They
+had jumped from childhood into full-blown womanhood (or thought they had),
+thereby missing the very best and sweetest part of their girls' life.
+
+They had come in from their various activities of the day when Helen's
+telegram arrived. Naturally they ran with it to their father's "den"--a
+gorgeously upholstered yet small library on the ground floor, at the
+back.
+
+"What is it now, girls?" demanded Mr. Starkweather, looking up in some
+dismay at this general onslaught. "I don't want you to suggest any further
+expenditures this month. I have paid all the bills I possibly can pay. We
+must retrench--we must retrench."
+
+"Oh, Pa!" said Flossie, saucily, "you're always saying that. I believe you
+say 'We must retrench!' in your sleep."
+
+"And small wonder if I do," he grumbled. "I have lost some money; the
+stock market is very dull. And nobody is buying real estate. I--I am quite
+at my wits' ends, I assure you, girls."
+
+"Dear me! and another mouth to feed!" laughed Hortense, tossing her head.
+"_That_ will be excuse enough for telling her to go to a hotel when she
+arrives."
+
+"Probably the poor thing won't have the price of a room," observed Belle,
+looking again at the telegram.
+
+"What is that in your hand, child?" demanded Mr. Starkweather, suddenly
+seeing the yellow slip of paper.
+
+"A dispatch, Pa," said Flossie, snatching it out of Belle's hand.
+
+"A telegram?"
+
+"And you'd never guess from whom," cried the youngest girl.
+
+"I--I----Let me see it," said her father, with some abruptness. "No bad
+news, I hope?"
+
+"Well, I don't call it _good_ news," said the oldest girl, with a sniff.
+
+Mr. Starkweather read it aloud:
+
+    "Coming on Transcontinental. Arrive Grand
+    Central Terminal 9 P.M. the third.
+
+                             "Helen Morrell."
+
+"Now! What do you think of that, Pa?" demanded Flossie.
+
+"'Helen Morrell,'" repeated Mr. Starkweather, and a person more observant
+than any of his daughters might have seen that his lips had grown suddenly
+gray. He dropped into his chair rather heavily. "Your cousin, girls."
+
+"Fol-de-rol!" exclaimed Belle. "I don't see why she should claim
+relationship."
+
+"Send her to a hotel, Pa," said Flossie.
+
+"I'm sure _I_ do not wish to be bothered by a common ranch girl. Why! she
+was born and brought up out in the wilds; wasn't she?" demanded Hortense.
+
+"Her father and mother went West before this girl was born--yes," murmured
+Mr. Starkweather.
+
+He was strangely agitated by the message. But the girls did not notice
+this. They were not likely to notice anything but their own disturbance
+over the coming of "that ranch girl."
+
+"Why, Pa, we can't have her here!" cried Belle.
+
+"Of course we can't, Pa," agreed Hortense.
+
+"I'm sure _I_ don't want the common little thing around," added Flossie,
+who, as has been said, was quite two years Helen's junior.
+
+"We couldn't introduce her to our friends," declared Belle.
+
+"What a _fright_ she'll be!" wailed Hortense.
+
+"She'll wear a sombrero and a split riding skirt, I suppose," scoffed
+Flossie, who madly desired a slit skirt, herself.
+
+"Of course she'll be a perfect dowdy," Belle observed.
+
+"And be loud and wear heavy boots, and stamp through the house," sighed
+Hortense. "We just _can't_ have her, Pa."
+
+"Why, I wouldn't let any of the girls of _our_ set see her for the world,"
+cried Flossie.
+
+Their father finally spoke. He had recovered from his secret emotion, but
+he was still mopping the perspiration from his bald brow.
+
+"I don't really see how I can prevent her coming," he said, rather
+weakly.
+
+"What nonsense, Pa!"
+
+"Of course you can!"
+
+"Telegraph her not to come."
+
+"But she is already aboard the train," objected Mr. Starkweather,
+gloomily.
+
+"Then, I tell you," snapped Flossie, who was the most unkind of the girls.
+"Don't telegraph her at all. Don't answer her message. Don't send to the
+station to meet her. Maybe she won't be too dense to take _that_ hint."
+
+"Pooh! these wild and woolly Western girls!" grumbled Hortense. "I don't
+believe she'll know enough to stay away."
+
+"We can try it," persisted Flossie.
+
+"She ought to realize that we're not dying to see her when we don't come
+to the train," said Belle.
+
+"I--don't--know," mused their father.
+
+"Now, Pa!" cried Flossie. "You know very well you don't want that girl
+here."
+
+"No," he admitted. "But--Ahem!--we have certain duties----"
+
+"Bother duties!" said Hortense.
+
+"Ahem! She is your mother's sister's child," spoke Mr. Starkweather,
+heavily. "She is a young and unprotected female----"
+
+"Seems to me," said Belle, crossly, "the relationship is far enough
+removed for us to ignore it. Mother's sister, Aunt Mary, is dead."
+
+"True--true. Ahem!" said her father.
+
+"And isn't it true that this man, Morrell, whom she married, left New York
+under a cloud?"
+
+"O--oh!" cried Hortense. "So he did."
+
+"What did he do?" Flossie asked, bluntly.
+
+"Embezzled; didn't he, Pa?" asked Belle.
+
+"That's enough!" cried Flossie, tossing her head. "We certainly don't want
+a convict's daughter in the house."
+
+"Hush, Flossie!" said her father, with sudden sternness. "Prince Morrell
+was never a convict."
+
+"No," sneered Hortense. "He ran away. He didn't get that far."
+
+"Ahem! Daughters, we have no right to talk in this way--even in fun----"
+
+"Well, I don't care," cried Belle, impatiently. "Whether she's a
+criminal's child or not; I don't want her. None of us wants her. Why,
+then, should we have her?"
+
+"But where will she go?" demanded Mr. Starkweather, almost desperately.
+
+"What do we care?" cried Flossie, callously. "She can be sent back; can't
+she?"
+
+"I tell you what it is," said Belle, getting up and speaking with
+determination. "We don't want Helen Morrell here. We will not meet her at
+the train. We will not send any reply to this message from her. And if she
+has the effrontery to come here to the house after our ignoring her in
+this way, we'll send her back where she came from just as soon as it can
+be done. What do you say, girls?"
+
+"Fine!" from Hortense and Flossie.
+
+But their father said "Ahem!" and still looked troubled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ACROSS THE CONTINENT
+
+
+It was not as though Helen Morrell had never been in a train before. Eight
+times she had gone back and forth to Denver, and she had always ridden in
+the best style. So sleepers, chair cars, private compartments, and
+observation coaches were no novelty to her.
+
+She had discussed the matter with her friend, the Elberon station agent,
+and had bought her ticket through to New York, with a berth section to
+herself. It cost a good bit of money, but Helen knew no better way to
+spend some of that thousand dollars that Big Hen had given to her.
+
+Her small trunk was put in the baggage car, and all she carried was a
+hand-satchel with toilet articles and kimono; and in it likewise was her
+father's big wallet stuffed with the yellow-backed notes--all crisp and
+new--that Big Hen Billings had brought to her from the bank.
+
+When she was comfortably seated in her particular section, and the porter
+had seen that her footstool was right, and had hovered about her with
+offers of other assistance until she had put a silver dollar into his
+itching palm, Helen first stared about her frankly at the other occupants
+of the car.
+
+Nobody paid much attention to the countrified girl who had come aboard at
+the way-station. The Transcontinental's cars are always well filled. There
+were family parties, and single tourists, with part of a grand opera
+troupe, and traveling men of the better class.
+
+Helen would have been glad to join one of the family groups. In one there
+were two girls and a boy beside the parents and a lady who must have been
+the governess. One of the girls, and the boy, were quite as old as Helen.
+They were all so well behaved, and polite to each other, yet jolly and
+companionable, that Helen knew she could have liked them immensely.
+
+But there was nobody to introduce the lonely girl to them, nor to any
+others of her fellow travelers. The conductor, even, did not take much
+interest in the girl in brown.
+
+She began to realize that what was the height of fashion in Elberon was
+several seasons behind the style in larger communities. There was not a
+pretty or attractive thing about Helen's dress; and even a very pretty
+girl will seem a frump in an out-of-style and unbecoming frock.
+
+It might have been better for the girl from Sunset Ranch if she had worn
+on the train the very riding habit she had in her trunk. At least, it
+would have become her and she would have felt natural in it.
+
+She knew now--when she had seen the hats of her fellow passengers--that
+her own was an atrocity. And, then, Helen had "put her hair up," which was
+something she had not been used to doing. Without practice, or some
+example to work by, how could this unsophisticated young girl have
+produced a specimen of modern hair-dressing fit to be seen?
+
+Even Dudley Stone could not have thought Helen Morrell pretty as she
+looked now. And when she gazed in the glass herself, the girl from Sunset
+Ranch was more than a little disgusted.
+
+"I know I'm a fright. I've got 'such a muchness' of hair and it's so
+sunburned, and all! What those girls I'm going to see will say to me, I
+don't know. But if they're good-natured they'll soon show me how to handle
+this mop--and of course I can buy any quantity of pretty frocks when I get
+to New York."
+
+So she only looked at the other people on the train and made no
+acquaintances at all that first day. She slept soundly at night while the
+Transcontinental raced on over the undulating plains on which the stars
+shone so peacefully. Each roll of the drumming wheels was carrying her
+nearer and nearer to that new world of which she knew so little, but from
+which she hoped so much.
+
+She dreamed that she had reached her goal--Uncle Starkweather's house.
+Aunt Eunice met her. She had never even seen a photograph of her aunt; but
+the lady who gathered her so closely into her arms and kissed her so
+tenderly, looked just as Helen's own mother had looked.
+
+She awoke crying, and hugging the tiny pillow which the Pullman Company
+furnishes its patrons as a sample--the _real_ pillow never materializes.
+
+But to the healthy girl from the wide reaches of the Montana range, the
+berth was quite comfortable enough. She had slept on the open ground many
+a night, rolled only in a blanket and without any pillow at all. So she
+arose fresher than most of her fellow-passengers.
+
+One man--whom she had noticed the evening before--was adjusting a wig
+behind the curtain of his section. He looked when he was completely
+dressed rather a well-preserved person; and Helen was impressed with the
+thought that he must still feel young to wish to appear so juvenile.
+
+Even with his wig adjusted--a very curly brown affair--the man looked,
+however, to be upward of sixty. There were many fine wrinkles about his
+eyes and deep lines graven in his cheeks.
+
+His section was just behind that of the girl from Sunset Ranch, on the
+other side of the car. After returning from the breakfast table this first
+morning Helen thought she would better take a little more money out of the
+wallet to put in her purse for emergencies on the train. So she opened the
+locked bag and dragged out the well-stuffed wallet from underneath her
+other possessions.
+
+The roll of yellow-backed notes _was_ a large one. Helen, lacking more
+interesting occupation, unfolded the crisp banknotes and counted them to
+make sure of her balance. As she sat in her seat she thought nobody could
+observe her.
+
+Then she withdrew what she thought she might need, and put the remainder
+of the money back into the old wallet, snapped the strong elastic about
+it, and slid it down to the bottom of the bag again.
+
+The key of the bag she carried on the chain with her locket, which locket
+contained the miniatures of her mother and father. Key and locket she hid
+in the bosom of her dress.
+
+She looked up suddenly. There was the fatherly-looking old person almost
+bending over her chair back. For an instant the girl was very much
+startled. The old man's eyes were wonderfully keen and twinkling, and
+there was an expression in them which Helen at first did not understand.
+
+"If you have finished with that magazine, my dear, I'll exchange it for
+one of mine," said the old gentleman coolly. "What! did I frighten you?"
+
+"Not exactly, sir," returned Helen, watching him curiously. "But I _was_
+startled."
+
+"Beg pardon. You do not look like a young person who would be easily
+frightened," he said, laughing. "You are traveling alone?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Far?"
+
+"To New York, sir," said Helen.
+
+"Ah! a long way for a girl to go by herself--even a self-possessed one
+like you," said the fatherly old fellow. "I hope you have friends to meet
+you there?"
+
+"Relatives."
+
+"You have never been there, I take it?"
+
+"I have never been farther east than Denver before," she replied.
+
+"Indeed! And so you have not met the relatives you are going to?" he
+suggested, shrewdly.
+
+"You are right, sir."
+
+"But, of course, they will not fail to meet you?"
+
+"I telegraphed to them. I expect to get a reply somewhere on the way."
+
+"Then you are well provided for," said the old gentleman, kindly. "Yet, if
+you should need any assistance--of any kind--do not fail to call upon me.
+I am going through to New York, too."
+
+He went back to his seat after making the exchange of magazines, and did
+not force his attentions upon her further. He was, however, almost the
+only person who spoke to her all the way across the continent.
+
+Frequently they ate together at the same table, both being alone. He
+bought newspapers and magazines and exchanged with her. He never became
+personal and asked her questions again, nor did Helen learn his name; but
+in little ways which were not really objectionable, he showed that he took
+an interest in her. There remained, however, the belief in Helen's mind
+that he had seen her counting the money.
+
+"I expect I'd like the old chap if he didn't wear a wig," thought Helen.
+"I never could see why people wished to hide the mistakes of Nature. And
+he's an old gentleman, too."
+
+Yet again and again she recalled that avaricious gleam in his eyes and how
+eager he had seemed when she had first caught sight of his face looking
+over her shoulder that first morning on the train. She couldn't forget
+that. She kept the locked bag near her hand all the time.
+
+With lively company a journey across this great continent of ours is a
+cheerful and inspiring experience. And, of course, Youth can never remain
+depressed for long. But in Helen Morrell's case the trip could not be
+counted as an enjoyable one.
+
+She was always solitary amid the crowd of travelers. Even when she went
+back to the observation platform she was alone. She had nobody with whom
+to discuss the beauties of the landscape, or the wonders of Nature past
+which the train flashed.
+
+This was her own fault to a degree, of course. The girl from Sunset Ranch
+was diffident. These people aboard were all Easterners, or foreigners.
+There were no open-hearted, friendly Western folk such as she had been
+used to all her life.
+
+She felt herself among a strange people. She scarcely spoke the same
+language, or so it seemed. She had felt less awkward and bashful when she
+had first gone to the school at Denver as a little girl.
+
+And, again, she was troubled because she had received no reply from her
+message to Uncle Starkweather. Of course, he might not have been at home
+to receive it; but surely some of the family must have received it.
+
+Every time the brakeman, or porter, or conductor, came through with a
+message for some passenger, she hoped he would call her name. But the
+Transcontinental brought her across the Western plains, over the two great
+rivers, through the Mid-West prairies, skirted two of the Great Lakes,
+rushed across the wooded and mountainous Empire State, and finally dashed
+down the length of the embattled Hudson toward the Great City of the New
+World--the goal of Helen Morrell's late desires, with no word from the
+relatives whom she so hoped would welcome her to their hearts and home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE GREAT CITY
+
+
+Helen Morrell never forgot her initial impressions of the great city.
+
+These impressions were at first rather startling--then intensely
+interesting. And they all culminated in a single opinion which time only
+could prove either true or erroneous.
+
+That belief or opinion Helen expressed in an almost audible exclamation:
+
+"Why! there are so many people here one could _never_ feel lonely!"
+
+This impression came to her after the train had rolled past miles of
+streets--all perfectly straight, bearing off on either hand to the two
+rivers that wash Manhattan's shores; all illuminated exactly alike; all
+bordered by cliffs of dwellings seemingly cut on the same pattern and from
+the same material.
+
+With clasped hands and parted lips the girl from Sunset Ranch watched
+eagerly the glowing streets, parted by the rushing train. As it slowed
+down at 125th Street she could see far along that broad thoroughfare--an
+uptown Broadway. There were thousands and thousands of people in
+sight--with the glare of shoplights--the clanging electric cars--the
+taxicabs and autos shooting across the main stem of Harlem into the
+avenues running north and south.
+
+It was as marvelous to the Montana girl as the views of a foreign land
+upon the screen of a moving picture theatre. She sank back in her seat
+with a sigh as the train moved on.
+
+"What a wonderful, wonderful place!" she thought. "It looks like
+fairyland. It is an enchanted place----"
+
+The train, now under electric power, shot suddenly into the ground. The
+tunnel was odorous and ill-lighted.
+
+"Well," the girl thought, "I suppose there _is_ another side to the big
+city, too!"
+
+The passengers began to put on their wraps and gather together their
+hand-luggage. There was much talking and confusion. Some of the tourists
+had been met at 125th Street by friends who came that far to greet them.
+
+But there was nobody to greet Helen. There was nobody waiting on the
+platform, to come and clasp her hand and bid her welcome, when the train
+stopped.
+
+She got down, with her bag, and looked about her. She saw that the old
+gentleman with the wig kept step with her. But he did not seem to be
+noticing her, and presently he disappeared.
+
+The girl from Sunset Ranch walked slowly up into the main building of the
+Grand Central Terminal with the crowd. There was chattering all about
+her--young voices, old voices, laughter, squeals of delight and
+surprise--all the hubbub of a homing crowd meeting a crowd of friends.
+
+And through it all Helen walked, a stranger in a strange land.
+
+She lingered, hoping that Uncle Starkweather's people might be late. But
+nobody spoke to her. She did not know that there were matrons and police
+officers in the building to whom she could apply for advice or
+assistance.
+
+Naturally independent, this girl of the ranges was not likely to ask a
+stranger for help. She could find her own way.
+
+She smiled--yet it was a rather wry smile--when she thought of how Dud
+Stone had told her she would be as much of a tenderfoot in New York as he
+had been on the plains.
+
+"It's a fact," she thought. "But, if they didn't get my message, I reckon
+I can find the house, just the same."
+
+Having been so much in Denver she knew a good deal about city ways. She
+did not linger about the station long.
+
+Outside there was a row of taxicabs and cabmen. There was an officer, too;
+but he was engaged at the moment in helping a fussy old lady get seven
+parcels, a hat box, and a dog basket into a cab.
+
+So Helen walked down the row of waiting taxicabs. At the end cab the
+chauffeur on the seat turned around and beckoned.
+
+"Cab, Miss? Take you anywhere you say."
+
+"You know where this number on Madison Street is, of course?" she said,
+showing a card with the address on it.
+
+"Sure, Miss. Jump right in."
+
+"How much will it be?"
+
+"Trunk, Miss?"
+
+"Yes. Here is the check."
+
+The chauffeur got out of his seat quickly and took the check.
+
+"It's so much a mile. The little clock tells you the fare," he said,
+pleasantly.
+
+"All right," replied Helen. "You get the trunk," and she stepped into the
+vehicle.
+
+In a few moments he was back with the trunk and secured it on the roof of
+his cab. Then he reached in and tucked a cloth around his passenger,
+although the evening was not cold, and got in under the wheel. In another
+moment the taxicab rolled out from under the roofed concourse.
+
+Helen had never ridden in any vehicle that went so smoothly and so fast.
+It shot right downtown, mile after mile; but Helen was so interested in
+the sights she saw from the window of the cab that she did not worry about
+the time that elapsed.
+
+By and by they went under an elevated railroad structure; the street grew
+more narrow and--to tell the truth--Helen thought the place appeared
+rather dirty and unkempt.
+
+Then the cab was turned suddenly across the way, under another elevated
+structure, and into a narrow, noisy, ill-kept street.
+
+"Can it be that Uncle Starkweather lives in this part of the town?"
+thought Helen, in amazement.
+
+She had always understood that the Starkweather mansion was in one of the
+oldest and most respectable parts of New York. But although _this_ might
+be one of the older parts of the city, to Helen's eyes it did _not_ look
+respectable.
+
+The street was full of children and grown people in odd costumes. And
+there was a babel of voices that certainly were not English.
+
+They shot across another narrow street--then another. And then the cab
+stopped beside the curb near a corner gaslight.
+
+"Surely this is not Madison?" demanded Helen, of the driver, as her door
+was opened.
+
+"There's the name, Miss," said the man, pointing to the street light.
+
+Helen looked. She really _did_ see "MADISON" in blue letters on the sign.
+
+"And is this the number?" she asked again, looking at the three-story,
+shabby house before which the cab had stopped.
+
+"Yes, Miss. Don't you see it on the fanlight?"
+
+The dull light in the hall of the house was sufficient to reveal to her
+the number painted on the glass above the door. It was an old, old house,
+with grimy panes in the windows, and more dull lights behind the shades
+drawn down over them. But there really could be no mistake, Helen thought.
+The number over the door and the name on the lamp-post reassured her.
+
+She stepped out of the cab, her bag in her hand.
+
+"See if your folks are here, Miss," said the driver, "before I take off
+the trunk."
+
+Helen crossed the walk, clinging to her precious bag. She was not a little
+disturbed by this strange situation. These streets about here were the
+commonest of the common! And she was carrying a large sum of money, quite
+unprotected.
+
+When she mounted the steps and touched the door, it opened. A bustle of
+sound came from the house; yet it was not the kind of bustle that she had
+expected to hear in her uncle's home.
+
+There were the crying of children, the shrieking of a woman's angry
+voice--another singing--language in guttural tones which she could not
+understand--heavy boots tramping upon the bare boards overhead.
+
+This lower hall was unfurnished. Indeed, it was a most unlovely place as
+far as Helen could see by the light of a single flaring gas jet.
+
+"What kind of a place have I got into?" murmured the Western girl, staring
+about in disgust and horror, and clinging tightly to the locked bag.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE WELCOME
+
+
+Helen would have faced almost any peril of the range--wolves, a bear even,
+a stampede, flood, or fire--with more confidence than she felt at this
+moment.
+
+She had some idea of how city people lived, having been to school in
+Denver. It seemed impossible that Uncle Starkweather and his family could
+reside in such a place as this. And yet the street and number were
+correct. Surely, the taxicab driver must know his way about the city!
+
+From behind the door on her right came the rattle of dishes and voices.
+Putting her courage to the test, Helen rapped on the door. But she had to
+repeat the summons before she was heard.
+
+Then she heard a shuffling step approach the door, it was unlocked, and a
+gray old woman, with a huge horsehair wig upon her head, peered out at
+her.
+
+"Vot you vant?" this apparition asked, her black eyes growing round in
+wonder at the appearance of the girl and her bag. "Ve puys noddings; ve
+sells noddings. Vot you vant--eh?"
+
+"I am looking for my Uncle Starkweather," said Helen, doubtfully.
+
+"Vor your ungle?" repeated the old woman.
+
+"Mr. Starkweather. Does he live in this house?"
+
+"'S'arkwesser'? I neffer heard," said the old woman, shaking her huge
+head. "Abramovitch lifs here, and Abelosky, and Seldt, and--and Goronsky.
+You sure you god de name ride, Miss?"
+
+"Quite sure," replied the puzzled Helen.
+
+"Meppe ubstairs," said the woman, eyeing Helen curiously. "Vot you god in
+de pag, lady?"
+
+To tell the truth this query rather frightened the girl. She did not reply
+to the question, but started half-blindly for the stairs, clinging to the
+bag with both hands.
+
+Suddenly a door banged above and a quick and light step began to descend
+the upper flight. Helen halted and looked expectantly upward. The
+approaching step was that of a young person.
+
+In a moment a girl appeared, descending the stairs like a young whirlwind.
+She was a vigorous, red-cheeked girl, with dark complexion, a prominent
+nose, flashing black eyes, and plump, sturdy arms bared to her dimpled
+elbows. She saw Helen there in the hall and stopped, questioningly. The
+old woman said something to the newcomer in what Helen supposed must be
+Yiddish, and banged shut her own door.
+
+"Whaddeyer want, Miss?" asked the dark girl, coming nearer to Helen and
+smiling, showing two rows of perfect teeth. "Got lost?"
+
+"I don't know but what I have," admitted the girl from the West.
+
+"Chee! You're a greenie, too; ain't you?"
+
+"I reckon so," replied Helen, smiling in return. "At least, I've just
+arrived in town."
+
+The girl had now opened the door and looked out. "Look at this, now!" she
+exclaimed. "Did you come in that taxi?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Helen.
+
+"Chee! you're some swell; aren't you?" said the other. "We don't have them
+things stopping at the house every day."
+
+"I am looking for my uncle, Mr. Willets Starkweather."
+
+"That's no Jewish name. I don't believe he lives in this house," said the
+black-eyed girl, curiously.
+
+"But, this is the number--I saw it," said Helen, faintly. "And it's
+Madison Avenue; isn't it? I saw the name on the corner lamp-post."
+
+"_Madison Avenyer?_" gasped the other girl.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yer kiddin'; ain't yer?" demanded the stranger.
+
+"Why---- What do you mean?"
+
+"This ain't Madison Avenyer," said the black-eyed girl, with a loud laugh.
+"Ain't you the greenie? Why, this is Madison _Street!_"
+
+"Oh, then, there's a difference?" cried Helen, much relieved. "I didn't
+get to Uncle Starkweather's, then?"
+
+"Not if he lives on Madison Avenyer," said her new friend. "What's his
+number? I got a cousin that married a man in Harlem. _She_ lives on
+Madison Avenyer; but it's a long ways up town."
+
+"Why, Uncle Starkweather has his home at the same number on Madison Avenue
+that is on that fanlight," and Helen pointed over the door.
+
+"Then he's some swell; eh?"
+
+"I--I guess so," admitted Helen, doubtfully.
+
+"D'jer jest come to town?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And told the taxi driver to come down here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, he'll take you back. I'll take the number of the cab and scare him
+pretty near into a fit," said the black-eyed girl, laughing. "Then he's
+sure to take you right to your uncle's house."
+
+"Oh, I'm a thousand times obliged!" cried Helen. "I _am_ a tenderfoot; am
+I not?" and she laughed.
+
+The girl looked at her curiously. "I don't know much about tender feet.
+Mine never bother me," she said. "But I could see right away that you
+didn't belong in this part of town."
+
+"Well, you've been real kind to me," Helen said. "I hope I'll see you
+again."
+
+"Not likely," said the other, shaking her head.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"And you livin' on Madison Avenyer, and me on Madison Street?"
+
+"I can come down to see you," said Helen, frankly. "My name is Helen
+Morrell. What's yours?"
+
+"Sadie Goronsky. You see, I'm a Russian," and she smiled. "You wouldn't
+know it by the way I talk; would you? I learned English over there. But
+some folks in Russia don't care to mix much with our people."
+
+"I don't know anything about that," said Helen. "But I know when I like a
+person. And I've got reason for liking you."
+
+"That goes--double," returned the other, warmly. "I bet you come from a
+place far away from this city."
+
+"Montana," said Helen.
+
+"I ain't up in United States geography. But I know there's a big country
+the other side of the North River."
+
+Helen laughed. "I come from a good ways beyond the river," she said.
+
+"Well, I'll have to get back to the store. Old Jacob will give me fits."
+
+"Oh, dear! and I'm keeping you," cried Helen.
+
+"I should worry!" exploded the other, slangily. "I'm only a 'puller-in.' I
+ain't a saleslady. Come on and I'll throw a scare into that taxi-driver.
+Watch me."
+
+This sort of girl was a revelation to Helen. She was frankly independent
+herself; but Sadie Goronsky showed an entirely different sort of
+independence.
+
+"See here you, Mr. Man!" exclaimed the Jewish girl, attracting the
+attention of the taxicab driver, who had not left his seat. "Whadderyer
+mean by bringing this young lady down here to Madison Street when with
+half an eye you could ha' told that she belonged on Madison _Avenyer_?"
+
+"Heh?" grunted the man.
+
+"Now, don't play no greenie trick with _me_," commanded Sadie. "I gotcher
+number, and I know the company youse woik for. You take this young lady
+right to the correct address on the avenyer--and see that she don't get
+robbed before you get her there. You get in, Miss Morrell. Don't you be
+afraid. This chap won't dare take you anywhere but to your uncle's house
+now."
+
+"She said Madison Street," declared the taxicab driver, doggedly.
+
+"Well, now _I_ says Madison Avenyer!" exclaimed Sadie. "Get in, Miss."
+
+"But where'll I find you, Sadie?" asked the Western girl, holding the
+rough hand of her new friend.
+
+"Right at that shop yonder," said the black-eyed girl, pointing to a store
+only two doors beyond the house which Helen had entered. "Ladies'
+garments. You'll see me pullin' 'em in. If you _don't_ see me, ask for
+Miss Goronsky. Good-night, Miss! You'll get to your uncle's all right
+now."
+
+The taxicab driver had started the machine again. They darted off through
+a side street, and soon came out upon the broader thoroughfare down which
+they had come so swiftly. She saw by a street sign that it was the
+Bowery.
+
+The man slowed down and spoke to her through the tube.
+
+"I hope you don't bear no ill-will, Miss," he said, humbly enough. "You
+said Madison----"
+
+"All right. See if you can take me to the right place now," returned
+Helen, brusquely.
+
+Her talk with Sadie Goronsky had given her more confidence. She was awake
+to the wiles of the city now. Dud Stone had been right. Even Big Hen
+Billings's warnings were well placed. A stranger like herself had to be on
+the lookout all the time.
+
+After a time the taxicab turned up a wider thoroughfare that had no
+elevated trains roaring overhead. At Twenty-third Street it turned west
+and then north again at Madison Square.
+
+There was a little haze in the air--an October haze. Through this the
+lamps twinkled blithely. There were people on the dusky benches, and many
+on the walks strolling to and fro, although it was now growing quite
+late.
+
+In the park she caught a glimpse of water in a fountain, splashing high,
+then low, with a rainbow in it. Altogether it was a beautiful sight.
+
+The hum of night traffic--the murmur of voices--they flashed past a
+theatre just sending forth its audience--and all the subdued sights and
+sounds of the city delighted her again.
+
+Suddenly the taxicab stopped.
+
+"This is the number, Miss," said the driver.
+
+Helen looked out first. Not much like the same number on Madison Street!
+
+This block was a slice of old-fashioned New York. On either side was a row
+of handsome, plain old houses, a few with lanterns at their steps, and
+some with windows on several floors brilliantly lighted.
+
+There were carriages and automobiles waiting at these doors. Evening
+parties were evidently in progress.
+
+The house before which the taxicab had stopped showed no light in front,
+however, except at the door and in one or two of the basement windows.
+
+"Is this the place you want?" asked the driver, with some impatience.
+
+"I'll see," said Helen, and hopped out of the cab.
+
+She ran boldly up the steps and rang the bell. In a minute the inner door
+swung open; but the outer grating remained locked. A man in livery stood
+in the opening.
+
+"What did you wish, ma'am?" he asked in a perfectly placid voice.
+
+"Does Mr. Willets Starkweather reside here?" asked Helen.
+
+"Mr. Starkweather is not at home, ma'am."
+
+"Oh! then he could not have received my telegram!" gasped Helen.
+
+The footman remained silent, but partly closed the door.
+
+"Any message, ma'am?" he asked, perfunctorily.
+
+"But surely the family is at home?" cried Helen.
+
+"Not at this hour of the hevening, ma'am," declared the English servant,
+with plain disdain.
+
+"But I must see them!" cried Helen, again. "I am Mr. Starkweather's niece.
+I have come all the way from Montana, and have just got into the city. You
+must let me in."
+
+"Hi 'ave no orders regarding you, ma'am," declared the footman, slowly.
+"Mr. Starkweather is at 'is club. The young ladies are hat an evening
+haffair."
+
+"But auntie--surely there must be _somebody_ here to welcome me?" said
+Helen, in more wonder than anger as yet.
+
+"You may come in, Miss," said the footman at last. "Hi will speak to the
+'ousekeeper--though I fear she is abed."
+
+"But I have the taxicab driver to pay, and my trunk is here," declared
+Helen, beginning suddenly to feel very helpless.
+
+The man had opened the grilled door. He gazed down at the cab and shook
+his head.
+
+"Wait hand see Mrs. Olstrom, first, Miss," he said.
+
+She stepped in. He closed both doors and chained the inner one. He pointed
+to a hard seat in a corner of the hall and then stepped softly away upon
+the thick carpet to the rear of the premises, leaving the girl from Sunset
+Ranch alone.
+
+_This_ was her welcome to the home of her only relatives, and to the heart
+of the great city!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE GHOST WALK
+
+
+Helen had to wait only a short time; but during that wait she was aware
+that she was being watched by a pair of bright eyes at a crevice between
+the portières at the end of the hall.
+
+"They act as though I came to rob them," thought the girl from the ranch,
+sitting in the gloomy hall with the satchel at her feet.
+
+This was not the welcome she had expected when she started East. Could it
+be possible that her message to Uncle Starkweather had not been delivered?
+Otherwise, how could this situation be explained?
+
+Such a thing as inhospitality could not be imagined by Helen Morrell. A
+begging Indian was never turned away from Sunset Ranch. A perfect
+stranger--even a sheepman--would be hospitably treated in Montana.
+
+The soft patter of the footman's steps soon sounded and the sharp eyes
+disappeared. There was a moment's whispering behind the curtain. Then the
+liveried Englishman appeared.
+
+"Will you step this way, Miss?" he said, gravely. "Mrs. Olstrom will see
+you in her sitting-room. Leave your bag there, Miss."
+
+"No. I guess I'll hold onto it," she said, aloud.
+
+The footman looked pained, but said nothing. He led the way haughtily into
+the rear of the premises again. At a door he knocked.
+
+"Come in!" said a sharp voice, and Helen was ushered into the presence of
+a female with a face quite in keeping with the tone of her voice.
+
+The lady was of uncertain age. She wore a cap, but it did not entirely
+hide the fact that her thin, straw-colored hair was done up in
+curl-papers. She was vinegary of feature, her light blue eyes were as
+sharp as gimlets, and her lips were continually screwed up into the
+expression of one determined to say "prunes."
+
+She sat in a straight-backed chair in the sitting-room, in a flowered silk
+bed-wrapper, and she looked just as glad to see Helen as though the girl
+were her deadliest enemy.
+
+"Who are you?" she demanded.
+
+"I am Helen Morrell," said the girl.
+
+"What do you want of Mr. Starkweather at this hour?"
+
+"Just what I would want of him at any hour," returned the Western girl,
+who was beginning to become heartily exasperated.
+
+"What's that, Miss?" snapped the housekeeper.
+
+"I have come to him for hospitality. I am his relative--rather, I am Aunt
+Eunice's relative----"
+
+"What do you mean, child?" exclaimed the lady, with sudden emotion. "Who
+is your Aunt Eunice?"
+
+"Mrs. Starkweather. He married my mother's sister--my Aunt Eunice."
+
+"Mrs. Starkweather!" gasped Mrs. Olstrom.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Then, where have _you_ been these past three years?" demanded the
+housekeeper in wonder. "Mrs. Starkweather has been dead all of that time.
+Mr. Willets Starkweather is a widower."
+
+"Aunt Eunice dead?" cried Helen.
+
+The news was a distinct shock to the girl. She forgot everything else for
+the moment. Her face told her story all too well, and the housekeeper
+could not doubt her longer.
+
+"You're a relative, then?"
+
+"Her--her niece, Helen Morrell," sobbed Helen. "Oh! I did not know--I did
+not know----"
+
+"Never mind. You are entitled to hospitality and protection. Did you just
+arrive?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Your home is not near?"
+
+"In Montana."
+
+"My goodness! You cannot go back to-night, that is sure. But why did you
+not write?"
+
+"I telegraphed I was coming."
+
+"I never heard of it. Perhaps the message was not received. Gregson!"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," replied the footman.
+
+"You said something about a taxicab waiting outside with this young lady's
+luggage?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Go and pay the man and have the baggage brought in----"
+
+"I'll pay for it, ma'am," said Helen, hastily, trying to unlock her bag.
+
+"That will be all right. I will settle it with Mr. Starkweather. Here is
+money, Gregson. Pay the fare and give the man a quarter for himself. Have
+the trunk brought into the basement. I will attend to Miss--er----?"
+
+"Morrell."
+
+"Miss Morrell, myself," finished the housekeeper.
+
+The footman withdrew. The housekeeper looked hard at Helen for several
+moments.
+
+"So you came here expecting hospitality--in your uncle's house--and from
+your cousins?" she observed, jerkily. "Well!"
+
+She got up and motioned Helen to take up her bag.
+
+"Come. I have no orders regarding you. I shall give you one of the spare
+rooms. You are entitled to that much. No knowing when either Mr.
+Starkweather or the young ladies will be at home," she said, grimly.
+
+"I hope you won't put yourself out," observed Helen, politely.
+
+"I am not likely to," returned Mrs. Olstrom. "It is you who will be more
+likely---- Well!" she finished, without making her meaning very plain.
+
+This reception, to cap all that had gone before since she had arrived at
+the Grand Central Terminal, chilled Helen. The shock of discovering that
+her mother's sister was dead--and she and her father had not been informed
+of it--was no small one, either. She wished now that she had not come to
+the house at all.
+
+"I would better have gone to a hotel until I found out how they felt
+toward me," thought the girl from the ranch.
+
+Yet Helen was just. She began to tell herself that neither Mr.
+Starkweather nor her cousins were proved guilty of the rudeness of her
+reception. The telegram might have gone astray. They might never have
+dreamed of her coming on from Sunset Ranch to pay them a visit.
+
+The housekeeper began to warm toward her in manner, at least. She took her
+up another flight of stairs and to a very large and handsomely furnished
+chamber, although it was at the rear of the house, and right beside the
+stairs leading to the servants' quarters. At least, so Mrs. Olstrom said
+they were.
+
+"You will not mind, Miss," she said, grimly. "You may hear the sound of
+walking in this hall. It is nothing. The foolish maids call it 'the ghost
+walk'; but it is only a sound. You're not superstitious; are you?"
+
+"I hope not!" exclaimed Helen.
+
+"Well! I have had to send away one or two girls. The house is very old.
+There are some queer stories about it. Well! What is a sound?"
+
+"Very true, ma'am," agreed Helen, rather confused, but bound to be
+polite.
+
+"Now, Miss, will you have some supper? Mr. Lawdor can get you some in the
+butler's pantry. He has a chafing dish there and often prepares late bites
+for his master."
+
+"No, ma'am; I am not hungry," Helen declared. "I had dinner in the dining
+car at seven."
+
+"Then I will leave you--unless you should wish something further?" said
+the housekeeper.
+
+"Here is your bath," opening a door into the anteroom. "I will place a
+note upon Mr. Starkweather's desk saying that you are here. Will you need
+your trunk up to-night, Miss?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed," Helen declared. "I have a kimono here--and other things.
+I'll be glad of the bath, though. One does get so dusty traveling."
+
+She was unlocking her bag. For a moment she hesitated, half tempted to
+take the housekeeper into her confidence regarding her money. But the
+woman went directly to the door and bowed herself out with a stiff:
+
+"Good-night, Miss."
+
+"My! But this is a friendly place!" mused Helen, when she was left alone.
+"And they seem to have so much confidence in strangers!"
+
+Therefore, she went to the door into the hall, found there was a bolt upon
+it, and shot it home. Then she pulled the curtain across the keyhole
+before sitting down and counting all her money over again.
+
+"They got _me_ doing it!" muttered Helen. "I shall be afraid of every
+person I meet in this man's town."
+
+But by and by she hopped up, hid the wallet under her pillow (the bed was
+a big one with deep mattress and downy pillows) and then ran to let her
+bath run in the little room where Mrs. Olstrom had snapped on the electric
+light.
+
+She undressed slowly, shook out her garments, hung them properly to air,
+and stepped into the grateful bath. How good it felt after her long and
+tiresome journey by train!
+
+But as she was drying herself on the fleecy towels she suddenly heard a
+sound outside her door. After the housekeeper left her the whole building
+had seemed as silent as a tomb. Now there was a steady rustling noise in
+the short corridor on which her room opened.
+
+"What _did_ that woman ask me?" murmured Helen. "Was I afraid of ghosts?"
+
+She laughed a little. To a healthy, normal, outdoor girl the supernatural
+had few terrors.
+
+"It _is_ a funny sound," she admitted, hastily finished the drying process
+and then slipping into her nightrobe, kimono, and bed slippers.
+
+All the time her ear seemed preternaturally attuned to that rising and
+waning sound without her chamber. It seemed to come toward the door, pass
+it, move lightly away, and then turn and repass again. It was a steady,
+regular----
+
+_Step--put; step--put; step--put----_
+
+And with it was the rustle of garments--or so it seemed. The girl grew
+momentarily more curious. The mystery of the strange sound certainly was
+puzzling.
+
+"Who ever heard of a ghost with a wooden leg?" she thought, chuckling
+softly to herself. "And that is what it sounds like. No wonder the
+servants call this corridor 'the ghost walk.' Well, me for bed!"
+
+She had already snapped out the electric light in the bathroom, and now
+hopped into bed, reaching up to pull the chain of the reading light as she
+did so. The top of one window was down half-way and the noise of the city
+at midnight reached her ear in a dull monotone.
+
+Back here at the rear of the great mansion, street sounds were faint. In
+the distance, to the eastward, was the roar of a passing elevated train.
+An automobile horn hooted raucously.
+
+But steadily, through all other sounds, as an accompaniment to them and to
+Helen Morrell's own thoughts, was the continuous rustle in the corridor
+outside her door:
+
+_Step--put; step--put; step--put._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MORNING
+
+
+The Starkweather mansion was a large dwelling. Built some years before the
+Civil War, it had been one of the "great houses" in its day, to be pointed
+out to the mid-nineteenth century visitor to the metropolis. Of course,
+when the sightseeing coaches came in fashion they went up Fifth Avenue and
+passed by the stately mansions of the Victorian era, on Madison Avenue,
+without comment.
+
+Willets Starkweather had sprung from a quite mean and un-noted branch of
+the family, and had never, until middle life, expected to live in the
+Madison Avenue homestead. The important members of his clan were dead and
+gone and their great fortunes scattered. Willets Starkweather could barely
+keep up with the expenditures of his great household.
+
+There were never servants enough, and Mrs. Olstrom, the very capable
+housekeeper, who had served the present master's great-uncle before the
+day of the new generation, had hard work to satisfy the demands of those
+there were upon the means allowed her by Mr. Starkweather.
+
+There were rooms in the house--especially upon the topmost floor--into
+which even the servants seldom went. There were vacant rooms which never
+knew broom nor duster. The dwelling, indeed, was altogether too large for
+the needs of Mr. Starkweather and his three motherless daughters.
+
+But their living in it gave them a prestige which nothing else could. As
+wise as any match-making matron, Willets Starkweather knew that the
+family's address at this particular number on Madison Avenue would aid his
+daughters more in "making a good match" than anything else.
+
+He could not dower them. Really, they needed no dower with their good
+looks, for they were all pretty. The Madison Avenue mansion gave them the
+open sesame into good society--choice society, in fact--and there some
+wealthy trio of unattached young men must see and fall in love with them.
+
+And the girls understood this, too--right down to fourteen-year-old
+Flossie. They all three knew that to "pay poor papa" for reckless
+expenditures now, they must sooner or later capture moneyed husbands.
+
+So, there was more than one reason why the three Starkweather girls leaped
+immediately from childhood into full-blown womanhood. Flossie had already
+privately studied the characters--and possible bank accounts--of the boys
+of her acquaintance, to decide upon whom she should smile her sweetest.
+
+These facts--save that the mansion was enormous--were hidden from Helen
+when she arose on the first morning of her city experience. She had slept
+soundly and sweetly. Even the rustling steps on the ghost walk had not
+bothered her for long.
+
+Used to being up and out by sunrise, she could not easily fall in with
+city ways. She hustled out of bed soon after daybreak, took a cold sponge,
+which made her body tingle delightfully, and got into her clothes as
+rapidly as any boy.
+
+She had only the shoddy-looking brown traveling dress to wear, and the
+out-of-date hat. But she put them on, and ventured downstairs, intent upon
+going out for a walk before breakfast.
+
+The solemn clock in the hall chimed seven as she found her way down the
+lower flight of front stairs. As she came through the curtain-hung halls
+and down the stairs, not a soul did she meet until she reached the front
+hall. There a rather decrepit-looking man, with a bleared eye, and dressed
+in decent black, hobbled out of a parlor to meet her.
+
+"Bless me!" he ejaculated. "What--what--what----"
+
+"I am Helen Morrell," said the girl from Sunset Ranch, smiling, and
+judging that this must be the butler of whom the housekeeper had spoken
+the night before. "I have just come to visit my uncle and cousins."
+
+"Bless me!" said the old man again. "Gregson told me. Proud to see you,
+Miss. But--you're dressed to go out, Miss?"
+
+"For a walk, sir," replied Helen, nodding.
+
+"At this hour? Bless me--bless me--bless me----"
+
+He seemed apt to run off in this style, in an unending string of mild
+expletives. His head shook and his hands seemed palsied. But he was a
+polite old man.
+
+"I beg of you, Miss, don't go out without a bit of breakfast. My own
+coffee is dripping in the percolator. Let me give you a cup," he said.
+
+"Why--if it's not too much trouble, sir----"
+
+"This way, Miss," he said, hurrying on before, and leading Helen to a cozy
+little room at the back. This corresponded with the housekeeper's
+sitting-room and Helen believed it must be Mr. Lawdor's own apartment.
+
+He laid a small cloth with a flourish. He set forth a silver breakfast
+set. He did everything neatly and with an alacrity that surprised Helen in
+one so evidently decrepit.
+
+"A chop, now, Miss? Or a rasher?" he asked, pointing to an array of
+electric appliances on the sideboard by which a breakfast might be "tossed
+up" in a hurry.
+
+"No, no," Helen declared. "Not so early. This nice coffee and these
+delicious rolls are enough until I have earned more."
+
+"Earned more, Miss?" he asked, in surprise.
+
+"By exercise," she explained. "I am going to take a good tramp. Then I
+shall come back as hungry as a mountain lion."
+
+"The family breakfasts at nine, Miss," said the butler, bowing. "But if
+you are an early riser you will always find something tidy here in my
+room, Miss. You are very welcome."
+
+She thanked him and went out into the hall again. The footman in
+livery--very sleepy and tousled as yet--was unchaining the front door. A
+yawning maid was at work in one of the parlors with a duster. She stared
+at Helen in amazement, but Gregson stood stiffly at attention as the
+visitor went forth into the daylight.
+
+"My, how funny city people live!" thought Helen Morrell. "I don't believe
+I ever could stand it. Up till all hours, and then no breakfast until
+nine. _What_ a way to live!
+
+"And there must be twice as many servants as there are members of the
+family---- Why! more than that! And all that big house to get lost in,"
+she added, glancing up at it as she started off upon her walk.
+
+She turned the first corner and went through a side street toward the
+west. This was not a business side street. There were several tall
+apartment hotels interspersed with old houses.
+
+She came to Fifth Avenue--"the most beautiful street in the world." It had
+been swept and garnished by a horde of white-robed men since two o'clock.
+On this brisk October morning, from the Washington Arch to 110th Street,
+it was as clean as a whistle.
+
+She walked uptown. At Thirty-fourth and Forty-second streets the crosstown
+traffic had already begun. She passed the new department stores, already
+opening their eyes and yawning in advance of the day's trade.
+
+There were a few pedestrians headed uptown like herself. Some well-dressed
+men seemed walking to business. A few neat shop girls were hurrying along
+the pavement, too. But Helen, and the dogs in leash, had the avenue mostly
+to themselves at this hour.
+
+The sleepy maids, or footmen, or pages stared at the Western girl with
+curiosity as she strode along. For, unlike many from the plains, Helen
+could walk well in addition to riding well.
+
+She reached the plaza, and crossing it, entered the park. The trees were
+just coloring prettily. There were morning sounds from the not-far-distant
+zoo. A few early nursemaids and their charges asleep in baby carriages,
+were abroad. Several old gentlemen read their morning papers upon the
+benches, or fed the squirrels who were skirmishing for their breakfasts.
+
+Several plainly-dressed people were evidently taking their own
+"constitutionals" through the park paths. Swinging down from the north
+come square-shouldered, cleanly-shaven young men of the same type as Dud
+Stone. Helen believed that Dud must be a typical New Yorker.
+
+But there were no girls abroad--at least, girls like herself who had
+leisure. And Helen was timid about making friends with the nursemaids.
+
+In fact, there wasn't a soul who smiled upon her as she walked through the
+paths. She would not have dared approach any person she met for any
+purpose whatsoever.
+
+"They haven't a grain of interest in me," thought Helen. "Many of them, I
+suppose, don't even see me. Goodness, what a lot of self-centred people
+there must be in New York!"
+
+She wandered on and on. She had no watch--never had owned one. As she had
+told Dud Stone, the stars at night were her clock, and by day she judged
+the hour by the sun.
+
+The sun was behind a haze now; but she had another sure timekeeper. There
+was nothing the matter with Helen's appetite.
+
+"I'll go back and join the family at breakfast," the girl thought. "I hope
+they'll be nice to me. And poor Aunt Eunice dead without our ever being
+told of it! Strange!"
+
+She had come a good way. Indeed, she was some time in finding an outlet
+from the park. The sun was behind the morning haze as yet, but she turned
+east, and finally came out upon the avenue some distance above the gateway
+by which she had entered.
+
+A southbound auto-bus caught her eye and she signaled it. She not only had
+brought her purse with her, but the wallet with her money was stuffed
+inside her blouse and made an uncomfortable lump there at her waist. But
+she hid this with her arm, feeling that she must be on the watch for some
+sharper all the time.
+
+"Big Hen was right when he warned me," she repeated, eyeing suspiciously
+the several passengers in the Fifth Avenue bus.
+
+They were mostly early shoppers, however, or gentlemen riding to their
+offices. She had noticed the number of the street nearest her uncle's
+house, and so got out at the right corner.
+
+The change in this part of the town since she had walked away from it soon
+after seven, amazed her. She almost became confused and started in the
+wrong direction. The roar of traffic, the rattle of riveters at work on
+several new buildings in the neighborhood, the hoarse honking of
+automobiles, the shrill whistles of the traffic policemen at the corners,
+and the various other sounds seemed to make another place of the
+old-fashioned Madison Avenue block.
+
+"My goodness! To live in such confusion, and yet have money enough to be
+able to enjoy a home out of town," thought Helen. "How foolish of Uncle
+Starkweather."
+
+She made no mistake in the house this time. There was Gregson--now spick
+and span in his maroon livery--haughtily mounting guard over the open
+doorway while a belated scrubwoman was cleaning the steps and areaway.
+
+Helen tripped up the steps with a smile for Gregson; but that wooden-faced
+subject of King George had no joint in his neck. He could merely raise a
+finger in salute.
+
+"Is the family up, sir?" she asked, politely.
+
+"In Mr. Starkweather's den, Miss," said the footman, being unable to leave
+his post at the moment. Mr. Lawdor was not in sight and Helen set out to
+find the room in question, wondering if the family had already
+breakfasted. The clock in the hall chimed the quarter to ten as she passed
+it.
+
+The great rooms on this floor were open now; but empty. She suddenly heard
+voices. She found a cross passage that she had not noticed before, and
+entered it, the voices growing louder.
+
+She came to a door before which hung heavy curtains; but these curtains
+did not deaden the sound entirely. Indeed, as Helen hesitated, with her
+hand stretched out to seize the portière, she heard something that halted
+her.
+
+Indeed, what she heard within the next few moments entirely changed the
+outlook of the girl from Sunset Ranch. It matured that doubt of humanity
+that had been born the night before in her breast.
+
+And it changed--for the time being at least--Helen's nature. From a frank,
+open-hearted, loving girl she became suspicious, morose and secretive. The
+first words she heard held her spell-bound--an unintentional eavesdropper.
+And what she heard made her determined to appear to her unkind relatives
+quite as they expected her to appear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+LIVING UP TO ONE'S REPUTATION
+
+
+"Well! my lady certainly takes her time about getting up," Belle
+Starkweather was saying.
+
+"She was tired after her journey, I presume," her father said.
+
+"Across the continent in a day-coach, I suppose," laughed Hortense,
+yawning.
+
+"I _was_ astonished at that bill for taxi hire Olstrom put on your desk,
+Pa," said Belle. "She must have ridden all over town before she came
+here."
+
+"A girl who couldn't take a plain hint," cried Hortense, "and stay away
+altogether when we didn't answer her telegram----"
+
+"Hush, girls. We must treat her kindly," said their father. "Ahem!"
+
+"I don't see _why_?" demanded Hortense, bluntly.
+
+"You don't understand everything," responded Mr. Starkweather, rather
+weakly.
+
+"I don't understand _you_, Pa, sometimes," declared Hortense.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you one thing right now!" snapped the older girl. "I've
+ordered her things taken out of that chamber. Her shabby old trunk has
+gone up to the room at the top of the servants' stairway. It's good enough
+for her."
+
+"We certainly have not got to have this cowgirl around for long,"
+continued Hortense. "She'd be no fit company for Flossie. Flossie's rude
+enough as it is."
+
+The youngest daughter had gone to school, so she was not present with her
+saucy tongue to hold up her own end of the argument.
+
+"Think of a girl right from a cattle ranch!" laughed Belle. "Fine! I
+suppose she knows how to rope steers, and break ponies, and ride bareback
+like an Indian, and all that. Fine accomplishments for a New York
+drawing-room, I must say."
+
+"Oh, yes," joined in Hortense. "And she'll say 'I reckon,' and drop her
+'g's' and otherwise insult the King's English."
+
+"Ahem! I must warn you girls to be less boisterous," advised their
+father.
+
+"Why, you sound as though you were almost afraid of this cowgirl, Pa,"
+said Belle, curiously.
+
+"No, no!" protested Mr. Starkweather, hurriedly.
+
+"Pa's so easy," complained Hortense. "If I had my way I wouldn't let her
+stay the day out."
+
+"But where would she go?" almost whined Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"Back where she came from."
+
+"Perhaps the folks there don't want her," said Belle.
+
+"Of course she's a pauper," observed Hortense.
+
+"Give her some money and send her away, Pa," begged Belle.
+
+"You ought to. She's not fit to associate with Flossie. You know just how
+Floss picks up every little thing----"
+
+"And she's that man's daughter, too, you know," remarked Belle.
+
+"Ahem!" said their father, weakly.
+
+"It's not decent to have her here."
+
+"Of course, other people will remember what Morrell did. It will make a
+scandal for us."
+
+"I cannot help it! I cannot help it!" cried Mr. Starkweather, suddenly
+breaking out and battling against his daughters as he sometimes did when
+they pressed him too closely. "I cannot send her away."
+
+"Well, she mustn't be encouraged to stay," declared Hortense.
+
+"I should say not," rejoined Belle.
+
+"And getting up at this hour to breakfast," Hortense sniffed.
+
+Helen Morrell wore strong, well-made walking boots. Good shoes were
+something that she could always buy in Elberon. But usually she walked
+lightly and springily.
+
+Now she came stamping through the small hall, and on the heels of the last
+remark, flung back the curtain and strode into the den.
+
+"Hullo, folks!" she cried. "Goodness! don't you get up till noon here in
+town? I've been clean out to your city park while I waited for you to wash
+your faces. Uncle Starkweather! how be you?"
+
+She had grabbed the hand of the amazed gentleman and was now pumping it
+with a vigor that left him breathless.
+
+"And these air two of your gals?" quoth Helen. "I bet I can pick 'em out
+by name," and she laughed loudly. "This is Belle; ain't it? Put it thar!"
+and she took the resisting Belle's hand and squeezed it in her own brown
+one until the older girl winced, muscular as she herself was.
+
+"And this is 'Tense--I know!" added the girl from Sunset Ranch, reaching
+for the hand of her other cousin.
+
+"No, you don't!" cried Hortense, putting her hands behind her. "Why! you'd
+crush my hand."
+
+"Ho, ho!" laughed Helen, slapping her hand heartily upon her knee as she
+sat down. "Ain't you the puny one!"
+
+"I'm no great, rude----"
+
+"Ahem!" exclaimed Mr. Starkweather, recovering from his amazement in time
+to shut off the snappy remark of Hortense. "We--we are glad to see you,
+girl----"
+
+"I knew you'd be!" cried Helen, loudly. "I told 'em back on the ranch that
+you an' the gals would jest about eat me up, you'd be so glad, when ye
+seen me. Relatives oughter be neighborly."
+
+"Neighborly!" murmured Hortense. "And from Montana!"
+
+"Butcher got another one; ain't ye, Uncle Starkweather?" demanded the
+metamorphosed Helen, looking about with a broad smile. "Where's the little
+tad?"
+
+"'Little tad'! Oh, won't Flossie be pleased?" again murmured Hortense.
+
+"My youngest daughter is at school," replied Mr. Starkweather, nervously.
+
+"Shucks! of course," said Helen, nodding. "I forgot they go to school half
+their lives down east here. Out my way we don't get much chance at
+schoolin'."
+
+"So I perceive," remarked Hortense, aloud.
+
+"Now I expect _you_,'Tense," said Helen, wickedly, "have been through all
+the isms and the ologies there be--eh? You look like you'd been all worn
+to a frazzle studyin'."
+
+Belle giggled. Hortense bridled.
+
+"I really wish you wouldn't call me out of my name," she said.
+
+"Huh?"
+
+"My name is Hortense," said that young lady, coldly.
+
+"Shucks! So it is. But that's moughty long for a single mouthful."
+
+Belle giggled again. Hortense looked disgusted. Uncle Starkweather was
+somewhat shocked.
+
+"We--ahem!--hope you will enjoy yourself here while you--er--remain," he
+began. "Of course, your visit will be more or less brief, I suppose?"
+
+"Jest accordin' to how ye like me and how I like you folks," returned the
+girl from Sunset Ranch, heartily. "When Big Hen seen me off----"
+
+"Who--_who_?" demanded Hortense, faintly.
+
+"Big Hen Billings," said Helen, in an explanatory manner. "Hen was
+dad's--that is he worked with dad on the ranch. When I come away I told
+Big Hen not to look for me back till I arrove. Didn't know how I'd find
+you-all, or how I'd like the city. City's all right; only nobody gets up
+early. And I expect we-all can't tell how we like each other until we get
+better acquainted."
+
+"Very true--very true," remarked Mr. Starkweather, faintly.
+
+"But, goodness! I'm hungry!" exclaimed Helen. "You folks ain't fed yet;
+have ye?"
+
+"We have breakfasted," said Belle, scornfully. "I will ring for the
+butler. You may tell Lawdor what you want--er--_Cousin_ Helen," and she
+looked at Hortense.
+
+"Sure!" cried Helen. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Ye see, I didn't have any
+watch and the sun was clouded over this morning. Sort of run over my time
+limit--eh? Ah!--is this Mr. Lawdor?"
+
+The shaky old butler stood in the doorway.
+
+"It is _Lawdor_," said Belle, emphatically. "Is there any breakfast left,
+Lawdor?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Belle. When Gregson told me the young miss was not at the table
+I kept something hot and hot for her, Miss. Shall I serve it in my room?"
+
+"You may as well," said Belle, carelessly. "And, _Cousin_ Helen!"
+
+"Yep?" chirped the girl from the ranch.
+
+"Of course, while you are here, we could not have you in the room you
+occupied last night. It--it might be needed. I have already told Olstrom,
+the housekeeper, to take your bag and other things up to the next floor.
+Ask one of the maids to show you the room you are to occupy--_while you
+remain_."
+
+"That's all right, Belle," returned the Western girl, with great
+heartiness. "Any old place will do for me. Why! I've slept on the ground
+more nights than you could shake a stick at," and she tramped off after
+the tottering butler.
+
+"Well!" gasped Hortense when she was out of hearing, "what do you know
+about _that_?"
+
+"Pa, do you intend to let that dowdy little thing stay here?" cried
+Belle.
+
+"Ahem!" murmured Mr. Starkweather, running a finger around between his
+collar and his neck, as though to relieve the pressure there.
+
+"Her clothes came out of the ark!" declared Hortense.
+
+"And that hat!"
+
+"And those boots--or is it because she clumps them so? I expect she is
+more used to riding than to walking."
+
+"And her language!" rejoined Belle.
+
+"Ahem! What--what can we do, girls?" gasped Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"Put her out!" cried Belle, loudly and angrily.
+
+"She is quite too, too impossible, Pa," agreed Hortense.
+
+"With her coarse jokes," said the older sister.
+
+"And her rough way," echoed the other.
+
+"And that ugly dress and hat."
+
+"A pauper relation! Faugh! I didn't know the Starkweathers owned one."
+
+"Seems to me, _one_ queer person in the house is enough," began Hortense.
+
+Her father and sister looked at her sharply.
+
+"Why, Hortense!" exclaimed Belle.
+
+"Ahem!" observed Mr. Starkweather, warningly.
+
+"Well! we don't want _that_ freak in the house," grumbled the younger
+sister.
+
+"There are--ahem!--some things best left unsaid," observed her father,
+pompously. "But about this girl from the West----"
+
+"Yes, Pa!" cried his daughters in duet.
+
+"I will see what can be done. Of course, she cannot expect me to support
+her for long. I will have a serious talk with her."
+
+"When, Pa?" cried the two girls again.
+
+"Er--ahem!--soon," declared the gentleman, and beat a hasty retreat.
+
+"It had better be pretty soon," said Belle, bitterly, to her sister. "For
+I won't stand that dowdy thing here for long, now I tell you!"
+
+"Good for you, Belle!" rejoined Hortense, warmly. "It's strange if we
+can't--with Flossie's help--soon make her sick of her visit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"I MUST LEARN THE TRUTH"
+
+
+Helen was already very sick of her Uncle Starkweather's home and family.
+But she was too proud to show the depth of her feeling before the old
+serving man in whose charge she had been momentarily placed.
+
+Lawdor was plainly pleased to wait upon her. He made fresh coffee in his
+own percolator; there was a cutlet kept warm upon an electric stove, and
+he insisted upon frying her a rasher of bacon and some eggs.
+
+Despite all that mentally troubled her, her healthy body needed
+nourishment and Helen ate with an appetite that pleased the old man
+immensely.
+
+"If--if you go out early, Miss, don't forget to come here for your
+coffee," he said. "Or more, if you please. I shall be happy to serve
+you."
+
+"And I'm happy to have you," returned the girl, heartily.
+
+She could not assume to him the rude tone and manner which she had
+displayed to her uncle and cousins. _That_ had been the outcome of an
+impulse which had risen from the unkind expressions she had heard them use
+about her.
+
+As soon as she could get away, she had ceased being an eavesdropper. But
+she had heard enough to assure her that her relatives were not glad to see
+her; that they were rude and unkind, and that they were disturbed by her
+presence among them.
+
+But there was another thing she had drawn from their ill-advised talk,
+too. She had heard her father mentioned in no kind way. Hints were thrown
+out that Prince Morrell's crime--or the crime of which he had been
+accused--was still remembered in New York.
+
+Back into her soul had come that wave of feeling she experienced after her
+father's death. He had been so troubled by the smirch upon his name--the
+cloud that had blighted his young manhood in the great city.
+
+"I'll know the truth," she thought again. "I'll find out who _was_ guilty.
+They sha'n't drive me away until I have accomplished my object in coming
+East."
+
+This was the only thought she had while she remained under old Lawdor's
+eye. She had to bear up, and seem unruffled until the breakfast was
+disposed of and she could escape upstairs.
+
+She went up the servants' way. She saw the same girl she had noticed in
+the parlor early in the morning.
+
+"Can you show me my room?" she asked her, timidly.
+
+"Top o' the next flight. Door's open," replied the girl, shortly.
+
+Already the news had gone abroad among the under servants that this was a
+poor relation. No tips need be expected. The girl flirted her cloth and
+turned her back upon Helen as the latter started through the ghost walk
+and up the other stairway.
+
+She easily found the room. It was quite as good as her own room at the
+ranch, as far as size and furniture went. Helen would have been amply
+satisfied with it had the room been given to her in a different spirit.
+
+But now she closed her door, locked it carefully, hung her jacket over the
+knob that she should be sure she was not spied upon, and sat down beside
+the bed.
+
+She was not a girl who cried often. She had wept sincere tears the evening
+before when she learned that Aunt Eunice was dead. But she could not weep
+now.
+
+Her emotion was emphatically wrathful. Without cause--that she could
+see--these city relatives had maligned her--had maligned her father's
+memory--and had cruelly shown her, a stranger, how they thoroughly hated
+her presence.
+
+She had come away from Sunset Ranch with two well-devised ideas in her
+mind. First of all, she hoped to clear her father's name of that old
+smirch upon it. Secondly, he had wished her to live with her relatives if
+possible, that she might become used to the refinements and circumstances
+of a more civilized life.
+
+Refinements! Why, these cousins of hers hadn't the decencies of red
+Indians!
+
+On impulse Helen had taken the tone she had with them--had showed them in
+"that cowgirl" just what they had expected to find. She would be bluff and
+rude and ungrammatical and ill-bred. Perhaps the spirit in which Helen did
+this was not to be commended; but she had begun it on the impulse of the
+moment and she felt she must keep it up during her stay in the
+Starkweather house.
+
+How long that would be Helen was not prepared to say now. It was in her
+heart one moment not to unpack her trunk at all. She could go to a
+hotel--the best in New York, if she so desired. How amazed her cousins
+would be if they knew that she was at this moment carrying more than eight
+hundred dollars in cash on her person? And suppose they learned that she
+owned thousands upon thousands of acres of grazing land in her own right,
+on which roamed unnumbered cattle and horses?
+
+Suppose they found out that she had been schooled in a first-class
+institution in Denver--probably as well schooled as they themselves? What
+would they say? How would they feel should they suddenly make these
+discoveries?
+
+But, while she sat there and studied the problem out, Helen came to at
+least one determination: While she remained in the Starkweather house she
+would keep from her uncle and cousins the knowledge of these facts.
+
+She would not reveal her real character to them. She would continue to
+parade before them and before their friends the very rudeness and
+ignorance that they had expected her to betray.
+
+"They are ashamed of me--let them be ashamed," she said, to herself,
+bitterly. "They hate me--I'll give them no reason for loving me, I promise
+you! They think me a pauper--I'll _be_ a pauper. Until I get ready to
+leave here, at least. Then I can settle with Uncle Starkweather in one
+lump for all the expense to which he may be put for me.
+
+"I'll buy no nice dresses--or hats--or anything else. They sha'n't know I
+have a penny to spend. If they want to treat me like a poor relation, let
+them. I'll _be_ a poor relation.
+
+"I must learn the truth about poor dad's trouble," she told herself again.
+"Uncle Starkweather must know something about it. I want to question him.
+He may be able to help me. I may get on the track of that bookkeeper. And
+he can tell me, surely, where to find Fenwick Grimes, father's old
+partner.
+
+"No. They shall serve me without knowing it. I will be beholden to them
+for my bread and butter and shelter--for a time. Let them hate and despise
+me. What I have to do I will do. Then I'll 'pay the shot,' as Big Hen
+would say, and walk out and leave them."
+
+It was a bold determination, but not one that is to be praised. Yet, Helen
+had provocation for the course she proposed to pursue.
+
+She finally unlocked her trunk and hung up the common dresses and other
+garments she had brought with her. She had intended to ask her cousins to
+take her shopping right away, and she, like any other girl of her age,
+longed for new frocks and pretty hats.
+
+But there was a lot of force in Helen's character. She would go without
+anything pretty unless her cousins offered to buy it themselves. She would
+bide her time.
+
+One thing she hid far back in her closet under the other things--her
+riding habit. She knew it would give the lie to her supposed poverty. She
+had sent to Chicago for that, and it had cost a hundred dollars.
+
+"But I don't suppose there'd be a chance to ride in this big town," she
+thought, with a sigh. "Unless it is hobby-horses in the park. Well! I can
+get on for a time without the Rose pony, or any other critter on four
+legs, to love me."
+
+But she was hungry for the companionship of the animals whom she had seen
+daily on the ranch.
+
+"Why, even the yip of a coyote would be sweet," she mused, putting her
+head out of the window and scanning nothing but chimneys and tin roofs,
+with bare little yards far below.
+
+Finally she heard a Japanese gong's mellow note, and presumed it must
+announce luncheon. It was already two o'clock. People who breakfasted at
+nine or ten, of course did not need a midday meal.
+
+"I expect they don't have supper till bedtime," thought Helen.
+
+First she hid her wallet in the bottom of her trunk, locked the trunk and
+set it up on end in the closet. Then she locked the closet door and took
+out the key, hiding the latter under the edge of the carpet.
+
+"I'm getting as bad as the rest of 'em," she muttered. "I won't trust
+anybody, either. Now for meeting my dear cousins at lunch."
+
+She had slipped into one of the simple house dresses she had worn at the
+ranch. She had noticed that forenoon that both Belle and Hortense
+Starkweather were dressed in the most modish of gowns--as elaborate as
+those of fashionable ladies. With no mother to say them nay, these young
+girls aped every new fashion as they pleased.
+
+Helen started downstairs at first with her usual light step. Then she
+bethought herself, stumbled on a stair, slipped part of the way, and
+continued to the very bottom of the last flight with a noise and clatter
+which must have announced her coming long in advance of her actual
+presence.
+
+"I don't want to play eavesdropper again," she told herself, grimly. "I
+always understood that listeners hear no good of themselves, and now I
+know it to be a fact."
+
+Gregson stood at the bottom of the last flight. His face was as wooden as
+ever, but he managed to open his lips far enough to observe:
+
+"Luncheon is served in the breakfast room, Miss."
+
+A sweep of his arm pointed the way. Then she saw old Lawdor pottering in
+and out of a room into which she had not yet looked.
+
+It proved to be a sunny, small dining-room. When alone the family usually
+ate here, Helen discovered. The real dining-room was big enough for a
+dancing floor, with an enormous table, preposterously heavy furniture all
+around the four sides of the room, and an air of gloom that would have
+removed, before the food appeared, even, all trace of a healthy appetite.
+
+When Helen entered the brighter apartment her three cousins were already
+before her. The noise she made coming along the hall, despite the heavy
+carpets, had quite prepared them for her appearance.
+
+Belle and Hortense met her with covert smiles. And they watched their
+younger sister to see what impression the girl from Sunset Ranch made upon
+Flossie.
+
+"And this is Flossie; is it?" cried Helen, going boisterously into the
+room and heading full tilt around the table for the amazed Flossie. "Why,
+you look like a smart young'un! And you're only fourteen? Well, I never!"
+
+She seized Flossie by both hands, in spite of that young lady's desire to
+keep them free.
+
+"Goodness me! Keep your paws off--do!" ejaculated Flossie, in great
+disgust. "And let me tell you, if I _am_ only fourteen I'm 'most as big as
+you are and I know a whole lot more."
+
+"Why, Floss!" exclaimed Hortense, but unable to hide her amusement.
+
+The girl from Sunset Ranch took it all with apparent good nature,
+however.
+
+"I reckon you _do_ know a lot. You've had advantages, you see. Girls out
+my way don't have much chance, and that's a fact. But if I stay here,
+don't you reckon I'll learn?"
+
+The Starkweather girls exchanged glances of amusement.
+
+"I do not think," said Belle, calmly, "that you would better think of
+remaining with us for long. It would be rather bad for you, I am sure, and
+inconvenient for us."
+
+"How's that?" demanded Helen, looking at her blankly. "Inconvenient--and
+with all this big house?"
+
+"Ahem!" began Belle, copying her father. "The house is not always as free
+of visitors as it is now. And of course, a girl who has no means and must
+earn her living, should not live in luxury."
+
+"Why not?" asked Helen, quickly.
+
+"Why--er--well, it would not be nice to have a working girl go in and out
+of our house."
+
+"And you think I shall have to go to work?"
+
+"Why, of course, you may remain here--father says--until you can place
+yourself. But he does not believe in fostering idleness. He often says
+so," said Belle, heaping it all on "poor Pa."
+
+Helen had taken her seat at the table and Gregson was serving. It mattered
+nothing to these ill-bred Starkweather girls that the serving people heard
+how they treated this "poor relation."
+
+Helen remained silent for several minutes. She tried to look sad. Within,
+however, she was furiously angry. But this was not the hour for her to
+triumph.
+
+Flossie had been giggling for a few moments. Now she asked her cousin,
+saucily:
+
+"I say! Where did you pick up that calico dress, Helen?"
+
+"This?" returned the visitor, looking down at the rather ugly print. "It's
+a gingham. Bought it ready-made in Elberon. Do you like it?"
+
+"I love it!" giggled Flossie. "And it's made in quite a new style, too."
+
+"Do you think so? Why, I reckoned it was old," said Helen, smoothly. "But
+I'm glad to hear it's so fitten to wear. For, you see, I ain't got many
+clo'es."
+
+"Don't you have dressmakers out there in Montana?" asked Hortense, eyeing
+the print garment as though it was something entirely foreign.
+
+"I reckon. But we folks on the range don't get much chance at 'em.
+Dressmakers is as scurce around Sunset Ranch as killyloo birds. Unless ye
+mought call Injun squaws dressmakers."
+
+"What are killyloo birds?" demanded Flossie, hearing something new.
+
+"Well now! don't you have them here?" asked Helen, smiling broadly.
+
+"Never heard of them. And I've been to Bronx Park and seen all the birds
+in the flying cage," said Flossie. "Our Nature teacher takes us out there
+frequently. It's a dreadful bore."
+
+"Well, I didn't know but you might have 'em East here," observed Helen,
+pushing along the time-worn cowboy joke. "I said they was scurce around
+the ranch; and they be. I never saw one."
+
+"Really!" ejaculated Hortense. "What are killyloo birds good for?"
+
+"Why, near as I ever heard," replied Helen, chuckling, "they are mostly
+used for making folks ask questions."
+
+"I declare!" snapped Belle. "She is laughing at you, girls. You're very
+dense, I'm sure, Hortense."
+
+"Say! that's a good one!" laughed Flossie. But Hortense muttered:
+
+"Vulgar little thing!"
+
+Helen smiled tranquilly upon them. Nothing they said to her could shake
+her calm. And once in a while--as in the case above--she "got back" at
+them. She kept consistently to her rude way of speaking; but she used the
+tableware with little awkwardness, and Belle said to Hortense:
+
+"At least somebody's tried to teach her a few things. She is no
+sword-swallower."
+
+"I suppose Aunt Mary had some refinement," returned Hortense, languidly.
+
+Helen's ears were preternaturally sharp. She heard everything. But she had
+such good command of her features that she showed no emotion at these side
+remarks.
+
+After luncheon the three sisters separated for their usual afternoon
+amusements. Neither of them gave a thought to Helen's loneliness. They did
+not ask her what she was going to do, or suggest anything to her save
+that, an hour later, when Belle saw her cousin preparing to leave the
+house in the same dress she had worn at luncheon, she cried:
+
+"Oh, Helen, _do_ go out and come in by the lower door; will you? The
+basement door, you know."
+
+"Sure!" replied Helen, cheerfully. "Saves the servants work, I suppose,
+answering the bell."
+
+But she knew as well as Belle why the request was made. Belle was ashamed
+to have her appear to be one of the family. If she went in and out by the
+servants' door it would not look so bad.
+
+Helen walked over to the avenue and looked at the frocks in the store
+windows. By their richness she saw that in this neighborhood, at least, to
+refit in a style which would please her cousins would cost quite a sum of
+money.
+
+"I won't do it!" she told herself, stubbornly. "If they want me to look
+well enough to go in and out of the front door, let them suggest buying
+something for me."
+
+She went back to the Starkweather mansion in good season; but she entered,
+as she had been told, by the area door. One of the maids let her in and
+tossed her head when she saw what an out-of-date appearance this poor
+relation of her master made.
+
+"Sure," this girl said to the cook, "if I didn't dress better nor _her_
+when I went out, I'd wait till afther dark, so I would!"
+
+Helen heard this, too. But she was a girl who could stick to her purpose.
+Criticism should not move her, she determined; she would continue to play
+her part.
+
+"Mr. Starkweather is in the den, Miss," said the housekeeper, meeting
+Helen on the stairs. "He has asked for you."
+
+Mrs. Olstrom was a very grim person, indeed. If she had shown the girl
+from the ranch some little kindliness the night before, she now hid it all
+very successfully.
+
+Helen returned to the lower floor and sought that room in which she had
+had her first interview with her relatives. Mr. Starkweather was alone. He
+looked more than a little disturbed; and of the two he was the more
+confused.
+
+"Ahem! I feel that we must have a serious talk together, Helen," he said,
+in his pompous manner. "It--it will be quite necessary--ahem!"
+
+"Sure!" returned the girl. "Glad to. I've got some serious things to ask
+you, too, sir."
+
+"Eh? Eh?" exclaimed the gentleman, worried at once.
+
+"You fire ahead, sir," said Helen, sitting down and crossing one knee over
+the other in a boyish fashion. "My questions will wait."
+
+"I--ahem!--I wish to know who suggested your coming here to New York?"
+
+"My father," replied Helen, simply and truthfully.
+
+"Your father?" The reply evidently both surprised and discomposed Mr.
+Starkweather. "I do not understand. Your--your father is dead----"
+
+"Yes, sir. It was just before he died."
+
+"And he told you to come here to--to _us_?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"But why?" demanded the gentleman with some warmth.
+
+"Dad said as how you folks lived nice, and knew all about refinement and
+eddication and all that. He wanted me to have a better chance than what I
+could get on the ranch."
+
+Mr. Starkweather glared at her in amazement. He was not at all a
+kind-hearted man; but he was very cowardly. He had feared her answer would
+be quite different from this, and now took courage.
+
+"Do you mean to say that merely this expressed wish that you might live
+at--ahem!--at my expense, and as my daughters live, brought you here to
+New York?"
+
+"That begun it, Uncle," said Helen, coolly.
+
+"Preposterous! What could Prince Morrell be thinking of? Why should I
+support you, Miss?"
+
+"Why, that don't matter so much," remarked Helen, calmly. "I can earn my
+keep, I reckon. If there's nothing to do in the house I'll go and find me
+a job and pay my board. But, you see, dad thought I ought to have the
+refining influences of city life. Good idea; eh?"
+
+"A very ridiculous idea! A very ridiculous idea, indeed!" cried Mr.
+Starkweather. "I never heard the like."
+
+"Well, you see, there's another reason why I came, too, Uncle," Helen
+said, blandly.
+
+"What's that?" demanded the gentleman, startled again.
+
+"Why, dad told me everything when he died. He--he told me how he got into
+trouble before he left New York--'way back there before I was born," spoke
+Helen, softly. "It troubled dad all his life, Uncle Starkweather.
+Especially after mother died. He feared he had not done right by her and
+me, after all, in running away when he was not guilty----"
+
+"Not guilty!"
+
+"Not guilty," repeated Helen, sternly. "Of course, we all know _that_.
+Somebody got all that money the firm had in bank; but it was not my
+father, sir."
+
+She gazed straight into the face of Mr. Starkweather. He did not seem to
+be willing to look at her in return; nor could he pluck up the courage to
+deny her statement.
+
+"I see," he finally murmured.
+
+"That is the second reason that has brought me to New York," said Helen,
+more softly. "And it is the more important reason. If you don't care to
+have me here, Uncle, I will find work that will support me, and live
+elsewhere. But I _must_ learn the truth about that old story against
+father. I sha'n't leave New York until I have cleared his name."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+SADIE AGAIN
+
+
+Mr. Starkweather appeared to recover his equanimity. He looked askance at
+his niece, however, as she announced her intention.
+
+"You are very young and very foolish, Helen--ahem! A mystery of sixteen or
+seventeen years' standing, which the best detectives could not unravel, is
+scarcely a task to be attempted by a mere girl."
+
+"Who else is there to do it?" Helen demanded, quickly. "I mean to find out
+the truth, if I can. I want you to tell me all you know, and I want you to
+tell me how to find Fenwick Grimes----"
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, girl!" exclaimed her uncle, testily. "What good would
+it do you to find Grimes?"
+
+"He was the other partner in the concern. He had just as good a chance to
+steal the money as father."
+
+"Ridiculous! Mr. Grimes was away from the city at the time."
+
+"Then you _do_ remember all about it, sir?" asked Helen, quickly.
+
+"Ahem! _That_ fact had not slipped my mind," replied her uncle, weakly.
+
+"And then, there was Allen Chesterton, the bookkeeper. Was a search ever
+made for him?"
+
+"High and low," returned her uncle, promptly. "But nobody ever heard of
+him thereafter."
+
+"And why did the shadow of suspicion not fall upon him as strongly as it
+did upon my father?" cried the girl, dropping, in her earnestness, her
+assumed uncouthness of speech.
+
+"Perhaps it did--perhaps it did," muttered Mr. Starkweather. "Yes, of
+course it did! They both ran away, you see----"
+
+"Didn't you advise dad to go away--until the matter could be cleared up?"
+demanded Helen.
+
+"Why--I--ahem!"
+
+"Both you and Mr. Grimes advised it," went on the girl, quite firmly. "And
+father did so because of the effect his arrest might have upon mother in
+her delicate health. Wasn't that the way it was?"
+
+"I--I presume that is so," agreed Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"And it was wrong," declared the girl, with all the confidence of youth.
+"Poor dad realized it before he died. It made all the firm's creditors
+believe that he was guilty. No matter what he did thereafter----"
+
+"Stop, girl!" exclaimed Mr. Starkweather. "Don't you know that if you stir
+up this old business the scandal will all come to light? Why--why, even
+_my_ name might be attached to it."
+
+"But poor dad suffered under the blight of it all for more than sixteen
+years."
+
+"Ahem! It is a fact. It was a great misfortune. Perhaps he _was_ advised
+wrongly," said Mr. Starkweather, with trembling lips. "But I want you to
+understand, Helen, that if he had not left the city he would undoubtedly
+have been in a cell when you were born."
+
+"I don't know that that would have killed me--especially, if by staying
+here, he might have come to trial and been freed of suspicion."
+
+"But he could not be freed of suspicion."
+
+"Why not? I don't see that the evidence was conclusive," declared the
+girl, hotly. "At least, _he_ knew of none such. And I want to know now
+every bit of evidence that could be brought against him."
+
+"Useless! Useless!" muttered her uncle, wiping his brow.
+
+"It is not useless. My father was accused of a crime of which he wasn't
+guilty. Why, his friends here--those who knew him in the old days--will
+think me the daughter of a criminal!"
+
+"But you are not likely to meet any of them----"
+
+"Why not?" demanded Helen, quickly.
+
+"Surely you do not expect to remain here in New York long enough for
+that?" said Uncle Starkweather, exasperated. "I tell you, I cannot permit
+it."
+
+"I must learn what I can about that old trouble before I go back--if I go
+back to Montana at all," declared his niece, doggedly.
+
+Mr. Starkweather was silent for a few moments. He had begun the discussion
+with the settled intention of telling Helen that she must return at once
+to the West. But he knew he had no real right of control over the girl,
+and to claim one would put him at the disadvantage, perhaps, of being made
+to support her.
+
+He saw she was a very determined creature, young as she was. If he
+antagonized her too much, she might, indeed, go out and get a position to
+support herself and remain a continual thorn in the side of the family.
+
+So he took another tack. He was not a successful merchant and real estate
+operator for nothing. He said:
+
+"I do not blame you, Helen, for _wishing_ that that old cloud over your
+father's name might be dissipated. I wish so, too. But, remember, long ago
+your--ahem!--your aunt and I, as well as Fenwick Grimes, endeavored to get
+to the bottom of the mystery. Detectives were hired. Everything possible
+was done. And to no avail."
+
+She watched him narrowly, but said nothing.
+
+"So, how can you be expected to do now what was impossible when the matter
+was fresh?" pursued her uncle, suavely. "If I could help you----"
+
+"You can," declared the girl, suddenly.
+
+"Will you tell me how?" he asked, in a rather vexed tone.
+
+"By telling me where to find Mr. Grimes," said Helen.
+
+"Why--er--that is easily done, although I have had no dealings with Mr.
+Grimes for many years. But if he is at home--he travels over the country a
+great deal--I can give you a letter to him and he will see you."
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+"You are determined to try to rake up all this trouble?"
+
+"I will see Mr. Grimes. And I will try to find Allen Chesterton."
+
+"Out of the question!" cried her uncle. "Chesterton is dead. He dropped
+out of sight long ago. A strange character at best, I believe. And if he
+was the thief----"
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"He certainly would not help you convict himself."
+
+"Not intentionally, sir," admitted Helen.
+
+"I never did see such an opinionated girl," cried Mr. Starkweather, in
+sudden wrath.
+
+"I'm sorry, sir, if I trouble you. If you don't want me here----"
+
+Now, her uncle had decided that it would not be safe to have the girl
+elsewhere in New York. At least, if she was under his roof, he could keep
+track of her activities. He began to be a little afraid of this very
+determined, unruffled young woman.
+
+"She's a little savage! No knowing what she might do, after all," he
+thought.
+
+Finally he said aloud: "Well, Helen, I will do what I can. I will
+communicate with Mr. Grimes and arrange for you to visit him--soon. I will
+tell you--ahem!--in the near future, all I can recollect of the affair.
+Will that satisfy you?"
+
+"I will take it very kindly of you, Uncle," said Helen non-committally.
+
+"And when you are satisfied of the impossibility of your doing yourself,
+or your father's name, any good in this direction, I shall expect you to
+close your visit in the East here and return to your friends in Montana."
+
+She nodded, looking at him with a strange expression on her shrewd face.
+
+"You mean to help me as a sort of a bribe," she observed, slowly. "To pay
+you I am to return home and never trouble you any more?"
+
+"Well--er--ahem!"
+
+"Is that it, Uncle Starkweather?"
+
+"You see, my dear," he began again, rather red in the face, but glad that
+he was getting out of a bad corner so easily, "you do not just fit in,
+here, with our family life. You see it yourself, perhaps?"
+
+"Perhaps I do, sir," replied the girl from Sunset Ranch.
+
+"You would be quite at a disadvantage beside my girls--ahem! You would not
+be happy here. And of course, you haven't a particle of claim upon us."
+
+"No, sir; not a particle," repeated Helen.
+
+"So you see, all things considered, it would be much better for you to
+return to your own people--ahem--_own people_," said Mr. Starkweather,
+with emphasis. "Now--er--you are rather shabby, I fear, Helen. I am not as
+rich a man as you may suppose. But I---- The fact is, the girls are
+ashamed of your appearance," he pursued, without looking at her, and
+opening his bill case.
+
+"Here is ten dollars. I understand that a young miss like you can be
+fitted very nicely to a frock downtown for less than ten dollars. I advise
+you to go out to-morrow and find yourself a more up-to-date frock
+than--than that one you have on, for instance.
+
+"Somebody might see you come into the house--ahem!--some of our friends, I
+mean, and they would not understand. Get a new dress, Helen. While you are
+here look your best. Ahem! We all must give the hostage of a neat
+appearance to society."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Helen, simply.
+
+She took the money. Her throat had contracted so that she could not thank
+him for it in words. But she retained a humble, thankful attitude, and it
+sufficed.
+
+He cared nothing about hurting the feelings of the girl. He did not even
+inquire--in his own mind--if she _had_ any feelings to be hurt! He was so
+self-centred, so pompous, so utterly selfish, that he never thought how he
+might wrong other people.
+
+Willets Starkweather was very tenacious of his own dignity and his own
+rights. But for the rights of others he cared not at all. And there was
+not an iota of tenderness in his heart for the orphan who had come so
+trustingly across the continent and put herself in his charge. Indeed,
+aside from a feeling of something like fear of Helen, he betrayed no
+interest in her at all.
+
+Helen went out of the room without a further word. She was more subdued
+that evening at dinner than she had been before. She did not break out in
+rude speeches, nor talk very much. But she was distinctly out of her
+element--or so her cousins thought--at their dinner table.
+
+"I tell you what it is, girls," Belle, the oldest cousin, said after the
+meal and when Helen had gone up to her room without being invited to join
+the family for the evening, "I tell you what it is: If we chance to have
+company to dinner while she remains, I shall send a tray up to her room
+with her dinner on it. I certainly could not _bear_ to have the Van
+Ramsdens, or the De Vornes, see her at our table."
+
+"Quite true," agreed Hortense. "We never could explain having such a
+cousin."
+
+"Horrors, no!" gasped Flossie.
+
+Helen had found a book in the library, and she lit the gas in her room
+(there was no electricity on this upper floor) and forgot her troubles and
+unhappiness in following the fortunes of the heroine of her story-book. It
+was late when she heard the maids retire. They slept in rooms opening out
+of a side hall.
+
+By and by--after the clock in the Metropolitan tower had struck the hour
+of eleven--Helen heard the rustle and step outside her door which she had
+heard in the corridor downstairs. She crept to her door, after turning out
+her light, and opening it a crack, listened.
+
+Had somebody gone downstairs? Was that a rustling dress in the corridor
+down there--the ghost walk? Did she hear again the "step--put; step--put"
+that had puzzled her already?
+
+She did not like to go out into the hall and, perhaps, meet one of the
+servants. So, after a time, she went back to her book.
+
+But the incident had given her a distaste for reading. She kept listening
+for the return of the ghostly step. So she undressed and went to bed. Long
+afterward (or so it seemed to her, for she had been asleep and slept
+soundly) she was aroused again by the "step--put; step--put" past her
+door.
+
+Half asleep as she was, she jumped up and ran to the door. When she opened
+it, it seemed as though the sound was far down the main corridor--and she
+thought she could see the entire length of that passage. At least, there
+was a great window at the far end, and the moonlight looked ghostily in.
+No shadow crossed this band of light, and yet the rustle and step
+continued after she reached her door and opened it.
+
+Then----
+
+Was that a door closed softly in the distance? She could not be sure.
+After a minute or two one thing she _was_ sure of, however; she was
+getting cold here in the draught, so she scurried back to bed, covered her
+ears, and went to sleep again.
+
+Helen got up the next morning with one well-defined determination. She
+would put into practice her uncle's suggestion. She would buy one of the
+cheap but showy dresses which shopgirls and minor clerks had to buy to
+keep up appearances.
+
+It was a very serious trouble to Helen that she was not to buy and disport
+herself in pretty frocks and hats. The desire to dress prettily and
+tastefully is born in most girls--just as surely as is the desire to
+breathe. And Helen was no exception.
+
+She was obstinate, however, and could keep to her purpose. Let the
+Starkweathers think she was poor. Let them continue to think so until her
+play was all over and she was ready to go home again.
+
+Her experience in the great city had told Helen already that she could
+never be happy there. She longed for the ranch, and for the Rose
+pony--even for Big Hen Billings and Sing and the rag-head, Jo-Rab, and
+Manuel and Jose, and all the good-hearted, honest "punchers" who loved her
+and who would no more have hurt her feelings than they would have made an
+infant cry.
+
+She longed to have somebody call her "Snuggy" and to smile upon her in
+good-fellowship. As she walked the streets nobody appeared to heed her. If
+they did, their expression of countenance merely showed curiosity, or a
+scorn of her clothes.
+
+She was alone. She had never felt so much alone when miles from any other
+human being, as she sometimes had been on the range. What had Dud said
+about this? That one could be very much alone in the big city? Dud was
+right.
+
+She wished that she had Dud Stone's address. She surely would have
+communicated with him now, for he was probably back in New York by this
+time.
+
+However, there was just one person whom she had met in New York who seemed
+to the girl from Sunset Ranch as being "all right." And when she made up
+her mind to do as her uncle had directed about the new frock, it was of
+this person Helen naturally thought.
+
+Sadie Goronsky! The girl who had shown herself so friendly the night Helen
+had come to town. She worked in a store where they sold ladies' clothing.
+With no knowledge of the cheaper department stores than those she had seen
+on the avenue, it seemed quite the right thing to Helen's mind for her to
+search out Sadie and her store.
+
+So, after an early breakfast taken in Mr. Lawdor's little room, and under
+the ministrations of that kind old man, Helen left the house--by the area
+door as requested--and started downtown.
+
+She didn't think of riding. Indeed, she had no idea how far Madison Street
+was. But she remembered the route the taxicab had taken uptown that first
+evening, and she could not easily lose her way.
+
+And there was so much for the girl from the ranch to see--so much that was
+new and curious to her--that she did not mind the walk; although it took
+her until almost noon, and she was quite tired when she got to Chatham
+Square.
+
+Here she timidly inquired of a policeman, who kindly crossed the wide
+street with her and showed her the way. On the southern side of Madison
+Street she wandered, curiously alive to everything about the district, and
+the people in it, that made them both seem so strange to her.
+
+"A dress, lady! A hat, lady!"
+
+The buxom Jewish girls and women, who paraded the street before the shops
+for which they worked, would give her little peace. Yet it was all done
+good-naturedly, and when she smiled and shook her head they smiled, too,
+and let her pass.
+
+Suddenly she saw the sturdy figure of Sadie Goronsky right ahead. She had
+stopped a rather over-dressed, loud-voiced woman with a child, and Helen
+heard a good deal of the conversation while she waited for Sadie (whose
+back was toward her) to be free.
+
+The "puller-in" and the possible customer wrangled some few moments, both
+in Yiddish and broken English; but Sadie finally carried her point--and
+the child--into the store! The woman had to follow her offspring, and once
+inside some of the clerks got hold of her and Sadie could come forth to
+lurk for another possible customer.
+
+"Well, see who's here!" exclaimed the Jewish girl, catching sight of
+Helen. "What's the matter, Miss? Did they turn you out of your uncle's
+house upon Madison Avenyer? I never _did_ expect to see you again."
+
+"But I expected to see you again, Sadie; I told you I'd come," said Helen,
+simply.
+
+"So it wasn't just a josh; eh?"
+
+"I always keep my word," said the girl from the West.
+
+"Chee!" gasped Sadie. "We ain't so partic'lar around here. But I'm glad to
+see you, Miss, just the same. Be-lieve me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A NEW WORLD
+
+
+The two girls stood on the sidewalk and let the tide of busy humanity flow
+by unnoticed. Both were healthy types of youth--one from the open ranges
+of the Great West, the other from a land far, far to the East.
+
+Helen Morrell was brown, smiling, hopeful-looking; but she certainly was
+not "up to date" in dress and appearance. The black-eyed and black-haired
+Russian girl was just as well developed for her age and as rugged as she
+could be; but in her cheap way her frock was the "very latest thing," her
+hair was dressed wonderfully, and the air of "city smartness" about her
+made the difference between her and Helen even more marked.
+
+"I never s'posed you'd come down here," said Sadie again.
+
+"You asked was I turned out of my uncle's house," responded Helen,
+seriously. "Well, it does about amount to that."
+
+"Oh, no! Never!" cried the other girl.
+
+"Let me tell you," said Helen, whose heart was so full that she longed for
+a confidant. Besides, Sadie Goronsky would never know the Starkweather
+family and their friends, and she felt free to speak fully. So, without
+much reserve, she related her experiences in her uncle's house.
+
+"Now, ain't they the mean things!" ejaculated Sadie, referring to the
+cousins. "And I suppose they're awful rich?"
+
+"I presume so. The house is very large," declared Helen.
+
+"And they've got loads and loads of dresses, too?" demanded the working
+girl.
+
+"Oh, yes. They are very fashionably dressed," Helen told her. "But see! I
+am going to have a new dress myself. Uncle Starkweather gave me ten
+dollars."
+
+"Chee!" ejaculated Sadie. "Wouldn't it give him a cramp in his pocket-book
+to part with so much mazouma?"
+
+"Mazouma?"
+
+"That's Hebrew for money," laughed Sadie. "But you _do_ need a dress.
+Where did you get that thing you've got on?"
+
+"Out home," replied Helen. "I see it isn't very fashionable."
+
+"Say! we got through sellin' them things to greenies two years back,"
+declared Sadie.
+
+"You haven't been at work all that time; have you?" gasped the girl from
+the ranch.
+
+"Sure. I got my working papers four years ago. You see, I looked a lot
+older than I really was, and comin' across from the old country all us
+children changed our ages, so't we could go right to work when we come
+here without having to spend all day in school. We had an uncle what come
+over first, and he told us what to do."
+
+Helen listened to this with some wonder. She felt perfectly safe with
+Sadie, and would have trusted her, if it were necessary, with the money
+she had hidden away in her closet at Uncle Starkweather's; yet the other
+girl looked upon the laws of the land to which she had come for freedom as
+merely harsh rules to be broken at one's convenience.
+
+"Of course," said Sadie, "I didn't work on the sidewalk here at first. I
+worked back in Old Yawcob's shop--making changes in the garments for fussy
+customers. I was always quick with my needle.
+
+"Then I helped the salesladies. But business was slack, and people went
+right by our door, and I jumped out one day and started to pull 'em in.
+And I was better at it----
+
+"Good-day, ma'am! Will you look at a beautiful skirt--just the very latest
+style--we've only got a few of them for samples?" She broke off and left
+Helen to stand wondering while Sadie chaffered with another woman, who had
+hesitated a trifle as she passed the shop.
+
+"Oh, no, ma'am! You was no greenie. I could tell that at once. That's why
+I spoke English to you yet," Sadie said, flattering the prospective buyer,
+and smiling at her pleasantly. "If you will just step in and see these
+skirts--or a two-piece suit if you will?"
+
+Helen observed her new friend with amazement. Although she knew Sadie
+could be no older than herself, she used the tact of long business
+experience in handling the woman. And she got her into the store, too!
+
+"I wash my hands of 'em when they get inside," she said, laughing, and
+coming back to Helen. "If Old Yawcob and his wife and his salesladies
+can't hold 'em, it isn't _my_ fault, you understand. I'm about the
+youngest puller-in there is along Madison Street--although that little
+hunchback in front of the millinery shop yonder _looks_ younger."
+
+"But you don't try to pull _me_ in," said Helen, laughing. "And I've got
+ten whole dollars to spend."
+
+"That's right. But then, you see, you're my friend, Miss," said Sadie. "I
+want to be sure you get your money's worth. So I'm going with you when you
+buy your dress--that is, if you'll let me."
+
+"Let you? Why, I'd dearly love to have you advise me," declared the
+Western girl. "And don't--_don't_--call me 'Miss.' I'm Helen Morrell, I
+tell you."
+
+"All right. If you say so. But, you know, you _are_ from Madison Avenyer
+just the same."
+
+"No. I'm from a great big ranch out West."
+
+"That's like a farm--yes? I gotter cousin that works on a farm over on
+Long Island. It's a big farm--it's eighty acres. Is that farm you come
+from as big as that?"
+
+Helen nodded and did not smile at the girl's ignorance. "Very much bigger
+than eighty acres," she said. "You see, it has to be, for we raise cattle
+instead of vegetables."
+
+"Well, I guess I don't know much about it," admitted Sadie, frankly. "All
+I know is this city and mostly this part of it down here on the East Side.
+We all have to work so hard, you know. But we're getting along better than
+we did at first, for more of us children can work.
+
+"And now I want you should go home with me for dinner, Helen--yes! It is
+my dinner hour quick now; and then we will have time to pick you out a
+bargain for a dress. Sure! You'll come?"
+
+"If I won't be imposing on you?" said Helen, slowly.
+
+"Huh! That's all right. We'll have enough to eat _this_ noon. And it ain't
+so Jewish, either, for father don't come home till night. Father's awful
+religious; but I tell mommer she must be up-to-date and have some 'Merican
+style about her. I got her to leave off her wig yet. Catch _me_ wearin' a
+wig when I'm married just to make me look ugly. Not!"
+
+All this rather puzzled Helen; but she was too polite to ask questions.
+She knew vaguely that Jewish people followed peculiar rabbinical laws and
+customs; but what they were she had no idea. However, she liked Sadie, and
+it mattered nothing to Helen what the East Side girl's faith or bringing
+up had been. Sadie was kind, and friendly, and was really the only person
+in all this big city in whom the ranch girl could place the smallest
+confidence.
+
+Sadie ran into the store for a moment and soon a big woman with an
+unctuous smile, a ruffled white apron about as big as a postage stamp, and
+her gray hair dressed as remarkably as Sadie's own, came out upon the
+sidewalk to take the young girl's place.
+
+"Can't I sell you somedings, lady?" she said to the waiting Helen.
+
+"Now, don't you go and run _my_ customer in, Ma Finkelstein!" cried Sadie,
+running out and hugging the big woman. "Helen is my friend and she's going
+home to eat mit me."
+
+"_Ach!_ you are already a United Stater yet," declared the big woman,
+laughing. "Undt the friends you have it from Number Five Av'noo--yes?"
+
+"You guessed it pretty near right," cried Sadie. "Helen lives on Madison
+Avenyer--and it ain't Madison Avenyer _uptown_, neither!"
+
+She slipped her hand in Helen's and bore her off to the tenement house in
+which Helen had had her first adventure in the great city.
+
+"Come on up," said Sadie, hospitably. "You look tired, and I bet you
+walked clear down here?"
+
+"Yes, I did," admitted Helen.
+
+"Some o' mommer's soup mit lentils will rest you, I bet. It ain't far
+yet--only two flights."
+
+Helen followed her cheerfully. But she wondered if she was doing just
+right in letting this friendly girl believe that she was just as poor as
+the Starkweathers thought she was. Yet, on the other hand, wouldn't Sadie
+Goronsky have felt embarrassed and have been afraid to be her friend, if
+she knew that Helen Morrell was a very, very wealthy girl and had at her
+command what would seem to the Russian girl "untold wealth"?
+
+"I'll pay her for this," thought Helen, with the first feeling of real
+happiness she had experienced since leaving the ranch. "She shall never be
+sorry that she was kind to me."
+
+So she followed Sadie into the humble home of the latter on the third
+floor of the tenement with a smiling face and real warmth at her heart. In
+Yiddish the downtown girl explained rapidly her acquaintance with "the
+Gentile." But, as she had told Helen, Sadie's mother had begun to break
+away from some of the traditions of her people. She was fast becoming "a
+United Stater," too.
+
+She was a handsome, beaming woman, and she was as generous-hearted as
+Sadie herself. The rooms were a little steamy, for Mrs. Goronsky had been
+doing the family wash that morning. But the table was set neatly and the
+food that came on was well prepared and--to Helen--much more acceptable
+than the dainties she had been having at Uncle Starkweather's.
+
+The younger children, who appeared for the meal, were right from the
+street where they had been playing, or from work in neighboring factories,
+and were more than a little grimy. But they were not clamorous and they
+ate with due regard to "manners."
+
+"Ve haf nine, Mees," said Mrs. Goronsky, proudly. "Undt they all are
+healt'y--_ach! so_ healt'y. It takes mooch to feed them yet."
+
+"Don't tell about it, Mommer" cried Sadie. "It aint stylish to have big
+fam'lies no more. Don't I tell you?"
+
+"What about that Preesident we hadt--that Teddy Sullivan--what said big
+fam'lies was a good d'ing? Aindt that enough? Sure, Sarah, a _Preesident_
+iss stylish."
+
+"Oh, Mommer!" screamed Sadie. "You gotcher politics mixed. 'Sullivan' is
+the district leader wot gifs popper a job; but 'Teddy' was the President
+yet. You ain't never goin' to be real American."
+
+But her mother only laughed. Indeed, the light-heartedness of these poor
+people was a revelation to Helen. She had supposed vaguely that very poor
+people must be all the time serious, if not actually in tears.
+
+"Now, Helen, we'll rush right back to the shop and I'll make Old Yawcob
+sell you a bargain. She's goin' to get her new dress, Mommer. Ain't that
+fine?"
+
+"Sure it iss," declared the good woman. "Undt you get her a bargain,
+Sarah."
+
+"_Don't_ call me 'Sarah,' Mommer!" cried the daughter. "It ain't stylish,
+I tell you. Call me 'Sadie.'"
+
+Her mother kissed her on both plump cheeks. "What matters it, my little
+lamb?" she said, in their own tongue. "Mother love makes _any_ name
+sweet."
+
+Helen did not, of course, understand these words; but the caress, the look
+on their faces, and the way Sadie returned her mother's kiss made a great
+lump come into the orphan girl's throat. She could hardly find her way in
+the dim hall to the stairway, she was so blinded by tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"STEP--PUT; STEP--PUT"
+
+
+An hour later Helen was dressed in a two-piece suit, cut in what a chorus
+of salesladies, including old Mrs. Finkelstein and Sadie herself, declared
+were most "stylish" lines--and it did not cost her ten dollars, either!
+Indeed, Sadie insisted upon going with her to a neighboring millinery
+store and purchasing a smart little hat for $1.59, which set off the new
+suit very nicely.
+
+"Sure, this old hat and suit of yours is wort' a lot more money, Helen,"
+declared the Russian girl. "But they ain't just the style, yuh see. And
+style is everything to a girl. Why, nobody'd take you for a greenie
+_now_!"
+
+Helen was quite wise enough to know that she had never been dressed so
+cheaply before; but she recognized, too, the truth of her friend's
+statement.
+
+"Now, you take the dress home, and the hat. Maybe you can find a cheap
+tailor who will make over the dress. There's enough material in it. That's
+an awful wide skirt, you know."
+
+"But I couldn't walk in a skirt as narrow as the one you have on, Sadie."
+
+"Chee! if it was stylish," confessed Sadie, "I'd find a way to walk in a
+piece of stove-pipe!" and she giggled.
+
+So Helen left for uptown with her bundles, wearing her new suit and hat.
+She took a Fourth Avenue car and got out only a block from her uncle's
+house. As she hurried through the side street and came to the Madison
+Avenue corner, she came face-to-face with Flossie, coming home from school
+with a pile of books under her arm.
+
+Flossie looked quite startled when she saw her cousin. Her eyes grew wide
+and she swept the natty looking, if cheaply-dressed Western girl, with an
+appreciative glance.
+
+"Goodness me! What fine feathers!" she cried. "You've been loading up with
+new clothes--eh? Say, I like that dress."
+
+"Better than the caliker one?" asked Helen, slily.
+
+"You're not so foolish as to believe I liked _that_," returned Flossie,
+coolly. "I told Belle and Hortense that you weren't as dense as they
+seemed to think you."
+
+"Thanks!" said Helen, drily.
+
+"But that dress is just in the mode," repeated Flossie, with some
+admiration.
+
+"Your father's kindness enabled me to get it," said Helen, briefly.
+
+"Humph!" said Flossie, frankly. "I guess it didn't cost you much, then."
+
+Helen did not reply to this comment; but as she turned to go down to the
+basement door, Flossie caught her by the arm.
+
+"Don't you do that!" she exclaimed. "Belle can be pretty mean sometimes.
+You come in at the front door with me."
+
+"No," said Helen, smiling. "You come in at the area door with _me_. It's
+easier, anyway. There's a maid just opening it."
+
+So the two girls entered the house together. They were late to
+lunch--indeed, Helen did not wish any; but she did not care to explain why
+she was not hungry.
+
+"What's the matter with you, Flossie?" demanded Hortense. "We've done
+eating, Belle and I. And if you wish your meals here, Helen, please get
+here on time for them."
+
+"You mind your own business!" cried Flossie, suddenly taking up the
+cudgels for her cousin as well as herself. "You aren't the boss, Hortense!
+I got kept after school, anyway. And cook can make something hot for me
+and Helen."
+
+"You _need_ to be kept after school--from the kind of English you use,"
+sniffed her sister.
+
+"I don't care! I hate the old studies!" declared Flossie, slamming her
+books down upon the table. "I don't see why I have to go to school at all.
+I'm going to ask Pa to take me out. I need a rest."
+
+Which was very likely true, for Miss Flossie was out almost every night to
+some party, or to the theater, or at some place which kept her up very
+late. She had no time for study, and therefore was behind in all her
+classes. That day she had been censured for it at school--and when they
+took a girl to task for falling behind in studies at _that_ school, she
+was very far behind, indeed!
+
+Flossie grumbled about her hard lot all through luncheon. Helen kept her
+company; then, when it was over, she slipped up to her own room with her
+bundles. Both Hortense and Belle had taken a good look at her, however,
+and they plainly approved of her appearance.
+
+"She's not such a dowdy as she seemed," whispered Hortense to the oldest
+sister.
+
+"No," admitted Belle. "But that's an awful cheap dress she bought."
+
+"I guess she didn't have much to spend," laughed Hortense. "Pa wasn't
+likely to be very liberal. It puzzles me why he should have kept her here
+at all."
+
+"He says it is his duty," scoffed Belle. "Now, you know Pa! He never was
+so worried about duty before; was he?"
+
+These girls, brought up as they were, steeped in selfishness and seeing
+their father likewise so selfish, had no respect for their parent. Nor
+could this be wondered at.
+
+Going up to her room that afternoon Helen met Mrs. Olstrom coming down.
+The housekeeper started when she saw the young girl, and drew back. But
+Helen had already seen the great tray of dishes the housekeeper carried.
+And she wondered.
+
+Who took their meals up on this top floor? The maids who slept here were
+all accounted for. She had seen them about the house. And Gregson, too. Of
+course Mr. Lawdor and Mrs. Olstrom had their own rooms below.
+
+Then who could it be who was being served on this upper floor? Helen was
+more than a little curious. The sounds she had heard the night before
+dove-tailed in her mind with these soiled dishes on the tray.
+
+She was almost tempted to walk through the long corridor in which she
+thought she had heard the scurrying footsteps pass the night before. Yet,
+suppose she was caught by Mrs. Olstrom--or by anybody else--peering about
+the house?
+
+"_That_ wouldn't be very nice," mused the girl.
+
+"Because these people think I am rude and untaught, is no reason why I
+should display any _real_ rudeness."
+
+She was very curious, however; the thought of the tray-load of dishes
+remained in her mind all day.
+
+At dinner that night even Mr. Starkweather gave Helen a glance of approval
+when she appeared in her new frock.
+
+"Ahem!" he said. "I see you have taken my advice, Helen. We none of us can
+afford to forget what is due to custom. You are much more presentable."
+
+"Thank you, Uncle Starkweather," replied Helen, demurely. "But out our way
+we say: 'Fine feathers don't make fine birds.'"
+
+"You needn't fret," giggled Flossie. "Your feather's aren't a bit too
+fine."
+
+But Flossie's eyes were red, and she plainly had been crying.
+
+"I _hate_ the old books!" she said, suddenly. "Pa, why do I have to go to
+school any more?"
+
+"Because I am determined you shall, young lady," said Mr. Starkweather,
+firmly. "We all have to learn."
+
+"Hortense doesn't go."
+
+"But you are not Hortense's age," returned her father, coolly. "Remember
+that. And I must have better reports of your conduct in school than have
+reached me lately," he added.
+
+Flossie sulked over the rest of her dinner. Helen, going up slowly to her
+room later, saw the door of her youngest cousin's room open, and glancing
+in, beheld Flossie with her head on her book, crying hard.
+
+Each of these girls had a beautiful room of her own. Flossie's was
+decorated in pink, with chintz hangings, a lovely bed, bookshelves, a desk
+of inlaid wood, and everything to delight the eye and taste of any girl.
+Beside the common room Helen occupied, this of Flossie's was a fairy
+palace.
+
+But Helen was naturally tender-hearted. She could not bear to see the
+younger girl crying. She ventured to step inside the door and whisper:
+
+"Flossie?"
+
+Up came the other's head, her face flushed and wet and her brow a-scowl.
+
+"What do _you_ want?" she demanded, quickly.
+
+"Nothing. Unless I can help you. And if so, _that_ is what I want," said
+the ranch girl, softly.
+
+"Goodness me! _You_ can't help me with algebra. What do I want to know
+higher mathematics for? I'll never have use for such knowledge."
+
+"I don't suppose we can ever learn _too_ much," said Helen, quietly.
+
+"Huh! Lots you know about it. You never were driven to school against your
+will."
+
+"No. Whenever I got a chance to go I was glad."
+
+"Maybe I'd be glad, too, if I lived on a ranch," returned Flossie,
+scornfully.
+
+Helen came nearer to the desk and sat down beside her.
+
+"You don't look a bit pretty with your eyes all red and hot. Crying isn't
+going to help," she said, smiling.
+
+"I suppose not," grumbled Flossie, ungrateful of tone.
+
+"Come, let me get some water and cologne and bathe your face." Helen
+jumped up and went to the tiny bathroom. "Now, I'll play maid for you,
+Flossie."
+
+"Oh, all right," said the younger girl. "I suppose, as you say, crying
+isn't going to help."
+
+"Not at all. No amount of tears will solve a problem in algebra. And you
+let me see the questions. You see," added Helen, slowly, beginning to
+bathe her cousin's forehead and swollen eyes, "we once had a very fine
+school-teacher at the ranch. He was a college professor. But he had weak
+lungs and he came out there to Montana to rest."
+
+"That's good!" murmured Flossie, meaning bathing process, for she was not
+listening much to Helen's remarks.
+
+"I knew it would make you feel better. But now, let me see these algebra
+problems. I took it up a little when--when Professor Payton was at the
+ranch."
+
+"You didn't!" cried Flossie, in wonder.
+
+"Let me see them," pursued her cousin, nodding.
+
+She had told the truth--as far as she went. After Professor Payton had
+left the ranch and Helen had gone to Denver to school, she had showed a
+marked taste for mathematics and had been allowed to go far ahead of her
+fellow-pupils in that study.
+
+Now, at a glance, she saw what was the matter with Flossie's attempts to
+solve the problems. She slipped into a seat beside the younger girl again
+and, in a few minutes, showed Flossie just how to solve them.
+
+"Why, Helen! I didn't suppose you knew so much," said Flossie, in
+surprise.
+
+"You see, _that_ is something I had a chance to learn between times--when
+I wasn't roping cows or breaking ponies," said Helen, drily.
+
+"Humph! I don't believe you did either of those vulgar things," declared
+Flossie, suddenly.
+
+"You are mistaken. I do them both, and do them well," returned Helen,
+gravely. "But they are _not_ vulgar. No more vulgar than your sister
+Belle's golf. It is outdoor exercise, and living outdoors as much as one
+can is a sort of religion in the West."
+
+"Well," said Flossie, who had recovered her breath now. "I don't care what
+you do outdoors. You can do algebra in the house! And I'm real thankful to
+you, Cousin Helen."
+
+"You are welcome, Flossie," returned the other, gravely; but then she went
+her way to her own room at the top of the house. Flossie did not ask her
+to remain after she had done all she could for her.
+
+But Helen had found plenty of reading matter in the house. Her cousins and
+uncle might ignore her as they pleased. With a good book in her hand she
+could forget all her troubles.
+
+Now she slipped into her kimono, propped herself up in bed, turned the
+gas-jet high, and lost herself in the adventures of her favorite heroine.
+The little clock on the mantel ticked on unheeded. The house grew still.
+The maids came up to bed chattering. But still Helen read on.
+
+She had forgotten the sounds she had heard in the old house at night. Mrs.
+Olstrom had mentioned that there were "queer stories" about the
+Starkweather mansion. But Helen would not have thought of them at this
+time, had something not rattled her doorknob and startled her.
+
+"Somebody wants to come in," was the girl's first thought, and she hopped
+out of bed and ran to unlock it.
+
+Then she halted, with her hand upon the knob. A sound outside had arrested
+her. But it was not the sound of somebody trying the latch.
+
+Instead she plainly heard the mysterious "step--put; step--put" again. Was
+it descending the stairs? It seemed to grow fainter as she listened.
+
+At length the girl--somewhat shaken--reached for the key of her door
+again, and turned it. Then she opened it and peered out.
+
+The corridor was faintly illuminated. The stairway itself was quite dark,
+for there was no light in the short passage below called "the
+ghost-walk."
+
+The girl, in her slippers, crept to the head of the flight. There she
+could hear the steady, ghostly footstep from below. No other sound within
+the great mansion reached her ears. It _was_ queer.
+
+To and fro the odd step went. It apparently drew nearer, then
+receded--again and again.
+
+Helen could not see any of the corridor from the top of the flight. So she
+began to creep down, determined to know for sure if there really was
+something or somebody there.
+
+Nor was she entirely unafraid now. The mysterious sounds had got upon her
+nerves. Whether they were supernatural, or natural, she was determined to
+solve the mystery here and now.
+
+Half-way down the stair she halted. The sound of the ghostly step was at
+the far end of the hall. But it would now return, and the girl could see
+(her eyes having become used to the dim light) more than half of the
+passage.
+
+There was the usual rustling sound at the end of the passage. Then the
+steady "step--put" approached.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+FORGOTTEN
+
+
+From the stair-well some little light streamed up into the darkness of the
+ghost-walk. And into this dim radiance came a little old lady--her
+old-fashioned crimped hair an aureole of beautiful gray--leaning lightly
+on an ebony crutch, which in turn tapped the floor in accompaniment to her
+clicking step--
+
+"Step--put; step--put; step--put."
+
+Then she was out of the range of Helen's vision again. But she turned and
+came back--her silken skirts rustling, her crutch tapping in perfect
+time.
+
+This was no ghost. Although slender--ethereal--almost bird-like in her
+motions--the little old lady was very human indeed. She had a pink flush
+in her cheeks, and her skin was as soft as velvet. Of course there were
+wrinkles; but they were beautiful wrinkles, Helen thought.
+
+She wore black half-mitts of lace, and her old-fashioned gown was of
+delightfully soft, yet rich silk. The silk was brown--not many old ladies
+could have worn that shade of brown and found it becoming. Her eyes were
+bright--the unseen girl saw them sparkle as she turned her head, in that
+bird-like manner, from side to side.
+
+She was a dear, doll-like old lady! Helen longed to hurry down the
+remaining steps and take her in her arms.
+
+But, instead, she crept softly back to the head of the stairs, and slipped
+into her own room again. _This_ was the mystery of the Starkweather
+mansion. The nightly exercise of this mysterious old lady was the
+foundation for the "ghost-walk." The maids of the household feared the
+supernatural; therefore they easily found a legend to explain the rustling
+step of the old lady with the crutch.
+
+And all day long the old lady kept to her room. That room must be in the
+front of the house on this upper floor--shut away, it was likely, from the
+knowledge of most of the servants.
+
+Mrs. Olstrom, of course, knew about the old lady--who she was--what she
+was. It was the housekeeper who looked after the simple wants of the
+mysterious occupant of the Starkweather mansion.
+
+Helen wondered if Mr. Lawdor, the old butler, knew about the mystery? And
+did the Starkweathers themselves know?
+
+The girl from the ranch was too excited and curious to go to sleep now.
+She had to remain right by her door, opened on a crack, and learn what
+would happen next.
+
+For an hour at least she heard the steady stepping of the old lady. Then
+the crutch rapped out an accompaniment to her coming upstairs. She was
+humming softly to herself, too. Helen, crouched behind the door,
+distinguished the sweet, cracked voice humming a fragment of the old
+lullaby:
+
+              "Rock-a-by, baby, on the tree-top,
+              When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
+              When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
+              Down will come baby----"
+
+Thus humming, and the crutch tapping--a mere whisper of sound--the old
+lady rustled by Helen's door, on into the long corridor, and disappeared
+through some door, which closed behind her and smothered all further
+sound.
+
+Helen went to bed; but she could not sleep--not at first. The mystery of
+the little old lady and her ghostly walk kept her eyes wide open and her
+brain afire for hours.
+
+She asked question after question into the dark of the night, and only
+imagination answered. Some of the answers were fairly reasonable; others
+were as impossible as the story of Jack the Giant Killer.
+
+Finally, however, Helen dropped asleep. She awoke at her usual
+hour--daybreak--and her eager mind began again asking questions about the
+mystery. She went down in her outdoor clothes for a morning walk, with the
+little old lady uppermost in her thoughts.
+
+As usual, Mr. Lawdor was on the lookout for her. The shaky old man loved
+to have her that few minutes in his room in the early morning. Although he
+always presided over the dinner, with Gregson under him, the old butler
+seldom seemed to speak, or be spoken to. Helen understood that, like Mrs.
+Olstrom, Lawdor was a relic of the late owner--Mr. Starkweather's
+great-uncle's--household.
+
+Cornelius Starkweather had been a bachelor. The mansion had descended to
+him from a member of the family who had been a family man. But that family
+had died young--wife and all--and the master had handed the old homestead
+over to Mr. Cornelius and had gone traveling himself--to die in a foreign
+land.
+
+Once Helen had heard Lawdor murmur something about "Mr. Cornelius" and she
+had picked up the remainder of her information from things she had heard
+Mr. Starkweather and the girls say.
+
+Now the old butler met her with an ingratiating smile and begged her to
+have something beside her customary coffee and roll.
+
+"I have a lovely steak, Miss. The butcher remembers me once in a while,
+and he knows I am fond of a bit of tender beef. My teeth are not what they
+were once, you know, Miss."
+
+"But why should I eat your nice steak?" demanded Helen, laughing at him.
+"My teeth are good for what the boys on the range call 'bootleg.' That's
+steak cut right next to the hoof!"
+
+"Ah, but, Miss! There is so much more than I could possibly eat," he
+urged.
+
+He had already turned the electricity into his grill. The ruddy
+steak--salted, peppered, with tiny flakes of garlic upon it--he brought
+from his own little icebox. The appetizing odor of the meat sharpened
+Helen's appetite even as she sipped the first of her coffee.
+
+"I'll just _have_ to eat some, I expect, Mr. Lawdor," she said. Then she
+had a sudden thought, and added: "Or perhaps you'd like to save this
+tidbit for the little old lady in the attic?"
+
+Mr. Lawdor turned--not suddenly; he never did anything with suddenness;
+but it was plain she had startled him.
+
+"Bless me, Miss--bless me--bless me----"
+
+He trailed off in his usual shaky way; but his lips were white and he
+stared at Helen like an owl for a full minute. Then he added:
+
+"Is there a lady in the attic, Miss?" And he said it in his most polite
+way.
+
+"Of course there is, Mr. Lawdor; and you know it. Who is she? I am only
+curious."
+
+"I--I hear the maids talking about a ghost, Miss--foolish things----"
+
+"And I'm not foolish, Mr. Lawdor," said the Western girl, laughing
+shortly. "Not that way, at least. I heard her; last night I saw her. Next
+time I'm going to speak to her--Unless it isn't allowed."
+
+"It--it isn't allowed, Miss," said Lawdor, speaking softly, and with a
+glance at the closed door of the room.
+
+"Nobody has forbidden _me_ to speak to her," declared Helen, boldly. "And
+I'm curious--mighty curious, Mr. Lawdor. Surely she is a nice old
+lady--there is nothing the matter with her?"
+
+The butler touched his forehead with a shaking finger. "A little wrong
+there, Miss," he whispered. "But Mary Boyle is as innocent and harmless as
+a baby herself."
+
+"Can't you tell me about her--who she is--why she lives up there--and
+all?"
+
+"Not here, Miss."
+
+"Why not?" demanded Helen, boldly.
+
+"It might offend Mr. Starkweather, Miss. Not that he has anything to do
+with Mary Boyle. He had to take the old house with her in it."
+
+"What _do_ you mean, Lawdor?" gasped Helen, growing more and more amazed
+and--naturally--more and more curious.
+
+The butler flopped the steak suddenly upon the sizzling hot plate and in
+another moment the delicious bit was before her. The old man served her as
+expertly as ever, but his face was working strangely.
+
+"I couldn't tell you here, Miss. Walls have ears, they say," he whispered.
+"But if you'll be on the first bench beyond the Sixth Avenue entrance to
+Central Park at ten o'clock this morning, I will meet you there.
+
+"Yes, Miss--the rolls. Some more butter, Miss? I hope the coffee is to
+your taste, Miss?"
+
+"It is all very delicious, Lawdor," said Helen, rather weakly, and feeling
+somewhat confused. "I will surely be there. I shall not need to come back
+for the regular breakfast after having this nice bit."
+
+Helen attracted much less attention upon her usual early morning walk this
+time. She was dressed in the mode, if cheaply, and she was not so
+self-conscious. But, in addition, she thought but little of herself or her
+own appearance or troubles while she walked briskly uptown.
+
+It was of the little old woman, and her mystery, and the butler's words
+that she thought. She strode along to the park, and walked west until she
+reached the bridle-path. She had found this before, and came to see the
+riders as they cantered by.
+
+How Helen longed to put on her riding clothes and get astride a lively
+mount and gallop up the park-way! But she feared that, in doing so, she
+might betray to her uncle or the girls the fact that she was not the
+"pauper cowgirl" they thought her to be.
+
+She found a seat overlooking the path, at last, and rested for a while;
+but her mind was not upon the riders. Before ten o'clock she had walked
+back south, found the entrance to the park opposite Sixth Avenue, and sat
+down upon the bench specified by the old butler. At the stroke of the hour
+the old man appeared.
+
+"You could not have walked all this way, Lawdor?" said the girl, smiling
+upon him. "You are not at all winded."
+
+"No, Miss. I took the car. I am not up to such walks as you can take," and
+he shook his head, mumbling: "Oh, no, no, no, no----"
+
+"And now, what can you tell me, sir?" she said, breaking in upon his
+dribbling speech. "I am just as curious as I can be. That dear little old
+lady! Why is she in uncle's house?"
+
+"Ah, Miss! I fancy she will not be there for long, but she was an
+encumbrance upon it when Mr. Willets Starkweather came with his family to
+occupy it."
+
+"What _do_ you mean?" cried the girl.
+
+"Mary Boyle served in the Starkweather family long, long ago. Before I
+came to valet for Mr. Cornelius, Mary Boyle had her own room and was a
+fixture in the house. Mr. Cornelius took her more--more philosophically,
+as you might say, Miss. My present master and his daughters look upon poor
+Mary Boyle as a nuisance. They have to allow her to remain. She is a life
+charge upon the estate--that, indeed, was fixed before Mr. Cornelius's
+time. But the present family are ashamed of her. Perhaps I ought not to
+say it, but it is true. They have relegated her to a suite upon the top
+floor, and other people have quite forgotten Mary Boyle--yes, oh, yes,
+indeed! Quite forgotten her--quite forgotten her----"
+
+Then, with the aid of some questioning, Helen heard the whole sad story of
+Mary Boyle, who was a nurse girl in the family of the older generation of
+Starkweathers. It was in her arms the last baby of the family had panted
+his weakly little life out. She, too, had watched by the bed of the lady
+of the mansion, who had borne these unfortunate children only to see them
+die.
+
+And Mary Boyle was one of that race who often lose their own identity in
+the families they serve. She had loved the lost babies as though they had
+been of her own flesh. She had walked the little passage at the back of
+the house (out of which had opened the nursery in those days) so many,
+many nights with one or the other of her fretful charges, that by and by
+she thought, at night, that she had them yet to soothe.
+
+Mary Boyle, the weak-minded yet harmless ex-nurse, had been cherished by
+her old master. And in his will he had left her to the care of Mr.
+Cornelius, the heir. In turn she had been left a life interest in the
+mansion--to the extent of shelter and food and proper clothes--when
+Willets Starkweather became proprietor.
+
+He could not get rid of the old lady. But, when he refurnished the house
+and made it over, he had banished Mary Boyle to the attic rooms. The girls
+were ashamed of her. She sometimes talked loudly if company was about. And
+always of the children she had once attended. She spoke of them as though
+they were still in her care, and told how she had walked the hall with
+one, or the other, of her dead and gone treasures the very night before!
+
+For it was found necessary to allow Mary Boyle to have the freedom of that
+short corridor on the chamber floor late at night. Otherwise she would not
+remain secluded in her own rooms at the top of the house during the
+daytime.
+
+As the lower servants came and went, finally only Mrs. Olstrom and Mr.
+Lawdor knew about the old lady, save the family. And Mr. Starkweather
+impressed it upon the minds of both these employés that he did not wish
+the old lady discussed below stairs.
+
+So the story had risen that the house was haunted. The legend of the
+"ghost walk" was established. And Mary Boyle lived out her lonely life,
+with nobody to speak to save the housekeeper, who saw her daily; Mr.
+Lawdor, who climbed to her rooms perhaps once each week, and Mr.
+Starkweather himself, who saw and reported upon her case to his fellow
+trustees each month.
+
+It was, to Helen, an unpleasant story. It threw a light on the characters
+of her uncle and cousins which did not enhance her admiration of them, to
+say the least. She had found them unkind, purse-proud heretofore; but to
+her generous soul their treatment of the little old woman, who must be but
+a small charge upon the estate, seemed far more blameworthy than their
+treatment of herself.
+
+The story of the old butler made Helen quiver with indignation. It was
+like keeping the old lady in jail--this shutting her away into the attic
+of the great house. The Western girl went back to Madison Avenue (she
+walked, but the old butler rode) with a thought in her mind that she was
+not quite sure was a wise one. Yet she had nobody to discuss her idea
+with--nobody whom she wished to take into her confidence.
+
+There were two lonely and neglected people in that fine mansion. She,
+herself, was one. The old nurse, Mary Boyle, was the other. And Helen felt
+a strong desire to see and talk with her fellow-sufferer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A DISTINCT SHOCK
+
+
+That evening when Mr. Starkweather came home, he handed Helen a sealed
+letter.
+
+"I have ascertained," the gentleman said, in his most pompous way, "that
+Mr. Fenwick Grimes is in town. He has recently returned from a tour of the
+West, where he has several mining interests. You will find his address on
+that envelope. Give the letter to him. It will serve to introduce you."
+
+He watched her closely while he said this, but did not appear to do so.
+Helen thanked him with some warmth.
+
+"This is very good of you, Uncle Starkweather--especially when I know you
+do not approve."
+
+"Ahem! Sleeping dogs are much better left alone. To stir a puddle is only
+to agitate the mud. This old business would much better be forgotten. You
+know all that there is to be known about the unfortunate affair, I am
+quite sure."
+
+"I cannot believe that, Uncle," Helen replied. "Had you seen how my dear
+father worried about it when he was dying----"
+
+Mr. Starkweather could look at her no longer--not even askance. He shook
+his head and murmured some commonplace, sympathetic phrase. But it did not
+seem genuine to his niece.
+
+She knew very well that Mr. Starkweather had no real sympathy for her; nor
+did he care a particle about her father's death. But she tucked the letter
+into her pocket and went her way.
+
+As she passed through the upstairs corridor Flossie was entering one of
+the drawing-rooms, and she caught her cousin by the hand. Flossie had been
+distinctly nicer to Helen--in private--since the latter had helped her
+with the algebra problems.
+
+"Come on in, Helen. Belle's just pouring tea. Don't you want some?" said
+the youngest Starkweather girl.
+
+It was in Helen's mind to excuse herself. Yet she was naturally too kindly
+to refuse to accept an advance like this. And she, like Flossie, had no
+idea that there was anybody in the drawing-room save Belle and Hortense.
+
+In they marched--and there were three young ladies--friends of
+Belle--sipping tea and eating macaroons by the log fire, for the evening
+was drawing in cold.
+
+"Goodness me!" ejaculated Belle.
+
+"Well, I never!" gasped Hortense. "Have _you_ got to butt in, Floss?"
+
+"We want some tea, too," said the younger girl, boldly, angered by her
+sisters' manner.
+
+"You'd better have it in the nursery," yawned Hortense. "This is no place
+for kids in the bread-and-butter stage of growth."
+
+"Oh, is that so?" cried Flossie. "Helen and I are not kids--distinctly
+_not_! I hope I know my way about a bit--and as for Helen," she added,
+with a wicked grin, knowing that the speech would annoy her sisters,
+"Helen can shoot, and rope steers, and break ponies to saddle, and all
+that. She told me so the other evening. Isn't that right, Cousin Helen?"
+
+"Why, your cousin must be quite a wonderful girl," said Miss Van Ramsden,
+one of the visitors, to Flossie. "Introduce me; won't you, Flossie?"
+
+Belle was furious; and Hortense would have been, too, only she was too
+languid to feel such an emotion. Flossie proceeded to introduce Helen to
+the three visitors--all of whom chanced to be young ladies whom Belle was
+striving her best to cultivate.
+
+And before Flossie and Helen had swallowed their tea, which Belle gave
+them ungraciously, Gregson announced a bevy of other girls, until quite a
+dozen gaily dressed and chattering misses were gathered before the fire.
+
+At first Helen had merely bowed to the girls to whom she was introduced.
+She had meant to drink her tea quietly and excuse herself. She did not
+wish now to display a rude manner before Belle's guests; but her oldest
+cousin seemed determined to rouse animosity in her soul.
+
+"Yes," she said, "Helen is paying us a little visit--a very brief one. She
+is not at all used to our ways. In fact, Indian squaws and what-do-you
+call-'ems--Greasers--are about all the people she sees out her way."
+
+"Is that so?" cried Miss Van Ramsden. "It must be a perfectly charming
+country. Come and sit down by me, Miss Morrell, and tell me about it."
+
+Indeed, at the moment, there was only one vacant chair handy, and that was
+beside Miss Van Ramsden. So Helen took it and immediately the young lady
+began to ask questions about Montana and the life Helen had lived there.
+
+Really, the young society woman was not offensive; the questions were
+kindly meant. But Helen saw that Belle was furious and she began to take a
+wicked delight in expatiating upon her home and her own outdoor
+accomplishments.
+
+When she told Miss Van Ramsden how she and her cowboy friends rode after
+jack-rabbits and roped them--if they could!--and shot antelope from the
+saddle, and that the boys sometimes attacked a mountain lion with nothing
+but their lariats, Miss Van Ramsden burst out with:
+
+"Why, that's perfectly grand! What fun you must have! Do hear her, girls!
+Why, what we do is tame and insipid beside things that happen out there in
+Montana every day."
+
+"Oh, don't bother about her, May!" cried Belle. "Come on and let's plan
+what we'll do Saturday if we go to the Nassau links."
+
+"Listen here!" cried Miss Van Ramsden, eagerly. "Golf can wait. We can
+always golf. But your cousin tells the very bulliest stories. Go on, Miss
+Morrell. Tell some more."
+
+"Do, do!" begged some of the other girls, drawing their chairs nearer.
+
+Helen was not a little embarrassed. She would have been glad to withdraw
+from the party. But then she saw the looks exchanged between Belle and
+Hortense, and they fathered a wicked desire in the Western girl's heart to
+give her proud cousins just what they were looking for.
+
+She began, almost unconsciously, to stretch her legs out in a mannish
+style, and drop into the drawl of the range.
+
+"Coyote running is about as good fun as we have," she told Miss Van
+Ramsden in answer to a question. "Yes, they're cowardly critters; but they
+can run like a streak o' greased lightning--yes-sir-ree-bob!" Then she
+began to laugh a little. "I remember once when I was a kid, that I got
+fooled about coyotes."
+
+"I'd like to know what you are now," drawled Hortense, trying to draw
+attention from her cousin, who was becoming altogether too popular. "And
+you should know that children are better seen than heard."
+
+"Let's see," said Helen, quickly, "our birthdays are in the same month;
+aren't they, 'Tense? I believe mother used to tell me so."
+
+"Oh, never mind your birthdays," urged Miss Van Ramsden, while some of the
+other girls smiled at the repartee. "Let's hear about your adventure with
+the coyote, Miss Morrell."
+
+"Why, ye see," said Helen, "it wasn't much. I was just a kid, as I
+say--mebbe ten year old. Dad had given me a light rifle--just a
+twenty-two, you know--to learn to shoot with. And Big Hen Billings----"
+
+"Doesn't that sound just like those dear Western plays?" gasped one young
+lady. "You know--'The Squaw Man of the Golden West,' or 'Missouri,'
+or----"
+
+"Hold on! You're getting your titles mixed, Lettie," cried Miss Van
+Ramsden. "Do let Miss Morrell tell it."
+
+"To give that child the center of the stage!" snapped Hortense, to Belle.
+
+"I could shake Flossie for bringing her in here," returned the oldest
+Starkweather girl, quite as angrily.
+
+"Tell us about your friend, Big Hen Billings," drawled another visitor.
+"He _does_ sound so romantic!"
+
+Helen almost giggled. To consider the giant foreman of Sunset Ranch a
+romantic type was certainly "going some." She had the wicked thought that
+she would have given a large sum of money, right then and there, to have
+had Big Hen announced by Gregson and ushered into the presence of this
+group of city girls.
+
+"Well," continued Helen, thus urged, "father had given me a little rifle
+and Big Hen gave me a maverick----"
+
+"What's that?" demanded Flossie.
+
+"Well, in this case," explained Helen, "it was an orphaned calf. Sometimes
+they're strays that haven't been branded. But in this case a bear had
+killed the calf's mother in a _coulée_. She had tried to fight Mr. Bear,
+of course, or he never would have killed her at that time of year. Bears
+aren't dangerous unless they're hungry."
+
+"My! but they look dangerous enough--at the zoo," observed Flossie.
+
+"I tell ye," said Helen, reflectively, "that was a pretty calf. And I was
+little, and I hated to hear them blat when the boys burned them----"
+
+"Burned them! Burned little calves! How cruel! What for?"
+
+These were some of the excited comments. And in spite of Belle and
+Hortense, most of the visitors were now interested in the Western girl's
+narration.
+
+"They have to brand 'em, you see," explained Helen. "Otherwise we never
+could pick our cattle out from other herds at the round-up. You see, on
+the ranges--even the fenced ranges--cattle from several ranches often get
+mixed up. Our brand is the Link-A. Our ranch was known, in the old days,
+as the 'Link-A.' It's only late years that we got to calling it Sunset
+Ranch."
+
+"Sunset Ranch!" cried Miss Van Ramsden, quickly. "Haven't I heard
+something about _that_ ranch? Isn't it one of the big, big cattle and
+horse-breeding ranches?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Helen, slowly, fearing that she had unwittingly got
+into a blind alley of conversation.
+
+"And your father owns _that_ ranch?" cried Miss Van Ramsden.
+
+"My--my father is dead," said Helen. "I am an orphan."
+
+"Oh, dear me! I am so sorry," murmured the wealthy young lady.
+
+But here Belle broke in, rather scornfully:
+
+"The child means that her father worked on that ranch. She has lived there
+all her life. Quite a rude place, I fawncy."
+
+Helen's eyes snapped. "Yes. He worked there," she admitted, which was true
+enough, for nobody could honestly have called Prince Morrell a sluggard.
+
+"He was--what you call it--a cowpuncher, I believe," whispered Belle, in
+an aside.
+
+If Helen heard she made no sign, but went on with her story.
+
+"You see, it was _such_ a pretty calf," she repeated. "It had big blue
+eyes at first--calves often do. And it was all sleek and brown, and it
+played so cunning. Of course, its mother being dead, I had a lot of
+trouble with it at first. I brought it up by hand.
+
+"And I tied a broad pink ribbon around its neck, with a big bow at the
+back. When it slipped around under its neck Bozie would somehow get the
+end of the ribbon in its mouth, and chew, and chew on it till it was
+nothing but pulp."
+
+She laughed reminiscently, and the others, watching her pretty face in the
+firelight, smiled too.
+
+"So you called it Bozie?" asked Miss Van Ramsden.
+
+"Yes. And it followed me everywhere. If I went out to try and shoot plover
+or whistlers with my little rifle, there was Bozie tagging after me. So,
+you see when it came calf-branding time, I hid Bozie."
+
+"You hid it? How?" demanded Flossie. "Seems to me a calf would be a big
+thing to hide."
+
+"I didn't hide it under my bed," laughed Helen. "No, sir! I took it out to
+a far distant _coulée_ where I used to go to play--a long way from the
+bunk-house--and I hitched Bozie to a stub of a tree where there was nice,
+short, sweet grass for him.
+
+"I hitched him in the morning, for the branding fires were going to be
+built right after dinner. But I had to show up at dinner--sure. The whole
+gang would have been out hunting me if I didn't report for meals."
+
+"Yes. I presume you ran perfectly wild," sighed Hortense, trying to look
+as though she were sorry for this half-savage little cousin from the "wild
+and woolly."
+
+"Oh, very wild indeed," drawled Helen. "And after dinner I raced back to
+the _coulée_ to see that Bozie was all right. I took my rifle along so the
+boys would think I'd gone hunting and wouldn't tell father.
+
+"I'd heard coyotes barking, as I thought, all the forenoon. And when I
+came to the hollow, there was Bozie running around and around his stub,
+and getting all tangled up, blatting his heart out, while two big old
+coyotes (or so I thought they were) circled around him.
+
+"They ran a little way when they saw me coming. Coyotes sometimes _will_
+kill calves. But I had never seen one before that wouldn't hunt the tall
+pines when they saw me coming.
+
+"Crackey, those two were big fellers! I'd seen big coyotes, but never none
+like them two gray fellers. And they snarled at me when I made out to
+chase 'em--me wavin' my arms and hollerin' like a Piute buck. I never had
+seen coyotes like them before, and it throwed a scare into me--it sure
+did!
+
+"And Bozie was so scared that he helped to scare me. I dropped my gun and
+started to untangle him. And when I got him loose he acted like all
+possessed!
+
+[Illustration: "LET'S HEAR ABOUT YOUR ADVENTURE WITH THE COYOTE,
+MISS MORRELL." (Page 180.)]
+
+"He wanted to run wild," proceeded Helen. "He yanked me over the ground at
+a great rate. And all the time those two gray fellers was sneakin' up
+behind me. Crackey, but I got scared!
+
+"A calf is awful strong--'specially when it's scared. You don't know! I
+had to leave go of either the rope, or the gun, and somehow," and Helen
+smiled suddenly into Miss Van Ramsden's face--who understood--"somehow I
+felt like I'd better hang onter the gun."
+
+"They weren't coyotes!" exclaimed Miss Van Ramsden.
+
+"No. They was wolves--real old, gray, timber-wolves. We hadn't been
+bothered by them for years. Two of 'em, working together, would pull down
+a full-grown cow, let alone a little bit of a calf and a little bit of a
+gal," said Helen.
+
+"O-o-o!" squealed the excited Flossie. "But they didn't?"
+
+"I'm here to tell the tale," returned her cousin, laughing outright.
+"Bozie broke away from me, and the wolves leaped after him--full chase. I
+knelt right down----"
+
+"And prayed!" gasped Flossie. "I should think you would!"
+
+"I _did_ pray--yes, ma'am! I prayed that the bullet would go true. But I
+knelt down to steady my aim," said Helen, chuckling again. "And I broke
+the back of one of them wolves with my first shot. That was wonderful
+luck--with a twenty-two rifle. The bullet's only a tiny thing.
+
+"But I bowled Mr. Wolf over, and then I ran after the other one and the
+blatting Bozie. Bozie dodged the wolf somehow and came circling back at
+me, his tail flirting in the air, coming in stiff-legged jumps as a calf
+does, and searching his soul for sounds to tell how scart he was!
+
+"I'd pushed another cartridge into my gun. But when Bozie came he bowled
+me over--flat on my back. Then the wolf made a leap, and I saw his
+light-gray underbody right over my head as he flashed after poor Bozie.
+
+"I jest let go with the gun! Crackey! I didn't have time to shoulder it,
+and it kicked and hit me in the nose and made my nose bleed awful. I was
+'all in,' too, and I thought the wolf was going to eat Bozie, and then
+mebbe _me_, and I set up to bawl so't Big Hen heard me farther than he
+could have heard my little rifle.
+
+"Big Hen was always expectin' me to get inter some kind of trouble, and he
+come tearin' along lookin' for me. And there I was, rolling in the grass
+an' bawling, the second wolf kicking his life out with the blood pumping
+from his chest, not three yards away from me, and Bozie streakin' it
+acrost the hill, his tail so stiff with fright you could ha' hung yer hat
+on it!"
+
+"Isn't that perfectly grand!" cried Miss Van Ramsden, seizing Helen by the
+shoulders when she had finished and kissing her on both cheeks. "And you
+only ten years old?"
+
+"But, you see," said Helen, more quietly, "we are brought up that way in
+Montana. We would die a thousand deaths if we were taught to be afraid of
+anything on four legs."
+
+"It must be an exceedingly crude country," remarked Hortense, her nose
+tip-tilted.
+
+"Shocking!" agreed Belle.
+
+"I'd like to go there," announced Flossie, suddenly. "I think it must be
+fine."
+
+"Quite right," agreed Miss Van Ramsden.
+
+The older Starkweather girls could not go against their most influential
+caller. They were only too glad to have the Van Ramsden girl come to see
+them. But while the group were discussing Helen's story, the girl from
+Sunset Ranch stole away and went up to her room.
+
+She had not meant to tell about her life in the West--not in just this
+way. She had tried to talk about as her cousins expected her to, when once
+she got into the story; but its effect upon the visitors had not been just
+what either the Starkweather girls, or Helen herself, had expected.
+
+She saw that she was much out of the good graces of Belle and Hortense at
+dinner; they hardly spoke to her. But Flossie seemed to delight in rubbing
+her sisters against the grain.
+
+"Oh, Pa," she cried, "when Helen goes home, let me go with her; will you?
+I'd just love to be on a ranch for a while--I know I should! And I _do_
+need a vacation."
+
+"Nonsense, Floss!" gasped Hortense.
+
+"You are a perfectly vulgar little thing," declared Belle. "I don't know
+where you get such low tastes."
+
+Mr. Starkweather looked at his youngest daughter in amazement. "How very
+ridiculous," he said. "Ahem! You do not know what you ask, Flossie."
+
+"Oh! I never can have anything I want," whined Miss Flossie. "And it must
+be great fun out on that ranch. You ought to hear Helen tell about it,
+Pa."
+
+"Ahem! I have no interest in such things," said her father, sternly. "Nor
+should you. No well conducted and well brought up girl would wish to live
+among such rude surroundings."
+
+"Very true, Pa," sighed Hortense, shrugging her shoulders.
+
+"You are a very common little thing, with very common tastes, Floss,"
+admonished her oldest sister.
+
+Now, all this was whipping Helen over Flossie's shoulders. The latter
+grinned wickedly; but Helen felt hurt. These people were determined to
+consider Sunset Ranch an utterly uncivilized place, and her associates
+there beneath contempt.
+
+The following morning she set out to find the address upon the letter Mr.
+Starkweather had given to her. Whether she should present this letter to
+Mr. Grimes at once, Helen was not sure. It might be that she would wish to
+get acquainted with him before he knew her identity. Her expectations were
+very vague, at best; and yet she had hope.
+
+She hoped that through this old-time partner of her father's she might
+pick up some clue to the truth about the lost money. The firm of Grimes &
+Morrell had been on the point of paying several heavy bills and notes. The
+money for this purpose, as well as the working capital of the firm, had
+been in two banks. Either partner could draw checks against these
+accounts.
+
+When the deposits in both banks had been withdrawn it had been done by
+checks for each complete balance being presented at the teller's window of
+both banks. And the tellers were quite sure that the person presenting the
+checks was Prince Morrell.
+
+In the rush of business, however, neither teller had been positive of
+this. Of course, it might have been the bookkeeper, or Mr. Grimes, who had
+got the money on the checks. However it might be, the money disappeared;
+there was none with which to pay the creditors or to continue the business
+of the firm.
+
+Fenwick Grimes had been a sufferer; Willets Starkweather had been a
+sufferer. What Allen Chesterton, the bookkeeper, had been, it was hard to
+say. He had walked out of the office of the firm and had never come back.
+Likewise after a few days of worry and disturbance, Prince Morrell had
+done the same.
+
+At least, the general public presumed that Mr. Morrell had run away
+without leaving any clue. It looked as though the senior partner and the
+bookkeeper were in league.
+
+But public interest in the mystery had soon died out. Only the creditors
+remembered. After ten years they were pleasantly reminded of the wreck of
+the firm of Grimes & Morrell by the receipt of their lost money, with
+interest compounded to date. The lawyer that had come on from the West to
+make the settlement for Prince Morrell bound the creditors to secrecy. The
+bankruptcy court had long since absolved Fenwick Grimes from
+responsibility for the debts of the old firm. Neither he nor Mr.
+Starkweather had to know that the partner who ran away had legally cleared
+his name.
+
+But there was something more. The suspicion against Prince Morrell had
+burdened the cattle king's mind and heart when he died. And his little
+daughter felt it to be her sacred duty to try, at least, to uncover that
+old mystery and to prove to the world that her father had been guiltless.
+
+Mr. Grimes lived in an old house in a rather shabby old street just off
+Washington Square. Helen asked Mr. Lawdor how to find the place, and she
+rode downtown upon a Fifth Avenue 'bus.
+
+The house was a half-business, half-studio building; and Mr. Grimes's
+name--graven on a small brass plate--was upon a door in the lower hall. In
+fact, Mr. Grimes, and his clerk, occupied this lower floor, the gentleman
+owning the building, which he was holding for a rise in real estate values
+in that neighborhood.
+
+The clerk, a sharp-looking young man with a pen behind his ear, answered
+Helen's somewhat timid knock. He looked her over severely before he even
+offered to admit her, asking:
+
+"What's your business, please?"
+
+"I came to see Mr. Grimes, sir."
+
+"By appointment?"
+
+"No-o, sir. But----"
+
+"He is very busy. He seldom sees anybody save by appointment. Are--are you
+acquainted with him?"
+
+"No, sir. But my business is important."
+
+"To you, perhaps," said the clerk, with a sneering smile. "But if it isn't
+important to _him_ I shall catch it for letting you in. What is it?"
+
+"It is business that I can tell to nobody except Mr. Grimes. Not in
+detail. But I can say this much: It concerns a time when Mr. Grimes was in
+business with another man--sixteen years or more ago and I have come--come
+from his old partner."
+
+"Humph!" said the clerk. "A begging interview? For, if so, take my
+advice--don't try it. It would be no use. Mr. Grimes never gives anything
+away. He wouldn't even bait a rat-trap with cheese-parings."
+
+"I have not come here to beg money of Mr. Grimes," said Helen, drawing
+herself up.
+
+"Well, you can come in and wait. Perhaps he'll see you."
+
+This had all been said very low in the public hall, the clerk holding the
+door jealously shut behind him. Now he opened it slowly and let her enter
+a large room, with old and dusty furniture set about it, and the clerk's
+own desk far back, by another door--which latter he guarded against all
+intrusion. Behind that door, of course, was the man she had come to see.
+
+But as Helen turned to take a seat on the couch which the clerk indicated
+with a gesture of his pen, she suddenly discovered that she was not the
+only person waiting in the room. In a decrepit armchair by one of the
+front windows, and reading the morning paper, with his wig pushed back
+upon his bald brow, was the queer old gentleman with whom she had ridden
+across the continent when she had come to New York.
+
+The discovery of this acquaintance here in Mr. Grimes's office gave Helen
+a distinct shock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+PROBING FOR FACTS
+
+
+Helen sat down quickly and stared across the room at the queer old man.
+The latter at first seemed to pay her no attention. But finally she saw
+that he was skillfully "taking stock" of her from behind the shelter of
+the printed sheet.
+
+The Western girl was more direct than that. She got up and walked across
+to him. The clerk uttered a very loud "Ahem!" as though to warn her to
+drop her intention; but Helen said coolly:
+
+"Don't you remember me, sir?"
+
+"Ha! I believe it _is_ the little girl who came from the coast with me
+last week," said the man.
+
+"Not from the coast; from Montana," corrected Helen.
+
+"But you are dressed differently now and I was not sure," he said. "How
+have you been?"
+
+"Very well, I thank you. And you, sir?"
+
+"Well. Very. But I did not expect to see you again--er--_here_."
+
+"No, sir. And you are waiting to see Mr. Grimes, too?"
+
+"Er--something like that," admitted the old man.
+
+Helen eyed him thoughtfully. She had already glanced covertly once or
+twice at the clerk across the room. She was quite bright enough to see
+between the rungs of a ladder.
+
+"_You_ are Mr. Grimes," she said, bluntly, looking again at the old man,
+who was adjusting his wig.
+
+He looked up at her slily, his avaricious little eyes twinkling as they
+had aboard the train when he had looked over her shoulder and caught her
+counting her money.
+
+"You're a very smart little girl," he said, with a short laugh. "What have
+you come to see me about? Do you think of investing some of your money in
+mining stocks?"
+
+"No," said Helen. "I have no money to invest."
+
+"Humph. Did you find your folks?" he asked, turning the subject quickly.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What's the matter with you, then? What do you want?"
+
+"You _are_ Mr. Grimes?" she pursued, to make sure.
+
+"Well, I don't deny it."
+
+"I have come to talk to you about--about Prince Morrell," she said, in a
+very low voice so that the clerk could not hear.
+
+"_Who_?" gasped the man, falling back in his chair. Evidently Helen had
+startled him.
+
+"Prince Morrell," she replied.
+
+"What are you to Prince Morrell?" demanded the man.
+
+"I am his daughter. He is dead. I have come here to talk with you about
+the time--the time he left New York," said the girl from Sunset Ranch,
+hesitatingly.
+
+Mr. Grimes stared at her, with his wig still awry, for some moments; then
+the color began to come back into his face. Helen had not realized before
+that he had turned pale.
+
+"You come into my office," he snapped, jumping up briskly. "I'll get to
+the bottom of this!"
+
+His movements were so very abrupt and he looked at her so strangely that,
+to tell the truth, the girl from Sunset Ranch was a bit frightened. She
+trailed along behind him, however, with only a hesitating step, passing
+the wondering clerk, and heard the lock of the door of the inner office
+snap behind her as Mr. Grimes shut it.
+
+He drew heavy curtains over the door, too. The place was a gloomy
+apartment until he turned on the electric light over a desk table. She saw
+that there were curtains at all the windows, and at the other door, too.
+
+"Come here," he said, beckoning her to the desk, and to a chair that stood
+by it, and still speaking softly. "We will not be overheard here. Now!
+Tell me what you mean by coming to me in this way?"
+
+He shot such an ugly look at her that Helen was again startled.
+
+"What do _you_ mean?" she returned, hiding her real emotion. "I have come
+to ask some questions. Why shouldn't I?"
+
+"You say Prince Morrell is dead?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Nearly two months, now."
+
+"Who sent you, then?"
+
+"Sent me to you?" queried Helen, in wonder.
+
+"Yes. Somebody must have sent you," said Mr. Grimes, watching her with his
+little eyes, in which there seemed to burn a very baleful look.
+
+"You are mistaken. Nobody sent me," said Helen, recovering a measure of
+her courage. She believed that this strange man was a coward. But why
+should he be afraid of her?
+
+"You came clear across this continent to interview me about--about
+something that is gone and forgotten--almost before you were born?"
+
+"It isn't forgotten," returned Helen, meaningly. "Such things are never
+forgotten. My father said so."
+
+"But it's no use hauling everything to the surface of the pool again,"
+grumbled Mr. Grimes.
+
+"That is about what Uncle Starkweather says; but I do not feel that way,"
+said Helen, slowly.
+
+"Ha! Starkweather! Of course he's in it. I might have known," muttered the
+old man. "So _he_ sent you to me?"
+
+"No, sir. He objected to my coming," declared Helen, quite convinced now
+that she should not deliver her uncle's letter.
+
+"The Starkweathers are the people you came East to visit?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And how did _they_ receive you in their fine Madison Avenue mansion?"
+queried Mr. Grimes, looking up at her slily again.
+
+"Just as you know they did," returned Helen, briefly.
+
+"Ha! How's that? And you with all that----"
+
+He halted and--for a moment--had the grace to blush. He saw that she read
+his mind.
+
+"They do not know that I have some money for emergencies," said Helen,
+coolly.
+
+"Ho, ho!" chuckled Mr. Grimes, suddenly.
+
+"So they consider you a pauper relative from the West?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Ho, ho!" he laughed again, and rubbed his hands. "How _did_ Prince leave
+you fixed?"
+
+"I--I have something beside the money you saw me counting," she told him,
+bluntly.
+
+"And Willets Starkweather doesn't know it?"
+
+"He has never asked me if I were in funds."
+
+"I bet you!" cackled Grimes, at last giving way to a spasm of mirth which,
+Helen thought, was not nice to look upon. "And how does he fancy having
+you in his family?"
+
+"He does not like it. Neither do his daughters. And one of their reasons
+is because people will ask questions about Prince Morrell's daughter. They
+are afraid their friends will bring up father's old trouble," continued
+Helen, her voice quivering. "So that is why, Mr. Grime's, I am determined
+to know the truth about it."
+
+"The truth? What do you mean?" snarled Grimes, suddenly starting out of
+his chair.
+
+"Why, sir," said Helen, amazed, "dad told me all about it when he was
+dying. All he knew. But he said by this time surely the truth of the
+matter must have come to light. I want to clear his name----"
+
+"How are you going to do _that_?" demanded Mr. Grimes.
+
+"I hope you will help me--if you can, sir," she said, pleadingly.
+
+"How can I help more now than I could at the time he was charged with the
+crime?"
+
+"I do not know. Perhaps you can't. Perhaps Uncle Starkweather cannot,
+either. But, it seems to me, if anything had been heard from that
+bookkeeper----"
+
+"Allen Chesterton?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well! I don't know how you are going to prove it, but I have always
+believed Allen was guilty," declared Mr. Grimes, nodding his head
+vigorously, and still watching her face.
+
+"Oh, have you, Mr. Grimes?" cried the girl, eagerly, clasping her hands.
+"You have _always_ believed it?"
+
+"Quite so. Evidence was against my old partner--yes. But it wasn't very
+direct. And then--what became of Allen? Why did he run away?"
+
+"That is what other people said about father," said Helen, doubtfully. "It
+did not make him guilty, but it made him _look_ guilty. The same can be
+said of the bookkeeper."
+
+"But how can you go farther than that?" asked Mr. Grimes. "It's too long
+ago for the facts to be brought out. We can have our suspicions. We might
+even publish our suspicions. Let us get something in the papers--I can do
+it," and he nodded, decisively, "stating that facts recently brought to
+light seemed to prove conclusively that Prince Morrell, once accused of
+embezzlement of the bank accounts of the firm of Grimes & Morrell, was
+guiltless of that crime. And we will state that the surviving partner of
+the firm is convinced that the only person guilty of that embezzlement was
+one Allen Chesterton, who was the firm's bookkeeper. How about _that_?
+Wouldn't that fill the bill?" asked Mr. Grimes, rubbing his hands
+together.
+
+"If we had such an article published in the papers and circulated among
+his old friends, wouldn't that satisfy you, my dear? Then you would do no
+more of this foolish probing for facts that cannot possibly be
+reached--eh? What do you say, Helen Morrell? Isn't that a famous idea?"
+
+But the girl from Sunset Ranch was, for the moment, speechless. For a
+second time, it seemed to her, she was being bribed to make no serious
+investigation of the evidence connected with her father's old trouble.
+Both Uncle Starkweather and this old man seemed to desire to head her
+off!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+"JONES"
+
+
+"Isn't that a famous idea?" demanded Mr. Grimes, for the second time.
+
+"I--I am not so sure, sir," Helen stammered.
+
+"Why, of course it is!" he cried, smiting the desk before him with the
+flat of his palm. "Don't you see that your father's name will be cleared
+of all doubt? And quite right, too! He never _was_ guilty."
+
+"It makes me quite happy to hear you say so," said the girl, wiping her
+eyes. "But how about the bookkeeper?"
+
+"Who--Allen?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, we couldn't find him now. If he kept hidden then, when there was a
+hue and cry out for him, what chance would there be of finding him after
+seventeen years? Oh, no! Allen can't be found. And, even if he could, I
+doubt but the thing is outlawed. I don't know that the authorities would
+take it up. And I am pretty sure the creditors of the old firm would
+not."
+
+"That is not what I mean," said Helen, softly. "But suppose we accuse this
+bookkeeper--_and he is not guilty, either_?"
+
+"Well! Is that any great odds? Nobody knows where he is----"
+
+"But suppose he should reappear," persisted Helen. "Suppose somebody who
+loved him--a daughter, perhaps, as I am the daughter of Prince
+Morrell--with just as great a desire to clear her father's name as I have
+to clear mine---- Suppose such a person should appear determined to prove
+Mr. Chesterton not guilty, too?"
+
+"Ha, but we've beat 'em to it--don't you see?" demanded Mr. Grimes,
+heartlessly.
+
+"Oh, sir! I could not take such an apparent victory at such a cost!" cried
+Helen, wiping her eyes again. "You say you _believe_ Allen Chesterton was
+guilty instead of father. But you put forward no evidence--no more than
+the mere suspicion that cursed poor dad. No, no, sir! To claim new
+evidence, but to show no new evidence, is not enough. I must find out for
+sure just who stole that money. That is what dad himself said would be the
+only way in which his name could be cleared."
+
+"Nonsense, girl!" ejaculated Fenwick Grimes, scowling again.
+
+"I am sorry to go against both your wishes and Uncle Starkweather's," said
+Helen, slowly. "But I want the truth! I can't be satisfied with anything
+but the truth about this whole unfortunate business.
+
+"It made poor dad very unhappy when he was dying. It troubled my poor
+mother--so _he_ said--all her life out there in Montana. I want to know
+where the money went--who got it--all about it. Then I can prove to people
+that it was not _my_ father who committed the crime."
+
+"This is a very quixotic thing you have undertaken, my girl," remarked Mr.
+Grimes, with a sudden change in his manner.
+
+"I hope not. I hope I shall learn the truth."
+
+"How?"
+
+He shot the question at her as from a gun. His face had grown very grim
+and his sly little eyes gleamed threateningly. More than ever did Helen
+dislike and fear this man. The avaricious light in his eyes as he noted
+the money she carried on the train, had first warned her against him. Now,
+when she knew so much more about him, and how he was immediately connected
+with her father's old trouble, Helen feared him all the more.
+
+Because of his love of money alone, she could not trust him. And he had
+suggested something which was, upon the face of it, dishonest and unfair.
+She rose from her seat and shook her head slowly.
+
+"I do not know how," Helen said, sadly. "But I hope something may turn up
+to help me. I understand that you have never known anything about Allen
+Chesterton since he ran away?"
+
+"Not a thing," declared Mr. Grimes, shortly, rising as well.
+
+"It is through him I hoped to find the truth," she murmured.
+
+"So you won't accept my help?" growled Mr. Grimes.
+
+"Not--not the kind you offer. It--it wouldn't be right," Helen replied.
+
+"Very well, then!" snapped the man, and opened the door into the outer
+office. As he ushered her into the other room the outer door opened and a
+shabby man poked his head and shoulders in at the door.
+
+"I say!" he said, quaveringly. "Is Mr. Grimes----"
+
+"Get out of here, you old ruffian!" cried Fenwick Grimes, flying into a
+sudden passion. "Of course, you'd got to come around to-day!"
+
+"I only wanted to say, Mr. Grimes----"
+
+"Out of my sight!" roared Grimes. "Here, Leggett!" to his clerk; "give
+Jones a dollar and let him go. I can't see him now."
+
+"Jones, sir?" queried the clerk, seemingly somewhat staggered, and looking
+from his employer to the old scarecrow in the doorway.
+
+"Yes, sir!" snarled Mr. Grimes. "I said Jones, sir--Jones, Jones, Jones!
+Do you understand plain English, Mr. Leggett? Take that dollar on the desk
+and give it into the hands of _Jones_ there at the door. And then oblige
+me by kicking him down the steps if he doesn't move fast enough."
+
+Leggett moved rapidly himself after this. He seemed to catch his
+employer's real meaning, and he grabbed the dollar and chased the beggar
+out into the hall. Grimes, meanwhile, held Helen back a bit. But he had
+nothing of any consequence to say.
+
+Finally she bade him good-morning and went out of the office. She had not
+given him Uncle Starkweather's letter. Somehow, she thought it best not to
+do so. If she had been doubtful of the sincerity of her uncle when she
+broached the subject nearest her heart, she had been much more suspicious
+of Fenwick Grimes.
+
+She walked composedly enough out of the building; but it was hard work to
+keep back the tears. It _did_ seem such a great task for a mere girl to
+attempt! And nobody would help her. She had nobody in whom to
+confide--nobody with whom she might discuss the mystery.
+
+And when she told herself this her mind naturally flashed to the only real
+friend she had made in New York--Sadie Goronsky. Helen had looked up a map
+of the city the evening before in her uncle's library, and she had marked
+the streets intervening between this place where she had interviewed her
+father's old partner, and Madison Street on the East Side.
+
+She had ridden downtown to Washington Arch; so she felt equal to the walk
+across town and down the Bowery to the busy street where Sadie plied her
+peculiar trade.
+
+She crossed the Square and went through West Broadway to Bleecker Street
+and turned east on that busy and interesting thoroughfare. Suddenly, right
+ahead of her, she beheld the shabby brown hat and wrinkled coat of the old
+man who had stuck his head in at the door of Mr. Grimes's office, and so
+disturbed the equilibrium of that individual.
+
+Here was "Jones." At first Helen thought him to be under the influence of
+drink. Then she saw that the man's erratic actions must be the result of
+some physical or mental disability.
+
+The old man could not walk in a straight line; but he tacked from one side
+of the walk to the other, taking long "slants" across the walk, first
+touching the iron balustrade of a step on one hand, and then bringing up
+at a post on the edge of the curb.
+
+He seemed to mutter all the time to himself, too; but what he said, or
+whether it was sense, or nonsense, Helen (although she walked near him)
+could not make out. She did not wish to offend the old man; yet he seemed
+so helpless and peculiar that for several blocks she trailed him (as he
+seemed to be going her way), fearing that he would get into some trouble.
+
+At the busy crossings Helen was really worried. The man first started,
+then dodged back, scouted up and down the way, seemed undecided, looked
+all around as though for help, and then, at the very worst time, when the
+vehicles in the street were the most numerous, he darted across, escaping
+death and destruction half a dozen times between curb and curb.
+
+But somehow the angel that directs the destinies of foolish people who
+cross busy city streets, shielded him from harm, and Helen finally lost
+him as he turned down one of the main stems of the town while she kept on
+into the heart of the East Side.
+
+And to Helen Morrell, the very "heart of the East Side" was right in the
+Goronsky flat on Madison Street. She had been comparing that home at the
+same number on Madison Street with that her uncle's house boasted on
+Madison Avenue, with the latter mansion. The Goronsky tenement was a
+_home_, for love and contentment dwelt there; the stately Starkweather
+dwelling housed too many warring factions to be a real home.
+
+Helen came, at length, to Madison Street. She had timed her coming so as
+to reach Jacob Finkelstein's shop just about the time Sadie would be going
+to dinner.
+
+"Miss Helen! Ain't I glad to see you?" cried Sadie. "Is there anything the
+matter with the dress, yet?"
+
+"No, Miss Sadie. I was downtown and thought I would ask you to go to
+dinner with me. I went with you yesterday."
+
+"O-oo my! I don't know," said Sadie, shaking her head. "I bet you'd like
+to come home with me instead--no?"
+
+"I would like to. But it would not be right for me to accept your
+hospitality and never return it," said Helen.
+
+"Chee! you must 'a' had a legacy," laughed Sadie.
+
+"I--I have a little more money than I had yesterday," admitted Helen,
+which was true, for she had taken some out of the wallet in the trunk
+before she left her uncle's house.
+
+"Well, when you swells feel like spendin' there ain't no stoppin' youse, I
+suppose," declared Sadie. "Do you wanter fly real high?"
+
+"I guess we can afford a real nice dinner," said Helen, smiling.
+
+"Are you good for as high as thirty-fi' cents apiece?" demanded Sadie.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Chee! Then I can take you to a stylish place where we can get a swell
+feed at noon, for that. It's up on Grand Street. All the buyers and
+department store heads go there with the wholesale salesmen for lunch.
+Wait till I git me hat!" and away Sadie shot, up the tenement house
+stairs, so fast that her little feet, bound by the tight skirt she wore,
+seemed fairly to twinkle.
+
+Helen had but a few moments to wait on the sidewalk; yet within that short
+time something happened to change the entire current of the day's
+adventures. She heard some boys shouting from the direction of the Bowery;
+there was a crowd crossing the street diagonally; she watched it with some
+apprehension at first, for it came right along the sidewalk toward her.
+
+"Hi, fellers! See de Lurcher! Here comes de Lurcher!" yelled one ribald
+youth, who leaped on the stoop to which Helen had retreated the better to
+see over the heads of the crowd at the person who was the core of it.
+
+And then Helen, in no little amazement, saw that this individual was none
+other than the man whom she had seen driven out of Fenwick Grimes's
+office. A gang of hoodlums surrounded him. They jeered at him, tore at his
+ragged clothes, hooted, and otherwise nagged the poor old fellow.
+
+At every halt he made they pressed closer upon the "Lurcher." It was easy
+to see why he had been given that name. He was probably an old inhabitant
+of the neighborhood, and his lurching from side to side of the walk had
+suggested the nickname to some local wit.
+
+Just as he steered for the rail of the step on which Helen stood, half
+fearful, and reached it, Sadie Goronsky came bounding out of the house.
+Instantly she took a hand--and as usual a master hand--in the affair.
+
+"What you doin' to that old man, you Izzy Strefonifsky? And, Freddie
+Bloom, you stop or I'll tell your mommer! Ike, let him alone, or I'll make
+your ears tingle myself--I can do it, too!"
+
+Sadie charged as she commanded. The hoodlums scattered--some laughing,
+some not so easily intimidated. But the old man was clinging to the rail
+and muttering over and over to himself:
+
+"They got my dollar--they got my dollar."
+
+"What's that?" cried Sadie, coming back after chasing the last of the boys
+off the block. "What's the matter, Mr. Lurcher?"
+
+"My dollar--they got my dollar," muttered the old man.
+
+"Oh, dear!" whispered Helen. "And perhaps it was all he had."
+
+"You can bet it was," said Sadie, angrily. "The likes of him wouldn't
+likely have _two_ dollars all at once! I'd like to scalp those imps! That
+I would!"
+
+The old man, paying little attention to the two girls, but still muttering
+about his loss, lurched away on his erratic course homeward.
+
+"Chee!" said Sadie. "Ain't that tough luck? He lives right around the
+corner, all alone. And he's just as poor as he can be. I don't know what
+his real name is. But the boys guy him sumpin' fierce! Ain't it mean?"
+
+"It certainly is," agreed Helen.
+
+"Say!" said Sadie, abruptly, but looking at Helen with sheepish eye.
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"Say, was yer _honest_ goin' to blow seventy cents for that feed I spoke
+of up on Grand Street?"
+
+"Certainly. And I----"
+
+"And a dime to the waiter?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"That's eighty cents," ran on Sadie, glibly enough now. "And twenty would
+make a dollar. I'll dig up the twenty cents to put with your eighty, and
+what d'ye say we run after old Lurcher an' give him a dollar--say we found
+it, you know--and then go upstairs to my house for dinner? Mommer's got a
+nice dinner, and she'd like to see you again fine!"
+
+"I'll do it!" cried Helen, pulling out her purse at once. "Here! Here's a
+dollar bill. You run after him and give it to him. You can give me the
+twenty cents later."
+
+"Sure!" cried the Russian girl, and she was off around the corner in the
+wake of the Lurcher, with flying feet.
+
+Helen waited for her friend to return, just inside the tenement house
+door. When Sadie reappeared, Helen hugged her tight and kissed her.
+
+"You are a _dear_!" the Western girl cried. "I do love you, Sadie!"
+
+"Aw, chee! That ain't nothin'," objected the East Side girl. "We poor
+folks has gotter help each other."
+
+So Helen would not spoil the little sacrifice by acknowledging to more
+money, and they climbed the stairs again to the Goronsky tenement. The
+girl from Sunset Ranch was glad--oh, so glad!--of this incident. Chilled
+as she had been by the selfishness in her uncle's Madison Avenue mansion,
+she was glad to have her heart warmed down here among the poor of Madison
+Street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+OUT OF STEP WITH THE TIMES
+
+
+"No," Sadie told Helen, afterward, "I am very sure that poor Lurcher man
+doesn't drink. Some says he does; but you never notice it on him. It's
+just his eyes."
+
+"His eyes?" queried Helen, wonderingly.
+
+"Yes. He's sort of blind. His eyelids keep fluttering all the time. He
+can't control them. And, if you notice, he usually lifts up the lid of one
+eye with his finger before he makes one of his base-runs for the next
+post. Chee! I'd hate to be like that."
+
+"The poor old man! And can nothing be done for it?"
+
+"Plenty, I reckon. But who's goin' to pay for it? Not him--he ain't got it
+to pay. We all has our troubles down here, Helen."
+
+The girls had come down from the home of Sadie again, and Helen was
+preparing to leave her friend.
+
+"Aren't there places to go in the city to have one's eyes examined? Free
+hospitals, I mean?"
+
+"Sure! And they got Lurcher to one, once. But all they give him was a
+prescription for glasses, and it would cost a lot to get 'em. So it didn't
+do him no good."
+
+Helen looked at Sadie suddenly. "How much would it take for the glasses?"
+she asked.
+
+"I dunno. Ten dollars, mebbe."
+
+"And do you s'pose he could have that prescription now?" asked Helen,
+eagerly.
+
+"Mebbe. But why for?"
+
+"Perhaps I could--could get somebody uptown interested in his case who is
+able to pay for the spectacles."
+
+"Chee, that would be bully!" cried Sadie.
+
+"Will you find out about the prescription?"
+
+"Sure I will," declared Sadie. "Nex' time you come down here, Helen, I'll
+know all about it. And if you can get one of them rich ladies up there to
+pay for 'em--Well! it would beat goin' to a swell restaurant for a
+feed--eh?" and she laughed, hugged the Western girl, and then darted
+across the sidewalk to intercept a possible customer who was loitering
+past the row of garments displayed in front of the Finkelstein shop.
+
+But Helen did not get downtown again as soon as she expected. When she
+awoke the next morning there had set in a steady drizzle--cold and
+raw--and the panes of her windows were so murky that she could not see
+even the chimneys and roofs, or down into the barren little yards.
+
+This--nor a much heavier--rain would not have ordinarily balked Helen. She
+was used to being out in all winds and weathers. But she actually had
+nothing fit to wear in the rain.
+
+If she had worn the new cheap dress out of doors she knew what would
+happen. It would shrink all out of shape. And she had no raincoat, nor
+would she ask her cousins--so she told herself--for the loan of an
+umbrella.
+
+So, as long as it rained steadily, it looked as though the girl from
+Sunset Ranch was a sure-enough "shut-in." Nor did she contemplate this
+possibility with any pleasure.
+
+There was nothing for her to do but read. And one cannot read all the
+time. She had no "fancy-work" with which to keep her hands and mind busy.
+She wondered what her cousins did on such days. She found out by keeping
+her ears and eyes open. After breakfast Belle went shopping in the
+limousine. There was an early luncheon and all three of the Starkweather
+girls went to a matinée. In neither case was Helen invited to go--no,
+indeed! She was treated as though she were not even in the house. Seldom
+did either of the older girls speak to her.
+
+"I might as well be a ghost," thought Helen.
+
+And this reminded her of the little old lady who paced the ghost-walk
+every night--the ex-nurse, Mary Boyle. She had thought of going to see her
+on the top floor before; but she had not been able to pluck up the
+courage.
+
+Now that her cousins were gone from the house, however, and Mrs. Olstrom
+was taking a nap in her room, and Mr. Lawdor was out of the way, and all
+the under-servants mildly celebrating the free afternoon below stairs,
+Helen determined to venture out of her own room, along the main passage of
+the top floor, to the door which she believed must give upon the front
+suite of rooms which the little old lady occupied.
+
+She knocked, but there was no response. Nor could she hear any sound from
+within. It struck Helen that the principal cruelty of the Starkweathers'
+treatment of this old soul was her being shut away alone up here at the
+top of the house--too far away from the rest of its occupants for a cry to
+be heard if the old lady should be in trouble.
+
+"If they shut up a dog like this, he would howl and thus attract attention
+to his state," muttered Helen. "But here is a human being----"
+
+She tried the door. The latch clicked and the door swung open. Helen
+stepped into a narrow, hall-like room, well furnished with old-fashioned
+furniture (probably brought from below stairs when Mr. Starkweather
+re-decorated the mansion) with one window in it. The door which evidently
+gave upon the remainder of the suite was closed.
+
+As Helen listened, however, from behind this closed door came a cheerful,
+cracked voice--the same voice she had heard whispering the lullaby in the
+middle of the night. But now it was tuning up on an old-time ballad, very
+popular in its day:
+
+                "Wait till the clouds roll by, Jennie--
+                Wait till the clouds roll by!
+                Jennie, my own true loved one--
+                Wait till the clouds roll by."
+
+"She doesn't sound like a hopeless prisoner," thought Helen, with
+surprise.
+
+She waited a minute longer and, as the thin yet still sweet voice stopped,
+Helen knocked timidly on the inner door. Immediately the voice said, "Come
+in, deary. 'Tis not for the likes of you to be knockin' at old Mary's
+door. Come in!"
+
+Helen turned the knob slowly and went into the room. The moment she
+crossed the threshold she forgot the clouds and rain and gloominess which
+had depressed her. Indeed, it seemed as though the sun must be ever
+shining into this room, high up under the roof of the Starkweather
+mansion.
+
+In the first place, it was most cheerfully papered and painted. There were
+pretty, simple, yellow and white hangings. The heavier pieces of old
+furniture had gay "tidies" or "throws" upon them to relieve the sombreness
+of the dark wood. The pictures on the walls were all in white or gold
+frames, and were of a cheerful nature--mostly pictures of childhood, or
+pictures which would amuse children. Evidently much of the furnishings of
+the old nursery had been brought up here to Mary Boyle's sitting-room.
+
+Helen had a glimpse, through a half-open door, of the bedroom--quite as
+bright and pretty. There was a little stove set up here, and a fire burned
+in it. It was one of those stoves that have isinglass all around it so
+that the fire can be seen when it burns red. It added mightily to the
+cheerful tone of the room.
+
+How neat everything appeared! Yet the very neatest thing in sight was the
+little old lady herself, sitting in a green-painted rocker, with a low
+sewing-table at her side, wooden needles clicking fast in her fleecy
+knitting.
+
+She looked up at Helen with a little, bird-like motion--her head a bit on
+one side and her glance quizzical. This, it proved, was typical of Mary
+Boyle.
+
+"Deary, deary me!" she said. "You're a _new_ girl. And what do you want
+Mary to do for you?"
+
+"I--I thought I'd come and make you a little call," said Helen, timidly.
+
+This wasn't at all as she expected to find the shut-in! Instead of gloom,
+and tears, and the weakness of age, here were displayed all the opposite
+emotions and qualities. The woman who was forgotten did not appear to be
+an object of pity at all. She merely seemed out of step with the times.
+
+"I'm sure you're very welcome, deary," said the old nurse. "Draw up the
+little rocker yonder. I always keep it for young company," and Mary Boyle,
+who had had no young company up here for ten or a dozen years, spoke as
+though the appearance of a youthful face and form was of daily
+occurrence.
+
+"You see," spoke Helen, more confidently, "we are neighbors on this top
+floor."
+
+"Neighbors; air we?"
+
+"I live up here, too. The family have tucked me away out of sight."
+
+"Hush!" said the little old woman. "We shouldn't criticise our bethers.
+No, no! And this is a very cheerful par-r-rt of the house, so it is."
+
+"But it must be awful," exclaimed Helen, "to have to stay in it all the
+time!"
+
+"I don't have to stay in it all the time," replied the nurse, quickly.
+
+"No, ma'am. I hear you in the night going downstairs and walking in the
+corridor," Helen said, softly.
+
+The wrinkled old face blushed very prettily, and Mary Boyle looked at her
+visitor doubtfully.
+
+"Sure, 'tis such a comfort for an old body like me," she said, at last,
+"to make believe."
+
+"Make believe?" cried Helen, with a smile. "Why, _I'm_ not old, and I love
+to make believe."
+
+"Ah, yis! But there is a differ bechune the make-believes of the young and
+the make-believes of the old. _You_ are playin' you're grown up, or
+dramin' of what's comin' to you in th' future--sure, I know! I've had them
+drames, too, in me day.
+
+"But with old folks 'tis different. We do be har-r-rking back instead of
+lookin' for'ard. And with me, it's thinkin' of the babies I've held in me
+ar-r-rms, and rocked on me knee, and walked the flure wid when they was
+ailin'--An' sure the babies of _this_ house was always ailin', poor little
+things."
+
+"They were a great trouble to you, then?" asked Helen, softly.
+
+"Trouble, is it?" cried Mary Boyle, her eyes shining again. "Sure, how
+could a blessid infant be a trouble? 'Tis a means of grace they be to the
+hear-r-rt--I nade no preacher to tell me that, deary. I found thim so. And
+they loved me and was happy wid me," she added, cheerfully.
+
+"The folks below think me a little quare in me head," she confided to her
+visitor. "But they don't understand. To walk up and down the nursery
+corridor late at night relaves the ache here," and she put her little,
+mitted hand upon her heart. "Ye see, I trod that path so often--so
+often----"
+
+Her voice trailed off and she fell silent, gazing into the glow of the
+fire in the stove. But there was a smile on her lips. The past was no time
+to weep over. This cheerful body saw only the bright spots in her long,
+long life.
+
+Helen loved to hear her talk. And soon she and Mary Boyle were very well
+acquainted. One thing about the old nurse Helen liked immensely. She asked
+no questions. She accepted Helen's visit as a matter of course; yet she
+showed very plainly that she was glad to have a young face before her.
+
+But the girl from Sunset Ranch did not know how Mrs. Olstrom might view
+her making friends with the old lady; so she made her visit brief. But she
+promised to come again and bring a book to read to Mary Boyle.
+
+"Radin' is a great accomplishment, deary," declared the old woman. "I
+niver seemed able to masther it--although me mistress oft tried to tache
+me. But, sure, there was so much to l'arn about babies, that ain't printed
+in no book, that I was always radin' them an' niver missed the book
+eddication till I come to be old. But th' foine poethry me mistress useter
+be radin' me! Sure, 'twould almost put a body to slape, so swate and grand
+it was."
+
+So, Helen searched out a book of poems downstairs, and the next forenoon
+she ventured into the front suite again, and read ta Mary Boyle for an
+hour. The storm lasted several days, and each day the girl from the West
+spent more and more time with the little old woman.
+
+But this was all unsuspected by Uncle Starkweather and the three girls. If
+Mrs. Olstrom knew she said nothing. At least, she timed her own daily
+visits to the little old woman so that she would not meet Helen in the
+rooms devoted to old Mary's comfort.
+
+Nor were Helen's visits continued solely because she pitied Mary Boyle.
+How could she continue to pity one who did not pity herself?
+
+No. Helen received more than she gave in this strange friendship. Seeking
+to amuse the old nurse, she herself gained such an uplift of heart and
+mind that it began to counteract that spirit of sullenness that had
+entered into the Western girl when she had first come to this house and
+had been received so unkindly by her relatives.
+
+Instead of hating them, she began to pity them. How much Uncle
+Starkweather was missing by being so utterly selfish! How much the girls
+were missing by being self-centred!
+
+Why, see it right here in Mary Boyle's case! Nobody could associate with
+the delightful little old woman without gaining good from the association.
+Instead of being friends with the old nurse, and loving her and being
+loved by her, the Starkweather girls tucked her away in the attic and
+tried to ignore her existence.
+
+"They don't know what they're missing--poor things!" murmured Helen,
+thinking the situation over.
+
+And from that time her own attitude changed toward her cousins. She began
+to look out for chances to help them, instead of making herself more and
+more objectionable to Belle, Hortense, and Flossie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+BREAKING THE ICE
+
+
+As for Floss, Helen had already got a hold upon that young lady.
+
+"Come on, Helen!" the younger cousin would whisper after dinner. "Come up
+to my room and give me a start on these lessons; will you? That's a good
+chap."
+
+And often when the rest of the family thought the unwelcome visitor had
+retired to her room at the top of the house, she was shut in with Flossie,
+trying to guide the stumbling feet of that rather dull girl over the hard
+places in her various studies.
+
+For Floss had soon discovered that the girl from Sunset Ranch somehow had
+a wonderful insight into every problem she put up to her. Nor were they
+all in algebra.
+
+"I don't see how you managed to do it, 'way out there in that wild place
+you lived in; but you must have gone through 'most all the text-books I
+have," declared Flossie, once.
+
+"Oh, I had to grab every chance there was for schooling," Helen responded,
+and changed the subject instantly.
+
+Flossie thought she had a secret from her sisters, however, and she hugged
+it to her with much glee. She realized that Helen was by no means the
+ignoramus Belle and Hortense said.
+
+"And let 'em keep on thinking it," Flossie said, to herself, with a
+chuckle. "I don't know what Helen has got up her sleeve; but I believe she
+is fooling all of us."
+
+A long, dreary fortnight of inclement weather finally got on the nerves of
+Hortense. Belle could go out tramping in it, or cab-riding, or what-not.
+She was athletic, and loved exercise in the open air, no matter what the
+weather might be. But the second sister was just like a pussy-cat; she
+loved comfort and the warm corners. However, being left alone by Belle,
+and nobody coming in to call for several days, Hortense was completely
+overpowered by loneliness.
+
+She had nothing within herself to fight off nervousness and depression.
+So, having caught a little, sniffly cold, she decided that she was sick
+and went to bed.
+
+The Starkweather girls did not each have a maid. Mr. Starkweather could
+not afford that luxury. But Hortense at once requisitioned one of the
+housemaids to wait upon her and of course Mrs. Olstrom's very
+carefully-thought-out system was immediately turned topsy-turvy.
+
+"I cannot allow you, Miss, to have the services of Maggie all day long,"
+Helen heard the housekeeper announce at the door of the invalid's room.
+"We are not prepared to do double work in this house. You must either
+speak to your father and have a nurse brought in, or wait upon yourself."
+
+"Oh, you heartless, wicked thing!" cried Hortense. "How can you be so
+cruel? I couldn't wait upon myself. I want my broth. And I want my hair
+done. And you can see yourself how the room is all in a mess. And----"
+
+"Maggie must do her parlor work to-day. You know that. If you want to be
+waited upon, Miss, get your sister to do it," concluded the housekeeper,
+and marched away.
+
+"And she very well knows that Belle has gone out somewhere and Flossie is
+at school. I could _die_ here, and nobody would care," wailed Hortense.
+
+Helen walked into the richly furnished room. Hortense was crying into her
+pillow. Her hair was still in two unkempt braids and she _did_ need a
+fresh boudoir cap and gown.
+
+"Can I do anything to help you, 'Tense?" asked Helen, cheerfully.
+
+"Oh, dear me--no!" exclaimed her cousin. "You're so loud and noisy. And
+do, _do_ call me by my proper name."
+
+"I forgot. Sure, I'll call you anything you say," returned the Western
+girl, smiling at her. Meanwhile she was moving about the room, deftly
+putting things to rights.
+
+"I'm going to tell father the minute he comes home!" wailed Hortense,
+ignoring her cousin for the time and going back to her immediate troubles.
+"I am left all alone--and I'm sick--and nobody cares--and--and----"
+
+"Where do you keep your caps, Hortense?" interrupted Helen. "And if you'll
+let me, I'll brush your hair and make it look pretty. And then you get
+into a fresh nightgown----"
+
+"Oh, I couldn't sit up," moaned Hortense. "I really couldn't. I'm too
+weak."
+
+"I'll show you how. Let me fix the pillows--_so!_ And _so!_ There--nothing
+like trying; is there? You're comfortable; aren't you?"
+
+"We-ell----"
+
+Helen was already manipulating the hairbrush. She did it so well, and
+managed to arrange Hortense's really beautiful hair so simply yet easily
+on her head that the latter quite approved of it--and said so--when she
+looked into her hand-mirror.
+
+Then Helen got her into a chair, in a fresh robe and a pretty kimono,
+while she made the bed--putting on new sheets and cases for the pillows so
+that all should be sweet and clean. Of course, Hortense wasn't really
+sick--only lazy. But she thought she was sick and Helen's attentions
+pleased the spoiled girl.
+
+"Why, you're not such a bad little thing, Helen," she said, dipping into a
+box of chocolates on the stand by her bedside. Chocolates were about all
+the medicine Hortense took during this "bad attack." And she was really
+grateful--in her way--to her cousin.
+
+It was later on this day that Helen plucked up courage to go to her uncle
+and give him back the letter he had written to Fenwick Grimes.
+
+"I did not use it, sir," she said.
+
+"Ahem!" he said, and with evident relief. "You have thought better of it,
+I hope? You mean to let the matter rest where it is?"
+
+"I have not abandoned my attempt to get at the truth--no, Uncle
+Starkweather."
+
+"How foolish of you, child!" he cried.
+
+"I do not think it is foolish. But I will try not to mix you up in my
+inquiries. That is why I did not use the letter."
+
+"And you have seen Grimes?" he asked, hastily.
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Does he know who you are?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"And you reached him without an introduction? I understand he is hard to
+approach. He is a money-lender, in a way, and he has an odd manner of
+never appearing to come into personal contact with his clients."
+
+"Yes, sir. I think him odd."
+
+"Did--did he think he could help you?"
+
+"He thinks just as you do, sir," stated Helen, honestly. "And, then, he
+accused you of sending me to him at first; so I would not use your letter
+and so compromise you."
+
+"Ahem!" said the gentleman, surprised that this young girl should be so
+circumspect. It rather startled him to discover that she was thoughtful
+far beyond her years. Was it possible that--somehow--she _might_ bring to
+light the truth regarding the unhappy difficulty that had made Prince
+Morrell an exile from his old home for so many years?
+
+Once May Van Ramsden ran in to see Belle and caught Helen going through
+the hall on her way to her own room. It was just after luncheon, which she
+and Belle had eaten in a silence that could be felt. Belle would not speak
+to her cousin unless she was obliged to, and Helen did not see that
+forcing her attentions upon the other girl would do any good.
+
+"Why, here you are, Helen Morrell! Why don't I ever see you when I come
+here?" cried the caller, shaking Helen by both hands and smiling upon her
+heartily from her superior height. "When are your cousins going to bring
+you to call upon me?"
+
+Helen might have replied, truthfully, "Never;" but she only shook her head
+and smilingly declared: "I hope to see you again soon, Miss Van Ramsden."
+
+"Well, I guess you must!" cried the caller. "I want to hear some more of
+your experiences," and she went on to meet the scowling Belle at the door
+of the reception parlor.
+
+Later her eldest cousin said to the Western girl:
+
+"In going up and down to your room, Miss, I want you to remember that
+there is a back stairway. Use the servants' stairs, if you please!"
+
+Helen made no reply. She wasn't breaking much of the ice between her and
+Belle Starkweather, that was sure. And to add to Belle's dislike for her
+cousin, there was another happening in which Miss Van Ramsden was
+concerned, soon after this.
+
+Hortense was still abed, for the weather remained unpleasant--and there
+really was nothing else for the languid cousin to do. Miss Van Ramsden
+found Belle out, and she went upstairs to say "how-do" to the invalid.
+Helen was in the room making the spoiled girl more comfortable, and Miss
+Van Ramsden drew the younger girl out into the hall when she left.
+
+"I really have come to see _you_, child," she said to Helen, frankly. "I
+was telling papa about you and he said he would dearly love to meet Prince
+Morrell's daughter. Papa went to college with your father, my dear."
+
+Helen was glad of this, and yet she flushed a little. She was quite frank,
+however: "Does--does your father know about poor dad's trouble?" she
+whispered.
+
+"He does. And he always believed Mr. Morrell not guilty. Father was one of
+the firm's creditors, and he has always wished your father had come to him
+instead of leaving the city so long ago."
+
+"Then he's been paid?" cried Helen, eagerly.
+
+"Certainly. It is a secret, I believe--father warned me not to speak of it
+unless you did; but everybody was paid by your father after a time. _That_
+did not look as though he were dishonest. His partner took advantage of
+the bankruptcy courts."
+
+"Of--of course your father has no idea who _was_ guilty?" whispered Helen,
+anxiously.
+
+"None at all," replied Miss Van Ramsden. "It was a mystery then and
+remains so to this day. That bookkeeper was a peculiar man, but had a good
+record; and it seems that he left the city before the checks were cashed.
+Or, so the evidence seemed to prove.
+
+"Now, don't cry, my dear! Come! I wish we could help you clear up that old
+trouble. But many of your father's old friends--like papa--never believed
+Prince Morrell guilty."
+
+Helen was crying by this time. The kindness of this older girl broke down
+her self-possession. They heard somebody coming up the stairs, and Miss
+Van Ramsden said, quickly:
+
+"Take me to your room, dear. We can talk there."
+
+Helen never thought that she might be giving the Starkweather family
+deadly offence by doing this. She led Miss Van Ramsden immediately to the
+rear of the house and up the back stairway to the attic floor. The caller
+looked somewhat amazed when Helen ushered her into the room.
+
+"Well, they could not have put you much nearer the sky; could they?" she
+said, laughing, yet eyeing Helen askance.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind it up here," returned Helen, truthfully enough. "And I
+have some company on this floor."
+
+"Ahem! The maids, I suppose?" said May Van Ramsden.
+
+"No, no," Helen assured her, eagerly. "The dearest little old lady you
+ever saw."
+
+Then she stopped and looked at her caller in some distress. For the moment
+she had forgotten that she was probably on the way to reveal the
+Starkweather family skeleton!
+
+"A little old lady? Who can _that_ be?" cried the caller. "You interest
+me."
+
+"I--I--Well, it is an old lady who was once nurse in the family and I
+believe Uncle Starkweather cares for her----"
+
+"It's never Nurse Boyle?" cried Miss Van Ramsden, suddenly starting up.
+"Why! I remember about her. But somehow, I thought she had died years ago.
+Why, as a child I used to visit her at the house, and she used to like to
+have me come to see her. That was before your cousins lived here, Helen.
+Then I went to Europe for several years and when we returned the house had
+all been done over, your uncle's family was here, and I think--I am not
+sure--somebody told me dear old Mary Boyle was dead."
+
+"No," observed Helen, thoughtfully. "She is not dead. She is only
+forgotten."
+
+Miss Van Ramsden looked at the Western girl for some moments in silence.
+She seemed to understand the whole matter without a word of further
+explanation.
+
+"Would you mind letting me see Mary Boyle while I am here?" she asked,
+gravely. "She was a very lovely old soul, and all the families
+hereabout--I have heard my mother often say--quite envied the
+Starkweathers their possession of such a treasure."
+
+"Certainly we can go in and see her," declared Helen, throwing all
+discretion to the winds. "I was going to read to her this afternoon,
+anyway. Come along!"
+
+She led the caller through the hall to Mary Boyle's little suite of rooms.
+To herself Helen said:
+
+"Let the wild winds of disaster blow! Whew! If the family hears of this I
+don't know but they will want to have me arrested--or worse! But what can
+I do? And then--Mary Boyle deserves better treatment at their hands."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+IN THE SADDLE
+
+
+The little old lady "tidied" her own room. She hopped about like a bird
+with the aid of the ebony crutch, and Helen and Miss Van Ramsden heard the
+"step--put" of her movements when they entered the first room.
+
+"Come in, deary!" cried the dear old soul. "I was expecting you. Ah, whom
+have we here? Good-day to you, ma'am!"
+
+"Nurse Boyle! don't you remember me?" cried the visitor, going immediately
+to the old lady and kissing her on both cheeks.
+
+"Bless us, now! How would I know ye?" cried the old woman. "Is it me old
+eyes I have set on ye for many a long year now?"
+
+"And I blame myself for it, Nurse," cried May Van Ramsden. "Don't you
+remember little May--the Van Ramsdens' May--who used to come to see you so
+often when she was about so-o high?" cried the girl, measuring the height
+of a five or six-year-old.
+
+"A neighbor's baby _did_ come to see Old Mary now and then," cried the
+nurse. "But you're never May?"
+
+"I am, Nurse."
+
+"And growed so tall and handsome? Well, well, well! It does bate all, so
+it does. Everybody grows up but Mary Boyle; don't they?" and the old woman
+cackled out a sweet, high laugh, and sat down to "visit" with her
+callers.
+
+The two girls had a very charming time with Mary Boyle. And May Van
+Ramsden promised to come again. When they left the old lady she said,
+earnestly, to Helen:
+
+"And there are others that will be glad to come and see Nurse Boyle. When
+she was well and strong--before she had to use that crutch--she often
+appeared at our houses when there was trouble--serious trouble--especially
+with the babies or little children. And what Mary Boyle did not know about
+pulling young ones out of the mires of illness, wasn't worth knowing. Why,
+I know a dozen boys and girls whose lives were probably saved by her. They
+shall be reminded of her existence. And--it shall be due to you, Little
+Cinderella!"
+
+Helen smiled deprecatingly. "It will be due to your own kind heart, Miss
+Van Ramsden," she returned. "I see that everybody in the city is not so
+busy with their own affairs that they cannot think of other people."
+
+The young lady kissed her again and said goodbye. But that did not end the
+matter--no, indeed! The news that Miss Van Ramsden had been taken to the
+topmost story of the Starkweather mansion--supposedly to Helen's own room
+only--by the Western girl, dribbled through the servants to Belle
+Starkweather herself when she came home.
+
+"Now, Pa! I won't stand that common little thing being here any
+longer--no, I won't! Why, she did that just on purpose to make folks
+talk--to make people believe that we abuse her. Of course, she told May
+that _I_ sent her to the top story to sleep. You get rid of that girl, Pa,
+or I declare I'll go away. I guess I can find somebody to take me in as
+long as you wish to keep Prince Morrell's daughter here in _my_ place."
+
+"Ahem! I--I must beg you to compose yourself, Belle----"
+
+"I won't--and that's flat!" declared his eldest daughter. "Either she
+goes; or I do."
+
+"Do let Belle go, Pa," drawled Flossie. "She is getting too bossy, anyway.
+_I_ don't mind having Helen here. She is rather good fun. And May Van
+Ramsden came here particularly to see Helen."
+
+"That's not so!" cried Belle, stamping her foot.
+
+"It is. Maggie heard her say so. Maggie was coming up the stairs and heard
+May ask Helen to take her to her room. What could the poor girl do?"
+
+"Ahem! Flossie--I am amazed at you--amazed at you!" gasped Mr.
+Starkweather. "What do you learn at school?"
+
+"Goodness me! I couldn't tell you," returned the youngest of his
+daughters, carelessly. "It's none of it any good, though, Pa. You might as
+well take me out."
+
+"I've told that girl to use the back stairs, and to keep out of the front
+of the house," went on Belle, ignoring Flossie. "If she had not been
+hanging about the front of the house, May Van Ramsden would not have seen
+her----"
+
+"'Tain't so!" snapped Flossie.
+
+"_Will_ you be still, minx?" demanded the older sister.
+
+"I don't care. Let's give Helen a fair deal. I tell you, Pa, May said she
+came particularly to see Helen. Besides, Helen had been in Hortense's
+room, and that is where May found her. Helen was brushing Hortense's hair.
+Hortense told me so."
+
+"Ahem! I am astonished at you, Flossie. The fact remains that Helen is a
+source of trouble in the house. I really do wish I knew how to get rid of
+her."
+
+"You give me permission, Pa," sneered Belle, "and I'll get rid of her very
+quickly--you see!"
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed the troubled father. "I--I cannot use the iron hand at
+present--not at present."
+
+"Humph!" exclaimed the shrewd Belle. "I'd like to know what you are afraid
+of, Pa?"
+
+Mr. Starkweather tried to frown down his daughter, but was unsuccessful.
+He merely presented a picture of a very cowardly man trying to look brave.
+It wasn't much of a picture.
+
+So--as may be easily conceived--Helen was not met at dinner by her
+relatives in any conciliatory manner. Yet the girl from the West really
+wished she might make friends with Uncle Starkweather and her cousins.
+
+"It must be that a part of the fault is with me," she told herself, when
+she crept up to her room after a gloomy time in the dining-room. "If I had
+it in me to please them--to make them happier--surely they could not treat
+me as they do. Oh, dear, I wish I had learned better how to be popular."
+
+That night Helen felt about as bad as she had any time since she arrived
+in the great city. She was too disturbed to read. She lay in bed until the
+small hours of the morning, unable to sleep, and worrying over all her
+affairs, which seemed, since she had arrived in New York, to go altogether
+wrong.
+
+She had not made an atom of progress in that investigation which she had
+hoped would bring to light the truth about the mystery which had sent her
+father and mother West--fugitives--before she was born. She had only
+succeeded in becoming thoroughly suspicious of her Uncle Starkweather and
+of Fenwick Grimes.
+
+Nor had she made any advance in the discovery of the mysterious Allen
+Chesterton, the bookkeeper of her father's old firm, who held, she
+believed, the key to the mystery. She did not know what step to take next.
+She did not know what to do. And there was nobody with whom she could
+consult--nobody in all this great city to whom she could go.
+
+Never before had Helen felt so lonely as she did this night. She had money
+enough with her to pay somebody to help her dig back for facts regarding
+the disappearance of the money belonging to the old firm of Grimes &
+Morrell. But she did not know how to go about getting the help she
+needed.
+
+Her only real confidante--Sadie Goronsky--would not know how to advise her
+in this emergency.
+
+"I wish I had let Dud Stone give me his address. He said he was learning
+to be a lawyer," thought Helen. "And just now, I s'pose, a lawyer is what
+I need most. But I wouldn't know how to go about engaging a lawyer--not a
+good one."
+
+She awoke at her usual time next morning, and the depression of the night
+before was still with her. But when she jumped up she saw that it was no
+longer raining. The sky was overcast, but she could venture forth without
+running the risk of spoiling her new suit.
+
+And right there a desperate determination came into Helen Morrell's mind.
+She had learned that on the west side of Central Park there was a riding
+academy. She was _hungry_ for an hour in the saddle. It seemed to her that
+a gallop would clear all the cobwebs away and make her feel like herself
+once more.
+
+The house was still silent and dark. She took her riding habit out of the
+closet, made it up into a bundle, and crept downstairs with it under her
+arm. She escaped the watchful Lawdor for once, and got out by the area
+door before even the cook had crept, yawning, downstairs to begin her
+day's work.
+
+Helen, hurrying through the dark, dripping streets, found a little
+restaurant where she could get rolls and coffee on her way to the Columbus
+Circle riding academy. It was still early when the girl from Sunset Ranch
+reached her goal. Yes, a mount was to be had, and she could change her
+street clothes for her riding suit in the dressing-rooms.
+
+The city--at least, that part of it around Central Park--was scarcely
+awake when Helen walked her mount out of the stable and into the park. The
+man in charge had given her to understand that there were few riders astir
+so early.
+
+"You'll have the bridle-path to yourself, Miss, going out," he said.
+
+Helen had picked up a little cap to wear, and astride the saddle, with her
+hair tied with a big bow of ribbon at the nape of her neck, she looked
+very pretty as the horse picked his way across the esplanade into the
+bridle-path. But there were few, as the stableman had said, to see her so
+early in the morning.
+
+It did not rain, however. Indeed, there was a fresh breeze which, she saw,
+was tearing the low-hung clouds to shreds. And in the east a rosy spot in
+the fog announced the presence of the sun himself, ready to burst through
+the fleecy veil and smile once more upon the world.
+
+The trees and brush dripped upon the fallen leaves. For days the park
+caretakers had been unable to rake up these, and they had become almost a
+solid pattern of carpeting for the lawns. And down here in the
+bridle-path, as she cantered along, their pungent odor, stirred by the
+hoofs of her mount, rose in her nostrils.
+
+This wasn't much like galloping over an open trail on a nervous little
+cow-pony. But it was both a bodily and mental relief for the outdoor girl
+who had been, for these past weeks, shut into a groove for which she was
+so badly fitted.
+
+She saw nobody on horseback but a mounted policeman, who turned and
+trotted along beside her, and was pleasant and friendly. This pleased
+Helen; and especially was she pleased when she learned that he had been
+West and had "punched cows" himself. That had been some years ago, but he
+remembered the Link-A--now the Sunset--Ranch, although he had never worked
+for that outfit.
+
+Helen's heart expanded as she cantered along. The sun dispelled the mist
+and shone warm upon the path. The policeman left her, but now there were
+other riders abroad. She went far out of town, as directed by the officer,
+and found the ride beautiful. After all, there were some lovely spots in
+this great city, if one only knew where to find them.
+
+She had engaged a strong horse with good wind; but she did not want to
+break him down. So she finally turned her face toward the city again and
+let the animal take its own pace home.
+
+She had ridden down as far as 110th Street and had crossed over into the
+park once more, when she saw a couple of riders advancing toward her from
+the south. They were a young man and a girl, both well mounted, and Helen
+noted instantly that they handled their spirited horses with ease.
+
+Indeed, she was so much interested in the mounts themselves, that she came
+near passing the two without a look at their faces. Suddenly she heard an
+exclamation from the young fellow, she looked up, and found herself gazing
+straight into the handsome face of Dudley Stone.
+
+"For the love of heaven!" gasped that astonished young man. "It surely
+_is_ Helen Morrell! Jess! See here! Here's the very nicest girl who ever
+came out of Montana!"
+
+Dud's sister--Helen knew she must be his sister, for she had the same
+coloring as and a strong family resemblance to the budding lawyer--wheeled
+her horse and rode directly to Helen's side.
+
+"Oh, Miss Morrell!" she cried, putting out her gauntleted hand. "Is it
+really she, Dud? How wonderful!"
+
+Helen shook hands rather timidly, for Miss Jessie Stone was torrential in
+her speech. There wasn't a chance to "get a word in edgewise" when once
+she was started upon a subject that interested her.
+
+"My goodness me!" she cried, still shaking Helen's hand. "Is this really
+the girl who pulled you out of that tree, Dud? Who saved your life and
+took you on her pony to the big ranch? My, how romantic!
+
+"And you really own a ranch, Miss Morrell? How nice that must be! And
+plenty of cattle on it--Why! you don't mind the price of beef at all; do
+you? And what a clever girl you must be, too. Dud came back full of your
+praise, now I tell you----"
+
+"There, there!" cried Dud. "Hold on a bit, Jess, and let's hear how Miss
+Morrell is--and what she is doing here in the big city, and all that."
+
+"Well, I declare, Dud! You take the words right out of my mouth," said his
+sister, warmly. "I was just going to ask her that. And we're going to the
+Casino for breakfast, Miss Morrell, and you must come with us. You've had
+your ride; haven't you?"
+
+"I--I'm just returning," admitted Helen, rather breathless, if Jess was
+not.
+
+"Come on, then!" cried the good-natured but talkative city girl. "Come,
+Dud, you ride ahead and engage a table and order something nice. I'm as
+ravenous as a wolf. Dear me, Miss Morrell, if you have been riding long
+you must be quite famished, too!"
+
+"I had coffee and rolls early," said Helen, as Dud spurred his horse
+away.
+
+"Oh, what's coffee and rolls? Nothing at all--nothing at all! After I've
+been jounced around on this saddle for an hour I feel as though I never
+_had_ eaten. I don't care much for riding myself, but Dud is crazy for it,
+and I come to keep him company. You must ride with us, Miss Morrell. How
+long are you going to stay in town? And to think of your having saved
+Dud's life--Well! he'll never get over talking about it."
+
+"He makes too much of the incident," declared Helen, determined to get in
+a word. "I only lent him a rope and he saved himself."
+
+"No. You carried him on your pony to that ranch. Oh, I know it all by
+heart. He talks about it to everybody. Dud is _so_ enthusiastic about the
+West. He is crazy to go back again--he wants to live there. I tell him
+I'll go out and try it for a while, and if I find I can stand it, he can
+hang out his shingle in that cow-town--what do you call it?"
+
+"Elberon?" suggested Helen.
+
+"Yes--Elberon. Dud says there is a chance for another lawyer there. And he
+came back here and entered the offices of Larribee & Polk right away, so
+as to get working experience, and be entered at the bar all the sooner.
+But say!" exclaimed Jess, "I believe one reason why he is so eager to go
+back to the West is because _you_ live there."
+
+"Oh, Miss Stone!"
+
+"Do call me Jess. 'Miss Stone' is so stiff. And you and I are going to be
+the very best of friends."
+
+"I really hope so, Jess. But you must call me Helen, too," said the girl
+from Sunset Ranch.
+
+Jess leaned out from her saddle, putting the horses so close that the
+trappings rubbed, and kissed the Western girl resoundingly on the cheek.
+
+"I just _loved_ you!" said the warm-hearted creature, "when Dud first told
+me about you. But now that I see you in the flesh, I love you for your
+very own self! I hope you'll love me, too, Helen Morrell--And you won't
+mind if I talk a good deal?"
+
+[Illustration: "HERE'S THE VERY NICEST GIRL WHO EVER CAME OUT OF MONTANA."
+(Page 246.)]
+
+"Not in the least!" laughed Helen. "And I _do_ love you already. I am so,
+so glad that you and Dud both like me," she added, "for my cousins do not
+like me at all, and I have been very unhappy since coming to New York."
+
+"Here we are!" cried Jess, without noting closely what her new friend
+said. "And there is Dud waiting for us on the porch. Dear old Dud!
+Whatever should I have done if you hadn't got him out of that tree-top,
+Helen?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MY LADY BOUNTIFUL
+
+
+That was a wonderful breakfast at the Casino. Not that Helen ever
+remembered much about what she ate, although Dud had ordered choice fruit
+and heartier food that would have tempted the most jaded appetite instead
+of that of a healthy girl who had been riding horseback for two hours and
+a half.
+
+But, it was so heartening to be with people at the table who "talked one's
+own language." The Stones and Helen chattered like a trio of young crows.
+Dud threatened to chloroform his sister so that he and Helen could get in
+a word or two during Jess's lapse into unconsciousness; but finally _that_
+did not become necessary because of the talkative girl's interest in a
+story that Helen related.
+
+They had discussed many other topics before this subject was broached. And
+it was the real reason for Helen's coming East to visit the Starkweathers.
+"Dud" was "in the way of being a lawyer," as he had previously told her,
+and Helen had come to realize that it was a lawyer's advice she needed
+more than anything else.
+
+"Now, Jess, will you keep still long enough for me to listen to the story
+of my very first client?" demanded Dud, sternly, of his sister.
+
+"Oh, I'll stuff the napkin into my mouth! You can gag me! Your very first
+client, Dud! And it's so interesting."
+
+"It is customary for clients to pay over a retainer; isn't it?" queried
+Helen, her eyes dancing. "How much shall it be, Mr. Lawyer?" and she
+opened her purse.
+
+There was the glint of a gold piece at the bottom of the bag. Dud flushed
+and reached out his hand for it.
+
+"That five dollars, Miss Helen. Thank you. I shall never spend this coin,"
+declared Dud, earnestly. "And I shall take it to a jeweler's and have it
+properly engraved."
+
+"What will you have put on it?" asked Helen, laughing.
+
+He looked at her from under level brows, smiling yet quite serious.
+
+"I shall have engraved on it 'Snuggy, to Dud'--if I may?" he said.
+
+But Helen shook her head and although she still smiled, she said:
+
+"You'd better wait a bit, Mr. Lawyer, and see if your advice brings about
+any happy conclusion of my trouble. But you can keep the gold piece, just
+the same, to remember me by."
+
+"As though I needed _that_ reminder!" he cried.
+
+Jess removed the corner of the napkin from between her pretty teeth. "Get
+busy, do!" she cried. "I'm dying to hear about this strange affair you say
+you have come East to straighten out, Helen."
+
+So the girl from Sunset Ranch told all her story. Everything her father
+had said to her upon the topic before his death, and all she suspected
+about Fenwick Grimes and Allen Chesterton--even to the attitude Uncle
+Starkweather took in the matter--she placed before Dud Stone.
+
+He gave it grave attention. Helen was not afraid to talk plainly to him,
+and she held nothing back. But at the best, her story was somewhat
+disconnected and incomplete. She possessed very few details of the crime
+which had been committed. Mr. Morrell himself had been very hazy in his
+statements regarding the affair.
+
+"What we want first," declared Dud, impressively, "is to get the _facts_.
+Of course, at the time, the trouble must have made some stir. It got into
+the newspapers."
+
+"Oh, dear, yes," said Helen. "And that is what Uncle Starkweather is
+afraid of. He fears it will get into the papers again if I make any stir
+about it, and then there will be a scandal."
+
+"With his name connected with it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He's dreadfully timid for his own good name; isn't he?" remarked Dud,
+sarcastically. "Well, first of all, I'll get the date of the occurrence
+and then search the files of all the city papers. The reporters usually
+get such matters pretty straight. To misstate such business troubles is
+skating on the thin ice of libel, and newspapers are careful.
+
+"Well, when we have all the facts before us--what people surmised, even,
+and how it looked to 'the man on the street,' as the saying is--then we'll
+know better how to go ahead.
+
+"Are you willing to leave the matter to me, Helen?"
+
+"What did I give you a retainer for?" demanded the girl from Sunset Ranch,
+smiling.
+
+"True," he replied, his own eyes dancing; "but there is a saying among
+lawyers that the feminine client does not really come to a lawyer for
+advice; rather, she pays him to listen to her talk."
+
+"Isn't that horrid of him?" cried Jess, unable to keep still any longer.
+"As though we girls talked any more than the men do. I should say not!"
+
+But Helen agreed to let Dud govern her future course in trying to untangle
+the web of circumstance that had driven her father out of New York years
+before. As Dud said, somebody was guilty, and that somebody was the person
+they must find.
+
+It encouraged Helen mightily to have someone talk this way about the
+matter. A solution of the problem seemed so imminent after she parted from
+the fledgling lawyer and his sister, that Helen determined to hasten to
+their conclusion certain plans she had made, before she returned to the
+West.
+
+For Helen could not remain here. Her uncle's home was not the refined
+household that dear dad had thought, in which she would be sheltered and
+aided in improving herself.
+
+"I might as well take board at the Zoo and live in the bear's den,"
+declared Helen, perhaps a little harsh in her criticism. "There are no
+civilizing influences in _that_ house. I'd never get a particle of
+'culture' there. I'd rather associate with Sing, and Jo-Rab, and the boys,
+and Hen Billings."
+
+Her experience in the great city had satisfied Helen that its life was not
+for her. Some things she had learned, it was true; but most of them were
+unpleasant things.
+
+"I'd rather hire some lady to come out to Sunset and live with me and
+teach me how to act gracefully in society, and all that. There are a lot
+of 'poor, but proud' people who would be glad of the chance, I know."
+
+But on this day--after she had left her riding habit at a tailor's to be
+brushed and pressed, and had made arrangements to make her changes there
+whenever she wished to ride in the morning--on this day Helen had
+something else to do beside thinking of her proper introduction to
+society. This was the first day it had been fit for her to go downtown
+since she and Sadie Goronsky had had their adventure with the old man whom
+Sadie called "Lurcher," but whom Fenwick Grimes had called "Jones."
+
+Helen was deeply interested in the old man's case, and if he could be
+helped in any proper way, she wanted to do it. Also, there was Sadie
+herself. Helen believed that the Russian girl, with her business ability
+and racial sharpness, could help herself and her family much more than she
+now was doing, if she had the right kind of a chance.
+
+"And I am going to give her the chance," Helen told herself, delightedly.
+"She has been, as unselfish and kind to me--a stranger to her and her
+people--as she could be. I am determined that Sadie Goronsky and her
+family shall always be glad that Sadie was kind to the 'greenie' who
+hunted for Uncle Starkweather's house on Madison Street instead of Madison
+Avenue."
+
+After luncheon at the Starkweathers' Helen started downtown with plenty of
+money in her purse. She rode to Madison Street and was but a few minutes
+in reaching the Finkelstein store. To her surprise the front of the
+building was covered with big signs reading "Bankrupt Sale! Prices Cut in
+Half!"
+
+Sadie was not in sight. Indeed, the store was full of excited people
+hauling over old Jacob Finkelstein's stock of goods, and no "puller-in"
+was needed to draw a crowd. The salespeople seemed to have their hands
+full.
+
+Not seeing Sadie anywhere, Helen ventured to mount to the Goronsky flat.
+Mrs. Goronsky opened the door, recognized her visitor, and in shrill
+Yiddish and broken English bade her welcome.
+
+"You gome py mein house to see mein Sarah? Sure! Gome in! Gome in! Sarah
+iss home to-day."
+
+"Why, see who's here!" exclaimed Sadie, appearing with a partly-completed
+hat, of the very newest style, in her hand. "I thought the wet weather had
+drowned you out."
+
+"It kept me in," said Helen, "for I had nothing fit to wear out in the
+rain."
+
+"Well, business was so poor that Jacob had to fail. And that always gives
+me a few days' rest. I'm glad to get 'em, believe me!"
+
+"Why--why, can a man fail more than once?" gasped Helen.
+
+"He can in the clothing business," responded Sadie, laughing, and leading
+the way into the tiny parlor. "I bet there was a crowd in there when you
+come by?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," agreed Helen.
+
+"Sure! he'll get rid of all the 'stickers' he's got it in the shop, and
+when we open again next week for ordinary business, everything will be
+fresh and new."
+
+"Oh, then, you're really not out of a job?" asked Helen, relieved for her
+friend's sake.
+
+"No. I'm all right. And you?"
+
+"I came down particularly to see about that poor old man's spectacles,"
+Helen said.
+
+"Then you didn't forget about him?"
+
+"No, indeed. Did you see him? Has he got the prescription? Is it right
+about his eyes being the trouble?"
+
+"Sure that's what the matter is. And he's dreadful poor, Helen. If he
+could see better he might find some work. He wore his eyes out, he told
+me, by writing in books. That's a business!"
+
+"Then he has the prescription."
+
+"Sure. I seen it. He's always hoping he'd get enough money to have the
+glasses. That's all he needs, the doctor told him. But they cost fourteen
+dollars."
+
+"He shall have them!" declared Helen.
+
+"You don't mean it, Helen?" cried the Russian girl. "You haven't got that
+much money for him?"
+
+"Yes, I have. Will you go around there with me? We'll get the prescription
+and have it filled."
+
+"Wait a bit," said Sadie. "I want to finish this hat. And lemme tell
+you--it's right in style. What do you think?"
+
+"How wonderfully clever you are!" cried the Western girl. "It looks as
+though it had just come out of a shop."
+
+"Sure it does. I could work in a hat shop. Only they wouldn't pay me
+anything at first, and they wouldn't let me trim. But I know a girl that
+ain't a year older nor me what gets sixteen dollars a week trimming in a
+millinery store on Grand Street. O' course, she ain't the _madame_; she's
+only assistant. But sixteen dollars is a good bunch of money to bring home
+on a Saturday night--believe me!"
+
+"Is that what you'd like to do--keep a millinery shop?" asked Helen.
+
+"Wouldn't I--just?" gasped Sadie. "Why, Helen--I dream about it nights!"
+
+Helen became suddenly interested. "Would a little shop pay, Sadie? Could
+you earn your living in a little shop of your own--say, right around here
+somewhere?"
+
+"Huh! I've had me eye on a place for months. But it ain't no use. You got
+to put up for the rent, and the wholesalers ain't goin' to let a girl like
+me have stock on credit. And there's the fixtures--Aw, well, what's the
+use? It's only a dream."
+
+Helen was determined it should not remain "only a dream." But she said
+nothing further.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE HAT SHOP
+
+
+"Them folks you're living with must have had a change of heart, Helen,"
+said Sadie Goronsky, as the two girls sallied forth--Sadie with her new
+hat set jauntily on her sleek head.
+
+"Why do you say that?"
+
+"If they are willing to spend fourteen dollars on old Lurcher's eyes."
+
+"Oh, it isn't a member of my uncle's family who is furnishing the money
+for this charity," Helen replied. Sadie asked no further questions,
+fortunately.
+
+It was a very miserable house in which the old man lodged. Helen's heart
+ached as she beheld the poverty and misery so evident all about her.
+"Lurcher" lived on the top floor at the back--a squalid, badly-lighted
+room--and alone.
+
+"But a man with eyes as bad as mine don't really need light, you see,
+young ladies," he whispered, when Sadie had ushered herself and Helen into
+the room.
+
+He had tried to keep it neat; but his housekeeping arrangements were most
+primitive, and cold as the weather had now become, he had no stove save a
+one-wick oil stove on which he cooked his meals--such as they were.
+
+"You see," Sadie told him, "this is my friend, Helen, and she seen you the
+other day when you--you lost that dollar, you know."
+
+"Ah, yes, wonderful bright eyes you have, Miss, to find a dollar in the
+street."
+
+"Ain't they?" cried Sadie, grinning broadly at Helen. "Chee, it ain't
+everybody that can pick up money in the streets of New York--though we all
+believed we could before we come over here from Russia. Sure!"
+
+"You see," said Helen, softly, "I had seen you before, Mr.--er--Lurcher. I
+saw you over on the West Side that morning."
+
+"You saw me over there?" asked the old man, yet still in a very low
+voice--a sort of a faded-out voice--and he seemed not a little startled.
+"You saw me over there, Miss? _Where_ did you see me?"
+
+"On--on Bleecker Street," responded Helen, which was quite true. She saw
+that the man evidently did not wish his visit to Fenwick Grimes to be
+known. Perhaps he had some unpleasant connection with the money-lender.
+
+"Yes, yes!" said Lurcher, with relief. "I--I come through there
+frequently. But I have such difficulty in seeing my way about, that I
+follow a beaten path--yes! a beaten path."
+
+Helen was very curious about the old man's acquaintance with Fenwick
+Grimes. The more she thought over her own interview with the money-lender
+and mine-owner, the deeper became her suspicion that her father's one-time
+partner was an untrustworthy man.
+
+Anybody who seemed to know him better than _she_ did, naturally interested
+Helen. Dud Stone had promised to find out all about Grimes, and Helen knew
+that she would wait impatiently for his report.
+
+But she was interested in Lurcher for his own miserable sake, too. He had
+lived by himself in this wretched lodging for years. How he lived he did
+not say; but it was evident that his income was both infinitesimal and
+uncertain.
+
+Nevertheless, he was not a mean-looking man, nor were his garments
+unclean. They _were_ ragged. He admitted, apologetically, that he could
+not see to use a needle and so "had sort o' got run down."
+
+"I'll come some day soon and mend you up," promised Helen, when the old
+man gave her the prescription he had received from the oculist at the Eye
+and Ear Hospital. "And you shall have these glasses just as soon as the
+lenses can be ground."
+
+"God bless you, Miss!" said the old man, simply.
+
+He had a quiet, "listening" face, and seldom spoke above a whisper. He was
+more the shadow of a man than the substance.
+
+"Ain't that a terrible end to look forward to, Helen?" remarked Sadie,
+seriously, as they descended the stairs to the street. "He ain't got no
+friends, and no family, and no way to make a decent livin'. They wouldn't
+have the likes of him around in offices, writin' in books."
+
+"Oh, you mean he is a bookkeeper?" cried Helen.
+
+"Sure, I do. That's a business! My papa is going to be in business for
+himself again. And so will I--you see! That's the only way to get on, and
+lay up something for your old age. Work for yourself----"
+
+"In a millinery store; eh?" suggested Helen, smiling.
+
+"That's right!" declared Sadie, boldly.
+
+"Where is the little store you spoke of? Do you suppose you can ever get
+it, Sadie?"
+
+"Don't! You make me feel bad here," said Sadie, with her hand on her
+heart. "Say! I just _ache_ to try what I can do makin' lids for the East
+Side Four Hundred. The wholesale houses let youse come there and work when
+they're makin' up the season's pattern hats, and then you can get all the
+new wrinkles. Oh, I wish I was goin' to start next season in me own store
+instead of pullin' greenies into Papa Yawcob's suit shop," and the East
+Side girl sighed dolefully.
+
+"Let's go see the shop you want," suggested Helen.
+
+"Oh, dear! It don't do no good," said Sadie. "But I often go out of my way
+to take a peek at it."
+
+They went a little farther uptown and Helen was shown the tiny little
+store which Sadie had picked out as just the situation for a millinery
+shop.
+
+"Ye see, there's other stores all around; but no millinery. Women come
+here to buy other things, and if I had that little winder full of tasty
+hats--Chee! wouldn't it pull 'em in?"
+
+They stood there some minutes, while the young East Side girl, so wise in
+the ways of earning a living, so sharp of apprehension in most things,
+told her whole heart to the girl who had never had to worry about money
+matters at all--told it with no suspicion that My Lady Bountiful stood by
+her side.
+
+She pointed out to Helen just where she would have her little counter, and
+the glass-fronted wall cases for the trimmed hats, and the deep drawers
+for "shapes," and the little case in which to show the flowers and
+buckles, and the chair and table and mirror for the particular customers
+to sit at while they were being fitted.
+
+"And I'd take that hunchback girl--Rosie Seldt--away from the millinery
+store on my block--she _hates_ to work on the sidewalk the way they make
+her--she could help me lots. Rosie is a smart girl with some ideas of her
+own. And I'd curtain off the end of the store down there for a workroom,
+and for stock--Chee, but I'd make this place look swell!"
+
+Helen, who had noted the name and address of the rental agent on the card
+in the window, cut her visit with Sadie short, so afraid was she that she
+would be tempted to tell her friend of the good fortune that was going to
+overtake her. For the girl from Sunset Ranch knew just what she was going
+to do.
+
+Dud Stone had given her the address of the law firm where he was to be
+found, and the very next morning she went to the offices of Larribee &
+Polk and saw Dud. In his hands she put a sum of money and told him what
+she wished done. But when Dud learned that the girl had the better part of
+eight hundred dollars in cash with her, he took her to a bank and made her
+open an account at once.
+
+"Where do you think you are--still in the wild and woolly West where
+pretty near everybody you meet is honest?" demanded Dud. "You ought to be
+shaken! That money here in the big city is a temptation to half the people
+you pass on the street. Suppose one of the servants at your uncle's house
+should see it? You have no right to put temptation in people's way."
+
+Helen accepted his scolding meekly as long as he did not refuse to carry
+out her plan for Sadie Goronsky. When Dud heard the full particulars of
+the Western girl's acquaintanceship with Sadie, he had no criticism to
+offer. That very day Dud engaged the store, paid three months' rent, and
+bought the furnishings. Sadie was not to be told until the store was ready
+for occupancy. There was still time enough. Helen knew that the millinery
+season did not open until February.
+
+Meanwhile, although Helen's goings and comings were quite ignored by Uncle
+Starkweather and the girls, some incidents connected with Helen Morrell
+had begun to stir to its depth the fountain of the family's wrath against
+the girl from Sunset Ranch.
+
+Twice May Van Ramsden had come to call on Helen. Once she had brought Ruth
+and Mercy De Vorne with her. And on each occasion she had demanded that
+Gregson take their cards to Helen.
+
+Gregson had taken the cards up one flight and then had sent on the cards
+by Maggie to Helen's room. Gregson said below stairs that he would "give
+notice" if he were obliged to take cards to anybody who roomed in the
+attic.
+
+May and her friends trooped up the stairs in the wake of their cards,
+however--for so it had been arranged with Helen, who expected them on both
+occasions.
+
+The anger of the Starkweather family would have been greater had they
+known that these calls of their own most treasured social acquaintances
+were really upon the little old lady who had been shut away into the front
+attic suite, and whose existence even was not known to some of the
+servants in the Starkweather mansion.
+
+May, as she had promised, was bringing, one or two at a time, her friends
+who, as children when Cornelius Starkweather was alive, had haunted this
+old house because they loved old Mary Boyle. And May was proving, too, to
+the Western girl, that all New York people of wealth were neither
+heartless or ungrateful. Yet the crime of forgetfulness these young women
+must plead to.
+
+The visits delighted Mary Boyle. Helen knew that she slept better--after
+these little excitements of the calls--and did not go pattering up and
+down the halls with her crutch in the dead of night.
+
+So the days passed, each one bringing so much of interest into the life of
+Helen Morrell that she forgot to be lonely, or to bewail her lot. She was
+still homesick for the ranch--when she stopped to think about it. But she
+was willing to wait a while longer before she flitted homeward to Big Hen
+and the boys.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE MISSING LINK
+
+
+Helen met Dud Stone and his sister on the bridle-path one morning by
+particular invitation. The message had come to the house for her late the
+evening before and had been put into the trusty hand of old Lawdor, the
+butler. Dud had learned the particulars of the old embezzlement charge
+against Prince Morrell.
+
+"I've got here in typewriting the reports from three papers--everything
+they had to say about it for the several weeks that it was kept alive as a
+news story. It was not so great a crime that the metropolitan papers were
+likely to give much space to it," Dud said.
+
+"You can read over the reports at your leisure, if you like. But the main
+points for us to know are these:
+
+"In the two banks were, in the names of Morrell & Grimes, something over
+thirty-three thousand dollars. Either partner could draw the money. The
+missing bookkeeper could _not_ draw the money.
+
+"The checks came to the banks in the course of the day's business, and
+neither teller could swear that he actually remembered giving the money to
+Mr. Morrell; yet because the checks were signed in his name, and
+apparently in his handwriting, they both 'thought' it must have been Mr.
+Morrell who presented the checks.
+
+"Now, mind you, Fenwick Grimes had gone off on a business trip of some
+duration, and Allen Chesterton had disappeared several days before the
+checks were drawn and the money removed from the banks.
+
+"It was hinted by one ingenious police reporter that the bookkeeper was
+really the guilty man. He even raked up some story of the man at his
+lodgings which intimated that Chesterton had some art as an actor. Parts
+of disguises were found abandoned at his empty rooms. This suggestion was
+made: That Chesterton was a forger and had disguised himself as Mr.
+Morrell so as to cash the checks without question. Then Fenwick Grimes
+returned and discovered that the bank balances were gone.
+
+"At first your father was no more suspected than was Grimes himself. Then,
+one paper printed an article intimating that your father, the senior
+partner of the firm, might be the criminal. You see, the bank tellers had
+been interviewed. Before that the suggestion that by any possibility Mr.
+Morrell was guilty had been scouted. But the next day it was learned your
+father and mother had gone away. Immediately the bookkeeper was forgotten
+and the papers all seemed to agree that Prince Morrell had really stolen
+the money.
+
+"Oddly enough the creditors made little trouble at first. Your Uncle
+Starkweather was mentioned as having been a silent partner in the concern
+and having lost heavily himself----"
+
+"Poor dad was able to pay Uncle Starkweather first of all--years and years
+ago," interposed Helen.
+
+"Ah! and Grimes? Do you know if he made any claim on your father at any
+time?"
+
+"I think not. You see, he was freed of all debt almost at once through
+bankruptcy. Mr. Grimes really had a very small financial interest in the
+firm. Dad said he was more like a confidential clerk. Both he and Uncle
+Starkweather considered Grimes a very good asset to the firm, although he
+had no money to put into it. That is the way it was told to me."
+
+"And very probable. This Grimes is notoriously sharp," said Dud,
+reflectively. "And right after he went through bankruptcy he began to do
+business as a money-lender. Supposedly he lent other people's money; but
+he is now worth a million, or more. Question is: Where did he get his
+start in business after the robbery and the failure of Grimes & Morrell?"
+
+"Oh, Dud!"
+
+"Don't you suspect him, too?" demanded the young man.
+
+"I--I am prejudiced, I fear."
+
+"So am I," agreed Dud, with a grim chuckle. "I'm going after that man
+Grimes. It's funny he should go into business with a mysterious capital
+right after the old firm was closed out, when before that he had had no
+money to invest in the firm of which he was a member."
+
+"I feared as much," sighed Helen. "And he was so eager to throw suspicion
+on the lost bookkeeper, just to satisfy my curiosity and put me off the
+track. He's as bad as Uncle Starkweather. _He_ doesn't want me to go ahead
+because of the possible scandal, and Mr. Grimes is afraid for his own
+sake, I very much fear. What a wicked man he must be!"
+
+"Possibly," said Dud, eyeing the girl sharply. "Have you told me all your
+uncle has said to you about the affair?"
+
+"I think so, Dud. Why?"
+
+"Well, nothing much. Only, in hunting through the files of the newspapers
+for articles about the troubles of Grimes & Morrell I came across the
+statement that Mr. Starkweather was in financial difficulties about the
+same time. _He_ settled with his creditors for forty cents on the dollar.
+This was before your uncle came into _his_ uncle's fortune, of course, and
+went to live on Madison Avenue."
+
+"Well--is that significant?" asked the girl, puzzled.
+
+"I don't know that it is. But there is something you mentioned just now
+that _is_ of importance."
+
+"What is that, Dud?"
+
+"Why, the bookkeeper--Allen Chesterton. He's the missing link. If we could
+get him I believe the truth would easily be learned. In one newspaper
+story of the Grimes & Morrell trouble, it was said that Grimes and
+Chesterton had been close friends at one time--had roomed together in the
+very house from which the bookkeeper seemed to have fled a couple of days
+before the embezzlement was discovered."
+
+"Would detectives be able to pick up any clue to the missing man--and
+missing link?" asked Helen, thoughtfully.
+
+"It's a cold trail," Dud observed, shaking his head.
+
+"I don't mind spending some money. I can send to Big Hen for more----"
+
+"Of course you can. I don't believe you realize how rich you are, Helen."
+
+"I--I never had to think about it."
+
+"No. But about hiring a detective. I hate to waste money. Wait a few days
+and see if I can get on the blind side of Mr. Grimes in some way."
+
+So the matter rested; but it was Helen herself who made the first
+discovery which seemed to point to a weak place in Fenwick Grimes's
+armor.
+
+Helen had been once to the poor lodging of Mr. Lurcher to "mend him up";
+for she was a good little needlewoman and she knew she could make the old
+fellow look neater. He had got his glasses, and at first could only wear
+them a part of the day. The doctor at the hospital gave him an ointment
+for his eyelids, too, and he was on a fair road to recovery.
+
+"I can cobble shoes pretty good, Miss," he said. "And there is work to be
+had at that industry in several shops in the neighborhood. Once I was a
+clerk; but all that is past, of course."
+
+Helen did not propose to let the old fellow suffer; but just yet she did
+not wish to do anything further for him, or Sadie might suspect that her
+friend, Helen, was something different from the poor girl Sadie thought
+she was.
+
+After the above interview with Dud, Helen went downtown to see Sadie
+again; and she ran around the corner to spend a few minutes with Mr.
+Lurcher. As she went up the stairs she passed a man coming down. It was
+dark, and she could not see the person clearly. Yet Helen realized that
+the individual eyed her sharply, and even stopped and came part way up the
+stairs again to see where she went.
+
+When she came down to the street again she was startled by almost running
+into Mr. Grimes, who was passing the house.
+
+"What! what! what!" he snapped, staring at her. "What brings you down in
+_this_ neighborhood? A nice place for Mr. Willets Starkweather's niece to
+be seen in. I warrant he doesn't know where you are?"
+
+"You are quite right, Mr. Grimes," Helen returned, quietly.
+
+"What are you doing here?" asked Grimes, rather rudely.
+
+"Visiting friends," replied Helen, without further explanation.
+
+"You're still trying to rake up that old trouble of your father's?"
+demanded Grimes, scowling.
+
+"Not down here," returned Helen, with a quiet smile. "That is sure. But I
+_am_ doing what I can to learn all the particulars of the affair. Mr. Van
+Ramsden was a creditor and father's friend, and his daughter tells me that
+_he_ will do all in his power to help me."
+
+"Ha! Van Ramsden! Well, it's little you'll ever find out through _him_.
+Well! you'd much better have let me do as I suggested and cleared up the
+whole story in the newspapers," growled Grimes. "Now, now! Where's that
+clerk of mine, I wonder? He was to meet me here."
+
+And he went muttering along the walk; but Helen stood still and gazed
+after him in some bewilderment. For it dawned on the girl that the man who
+had passed her as she went up to see old Mr. Lurcher, or "Jones," was
+Leggett, Fenwick Grimes's confidential man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THEIR EYES ARE OPENED
+
+
+As her cousins were not at all interested in what became of Helen during
+the day, neither was Helen interested in how the three Starkweather girls
+occupied their time. But on this particular afternoon, while Helen was
+visiting Lurcher, and chatting with Sadie Goronsky on the sidewalk in
+front of the Finkelstein shop, she would have been deeply interested in
+what interested the Starkweather girls.
+
+All three chanced to be in the drawing-room when Gregson came past the
+door in his stiffest manner, holding the tray with a single card on it.
+
+"Who is it, Gregson?" asked Belle. "I heard the bell ring. Somebody to see
+me?"
+
+"No, mem, it his not," declared the footman.
+
+"Me?" said Hortense, holding out her hand. "Who is it, I wonder?"
+
+"Nor is hit for you, mem," repeated Gregson.
+
+"It can't be for _me_?" cried Flossie.
+
+But before the footman could speak again, Belle rose majestically and
+crossed the room.
+
+"I believe I know what it is," she said, angrily. "And it is going to
+stop. You were going to take the card upstairs, Gregson?"
+
+"No, mem!" said Gregson, somewhat heated. "Hi do not carry cards above the
+second floor."
+
+"It's somebody to see Helen!" cried Flossie, clapping her hands softly and
+enjoying her older sister's rage.
+
+"Give it to me!" exclaimed Belle, snatching the card from the tray. She
+turned toward her sisters to read it. But when her eye lit upon the name
+she was for the moment surprised out of speech.
+
+"Goodness me! who is it?" gasped Hortense.
+
+"Jessie Stone--'Miss Jessie Dolliver Stone.' Goodness me!" whispered
+Belle.
+
+"Not the Stones of Riverside Drive--_the_ Stones?" from Hortense.
+
+"Dud Stone's sister?" exclaimed Flossie.
+
+"And Dud Stone is the very nicest boy I ever met," quoth Hortense,
+clasping her hands.
+
+"I know Miss Jessie. Jess, they all call her. I saw her on the Westchester
+Links only last week and she never said a word about this."
+
+"About coming to see Helen--it isn't possible!" cried Hortense. "Gregson,
+you have made a mistake."
+
+"Hi beg your pardon--no, mem. She asked for Miss Helen. I left 'er in the
+reception parlor, mem----"
+
+"She thinks one of us is named Helen!" cried Belle, suddenly. "Show her
+up, Gregson."
+
+Gregson might have told her different; but he saw it would only involve
+him in more explanation; therefore he turned on his heel and in his usual
+stately manner went to lead Dud Stone's sister into the presence of the
+three excited girls.
+
+Jessie by no means understood the situation at the Starkweather house
+between Helen and her cousins. It had never entered Miss Stone's head, in
+fact, that anybody could be unkind to, or dislike, "such a nice little
+thing as Helen Morrell."
+
+So she greeted the Starkweather girls in her very frankest manner.
+
+"I really am delighted to see you again, Miss Starkweather," Jess said,
+being met by Belle at the door. "And are these your sisters? I'm charmed,
+I am sure."
+
+Hortense and Flossie were introduced. The girls sat down.
+
+"You don't mean to say Helen isn't here?" demanded Jess. "I came
+particularly to invite her to dinner to-morrow night. We're going to have
+a little celebration and Dud and I are determined to have her with us."
+
+"Helen?" gasped Belle.
+
+"Not Helen Morrell?" demanded Hortense.
+
+"Why, yes--of course--your Cousin Helen. How funny! Of course she's here?
+She lives with you; doesn't she?"
+
+"Why--er--we have a--a distant relative of poor mamma's by that name,"
+said Belle, haughtily. "She--she came here quite unexpectedly--er quite
+uninvited, I may say. Pa is _so-o_ easy, you know; he won't send her
+away----"
+
+"Send her away! Send Helen Morrell away?" gasped Jess Stone. "Are--are we
+talking about the same girl, I wonder? Why, Helen is a most charming
+girl--and pretty as a picture. And brave no end!
+
+"Why, it was she who saved my brother's life when he was away out
+West----"
+
+"Mr. Stone never went to Montana?" cried Flossie. "He never met Helen at
+Sunset Ranch?"
+
+"Be still, Floss!" commanded Belle; but Miss Stone turned to answer the
+younger girl.
+
+"Of course. Dud stopped at the ranch some days, too. He had to, for he
+hurt his foot. That's when Helen saved his life. He was flung from the
+back of a horse over the edge of a cliff and fortunately landed in the top
+of a tree.
+
+"But the tree was very tall and he could not have gotten out of it safely
+with his wounded foot had not Helen ridden up to the brink of the
+precipice, thrown him a rope, and swung him out of the tree upon a ledge
+of rock. Then he worked his way down the side of the cliff while Helen
+caught his horse. But his foot hurt him so that he could never have got
+into the saddle alone; and Helen put him on her own pony and led the pony
+to the ranch house."
+
+"Bully for Helen!" ejaculated Flossie, under her breath. Even Hortense was
+flushed a bit over the story. But Belle could see nothing to admire in her
+cousin from the West, and she only said, harshly:
+
+"Very likely, Miss Stone. Helen seems to be a veritable hoyden. These
+ranch girls are so unfortunate in their bringing up and their environment.
+In the wilds I presume Helen may be passable; but she is quite, quite
+impossible here in the city----"
+
+"I don't know what you mean by being 'impossible,'" interrupted Jess
+Stone. "She is a lovely girl."
+
+"You haven't met her?" cried Belle. "It's only Mr. Stone's talk."
+
+"I certainly _have_ met her, Miss Starkweather. Certainly I know her--and
+know her well. Had I known when she was coming to New York I would have
+begged her to come to us. It is plain that her own relatives do not care
+much for Helen Morrell," said the very frank young lady.
+
+"Well--we--er----"
+
+"Why, Helen has been meeting me in the bridle-path almost every morning.
+And she rides wonderfully."
+
+"Riding in Central Park!" cried Hortense.
+
+"Why--why, the child has nothing decent to wear," declared Belle. "How
+could she get a riding habit--or hire a horse? I do not understand this,
+Miss Stone, but I can tell you right now, that Helen has nothing fit to
+wear to your dinner party. She came here a little pauper--with nothing fit
+to wear in her trunk. Pa _did_ find money enough for a new street dress
+and hat for her; but he did not feel that he could support in luxury every
+pauper who came here and claimed relationship with him."
+
+Miss Stone's mouth fairly hung open, and her eyes were as round as eyes
+could be, with wonder and surprise.
+
+"What is this you tell me?" she murmured. "Helen Morrell a pauper?"
+
+"I presume those people out there in Montana wanted to get the girl off
+their hands," said Belle, coldly, "and merely shipped her East, hoping
+that Pa would make provision for her. She has been a great source of
+annoyance to us, I do assure you."
+
+"A source of annoyance?" repeated the caller.
+
+"And why not? Without a rag decent to wear. With no money. Scarcely
+education enough to make herself intelligibly understood----"
+
+Flossie began to giggle. But Jessie Stone rose to her feet. This volatile,
+talkative girl could be very dignified when she was aroused.
+
+"You are speaking of _my_ friend, Helen Morrell," she interrupted Belle's
+flow of angry language, sternly. "Whether she is your cousin, or not, she
+is _my_ friend, and I will not listen to you talk about her in that way.
+Besides, you must be crazy if you believe your own words! Helen Morrell
+poor! Helen Morrell uneducated!
+
+"Why, Helen was four years in one of the best preparatory schools of the
+West--in Denver. Let me tell you that Denver is some city, too. And as for
+being poor and having nothing to wear--Why, whatever can you mean? She
+owns one of the few big ranches left in the West, with thousands upon
+thousands of cattle and horses upon it. And her father left her all that,
+and perhaps a quarter of a million in cash or investments beside."
+
+"Not Helen?" shrieked Belle, sitting down very suddenly.
+
+"Little Helen--_rich_?" murmured Hortense.
+
+"Does Helen really _own_ Sunset Ranch?" cried Flossie, eagerly.
+
+"She certainly does--every acre of it. Why, Dud knows all about her and
+all about her affairs. If you consider that girl poor and uneducated you
+have fooled yourselves nicely."
+
+"I'm glad of it! I'm glad of it!" exclaimed Flossie, clapping her hands
+and pirouetting about the room. "Serves you right, Belle! _I_ found out
+she knew a whole lot more than I did, long ago. She's been helping me with
+my lessons."
+
+"And she _is_ a nice little thing," joined in Hortense, "I don't care what
+you say to the contrary, Belle. She was the only one in this house that
+showed me any real sympathy when I was sick----"
+
+Belle only looked at her sisters, but could say nothing.
+
+"And if Helen hasn't anything fit to wear to your party to-morrow night, I
+will lend her something," declared Hortense.
+
+"You need not bother," said Jess, scornfully. "If Helen came in the
+plainest and most miserable frock to be found she would be welcome.
+Good-day to you, Miss Starkweather--and Miss Hortense--and Miss Flossie."
+
+She swept out of the room and did not even need the gorgeous Gregson to
+show her to the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE PARTY
+
+
+Helen chanced that evening to be entering the area door just as Mr.
+Starkweather himself was mounting the steps of the mansion. Her uncle
+recognized the girl and scowled over the balustrade at her.
+
+"Come to the den at once; I wish to speak to you Helen--Ahem!" he said in
+his most severe tones.
+
+"Yes, sir," responded the girl respectfully, and she passed up the back
+stairway while Mr. Starkweather went directly to his library. Therefore he
+did not chance to meet either of his daughters and so was not warned of
+what had occurred in the house that afternoon.
+
+"Helen," said Uncle Starkweather, viewing her with the same stern look
+when she approached his desk. "I must know how you have been using your
+time while outside of my house? Something has reached my ear which
+greatly--ahem!--displeases me."
+
+"Why--I--I----" The girl was really at a loss what to say. She did not
+know what he was driving at and she doubted the advisability of telling
+Uncle Starkweather everything that she had done while here in the city as
+his guest.
+
+"I was told this afternoon--not an hour ago--that you have been seen
+lurking about the most disreputable parts of the city. That you are a
+frequenter of low tenement houses; that you associate with foreigners and
+the most disgusting of beggars----"
+
+"I wish you would stop, Uncle," said Helen, quickly, her face flushing now
+and her eyes sparkling. "Sadie Goronsky is a nice girl, and her family is
+respectable. And poor old Mr. Lurcher is only unfortunate and half-blind.
+He will not harm me."
+
+"Beggars! Yiddish shoestring pedlars! A girl like you!
+Where--ahem!--_where_ did you ever get such low tastes, girl?"
+
+"Don't blame yourself, Uncle," said Helen, with some bitterness. "I
+certainly did not learn to be kind to poor people from _your_ example. And
+I am sure I have gained no harm from being with them once in a while--only
+good. To help them a little has helped me--I assure you!"
+
+But Mr. Starkweather listened not at all to this. "Where did you find
+these low companions?" he demanded.
+
+"I met Sadie the night I arrived here in the city. The taxicab driver
+carried me to Madison Street instead of Madison Avenue. Sadie was kind to
+me. As for old Mr. Lurcher, I saw him first in Mr. Grimes's office."
+
+Uncle Starkweather suddenly lost his color and fell back in his chair. For
+a moment or two he seemed unable to speak at all. Then he stammered:
+
+"In Fenwick Grimes's office?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What--what was this--ahem!--this beggar doing there?"
+
+"If he is a beggar, perhaps he was begging. At least, Mr. Grimes seemed
+very anxious to get rid of him, and gave him a dollar to go away."
+
+"And you followed him?" gasped Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"No. I went to see Sadie, and it seems Mr. Lurcher lives right in that
+neighborhood. I found he needed spectacles and was half-blind and I----"
+
+"Tell me nothing more about it! Nothing more about it!" commanded her
+uncle, holding up a warning hand. "I will not--ahem!--listen. This has
+gone too far. I gave you shelter--an act of charity, girl! And you have
+abused my confidence by consorting with low company, and spending your
+time in a mean part of the town."
+
+"You are wrong, sir. I have done nothing of the kind," said Helen, firmly,
+but growing angry herself, now. "My friends are decent people, and a poor
+part of the city does not necessarily mean a criminal part."
+
+"Hush! How dare you contradict me?" demanded her uncle. "You shall go
+home. You shall go back to the West at once! Ahem! At once. I could not
+assume the responsibility of your presence here in my house any longer."
+
+"Then I will find a position and support myself, Uncle Starkweather. I
+have told you I could do that before."
+
+"No, indeed!" exclaimed Mr. Starkweather, at once. "I will not allow it.
+You are not to be trusted in this city. I shall send you back to that
+place you came from--ahem!--Sunset Ranch, is it? That is the place for a
+girl like you."
+
+"But, Uncle----"
+
+"No more! I will listen to nothing else from you," he declared, harshly.
+"I shall purchase your ticket through to-morrow, and the next day you must
+go. Ahem! Remember that I _will_ be obeyed."
+
+Helen looked at him with tear-dimmed eyes for fully a minute. But he said
+no more and his stern countenance, as well as his unkind words and tone,
+repelled her. She put out her hand once, as though to speak, but he turned
+away, scornfully.
+
+It was her last attempt to soften him toward her. He might then, had he
+not been so selfish and haughty, have made his peace with the girl and
+saved himself much trouble and misery in the end. But he ignored her, and
+Helen, crying softly, left the room and stole up to her own place in the
+attic.
+
+She could not see anybody that evening, and so did not go down to dinner.
+Later, to her amazement, Maggie came to her door with a tray piled high
+with good things--a very elaborate repast, indeed. But Helen was too
+heartsick to eat much, although she did not refuse the attention--which
+she laid to the kindness of Lawdor, the butler.
+
+But for once she was mistaken. The tray of food did not come from Lawdor.
+Nor was it the outward semblance of anybody's kindness. The tray delivered
+at Helen's door was the first result of a great fright!
+
+At dinner the girls could not wait for their father to be seated before
+they began to tell him of the amazing thing that had been revealed to them
+that afternoon by Jessie Stone.
+
+"Where's Cousin Helen, Gregson?" asked Belle, before seating herself. "See
+that she is called. She may not have heard the gong."
+
+If Gregson's face could display surprise, it displayed it then.
+
+"Of course, dear Helen has returned; hasn't she?" added Hortense.
+
+"I'll go up myself and see if she's here," Flossie suggested.
+
+"Ahem!" said the surprised Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"I listened sharply for her, but I did not hear her pass my door," said
+Hortense.
+
+"I must ask her to come back to that spare room on the lower floor,"
+sighed Belle. "She is too far away from the rest of the family."
+
+"Girls!" gasped Mr. Starkweather, at length finding speech.
+
+"Oh, you needn't explode, Pa!" ejaculated Belle. "We are aware of
+something about Helen that changes the complexion of affairs entirely."
+
+"What does this mean?" demanded Mr. Starkweather, blankly. "Something
+about Helen?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Pa," said Flossie, spiritedly. "Who do you suppose owns that
+Sunset Ranch she talks about?"
+
+"And who do you suppose is worth a quarter of a million dollars--more than
+_you_ are worth, Pa, I declare?" cried Hortense.
+
+"Girls!" exclaimed Belle. "That is very low. If we have made a mistake
+regarding Cousin Helen, of course it can be adjusted. But we need not be
+vulgar enough to say _why_ we change toward her."
+
+Mr. Starkweather thumped upon the table with the handle of his knife.
+
+"Girls!" he commanded. "I will have this explained. What do you mean?"
+
+Out it came then--in a torrent. Three girls can do a great deal of talking
+in a few minutes--especially if they all talk at once.
+
+But Mr. Starkweather got the gist of it. He understood what it all meant,
+and he realized what it meant to _him_, as well, better than his daughters
+could.
+
+Prince Morrell, whom he had always considered a bit of a fool, and
+therefore had not even inquired about after he left for the West, had died
+a rich man. He had left this only daughter, who was an heiress to great
+wealth. And he, Willets Starkweather, had allowed the chance of a lifetime
+to slip through his fingers!
+
+If he had only made inquiries about the girl and her circumstances! He
+might have done that when he learned that Mr. Morrell was dead. When Helen
+had told him her father wished her to be in the care of her mother's
+relatives, Mr. Starkweather could have then taken warning and learned the
+girl's true circumstances. He had not even accepted her confidences. Why,
+he might have been made the guardian of the girl, and handled all her
+fortune!
+
+These thoughts and a thousand others raced through the scheming brain of
+the man. Could he correct his fault at this late date? If he had only
+known of this that his daughters had learned from Jess Stone, before he
+had taken Helen to task as he had that very evening!
+
+Fenwick Grimes had telephoned to him at his office. Something Mr. Grimes
+had said--and he had not seen Mr. Grimes nor talked personally with him
+for years--had put Mr. Starkweather into a great fright. He had decided
+that the only safe place for Helen Morrell was back in the West--he
+supposed with the poor and ignorant people on the ranch where her father
+had worked.
+
+Where Prince Morrell had _worked_! Why, if Morrell had owned Sunset Ranch,
+Helen was one of the wealthiest heiresses in the whole Western country.
+Mr. Starkweather had asked a few questions about Sunset Ranch of men who
+knew. But, as the owner had never given himself any publicity, the name of
+Morrell was never connected with it.
+
+While the three girls chattered over the details of the story Mr.
+Starkweather merely played with his food, and sat staring into a corner of
+the room. He was trying to scheme his way out of the difficulty--the
+dangerous difficulty, indeed--in which he found himself.
+
+So, his first move was characteristic. He sent the tray upstairs to Helen.
+But none of the family saw Helen again that night.
+
+However, there was another caller. This was May Van Ramsden. She did not
+ask for Helen, however, but for Mr. Starkweather himself, and that
+gentleman came graciously into the room where May was sitting with the
+three much excited sisters.
+
+Belle and Hortense and Flossie were bubbling over with the desire to ask
+Miss Van Ramsden if _she_ knew that Helen was a rich girl and not a poor
+one. But there was no opportunity. The caller broached the reason for her
+visit at once, when she saw Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"We are going to ask a great favor of you, sir," she said, shaking hands.
+"And it does seem like a very great impudence on our part. But please
+remember that, as children, we were all very much attached to her. You
+see," pursued Miss Van Ramsden, "there are the De Vorne girls, and Jo and
+Nat Paisley, and Adeline Schenk, and some of the Blutcher boys and
+girls--although the younger ones were born in Europe--and Sue Livingstone,
+and Crayton Ballou. Oh! there really is a score or more."
+
+"Ahem!" said Mr. Starkweather, not only solemnly, but reverently. These
+were names he worshipped. He could have refused such young people
+nothing--nothing!--and would have told Miss Van Ramsden so had what she
+said next not stricken him dumb for the time.
+
+"You see, some of us have called on Nurse Boyle, and found her so bright
+and so delighted with our coming, that we want to give her a little
+tea-party to-morrow afternoon. It would be so delightful to have her greet
+the girls and boys who used to be such friends of hers in the time of Mr.
+Cornelius, right up there in those cunning rooms of hers.
+
+"We always used to see her in the nursery suite, and there are the same
+furniture, and hangings, and pictures, and all. And Nurse Boyle herself is
+just the same--only a bit older--Ah! girls!" she added, turning suddenly
+to the three sisters, "you don't know what it means to have been cared
+for, and rocked, and sung to, when you were ill, perhaps, by Mary Boyle!
+You missed a great deal in not having a Mary Boyle in your family."
+
+"_Mary Boyle!_" gasped Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"Yes. Can we all come to see her to-morrow afternoon? I am sure if you
+tell Mrs. Olstrom, your housekeeper will attend to all the arrangements.
+Helen knows about it, and she'll help pour the tea. Mary thinks there is
+nobody quite like Helen."
+
+These shocks were coming too fast for Mr. Starkweather. Had anything
+further occurred that evening to torment him it is doubtful if he would
+have got through it as gracefully as he did through this call. May Van
+Ramsden went away assured that no obstacle would be placed in the way of
+Mary Boyle's party in the attic. But neither Mr. Starkweather, nor his
+three daughters, could really look straight into each other's faces for
+the remainder of that evening. And they were all four remarkably silent,
+despite the exciting things that had so recently occurred to disturb
+them.
+
+In the morning Helen got an invitation from Jess Stone to dinner that
+evening. She said "come just as you are"; but she did not tell Helen that
+she had innocently betrayed her true condition to the Starkweathers. Helen
+wrote a long reply and sent it by special messenger through old Lawdor,
+the butler. Then she prepared for the tea in Mary Boyle's rooms.
+
+At breakfast time Helen met the family for the first time since the
+explosion. Self-consciousness troubled the countenances and likewise the
+manner of Mr. Starkweather and his three daughters.
+
+"Ahem! A very fine morning, Helen. Have you been out for your usual
+ramble, my dear?"
+
+"How-do, Helen? Hope you're feeling quite fit."
+
+"Dear me, Helen! How pretty your hair is, child. You must show me how you
+do it in that simple way."
+
+But Flossie was more honest. She only nodded to Helen at first. Then, when
+Gregson was out of the room, she jumped up, went around the table swiftly,
+and caught the Western girl about the neck.
+
+"Helen! I'm just as ashamed of myself as I can be!" she cried, her tears
+flowing copiously. "I treated you so mean all the time, and you have been
+so very, very decent about helping me in my lessons. Forgive me; will you?
+Oh, please say you will!"
+
+Helen kissed her warmly. "Nothing to forgive, Floss," she said, a little
+bruskly, perhaps. "Don't let's speak about it."
+
+She merely bowed and said a word in reply to the others. Nor could Mr.
+Starkweather's unctuous conversation arouse her interest.
+
+"You have a part in the very worthy effort to liven up old Nurse Boyle, I
+understand?" said Mr. Starkweather, graciously. "Is there anything needed
+that I can have sent in, Helen?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir. I am only helping Miss Van Ramsden," Helen replied,
+timidly.
+
+"I think May Van Ramsden should have told _me_ of her plans," said Belle,
+tossing her head.
+
+"Or, _me_," rejoined Hortense.
+
+"Pah!" snapped Flossie. "None of us ever cared a straw for the old woman.
+Queer old thing. I thought she was more than a little cracked."
+
+"Flossie!" ejaculated Mr. Starkweather, angrily, "unless you can speak
+with more respect for--ahem!--for a faithful old servitor of the
+Starkweather family, I shall have to--ahem!--ask you to leave the table."
+
+"You won't have to ask me--I'm going!" exclaimed Flossie, flirting out of
+her chair and picking up her books. "But I want to say one thing while I'm
+on my way," observed the slangy youngster: "You're all just as tiresome as
+you can be! Why don't you own up that you'd never have given the old woman
+a thought if it wasn't for May Van Ramsden and her friends--and Helen?"
+and she beat a retreat in quick order.
+
+It was an unpleasant breakfast for Helen, and she retired from the table
+as soon as she could. She felt that this attitude of the Starkweathers
+toward her was really more unhappy than their former treatment. For she
+somehow suspected that this overpowering kindness was founded upon a
+sudden discovery that she was a rich girl instead of an object of charity.
+How well-founded this suspicion was she learned when she and Jess met.
+
+Hortense brought her up two very elaborate frocks that forenoon, one for
+her to wear when she poured tea in Mary Boyle's rooms, and the other for
+her to put on for the Stones' dinner party.
+
+"They will just about fit you. I'm a mite taller, but that won't matter,"
+said the languid Hortense. "And really, Helen, I am just as sorry as I can
+be for the mean way you have been treated while you have been here. You
+have been so good-natured, too, in helping a chap. Hope you won't hold it
+against me--and _do_ wear the dresses, dear."
+
+"I will put on this one for the afternoon," said Helen, smiling. "But I do
+not need the evening dress. I never wore one quite--quite like that, you
+see," as she noted the straps over the shoulders and the low corsage. "But
+I thank you just the same."
+
+Later Belle said to her airily: "Dear Cousin Helen! I have spoken to
+Gustaf about taking you to the Stones' in the limousine to-night. And he
+will call for you at any hour you say."
+
+"I cannot avail myself of that privilege, Belle," responded Helen,
+quietly. "Jess will send for me at half-past six. She has already arranged
+to do so. Thank you."
+
+There was so much going on above stairs that day that Helen was able to
+escape most of the oppressive attentions of her cousins. Great baskets of
+flowers were sent in by some of the young people who remembered and loved
+Mary Boyle, and Helen helped to arrange them in the little old lady's
+rooms.
+
+Tea things for a score of people came in, too. And cookies and cakes from
+the caterer's. At three o'clock, or a little after, the callers began to
+arrive. Belle, and Hortense, and Flossie received them in the reception
+hall, had them remove their cloaks below stairs, and otherwise tried to
+make it appear that the function was really of their own planning.
+
+But nobody invited either of the Starkweather girls upstairs to Mary
+Boyle's rooms. Perhaps it was an oversight. But it certainly _did_ look as
+though they had been forgotten.
+
+But the party on the attic floor was certainly a success. How pretty the
+little old lady looked, sitting in state with all the young and blooming
+faces about her! Here were growing up into womanhood and manhood (for some
+of the boys had not been ashamed to come) the children whom she had tended
+and played with and sung to.
+
+And she sung to them again--verses of forgotten songs, lullabies she had
+crooned over some of their cradles when they were ill, little broken
+chants that had sent many of them, many times, to sleep.
+
+Altogether it was a most enjoyable afternoon, and Nurse Boyle was promised
+that it should not be the last tea-party she would have. "If you are 'way
+up here in the top of the house, you shall no more be forgotten," they
+told her.
+
+Helen was the object next in interest to Nurse Boyle. May Van Ramsden had
+told about the Starkweathers' little "Cinderella Cousin"; and although
+none of these girls and boys who had gathered knew the truth about Helen's
+wealth and her position in life, they all treated her cordially.
+
+When they trooped away and left the little old lady to lie down to
+recuperate after the excitement, Helen went to her own room, and remained
+closely shut up for the rest of the day.
+
+At half-past six she came downstairs, bag in hand. She descended the
+servants' staircase, told Mr. Lawdor that her trunk, packed and locked,
+was ready for the expressman when he came, and so stole out of the area
+door. She escaped any interview with her uncle, or with the girls. She
+could not bid them good-by, yet she was determined not to go back to
+Sunset Ranch on the morrow, nor would she remain another night under her
+uncle's roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+A STATEMENT OF FACT
+
+
+Dud Stone had that very day seen the fixtures put into the little
+millinery store downtown, and it was ready for Sadie Goronsky to take
+charge; there being a fund of two hundred dollars to Sadie's credit at a
+nearby bank, with which she could buy stock and pay her running expenses
+for the first few weeks.
+
+Yet Sadie didn't know a thing about it.
+
+This last was the reason Helen went downtown early in the morning
+following the little dinner party at the Stones'. At that party Helen had
+met the uncle, aunt, and cousins of Dud and Jess Stone, with whom the
+orphaned brother and sister lived, and she had found them a most charming
+family.
+
+Jess had invited Helen to bring her trunk and remain with her as long as
+she contemplated staying in New York, and this Helen was determined to do.
+Even if the Starkweathers would not let the expressman have her trunk, she
+was prepared to blossom out now in a butterfly outfit, and take the place
+in society that was rightfully hers.
+
+But Helen hadn't time to go shopping as yet. She was too eager to tell
+Sadie of her good fortune. Sadie was to be found--cold as the day
+was--pacing the walk before Finkelstein's shop, on the sharp lookout for a
+customer. But there were a few flakes of snow in the air, the wind from
+the river was very raw, and it did seem to Helen as though the Russian
+girl was endangering her health.
+
+"But what can poor folks do?" demanded Sadie, hoarsely, for she already
+had a heavy cold. "There is nothing for me to do inside the store. If I
+catch a customer I make somet'ings yet. Well, we must all work!"
+
+"Some other kind of work would be easier," suggested Helen.
+
+"But not so much money, maybe."
+
+"If you only had your millinery store."
+
+"Don't make me laugh! Me lip's cracked," grumbled Sadie. "Have a heart,
+Helen! I ain't never goin' to git a store like I showed you."
+
+Sadie was evidently short of hope on this cold day. Helen seized her arm.
+"Let's go up and look at that store again," she urged.
+
+"Have a heart, I tell ye!" exclaimed Sadie Goronsky. "Whaddeyer wanter rub
+it in for?"
+
+"Anyway, if we run it will help warm you."
+
+"All ri'. Come on," said Sadie, with deep disgust, but she started on a
+heavy trot towards the block on which her heart had been set. And when
+they rounded the corner and came before the little shop window, Sadie
+stopped with a gasp of amazement.
+
+Freshly varnished cases, and counter, and drawers, and all were in the
+store just as she had dreamed of them. There were mirrors, too, and in the
+window little forms on which to set up the trimmed hats and one big,
+pink-cheeked, dolly-looking wax bust, with a great mass of tow-colored
+hair piled high in the very latest mode, on which was to be set the very
+finest hat to be evolved in that particular East Side shop.
+
+"Wha--wha--what----"
+
+"Let's go in and look at it," said Helen, eagerly, seizing her friend's
+arm again.
+
+"No, no, no!" gasped Sadie. "We can't. It ain't open. Oh, oh, oh!
+Somebody's got _my_ shop!"
+
+Helen produced the key and opened the door. She fairly pushed the amazed
+Russian girl inside, and then closed the door. It was nice and warm. There
+were chairs. There was a half-length partition at the rear to separate the
+workroom from the showroom. And behind that partition were low sewing
+chairs to work in, and a long work-table.
+
+Helen led the dazed Sadie into this rear room and sat her down in one of
+the chairs. Then she took one facing her and said:
+
+"Now, you sit right there and make up in your mind the very prettiest hat
+for _me_ that you can possibly invent. The first hat you trim in this
+store must be for me."
+
+"Helen! Helen!" cried Sadie, almost wildly. "You're crazy yet--or is it
+me? I don't know what you mean----"
+
+"Yes, you do, dear," replied Helen, putting her arms about the other
+girl's neck. "You were kind to me when I was lost in this city. You were
+kind to me just for nothing--when I appeared poor and forlorn and--and a
+greenie! Now, I am sorry that it seemed best for me to let your mistake
+stand. I did not tell my uncle and cousins either, that I was not as poor
+and helpless as I appeared."
+
+"And you're rich?" shrieked Sadie. "You're doing this yourself? This is
+_your_ store?"
+
+"No, it is _your_ store," returned Helen, firmly. "Of course, by and by,
+when you are established and are making lots of money, if you can ever
+afford to pay me back, you may do so. The money is yours without interest
+until that time."
+
+"I got to cry, Helen! I got to cry!" sobbed Sadie Goronsky. "If an angel
+right down out of heaven had done it like you done it, I'd worship him on
+my knees. And you're a rich girl--not a poor one?"
+
+Helen then told her all about herself, and all about her adventures since
+coming alone to New York. But after that Sadie wanted to keep telling her
+how thankful she was for the store, and that Helen must come home and see
+mommer, and that mommer must be brought to see the shop, too. So Helen ran
+away. She could not bear any more gratitude from Sadie. Her heart was too
+full.
+
+She went over to poor Lurcher's lodgings and climbed the dark stairs to
+his rooms. She had something to tell him, as well.
+
+The purblind old man knew her step, although she had been there but a few
+times.
+
+"Come in, Miss. Yours are angel's visits, although they are more frequent
+than angel's visits are supposed to be," he cried.
+
+"I do hope you are keeping off the street this weather, Mr. Lurcher," she
+said. "If you can mend shoes I have heard of a place where they will send
+work to you, and call for it, and you can afford to have a warmer and
+lighter room than this one."
+
+"Ah, my dear Miss! that is good of you--that is good of you," mumbled the
+old man. "And why you should take such an interest in _me_----?"
+
+"I feel sure that you would be interested in me, if I were poor and
+unhappy and you were rich and able to get about. Isn't that so?" she said,
+laughing.
+
+"Aye. Truly. And you _are_ rich, my dear Miss?"
+
+"Very rich, indeed. Father was one of the big cattle kings of Montana, and
+Prince Morrell's Sunset Ranch, they tell me, is one of the _great_
+properties of the West."
+
+The old man turned to look at her with some eagerness. "That name?" he
+whispered. "_Who_ did you say?"
+
+"Why--my father, Prince Morrell."
+
+"Your father? Prince Morrell your father?" gasped the old man, and sat
+down suddenly, shaking in every limb.
+
+The girl instantly became excited, too. She stepped quickly to him and
+laid her hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"Did you ever know my father?" she asked him.
+
+"I--I once knew a Mr. Prince Morrell."
+
+"Was it here in New York you knew him?"
+
+"Yes. It was years ago. He--he was a good man. I--I had not heard of him
+for years. I was away from the city myself for ten years--in New Orleans.
+I went there suddenly to take the position of head bookkeeper in a
+shipping firm. Then the firm failed, my health was broken by the climate,
+and I returned here."
+
+Helen was staring at him in wonder and almost in alarm. She backed away
+from him a bit toward the door.
+
+"Tell me your real name!" she cried. "It's not Lurcher. Nor is it Jones.
+No! don't tell me. I know--I know! You are Allen Chesterton, who was once
+bookkeeper for the firm of Grimes & Morrell!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+"THE WHIP HAND"
+
+
+An hour later Helen and the old man hurried out of the lodging house and
+Helen led him across town to the office where Dudley Stone worked. At
+first the old man peered all about, on the watch for Fenwick Grimes or his
+clerk.
+
+"They have been after me every few days to agree to leave New York. I did
+not know what for, but I knew Fenwick was up to some game. He always _was_
+up to some game, even when we were young fellows together.
+
+"Now he is rich, and he might have found me better lodgings and something
+to do. But after I came back from the South and was unfit to do clerical
+work because of my eyes, he only threw me a dollar now and then--like
+throwing a bone to a starving dog."
+
+That explained how Helen had chanced to see the old man at Fenwick
+Grimes's door on the occasion of her visit to her father's old partner.
+And later, in the presence of Dudley Stone--who was almost as eager as
+Helen herself--the old man related the facts that served to explain the
+whole mystery surrounding the trouble that had darkened Prince Morrell's
+life for so long.
+
+Briefly, Allen Chesterton and Fenwick Grimes had grown up together in the
+same town, as boys had come to New York, and had kept in touch with each
+other for years. Neither had married and for years they had roomed
+together.
+
+But Chesterton was a plodding bookkeeper and would never be anything else.
+Grimes was mad for money, but he was always complaining that he never had
+a chance.
+
+His chance came through Willets Starkweather, when the latter's
+brother-in-law was looking for a working partner--a man right in Grimes's
+line, and who was a good salesman. Grimes got into the firm on very
+limited capital, yet he was a trusted member and Prince Morrell depended
+on his judgment in most things.
+
+Allen Chesterton had been brought into the firm's office to keep the books
+through Grimes's influence, of course. By and by it seemed to Chesterton
+that his old comrade was running pretty close to the wind. The bookkeeper
+feared that _he_ might be involved in some dubious enterprise.
+
+There was flung in Chesterton's way (perhaps _that_ was by the influence
+of Grimes, too) a chance to go to New Orleans to be bookkeeper in a
+shipping firm. He could get passage upon a vessel belonging to the firm.
+
+He had this to decide between the time of leaving the office one afternoon
+and early the next morning. He took the place and bundled his things
+aboard, leaving a letter for Fenwick Grimes. That letter, it is needless
+to say, Grimes never made public. And by the time the slow craft
+Chesterton was on reached her destination, the firm of Grimes & Morrell
+had gone to smash, Morrell was a fugitive, and the papers had ceased to
+talk about the matter.
+
+The true explanation of the mystery was now plain. Chesterton said that it
+was not himself, but Grimes, who had been successful as an amateur actor.
+Grimes had often disguised himself so well as different people that he
+might have made something by the art in a "protean turn" on the vaudeville
+stage.
+
+Chesterton had known all about the thirty-three thousand dollars belonging
+to Morrell & Grimes in the banks. Grimes had hinted to his friend how easy
+it would be to sequestrate this money without Morrell knowing it. At
+first, evidently, Grimes had wished to use the bookkeeper as a tool.
+
+Then he improved upon his plan. He had gotten rid of Chesterton by getting
+him the position at a distance. His going out of town himself had been
+merely a blind. He had imitated Prince Morrell so perfectly--after forging
+the checks in his partner's handwriting--that the tellers of the two banks
+had thought Morrell really guilty as charged.
+
+"So Fenwick Grimes got thirty-three thousand dollars with which to begin
+business on, after the bankruptcy proceedings had freed him of all debts,"
+said Dud Stone, reflectively. "Yet there must have been one other person
+who knew, or suspected, his crime."
+
+"Who could that be?" cried Helen. "Surely Mr. Chesterton is guiltless."
+
+"Personally I would have taken the old man's statement without his
+swearing to it. _That_ is the confidence I have in him. I only wished it
+to be put into affidavit form that it might be presented to the courts--if
+necessary."
+
+"If necessary?" repeated Helen, faintly.
+
+"You see, my dear girl, you now have the whip hand," said Dud. "You can
+make the man--or men--who ill-used your father suffer for the crime----"
+
+"But, is there more than Grimes? Are you _sure_?"
+
+"I believe that there is another who _knew_. Either legally, or morally,
+he is guilty. In either case he was and is a despicable man!" exclaimed
+Dud, hotly.
+
+"You mean my uncle," observed Helen, quietly. "I know you do. How do you
+think he benefited by this crime?"
+
+"I believe he had a share of the money. He held Grimes up, undoubtedly.
+Grimes is the bigger criminal in a legal sense. But Starkweather
+benefited, I believe, after the fact. And _he_ let your father remain in
+ignorance----"
+
+"And let poor dad pay him back the money he was supposed to have lost in
+the smashing of the firm?" murmured Helen. "Do--do you think he was paid
+twice--that he got money from both Grimes and father?"
+
+"We'll prove that by Grimes," said the fledgling lawyer who, in time, was
+likely to prove himself a successful one indeed.
+
+He sent for Mr. Grimes to come to see him on important business. When the
+money-lender arrived, Dud got him into a corner immediately, showed the
+affidavit, and hinted that Starkweather had divulged something.
+
+Immediately Grimes accused Helen's uncle of exactly the part in the crime
+Dud had suspected him of committing. After the affair blew over and Grimes
+had set up in business, Starkweather had come to him and threatened to
+tell certain things which he knew, and others that he suspected, unless he
+was given the money he had originally invested in the firm of Grimes &
+Morrell.
+
+"I shut his mouth. That's all he took--his rightful share; but I've got
+his receipts, and I can make it look bad for him. And I _will_ make it
+look bad for that old stiff-and-starched hypocrite if he lets me be driven
+to the wall."
+
+This defiance of Fenwick Grimes closed the case as far as any legal
+proceedings were concerned. The matter of recovering the money from Grimes
+would have to be tried in the civil courts. All the creditors of the firm
+were satisfied. To get Grimes indicted for his old crime would be a
+difficult matter in New York County.
+
+"But you have the whip hand," Dud Stone told the girl from Sunset Ranch
+again. "If you want satisfaction, you can spread the story broadcast by
+means of the newspapers, and you will involve Starkweather in it just as
+much as you will Grimes. And between you and me, Helen, I think Willets
+Starkweather richly deserves just that punishment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+HEADED WEST
+
+
+Just at this time Helen Morrell wasn't thinking at all about wreaking
+vengeance upon those who might have ill-treated her when she was alone in
+the great city. Instead, her heart was made very tender by the delightful
+things that were being done for her by those who loved and admired the
+sturdy little girl from Sunset Ranch.
+
+In the first place, Jess and Dud Stone, and their cousins, gave Helen
+every chance possible to see the pleasanter side of city life. She had
+gone shopping with the girls and bought frocks and hats galore. Indeed,
+she had had to telegraph to Big Hen for more money. She got the money; but
+likewise she received the following letter:
+
+  "Dear Snuggy:--
+
+  "We lets colts get inter the alfalfa an' kick up their heels for a
+  while; but they got to steady down and come home some time. Ain't you
+  kicked up your heels sufficient in that lonesome city? And it looks
+  like somebody was getting money away from you--or have you learnt to
+  spend it down East there? Come on home, Snuggy! The hull endurin' ranch
+  is jest a-honin' for you. Sing's that despondint I expects to see him
+  cut off his pigtail. Jo-Rab has gone back on his rice-and-curry
+  rations, the Greasers don't plunk their mandolins no more, and the
+  punchers are as sorry lookin' as winter-kept steers. Come back, Snuggy,
+  and liven up the old place, is the sincere wish of, yours warmly,
+
+                                                   "Henry Billings."
+
+Helen only waited to see some few matters cleared up before she left for
+the West. As it happened, Dud Stone obtained a chance to represent a big
+corporation for some months, in Elberon and Helena. His smattering of
+legal knowledge was sufficient to enable him to accept the job. It was a
+good chance for Jess to go out, too, and try the climate and the life,
+over both of which her brother was so enthusiastic.
+
+But she would go to Sunset Ranch to remain for some time if Helen went
+West with them and--of course--Helen was only too glad to agree to such a
+proposition.
+
+Meanwhile the Western girl was taken to museums, and parks, and theaters,
+and all kinds of show places, and thoroughly enjoyed herself. May Van
+Ramsden and others of those who had attended Mary Boyle's tea party in the
+attic of the Starkweather house hunted Helen out, too, in the home of her
+friends on Riverside Drive, and the last few weeks of Helen's stay were as
+wonderful and exciting as the first few weeks had been lonely and sad.
+
+Dud had insisted upon publishing the facts of the old trouble which had
+come upon the firm of Grimes & Morrell, in pamphlet form, including Allen
+Chesterton's affidavit, and this pamphlet was mailed to the creditors of
+the old firm and to all of Prince Morrel's old friends in New York. But
+nothing was said in the printed matter about Willets Starkweather.
+
+Fenwick Grimes took a long trip out of town, and made no attempt to put in
+an answer to the case. But Mr. Starkweather was a very much frightened
+man.
+
+Dud came home one afternoon and advised Helen to go and see her uncle.
+Since her departure from the Starkweather mansion she had seen neither the
+girls nor Uncle Starkweather himself.
+
+"He doesn't know what you are going to do with him. He brought the money
+he received from your father to my office; but, of course, I would not
+accept it. You've got the whip hand, Helen----"
+
+"But I do not propose to crack the whip, Dud," declared the Western girl,
+quickly.
+
+"You're a good chap, Snuggy!" exclaimed Dud, warmly, and Helen smiled and
+forgave him for using the intimate nickname.
+
+But Helen went across town the very next day and called upon her uncle.
+This time she mounted the broad stone steps, instead of descending to the
+basement door.
+
+Gregson opened the door and, by his manner, showed that even with the
+servants the girl from Sunset Ranch was upon a different footing in her
+uncle's house. Mr. Starkweather was in his den and Helen was ushered into
+the room without crossing the path of any other member of the family.
+
+"Helen!" he ejaculated, when he saw her, and to tell the truth the girl
+was shocked by his changed appearance. Mr. Starkweather was quite broken
+down. The cloud of scandal that seemed to be menacing him had worn his
+pomposity to a thread, and his dignified "Ahem!" had quite disappeared.
+
+Indeed, to see this once proud and selfish man fairly groveling before the
+daughter of the man he had helped injure in the old times, was not a
+pleasant sight. Helen cut the interview as short as she could.
+
+She managed to assure Uncle Starkweather that he need have no
+apprehension. That he had known all the time Grimes was guilty, and that
+he had benefited from that knowledge, was the sum and substance of Willets
+Starkweather's connection with the old crime. At that time he had been, as
+Dud Stone learned, in serious financial difficulties. He used the money
+received from Grimes's ill-gotten gains, to put himself on his feet.
+
+Then had come the death of old Cornelius Starkweather and the legacy.
+After that, when Prince Morrell sent Starkweather the money he was
+supposed to have lost in the bankruptcy of Grimes & Morrell, Starkweather
+did not dare refuse it. He feared always that it would be discovered he
+had known who was really guilty of the embezzlement.
+
+Flossie met Helen in the hall and hugged her. "Don't you go away mad at
+me, Helen," she cried. "I know we all treated you mean; but--but I guess I
+wouldn't act that way again, to any girl, no matter what Belle does."
+
+"I do not believe you would, Floss," agreed Helen, kissing her warmly.
+
+"And are you really going back to that lovely ranch?"
+
+"Very soon. And some time, if you care to and your father will let you,
+I'll be glad to have you come out there for a visit."
+
+"Bully for you, Helen! I'll surely come," cried Flossie.
+
+Hortense was on hand to speak to her cousin, too. "You are much too nice a
+girl to bear malice, I am sure, Helen," she said. "But we do not deserve
+very good treatment at your hands. I hope you will forgive us and, when
+you come to New York again, come to visit us."
+
+"I am sure you would not treat me again as you did this time," said Helen,
+rather sternly.
+
+"You can be sure we wouldn't. Not even Belle. She's awfully sorry, but
+she's too proud to say so. She wants father to bring old Mary Boyle
+downstairs into the old nursery suite that she used to occupy when Uncle
+Cornelius was alive; only the old lady doesn't want to come. She says
+she's only a few more years at best to live and she doesn't like
+changes."
+
+Helen saw the nurse before she left the house, and left the dear old
+creature very happy indeed. Helen was sure Nurse Boyle would never be so
+lonely again, for her friends had remembered her.
+
+Even Mrs. Olstrom, the housekeeper, came to shake hands with the girl who
+had been tucked away into an attic bedroom as "a pauper cousin." And old
+Mr. Lawdor fairly shed tears when he learned that he was not likely to see
+Helen again.
+
+There were other people in the great city who were sorry to see Helen
+Morrell start West. Through Dud Stone, Allen Chesterton had been found
+light work and a pleasant boarding place. There would always be a
+watchful eye upon the old man--and that eye belonged to Miss Sadie
+Goronsky--rather, "S. Goron, Milliner," as the new sign over the hat shop
+door read.
+
+"For you see," said Miss Sadie, with a toss of her head, "there ain't no
+use in advertisin' it that you are a Yid. _That_ don't do no good, as I
+tell mommer. Sure, I'm proud I'm a Jew. We're the greatest people in the
+world yet. But it ain't good for business.
+
+"Now, 'Goron' sounds Frenchy; don't it, Helen? And when I get a-going down
+here good, I'll be wantin' some time to look at a place on Fift' Av'ner,
+maybe. 'Madame Goron' would be dead swell--yes? But you put the 'sky' to
+it and it's like tying a can to a dog's tail. There ain't nowhere to go
+then but _home_," declared this worldly wise young girl.
+
+Helen had dinner again with the Goronskys, and Sadie's mother could not do
+enough to show her fondness for her daughter's benefactor. Sadie promised
+to write to Helen frequently and the two girls--so much alike in some
+ways, yet as far apart as the poles in others--bade each other an
+affectionate farewell.
+
+The next day Helen Morrell and her two friends, Dud and Jess Stone, were
+headed West. That second trip across the continent was a very different
+journey for Helen than the first had been.
+
+She and Jess Stone had become the best of friends. And as the months slid
+by the two girls--Helen, a product of the West, and Jessie, a product of
+the great Eastern city--became dearer and dearer companions.
+
+As for Dud--of course he was always hanging around. His sister sometimes
+wondered--and that audibly--how he found time for business, he was so
+frequently at Sunset Ranch. This was only said, however, in wicked
+enjoyment of his discomfiture--and of Helen's blushes.
+
+For by that time it was an understood thing about Sunset Ranch that in
+time Dud was going to have the right to call its mistress "Snuggy" for all
+the years of her life--just as her father had. And Helen, contemplating
+this possibility, did not seem to mind.
+
+THE END
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+SOMETHING ABOUT
+AMY BELL MARLOWE
+AND HER BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+In these days, when the printing presses are turning out so many books for
+girls that are good, bad and indifferent, it is refreshing to come upon
+the works of such a gifted authoress as Miss Amy Bell Marlowe, who is now
+under contract to write exclusively for Messrs. Grosset & Dunlap.
+
+In many ways Miss Marlowe's books may be compared with those of Miss
+Alcott and Mrs. Meade, but all are thoroughly modern and wholly American
+in scene and action. Her plots, while never improbable, are exceedingly
+clever, and her girlish characters are as natural as they are
+interesting.
+
+On the following pages will be found a list of Miss Marlowe's books. Every
+girl in our land ought to read these fresh and wholesome tales. They are
+to be found at all booksellers. Each volume is handsomely illustrated and
+bound in cloth, stamped in colors. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New
+York. A free catalogue of Miss Marlowe's books may be had for the asking.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE OLDEST OF FOUR
+
+"I don't see any way out!"
+
+It was Natalie's mother who said that, after the awful news had been
+received that Mr. Raymond had been lost in a shipwreck on the Atlantic.
+Natalie was the oldest of four children, and the family was left with but
+scant means for support.
+
+"I've got to do something--yes, I've just got to!" Natalie said to
+herself, and what the brave girl did is well related in "The Oldest of
+Four; Or, Natalie's Way Out." In this volume we find Natalie with a strong
+desire to become a writer. At first she contributes to a local paper, but
+soon she aspires to larger things, and comes in contact with the editor of
+a popular magazine. This man becomes her warm friend, and not only aids
+her in a literary way but also helps in a hunt for the missing Mr.
+Raymond.
+
+Natalie has many ups and downs, and has to face more than one bitter
+disappointment. But she is a plucky girl through and through.
+
+"One of the brightest girls' stories ever penned," one well-known author
+has said of this book, and we agree with him. Natalie is a thoroughly
+lovable character, and one long to be remembered. Published as are all the
+Amy Bell Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by all
+booksellers. Ask your dealer to let you look the volume over.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM
+
+"We'll go to the old farm, and we'll take boarders! We can fix the old
+place up, and, maybe, make money!"
+
+The father of the two girls was broken down in health and a physician had
+recommended that he go to the country, where he could get plenty of fresh
+air and sunshine. An aunt owned an abandoned farm and she said the family
+could live on this and use the place as they pleased. It was great sport
+moving and getting settled, and the boarders offered one surprise after
+another. There was a mystery about the old farm, and a mystery concerning
+one of the boarders, and how the girls got to the bottom of affairs is
+told in detail in the story, which is called, "The Girls of Hillcrest
+Farm; Or, The Secret of the Rocks."
+
+It was great fun to move to the farm, and once the girls had the scare of
+their lives. And they attended a great "vendue" too.
+
+"I just had to write that story--I couldn't help, it," said Miss Marlowe,
+when she handed in the manuscript. "I knew just such a farm when I was a
+little girl, and oh! what fun I had there! And there was a mystery about
+that place, too!"
+
+Published, like all the Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and
+for sale wherever good books are sold.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+A LITTLE MISS NOBODY
+
+"Oh, she's only a little nobody! Don't have anything to do with her!"
+
+How often poor Nancy Nelson heard those words, and how they cut her to the
+heart. And the saying was true, she _was_ a nobody. She had no folks, and
+she did not know where she had come from. All she did know was that she
+was at a boarding school and that a lawyer paid her tuition bills and gave
+her a mite of spending money.
+
+"I am going to find out who I am, and where I came from," said Nancy to
+herself, one day, and what she did, and how it all ended, is absorbingly
+related in "A Little Miss Nobody; Or, With the Girls of Pinewood Hall."
+Nancy made a warm friend of a poor office boy who worked for that lawyer,
+and this boy kept his eyes and ears open and learned many things.
+
+The book tells much about boarding school life, of study and fun mixed,
+and of a great race on skates. Nancy made some friends as well as enemies,
+and on more than one occasion proved that she was "true blue" in the best
+meaning of that term.
+
+Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers
+everywhere. If you desire a catalogue of Amy Bell Marlowe books send to
+the publishers for it and it will come free.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
+
+Helen was very thoughtful as she rode along the trail from Sunset Ranch to
+the View. She had lost her father but a month before, and he had passed
+away with a stain on his name--a stain of many years' standing, as the
+girl had just found out.
+
+"I am going to New York and I am going to clear his name!" she resolved,
+and just then she saw a young man dashing along, close to the edge of a
+cliff. Over he went, and Helen, with no thought of the danger to herself,
+went to the rescue.
+
+Then the brave Western girl found herself set down at the Grand Central
+Terminal in New York City. She knew not which way to go or what to do. Her
+relatives, who thought she was poor and ignorant, had refused to even meet
+her. She had to fight her way along from the start, and how she did this,
+and won out, is well related in "The Girl from Sunset Ranch; Or, Alone in
+a Great City."
+
+This is one of the finest of Amy Bell Marlowe's books, with its
+true-to-life scenes of the plains and mountains, and of the great
+metropolis. Helen is a girl all readers will love from the start.
+
+Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers
+everywhere.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+WYN'S CAMPING DAYS
+
+"Oh, girls, such news!" cried Wynifred Mallory to her chums, one day. "We
+can go camping on Lake Honotonka! Isn't it grand!"
+
+It certainly was, and the members of the Go-Ahead Club were delighted.
+Soon they set off, with their boy friends to keep them company in another
+camp not far away. Those boys played numerous tricks on the girls, and the
+girls retaliated, you may be sure. And then Wyn did a strange girl a
+favor, and learned how some ancient statues of rare value had been lost in
+the lake, and how the girl's father was accused of stealing them.
+
+"We must do all we can for that girl," said Wyn. But this was not so easy,
+for the girl campers had many troubles of their own. They had canoe races,
+and one of them fell overboard and came close to drowning, and then came a
+big storm, and a nearby tree was struck by lightning.
+
+"I used to love to go camping when a girl, and I love to go yet," said
+Miss Marlowe, in speaking of this tale, which is called, "Wyn's Camping
+Days; Or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club." "I think all girls ought to
+know the pleasures of summer life under canvas."
+
+A book that ought to be in the hands of all girls. Issued by Grosset &
+Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers everywhere.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Girl from Sunset Ranch, by Amy Bell Marlowe
+
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Girl from Sunset Ranch, by Amy Bell Marlowe.
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Girl from Sunset Ranch, by Amy Bell Marlowe
+
+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 Girl from Sunset Ranch
+       Alone in a Great City
+
+Author: Amy Bell Marlowe
+
+Release Date: September 5, 2008 [EBook #26534]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<table style="margin: auto; border: black 1px solid; font-size:0.8em;" summary='books for girls'>
+
+<tr><td align='center'>
+  <p><span style='font-size:1.2em;'>BOOKS FOR GIRLS</span><br />
+  <i>By</i> AMY BELL MARLOWE<br />
+  12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.</p>
+</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td style='padding-left:1em; padding-right:1em;'>
+  <p>THE OLDEST OF FOUR<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;Or Natalie's Way Out<br />
+  THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;Or The Secret of the Rocks<br />
+  A LITTLE MISS NOBODY<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;Or With the Girls of Pinewood Hall<br />
+  THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;Or Alone in a Great City<br />
+  WYN'S CAMPING DAYS<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;Or The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club<br />
+  FRANCES OF THE RANGES<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;Or The Old Ranchman's Treasure<br />
+  THE GIRLS OF RIVERCLIFF SCHOOL<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;Or Beth Baldwin's Resolve</p>
+</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>
+  <hr style='width:5em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black;' />
+</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'>THE ORIOLE BOOKS</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td style='padding-left:1em; padding-right:1em;'>
+  WHEN ORIOLE CAME TO HARBOR LIGHT<br />
+  WHEN ORIOLE TRAVELED WESTWARD
+</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'>
+  <p>(Other volumes in preparation)<br />
+  GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP<br />
+  PUBLISHERS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;NEW YORK</p>
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 314px; height: 495px;' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 314px;'>
+&#8220;CAB, MISS? TAKE YOU ANYWHERE YOU SAY.&#8221;<br />
+<i>Frontispiece (Page 67)</i>.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<table style="margin: auto; border: double;" summary="">
+<col style="width:9%;" />
+<col style="width:82%;"  />
+<col style="width:9%;" />
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>
+<p style="font-size:2.2em; margin-top:1em">THE GIRL FROM</p>
+<p style="font-size:2.2em; margin-bottom:0.4em;">SUNSET RANCH</p>
+<p style="font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:1.5em;">OR</p>
+<p style="font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:2em;">ALONE IN A GREAT CITY</p>
+<p style="font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:1em;">BY</p>
+<p style="font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:2em;">AMY BELL MARLOWE</p>
+<p style="font-size:0.8em;">AUTHOR OF</p>
+<p style="font-size:0.8em;">THE OLDEST OF FOUR, THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST</p>
+<p style="font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:2em;">FARM, WYN'S CAMPING DAYS, ETC.</p>
+<p style="font-size:1.1em; margin-bottom:2em;">Illustrated</p>
+<p style="font-size:0.8em;">NEW YORK</p>
+<p style="font-size:1.2em;">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</p>
+<p style="font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:2em;">PUBLISHERS</p>
+</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p style='font-size:0.8em; text-align:center;'>Made in the United States of America</p>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce' style=' font-size:0.8em;'>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Copyright</span>, 1914, <span style='font-variant: small-caps'>by</span></p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><i>The Girl from Sunset Ranch</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-bottom:1em;'>CONTENTS</p>
+</div>
+
+<table border='0' width='500' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'>
+<tr>
+  <td align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'><span style='font-size:small;'>CHAPTER</span></td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>I.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>&#8220;Snuggy&#8221; and the Rose Pony</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#I__SNUGGY__AND_THE_ROSE_PONY'>1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>II.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Dudley Stone</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#II_DUDLEY_STONE'>14</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>III.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Mistress Of Sunset Ranch</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#III_THE_MISTRESS_OF_SUNSET_RANCH'>26</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Headed East</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IV_HEADED_EAST'>36</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>V.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>At Both Ends Of The Route</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#V_AT_BOTH_ENDS_OF_THE_ROUTE'>45</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Across The Continent</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VI_ACROSS_THE_CONTINENT'>56</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Great City</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VII_THE_GREAT_CITY'>65</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Welcome</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VIII_THE_WELCOME'>72</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Ghost Walk</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IX_THE_GHOST_WALK'>83</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>X.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Morning</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#X_MORNING'>92</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Living Up To One&#8217;s Reputation</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XI_LIVING_UP_TO_ONE_S_REPUTATION'>102</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>&#8220;I Must Learn The Truth&#8221;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XII__I_MUST_LEARN_THE_TRUTH'>111</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Sadie Again</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIII_SADIE_AGAIN'>128</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A New World</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIV_A_NEW_WORLD'>142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>&#8220;Step&mdash;Put; Step&mdash;Put&#8221;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XV__STEP_PUT_STEP_PUT'>152</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Forgotten</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVI_FORGOTTEN'>164</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Distinct Shock</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVII_A_DISTINCT_SHOCK'>176</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Probing For Facts</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVIII_PROBING_FOR_FACTS'>196</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>&#8220;Jones&#8221;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIX__JONES'>204</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Out Of Step With The Times</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XX_OUT_OF_STEP_WITH_THE_TIMES'>216</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Breaking The Ice</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXI_BREAKING_THE_ICE'>227</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>In The Saddle</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXII_IN_THE_SADDLE'>238</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>My Lady Bountiful</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIII_MY_LADY_BOUNTIFUL'>252</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Hat Shop</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIV_THE_HAT_SHOP'>262</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Missing Link</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXV_THE_MISSING_LINK'>271</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Their Eyes Are Opened</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVI_THEIR_EYES_ARE_OPENED'>279</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Party</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVII_THE_PARTY'>287</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Statement Of Fact</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVIII_A_STATEMENT_OF_FACT'>304</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>&#8220;The Whip Hand&#8221;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIX__THE_WHIP_HAND'>311</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Headed West</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXX_HEADED_WEST'>317</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1' name='page_1'></a>1</span></div>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-top:2em;'>THE GIRL FROM SUNSET</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>RANCH</p>
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 0em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='I__SNUGGY__AND_THE_ROSE_PONY' id='I__SNUGGY__AND_THE_ROSE_PONY'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3>&#8220;SNUGGY&#8221; AND THE ROSE PONY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hi, Rose! Up, girl! There&#8217;s another party
+making for the View by the far path. Get a move
+on, Rosie.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The strawberry roan tossed her cropped mane
+and her dainty little hoofs clattered more quickly
+over the rocky path which led up from the far-reaching
+grazing lands of Sunset Ranch to the
+summit of the rocky eminence that bounded the
+valley upon the east.</p>
+<p>To the west lay a great, rolling plain, covered
+with buffalo grass and sage; and dropping down
+the arc of the sky was the setting sun, ruddy-countenanced,
+whose almost level rays played full
+upon the face of the bluff up which the pony
+climbed so nimbly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;On, Rosie, girl!&#8221; repeated the rider. &#8220;Don&#8217;t
+let him get to the View before us. I don&#8217;t see
+why anybody would wish to go there,&#8221; she added,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span>
+with a jealous pang, &#8220;for it was father&#8217;s favorite
+outlook. None of our boys, I am sure, would
+come up here at this hour.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen Morrell was secure in this final opinion.
+It was but a short month since Prince Morrell had
+gone down under the hoofs of the steers in an unfortunate
+stampede that had cost the Sunset Ranch
+much beside the life of its well-liked owner.</p>
+<p>The View&mdash;a flat table of rock on the summit
+overlooking the valley&mdash;had become almost sacred
+in the eyes of the punchers of Sunset Ranch since
+Mr. Morrell&#8217;s death. For it was to that spot the
+ranchman had betaken himself&mdash;usually with his
+daughter&mdash;on almost every fair evening, to overlook
+the valley and count the roaming herds which
+grazed under his brand.</p>
+<p>Helen, who was sixteen and of sturdy build,
+could see the nearer herds now dotting the plain.
+She had her father&#8217;s glasses slung over her shoulder,
+and she had come to-night partly for the purpose
+of spying out the strays along the watercourses
+or hiding in the distant <i>coulées</i>.</p>
+<p>But mainly her visit to the View was because
+her father had loved to ride here. She could think
+about him here undisturbed by the confusion and
+bustle at the ranch-house. And there were some
+things&mdash;things about her father and the sad conversation
+they had had together before his taking
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span>
+away&mdash;that Helen wanted to speculate upon alone.</p>
+<p>The boys had picked him up after the accident
+and brought him home; and doctors had been
+brought all the way from Helena to do what they
+could for him. But Mr. Morrell had suffered
+many bruises and broken bones, and there had been
+no hope for him from the first.</p>
+<p>He was not, however, always unconscious. He
+was a masterful man and he refused to take drugs
+to deaden the pain.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me know what I am about until I meet
+death,&#8221; he had whispered. &#8220;I&mdash;am&mdash;not&mdash;afraid.&#8221;</p>
+<p>And yet, there was one thing of which he had
+been sorely afraid. It was the thought of leaving
+his daughter alone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Snuggy!&#8221; he groaned, clinging to the
+girl&#8217;s plump hand with his own weak one. &#8220;If
+there were some of your own kind to&mdash;to leave you
+with. A girl like you needs women about&mdash;good
+women, and refined women. Squaws, and Greasers,
+and half-breeds aren&#8217;t the kind of women-folk
+your mother was brought up among.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know but I&#8217;ve done wrong these past
+few years&mdash;since your mother died, anyway. I&#8217;ve
+been making money here, and it&#8217;s all for you,
+Snuggy. That&#8217;s fixed by the lawyer in Elberon.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Big Hen Billings is executor and guardian of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span>
+you and the ranch. I know I can trust him. But
+there ought to be nice women and girls for you
+to live with&mdash;like those girls who went to school
+with you the four years you were in Denver.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yet, this is your home. And your money is
+going to be made here. It would be a crime to
+sell out now.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, Snuggy! Snuggy! If your mother had
+only lived!&#8221; groaned Mr. Morrell. &#8220;A woman
+knows what&#8217;s right for a girl better than a man.
+This is a rough place out here. And even the best
+of our friends and neighbors are crude. You want
+refinement, and pretty dresses, and soft beds, and
+fine furniture&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no, Father! I love Sunset Ranch just
+as it is,&#8221; Helen declared, wiping away her tears.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Aye. &#8217;Tis a beauty spot&mdash;the beauty spot of
+all Montana, I believe,&#8221; agreed the dying man.
+&#8220;But you need something more than a beautiful
+landscape.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But there are true hearts here&mdash;all our
+friends!&#8221; cried Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And so they are&mdash;God bless them!&#8221; responded
+Prince Morrell, fervently. &#8220;But,
+Snuggy, you were born to something better than
+being a &#8216;cowgirl.&#8217; Your mother was a refined
+woman. I have forgotten most of my college education;
+but I had it once.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>This</i> was not our original environment. It
+was not meant that we should be shut away from
+all the gentler things of life, and live rudely
+as we have. Unhappy circumstances did that
+for us.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He was silent for a moment, his face working
+with suppressed emotion. Suddenly his grasp
+tightened on the girl&#8217;s hand and he continued:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Snuggy! I&#8217;m going to tell you something.
+It&#8217;s something you ought to know, I believe. Your
+mother was made unhappy by it, and I wouldn&#8217;t
+want a knowledge of it to come upon you unaware,
+in the after time when you are alone. Let me tell
+you with my own lips, girl.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Father, what is it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your father&#8217;s name is under a cloud. There is
+a smirch on my reputation. I&mdash;I ran away from
+New York to escape arrest, and I have lived here
+in the wilderness, without communicating with old
+friends and associates, because I did not want the
+matter stirred up.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Afraid of arrest, Father?&#8221; gasped Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;For your mother&#8217;s sake, and for yours,&#8221; he
+said. &#8220;She couldn&#8217;t have borne it. It would have
+killed her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you were not guilty, Father!&#8221; cried
+Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;How do you know I wasn&#8217;t?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Father, you could never have done anything
+dishonorable or mean&mdash;I know you could
+not!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you, Snuggy!&#8221; the dying man replied,
+with a smile hovering about his pain-drawn lips.
+&#8220;You&#8217;ve been the greatest comfort a father ever
+had, ever since you was a little, cuddly baby, and
+liked to snuggle up against father under the
+blankets.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That was before the big ranch-house was
+built, and we lived in a shack. I don&#8217;t know how
+your mother managed to stand it, winters. <i>You</i>
+just snuggled into my arms under the blankets&mdash;that&#8217;s
+how we came to call you &#8216;Snuggy.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Snuggy&#8217; is a good name, Dad,&#8221; she declared.
+&#8220;I love it, because <i>you</i> love it. And I know I
+gave you comfort when I was little.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Indeed, yes! <i>What</i> a comfort you were after
+your poor mother died, Snuggy! Ah, well! you
+shall have your reward, dear. I am sure of that.
+Only I am worried that you should be left alone
+now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Big Hen and the boys will take care of me,&#8221;
+Helen said, stifling her sobs.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nay, but you need women-folk about. Your
+mother&#8217;s sister, now&mdash;The Starkweathers, if
+they knew, might offer you a home.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is, Aunt Eunice&#8217;s folks?&#8221; asked Helen.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span>
+&#8220;I remember mother speaking of Aunt Eunice.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. She corresponded with Eunice until her
+death. Of course, we haven&#8217;t heard from them
+since. The Starkweathers naturally did not wish
+to keep up a close acquaintanceship with me after
+what happened.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, dear Dad! you haven&#8217;t told me what happened.
+<i>Do</i> tell me!&#8221; begged the anxious girl.</p>
+<p>Then the girl&#8217;s dying father told her of the
+looted bank account of Grimes &amp; Morrell. The
+cash assets of the firm had suddenly disappeared.
+Circumstantial evidence pointed at Prince Morrell.
+His partner and Starkweather, who had a small
+interest in the firm, showed their doubt of him.
+The creditors were clamorous and ugly. The
+bookkeeper of the firm disappeared.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They advised me to go away for a while; your
+mother was delicate and the trouble was wearing
+her into her grave. And so,&#8221; Mr. Morrell said,
+in a shaking voice, &#8220;I ran away. We came out
+here. You were born in this valley, Snuggy. We
+hoped at first to take you back to New York, where
+all the mystery would be explained. But that time
+never came.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Neither Starkweather, nor Grimes, seemed
+able to help me with advice or information. Gradually
+I got into the cattle business here. I prospered
+here, while Fenwick Grimes prospered in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span>
+New York. I understand he is a very wealthy
+man.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Soon after we came out here your Uncle
+Starkweather fell heir to a big property and moved
+into a mansion on Madison Avenue. He, and his
+wife, and the three girls&mdash;Belle, Hortense and
+Flossie&mdash;have everything heart could desire.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And they have all I want my Snuggy to have,&#8221;
+groaned Mr. Morrell. &#8220;They have refinement,
+and books, and music, and all the things that make
+life worth living for a woman.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I <i>love</i> Sunset Ranch!&#8221; cried Helen again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Aye. But I watched your mother. I know
+how much she missed the gentler things she had
+been brought up to. Had I been able to pay off
+those old creditors while she was alive, she might
+have gone back.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And yet,&#8221; the ranchman sighed, &#8220;the stigma is
+there. The blot is still on your father&#8217;s name,
+Snuggy. People in New York still believe that I
+was dishonest. They believe that with the proceeds
+of my dishonesty I came out here and went
+into the cattle business.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see, my dear? Even the settling with our
+old creditors&mdash;the creditors of Grimes &amp; Morrell&mdash;made
+suspicion wag her tongue more eagerly
+than ever. I paid every cent, with interest compounded
+to the date of settlement. Grimes had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span>
+long since had himself cleared of his debts and
+started over again. I do not know even that he
+and Starkweather know that I have been able to
+clear up the whole matter.</p>
+<p>&#8220;However, as I say, the stain upon my reputation
+remains. I could never explain my flight. I
+could never imagine what became of the money.
+Somebody embezzled it, and <i>I</i> was the one who
+ran away. Do you see, my dear?&#8221;</p>
+<p>And Helen told him that she <i>did</i> see, and
+assured him again and again of her entire trust in
+his honor. But Mr. Morrell died with the
+worry of the old trouble&mdash;the trouble that had
+driven him across the continent&mdash;heavy upon his
+mind.</p>
+<p>And now it was serving to make Helen&#8217;s mind
+most uneasy. The crime of which her father had
+been accused was continually in her thoughts.</p>
+<p>Who had really been guilty of the embezzlement?
+The bookkeeper, who disappeared? Fenwick
+Grimes, the partner? Or, <i>Who?</i></p>
+<p>As the Rose pony&mdash;her own favorite mount&mdash;took
+Helen Morrell up the bluff path to the View
+on this evening, the remembrance of this long
+talk with her father before he died was running in
+the girl&#8217;s mind.</p>
+<p>Perhaps she was a girl who would naturally be
+more seriously impressed than most, at sixteen.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span>
+She had been brought up among older people.
+She was a wise little thing when she was a mere
+toddler.</p>
+<p>And after her mother&#8217;s death she had been her
+father&#8217;s daily companion until she was old enough
+to be sent away to be educated. The four long
+terms at the Denver school had carried Helen
+Morrell (for she had a quick mind) through those
+grades which usually prepare girls for college.</p>
+<p>When she came back after graduation, however,
+she saw that her father needed her companionship
+more than she needed college. And,
+again, she was too domestic by nature to really
+long for a higher education.</p>
+<p>She was glad now&mdash;oh! so glad&mdash;that she had
+remained at Sunset Ranch during these last few
+months. Her father had died with her arms
+about him. As far as he could be comforted,
+Helen had comforted him.</p>
+<p>But now, as she rode up the rocky trail, she
+murmured to herself:</p>
+<p>&#8220;If I could only clear dad&#8217;s name!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Again she raised her eyes and saw a buckskin
+pony and its rider getting nearer and nearer to the
+summit.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Get on, Rose!&#8221; she exclaimed. &#8220;That chap
+will beat us out. Who under the sun can he
+be?&#8221;</p>
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-010.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 309px; height: 490px;' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 309px;'>
+&#8220;HELEN CREPT ON HANDS AND KNEES TO THE EDGE OF THE BLUFF.&#8221;<br />
+(Page 14)<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span></div>
+<p>She was sure the rider of the buckskin was no
+Sunset puncher. Yet he seemed garbed in the
+usual chaps, sombrero, flannel shirt and gay neckerchief
+of the cowpuncher.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And there isn&#8217;t another band of cattle nearer
+than Froghole,&#8221; thought the girl, adjusting her
+body to the Rose pony&#8217;s quickened gait.</p>
+<p>She did not know it, but she was quite as much
+an object of interest to the strange rider as he
+was to her. And it was worth while watching
+Helen Morrell ride a pony.</p>
+<p>The deep brown of her cheek was relieved by
+a glow of healthful red. Her thick plaits of hair
+were really sunburned; her thick eyebrows were
+startlingly light compared with her complexion.</p>
+<p>Her eyes were dark gray, with little golden
+lights playing in them; they seemed fairly to
+twinkle when she laughed. Her lips were as red as
+ripe sumac berries; her nose, straight, long, and
+generously moulded, was really her handsomest
+feature, for of course her hair covered her dainty
+ears more or less.</p>
+<p>From the rolling collar of her blouse her neck
+rose firm and solid&mdash;as strong-looking as a boy&#8217;s.
+She was plump of body, with good shoulders, a
+well-developed arm, and her ornamented russet
+riding boots, with a tiny silver spur in each heel,
+covered very pretty and very small feet.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span></p>
+<p>Her hand, if plump, was small, too; but the
+gauntlets she wore made it seem larger and more
+mannish than it was. She rode as though she were
+a part of the pony.</p>
+<p>She had urged on the strawberry roan and now
+came out upon the open plateau at the top of the
+bluff just as the buckskin mounted to the same level
+from the other side.</p>
+<p>The rock called &#8220;the View&#8221; was nearer to the
+stranger than to herself. It overhung the very
+steepest drop of the eminence.</p>
+<p>Helen touched Rose with the spur, and the pony
+whisked her tail and shot across the uneven sward
+toward the big boulder where Helen and her father
+had so often stood to survey the rolling acres of
+Sunset Ranch.</p>
+<p>Whether the stranger on the buckskin thought
+her mount had bolted with her, Helen did not
+know. But she heard him cry out, saw him
+swing his hat, and the buckskin started on a hard
+gallop along the verge of the precipice toward
+the very goal for which the Rose pony was headed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The foolish fellow! He&#8217;ll be killed!&#8221; gasped
+Helen, in sudden fright. &#8220;That soil there crumbles
+like cheese! There! He&#8217;s down!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She saw the buckskin&#8217;s forefoot sink. The brute
+stumbled and rolled over&mdash;fortunately for the
+pony <i>away</i> from the cliff&#8217;s edge.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span></p>
+<p>But the buckskin&#8217;s rider was hurled into the
+air. He sprawled forward like a frog diving and&mdash;without
+touching the ground&mdash;passed over the
+brink of the precipice and disappeared from
+Helen&#8217;s startled gaze.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='II_DUDLEY_STONE' id='II_DUDLEY_STONE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3>DUDLEY STONE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The victim of the accident made no sound. No
+scream rose from the depths after he disappeared.
+The buckskin pony rolled over, scrambled
+to its feet, and cantered off across the plateau.</p>
+<p>Helen Morrell had swerved her own mount farther
+to the south and came to the edge of the
+caved-in bit of bank with a rush of hoofs that
+ended in a wild scramble as she bore down upon
+the Rose pony&#8217;s bit.</p>
+<p>She was out of her saddle, and had flung the
+reins over Rose&#8217;s head, on the instant. The well-trained
+pony stood like a rock.</p>
+<p>The girl, her heart beating tumultuously, crept
+on hands and knees to the crumbling edge of the
+bluff.</p>
+<p>She knew its scarred face well. There were outcropping
+boulders, gravel pits, ledges of shale,
+brush clumps and a few ragged trees clinging
+tenaciously to the water-worn gullies.</p>
+<p>She expected to see the man crushed and bleeding
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span>
+on some rock below. Perhaps he had rolled
+clear to the bottom.</p>
+<p>But as her swift gaze searched the face of the
+bluff, there was no rock, splotched with red, in her
+line of vision. Then she saw something in the
+top of one of the trees, far down.</p>
+<p>It was the yellow handkerchief which the stranger
+had worn. It fluttered in the evening breeze
+like a flag of distress.</p>
+<p>&#8220;E-e-e-<i>yow!</i>&#8221; cried Helen, making a horn of
+her hands as she leaned over the edge of the precipice,
+and uttering the puncher&#8217;s signal call.</p>
+<p>&#8220;E-e-e-<i>yow!</i>&#8221; came up a faint reply.</p>
+<p>She saw the green top of the tree stir. Then
+a face&mdash;scratched and streaked with blood&mdash;appeared.</p>
+<p>&#8220;For the love of heaven!&#8221; called a thin voice.
+&#8220;Get somebody with a rope. I&#8217;ve got to have
+some help.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have a rope right here. Pass it under your
+arms, and I&#8217;ll swing you out of that tree-top,&#8221;
+replied Helen, promptly.</p>
+<p>She jumped up and went to the pony. Her rope&mdash;she
+would no more think of traveling without
+it than would one of the Sunset punchers&mdash;was
+coiled at the saddlebow.</p>
+<p>Running back to the verge of the bluff she
+planted her feet on a firm boulder and dropped the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span>
+coil into the depths. In a moment it was in the
+hands of the man below.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Over your head and shoulders!&#8221; she cried.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can never hold me!&#8221; he called back,
+faintly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You do as you&#8217;re told!&#8221; she returned, in a
+severe tone. &#8220;I&#8217;ll hold you&mdash;don&#8217;t you fear.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She had already looped her end of the rope over
+the limb of a tree that stood rooted upon the brink
+of the bluff. With such a purchase she would be
+able to hold all the rope itself would hold.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ready!&#8221; she called down to him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right! Here I swing!&#8221; was the reply.</p>
+<p>Leaning over the brink, rather breathless, it
+must be confessed, the girl from Sunset Ranch saw
+him swing out of the top of the tree.</p>
+<p>The tree-top was all of seventy feet from its
+roots. If he slipped now he would suffer a fall
+that surely would kill him.</p>
+<p>But he was able to help himself. Although he
+crashed once against the side of the bluff and set
+a bushel of gravel rattling down, in a moment he
+gained foothold on a ledge. There he stood,
+wavering until she paid off a little of the line.
+Then he dropped down to get his breath.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are you safe?&#8221; she shouted down to him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure! I can sit here all night.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t want to, I suppose?&#8221; she asked.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Not so&#8217;s you&#8217;d notice it. I guess I can get
+down after a fashion.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hurt bad?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s my foot, mostly&mdash;right foot. I believe it&#8217;s
+sprained, or broken. It&#8217;s sort of in the way when I
+move about.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your face looks as if that tree had combed it
+some,&#8221; commented Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never mind,&#8221; replied the youth. &#8220;Beauty&#8217;s
+only skin deep, at best. And I&#8217;m not proud.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She could not see him very well, for the sun had
+dropped so low that down where he lay the face
+of the bluff was in shadow.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, what are you going to do? Climb up,
+or down?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe getting down would be easier&mdash;&#8217;specially
+if you let me use your rope.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But then, there&#8217;d be my pony. I couldn&#8217;t get
+him with this foot&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll catch him. My Rose can run down anything
+on four legs in these parts,&#8221; declared the
+girl, briskly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And can you get down here to the foot of this
+cliff where I&#8217;m bound to land?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I know the way in the dark. Got
+matches?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you build some kind of a smudge when
+you reach the bottom. That&#8217;ll show me where
+you are. Now I&#8217;m going to drop the rope to you.
+Look out it doesn&#8217;t get tangled.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right! Let &#8217;er come!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll have to leave you if I&#8217;m to catch that buckskin
+before it gets dark, stranger. You&#8217;ll get
+along all right?&#8221; she added.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Surest thing you know!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She dropped the rope. He gathered it in
+quickly and then uttered a cheerful shout.</p>
+<p>&#8220;All clear?&#8221; asked Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t worry about me. I&#8217;m all right,&#8221; he
+assured her.</p>
+<p>Helen leaped back to her waiting pony. Already
+the golden light was dying out of the sky.
+Up here in the foothills the &#8220;evening died hard&#8221;
+as the saying is; but the buckskin pony had romped
+clear across the plateau. He was now, indeed, out
+of sight.</p>
+<p>She whirled Rose about and set off at a gallop
+after the runaway. It was not until then that she
+remembered she had no rope. That buckskin
+would have to be fairly run down. There would
+be no roping him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But if you can&#8217;t do it, no other horsie can,&#8221;
+she said, aloud, patting the Rose pony on her arching
+neck. &#8220;Go it, girl! Let&#8217;s see if we can&#8217;t beat
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span>
+any miserable little buckskin that ever came into
+this country. A strawberry roan forever!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Her &#8220;E-e-e-yow! yow!&#8221; awoke the pony to
+desperate endeavor. She seemed to merely skim
+the dry grass of the open plateau, and in ten minutes
+Helen saw a riderless mount plunging up the
+side of a <i>coulée</i> far ahead.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There he goes!&#8221; cried the girl. &#8220;After him,
+Rosie! Make your pretty hoofs fly!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The excitement of the chase roused in Helen
+that feeling of freedom and confidence that is a
+part of life on the plains. Those who live
+much in the open air, and especially in the saddle,
+seldom think of failure.</p>
+<p>She knew she was going to catch the runaway
+pony. Such an idea as non-success never entered
+her mind. This was the first hard riding she had
+done since Mr. Morrell died; and now her
+thoughts expanded and she shook off the hopeless
+feeling which had clouded her young heart and
+mind since they had buried her father.</p>
+<p>While she rode on, and rode hard, after the
+fleeing buckskin her revived thought kept time
+with the pony&#8217;s hoofbeats.</p>
+<p>No longer did the old tune run in her head:
+&#8220;If I only <i>could</i> clear dad&#8217;s name!&#8221; Instead
+the drum of confidence beat a charge to arms: &#8220;I
+know I <i>can</i> clear his name!
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;To think of poor dad living out here all
+these years, with suspicion resting on his reputation
+back there in New York. And he wasn&#8217;t
+guilty! It was that partner of his, or that bookkeeper,
+who was guilty. That is the secret of it,&#8221;
+Helen told herself.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll go back East and find out all about it,&#8221;
+determined the girl, as her pony carried her
+swiftly over the ground. &#8220;Up, Rose! There he
+is! Don&#8217;t let him get away from us!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Her interest in the chase of the buckskin pony
+and in the mystery of her father&#8217;s trouble ran side
+by side.</p>
+<p>&#8220;On, on!&#8221; she urged Rose. &#8220;Why shouldn&#8217;t
+I go East? Big Hen can run the ranch well
+enough. And there are my cousins&mdash;and auntie.
+If Aunt Eunice resembles mother&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Go it, Rose! There&#8217;s our quarry!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She stooped forward in the saddle, and as the
+Rose pony, running like the wind, passed the now
+staggering buckskin, Helen snatched the dragging
+rein, and pulled the runaway around to follow in
+her own wake.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush, now! Easy!&#8221; she commanded her
+mount, who obeyed her voice quite as well as
+though she had tugged at the reins. &#8220;Now we&#8217;ll
+go back quietly and trail this useless one along
+with us.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Come up, Buck! Easy, Rose!&#8221; So she
+urged them into the same gait, returning in a
+wide circle toward the path up which she had
+climbed before the sun went down&mdash;the trail to
+Sunset Ranch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes! I can do it!&#8221; she cried, thinking aloud.
+&#8220;I can and will go to New York. I&#8217;ll find out
+all about that old trouble. Uncle Starkweather
+can tell me, probably.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And then it will please father.&#8221; She spoke as
+though Mr. Morrell was sure to know her decision.
+&#8220;He will like it if I go to live with them
+a spell. He said it is what I need&mdash;the refining
+influence of a nice home.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I <i>would</i> love to be with nice girls again&mdash;and
+to hear good music&mdash;and put on something
+beside a riding skirt when I go out of the
+house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She sighed. &#8220;One cannot have a cow ranch and
+all the fripperies of civilization, too. Not very
+well. I&mdash;I guess I am longing for the flesh-pots
+of Egypt. Perhaps poor dad did, too. Well, I&#8217;ll
+give them a whirl. I&#8217;ll go East&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, where&#8217;s that fellow&#8217;s fire?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was descending the trail into the pall of
+dusk that had now spread over the valley. Far
+away she caught a glimmer of light&mdash;a lantern on
+the porch at the ranch-house.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span>
+But right below here where she wished to see a
+light, there was not a spark.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope nothing&#8217;s happened to him,&#8221; she
+mused. &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe he is one of us; if he had
+been he wouldn&#8217;t have raced a pony so close to
+the edge of the bluff.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She began to &#8220;co-ee! co-ee!&#8221; as the ponies clattered
+down the remainder of the pathway. And
+finally there came an answering shout. Then a
+little glimmer of light flashed up&mdash;again and yet
+again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Matches!&#8221; grumbled Helen. &#8220;Can&#8217;t he find
+anything dry to burn down there and so make a
+steady light?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She shouted again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;This way, Miss!&#8221; she heard the stranger
+cry.</p>
+<p>The ponies picked their way carefully over the
+loose shale that had fallen to the foot of the bluff.
+There were trees, too, to make the way darker.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hi!&#8221; cried Helen. &#8220;Why didn&#8217;t you light a
+fire?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, to tell you the truth, I had some difficulty
+in getting down here, and I&mdash;I had to
+rest.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The words were followed by a groan that the
+young man evidently could not suppress.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, you&#8217;re more badly hurt than you said!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span>
+cried the girl. &#8220;I&#8217;d better get help; hadn&#8217;t
+I?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A doctor is out of the question, I guess. I
+believe that foot&#8217;s broken.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Huh! You&#8217;re from the East!&#8221; she said, suddenly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;How so?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You say &#8216;guess&#8217; in that funny way. And that
+explains it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Explains what?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your riding so recklessly.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness!&#8221; exclaimed the other, with a
+short laugh. &#8220;I thought the whole West was
+noted for reckless riding.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no. It only <i>looks</i> reckless,&#8221; she returned,
+quietly. &#8220;Our boys wouldn&#8217;t ride a pony close
+to the edge of a steep descent like that up yonder.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right. I&#8217;m in the wrong,&#8221; admitted the
+stranger. &#8220;But you needn&#8217;t rub it in.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t mean to,&#8221; said Helen, quickly. &#8220;I
+have a bad habit of talking out loud.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He laughed at that. &#8220;You&#8217;re frank, you mean?
+I like that. Be frank enough to tell me how I am
+to get back to Badger&#8217;s&mdash;even on ponyback&mdash;to-night?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Impossible,&#8221; declared Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then, perhaps I <i>had</i> better make an effort
+to make camp.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, no! It&#8217;s only a few miles to the ranch-house.
+I&#8217;ll hoist you up on your pony. The trail&#8217;s
+easy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Whose ranch is it?&#8221; he asked, with another
+suppressed groan.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mine&mdash;Sunset Ranch.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sunset Ranch! Why, I&#8217;ve heard of that. One
+of the last big ranches remaining in Montana;
+Isn&#8217;t it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Almost as big as 101?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right,&#8221; said Helen, briefly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I didn&#8217;t know a girl owned it,&#8221; said the
+other, curiously.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She didn&#8217;t&mdash;until lately. My father, Prince
+Morrell, has just died.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh!&#8221; exclaimed the other, in a softened tone.
+&#8220;And you are Miss Morrell?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am. And who are you? Easterner, of
+course?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You guessed right&mdash;though, I suppose, you
+&#8216;reckon&#8217; instead of &#8216;guess.&#8217; I&#8217;m from New
+York.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is that so?&#8221; queried Helen. &#8220;That&#8217;s a
+place I want to see before long.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, you&#8217;ll be disappointed,&#8221; remarked the
+other. &#8220;My name is Dudley Stone, and I was
+born and brought up in New York and have lived
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span>
+there all my life until I got away for this trip
+West. But, believe me, if I didn&#8217;t have to I would
+never go back!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why do you have to go back?&#8221; asked Helen,
+simply.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Business. Necessity of earning one&#8217;s living.
+I&#8217;m in the way of being a lawyer&mdash;when my days
+of studying, and all, are over. And then, I&#8217;ve
+got a sister who might not fit into the mosaic of
+this freer country, either.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, Dudley Stone,&#8221; quoth the girl from
+Sunset Ranch, &#8220;we&#8217;d better not stay talking here.
+It&#8217;s getting darker every minute. And I reckon
+your foot needs attention.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hate to move it,&#8221; confessed the young Easterner.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t stay here, you know,&#8221; insisted
+Helen. &#8220;Where&#8217;s my rope?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry. I had to hitch one end of it up
+above and let myself down by it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, it might have come in handy to lash you
+on the pony. I don&#8217;t mind about the rope otherwise.
+One of the boys will bring it in for me to-morrow.
+Now, let&#8217;s see what we can do towards
+hoisting you into your saddle.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='III_THE_MISTRESS_OF_SUNSET_RANCH' id='III_THE_MISTRESS_OF_SUNSET_RANCH'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3>THE MISTRESS OF SUNSET RANCH</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dudley Stone had begun to peer wonderingly
+at this strange girl. When he had first sighted
+her riding her strawberry roan across the plateau
+he supposed her to be a little girl&mdash;and really,
+physically, she did not seem much different from
+what he had first supposed.</p>
+<p>But she handled this situation with all the calmness
+and good sense of a much older person. She
+spoke like the men and women he had met during
+his sojourn in the West, too.</p>
+<p>Yet, when he was close to her, he saw that she
+was simply a young girl with good health, good
+muscles, and a rather pretty face and figure. He
+called her &#8220;Miss&#8221; because it seemed to flatter
+her; but Dud Stone felt himself infinitely older
+than this girl of Sunset Ranch.</p>
+<p>It was she who went about getting him aboard
+the pony, however; he never could have done it
+by himself. Nor was it so easily done as said.</p>
+<p>In the first place, the badly trained buckskin
+didn&#8217;t want to stand still. And the young man
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span>
+was in such pain that he really was unable to aid
+Helen in securing the pony.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here, you take Rose,&#8221; commanded the girl,
+at length. &#8220;She&#8217;d stand for anything. Up you
+come, now, sir!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The young fellow was no weakling. But when
+he put one arm over the girl&#8217;s strong shoulder, and
+was hoisted erect, she felt him quiver all over. She
+knew that the pain he suffered must be intense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Whoa, Rose, girl!&#8221; commanded Helen.
+&#8220;Back around! Now, sir, up with that lame leg.
+It&#8217;s got to be done&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know it!&#8221; he panted, and by a desperate
+effort managed to get the broken foot over the
+saddle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Up with you!&#8221; said Helen, and hoisted him
+with a man&#8217;s strength into the saddle. &#8220;Are you
+there?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh! Ouch! Yes,&#8221; returned the Easterner. &#8220;I&#8217;m
+here. No knowing how long I&#8217;ll stick, though.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d better stick. Here! Put this foot in
+the stirrup. Don&#8217;t suppose you can stand the other
+in it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no! I really couldn&#8217;t,&#8221; he exclaimed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, we&#8217;ll go slow. Hi, there! Come here,
+you Buck!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a vicious little scoundrel,&#8221; said the young
+man.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;He ought to have a course of sprouts under
+one of our wranglers,&#8221; remarked the girl from
+Sunset Ranch. &#8220;Now let&#8217;s go along.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Despite the buckskin&#8217;s dancing and cavorting,
+she mounted, stuck the spurs into him a couple of
+times, and the ill-mannered pony decided that walking
+properly was better than bucking.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a wonder!&#8221; exclaimed Dud Stone, admiringly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You haven&#8217;t been West long,&#8221; she replied,
+with a smile. &#8220;Women folk out here aren&#8217;t much
+afraid of horses.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should say they were not&mdash;if you are a
+specimen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just ordinary. I spent four school terms
+in Denver, and I never rode there, so I kind
+of lost the hang of it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Dud Stone was becoming anxious over another
+matter.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are you sure you can find the trail when it&#8217;s
+so dark?&#8221; he asked.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re on it now,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad you&#8217;re so sure,&#8221; he returned, grimly.
+&#8220;I can&#8217;t see the ground, even.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But the ponies know, if I don&#8217;t,&#8221; observed
+Helen, cheerfully. &#8220;Nothing to be afraid of.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess you think I <i>am</i> kind of a tenderfoot?&#8221;
+he returned.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re not used to night traveling on the cattle
+range,&#8221; she said. &#8220;You see, we lay our courses
+by the stars, just as mariners do at sea. I can find
+my way to the ranch-house from clear beyond
+Elberon, as long as the stars show.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; he sighed, &#8220;this is some different
+from riding on the bridle-path in Central
+Park.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s in New York?&#8221; she asked.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I mean to go there. It&#8217;s really a big city, I
+suppose?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Makes Denver look like a village,&#8221; said Stone,
+laughing to smother a groan.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So father said.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You have people there, I hope?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Father and mother came from there. It
+was before I was born, though. You see, I&#8217;m a
+real Montana product.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And a mighty fine one!&#8221; he murmured. Then
+he said aloud: &#8220;Well, as long as you&#8217;ve got folks
+in the big city, it&#8217;s all right. But it&#8217;s the loneliest
+place on God&#8217;s earth if one has no friends and
+no confidants. I know that to be true from what
+boys have told me who have come there from out
+of town.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;ve got folks,&#8221; said Helen, lightly.
+&#8220;How&#8217;s the foot now?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Bad,&#8221; he admitted. &#8220;It hangs loose, you
+see&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hold on!&#8221; commanded Helen, dismounting.
+&#8220;We&#8217;ve a long way to travel yet. That foot must
+be strapped so that it will ride easier. Wait!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She handed him her rein to hold and went
+around to the other side of the Rose pony. She
+removed her belt, unhooked the empty holster
+that hung from it, and slipped the holster into her
+pocket. Few of the riders carried a gun on Sunset
+Ranch unless the coyotes proved troublesome.</p>
+<p>With her belt Helen strapped the dangling leg
+to the saddle girth. The useless stirrup, that
+flopped and struck the lame foot, she tucked up
+out of the way.</p>
+<p>With tender fingers she touched the wounded
+foot. She could feel the fever through the boot.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you&#8217;d better keep your boot on till we get
+home, Dud Stone,&#8221; advised Helen. &#8220;It will sort
+of hold it together and perhaps keep the pain from
+becoming greater than you can bear. But I guess
+it hurts mighty bad.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It sure does, Miss Morrell,&#8221; he returned,
+grimly. &#8220;Is&mdash;is the ranch far?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Some distance. And we&#8217;ve got to walk. But
+bear up if you can&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>She saw him waver in the saddle. If he fell,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span>
+she could not be sure just how Rose, the spirited
+pony, would act.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say!&#8221; she said, coming around and walking
+by his side, leading the other mount by the bridle.
+&#8220;You lean on me. Don&#8217;t want you falling out of
+the saddle. Too hard work to get you back
+again.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess you think I <i>am</i> a tenderfoot!&#8221; muttered
+young Stone.</p>
+<p>He never knew how they reached Sunset Ranch.
+The fall, the terrible wrench of his foot, and the
+endurance of the pain was finally too much for him.
+In a half-fainting condition he sank part of his
+weight on the girl&#8217;s shoulder, and she sturdily
+trudged along the rough trail, bearing him up until
+she thought her own limbs would give way.</p>
+<p>At last she even had to let the buckskin run at
+large, he made her so much trouble. But the Rose
+pony was &#8220;a dear!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Somewhere about ten o&#8217;clock the dogs began to
+bark. She saw the flash of lanterns and heard the
+patter of hoofs.</p>
+<p>She gave voice to the long range yell, and a
+dozen anxious punchers replied. Great discussion
+had arisen over where she could have gone, for
+nobody had seen her ride off toward the View that
+afternoon.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Whar you been, gal?&#8221; demanded Big Hen
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span>
+Billings, bringing his horse to a sudden stop across
+the trail. &#8220;Hul-<i>lo!</i> What&#8217;s that you got with
+yer?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A tenderfoot. Easy, Hen! I&#8217;ve got his leg
+strapped to the girth. He&#8217;s in bad shape,&#8221; and
+she related, briefly, the particulars of the accident.</p>
+<p>Dudley Stone had only a hazy recollection later
+of the noise and confusion of his arrival. He was
+borne into the house by two men&mdash;one of them the
+ranch foreman himself.</p>
+<p>They laid him on a couch, cut the boot from his
+injured foot, and then the sock he wore.</p>
+<p>Hen Billings, with bushy whiskers and the
+frame of a giant, was nevertheless as tender with
+the injured foot as a woman. Water with a
+chunk of ice floating in it was used to reduce the
+swelling. The foreman&#8217;s blunted fingers probed
+for broken bones.</p>
+<p>But it seemed there was none. It was only a
+bad sprain, and they finally stripped him to his
+underclothes and bandaged the foot with cloths
+soaked with ice water.</p>
+<p>When they got him into bed&mdash;in an adjoining
+room&mdash;the young mistress of Sunset Ranch reappeared,
+with a tray and napkins, with which she
+arranged a table.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what he wants&mdash;some good grub under
+his belt, Snuggy,&#8221; said the gigantic foreman,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span>
+finally lighting his pipe. &#8220;He&#8217;ll be all right in a
+few days. I&#8217;ll send word to Creeping Ford for
+one of the boys to ride down to Badger&#8217;s and tell
+&#8217;em. That&#8217;s where Mr. Stone says he&#8217;s been stopping.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re mighty kind,&#8221; said the Easterner,
+gratefully, as Sing, the Chinese servant, shuffled in
+with a steaming supper.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re glad to have a chance to play Good
+Samaritan in this part of the country,&#8221; said Helen,
+laughing. &#8220;Isn&#8217;t that so, Hen?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right, Snuggy,&#8221; replied the foreman,
+patting her on the shoulder.</p>
+<p>Dud Stone looked at Helen curiously, as the
+big man strode out of the room.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What an odd name!&#8221; he commented.</p>
+<p>&#8220;My father called me that, when I was a
+tiny baby,&#8221; replied the girl. &#8220;And I love it. All
+my friends call me &#8216;Snuggy.&#8217; At least, all my
+ranch friends.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, it&#8217;s too soon for me to begin, I suppose?&#8221;
+he said, laughing.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, quite too soon,&#8221; returned Helen, as composedly
+as a person twice her age. &#8220;You had
+better stick to &#8216;Miss Morrell,&#8217; and remember that
+I am the mistress of Sunset Ranch.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I notice that you take liberties with <i>my</i>
+name,&#8221; he said, quickly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s different. You&#8217;re a man. Men around
+here always shorten their names, or have nicknames.
+If they call you by your full name that
+means the boys don&#8217;t like you. And I liked you
+from the start,&#8221; said the Western girl, quite
+frankly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you!&#8221; he responded, his eyes twinkling.
+&#8220;I expect it must have been my fine riding
+that attracted you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. Nor it wasn&#8217;t your city cowpuncher
+clothes,&#8221; she retorted. &#8220;I know those things
+weren&#8217;t bought farther West than Chicago.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A palpable hit!&#8221; admitted Dudley Stone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. It was when you took that tumble into
+the tree; was hanging on by your eyelashes, yet
+could joke about it,&#8221; declared Helen, warmly.</p>
+<p>She might have added, too, that now he had
+been washed and his hair combed, he was an
+attractive-looking young man. She did not believe
+Dudley Stone was of age. His brown hair curled
+tightly all over his head, and he sported a tiny
+golden mustache. He had good color and was
+somewhat bronzed.</p>
+<p>Dud&#8217;s blue eyes were frank, his lips were red
+and nicely curved; but his square chin took away
+from the lower part of his face any suggestion of
+effeminacy. His ears were generous, as was
+his nose. He had the clean-cut, intelligent look
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span>
+of the better class of educated Atlantic seaboard
+youth.</p>
+<p>There is a difference between them and the
+young Westerner. The latter are apt to be hung
+loosely, and usually show the effect of range-riding&mdash;at
+least, back here in Montana. Whereas Dud
+Stone was compactly built.</p>
+<p>They chatted quite frankly while the patient
+ate his supper. Dud found that, although Helen
+used many Western idioms, and spoke with an
+abruptness that showed her bringing up among
+plain-spoken ranch people, she could, if she so
+desired, use &#8220;school English&#8221; with good taste,
+and gave other evidences in her conversation of
+being quite conversant with the world of which he
+was himself a part when he was at home.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, you would get along all right in New
+York,&#8221; he said, laughing, when she suggested a
+doubt as to the impression she might make upon
+her relatives in the big town. &#8220;You&#8217;d not be half
+the &#8216;tenderfoot&#8217; there that I am here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No? Then I reckon I can risk shocking
+them,&#8221; laughed Helen, her gray eyes dancing.</p>
+<p>This talk she had with Dud Stone on the evening
+of his arrival confirmed the young mistress of
+Sunset Ranch in her intention of going to the great
+city.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='IV_HEADED_EAST' id='IV_HEADED_EAST'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3>HEADED EAST</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Helen Morrell made up her mind to do
+a thing, she usually did it. A cataclysm of nature
+was about all that would thwart her determination.</p>
+<p>This being yielded to and never thwarted, even
+by her father, might have spoiled a girl of different
+calibre. But there was a foundation of good
+common sense to Helen&#8217;s nature.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Snuggy won&#8217;t kick over the traces much,&#8221;
+Prince Morrell had been wont to say.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Right you are, Boss,&#8221; had declared Big Hen
+Billings. &#8220;It&#8217;s usually safe to give her her head.
+She&#8217;ll bring up somewhar.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But when Helen mentioned her eastern trip to
+the old foreman he came &#8220;purty nigh goin&#8217; up in
+th&#8217; air his own se&#8217;f!&#8221; as he expressed it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What d&#8217;yer wanter do anythin&#8217; like that air
+for, Snuggy?&#8221; he demanded, in a horrified tone.
+&#8220;Great jumping Jehosaphat! Ain&#8217;t this yere valley
+big enough fo&#8217; you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sometimes I think it&#8217;s too big,&#8221; admitted
+Helen, laughing.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, by jo! you&#8217;ll fin&#8217; city quarters close&#8217;t
+&#8217;nough&mdash;an&#8217; that&#8217;s no josh. Huh! Las&#8217; time ever
+I went to Chicago with a train-load of beeves I
+went to see Kellup Flemming what useter work
+here on this very same livin&#8217; Sunset Ranch. You
+don&#8217;t remember him. You was too little,
+Snuggy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard you speak of him, Hen,&#8221; observed
+the girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, thar was Kellup, as smart a young feller
+as you&#8217;d find in a day&#8217;s ride, livin&#8217; with his
+wife an&#8217; kids in what he called a <i>flat</i>. Be-lieve me!
+It was some perpendicular to git into, an&#8217; no
+<i>flat</i>.</p>
+<p>&#8220;When we gits inside and inter what he called
+his parlor, he looks around like he was proud of
+it (By jo! I&#8217;d be afraid ter shrug my shoulders in
+it, &#8217;twas so small) an&#8217; says he: &#8216;What d&#8217;ye think
+of the ranch, Hen?&#8217;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Ranch,&#8217; mind yeh! I was plumb insulted. I
+says: &#8216;It&#8217;s all right&mdash;what there is of it&mdash;only,
+what&#8217;s that crack in the wall for, Kellup?&#8217;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Sufferin&#8217; tadpoles!&#8217; yells Kellup&mdash;jest like
+that! &#8216;Sufferin&#8217; tadpoles! That ain&#8217;t no crack in
+the wall. That&#8217;s our private hall.&#8217;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Great jumping Jehosaphat!&#8221; exclaimed Hen,
+roaring with laughter. &#8220;Yuh don&#8217;t wanter git
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span>
+inter no place like that in New York. Can&#8217;t
+breathe in the house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess Uncle Starkweather lives in a little
+better place than that,&#8221; said Helen, after laughing
+with the old foreman. &#8220;His house is on Madison
+Avenue.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t care where it is; there natcherly won&#8217;t
+be no such room in a city dwelling as there is here
+at Sunset Ranch.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose not,&#8221; admitted the girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Huh! Won&#8217;t be room in the yard for a cow,&#8221;
+growled Big Hen. &#8220;Nor chickens. Whatter yer
+goin&#8217; to do without a fresh aig, Snuggy?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I expect that will be pretty tough, Hen. But
+I feel like I must go, you see,&#8221; said the girl, dropping
+into the idiom of Sunset Ranch. &#8220;Dad
+wanted me to.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Boss <i>wanted</i> yuh to?&#8221; gasped the giant,
+surprised.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Hen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He never said nothin&#8217; to me about it,&#8221; declared
+the foreman of Sunset Ranch, shaking his
+bushy head.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No? Didn&#8217;t he say anything about my being
+with women folk, and under different circumstances?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Gosh, yes! But I reckoned on getting Mis&#8217;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span>
+Polk and Mis&#8217; Harry Frieze to take turns coming
+over yere and livin&#8217; with yuh.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But that isn&#8217;t all dad wanted,&#8221; continued the
+girl, shaking her head. &#8220;Besides, you know both
+Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Frieze are widows, and will
+be looking for husbands. We&#8217;d maybe lose some
+of the best boys we&#8217;ve got, if they came here,&#8221; said
+Helen, her eyes twinkling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Great jumping Jehosaphat! I never thought
+of that,&#8221; declared the foreman, suddenly scared.
+&#8220;I never <i>did</i> like that Polk woman&#8217;s eye. I wouldn&#8217;t,
+mebbe, be safe myse&#8217;f; would I?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m afraid not,&#8221; Helen gravely agreed. &#8220;So,
+you see, to please dad, I&#8217;ll have to go to New
+York. I don&#8217;t mean to stay for all time, Hen.
+But I want to give it a try-out.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She sounded Dud Stone a good bit about the
+big city. Dud had to stay several days at Sunset
+Ranch because he couldn&#8217;t ride very well
+with his injured foot. And finally, when he did
+go back to Badger&#8217;s, they took him in a buckboard.</p>
+<p>To tell the truth, Dud was not altogether glad
+to go. He was a boyish chap despite the fact that
+he was nearly through law school, and a sixteen-year-old
+girl like Helen Morrell&mdash;especially one of
+her character&mdash;appealed to him strongly.</p>
+<p>He admired the capable way in which she managed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span>
+things about the ranch-house. Sing obeyed
+her as though she were a man. There was a &#8220;rag-head&#8221;
+who had somehow worked his way across
+the mountains from the coast, and that Hindoo
+about worshipped &#8220;Missee Sahib.&#8221; The two or
+three Greasers working about the ranch showed
+their teeth in broad smiles, and bowed most politely
+when she appeared. And as for the punchers
+and wranglers, they were every one as loyal
+to Snuggy as they had been to her father.</p>
+<p>The Easterner realized that among all the girls
+he knew back home, either of her age or older,
+there was none so capable as Helen Morrell. And
+there were few any prettier.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re going right to relatives when you reach
+New York; are you, Miss Morrell?&#8221; asked Dud,
+just before he climbed into the buckboard to return
+to his friend&#8217;s ranch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes. I shall go to Aunt Eunice,&#8221; said the
+girl, decidedly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No need of my warning you against bunco men
+and card sharpers,&#8221; chuckled Dud, &#8220;for your
+folks will look out for you. But remember:
+You&#8217;ll be just as much a tenderfoot there as I
+am here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shall take care,&#8221; she returned, laughing.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And&mdash;and I hope I may see you in New
+York,&#8221; said Dud, hesitatingly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, I hope we shall run across each other,&#8221;
+replied Helen, calmly. She was not sure that it
+would be the right thing to invite this young man
+to call upon her at the Starkweathers&#8217;.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d better ask Aunt Eunice about that first,&#8221;
+she decided, to herself.</p>
+<p>So she shook hands heartily with Dud Stone
+and let him ride away, never appearing to notice
+his rather wistful look. She was to see the time,
+however, when she would be very glad of a friend
+like Dud Stone in the great city.</p>
+<p>Helen made her preparations for her trip to
+New York without any advice from another
+woman. To tell the truth she had little but riding
+habits which were fit to wear, save the house frocks
+which she wore around the ranch.</p>
+<p>When she had gone to school in Denver, her
+father had sent a sum of money to the principal
+and that lady had seen that Helen was dressed
+tastefully and well. But all these garments she
+had outgrown.</p>
+<p>To tell the truth, Helen had spent little of her
+time in studying the pictures in fashion magazines.
+In fact, there were no such books about
+Sunset Ranch.</p>
+<p>The girl realized that the rough and ready
+frocks she possessed were not in style. There was
+but one store in Elberon, the nearest town, where
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span>
+ready-to-wear garments were sold. She went there
+and purchased the best they had; but they left
+much to be desired.</p>
+<p>She got a brown dress to travel in, and a shirtwaist
+or two; but beyond that she dared not go.
+Helen was wise enough to realize that, after she
+arrived at her Uncle Starkweather&#8217;s, it would be
+time enough to purchase proper raiment.</p>
+<p>She &#8220;dressed up&#8221; in the new frock for the boys
+to admire, the evening before she left. Every man
+who could be spared from the range&mdash;even as far
+as Creeping Ford&mdash;came in to the &#8220;party.&#8221; They
+all admired Helen and were sorry to see her go
+away. Yet they gave her their best wishes.</p>
+<p>Big Hen Billings rode part of the way to Elberon
+with her in the morning. She was going
+to send the strawberry roan back hitched behind
+the supply wagon. Her riding dress she would
+change in the station agent&#8217;s parlor for the new
+dress which was in the tray of her small trunk.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Keep yer eyes peeled, Snuggy,&#8221; advised the
+old foreman, with gravity, &#8220;when ye come up
+against that New York town. &#8217;Tain&#8217;t like Elberon&mdash;no,
+sir! &#8217;Tain&#8217;t even like Helena.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Them folks in New York is rubbing up against
+each other so close, that it makes &#8217;em moughty
+sharp&mdash;yessir! Jumping Jehosaphat! I knowed
+a feller that went there onct and he lost ten dollars
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span>
+and his watch before he&#8217;d been off the train an
+hour. They can do ye that quick!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe that fellow must have been <i>you</i>,
+Hen,&#8221; declared Helen, laughing.</p>
+<p>The foreman looked shamefaced. &#8220;Wal, it
+were,&#8221; he admitted. &#8220;But they never got nothin&#8217;
+more out o&#8217; me. It was the hottest kind o&#8217; summer
+weather&mdash;an&#8217; lemme tell yuh, it can be some
+hot in that man&#8217;s town.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wal, I had a sheepskin coat with me. I put
+it on, and I buttoned it from my throat-latch down
+to my boot-tops. They&#8217;d had to pry a dollar
+out o&#8217; my pocket with a crowbar, and I wouldn&#8217;t
+have had a drink with the mayor of the city if
+he&#8217;d invited me. No, sirree, sir!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen laughed again. &#8220;Don&#8217;t you fear for me,
+Hen. I shall be in the best of hands, and shall
+have plenty of friends around me. I&#8217;ll never feel
+lonely in New York, I am sure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope not. But, Snuggy, you know what to
+do if anything goes wrong. Just telegraph me.
+If you want me to come on, say the word&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Hen! How ridiculous you talk,&#8221; she
+cried. &#8220;I&#8217;ll be with relatives.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ya-as. I know,&#8221; said the giant, shaking his
+head. &#8220;But relatives ain&#8217;t like them that&#8217;s
+knowed and loved yuh all yuh life. Don&#8217;t forgit
+us out yere, Snuggy&mdash;and if ye want anything&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span>
+His heart was evidently too full for further
+utterance. He jerked his pony&#8217;s head around,
+waved his hand to the girl who likewise was all but
+in tears, and dashed back over the trail toward
+Sunset Ranch.</p>
+<p>Helen pulled the Rose pony&#8217;s head around and
+jogged on, headed east.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='V_AT_BOTH_ENDS_OF_THE_ROUTE' id='V_AT_BOTH_ENDS_OF_THE_ROUTE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3>AT BOTH ENDS OF THE ROUTE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>As Helen walked up and down the platform at
+Elberon, waiting for the east-bound Transcontinental,
+she looked to be a very plain country girl
+with nothing in her dress to denote that she was
+one of the wealthiest young women in the State of
+Montana.</p>
+<p>Sunset Ranch was one of the few remaining
+great cattle ranches of the West. Her father
+could justly have been called &#8220;a cattle king,&#8221; only
+Prince Morrell was not the sort of man who likes
+to see his name in print.</p>
+<p>Indeed, there was a good reason why Helen&#8217;s
+father had not wished to advertise himself. That
+old misfortune, which had borne so heavily upon
+his mind and heart when he came to die, had made
+him shrink from publicity.</p>
+<p>However, business at Sunset Ranch had prospered
+both before and since Mr. Morrell&#8217;s death.
+The money had rolled in and the bank accounts
+which had been put under the administration of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span>
+Big Hen Billings and the lawyer at Elberon, increased
+steadily.</p>
+<p>Big Hen was a generous-handed administrator
+and guardian. Of course, the foreman of the
+ranch was, perhaps, not the best person to be
+guardian of a sixteen-year-old girl. He did not
+treat her, in regard to money matters, as the ordinary
+guardian would have treated a ward.</p>
+<p>Big Hen didn&#8217;t know how to limit a girl&#8217;s expenditures;
+but he knew how to treat a man right.
+And he treated Helen Morrell just as though she
+were a sane and responsible man.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a thousand dollars in cash for you,
+Snuggy,&#8221; he had said. &#8220;I got it in soft money, for
+it&#8217;s a fac&#8217; that they use that stuff a good deal in the
+East. Besides, the hard money would have made
+a good deal of a load for you to tote in them leetle
+war-bags of yourn.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But shall I ever need a thousand dollars?&#8221;
+asked Helen, doubtfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t know. Can&#8217;t tell. Sometimes ye need
+money when ye least expect it. Ye needn&#8217;t tell
+anybody how much you&#8217;ve got. Only, it&#8217;s <i>there</i>&mdash;and
+a full pocket is a mighty nice backin&#8217; for anybody
+to have.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And if ye find any time ye want more, jest
+telegraph. We&#8217;ll send ye what they call a draft
+for all ye want. Cut a dash. Show &#8217;em that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span>
+the girl from Sunset Ranch is the real thing,
+Snuggy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But she had only laughed at this. It never
+entered Helen Morrell&#8217;s mind that she should ever
+wish to &#8220;cut a dash&#8221; before her relatives in New
+York.</p>
+<p>She had filed a telegram to Mr. Willets Starkweather,
+on Madison Avenue, before the train arrived,
+saying that she was coming. She hoped
+that her relatives would reply and she would get
+the reply en route.</p>
+<p>When her father died, she had written to
+the Starkweathers. She had received a brief, but
+kindly worded note from Uncle Starkweather.
+And it had scarcely been time yet, so Helen
+thought, for Aunt Eunice or the girls to write.</p>
+<p>But could Helen have arrived at the Madison
+Avenue mansion of Willets Starkweather at the
+same hour her message arrived and heard the
+family&#8217;s comments on it, it is very doubtful if she
+would have swung herself aboard the parlor car
+of the Transcontinental, without the porter&#8217;s help,
+and sought her seat.</p>
+<p>The Starkweathers lived in very good style, indeed.
+The mansion was one of several remaining
+in that section, all occupied by the very oldest
+and most elevated socially of New York&#8217;s solid
+families. They were not people whose names
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span>
+appeared in the gossip columns of the papers to
+any extent; but to live in their neighborhood, and
+to meet them socially, was sufficient to insure one&#8217;s
+welcome anywhere.</p>
+<p>The Starkweather mansion had descended to
+Willets Starkweather with the money&mdash;all from
+his great-uncle&mdash;which had finally put the family
+upon its feet. When Prince Morrell had left New
+York under a cloud, his brother-in-law was a
+struggling merchant himself.</p>
+<p>Now, in sixteen years, he had practically retired.
+At least, he was no longer &#8220;in trade.&#8221; He
+merely went to an office, or to his broker&#8217;s, each
+day, and watched his investments and his real
+estate holdings.</p>
+<p>A pompous, well-fed man was Willets Starkweather&mdash;and
+always imposingly dressed. He
+was very bald, wore a closely cropped gray beard,
+eyeglasses, and &#8220;Ahem!&#8221; was an introduction
+to almost everything he said. That clearing
+of the bronchial tubes was an announcement to
+the listening world that he, Willets Starkweather,
+of Madison Avenue, was about to make a remark.
+And no matter how trivial that remark might be,
+coming from the lips of the great man, it should
+be pondered upon and regarded with awe.</p>
+<p>Mr. Starkweather was a widower. Helen&#8217;s
+Aunt Eunice had been dead three years. It had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span>
+never been considered necessary by either Mr.
+Starkweather, or his daughters, to write &#8220;Aunt
+Mary&#8217;s folks in Montana&#8221; of Mrs. Starkweather&#8217;s
+death.</p>
+<p>Correspondence between the families had ceased
+at the time of Mrs. Morrell&#8217;s death. The Starkweather
+girls understood that Aunt Mary&#8217;s husband
+had &#8220;done something&#8221; before he left New
+York for the wild and woolly West. The family
+did not&mdash;Ahem!&mdash;speak of him.</p>
+<p>The three girls were respectively eighteen, sixteen,
+and fourteen. Even Flossie considered herself
+entirely grown up. She attended a private
+school not far from Central Park, and went each
+day dressed as elaborately as a matron of thirty.</p>
+<p>For Hortense, who was just Helen Morrell&#8217;s
+age, &#8220;school had become a bore.&#8221; She had a
+smattering of French, knew how to drum nicely
+on the piano&mdash;she was still taking lessons in <i>that</i>
+polite accomplishment&mdash;had only a vague idea of
+the ordinary rules of English grammar, and couldn&#8217;t
+write a decent letter, or spell words of more
+than two syllables, to save her life.</p>
+<p>Belle golfed. She did little else just now, for
+she was a creature of fads. Occasionally she got
+a new one, and with kindred spirits played that
+particular fad to death.</p>
+<p>She might have found a much worse hobby to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span>
+ride. Getting up early and starting for the Long
+Island links, or for Westchester, before her sisters
+had had their breakfast, was not doing Belle
+a bit of harm. Only, she was getting in with a
+somewhat &#8220;sporty&#8221; class of girls and women
+older than herself, and the bloom of youth had
+been quite rubbed off.</p>
+<p>Indeed, these three girls were about as fresh as
+is a dried prune. They had jumped from childhood
+into full-blown womanhood (or thought they
+had), thereby missing the very best and sweetest
+part of their girls&#8217; life.</p>
+<p>They had come in from their various activities
+of the day when Helen&#8217;s telegram arrived. Naturally
+they ran with it to their father&#8217;s &#8220;den&#8221;&mdash;a
+gorgeously upholstered yet small library on the
+ground floor, at the back.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is it now, girls?&#8221; demanded Mr. Starkweather,
+looking up in some dismay at this general
+onslaught. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want you to suggest any further
+expenditures this month. I have paid all the
+bills I possibly can pay. We must retrench&mdash;we
+must retrench.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Pa!&#8221; said Flossie, saucily, &#8220;you&#8217;re always
+saying that. I believe you say &#8216;We must retrench!&#8217;
+in your sleep.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And small wonder if I do,&#8221; he grumbled.
+&#8220;I have lost some money; the stock market is very
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span>
+dull. And nobody is buying real estate. I&mdash;I am
+quite at my wits&#8217; ends, I assure you, girls.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dear me! and another mouth to feed!&#8221;
+laughed Hortense, tossing her head. &#8220;<i>That</i> will
+be excuse enough for telling her to go to a hotel
+when she arrives.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Probably the poor thing won&#8217;t have the price
+of a room,&#8221; observed Belle, looking again at the
+telegram.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is that in your hand, child?&#8221; demanded
+Mr. Starkweather, suddenly seeing the yellow slip
+of paper.</p>
+<p>&#8220;A dispatch, Pa,&#8221; said Flossie, snatching it out
+of Belle&#8217;s hand.</p>
+<p>&#8220;A telegram?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you&#8217;d never guess from whom,&#8221; cried the
+youngest girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;Let me see it,&#8221; said her father, with
+some abruptness. &#8220;No bad news, I hope?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t call it <i>good</i> news,&#8221; said the oldest
+girl, with a sniff.</p>
+<p>Mr. Starkweather read it aloud:</p>
+<table summary='poetry' style=' margin-left:4em;'><tr><td>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>&#8220;Coming on Transcontinental. Arrive Grand</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Central Terminal 9 P.M. the third.</p>
+<br />
+<p  style='text-align: right;'>&#8220;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Helen Morrell</span>.&#8221;</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now! What do you think of that, Pa?&#8221; demanded
+Flossie.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Helen Morrell,&#8217;&#8221; repeated Mr. Starkweather,
+and a person more observant than any
+of his daughters might have seen that his lips had
+grown suddenly gray. He dropped into his chair
+rather heavily. &#8220;Your cousin, girls.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Fol-de-rol!&#8221; exclaimed Belle. &#8220;I don&#8217;t see
+why she should claim relationship.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Send her to a hotel, Pa,&#8221; said Flossie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sure <i>I</i> do not wish to be bothered by a
+common ranch girl. Why! she was born and
+brought up out in the wilds; wasn&#8217;t she?&#8221; demanded
+Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Her father and mother went West before this
+girl was born&mdash;yes,&#8221; murmured Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>He was strangely agitated by the message. But
+the girls did not notice this. They were not likely
+to notice anything but their own disturbance over
+the coming of &#8220;that ranch girl.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Pa, we can&#8217;t have her here!&#8221; cried
+Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course we can&#8217;t, Pa,&#8221; agreed Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sure <i>I</i> don&#8217;t want the common little thing
+around,&#8221; added Flossie, who, as has been said,
+was quite two years Helen&#8217;s junior.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We couldn&#8217;t introduce her to our friends,&#8221;
+declared Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What a <i>fright</i> she&#8217;ll be!&#8221; wailed Hortense.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;ll wear a sombrero and a split riding skirt,
+I suppose,&#8221; scoffed Flossie, who madly desired a
+slit skirt, herself.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course she&#8217;ll be a perfect dowdy,&#8221; Belle
+observed.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And be loud and wear heavy boots, and stamp
+through the house,&#8221; sighed Hortense. &#8220;We just
+<i>can&#8217;t</i> have her, Pa.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, I wouldn&#8217;t let any of the girls of <i>our</i>
+set see her for the world,&#8221; cried Flossie.</p>
+<p>Their father finally spoke. He had recovered
+from his secret emotion, but he was still mopping
+the perspiration from his bald brow.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t really see how I can prevent her coming,&#8221;
+he said, rather weakly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What nonsense, Pa!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course you can!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Telegraph her not to come.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But she is already aboard the train,&#8221; objected
+Mr. Starkweather, gloomily.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then, I tell you,&#8221; snapped Flossie, who was
+the most unkind of the girls. &#8220;Don&#8217;t telegraph
+her at all. Don&#8217;t answer her message. Don&#8217;t send
+to the station to meet her. Maybe she won&#8217;t be
+too dense to take <i>that</i> hint.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pooh! these wild and woolly Western girls!&#8221;
+grumbled Hortense. &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe she&#8217;ll know
+enough to stay away.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;We can try it,&#8221; persisted Flossie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She ought to realize that we&#8217;re not dying to
+see her when we don&#8217;t come to the train,&#8221; said
+Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;don&#8217;t&mdash;know,&#8221; mused their father.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, Pa!&#8221; cried Flossie. &#8220;You know very
+well you don&#8217;t want that girl here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; he admitted. &#8220;But&mdash;Ahem!&mdash;we have
+certain duties&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bother duties!&#8221; said Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! She is your mother&#8217;s sister&#8217;s child,&#8221;
+spoke Mr. Starkweather, heavily. &#8220;She is a young
+and unprotected female&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Seems to me,&#8221; said Belle, crossly, &#8220;the relationship
+is far enough removed for us to ignore it.
+Mother&#8217;s sister, Aunt Mary, is dead.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;True&mdash;true. Ahem!&#8221; said her father.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And isn&#8217;t it true that this man, Morrell, whom
+she married, left New York under a cloud?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;O&mdash;oh!&#8221; cried Hortense. &#8220;So he did.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What did he do?&#8221; Flossie asked, bluntly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Embezzled; didn&#8217;t he, Pa?&#8221; asked Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s enough!&#8221; cried Flossie, tossing her
+head. &#8220;We certainly don&#8217;t want a convict&#8217;s
+daughter in the house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush, Flossie!&#8221; said her father, with sudden
+sternness. &#8220;Prince Morrell was never a convict.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; sneered Hortense. &#8220;He ran away. He
+didn&#8217;t get that far.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! Daughters, we have no right to talk
+in this way&mdash;even in fun&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t care,&#8221; cried Belle, impatiently.
+&#8220;Whether she&#8217;s a criminal&#8217;s child or not; I don&#8217;t
+want her. None of us wants her. Why, then,
+should we have her?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But where will she go?&#8221; demanded Mr.
+Starkweather, almost desperately.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do we care?&#8221; cried Flossie, callously.
+&#8220;She can be sent back; can&#8217;t she?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I tell you what it is,&#8221; said Belle, getting up
+and speaking with determination. &#8220;We don&#8217;t
+want Helen Morrell here. We will not meet her
+at the train. We will not send any reply to this
+message from her. And if she has the effrontery
+to come here to the house after our ignoring her in
+this way, we&#8217;ll send her back where she came from
+just as soon as it can be done. What do you say,
+girls?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Fine!&#8221; from Hortense and Flossie.</p>
+<p>But their father said &#8220;Ahem!&#8221; and still looked
+troubled.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VI_ACROSS_THE_CONTINENT' id='VI_ACROSS_THE_CONTINENT'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3>ACROSS THE CONTINENT</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was not as though Helen Morrell had never
+been in a train before. Eight times she had gone
+back and forth to Denver, and she had always
+ridden in the best style. So sleepers, chair cars,
+private compartments, and observation coaches
+were no novelty to her.</p>
+<p>She had discussed the matter with her friend,
+the Elberon station agent, and had bought her
+ticket through to New York, with a berth section
+to herself. It cost a good bit of money, but Helen
+knew no better way to spend some of that thousand
+dollars that Big Hen had given to her.</p>
+<p>Her small trunk was put in the baggage car,
+and all she carried was a hand-satchel with toilet
+articles and kimono; and in it likewise was her father&#8217;s
+big wallet stuffed with the yellow-backed
+notes&mdash;all crisp and new&mdash;that Big Hen Billings
+had brought to her from the bank.</p>
+<p>When she was comfortably seated in her particular
+section, and the porter had seen that her
+footstool was right, and had hovered about her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span>
+with offers of other assistance until she had put
+a silver dollar into his itching palm, Helen first
+stared about her frankly at the other occupants of
+the car.</p>
+<p>Nobody paid much attention to the countrified
+girl who had come aboard at the way-station. The
+Transcontinental&#8217;s cars are always well filled.
+There were family parties, and single tourists, with
+part of a grand opera troupe, and traveling men
+of the better class.</p>
+<p>Helen would have been glad to join one of the
+family groups. In one there were two girls and
+a boy beside the parents and a lady who must have
+been the governess. One of the girls, and the boy,
+were quite as old as Helen. They were all so well
+behaved, and polite to each other, yet jolly and
+companionable, that Helen knew she could have
+liked them immensely.</p>
+<p>But there was nobody to introduce the lonely
+girl to them, nor to any others of her fellow
+travelers. The conductor, even, did not take much
+interest in the girl in brown.</p>
+<p>She began to realize that what was the height
+of fashion in Elberon was several seasons behind
+the style in larger communities. There was not
+a pretty or attractive thing about Helen&#8217;s dress;
+and even a very pretty girl will seem a frump in
+an out-of-style and unbecoming frock.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span></p>
+<p>It might have been better for the girl from Sunset
+Ranch if she had worn on the train the very
+riding habit she had in her trunk. At least, it
+would have become her and she would have felt
+natural in it.</p>
+<p>She knew now&mdash;when she had seen the hats of
+her fellow passengers&mdash;that her own was an
+atrocity. And, then, Helen had &#8220;put her hair up,&#8221;
+which was something she had not been used to
+doing. Without practice, or some example to
+work by, how could this unsophisticated young
+girl have produced a specimen of modern hair-dressing
+fit to be seen?</p>
+<p>Even Dudley Stone could not have thought
+Helen Morrell pretty as she looked now. And
+when she gazed in the glass herself, the girl from
+Sunset Ranch was more than a little disgusted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know I&#8217;m a fright. I&#8217;ve got &#8216;such a muchness&#8217;
+of hair and it&#8217;s so sunburned, and all! What
+those girls I&#8217;m going to see will say to me, I don&#8217;t
+know. But if they&#8217;re good-natured they&#8217;ll soon
+show me how to handle this mop&mdash;and of course
+I can buy any quantity of pretty frocks when I
+get to New York.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So she only looked at the other people on the
+train and made no acquaintances at all that first
+day. She slept soundly at night while the Transcontinental
+raced on over the undulating plains on
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span>
+which the stars shone so peacefully. Each roll
+of the drumming wheels was carrying her nearer
+and nearer to that new world of which she knew
+so little, but from which she hoped so much.</p>
+<p>She dreamed that she had reached her goal&mdash;Uncle
+Starkweather&#8217;s house. Aunt Eunice met
+her. She had never even seen a photograph of
+her aunt; but the lady who gathered her so closely
+into her arms and kissed her so tenderly, looked
+just as Helen&#8217;s own mother had looked.</p>
+<p>She awoke crying, and hugging the tiny pillow
+which the Pullman Company furnishes its patrons
+as a sample&mdash;the <i>real</i> pillow never materializes.</p>
+<p>But to the healthy girl from the wide reaches
+of the Montana range, the berth was quite comfortable
+enough. She had slept on the open
+ground many a night, rolled only in a blanket and
+without any pillow at all. So she arose fresher
+than most of her fellow-passengers.</p>
+<p>One man&mdash;whom she had noticed the evening
+before&mdash;was adjusting a wig behind the curtain of
+his section. He looked when he was completely
+dressed rather a well-preserved person; and Helen
+was impressed with the thought that he must still
+feel young to wish to appear so juvenile.</p>
+<p>Even with his wig adjusted&mdash;a very curly brown
+affair&mdash;the man looked, however, to be upward of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span>
+sixty. There were many fine wrinkles about his
+eyes and deep lines graven in his cheeks.</p>
+<p>His section was just behind that of the girl from
+Sunset Ranch, on the other side of the car. After
+returning from the breakfast table this first morning
+Helen thought she would better take a little
+more money out of the wallet to put in her purse
+for emergencies on the train. So she opened the
+locked bag and dragged out the well-stuffed wallet
+from underneath her other possessions.</p>
+<p>The roll of yellow-backed notes <i>was</i> a large one.
+Helen, lacking more interesting occupation, unfolded
+the crisp banknotes and counted them to
+make sure of her balance. As she sat in her seat
+she thought nobody could observe her.</p>
+<p>Then she withdrew what she thought she might
+need, and put the remainder of the money back
+into the old wallet, snapped the strong elastic about
+it, and slid it down to the bottom of the bag again.</p>
+<p>The key of the bag she carried on the chain
+with her locket, which locket contained the miniatures
+of her mother and father. Key and locket
+she hid in the bosom of her dress.</p>
+<p>She looked up suddenly. There was the fatherly-looking
+old person almost bending over her chair
+back. For an instant the girl was very much
+startled. The old man&#8217;s eyes were wonderfully
+keen and twinkling, and there was an expression
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span>
+in them which Helen at first did not understand.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you have finished with that magazine, my
+dear, I&#8217;ll exchange it for one of mine,&#8221; said the
+old gentleman coolly. &#8220;What! did I frighten
+you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not exactly, sir,&#8221; returned Helen, watching
+him curiously. &#8220;But I <i>was</i> startled.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Beg pardon. You do not look like a young
+person who would be easily frightened,&#8221; he said,
+laughing. &#8220;You are traveling alone?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Far?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;To New York, sir,&#8221; said Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah! a long way for a girl to go by herself&mdash;even
+a self-possessed one like you,&#8221; said the fatherly
+old fellow. &#8220;I hope you have friends to
+meet you there?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Relatives.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You have never been there, I take it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have never been farther east than Denver
+before,&#8221; she replied.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Indeed! And so you have not met the relatives
+you are going to?&#8221; he suggested, shrewdly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are right, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, of course, they will not fail to meet
+you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I telegraphed to them. I expect to get a
+reply somewhere on the way.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you are well provided for,&#8221; said the old
+gentleman, kindly. &#8220;Yet, if you should need any
+assistance&mdash;of any kind&mdash;do not fail to call upon
+me. I am going through to New York, too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He went back to his seat after making the exchange
+of magazines, and did not force his attentions
+upon her further. He was, however, almost
+the only person who spoke to her all the way
+across the continent.</p>
+<p>Frequently they ate together at the same table,
+both being alone. He bought newspapers and
+magazines and exchanged with her. He never became
+personal and asked her questions again, nor
+did Helen learn his name; but in little ways which
+were not really objectionable, he showed that he
+took an interest in her. There remained, however,
+the belief in Helen&#8217;s mind that he had seen her
+counting the money.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I expect I&#8217;d like the old chap if he didn&#8217;t wear
+a wig,&#8221; thought Helen. &#8220;I never could see why
+people wished to hide the mistakes of Nature.
+And he&#8217;s an old gentleman, too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Yet again and again she recalled that avaricious
+gleam in his eyes and how eager he had seemed
+when she had first caught sight of his face looking
+over her shoulder that first morning on the
+train. She couldn&#8217;t forget that. She kept the
+locked bag near her hand all the time.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span></p>
+<p>With lively company a journey across this great
+continent of ours is a cheerful and inspiring experience.
+And, of course, Youth can never remain
+depressed for long. But in Helen Morrell&#8217;s case
+the trip could not be counted as an enjoyable one.</p>
+<p>She was always solitary amid the crowd of
+travelers. Even when she went back to the observation
+platform she was alone. She had nobody
+with whom to discuss the beauties of the landscape,
+or the wonders of Nature past which the
+train flashed.</p>
+<p>This was her own fault to a degree, of course.
+The girl from Sunset Ranch was diffident. These
+people aboard were all Easterners, or foreigners.
+There were no open-hearted, friendly Western
+folk such as she had been used to all her life.</p>
+<p>She felt herself among a strange people. She
+scarcely spoke the same language, or so it seemed.
+She had felt less awkward and bashful when she
+had first gone to the school at Denver as a little
+girl.</p>
+<p>And, again, she was troubled because she had
+received no reply from her message to Uncle Starkweather.
+Of course, he might not have been at
+home to receive it; but surely some of the family
+must have received it.</p>
+<p>Every time the brakeman, or porter, or conductor,
+came through with a message for some passenger,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span>
+she hoped he would call her name. But
+the Transcontinental brought her across the Western
+plains, over the two great rivers, through the
+Mid-West prairies, skirted two of the Great
+Lakes, rushed across the wooded and mountainous
+Empire State, and finally dashed down the length
+of the embattled Hudson toward the Great City
+of the New World&mdash;the goal of Helen Morrell&#8217;s
+late desires, with no word from the relatives whom
+she so hoped would welcome her to their hearts
+and home.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VII_THE_GREAT_CITY' id='VII_THE_GREAT_CITY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3>THE GREAT CITY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen Morrell never forgot her initial impressions
+of the great city.</p>
+<p>These impressions were at first rather startling&mdash;then
+intensely interesting. And they all culminated
+in a single opinion which time only could
+prove either true or erroneous.</p>
+<p>That belief or opinion Helen expressed in an
+almost audible exclamation:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why! there are so many people here one
+could <i>never</i> feel lonely!&#8221;</p>
+<p>This impression came to her after the train had
+rolled past miles of streets&mdash;all perfectly straight,
+bearing off on either hand to the two rivers that
+wash Manhattan&#8217;s shores; all illuminated exactly
+alike; all bordered by cliffs of dwellings seemingly
+cut on the same pattern and from the same material.</p>
+<p>With clasped hands and parted lips the girl from
+Sunset Ranch watched eagerly the glowing streets,
+parted by the rushing train. As it slowed down at
+125th Street she could see far along that broad
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span>
+thoroughfare&mdash;an uptown Broadway. There
+were thousands and thousands of people in sight&mdash;with
+the glare of shoplights&mdash;the clanging electric
+cars&mdash;the taxicabs and autos shooting across
+the main stem of Harlem into the avenues running
+north and south.</p>
+<p>It was as marvelous to the Montana girl as the
+views of a foreign land upon the screen of a moving
+picture theatre. She sank back in her seat
+with a sigh as the train moved on.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What a wonderful, wonderful place!&#8221; she
+thought. &#8220;It looks like fairyland. It is an enchanted
+place&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>The train, now under electric power, shot suddenly
+into the ground. The tunnel was odorous
+and ill-lighted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; the girl thought, &#8220;I suppose there <i>is</i>
+another side to the big city, too!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The passengers began to put on their wraps and
+gather together their hand-luggage. There was
+much talking and confusion. Some of the tourists
+had been met at 125th Street by friends who came
+that far to greet them.</p>
+<p>But there was nobody to greet Helen. There
+was nobody waiting on the platform, to come and
+clasp her hand and bid her welcome, when the train
+stopped.</p>
+<p>She got down, with her bag, and looked about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span>
+her. She saw that the old gentleman with the wig
+kept step with her. But he did not seem to be
+noticing her, and presently he disappeared.</p>
+<p>The girl from Sunset Ranch walked slowly up
+into the main building of the Grand Central
+Terminal with the crowd. There was chattering
+all about her&mdash;young voices, old voices, laughter,
+squeals of delight and surprise&mdash;all the hubbub
+of a homing crowd meeting a crowd of
+friends.</p>
+<p>And through it all Helen walked, a stranger in a
+strange land.</p>
+<p>She lingered, hoping that Uncle Starkweather&#8217;s
+people might be late. But nobody spoke to her.
+She did not know that there were matrons and
+police officers in the building to whom she could
+apply for advice or assistance.</p>
+<p>Naturally independent, this girl of the ranges
+was not likely to ask a stranger for help. She
+could find her own way.</p>
+<p>She smiled&mdash;yet it was a rather wry smile&mdash;when
+she thought of how Dud Stone had told her
+she would be as much of a tenderfoot in New
+York as he had been on the plains.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a fact,&#8221; she thought. &#8220;But, if they didn&#8217;t
+get my message, I reckon I can find the house, just
+the same.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Having been so much in Denver she knew a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span>
+good deal about city ways. She did not linger
+about the station long.</p>
+<p>Outside there was a row of taxicabs and cabmen.
+There was an officer, too; but he was engaged
+at the moment in helping a fussy old lady get
+seven parcels, a hat box, and a dog basket into a
+cab.</p>
+<p>So Helen walked down the row of waiting taxicabs.
+At the end cab the chauffeur on the seat
+turned around and beckoned.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Cab, Miss? Take you anywhere you say.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You know where this number on Madison
+Street is, of course?&#8221; she said, showing a card
+with the address on it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure, Miss. Jump right in.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How much will it be?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Trunk, Miss?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Here is the check.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The chauffeur got out of his seat quickly and
+took the check.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s so much a mile. The little clock tells you
+the fare,&#8221; he said, pleasantly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; replied Helen. &#8220;You get the
+trunk,&#8221; and she stepped into the vehicle.</p>
+<p>In a few moments he was back with the trunk
+and secured it on the roof of his cab. Then he
+reached in and tucked a cloth around his passenger,
+although the evening was not cold, and got in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span>
+under the wheel. In another moment the taxicab
+rolled out from under the roofed concourse.</p>
+<p>Helen had never ridden in any vehicle that went
+so smoothly and so fast. It shot right downtown,
+mile after mile; but Helen was so interested in
+the sights she saw from the window of the
+cab that she did not worry about the time that
+elapsed.</p>
+<p>By and by they went under an elevated railroad
+structure; the street grew more narrow and&mdash;to
+tell the truth&mdash;Helen thought the place appeared
+rather dirty and unkempt.</p>
+<p>Then the cab was turned suddenly across the
+way, under another elevated structure, and into a
+narrow, noisy, ill-kept street.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can it be that Uncle Starkweather lives in
+this part of the town?&#8221; thought Helen, in amazement.</p>
+<p>She had always understood that the Starkweather
+mansion was in one of the oldest and
+most respectable parts of New York. But although
+<i>this</i> might be one of the older parts of
+the city, to Helen&#8217;s eyes it did <i>not</i> look respectable.</p>
+<p>The street was full of children and grown people
+in odd costumes. And there was a babel of
+voices that certainly were not English.</p>
+<p>They shot across another narrow street&mdash;then
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span>
+another. And then the cab stopped beside the
+curb near a corner gaslight.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Surely this is not Madison?&#8221; demanded
+Helen, of the driver, as her door was opened.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s the name, Miss,&#8221; said the man, pointing
+to the street light.</p>
+<p>Helen looked. She really <i>did</i> see &#8220;MADISON&#8221;
+in blue letters on the sign.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And is this the number?&#8221; she asked again,
+looking at the three-story, shabby house before
+which the cab had stopped.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Miss. Don&#8217;t you see it on the fanlight?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The dull light in the hall of the house was sufficient
+to reveal to her the number painted on the
+glass above the door. It was an old, old house,
+with grimy panes in the windows, and more dull
+lights behind the shades drawn down over them.
+But there really could be no mistake, Helen
+thought. The number over the door and the name
+on the lamp-post reassured her.</p>
+<p>She stepped out of the cab, her bag in her
+hand.</p>
+<p>&#8220;See if your folks are here, Miss,&#8221; said the
+driver, &#8220;before I take off the trunk.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen crossed the walk, clinging to her precious
+bag. She was not a little disturbed by this strange
+situation. These streets about here were the commonest
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span>
+of the common! And she was carrying a
+large sum of money, quite unprotected.</p>
+<p>When she mounted the steps and touched the
+door, it opened. A bustle of sound came from
+the house; yet it was not the kind of bustle that
+she had expected to hear in her uncle&#8217;s home.</p>
+<p>There were the crying of children, the shrieking
+of a woman&#8217;s angry voice&mdash;another singing&mdash;language
+in guttural tones which she could not
+understand&mdash;heavy boots tramping upon the bare
+boards overhead.</p>
+<p>This lower hall was unfurnished. Indeed, it was
+a most unlovely place as far as Helen could see by
+the light of a single flaring gas jet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What kind of a place have I got into?&#8221; murmured
+the Western girl, staring about in disgust
+and horror, and clinging tightly to the locked bag.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VIII_THE_WELCOME' id='VIII_THE_WELCOME'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3>THE WELCOME</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen would have faced almost any peril of
+the range&mdash;wolves, a bear even, a stampede, flood,
+or fire&mdash;with more confidence than she felt at this
+moment.</p>
+<p>She had some idea of how city people lived,
+having been to school in Denver. It seemed impossible
+that Uncle Starkweather and his family
+could reside in such a place as this. And yet the
+street and number were correct. Surely, the taxicab
+driver must know his way about the city!</p>
+<p>From behind the door on her right came the
+rattle of dishes and voices. Putting her courage
+to the test, Helen rapped on the door. But she
+had to repeat the summons before she was heard.</p>
+<p>Then she heard a shuffling step approach the
+door, it was unlocked, and a gray old woman, with
+a huge horsehair wig upon her head, peered out at
+her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Vot you vant?&#8221; this apparition asked, her
+black eyes growing round in wonder at the appearance
+of the girl and her bag. &#8220;Ve puys
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span>
+noddings; ve sells noddings. Vot you vant&mdash;eh?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am looking for my Uncle Starkweather,&#8221;
+said Helen, doubtfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Vor your ungle?&#8221; repeated the old woman.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Starkweather. Does he live in this
+house?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;S&#8217;arkwesser&#8217;? I neffer heard,&#8221; said the old
+woman, shaking her huge head. &#8220;Abramovitch
+lifs here, and Abelosky, and Seldt, and&mdash;and
+Goronsky. You sure you god de name ride,
+Miss?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Quite sure,&#8221; replied the puzzled Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Meppe ubstairs,&#8221; said the woman, eyeing
+Helen curiously. &#8220;Vot you god in de pag, lady?&#8221;</p>
+<p>To tell the truth this query rather frightened
+the girl. She did not reply to the question, but
+started half-blindly for the stairs, clinging to the
+bag with both hands.</p>
+<p>Suddenly a door banged above and a quick and
+light step began to descend the upper flight. Helen
+halted and looked expectantly upward. The approaching
+step was that of a young person.</p>
+<p>In a moment a girl appeared, descending the
+stairs like a young whirlwind. She was a vigorous,
+red-cheeked girl, with dark complexion, a prominent
+nose, flashing black eyes, and plump, sturdy
+arms bared to her dimpled elbows. She saw
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span>
+Helen there in the hall and stopped, questioningly.
+The old woman said something to the newcomer
+in what Helen supposed must be Yiddish,
+and banged shut her own door.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Whaddeyer want, Miss?&#8221; asked the dark
+girl, coming nearer to Helen and smiling, showing
+two rows of perfect teeth. &#8220;Got lost?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know but what I have,&#8221; admitted the
+girl from the West.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee! You&#8217;re a greenie, too; ain&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon so,&#8221; replied Helen, smiling in return.
+&#8220;At least, I&#8217;ve just arrived in town.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The girl had now opened the door and looked
+out. &#8220;Look at this, now!&#8221; she exclaimed.
+&#8220;Did you come in that taxi?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; admitted Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee! you&#8217;re some swell; aren&#8217;t you?&#8221; said
+the other. &#8220;We don&#8217;t have them things stopping
+at the house every day.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am looking for my uncle, Mr. Willets Starkweather.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s no Jewish name. I don&#8217;t believe he
+lives in this house,&#8221; said the black-eyed girl, curiously.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, this is the number&mdash;I saw it,&#8221; said Helen,
+faintly. &#8220;And it&#8217;s Madison Avenue; isn&#8217;t it? I
+saw the name on the corner lamp-post.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Madison Avenyer?</i>&#8221; gasped the other girl.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yer kiddin&#8217;; ain&#8217;t yer?&#8221; demanded the
+stranger.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;&mdash; What do you mean?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;This ain&#8217;t Madison Avenyer,&#8221; said the black-eyed
+girl, with a loud laugh. &#8220;Ain&#8217;t you the
+greenie? Why, this is Madison <i>Street!</i>&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, then, there&#8217;s a difference?&#8221; cried Helen,
+much relieved. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t get to Uncle Starkweather&#8217;s,
+then?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not if he lives on Madison Avenyer,&#8221; said her
+new friend. &#8220;What&#8217;s his number? I got a cousin
+that married a man in Harlem. <i>She</i> lives
+on Madison Avenyer; but it&#8217;s a long ways up
+town.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Uncle Starkweather has his home at the
+same number on Madison Avenue that is on that
+fanlight,&#8221; and Helen pointed over the door.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then he&#8217;s some swell; eh?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I guess so,&#8221; admitted Helen, doubtfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;D&#8217;jer jest come to town?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And told the taxi driver to come down here?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, he&#8217;ll take you back. I&#8217;ll take the number
+of the cab and scare him pretty near into a
+fit,&#8221; said the black-eyed girl, laughing. &#8220;Then
+he&#8217;s sure to take you right to your uncle&#8217;s house.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;m a thousand times obliged!&#8221; cried
+Helen. &#8220;I <i>am</i> a tenderfoot; am I not?&#8221; and she
+laughed.</p>
+<p>The girl looked at her curiously. &#8220;I don&#8217;t
+know much about tender feet. Mine never bother
+me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But I could see right away that
+you didn&#8217;t belong in this part of town.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, you&#8217;ve been real kind to me,&#8221; Helen
+said. &#8220;I hope I&#8217;ll see you again.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not likely,&#8221; said the other, shaking her head.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you livin&#8217; on Madison Avenyer, and me
+on Madison Street?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can come down to see you,&#8221; said Helen,
+frankly. &#8220;My name is Helen Morrell. What&#8217;s
+yours?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sadie Goronsky. You see, I&#8217;m a Russian,&#8221;
+and she smiled. &#8220;You wouldn&#8217;t know it by the
+way I talk; would you? I learned English over
+there. But some folks in Russia don&#8217;t care to mix
+much with our people.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know anything about that,&#8221; said
+Helen. &#8220;But I know when I like a person. And
+I&#8217;ve got reason for liking you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That goes&mdash;double,&#8221; returned the other,
+warmly. &#8220;I bet you come from a place far away
+from this city.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Montana,&#8221; said Helen.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I ain&#8217;t up in United States geography. But
+I know there&#8217;s a big country the other side of the
+North River.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen laughed. &#8220;I come from a good ways
+beyond the river,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll have to get back to the store. Old
+Jacob will give me fits.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear! and I&#8217;m keeping you,&#8221; cried Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should worry!&#8221; exploded the other, slangily.
+&#8220;I&#8217;m only a &#8216;puller-in.&#8217; I ain&#8217;t a saleslady. Come
+on and I&#8217;ll throw a scare into that taxi-driver.
+Watch me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>This sort of girl was a revelation to Helen.
+She was frankly independent herself; but Sadie
+Goronsky showed an entirely different sort of independence.</p>
+<p>&#8220;See here you, Mr. Man!&#8221; exclaimed the Jewish
+girl, attracting the attention of the taxicab
+driver, who had not left his seat. &#8220;Whadderyer
+mean by bringing this young lady down here to
+Madison Street when with half an eye you could
+ha&#8217; told that she belonged on Madison <i>Avenyer</i>?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Heh?&#8221; grunted the man.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, don&#8217;t play no greenie trick with <i>me</i>,&#8221;
+commanded Sadie. &#8220;I gotcher number, and I
+know the company youse woik for. You take this
+young lady right to the correct address on the
+avenyer&mdash;and see that she don&#8217;t get robbed before
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span>
+you get her there. You get in, Miss Morrell.
+Don&#8217;t you be afraid. This chap won&#8217;t dare take
+you anywhere but to your uncle&#8217;s house now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She said Madison Street,&#8221; declared the taxicab
+driver, doggedly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, now <i>I</i> says Madison Avenyer!&#8221; exclaimed
+Sadie. &#8220;Get in, Miss.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But where&#8217;ll I find you, Sadie?&#8221; asked the
+Western girl, holding the rough hand of her new
+friend.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Right at that shop yonder,&#8221; said the black-eyed
+girl, pointing to a store only two doors beyond
+the house which Helen had entered.
+&#8220;Ladies&#8217; garments. You&#8217;ll see me pullin&#8217; &#8217;em in.
+If you <i>don&#8217;t</i> see me, ask for Miss Goronsky.
+Good-night, Miss! You&#8217;ll get to your uncle&#8217;s all
+right now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The taxicab driver had started the machine
+again. They darted off through a side street, and
+soon came out upon the broader thoroughfare
+down which they had come so swiftly. She saw by
+a street sign that it was the Bowery.</p>
+<p>The man slowed down and spoke to her through
+the tube.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope you don&#8217;t bear no ill-will, Miss,&#8221; he
+said, humbly enough. &#8220;You said Madison&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right. See if you can take me to the right
+place now,&#8221; returned Helen, brusquely.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span></p>
+<p>Her talk with Sadie Goronsky had given her
+more confidence. She was awake to the wiles of
+the city now. Dud Stone had been right. Even
+Big Hen Billings&#8217;s warnings were well placed. A
+stranger like herself had to be on the lookout all
+the time.</p>
+<p>After a time the taxicab turned up a wider
+thoroughfare that had no elevated trains roaring
+overhead. At Twenty-third Street it turned west
+and then north again at Madison Square.</p>
+<p>There was a little haze in the air&mdash;an October
+haze. Through this the lamps twinkled blithely.
+There were people on the dusky benches, and many
+on the walks strolling to and fro, although it was
+now growing quite late.</p>
+<p>In the park she caught a glimpse of water in a
+fountain, splashing high, then low, with a rainbow
+in it. Altogether it was a beautiful sight.</p>
+<p>The hum of night traffic&mdash;the murmur of voices&mdash;they
+flashed past a theatre just sending forth
+its audience&mdash;and all the subdued sights and sounds
+of the city delighted her again.</p>
+<p>Suddenly the taxicab stopped.</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is the number, Miss,&#8221; said the driver.</p>
+<p>Helen looked out first. Not much like the
+same number on Madison Street!</p>
+<p>This block was a slice of old-fashioned New
+York. On either side was a row of handsome,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span>
+plain old houses, a few with lanterns at their steps,
+and some with windows on several floors brilliantly
+lighted.</p>
+<p>There were carriages and automobiles waiting
+at these doors. Evening parties were evidently in
+progress.</p>
+<p>The house before which the taxicab had stopped
+showed no light in front, however, except at the
+door and in one or two of the basement windows.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is this the place you want?&#8221; asked the driver,
+with some impatience.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll see,&#8221; said Helen, and hopped out of the
+cab.</p>
+<p>She ran boldly up the steps and rang the bell.
+In a minute the inner door swung open; but the
+outer grating remained locked. A man in livery
+stood in the opening.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What did you wish, ma&#8217;am?&#8221; he asked in a
+perfectly placid voice.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Does Mr. Willets Starkweather reside here?&#8221;
+asked Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Starkweather is not at home, ma&#8217;am.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh! then he could not have received my telegram!&#8221;
+gasped Helen.</p>
+<p>The footman remained silent, but partly closed
+the door.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Any message, ma&#8217;am?&#8221; he asked, perfunctorily.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;But surely the family is at home?&#8221; cried
+Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not at this hour of the hevening, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; declared
+the English servant, with plain disdain.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I must see them!&#8221; cried Helen, again.
+&#8220;I am Mr. Starkweather&#8217;s niece. I have come all
+the way from Montana, and have just got into the
+city. You must let me in.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hi &#8217;ave no orders regarding you, ma&#8217;am,&#8221;
+declared the footman, slowly. &#8220;Mr. Starkweather
+is at &#8217;is club. The young ladies are hat
+an evening haffair.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But auntie&mdash;surely there must be <i>somebody</i>
+here to welcome me?&#8221; said Helen, in more wonder
+than anger as yet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You may come in, Miss,&#8221; said the footman at
+last. &#8220;Hi will speak to the &#8217;ousekeeper&mdash;though
+I fear she is abed.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I have the taxicab driver to pay, and my
+trunk is here,&#8221; declared Helen, beginning suddenly
+to feel very helpless.</p>
+<p>The man had opened the grilled door. He
+gazed down at the cab and shook his head.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait hand see Mrs. Olstrom, first, Miss,&#8221; he
+said.</p>
+<p>She stepped in. He closed both doors and
+chained the inner one. He pointed to a hard seat
+in a corner of the hall and then stepped softly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span>
+away upon the thick carpet to the rear of the
+premises, leaving the girl from Sunset Ranch
+alone.</p>
+<p><i>This</i> was her welcome to the home of her only
+relatives, and to the heart of the great city!</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='IX_THE_GHOST_WALK' id='IX_THE_GHOST_WALK'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>THE GHOST WALK</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen had to wait only a short time; but during
+that wait she was aware that she was being
+watched by a pair of bright eyes at a crevice between
+the portières at the end of the hall.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They act as though I came to rob them,&#8221;
+thought the girl from the ranch, sitting in the
+gloomy hall with the satchel at her feet.</p>
+<p>This was not the welcome she had expected
+when she started East. Could it be possible that
+her message to Uncle Starkweather had not been
+delivered? Otherwise, how could this situation be
+explained?</p>
+<p>Such a thing as inhospitality could not be
+imagined by Helen Morrell. A begging Indian
+was never turned away from Sunset Ranch. A
+perfect stranger&mdash;even a sheepman&mdash;would be
+hospitably treated in Montana.</p>
+<p>The soft patter of the footman&#8217;s steps soon
+sounded and the sharp eyes disappeared. There
+was a moment&#8217;s whispering behind the curtain.
+Then the liveried Englishman appeared.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Will you step this way, Miss?&#8221; he said,
+gravely. &#8220;Mrs. Olstrom will see you in her sitting-room.
+Leave your bag there, Miss.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. I guess I&#8217;ll hold onto it,&#8221; she said, aloud.</p>
+<p>The footman looked pained, but said nothing.
+He led the way haughtily into the rear of the
+premises again. At a door he knocked.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come in!&#8221; said a sharp voice, and Helen was
+ushered into the presence of a female with a face
+quite in keeping with the tone of her voice.</p>
+<p>The lady was of uncertain age. She wore a
+cap, but it did not entirely hide the fact that her
+thin, straw-colored hair was done up in curl-papers.
+She was vinegary of feature, her light blue eyes
+were as sharp as gimlets, and her lips were continually
+screwed up into the expression of one
+determined to say &#8220;prunes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She sat in a straight-backed chair in the sitting-room,
+in a flowered silk bed-wrapper, and she
+looked just as glad to see Helen as though the girl
+were her deadliest enemy.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who are you?&#8221; she demanded.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am Helen Morrell,&#8221; said the girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you want of Mr. Starkweather at
+this hour?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just what I would want of him at any hour,&#8221;
+returned the Western girl, who was beginning to
+become heartily exasperated.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that, Miss?&#8221; snapped the housekeeper.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have come to him for hospitality. I
+am his relative&mdash;rather, I am Aunt Eunice&#8217;s relative&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you mean, child?&#8221; exclaimed the
+lady, with sudden emotion. &#8220;Who is your Aunt
+Eunice?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mrs. Starkweather. He married my mother&#8217;s
+sister&mdash;my Aunt Eunice.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mrs. Starkweather!&#8221; gasped Mrs. Olstrom.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then, where have <i>you</i> been these past three
+years?&#8221; demanded the housekeeper in wonder.
+&#8220;Mrs. Starkweather has been dead all of that
+time. Mr. Willets Starkweather is a widower.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Aunt Eunice dead?&#8221; cried Helen.</p>
+<p>The news was a distinct shock to the girl. She
+forgot everything else for the moment. Her face
+told her story all too well, and the housekeeper
+could not doubt her longer.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a relative, then?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Her&mdash;her niece, Helen Morrell,&#8221; sobbed
+Helen. &#8220;Oh! I did not know&mdash;I did not
+know&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never mind. You are entitled to hospitality
+and protection. Did you just arrive?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, ma&#8217;am.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Your home is not near?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;In Montana.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness! You cannot go back to-night,
+that is sure. But why did you not write?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I telegraphed I was coming.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never heard of it. Perhaps the message was
+not received. Gregson!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; replied the footman.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You said something about a taxicab waiting
+outside with this young lady&#8217;s luggage?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, ma&#8217;am.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Go and pay the man and have the baggage
+brought in&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll pay for it, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; said Helen, hastily,
+trying to unlock her bag.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That will be all right. I will settle it with
+Mr. Starkweather. Here is money, Gregson.
+Pay the fare and give the man a quarter for himself.
+Have the trunk brought into the basement.
+I will attend to Miss&mdash;er&mdash;&mdash;?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Morrell.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Miss Morrell, myself,&#8221; finished the housekeeper.</p>
+<p>The footman withdrew. The housekeeper
+looked hard at Helen for several moments.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you came here expecting hospitality&mdash;in
+your uncle&#8217;s house&mdash;and from your cousins?&#8221; she
+observed, jerkily. &#8220;Well!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span></p>
+<p>She got up and motioned Helen to take up her
+bag.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come. I have no orders regarding you. I
+shall give you one of the spare rooms. You are
+entitled to that much. No knowing when either
+Mr. Starkweather or the young ladies will be
+at home,&#8221; she said, grimly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope you won&#8217;t put yourself out,&#8221; observed
+Helen, politely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am not likely to,&#8221; returned Mrs. Olstrom.
+&#8220;It is you who will be more likely&mdash;&mdash; Well!&#8221;
+she finished, without making her meaning very
+plain.</p>
+<p>This reception, to cap all that had gone before
+since she had arrived at the Grand Central Terminal,
+chilled Helen. The shock of discovering
+that her mother&#8217;s sister was dead&mdash;and she and
+her father had not been informed of it&mdash;was no
+small one, either. She wished now that she had
+not come to the house at all.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I would better have gone to a hotel until I
+found out how they felt toward me,&#8221; thought the
+girl from the ranch.</p>
+<p>Yet Helen was just. She began to tell herself
+that neither Mr. Starkweather nor her cousins
+were proved guilty of the rudeness of her reception.
+The telegram might have gone astray.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span>
+They might never have dreamed of her coming on
+from Sunset Ranch to pay them a visit.</p>
+<p>The housekeeper began to warm toward her in
+manner, at least. She took her up another flight
+of stairs and to a very large and handsomely furnished
+chamber, although it was at the rear of the
+house, and right beside the stairs leading to the
+servants&#8217; quarters. At least, so Mrs. Olstrom
+said they were.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You will not mind, Miss,&#8221; she said, grimly.
+&#8220;You may hear the sound of walking in this hall.
+It is nothing. The foolish maids call it &#8216;the ghost
+walk&#8217;; but it is only a sound. You&#8217;re not superstitious;
+are you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope not!&#8221; exclaimed Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well! I have had to send away one or two
+girls. The house is very old. There are some
+queer stories about it. Well! What is a sound?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very true, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; agreed Helen, rather confused,
+but bound to be polite.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, Miss, will you have some supper? Mr.
+Lawdor can get you some in the butler&#8217;s pantry.
+He has a chafing dish there and often prepares late
+bites for his master.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, ma&#8217;am; I am not hungry,&#8221; Helen declared.
+&#8220;I had dinner in the dining car at seven.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then I will leave you&mdash;unless you should
+wish something further?&#8221; said the housekeeper.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Here is your bath,&#8221; opening a door into the anteroom.
+&#8220;I will place a note upon Mr. Starkweather&#8217;s
+desk saying that you are here. Will you
+need your trunk up to-night, Miss?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no, indeed,&#8221; Helen declared. &#8220;I have a
+kimono here&mdash;and other things. I&#8217;ll be glad of
+the bath, though. One does get so dusty traveling.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was unlocking her bag. For a moment she
+hesitated, half tempted to take the housekeeper
+into her confidence regarding her money. But the
+woman went directly to the door and bowed herself
+out with a stiff:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good-night, Miss.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My! But this is a friendly place!&#8221; mused
+Helen, when she was left alone. &#8220;And they seem
+to have so much confidence in strangers!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Therefore, she went to the door into the hall,
+found there was a bolt upon it, and shot it home.
+Then she pulled the curtain across the keyhole
+before sitting down and counting all her money
+over again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They got <i>me</i> doing it!&#8221; muttered Helen.
+&#8220;I shall be afraid of every person I meet in this
+man&#8217;s town.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But by and by she hopped up, hid the wallet
+under her pillow (the bed was a big one with deep
+mattress and downy pillows) and then ran to let
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span>
+her bath run in the little room where Mrs. Olstrom
+had snapped on the electric light.</p>
+<p>She undressed slowly, shook out her garments,
+hung them properly to air, and stepped into the
+grateful bath. How good it felt after her long
+and tiresome journey by train!</p>
+<p>But as she was drying herself on the fleecy
+towels she suddenly heard a sound outside her
+door. After the housekeeper left her the whole
+building had seemed as silent as a tomb. Now
+there was a steady rustling noise in the short corridor
+on which her room opened.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What <i>did</i> that woman ask me?&#8221; murmured
+Helen. &#8220;Was I afraid of ghosts?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She laughed a little. To a healthy, normal,
+outdoor girl the supernatural had few
+terrors.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It <i>is</i> a funny sound,&#8221; she admitted, hastily
+finished the drying process and then slipping into
+her nightrobe, kimono, and bed slippers.</p>
+<p>All the time her ear seemed preternaturally
+attuned to that rising and waning sound without
+her chamber. It seemed to come toward the door,
+pass it, move lightly away, and then turn and repass
+again. It was a steady, regular&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<p><i>Step&mdash;put; step&mdash;put; step&mdash;put&mdash;&mdash;</i></p>
+<p>And with it was the rustle of garments&mdash;or so
+it seemed. The girl grew momentarily more curious.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span>
+The mystery of the strange sound certainly
+was puzzling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who ever heard of a ghost with a wooden
+leg?&#8221; she thought, chuckling softly to herself.
+&#8220;And that is what it sounds like. No wonder
+the servants call this corridor &#8216;the ghost walk.&#8217;
+Well, me for bed!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She had already snapped out the electric light
+in the bathroom, and now hopped into bed, reaching
+up to pull the chain of the reading light as
+she did so. The top of one window was down
+half-way and the noise of the city at midnight
+reached her ear in a dull monotone.</p>
+<p>Back here at the rear of the great mansion,
+street sounds were faint. In the distance, to the
+eastward, was the roar of a passing elevated train.
+An automobile horn hooted raucously.</p>
+<p>But steadily, through all other sounds, as an
+accompaniment to them and to Helen Morrell&#8217;s
+own thoughts, was the continuous rustle in the
+corridor outside her door:</p>
+<p><i>Step&mdash;put; step&mdash;put; step&mdash;put.</i></p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='X_MORNING' id='X_MORNING'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>MORNING</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Starkweather mansion was a large dwelling.
+Built some years before the Civil War, it
+had been one of the &#8220;great houses&#8221; in its day, to
+be pointed out to the mid-nineteenth century visitor
+to the metropolis. Of course, when the sightseeing
+coaches came in fashion they went up Fifth
+Avenue and passed by the stately mansions of the
+Victorian era, on Madison Avenue, without comment.</p>
+<p>Willets Starkweather had sprung from a quite
+mean and un-noted branch of the family, and had
+never, until middle life, expected to live in the
+Madison Avenue homestead. The important
+members of his clan were dead and gone and their
+great fortunes scattered. Willets Starkweather
+could barely keep up with the expenditures of his
+great household.</p>
+<p>There were never servants enough, and Mrs.
+Olstrom, the very capable housekeeper, who had
+served the present master&#8217;s great-uncle before the
+day of the new generation, had hard work to satisfy
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span>
+the demands of those there were upon the
+means allowed her by Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>There were rooms in the house&mdash;especially upon
+the topmost floor&mdash;into which even the servants
+seldom went. There were vacant rooms which
+never knew broom nor duster. The dwelling, indeed,
+was altogether too large for the needs of Mr.
+Starkweather and his three motherless daughters.</p>
+<p>But their living in it gave them a prestige which
+nothing else could. As wise as any match-making
+matron, Willets Starkweather knew that the
+family&#8217;s address at this particular number on
+Madison Avenue would aid his daughters more
+in &#8220;making a good match&#8221; than anything else.</p>
+<p>He could not dower them. Really, they needed
+no dower with their good looks, for they were all
+pretty. The Madison Avenue mansion gave them
+the open sesame into good society&mdash;choice society,
+in fact&mdash;and there some wealthy trio of unattached
+young men must see and fall in love with
+them.</p>
+<p>And the girls understood this, too&mdash;right down
+to fourteen-year-old Flossie. They all three knew
+that to &#8220;pay poor papa&#8221; for reckless expenditures
+now, they must sooner or later capture
+moneyed husbands.</p>
+<p>So, there was more than one reason why the
+three Starkweather girls leaped immediately from
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span>
+childhood into full-blown womanhood. Flossie
+had already privately studied the characters&mdash;and
+possible bank accounts&mdash;of the boys of her acquaintance,
+to decide upon whom she should smile
+her sweetest.</p>
+<p>These facts&mdash;save that the mansion was enormous&mdash;were
+hidden from Helen when she arose
+on the first morning of her city experience. She
+had slept soundly and sweetly. Even the rustling
+steps on the ghost walk had not bothered her for
+long.</p>
+<p>Used to being up and out by sunrise, she could
+not easily fall in with city ways. She hustled out
+of bed soon after daybreak, took a cold sponge,
+which made her body tingle delightfully, and got
+into her clothes as rapidly as any boy.</p>
+<p>She had only the shoddy-looking brown traveling
+dress to wear, and the out-of-date hat. But
+she put them on, and ventured downstairs, intent
+upon going out for a walk before breakfast.</p>
+<p>The solemn clock in the hall chimed seven as
+she found her way down the lower flight of front
+stairs. As she came through the curtain-hung halls
+and down the stairs, not a soul did she meet until
+she reached the front hall. There a rather decrepit-looking
+man, with a bleared eye, and dressed
+in decent black, hobbled out of a parlor to meet
+her.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Bless me!&#8221; he ejaculated. &#8220;What&mdash;what&mdash;what&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am Helen Morrell,&#8221; said the girl from Sunset
+Ranch, smiling, and judging that this must
+be the butler of whom the housekeeper had spoken
+the night before. &#8220;I have just come to visit my
+uncle and cousins.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bless me!&#8221; said the old man again. &#8220;Gregson
+told me. Proud to see you, Miss. But&mdash;you&#8217;re
+dressed to go out, Miss?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;For a walk, sir,&#8221; replied Helen, nodding.</p>
+<p>&#8220;At this hour? Bless me&mdash;bless me&mdash;bless
+me&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He seemed apt to run off in this style, in an
+unending string of mild expletives. His head
+shook and his hands seemed palsied. But he was
+a polite old man.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I beg of you, Miss, don&#8217;t go out without a
+bit of breakfast. My own coffee is dripping in
+the percolator. Let me give you a cup,&#8221; he said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;if it&#8217;s not too much trouble, sir&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;This way, Miss,&#8221; he said, hurrying on before,
+and leading Helen to a cozy little room at
+the back. This corresponded with the housekeeper&#8217;s
+sitting-room and Helen believed it must
+be Mr. Lawdor&#8217;s own apartment.</p>
+<p>He laid a small cloth with a flourish. He set
+forth a silver breakfast set. He did everything
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span>
+neatly and with an alacrity that surprised Helen
+in one so evidently decrepit.</p>
+<p>&#8220;A chop, now, Miss? Or a rasher?&#8221; he asked,
+pointing to an array of electric appliances on the
+sideboard by which a breakfast might be &#8220;tossed
+up&#8221; in a hurry.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no,&#8221; Helen declared. &#8220;Not so early.
+This nice coffee and these delicious rolls are enough
+until I have earned more.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Earned more, Miss?&#8221; he asked, in surprise.</p>
+<p>&#8220;By exercise,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;I am going to
+take a good tramp. Then I shall come back as
+hungry as a mountain lion.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The family breakfasts at nine, Miss,&#8221; said the
+butler, bowing. &#8220;But if you are an early riser
+you will always find something tidy here in my
+room, Miss. You are very welcome.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She thanked him and went out into the hall
+again. The footman in livery&mdash;very sleepy and
+tousled as yet&mdash;was unchaining the front door. A
+yawning maid was at work in one of the parlors
+with a duster. She stared at Helen in amazement,
+but Gregson stood stiffly at attention as the visitor
+went forth into the daylight.</p>
+<p>&#8220;My, how funny city people live!&#8221; thought
+Helen Morrell. &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe I ever could
+stand it. Up till all hours, and then no breakfast
+until nine. <i>What</i> a way to live!
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;And there must be twice as many servants as
+there are members of the family&mdash;&mdash; Why! more
+than that! And all that big house to get lost in,&#8221;
+she added, glancing up at it as she started off
+upon her walk.</p>
+<p>She turned the first corner and went through a
+side street toward the west. This was not a business
+side street. There were several tall apartment
+hotels interspersed with old houses.</p>
+<p>She came to Fifth Avenue&mdash;&#8220;the most beautiful
+street in the world.&#8221; It had been swept and
+garnished by a horde of white-robed men since
+two o&#8217;clock. On this brisk October morning, from
+the Washington Arch to 110th Street, it was as
+clean as a whistle.</p>
+<p>She walked uptown. At Thirty-fourth and
+Forty-second streets the crosstown traffic had already
+begun. She passed the new department
+stores, already opening their eyes and yawning in
+advance of the day&#8217;s trade.</p>
+<p>There were a few pedestrians headed uptown
+like herself. Some well-dressed men seemed walking
+to business. A few neat shop girls were hurrying
+along the pavement, too. But Helen, and the
+dogs in leash, had the avenue mostly to themselves
+at this hour.</p>
+<p>The sleepy maids, or footmen, or pages stared
+at the Western girl with curiosity as she strode
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span>
+along. For, unlike many from the plains, Helen
+could walk well in addition to riding well.</p>
+<p>She reached the plaza, and crossing it, entered
+the park. The trees were just coloring prettily.
+There were morning sounds from the not-far-distant
+zoo. A few early nursemaids and their
+charges asleep in baby carriages, were abroad.
+Several old gentlemen read their morning papers
+upon the benches, or fed the squirrels who were
+skirmishing for their breakfasts.</p>
+<p>Several plainly-dressed people were evidently
+taking their own &#8220;constitutionals&#8221; through the
+park paths. Swinging down from the north come
+square-shouldered, cleanly-shaven young men of
+the same type as Dud Stone. Helen believed that
+Dud must be a typical New Yorker.</p>
+<p>But there were no girls abroad&mdash;at least, girls
+like herself who had leisure. And Helen was
+timid about making friends with the nursemaids.</p>
+<p>In fact, there wasn&#8217;t a soul who smiled upon
+her as she walked through the paths. She would
+not have dared approach any person she met for
+any purpose whatsoever.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They haven&#8217;t a grain of interest in me,&#8221;
+thought Helen. &#8220;Many of them, I suppose,
+don&#8217;t even see me. Goodness, what a lot of self-centred
+people there must be in New York!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She wandered on and on. She had no watch&mdash;never
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span>
+had owned one. As she had told Dud
+Stone, the stars at night were her clock, and by
+day she judged the hour by the sun.</p>
+<p>The sun was behind a haze now; but she had
+another sure timekeeper. There was nothing the
+matter with Helen&#8217;s appetite.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll go back and join the family at breakfast,&#8221;
+the girl thought. &#8220;I hope they&#8217;ll be nice to me.
+And poor Aunt Eunice dead without our ever being
+told of it! Strange!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She had come a good way. Indeed, she was
+some time in finding an outlet from the park. The
+sun was behind the morning haze as yet, but she
+turned east, and finally came out upon the avenue
+some distance above the gateway by which she had
+entered.</p>
+<p>A southbound auto-bus caught her eye and she
+signaled it. She not only had brought her purse
+with her, but the wallet with her money was stuffed
+inside her blouse and made an uncomfortable
+lump there at her waist. But she hid this with
+her arm, feeling that she must be on the watch for
+some sharper all the time.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Big Hen was right when he warned me,&#8221; she
+repeated, eyeing suspiciously the several passengers
+in the Fifth Avenue bus.</p>
+<p>They were mostly early shoppers, however, or
+gentlemen riding to their offices. She had noticed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span>
+the number of the street nearest her uncle&#8217;s house,
+and so got out at the right corner.</p>
+<p>The change in this part of the town since she
+had walked away from it soon after seven, amazed
+her. She almost became confused and started in
+the wrong direction. The roar of traffic, the rattle
+of riveters at work on several new buildings in
+the neighborhood, the hoarse honking of automobiles,
+the shrill whistles of the traffic policemen
+at the corners, and the various other sounds
+seemed to make another place of the old-fashioned
+Madison Avenue block.</p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness! To live in such confusion,
+and yet have money enough to be able to enjoy
+a home out of town,&#8221; thought Helen. &#8220;How
+foolish of Uncle Starkweather.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She made no mistake in the house this time.
+There was Gregson&mdash;now spick and span in his
+maroon livery&mdash;haughtily mounting guard over
+the open doorway while a belated scrubwoman was
+cleaning the steps and areaway.</p>
+<p>Helen tripped up the steps with a smile for
+Gregson; but that wooden-faced subject of King
+George had no joint in his neck. He could merely
+raise a finger in salute.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is the family up, sir?&#8221; she asked, politely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;In Mr. Starkweather&#8217;s den, Miss,&#8221; said the
+footman, being unable to leave his post at the moment.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span>
+Mr. Lawdor was not in sight and Helen
+set out to find the room in question, wondering
+if the family had already breakfasted. The clock
+in the hall chimed the quarter to ten as she
+passed it.</p>
+<p>The great rooms on this floor were open now;
+but empty. She suddenly heard voices. She found
+a cross passage that she had not noticed before,
+and entered it, the voices growing louder.</p>
+<p>She came to a door before which hung heavy
+curtains; but these curtains did not deaden the
+sound entirely. Indeed, as Helen hesitated, with
+her hand stretched out to seize the portière, she
+heard something that halted her.</p>
+<p>Indeed, what she heard within the next few
+moments entirely changed the outlook of the girl
+from Sunset Ranch. It matured that doubt of
+humanity that had been born the night before in
+her breast.</p>
+<p>And it changed&mdash;for the time being at least&mdash;Helen&#8217;s
+nature. From a frank, open-hearted, loving
+girl she became suspicious, morose and secretive.
+The first words she heard held her spell-bound&mdash;an
+unintentional eavesdropper. And what
+she heard made her determined to appear to her
+unkind relatives quite as they expected her to
+appear.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XI_LIVING_UP_TO_ONE_S_REPUTATION' id='XI_LIVING_UP_TO_ONE_S_REPUTATION'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3>LIVING UP TO ONE&#8217;S REPUTATION</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well! my lady certainly takes her time about
+getting up,&#8221; Belle Starkweather was saying.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She was tired after her journey, I presume,&#8221;
+her father said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Across the continent in a day-coach, I suppose,&#8221;
+laughed Hortense, yawning.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I <i>was</i> astonished at that bill for taxi hire
+Olstrom put on your desk, Pa,&#8221; said Belle. &#8220;She
+must have ridden all over town before she came
+here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A girl who couldn&#8217;t take a plain hint,&#8221; cried
+Hortense, &#8220;and stay away altogether when we
+didn&#8217;t answer her telegram&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush, girls. We must treat her kindly,&#8221; said
+their father. &#8220;Ahem!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see <i>why</i>?&#8221; demanded Hortense,
+bluntly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t understand everything,&#8221; responded
+Mr. Starkweather, rather weakly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand <i>you</i>, Pa, sometimes,&#8221; declared
+Hortense.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll tell you one thing right now!&#8221;
+snapped the older girl. &#8220;I&#8217;ve ordered her things
+taken out of that chamber. Her shabby old trunk
+has gone up to the room at the top of the servants&#8217;
+stairway. It&#8217;s good enough for her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We certainly have not got to have this cowgirl
+around for long,&#8221; continued Hortense.
+&#8220;She&#8217;d be no fit company for Flossie. Flossie&#8217;s
+rude enough as it is.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The youngest daughter had gone to school, so
+she was not present with her saucy tongue to hold
+up her own end of the argument.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Think of a girl right from a cattle ranch!&#8221;
+laughed Belle. &#8220;Fine! I suppose she knows how
+to rope steers, and break ponies, and ride bareback
+like an Indian, and all that. Fine accomplishments
+for a New York drawing-room, I must say.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes,&#8221; joined in Hortense. &#8220;And she&#8217;ll
+say &#8216;I reckon,&#8217; and drop her &#8216;g&#8217;s&#8217; and otherwise
+insult the King&#8217;s English.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! I must warn you girls to be less
+boisterous,&#8221; advised their father.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, you sound as though you were almost
+afraid of this cowgirl, Pa,&#8221; said Belle, curiously.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no!&#8221; protested Mr. Starkweather, hurriedly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pa&#8217;s so easy,&#8221; complained Hortense. &#8220;If I
+had my way I wouldn&#8217;t let her stay the day out.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;But where would she go?&#8221; almost whined
+Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Back where she came from.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps the folks there don&#8217;t want her,&#8221; said
+Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course she&#8217;s a pauper,&#8221; observed Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Give her some money and send her away, Pa,&#8221;
+begged Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You ought to. She&#8217;s not fit to associate with
+Flossie. You know just how Floss picks up every
+little thing&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And she&#8217;s that man&#8217;s daughter, too, you
+know,&#8221; remarked Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; said their father, weakly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not decent to have her here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course, other people will remember what
+Morrell did. It will make a scandal for us.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I cannot help it! I cannot help it!&#8221; cried
+Mr. Starkweather, suddenly breaking out and
+battling against his daughters as he sometimes did
+when they pressed him too closely. &#8220;I cannot
+send her away.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, she mustn&#8217;t be encouraged to stay,&#8221; declared
+Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should say not,&#8221; rejoined Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And getting up at this hour to breakfast,&#8221;
+Hortense sniffed.</p>
+<p>Helen Morrell wore strong, well-made walking
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span>
+boots. Good shoes were something that she could
+always buy in Elberon. But usually she walked
+lightly and springily.</p>
+<p>Now she came stamping through the small hall,
+and on the heels of the last remark, flung back
+the curtain and strode into the den.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hullo, folks!&#8221; she cried. &#8220;Goodness! don&#8217;t
+you get up till noon here in town? I&#8217;ve been clean
+out to your city park while I waited for you to
+wash your faces. Uncle Starkweather! how be
+you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>She had grabbed the hand of the amazed gentleman
+and was now pumping it with a vigor that
+left him breathless.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And these air two of your gals?&#8221; quoth
+Helen. &#8220;I bet I can pick &#8217;em out by name,&#8221; and
+she laughed loudly. &#8220;This is Belle; ain&#8217;t it? Put
+it thar!&#8221; and she took the resisting Belle&#8217;s hand
+and squeezed it in her own brown one until
+the older girl winced, muscular as she herself
+was.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And this is &#8217;Tense&mdash;I know!&#8221; added the girl
+from Sunset Ranch, reaching for the hand of her
+other cousin.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, you don&#8217;t!&#8221; cried Hortense, putting her
+hands behind her. &#8220;Why! you&#8217;d crush my
+hand.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ho, ho!&#8221; laughed Helen, slapping her hand
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span>
+heartily upon her knee as she sat down. &#8220;Ain&#8217;t
+you the puny one!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m no great, rude&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; exclaimed Mr. Starkweather, recovering
+from his amazement in time to shut off the
+snappy remark of Hortense. &#8220;We&mdash;we are glad
+to see you, girl&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I knew you&#8217;d be!&#8221; cried Helen, loudly. &#8220;I
+told &#8217;em back on the ranch that you an&#8217; the gals
+would jest about eat me up, you&#8217;d be so glad,
+when ye seen me. Relatives oughter be neighborly.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Neighborly!&#8221; murmured Hortense. &#8220;And
+from Montana!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Butcher got another one; ain&#8217;t ye, Uncle
+Starkweather?&#8221; demanded the metamorphosed
+Helen, looking about with a broad smile.
+&#8220;Where&#8217;s the little tad?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Little tad&#8217;! Oh, won&#8217;t Flossie be pleased?&#8221;
+again murmured Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;My youngest daughter is at school,&#8221; replied
+Mr. Starkweather, nervously.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shucks! of course,&#8221; said Helen, nodding. &#8220;I
+forgot they go to school half their lives down
+east here. Out my way we don&#8217;t get much chance
+at schoolin&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;So I perceive,&#8221; remarked Hortense, aloud.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now I expect <i>you</i>,&#8217;Tense,&#8221; said Helen, wickedly,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span>
+&#8220;have been through all the isms and the
+ologies there be&mdash;eh? You look like you&#8217;d been
+all worn to a frazzle studyin&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Belle giggled. Hortense bridled.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I really wish you wouldn&#8217;t call me out of my
+name,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Huh?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My name is Hortense,&#8221; said that young lady,
+coldly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shucks! So it is. But that&#8217;s moughty long
+for a single mouthful.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Belle giggled again. Hortense looked disgusted.
+Uncle Starkweather was somewhat shocked.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&mdash;ahem!&mdash;hope you will enjoy yourself
+here while you&mdash;er&mdash;remain,&#8221; he began. &#8220;Of
+course, your visit will be more or less brief, I
+suppose?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Jest accordin&#8217; to how ye like me and how I
+like you folks,&#8221; returned the girl from Sunset
+Ranch, heartily. &#8220;When Big Hen seen me
+off&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who&mdash;<i>who</i>?&#8221; demanded Hortense, faintly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Big Hen Billings,&#8221; said Helen, in an explanatory
+manner. &#8220;Hen was dad&#8217;s&mdash;that is he worked
+with dad on the ranch. When I come away I
+told Big Hen not to look for me back till I arrove.
+Didn&#8217;t know how I&#8217;d find you-all, or how I&#8217;d
+like the city. City&#8217;s all right; only nobody gets
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span>
+up early. And I expect we-all can&#8217;t tell how we
+like each other until we get better acquainted.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very true&mdash;very true,&#8221; remarked Mr. Starkweather,
+faintly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, goodness! I&#8217;m hungry!&#8221; exclaimed
+Helen. &#8220;You folks ain&#8217;t fed yet; have ye?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We have breakfasted,&#8221; said Belle, scornfully.
+&#8220;I will ring for the butler. You may tell Lawdor
+what you want&mdash;er&mdash;<i>Cousin</i> Helen,&#8221; and she
+looked at Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure!&#8221; cried Helen. &#8220;Sorry to keep you waiting.
+Ye see, I didn&#8217;t have any watch and the sun
+was clouded over this morning. Sort of run over
+my time limit&mdash;eh? Ah!&mdash;is this Mr. Lawdor?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The shaky old butler stood in the doorway.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is <i>Lawdor</i>,&#8221; said Belle, emphatically. &#8220;Is
+there any breakfast left, Lawdor?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Miss Belle. When Gregson told me the
+young miss was not at the table I kept something
+hot and hot for her, Miss. Shall I serve it in my
+room?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You may as well,&#8221; said Belle, carelessly.
+&#8220;And, <i>Cousin</i> Helen!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yep?&#8221; chirped the girl from the ranch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course, while you are here, we could not
+have you in the room you occupied last night. It&mdash;it
+might be needed. I have already told Olstrom,
+the housekeeper, to take your bag and other things
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span>
+up to the next floor. Ask one of the maids to
+show you the room you are to occupy&mdash;<i>while you
+remain</i>.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all right, Belle,&#8221; returned the Western
+girl, with great heartiness. &#8220;Any old place will
+do for me. Why! I&#8217;ve slept on the ground more
+nights than you could shake a stick at,&#8221; and she
+tramped off after the tottering butler.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well!&#8221; gasped Hortense when she was
+out of hearing, &#8220;what do you know about <i>that</i>?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pa, do you intend to let that dowdy little
+thing stay here?&#8221; cried Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; murmured Mr. Starkweather, running
+a finger around between his collar and his
+neck, as though to relieve the pressure there.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Her clothes came out of the ark!&#8221; declared
+Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And that hat!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And those boots&mdash;or is it because she clumps
+them so? I expect she is more used to riding than
+to walking.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And her language!&#8221; rejoined Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! What&mdash;what can we do, girls?&#8221;
+gasped Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Put her out!&#8221; cried Belle, loudly and angrily.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She is quite too, too impossible, Pa,&#8221; agreed
+Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;With her coarse jokes,&#8221; said the older sister.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;And her rough way,&#8221; echoed the other.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And that ugly dress and hat.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A pauper relation! Faugh! I didn&#8217;t know
+the Starkweathers owned one.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Seems to me, <i>one</i> queer person in the house is
+enough,&#8221; began Hortense.</p>
+<p>Her father and sister looked at her sharply.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Hortense!&#8221; exclaimed Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; observed Mr. Starkweather, warningly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well! we don&#8217;t want <i>that</i> freak in the house,&#8221;
+grumbled the younger sister.</p>
+<p>&#8220;There are&mdash;ahem!&mdash;some things best left unsaid,&#8221;
+observed her father, pompously. &#8220;But
+about this girl from the West&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Pa!&#8221; cried his daughters in duet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will see what can be done. Of course, she
+cannot expect me to support her for long. I will
+have a serious talk with her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;When, Pa?&#8221; cried the two girls again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Er&mdash;ahem!&mdash;soon,&#8221; declared the gentleman,
+and beat a hasty retreat.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It had better be pretty soon,&#8221; said Belle, bitterly,
+to her sister. &#8220;For I won&#8217;t stand that
+dowdy thing here for long, now I tell you!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good for you, Belle!&#8221; rejoined Hortense,
+warmly. &#8220;It&#8217;s strange if we can&#8217;t&mdash;with Flossie&#8217;s
+help&mdash;soon make her sick of her visit.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XII__I_MUST_LEARN_THE_TRUTH' id='XII__I_MUST_LEARN_THE_TRUTH'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3>&#8220;I MUST LEARN THE TRUTH&#8221;</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen was already very sick of her Uncle
+Starkweather&#8217;s home and family. But she was
+too proud to show the depth of her feeling before
+the old serving man in whose charge she had been
+momentarily placed.</p>
+<p>Lawdor was plainly pleased to wait upon her.
+He made fresh coffee in his own percolator; there
+was a cutlet kept warm upon an electric stove, and
+he insisted upon frying her a rasher of bacon and
+some eggs.</p>
+<p>Despite all that mentally troubled her, her
+healthy body needed nourishment and Helen ate
+with an appetite that pleased the old man immensely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If&mdash;if you go out early, Miss, don&#8217;t forget
+to come here for your coffee,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Or more,
+if you please. I shall be happy to serve you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I&#8217;m happy to have you,&#8221; returned the
+girl, heartily.</p>
+<p>She could not assume to him the rude tone and
+manner which she had displayed to her uncle
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span>
+and cousins. <i>That</i> had been the outcome of an
+impulse which had risen from the unkind expressions
+she had heard them use about her.</p>
+<p>As soon as she could get away, she had ceased
+being an eavesdropper. But she had heard enough
+to assure her that her relatives were not glad to
+see her; that they were rude and unkind, and that
+they were disturbed by her presence among them.</p>
+<p>But there was another thing she had drawn
+from their ill-advised talk, too. She had heard
+her father mentioned in no kind way. Hints were
+thrown out that Prince Morrell&#8217;s crime&mdash;or the
+crime of which he had been accused&mdash;was still remembered
+in New York.</p>
+<p>Back into her soul had come that wave of feeling
+she experienced after her father&#8217;s death. He
+had been so troubled by the smirch upon his name&mdash;the
+cloud that had blighted his young manhood
+in the great city.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll know the truth,&#8221; she thought again. &#8220;I&#8217;ll
+find out who <i>was</i> guilty. They sha&#8217;n&#8217;t drive me
+away until I have accomplished my object in coming
+East.&#8221;</p>
+<p>This was the only thought she had while she
+remained under old Lawdor&#8217;s eye. She had to
+bear up, and seem unruffled until the breakfast was
+disposed of and she could escape upstairs.</p>
+<p>She went up the servants&#8217; way. She saw the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span>
+same girl she had noticed in the parlor early in
+the morning.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can you show me my room?&#8221; she asked her,
+timidly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Top o&#8217; the next flight. Door&#8217;s open,&#8221; replied
+the girl, shortly.</p>
+<p>Already the news had gone abroad among the
+under servants that this was a poor relation. No
+tips need be expected. The girl flirted her cloth
+and turned her back upon Helen as the latter
+started through the ghost walk and up the other
+stairway.</p>
+<p>She easily found the room. It was quite as good
+as her own room at the ranch, as far as size and
+furniture went. Helen would have been amply
+satisfied with it had the room been given to her in
+a different spirit.</p>
+<p>But now she closed her door, locked it carefully,
+hung her jacket over the knob that she should be
+sure she was not spied upon, and sat down beside
+the bed.</p>
+<p>She was not a girl who cried often. She had
+wept sincere tears the evening before when she
+learned that Aunt Eunice was dead. But she could
+not weep now.</p>
+<p>Her emotion was emphatically wrathful. Without
+cause&mdash;that she could see&mdash;these city relatives
+had maligned her&mdash;had maligned her father&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span>
+memory&mdash;and had cruelly shown her, a stranger,
+how they thoroughly hated her presence.</p>
+<p>She had come away from Sunset Ranch with
+two well-devised ideas in her mind. First of all,
+she hoped to clear her father&#8217;s name of that old
+smirch upon it. Secondly, he had wished her to
+live with her relatives if possible, that she might
+become used to the refinements and circumstances
+of a more civilized life.</p>
+<p>Refinements! Why, these cousins of hers hadn&#8217;t
+the decencies of red Indians!</p>
+<p>On impulse Helen had taken the tone she had
+with them&mdash;had showed them in &#8220;that cowgirl&#8221;
+just what they had expected to find. She would be
+bluff and rude and ungrammatical and ill-bred.
+Perhaps the spirit in which Helen did this was not
+to be commended; but she had begun it on the impulse
+of the moment and she felt she must keep it
+up during her stay in the Starkweather house.</p>
+<p>How long that would be Helen was not prepared
+to say now. It was in her heart one moment
+not to unpack her trunk at all. She could go to
+a hotel&mdash;the best in New York, if she so desired.
+How amazed her cousins would be if they knew
+that she was at this moment carrying more than
+eight hundred dollars in cash on her person? And
+suppose they learned that she owned thousands
+upon thousands of acres of grazing land in her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span>
+own right, on which roamed unnumbered cattle
+and horses?</p>
+<p>Suppose they found out that she had been
+schooled in a first-class institution in Denver&mdash;probably
+as well schooled as they themselves?
+What would they say? How would they feel
+should they suddenly make these discoveries?</p>
+<p>But, while she sat there and studied the problem
+out, Helen came to at least one determination:
+While she remained in the Starkweather house she
+would keep from her uncle and cousins the knowledge
+of these facts.</p>
+<p>She would not reveal her real character to them.
+She would continue to parade before them and
+before their friends the very rudeness and ignorance
+that they had expected her to betray.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They are ashamed of me&mdash;let them be
+ashamed,&#8221; she said, to herself, bitterly. &#8220;They
+hate me&mdash;I&#8217;ll give them no reason for loving me,
+I promise you! They think me a pauper&mdash;I&#8217;ll <i>be</i>
+a pauper. Until I get ready to leave here, at
+least. Then I can settle with Uncle Starkweather
+in one lump for all the expense to which he may be
+put for me.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll buy no nice dresses&mdash;or hats&mdash;or anything
+else. They sha&#8217;n&#8217;t know I have a penny to spend.
+If they want to treat me like a poor relation, let
+them. I&#8217;ll <i>be</i> a poor relation.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I must learn the truth about poor dad&#8217;s trouble,&#8221;
+she told herself again. &#8220;Uncle Starkweather
+must know something about it. I want to
+question him. He may be able to help me. I may
+get on the track of that bookkeeper. And he can
+tell me, surely, where to find Fenwick Grimes, father&#8217;s
+old partner.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. They shall serve me without knowing it.
+I will be beholden to them for my bread and butter
+and shelter&mdash;for a time. Let them hate and
+despise me. What I have to do I will do. Then
+I&#8217;ll &#8216;pay the shot,&#8217; as Big Hen would say, and
+walk out and leave them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was a bold determination, but not one that is
+to be praised. Yet, Helen had provocation for
+the course she proposed to pursue.</p>
+<p>She finally unlocked her trunk and hung up the
+common dresses and other garments she had
+brought with her. She had intended to ask her
+cousins to take her shopping right away, and she,
+like any other girl of her age, longed for new
+frocks and pretty hats.</p>
+<p>But there was a lot of force in Helen&#8217;s character.
+She would go without anything pretty unless
+her cousins offered to buy it themselves. She
+would bide her time.</p>
+<p>One thing she hid far back in her closet under
+the other things&mdash;her riding habit. She knew it
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span>
+would give the lie to her supposed poverty. She
+had sent to Chicago for that, and it had cost a
+hundred dollars.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t suppose there&#8217;d be a chance to
+ride in this big town,&#8221; she thought, with a sigh.
+&#8220;Unless it is hobby-horses in the park. Well! I
+can get on for a time without the Rose pony, or
+any other critter on four legs, to love me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But she was hungry for the companionship of
+the animals whom she had seen daily on the
+ranch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, even the yip of a coyote would be
+sweet,&#8221; she mused, putting her head out of the
+window and scanning nothing but chimneys and
+tin roofs, with bare little yards far below.</p>
+<p>Finally she heard a Japanese gong&#8217;s mellow
+note, and presumed it must announce luncheon.
+It was already two o&#8217;clock. People who breakfasted
+at nine or ten, of course did not need a midday
+meal.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I expect they don&#8217;t have supper till bedtime,&#8221;
+thought Helen.</p>
+<p>First she hid her wallet in the bottom of her
+trunk, locked the trunk and set it up on end in the
+closet. Then she locked the closet door and took
+out the key, hiding the latter under the edge of the
+carpet.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m getting as bad as the rest of &#8217;em,&#8221; she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span>
+muttered. &#8220;I won&#8217;t trust anybody, either. Now
+for meeting my dear cousins at lunch.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She had slipped into one of the simple house
+dresses she had worn at the ranch. She had noticed
+that forenoon that both Belle and Hortense
+Starkweather were dressed in the most modish
+of gowns&mdash;as elaborate as those of fashionable
+ladies. With no mother to say them nay,
+these young girls aped every new fashion as they
+pleased.</p>
+<p>Helen started downstairs at first with her usual
+light step. Then she bethought herself, stumbled
+on a stair, slipped part of the way, and continued
+to the very bottom of the last flight with a noise
+and clatter which must have announced her coming
+long in advance of her actual presence.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to play eavesdropper again,&#8221; she
+told herself, grimly. &#8220;I always understood that
+listeners hear no good of themselves, and now I
+know it to be a fact.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Gregson stood at the bottom of the last flight.
+His face was as wooden as ever, but he managed
+to open his lips far enough to observe:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Luncheon is served in the breakfast room,
+Miss.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A sweep of his arm pointed the way. Then she
+saw old Lawdor pottering in and out of a room
+into which she had not yet looked.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span></p>
+<p>It proved to be a sunny, small dining-room.
+When alone the family usually ate here, Helen
+discovered. The real dining-room was big enough
+for a dancing floor, with an enormous table, preposterously
+heavy furniture all around the four
+sides of the room, and an air of gloom that would
+have removed, before the food appeared, even, all
+trace of a healthy appetite.</p>
+<p>When Helen entered the brighter apartment her
+three cousins were already before her. The noise
+she made coming along the hall, despite the heavy
+carpets, had quite prepared them for her appearance.</p>
+<p>Belle and Hortense met her with covert smiles.
+And they watched their younger sister to see what
+impression the girl from Sunset Ranch made upon
+Flossie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And this is Flossie; is it?&#8221; cried Helen, going
+boisterously into the room and heading full tilt
+around the table for the amazed Flossie. &#8220;Why,
+you look like a smart young&#8217;un! And you&#8217;re only
+fourteen? Well, I never!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She seized Flossie by both hands, in spite of that
+young lady&#8217;s desire to keep them free.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness me! Keep your paws off&mdash;do!&#8221;
+ejaculated Flossie, in great disgust. &#8220;And let
+me tell you, if I <i>am</i> only fourteen I&#8217;m &#8217;most
+as big as you are and I know a whole lot more.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Floss!&#8221; exclaimed Hortense, but unable
+to hide her amusement.</p>
+<p>The girl from Sunset Ranch took it all with
+apparent good nature, however.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon you <i>do</i> know a lot. You&#8217;ve had
+advantages, you see. Girls out my way don&#8217;t
+have much chance, and that&#8217;s a fact. But if I stay
+here, don&#8217;t you reckon I&#8217;ll learn?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The Starkweather girls exchanged glances of
+amusement.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not think,&#8221; said Belle, calmly, &#8220;that you
+would better think of remaining with us for long.
+It would be rather bad for you, I am sure, and
+inconvenient for us.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How&#8217;s that?&#8221; demanded Helen, looking at
+her blankly. &#8220;Inconvenient&mdash;and with all this
+big house?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; began Belle, copying her father.
+&#8220;The house is not always as free of visitors as it
+is now. And of course, a girl who has no means
+and must earn her living, should not live in
+luxury.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221; asked Helen, quickly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;er&mdash;well, it would not be nice to have a
+working girl go in and out of our house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you think I shall have to go to work?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, of course, you may remain here&mdash;father
+says&mdash;until you can place yourself. But he does
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span>
+not believe in fostering idleness. He often says
+so,&#8221; said Belle, heaping it all on &#8220;poor Pa.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen had taken her seat at the table and Gregson
+was serving. It mattered nothing to these ill-bred
+Starkweather girls that the serving people
+heard how they treated this &#8220;poor relation.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen remained silent for several minutes. She
+tried to look sad. Within, however, she was furiously
+angry. But this was not the hour for her
+to triumph.</p>
+<p>Flossie had been giggling for a few moments.
+Now she asked her cousin, saucily:</p>
+<p>&#8220;I say! Where did you pick up that calico
+dress, Helen?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;This?&#8221; returned the visitor, looking down at
+the rather ugly print. &#8220;It&#8217;s a gingham. Bought
+it ready-made in Elberon. Do you like it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I love it!&#8221; giggled Flossie. &#8220;And it&#8217;s made
+in quite a new style, too.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you think so? Why, I reckoned it was
+old,&#8221; said Helen, smoothly. &#8220;But I&#8217;m glad to
+hear it&#8217;s so fitten to wear. For, you see, I ain&#8217;t got
+many clo&#8217;es.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you have dressmakers out there in Montana?&#8221;
+asked Hortense, eyeing the print garment
+as though it was something entirely foreign.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon. But we folks on the range don&#8217;t
+get much chance at &#8217;em. Dressmakers is as scurce
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span>
+around Sunset Ranch as killyloo birds. Unless
+ye mought call Injun squaws dressmakers.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What are killyloo birds?&#8221; demanded Flossie,
+hearing something new.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well now! don&#8217;t you have them here?&#8221; asked
+Helen, smiling broadly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never heard of them. And I&#8217;ve been to
+Bronx Park and seen all the birds in the flying
+cage,&#8221; said Flossie. &#8220;Our Nature teacher takes
+us out there frequently. It&#8217;s a dreadful bore.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I didn&#8217;t know but you might have &#8217;em
+East here,&#8221; observed Helen, pushing along the
+time-worn cowboy joke. &#8220;I said they was scurce
+around the ranch; and they be. I never saw one.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Really!&#8221; ejaculated Hortense. &#8220;What are
+killyloo birds good for?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, near as I ever heard,&#8221; replied Helen,
+chuckling, &#8220;they are mostly used for making folks
+ask questions.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I declare!&#8221; snapped Belle. &#8220;She is laughing
+at you, girls. You&#8217;re very dense, I&#8217;m sure, Hortense.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say! that&#8217;s a good one!&#8221; laughed Flossie.
+But Hortense muttered:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Vulgar little thing!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen smiled tranquilly upon them. Nothing
+they said to her could shake her calm. And once
+in a while&mdash;as in the case above&mdash;she &#8220;got back&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span>
+at them. She kept consistently to her rude way
+of speaking; but she used the tableware with
+little awkwardness, and Belle said to Hortense:</p>
+<p>&#8220;At least somebody&#8217;s tried to teach her a few
+things. She is no sword-swallower.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose Aunt Mary had some refinement,&#8221;
+returned Hortense, languidly.</p>
+<p>Helen&#8217;s ears were preternaturally sharp. She
+heard everything. But she had such good command
+of her features that she showed no emotion
+at these side remarks.</p>
+<p>After luncheon the three sisters separated for
+their usual afternoon amusements. Neither of
+them gave a thought to Helen&#8217;s loneliness. They
+did not ask her what she was going to do, or suggest
+anything to her save that, an hour later, when
+Belle saw her cousin preparing to leave the house
+in the same dress she had worn at luncheon, she
+cried:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Helen, <i>do</i> go out and come in by the lower
+door; will you? The basement door, you know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure!&#8221; replied Helen, cheerfully. &#8220;Saves the
+servants work, I suppose, answering the bell.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But she knew as well as Belle why the request
+was made. Belle was ashamed to have her appear
+to be one of the family. If she went in and out by
+the servants&#8217; door it would not look so bad.</p>
+<p>Helen walked over to the avenue and looked at
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span>
+the frocks in the store windows. By their richness
+she saw that in this neighborhood, at least, to refit
+in a style which would please her cousins would
+cost quite a sum of money.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I won&#8217;t do it!&#8221; she told herself, stubbornly.
+&#8220;If they want me to look well enough to go in and
+out of the front door, let them suggest buying
+something for me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She went back to the Starkweather mansion in
+good season; but she entered, as she had been told,
+by the area door. One of the maids let her in
+and tossed her head when she saw what an out-of-date
+appearance this poor relation of her master
+made.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure,&#8221; this girl said to the cook, &#8220;if I didn&#8217;t
+dress better nor <i>her</i> when I went out, I&#8217;d wait till
+afther dark, so I would!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen heard this, too. But she was a girl who
+could stick to her purpose. Criticism should not
+move her, she determined; she would continue to
+play her part.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Starkweather is in the den, Miss,&#8221; said
+the housekeeper, meeting Helen on the stairs.
+&#8220;He has asked for you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mrs. Olstrom was a very grim person, indeed.
+If she had shown the girl from the ranch some
+little kindliness the night before, she now hid it
+all very successfully.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span></p>
+<p>Helen returned to the lower floor and sought
+that room in which she had had her first interview
+with her relatives. Mr. Starkweather was
+alone. He looked more than a little disturbed;
+and of the two he was the more confused.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! I feel that we must have a serious
+talk together, Helen,&#8221; he said, in his pompous
+manner. &#8220;It&mdash;it will be quite necessary&mdash;ahem!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure!&#8221; returned the girl. &#8220;Glad to. I&#8217;ve
+got some serious things to ask you, too, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Eh? Eh?&#8221; exclaimed the gentleman, worried
+at once.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You fire ahead, sir,&#8221; said Helen, sitting down
+and crossing one knee over the other in a boyish
+fashion. &#8220;My questions will wait.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;ahem!&mdash;I wish to know who suggested
+your coming here to New York?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;My father,&#8221; replied Helen, simply and truthfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your father?&#8221; The reply evidently both surprised
+and discomposed Mr. Starkweather. &#8220;I
+do not understand. Your&mdash;your father is
+dead&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir. It was just before he died.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And he told you to come here to&mdash;to <i>us</i>?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But why?&#8221; demanded the gentleman with
+some warmth.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Dad said as how you folks lived nice, and
+knew all about refinement and eddication and all
+that. He wanted me to have a better chance than
+what I could get on the ranch.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mr. Starkweather glared at her in amazement.
+He was not at all a kind-hearted man; but he was
+very cowardly. He had feared her answer would
+be quite different from this, and now took courage.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean to say that merely this expressed
+wish that you might live at&mdash;ahem!&mdash;at my expense,
+and as my daughters live, brought you here
+to New York?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That begun it, Uncle,&#8221; said Helen, coolly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Preposterous! What could Prince Morrell
+be thinking of? Why should I support you,
+Miss?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, that don&#8217;t matter so much,&#8221; remarked
+Helen, calmly. &#8220;I can earn my keep, I reckon.
+If there&#8217;s nothing to do in the house I&#8217;ll go and
+find me a job and pay my board. But, you see,
+dad thought I ought to have the refining influences
+of city life. Good idea; eh?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;A very ridiculous idea! A very ridiculous
+idea, indeed!&#8221; cried Mr. Starkweather. &#8220;I never
+heard the like.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, you see, there&#8217;s another reason why I
+came, too, Uncle,&#8221; Helen said, blandly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221; demanded the gentleman,
+startled again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, dad told me everything when he died.
+He&mdash;he told me how he got into trouble before
+he left New York&mdash;&#8217;way back there before I was
+born,&#8221; spoke Helen, softly. &#8220;It troubled dad all
+his life, Uncle Starkweather. Especially after
+mother died. He feared he had not done right
+by her and me, after all, in running away when
+he was not guilty&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not guilty!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not guilty,&#8221; repeated Helen, sternly. &#8220;Of
+course, we all know <i>that</i>. Somebody got all that
+money the firm had in bank; but it was not my
+father, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She gazed straight into the face of Mr. Starkweather.
+He did not seem to be willing to look
+at her in return; nor could he pluck up the courage
+to deny her statement.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I see,&#8221; he finally murmured.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is the second reason that has brought me
+to New York,&#8221; said Helen, more softly. &#8220;And
+it is the more important reason. If you don&#8217;t care
+to have me here, Uncle, I will find work that will
+support me, and live elsewhere. But I <i>must</i> learn
+the truth about that old story against father. I
+sha&#8217;n&#8217;t leave New York until I have cleared his
+name.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIII_SADIE_AGAIN' id='XIII_SADIE_AGAIN'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3>SADIE AGAIN</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Starkweather appeared to recover his
+equanimity. He looked askance at his niece, however,
+as she announced her intention.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are very young and very foolish, Helen&mdash;ahem!
+A mystery of sixteen or seventeen years&#8217;
+standing, which the best detectives could not unravel,
+is scarcely a task to be attempted by a mere
+girl.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who else is there to do it?&#8221; Helen demanded,
+quickly. &#8220;I mean to find out the truth, if I can.
+I want you to tell me all you know, and I want you
+to tell me how to find Fenwick Grimes&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense, nonsense, girl!&#8221; exclaimed her
+uncle, testily. &#8220;What good would it do you to
+find Grimes?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He was the other partner in the concern. He
+had just as good a chance to steal the money as
+father.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ridiculous! Mr. Grimes was away from the
+city at the time.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you <i>do</i> remember all about it, sir?&#8221;
+asked Helen, quickly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! <i>That</i> fact had not slipped my mind,&#8221;
+replied her uncle, weakly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And then, there was Allen Chesterton, the
+bookkeeper. Was a search ever made for him?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;High and low,&#8221; returned her uncle, promptly.
+&#8220;But nobody ever heard of him thereafter.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And why did the shadow of suspicion not fall
+upon him as strongly as it did upon my father?&#8221;
+cried the girl, dropping, in her earnestness, her assumed
+uncouthness of speech.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps it did&mdash;perhaps it did,&#8221; muttered Mr.
+Starkweather. &#8220;Yes, of course it did! They both
+ran away, you see&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t you advise dad to go away&mdash;until the
+matter could be cleared up?&#8221; demanded Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;I&mdash;ahem!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Both you and Mr. Grimes advised it,&#8221; went
+on the girl, quite firmly. &#8220;And father did so because
+of the effect his arrest might have upon
+mother in her delicate health. Wasn&#8217;t that the
+way it was?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I presume that is so,&#8221; agreed Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And it was wrong,&#8221; declared the girl, with all
+the confidence of youth. &#8220;Poor dad realized it
+before he died. It made all the firm&#8217;s creditors
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span>
+believe that he was guilty. No matter what he did
+thereafter&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Stop, girl!&#8221; exclaimed Mr. Starkweather.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t you know that if you stir up this old
+business the scandal will all come to light?
+Why&mdash;why, even <i>my</i> name might be attached
+to it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But poor dad suffered under the blight of it
+all for more than sixteen years.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! It is a fact. It was a great misfortune.
+Perhaps he <i>was</i> advised wrongly,&#8221; said Mr.
+Starkweather, with trembling lips. &#8220;But I want
+you to understand, Helen, that if he had not left
+the city he would undoubtedly have been in a cell
+when you were born.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know that that would have killed me&mdash;especially,
+if by staying here, he might have come
+to trial and been freed of suspicion.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But he could not be freed of suspicion.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not? I don&#8217;t see that the evidence was
+conclusive,&#8221; declared the girl, hotly. &#8220;At least,
+<i>he</i> knew of none such. And I want to know now
+every bit of evidence that could be brought against
+him.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Useless! Useless!&#8221; muttered her uncle, wiping
+his brow.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is not useless. My father was accused of a
+crime of which he wasn&#8217;t guilty. Why, his friends
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span>
+here&mdash;those who knew him in the old days&mdash;will
+think me the daughter of a criminal!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you are not likely to meet any of
+them&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221; demanded Helen, quickly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Surely you do not expect to remain here in
+New York long enough for that?&#8221; said Uncle
+Starkweather, exasperated. &#8220;I tell you, I cannot
+permit it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I must learn what I can about that old trouble
+before I go back&mdash;if I go back to Montana at all,&#8221;
+declared his niece, doggedly.</p>
+<p>Mr. Starkweather was silent for a few moments.
+He had begun the discussion with the settled intention
+of telling Helen that she must return at
+once to the West. But he knew he had no real
+right of control over the girl, and to claim one
+would put him at the disadvantage, perhaps, of
+being made to support her.</p>
+<p>He saw she was a very determined creature,
+young as she was. If he antagonized her too
+much, she might, indeed, go out and get a position
+to support herself and remain a continual thorn
+in the side of the family.</p>
+<p>So he took another tack. He was not a successful
+merchant and real estate operator for nothing.
+He said:</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not blame you, Helen, for <i>wishing</i> that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span>
+that old cloud over your father&#8217;s name might be
+dissipated. I wish so, too. But, remember, long
+ago your&mdash;ahem!&mdash;your aunt and I, as well as
+Fenwick Grimes, endeavored to get to the bottom
+of the mystery. Detectives were hired. Everything
+possible was done. And to no avail.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She watched him narrowly, but said nothing.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So, how can you be expected to do now what
+was impossible when the matter was fresh?&#8221;
+pursued her uncle, suavely. &#8220;If I could help
+you&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can,&#8221; declared the girl, suddenly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Will you tell me how?&#8221; he asked, in a rather
+vexed tone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;By telling me where to find Mr. Grimes,&#8221; said
+Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;er&mdash;that is easily done, although I
+have had no dealings with Mr. Grimes for many
+years. But if he is at home&mdash;he travels over
+the country a great deal&mdash;I can give you a letter
+to him and he will see you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are determined to try to rake up all this
+trouble?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will see Mr. Grimes. And I will try to find
+Allen Chesterton.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Out of the question!&#8221; cried her uncle.
+&#8220;Chesterton is dead. He dropped out of sight
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span>
+long ago. A strange character at best, I believe.
+And if he was the thief&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, sir?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He certainly would not help you convict himself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not intentionally, sir,&#8221; admitted Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never did see such an opinionated girl,&#8221;
+cried Mr. Starkweather, in sudden wrath.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, sir, if I trouble you. If you don&#8217;t
+want me here&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Now, her uncle had decided that it would not
+be safe to have the girl elsewhere in New York.
+At least, if she was under his roof, he could keep
+track of her activities. He began to be a little
+afraid of this very determined, unruffled young
+woman.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s a little savage! No knowing what she
+might do, after all,&#8221; he thought.</p>
+<p>Finally he said aloud: &#8220;Well, Helen, I will do
+what I can. I will communicate with Mr. Grimes
+and arrange for you to visit him&mdash;soon. I will tell
+you&mdash;ahem!&mdash;in the near future, all I can recollect
+of the affair. Will that satisfy you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will take it very kindly of you, Uncle,&#8221; said
+Helen non-committally.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And when you are satisfied of the impossibility
+of your doing yourself, or your father&#8217;s name, any
+good in this direction, I shall expect you to close
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span>
+your visit in the East here and return to your
+friends in Montana.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She nodded, looking at him with a strange expression
+on her shrewd face.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You mean to help me as a sort of a bribe,&#8221; she
+observed, slowly. &#8220;To pay you I am to return
+home and never trouble you any more?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well&mdash;er&mdash;ahem!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is that it, Uncle Starkweather?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see, my dear,&#8221; he began again, rather
+red in the face, but glad that he was getting out of
+a bad corner so easily, &#8220;you do not just fit in, here,
+with our family life. You see it yourself, perhaps?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps I do, sir,&#8221; replied the girl from Sunset
+Ranch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You would be quite at a disadvantage beside
+my girls&mdash;ahem! You would not be happy here.
+And of course, you haven&#8217;t a particle of claim
+upon us.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, sir; not a particle,&#8221; repeated Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you see, all things considered, it would be
+much better for you to return to your own people&mdash;ahem&mdash;<i>own
+people</i>,&#8221; said Mr. Starkweather,
+with emphasis. &#8220;Now&mdash;er&mdash;you are rather
+shabby, I fear, Helen. I am not as rich a man as
+you may suppose. But I&mdash;&mdash; The fact is, the girls
+are ashamed of your appearance,&#8221; he pursued,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span>
+without looking at her, and opening his bill
+case.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here is ten dollars. I understand that a
+young miss like you can be fitted very nicely to a
+frock downtown for less than ten dollars. I advise
+you to go out to-morrow and find yourself a
+more up-to-date frock than&mdash;than that one you
+have on, for instance.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Somebody might see you come into the house&mdash;ahem!&mdash;some
+of our friends, I mean, and they
+would not understand. Get a new dress, Helen.
+While you are here look your best. Ahem! We
+all must give the hostage of a neat appearance to
+society.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir,&#8221; said Helen, simply.</p>
+<p>She took the money. Her throat had contracted
+so that she could not thank him for it in words.
+But she retained a humble, thankful attitude, and
+it sufficed.</p>
+<p>He cared nothing about hurting the feelings of
+the girl. He did not even inquire&mdash;in his own
+mind&mdash;if she <i>had</i> any feelings to be hurt! He was
+so self-centred, so pompous, so utterly selfish, that
+he never thought how he might wrong other
+people.</p>
+<p>Willets Starkweather was very tenacious of his
+own dignity and his own rights. But for the
+rights of others he cared not at all. And there
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span>
+was not an iota of tenderness in his heart for the
+orphan who had come so trustingly across the
+continent and put herself in his charge. Indeed,
+aside from a feeling of something like fear of
+Helen, he betrayed no interest in her at all.</p>
+<p>Helen went out of the room without a further
+word. She was more subdued that evening at dinner
+than she had been before. She did not break
+out in rude speeches, nor talk very much. But she
+was distinctly out of her element&mdash;or so her cousins
+thought&mdash;at their dinner table.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I tell you what it is, girls,&#8221; Belle, the oldest
+cousin, said after the meal and when Helen had
+gone up to her room without being invited to join
+the family for the evening, &#8220;I tell you what it is:
+If we chance to have company to dinner while she
+remains, I shall send a tray up to her room with
+her dinner on it. I certainly could not <i>bear</i> to have
+the Van Ramsdens, or the De Vornes, see her at
+our table.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Quite true,&#8221; agreed Hortense. &#8220;We never
+could explain having such a cousin.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Horrors, no!&#8221; gasped Flossie.</p>
+<p>Helen had found a book in the library, and she
+lit the gas in her room (there was no electricity
+on this upper floor) and forgot her troubles and
+unhappiness in following the fortunes of the
+heroine of her story-book. It was late when she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span>
+heard the maids retire. They slept in rooms
+opening out of a side hall.</p>
+<p>By and by&mdash;after the clock in the Metropolitan
+tower had struck the hour of eleven&mdash;Helen heard
+the rustle and step outside her door which she had
+heard in the corridor downstairs. She crept to
+her door, after turning out her light, and opening
+it a crack, listened.</p>
+<p>Had somebody gone downstairs? Was that a
+rustling dress in the corridor down there&mdash;the
+ghost walk? Did she hear again the &#8220;step&mdash;put;
+step&mdash;put&#8221; that had puzzled her already?</p>
+<p>She did not like to go out into the hall and, perhaps,
+meet one of the servants. So, after a time,
+she went back to her book.</p>
+<p>But the incident had given her a distaste for
+reading. She kept listening for the return of the
+ghostly step. So she undressed and went to bed.
+Long afterward (or so it seemed to her, for she
+had been asleep and slept soundly) she was aroused
+again by the &#8220;step&mdash;put; step&mdash;put&#8221; past her
+door.</p>
+<p>Half asleep as she was, she jumped up and ran
+to the door. When she opened it, it seemed as
+though the sound was far down the main corridor&mdash;and
+she thought she could see the entire length
+of that passage. At least, there was a great window
+at the far end, and the moonlight looked
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span>
+ghostily in. No shadow crossed this band of light,
+and yet the rustle and step continued after she
+reached her door and opened it.</p>
+<p>Then&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<p>Was that a door closed softly in the distance?
+She could not be sure. After a minute or two one
+thing she <i>was</i> sure of, however; she was getting
+cold here in the draught, so she scurried back to
+bed, covered her ears, and went to sleep again.</p>
+<p>Helen got up the next morning with one well-defined
+determination. She would put into practice
+her uncle&#8217;s suggestion. She would buy one of
+the cheap but showy dresses which shopgirls and
+minor clerks had to buy to keep up appearances.</p>
+<p>It was a very serious trouble to Helen that she
+was not to buy and disport herself in pretty frocks
+and hats. The desire to dress prettily and tastefully
+is born in most girls&mdash;just as surely as is the
+desire to breathe. And Helen was no exception.</p>
+<p>She was obstinate, however, and could keep to
+her purpose. Let the Starkweathers think she was
+poor. Let them continue to think so until her
+play was all over and she was ready to go home
+again.</p>
+<p>Her experience in the great city had told Helen
+already that she could never be happy there. She
+longed for the ranch, and for the Rose pony&mdash;even
+for Big Hen Billings and Sing and the rag-head,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span>
+Jo-Rab, and Manuel and Jose, and all the
+good-hearted, honest &#8220;punchers&#8221; who loved her
+and who would no more have hurt her feelings
+than they would have made an infant cry.</p>
+<p>She longed to have somebody call her
+&#8220;Snuggy&#8221; and to smile upon her in good-fellowship.
+As she walked the streets nobody appeared
+to heed her. If they did, their expression of
+countenance merely showed curiosity, or a scorn of
+her clothes.</p>
+<p>She was alone. She had never felt so much
+alone when miles from any other human being, as
+she sometimes had been on the range. What had
+Dud said about this? That one could be very
+much alone in the big city? Dud was right.</p>
+<p>She wished that she had Dud Stone&#8217;s address.
+She surely would have communicated with him
+now, for he was probably back in New York by this
+time.</p>
+<p>However, there was just one person whom she
+had met in New York who seemed to the girl from
+Sunset Ranch as being &#8220;all right.&#8221; And when she
+made up her mind to do as her uncle had directed
+about the new frock, it was of this person Helen
+naturally thought.</p>
+<p>Sadie Goronsky! The girl who had shown herself
+so friendly the night Helen had come to town.
+She worked in a store where they sold ladies&#8217; clothing.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span>
+With no knowledge of the cheaper department
+stores than those she had seen on the avenue,
+it seemed quite the right thing to Helen&#8217;s mind for
+her to search out Sadie and her store.</p>
+<p>So, after an early breakfast taken in Mr. Lawdor&#8217;s
+little room, and under the ministrations of
+that kind old man, Helen left the house&mdash;by the
+area door as requested&mdash;and started downtown.</p>
+<p>She didn&#8217;t think of riding. Indeed, she had no
+idea how far Madison Street was. But she remembered
+the route the taxicab had taken uptown
+that first evening, and she could not easily
+lose her way.</p>
+<p>And there was so much for the girl from the
+ranch to see&mdash;so much that was new and curious to
+her&mdash;that she did not mind the walk; although it
+took her until almost noon, and she was quite tired
+when she got to Chatham Square.</p>
+<p>Here she timidly inquired of a policeman, who
+kindly crossed the wide street with her and showed
+her the way. On the southern side of Madison
+Street she wandered, curiously alive to everything
+about the district, and the people in it, that made
+them both seem so strange to her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;A dress, lady! A hat, lady!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The buxom Jewish girls and women, who paraded
+the street before the shops for which they
+worked, would give her little peace. Yet it was all
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span>
+done good-naturedly, and when she smiled and
+shook her head they smiled, too, and let her pass.</p>
+<p>Suddenly she saw the sturdy figure of Sadie
+Goronsky right ahead. She had stopped a rather
+over-dressed, loud-voiced woman with a child, and
+Helen heard a good deal of the conversation while
+she waited for Sadie (whose back was toward her)
+to be free.</p>
+<p>The &#8220;puller-in&#8221; and the possible customer
+wrangled some few moments, both in Yiddish and
+broken English; but Sadie finally carried her point&mdash;and
+the child&mdash;into the store! The woman had
+to follow her offspring, and once inside some of
+the clerks got hold of her and Sadie could come
+forth to lurk for another possible customer.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, see who&#8217;s here!&#8221; exclaimed the Jewish
+girl, catching sight of Helen. &#8220;What&#8217;s the matter,
+Miss? Did they turn you out of your uncle&#8217;s
+house upon Madison Avenyer? I never <i>did</i> expect
+to see you again.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I expected to see you again, Sadie; I told
+you I&#8217;d come,&#8221; said Helen, simply.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So it wasn&#8217;t just a josh; eh?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I always keep my word,&#8221; said the girl from
+the West.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee!&#8221; gasped Sadie. &#8220;We ain&#8217;t so partic&#8217;lar
+around here. But I&#8217;m glad to see you, Miss,
+just the same. Be-lieve me!&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIV_A_NEW_WORLD' id='XIV_A_NEW_WORLD'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h3>A NEW WORLD</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The two girls stood on the sidewalk and let the
+tide of busy humanity flow by unnoticed. Both
+were healthy types of youth&mdash;one from the open
+ranges of the Great West, the other from a land
+far, far to the East.</p>
+<p>Helen Morrell was brown, smiling, hopeful-looking;
+but she certainly was not &#8220;up to date&#8221;
+in dress and appearance. The black-eyed and
+black-haired Russian girl was just as well developed
+for her age and as rugged as she could
+be; but in her cheap way her frock was the &#8220;very
+latest thing,&#8221; her hair was dressed wonderfully,
+and the air of &#8220;city smartness&#8221; about her made
+the difference between her and Helen even more
+marked.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never s&#8217;posed you&#8217;d come down here,&#8221; said
+Sadie again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You asked was I turned out of my uncle&#8217;s
+house,&#8221; responded Helen, seriously. &#8220;Well, it
+does about amount to that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no! Never!&#8221; cried the other girl.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me tell you,&#8221; said Helen, whose heart was
+so full that she longed for a confidant. Besides,
+Sadie Goronsky would never know the Starkweather
+family and their friends, and she felt
+free to speak fully. So, without much reserve, she
+related her experiences in her uncle&#8217;s house.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, ain&#8217;t they the mean things!&#8221; ejaculated
+Sadie, referring to the cousins. &#8220;And I suppose
+they&#8217;re awful rich?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I presume so. The house is very large,&#8221; declared
+Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And they&#8217;ve got loads and loads of dresses,
+too?&#8221; demanded the working girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes. They are very fashionably dressed,&#8221;
+Helen told her. &#8220;But see! I am going to have a
+new dress myself. Uncle Starkweather gave me
+ten dollars.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee!&#8221; ejaculated Sadie. &#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t it give
+him a cramp in his pocket-book to part with so
+much mazouma?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mazouma?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s Hebrew for money,&#8221; laughed Sadie.
+&#8220;But you <i>do</i> need a dress. Where did you get
+that thing you&#8217;ve got on?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Out home,&#8221; replied Helen. &#8220;I see it isn&#8217;t
+very fashionable.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say! we got through sellin&#8217; them things to
+greenies two years back,&#8221; declared Sadie.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You haven&#8217;t been at work all that time; have
+you?&#8221; gasped the girl from the ranch.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure. I got my working papers four years
+ago. You see, I looked a lot older than I really
+was, and comin&#8217; across from the old country all
+us children changed our ages, so&#8217;t we could go
+right to work when we come here without having
+to spend all day in school. We had an uncle what
+come over first, and he told us what to do.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen listened to this with some wonder. She
+felt perfectly safe with Sadie, and would have
+trusted her, if it were necessary, with the money
+she had hidden away in her closet at Uncle Starkweather&#8217;s;
+yet the other girl looked upon the laws
+of the land to which she had come for freedom
+as merely harsh rules to be broken at one&#8217;s convenience.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course,&#8221; said Sadie, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t work on the
+sidewalk here at first. I worked back in Old
+Yawcob&#8217;s shop&mdash;making changes in the garments
+for fussy customers. I was always quick with my
+needle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then I helped the salesladies. But business
+was slack, and people went right by our door, and
+I jumped out one day and started to pull &#8217;em in.
+And I was better at it&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good-day, ma&#8217;am! Will you look at a beautiful
+skirt&mdash;just the very latest style&mdash;we&#8217;ve only
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span>
+got a few of them for samples?&#8221; She broke off
+and left Helen to stand wondering while Sadie
+chaffered with another woman, who had hesitated
+a trifle as she passed the shop.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no, ma&#8217;am! You was no greenie. I could
+tell that at once. That&#8217;s why I spoke English to
+you yet,&#8221; Sadie said, flattering the prospective
+buyer, and smiling at her pleasantly. &#8220;If you will
+just step in and see these skirts&mdash;or a two-piece
+suit if you will?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen observed her new friend with amazement.
+Although she knew Sadie could be no older than
+herself, she used the tact of long business experience
+in handling the woman. And she got her into
+the store, too!</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wash my hands of &#8217;em when they get inside,&#8221;
+she said, laughing, and coming back to
+Helen. &#8220;If Old Yawcob and his wife and his
+salesladies can&#8217;t hold &#8217;em, it isn&#8217;t <i>my</i> fault, you
+understand. I&#8217;m about the youngest puller-in
+there is along Madison Street&mdash;although that little
+hunchback in front of the millinery shop yonder
+<i>looks</i> younger.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you don&#8217;t try to pull <i>me</i> in,&#8221; said Helen,
+laughing. &#8220;And I&#8217;ve got ten whole dollars to
+spend.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right. But then, you see, you&#8217;re my
+friend, Miss,&#8221; said Sadie. &#8220;I want to be sure you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span>
+get your money&#8217;s worth. So I&#8217;m going with you
+when you buy your dress&mdash;that is, if you&#8217;ll let
+me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let you? Why, I&#8217;d dearly love to have you
+advise me,&#8221; declared the Western girl. &#8220;And
+don&#8217;t&mdash;<i>don&#8217;t</i>&mdash;call me &#8216;Miss.&#8217; I&#8217;m Helen Morrell,
+I tell you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right. If you say so. But, you know, you
+<i>are</i> from Madison Avenyer just the same.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. I&#8217;m from a great big ranch out West.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s like a farm&mdash;yes? I gotter cousin that
+works on a farm over on Long Island. It&#8217;s
+a big farm&mdash;it&#8217;s eighty acres. Is that farm you
+come from as big as that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen nodded and did not smile at the girl&#8217;s
+ignorance. &#8220;Very much bigger than eighty acres,&#8221;
+she said. &#8220;You see, it has to be, for we raise
+cattle instead of vegetables.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I guess I don&#8217;t know much about it,&#8221;
+admitted Sadie, frankly. &#8220;All I know is this city
+and mostly this part of it down here on the East
+Side. We all have to work so hard, you know.
+But we&#8217;re getting along better than we did at first,
+for more of us children can work.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And now I want you should go home with me
+for dinner, Helen&mdash;yes! It is my dinner hour
+quick now; and then we will have time to pick you
+out a bargain for a dress. Sure! You&#8217;ll come?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;If I won&#8217;t be imposing on you?&#8221; said Helen,
+slowly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Huh! That&#8217;s all right. We&#8217;ll have enough
+to eat <i>this</i> noon. And it ain&#8217;t so Jewish, either,
+for father don&#8217;t come home till night. Father&#8217;s
+awful religious; but I tell mommer she must be up-to-date
+and have some &#8217;Merican style about her.
+I got her to leave off her wig yet. Catch <i>me</i> wearin&#8217;
+a wig when I&#8217;m married just to make me look
+ugly. Not!&#8221;</p>
+<p>All this rather puzzled Helen; but she was too
+polite to ask questions. She knew vaguely that
+Jewish people followed peculiar rabbinical laws
+and customs; but what they were she had no idea.
+However, she liked Sadie, and it mattered nothing
+to Helen what the East Side girl&#8217;s faith or bringing
+up had been. Sadie was kind, and friendly,
+and was really the only person in all this big city
+in whom the ranch girl could place the smallest
+confidence.</p>
+<p>Sadie ran into the store for a moment and soon
+a big woman with an unctuous smile, a ruffled white
+apron about as big as a postage stamp, and her
+gray hair dressed as remarkably as Sadie&#8217;s own,
+came out upon the sidewalk to take the young girl&#8217;s
+place.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t I sell you somedings, lady?&#8221; she said
+to the waiting Helen.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, don&#8217;t you go and run <i>my</i> customer in,
+Ma Finkelstein!&#8221; cried Sadie, running out and
+hugging the big woman. &#8220;Helen is my friend
+and she&#8217;s going home to eat mit me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Ach!</i> you are already a United Stater yet,&#8221;
+declared the big woman, laughing. &#8220;Undt the
+friends you have it from Number Five Av&#8217;noo&mdash;yes?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You guessed it pretty near right,&#8221; cried Sadie.
+&#8220;Helen lives on Madison Avenyer&mdash;and it ain&#8217;t
+Madison Avenyer <i>uptown</i>, neither!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She slipped her hand in Helen&#8217;s and bore her off
+to the tenement house in which Helen had had her
+first adventure in the great city.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on up,&#8221; said Sadie, hospitably. &#8220;You
+look tired, and I bet you walked clear down here?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I did,&#8221; admitted Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Some o&#8217; mommer&#8217;s soup mit lentils will rest
+you, I bet. It ain&#8217;t far yet&mdash;only two flights.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen followed her cheerfully. But she wondered
+if she was doing just right in letting this
+friendly girl believe that she was just as poor as the
+Starkweathers thought she was. Yet, on the other
+hand, wouldn&#8217;t Sadie Goronsky have felt embarrassed
+and have been afraid to be her friend, if
+she knew that Helen Morrell was a very, very
+wealthy girl and had at her command what would
+seem to the Russian girl &#8220;untold wealth&#8221;?
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll pay her for this,&#8221; thought Helen, with the
+first feeling of real happiness she had experienced
+since leaving the ranch. &#8220;She shall never be
+sorry that she was kind to me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So she followed Sadie into the humble home
+of the latter on the third floor of the tenement
+with a smiling face and real warmth at her heart.
+In Yiddish the downtown girl explained rapidly
+her acquaintance with &#8220;the Gentile.&#8221; But, as
+she had told Helen, Sadie&#8217;s mother had begun to
+break away from some of the traditions of her
+people. She was fast becoming &#8220;a United
+Stater,&#8221; too.</p>
+<p>She was a handsome, beaming woman, and she
+was as generous-hearted as Sadie herself. The
+rooms were a little steamy, for Mrs. Goronsky
+had been doing the family wash that morning.
+But the table was set neatly and the food that
+came on was well prepared and&mdash;to Helen&mdash;much
+more acceptable than the dainties she had been
+having at Uncle Starkweather&#8217;s.</p>
+<p>The younger children, who appeared for the
+meal, were right from the street where they had
+been playing, or from work in neighboring factories,
+and were more than a little grimy. But
+they were not clamorous and they ate with due
+regard to &#8220;manners.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ve haf nine, Mees,&#8221; said Mrs. Goronsky,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span>
+proudly. &#8220;Undt they all are healt&#8217;y&mdash;<i>ach! so</i>
+healt&#8217;y. It takes mooch to feed them yet.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t tell about it, Mommer&#8221; cried Sadie.
+&#8220;It aint stylish to have big fam&#8217;lies no more.
+Don&#8217;t I tell you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What about that Preesident we hadt&mdash;that
+Teddy Sullivan&mdash;what said big fam&#8217;lies was a
+good d&#8217;ing? Aindt that enough? Sure, Sarah, a
+<i>Preesident</i> iss stylish.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Mommer!&#8221; screamed Sadie. &#8220;You
+gotcher politics mixed. &#8216;Sullivan&#8217; is the district
+leader wot gifs popper a job; but &#8216;Teddy&#8217; was
+the President yet. You ain&#8217;t never goin&#8217; to be real
+American.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But her mother only laughed. Indeed, the light-heartedness
+of these poor people was a revelation
+to Helen. She had supposed vaguely that very
+poor people must be all the time serious, if not
+actually in tears.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, Helen, we&#8217;ll rush right back to the shop
+and I&#8217;ll make Old Yawcob sell you a bargain.
+She&#8217;s goin&#8217; to get her new dress, Mommer. Ain&#8217;t
+that fine?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure it iss,&#8221; declared the good woman.
+&#8220;Undt you get her a bargain, Sarah.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Don&#8217;t</i> call me &#8216;Sarah,&#8217; Mommer!&#8221; cried the
+daughter. &#8220;It ain&#8217;t stylish, I tell you. Call me
+&#8216;Sadie.&#8217;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span></p>
+<p>Her mother kissed her on both plump cheeks.
+&#8220;What matters it, my little lamb?&#8221; she said, in
+their own tongue. &#8220;Mother love makes <i>any</i> name
+sweet.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen did not, of course, understand these
+words; but the caress, the look on their faces, and
+the way Sadie returned her mother&#8217;s kiss made a
+great lump come into the orphan girl&#8217;s throat.
+She could hardly find her way in the dim hall to
+the stairway, she was so blinded by tears.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XV__STEP_PUT_STEP_PUT' id='XV__STEP_PUT_STEP_PUT'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<h3>&#8220;STEP&mdash;PUT; STEP&mdash;PUT&#8221;</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>An hour later Helen was dressed in a two-piece
+suit, cut in what a chorus of salesladies, including
+old Mrs. Finkelstein and Sadie herself, declared
+were most &#8220;stylish&#8221; lines&mdash;and it did not
+cost her ten dollars, either! Indeed, Sadie insisted
+upon going with her to a neighboring millinery
+store and purchasing a smart little hat for
+$1.59, which set off the new suit very nicely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure, this old hat and suit of yours is wort&#8217;
+a lot more money, Helen,&#8221; declared the Russian
+girl. &#8220;But they ain&#8217;t just the style, yuh see. And
+style is everything to a girl. Why, nobody&#8217;d take
+you for a greenie <i>now</i>!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen was quite wise enough to know that she
+had never been dressed so cheaply before; but she
+recognized, too, the truth of her friend&#8217;s statement.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, you take the dress home, and the hat.
+Maybe you can find a cheap tailor who will make
+over the dress. There&#8217;s enough material in it.
+That&#8217;s an awful wide skirt, you know.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;But I couldn&#8217;t walk in a skirt as narrow as the
+one you have on, Sadie.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee! if it was stylish,&#8221; confessed Sadie, &#8220;I&#8217;d
+find a way to walk in a piece of stove-pipe!&#8221; and
+she giggled.</p>
+<p>So Helen left for uptown with her bundles,
+wearing her new suit and hat. She took a Fourth
+Avenue car and got out only a block from her
+uncle&#8217;s house. As she hurried through the side
+street and came to the Madison Avenue corner,
+she came face-to-face with Flossie, coming home
+from school with a pile of books under her arm.</p>
+<p>Flossie looked quite startled when she saw her
+cousin. Her eyes grew wide and she swept the
+natty looking, if cheaply-dressed Western girl,
+with an appreciative glance.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness me! What fine feathers!&#8221; she
+cried. &#8220;You&#8217;ve been loading up with new clothes&mdash;eh?
+Say, I like that dress.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Better than the caliker one?&#8221; asked Helen,
+slily.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re not so foolish as to believe I liked
+<i>that</i>,&#8221; returned Flossie, coolly. &#8220;I told Belle and
+Hortense that you weren&#8217;t as dense as they seemed
+to think you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thanks!&#8221; said Helen, drily.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But that dress is just in the mode,&#8221; repeated
+Flossie, with some admiration.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Your father&#8217;s kindness enabled me to get it,&#8221;
+said Helen, briefly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph!&#8221; said Flossie, frankly. &#8220;I guess
+it didn&#8217;t cost you much, then.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen did not reply to this comment; but as she
+turned to go down to the basement door, Flossie
+caught her by the arm.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you do that!&#8221; she exclaimed. &#8220;Belle
+can be pretty mean sometimes. You come in at the
+front door with me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; said Helen, smiling. &#8220;You come in at
+the area door with <i>me</i>. It&#8217;s easier, anyway.
+There&#8217;s a maid just opening it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So the two girls entered the house together.
+They were late to lunch&mdash;indeed, Helen did not
+wish any; but she did not care to explain why
+she was not hungry.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the matter with you, Flossie?&#8221; demanded
+Hortense. &#8220;We&#8217;ve done eating, Belle
+and I. And if you wish your meals here, Helen,
+please get here on time for them.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You mind your own business!&#8221; cried Flossie,
+suddenly taking up the cudgels for her cousin as
+well as herself. &#8220;You aren&#8217;t the boss, Hortense!
+I got kept after school, anyway. And cook can
+make something hot for me and Helen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You <i>need</i> to be kept after school&mdash;from the
+kind of English you use,&#8221; sniffed her sister.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t care! I hate the old studies!&#8221; declared
+Flossie, slamming her books down upon the
+table. &#8220;I don&#8217;t see why I have to go to school at
+all. I&#8217;m going to ask Pa to take me out. I need
+a rest.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Which was very likely true, for Miss Flossie
+was out almost every night to some party, or to
+the theater, or at some place which kept her up
+very late. She had no time for study, and therefore
+was behind in all her classes. That day she
+had been censured for it at school&mdash;and when they
+took a girl to task for falling behind in studies
+at <i>that</i> school, she was very far behind, indeed!</p>
+<p>Flossie grumbled about her hard lot all through
+luncheon. Helen kept her company; then, when
+it was over, she slipped up to her own room with
+her bundles. Both Hortense and Belle had taken
+a good look at her, however, and they plainly approved
+of her appearance.</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s not such a dowdy as she seemed,&#8221;
+whispered Hortense to the oldest sister.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; admitted Belle. &#8220;But that&#8217;s an awful
+cheap dress she bought.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess she didn&#8217;t have much to spend,&#8221;
+laughed Hortense. &#8220;Pa wasn&#8217;t likely to be very
+liberal. It puzzles me why he should have kept
+her here at all.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He says it is his duty,&#8221; scoffed Belle. &#8220;Now,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span>
+you know Pa! He never was so worried about
+duty before; was he?&#8221;</p>
+<p>These girls, brought up as they were, steeped
+in selfishness and seeing their father likewise so
+selfish, had no respect for their parent. Nor
+could this be wondered at.</p>
+<p>Going up to her room that afternoon Helen
+met Mrs. Olstrom coming down. The housekeeper
+started when she saw the young girl, and
+drew back. But Helen had already seen the great
+tray of dishes the housekeeper carried. And she
+wondered.</p>
+<p>Who took their meals up on this top floor?
+The maids who slept here were all accounted for.
+She had seen them about the house. And Gregson,
+too. Of course Mr. Lawdor and Mrs. Olstrom
+had their own rooms below.</p>
+<p>Then who could it be who was being served on
+this upper floor? Helen was more than a little
+curious. The sounds she had heard the night before
+dove-tailed in her mind with these soiled
+dishes on the tray.</p>
+<p>She was almost tempted to walk through the
+long corridor in which she thought she had heard
+the scurrying footsteps pass the night before. Yet,
+suppose she was caught by Mrs. Olstrom&mdash;or by
+anybody else&mdash;peering about the house?</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>That</i> wouldn&#8217;t be very nice,&#8221; mused the girl.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Because these people think I am rude and untaught,
+is no reason why I should display any
+<i>real</i> rudeness.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She was very curious, however; the thought of
+the tray-load of dishes remained in her mind all
+day.</p>
+<p>At dinner that night even Mr. Starkweather
+gave Helen a glance of approval when she appeared
+in her new frock.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; he said. &#8220;I see you have taken my
+advice, Helen. We none of us can afford to forget
+what is due to custom. You are much more
+presentable.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you, Uncle Starkweather,&#8221; replied
+Helen, demurely. &#8220;But out our way we say:
+&#8216;Fine feathers don&#8217;t make fine birds.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You needn&#8217;t fret,&#8221; giggled Flossie. &#8220;Your
+feather&#8217;s aren&#8217;t a bit too fine.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Flossie&#8217;s eyes were red, and she plainly
+had been crying.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I <i>hate</i> the old books!&#8221; she said, suddenly.
+&#8220;Pa, why do I have to go to school any more?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Because I am determined you shall, young
+lady,&#8221; said Mr. Starkweather, firmly. &#8220;We all
+have to learn.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hortense doesn&#8217;t go.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you are not Hortense&#8217;s age,&#8221; returned her
+father, coolly. &#8220;Remember that. And I must
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span>
+have better reports of your conduct in school than
+have reached me lately,&#8221; he added.</p>
+<p>Flossie sulked over the rest of her dinner.
+Helen, going up slowly to her room later, saw the
+door of her youngest cousin&#8217;s room open, and
+glancing in, beheld Flossie with her head on her
+book, crying hard.</p>
+<p>Each of these girls had a beautiful room of her
+own. Flossie&#8217;s was decorated in pink, with chintz
+hangings, a lovely bed, bookshelves, a desk of inlaid
+wood, and everything to delight the eye and
+taste of any girl. Beside the common room Helen
+occupied, this of Flossie&#8217;s was a fairy palace.</p>
+<p>But Helen was naturally tender-hearted. She
+could not bear to see the younger girl crying. She
+ventured to step inside the door and whisper:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Flossie?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Up came the other&#8217;s head, her face flushed and
+wet and her brow a-scowl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do <i>you</i> want?&#8221; she demanded, quickly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nothing. Unless I can help you. And if so,
+<i>that</i> is what I want,&#8221; said the ranch girl, softly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness me! <i>You</i> can&#8217;t help me with algebra.
+What do I want to know higher mathematics
+for? I&#8217;ll never have use for such knowledge.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t suppose we can ever learn <i>too</i> much,&#8221;
+said Helen, quietly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Huh! Lots you know about it. You never
+were driven to school against your will.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. Whenever I got a chance to go I was
+glad.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maybe I&#8217;d be glad, too, if I lived on a ranch,&#8221;
+returned Flossie, scornfully.</p>
+<p>Helen came nearer to the desk and sat down
+beside her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t look a bit pretty with your eyes all
+red and hot. Crying isn&#8217;t going to help,&#8221; she
+said, smiling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose not,&#8221; grumbled Flossie, ungrateful
+of tone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come, let me get some water and cologne and
+bathe your face.&#8221; Helen jumped up and went to
+the tiny bathroom. &#8220;Now, I&#8217;ll play maid for you,
+Flossie.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, all right,&#8221; said the younger girl. &#8220;I
+suppose, as you say, crying isn&#8217;t going to help.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not at all. No amount of tears will solve a
+problem in algebra. And you let me see the questions.
+You see,&#8221; added Helen, slowly, beginning
+to bathe her cousin&#8217;s forehead and swollen
+eyes, &#8220;we once had a very fine school-teacher at
+the ranch. He was a college professor. But he
+had weak lungs and he came out there to Montana
+to rest.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s good!&#8221; murmured Flossie, meaning
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span>
+bathing process, for she was not listening much
+to Helen&#8217;s remarks.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I knew it would make you feel better. But
+now, let me see these algebra problems. I took
+it up a little when&mdash;when Professor Payton was
+at the ranch.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You didn&#8217;t!&#8221; cried Flossie, in wonder.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me see them,&#8221; pursued her cousin, nodding.</p>
+<p>She had told the truth&mdash;as far as she went.
+After Professor Payton had left the ranch and
+Helen had gone to Denver to school, she had
+showed a marked taste for mathematics and had
+been allowed to go far ahead of her fellow-pupils
+in that study.</p>
+<p>Now, at a glance, she saw what was the matter
+with Flossie&#8217;s attempts to solve the problems.
+She slipped into a seat beside the younger girl
+again and, in a few minutes, showed Flossie just
+how to solve them.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Helen! I didn&#8217;t suppose you knew so
+much,&#8221; said Flossie, in surprise.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see, <i>that</i> is something I had a chance to
+learn between times&mdash;when I wasn&#8217;t roping cows
+or breaking ponies,&#8221; said Helen, drily.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph! I don&#8217;t believe you did either of
+those vulgar things,&#8221; declared Flossie, suddenly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are mistaken. I do them both, and do
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span>
+them well,&#8221; returned Helen, gravely. &#8220;But they
+are <i>not</i> vulgar. No more vulgar than your sister
+Belle&#8217;s golf. It is outdoor exercise, and living outdoors
+as much as one can is a sort of religion in the
+West.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; said Flossie, who had recovered her
+breath now. &#8220;I don&#8217;t care what you do outdoors.
+You can do algebra in the house! And I&#8217;m real
+thankful to you, Cousin Helen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are welcome, Flossie,&#8221; returned the other,
+gravely; but then she went her way to her own
+room at the top of the house. Flossie did not
+ask her to remain after she had done all she could
+for her.</p>
+<p>But Helen had found plenty of reading matter
+in the house. Her cousins and uncle might ignore
+her as they pleased. With a good book in her
+hand she could forget all her troubles.</p>
+<p>Now she slipped into her kimono, propped herself
+up in bed, turned the gas-jet high, and lost
+herself in the adventures of her favorite heroine.
+The little clock on the mantel ticked on unheeded.
+The house grew still. The maids came up to bed
+chattering. But still Helen read on.</p>
+<p>She had forgotten the sounds she had heard
+in the old house at night. Mrs. Olstrom had mentioned
+that there were &#8220;queer stories&#8221; about the
+Starkweather mansion. But Helen would not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span>
+have thought of them at this time, had something
+not rattled her doorknob and startled her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Somebody wants to come in,&#8221; was the girl&#8217;s
+first thought, and she hopped out of bed and ran
+to unlock it.</p>
+<p>Then she halted, with her hand upon the knob.
+A sound outside had arrested her. But it was not
+the sound of somebody trying the latch.</p>
+<p>Instead she plainly heard the mysterious &#8220;step&mdash;put;
+step&mdash;put&#8221; again. Was it descending the
+stairs? It seemed to grow fainter as she listened.</p>
+<p>At length the girl&mdash;somewhat shaken&mdash;reached
+for the key of her door again, and turned it. Then
+she opened it and peered out.</p>
+<p>The corridor was faintly illuminated. The
+stairway itself was quite dark, for there was no
+light in the short passage below called &#8220;the ghost-walk.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The girl, in her slippers, crept to the head of the
+flight. There she could hear the steady, ghostly
+footstep from below. No other sound within
+the great mansion reached her ears. It <i>was</i> queer.</p>
+<p>To and fro the odd step went. It apparently
+drew nearer, then receded&mdash;again and again.</p>
+<p>Helen could not see any of the corridor from
+the top of the flight. So she began to creep down,
+determined to know for sure if there really was
+something or somebody there.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span></p>
+<p>Nor was she entirely unafraid now. The mysterious
+sounds had got upon her nerves. Whether
+they were supernatural, or natural, she was determined
+to solve the mystery here and now.</p>
+<p>Half-way down the stair she halted. The sound
+of the ghostly step was at the far end of the hall.
+But it would now return, and the girl could see
+(her eyes having become used to the dim light)
+more than half of the passage.</p>
+<p>There was the usual rustling sound at the end
+of the passage. Then the steady &#8220;step&mdash;put&#8221; approached.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVI_FORGOTTEN' id='XVI_FORGOTTEN'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<h3>FORGOTTEN</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>From the stair-well some little light streamed
+up into the darkness of the ghost-walk. And into
+this dim radiance came a little old lady&mdash;her old-fashioned
+crimped hair an aureole of beautiful
+gray&mdash;leaning lightly on an ebony crutch, which
+in turn tapped the floor in accompaniment to her
+clicking step&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Step&mdash;put; step&mdash;put; step&mdash;put.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Then she was out of the range of Helen&#8217;s
+vision again. But she turned and came back&mdash;her
+silken skirts rustling, her crutch tapping in perfect
+time.</p>
+<p>This was no ghost. Although slender&mdash;ethereal&mdash;almost
+bird-like in her motions&mdash;the little old
+lady was very human indeed. She had a pink
+flush in her cheeks, and her skin was as soft as
+velvet. Of course there were wrinkles; but they
+were beautiful wrinkles, Helen thought.</p>
+<p>She wore black half-mitts of lace, and her old-fashioned
+gown was of delightfully soft, yet rich
+silk. The silk was brown&mdash;not many old ladies
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span>
+could have worn that shade of brown and found it
+becoming. Her eyes were bright&mdash;the unseen girl
+saw them sparkle as she turned her head, in that
+bird-like manner, from side to side.</p>
+<p>She was a dear, doll-like old lady! Helen
+longed to hurry down the remaining steps and take
+her in her arms.</p>
+<p>But, instead, she crept softly back to the head
+of the stairs, and slipped into her own room
+again. <i>This</i> was the mystery of the Starkweather
+mansion. The nightly exercise of this mysterious
+old lady was the foundation for the &#8220;ghost-walk.&#8221;
+The maids of the household feared the
+supernatural; therefore they easily found a legend
+to explain the rustling step of the old lady with the
+crutch.</p>
+<p>And all day long the old lady kept to her room.
+That room must be in the front of the house on
+this upper floor&mdash;shut away, it was likely, from
+the knowledge of most of the servants.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Olstrom, of course, knew about the old
+lady&mdash;who she was&mdash;what she was. It was the
+housekeeper who looked after the simple wants of
+the mysterious occupant of the Starkweather mansion.</p>
+<p>Helen wondered if Mr. Lawdor, the old butler,
+knew about the mystery? And did the Starkweathers
+themselves know?
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span></p>
+<p>The girl from the ranch was too excited and
+curious to go to sleep now. She had to remain
+right by her door, opened on a crack, and learn
+what would happen next.</p>
+<p>For an hour at least she heard the steady stepping
+of the old lady. Then the crutch rapped out
+an accompaniment to her coming upstairs. She
+was humming softly to herself, too. Helen,
+crouched behind the door, distinguished the sweet,
+cracked voice humming a fragment of the old
+lullaby:</p>
+<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>&#8220;Rock-a-by, baby, on the tree-top,</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Down will come baby&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>Thus humming, and the crutch tapping&mdash;a mere
+whisper of sound&mdash;the old lady rustled by Helen&#8217;s
+door, on into the long corridor, and disappeared
+through some door, which closed behind her and
+smothered all further sound.</p>
+<p>Helen went to bed; but she could not sleep&mdash;not
+at first. The mystery of the little old lady and
+her ghostly walk kept her eyes wide open and
+her brain afire for hours.</p>
+<p>She asked question after question into the dark
+of the night, and only imagination answered.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span>
+Some of the answers were fairly reasonable; others
+were as impossible as the story of Jack the Giant
+Killer.</p>
+<p>Finally, however, Helen dropped asleep. She
+awoke at her usual hour&mdash;daybreak&mdash;and her
+eager mind began again asking questions about the
+mystery. She went down in her outdoor clothes
+for a morning walk, with the little old lady uppermost
+in her thoughts.</p>
+<p>As usual, Mr. Lawdor was on the lookout for
+her. The shaky old man loved to have her that
+few minutes in his room in the early morning.
+Although he always presided over the dinner, with
+Gregson under him, the old butler seldom seemed
+to speak, or be spoken to. Helen understood that,
+like Mrs. Olstrom, Lawdor was a relic of the late
+owner&mdash;Mr. Starkweather&#8217;s great-uncle&#8217;s&mdash;household.</p>
+<p>Cornelius Starkweather had been a bachelor.
+The mansion had descended to him from a member
+of the family who had been a family man. But
+that family had died young&mdash;wife and all&mdash;and
+the master had handed the old homestead over to
+Mr. Cornelius and had gone traveling himself&mdash;to
+die in a foreign land.</p>
+<p>Once Helen had heard Lawdor murmur something
+about &#8220;Mr. Cornelius&#8221; and she had picked
+up the remainder of her information from things
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span>
+she had heard Mr. Starkweather and the girls
+say.</p>
+<p>Now the old butler met her with an ingratiating
+smile and begged her to have something beside
+her customary coffee and roll.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have a lovely steak, Miss. The butcher
+remembers me once in a while, and he knows I
+am fond of a bit of tender beef. My teeth are
+not what they were once, you know, Miss.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But why should I eat your nice steak?&#8221; demanded
+Helen, laughing at him. &#8220;My teeth are
+good for what the boys on the range call &#8216;bootleg.&#8217;
+That&#8217;s steak cut right next to the hoof!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, but, Miss! There is so much more than I
+could possibly eat,&#8221; he urged.</p>
+<p>He had already turned the electricity into his
+grill. The ruddy steak&mdash;salted, peppered, with
+tiny flakes of garlic upon it&mdash;he brought from his
+own little icebox. The appetizing odor of the
+meat sharpened Helen&#8217;s appetite even as she sipped
+the first of her coffee.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll just <i>have</i> to eat some, I expect, Mr. Lawdor,&#8221;
+she said. Then she had a sudden thought,
+and added: &#8220;Or perhaps you&#8217;d like to save this
+tidbit for the little old lady in the attic?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mr. Lawdor turned&mdash;not suddenly; he never
+did anything with suddenness; but it was plain she
+had startled him.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Bless me, Miss&mdash;bless me&mdash;bless me&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He trailed off in his usual shaky way; but his
+lips were white and he stared at Helen like an owl
+for a full minute. Then he added:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is there a lady in the attic, Miss?&#8221; And he
+said it in his most polite way.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course there is, Mr. Lawdor; and you
+know it. Who is she? I am only curious.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I hear the maids talking about a ghost,
+Miss&mdash;foolish things&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I&#8217;m not foolish, Mr. Lawdor,&#8221; said the
+Western girl, laughing shortly. &#8220;Not that way,
+at least. I heard her; last night I saw her. Next
+time I&#8217;m going to speak to her&mdash;Unless it isn&#8217;t
+allowed.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&mdash;it isn&#8217;t allowed, Miss,&#8221; said Lawdor,
+speaking softly, and with a glance at the closed
+door of the room.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nobody has forbidden <i>me</i> to speak to her,&#8221;
+declared Helen, boldly. &#8220;And I&#8217;m curious&mdash;mighty
+curious, Mr. Lawdor. Surely she is a nice
+old lady&mdash;there is nothing the matter with her?&#8221;</p>
+<p>The butler touched his forehead with a shaking
+finger. &#8220;A little wrong there, Miss,&#8221; he whispered.
+&#8220;But Mary Boyle is as innocent and harmless
+as a baby herself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t you tell me about her&mdash;who she is&mdash;why
+she lives up there&mdash;and all?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Not here, Miss.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221; demanded Helen, boldly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It might offend Mr. Starkweather, Miss. Not
+that he has anything to do with Mary Boyle. He
+had to take the old house with her in it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What <i>do</i> you mean, Lawdor?&#8221; gasped Helen,
+growing more and more amazed and&mdash;naturally&mdash;more
+and more curious.</p>
+<p>The butler flopped the steak suddenly upon the
+sizzling hot plate and in another moment the delicious
+bit was before her. The old man served
+her as expertly as ever, but his face was working
+strangely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t tell you here, Miss. Walls have
+ears, they say,&#8221; he whispered. &#8220;But if you&#8217;ll
+be on the first bench beyond the Sixth Avenue
+entrance to Central Park at ten o&#8217;clock this morning,
+I will meet you there.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Miss&mdash;the rolls. Some more butter,
+Miss? I hope the coffee is to your taste, Miss?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is all very delicious, Lawdor,&#8221; said Helen,
+rather weakly, and feeling somewhat confused.
+&#8220;I will surely be there. I shall not need to come
+back for the regular breakfast after having this
+nice bit.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen attracted much less attention upon her
+usual early morning walk this time. She was
+dressed in the mode, if cheaply, and she was not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span>
+so self-conscious. But, in addition, she thought
+but little of herself or her own appearance or
+troubles while she walked briskly uptown.</p>
+<p>It was of the little old woman, and her mystery,
+and the butler&#8217;s words that she thought. She
+strode along to the park, and walked west until
+she reached the bridle-path. She had found this
+before, and came to see the riders as they cantered
+by.</p>
+<p>How Helen longed to put on her riding clothes
+and get astride a lively mount and gallop up the
+park-way! But she feared that, in doing so, she
+might betray to her uncle or the girls the fact that
+she was not the &#8220;pauper cowgirl&#8221; they thought
+her to be.</p>
+<p>She found a seat overlooking the path, at last,
+and rested for a while; but her mind was not upon
+the riders. Before ten o&#8217;clock she had walked
+back south, found the entrance to the park opposite
+Sixth Avenue, and sat down upon the bench
+specified by the old butler. At the stroke of the
+hour the old man appeared.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You could not have walked all this way, Lawdor?&#8221;
+said the girl, smiling upon him. &#8220;You
+are not at all winded.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, Miss. I took the car. I am not up to
+such walks as you can take,&#8221; and he shook his head,
+mumbling: &#8220;Oh, no, no, no, no&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;And now, what can you tell me, sir?&#8221; she said,
+breaking in upon his dribbling speech. &#8220;I am just
+as curious as I can be. That dear little old lady!
+Why is she in uncle&#8217;s house?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, Miss! I fancy she will not be there for
+long, but she was an encumbrance upon it when
+Mr. Willets Starkweather came with his family
+to occupy it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What <i>do</i> you mean?&#8221; cried the girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mary Boyle served in the Starkweather family
+long, long ago. Before I came to valet for Mr.
+Cornelius, Mary Boyle had her own room and was
+a fixture in the house. Mr. Cornelius took her
+more&mdash;more philosophically, as you might say,
+Miss. My present master and his daughters look
+upon poor Mary Boyle as a nuisance. They have
+to allow her to remain. She is a life charge upon
+the estate&mdash;that, indeed, was fixed before Mr.
+Cornelius&#8217;s time. But the present family are
+ashamed of her. Perhaps I ought not to say it,
+but it is true. They have relegated her to a suite
+upon the top floor, and other people have quite
+forgotten Mary Boyle&mdash;yes, oh, yes, indeed!
+Quite forgotten her&mdash;quite forgotten her&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Then, with the aid of some questioning, Helen
+heard the whole sad story of Mary Boyle, who was
+a nurse girl in the family of the older generation of
+Starkweathers. It was in her arms the last baby
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span>
+of the family had panted his weakly little life out.
+She, too, had watched by the bed of the lady of
+the mansion, who had borne these unfortunate
+children only to see them die.</p>
+<p>And Mary Boyle was one of that race who often
+lose their own identity in the families they serve.
+She had loved the lost babies as though they had
+been of her own flesh. She had walked the little
+passage at the back of the house (out of which
+had opened the nursery in those days) so many,
+many nights with one or the other of her fretful
+charges, that by and by she thought, at night,
+that she had them yet to soothe.</p>
+<p>Mary Boyle, the weak-minded yet harmless ex-nurse,
+had been cherished by her old master. And
+in his will he had left her to the care of Mr.
+Cornelius, the heir. In turn she had been left a
+life interest in the mansion&mdash;to the extent of shelter
+and food and proper clothes&mdash;when Willets
+Starkweather became proprietor.</p>
+<p>He could not get rid of the old lady. But,
+when he refurnished the house and made it over,
+he had banished Mary Boyle to the attic rooms.
+The girls were ashamed of her. She sometimes
+talked loudly if company was about. And always
+of the children she had once attended. She spoke
+of them as though they were still in her care, and
+told how she had walked the hall with one, or the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span>
+other, of her dead and gone treasures the very
+night before!</p>
+<p>For it was found necessary to allow Mary
+Boyle to have the freedom of that short corridor
+on the chamber floor late at night. Otherwise she
+would not remain secluded in her own rooms at the
+top of the house during the daytime.</p>
+<p>As the lower servants came and went, finally
+only Mrs. Olstrom and Mr. Lawdor knew about
+the old lady, save the family. And Mr. Starkweather
+impressed it upon the minds of both these
+employés that he did not wish the old lady discussed
+below stairs.</p>
+<p>So the story had risen that the house was
+haunted. The legend of the &#8220;ghost walk&#8221; was
+established. And Mary Boyle lived out her lonely
+life, with nobody to speak to save the housekeeper,
+who saw her daily; Mr. Lawdor, who climbed to
+her rooms perhaps once each week, and Mr.
+Starkweather himself, who saw and reported upon
+her case to his fellow trustees each month.</p>
+<p>It was, to Helen, an unpleasant story. It threw
+a light on the characters of her uncle and cousins
+which did not enhance her admiration of them, to
+say the least. She had found them unkind, purse-proud
+heretofore; but to her generous soul their
+treatment of the little old woman, who must be
+but a small charge upon the estate, seemed far
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span>
+more blameworthy than their treatment of herself.</p>
+<p>The story of the old butler made Helen quiver
+with indignation. It was like keeping the old lady
+in jail&mdash;this shutting her away into the attic of the
+great house. The Western girl went back to
+Madison Avenue (she walked, but the old butler
+rode) with a thought in her mind that she was not
+quite sure was a wise one. Yet she had nobody
+to discuss her idea with&mdash;nobody whom she wished
+to take into her confidence.</p>
+<p>There were two lonely and neglected people in
+that fine mansion. She, herself, was one. The
+old nurse, Mary Boyle, was the other. And Helen
+felt a strong desire to see and talk with her
+fellow-sufferer.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVII_A_DISTINCT_SHOCK' id='XVII_A_DISTINCT_SHOCK'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h3>A DISTINCT SHOCK</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>That evening when Mr. Starkweather came
+home, he handed Helen a sealed letter.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have ascertained,&#8221; the gentleman said, in his
+most pompous way, &#8220;that Mr. Fenwick Grimes
+is in town. He has recently returned from a tour
+of the West, where he has several mining interests.
+You will find his address on that envelope. Give
+the letter to him. It will serve to introduce you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He watched her closely while he said this, but
+did not appear to do so. Helen thanked him with
+some warmth.</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is very good of you, Uncle Starkweather&mdash;especially
+when I know you do not approve.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! Sleeping dogs are much better left
+alone. To stir a puddle is only to agitate the
+mud. This old business would much better be forgotten.
+You know all that there is to be known
+about the unfortunate affair, I am quite sure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I cannot believe that, Uncle,&#8221; Helen replied.
+&#8220;Had you seen how my dear father worried about
+it when he was dying&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span></p>
+<p>Mr. Starkweather could look at her no
+longer&mdash;not even askance. He shook his head
+and murmured some commonplace, sympathetic
+phrase. But it did not seem genuine to his
+niece.</p>
+<p>She knew very well that Mr. Starkweather had
+no real sympathy for her; nor did he care a particle
+about her father&#8217;s death. But she tucked the
+letter into her pocket and went her way.</p>
+<p>As she passed through the upstairs corridor
+Flossie was entering one of the drawing-rooms,
+and she caught her cousin by the hand. Flossie
+had been distinctly nicer to Helen&mdash;in private&mdash;since
+the latter had helped her with the algebra
+problems.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on in, Helen. Belle&#8217;s just pouring tea.
+Don&#8217;t you want some?&#8221; said the youngest Starkweather
+girl.</p>
+<p>It was in Helen&#8217;s mind to excuse herself. Yet
+she was naturally too kindly to refuse to accept an
+advance like this. And she, like Flossie, had no
+idea that there was anybody in the drawing-room
+save Belle and Hortense.</p>
+<p>In they marched&mdash;and there were three young
+ladies&mdash;friends of Belle&mdash;sipping tea and eating
+macaroons by the log fire, for the evening was
+drawing in cold.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness me!&#8221; ejaculated Belle.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I never!&#8221; gasped Hortense. &#8220;Have
+<i>you</i> got to butt in, Floss?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We want some tea, too,&#8221; said the younger
+girl, boldly, angered by her sisters&#8217; manner.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d better have it in the nursery,&#8221; yawned
+Hortense. &#8220;This is no place for kids in the
+bread-and-butter stage of growth.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, is that so?&#8221; cried Flossie. &#8220;Helen and I
+are not kids&mdash;distinctly <i>not</i>! I hope I know my
+way about a bit&mdash;and as for Helen,&#8221; she added,
+with a wicked grin, knowing that the speech would
+annoy her sisters, &#8220;Helen can shoot, and rope
+steers, and break ponies to saddle, and all that.
+She told me so the other evening. Isn&#8217;t that
+right, Cousin Helen?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, your cousin must be quite a wonderful
+girl,&#8221; said Miss Van Ramsden, one of the visitors,
+to Flossie. &#8220;Introduce me; won&#8217;t you, Flossie?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Belle was furious; and Hortense would have
+been, too, only she was too languid to feel such
+an emotion. Flossie proceeded to introduce
+Helen to the three visitors&mdash;all of whom chanced
+to be young ladies whom Belle was striving her
+best to cultivate.</p>
+<p>And before Flossie and Helen had swallowed
+their tea, which Belle gave them ungraciously,
+Gregson announced a bevy of other girls, until
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span>
+quite a dozen gaily dressed and chattering misses
+were gathered before the fire.</p>
+<p>At first Helen had merely bowed to the girls
+to whom she was introduced. She had meant to
+drink her tea quietly and excuse herself. She did
+not wish now to display a rude manner before
+Belle&#8217;s guests; but her oldest cousin seemed determined
+to rouse animosity in her soul.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; she said, &#8220;Helen is paying us a little
+visit&mdash;a very brief one. She is not at all used
+to our ways. In fact, Indian squaws and what-do-you
+call-&#8217;ems&mdash;Greasers&mdash;are about all the people
+she sees out her way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is that so?&#8221; cried Miss Van Ramsden. &#8220;It
+must be a perfectly charming country. Come and
+sit down by me, Miss Morrell, and tell me about
+it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Indeed, at the moment, there was only one
+vacant chair handy, and that was beside Miss Van
+Ramsden. So Helen took it and immediately the
+young lady began to ask questions about Montana
+and the life Helen had lived there.</p>
+<p>Really, the young society woman was not offensive;
+the questions were kindly meant. But Helen
+saw that Belle was furious and she began to take
+a wicked delight in expatiating upon her home and
+her own outdoor accomplishments.</p>
+<p>When she told Miss Van Ramsden how she and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span>
+her cowboy friends rode after jack-rabbits and
+roped them&mdash;if they could!&mdash;and shot antelope
+from the saddle, and that the boys sometimes attacked
+a mountain lion with nothing but their
+lariats, Miss Van Ramsden burst out with:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, that&#8217;s perfectly grand! What fun you
+must have! Do hear her, girls! Why, what we
+do is tame and insipid beside things that happen
+out there in Montana every day.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, don&#8217;t bother about her, May!&#8221; cried
+Belle. &#8220;Come on and let&#8217;s plan what we&#8217;ll do
+Saturday if we go to the Nassau links.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Listen here!&#8221; cried Miss Van Ramsden,
+eagerly. &#8220;Golf can wait. We can always golf.
+But your cousin tells the very bulliest stories. Go
+on, Miss Morrell. Tell some more.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do, do!&#8221; begged some of the other girls,
+drawing their chairs nearer.</p>
+<p>Helen was not a little embarrassed. She would
+have been glad to withdraw from the party. But
+then she saw the looks exchanged between Belle
+and Hortense, and they fathered a wicked desire
+in the Western girl&#8217;s heart to give her proud
+cousins just what they were looking for.</p>
+<p>She began, almost unconsciously, to stretch her
+legs out in a mannish style, and drop into the drawl
+of the range.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Coyote running is about as good fun as we
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span>
+have,&#8221; she told Miss Van Ramsden in answer to
+a question. &#8220;Yes, they&#8217;re cowardly critters; but
+they can run like a streak o&#8217; greased lightning&mdash;yes-sir-ree-bob!&#8221;
+Then she began to laugh a little.
+&#8220;I remember once when I was a kid, that
+I got fooled about coyotes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to know what you are now,&#8221; drawled
+Hortense, trying to draw attention from her cousin,
+who was becoming altogether too popular.
+&#8220;And you should know that children are better
+seen than heard.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s see,&#8221; said Helen, quickly, &#8220;our birthdays
+are in the same month; aren&#8217;t they, &#8217;Tense?
+I believe mother used to tell me so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, never mind your birthdays,&#8221; urged Miss
+Van Ramsden, while some of the other girls
+smiled at the repartee. &#8220;Let&#8217;s hear about your
+adventure with the coyote, Miss Morrell.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, ye see,&#8221; said Helen, &#8220;it wasn&#8217;t much.
+I was just a kid, as I say&mdash;mebbe ten year old.
+Dad had given me a light rifle&mdash;just a twenty-two,
+you know&mdash;to learn to shoot with. And Big Hen
+Billings&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Doesn&#8217;t that sound just like those dear Western
+plays?&#8221; gasped one young lady. &#8220;You know&mdash;&#8216;The
+Squaw Man of the Golden West,&#8217; or
+&#8216;Missouri,&#8217; or&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hold on! You&#8217;re getting your titles mixed,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span>
+Lettie,&#8221; cried Miss Van Ramsden. &#8220;Do let Miss
+Morrell tell it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;To give that child the center of the stage!&#8221;
+snapped Hortense, to Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I could shake Flossie for bringing her in
+here,&#8221; returned the oldest Starkweather girl, quite
+as angrily.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tell us about your friend, Big Hen Billings,&#8221;
+drawled another visitor. &#8220;He <i>does</i> sound so romantic!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen almost giggled. To consider the giant
+foreman of Sunset Ranch a romantic type was certainly
+&#8220;going some.&#8221; She had the wicked thought
+that she would have given a large sum of money,
+right then and there, to have had Big Hen announced
+by Gregson and ushered into the presence
+of this group of city girls.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; continued Helen, thus urged, &#8220;father
+had given me a little rifle and Big Hen gave me a
+maverick&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221; demanded Flossie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, in this case,&#8221; explained Helen, &#8220;it was
+an orphaned calf. Sometimes they&#8217;re strays that
+haven&#8217;t been branded. But in this case a bear had
+killed the calf&#8217;s mother in a <i>coulée</i>. She had tried
+to fight Mr. Bear, of course, or he never would
+have killed her at that time of year. Bears aren&#8217;t
+dangerous unless they&#8217;re hungry.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;My! but they look dangerous enough&mdash;at the
+zoo,&#8221; observed Flossie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I tell ye,&#8221; said Helen, reflectively, &#8220;that was
+a pretty calf. And I was little, and I hated to hear
+them blat when the boys burned them&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Burned them! Burned little calves! How
+cruel! What for?&#8221;</p>
+<p>These were some of the excited comments.
+And in spite of Belle and Hortense, most of the
+visitors were now interested in the Western girl&#8217;s
+narration.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They have to brand &#8217;em, you see,&#8221; explained
+Helen. &#8220;Otherwise we never could pick our cattle
+out from other herds at the round-up. You
+see, on the ranges&mdash;even the fenced ranges&mdash;cattle
+from several ranches often get mixed up. Our
+brand is the Link-A. Our ranch was known, in
+the old days, as the &#8216;Link-A.&#8217; It&#8217;s only late years
+that we got to calling it Sunset Ranch.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sunset Ranch!&#8221; cried Miss Van Ramsden,
+quickly. &#8220;Haven&#8217;t I heard something about <i>that</i>
+ranch? Isn&#8217;t it one of the big, big cattle and horse-breeding
+ranches?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; said Helen, slowly, fearing
+that she had unwittingly got into a blind alley of
+conversation.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And your father owns <i>that</i> ranch?&#8221; cried
+Miss Van Ramsden.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;My&mdash;my father is dead,&#8221; said Helen. &#8220;I am
+an orphan.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear me! I am so sorry,&#8221; murmured the
+wealthy young lady.</p>
+<p>But here Belle broke in, rather scornfully:</p>
+<p>&#8220;The child means that her father worked on
+that ranch. She has lived there all her life. Quite
+a rude place, I fawncy.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen&#8217;s eyes snapped. &#8220;Yes. He worked
+there,&#8221; she admitted, which was true enough, for
+nobody could honestly have called Prince Morrell
+a sluggard.</p>
+<p>&#8220;He was&mdash;what you call it&mdash;a cowpuncher, I
+believe,&#8221; whispered Belle, in an aside.</p>
+<p>If Helen heard she made no sign, but went on
+with her story.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see, it was <i>such</i> a pretty calf,&#8221; she repeated.
+&#8220;It had big blue eyes at first&mdash;calves
+often do. And it was all sleek and brown, and
+it played so cunning. Of course, its mother being
+dead, I had a lot of trouble with it at first. I
+brought it up by hand.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I tied a broad pink ribbon around its
+neck, with a big bow at the back. When it slipped
+around under its neck Bozie would somehow
+get the end of the ribbon in its mouth, and
+chew, and chew on it till it was nothing but
+pulp.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span></p>
+<p>She laughed reminiscently, and the others,
+watching her pretty face in the firelight, smiled
+too.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you called it Bozie?&#8221; asked Miss Van
+Ramsden.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. And it followed me everywhere. If I
+went out to try and shoot plover or whistlers
+with my little rifle, there was Bozie tagging after
+me. So, you see when it came calf-branding time,
+I hid Bozie.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You hid it? How?&#8221; demanded Flossie.
+&#8220;Seems to me a calf would be a big thing to
+hide.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t hide it under my bed,&#8221; laughed Helen.
+&#8220;No, sir! I took it out to a far distant <i>coulée</i>
+where I used to go to play&mdash;a long way from the
+bunk-house&mdash;and I hitched Bozie to a stub of a
+tree where there was nice, short, sweet grass for
+him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hitched him in the morning, for the branding
+fires were going to be built right after dinner.
+But I had to show up at dinner&mdash;sure. The whole
+gang would have been out hunting me if I
+didn&#8217;t report for meals.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I presume you ran perfectly wild,&#8221;
+sighed Hortense, trying to look as though she
+were sorry for this half-savage little cousin from
+the &#8220;wild and woolly.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, very wild indeed,&#8221; drawled Helen.
+&#8220;And after dinner I raced back to the <i>coulée</i> to
+see that Bozie was all right. I took my rifle along
+so the boys would think I&#8217;d gone hunting and
+wouldn&#8217;t tell father.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d heard coyotes barking, as I thought, all
+the forenoon. And when I came to the hollow,
+there was Bozie running around and around his
+stub, and getting all tangled up, blatting his heart
+out, while two big old coyotes (or so I thought
+they were) circled around him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They ran a little way when they saw me coming.
+Coyotes sometimes <i>will</i> kill calves. But I
+had never seen one before that wouldn&#8217;t hunt the
+tall pines when they saw me coming.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Crackey, those two were big fellers! I&#8217;d
+seen big coyotes, but never none like them two
+gray fellers. And they snarled at me when I made
+out to chase &#8217;em&mdash;me wavin&#8217; my arms and hollerin&#8217;
+like a Piute buck. I never had seen coyotes like
+them before, and it throwed a scare into me&mdash;it
+sure did!</p>
+<p>&#8220;And Bozie was so scared that he helped to
+scare me. I dropped my gun and started to untangle
+him. And when I got him loose he acted
+like all possessed!</p>
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-186.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 308px; height: 490px;' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 308px;'>
+&#8220;LET&#8217;S HEAR ABOUT YOUR ADVENTURE WITH THE COYOTE, MISS MORRELL.&#8221;<br />
+(Page 180.)<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span></div>
+<p>&#8220;He wanted to run wild,&#8221; proceeded Helen.
+&#8220;He yanked me over the ground at a great rate.
+And all the time those two gray fellers was
+sneakin&#8217; up behind me. Crackey, but I got
+scared!</p>
+<p>&#8220;A calf is awful strong&mdash;&#8217;specially when it&#8217;s
+scared. You don&#8217;t know! I had to leave go
+of either the rope, or the gun, and somehow,&#8221; and
+Helen smiled suddenly into Miss Van Ramsden&#8217;s
+face&mdash;who understood&mdash;&#8220;somehow I felt like I&#8217;d
+better hang onter the gun.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;They weren&#8217;t coyotes!&#8221; exclaimed Miss Van
+Ramsden.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. They was wolves&mdash;real old, gray, timber-wolves.
+We hadn&#8217;t been bothered by them for
+years. Two of &#8217;em, working together, would pull
+down a full-grown cow, let alone a little bit of a
+calf and a little bit of a gal,&#8221; said Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;O-o-o!&#8221; squealed the excited Flossie. &#8220;But
+they didn&#8217;t?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m here to tell the tale,&#8221; returned her cousin,
+laughing outright. &#8220;Bozie broke away from me,
+and the wolves leaped after him&mdash;full chase. I
+knelt right down&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And prayed!&#8221; gasped Flossie. &#8220;I should
+think you would!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I <i>did</i> pray&mdash;yes, ma&#8217;am! I prayed that the
+bullet would go true. But I knelt down to steady
+my aim,&#8221; said Helen, chuckling again. &#8220;And I
+broke the back of one of them wolves with my
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span>
+first shot. That was wonderful luck&mdash;with a
+twenty-two rifle. The bullet&#8217;s only a tiny thing.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I bowled Mr. Wolf over, and then I ran
+after the other one and the blatting Bozie. Bozie
+dodged the wolf somehow and came circling back
+at me, his tail flirting in the air, coming in stiff-legged
+jumps as a calf does, and searching his soul
+for sounds to tell how scart he was!</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d pushed another cartridge into my gun.
+But when Bozie came he bowled me over&mdash;flat on
+my back. Then the wolf made a leap, and I saw
+his light-gray underbody right over my head as he
+flashed after poor Bozie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I jest let go with the gun! Crackey! I didn&#8217;t
+have time to shoulder it, and it kicked and hit me
+in the nose and made my nose bleed awful. I was
+&#8216;all in,&#8217; too, and I thought the wolf was going to
+eat Bozie, and then mebbe <i>me</i>, and I set up to
+bawl so&#8217;t Big Hen heard me farther than he could
+have heard my little rifle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Big Hen was always expectin&#8217; me to get inter
+some kind of trouble, and he come tearin&#8217; along
+lookin&#8217; for me. And there I was, rolling in the
+grass an&#8217; bawling, the second wolf kicking his life
+out with the blood pumping from his chest, not
+three yards away from me, and Bozie streakin&#8217; it
+acrost the hill, his tail so stiff with fright you could
+ha&#8217; hung yer hat on it!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Isn&#8217;t that perfectly grand!&#8221; cried Miss Van
+Ramsden, seizing Helen by the shoulders when she
+had finished and kissing her on both cheeks.
+&#8220;And you only ten years old?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, you see,&#8221; said Helen, more quietly, &#8220;we
+are brought up that way in Montana. We would
+die a thousand deaths if we were taught to be
+afraid of anything on four legs.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It must be an exceedingly crude country,&#8221; remarked
+Hortense, her nose tip-tilted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shocking!&#8221; agreed Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to go there,&#8221; announced Flossie, suddenly.
+&#8220;I think it must be fine.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Quite right,&#8221; agreed Miss Van Ramsden.</p>
+<p>The older Starkweather girls could not go
+against their most influential caller. They were
+only too glad to have the Van Ramsden girl come
+to see them. But while the group were discussing
+Helen&#8217;s story, the girl from Sunset Ranch stole
+away and went up to her room.</p>
+<p>She had not meant to tell about her life in the
+West&mdash;not in just this way. She had tried to talk
+about as her cousins expected her to, when once she
+got into the story; but its effect upon the visitors
+had not been just what either the Starkweather
+girls, or Helen herself, had expected.</p>
+<p>She saw that she was much out of the good
+graces of Belle and Hortense at dinner; they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span>
+hardly spoke to her. But Flossie seemed to delight
+in rubbing her sisters against the grain.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Pa,&#8221; she cried, &#8220;when Helen goes home,
+let me go with her; will you? I&#8217;d just love to be
+on a ranch for a while&mdash;I know I should! And I
+<i>do</i> need a vacation.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense, Floss!&#8221; gasped Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are a perfectly vulgar little thing,&#8221; declared
+Belle. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know where you get such
+low tastes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mr. Starkweather looked at his youngest daughter
+in amazement. &#8220;How very ridiculous,&#8221; he
+said. &#8220;Ahem! You do not know what you ask,
+Flossie.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh! I never can have anything I want,&#8221;
+whined Miss Flossie. &#8220;And it must be great fun
+out on that ranch. You ought to hear Helen tell
+about it, Pa.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! I have no interest in such things,&#8221;
+said her father, sternly. &#8220;Nor should you. No
+well conducted and well brought up girl would
+wish to live among such rude surroundings.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very true, Pa,&#8221; sighed Hortense, shrugging
+her shoulders.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are a very common little thing, with very
+common tastes, Floss,&#8221; admonished her oldest
+sister.</p>
+<p>Now, all this was whipping Helen over Flossie&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span>
+shoulders. The latter grinned wickedly; but
+Helen felt hurt. These people were determined
+to consider Sunset Ranch an utterly uncivilized
+place, and her associates there beneath contempt.</p>
+<p>The following morning she set out to find the
+address upon the letter Mr. Starkweather had
+given to her. Whether she should present this
+letter to Mr. Grimes at once, Helen was not sure.
+It might be that she would wish to get acquainted
+with him before he knew her identity. Her expectations
+were very vague, at best; and yet she
+had hope.</p>
+<p>She hoped that through this old-time partner
+of her father&#8217;s she might pick up some clue to the
+truth about the lost money. The firm of Grimes &amp;
+Morrell had been on the point of paying several
+heavy bills and notes. The money for this purpose,
+as well as the working capital of the firm,
+had been in two banks. Either partner could
+draw checks against these accounts.</p>
+<p>When the deposits in both banks had been withdrawn
+it had been done by checks for each complete
+balance being presented at the teller&#8217;s window
+of both banks. And the tellers were quite
+sure that the person presenting the checks was
+Prince Morrell.</p>
+<p>In the rush of business, however, neither teller
+had been positive of this. Of course, it might
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span>
+have been the bookkeeper, or Mr. Grimes, who
+had got the money on the checks. However it
+might be, the money disappeared; there was none
+with which to pay the creditors or to continue the
+business of the firm.</p>
+<p>Fenwick Grimes had been a sufferer; Willets
+Starkweather had been a sufferer. What Allen
+Chesterton, the bookkeeper, had been, it was hard
+to say. He had walked out of the office of the firm
+and had never come back. Likewise after a few
+days of worry and disturbance, Prince Morrell
+had done the same.</p>
+<p>At least, the general public presumed that Mr.
+Morrell had run away without leaving any clue.
+It looked as though the senior partner and the
+bookkeeper were in league.</p>
+<p>But public interest in the mystery had soon died
+out. Only the creditors remembered. After ten
+years they were pleasantly reminded of the wreck
+of the firm of Grimes &amp; Morrell by the receipt of
+their lost money, with interest compounded to date.
+The lawyer that had come on from the West to
+make the settlement for Prince Morrell bound the
+creditors to secrecy. The bankruptcy court had
+long since absolved Fenwick Grimes from responsibility
+for the debts of the old firm. Neither he
+nor Mr. Starkweather had to know that the partner
+who ran away had legally cleared his name.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span></p>
+<p>But there was something more. The suspicion
+against Prince Morrell had burdened the cattle
+king&#8217;s mind and heart when he died. And his little
+daughter felt it to be her sacred duty to try, at
+least, to uncover that old mystery and to prove to
+the world that her father had been guiltless.</p>
+<p>Mr. Grimes lived in an old house in a rather
+shabby old street just off Washington Square.
+Helen asked Mr. Lawdor how to find the place,
+and she rode downtown upon a Fifth Avenue &#8217;bus.</p>
+<p>The house was a half-business, half-studio
+building; and Mr. Grimes&#8217;s name&mdash;graven on a
+small brass plate&mdash;was upon a door in the lower
+hall. In fact, Mr. Grimes, and his clerk, occupied
+this lower floor, the gentleman owning the
+building, which he was holding for a rise in real
+estate values in that neighborhood.</p>
+<p>The clerk, a sharp-looking young man with
+a pen behind his ear, answered Helen&#8217;s somewhat
+timid knock. He looked her over severely before
+he even offered to admit her, asking:</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s your business, please?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I came to see Mr. Grimes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;By appointment?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No-o, sir. But&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He is very busy. He seldom sees anybody
+save by appointment. Are&mdash;are you acquainted
+with him?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;No, sir. But my business is important.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;To you, perhaps,&#8221; said the clerk, with a sneering
+smile. &#8220;But if it isn&#8217;t important to <i>him</i> I shall
+catch it for letting you in. What is it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is business that I can tell to nobody except
+Mr. Grimes. Not in detail. But I can say this
+much: It concerns a time when Mr. Grimes was in
+business with another man&mdash;sixteen years or more
+ago and I have come&mdash;come from his old partner.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph!&#8221; said the clerk. &#8220;A begging interview?
+For, if so, take my advice&mdash;don&#8217;t try it.
+It would be no use. Mr. Grimes never gives anything
+away. He wouldn&#8217;t even bait a rat-trap with
+cheese-parings.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have not come here to beg money of Mr.
+Grimes,&#8221; said Helen, drawing herself up.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, you can come in and wait. Perhaps
+he&#8217;ll see you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>This had all been said very low in the public
+hall, the clerk holding the door jealously shut behind
+him. Now he opened it slowly and let her
+enter a large room, with old and dusty furniture
+set about it, and the clerk&#8217;s own desk far back, by
+another door&mdash;which latter he guarded against all
+intrusion. Behind that door, of course, was the
+man she had come to see.</p>
+<p>But as Helen turned to take a seat on the couch
+which the clerk indicated with a gesture of his pen,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span>
+she suddenly discovered that she was not the only
+person waiting in the room. In a decrepit armchair
+by one of the front windows, and reading
+the morning paper, with his wig pushed back upon
+his bald brow, was the queer old gentleman with
+whom she had ridden across the continent when
+she had come to New York.</p>
+<p>The discovery of this acquaintance here in Mr.
+Grimes&#8217;s office gave Helen a distinct shock.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVIII_PROBING_FOR_FACTS' id='XVIII_PROBING_FOR_FACTS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<h3>PROBING FOR FACTS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen sat down quickly and stared across the
+room at the queer old man. The latter at first
+seemed to pay her no attention. But finally she
+saw that he was skillfully &#8220;taking stock&#8221; of her
+from behind the shelter of the printed sheet.</p>
+<p>The Western girl was more direct than that.
+She got up and walked across to him. The clerk
+uttered a very loud &#8220;Ahem!&#8221; as though to warn
+her to drop her intention; but Helen said coolly:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you remember me, sir?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ha! I believe it <i>is</i> the little girl who came
+from the coast with me last week,&#8221; said the man.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not from the coast; from Montana,&#8221; corrected
+Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you are dressed differently now and I was
+not sure,&#8221; he said. &#8220;How have you been?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very well, I thank you. And you, sir?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well. Very. But I did not expect to see you
+again&mdash;er&mdash;<i>here</i>.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, sir. And you are waiting to see Mr.
+Grimes, too?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Er&mdash;something like that,&#8221; admitted the old
+man.</p>
+<p>Helen eyed him thoughtfully. She had already
+glanced covertly once or twice at the clerk across
+the room. She was quite bright enough to see between
+the rungs of a ladder.</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>You</i> are Mr. Grimes,&#8221; she said, bluntly, looking
+again at the old man, who was adjusting his
+wig.</p>
+<p>He looked up at her slily, his avaricious little
+eyes twinkling as they had aboard the train when
+he had looked over her shoulder and caught her
+counting her money.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a very smart little girl,&#8221; he said, with
+a short laugh. &#8220;What have you come to see me
+about? Do you think of investing some of your
+money in mining stocks?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; said Helen. &#8220;I have no money to invest.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph. Did you find your folks?&#8221; he asked,
+turning the subject quickly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the matter with you, then? What do
+you want?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You <i>are</i> Mr. Grimes?&#8221; she pursued, to make
+sure.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t deny it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have come to talk to you about&mdash;about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span>
+Prince Morrell,&#8221; she said, in a very low voice so
+that the clerk could not hear.</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Who</i>?&#8221; gasped the man, falling back in his
+chair. Evidently Helen had startled him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Prince Morrell,&#8221; she replied.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What are you to Prince Morrell?&#8221; demanded
+the man.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am his daughter. He is dead. I have come
+here to talk with you about the time&mdash;the time he
+left New York,&#8221; said the girl from Sunset Ranch,
+hesitatingly.</p>
+<p>Mr. Grimes stared at her, with his wig still
+awry, for some moments; then the color began to
+come back into his face. Helen had not realized
+before that he had turned pale.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You come into my office,&#8221; he snapped, jumping
+up briskly. &#8220;I&#8217;ll get to the bottom of
+this!&#8221;</p>
+<p>His movements were so very abrupt and he
+looked at her so strangely that, to tell the truth, the
+girl from Sunset Ranch was a bit frightened. She
+trailed along behind him, however, with only a
+hesitating step, passing the wondering clerk, and
+heard the lock of the door of the inner office snap
+behind her as Mr. Grimes shut it.</p>
+<p>He drew heavy curtains over the door, too.
+The place was a gloomy apartment until he turned
+on the electric light over a desk table. She saw
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span>
+that there were curtains at all the windows, and at
+the other door, too.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come here,&#8221; he said, beckoning her to the
+desk, and to a chair that stood by it, and still
+speaking softly. &#8220;We will not be overheard here.
+Now! Tell me what you mean by coming to me in
+this way?&#8221;</p>
+<p>He shot such an ugly look at her that Helen
+was again startled.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do <i>you</i> mean?&#8221; she returned, hiding
+her real emotion. &#8220;I have come to ask some questions.
+Why shouldn&#8217;t I?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You say Prince Morrell is dead?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir. Nearly two months, now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who sent you, then?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sent me to you?&#8221; queried Helen, in wonder.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Somebody must have sent you,&#8221; said
+Mr. Grimes, watching her with his little eyes,
+in which there seemed to burn a very baleful
+look.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are mistaken. Nobody sent me,&#8221; said
+Helen, recovering a measure of her courage. She
+believed that this strange man was a coward. But
+why should he be afraid of her?</p>
+<p>&#8220;You came clear across this continent to interview
+me about&mdash;about something that is gone
+and forgotten&mdash;almost before you were born?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t forgotten,&#8221; returned Helen, meaningly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span>
+&#8220;Such things are never forgotten. My
+father said so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But it&#8217;s no use hauling everything to the surface
+of the pool again,&#8221; grumbled Mr. Grimes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is about what Uncle Starkweather
+says; but I do not feel that way,&#8221; said Helen,
+slowly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ha! Starkweather! Of course he&#8217;s in it. I
+might have known,&#8221; muttered the old man. &#8220;So
+<i>he</i> sent you to me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, sir. He objected to my coming,&#8221; declared
+Helen, quite convinced now that she should
+not deliver her uncle&#8217;s letter.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Starkweathers are the people you came
+East to visit?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And how did <i>they</i> receive you in their fine
+Madison Avenue mansion?&#8221; queried Mr. Grimes,
+looking up at her slily again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just as you know they did,&#8221; returned Helen,
+briefly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ha! How&#8217;s that? And you with all
+that&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>He halted and&mdash;for a moment&mdash;had the grace
+to blush. He saw that she read his mind.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They do not know that I have some money
+for emergencies,&#8221; said Helen, coolly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ho, ho!&#8221; chuckled Mr. Grimes, suddenly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;So they consider you a pauper relative from the
+West?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ho, ho!&#8221; he laughed again, and rubbed his
+hands. &#8220;How <i>did</i> Prince leave you fixed?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I have something beside the money you
+saw me counting,&#8221; she told him, bluntly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And Willets Starkweather doesn&#8217;t know it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He has never asked me if I were in
+funds.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I bet you!&#8221; cackled Grimes, at last giving
+way to a spasm of mirth which, Helen thought,
+was not nice to look upon. &#8220;And how does he
+fancy having you in his family?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He does not like it. Neither do his daughters.
+And one of their reasons is because people
+will ask questions about Prince Morrell&#8217;s daughter.
+They are afraid their friends will bring up
+father&#8217;s old trouble,&#8221; continued Helen, her voice
+quivering. &#8220;So that is why, Mr. Grime&#8217;s, I am
+determined to know the truth about it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The truth? What do you mean?&#8221; snarled
+Grimes, suddenly starting out of his chair.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, sir,&#8221; said Helen, amazed, &#8220;dad told
+me all about it when he was dying. All he knew.
+But he said by this time surely the truth of the matter
+must have come to light. I want to clear his
+name&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;How are you going to do <i>that</i>?&#8221; demanded
+Mr. Grimes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope you will help me&mdash;if you can, sir,&#8221;
+she said, pleadingly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;How can I help more now than I could at
+the time he was charged with the crime?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not know. Perhaps you can&#8217;t. Perhaps
+Uncle Starkweather cannot, either. But, it seems
+to me, if anything had been heard from that bookkeeper&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Allen Chesterton?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well! I don&#8217;t know how you are going to
+prove it, but I have always believed Allen was
+guilty,&#8221; declared Mr. Grimes, nodding his head
+vigorously, and still watching her face.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, have you, Mr. Grimes?&#8221; cried the girl,
+eagerly, clasping her hands. &#8220;You have <i>always</i>
+believed it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Quite so. Evidence was against my old partner&mdash;yes.
+But it wasn&#8217;t very direct. And then&mdash;what
+became of Allen? Why did he run away?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is what other people said about father,&#8221;
+said Helen, doubtfully. &#8220;It did not make him
+guilty, but it made him <i>look</i> guilty. The same
+can be said of the bookkeeper.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But how can you go farther than that?&#8221;
+asked Mr. Grimes. &#8220;It&#8217;s too long ago for the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span>
+facts to be brought out. We can have our suspicions.
+We might even publish our suspicions.
+Let us get something in the papers&mdash;I can do it,&#8221;
+and he nodded, decisively, &#8220;stating that facts recently
+brought to light seemed to prove conclusively
+that Prince Morrell, once accused of embezzlement
+of the bank accounts of the firm of
+Grimes &amp; Morrell, was guiltless of that crime.
+And we will state that the surviving partner of the
+firm is convinced that the only person guilty of that
+embezzlement was one Allen Chesterton, who was
+the firm&#8217;s bookkeeper. How about <i>that</i>? Wouldn&#8217;t
+that fill the bill?&#8221; asked Mr. Grimes, rubbing
+his hands together.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If we had such an article published in the
+papers and circulated among his old friends,
+wouldn&#8217;t that satisfy you, my dear? Then you
+would do no more of this foolish probing for facts
+that cannot possibly be reached&mdash;eh? What do
+you say, Helen Morrell? Isn&#8217;t that a famous
+idea?&#8221;</p>
+<p>But the girl from Sunset Ranch was, for the
+moment, speechless. For a second time, it seemed
+to her, she was being bribed to make no serious
+investigation of the evidence connected with her
+father&#8217;s old trouble. Both Uncle Starkweather
+and this old man seemed to desire to head her
+off!</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIX__JONES' id='XIX__JONES'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<h3>&#8220;JONES&#8221;</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Isn&#8217;t that a famous idea?&#8221; demanded Mr.
+Grimes, for the second time.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I am not so sure, sir,&#8221; Helen stammered.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, of course it is!&#8221; he cried, smiting the
+desk before him with the flat of his palm. &#8220;Don&#8217;t
+you see that your father&#8217;s name will be cleared of
+all doubt? And quite right, too! He never <i>was</i>
+guilty.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It makes me quite happy to hear you say so,&#8221;
+said the girl, wiping her eyes. &#8220;But how about
+the bookkeeper?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who&mdash;Allen?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, we couldn&#8217;t find him now. If he kept hidden
+then, when there was a hue and cry out for him,
+what chance would there be of finding him after
+seventeen years? Oh, no! Allen can&#8217;t be found.
+And, even if he could, I doubt but the thing is
+outlawed. I don&#8217;t know that the authorities would
+take it up. And I am pretty sure the creditors of
+the old firm would not.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;That is not what I mean,&#8221; said Helen, softly.
+&#8220;But suppose we accuse this bookkeeper&mdash;<i>and he
+is not guilty, either</i>?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well! Is that any great odds? Nobody
+knows where he is&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But suppose he should reappear,&#8221; persisted
+Helen. &#8220;Suppose somebody who loved him&mdash;a
+daughter, perhaps, as I am the daughter of Prince
+Morrell&mdash;with just as great a desire to clear her
+father&#8217;s name as I have to clear mine&mdash;&mdash; Suppose
+such a person should appear determined to
+prove Mr. Chesterton not guilty, too?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ha, but we&#8217;ve beat &#8217;em to it&mdash;don&#8217;t you see?&#8221;
+demanded Mr. Grimes, heartlessly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, sir! I could not take such an apparent
+victory at such a cost!&#8221; cried Helen, wiping her
+eyes again. &#8220;You say you <i>believe</i> Allen Chesterton
+was guilty instead of father. But you put forward
+no evidence&mdash;no more than the mere suspicion
+that cursed poor dad. No, no, sir! To
+claim new evidence, but to show no new evidence,
+is not enough. I must find out for sure just who
+stole that money. That is what dad himself said
+would be the only way in which his name could be
+cleared.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense, girl!&#8221; ejaculated Fenwick Grimes,
+scowling again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am sorry to go against both your wishes and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span>
+Uncle Starkweather&#8217;s,&#8221; said Helen, slowly. &#8220;But
+I want the truth! I can&#8217;t be satisfied with anything
+but the truth about this whole unfortunate business.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It made poor dad very unhappy when he was
+dying. It troubled my poor mother&mdash;so <i>he</i> said&mdash;all
+her life out there in Montana. I want to know
+where the money went&mdash;who got it&mdash;all about it.
+Then I can prove to people that it was not <i>my</i>
+father who committed the crime.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is a very quixotic thing you have undertaken,
+my girl,&#8221; remarked Mr. Grimes, with a sudden
+change in his manner.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope not. I hope I shall learn the truth.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How?&#8221;</p>
+<p>He shot the question at her as from a gun. His
+face had grown very grim and his sly little eyes
+gleamed threateningly. More than ever did Helen
+dislike and fear this man. The avaricious light in
+his eyes as he noted the money she carried on the
+train, had first warned her against him. Now,
+when she knew so much more about him, and how
+he was immediately connected with her father&#8217;s old
+trouble, Helen feared him all the more.</p>
+<p>Because of his love of money alone, she could
+not trust him. And he had suggested something
+which was, upon the face of it, dishonest and unfair.
+She rose from her seat and shook her head slowly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not know how,&#8221; Helen said, sadly. &#8220;But
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span>
+I hope something may turn up to help me. I
+understand that you have never known anything
+about Allen Chesterton since he ran away?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not a thing,&#8221; declared Mr. Grimes, shortly,
+rising as well.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is through him I hoped to find the truth,&#8221;
+she murmured.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you won&#8217;t accept my help?&#8221; growled Mr.
+Grimes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not&mdash;not the kind you offer. It&mdash;it wouldn&#8217;t
+be right,&#8221; Helen replied.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very well, then!&#8221; snapped the man, and
+opened the door into the outer office. As he
+ushered her into the other room the outer door
+opened and a shabby man poked his head and
+shoulders in at the door.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I say!&#8221; he said, quaveringly. &#8220;Is Mr.
+Grimes&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Get out of here, you old ruffian!&#8221; cried Fenwick
+Grimes, flying into a sudden passion. &#8220;Of
+course, you&#8217;d got to come around to-day!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I only wanted to say, Mr. Grimes&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Out of my sight!&#8221; roared Grimes. &#8220;Here,
+Leggett!&#8221; to his clerk; &#8220;give Jones a dollar and
+let him go. I can&#8217;t see him now.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Jones, sir?&#8221; queried the clerk, seemingly
+somewhat staggered, and looking from his employer
+to the old scarecrow in the doorway.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir!&#8221; snarled Mr. Grimes. &#8220;I said
+Jones, sir&mdash;Jones, Jones, Jones! Do you understand
+plain English, Mr. Leggett? Take that dollar
+on the desk and give it into the hands of
+<i>Jones</i> there at the door. And then oblige me by
+kicking him down the steps if he doesn&#8217;t move fast
+enough.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Leggett moved rapidly himself after this. He
+seemed to catch his employer&#8217;s real meaning, and
+he grabbed the dollar and chased the beggar out
+into the hall. Grimes, meanwhile, held Helen
+back a bit. But he had nothing of any consequence
+to say.</p>
+<p>Finally she bade him good-morning and went
+out of the office. She had not given him Uncle
+Starkweather&#8217;s letter. Somehow, she thought it
+best not to do so. If she had been doubtful of the
+sincerity of her uncle when she broached the subject
+nearest her heart, she had been much more
+suspicious of Fenwick Grimes.</p>
+<p>She walked composedly enough out of the building;
+but it was hard work to keep back the tears.
+It <i>did</i> seem such a great task for a mere girl to
+attempt! And nobody would help her. She had
+nobody in whom to confide&mdash;nobody with whom
+she might discuss the mystery.</p>
+<p>And when she told herself this her mind naturally
+flashed to the only real friend she had made
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209' name='page_209'></a>209</span>
+in New York&mdash;Sadie Goronsky. Helen had
+looked up a map of the city the evening before in
+her uncle&#8217;s library, and she had marked the streets
+intervening between this place where she had interviewed
+her father&#8217;s old partner, and Madison
+Street on the East Side.</p>
+<p>She had ridden downtown to Washington Arch;
+so she felt equal to the walk across town and down
+the Bowery to the busy street where Sadie plied
+her peculiar trade.</p>
+<p>She crossed the Square and went through West
+Broadway to Bleecker Street and turned east on
+that busy and interesting thoroughfare. Suddenly,
+right ahead of her, she beheld the shabby brown
+hat and wrinkled coat of the old man who had
+stuck his head in at the door of Mr. Grimes&#8217;s
+office, and so disturbed the equilibrium of that individual.</p>
+<p>Here was &#8220;Jones.&#8221; At first Helen thought him
+to be under the influence of drink. Then she saw
+that the man&#8217;s erratic actions must be the result of
+some physical or mental disability.</p>
+<p>The old man could not walk in a straight line;
+but he tacked from one side of the walk to the
+other, taking long &#8220;slants&#8221; across the walk, first
+touching the iron balustrade of a step on one hand,
+and then bringing up at a post on the edge of the
+curb.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210' name='page_210'></a>210</span></p>
+<p>He seemed to mutter all the time to himself,
+too; but what he said, or whether it was sense, or
+nonsense, Helen (although she walked near him)
+could not make out. She did not wish to offend
+the old man; yet he seemed so helpless and peculiar
+that for several blocks she trailed him (as
+he seemed to be going her way), fearing that he
+would get into some trouble.</p>
+<p>At the busy crossings Helen was really worried.
+The man first started, then dodged back, scouted
+up and down the way, seemed undecided, looked
+all around as though for help, and then, at the
+very worst time, when the vehicles in the street
+were the most numerous, he darted across, escaping
+death and destruction half a dozen times between
+curb and curb.</p>
+<p>But somehow the angel that directs the destinies
+of foolish people who cross busy city streets,
+shielded him from harm, and Helen finally lost
+him as he turned down one of the main stems of
+the town while she kept on into the heart of
+the East Side.</p>
+<p>And to Helen Morrell, the very &#8220;heart of the
+East Side&#8221; was right in the Goronsky flat on
+Madison Street. She had been comparing that
+home at the same number on Madison Street with
+that her uncle&#8217;s house boasted on Madison Avenue,
+with the latter mansion. The Goronsky tenement
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span>
+was a <i>home</i>, for love and contentment dwelt there;
+the stately Starkweather dwelling housed too many
+warring factions to be a real home.</p>
+<p>Helen came, at length, to Madison Street. She
+had timed her coming so as to reach Jacob Finkelstein&#8217;s
+shop just about the time Sadie would be
+going to dinner.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Miss Helen! Ain&#8217;t I glad to see you?&#8221; cried
+Sadie. &#8220;Is there anything the matter with the
+dress, yet?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, Miss Sadie. I was downtown and
+thought I would ask you to go to dinner with me.
+I went with you yesterday.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;O-oo my! I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; said Sadie, shaking
+her head. &#8220;I bet you&#8217;d like to come home
+with me instead&mdash;no?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I would like to. But it would not be right
+for me to accept your hospitality and never return
+it,&#8221; said Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee! you must &#8217;a&#8217; had a legacy,&#8221; laughed
+Sadie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I have a little more money than I had yesterday,&#8221;
+admitted Helen, which was true, for she
+had taken some out of the wallet in the trunk before
+she left her uncle&#8217;s house.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, when you swells feel like spendin&#8217; there
+ain&#8217;t no stoppin&#8217; youse, I suppose,&#8221; declared Sadie.
+&#8220;Do you wanter fly real high?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess we can afford a real nice dinner,&#8221; said
+Helen, smiling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are you good for as high as thirty-fi&#8217; cents
+apiece?&#8221; demanded Sadie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee! Then I can take you to a stylish place
+where we can get a swell feed at noon, for that.
+It&#8217;s up on Grand Street. All the buyers and department
+store heads go there with the wholesale
+salesmen for lunch. Wait till I git me hat!&#8221; and
+away Sadie shot, up the tenement house stairs, so
+fast that her little feet, bound by the tight skirt
+she wore, seemed fairly to twinkle.</p>
+<p>Helen had but a few moments to wait on the
+sidewalk; yet within that short time something
+happened to change the entire current of the day&#8217;s
+adventures. She heard some boys shouting from
+the direction of the Bowery; there was a crowd
+crossing the street diagonally; she watched it with
+some apprehension at first, for it came right along
+the sidewalk toward her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hi, fellers! See de Lurcher! Here comes de
+Lurcher!&#8221; yelled one ribald youth, who leaped on
+the stoop to which Helen had retreated the better
+to see over the heads of the crowd at the person
+who was the core of it.</p>
+<p>And then Helen, in no little amazement, saw
+that this individual was none other than the man
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span>
+whom she had seen driven out of Fenwick Grimes&#8217;s
+office. A gang of hoodlums surrounded him.
+They jeered at him, tore at his ragged clothes,
+hooted, and otherwise nagged the poor old fellow.</p>
+<p>At every halt he made they pressed closer upon
+the &#8220;Lurcher.&#8221; It was easy to see why he had
+been given that name. He was probably an old
+inhabitant of the neighborhood, and his lurching
+from side to side of the walk had suggested the
+nickname to some local wit.</p>
+<p>Just as he steered for the rail of the step on
+which Helen stood, half fearful, and reached it,
+Sadie Goronsky came bounding out of the house.
+Instantly she took a hand&mdash;and as usual a master
+hand&mdash;in the affair.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What you doin&#8217; to that old man, you Izzy
+Strefonifsky? And, Freddie Bloom, you stop or
+I&#8217;ll tell your mommer! Ike, let him alone, or I&#8217;ll
+make your ears tingle myself&mdash;I can do it,
+too!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Sadie charged as she commanded. The hoodlums
+scattered&mdash;some laughing, some not so easily
+intimidated. But the old man was clinging to the
+rail and muttering over and over to himself:</p>
+<p>&#8220;They got my dollar&mdash;they got my dollar.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221; cried Sadie, coming back after
+chasing the last of the boys off the block.
+&#8220;What&#8217;s the matter, Mr. Lurcher?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;My dollar&mdash;they got my dollar,&#8221; muttered the
+old man.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear!&#8221; whispered Helen. &#8220;And perhaps
+it was all he had.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can bet it was,&#8221; said Sadie, angrily.
+&#8220;The likes of him wouldn&#8217;t likely have <i>two</i> dollars
+all at once! I&#8217;d like to scalp those imps!
+That I would!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The old man, paying little attention to the two
+girls, but still muttering about his loss, lurched
+away on his erratic course homeward.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee!&#8221; said Sadie. &#8220;Ain&#8217;t that tough luck?
+He lives right around the corner, all alone. And
+he&#8217;s just as poor as he can be. I don&#8217;t know what
+his real name is. But the boys guy him sumpin&#8217;
+fierce! Ain&#8217;t it mean?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It certainly is,&#8221; agreed Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say!&#8221; said Sadie, abruptly, but looking at
+Helen with sheepish eye.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, what?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say, was yer <i>honest</i> goin&#8217; to blow seventy cents
+for that feed I spoke of up on Grand Street?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly. And I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And a dime to the waiter?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s eighty cents,&#8221; ran on Sadie, glibly
+enough now. &#8220;And twenty would make a dollar.
+I&#8217;ll dig up the twenty cents to put with your
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215' name='page_215'></a>215</span>
+eighty, and what d&#8217;ye say we run after old Lurcher
+an&#8217; give him a dollar&mdash;say we found it, you know&mdash;and
+then go upstairs to my house for dinner?
+Mommer&#8217;s got a nice dinner, and she&#8217;d like to see
+you again fine!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll do it!&#8221; cried Helen, pulling out her purse
+at once. &#8220;Here! Here&#8217;s a dollar bill. You run
+after him and give it to him. You can give me
+the twenty cents later.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure!&#8221; cried the Russian girl, and she was
+off around the corner in the wake of the Lurcher,
+with flying feet.</p>
+<p>Helen waited for her friend to return, just inside
+the tenement house door. When Sadie reappeared,
+Helen hugged her tight and kissed her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are a <i>dear</i>!&#8221; the Western girl cried. &#8220;I
+do love you, Sadie!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Aw, chee! That ain&#8217;t nothin&#8217;,&#8221; objected the
+East Side girl. &#8220;We poor folks has gotter help
+each other.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So Helen would not spoil the little sacrifice by
+acknowledging to more money, and they climbed
+the stairs again to the Goronsky tenement. The
+girl from Sunset Ranch was glad&mdash;oh, so glad!&mdash;of
+this incident. Chilled as she had been by the
+selfishness in her uncle&#8217;s Madison Avenue mansion,
+she was glad to have her heart warmed down here
+among the poor of Madison Street.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XX_OUT_OF_STEP_WITH_THE_TIMES' id='XX_OUT_OF_STEP_WITH_THE_TIMES'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216' name='page_216'></a>216</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<h3>OUT OF STEP WITH THE TIMES</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; Sadie told Helen, afterward, &#8220;I am
+very sure that poor Lurcher man doesn&#8217;t drink.
+Some says he does; but you never notice it on him.
+It&#8217;s just his eyes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;His eyes?&#8221; queried Helen, wonderingly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. He&#8217;s sort of blind. His eyelids keep
+fluttering all the time. He can&#8217;t control them.
+And, if you notice, he usually lifts up the lid of one
+eye with his finger before he makes one of his
+base-runs for the next post. Chee! I&#8217;d hate to be
+like that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;The poor old man! And can nothing be done
+for it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Plenty, I reckon. But who&#8217;s goin&#8217; to pay for
+it? Not him&mdash;he ain&#8217;t got it to pay. We all has
+our troubles down here, Helen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The girls had come down from the home of
+Sadie again, and Helen was preparing to leave
+her friend.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Aren&#8217;t there places to go in the city to have
+one&#8217;s eyes examined? Free hospitals, I mean?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure! And they got Lurcher to one, once.
+But all they give him was a prescription for glasses,
+and it would cost a lot to get &#8217;em. So it didn&#8217;t do
+him no good.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen looked at Sadie suddenly. &#8220;How much
+would it take for the glasses?&#8221; she asked.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I dunno. Ten dollars, mebbe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And do you s&#8217;pose he could have that prescription
+now?&#8221; asked Helen, eagerly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mebbe. But why for?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps I could&mdash;could get somebody uptown
+interested in his case who is able to pay for the
+spectacles.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chee, that would be bully!&#8221; cried Sadie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Will you find out about the prescription?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure I will,&#8221; declared Sadie. &#8220;Nex&#8217; time you
+come down here, Helen, I&#8217;ll know all about it.
+And if you can get one of them rich ladies up there
+to pay for &#8217;em&mdash;Well! it would beat goin&#8217; to a
+swell restaurant for a feed&mdash;eh?&#8221; and she laughed,
+hugged the Western girl, and then darted across
+the sidewalk to intercept a possible customer who
+was loitering past the row of garments displayed
+in front of the Finkelstein shop.</p>
+<p>But Helen did not get downtown again as soon
+as she expected. When she awoke the next morning
+there had set in a steady drizzle&mdash;cold and
+raw&mdash;and the panes of her windows were so murky
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span>
+that she could not see even the chimneys and roofs,
+or down into the barren little yards.</p>
+<p>This&mdash;nor a much heavier&mdash;rain would not
+have ordinarily balked Helen. She was used to
+being out in all winds and weathers. But she
+actually had nothing fit to wear in the rain.</p>
+<p>If she had worn the new cheap dress out of
+doors she knew what would happen. It would
+shrink all out of shape. And she had no raincoat,
+nor would she ask her cousins&mdash;so she told
+herself&mdash;for the loan of an umbrella.</p>
+<p>So, as long as it rained steadily, it looked as
+though the girl from Sunset Ranch was a sure-enough
+&#8220;shut-in.&#8221; Nor did she contemplate this
+possibility with any pleasure.</p>
+<p>There was nothing for her to do but read.
+And one cannot read all the time. She had no
+&#8220;fancy-work&#8221; with which to keep her hands and
+mind busy. She wondered what her cousins did on
+such days. She found out by keeping her ears
+and eyes open. After breakfast Belle went shopping
+in the limousine. There was an early
+luncheon and all three of the Starkweather girls
+went to a matinée. In neither case was Helen
+invited to go&mdash;no, indeed! She was treated as
+though she were not even in the house. Seldom
+did either of the older girls speak to her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I might as well be a ghost,&#8221; thought Helen.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span></p>
+<p>And this reminded her of the little old lady who
+paced the ghost-walk every night&mdash;the ex-nurse,
+Mary Boyle. She had thought of going to see her
+on the top floor before; but she had not been able
+to pluck up the courage.</p>
+<p>Now that her cousins were gone from the house,
+however, and Mrs. Olstrom was taking a nap
+in her room, and Mr. Lawdor was out of the way,
+and all the under-servants mildly celebrating the
+free afternoon below stairs, Helen determined to
+venture out of her own room, along the main passage
+of the top floor, to the door which she believed
+must give upon the front suite of rooms
+which the little old lady occupied.</p>
+<p>She knocked, but there was no response. Nor
+could she hear any sound from within. It struck
+Helen that the principal cruelty of the Starkweathers&#8217;
+treatment of this old soul was her being
+shut away alone up here at the top of the house&mdash;too
+far away from the rest of its occupants for a
+cry to be heard if the old lady should be in trouble.</p>
+<p>&#8220;If they shut up a dog like this, he would howl
+and thus attract attention to his state,&#8221; muttered
+Helen. &#8220;But here is a human being&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>She tried the door. The latch clicked and the
+door swung open. Helen stepped into a narrow,
+hall-like room, well furnished with old-fashioned
+furniture (probably brought from below stairs
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span>
+when Mr. Starkweather re-decorated the mansion)
+with one window in it. The door which
+evidently gave upon the remainder of the suite
+was closed.</p>
+<p>As Helen listened, however, from behind this
+closed door came a cheerful, cracked voice&mdash;the
+same voice she had heard whispering the lullaby in
+the middle of the night. But now it was tuning
+up on an old-time ballad, very popular in its day:</p>
+<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>&#8220;Wait till the clouds roll by, Jennie&mdash;</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Wait till the clouds roll by!</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Jennie, my own true loved one&mdash;</p>
+<p  style='margin: 0 0 0 0em;'>Wait till the clouds roll by.&#8221;</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&#8220;She doesn&#8217;t sound like a hopeless prisoner,&#8221;
+thought Helen, with surprise.</p>
+<p>She waited a minute longer and, as the thin yet
+still sweet voice stopped, Helen knocked timidly
+on the inner door. Immediately the voice said,
+&#8220;Come in, deary. &#8217;Tis not for the likes of you to
+be knockin&#8217; at old Mary&#8217;s door. Come in!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen turned the knob slowly and went into the
+room. The moment she crossed the threshold she
+forgot the clouds and rain and gloominess which
+had depressed her. Indeed, it seemed as though
+the sun must be ever shining into this room, high
+up under the roof of the Starkweather mansion.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span></p>
+<p>In the first place, it was most cheerfully papered
+and painted. There were pretty, simple, yellow
+and white hangings. The heavier pieces of old
+furniture had gay &#8220;tidies&#8221; or &#8220;throws&#8221; upon
+them to relieve the sombreness of the dark wood.
+The pictures on the walls were all in white or gold
+frames, and were of a cheerful nature&mdash;mostly
+pictures of childhood, or pictures which would
+amuse children. Evidently much of the furnishings
+of the old nursery had been brought up here
+to Mary Boyle&#8217;s sitting-room.</p>
+<p>Helen had a glimpse, through a half-open door,
+of the bedroom&mdash;quite as bright and pretty.
+There was a little stove set up here, and a fire
+burned in it. It was one of those stoves that have
+isinglass all around it so that the fire can be seen
+when it burns red. It added mightily to the cheerful
+tone of the room.</p>
+<p>How neat everything appeared! Yet the very
+neatest thing in sight was the little old lady herself,
+sitting in a green-painted rocker, with a low
+sewing-table at her side, wooden needles clicking
+fast in her fleecy knitting.</p>
+<p>She looked up at Helen with a little, bird-like
+motion&mdash;her head a bit on one side and her glance
+quizzical. This, it proved, was typical of Mary
+Boyle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Deary, deary me!&#8221; she said. &#8220;You&#8217;re a <i>new</i>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span>
+girl. And what do you want Mary to do for
+you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I thought I&#8217;d come and make you a little
+call,&#8221; said Helen, timidly.</p>
+<p>This wasn&#8217;t at all as she expected to find the
+shut-in! Instead of gloom, and tears, and the
+weakness of age, here were displayed all the opposite
+emotions and qualities. The woman who was
+forgotten did not appear to be an object of pity
+at all. She merely seemed out of step with the
+times.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;re very welcome, deary,&#8221; said
+the old nurse. &#8220;Draw up the little rocker yonder.
+I always keep it for young company,&#8221; and
+Mary Boyle, who had had no young company up
+here for ten or a dozen years, spoke as though the
+appearance of a youthful face and form was of
+daily occurrence.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see,&#8221; spoke Helen, more confidently, &#8220;we
+are neighbors on this top floor.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Neighbors; air we?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I live up here, too. The family have tucked
+me away out of sight.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; said the little old woman. &#8220;We
+shouldn&#8217;t criticise our bethers. No, no! And
+this is a very cheerful par-r-rt of the house, so
+it is.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;But it must be awful,&#8221; exclaimed Helen, &#8220;to
+have to stay in it all the time!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t have to stay in it all the time,&#8221; replied
+the nurse, quickly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, ma&#8217;am. I hear you in the night going
+downstairs and walking in the corridor,&#8221; Helen
+said, softly.</p>
+<p>The wrinkled old face blushed very prettily, and
+Mary Boyle looked at her visitor doubtfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure, &#8217;tis such a comfort for an old body like
+me,&#8221; she said, at last, &#8220;to make believe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Make believe?&#8221; cried Helen, with a smile.
+&#8220;Why, <i>I&#8217;m</i> not old, and I love to make believe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, yis! But there is a differ bechune the
+make-believes of the young and the make-believes
+of the old. <i>You</i> are playin&#8217; you&#8217;re grown up,
+or dramin&#8217; of what&#8217;s comin&#8217; to you in th&#8217; future&mdash;sure,
+I know! I&#8217;ve had them drames, too, in me
+day.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But with old folks &#8217;tis different. We do be
+har-r-rking back instead of lookin&#8217; for&#8217;ard. And
+with me, it&#8217;s thinkin&#8217; of the babies I&#8217;ve held in me
+ar-r-rms, and rocked on me knee, and walked the
+flure wid when they was ailin&#8217;&mdash;An&#8217; sure the
+babies of <i>this</i> house was always ailin&#8217;, poor little
+things.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;They were a great trouble to you, then?&#8221;
+asked Helen, softly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Trouble, is it?&#8221; cried Mary Boyle, her eyes
+shining again. &#8220;Sure, how could a blessid infant
+be a trouble? &#8217;Tis a means of grace they be to the
+hear-r-rt&mdash;I nade no preacher to tell me that,
+deary. I found thim so. And they loved me and
+was happy wid me,&#8221; she added, cheerfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;The folks below think me a little quare in me
+head,&#8221; she confided to her visitor. &#8220;But they
+don&#8217;t understand. To walk up and down the nursery
+corridor late at night relaves the ache here,&#8221;
+and she put her little, mitted hand upon her
+heart. &#8220;Ye see, I trod that path so often&mdash;so
+often&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Her voice trailed off and she fell silent, gazing
+into the glow of the fire in the stove. But there
+was a smile on her lips. The past was no time to
+weep over. This cheerful body saw only the
+bright spots in her long, long life.</p>
+<p>Helen loved to hear her talk. And soon she and
+Mary Boyle were very well acquainted. One thing
+about the old nurse Helen liked immensely. She
+asked no questions. She accepted Helen&#8217;s visit
+as a matter of course; yet she showed very plainly
+that she was glad to have a young face before
+her.</p>
+<p>But the girl from Sunset Ranch did not know
+how Mrs. Olstrom might view her making friends
+with the old lady; so she made her visit brief. But
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span>
+she promised to come again and bring a book to
+read to Mary Boyle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Radin&#8217; is a great accomplishment, deary,&#8221;
+declared the old woman. &#8220;I niver seemed able to
+masther it&mdash;although me mistress oft tried to tache
+me. But, sure, there was so much to l&#8217;arn about
+babies, that ain&#8217;t printed in no book, that I was
+always radin&#8217; them an&#8217; niver missed the book
+eddication till I come to be old. But th&#8217; foine
+poethry me mistress useter be radin&#8217; me! Sure,
+&#8217;twould almost put a body to slape, so swate and
+grand it was.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So, Helen searched out a book of poems downstairs,
+and the next forenoon she ventured into the
+front suite again, and read ta Mary Boyle for an
+hour. The storm lasted several days, and each day
+the girl from the West spent more and more time
+with the little old woman.</p>
+<p>But this was all unsuspected by Uncle Starkweather
+and the three girls. If Mrs. Olstrom
+knew she said nothing. At least, she timed her
+own daily visits to the little old woman so that she
+would not meet Helen in the rooms devoted to
+old Mary&#8217;s comfort.</p>
+<p>Nor were Helen&#8217;s visits continued solely because
+she pitied Mary Boyle. How could she
+continue to pity one who did not pity herself?</p>
+<p>No. Helen received more than she gave in this
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226' name='page_226'></a>226</span>
+strange friendship. Seeking to amuse the old
+nurse, she herself gained such an uplift of heart
+and mind that it began to counteract that spirit
+of sullenness that had entered into the Western
+girl when she had first come to this house and
+had been received so unkindly by her relatives.</p>
+<p>Instead of hating them, she began to pity them.
+How much Uncle Starkweather was missing by
+being so utterly selfish! How much the girls were
+missing by being self-centred!</p>
+<p>Why, see it right here in Mary Boyle&#8217;s case!
+Nobody could associate with the delightful little
+old woman without gaining good from the association.
+Instead of being friends with the old nurse,
+and loving her and being loved by her, the Starkweather
+girls tucked her away in the attic and
+tried to ignore her existence.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They don&#8217;t know what they&#8217;re missing&mdash;poor
+things!&#8221; murmured Helen, thinking the situation
+over.</p>
+<p>And from that time her own attitude changed
+toward her cousins. She began to look out for
+chances to help them, instead of making herself
+more and more objectionable to Belle, Hortense,
+and Flossie.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXI_BREAKING_THE_ICE' id='XXI_BREAKING_THE_ICE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<h3>BREAKING THE ICE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>As for Floss, Helen had already got a hold
+upon that young lady.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on, Helen!&#8221; the younger cousin would
+whisper after dinner. &#8220;Come up to my room and
+give me a start on these lessons; will you? That&#8217;s
+a good chap.&#8221;</p>
+<p>And often when the rest of the family thought
+the unwelcome visitor had retired to her room at
+the top of the house, she was shut in with Flossie,
+trying to guide the stumbling feet of that rather
+dull girl over the hard places in her various
+studies.</p>
+<p>For Floss had soon discovered that the girl
+from Sunset Ranch somehow had a wonderful
+insight into every problem she put up to her. Nor
+were they all in algebra.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see how you managed to do it, &#8217;way out
+there in that wild place you lived in; but you must
+have gone through &#8217;most all the text-books I have,&#8221;
+declared Flossie, once.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I had to grab every chance there was for
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span>
+schooling,&#8221; Helen responded, and changed the
+subject instantly.</p>
+<p>Flossie thought she had a secret from her sisters,
+however, and she hugged it to her with much glee.
+She realized that Helen was by no means the
+ignoramus Belle and Hortense said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And let &#8217;em keep on thinking it,&#8221; Flossie said,
+to herself, with a chuckle. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what
+Helen has got up her sleeve; but I believe she is
+fooling all of us.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A long, dreary fortnight of inclement weather
+finally got on the nerves of Hortense. Belle could
+go out tramping in it, or cab-riding, or what-not.
+She was athletic, and loved exercise in the open
+air, no matter what the weather might be. But
+the second sister was just like a pussy-cat; she loved
+comfort and the warm corners. However, being
+left alone by Belle, and nobody coming in to call
+for several days, Hortense was completely overpowered
+by loneliness.</p>
+<p>She had nothing within herself to fight off nervousness
+and depression. So, having caught a little,
+sniffly cold, she decided that she was sick and went
+to bed.</p>
+<p>The Starkweather girls did not each have a
+maid. Mr. Starkweather could not afford that
+luxury. But Hortense at once requisitioned one
+of the housemaids to wait upon her and of course
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span>
+Mrs. Olstrom&#8217;s very carefully-thought-out system
+was immediately turned topsy-turvy.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I cannot allow you, Miss, to have the services
+of Maggie all day long,&#8221; Helen heard the housekeeper
+announce at the door of the invalid&#8217;s room.
+&#8220;We are not prepared to do double work in this
+house. You must either speak to your father and
+have a nurse brought in, or wait upon yourself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, you heartless, wicked thing!&#8221; cried Hortense.
+&#8220;How can you be so cruel? I couldn&#8217;t
+wait upon myself. I want my broth. And I
+want my hair done. And you can see yourself
+how the room is all in a mess. And&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maggie must do her parlor work to-day. You
+know that. If you want to be waited upon, Miss,
+get your sister to do it,&#8221; concluded the housekeeper,
+and marched away.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And she very well knows that Belle has gone
+out somewhere and Flossie is at school. I could
+<i>die</i> here, and nobody would care,&#8221; wailed Hortense.</p>
+<p>Helen walked into the richly furnished room.
+Hortense was crying into her pillow. Her hair
+was still in two unkempt braids and she <i>did</i> need
+a fresh boudoir cap and gown.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can I do anything to help you, &#8217;Tense?&#8221; asked
+Helen, cheerfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear me&mdash;no!&#8221; exclaimed her cousin.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span>
+&#8220;You&#8217;re so loud and noisy. And do, <i>do</i> call me
+by my proper name.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I forgot. Sure, I&#8217;ll call you anything you
+say,&#8221; returned the Western girl, smiling at her.
+Meanwhile she was moving about the room,
+deftly putting things to rights.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to tell father the minute he comes
+home!&#8221; wailed Hortense, ignoring her cousin for
+the time and going back to her immediate troubles.
+&#8220;I am left all alone&mdash;and I&#8217;m sick&mdash;and
+nobody cares&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where do you keep your caps, Hortense?&#8221; interrupted
+Helen. &#8220;And if you&#8217;ll let me, I&#8217;ll brush
+your hair and make it look pretty. And then you
+get into a fresh nightgown&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I couldn&#8217;t sit up,&#8221; moaned Hortense. &#8220;I
+really couldn&#8217;t. I&#8217;m too weak.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll show you how. Let me fix the pillows&mdash;<i>so!</i>
+And <i>so!</i> There&mdash;nothing like trying; is
+there? You&#8217;re comfortable; aren&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We-ell&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen was already manipulating the hairbrush.
+She did it so well, and managed to arrange Hortense&#8217;s
+really beautiful hair so simply yet easily on
+her head that the latter quite approved of it&mdash;and
+said so&mdash;when she looked into her hand-mirror.</p>
+<p>Then Helen got her into a chair, in a fresh
+robe and a pretty kimono, while she made the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span>
+bed&mdash;putting on new sheets and cases for the pillows
+so that all should be sweet and clean. Of
+course, Hortense wasn&#8217;t really sick&mdash;only lazy.
+But she thought she was sick and Helen&#8217;s attentions
+pleased the spoiled girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, you&#8217;re not such a bad little thing,
+Helen,&#8221; she said, dipping into a box of chocolates
+on the stand by her bedside. Chocolates were
+about all the medicine Hortense took during this
+&#8220;bad attack.&#8221; And she was really grateful&mdash;in
+her way&mdash;to her cousin.</p>
+<p>It was later on this day that Helen plucked up
+courage to go to her uncle and give him back the
+letter he had written to Fenwick Grimes.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I did not use it, sir,&#8221; she said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; he said, and with evident relief.
+&#8220;You have thought better of it, I hope? You
+mean to let the matter rest where it is?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have not abandoned my attempt to get at
+the truth&mdash;no, Uncle Starkweather.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How foolish of you, child!&#8221; he cried.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not think it is foolish. But I will try not
+to mix you up in my inquiries. That is why I did
+not use the letter.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you have seen Grimes?&#8221; he asked,
+hastily.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Does he know who you are?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you reached him without an introduction?
+I understand he is hard to approach. He
+is a money-lender, in a way, and he has an odd
+manner of never appearing to come into personal
+contact with his clients.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir. I think him odd.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did&mdash;did he think he could help you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He thinks just as you do, sir,&#8221; stated Helen,
+honestly. &#8220;And, then, he accused you of sending
+me to him at first; so I would not use your letter
+and so compromise you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; said the gentleman, surprised that
+this young girl should be so circumspect. It rather
+startled him to discover that she was thoughtful
+far beyond her years. Was it possible that&mdash;somehow&mdash;she
+<i>might</i> bring to light the truth regarding
+the unhappy difficulty that had made Prince Morrell
+an exile from his old home for so many
+years?</p>
+<p>Once May Van Ramsden ran in to see Belle and
+caught Helen going through the hall on her way
+to her own room. It was just after luncheon,
+which she and Belle had eaten in a silence that
+could be felt. Belle would not speak to her cousin
+unless she was obliged to, and Helen did not see
+that forcing her attentions upon the other girl
+would do any good.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, here you are, Helen Morrell! Why
+don&#8217;t I ever see you when I come here?&#8221; cried the
+caller, shaking Helen by both hands and smiling
+upon her heartily from her superior height.
+&#8220;When are your cousins going to bring you to
+call upon me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen might have replied, truthfully, &#8220;Never;&#8221;
+but she only shook her head and smilingly declared:
+&#8220;I hope to see you again soon, Miss Van
+Ramsden.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I guess you must!&#8221; cried the caller.
+&#8220;I want to hear some more of your experiences,&#8221;
+and she went on to meet the scowling Belle at the
+door of the reception parlor.</p>
+<p>Later her eldest cousin said to the Western girl:</p>
+<p>&#8220;In going up and down to your room, Miss, I
+want you to remember that there is a back stairway.
+Use the servants&#8217; stairs, if you please!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen made no reply. She wasn&#8217;t breaking
+much of the ice between her and Belle Starkweather,
+that was sure. And to add to Belle&#8217;s
+dislike for her cousin, there was another happening
+in which Miss Van Ramsden was concerned,
+soon after this.</p>
+<p>Hortense was still abed, for the weather remained
+unpleasant&mdash;and there really was nothing
+else for the languid cousin to do. Miss Van Ramsden
+found Belle out, and she went upstairs to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234' name='page_234'></a>234</span>
+say &#8220;how-do&#8221; to the invalid. Helen was in the
+room making the spoiled girl more comfortable,
+and Miss Van Ramsden drew the younger girl
+out into the hall when she left.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I really have come to see <i>you</i>, child,&#8221; she said
+to Helen, frankly. &#8220;I was telling papa about
+you and he said he would dearly love to meet
+Prince Morrell&#8217;s daughter. Papa went to college
+with your father, my dear.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen was glad of this, and yet she flushed a
+little. She was quite frank, however: &#8220;Does&mdash;does
+your father know about poor dad&#8217;s trouble?&#8221;
+she whispered.</p>
+<p>&#8220;He does. And he always believed Mr. Morrell
+not guilty. Father was one of the firm&#8217;s
+creditors, and he has always wished your father
+had come to him instead of leaving the city so
+long ago.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then he&#8217;s been paid?&#8221; cried Helen, eagerly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly. It is a secret, I believe&mdash;father
+warned me not to speak of it unless you did; but
+everybody was paid by your father after a time.
+<i>That</i> did not look as though he were dishonest.
+His partner took advantage of the bankruptcy
+courts.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of&mdash;of course your father has no idea who
+<i>was</i> guilty?&#8221; whispered Helen, anxiously.</p>
+<p>&#8220;None at all,&#8221; replied Miss Van Ramsden.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235' name='page_235'></a>235</span>
+&#8220;It was a mystery then and remains so to this
+day. That bookkeeper was a peculiar man, but
+had a good record; and it seems that he left the
+city before the checks were cashed. Or, so the
+evidence seemed to prove.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, don&#8217;t cry, my dear! Come! I wish
+we could help you clear up that old trouble. But
+many of your father&#8217;s old friends&mdash;like papa&mdash;never
+believed Prince Morrell guilty.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen was crying by this time. The kindness
+of this older girl broke down her self-possession.
+They heard somebody coming up the stairs, and
+Miss Van Ramsden said, quickly:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Take me to your room, dear. We can talk
+there.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen never thought that she might be giving
+the Starkweather family deadly offence by doing
+this. She led Miss Van Ramsden immediately to
+the rear of the house and up the back stairway to
+the attic floor. The caller looked somewhat
+amazed when Helen ushered her into the
+room.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, they could not have put you much nearer
+the sky; could they?&#8221; she said, laughing, yet eyeing
+Helen askance.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I don&#8217;t mind it up here,&#8221; returned Helen,
+truthfully enough. &#8220;And I have some company
+on this floor.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236' name='page_236'></a>236</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! The maids, I suppose?&#8221; said May
+Van Ramsden.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no,&#8221; Helen assured her, eagerly. &#8220;The
+dearest little old lady you ever saw.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Then she stopped and looked at her caller in
+some distress. For the moment she had forgotten
+that she was probably on the way to reveal the
+Starkweather family skeleton!</p>
+<p>&#8220;A little old lady? Who can <i>that</i> be?&#8221; cried
+the caller. &#8220;You interest me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I&mdash;Well, it is an old lady who was once
+nurse in the family and I believe Uncle Starkweather
+cares for her&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s never Nurse Boyle?&#8221; cried Miss Van
+Ramsden, suddenly starting up. &#8220;Why! I remember
+about her. But somehow, I thought she
+had died years ago. Why, as a child I used to
+visit her at the house, and she used to like to have
+me come to see her. That was before your cousins
+lived here, Helen. Then I went to Europe
+for several years and when we returned the house
+had all been done over, your uncle&#8217;s family was
+here, and I think&mdash;I am not sure&mdash;somebody told
+me dear old Mary Boyle was dead.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; observed Helen, thoughtfully. &#8220;She is
+not dead. She is only forgotten.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Miss Van Ramsden looked at the Western girl
+for some moments in silence. She seemed to understand
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237' name='page_237'></a>237</span>
+the whole matter without a word of
+further explanation.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Would you mind letting me see Mary Boyle
+while I am here?&#8221; she asked, gravely. &#8220;She
+was a very lovely old soul, and all the families
+hereabout&mdash;I have heard my mother often say&mdash;quite
+envied the Starkweathers their possession of
+such a treasure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly we can go in and see her,&#8221; declared
+Helen, throwing all discretion to the winds. &#8220;I
+was going to read to her this afternoon, anyway.
+Come along!&#8221;</p>
+<p>She led the caller through the hall to Mary
+Boyle&#8217;s little suite of rooms. To herself Helen
+said:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let the wild winds of disaster blow! Whew!
+If the family hears of this I don&#8217;t know but they
+will want to have me arrested&mdash;or worse! But
+what can I do? And then&mdash;Mary Boyle deserves
+better treatment at their hands.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXII_IN_THE_SADDLE' id='XXII_IN_THE_SADDLE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238' name='page_238'></a>238</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<h3>IN THE SADDLE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The little old lady &#8220;tidied&#8221; her own room.
+She hopped about like a bird with the aid of the
+ebony crutch, and Helen and Miss Van Ramsden
+heard the &#8220;step&mdash;put&#8221; of her movements when
+they entered the first room.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come in, deary!&#8221; cried the dear old soul.
+&#8220;I was expecting you. Ah, whom have we here?
+Good-day to you, ma&#8217;am!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nurse Boyle! don&#8217;t you remember me?&#8221;
+cried the visitor, going immediately to the old
+lady and kissing her on both cheeks.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bless us, now! How would I know ye?&#8221;
+cried the old woman. &#8220;Is it me old eyes I have
+set on ye for many a long year now?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I blame myself for it, Nurse,&#8221; cried May
+Van Ramsden. &#8220;Don&#8217;t you remember little May&mdash;the
+Van Ramsdens&#8217; May&mdash;who used to come
+to see you so often when she was about so-o
+high?&#8221; cried the girl, measuring the height of a
+five or six-year-old.</p>
+<p>&#8220;A neighbor&#8217;s baby <i>did</i> come to see Old Mary
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239' name='page_239'></a>239</span>
+now and then,&#8221; cried the nurse. &#8220;But you&#8217;re
+never May?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am, Nurse.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And growed so tall and handsome? Well,
+well, well! It does bate all, so it does. Everybody
+grows up but Mary Boyle; don&#8217;t they?&#8221;
+and the old woman cackled out a sweet,
+high laugh, and sat down to &#8220;visit&#8221; with her
+callers.</p>
+<p>The two girls had a very charming time with
+Mary Boyle. And May Van Ramsden promised
+to come again. When they left the old lady she
+said, earnestly, to Helen:</p>
+<p>&#8220;And there are others that will be glad to come
+and see Nurse Boyle. When she was well and
+strong&mdash;before she had to use that crutch&mdash;she
+often appeared at our houses when there was trouble&mdash;serious
+trouble&mdash;especially with the babies or
+little children. And what Mary Boyle did not
+know about pulling young ones out of the mires of
+illness, wasn&#8217;t worth knowing. Why, I know a
+dozen boys and girls whose lives were probably
+saved by her. They shall be reminded of her
+existence. And&mdash;it shall be due to you, Little
+Cinderella!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen smiled deprecatingly. &#8220;It will be due
+to your own kind heart, Miss Van Ramsden,&#8221; she
+returned. &#8220;I see that everybody in the city is not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240' name='page_240'></a>240</span>
+so busy with their own affairs that they cannot
+think of other people.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The young lady kissed her again and said goodbye.
+But that did not end the matter&mdash;no, indeed!
+The news that Miss Van Ramsden had
+been taken to the topmost story of the Starkweather
+mansion&mdash;supposedly to Helen&#8217;s own
+room only&mdash;by the Western girl, dribbled through
+the servants to Belle Starkweather herself when
+she came home.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, Pa! I won&#8217;t stand that common little
+thing being here any longer&mdash;no, I won&#8217;t! Why,
+she did that just on purpose to make folks talk&mdash;to
+make people believe that we abuse her. Of
+course, she told May that <i>I</i> sent her to the top
+story to sleep. You get rid of that girl, Pa, or I
+declare I&#8217;ll go away. I guess I can find somebody
+to take me in as long as you wish to keep Prince
+Morrell&#8217;s daughter here in <i>my</i> place.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! I&mdash;I must beg you to compose yourself,
+Belle&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I won&#8217;t&mdash;and that&#8217;s flat!&#8221; declared his eldest
+daughter. &#8220;Either she goes; or I do.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do let Belle go, Pa,&#8221; drawled Flossie. &#8220;She
+is getting too bossy, anyway. <i>I</i> don&#8217;t mind having
+Helen here. She is rather good fun. And
+May Van Ramsden came here particularly to
+see Helen.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241' name='page_241'></a>241</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s not so!&#8221; cried Belle, stamping her
+foot.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is. Maggie heard her say so. Maggie was
+coming up the stairs and heard May ask Helen to
+take her to her room. What could the poor girl
+do?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! Flossie&mdash;I am amazed at you&mdash;amazed
+at you!&#8221; gasped Mr. Starkweather.
+&#8220;What do you learn at school?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness me! I couldn&#8217;t tell you,&#8221; returned
+the youngest of his daughters, carelessly. &#8220;It&#8217;s
+none of it any good, though, Pa. You might as
+well take me out.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve told that girl to use the back stairs, and to
+keep out of the front of the house,&#8221; went on Belle,
+ignoring Flossie. &#8220;If she had not been hanging
+about the front of the house, May Van Ramsden
+would not have seen her&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8217;Tain&#8217;t so!&#8221; snapped Flossie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Will</i> you be still, minx?&#8221; demanded the older
+sister.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t care. Let&#8217;s give Helen a fair deal. I
+tell you, Pa, May said she came particularly to see
+Helen. Besides, Helen had been in Hortense&#8217;s
+room, and that is where May found her. Helen
+was brushing Hortense&#8217;s hair. Hortense told me
+so.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! I am astonished at you, Flossie.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242' name='page_242'></a>242</span>
+The fact remains that Helen is a source of trouble
+in the house. I really do wish I knew how to
+get rid of her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You give me permission, Pa,&#8221; sneered Belle,
+&#8220;and I&#8217;ll get rid of her very quickly&mdash;you see!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no!&#8221; exclaimed the troubled father. &#8220;I&mdash;I
+cannot use the iron hand at present&mdash;not at
+present.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph!&#8221; exclaimed the shrewd Belle. &#8220;I&#8217;d
+like to know what you are afraid of, Pa?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mr. Starkweather tried to frown down his
+daughter, but was unsuccessful. He merely presented
+a picture of a very cowardly man trying to
+look brave. It wasn&#8217;t much of a picture.</p>
+<p>So&mdash;as may be easily conceived&mdash;Helen was not
+met at dinner by her relatives in any conciliatory
+manner. Yet the girl from the West really wished
+she might make friends with Uncle Starkweather
+and her cousins.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It must be that a part of the fault is with me,&#8221;
+she told herself, when she crept up to her room
+after a gloomy time in the dining-room. &#8220;If I
+had it in me to please them&mdash;to make them happier&mdash;surely
+they could not treat me as they do.
+Oh, dear, I wish I had learned better how to be
+popular.&#8221;</p>
+<p>That night Helen felt about as bad as she had
+any time since she arrived in the great city. She
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243' name='page_243'></a>243</span>
+was too disturbed to read. She lay in bed until
+the small hours of the morning, unable to sleep,
+and worrying over all her affairs, which seemed,
+since she had arrived in New York, to go altogether
+wrong.</p>
+<p>She had not made an atom of progress in that
+investigation which she had hoped would bring to
+light the truth about the mystery which had sent
+her father and mother West&mdash;fugitives&mdash;before
+she was born. She had only succeeded in becoming
+thoroughly suspicious of her Uncle Starkweather
+and of Fenwick Grimes.</p>
+<p>Nor had she made any advance in the discovery
+of the mysterious Allen Chesterton, the bookkeeper
+of her father&#8217;s old firm, who held, she believed,
+the key to the mystery. She did not know
+what step to take next. She did not know what
+to do. And there was nobody with whom she
+could consult&mdash;nobody in all this great city to
+whom she could go.</p>
+<p>Never before had Helen felt so lonely as she
+did this night. She had money enough with her
+to pay somebody to help her dig back for facts
+regarding the disappearance of the money belonging
+to the old firm of Grimes &amp; Morrell. But
+she did not know how to go about getting the
+help she needed.</p>
+<p>Her only real confidante&mdash;Sadie Goronsky&mdash;would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244' name='page_244'></a>244</span>
+not know how to advise her in this emergency.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish I had let Dud Stone give me his address.
+He said he was learning to be a lawyer,&#8221;
+thought Helen. &#8220;And just now, I s&#8217;pose, a lawyer
+is what I need most. But I wouldn&#8217;t know how
+to go about engaging a lawyer&mdash;not a good one.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She awoke at her usual time next morning, and
+the depression of the night before was still with
+her. But when she jumped up she saw that it was
+no longer raining. The sky was overcast, but she
+could venture forth without running the risk of
+spoiling her new suit.</p>
+<p>And right there a desperate determination came
+into Helen Morrell&#8217;s mind. She had learned that
+on the west side of Central Park there was a riding
+academy. She was <i>hungry</i> for an hour in the
+saddle. It seemed to her that a gallop would
+clear all the cobwebs away and make her feel like
+herself once more.</p>
+<p>The house was still silent and dark. She took
+her riding habit out of the closet, made it up
+into a bundle, and crept downstairs with it under
+her arm. She escaped the watchful Lawdor for
+once, and got out by the area door before even
+the cook had crept, yawning, downstairs to begin
+her day&#8217;s work.</p>
+<p>Helen, hurrying through the dark, dripping
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245' name='page_245'></a>245</span>
+streets, found a little restaurant where she could
+get rolls and coffee on her way to the Columbus
+Circle riding academy. It was still early when
+the girl from Sunset Ranch reached her goal.
+Yes, a mount was to be had, and she could change
+her street clothes for her riding suit in the dressing-rooms.</p>
+<p>The city&mdash;at least, that part of it around Central
+Park&mdash;was scarcely awake when Helen walked
+her mount out of the stable and into the park.
+The man in charge had given her to understand
+that there were few riders astir so early.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll have the bridle-path to yourself, Miss,
+going out,&#8221; he said.</p>
+<p>Helen had picked up a little cap to wear, and
+astride the saddle, with her hair tied with a big
+bow of ribbon at the nape of her neck, she looked
+very pretty as the horse picked his way across the
+esplanade into the bridle-path. But there were
+few, as the stableman had said, to see her so
+early in the morning.</p>
+<p>It did not rain, however. Indeed, there was a
+fresh breeze which, she saw, was tearing the low-hung
+clouds to shreds. And in the east a rosy
+spot in the fog announced the presence of the sun
+himself, ready to burst through the fleecy veil and
+smile once more upon the world.</p>
+<p>The trees and brush dripped upon the fallen
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246' name='page_246'></a>246</span>
+leaves. For days the park caretakers had been unable
+to rake up these, and they had become almost
+a solid pattern of carpeting for the lawns. And
+down here in the bridle-path, as she cantered
+along, their pungent odor, stirred by the hoofs of
+her mount, rose in her nostrils.</p>
+<p>This wasn&#8217;t much like galloping over an open
+trail on a nervous little cow-pony. But it was
+both a bodily and mental relief for the outdoor
+girl who had been, for these past weeks, shut into
+a groove for which she was so badly fitted.</p>
+<p>She saw nobody on horseback but a mounted
+policeman, who turned and trotted along beside
+her, and was pleasant and friendly. This pleased
+Helen; and especially was she pleased when she
+learned that he had been West and had &#8220;punched
+cows&#8221; himself. That had been some years ago,
+but he remembered the Link-A&mdash;now the Sunset&mdash;Ranch,
+although he had never worked for that
+outfit.</p>
+<p>Helen&#8217;s heart expanded as she cantered along.
+The sun dispelled the mist and shone warm upon
+the path. The policeman left her, but now there
+were other riders abroad. She went far out of
+town, as directed by the officer, and found the ride
+beautiful. After all, there were some lovely spots
+in this great city, if one only knew where to find
+them.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247' name='page_247'></a>247</span></p>
+<p>She had engaged a strong horse with good
+wind; but she did not want to break him down.
+So she finally turned her face toward the city
+again and let the animal take its own pace
+home.</p>
+<p>She had ridden down as far as 110th Street
+and had crossed over into the park once more,
+when she saw a couple of riders advancing toward
+her from the south. They were a young man and
+a girl, both well mounted, and Helen noted instantly
+that they handled their spirited horses
+with ease.</p>
+<p>Indeed, she was so much interested in the
+mounts themselves, that she came near passing the
+two without a look at their faces. Suddenly
+she heard an exclamation from the young fellow,
+she looked up, and found herself gazing straight
+into the handsome face of Dudley Stone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;For the love of heaven!&#8221; gasped that astonished
+young man. &#8220;It surely <i>is</i> Helen Morrell!
+Jess! See here! Here&#8217;s the very nicest girl who
+ever came out of Montana!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Dud&#8217;s sister&mdash;Helen knew she must be his sister,
+for she had the same coloring as and a strong
+family resemblance to the budding lawyer&mdash;wheeled
+her horse and rode directly to Helen&#8217;s
+side.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Miss Morrell!&#8221; she cried, putting out
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248' name='page_248'></a>248</span>
+her gauntleted hand. &#8220;Is it really she, Dud?
+How wonderful!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen shook hands rather timidly, for Miss
+Jessie Stone was torrential in her speech. There
+wasn&#8217;t a chance to &#8220;get a word in edgewise&#8221;
+when once she was started upon a subject that
+interested her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness me!&#8221; she cried, still shaking
+Helen&#8217;s hand. &#8220;Is this really the girl who pulled
+you out of that tree, Dud? Who saved your life
+and took you on her pony to the big ranch? My,
+how romantic!</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you really own a ranch, Miss Morrell?
+How nice that must be! And plenty of cattle on
+it&mdash;Why! you don&#8217;t mind the price of beef at
+all; do you? And what a clever girl you must be,
+too. Dud came back full of your praise, now I
+tell you&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;There, there!&#8221; cried Dud. &#8220;Hold on a bit,
+Jess, and let&#8217;s hear how Miss Morrell is&mdash;and
+what she is doing here in the big city, and all
+that.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I declare, Dud! You take the words
+right out of my mouth,&#8221; said his sister, warmly.
+&#8220;I was just going to ask her that. And we&#8217;re
+going to the Casino for breakfast, Miss Morrell,
+and you must come with us. You&#8217;ve had your
+ride; haven&#8217;t you?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249' name='page_249'></a>249</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I&#8217;m just returning,&#8221; admitted Helen, rather
+breathless, if Jess was not.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on, then!&#8221; cried the good-natured but
+talkative city girl. &#8220;Come, Dud, you ride ahead
+and engage a table and order something nice.
+I&#8217;m as ravenous as a wolf. Dear me, Miss Morrell,
+if you have been riding long you must be
+quite famished, too!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I had coffee and rolls early,&#8221; said Helen, as
+Dud spurred his horse away.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, what&#8217;s coffee and rolls? Nothing at all&mdash;nothing
+at all! After I&#8217;ve been jounced around
+on this saddle for an hour I feel as though I never
+<i>had</i> eaten. I don&#8217;t care much for riding myself,
+but Dud is crazy for it, and I come to keep him
+company. You must ride with us, Miss Morrell.
+How long are you going to stay in town? And
+to think of your having saved Dud&#8217;s life&mdash;Well!
+he&#8217;ll never get over talking about it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He makes too much of the incident,&#8221; declared
+Helen, determined to get in a word. &#8220;I only
+lent him a rope and he saved himself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. You carried him on your pony to that
+ranch. Oh, I know it all by heart. He talks about
+it to everybody. Dud is <i>so</i> enthusiastic about the
+West. He is crazy to go back again&mdash;he wants
+to live there. I tell him I&#8217;ll go out and try it for
+a while, and if I find I can stand it, he can hang
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250' name='page_250'></a>250</span>
+out his shingle in that cow-town&mdash;what do you
+call it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Elberon?&#8221; suggested Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;Elberon. Dud says there is a chance for
+another lawyer there. And he came back here and
+entered the offices of Larribee &amp; Polk right away,
+so as to get working experience, and be entered at
+the bar all the sooner. But say!&#8221; exclaimed Jess,
+&#8220;I believe one reason why he is so eager to go back
+to the West is because <i>you</i> live there.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Miss Stone!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do call me Jess. &#8216;Miss Stone&#8217; is so stiff.
+And you and I are going to be the very best of
+friends.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I really hope so, Jess. But you must call me
+Helen, too,&#8221; said the girl from Sunset Ranch.</p>
+<p>Jess leaned out from her saddle, putting the
+horses so close that the trappings rubbed, and
+kissed the Western girl resoundingly on the cheek.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I just <i>loved</i> you!&#8221; said the warm-hearted
+creature, &#8220;when Dud first told me about you. But
+now that I see you in the flesh, I love you for your
+very own self! I hope you&#8217;ll love me, too, Helen
+Morrell&mdash;And you won&#8217;t mind if I talk a good
+deal?&#8221;</p>
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-250.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 311px; height: 490px;' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 311px;'>
+&#8220;HERE&#8217;S THE VERY NICEST GIRL WHO EVER CAME OUT OF MONTANA.&#8221;<br />
+(Page 246.)<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251' name='page_251'></a>251</span></div>
+<p>&#8220;Not in the least!&#8221; laughed Helen. &#8220;And I
+<i>do</i> love you already. I am so, so glad that you and
+Dud both like me,&#8221; she added, &#8220;for my cousins
+do not like me at all, and I have been very unhappy
+since coming to New York.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here we are!&#8221; cried Jess, without noting
+closely what her new friend said. &#8220;And there is
+Dud waiting for us on the porch. Dear old Dud!
+Whatever should I have done if you hadn&#8217;t got
+him out of that tree-top, Helen?&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIII_MY_LADY_BOUNTIFUL' id='XXIII_MY_LADY_BOUNTIFUL'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252' name='page_252'></a>252</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<h3>MY LADY BOUNTIFUL</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>That was a wonderful breakfast at the Casino.
+Not that Helen ever remembered much about
+what she ate, although Dud had ordered choice
+fruit and heartier food that would have tempted
+the most jaded appetite instead of that of a healthy
+girl who had been riding horseback for two hours
+and a half.</p>
+<p>But, it was so heartening to be with people at
+the table who &#8220;talked one&#8217;s own language.&#8221; The
+Stones and Helen chattered like a trio of young
+crows. Dud threatened to chloroform his sister
+so that he and Helen could get in a word or two
+during Jess&#8217;s lapse into unconsciousness; but finally
+<i>that</i> did not become necessary because of the
+talkative girl&#8217;s interest in a story that Helen
+related.</p>
+<p>They had discussed many other topics before
+this subject was broached. And it was the real
+reason for Helen&#8217;s coming East to visit the
+Starkweathers. &#8220;Dud&#8221; was &#8220;in the way of being
+a lawyer,&#8221; as he had previously told her, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253' name='page_253'></a>253</span>
+Helen had come to realize that it was a lawyer&#8217;s
+advice she needed more than anything else.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, Jess, will you keep still long enough for
+me to listen to the story of my very first client?&#8221;
+demanded Dud, sternly, of his sister.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;ll stuff the napkin into my mouth! You
+can gag me! Your very first client, Dud! And
+it&#8217;s so interesting.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is customary for clients to pay over a retainer;
+isn&#8217;t it?&#8221; queried Helen, her eyes dancing.
+&#8220;How much shall it be, Mr. Lawyer?&#8221; and she
+opened her purse.</p>
+<p>There was the glint of a gold piece at the bottom
+of the bag. Dud flushed and reached out his
+hand for it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That five dollars, Miss Helen. Thank you.
+I shall never spend this coin,&#8221; declared Dud,
+earnestly. &#8220;And I shall take it to a jeweler&#8217;s and
+have it properly engraved.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What will you have put on it?&#8221; asked Helen,
+laughing.</p>
+<p>He looked at her from under level brows, smiling
+yet quite serious.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shall have engraved on it &#8216;Snuggy, to Dud&#8217;&mdash;if
+I may?&#8221; he said.</p>
+<p>But Helen shook her head and although she still
+smiled, she said:</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d better wait a bit, Mr. Lawyer, and see
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254' name='page_254'></a>254</span>
+if your advice brings about any happy conclusion
+of my trouble. But you can keep the gold
+piece, just the same, to remember me by.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;As though I needed <i>that</i> reminder!&#8221; he cried.</p>
+<p>Jess removed the corner of the napkin from between
+her pretty teeth. &#8220;Get busy, do!&#8221; she
+cried. &#8220;I&#8217;m dying to hear about this strange affair
+you say you have come East to straighten out,
+Helen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So the girl from Sunset Ranch told all her story.
+Everything her father had said to her upon the
+topic before his death, and all she suspected about
+Fenwick Grimes and Allen Chesterton&mdash;even to
+the attitude Uncle Starkweather took in the matter&mdash;she
+placed before Dud Stone.</p>
+<p>He gave it grave attention. Helen was not
+afraid to talk plainly to him, and she held nothing
+back. But at the best, her story was somewhat
+disconnected and incomplete. She possessed very
+few details of the crime which had been committed.
+Mr. Morrell himself had been very hazy in his
+statements regarding the affair.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What we want first,&#8221; declared Dud, impressively,
+&#8220;is to get the <i>facts</i>. Of course, at the
+time, the trouble must have made some stir. It
+got into the newspapers.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear, yes,&#8221; said Helen. &#8220;And that is
+what Uncle Starkweather is afraid of. He fears
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255' name='page_255'></a>255</span>
+it will get into the papers again if I make any
+stir about it, and then there will be a scandal.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;With his name connected with it?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s dreadfully timid for his own good name;
+isn&#8217;t he?&#8221; remarked Dud, sarcastically. &#8220;Well,
+first of all, I&#8217;ll get the date of the occurrence and
+then search the files of all the city papers. The reporters
+usually get such matters pretty straight.
+To misstate such business troubles is skating on
+the thin ice of libel, and newspapers are careful.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, when we have all the facts before us&mdash;what
+people surmised, even, and how it looked to
+&#8216;the man on the street,&#8217; as the saying is&mdash;then
+we&#8217;ll know better how to go ahead.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Are you willing to leave the matter to me,
+Helen?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What did I give you a retainer for?&#8221; demanded
+the girl from Sunset Ranch, smiling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;True,&#8221; he replied, his own eyes dancing;
+&#8220;but there is a saying among lawyers that the
+feminine client does not really come to a lawyer
+for advice; rather, she pays him to listen to her
+talk.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Isn&#8217;t that horrid of him?&#8221; cried Jess, unable
+to keep still any longer. &#8220;As though we girls
+talked any more than the men do. I should say
+not!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256' name='page_256'></a>256</span></p>
+<p>But Helen agreed to let Dud govern her future
+course in trying to untangle the web of circumstance
+that had driven her father out of New
+York years before. As Dud said, somebody was
+guilty, and that somebody was the person they
+must find.</p>
+<p>It encouraged Helen mightily to have someone
+talk this way about the matter. A solution of
+the problem seemed so imminent after she parted
+from the fledgling lawyer and his sister, that
+Helen determined to hasten to their conclusion certain
+plans she had made, before she returned to
+the West.</p>
+<p>For Helen could not remain here. Her uncle&#8217;s
+home was not the refined household that dear dad
+had thought, in which she would be sheltered and
+aided in improving herself.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I might as well take board at the Zoo and
+live in the bear&#8217;s den,&#8221; declared Helen, perhaps a
+little harsh in her criticism. &#8220;There are no civilizing
+influences in <i>that</i> house. I&#8217;d never get a
+particle of &#8216;culture&#8217; there. I&#8217;d rather associate
+with Sing, and Jo-Rab, and the boys, and Hen
+Billings.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Her experience in the great city had satisfied
+Helen that its life was not for her. Some things
+she had learned, it was true; but most of them
+were unpleasant things.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257' name='page_257'></a>257</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d rather hire some lady to come out to Sunset
+and live with me and teach me how to act
+gracefully in society, and all that. There are a lot
+of &#8216;poor, but proud&#8217; people who would be glad
+of the chance, I know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But on this day&mdash;after she had left her riding
+habit at a tailor&#8217;s to be brushed and pressed, and
+had made arrangements to make her changes there
+whenever she wished to ride in the morning&mdash;on
+this day Helen had something else to do beside
+thinking of her proper introduction to society.
+This was the first day it had been fit for her to
+go downtown since she and Sadie Goronsky had
+had their adventure with the old man whom Sadie
+called &#8220;Lurcher,&#8221; but whom Fenwick Grimes had
+called &#8220;Jones.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen was deeply interested in the old man&#8217;s
+case, and if he could be helped in any proper way,
+she wanted to do it. Also, there was Sadie herself.
+Helen believed that the Russian girl, with
+her business ability and racial sharpness, could
+help herself and her family much more than she
+now was doing, if she had the right kind of a
+chance.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I am going to give her the chance,&#8221;
+Helen told herself, delightedly. &#8220;She has been,
+as unselfish and kind to me&mdash;a stranger to her and
+her people&mdash;as she could be. I am determined
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258' name='page_258'></a>258</span>
+that Sadie Goronsky and her family shall always
+be glad that Sadie was kind to the &#8216;greenie&#8217; who
+hunted for Uncle Starkweather&#8217;s house on Madison
+Street instead of Madison Avenue.&#8221;</p>
+<p>After luncheon at the Starkweathers&#8217; Helen
+started downtown with plenty of money in her
+purse. She rode to Madison Street and was but
+a few minutes in reaching the Finkelstein store.
+To her surprise the front of the building was covered
+with big signs reading &#8220;Bankrupt Sale!
+Prices Cut in Half!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Sadie was not in sight. Indeed, the store was
+full of excited people hauling over old Jacob
+Finkelstein&#8217;s stock of goods, and no &#8220;puller-in&#8221;
+was needed to draw a crowd. The salespeople
+seemed to have their hands full.</p>
+<p>Not seeing Sadie anywhere, Helen ventured to
+mount to the Goronsky flat. Mrs. Goronsky
+opened the door, recognized her visitor, and in
+shrill Yiddish and broken English bade her welcome.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You gome py mein house to see mein Sarah?
+Sure! Gome in! Gome in! Sarah iss home to-day.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, see who&#8217;s here!&#8221; exclaimed Sadie, appearing
+with a partly-completed hat, of the very
+newest style, in her hand. &#8220;I thought the wet
+weather had drowned you out.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259' name='page_259'></a>259</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;It kept me in,&#8221; said Helen, &#8220;for I had nothing
+fit to wear out in the rain.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, business was so poor that Jacob had to
+fail. And that always gives me a few days&#8217; rest.
+I&#8217;m glad to get &#8217;em, believe me!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;why, can a man fail more than once?&#8221;
+gasped Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;He can in the clothing business,&#8221; responded
+Sadie, laughing, and leading the way into the tiny
+parlor. &#8220;I bet there was a crowd in there when
+you come by?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, indeed,&#8221; agreed Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure! he&#8217;ll get rid of all the &#8216;stickers&#8217; he&#8217;s
+got it in the shop, and when we open again next
+week for ordinary business, everything will be
+fresh and new.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, then, you&#8217;re really not out of a job?&#8221;
+asked Helen, relieved for her friend&#8217;s sake.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. I&#8217;m all right. And you?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I came down particularly to see about that
+poor old man&#8217;s spectacles,&#8221; Helen said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you didn&#8217;t forget about him?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, indeed. Did you see him? Has he got
+the prescription? Is it right about his eyes being
+the trouble?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure that&#8217;s what the matter is. And he&#8217;s
+dreadful poor, Helen. If he could see better he
+might find some work. He wore his eyes out, he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260' name='page_260'></a>260</span>
+told me, by writing in books. That&#8217;s a business!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then he has the prescription.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure. I seen it. He&#8217;s always hoping he&#8217;d get
+enough money to have the glasses. That&#8217;s all he
+needs, the doctor told him. But they cost fourteen
+dollars.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;He shall have them!&#8221; declared Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t mean it, Helen?&#8221; cried the Russian
+girl. &#8220;You haven&#8217;t got that much money for
+him?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I have. Will you go around there with
+me? We&#8217;ll get the prescription and have it
+filled.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait a bit,&#8221; said Sadie. &#8220;I want to finish
+this hat. And lemme tell you&mdash;it&#8217;s right in style.
+What do you think?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How wonderfully clever you are!&#8221; cried the
+Western girl. &#8220;It looks as though it had just
+come out of a shop.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure it does. I could work in a hat shop.
+Only they wouldn&#8217;t pay me anything at first, and
+they wouldn&#8217;t let me trim. But I know a girl
+that ain&#8217;t a year older nor me what gets sixteen
+dollars a week trimming in a millinery store on
+Grand Street. O&#8217; course, she ain&#8217;t the <i>madame</i>;
+she&#8217;s only assistant. But sixteen dollars is a good
+bunch of money to bring home on a Saturday
+night&mdash;believe me!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261' name='page_261'></a>261</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Is that what you&#8217;d like to do&mdash;keep a millinery
+shop?&#8221; asked Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t I&mdash;just?&#8221; gasped Sadie. &#8220;Why,
+Helen&mdash;I dream about it nights!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen became suddenly interested. &#8220;Would a
+little shop pay, Sadie? Could you earn your living
+in a little shop of your own&mdash;say, right around
+here somewhere?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Huh! I&#8217;ve had me eye on a place for months.
+But it ain&#8217;t no use. You got to put up for the
+rent, and the wholesalers ain&#8217;t goin&#8217; to let a girl
+like me have stock on credit. And there&#8217;s the
+fixtures&mdash;Aw, well, what&#8217;s the use? It&#8217;s only a
+dream.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen was determined it should not remain
+&#8220;only a dream.&#8221; But she said nothing further.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIV_THE_HAT_SHOP' id='XXIV_THE_HAT_SHOP'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262' name='page_262'></a>262</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<h3>THE HAT SHOP</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Them folks you&#8217;re living with must have had
+a change of heart, Helen,&#8221; said Sadie Goronsky,
+as the two girls sallied forth&mdash;Sadie with her new
+hat set jauntily on her sleek head.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why do you say that?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If they are willing to spend fourteen dollars
+on old Lurcher&#8217;s eyes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, it isn&#8217;t a member of my uncle&#8217;s family
+who is furnishing the money for this charity,&#8221;
+Helen replied. Sadie asked no further questions,
+fortunately.</p>
+<p>It was a very miserable house in which the old
+man lodged. Helen&#8217;s heart ached as she beheld the
+poverty and misery so evident all about her.
+&#8220;Lurcher&#8221; lived on the top floor at the back&mdash;a
+squalid, badly-lighted room&mdash;and alone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But a man with eyes as bad as mine don&#8217;t
+really need light, you see, young ladies,&#8221; he whispered,
+when Sadie had ushered herself and Helen
+into the room.</p>
+<p>He had tried to keep it neat; but his housekeeping
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263' name='page_263'></a>263</span>
+arrangements were most primitive, and
+cold as the weather had now become, he had no
+stove save a one-wick oil stove on which he cooked
+his meals&mdash;such as they were.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see,&#8221; Sadie told him, &#8220;this is my friend,
+Helen, and she seen you the other day when you&mdash;you
+lost that dollar, you know.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, yes, wonderful bright eyes you have, Miss,
+to find a dollar in the street.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ain&#8217;t they?&#8221; cried Sadie, grinning broadly
+at Helen. &#8220;Chee, it ain&#8217;t everybody that can
+pick up money in the streets of New York&mdash;though
+we all believed we could before we come
+over here from Russia. Sure!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see,&#8221; said Helen, softly, &#8220;I had seen you
+before, Mr.&mdash;er&mdash;Lurcher. I saw you over on the
+West Side that morning.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You saw me over there?&#8221; asked the old man,
+yet still in a very low voice&mdash;a sort of a faded-out
+voice&mdash;and he seemed not a little startled.
+&#8220;You saw me over there, Miss? <i>Where</i> did you
+see me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;On&mdash;on Bleecker Street,&#8221; responded Helen,
+which was quite true. She saw that the man evidently
+did not wish his visit to Fenwick Grimes to
+be known. Perhaps he had some unpleasant connection
+with the money-lender.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, yes!&#8221; said Lurcher, with relief. &#8220;I&mdash;I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264' name='page_264'></a>264</span>
+come through there frequently. But I have such
+difficulty in seeing my way about, that I follow
+a beaten path&mdash;yes! a beaten path.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen was very curious about the old man&#8217;s
+acquaintance with Fenwick Grimes. The more she
+thought over her own interview with the money-lender
+and mine-owner, the deeper became her
+suspicion that her father&#8217;s one-time partner was
+an untrustworthy man.</p>
+<p>Anybody who seemed to know him better than
+<i>she</i> did, naturally interested Helen. Dud Stone
+had promised to find out all about Grimes, and
+Helen knew that she would wait impatiently for
+his report.</p>
+<p>But she was interested in Lurcher for his own
+miserable sake, too. He had lived by himself in
+this wretched lodging for years. How he lived he
+did not say; but it was evident that his income was
+both infinitesimal and uncertain.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, he was not a mean-looking man,
+nor were his garments unclean. They <i>were</i>
+ragged. He admitted, apologetically, that he
+could not see to use a needle and so &#8220;had sort o&#8217;
+got run down.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll come some day soon and mend you up,&#8221;
+promised Helen, when the old man gave her the
+prescription he had received from the oculist at
+the Eye and Ear Hospital. &#8220;And you shall have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265' name='page_265'></a>265</span>
+these glasses just as soon as the lenses can be
+ground.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;God bless you, Miss!&#8221; said the old man,
+simply.</p>
+<p>He had a quiet, &#8220;listening&#8221; face, and seldom
+spoke above a whisper. He was more the shadow
+of a man than the substance.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ain&#8217;t that a terrible end to look forward to,
+Helen?&#8221; remarked Sadie, seriously, as they descended
+the stairs to the street. &#8220;He ain&#8217;t got
+no friends, and no family, and no way to make a
+decent livin&#8217;. They wouldn&#8217;t have the likes of
+him around in offices, writin&#8217; in books.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, you mean he is a bookkeeper?&#8221; cried
+Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure, I do. That&#8217;s a business! My papa is
+going to be in business for himself again. And so
+will I&mdash;you see! That&#8217;s the only way to get on,
+and lay up something for your old age. Work
+for yourself&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;In a millinery store; eh?&#8221; suggested Helen,
+smiling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right!&#8221; declared Sadie, boldly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where is the little store you spoke of? Do
+you suppose you can ever get it, Sadie?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t! You make me feel bad here,&#8221; said
+Sadie, with her hand on her heart. &#8220;Say! I
+just <i>ache</i> to try what I can do makin&#8217; lids for the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266' name='page_266'></a>266</span>
+East Side Four Hundred. The wholesale houses
+let youse come there and work when they&#8217;re makin&#8217;
+up the season&#8217;s pattern hats, and then you can get
+all the new wrinkles. Oh, I wish I was goin&#8217; to
+start next season in me own store instead of pullin&#8217;
+greenies into Papa Yawcob&#8217;s suit shop,&#8221; and the
+East Side girl sighed dolefully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s go see the shop you want,&#8221; suggested
+Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear! It don&#8217;t do no good,&#8221; said Sadie.
+&#8220;But I often go out of my way to take a peek
+at it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>They went a little farther uptown and Helen
+was shown the tiny little store which Sadie had
+picked out as just the situation for a millinery
+shop.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ye see, there&#8217;s other stores all around; but no
+millinery. Women come here to buy other things,
+and if I had that little winder full of tasty hats&mdash;Chee!
+wouldn&#8217;t it pull &#8217;em in?&#8221;</p>
+<p>They stood there some minutes, while the young
+East Side girl, so wise in the ways of earning a
+living, so sharp of apprehension in most things,
+told her whole heart to the girl who had never had
+to worry about money matters at all&mdash;told it with
+no suspicion that My Lady Bountiful stood by her
+side.</p>
+<p>She pointed out to Helen just where she would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267' name='page_267'></a>267</span>
+have her little counter, and the glass-fronted wall
+cases for the trimmed hats, and the deep drawers
+for &#8220;shapes,&#8221; and the little case in which to show
+the flowers and buckles, and the chair and table and
+mirror for the particular customers to sit at while
+they were being fitted.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I&#8217;d take that hunchback girl&mdash;Rosie
+Seldt&mdash;away from the millinery store on my block&mdash;she
+<i>hates</i> to work on the sidewalk the way they
+make her&mdash;she could help me lots. Rosie is a
+smart girl with some ideas of her own. And
+I&#8217;d curtain off the end of the store down there
+for a workroom, and for stock&mdash;Chee, but I&#8217;d
+make this place look swell!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen, who had noted the name and address
+of the rental agent on the card in the window, cut
+her visit with Sadie short, so afraid was she that
+she would be tempted to tell her friend of the good
+fortune that was going to overtake her. For
+the girl from Sunset Ranch knew just what she
+was going to do.</p>
+<p>Dud Stone had given her the address of the law
+firm where he was to be found, and the very next
+morning she went to the offices of Larribee &amp; Polk
+and saw Dud. In his hands she put a sum of
+money and told him what she wished done. But
+when Dud learned that the girl had the better part
+of eight hundred dollars in cash with her, he took
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268' name='page_268'></a>268</span>
+her to a bank and made her open an account at
+once.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where do you think you are&mdash;still in the wild
+and woolly West where pretty near everybody you
+meet is honest?&#8221; demanded Dud. &#8220;You ought
+to be shaken! That money here in the big city
+is a temptation to half the people you pass on the
+street. Suppose one of the servants at your uncle&#8217;s
+house should see it? You have no right to put
+temptation in people&#8217;s way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen accepted his scolding meekly as long as he
+did not refuse to carry out her plan for Sadie
+Goronsky. When Dud heard the full particulars
+of the Western girl&#8217;s acquaintanceship with Sadie,
+he had no criticism to offer. That very day Dud
+engaged the store, paid three months&#8217; rent, and
+bought the furnishings. Sadie was not to be told
+until the store was ready for occupancy. There
+was still time enough. Helen knew that the millinery
+season did not open until February.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, although Helen&#8217;s goings and comings
+were quite ignored by Uncle Starkweather
+and the girls, some incidents connected with Helen
+Morrell had begun to stir to its depth the fountain
+of the family&#8217;s wrath against the girl from
+Sunset Ranch.</p>
+<p>Twice May Van Ramsden had come to call on
+Helen. Once she had brought Ruth and Mercy
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269' name='page_269'></a>269</span>
+De Vorne with her. And on each occasion she
+had demanded that Gregson take their cards to
+Helen.</p>
+<p>Gregson had taken the cards up one flight and
+then had sent on the cards by Maggie to Helen&#8217;s
+room. Gregson said below stairs that he would
+&#8220;give notice&#8221; if he were obliged to take cards
+to anybody who roomed in the attic.</p>
+<p>May and her friends trooped up the stairs in
+the wake of their cards, however&mdash;for so it had
+been arranged with Helen, who expected them on
+both occasions.</p>
+<p>The anger of the Starkweather family would
+have been greater had they known that these calls
+of their own most treasured social acquaintances
+were really upon the little old lady who had been
+shut away into the front attic suite, and whose existence
+even was not known to some of the servants
+in the Starkweather mansion.</p>
+<p>May, as she had promised, was bringing, one
+or two at a time, her friends who, as children when
+Cornelius Starkweather was alive, had haunted
+this old house because they loved old Mary Boyle.
+And May was proving, too, to the Western girl,
+that all New York people of wealth were neither
+heartless or ungrateful. Yet the crime of forgetfulness
+these young women must plead to.</p>
+<p>The visits delighted Mary Boyle. Helen knew
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270' name='page_270'></a>270</span>
+that she slept better&mdash;after these little excitements
+of the calls&mdash;and did not go pattering up
+and down the halls with her crutch in the dead of
+night.</p>
+<p>So the days passed, each one bringing so much
+of interest into the life of Helen Morrell that
+she forgot to be lonely, or to bewail her lot. She
+was still homesick for the ranch&mdash;when she stopped
+to think about it. But she was willing to wait a
+while longer before she flitted homeward to Big
+Hen and the boys.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXV_THE_MISSING_LINK' id='XXV_THE_MISSING_LINK'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271' name='page_271'></a>271</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+<h3>THE MISSING LINK</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen met Dud Stone and his sister on the
+bridle-path one morning by particular invitation.
+The message had come to the house for her late
+the evening before and had been put into the
+trusty hand of old Lawdor, the butler. Dud had
+learned the particulars of the old embezzlement
+charge against Prince Morrell.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got here in typewriting the reports from
+three papers&mdash;everything they had to say about
+it for the several weeks that it was kept alive as a
+news story. It was not so great a crime that the
+metropolitan papers were likely to give much
+space to it,&#8221; Dud said.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can read over the reports at your leisure,
+if you like. But the main points for us to know are
+these:</p>
+<p>&#8220;In the two banks were, in the names of Morrell
+&amp; Grimes, something over thirty-three thousand
+dollars. Either partner could draw the
+money. The missing bookkeeper could <i>not</i> draw
+the money.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272' name='page_272'></a>272</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;The checks came to the banks in the course of
+the day&#8217;s business, and neither teller could swear
+that he actually remembered giving the money to
+Mr. Morrell; yet because the checks were signed in
+his name, and apparently in his handwriting, they
+both &#8216;thought&#8217; it must have been Mr. Morrell
+who presented the checks.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, mind you, Fenwick Grimes had gone off
+on a business trip of some duration, and Allen
+Chesterton had disappeared several days before
+the checks were drawn and the money removed
+from the banks.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It was hinted by one ingenious police reporter
+that the bookkeeper was really the guilty man. He
+even raked up some story of the man at his lodgings
+which intimated that Chesterton had some art
+as an actor. Parts of disguises were found abandoned
+at his empty rooms. This suggestion was
+made: That Chesterton was a forger and had disguised
+himself as Mr. Morrell so as to cash the
+checks without question. Then Fenwick Grimes
+returned and discovered that the bank balances
+were gone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;At first your father was no more suspected than
+was Grimes himself. Then, one paper printed an
+article intimating that your father, the senior partner
+of the firm, might be the criminal. You see,
+the bank tellers had been interviewed. Before that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273' name='page_273'></a>273</span>
+the suggestion that by any possibility Mr. Morrell
+was guilty had been scouted. But the next day it
+was learned your father and mother had gone
+away. Immediately the bookkeeper was forgotten
+and the papers all seemed to agree that Prince
+Morrell had really stolen the money.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oddly enough the creditors made little trouble
+at first. Your Uncle Starkweather was mentioned
+as having been a silent partner in the concern
+and having lost heavily himself&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Poor dad was able to pay Uncle Starkweather
+first of all&mdash;years and years ago,&#8221; interposed
+Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah! and Grimes? Do you know if he made
+any claim on your father at any time?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think not. You see, he was freed of all debt
+almost at once through bankruptcy. Mr. Grimes
+really had a very small financial interest in the
+firm. Dad said he was more like a confidential
+clerk. Both he and Uncle Starkweather considered
+Grimes a very good asset to the firm, although
+he had no money to put into it. That is the way
+it was told to me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And very probable. This Grimes is notoriously
+sharp,&#8221; said Dud, reflectively. &#8220;And right
+after he went through bankruptcy he began to do
+business as a money-lender. Supposedly he lent
+other people&#8217;s money; but he is now worth a million,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274' name='page_274'></a>274</span>
+or more. Question is: Where did he get his
+start in business after the robbery and the failure
+of Grimes &amp; Morrell?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Dud!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you suspect him, too?&#8221; demanded the
+young man.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I am prejudiced, I fear.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;So am I,&#8221; agreed Dud, with a grim chuckle.
+&#8220;I&#8217;m going after that man Grimes. It&#8217;s funny he
+should go into business with a mysterious capital
+right after the old firm was closed out, when before
+that he had had no money to invest in the firm
+of which he was a member.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I feared as much,&#8221; sighed Helen. &#8220;And he was
+so eager to throw suspicion on the lost bookkeeper,
+just to satisfy my curiosity and put me off the track.
+He&#8217;s as bad as Uncle Starkweather. <i>He</i> doesn&#8217;t
+want me to go ahead because of the possible scandal,
+and Mr. Grimes is afraid for his own sake,
+I very much fear. What a wicked man he
+must be!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Possibly,&#8221; said Dud, eyeing the girl sharply.
+&#8220;Have you told me all your uncle has said to
+you about the affair?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think so, Dud. Why?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, nothing much. Only, in hunting
+through the files of the newspapers for articles
+about the troubles of Grimes &amp; Morrell I came
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275' name='page_275'></a>275</span>
+across the statement that Mr. Starkweather was
+in financial difficulties about the same time. <i>He</i>
+settled with his creditors for forty cents on the
+dollar. This was before your uncle came into <i>his</i>
+uncle&#8217;s fortune, of course, and went to live on
+Madison Avenue.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well&mdash;is that significant?&#8221; asked the girl,
+puzzled.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know that it is. But there is something
+you mentioned just now that <i>is</i> of importance.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is that, Dud?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, the bookkeeper&mdash;Allen Chesterton.
+He&#8217;s the missing link. If we could get him I believe
+the truth would easily be learned. In one
+newspaper story of the Grimes &amp; Morrell trouble,
+it was said that Grimes and Chesterton had
+been close friends at one time&mdash;had roomed together
+in the very house from which the bookkeeper
+seemed to have fled a couple of days before
+the embezzlement was discovered.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Would detectives be able to pick up any clue
+to the missing man&mdash;and missing link?&#8221; asked
+Helen, thoughtfully.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a cold trail,&#8221; Dud observed, shaking his
+head.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t mind spending some money. I can
+send to Big Hen for more&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276' name='page_276'></a>276</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course you can. I don&#8217;t believe you realize
+how rich you are, Helen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I never had to think about it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. But about hiring a detective. I hate to
+waste money. Wait a few days and see if I can
+get on the blind side of Mr. Grimes in some way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So the matter rested; but it was Helen herself
+who made the first discovery which seemed to point
+to a weak place in Fenwick Grimes&#8217;s armor.</p>
+<p>Helen had been once to the poor lodging of
+Mr. Lurcher to &#8220;mend him up&#8221;; for she was a
+good little needlewoman and she knew she could
+make the old fellow look neater. He had got his
+glasses, and at first could only wear them a part
+of the day. The doctor at the hospital gave him
+an ointment for his eyelids, too, and he was on
+a fair road to recovery.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can cobble shoes pretty good, Miss,&#8221; he
+said. &#8220;And there is work to be had at that industry
+in several shops in the neighborhood. Once
+I was a clerk; but all that is past, of course.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen did not propose to let the old fellow suffer;
+but just yet she did not wish to do anything
+further for him, or Sadie might suspect that her
+friend, Helen, was something different from the
+poor girl Sadie thought she was.</p>
+<p>After the above interview with Dud, Helen
+went downtown to see Sadie again; and she ran
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277' name='page_277'></a>277</span>
+around the corner to spend a few minutes with
+Mr. Lurcher. As she went up the stairs she
+passed a man coming down. It was dark, and she
+could not see the person clearly. Yet Helen realized
+that the individual eyed her sharply, and even
+stopped and came part way up the stairs again to
+see where she went.</p>
+<p>When she came down to the street again she
+was startled by almost running into Mr. Grimes,
+who was passing the house.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What! what! what!&#8221; he snapped, staring at
+her. &#8220;What brings you down in <i>this</i> neighborhood?
+A nice place for Mr. Willets Starkweather&#8217;s
+niece to be seen in. I warrant he doesn&#8217;t
+know where you are?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are quite right, Mr. Grimes,&#8221; Helen returned,
+quietly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What are you doing here?&#8221; asked Grimes,
+rather rudely.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Visiting friends,&#8221; replied Helen, without further
+explanation.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re still trying to rake up that old trouble
+of your father&#8217;s?&#8221; demanded Grimes, scowling.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not down here,&#8221; returned Helen, with a
+quiet smile. &#8220;That is sure. But I <i>am</i> doing
+what I can to learn all the particulars of the affair.
+Mr. Van Ramsden was a creditor and father&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278' name='page_278'></a>278</span>
+friend, and his daughter tells me that <i>he</i> will do
+all in his power to help me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ha! Van Ramsden! Well, it&#8217;s little you&#8217;ll
+ever find out through <i>him</i>. Well! you&#8217;d much
+better have let me do as I suggested and cleared
+up the whole story in the newspapers,&#8221; growled
+Grimes. &#8220;Now, now! Where&#8217;s that clerk of
+mine, I wonder? He was to meet me here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>And he went muttering along the walk; but
+Helen stood still and gazed after him in some bewilderment.
+For it dawned on the girl that the
+man who had passed her as she went up to see old
+Mr. Lurcher, or &#8220;Jones,&#8221; was Leggett, Fenwick
+Grimes&#8217;s confidential man.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVI_THEIR_EYES_ARE_OPENED' id='XXVI_THEIR_EYES_ARE_OPENED'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279' name='page_279'></a>279</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+<h3>THEIR EYES ARE OPENED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>As her cousins were not at all interested in what
+became of Helen during the day, neither was
+Helen interested in how the three Starkweather
+girls occupied their time. But on this particular
+afternoon, while Helen was visiting Lurcher, and
+chatting with Sadie Goronsky on the sidewalk in
+front of the Finkelstein shop, she would have been
+deeply interested in what interested the Starkweather
+girls.</p>
+<p>All three chanced to be in the drawing-room
+when Gregson came past the door in his stiffest
+manner, holding the tray with a single card on it.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who is it, Gregson?&#8221; asked Belle. &#8220;I heard
+the bell ring. Somebody to see me?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, mem, it his not,&#8221; declared the footman.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Me?&#8221; said Hortense, holding out her hand.
+&#8220;Who is it, I wonder?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nor is hit for you, mem,&#8221; repeated Gregson.</p>
+<p>&#8220;It can&#8217;t be for <i>me</i>?&#8221; cried Flossie.</p>
+<p>But before the footman could speak again, Belle
+rose majestically and crossed the room.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280' name='page_280'></a>280</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe I know what it is,&#8221; she said, angrily.
+&#8220;And it is going to stop. You were going to take
+the card upstairs, Gregson?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, mem!&#8221; said Gregson, somewhat heated.
+&#8220;Hi do not carry cards above the second floor.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s somebody to see Helen!&#8221; cried Flossie,
+clapping her hands softly and enjoying her older
+sister&#8217;s rage.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Give it to me!&#8221; exclaimed Belle, snatching the
+card from the tray. She turned toward her sisters
+to read it. But when her eye lit upon the
+name she was for the moment surprised out of
+speech.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness me! who is it?&#8221; gasped Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Jessie Stone&mdash;&#8216;Miss Jessie Dolliver Stone.&#8217;
+Goodness me!&#8221; whispered Belle.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not the Stones of Riverside Drive&mdash;<i>the</i>
+Stones?&#8221; from Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dud Stone&#8217;s sister?&#8221; exclaimed Flossie.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And Dud Stone is the very nicest boy I ever
+met,&#8221; quoth Hortense, clasping her hands.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know Miss Jessie. Jess, they all call her.
+I saw her on the Westchester Links only last week
+and she never said a word about this.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;About coming to see Helen&mdash;it isn&#8217;t possible!&#8221;
+cried Hortense. &#8220;Gregson, you have
+made a mistake.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hi beg your pardon&mdash;no, mem. She asked
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281' name='page_281'></a>281</span>
+for Miss Helen. I left &#8217;er in the reception parlor,
+mem&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;She thinks one of us is named Helen!&#8221; cried
+Belle, suddenly. &#8220;Show her up, Gregson.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Gregson might have told her different; but he
+saw it would only involve him in more explanation;
+therefore he turned on his heel and in his
+usual stately manner went to lead Dud Stone&#8217;s
+sister into the presence of the three excited girls.</p>
+<p>Jessie by no means understood the situation at
+the Starkweather house between Helen and her
+cousins. It had never entered Miss Stone&#8217;s head,
+in fact, that anybody could be unkind to, or dislike,
+&#8220;such a nice little thing as Helen Morrell.&#8221;</p>
+<p>So she greeted the Starkweather girls in her
+very frankest manner.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I really am delighted to see you again, Miss
+Starkweather,&#8221; Jess said, being met by Belle at the
+door. &#8220;And are these your sisters? I&#8217;m charmed,
+I am sure.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Hortense and Flossie were introduced. The
+girls sat down.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t mean to say Helen isn&#8217;t here?&#8221;
+demanded Jess. &#8220;I came particularly to invite her
+to dinner to-morrow night. We&#8217;re going to have
+a little celebration and Dud and I are determined
+to have her with us.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Helen?&#8221; gasped Belle.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282' name='page_282'></a>282</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Not Helen Morrell?&#8221; demanded Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, yes&mdash;of course&mdash;your Cousin Helen.
+How funny! Of course she&#8217;s here? She lives
+with you; doesn&#8217;t she?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;er&mdash;we have a&mdash;a distant relative of
+poor mamma&#8217;s by that name,&#8221; said Belle, haughtily.
+&#8220;She&mdash;she came here quite unexpectedly&mdash;er quite
+uninvited, I may say. Pa is <i>so-o</i> easy,
+you know; he won&#8217;t send her away&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Send her away! Send Helen Morrell away?&#8221;
+gasped Jess Stone. &#8220;Are&mdash;are we talking about
+the same girl, I wonder? Why, Helen is a most
+charming girl&mdash;and pretty as a picture. And
+brave no end!</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, it was she who saved my brother&#8217;s life
+when he was away out West&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Stone never went to Montana?&#8221; cried
+Flossie. &#8220;He never met Helen at Sunset
+Ranch?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Be still, Floss!&#8221; commanded Belle; but Miss
+Stone turned to answer the younger girl.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course. Dud stopped at the ranch some
+days, too. He had to, for he hurt his foot. That&#8217;s
+when Helen saved his life. He was flung from
+the back of a horse over the edge of a cliff and
+fortunately landed in the top of a tree.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But the tree was very tall and he could not
+have gotten out of it safely with his wounded foot
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283' name='page_283'></a>283</span>
+had not Helen ridden up to the brink of the precipice,
+thrown him a rope, and swung him out of
+the tree upon a ledge of rock. Then he worked
+his way down the side of the cliff while Helen
+caught his horse. But his foot hurt him so that
+he could never have got into the saddle alone;
+and Helen put him on her own pony and led
+the pony to the ranch house.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bully for Helen!&#8221; ejaculated Flossie, under
+her breath. Even Hortense was flushed a bit
+over the story. But Belle could see nothing to admire
+in her cousin from the West, and she only
+said, harshly:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very likely, Miss Stone. Helen seems to be
+a veritable hoyden. These ranch girls are so unfortunate
+in their bringing up and their environment.
+In the wilds I presume Helen may be passable;
+but she is quite, quite impossible here in the
+city&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know what you mean by being &#8216;impossible,&#8217;&#8221;
+interrupted Jess Stone. &#8220;She is a
+lovely girl.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You haven&#8217;t met her?&#8221; cried Belle. &#8220;It&#8217;s
+only Mr. Stone&#8217;s talk.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I certainly <i>have</i> met her, Miss Starkweather.
+Certainly I know her&mdash;and know her well. Had
+I known when she was coming to New York I
+would have begged her to come to us. It is plain
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284' name='page_284'></a>284</span>
+that her own relatives do not care much for Helen
+Morrell,&#8221; said the very frank young lady.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well&mdash;we&mdash;er&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Helen has been meeting me in the bridle-path
+almost every morning. And she rides wonderfully.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Riding in Central Park!&#8221; cried Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;why, the child has nothing decent to
+wear,&#8221; declared Belle. &#8220;How could she get a
+riding habit&mdash;or hire a horse? I do not understand
+this, Miss Stone, but I can tell you right
+now, that Helen has nothing fit to wear to your
+dinner party. She came here a little pauper&mdash;with
+nothing fit to wear in her trunk. Pa <i>did</i>
+find money enough for a new street dress and hat
+for her; but he did not feel that he could support
+in luxury every pauper who came here and claimed
+relationship with him.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Miss Stone&#8217;s mouth fairly hung open, and her
+eyes were as round as eyes could be, with wonder
+and surprise.</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is this you tell me?&#8221; she murmured.
+&#8220;Helen Morrell a pauper?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I presume those people out there in Montana
+wanted to get the girl off their hands,&#8221; said Belle,
+coldly, &#8220;and merely shipped her East, hoping that
+Pa would make provision for her. She has been a
+great source of annoyance to us, I do assure you.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285' name='page_285'></a>285</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;A source of annoyance?&#8221; repeated the caller.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And why not? Without a rag decent to wear.
+With no money. Scarcely education enough to
+make herself intelligibly understood&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Flossie began to giggle. But Jessie Stone rose
+to her feet. This volatile, talkative girl could be
+very dignified when she was aroused.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are speaking of <i>my</i> friend, Helen Morrell,&#8221;
+she interrupted Belle&#8217;s flow of angry language,
+sternly. &#8220;Whether she is your cousin, or
+not, she is <i>my</i> friend, and I will not listen to you
+talk about her in that way. Besides, you must be
+crazy if you believe your own words! Helen Morrell
+poor! Helen Morrell uneducated!</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Helen was four years in one of the best
+preparatory schools of the West&mdash;in Denver. Let
+me tell you that Denver is some city, too. And
+as for being poor and having nothing to wear&mdash;Why,
+whatever can you mean? She owns one of
+the few big ranches left in the West, with thousands
+upon thousands of cattle and horses upon
+it. And her father left her all that, and perhaps a
+quarter of a million in cash or investments beside.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not Helen?&#8221; shrieked Belle, sitting down
+very suddenly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Little Helen&mdash;<i>rich</i>?&#8221; murmured Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Does Helen really <i>own</i> Sunset Ranch?&#8221; cried
+Flossie, eagerly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286' name='page_286'></a>286</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;She certainly does&mdash;every acre of it. Why,
+Dud knows all about her and all about her affairs.
+If you consider that girl poor and uneducated you
+have fooled yourselves nicely.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad of it! I&#8217;m glad of it!&#8221; exclaimed
+Flossie, clapping her hands and pirouetting about
+the room. &#8220;Serves you right, Belle! <i>I</i> found out
+she knew a whole lot more than I did, long ago.
+She&#8217;s been helping me with my lessons.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And she <i>is</i> a nice little thing,&#8221; joined in Hortense,
+&#8220;I don&#8217;t care what you say to the contrary,
+Belle. She was the only one in this house that
+showed me any real sympathy when I was sick&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>Belle only looked at her sisters, but could say
+nothing.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And if Helen hasn&#8217;t anything fit to wear to
+your party to-morrow night, I will lend her something,&#8221;
+declared Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You need not bother,&#8221; said Jess, scornfully.
+&#8220;If Helen came in the plainest and most miserable
+frock to be found she would be welcome.
+Good-day to you, Miss Starkweather&mdash;and Miss
+Hortense&mdash;and Miss Flossie.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She swept out of the room and did not even
+need the gorgeous Gregson to show her to the
+door.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVII_THE_PARTY' id='XXVII_THE_PARTY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287' name='page_287'></a>287</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+<h3>THE PARTY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen chanced that evening to be entering the
+area door just as Mr. Starkweather himself was
+mounting the steps of the mansion. Her uncle
+recognized the girl and scowled over the balustrade
+at her.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come to the den at once; I wish to speak to
+you Helen&mdash;Ahem!&#8221; he said in his most severe
+tones.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir,&#8221; responded the girl respectfully, and
+she passed up the back stairway while Mr. Starkweather
+went directly to his library. Therefore
+he did not chance to meet either of his daughters
+and so was not warned of what had occurred
+in the house that afternoon.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Helen,&#8221; said Uncle Starkweather, viewing her
+with the same stern look when she approached his
+desk. &#8220;I must know how you have been using
+your time while outside of my house? Something
+has reached my ear which greatly&mdash;ahem!&mdash;displeases
+me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; The girl was really at a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288' name='page_288'></a>288</span>
+loss what to say. She did not know what he was
+driving at and she doubted the advisability of
+telling Uncle Starkweather everything that she
+had done while here in the city as his guest.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I was told this afternoon&mdash;not an hour ago&mdash;that
+you have been seen lurking about the most
+disreputable parts of the city. That you are a
+frequenter of low tenement houses; that you associate
+with foreigners and the most disgusting of
+beggars&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish you would stop, Uncle,&#8221; said Helen,
+quickly, her face flushing now and her eyes sparkling.
+&#8220;Sadie Goronsky is a nice girl, and her
+family is respectable. And poor old Mr. Lurcher
+is only unfortunate and half-blind. He will not
+harm me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Beggars! Yiddish shoestring pedlars! A
+girl like you! Where&mdash;ahem!&mdash;<i>where</i> did you
+ever get such low tastes, girl?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t blame yourself, Uncle,&#8221; said Helen,
+with some bitterness. &#8220;I certainly did not learn
+to be kind to poor people from <i>your</i> example.
+And I am sure I have gained no harm from being
+with them once in a while&mdash;only good. To help
+them a little has helped me&mdash;I assure you!&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Mr. Starkweather listened not at all to this.
+&#8220;Where did you find these low companions?&#8221; he
+demanded.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289' name='page_289'></a>289</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I met Sadie the night I arrived here in the
+city. The taxicab driver carried me to Madison
+Street instead of Madison Avenue. Sadie was kind
+to me. As for old Mr. Lurcher, I saw him first
+in Mr. Grimes&#8217;s office.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Uncle Starkweather suddenly lost his color and
+fell back in his chair. For a moment or two he
+seemed unable to speak at all. Then he stammered:</p>
+<p>&#8220;In Fenwick Grimes&#8217;s office?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&mdash;what was this&mdash;ahem!&mdash;this beggar
+doing there?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If he is a beggar, perhaps he was begging. At
+least, Mr. Grimes seemed very anxious to get rid
+of him, and gave him a dollar to go away.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you followed him?&#8221; gasped Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. I went to see Sadie, and it seems Mr.
+Lurcher lives right in that neighborhood. I found
+he needed spectacles and was half-blind and
+I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tell me nothing more about it! Nothing
+more about it!&#8221; commanded her uncle, holding up
+a warning hand. &#8220;I will not&mdash;ahem!&mdash;listen.
+This has gone too far. I gave you shelter&mdash;an act
+of charity, girl! And you have abused my confidence
+by consorting with low company, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290' name='page_290'></a>290</span>
+spending your time in a mean part of the town.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are wrong, sir. I have done nothing of
+the kind,&#8221; said Helen, firmly, but growing angry
+herself, now. &#8220;My friends are decent people, and
+a poor part of the city does not necessarily mean
+a criminal part.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush! How dare you contradict me?&#8221; demanded
+her uncle. &#8220;You shall go home. You
+shall go back to the West at once! Ahem! At
+once. I could not assume the responsibility of your
+presence here in my house any longer.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then I will find a position and support myself,
+Uncle Starkweather. I have told you I could
+do that before.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, indeed!&#8221; exclaimed Mr. Starkweather,
+at once. &#8220;I will not allow it. You are not to
+be trusted in this city. I shall send you back to
+that place you came from&mdash;ahem!&mdash;Sunset Ranch,
+is it? That is the place for a girl like you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, Uncle&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No more! I will listen to nothing else from
+you,&#8221; he declared, harshly. &#8220;I shall purchase
+your ticket through to-morrow, and the next day
+you must go. Ahem! Remember that I <i>will</i> be
+obeyed.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen looked at him with tear-dimmed eyes for
+fully a minute. But he said no more and his stern
+countenance, as well as his unkind words and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291' name='page_291'></a>291</span>
+tone, repelled her. She put out her hand once, as
+though to speak, but he turned away, scornfully.</p>
+<p>It was her last attempt to soften him toward
+her. He might then, had he not been so selfish
+and haughty, have made his peace with the girl
+and saved himself much trouble and misery in the
+end. But he ignored her, and Helen, crying
+softly, left the room and stole up to her own place
+in the attic.</p>
+<p>She could not see anybody that evening, and so
+did not go down to dinner. Later, to her amazement,
+Maggie came to her door with a tray piled
+high with good things&mdash;a very elaborate repast,
+indeed. But Helen was too heartsick to eat much,
+although she did not refuse the attention&mdash;which
+she laid to the kindness of Lawdor, the butler.</p>
+<p>But for once she was mistaken. The tray of
+food did not come from Lawdor. Nor was it the
+outward semblance of anybody&#8217;s kindness. The
+tray delivered at Helen&#8217;s door was the first result
+of a great fright!</p>
+<p>At dinner the girls could not wait for their father
+to be seated before they began to tell him of
+the amazing thing that had been revealed to them
+that afternoon by Jessie Stone.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where&#8217;s Cousin Helen, Gregson?&#8221; asked
+Belle, before seating herself. &#8220;See that she is
+called. She may not have heard the gong.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292' name='page_292'></a>292</span></p>
+<p>If Gregson&#8217;s face could display surprise, it displayed
+it then.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course, dear Helen has returned; hasn&#8217;t
+she?&#8221; added Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll go up myself and see if she&#8217;s here,&#8221; Flossie
+suggested.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; said the surprised Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I listened sharply for her, but I did not hear
+her pass my door,&#8221; said Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I must ask her to come back to that spare room
+on the lower floor,&#8221; sighed Belle. &#8220;She is too
+far away from the rest of the family.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Girls!&#8221; gasped Mr. Starkweather, at length
+finding speech.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, you needn&#8217;t explode, Pa!&#8221; ejaculated
+Belle. &#8220;We are aware of something about Helen
+that changes the complexion of affairs entirely.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;What does this mean?&#8221; demanded Mr.
+Starkweather, blankly. &#8220;Something about
+Helen?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, indeed, Pa,&#8221; said Flossie, spiritedly.
+&#8220;Who do you suppose owns that Sunset Ranch
+she talks about?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And who do you suppose is worth a quarter of
+a million dollars&mdash;more than <i>you</i> are worth, Pa,
+I declare?&#8221; cried Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Girls!&#8221; exclaimed Belle. &#8220;That is very low.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293' name='page_293'></a>293</span>
+If we have made a mistake regarding Cousin
+Helen, of course it can be adjusted. But we need
+not be vulgar enough to say <i>why</i> we change
+toward her.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Mr. Starkweather thumped upon the table with
+the handle of his knife.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Girls!&#8221; he commanded. &#8220;I will have this
+explained. What do you mean?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Out it came then&mdash;in a torrent. Three girls
+can do a great deal of talking in a few minutes&mdash;especially
+if they all talk at once.</p>
+<p>But Mr. Starkweather got the gist of it. He
+understood what it all meant, and he realized what
+it meant to <i>him</i>, as well, better than his daughters
+could.</p>
+<p>Prince Morrell, whom he had always considered
+a bit of a fool, and therefore had not even
+inquired about after he left for the West, had died
+a rich man. He had left this only daughter, who
+was an heiress to great wealth. And he, Willets
+Starkweather, had allowed the chance of a lifetime
+to slip through his fingers!</p>
+<p>If he had only made inquiries about the girl and
+her circumstances! He might have done that when
+he learned that Mr. Morrell was dead. When
+Helen had told him her father wished her to be in
+the care of her mother&#8217;s relatives, Mr. Starkweather
+could have then taken warning and learned
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294' name='page_294'></a>294</span>
+the girl&#8217;s true circumstances. He had not even
+accepted her confidences. Why, he might have
+been made the guardian of the girl, and handled all
+her fortune!</p>
+<p>These thoughts and a thousand others raced
+through the scheming brain of the man. Could
+he correct his fault at this late date? If he had
+only known of this that his daughters had learned
+from Jess Stone, before he had taken Helen to
+task as he had that very evening!</p>
+<p>Fenwick Grimes had telephoned to him at his
+office. Something Mr. Grimes had said&mdash;and he had
+not seen Mr. Grimes nor talked personally with
+him for years&mdash;had put Mr. Starkweather into a
+great fright. He had decided that the only safe
+place for Helen Morrell was back in the West&mdash;he
+supposed with the poor and ignorant people on
+the ranch where her father had worked.</p>
+<p>Where Prince Morrell had <i>worked</i>! Why, if
+Morrell had owned Sunset Ranch, Helen was one
+of the wealthiest heiresses in the whole Western
+country. Mr. Starkweather had asked a few questions
+about Sunset Ranch of men who knew. But,
+as the owner had never given himself any publicity,
+the name of Morrell was never connected
+with it.</p>
+<p>While the three girls chattered over the details
+of the story Mr. Starkweather merely played with
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295' name='page_295'></a>295</span>
+his food, and sat staring into a corner of the room.
+He was trying to scheme his way out of the difficulty&mdash;the
+dangerous difficulty, indeed&mdash;in which
+he found himself.</p>
+<p>So, his first move was characteristic. He sent
+the tray upstairs to Helen. But none of the family
+saw Helen again that night.</p>
+<p>However, there was another caller. This was
+May Van Ramsden. She did not ask for Helen,
+however, but for Mr. Starkweather himself, and
+that gentleman came graciously into the room
+where May was sitting with the three much excited
+sisters.</p>
+<p>Belle and Hortense and Flossie were bubbling
+over with the desire to ask Miss Van Ramsden if
+<i>she</i> knew that Helen was a rich girl and not a poor
+one. But there was no opportunity. The caller
+broached the reason for her visit at once, when she
+saw Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We are going to ask a great favor of you, sir,&#8221;
+she said, shaking hands. &#8220;And it does seem like
+a very great impudence on our part. But please
+remember that, as children, we were all very
+much attached to her. You see,&#8221; pursued Miss
+Van Ramsden, &#8220;there are the De Vorne girls, and
+Jo and Nat Paisley, and Adeline Schenk, and
+some of the Blutcher boys and girls&mdash;although the
+younger ones were born in Europe&mdash;and Sue Livingstone,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296' name='page_296'></a>296</span>
+and Crayton Ballou. Oh! there really
+is a score or more.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem!&#8221; said Mr. Starkweather, not only
+solemnly, but reverently. These were names he
+worshipped. He could have refused such young
+people nothing&mdash;nothing!&mdash;and would have told
+Miss Van Ramsden so had what she said next not
+stricken him dumb for the time.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see, some of us have called on Nurse
+Boyle, and found her so bright and so delighted
+with our coming, that we want to give her a little
+tea-party to-morrow afternoon. It would be so
+delightful to have her greet the girls and boys
+who used to be such friends of hers in the time of
+Mr. Cornelius, right up there in those cunning
+rooms of hers.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We always used to see her in the nursery
+suite, and there are the same furniture, and hangings,
+and pictures, and all. And Nurse Boyle
+herself is just the same&mdash;only a bit older&mdash;Ah!
+girls!&#8221; she added, turning suddenly to the three
+sisters, &#8220;you don&#8217;t know what it means to have
+been cared for, and rocked, and sung to, when
+you were ill, perhaps, by Mary Boyle! You
+missed a great deal in not having a Mary Boyle in
+your family.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Mary Boyle!</i>&#8221; gasped Mr. Starkweather.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Can we all come to see her to-morrow
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297' name='page_297'></a>297</span>
+afternoon? I am sure if you tell Mrs. Olstrom,
+your housekeeper will attend to all the arrangements.
+Helen knows about it, and she&#8217;ll help pour
+the tea. Mary thinks there is nobody quite like
+Helen.&#8221;</p>
+<p>These shocks were coming too fast for Mr.
+Starkweather. Had anything further occurred
+that evening to torment him it is doubtful if he
+would have got through it as gracefully as he did
+through this call. May Van Ramsden went away
+assured that no obstacle would be placed in the
+way of Mary Boyle&#8217;s party in the attic. But
+neither Mr. Starkweather, nor his three daughters,
+could really look straight into each other&#8217;s faces
+for the remainder of that evening. And they were
+all four remarkably silent, despite the exciting
+things that had so recently occurred to disturb
+them.</p>
+<p>In the morning Helen got an invitation from
+Jess Stone to dinner that evening. She said &#8220;come
+just as you are&#8221;; but she did not tell Helen that
+she had innocently betrayed her true condition to
+the Starkweathers. Helen wrote a long reply and
+sent it by special messenger through old Lawdor,
+the butler. Then she prepared for the tea in Mary
+Boyle&#8217;s rooms.</p>
+<p>At breakfast time Helen met the family for the
+first time since the explosion. Self-consciousness
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298' name='page_298'></a>298</span>
+troubled the countenances and likewise the manner
+of Mr. Starkweather and his three daughters.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ahem! A very fine morning, Helen. Have
+you been out for your usual ramble, my dear?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;How-do, Helen? Hope you&#8217;re feeling quite
+fit.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dear me, Helen! How pretty your hair is,
+child. You must show me how you do it in that
+simple way.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But Flossie was more honest. She only nodded
+to Helen at first. Then, when Gregson was out
+of the room, she jumped up, went around the table
+swiftly, and caught the Western girl about the
+neck.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Helen! I&#8217;m just as ashamed of myself as I
+can be!&#8221; she cried, her tears flowing copiously.
+&#8220;I treated you so mean all the time, and you have
+been so very, very decent about helping me in my
+lessons. Forgive me; will you? Oh, please say
+you will!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen kissed her warmly. &#8220;Nothing to forgive,
+Floss,&#8221; she said, a little bruskly, perhaps.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t let&#8217;s speak about it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>She merely bowed and said a word in reply to
+the others. Nor could Mr. Starkweather&#8217;s unctuous
+conversation arouse her interest.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You have a part in the very worthy effort to
+liven up old Nurse Boyle, I understand?&#8221; said
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299' name='page_299'></a>299</span>
+Mr. Starkweather, graciously. &#8220;Is there anything
+needed that I can have sent in, Helen?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no, sir. I am only helping Miss Van
+Ramsden,&#8221; Helen replied, timidly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think May Van Ramsden should have told
+<i>me</i> of her plans,&#8221; said Belle, tossing her head.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Or, <i>me</i>,&#8221; rejoined Hortense.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pah!&#8221; snapped Flossie. &#8220;None of us ever
+cared a straw for the old woman. Queer old thing.
+I thought she was more than a little cracked.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Flossie!&#8221; ejaculated Mr. Starkweather,
+angrily, &#8220;unless you can speak with more respect
+for&mdash;ahem!&mdash;for a faithful old servitor of the
+Starkweather family, I shall have to&mdash;ahem!&mdash;ask
+you to leave the table.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;You won&#8217;t have to ask me&mdash;I&#8217;m going!&#8221; exclaimed
+Flossie, flirting out of her chair and picking
+up her books. &#8220;But I want to say one thing
+while I&#8217;m on my way,&#8221; observed the slangy
+youngster: &#8220;You&#8217;re all just as tiresome as you can
+be! Why don&#8217;t you own up that you&#8217;d never have
+given the old woman a thought if it wasn&#8217;t for
+May Van Ramsden and her friends&mdash;and Helen?&#8221;
+and she beat a retreat in quick order.</p>
+<p>It was an unpleasant breakfast for Helen, and
+she retired from the table as soon as she could.
+She felt that this attitude of the Starkweathers
+toward her was really more unhappy than their
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300' name='page_300'></a>300</span>
+former treatment. For she somehow suspected
+that this overpowering kindness was founded upon
+a sudden discovery that she was a rich girl instead
+of an object of charity. How well-founded this
+suspicion was she learned when she and Jess met.</p>
+<p>Hortense brought her up two very elaborate
+frocks that forenoon, one for her to wear when she
+poured tea in Mary Boyle&#8217;s rooms, and the
+other for her to put on for the Stones&#8217; dinner
+party.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They will just about fit you. I&#8217;m a mite taller,
+but that won&#8217;t matter,&#8221; said the languid Hortense.
+&#8220;And really, Helen, I am just as sorry as I can be
+for the mean way you have been treated while
+you have been here. You have been so good-natured,
+too, in helping a chap. Hope you won&#8217;t
+hold it against me&mdash;and <i>do</i> wear the dresses,
+dear.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will put on this one for the afternoon,&#8221; said
+Helen, smiling. &#8220;But I do not need the evening
+dress. I never wore one quite&mdash;quite like that,
+you see,&#8221; as she noted the straps over the shoulders
+and the low corsage. &#8220;But I thank you just
+the same.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Later Belle said to her airily: &#8220;Dear Cousin
+Helen! I have spoken to Gustaf about taking you
+to the Stones&#8217; in the limousine to-night. And he
+will call for you at any hour you say.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_301' name='page_301'></a>301</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I cannot avail myself of that privilege, Belle,&#8221;
+responded Helen, quietly. &#8220;Jess will send for me
+at half-past six. She has already arranged to do
+so. Thank you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was so much going on above stairs that
+day that Helen was able to escape most of the
+oppressive attentions of her cousins. Great baskets
+of flowers were sent in by some of the young
+people who remembered and loved Mary Boyle,
+and Helen helped to arrange them in the little
+old lady&#8217;s rooms.</p>
+<p>Tea things for a score of people came in, too.
+And cookies and cakes from the caterer&#8217;s. At
+three o&#8217;clock, or a little after, the callers began
+to arrive. Belle, and Hortense, and Flossie received
+them in the reception hall, had them remove
+their cloaks below stairs, and otherwise tried to
+make it appear that the function was really of their
+own planning.</p>
+<p>But nobody invited either of the Starkweather
+girls upstairs to Mary Boyle&#8217;s rooms. Perhaps
+it was an oversight. But it certainly <i>did</i> look as
+though they had been forgotten.</p>
+<p>But the party on the attic floor was certainly a
+success. How pretty the little old lady looked,
+sitting in state with all the young and blooming
+faces about her! Here were growing up into
+womanhood and manhood (for some of the boys
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302' name='page_302'></a>302</span>
+had not been ashamed to come) the children whom
+she had tended and played with and sung to.</p>
+<p>And she sung to them again&mdash;verses of forgotten
+songs, lullabies she had crooned over some of
+their cradles when they were ill, little broken
+chants that had sent many of them, many times, to
+sleep.</p>
+<p>Altogether it was a most enjoyable afternoon,
+and Nurse Boyle was promised that it should not
+be the last tea-party she would have. &#8220;If you are
+&#8217;way up here in the top of the house, you shall no
+more be forgotten,&#8221; they told her.</p>
+<p>Helen was the object next in interest to Nurse
+Boyle. May Van Ramsden had told about the
+Starkweathers&#8217; little &#8220;Cinderella Cousin&#8221;; and although
+none of these girls and boys who had gathered
+knew the truth about Helen&#8217;s wealth and
+her position in life, they all treated her cordially.</p>
+<p>When they trooped away and left the little old
+lady to lie down to recuperate after the excitement,
+Helen went to her own room, and remained
+closely shut up for the rest of the day.</p>
+<p>At half-past six she came downstairs, bag in
+hand. She descended the servants&#8217; staircase, told
+Mr. Lawdor that her trunk, packed and locked,
+was ready for the expressman when he came, and
+so stole out of the area door. She escaped any
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_303' name='page_303'></a>303</span>
+interview with her uncle, or with the girls. She
+could not bid them good-by, yet she was determined
+not to go back to Sunset Ranch on the
+morrow, nor would she remain another night under
+her uncle&#8217;s roof.</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVIII_A_STATEMENT_OF_FACT' id='XXVIII_A_STATEMENT_OF_FACT'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304' name='page_304'></a>304</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+<h3>A STATEMENT OF FACT</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dud Stone had that very day seen the fixtures
+put into the little millinery store downtown, and it
+was ready for Sadie Goronsky to take charge;
+there being a fund of two hundred dollars to
+Sadie&#8217;s credit at a nearby bank, with which she
+could buy stock and pay her running expenses for
+the first few weeks.</p>
+<p>Yet Sadie didn&#8217;t know a thing about it.</p>
+<p>This last was the reason Helen went downtown
+early in the morning following the little dinner
+party at the Stones&#8217;. At that party Helen had met
+the uncle, aunt, and cousins of Dud and Jess Stone,
+with whom the orphaned brother and sister lived,
+and she had found them a most charming family.</p>
+<p>Jess had invited Helen to bring her trunk and
+remain with her as long as she contemplated staying
+in New York, and this Helen was determined
+to do. Even if the Starkweathers would not let
+the expressman have her trunk, she was prepared
+to blossom out now in a butterfly outfit, and take
+the place in society that was rightfully hers.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305' name='page_305'></a>305</span></p>
+<p>But Helen hadn&#8217;t time to go shopping as yet.
+She was too eager to tell Sadie of her good fortune.
+Sadie was to be found&mdash;cold as the day was&mdash;pacing
+the walk before Finkelstein&#8217;s shop, on
+the sharp lookout for a customer. But there were
+a few flakes of snow in the air, the wind from the
+river was very raw, and it did seem to Helen as
+though the Russian girl was endangering her
+health.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But what can poor folks do?&#8221; demanded
+Sadie, hoarsely, for she already had a heavy cold.
+&#8220;There is nothing for me to do inside the store.
+If I catch a customer I make somet&#8217;ings yet.
+Well, we must all work!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Some other kind of work would be easier,&#8221;
+suggested Helen.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But not so much money, maybe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you only had your millinery store.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t make me laugh! Me lip&#8217;s cracked,&#8221;
+grumbled Sadie. &#8220;Have a heart, Helen! I ain&#8217;t
+never goin&#8217; to git a store like I showed you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Sadie was evidently short of hope on this cold
+day. Helen seized her arm. &#8220;Let&#8217;s go up and
+look at that store again,&#8221; she urged.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have a heart, I tell ye!&#8221; exclaimed Sadie
+Goronsky. &#8220;Whaddeyer wanter rub it in for?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Anyway, if we run it will help warm you.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;All ri&#8217;. Come on,&#8221; said Sadie, with deep disgust,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_306' name='page_306'></a>306</span>
+but she started on a heavy trot towards the
+block on which her heart had been set. And when
+they rounded the corner and came before the little
+shop window, Sadie stopped with a gasp of amazement.</p>
+<p>Freshly varnished cases, and counter, and drawers,
+and all were in the store just as she had
+dreamed of them. There were mirrors, too, and
+in the window little forms on which to set up the
+trimmed hats and one big, pink-cheeked, dolly-looking
+wax bust, with a great mass of tow-colored
+hair piled high in the very latest mode, on which
+was to be set the very finest hat to be evolved in
+that particular East Side shop.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wha&mdash;wha&mdash;what&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s go in and look at it,&#8221; said Helen,
+eagerly, seizing her friend&#8217;s arm again.</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no, no!&#8221; gasped Sadie. &#8220;We can&#8217;t.
+It ain&#8217;t open. Oh, oh, oh! Somebody&#8217;s got <i>my</i>
+shop!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen produced the key and opened the door.
+She fairly pushed the amazed Russian girl inside,
+and then closed the door. It was nice and warm.
+There were chairs. There was a half-length partition
+at the rear to separate the workroom from
+the showroom. And behind that partition were
+low sewing chairs to work in, and a long work-table.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_307' name='page_307'></a>307</span></p>
+<p>Helen led the dazed Sadie into this rear room
+and sat her down in one of the chairs. Then she
+took one facing her and said:</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, you sit right there and make up in your
+mind the very prettiest hat for <i>me</i> that you can
+possibly invent. The first hat you trim in this
+store must be for me.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Helen! Helen!&#8221; cried Sadie, almost wildly.
+&#8220;You&#8217;re crazy yet&mdash;or is it me? I don&#8217;t know
+what you mean&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, you do, dear,&#8221; replied Helen, putting
+her arms about the other girl&#8217;s neck. &#8220;You were
+kind to me when I was lost in this city. You were
+kind to me just for nothing&mdash;when I appeared
+poor and forlorn and&mdash;and a greenie! Now, I
+am sorry that it seemed best for me to let your
+mistake stand. I did not tell my uncle and cousins
+either, that I was not as poor and helpless as I
+appeared.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you&#8217;re rich?&#8221; shrieked Sadie. &#8220;You&#8217;re
+doing this yourself? This is <i>your</i> store?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, it is <i>your</i> store,&#8221; returned Helen, firmly.
+&#8220;Of course, by and by, when you are established
+and are making lots of money, if you can
+ever afford to pay me back, you may do so. The
+money is yours without interest until that time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I got to cry, Helen! I got to cry!&#8221; sobbed
+Sadie Goronsky. &#8220;If an angel right down out of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_308' name='page_308'></a>308</span>
+heaven had done it like you done it, I&#8217;d worship
+him on my knees. And you&#8217;re a rich girl&mdash;not a
+poor one?&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen then told her all about herself, and all
+about her adventures since coming alone to New
+York. But after that Sadie wanted to keep telling
+her how thankful she was for the store, and
+that Helen must come home and see mommer, and
+that mommer must be brought to see the shop, too.
+So Helen ran away. She could not bear any more
+gratitude from Sadie. Her heart was too full.</p>
+<p>She went over to poor Lurcher&#8217;s lodgings and
+climbed the dark stairs to his rooms. She had
+something to tell him, as well.</p>
+<p>The purblind old man knew her step, although
+she had been there but a few times.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come in, Miss. Yours are angel&#8217;s visits, although
+they are more frequent than angel&#8217;s visits
+are supposed to be,&#8221; he cried.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do hope you are keeping off the street this
+weather, Mr. Lurcher,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If you can
+mend shoes I have heard of a place where they will
+send work to you, and call for it, and you can
+afford to have a warmer and lighter room than
+this one.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah, my dear Miss! that is good of you&mdash;that
+is good of you,&#8221; mumbled the old man. &#8220;And
+why you should take such an interest in <i>me</i>&mdash;&mdash;?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_309' name='page_309'></a>309</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I feel sure that you would be interested in me,
+if I were poor and unhappy and you were rich
+and able to get about. Isn&#8217;t that so?&#8221; she said,
+laughing.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Aye. Truly. And you <i>are</i> rich, my dear
+Miss?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very rich, indeed. Father was one of the big
+cattle kings of Montana, and Prince Morrell&#8217;s Sunset
+Ranch, they tell me, is one of the <i>great</i> properties
+of the West.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The old man turned to look at her with some
+eagerness. &#8220;That name?&#8221; he whispered.
+&#8220;<i>Who</i> did you say?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;my father, Prince Morrell.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your father? Prince Morrell your father?&#8221;
+gasped the old man, and sat down suddenly, shaking
+in every limb.</p>
+<p>The girl instantly became excited, too. She
+stepped quickly to him and laid her hand upon
+his shoulder.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did you ever know my father?&#8221; she asked
+him.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I once knew a Mr. Prince Morrell.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Was it here in New York you knew him?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. It was years ago. He&mdash;he was a good
+man. I&mdash;I had not heard of him for years. I
+was away from the city myself for ten years&mdash;in
+New Orleans. I went there suddenly to take the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_310' name='page_310'></a>310</span>
+position of head bookkeeper in a shipping firm.
+Then the firm failed, my health was broken by the
+climate, and I returned here.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen was staring at him in wonder and almost
+in alarm. She backed away from him a bit toward
+the door.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tell me your real name!&#8221; she cried. &#8220;It&#8217;s
+not Lurcher. Nor is it Jones. No! don&#8217;t tell me.
+I know&mdash;I know! You are Allen Chesterton, who
+was once bookkeeper for the firm of Grimes &amp;
+Morrell!&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIX__THE_WHIP_HAND' id='XXIX__THE_WHIP_HAND'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_311' name='page_311'></a>311</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+<h3>&#8220;THE WHIP HAND&#8221;</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>An hour later Helen and the old man hurried
+out of the lodging house and Helen led him across
+town to the office where Dudley Stone worked.
+At first the old man peered all about, on the watch
+for Fenwick Grimes or his clerk.</p>
+<p>&#8220;They have been after me every few days to
+agree to leave New York. I did not know what
+for, but I knew Fenwick was up to some game.
+He always <i>was</i> up to some game, even when we
+were young fellows together.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now he is rich, and he might have found me
+better lodgings and something to do. But after
+I came back from the South and was unfit to do
+clerical work because of my eyes, he only threw
+me a dollar now and then&mdash;like throwing a bone
+to a starving dog.&#8221;</p>
+<p>That explained how Helen had chanced to see
+the old man at Fenwick Grimes&#8217;s door on the occasion
+of her visit to her father&#8217;s old partner. And
+later, in the presence of Dudley Stone&mdash;who was
+almost as eager as Helen herself&mdash;the old man related
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_312' name='page_312'></a>312</span>
+the facts that served to explain the whole
+mystery surrounding the trouble that had darkened
+Prince Morrell&#8217;s life for so long.</p>
+<p>Briefly, Allen Chesterton and Fenwick Grimes
+had grown up together in the same town, as boys
+had come to New York, and had kept in touch
+with each other for years. Neither had married
+and for years they had roomed together.</p>
+<p>But Chesterton was a plodding bookkeeper and
+would never be anything else. Grimes was mad
+for money, but he was always complaining that
+he never had a chance.</p>
+<p>His chance came through Willets Starkweather,
+when the latter&#8217;s brother-in-law was looking for
+a working partner&mdash;a man right in Grimes&#8217;s line,
+and who was a good salesman. Grimes got into
+the firm on very limited capital, yet he was a
+trusted member and Prince Morrell depended on
+his judgment in most things.</p>
+<p>Allen Chesterton had been brought into the
+firm&#8217;s office to keep the books through Grimes&#8217;s
+influence, of course. By and by it seemed to Chesterton
+that his old comrade was running pretty
+close to the wind. The bookkeeper feared that <i>he</i>
+might be involved in some dubious enterprise.</p>
+<p>There was flung in Chesterton&#8217;s way (perhaps
+<i>that</i> was by the influence of Grimes, too) a chance
+to go to New Orleans to be bookkeeper in a shipping
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_313' name='page_313'></a>313</span>
+firm. He could get passage upon a vessel belonging
+to the firm.</p>
+<p>He had this to decide between the time of leaving
+the office one afternoon and early the next
+morning. He took the place and bundled his
+things aboard, leaving a letter for Fenwick
+Grimes. That letter, it is needless to say, Grimes
+never made public. And by the time the slow craft
+Chesterton was on reached her destination, the
+firm of Grimes &amp; Morrell had gone to smash,
+Morrell was a fugitive, and the papers had ceased
+to talk about the matter.</p>
+<p>The true explanation of the mystery was now
+plain. Chesterton said that it was not himself, but
+Grimes, who had been successful as an amateur
+actor. Grimes had often disguised himself so well
+as different people that he might have made something
+by the art in a &#8220;protean turn&#8221; on the vaudeville
+stage.</p>
+<p>Chesterton had known all about the thirty-three
+thousand dollars belonging to Morrell &amp; Grimes
+in the banks. Grimes had hinted to his friend
+how easy it would be to sequestrate this money
+without Morrell knowing it. At first, evidently,
+Grimes had wished to use the bookkeeper as a
+tool.</p>
+<p>Then he improved upon his plan. He had gotten
+rid of Chesterton by getting him the position
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_314' name='page_314'></a>314</span>
+at a distance. His going out of town himself had
+been merely a blind. He had imitated Prince
+Morrell so perfectly&mdash;after forging the checks
+in his partner&#8217;s handwriting&mdash;that the tellers of
+the two banks had thought Morrell really guilty
+as charged.</p>
+<p>&#8220;So Fenwick Grimes got thirty-three thousand
+dollars with which to begin business on, after the
+bankruptcy proceedings had freed him of all
+debts,&#8221; said Dud Stone, reflectively. &#8220;Yet there
+must have been one other person who knew, or
+suspected, his crime.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who could that be?&#8221; cried Helen. &#8220;Surely
+Mr. Chesterton is guiltless.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Personally I would have taken the old man&#8217;s
+statement without his swearing to it. <i>That</i> is the
+confidence I have in him. I only wished it to be
+put into affidavit form that it might be presented
+to the courts&mdash;if necessary.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;If necessary?&#8221; repeated Helen, faintly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see, my dear girl, you now have the whip
+hand,&#8221; said Dud. &#8220;You can make the man&mdash;or
+men&mdash;who ill-used your father suffer for the
+crime&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, is there more than Grimes? Are you
+<i>sure</i>?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe that there is another who <i>knew</i>.
+Either legally, or morally, he is guilty. In either
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_315' name='page_315'></a>315</span>
+case he was and is a despicable man!&#8221; exclaimed
+Dud, hotly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You mean my uncle,&#8221; observed Helen, quietly.
+&#8220;I know you do. How do you think he benefited
+by this crime?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe he had a share of the money. He
+held Grimes up, undoubtedly. Grimes is the bigger
+criminal in a legal sense. But Starkweather
+benefited, I believe, after the fact. And <i>he</i> let
+your father remain in ignorance&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;And let poor dad pay him back the money
+he was supposed to have lost in the smashing
+of the firm?&#8221; murmured Helen. &#8220;Do&mdash;do you
+think he was paid twice&mdash;that he got money from
+both Grimes and father?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll prove that by Grimes,&#8221; said the fledgling
+lawyer who, in time, was likely to prove himself
+a successful one indeed.</p>
+<p>He sent for Mr. Grimes to come to see him
+on important business. When the money-lender
+arrived, Dud got him into a corner immediately,
+showed the affidavit, and hinted that Starkweather
+had divulged something.</p>
+<p>Immediately Grimes accused Helen&#8217;s uncle of
+exactly the part in the crime Dud had suspected
+him of committing. After the affair blew over
+and Grimes had set up in business, Starkweather
+had come to him and threatened to tell certain
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_316' name='page_316'></a>316</span>
+things which he knew, and others that he suspected,
+unless he was given the money he had originally
+invested in the firm of Grimes &amp; Morrell.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shut his mouth. That&#8217;s all he took&mdash;his
+rightful share; but I&#8217;ve got his receipts, and I can
+make it look bad for him. And I <i>will</i> make it look
+bad for that old stiff-and-starched hypocrite if he
+lets me be driven to the wall.&#8221;</p>
+<p>This defiance of Fenwick Grimes closed the case
+as far as any legal proceedings were concerned.
+The matter of recovering the money from Grimes
+would have to be tried in the civil courts. All the
+creditors of the firm were satisfied. To get
+Grimes indicted for his old crime would be a difficult
+matter in New York County.</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you have the whip hand,&#8221; Dud Stone told
+the girl from Sunset Ranch again. &#8220;If you want
+satisfaction, you can spread the story broadcast by
+means of the newspapers, and you will involve
+Starkweather in it just as much as you will Grimes.
+And between you and me, Helen, I think Willets
+Starkweather richly deserves just that punishment.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXX_HEADED_WEST' id='XXX_HEADED_WEST'></a>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_317' name='page_317'></a>317</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+<h3>HEADED WEST</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Just at this time Helen Morrell wasn&#8217;t thinking
+at all about wreaking vengeance upon those who
+might have ill-treated her when she was alone in
+the great city. Instead, her heart was made very
+tender by the delightful things that were being
+done for her by those who loved and admired the
+sturdy little girl from Sunset Ranch.</p>
+<p>In the first place, Jess and Dud Stone, and their
+cousins, gave Helen every chance possible to see
+the pleasanter side of city life. She had gone
+shopping with the girls and bought frocks and hats
+galore. Indeed, she had had to telegraph to Big
+Hen for more money. She got the money; but
+likewise she received the following letter:</p>
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p>&#8220;Dear Snuggy:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;We lets colts get inter the alfalfa an&#8217; kick up
+their heels for a while; but they got to steady
+down and come home some time. Ain&#8217;t you kicked
+up your heels sufficient in that lonesome city? And
+it looks like somebody was getting money away
+from you&mdash;or have you learnt to spend it down
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_318' name='page_318'></a>318</span>
+East there? Come on home, Snuggy! The hull
+endurin&#8217; ranch is jest a-honin&#8217; for you. Sing&#8217;s
+that despondint I expects to see him cut off his
+pigtail. Jo-Rab has gone back on his rice-and-curry
+rations, the Greasers don&#8217;t plunk their mandolins
+no more, and the punchers are as sorry
+lookin&#8217; as winter-kept steers. Come back, Snuggy,
+and liven up the old place, is the sincere wish of,
+yours warmly,</p>
+<div class='ra'>
+<p>&#8220;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Henry Billings</span>.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+<p>Helen only waited to see some few matters
+cleared up before she left for the West. As it
+happened, Dud Stone obtained a chance to represent
+a big corporation for some months, in Elberon
+and Helena. His smattering of legal
+knowledge was sufficient to enable him to accept
+the job. It was a good chance for Jess to go out,
+too, and try the climate and the life, over both of
+which her brother was so enthusiastic.</p>
+<p>But she would go to Sunset Ranch to remain
+for some time if Helen went West with them and&mdash;of
+course&mdash;Helen was only too glad to agree to
+such a proposition.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the Western girl was taken to museums,
+and parks, and theaters, and all kinds of
+show places, and thoroughly enjoyed herself. May
+Van Ramsden and others of those who had attended
+Mary Boyle&#8217;s tea party in the attic of the
+Starkweather house hunted Helen out, too, in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_319' name='page_319'></a>319</span>
+home of her friends on Riverside Drive, and the
+last few weeks of Helen&#8217;s stay were as wonderful
+and exciting as the first few weeks had been lonely
+and sad.</p>
+<p>Dud had insisted upon publishing the facts of
+the old trouble which had come upon the firm of
+Grimes &amp; Morrell, in pamphlet form, including
+Allen Chesterton&#8217;s affidavit, and this pamphlet
+was mailed to the creditors of the old firm and
+to all of Prince Morrel&#8217;s old friends in New
+York. But nothing was said in the printed matter
+about Willets Starkweather.</p>
+<p>Fenwick Grimes took a long trip out of town,
+and made no attempt to put in an answer to the
+case. But Mr. Starkweather was a very much
+frightened man.</p>
+<p>Dud came home one afternoon and advised
+Helen to go and see her uncle. Since her departure
+from the Starkweather mansion she had
+seen neither the girls nor Uncle Starkweather
+himself.</p>
+<p>&#8220;He doesn&#8217;t know what you are going to do
+with him. He brought the money he received
+from your father to my office; but, of course, I
+would not accept it. You&#8217;ve got the whip hand,
+Helen&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I do not propose to crack the whip,
+Dud,&#8221; declared the Western girl, quickly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_320' name='page_320'></a>320</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a good chap, Snuggy!&#8221; exclaimed
+Dud, warmly, and Helen smiled and forgave him
+for using the intimate nickname.</p>
+<p>But Helen went across town the very next day
+and called upon her uncle. This time she mounted
+the broad stone steps, instead of descending to
+the basement door.</p>
+<p>Gregson opened the door and, by his manner,
+showed that even with the servants the girl from
+Sunset Ranch was upon a different footing in her
+uncle&#8217;s house. Mr. Starkweather was in his den
+and Helen was ushered into the room without
+crossing the path of any other member of the
+family.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Helen!&#8221; he ejaculated, when he saw her, and
+to tell the truth the girl was shocked by his
+changed appearance. Mr. Starkweather was quite
+broken down. The cloud of scandal that seemed
+to be menacing him had worn his pomposity to
+a thread, and his dignified &#8220;Ahem!&#8221; had quite
+disappeared.</p>
+<p>Indeed, to see this once proud and selfish man
+fairly groveling before the daughter of the man he
+had helped injure in the old times, was not a
+pleasant sight. Helen cut the interview as short as
+she could.</p>
+<p>She managed to assure Uncle Starkweather that
+he need have no apprehension. That he had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_321' name='page_321'></a>321</span>
+known all the time Grimes was guilty, and that he
+had benefited from that knowledge, was the sum
+and substance of Willets Starkweather&#8217;s connection
+with the old crime. At that time he had been,
+as Dud Stone learned, in serious financial difficulties.
+He used the money received from
+Grimes&#8217;s ill-gotten gains, to put himself on his
+feet.</p>
+<p>Then had come the death of old Cornelius
+Starkweather and the legacy. After that, when
+Prince Morrell sent Starkweather the money he
+was supposed to have lost in the bankruptcy of
+Grimes &amp; Morrell, Starkweather did not dare refuse
+it. He feared always that it would be discovered
+he had known who was really guilty of
+the embezzlement.</p>
+<p>Flossie met Helen in the hall and hugged her.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t you go away mad at me, Helen,&#8221; she
+cried. &#8220;I know we all treated you mean; but&mdash;but
+I guess I wouldn&#8217;t act that way again, to any
+girl, no matter what Belle does.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not believe you would, Floss,&#8221; agreed
+Helen, kissing her warmly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;And are you really going back to that lovely
+ranch?&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Very soon. And some time, if you care to
+and your father will let you, I&#8217;ll be glad to have
+you come out there for a visit.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_322' name='page_322'></a>322</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Bully for you, Helen! I&#8217;ll surely come,&#8221; cried
+Flossie.</p>
+<p>Hortense was on hand to speak to her cousin,
+too. &#8220;You are much too nice a girl to bear malice,
+I am sure, Helen,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But we do not
+deserve very good treatment at your hands. I
+hope you will forgive us and, when you come to
+New York again, come to visit us.&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am sure you would not treat me again as you
+did this time,&#8221; said Helen, rather sternly.</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can be sure we wouldn&#8217;t. Not even Belle.
+She&#8217;s awfully sorry, but she&#8217;s too proud to say
+so. She wants father to bring old Mary Boyle
+downstairs into the old nursery suite that she used
+to occupy when Uncle Cornelius was alive; only
+the old lady doesn&#8217;t want to come. She says she&#8217;s
+only a few more years at best to live and she doesn&#8217;t
+like changes.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Helen saw the nurse before she left the house,
+and left the dear old creature very happy indeed.
+Helen was sure Nurse Boyle would never be so
+lonely again, for her friends had remembered
+her.</p>
+<p>Even Mrs. Olstrom, the housekeeper, came to
+shake hands with the girl who had been tucked
+away into an attic bedroom as &#8220;a pauper cousin.&#8221;
+And old Mr. Lawdor fairly shed tears when he
+learned that he was not likely to see Helen again.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_323' name='page_323'></a>323</span></p>
+<p>There were other people in the great city who
+were sorry to see Helen Morrell start West.
+Through Dud Stone, Allen Chesterton had been
+found light work and a pleasant boarding place.
+There would always be a watchful eye upon the
+old man&mdash;and that eye belonged to Miss Sadie
+Goronsky&mdash;rather, &#8220;S. Goron, Milliner,&#8221; as the
+new sign over the hat shop door read.</p>
+<p>&#8220;For you see,&#8221; said Miss Sadie, with a toss of
+her head, &#8220;there ain&#8217;t no use in advertisin&#8217; it that
+you are a Yid. <i>That</i> don&#8217;t do no good, as I tell
+mommer. Sure, I&#8217;m proud I&#8217;m a Jew. We&#8217;re
+the greatest people in the world yet. But it ain&#8217;t
+good for business.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, &#8216;Goron&#8217; sounds Frenchy; don&#8217;t it,
+Helen? And when I get a-going down here good,
+I&#8217;ll be wantin&#8217; some time to look at a place on
+Fift&#8217; Av&#8217;ner, maybe. &#8216;Madame Goron&#8217; would
+be dead swell&mdash;yes? But you put the &#8216;sky&#8217; to it
+and it&#8217;s like tying a can to a dog&#8217;s tail. There ain&#8217;t
+nowhere to go then but <i>home</i>,&#8221; declared this
+worldly wise young girl.</p>
+<p>Helen had dinner again with the Goronskys, and
+Sadie&#8217;s mother could not do enough to show her
+fondness for her daughter&#8217;s benefactor. Sadie
+promised to write to Helen frequently and the
+two girls&mdash;so much alike in some ways, yet as far
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_324' name='page_324'></a>324</span>
+apart as the poles in others&mdash;bade each other an
+affectionate farewell.</p>
+<p>The next day Helen Morrell and her two
+friends, Dud and Jess Stone, were headed West.
+That second trip across the continent was a very
+different journey for Helen than the first had been.</p>
+<p>She and Jess Stone had become the best of
+friends. And as the months slid by the two girls&mdash;Helen,
+a product of the West, and Jessie, a product
+of the great Eastern city&mdash;became dearer and
+dearer companions.</p>
+<p>As for Dud&mdash;of course he was always hanging
+around. His sister sometimes wondered&mdash;and
+that audibly&mdash;how he found time for business, he
+was so frequently at Sunset Ranch. This was
+only said, however, in wicked enjoyment of his
+discomfiture&mdash;and of Helen&#8217;s blushes.</p>
+<p>For by that time it was an understood thing
+about Sunset Ranch that in time Dud was going to
+have the right to call its mistress &#8220;Snuggy&#8221; for
+all the years of her life&mdash;just as her father had.
+And Helen, contemplating this possibility, did
+not seem to mind.</p>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>THE END</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:;'>SOMETHING ABOUT</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em; margin-top:; margin-bottom:;'>AMY BELL MARLOWE</p>
+<p style=' font-size:; margin-top:; margin-bottom:1em;'>AND HER BOOKS FOR GIRLS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In these days, when the printing presses are
+turning out so many books for girls that are good,
+bad and indifferent, it is refreshing to come upon
+the works of such a gifted authoress as Miss Amy
+Bell Marlowe, who is now under contract to write
+exclusively for Messrs. Grosset &amp; Dunlap.</p>
+<p>In many ways Miss Marlowe&#8217;s books may be
+compared with those of Miss Alcott and Mrs.
+Meade, but all are thoroughly modern and wholly
+American in scene and action. Her plots, while
+never improbable, are exceedingly clever, and her
+girlish characters are as natural as they are interesting.</p>
+<p>On the following pages will be found a list
+of Miss Marlowe&#8217;s books. Every girl in our
+land ought to read these fresh and wholesome
+tales. They are to be found at all booksellers.
+Each volume is handsomely illustrated and bound
+in cloth, stamped in colors. Published by Grosset
+&amp; Dunlap, New York. A free catalogue of Miss
+Marlowe&#8217;s books may be had for the asking.</p>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>THE OLDEST OF FOUR</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see any way out!&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was Natalie&#8217;s mother who said that, after
+the awful news had been received that Mr. Raymond
+had been lost in a shipwreck on the Atlantic.
+Natalie was the oldest of four children, and the
+family was left with but scant means for support.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to do something&mdash;yes, I&#8217;ve just got
+to!&#8221; Natalie said to herself, and what the brave
+girl did is well related in &#8220;The Oldest of Four;
+Or, Natalie&#8217;s Way Out.&#8221; In this volume we
+find Natalie with a strong desire to become a
+writer. At first she contributes to a local paper,
+but soon she aspires to larger things, and comes
+in contact with the editor of a popular magazine.
+This man becomes her warm friend, and not only
+aids her in a literary way but also helps in a hunt
+for the missing Mr. Raymond.</p>
+<p>Natalie has many ups and downs, and has to
+face more than one bitter disappointment. But
+she is a plucky girl through and through.</p>
+<p>&#8220;One of the brightest girls&#8217; stories ever
+penned,&#8221; one well-known author has said of this
+book, and we agree with him. Natalie is a
+thoroughly lovable character, and one long to be
+remembered. Published as are all the Amy Bell
+Marlowe books, by Grosset &amp; Dunlap, New
+York, and for sale by all booksellers. Ask your
+dealer to let you look the volume over.</p>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll go to the old farm, and we&#8217;ll take
+boarders! We can fix the old place up, and,
+maybe, make money!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The father of the two girls was broken down
+in health and a physician had recommended that
+he go to the country, where he could get plenty
+of fresh air and sunshine. An aunt owned an
+abandoned farm and she said the family could
+live on this and use the place as they pleased.
+It was great sport moving and getting settled,
+and the boarders offered one surprise after another.
+There was a mystery about the old farm,
+and a mystery concerning one of the boarders,
+and how the girls got to the bottom of affairs
+is told in detail in the story, which is called, &#8220;The
+Girls of Hillcrest Farm; Or, The Secret of the
+Rocks.&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was great fun to move to the farm, and once
+the girls had the scare of their lives. And they
+attended a great &#8220;vendue&#8221; too.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I just had to write that story&mdash;I couldn&#8217;t help,
+it,&#8221; said Miss Marlowe, when she handed in the
+manuscript. &#8220;I knew just such a farm when I
+was a little girl, and oh! what fun I had there!
+And there was a mystery about that place, too!&#8221;</p>
+<p>Published, like all the Marlowe books, by
+Grosset &amp; Dunlap, New York, and for sale wherever
+good books are sold.</p>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>A LITTLE MISS NOBODY</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, she&#8217;s only a little nobody! Don&#8217;t have
+anything to do with her!&#8221;</p>
+<p>How often poor Nancy Nelson heard those
+words, and how they cut her to the heart. And
+the saying was true, she <i>was</i> a nobody. She had
+no folks, and she did not know where she had
+come from. All she did know was that she was
+at a boarding school and that a lawyer paid her
+tuition bills and gave her a mite of spending
+money.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am going to find out who I am, and where
+I came from,&#8221; said Nancy to herself, one day,
+and what she did, and how it all ended, is absorbingly
+related in &#8220;A Little Miss Nobody;
+Or, With the Girls of Pinewood Hall.&#8221; Nancy
+made a warm friend of a poor office boy who
+worked for that lawyer, and this boy kept his
+eyes and ears open and learned many things.</p>
+<p>The book tells much about boarding school
+life, of study and fun mixed, and of a great race
+on skates. Nancy made some friends as well as
+enemies, and on more than one occasion proved
+that she was &#8220;true blue&#8221; in the best meaning
+of that term.</p>
+<p>Published by Grosset &amp; Dunlap, New York,
+and for sale by booksellers everywhere. If you
+desire a catalogue of Amy Bell Marlowe books
+send to the publishers for it and it will come free.</p>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen was very thoughtful as she rode along
+the trail from Sunset Ranch to the View. She
+had lost her father but a month before, and
+he had passed away with a stain on his name&mdash;a
+stain of many years&#8217; standing, as the girl had just
+found out.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am going to New York and I am going to
+clear his name!&#8221; she resolved, and just then she
+saw a young man dashing along, close to the edge
+of a cliff. Over he went, and Helen, with no
+thought of the danger to herself, went to the
+rescue.</p>
+<p>Then the brave Western girl found herself set
+down at the Grand Central Terminal in New
+York City. She knew not which way to go or
+what to do. Her relatives, who thought she was
+poor and ignorant, had refused to even meet her.
+She had to fight her way along from the start,
+and how she did this, and won out, is well related
+in &#8220;The Girl from Sunset Ranch; Or, Alone in
+a Great City.&#8221;</p>
+<p>This is one of the finest of Amy Bell Marlowe&#8217;s
+books, with its true-to-life scenes of the plains
+and mountains, and of the great metropolis.
+Helen is a girl all readers will love from the
+start.</p>
+<p>Published by Grosset &amp; Dunlap, New York,
+and for sale by booksellers everywhere.</p>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>WYN&#8217;S CAMPING DAYS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, girls, such news!&#8221; cried Wynifred Mallory
+to her chums, one day. &#8220;We can go camping
+on Lake Honotonka! Isn&#8217;t it grand!&#8221;</p>
+<p>It certainly was, and the members of the Go-Ahead
+Club were delighted. Soon they set off,
+with their boy friends to keep them company in
+another camp not far away. Those boys played
+numerous tricks on the girls, and the girls retaliated,
+you may be sure. And then Wyn did
+a strange girl a favor, and learned how some
+ancient statues of rare value had been lost in the
+lake, and how the girl&#8217;s father was accused of
+stealing them.</p>
+<p>&#8220;We must do all we can for that girl,&#8221; said
+Wyn. But this was not so easy, for the girl
+campers had many troubles of their own. They
+had canoe races, and one of them fell overboard
+and came close to drowning, and then came a big
+storm, and a nearby tree was struck by lightning.</p>
+<p>&#8220;I used to love to go camping when a girl, and
+I love to go yet,&#8221; said Miss Marlowe, in speaking
+of this tale, which is called, &#8220;Wyn&#8217;s Camping
+Days; Or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club.&#8221;
+&#8220;I think all girls ought to know the pleasures of
+summer life under canvas.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A book that ought to be in the hands of all
+girls. Issued by Grosset &amp; Dunlap, New York,
+and for sale by booksellers everywhere.</p>
+<!-- generated by ppgen.rb version: 2.21 -->
+<!-- timestamp: Mon Aug 18 05:08:44 -0600 2008 -->
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Girl from Sunset Ranch, by Amy Bell Marlowe
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's The Girl from Sunset Ranch, by Amy Bell Marlowe
+
+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 Girl from Sunset Ranch
+       Alone in a Great City
+
+Author: Amy Bell Marlowe
+
+Release Date: September 5, 2008 [EBook #26534]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+By AMY BELL MARLOWE
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+THE OLDEST OF FOUR
+  Or Natalie's Way Out
+THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM
+  Or The Secret of the Rocks
+A LITTLE MISS NOBODY
+  Or With the Girls of Pinewood Hall
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
+  Or Alone in a Great City
+WYN'S CAMPING DAYS
+  Or The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club
+FRANCES OF THE RANGES
+  Or The Old Ranchman's Treasure
+THE GIRLS OF RIVERCLIFF SCHOOL
+  Or Beth Baldwin's Resolve
+
+THE ORIOLE BOOKS
+
+WHEN ORIOLE CAME TO HARBOR LIGHT
+WHEN ORIOLE TRAVELED WESTWARD
+(Other volumes in preparation)
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Illustration: "CAB, MISS? TAKE YOU ANYWHERE YOU SAY."
+Frontispiece (Page 67).]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
+OR
+ALONE IN A GREAT CITY
+
+BY
+AMY BELL MARLOWE
+
+AUTHOR OF
+THE OLDEST OF FOUR, THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST
+FARM, WYN'S CAMPING DAYS, ETC.
+
+Illustrated
+
+NEW YORK
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Copyright, 1914, by
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+The Girl from Sunset Ranch
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                 PAGE
+     I.  "Snuggy" and the Rose Pony        1
+    II.  Dudley Stone                     14
+   III.  The Mistress Of Sunset Ranch     26
+    IV.  Headed East                      36
+     V.  At Both Ends Of The Route        45
+    VI.  Across The Continent             56
+   VII.  The Great City                   65
+  VIII.  The Welcome                      72
+    IX.  The Ghost Walk                   83
+     X.  Morning                          92
+    XI.  Living Up To One's Reputation   102
+   XII.  "I Must Learn The Truth"        111
+  XIII.  Sadie Again                     128
+   XIV.  A New World                     142
+    XV.  "Step--Put; Step--Put"          152
+   XVI.  Forgotten                       164
+  XVII.  A Distinct Shock                176
+ XVIII.  Probing For Facts               196
+   XIX.  "Jones"                         204
+    XX.  Out Of Step With The Times      216
+   XXI.  Breaking The Ice                227
+  XXII.  In The Saddle                   238
+ XXIII.  My Lady Bountiful               252
+  XXIV.  The Hat Shop                    262
+   XXV.  The Missing Link                271
+  XXVI.  Their Eyes Are Opened           279
+ XXVII.  The Party                       287
+XXVIII.  A Statement Of Fact             304
+  XXIX.  "The Whip Hand"                 311
+   XXX.  Headed West                     317
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET
+RANCH
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"SNUGGY" AND THE ROSE PONY
+
+
+"Hi, Rose! Up, girl! There's another party making for the View by the far
+path. Get a move on, Rosie."
+
+The strawberry roan tossed her cropped mane and her dainty little hoofs
+clattered more quickly over the rocky path which led up from the
+far-reaching grazing lands of Sunset Ranch to the summit of the rocky
+eminence that bounded the valley upon the east.
+
+To the west lay a great, rolling plain, covered with buffalo grass and
+sage; and dropping down the arc of the sky was the setting sun,
+ruddy-countenanced, whose almost level rays played full upon the face of
+the bluff up which the pony climbed so nimbly.
+
+"On, Rosie, girl!" repeated the rider. "Don't let him get to the View
+before us. I don't see why anybody would wish to go there," she added,
+with a jealous pang, "for it was father's favorite outlook. None of our
+boys, I am sure, would come up here at this hour."
+
+Helen Morrell was secure in this final opinion. It was but a short month
+since Prince Morrell had gone down under the hoofs of the steers in an
+unfortunate stampede that had cost the Sunset Ranch much beside the life
+of its well-liked owner.
+
+The View--a flat table of rock on the summit overlooking the valley--had
+become almost sacred in the eyes of the punchers of Sunset Ranch since Mr.
+Morrell's death. For it was to that spot the ranchman had betaken
+himself--usually with his daughter--on almost every fair evening, to
+overlook the valley and count the roaming herds which grazed under his
+brand.
+
+Helen, who was sixteen and of sturdy build, could see the nearer herds now
+dotting the plain. She had her father's glasses slung over her shoulder,
+and she had come to-night partly for the purpose of spying out the strays
+along the watercourses or hiding in the distant _coulees_.
+
+But mainly her visit to the View was because her father had loved to ride
+here. She could think about him here undisturbed by the confusion and
+bustle at the ranch-house. And there were some things--things about her
+father and the sad conversation they had had together before his taking
+away--that Helen wanted to speculate upon alone.
+
+The boys had picked him up after the accident and brought him home; and
+doctors had been brought all the way from Helena to do what they could for
+him. But Mr. Morrell had suffered many bruises and broken bones, and there
+had been no hope for him from the first.
+
+He was not, however, always unconscious. He was a masterful man and he
+refused to take drugs to deaden the pain.
+
+"Let me know what I am about until I meet death," he had whispered.
+"I--am--not--afraid."
+
+And yet, there was one thing of which he had been sorely afraid. It was
+the thought of leaving his daughter alone.
+
+"Oh, Snuggy!" he groaned, clinging to the girl's plump hand with his own
+weak one. "If there were some of your own kind to--to leave you with. A
+girl like you needs women about--good women, and refined women. Squaws,
+and Greasers, and half-breeds aren't the kind of women-folk your mother
+was brought up among.
+
+"I don't know but I've done wrong these past few years--since your mother
+died, anyway. I've been making money here, and it's all for you, Snuggy.
+That's fixed by the lawyer in Elberon.
+
+"Big Hen Billings is executor and guardian of you and the ranch. I know I
+can trust him. But there ought to be nice women and girls for you to live
+with--like those girls who went to school with you the four years you were
+in Denver.
+
+"Yet, this is your home. And your money is going to be made here. It would
+be a crime to sell out now.
+
+"Ah, Snuggy! Snuggy! If your mother had only lived!" groaned Mr. Morrell.
+"A woman knows what's right for a girl better than a man. This is a rough
+place out here. And even the best of our friends and neighbors are crude.
+You want refinement, and pretty dresses, and soft beds, and fine
+furniture----"
+
+"No, no, Father! I love Sunset Ranch just as it is," Helen declared,
+wiping away her tears.
+
+"Aye. 'Tis a beauty spot--the beauty spot of all Montana, I believe,"
+agreed the dying man. "But you need something more than a beautiful
+landscape."
+
+"But there are true hearts here--all our friends!" cried Helen.
+
+"And so they are--God bless them!" responded Prince Morrell, fervently.
+"But, Snuggy, you were born to something better than being a 'cowgirl.'
+Your mother was a refined woman. I have forgotten most of my college
+education; but I had it once.
+
+"_This_ was not our original environment. It was not meant that we should
+be shut away from all the gentler things of life, and live rudely as we
+have. Unhappy circumstances did that for us."
+
+He was silent for a moment, his face working with suppressed emotion.
+Suddenly his grasp tightened on the girl's hand and he continued:
+
+"Snuggy! I'm going to tell you something. It's something you ought to
+know, I believe. Your mother was made unhappy by it, and I wouldn't want a
+knowledge of it to come upon you unaware, in the after time when you are
+alone. Let me tell you with my own lips, girl."
+
+"Why, Father, what is it?"
+
+"Your father's name is under a cloud. There is a smirch on my reputation.
+I--I ran away from New York to escape arrest, and I have lived here in the
+wilderness, without communicating with old friends and associates, because
+I did not want the matter stirred up."
+
+"Afraid of arrest, Father?" gasped Helen.
+
+"For your mother's sake, and for yours," he said. "She couldn't have borne
+it. It would have killed her."
+
+"But you were not guilty, Father!" cried Helen.
+
+"How do you know I wasn't?"
+
+"Why, Father, you could never have done anything dishonorable or mean--I
+know you could not!"
+
+"Thank you, Snuggy!" the dying man replied, with a smile hovering about
+his pain-drawn lips. "You've been the greatest comfort a father ever had,
+ever since you was a little, cuddly baby, and liked to snuggle up against
+father under the blankets.
+
+"That was before the big ranch-house was built, and we lived in a shack. I
+don't know how your mother managed to stand it, winters. _You_ just
+snuggled into my arms under the blankets--that's how we came to call you
+'Snuggy.'"
+
+"'Snuggy' is a good name, Dad," she declared. "I love it, because _you_
+love it. And I know I gave you comfort when I was little."
+
+"Indeed, yes! _What_ a comfort you were after your poor mother died,
+Snuggy! Ah, well! you shall have your reward, dear. I am sure of that.
+Only I am worried that you should be left alone now."
+
+"Big Hen and the boys will take care of me," Helen said, stifling her
+sobs.
+
+"Nay, but you need women-folk about. Your mother's sister, now--The
+Starkweathers, if they knew, might offer you a home."
+
+"That is, Aunt Eunice's folks?" asked Helen. "I remember mother speaking
+of Aunt Eunice."
+
+"Yes. She corresponded with Eunice until her death. Of course, we haven't
+heard from them since. The Starkweathers naturally did not wish to keep up
+a close acquaintanceship with me after what happened."
+
+"But, dear Dad! you haven't told me what happened. _Do_ tell me!" begged
+the anxious girl.
+
+Then the girl's dying father told her of the looted bank account of Grimes
+& Morrell. The cash assets of the firm had suddenly disappeared.
+Circumstantial evidence pointed at Prince Morrell. His partner and
+Starkweather, who had a small interest in the firm, showed their doubt of
+him. The creditors were clamorous and ugly. The bookkeeper of the firm
+disappeared.
+
+"They advised me to go away for a while; your mother was delicate and the
+trouble was wearing her into her grave. And so," Mr. Morrell said, in a
+shaking voice, "I ran away. We came out here. You were born in this
+valley, Snuggy. We hoped at first to take you back to New York, where all
+the mystery would be explained. But that time never came.
+
+"Neither Starkweather, nor Grimes, seemed able to help me with advice or
+information. Gradually I got into the cattle business here. I prospered
+here, while Fenwick Grimes prospered in New York. I understand he is a
+very wealthy man.
+
+"Soon after we came out here your Uncle Starkweather fell heir to a big
+property and moved into a mansion on Madison Avenue. He, and his wife, and
+the three girls--Belle, Hortense and Flossie--have everything heart could
+desire.
+
+"And they have all I want my Snuggy to have," groaned Mr. Morrell. "They
+have refinement, and books, and music, and all the things that make life
+worth living for a woman."
+
+"But I _love_ Sunset Ranch!" cried Helen again.
+
+"Aye. But I watched your mother. I know how much she missed the gentler
+things she had been brought up to. Had I been able to pay off those old
+creditors while she was alive, she might have gone back.
+
+"And yet," the ranchman sighed, "the stigma is there. The blot is still on
+your father's name, Snuggy. People in New York still believe that I was
+dishonest. They believe that with the proceeds of my dishonesty I came out
+here and went into the cattle business.
+
+"You see, my dear? Even the settling with our old creditors--the creditors
+of Grimes & Morrell--made suspicion wag her tongue more eagerly than ever.
+I paid every cent, with interest compounded to the date of settlement.
+Grimes had long since had himself cleared of his debts and started over
+again. I do not know even that he and Starkweather know that I have been
+able to clear up the whole matter.
+
+"However, as I say, the stain upon my reputation remains. I could never
+explain my flight. I could never imagine what became of the money.
+Somebody embezzled it, and _I_ was the one who ran away. Do you see, my
+dear?"
+
+And Helen told him that she _did_ see, and assured him again and again of
+her entire trust in his honor. But Mr. Morrell died with the worry of the
+old trouble--the trouble that had driven him across the continent--heavy
+upon his mind.
+
+And now it was serving to make Helen's mind most uneasy. The crime of
+which her father had been accused was continually in her thoughts.
+
+Who had really been guilty of the embezzlement? The bookkeeper, who
+disappeared? Fenwick Grimes, the partner? Or, _Who?_
+
+As the Rose pony--her own favorite mount--took Helen Morrell up the bluff
+path to the View on this evening, the remembrance of this long talk with
+her father before he died was running in the girl's mind.
+
+Perhaps she was a girl who would naturally be more seriously impressed
+than most, at sixteen. She had been brought up among older people. She was
+a wise little thing when she was a mere toddler.
+
+And after her mother's death she had been her father's daily companion
+until she was old enough to be sent away to be educated. The four long
+terms at the Denver school had carried Helen Morrell (for she had a quick
+mind) through those grades which usually prepare girls for college.
+
+When she came back after graduation, however, she saw that her father
+needed her companionship more than she needed college. And, again, she was
+too domestic by nature to really long for a higher education.
+
+She was glad now--oh! so glad--that she had remained at Sunset Ranch
+during these last few months. Her father had died with her arms about him.
+As far as he could be comforted, Helen had comforted him.
+
+But now, as she rode up the rocky trail, she murmured to herself:
+
+"If I could only clear dad's name!"
+
+Again she raised her eyes and saw a buckskin pony and its rider getting
+nearer and nearer to the summit.
+
+"Get on, Rose!" she exclaimed. "That chap will beat us out. Who under the
+sun can he be?"
+
+[Illustration: "HELEN CREPT ON HANDS AND KNEES TO THE EDGE OF THE BLUFF."
+(Page 14)]
+
+She was sure the rider of the buckskin was no Sunset puncher. Yet he
+seemed garbed in the usual chaps, sombrero, flannel shirt and gay
+neckerchief of the cowpuncher.
+
+"And there isn't another band of cattle nearer than Froghole," thought the
+girl, adjusting her body to the Rose pony's quickened gait.
+
+She did not know it, but she was quite as much an object of interest to
+the strange rider as he was to her. And it was worth while watching Helen
+Morrell ride a pony.
+
+The deep brown of her cheek was relieved by a glow of healthful red. Her
+thick plaits of hair were really sunburned; her thick eyebrows were
+startlingly light compared with her complexion.
+
+Her eyes were dark gray, with little golden lights playing in them; they
+seemed fairly to twinkle when she laughed. Her lips were as red as ripe
+sumac berries; her nose, straight, long, and generously moulded, was
+really her handsomest feature, for of course her hair covered her dainty
+ears more or less.
+
+From the rolling collar of her blouse her neck rose firm and solid--as
+strong-looking as a boy's. She was plump of body, with good shoulders, a
+well-developed arm, and her ornamented russet riding boots, with a tiny
+silver spur in each heel, covered very pretty and very small feet.
+
+Her hand, if plump, was small, too; but the gauntlets she wore made it
+seem larger and more mannish than it was. She rode as though she were a
+part of the pony.
+
+She had urged on the strawberry roan and now came out upon the open
+plateau at the top of the bluff just as the buckskin mounted to the same
+level from the other side.
+
+The rock called "the View" was nearer to the stranger than to herself. It
+overhung the very steepest drop of the eminence.
+
+Helen touched Rose with the spur, and the pony whisked her tail and shot
+across the uneven sward toward the big boulder where Helen and her father
+had so often stood to survey the rolling acres of Sunset Ranch.
+
+Whether the stranger on the buckskin thought her mount had bolted with
+her, Helen did not know. But she heard him cry out, saw him swing his hat,
+and the buckskin started on a hard gallop along the verge of the precipice
+toward the very goal for which the Rose pony was headed.
+
+"The foolish fellow! He'll be killed!" gasped Helen, in sudden fright.
+"That soil there crumbles like cheese! There! He's down!"
+
+She saw the buckskin's forefoot sink. The brute stumbled and rolled
+over--fortunately for the pony _away_ from the cliff's edge.
+
+But the buckskin's rider was hurled into the air. He sprawled forward like
+a frog diving and--without touching the ground--passed over the brink of
+the precipice and disappeared from Helen's startled gaze.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DUDLEY STONE
+
+
+The victim of the accident made no sound. No scream rose from the depths
+after he disappeared. The buckskin pony rolled over, scrambled to its
+feet, and cantered off across the plateau.
+
+Helen Morrell had swerved her own mount farther to the south and came to
+the edge of the caved-in bit of bank with a rush of hoofs that ended in a
+wild scramble as she bore down upon the Rose pony's bit.
+
+She was out of her saddle, and had flung the reins over Rose's head, on
+the instant. The well-trained pony stood like a rock.
+
+The girl, her heart beating tumultuously, crept on hands and knees to the
+crumbling edge of the bluff.
+
+She knew its scarred face well. There were outcropping boulders, gravel
+pits, ledges of shale, brush clumps and a few ragged trees clinging
+tenaciously to the water-worn gullies.
+
+She expected to see the man crushed and bleeding on some rock below.
+Perhaps he had rolled clear to the bottom.
+
+But as her swift gaze searched the face of the bluff, there was no rock,
+splotched with red, in her line of vision. Then she saw something in the
+top of one of the trees, far down.
+
+It was the yellow handkerchief which the stranger had worn. It fluttered
+in the evening breeze like a flag of distress.
+
+"E-e-e-_yow!_" cried Helen, making a horn of her hands as she leaned over
+the edge of the precipice, and uttering the puncher's signal call.
+
+"E-e-e-_yow!_" came up a faint reply.
+
+She saw the green top of the tree stir. Then a face--scratched and
+streaked with blood--appeared.
+
+"For the love of heaven!" called a thin voice. "Get somebody with a rope.
+I've got to have some help."
+
+"I have a rope right here. Pass it under your arms, and I'll swing you out
+of that tree-top," replied Helen, promptly.
+
+She jumped up and went to the pony. Her rope--she would no more think of
+traveling without it than would one of the Sunset punchers--was coiled at
+the saddlebow.
+
+Running back to the verge of the bluff she planted her feet on a firm
+boulder and dropped the coil into the depths. In a moment it was in the
+hands of the man below.
+
+"Over your head and shoulders!" she cried.
+
+"You can never hold me!" he called back, faintly.
+
+"You do as you're told!" she returned, in a severe tone. "I'll hold
+you--don't you fear."
+
+She had already looped her end of the rope over the limb of a tree that
+stood rooted upon the brink of the bluff. With such a purchase she would
+be able to hold all the rope itself would hold.
+
+"Ready!" she called down to him.
+
+"All right! Here I swing!" was the reply.
+
+Leaning over the brink, rather breathless, it must be confessed, the girl
+from Sunset Ranch saw him swing out of the top of the tree.
+
+The tree-top was all of seventy feet from its roots. If he slipped now he
+would suffer a fall that surely would kill him.
+
+But he was able to help himself. Although he crashed once against the side
+of the bluff and set a bushel of gravel rattling down, in a moment he
+gained foothold on a ledge. There he stood, wavering until she paid off a
+little of the line. Then he dropped down to get his breath.
+
+"Are you safe?" she shouted down to him.
+
+"Sure! I can sit here all night."
+
+"You don't want to, I suppose?" she asked.
+
+"Not so's you'd notice it. I guess I can get down after a fashion."
+
+"Hurt bad?"
+
+"It's my foot, mostly--right foot. I believe it's sprained, or broken.
+It's sort of in the way when I move about."
+
+"Your face looks as if that tree had combed it some," commented Helen.
+
+"Never mind," replied the youth. "Beauty's only skin deep, at best. And
+I'm not proud."
+
+She could not see him very well, for the sun had dropped so low that down
+where he lay the face of the bluff was in shadow.
+
+"Well, what are you going to do? Climb up, or down?"
+
+"I believe getting down would be easier--'specially if you let me use your
+rope."
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"But then, there'd be my pony. I couldn't get him with this foot----"
+
+"I'll catch him. My Rose can run down anything on four legs in these
+parts," declared the girl, briskly.
+
+"And can you get down here to the foot of this cliff where I'm bound to
+land?"
+
+"Yes. I know the way in the dark. Got matches?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you build some kind of a smudge when you reach the bottom. That'll
+show me where you are. Now I'm going to drop the rope to you. Look out it
+doesn't get tangled."
+
+"All right! Let 'er come!"
+
+"I'll have to leave you if I'm to catch that buckskin before it gets dark,
+stranger. You'll get along all right?" she added.
+
+"Surest thing you know!"
+
+She dropped the rope. He gathered it in quickly and then uttered a
+cheerful shout.
+
+"All clear?" asked Helen.
+
+"Don't worry about me. I'm all right," he assured her.
+
+Helen leaped back to her waiting pony. Already the golden light was dying
+out of the sky. Up here in the foothills the "evening died hard" as the
+saying is; but the buckskin pony had romped clear across the plateau. He
+was now, indeed, out of sight.
+
+She whirled Rose about and set off at a gallop after the runaway. It was
+not until then that she remembered she had no rope. That buckskin would
+have to be fairly run down. There would be no roping him.
+
+"But if you can't do it, no other horsie can," she said, aloud, patting
+the Rose pony on her arching neck. "Go it, girl! Let's see if we can't
+beat any miserable little buckskin that ever came into this country. A
+strawberry roan forever!"
+
+Her "E-e-e-yow! yow!" awoke the pony to desperate endeavor. She seemed to
+merely skim the dry grass of the open plateau, and in ten minutes Helen
+saw a riderless mount plunging up the side of a _coulee_ far ahead.
+
+"There he goes!" cried the girl. "After him, Rosie! Make your pretty hoofs
+fly!"
+
+The excitement of the chase roused in Helen that feeling of freedom and
+confidence that is a part of life on the plains. Those who live much in
+the open air, and especially in the saddle, seldom think of failure.
+
+She knew she was going to catch the runaway pony. Such an idea as
+non-success never entered her mind. This was the first hard riding she had
+done since Mr. Morrell died; and now her thoughts expanded and she shook
+off the hopeless feeling which had clouded her young heart and mind since
+they had buried her father.
+
+While she rode on, and rode hard, after the fleeing buckskin her revived
+thought kept time with the pony's hoofbeats.
+
+No longer did the old tune run in her head: "If I only _could_ clear dad's
+name!" Instead the drum of confidence beat a charge to arms: "I know I
+_can_ clear his name!
+
+"To think of poor dad living out here all these years, with suspicion
+resting on his reputation back there in New York. And he wasn't guilty! It
+was that partner of his, or that bookkeeper, who was guilty. That is the
+secret of it," Helen told herself.
+
+"I'll go back East and find out all about it," determined the girl, as her
+pony carried her swiftly over the ground. "Up, Rose! There he is! Don't
+let him get away from us!"
+
+Her interest in the chase of the buckskin pony and in the mystery of her
+father's trouble ran side by side.
+
+"On, on!" she urged Rose. "Why shouldn't I go East? Big Hen can run the
+ranch well enough. And there are my cousins--and auntie. If Aunt Eunice
+resembles mother----
+
+"Go it, Rose! There's our quarry!"
+
+She stooped forward in the saddle, and as the Rose pony, running like the
+wind, passed the now staggering buckskin, Helen snatched the dragging
+rein, and pulled the runaway around to follow in her own wake.
+
+"Hush, now! Easy!" she commanded her mount, who obeyed her voice quite as
+well as though she had tugged at the reins. "Now we'll go back quietly and
+trail this useless one along with us.
+
+"Come up, Buck! Easy, Rose!" So she urged them into the same gait,
+returning in a wide circle toward the path up which she had climbed before
+the sun went down--the trail to Sunset Ranch.
+
+"Yes! I can do it!" she cried, thinking aloud. "I can and will go to New
+York. I'll find out all about that old trouble. Uncle Starkweather can
+tell me, probably.
+
+"And then it will please father." She spoke as though Mr. Morrell was sure
+to know her decision. "He will like it if I go to live with them a spell.
+He said it is what I need--the refining influence of a nice home.
+
+"And I _would_ love to be with nice girls again--and to hear good
+music--and put on something beside a riding skirt when I go out of the
+house."
+
+She sighed. "One cannot have a cow ranch and all the fripperies of
+civilization, too. Not very well. I--I guess I am longing for the
+flesh-pots of Egypt. Perhaps poor dad did, too. Well, I'll give them a
+whirl. I'll go East----
+
+"Why, where's that fellow's fire?"
+
+She was descending the trail into the pall of dusk that had now spread
+over the valley. Far away she caught a glimmer of light--a lantern on the
+porch at the ranch-house. But right below here where she wished to see a
+light, there was not a spark.
+
+"I hope nothing's happened to him," she mused. "I don't believe he is one
+of us; if he had been he wouldn't have raced a pony so close to the edge
+of the bluff."
+
+She began to "co-ee! co-ee!" as the ponies clattered down the remainder of
+the pathway. And finally there came an answering shout. Then a little
+glimmer of light flashed up--again and yet again.
+
+"Matches!" grumbled Helen. "Can't he find anything dry to burn down there
+and so make a steady light?"
+
+She shouted again.
+
+"This way, Miss!" she heard the stranger cry.
+
+The ponies picked their way carefully over the loose shale that had fallen
+to the foot of the bluff. There were trees, too, to make the way darker.
+
+"Hi!" cried Helen. "Why didn't you light a fire?"
+
+"Why, to tell you the truth, I had some difficulty in getting down here,
+and I--I had to rest."
+
+The words were followed by a groan that the young man evidently could not
+suppress.
+
+"Why, you're more badly hurt than you said!" cried the girl. "I'd better
+get help; hadn't I?"
+
+"A doctor is out of the question, I guess. I believe that foot's broken."
+
+"Huh! You're from the East!" she said, suddenly.
+
+"How so?"
+
+"You say 'guess' in that funny way. And that explains it."
+
+"Explains what?"
+
+"Your riding so recklessly."
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed the other, with a short laugh. "I thought the
+whole West was noted for reckless riding."
+
+"Oh, no. It only _looks_ reckless," she returned, quietly. "Our boys
+wouldn't ride a pony close to the edge of a steep descent like that up
+yonder."
+
+"All right. I'm in the wrong," admitted the stranger. "But you needn't rub
+it in."
+
+"I didn't mean to," said Helen, quickly. "I have a bad habit of talking
+out loud."
+
+He laughed at that. "You're frank, you mean? I like that. Be frank enough
+to tell me how I am to get back to Badger's--even on ponyback--to-night?"
+
+"Impossible," declared Helen.
+
+"Then, perhaps I _had_ better make an effort to make camp."
+
+"Why, no! It's only a few miles to the ranch-house. I'll hoist you up on
+your pony. The trail's easy."
+
+"Whose ranch is it?" he asked, with another suppressed groan.
+
+"Mine--Sunset Ranch."
+
+"Sunset Ranch! Why, I've heard of that. One of the last big ranches
+remaining in Montana; Isn't it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Almost as big as 101?"
+
+"That's right," said Helen, briefly.
+
+"But I didn't know a girl owned it," said the other, curiously.
+
+"She didn't--until lately. My father, Prince Morrell, has just died."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the other, in a softened tone. "And you are Miss
+Morrell?"
+
+"I am. And who are you? Easterner, of course?"
+
+"You guessed right--though, I suppose, you 'reckon' instead of 'guess.'
+I'm from New York."
+
+"Is that so?" queried Helen. "That's a place I want to see before long."
+
+"Well, you'll be disappointed," remarked the other. "My name is Dudley
+Stone, and I was born and brought up in New York and have lived there all
+my life until I got away for this trip West. But, believe me, if I didn't
+have to I would never go back!"
+
+"Why do you have to go back?" asked Helen, simply.
+
+"Business. Necessity of earning one's living. I'm in the way of being a
+lawyer--when my days of studying, and all, are over. And then, I've got a
+sister who might not fit into the mosaic of this freer country, either."
+
+"Well, Dudley Stone," quoth the girl from Sunset Ranch, "we'd better not
+stay talking here. It's getting darker every minute. And I reckon your
+foot needs attention."
+
+"I hate to move it," confessed the young Easterner.
+
+"You can't stay here, you know," insisted Helen. "Where's my rope?"
+
+"I'm sorry. I had to hitch one end of it up above and let myself down by
+it."
+
+"Well, it might have come in handy to lash you on the pony. I don't mind
+about the rope otherwise. One of the boys will bring it in for me
+to-morrow. Now, let's see what we can do towards hoisting you into your
+saddle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MISTRESS OF SUNSET RANCH
+
+
+Dudley Stone had begun to peer wonderingly at this strange girl. When he
+had first sighted her riding her strawberry roan across the plateau he
+supposed her to be a little girl--and really, physically, she did not seem
+much different from what he had first supposed.
+
+But she handled this situation with all the calmness and good sense of a
+much older person. She spoke like the men and women he had met during his
+sojourn in the West, too.
+
+Yet, when he was close to her, he saw that she was simply a young girl
+with good health, good muscles, and a rather pretty face and figure. He
+called her "Miss" because it seemed to flatter her; but Dud Stone felt
+himself infinitely older than this girl of Sunset Ranch.
+
+It was she who went about getting him aboard the pony, however; he never
+could have done it by himself. Nor was it so easily done as said.
+
+In the first place, the badly trained buckskin didn't want to stand still.
+And the young man was in such pain that he really was unable to aid Helen
+in securing the pony.
+
+"Here, you take Rose," commanded the girl, at length. "She'd stand for
+anything. Up you come, now, sir!"
+
+The young fellow was no weakling. But when he put one arm over the girl's
+strong shoulder, and was hoisted erect, she felt him quiver all over. She
+knew that the pain he suffered must be intense.
+
+"Whoa, Rose, girl!" commanded Helen. "Back around! Now, sir, up with that
+lame leg. It's got to be done----"
+
+"I know it!" he panted, and by a desperate effort managed to get the
+broken foot over the saddle.
+
+"Up with you!" said Helen, and hoisted him with a man's strength into the
+saddle. "Are you there?"
+
+"Oh! Ouch! Yes," returned the Easterner. "I'm here. No knowing how long
+I'll stick, though."
+
+"You'd better stick. Here! Put this foot in the stirrup. Don't suppose you
+can stand the other in it?"
+
+"Oh, no! I really couldn't," he exclaimed.
+
+"Well, we'll go slow. Hi, there! Come here, you Buck!"
+
+"He's a vicious little scoundrel," said the young man.
+
+"He ought to have a course of sprouts under one of our wranglers,"
+remarked the girl from Sunset Ranch. "Now let's go along."
+
+Despite the buckskin's dancing and cavorting, she mounted, stuck the spurs
+into him a couple of times, and the ill-mannered pony decided that walking
+properly was better than bucking.
+
+"You're a wonder!" exclaimed Dud Stone, admiringly.
+
+"You haven't been West long," she replied, with a smile. "Women folk out
+here aren't much afraid of horses."
+
+"I should say they were not--if you are a specimen."
+
+"I'm just ordinary. I spent four school terms in Denver, and I never rode
+there, so I kind of lost the hang of it."
+
+Dud Stone was becoming anxious over another matter.
+
+"Are you sure you can find the trail when it's so dark?" he asked.
+
+"We're on it now," she said.
+
+"I'm glad you're so sure," he returned, grimly. "I can't see the ground,
+even."
+
+"But the ponies know, if I don't," observed Helen, cheerfully. "Nothing to
+be afraid of."
+
+"I guess you think I _am_ kind of a tenderfoot?" he returned.
+
+"You're not used to night traveling on the cattle range," she said. "You
+see, we lay our courses by the stars, just as mariners do at sea. I can
+find my way to the ranch-house from clear beyond Elberon, as long as the
+stars show."
+
+"Well," he sighed, "this is some different from riding on the bridle-path
+in Central Park."
+
+"That's in New York?" she asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I mean to go there. It's really a big city, I suppose?"
+
+"Makes Denver look like a village," said Stone, laughing to smother a
+groan.
+
+"So father said."
+
+"You have people there, I hope?"
+
+"Yes. Father and mother came from there. It was before I was born, though.
+You see, I'm a real Montana product."
+
+"And a mighty fine one!" he murmured. Then he said aloud: "Well, as long
+as you've got folks in the big city, it's all right. But it's the
+loneliest place on God's earth if one has no friends and no confidants. I
+know that to be true from what boys have told me who have come there from
+out of town."
+
+"Oh, I've got folks," said Helen, lightly. "How's the foot now?"
+
+"Bad," he admitted. "It hangs loose, you see----"
+
+"Hold on!" commanded Helen, dismounting. "We've a long way to travel yet.
+That foot must be strapped so that it will ride easier. Wait!"
+
+She handed him her rein to hold and went around to the other side of the
+Rose pony. She removed her belt, unhooked the empty holster that hung from
+it, and slipped the holster into her pocket. Few of the riders carried a
+gun on Sunset Ranch unless the coyotes proved troublesome.
+
+With her belt Helen strapped the dangling leg to the saddle girth. The
+useless stirrup, that flopped and struck the lame foot, she tucked up out
+of the way.
+
+With tender fingers she touched the wounded foot. She could feel the fever
+through the boot.
+
+"But you'd better keep your boot on till we get home, Dud Stone," advised
+Helen. "It will sort of hold it together and perhaps keep the pain from
+becoming greater than you can bear. But I guess it hurts mighty bad."
+
+"It sure does, Miss Morrell," he returned, grimly. "Is--is the ranch
+far?"
+
+"Some distance. And we've got to walk. But bear up if you can----"
+
+She saw him waver in the saddle. If he fell, she could not be sure just
+how Rose, the spirited pony, would act.
+
+"Say!" she said, coming around and walking by his side, leading the other
+mount by the bridle. "You lean on me. Don't want you falling out of the
+saddle. Too hard work to get you back again."
+
+"I guess you think I _am_ a tenderfoot!" muttered young Stone.
+
+He never knew how they reached Sunset Ranch. The fall, the terrible wrench
+of his foot, and the endurance of the pain was finally too much for him.
+In a half-fainting condition he sank part of his weight on the girl's
+shoulder, and she sturdily trudged along the rough trail, bearing him up
+until she thought her own limbs would give way.
+
+At last she even had to let the buckskin run at large, he made her so much
+trouble. But the Rose pony was "a dear!"
+
+Somewhere about ten o'clock the dogs began to bark. She saw the flash of
+lanterns and heard the patter of hoofs.
+
+She gave voice to the long range yell, and a dozen anxious punchers
+replied. Great discussion had arisen over where she could have gone, for
+nobody had seen her ride off toward the View that afternoon.
+
+"Whar you been, gal?" demanded Big Hen Billings, bringing his horse to a
+sudden stop across the trail. "Hul-_lo!_ What's that you got with yer?"
+
+"A tenderfoot. Easy, Hen! I've got his leg strapped to the girth. He's in
+bad shape," and she related, briefly, the particulars of the accident.
+
+Dudley Stone had only a hazy recollection later of the noise and confusion
+of his arrival. He was borne into the house by two men--one of them the
+ranch foreman himself.
+
+They laid him on a couch, cut the boot from his injured foot, and then the
+sock he wore.
+
+Hen Billings, with bushy whiskers and the frame of a giant, was
+nevertheless as tender with the injured foot as a woman. Water with a
+chunk of ice floating in it was used to reduce the swelling. The foreman's
+blunted fingers probed for broken bones.
+
+But it seemed there was none. It was only a bad sprain, and they finally
+stripped him to his underclothes and bandaged the foot with cloths soaked
+with ice water.
+
+When they got him into bed--in an adjoining room--the young mistress of
+Sunset Ranch reappeared, with a tray and napkins, with which she arranged
+a table.
+
+"That's what he wants--some good grub under his belt, Snuggy," said the
+gigantic foreman, finally lighting his pipe. "He'll be all right in a few
+days. I'll send word to Creeping Ford for one of the boys to ride down to
+Badger's and tell 'em. That's where Mr. Stone says he's been stopping."
+
+"You're mighty kind," said the Easterner, gratefully, as Sing, the Chinese
+servant, shuffled in with a steaming supper.
+
+"We're glad to have a chance to play Good Samaritan in this part of the
+country," said Helen, laughing. "Isn't that so, Hen?"
+
+"That's right, Snuggy," replied the foreman, patting her on the shoulder.
+
+Dud Stone looked at Helen curiously, as the big man strode out of the
+room.
+
+"What an odd name!" he commented.
+
+"My father called me that, when I was a tiny baby," replied the girl. "And
+I love it. All my friends call me 'Snuggy.' At least, all my ranch
+friends."
+
+"Well, it's too soon for me to begin, I suppose?" he said, laughing.
+
+"Oh, quite too soon," returned Helen, as composedly as a person twice her
+age. "You had better stick to 'Miss Morrell,' and remember that I am the
+mistress of Sunset Ranch."
+
+"But I notice that you take liberties with _my_ name," he said, quickly.
+
+"That's different. You're a man. Men around here always shorten their
+names, or have nicknames. If they call you by your full name that means
+the boys don't like you. And I liked you from the start," said the Western
+girl, quite frankly.
+
+"Thank you!" he responded, his eyes twinkling. "I expect it must have been
+my fine riding that attracted you."
+
+"No. Nor it wasn't your city cowpuncher clothes," she retorted. "I know
+those things weren't bought farther West than Chicago."
+
+"A palpable hit!" admitted Dudley Stone.
+
+"No. It was when you took that tumble into the tree; was hanging on by
+your eyelashes, yet could joke about it," declared Helen, warmly.
+
+She might have added, too, that now he had been washed and his hair
+combed, he was an attractive-looking young man. She did not believe Dudley
+Stone was of age. His brown hair curled tightly all over his head, and he
+sported a tiny golden mustache. He had good color and was somewhat
+bronzed.
+
+Dud's blue eyes were frank, his lips were red and nicely curved; but his
+square chin took away from the lower part of his face any suggestion of
+effeminacy. His ears were generous, as was his nose. He had the clean-cut,
+intelligent look of the better class of educated Atlantic seaboard youth.
+
+There is a difference between them and the young Westerner. The latter are
+apt to be hung loosely, and usually show the effect of range-riding--at
+least, back here in Montana. Whereas Dud Stone was compactly built.
+
+They chatted quite frankly while the patient ate his supper. Dud found
+that, although Helen used many Western idioms, and spoke with an
+abruptness that showed her bringing up among plain-spoken ranch people,
+she could, if she so desired, use "school English" with good taste, and
+gave other evidences in her conversation of being quite conversant with
+the world of which he was himself a part when he was at home.
+
+"Oh, you would get along all right in New York," he said, laughing, when
+she suggested a doubt as to the impression she might make upon her
+relatives in the big town. "You'd not be half the 'tenderfoot' there that
+I am here."
+
+"No? Then I reckon I can risk shocking them," laughed Helen, her gray eyes
+dancing.
+
+This talk she had with Dud Stone on the evening of his arrival confirmed
+the young mistress of Sunset Ranch in her intention of going to the great
+city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HEADED EAST
+
+
+When Helen Morrell made up her mind to do a thing, she usually did it. A
+cataclysm of nature was about all that would thwart her determination.
+
+This being yielded to and never thwarted, even by her father, might have
+spoiled a girl of different calibre. But there was a foundation of good
+common sense to Helen's nature.
+
+"Snuggy won't kick over the traces much," Prince Morrell had been wont to
+say.
+
+"Right you are, Boss," had declared Big Hen Billings. "It's usually safe
+to give her her head. She'll bring up somewhar."
+
+But when Helen mentioned her eastern trip to the old foreman he came
+"purty nigh goin' up in th' air his own se'f!" as he expressed it.
+
+"What d'yer wanter do anythin' like that air for, Snuggy?" he demanded, in
+a horrified tone. "Great jumping Jehosaphat! Ain't this yere valley big
+enough fo' you?"
+
+"Sometimes I think it's too big," admitted Helen, laughing.
+
+"Well, by jo! you'll fin' city quarters close't 'nough--an' that's no
+josh. Huh! Las' time ever I went to Chicago with a train-load of beeves I
+went to see Kellup Flemming what useter work here on this very same livin'
+Sunset Ranch. You don't remember him. You was too little, Snuggy."
+
+"I've heard you speak of him, Hen," observed the girl.
+
+"Well, thar was Kellup, as smart a young feller as you'd find in a day's
+ride, livin' with his wife an' kids in what he called a _flat_. Be-lieve
+me! It was some perpendicular to git into, an' no _flat_.
+
+"When we gits inside and inter what he called his parlor, he looks around
+like he was proud of it (By jo! I'd be afraid ter shrug my shoulders in
+it, 'twas so small) an' says he: 'What d'ye think of the ranch, Hen?'
+
+"'Ranch,' mind yeh! I was plumb insulted. I says: 'It's all right--what
+there is of it--only, what's that crack in the wall for, Kellup?'
+
+"'Sufferin' tadpoles!' yells Kellup--jest like that! 'Sufferin' tadpoles!
+That ain't no crack in the wall. That's our private hall.'
+
+"Great jumping Jehosaphat!" exclaimed Hen, roaring with laughter. "Yuh
+don't wanter git inter no place like that in New York. Can't breathe in
+the house."
+
+"I guess Uncle Starkweather lives in a little better place than that,"
+said Helen, after laughing with the old foreman. "His house is on Madison
+Avenue."
+
+"Don't care where it is; there natcherly won't be no such room in a city
+dwelling as there is here at Sunset Ranch."
+
+"I suppose not," admitted the girl.
+
+"Huh! Won't be room in the yard for a cow," growled Big Hen. "Nor
+chickens. Whatter yer goin' to do without a fresh aig, Snuggy?"
+
+"I expect that will be pretty tough, Hen. But I feel like I must go, you
+see," said the girl, dropping into the idiom of Sunset Ranch. "Dad wanted
+me to."
+
+"The Boss _wanted_ yuh to?" gasped the giant, surprised.
+
+"Yes, Hen."
+
+"He never said nothin' to me about it," declared the foreman of Sunset
+Ranch, shaking his bushy head.
+
+"No? Didn't he say anything about my being with women folk, and under
+different circumstances?"
+
+"Gosh, yes! But I reckoned on getting Mis' Polk and Mis' Harry Frieze to
+take turns coming over yere and livin' with yuh."
+
+"But that isn't all dad wanted," continued the girl, shaking her head.
+"Besides, you know both Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Frieze are widows, and will be
+looking for husbands. We'd maybe lose some of the best boys we've got, if
+they came here," said Helen, her eyes twinkling.
+
+"Great jumping Jehosaphat! I never thought of that," declared the foreman,
+suddenly scared. "I never _did_ like that Polk woman's eye. I wouldn't,
+mebbe, be safe myse'f; would I?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," Helen gravely agreed. "So, you see, to please dad, I'll
+have to go to New York. I don't mean to stay for all time, Hen. But I want
+to give it a try-out."
+
+She sounded Dud Stone a good bit about the big city. Dud had to stay
+several days at Sunset Ranch because he couldn't ride very well with his
+injured foot. And finally, when he did go back to Badger's, they took him
+in a buckboard.
+
+To tell the truth, Dud was not altogether glad to go. He was a boyish chap
+despite the fact that he was nearly through law school, and a
+sixteen-year-old girl like Helen Morrell--especially one of her
+character--appealed to him strongly.
+
+He admired the capable way in which she managed things about the
+ranch-house. Sing obeyed her as though she were a man. There was a
+"rag-head" who had somehow worked his way across the mountains from the
+coast, and that Hindoo about worshipped "Missee Sahib." The two or three
+Greasers working about the ranch showed their teeth in broad smiles, and
+bowed most politely when she appeared. And as for the punchers and
+wranglers, they were every one as loyal to Snuggy as they had been to her
+father.
+
+The Easterner realized that among all the girls he knew back home, either
+of her age or older, there was none so capable as Helen Morrell. And there
+were few any prettier.
+
+"You're going right to relatives when you reach New York; are you, Miss
+Morrell?" asked Dud, just before he climbed into the buckboard to return
+to his friend's ranch.
+
+"Oh, yes. I shall go to Aunt Eunice," said the girl, decidedly.
+
+"No need of my warning you against bunco men and card sharpers," chuckled
+Dud, "for your folks will look out for you. But remember: You'll be just
+as much a tenderfoot there as I am here."
+
+"I shall take care," she returned, laughing.
+
+"And--and I hope I may see you in New York," said Dud, hesitatingly.
+
+"Why, I hope we shall run across each other," replied Helen, calmly. She
+was not sure that it would be the right thing to invite this young man to
+call upon her at the Starkweathers'.
+
+"I'd better ask Aunt Eunice about that first," she decided, to herself.
+
+So she shook hands heartily with Dud Stone and let him ride away, never
+appearing to notice his rather wistful look. She was to see the time,
+however, when she would be very glad of a friend like Dud Stone in the
+great city.
+
+Helen made her preparations for her trip to New York without any advice
+from another woman. To tell the truth she had little but riding habits
+which were fit to wear, save the house frocks which she wore around the
+ranch.
+
+When she had gone to school in Denver, her father had sent a sum of money
+to the principal and that lady had seen that Helen was dressed tastefully
+and well. But all these garments she had outgrown.
+
+To tell the truth, Helen had spent little of her time in studying the
+pictures in fashion magazines. In fact, there were no such books about
+Sunset Ranch.
+
+The girl realized that the rough and ready frocks she possessed were not
+in style. There was but one store in Elberon, the nearest town, where
+ready-to-wear garments were sold. She went there and purchased the best
+they had; but they left much to be desired.
+
+She got a brown dress to travel in, and a shirtwaist or two; but beyond
+that she dared not go. Helen was wise enough to realize that, after she
+arrived at her Uncle Starkweather's, it would be time enough to purchase
+proper raiment.
+
+She "dressed up" in the new frock for the boys to admire, the evening
+before she left. Every man who could be spared from the range--even as far
+as Creeping Ford--came in to the "party." They all admired Helen and were
+sorry to see her go away. Yet they gave her their best wishes.
+
+Big Hen Billings rode part of the way to Elberon with her in the morning.
+She was going to send the strawberry roan back hitched behind the supply
+wagon. Her riding dress she would change in the station agent's parlor for
+the new dress which was in the tray of her small trunk.
+
+"Keep yer eyes peeled, Snuggy," advised the old foreman, with gravity,
+"when ye come up against that New York town. 'Tain't like Elberon--no,
+sir! 'Tain't even like Helena.
+
+"Them folks in New York is rubbing up against each other so close, that it
+makes 'em moughty sharp--yessir! Jumping Jehosaphat! I knowed a feller
+that went there onct and he lost ten dollars and his watch before he'd
+been off the train an hour. They can do ye that quick!"
+
+"I believe that fellow must have been _you_, Hen," declared Helen,
+laughing.
+
+The foreman looked shamefaced. "Wal, it were," he admitted. "But they
+never got nothin' more out o' me. It was the hottest kind o' summer
+weather--an' lemme tell yuh, it can be some hot in that man's town.
+
+"Wal, I had a sheepskin coat with me. I put it on, and I buttoned it from
+my throat-latch down to my boot-tops. They'd had to pry a dollar out o' my
+pocket with a crowbar, and I wouldn't have had a drink with the mayor of
+the city if he'd invited me. No, sirree, sir!"
+
+Helen laughed again. "Don't you fear for me, Hen. I shall be in the best
+of hands, and shall have plenty of friends around me. I'll never feel
+lonely in New York, I am sure."
+
+"I hope not. But, Snuggy, you know what to do if anything goes wrong. Just
+telegraph me. If you want me to come on, say the word----"
+
+"Why, Hen! How ridiculous you talk," she cried. "I'll be with relatives."
+
+"Ya-as. I know," said the giant, shaking his head. "But relatives ain't
+like them that's knowed and loved yuh all yuh life. Don't forgit us out
+yere, Snuggy--and if ye want anything----" His heart was evidently too
+full for further utterance. He jerked his pony's head around, waved his
+hand to the girl who likewise was all but in tears, and dashed back over
+the trail toward Sunset Ranch.
+
+Helen pulled the Rose pony's head around and jogged on, headed east.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AT BOTH ENDS OF THE ROUTE
+
+
+As Helen walked up and down the platform at Elberon, waiting for the
+east-bound Transcontinental, she looked to be a very plain country girl
+with nothing in her dress to denote that she was one of the wealthiest
+young women in the State of Montana.
+
+Sunset Ranch was one of the few remaining great cattle ranches of the
+West. Her father could justly have been called "a cattle king," only
+Prince Morrell was not the sort of man who likes to see his name in
+print.
+
+Indeed, there was a good reason why Helen's father had not wished to
+advertise himself. That old misfortune, which had borne so heavily upon
+his mind and heart when he came to die, had made him shrink from
+publicity.
+
+However, business at Sunset Ranch had prospered both before and since Mr.
+Morrell's death. The money had rolled in and the bank accounts which had
+been put under the administration of Big Hen Billings and the lawyer at
+Elberon, increased steadily.
+
+Big Hen was a generous-handed administrator and guardian. Of course, the
+foreman of the ranch was, perhaps, not the best person to be guardian of a
+sixteen-year-old girl. He did not treat her, in regard to money matters,
+as the ordinary guardian would have treated a ward.
+
+Big Hen didn't know how to limit a girl's expenditures; but he knew how to
+treat a man right. And he treated Helen Morrell just as though she were a
+sane and responsible man.
+
+"There's a thousand dollars in cash for you, Snuggy," he had said. "I got
+it in soft money, for it's a fac' that they use that stuff a good deal in
+the East. Besides, the hard money would have made a good deal of a load
+for you to tote in them leetle war-bags of yourn."
+
+"But shall I ever need a thousand dollars?" asked Helen, doubtfully.
+
+"Don't know. Can't tell. Sometimes ye need money when ye least expect it.
+Ye needn't tell anybody how much you've got. Only, it's _there_--and a
+full pocket is a mighty nice backin' for anybody to have.
+
+"And if ye find any time ye want more, jest telegraph. We'll send ye what
+they call a draft for all ye want. Cut a dash. Show 'em that the girl from
+Sunset Ranch is the real thing, Snuggy."
+
+But she had only laughed at this. It never entered Helen Morrell's mind
+that she should ever wish to "cut a dash" before her relatives in New
+York.
+
+She had filed a telegram to Mr. Willets Starkweather, on Madison Avenue,
+before the train arrived, saying that she was coming. She hoped that her
+relatives would reply and she would get the reply en route.
+
+When her father died, she had written to the Starkweathers. She had
+received a brief, but kindly worded note from Uncle Starkweather. And it
+had scarcely been time yet, so Helen thought, for Aunt Eunice or the girls
+to write.
+
+But could Helen have arrived at the Madison Avenue mansion of Willets
+Starkweather at the same hour her message arrived and heard the family's
+comments on it, it is very doubtful if she would have swung herself aboard
+the parlor car of the Transcontinental, without the porter's help, and
+sought her seat.
+
+The Starkweathers lived in very good style, indeed. The mansion was one of
+several remaining in that section, all occupied by the very oldest and
+most elevated socially of New York's solid families. They were not people
+whose names appeared in the gossip columns of the papers to any extent;
+but to live in their neighborhood, and to meet them socially, was
+sufficient to insure one's welcome anywhere.
+
+The Starkweather mansion had descended to Willets Starkweather with the
+money--all from his great-uncle--which had finally put the family upon its
+feet. When Prince Morrell had left New York under a cloud, his
+brother-in-law was a struggling merchant himself.
+
+Now, in sixteen years, he had practically retired. At least, he was no
+longer "in trade." He merely went to an office, or to his broker's, each
+day, and watched his investments and his real estate holdings.
+
+A pompous, well-fed man was Willets Starkweather--and always imposingly
+dressed. He was very bald, wore a closely cropped gray beard, eyeglasses,
+and "Ahem!" was an introduction to almost everything he said. That
+clearing of the bronchial tubes was an announcement to the listening world
+that he, Willets Starkweather, of Madison Avenue, was about to make a
+remark. And no matter how trivial that remark might be, coming from the
+lips of the great man, it should be pondered upon and regarded with awe.
+
+Mr. Starkweather was a widower. Helen's Aunt Eunice had been dead three
+years. It had never been considered necessary by either Mr. Starkweather,
+or his daughters, to write "Aunt Mary's folks in Montana" of Mrs.
+Starkweather's death.
+
+Correspondence between the families had ceased at the time of Mrs.
+Morrell's death. The Starkweather girls understood that Aunt Mary's
+husband had "done something" before he left New York for the wild and
+woolly West. The family did not--Ahem!--speak of him.
+
+The three girls were respectively eighteen, sixteen, and fourteen. Even
+Flossie considered herself entirely grown up. She attended a private
+school not far from Central Park, and went each day dressed as elaborately
+as a matron of thirty.
+
+For Hortense, who was just Helen Morrell's age, "school had become a
+bore." She had a smattering of French, knew how to drum nicely on the
+piano--she was still taking lessons in _that_ polite accomplishment--had
+only a vague idea of the ordinary rules of English grammar, and couldn't
+write a decent letter, or spell words of more than two syllables, to save
+her life.
+
+Belle golfed. She did little else just now, for she was a creature of
+fads. Occasionally she got a new one, and with kindred spirits played that
+particular fad to death.
+
+She might have found a much worse hobby to ride. Getting up early and
+starting for the Long Island links, or for Westchester, before her sisters
+had had their breakfast, was not doing Belle a bit of harm. Only, she was
+getting in with a somewhat "sporty" class of girls and women older than
+herself, and the bloom of youth had been quite rubbed off.
+
+Indeed, these three girls were about as fresh as is a dried prune. They
+had jumped from childhood into full-blown womanhood (or thought they had),
+thereby missing the very best and sweetest part of their girls' life.
+
+They had come in from their various activities of the day when Helen's
+telegram arrived. Naturally they ran with it to their father's "den"--a
+gorgeously upholstered yet small library on the ground floor, at the
+back.
+
+"What is it now, girls?" demanded Mr. Starkweather, looking up in some
+dismay at this general onslaught. "I don't want you to suggest any further
+expenditures this month. I have paid all the bills I possibly can pay. We
+must retrench--we must retrench."
+
+"Oh, Pa!" said Flossie, saucily, "you're always saying that. I believe you
+say 'We must retrench!' in your sleep."
+
+"And small wonder if I do," he grumbled. "I have lost some money; the
+stock market is very dull. And nobody is buying real estate. I--I am quite
+at my wits' ends, I assure you, girls."
+
+"Dear me! and another mouth to feed!" laughed Hortense, tossing her head.
+"_That_ will be excuse enough for telling her to go to a hotel when she
+arrives."
+
+"Probably the poor thing won't have the price of a room," observed Belle,
+looking again at the telegram.
+
+"What is that in your hand, child?" demanded Mr. Starkweather, suddenly
+seeing the yellow slip of paper.
+
+"A dispatch, Pa," said Flossie, snatching it out of Belle's hand.
+
+"A telegram?"
+
+"And you'd never guess from whom," cried the youngest girl.
+
+"I--I----Let me see it," said her father, with some abruptness. "No bad
+news, I hope?"
+
+"Well, I don't call it _good_ news," said the oldest girl, with a sniff.
+
+Mr. Starkweather read it aloud:
+
+    "Coming on Transcontinental. Arrive Grand
+    Central Terminal 9 P.M. the third.
+
+                             "Helen Morrell."
+
+"Now! What do you think of that, Pa?" demanded Flossie.
+
+"'Helen Morrell,'" repeated Mr. Starkweather, and a person more observant
+than any of his daughters might have seen that his lips had grown suddenly
+gray. He dropped into his chair rather heavily. "Your cousin, girls."
+
+"Fol-de-rol!" exclaimed Belle. "I don't see why she should claim
+relationship."
+
+"Send her to a hotel, Pa," said Flossie.
+
+"I'm sure _I_ do not wish to be bothered by a common ranch girl. Why! she
+was born and brought up out in the wilds; wasn't she?" demanded Hortense.
+
+"Her father and mother went West before this girl was born--yes," murmured
+Mr. Starkweather.
+
+He was strangely agitated by the message. But the girls did not notice
+this. They were not likely to notice anything but their own disturbance
+over the coming of "that ranch girl."
+
+"Why, Pa, we can't have her here!" cried Belle.
+
+"Of course we can't, Pa," agreed Hortense.
+
+"I'm sure _I_ don't want the common little thing around," added Flossie,
+who, as has been said, was quite two years Helen's junior.
+
+"We couldn't introduce her to our friends," declared Belle.
+
+"What a _fright_ she'll be!" wailed Hortense.
+
+"She'll wear a sombrero and a split riding skirt, I suppose," scoffed
+Flossie, who madly desired a slit skirt, herself.
+
+"Of course she'll be a perfect dowdy," Belle observed.
+
+"And be loud and wear heavy boots, and stamp through the house," sighed
+Hortense. "We just _can't_ have her, Pa."
+
+"Why, I wouldn't let any of the girls of _our_ set see her for the world,"
+cried Flossie.
+
+Their father finally spoke. He had recovered from his secret emotion, but
+he was still mopping the perspiration from his bald brow.
+
+"I don't really see how I can prevent her coming," he said, rather
+weakly.
+
+"What nonsense, Pa!"
+
+"Of course you can!"
+
+"Telegraph her not to come."
+
+"But she is already aboard the train," objected Mr. Starkweather,
+gloomily.
+
+"Then, I tell you," snapped Flossie, who was the most unkind of the girls.
+"Don't telegraph her at all. Don't answer her message. Don't send to the
+station to meet her. Maybe she won't be too dense to take _that_ hint."
+
+"Pooh! these wild and woolly Western girls!" grumbled Hortense. "I don't
+believe she'll know enough to stay away."
+
+"We can try it," persisted Flossie.
+
+"She ought to realize that we're not dying to see her when we don't come
+to the train," said Belle.
+
+"I--don't--know," mused their father.
+
+"Now, Pa!" cried Flossie. "You know very well you don't want that girl
+here."
+
+"No," he admitted. "But--Ahem!--we have certain duties----"
+
+"Bother duties!" said Hortense.
+
+"Ahem! She is your mother's sister's child," spoke Mr. Starkweather,
+heavily. "She is a young and unprotected female----"
+
+"Seems to me," said Belle, crossly, "the relationship is far enough
+removed for us to ignore it. Mother's sister, Aunt Mary, is dead."
+
+"True--true. Ahem!" said her father.
+
+"And isn't it true that this man, Morrell, whom she married, left New York
+under a cloud?"
+
+"O--oh!" cried Hortense. "So he did."
+
+"What did he do?" Flossie asked, bluntly.
+
+"Embezzled; didn't he, Pa?" asked Belle.
+
+"That's enough!" cried Flossie, tossing her head. "We certainly don't want
+a convict's daughter in the house."
+
+"Hush, Flossie!" said her father, with sudden sternness. "Prince Morrell
+was never a convict."
+
+"No," sneered Hortense. "He ran away. He didn't get that far."
+
+"Ahem! Daughters, we have no right to talk in this way--even in fun----"
+
+"Well, I don't care," cried Belle, impatiently. "Whether she's a
+criminal's child or not; I don't want her. None of us wants her. Why,
+then, should we have her?"
+
+"But where will she go?" demanded Mr. Starkweather, almost desperately.
+
+"What do we care?" cried Flossie, callously. "She can be sent back; can't
+she?"
+
+"I tell you what it is," said Belle, getting up and speaking with
+determination. "We don't want Helen Morrell here. We will not meet her at
+the train. We will not send any reply to this message from her. And if she
+has the effrontery to come here to the house after our ignoring her in
+this way, we'll send her back where she came from just as soon as it can
+be done. What do you say, girls?"
+
+"Fine!" from Hortense and Flossie.
+
+But their father said "Ahem!" and still looked troubled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ACROSS THE CONTINENT
+
+
+It was not as though Helen Morrell had never been in a train before. Eight
+times she had gone back and forth to Denver, and she had always ridden in
+the best style. So sleepers, chair cars, private compartments, and
+observation coaches were no novelty to her.
+
+She had discussed the matter with her friend, the Elberon station agent,
+and had bought her ticket through to New York, with a berth section to
+herself. It cost a good bit of money, but Helen knew no better way to
+spend some of that thousand dollars that Big Hen had given to her.
+
+Her small trunk was put in the baggage car, and all she carried was a
+hand-satchel with toilet articles and kimono; and in it likewise was her
+father's big wallet stuffed with the yellow-backed notes--all crisp and
+new--that Big Hen Billings had brought to her from the bank.
+
+When she was comfortably seated in her particular section, and the porter
+had seen that her footstool was right, and had hovered about her with
+offers of other assistance until she had put a silver dollar into his
+itching palm, Helen first stared about her frankly at the other occupants
+of the car.
+
+Nobody paid much attention to the countrified girl who had come aboard at
+the way-station. The Transcontinental's cars are always well filled. There
+were family parties, and single tourists, with part of a grand opera
+troupe, and traveling men of the better class.
+
+Helen would have been glad to join one of the family groups. In one there
+were two girls and a boy beside the parents and a lady who must have been
+the governess. One of the girls, and the boy, were quite as old as Helen.
+They were all so well behaved, and polite to each other, yet jolly and
+companionable, that Helen knew she could have liked them immensely.
+
+But there was nobody to introduce the lonely girl to them, nor to any
+others of her fellow travelers. The conductor, even, did not take much
+interest in the girl in brown.
+
+She began to realize that what was the height of fashion in Elberon was
+several seasons behind the style in larger communities. There was not a
+pretty or attractive thing about Helen's dress; and even a very pretty
+girl will seem a frump in an out-of-style and unbecoming frock.
+
+It might have been better for the girl from Sunset Ranch if she had worn
+on the train the very riding habit she had in her trunk. At least, it
+would have become her and she would have felt natural in it.
+
+She knew now--when she had seen the hats of her fellow passengers--that
+her own was an atrocity. And, then, Helen had "put her hair up," which was
+something she had not been used to doing. Without practice, or some
+example to work by, how could this unsophisticated young girl have
+produced a specimen of modern hair-dressing fit to be seen?
+
+Even Dudley Stone could not have thought Helen Morrell pretty as she
+looked now. And when she gazed in the glass herself, the girl from Sunset
+Ranch was more than a little disgusted.
+
+"I know I'm a fright. I've got 'such a muchness' of hair and it's so
+sunburned, and all! What those girls I'm going to see will say to me, I
+don't know. But if they're good-natured they'll soon show me how to handle
+this mop--and of course I can buy any quantity of pretty frocks when I get
+to New York."
+
+So she only looked at the other people on the train and made no
+acquaintances at all that first day. She slept soundly at night while the
+Transcontinental raced on over the undulating plains on which the stars
+shone so peacefully. Each roll of the drumming wheels was carrying her
+nearer and nearer to that new world of which she knew so little, but from
+which she hoped so much.
+
+She dreamed that she had reached her goal--Uncle Starkweather's house.
+Aunt Eunice met her. She had never even seen a photograph of her aunt; but
+the lady who gathered her so closely into her arms and kissed her so
+tenderly, looked just as Helen's own mother had looked.
+
+She awoke crying, and hugging the tiny pillow which the Pullman Company
+furnishes its patrons as a sample--the _real_ pillow never materializes.
+
+But to the healthy girl from the wide reaches of the Montana range, the
+berth was quite comfortable enough. She had slept on the open ground many
+a night, rolled only in a blanket and without any pillow at all. So she
+arose fresher than most of her fellow-passengers.
+
+One man--whom she had noticed the evening before--was adjusting a wig
+behind the curtain of his section. He looked when he was completely
+dressed rather a well-preserved person; and Helen was impressed with the
+thought that he must still feel young to wish to appear so juvenile.
+
+Even with his wig adjusted--a very curly brown affair--the man looked,
+however, to be upward of sixty. There were many fine wrinkles about his
+eyes and deep lines graven in his cheeks.
+
+His section was just behind that of the girl from Sunset Ranch, on the
+other side of the car. After returning from the breakfast table this first
+morning Helen thought she would better take a little more money out of the
+wallet to put in her purse for emergencies on the train. So she opened the
+locked bag and dragged out the well-stuffed wallet from underneath her
+other possessions.
+
+The roll of yellow-backed notes _was_ a large one. Helen, lacking more
+interesting occupation, unfolded the crisp banknotes and counted them to
+make sure of her balance. As she sat in her seat she thought nobody could
+observe her.
+
+Then she withdrew what she thought she might need, and put the remainder
+of the money back into the old wallet, snapped the strong elastic about
+it, and slid it down to the bottom of the bag again.
+
+The key of the bag she carried on the chain with her locket, which locket
+contained the miniatures of her mother and father. Key and locket she hid
+in the bosom of her dress.
+
+She looked up suddenly. There was the fatherly-looking old person almost
+bending over her chair back. For an instant the girl was very much
+startled. The old man's eyes were wonderfully keen and twinkling, and
+there was an expression in them which Helen at first did not understand.
+
+"If you have finished with that magazine, my dear, I'll exchange it for
+one of mine," said the old gentleman coolly. "What! did I frighten you?"
+
+"Not exactly, sir," returned Helen, watching him curiously. "But I _was_
+startled."
+
+"Beg pardon. You do not look like a young person who would be easily
+frightened," he said, laughing. "You are traveling alone?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Far?"
+
+"To New York, sir," said Helen.
+
+"Ah! a long way for a girl to go by herself--even a self-possessed one
+like you," said the fatherly old fellow. "I hope you have friends to meet
+you there?"
+
+"Relatives."
+
+"You have never been there, I take it?"
+
+"I have never been farther east than Denver before," she replied.
+
+"Indeed! And so you have not met the relatives you are going to?" he
+suggested, shrewdly.
+
+"You are right, sir."
+
+"But, of course, they will not fail to meet you?"
+
+"I telegraphed to them. I expect to get a reply somewhere on the way."
+
+"Then you are well provided for," said the old gentleman, kindly. "Yet, if
+you should need any assistance--of any kind--do not fail to call upon me.
+I am going through to New York, too."
+
+He went back to his seat after making the exchange of magazines, and did
+not force his attentions upon her further. He was, however, almost the
+only person who spoke to her all the way across the continent.
+
+Frequently they ate together at the same table, both being alone. He
+bought newspapers and magazines and exchanged with her. He never became
+personal and asked her questions again, nor did Helen learn his name; but
+in little ways which were not really objectionable, he showed that he took
+an interest in her. There remained, however, the belief in Helen's mind
+that he had seen her counting the money.
+
+"I expect I'd like the old chap if he didn't wear a wig," thought Helen.
+"I never could see why people wished to hide the mistakes of Nature. And
+he's an old gentleman, too."
+
+Yet again and again she recalled that avaricious gleam in his eyes and how
+eager he had seemed when she had first caught sight of his face looking
+over her shoulder that first morning on the train. She couldn't forget
+that. She kept the locked bag near her hand all the time.
+
+With lively company a journey across this great continent of ours is a
+cheerful and inspiring experience. And, of course, Youth can never remain
+depressed for long. But in Helen Morrell's case the trip could not be
+counted as an enjoyable one.
+
+She was always solitary amid the crowd of travelers. Even when she went
+back to the observation platform she was alone. She had nobody with whom
+to discuss the beauties of the landscape, or the wonders of Nature past
+which the train flashed.
+
+This was her own fault to a degree, of course. The girl from Sunset Ranch
+was diffident. These people aboard were all Easterners, or foreigners.
+There were no open-hearted, friendly Western folk such as she had been
+used to all her life.
+
+She felt herself among a strange people. She scarcely spoke the same
+language, or so it seemed. She had felt less awkward and bashful when she
+had first gone to the school at Denver as a little girl.
+
+And, again, she was troubled because she had received no reply from her
+message to Uncle Starkweather. Of course, he might not have been at home
+to receive it; but surely some of the family must have received it.
+
+Every time the brakeman, or porter, or conductor, came through with a
+message for some passenger, she hoped he would call her name. But the
+Transcontinental brought her across the Western plains, over the two great
+rivers, through the Mid-West prairies, skirted two of the Great Lakes,
+rushed across the wooded and mountainous Empire State, and finally dashed
+down the length of the embattled Hudson toward the Great City of the New
+World--the goal of Helen Morrell's late desires, with no word from the
+relatives whom she so hoped would welcome her to their hearts and home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE GREAT CITY
+
+
+Helen Morrell never forgot her initial impressions of the great city.
+
+These impressions were at first rather startling--then intensely
+interesting. And they all culminated in a single opinion which time only
+could prove either true or erroneous.
+
+That belief or opinion Helen expressed in an almost audible exclamation:
+
+"Why! there are so many people here one could _never_ feel lonely!"
+
+This impression came to her after the train had rolled past miles of
+streets--all perfectly straight, bearing off on either hand to the two
+rivers that wash Manhattan's shores; all illuminated exactly alike; all
+bordered by cliffs of dwellings seemingly cut on the same pattern and from
+the same material.
+
+With clasped hands and parted lips the girl from Sunset Ranch watched
+eagerly the glowing streets, parted by the rushing train. As it slowed
+down at 125th Street she could see far along that broad thoroughfare--an
+uptown Broadway. There were thousands and thousands of people in
+sight--with the glare of shoplights--the clanging electric cars--the
+taxicabs and autos shooting across the main stem of Harlem into the
+avenues running north and south.
+
+It was as marvelous to the Montana girl as the views of a foreign land
+upon the screen of a moving picture theatre. She sank back in her seat
+with a sigh as the train moved on.
+
+"What a wonderful, wonderful place!" she thought. "It looks like
+fairyland. It is an enchanted place----"
+
+The train, now under electric power, shot suddenly into the ground. The
+tunnel was odorous and ill-lighted.
+
+"Well," the girl thought, "I suppose there _is_ another side to the big
+city, too!"
+
+The passengers began to put on their wraps and gather together their
+hand-luggage. There was much talking and confusion. Some of the tourists
+had been met at 125th Street by friends who came that far to greet them.
+
+But there was nobody to greet Helen. There was nobody waiting on the
+platform, to come and clasp her hand and bid her welcome, when the train
+stopped.
+
+She got down, with her bag, and looked about her. She saw that the old
+gentleman with the wig kept step with her. But he did not seem to be
+noticing her, and presently he disappeared.
+
+The girl from Sunset Ranch walked slowly up into the main building of the
+Grand Central Terminal with the crowd. There was chattering all about
+her--young voices, old voices, laughter, squeals of delight and
+surprise--all the hubbub of a homing crowd meeting a crowd of friends.
+
+And through it all Helen walked, a stranger in a strange land.
+
+She lingered, hoping that Uncle Starkweather's people might be late. But
+nobody spoke to her. She did not know that there were matrons and police
+officers in the building to whom she could apply for advice or
+assistance.
+
+Naturally independent, this girl of the ranges was not likely to ask a
+stranger for help. She could find her own way.
+
+She smiled--yet it was a rather wry smile--when she thought of how Dud
+Stone had told her she would be as much of a tenderfoot in New York as he
+had been on the plains.
+
+"It's a fact," she thought. "But, if they didn't get my message, I reckon
+I can find the house, just the same."
+
+Having been so much in Denver she knew a good deal about city ways. She
+did not linger about the station long.
+
+Outside there was a row of taxicabs and cabmen. There was an officer, too;
+but he was engaged at the moment in helping a fussy old lady get seven
+parcels, a hat box, and a dog basket into a cab.
+
+So Helen walked down the row of waiting taxicabs. At the end cab the
+chauffeur on the seat turned around and beckoned.
+
+"Cab, Miss? Take you anywhere you say."
+
+"You know where this number on Madison Street is, of course?" she said,
+showing a card with the address on it.
+
+"Sure, Miss. Jump right in."
+
+"How much will it be?"
+
+"Trunk, Miss?"
+
+"Yes. Here is the check."
+
+The chauffeur got out of his seat quickly and took the check.
+
+"It's so much a mile. The little clock tells you the fare," he said,
+pleasantly.
+
+"All right," replied Helen. "You get the trunk," and she stepped into the
+vehicle.
+
+In a few moments he was back with the trunk and secured it on the roof of
+his cab. Then he reached in and tucked a cloth around his passenger,
+although the evening was not cold, and got in under the wheel. In another
+moment the taxicab rolled out from under the roofed concourse.
+
+Helen had never ridden in any vehicle that went so smoothly and so fast.
+It shot right downtown, mile after mile; but Helen was so interested in
+the sights she saw from the window of the cab that she did not worry about
+the time that elapsed.
+
+By and by they went under an elevated railroad structure; the street grew
+more narrow and--to tell the truth--Helen thought the place appeared
+rather dirty and unkempt.
+
+Then the cab was turned suddenly across the way, under another elevated
+structure, and into a narrow, noisy, ill-kept street.
+
+"Can it be that Uncle Starkweather lives in this part of the town?"
+thought Helen, in amazement.
+
+She had always understood that the Starkweather mansion was in one of the
+oldest and most respectable parts of New York. But although _this_ might
+be one of the older parts of the city, to Helen's eyes it did _not_ look
+respectable.
+
+The street was full of children and grown people in odd costumes. And
+there was a babel of voices that certainly were not English.
+
+They shot across another narrow street--then another. And then the cab
+stopped beside the curb near a corner gaslight.
+
+"Surely this is not Madison?" demanded Helen, of the driver, as her door
+was opened.
+
+"There's the name, Miss," said the man, pointing to the street light.
+
+Helen looked. She really _did_ see "MADISON" in blue letters on the sign.
+
+"And is this the number?" she asked again, looking at the three-story,
+shabby house before which the cab had stopped.
+
+"Yes, Miss. Don't you see it on the fanlight?"
+
+The dull light in the hall of the house was sufficient to reveal to her
+the number painted on the glass above the door. It was an old, old house,
+with grimy panes in the windows, and more dull lights behind the shades
+drawn down over them. But there really could be no mistake, Helen thought.
+The number over the door and the name on the lamp-post reassured her.
+
+She stepped out of the cab, her bag in her hand.
+
+"See if your folks are here, Miss," said the driver, "before I take off
+the trunk."
+
+Helen crossed the walk, clinging to her precious bag. She was not a little
+disturbed by this strange situation. These streets about here were the
+commonest of the common! And she was carrying a large sum of money, quite
+unprotected.
+
+When she mounted the steps and touched the door, it opened. A bustle of
+sound came from the house; yet it was not the kind of bustle that she had
+expected to hear in her uncle's home.
+
+There were the crying of children, the shrieking of a woman's angry
+voice--another singing--language in guttural tones which she could not
+understand--heavy boots tramping upon the bare boards overhead.
+
+This lower hall was unfurnished. Indeed, it was a most unlovely place as
+far as Helen could see by the light of a single flaring gas jet.
+
+"What kind of a place have I got into?" murmured the Western girl, staring
+about in disgust and horror, and clinging tightly to the locked bag.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE WELCOME
+
+
+Helen would have faced almost any peril of the range--wolves, a bear even,
+a stampede, flood, or fire--with more confidence than she felt at this
+moment.
+
+She had some idea of how city people lived, having been to school in
+Denver. It seemed impossible that Uncle Starkweather and his family could
+reside in such a place as this. And yet the street and number were
+correct. Surely, the taxicab driver must know his way about the city!
+
+From behind the door on her right came the rattle of dishes and voices.
+Putting her courage to the test, Helen rapped on the door. But she had to
+repeat the summons before she was heard.
+
+Then she heard a shuffling step approach the door, it was unlocked, and a
+gray old woman, with a huge horsehair wig upon her head, peered out at
+her.
+
+"Vot you vant?" this apparition asked, her black eyes growing round in
+wonder at the appearance of the girl and her bag. "Ve puys noddings; ve
+sells noddings. Vot you vant--eh?"
+
+"I am looking for my Uncle Starkweather," said Helen, doubtfully.
+
+"Vor your ungle?" repeated the old woman.
+
+"Mr. Starkweather. Does he live in this house?"
+
+"'S'arkwesser'? I neffer heard," said the old woman, shaking her huge
+head. "Abramovitch lifs here, and Abelosky, and Seldt, and--and Goronsky.
+You sure you god de name ride, Miss?"
+
+"Quite sure," replied the puzzled Helen.
+
+"Meppe ubstairs," said the woman, eyeing Helen curiously. "Vot you god in
+de pag, lady?"
+
+To tell the truth this query rather frightened the girl. She did not reply
+to the question, but started half-blindly for the stairs, clinging to the
+bag with both hands.
+
+Suddenly a door banged above and a quick and light step began to descend
+the upper flight. Helen halted and looked expectantly upward. The
+approaching step was that of a young person.
+
+In a moment a girl appeared, descending the stairs like a young whirlwind.
+She was a vigorous, red-cheeked girl, with dark complexion, a prominent
+nose, flashing black eyes, and plump, sturdy arms bared to her dimpled
+elbows. She saw Helen there in the hall and stopped, questioningly. The
+old woman said something to the newcomer in what Helen supposed must be
+Yiddish, and banged shut her own door.
+
+"Whaddeyer want, Miss?" asked the dark girl, coming nearer to Helen and
+smiling, showing two rows of perfect teeth. "Got lost?"
+
+"I don't know but what I have," admitted the girl from the West.
+
+"Chee! You're a greenie, too; ain't you?"
+
+"I reckon so," replied Helen, smiling in return. "At least, I've just
+arrived in town."
+
+The girl had now opened the door and looked out. "Look at this, now!" she
+exclaimed. "Did you come in that taxi?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Helen.
+
+"Chee! you're some swell; aren't you?" said the other. "We don't have them
+things stopping at the house every day."
+
+"I am looking for my uncle, Mr. Willets Starkweather."
+
+"That's no Jewish name. I don't believe he lives in this house," said the
+black-eyed girl, curiously.
+
+"But, this is the number--I saw it," said Helen, faintly. "And it's
+Madison Avenue; isn't it? I saw the name on the corner lamp-post."
+
+"_Madison Avenyer?_" gasped the other girl.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yer kiddin'; ain't yer?" demanded the stranger.
+
+"Why---- What do you mean?"
+
+"This ain't Madison Avenyer," said the black-eyed girl, with a loud laugh.
+"Ain't you the greenie? Why, this is Madison _Street!_"
+
+"Oh, then, there's a difference?" cried Helen, much relieved. "I didn't
+get to Uncle Starkweather's, then?"
+
+"Not if he lives on Madison Avenyer," said her new friend. "What's his
+number? I got a cousin that married a man in Harlem. _She_ lives on
+Madison Avenyer; but it's a long ways up town."
+
+"Why, Uncle Starkweather has his home at the same number on Madison Avenue
+that is on that fanlight," and Helen pointed over the door.
+
+"Then he's some swell; eh?"
+
+"I--I guess so," admitted Helen, doubtfully.
+
+"D'jer jest come to town?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And told the taxi driver to come down here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, he'll take you back. I'll take the number of the cab and scare him
+pretty near into a fit," said the black-eyed girl, laughing. "Then he's
+sure to take you right to your uncle's house."
+
+"Oh, I'm a thousand times obliged!" cried Helen. "I _am_ a tenderfoot; am
+I not?" and she laughed.
+
+The girl looked at her curiously. "I don't know much about tender feet.
+Mine never bother me," she said. "But I could see right away that you
+didn't belong in this part of town."
+
+"Well, you've been real kind to me," Helen said. "I hope I'll see you
+again."
+
+"Not likely," said the other, shaking her head.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"And you livin' on Madison Avenyer, and me on Madison Street?"
+
+"I can come down to see you," said Helen, frankly. "My name is Helen
+Morrell. What's yours?"
+
+"Sadie Goronsky. You see, I'm a Russian," and she smiled. "You wouldn't
+know it by the way I talk; would you? I learned English over there. But
+some folks in Russia don't care to mix much with our people."
+
+"I don't know anything about that," said Helen. "But I know when I like a
+person. And I've got reason for liking you."
+
+"That goes--double," returned the other, warmly. "I bet you come from a
+place far away from this city."
+
+"Montana," said Helen.
+
+"I ain't up in United States geography. But I know there's a big country
+the other side of the North River."
+
+Helen laughed. "I come from a good ways beyond the river," she said.
+
+"Well, I'll have to get back to the store. Old Jacob will give me fits."
+
+"Oh, dear! and I'm keeping you," cried Helen.
+
+"I should worry!" exploded the other, slangily. "I'm only a 'puller-in.' I
+ain't a saleslady. Come on and I'll throw a scare into that taxi-driver.
+Watch me."
+
+This sort of girl was a revelation to Helen. She was frankly independent
+herself; but Sadie Goronsky showed an entirely different sort of
+independence.
+
+"See here you, Mr. Man!" exclaimed the Jewish girl, attracting the
+attention of the taxicab driver, who had not left his seat. "Whadderyer
+mean by bringing this young lady down here to Madison Street when with
+half an eye you could ha' told that she belonged on Madison _Avenyer_?"
+
+"Heh?" grunted the man.
+
+"Now, don't play no greenie trick with _me_," commanded Sadie. "I gotcher
+number, and I know the company youse woik for. You take this young lady
+right to the correct address on the avenyer--and see that she don't get
+robbed before you get her there. You get in, Miss Morrell. Don't you be
+afraid. This chap won't dare take you anywhere but to your uncle's house
+now."
+
+"She said Madison Street," declared the taxicab driver, doggedly.
+
+"Well, now _I_ says Madison Avenyer!" exclaimed Sadie. "Get in, Miss."
+
+"But where'll I find you, Sadie?" asked the Western girl, holding the
+rough hand of her new friend.
+
+"Right at that shop yonder," said the black-eyed girl, pointing to a store
+only two doors beyond the house which Helen had entered. "Ladies'
+garments. You'll see me pullin' 'em in. If you _don't_ see me, ask for
+Miss Goronsky. Good-night, Miss! You'll get to your uncle's all right
+now."
+
+The taxicab driver had started the machine again. They darted off through
+a side street, and soon came out upon the broader thoroughfare down which
+they had come so swiftly. She saw by a street sign that it was the
+Bowery.
+
+The man slowed down and spoke to her through the tube.
+
+"I hope you don't bear no ill-will, Miss," he said, humbly enough. "You
+said Madison----"
+
+"All right. See if you can take me to the right place now," returned
+Helen, brusquely.
+
+Her talk with Sadie Goronsky had given her more confidence. She was awake
+to the wiles of the city now. Dud Stone had been right. Even Big Hen
+Billings's warnings were well placed. A stranger like herself had to be on
+the lookout all the time.
+
+After a time the taxicab turned up a wider thoroughfare that had no
+elevated trains roaring overhead. At Twenty-third Street it turned west
+and then north again at Madison Square.
+
+There was a little haze in the air--an October haze. Through this the
+lamps twinkled blithely. There were people on the dusky benches, and many
+on the walks strolling to and fro, although it was now growing quite
+late.
+
+In the park she caught a glimpse of water in a fountain, splashing high,
+then low, with a rainbow in it. Altogether it was a beautiful sight.
+
+The hum of night traffic--the murmur of voices--they flashed past a
+theatre just sending forth its audience--and all the subdued sights and
+sounds of the city delighted her again.
+
+Suddenly the taxicab stopped.
+
+"This is the number, Miss," said the driver.
+
+Helen looked out first. Not much like the same number on Madison Street!
+
+This block was a slice of old-fashioned New York. On either side was a row
+of handsome, plain old houses, a few with lanterns at their steps, and
+some with windows on several floors brilliantly lighted.
+
+There were carriages and automobiles waiting at these doors. Evening
+parties were evidently in progress.
+
+The house before which the taxicab had stopped showed no light in front,
+however, except at the door and in one or two of the basement windows.
+
+"Is this the place you want?" asked the driver, with some impatience.
+
+"I'll see," said Helen, and hopped out of the cab.
+
+She ran boldly up the steps and rang the bell. In a minute the inner door
+swung open; but the outer grating remained locked. A man in livery stood
+in the opening.
+
+"What did you wish, ma'am?" he asked in a perfectly placid voice.
+
+"Does Mr. Willets Starkweather reside here?" asked Helen.
+
+"Mr. Starkweather is not at home, ma'am."
+
+"Oh! then he could not have received my telegram!" gasped Helen.
+
+The footman remained silent, but partly closed the door.
+
+"Any message, ma'am?" he asked, perfunctorily.
+
+"But surely the family is at home?" cried Helen.
+
+"Not at this hour of the hevening, ma'am," declared the English servant,
+with plain disdain.
+
+"But I must see them!" cried Helen, again. "I am Mr. Starkweather's niece.
+I have come all the way from Montana, and have just got into the city. You
+must let me in."
+
+"Hi 'ave no orders regarding you, ma'am," declared the footman, slowly.
+"Mr. Starkweather is at 'is club. The young ladies are hat an evening
+haffair."
+
+"But auntie--surely there must be _somebody_ here to welcome me?" said
+Helen, in more wonder than anger as yet.
+
+"You may come in, Miss," said the footman at last. "Hi will speak to the
+'ousekeeper--though I fear she is abed."
+
+"But I have the taxicab driver to pay, and my trunk is here," declared
+Helen, beginning suddenly to feel very helpless.
+
+The man had opened the grilled door. He gazed down at the cab and shook
+his head.
+
+"Wait hand see Mrs. Olstrom, first, Miss," he said.
+
+She stepped in. He closed both doors and chained the inner one. He pointed
+to a hard seat in a corner of the hall and then stepped softly away upon
+the thick carpet to the rear of the premises, leaving the girl from Sunset
+Ranch alone.
+
+_This_ was her welcome to the home of her only relatives, and to the heart
+of the great city!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE GHOST WALK
+
+
+Helen had to wait only a short time; but during that wait she was aware
+that she was being watched by a pair of bright eyes at a crevice between
+the portieres at the end of the hall.
+
+"They act as though I came to rob them," thought the girl from the ranch,
+sitting in the gloomy hall with the satchel at her feet.
+
+This was not the welcome she had expected when she started East. Could it
+be possible that her message to Uncle Starkweather had not been delivered?
+Otherwise, how could this situation be explained?
+
+Such a thing as inhospitality could not be imagined by Helen Morrell. A
+begging Indian was never turned away from Sunset Ranch. A perfect
+stranger--even a sheepman--would be hospitably treated in Montana.
+
+The soft patter of the footman's steps soon sounded and the sharp eyes
+disappeared. There was a moment's whispering behind the curtain. Then the
+liveried Englishman appeared.
+
+"Will you step this way, Miss?" he said, gravely. "Mrs. Olstrom will see
+you in her sitting-room. Leave your bag there, Miss."
+
+"No. I guess I'll hold onto it," she said, aloud.
+
+The footman looked pained, but said nothing. He led the way haughtily into
+the rear of the premises again. At a door he knocked.
+
+"Come in!" said a sharp voice, and Helen was ushered into the presence of
+a female with a face quite in keeping with the tone of her voice.
+
+The lady was of uncertain age. She wore a cap, but it did not entirely
+hide the fact that her thin, straw-colored hair was done up in
+curl-papers. She was vinegary of feature, her light blue eyes were as
+sharp as gimlets, and her lips were continually screwed up into the
+expression of one determined to say "prunes."
+
+She sat in a straight-backed chair in the sitting-room, in a flowered silk
+bed-wrapper, and she looked just as glad to see Helen as though the girl
+were her deadliest enemy.
+
+"Who are you?" she demanded.
+
+"I am Helen Morrell," said the girl.
+
+"What do you want of Mr. Starkweather at this hour?"
+
+"Just what I would want of him at any hour," returned the Western girl,
+who was beginning to become heartily exasperated.
+
+"What's that, Miss?" snapped the housekeeper.
+
+"I have come to him for hospitality. I am his relative--rather, I am Aunt
+Eunice's relative----"
+
+"What do you mean, child?" exclaimed the lady, with sudden emotion. "Who
+is your Aunt Eunice?"
+
+"Mrs. Starkweather. He married my mother's sister--my Aunt Eunice."
+
+"Mrs. Starkweather!" gasped Mrs. Olstrom.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Then, where have _you_ been these past three years?" demanded the
+housekeeper in wonder. "Mrs. Starkweather has been dead all of that time.
+Mr. Willets Starkweather is a widower."
+
+"Aunt Eunice dead?" cried Helen.
+
+The news was a distinct shock to the girl. She forgot everything else for
+the moment. Her face told her story all too well, and the housekeeper
+could not doubt her longer.
+
+"You're a relative, then?"
+
+"Her--her niece, Helen Morrell," sobbed Helen. "Oh! I did not know--I did
+not know----"
+
+"Never mind. You are entitled to hospitality and protection. Did you just
+arrive?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Your home is not near?"
+
+"In Montana."
+
+"My goodness! You cannot go back to-night, that is sure. But why did you
+not write?"
+
+"I telegraphed I was coming."
+
+"I never heard of it. Perhaps the message was not received. Gregson!"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," replied the footman.
+
+"You said something about a taxicab waiting outside with this young lady's
+luggage?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Go and pay the man and have the baggage brought in----"
+
+"I'll pay for it, ma'am," said Helen, hastily, trying to unlock her bag.
+
+"That will be all right. I will settle it with Mr. Starkweather. Here is
+money, Gregson. Pay the fare and give the man a quarter for himself. Have
+the trunk brought into the basement. I will attend to Miss--er----?"
+
+"Morrell."
+
+"Miss Morrell, myself," finished the housekeeper.
+
+The footman withdrew. The housekeeper looked hard at Helen for several
+moments.
+
+"So you came here expecting hospitality--in your uncle's house--and from
+your cousins?" she observed, jerkily. "Well!"
+
+She got up and motioned Helen to take up her bag.
+
+"Come. I have no orders regarding you. I shall give you one of the spare
+rooms. You are entitled to that much. No knowing when either Mr.
+Starkweather or the young ladies will be at home," she said, grimly.
+
+"I hope you won't put yourself out," observed Helen, politely.
+
+"I am not likely to," returned Mrs. Olstrom. "It is you who will be more
+likely---- Well!" she finished, without making her meaning very plain.
+
+This reception, to cap all that had gone before since she had arrived at
+the Grand Central Terminal, chilled Helen. The shock of discovering that
+her mother's sister was dead--and she and her father had not been informed
+of it--was no small one, either. She wished now that she had not come to
+the house at all.
+
+"I would better have gone to a hotel until I found out how they felt
+toward me," thought the girl from the ranch.
+
+Yet Helen was just. She began to tell herself that neither Mr.
+Starkweather nor her cousins were proved guilty of the rudeness of her
+reception. The telegram might have gone astray. They might never have
+dreamed of her coming on from Sunset Ranch to pay them a visit.
+
+The housekeeper began to warm toward her in manner, at least. She took her
+up another flight of stairs and to a very large and handsomely furnished
+chamber, although it was at the rear of the house, and right beside the
+stairs leading to the servants' quarters. At least, so Mrs. Olstrom said
+they were.
+
+"You will not mind, Miss," she said, grimly. "You may hear the sound of
+walking in this hall. It is nothing. The foolish maids call it 'the ghost
+walk'; but it is only a sound. You're not superstitious; are you?"
+
+"I hope not!" exclaimed Helen.
+
+"Well! I have had to send away one or two girls. The house is very old.
+There are some queer stories about it. Well! What is a sound?"
+
+"Very true, ma'am," agreed Helen, rather confused, but bound to be
+polite.
+
+"Now, Miss, will you have some supper? Mr. Lawdor can get you some in the
+butler's pantry. He has a chafing dish there and often prepares late bites
+for his master."
+
+"No, ma'am; I am not hungry," Helen declared. "I had dinner in the dining
+car at seven."
+
+"Then I will leave you--unless you should wish something further?" said
+the housekeeper.
+
+"Here is your bath," opening a door into the anteroom. "I will place a
+note upon Mr. Starkweather's desk saying that you are here. Will you need
+your trunk up to-night, Miss?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed," Helen declared. "I have a kimono here--and other things.
+I'll be glad of the bath, though. One does get so dusty traveling."
+
+She was unlocking her bag. For a moment she hesitated, half tempted to
+take the housekeeper into her confidence regarding her money. But the
+woman went directly to the door and bowed herself out with a stiff:
+
+"Good-night, Miss."
+
+"My! But this is a friendly place!" mused Helen, when she was left alone.
+"And they seem to have so much confidence in strangers!"
+
+Therefore, she went to the door into the hall, found there was a bolt upon
+it, and shot it home. Then she pulled the curtain across the keyhole
+before sitting down and counting all her money over again.
+
+"They got _me_ doing it!" muttered Helen. "I shall be afraid of every
+person I meet in this man's town."
+
+But by and by she hopped up, hid the wallet under her pillow (the bed was
+a big one with deep mattress and downy pillows) and then ran to let her
+bath run in the little room where Mrs. Olstrom had snapped on the electric
+light.
+
+She undressed slowly, shook out her garments, hung them properly to air,
+and stepped into the grateful bath. How good it felt after her long and
+tiresome journey by train!
+
+But as she was drying herself on the fleecy towels she suddenly heard a
+sound outside her door. After the housekeeper left her the whole building
+had seemed as silent as a tomb. Now there was a steady rustling noise in
+the short corridor on which her room opened.
+
+"What _did_ that woman ask me?" murmured Helen. "Was I afraid of ghosts?"
+
+She laughed a little. To a healthy, normal, outdoor girl the supernatural
+had few terrors.
+
+"It _is_ a funny sound," she admitted, hastily finished the drying process
+and then slipping into her nightrobe, kimono, and bed slippers.
+
+All the time her ear seemed preternaturally attuned to that rising and
+waning sound without her chamber. It seemed to come toward the door, pass
+it, move lightly away, and then turn and repass again. It was a steady,
+regular----
+
+_Step--put; step--put; step--put----_
+
+And with it was the rustle of garments--or so it seemed. The girl grew
+momentarily more curious. The mystery of the strange sound certainly was
+puzzling.
+
+"Who ever heard of a ghost with a wooden leg?" she thought, chuckling
+softly to herself. "And that is what it sounds like. No wonder the
+servants call this corridor 'the ghost walk.' Well, me for bed!"
+
+She had already snapped out the electric light in the bathroom, and now
+hopped into bed, reaching up to pull the chain of the reading light as she
+did so. The top of one window was down half-way and the noise of the city
+at midnight reached her ear in a dull monotone.
+
+Back here at the rear of the great mansion, street sounds were faint. In
+the distance, to the eastward, was the roar of a passing elevated train.
+An automobile horn hooted raucously.
+
+But steadily, through all other sounds, as an accompaniment to them and to
+Helen Morrell's own thoughts, was the continuous rustle in the corridor
+outside her door:
+
+_Step--put; step--put; step--put._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MORNING
+
+
+The Starkweather mansion was a large dwelling. Built some years before the
+Civil War, it had been one of the "great houses" in its day, to be pointed
+out to the mid-nineteenth century visitor to the metropolis. Of course,
+when the sightseeing coaches came in fashion they went up Fifth Avenue and
+passed by the stately mansions of the Victorian era, on Madison Avenue,
+without comment.
+
+Willets Starkweather had sprung from a quite mean and un-noted branch of
+the family, and had never, until middle life, expected to live in the
+Madison Avenue homestead. The important members of his clan were dead and
+gone and their great fortunes scattered. Willets Starkweather could barely
+keep up with the expenditures of his great household.
+
+There were never servants enough, and Mrs. Olstrom, the very capable
+housekeeper, who had served the present master's great-uncle before the
+day of the new generation, had hard work to satisfy the demands of those
+there were upon the means allowed her by Mr. Starkweather.
+
+There were rooms in the house--especially upon the topmost floor--into
+which even the servants seldom went. There were vacant rooms which never
+knew broom nor duster. The dwelling, indeed, was altogether too large for
+the needs of Mr. Starkweather and his three motherless daughters.
+
+But their living in it gave them a prestige which nothing else could. As
+wise as any match-making matron, Willets Starkweather knew that the
+family's address at this particular number on Madison Avenue would aid his
+daughters more in "making a good match" than anything else.
+
+He could not dower them. Really, they needed no dower with their good
+looks, for they were all pretty. The Madison Avenue mansion gave them the
+open sesame into good society--choice society, in fact--and there some
+wealthy trio of unattached young men must see and fall in love with them.
+
+And the girls understood this, too--right down to fourteen-year-old
+Flossie. They all three knew that to "pay poor papa" for reckless
+expenditures now, they must sooner or later capture moneyed husbands.
+
+So, there was more than one reason why the three Starkweather girls leaped
+immediately from childhood into full-blown womanhood. Flossie had already
+privately studied the characters--and possible bank accounts--of the boys
+of her acquaintance, to decide upon whom she should smile her sweetest.
+
+These facts--save that the mansion was enormous--were hidden from Helen
+when she arose on the first morning of her city experience. She had slept
+soundly and sweetly. Even the rustling steps on the ghost walk had not
+bothered her for long.
+
+Used to being up and out by sunrise, she could not easily fall in with
+city ways. She hustled out of bed soon after daybreak, took a cold sponge,
+which made her body tingle delightfully, and got into her clothes as
+rapidly as any boy.
+
+She had only the shoddy-looking brown traveling dress to wear, and the
+out-of-date hat. But she put them on, and ventured downstairs, intent upon
+going out for a walk before breakfast.
+
+The solemn clock in the hall chimed seven as she found her way down the
+lower flight of front stairs. As she came through the curtain-hung halls
+and down the stairs, not a soul did she meet until she reached the front
+hall. There a rather decrepit-looking man, with a bleared eye, and dressed
+in decent black, hobbled out of a parlor to meet her.
+
+"Bless me!" he ejaculated. "What--what--what----"
+
+"I am Helen Morrell," said the girl from Sunset Ranch, smiling, and
+judging that this must be the butler of whom the housekeeper had spoken
+the night before. "I have just come to visit my uncle and cousins."
+
+"Bless me!" said the old man again. "Gregson told me. Proud to see you,
+Miss. But--you're dressed to go out, Miss?"
+
+"For a walk, sir," replied Helen, nodding.
+
+"At this hour? Bless me--bless me--bless me----"
+
+He seemed apt to run off in this style, in an unending string of mild
+expletives. His head shook and his hands seemed palsied. But he was a
+polite old man.
+
+"I beg of you, Miss, don't go out without a bit of breakfast. My own
+coffee is dripping in the percolator. Let me give you a cup," he said.
+
+"Why--if it's not too much trouble, sir----"
+
+"This way, Miss," he said, hurrying on before, and leading Helen to a cozy
+little room at the back. This corresponded with the housekeeper's
+sitting-room and Helen believed it must be Mr. Lawdor's own apartment.
+
+He laid a small cloth with a flourish. He set forth a silver breakfast
+set. He did everything neatly and with an alacrity that surprised Helen in
+one so evidently decrepit.
+
+"A chop, now, Miss? Or a rasher?" he asked, pointing to an array of
+electric appliances on the sideboard by which a breakfast might be "tossed
+up" in a hurry.
+
+"No, no," Helen declared. "Not so early. This nice coffee and these
+delicious rolls are enough until I have earned more."
+
+"Earned more, Miss?" he asked, in surprise.
+
+"By exercise," she explained. "I am going to take a good tramp. Then I
+shall come back as hungry as a mountain lion."
+
+"The family breakfasts at nine, Miss," said the butler, bowing. "But if
+you are an early riser you will always find something tidy here in my
+room, Miss. You are very welcome."
+
+She thanked him and went out into the hall again. The footman in
+livery--very sleepy and tousled as yet--was unchaining the front door. A
+yawning maid was at work in one of the parlors with a duster. She stared
+at Helen in amazement, but Gregson stood stiffly at attention as the
+visitor went forth into the daylight.
+
+"My, how funny city people live!" thought Helen Morrell. "I don't believe
+I ever could stand it. Up till all hours, and then no breakfast until
+nine. _What_ a way to live!
+
+"And there must be twice as many servants as there are members of the
+family---- Why! more than that! And all that big house to get lost in,"
+she added, glancing up at it as she started off upon her walk.
+
+She turned the first corner and went through a side street toward the
+west. This was not a business side street. There were several tall
+apartment hotels interspersed with old houses.
+
+She came to Fifth Avenue--"the most beautiful street in the world." It had
+been swept and garnished by a horde of white-robed men since two o'clock.
+On this brisk October morning, from the Washington Arch to 110th Street,
+it was as clean as a whistle.
+
+She walked uptown. At Thirty-fourth and Forty-second streets the crosstown
+traffic had already begun. She passed the new department stores, already
+opening their eyes and yawning in advance of the day's trade.
+
+There were a few pedestrians headed uptown like herself. Some well-dressed
+men seemed walking to business. A few neat shop girls were hurrying along
+the pavement, too. But Helen, and the dogs in leash, had the avenue mostly
+to themselves at this hour.
+
+The sleepy maids, or footmen, or pages stared at the Western girl with
+curiosity as she strode along. For, unlike many from the plains, Helen
+could walk well in addition to riding well.
+
+She reached the plaza, and crossing it, entered the park. The trees were
+just coloring prettily. There were morning sounds from the not-far-distant
+zoo. A few early nursemaids and their charges asleep in baby carriages,
+were abroad. Several old gentlemen read their morning papers upon the
+benches, or fed the squirrels who were skirmishing for their breakfasts.
+
+Several plainly-dressed people were evidently taking their own
+"constitutionals" through the park paths. Swinging down from the north
+come square-shouldered, cleanly-shaven young men of the same type as Dud
+Stone. Helen believed that Dud must be a typical New Yorker.
+
+But there were no girls abroad--at least, girls like herself who had
+leisure. And Helen was timid about making friends with the nursemaids.
+
+In fact, there wasn't a soul who smiled upon her as she walked through the
+paths. She would not have dared approach any person she met for any
+purpose whatsoever.
+
+"They haven't a grain of interest in me," thought Helen. "Many of them, I
+suppose, don't even see me. Goodness, what a lot of self-centred people
+there must be in New York!"
+
+She wandered on and on. She had no watch--never had owned one. As she had
+told Dud Stone, the stars at night were her clock, and by day she judged
+the hour by the sun.
+
+The sun was behind a haze now; but she had another sure timekeeper. There
+was nothing the matter with Helen's appetite.
+
+"I'll go back and join the family at breakfast," the girl thought. "I hope
+they'll be nice to me. And poor Aunt Eunice dead without our ever being
+told of it! Strange!"
+
+She had come a good way. Indeed, she was some time in finding an outlet
+from the park. The sun was behind the morning haze as yet, but she turned
+east, and finally came out upon the avenue some distance above the gateway
+by which she had entered.
+
+A southbound auto-bus caught her eye and she signaled it. She not only had
+brought her purse with her, but the wallet with her money was stuffed
+inside her blouse and made an uncomfortable lump there at her waist. But
+she hid this with her arm, feeling that she must be on the watch for some
+sharper all the time.
+
+"Big Hen was right when he warned me," she repeated, eyeing suspiciously
+the several passengers in the Fifth Avenue bus.
+
+They were mostly early shoppers, however, or gentlemen riding to their
+offices. She had noticed the number of the street nearest her uncle's
+house, and so got out at the right corner.
+
+The change in this part of the town since she had walked away from it soon
+after seven, amazed her. She almost became confused and started in the
+wrong direction. The roar of traffic, the rattle of riveters at work on
+several new buildings in the neighborhood, the hoarse honking of
+automobiles, the shrill whistles of the traffic policemen at the corners,
+and the various other sounds seemed to make another place of the
+old-fashioned Madison Avenue block.
+
+"My goodness! To live in such confusion, and yet have money enough to be
+able to enjoy a home out of town," thought Helen. "How foolish of Uncle
+Starkweather."
+
+She made no mistake in the house this time. There was Gregson--now spick
+and span in his maroon livery--haughtily mounting guard over the open
+doorway while a belated scrubwoman was cleaning the steps and areaway.
+
+Helen tripped up the steps with a smile for Gregson; but that wooden-faced
+subject of King George had no joint in his neck. He could merely raise a
+finger in salute.
+
+"Is the family up, sir?" she asked, politely.
+
+"In Mr. Starkweather's den, Miss," said the footman, being unable to leave
+his post at the moment. Mr. Lawdor was not in sight and Helen set out to
+find the room in question, wondering if the family had already
+breakfasted. The clock in the hall chimed the quarter to ten as she passed
+it.
+
+The great rooms on this floor were open now; but empty. She suddenly heard
+voices. She found a cross passage that she had not noticed before, and
+entered it, the voices growing louder.
+
+She came to a door before which hung heavy curtains; but these curtains
+did not deaden the sound entirely. Indeed, as Helen hesitated, with her
+hand stretched out to seize the portiere, she heard something that halted
+her.
+
+Indeed, what she heard within the next few moments entirely changed the
+outlook of the girl from Sunset Ranch. It matured that doubt of humanity
+that had been born the night before in her breast.
+
+And it changed--for the time being at least--Helen's nature. From a frank,
+open-hearted, loving girl she became suspicious, morose and secretive. The
+first words she heard held her spell-bound--an unintentional eavesdropper.
+And what she heard made her determined to appear to her unkind relatives
+quite as they expected her to appear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+LIVING UP TO ONE'S REPUTATION
+
+
+"Well! my lady certainly takes her time about getting up," Belle
+Starkweather was saying.
+
+"She was tired after her journey, I presume," her father said.
+
+"Across the continent in a day-coach, I suppose," laughed Hortense,
+yawning.
+
+"I _was_ astonished at that bill for taxi hire Olstrom put on your desk,
+Pa," said Belle. "She must have ridden all over town before she came
+here."
+
+"A girl who couldn't take a plain hint," cried Hortense, "and stay away
+altogether when we didn't answer her telegram----"
+
+"Hush, girls. We must treat her kindly," said their father. "Ahem!"
+
+"I don't see _why_?" demanded Hortense, bluntly.
+
+"You don't understand everything," responded Mr. Starkweather, rather
+weakly.
+
+"I don't understand _you_, Pa, sometimes," declared Hortense.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you one thing right now!" snapped the older girl. "I've
+ordered her things taken out of that chamber. Her shabby old trunk has
+gone up to the room at the top of the servants' stairway. It's good enough
+for her."
+
+"We certainly have not got to have this cowgirl around for long,"
+continued Hortense. "She'd be no fit company for Flossie. Flossie's rude
+enough as it is."
+
+The youngest daughter had gone to school, so she was not present with her
+saucy tongue to hold up her own end of the argument.
+
+"Think of a girl right from a cattle ranch!" laughed Belle. "Fine! I
+suppose she knows how to rope steers, and break ponies, and ride bareback
+like an Indian, and all that. Fine accomplishments for a New York
+drawing-room, I must say."
+
+"Oh, yes," joined in Hortense. "And she'll say 'I reckon,' and drop her
+'g's' and otherwise insult the King's English."
+
+"Ahem! I must warn you girls to be less boisterous," advised their
+father.
+
+"Why, you sound as though you were almost afraid of this cowgirl, Pa,"
+said Belle, curiously.
+
+"No, no!" protested Mr. Starkweather, hurriedly.
+
+"Pa's so easy," complained Hortense. "If I had my way I wouldn't let her
+stay the day out."
+
+"But where would she go?" almost whined Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"Back where she came from."
+
+"Perhaps the folks there don't want her," said Belle.
+
+"Of course she's a pauper," observed Hortense.
+
+"Give her some money and send her away, Pa," begged Belle.
+
+"You ought to. She's not fit to associate with Flossie. You know just how
+Floss picks up every little thing----"
+
+"And she's that man's daughter, too, you know," remarked Belle.
+
+"Ahem!" said their father, weakly.
+
+"It's not decent to have her here."
+
+"Of course, other people will remember what Morrell did. It will make a
+scandal for us."
+
+"I cannot help it! I cannot help it!" cried Mr. Starkweather, suddenly
+breaking out and battling against his daughters as he sometimes did when
+they pressed him too closely. "I cannot send her away."
+
+"Well, she mustn't be encouraged to stay," declared Hortense.
+
+"I should say not," rejoined Belle.
+
+"And getting up at this hour to breakfast," Hortense sniffed.
+
+Helen Morrell wore strong, well-made walking boots. Good shoes were
+something that she could always buy in Elberon. But usually she walked
+lightly and springily.
+
+Now she came stamping through the small hall, and on the heels of the last
+remark, flung back the curtain and strode into the den.
+
+"Hullo, folks!" she cried. "Goodness! don't you get up till noon here in
+town? I've been clean out to your city park while I waited for you to wash
+your faces. Uncle Starkweather! how be you?"
+
+She had grabbed the hand of the amazed gentleman and was now pumping it
+with a vigor that left him breathless.
+
+"And these air two of your gals?" quoth Helen. "I bet I can pick 'em out
+by name," and she laughed loudly. "This is Belle; ain't it? Put it thar!"
+and she took the resisting Belle's hand and squeezed it in her own brown
+one until the older girl winced, muscular as she herself was.
+
+"And this is 'Tense--I know!" added the girl from Sunset Ranch, reaching
+for the hand of her other cousin.
+
+"No, you don't!" cried Hortense, putting her hands behind her. "Why! you'd
+crush my hand."
+
+"Ho, ho!" laughed Helen, slapping her hand heartily upon her knee as she
+sat down. "Ain't you the puny one!"
+
+"I'm no great, rude----"
+
+"Ahem!" exclaimed Mr. Starkweather, recovering from his amazement in time
+to shut off the snappy remark of Hortense. "We--we are glad to see you,
+girl----"
+
+"I knew you'd be!" cried Helen, loudly. "I told 'em back on the ranch that
+you an' the gals would jest about eat me up, you'd be so glad, when ye
+seen me. Relatives oughter be neighborly."
+
+"Neighborly!" murmured Hortense. "And from Montana!"
+
+"Butcher got another one; ain't ye, Uncle Starkweather?" demanded the
+metamorphosed Helen, looking about with a broad smile. "Where's the little
+tad?"
+
+"'Little tad'! Oh, won't Flossie be pleased?" again murmured Hortense.
+
+"My youngest daughter is at school," replied Mr. Starkweather, nervously.
+
+"Shucks! of course," said Helen, nodding. "I forgot they go to school half
+their lives down east here. Out my way we don't get much chance at
+schoolin'."
+
+"So I perceive," remarked Hortense, aloud.
+
+"Now I expect _you_,'Tense," said Helen, wickedly, "have been through all
+the isms and the ologies there be--eh? You look like you'd been all worn
+to a frazzle studyin'."
+
+Belle giggled. Hortense bridled.
+
+"I really wish you wouldn't call me out of my name," she said.
+
+"Huh?"
+
+"My name is Hortense," said that young lady, coldly.
+
+"Shucks! So it is. But that's moughty long for a single mouthful."
+
+Belle giggled again. Hortense looked disgusted. Uncle Starkweather was
+somewhat shocked.
+
+"We--ahem!--hope you will enjoy yourself here while you--er--remain," he
+began. "Of course, your visit will be more or less brief, I suppose?"
+
+"Jest accordin' to how ye like me and how I like you folks," returned the
+girl from Sunset Ranch, heartily. "When Big Hen seen me off----"
+
+"Who--_who_?" demanded Hortense, faintly.
+
+"Big Hen Billings," said Helen, in an explanatory manner. "Hen was
+dad's--that is he worked with dad on the ranch. When I come away I told
+Big Hen not to look for me back till I arrove. Didn't know how I'd find
+you-all, or how I'd like the city. City's all right; only nobody gets up
+early. And I expect we-all can't tell how we like each other until we get
+better acquainted."
+
+"Very true--very true," remarked Mr. Starkweather, faintly.
+
+"But, goodness! I'm hungry!" exclaimed Helen. "You folks ain't fed yet;
+have ye?"
+
+"We have breakfasted," said Belle, scornfully. "I will ring for the
+butler. You may tell Lawdor what you want--er--_Cousin_ Helen," and she
+looked at Hortense.
+
+"Sure!" cried Helen. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Ye see, I didn't have any
+watch and the sun was clouded over this morning. Sort of run over my time
+limit--eh? Ah!--is this Mr. Lawdor?"
+
+The shaky old butler stood in the doorway.
+
+"It is _Lawdor_," said Belle, emphatically. "Is there any breakfast left,
+Lawdor?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Belle. When Gregson told me the young miss was not at the table
+I kept something hot and hot for her, Miss. Shall I serve it in my room?"
+
+"You may as well," said Belle, carelessly. "And, _Cousin_ Helen!"
+
+"Yep?" chirped the girl from the ranch.
+
+"Of course, while you are here, we could not have you in the room you
+occupied last night. It--it might be needed. I have already told Olstrom,
+the housekeeper, to take your bag and other things up to the next floor.
+Ask one of the maids to show you the room you are to occupy--_while you
+remain_."
+
+"That's all right, Belle," returned the Western girl, with great
+heartiness. "Any old place will do for me. Why! I've slept on the ground
+more nights than you could shake a stick at," and she tramped off after
+the tottering butler.
+
+"Well!" gasped Hortense when she was out of hearing, "what do you know
+about _that_?"
+
+"Pa, do you intend to let that dowdy little thing stay here?" cried
+Belle.
+
+"Ahem!" murmured Mr. Starkweather, running a finger around between his
+collar and his neck, as though to relieve the pressure there.
+
+"Her clothes came out of the ark!" declared Hortense.
+
+"And that hat!"
+
+"And those boots--or is it because she clumps them so? I expect she is
+more used to riding than to walking."
+
+"And her language!" rejoined Belle.
+
+"Ahem! What--what can we do, girls?" gasped Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"Put her out!" cried Belle, loudly and angrily.
+
+"She is quite too, too impossible, Pa," agreed Hortense.
+
+"With her coarse jokes," said the older sister.
+
+"And her rough way," echoed the other.
+
+"And that ugly dress and hat."
+
+"A pauper relation! Faugh! I didn't know the Starkweathers owned one."
+
+"Seems to me, _one_ queer person in the house is enough," began Hortense.
+
+Her father and sister looked at her sharply.
+
+"Why, Hortense!" exclaimed Belle.
+
+"Ahem!" observed Mr. Starkweather, warningly.
+
+"Well! we don't want _that_ freak in the house," grumbled the younger
+sister.
+
+"There are--ahem!--some things best left unsaid," observed her father,
+pompously. "But about this girl from the West----"
+
+"Yes, Pa!" cried his daughters in duet.
+
+"I will see what can be done. Of course, she cannot expect me to support
+her for long. I will have a serious talk with her."
+
+"When, Pa?" cried the two girls again.
+
+"Er--ahem!--soon," declared the gentleman, and beat a hasty retreat.
+
+"It had better be pretty soon," said Belle, bitterly, to her sister. "For
+I won't stand that dowdy thing here for long, now I tell you!"
+
+"Good for you, Belle!" rejoined Hortense, warmly. "It's strange if we
+can't--with Flossie's help--soon make her sick of her visit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"I MUST LEARN THE TRUTH"
+
+
+Helen was already very sick of her Uncle Starkweather's home and family.
+But she was too proud to show the depth of her feeling before the old
+serving man in whose charge she had been momentarily placed.
+
+Lawdor was plainly pleased to wait upon her. He made fresh coffee in his
+own percolator; there was a cutlet kept warm upon an electric stove, and
+he insisted upon frying her a rasher of bacon and some eggs.
+
+Despite all that mentally troubled her, her healthy body needed
+nourishment and Helen ate with an appetite that pleased the old man
+immensely.
+
+"If--if you go out early, Miss, don't forget to come here for your
+coffee," he said. "Or more, if you please. I shall be happy to serve
+you."
+
+"And I'm happy to have you," returned the girl, heartily.
+
+She could not assume to him the rude tone and manner which she had
+displayed to her uncle and cousins. _That_ had been the outcome of an
+impulse which had risen from the unkind expressions she had heard them use
+about her.
+
+As soon as she could get away, she had ceased being an eavesdropper. But
+she had heard enough to assure her that her relatives were not glad to see
+her; that they were rude and unkind, and that they were disturbed by her
+presence among them.
+
+But there was another thing she had drawn from their ill-advised talk,
+too. She had heard her father mentioned in no kind way. Hints were thrown
+out that Prince Morrell's crime--or the crime of which he had been
+accused--was still remembered in New York.
+
+Back into her soul had come that wave of feeling she experienced after her
+father's death. He had been so troubled by the smirch upon his name--the
+cloud that had blighted his young manhood in the great city.
+
+"I'll know the truth," she thought again. "I'll find out who _was_ guilty.
+They sha'n't drive me away until I have accomplished my object in coming
+East."
+
+This was the only thought she had while she remained under old Lawdor's
+eye. She had to bear up, and seem unruffled until the breakfast was
+disposed of and she could escape upstairs.
+
+She went up the servants' way. She saw the same girl she had noticed in
+the parlor early in the morning.
+
+"Can you show me my room?" she asked her, timidly.
+
+"Top o' the next flight. Door's open," replied the girl, shortly.
+
+Already the news had gone abroad among the under servants that this was a
+poor relation. No tips need be expected. The girl flirted her cloth and
+turned her back upon Helen as the latter started through the ghost walk
+and up the other stairway.
+
+She easily found the room. It was quite as good as her own room at the
+ranch, as far as size and furniture went. Helen would have been amply
+satisfied with it had the room been given to her in a different spirit.
+
+But now she closed her door, locked it carefully, hung her jacket over the
+knob that she should be sure she was not spied upon, and sat down beside
+the bed.
+
+She was not a girl who cried often. She had wept sincere tears the evening
+before when she learned that Aunt Eunice was dead. But she could not weep
+now.
+
+Her emotion was emphatically wrathful. Without cause--that she could
+see--these city relatives had maligned her--had maligned her father's
+memory--and had cruelly shown her, a stranger, how they thoroughly hated
+her presence.
+
+She had come away from Sunset Ranch with two well-devised ideas in her
+mind. First of all, she hoped to clear her father's name of that old
+smirch upon it. Secondly, he had wished her to live with her relatives if
+possible, that she might become used to the refinements and circumstances
+of a more civilized life.
+
+Refinements! Why, these cousins of hers hadn't the decencies of red
+Indians!
+
+On impulse Helen had taken the tone she had with them--had showed them in
+"that cowgirl" just what they had expected to find. She would be bluff and
+rude and ungrammatical and ill-bred. Perhaps the spirit in which Helen did
+this was not to be commended; but she had begun it on the impulse of the
+moment and she felt she must keep it up during her stay in the
+Starkweather house.
+
+How long that would be Helen was not prepared to say now. It was in her
+heart one moment not to unpack her trunk at all. She could go to a
+hotel--the best in New York, if she so desired. How amazed her cousins
+would be if they knew that she was at this moment carrying more than eight
+hundred dollars in cash on her person? And suppose they learned that she
+owned thousands upon thousands of acres of grazing land in her own right,
+on which roamed unnumbered cattle and horses?
+
+Suppose they found out that she had been schooled in a first-class
+institution in Denver--probably as well schooled as they themselves? What
+would they say? How would they feel should they suddenly make these
+discoveries?
+
+But, while she sat there and studied the problem out, Helen came to at
+least one determination: While she remained in the Starkweather house she
+would keep from her uncle and cousins the knowledge of these facts.
+
+She would not reveal her real character to them. She would continue to
+parade before them and before their friends the very rudeness and
+ignorance that they had expected her to betray.
+
+"They are ashamed of me--let them be ashamed," she said, to herself,
+bitterly. "They hate me--I'll give them no reason for loving me, I promise
+you! They think me a pauper--I'll _be_ a pauper. Until I get ready to
+leave here, at least. Then I can settle with Uncle Starkweather in one
+lump for all the expense to which he may be put for me.
+
+"I'll buy no nice dresses--or hats--or anything else. They sha'n't know I
+have a penny to spend. If they want to treat me like a poor relation, let
+them. I'll _be_ a poor relation.
+
+"I must learn the truth about poor dad's trouble," she told herself again.
+"Uncle Starkweather must know something about it. I want to question him.
+He may be able to help me. I may get on the track of that bookkeeper. And
+he can tell me, surely, where to find Fenwick Grimes, father's old
+partner.
+
+"No. They shall serve me without knowing it. I will be beholden to them
+for my bread and butter and shelter--for a time. Let them hate and despise
+me. What I have to do I will do. Then I'll 'pay the shot,' as Big Hen
+would say, and walk out and leave them."
+
+It was a bold determination, but not one that is to be praised. Yet, Helen
+had provocation for the course she proposed to pursue.
+
+She finally unlocked her trunk and hung up the common dresses and other
+garments she had brought with her. She had intended to ask her cousins to
+take her shopping right away, and she, like any other girl of her age,
+longed for new frocks and pretty hats.
+
+But there was a lot of force in Helen's character. She would go without
+anything pretty unless her cousins offered to buy it themselves. She would
+bide her time.
+
+One thing she hid far back in her closet under the other things--her
+riding habit. She knew it would give the lie to her supposed poverty. She
+had sent to Chicago for that, and it had cost a hundred dollars.
+
+"But I don't suppose there'd be a chance to ride in this big town," she
+thought, with a sigh. "Unless it is hobby-horses in the park. Well! I can
+get on for a time without the Rose pony, or any other critter on four
+legs, to love me."
+
+But she was hungry for the companionship of the animals whom she had seen
+daily on the ranch.
+
+"Why, even the yip of a coyote would be sweet," she mused, putting her
+head out of the window and scanning nothing but chimneys and tin roofs,
+with bare little yards far below.
+
+Finally she heard a Japanese gong's mellow note, and presumed it must
+announce luncheon. It was already two o'clock. People who breakfasted at
+nine or ten, of course did not need a midday meal.
+
+"I expect they don't have supper till bedtime," thought Helen.
+
+First she hid her wallet in the bottom of her trunk, locked the trunk and
+set it up on end in the closet. Then she locked the closet door and took
+out the key, hiding the latter under the edge of the carpet.
+
+"I'm getting as bad as the rest of 'em," she muttered. "I won't trust
+anybody, either. Now for meeting my dear cousins at lunch."
+
+She had slipped into one of the simple house dresses she had worn at the
+ranch. She had noticed that forenoon that both Belle and Hortense
+Starkweather were dressed in the most modish of gowns--as elaborate as
+those of fashionable ladies. With no mother to say them nay, these young
+girls aped every new fashion as they pleased.
+
+Helen started downstairs at first with her usual light step. Then she
+bethought herself, stumbled on a stair, slipped part of the way, and
+continued to the very bottom of the last flight with a noise and clatter
+which must have announced her coming long in advance of her actual
+presence.
+
+"I don't want to play eavesdropper again," she told herself, grimly. "I
+always understood that listeners hear no good of themselves, and now I
+know it to be a fact."
+
+Gregson stood at the bottom of the last flight. His face was as wooden as
+ever, but he managed to open his lips far enough to observe:
+
+"Luncheon is served in the breakfast room, Miss."
+
+A sweep of his arm pointed the way. Then she saw old Lawdor pottering in
+and out of a room into which she had not yet looked.
+
+It proved to be a sunny, small dining-room. When alone the family usually
+ate here, Helen discovered. The real dining-room was big enough for a
+dancing floor, with an enormous table, preposterously heavy furniture all
+around the four sides of the room, and an air of gloom that would have
+removed, before the food appeared, even, all trace of a healthy appetite.
+
+When Helen entered the brighter apartment her three cousins were already
+before her. The noise she made coming along the hall, despite the heavy
+carpets, had quite prepared them for her appearance.
+
+Belle and Hortense met her with covert smiles. And they watched their
+younger sister to see what impression the girl from Sunset Ranch made upon
+Flossie.
+
+"And this is Flossie; is it?" cried Helen, going boisterously into the
+room and heading full tilt around the table for the amazed Flossie. "Why,
+you look like a smart young'un! And you're only fourteen? Well, I never!"
+
+She seized Flossie by both hands, in spite of that young lady's desire to
+keep them free.
+
+"Goodness me! Keep your paws off--do!" ejaculated Flossie, in great
+disgust. "And let me tell you, if I _am_ only fourteen I'm 'most as big as
+you are and I know a whole lot more."
+
+"Why, Floss!" exclaimed Hortense, but unable to hide her amusement.
+
+The girl from Sunset Ranch took it all with apparent good nature,
+however.
+
+"I reckon you _do_ know a lot. You've had advantages, you see. Girls out
+my way don't have much chance, and that's a fact. But if I stay here,
+don't you reckon I'll learn?"
+
+The Starkweather girls exchanged glances of amusement.
+
+"I do not think," said Belle, calmly, "that you would better think of
+remaining with us for long. It would be rather bad for you, I am sure, and
+inconvenient for us."
+
+"How's that?" demanded Helen, looking at her blankly. "Inconvenient--and
+with all this big house?"
+
+"Ahem!" began Belle, copying her father. "The house is not always as free
+of visitors as it is now. And of course, a girl who has no means and must
+earn her living, should not live in luxury."
+
+"Why not?" asked Helen, quickly.
+
+"Why--er--well, it would not be nice to have a working girl go in and out
+of our house."
+
+"And you think I shall have to go to work?"
+
+"Why, of course, you may remain here--father says--until you can place
+yourself. But he does not believe in fostering idleness. He often says
+so," said Belle, heaping it all on "poor Pa."
+
+Helen had taken her seat at the table and Gregson was serving. It mattered
+nothing to these ill-bred Starkweather girls that the serving people heard
+how they treated this "poor relation."
+
+Helen remained silent for several minutes. She tried to look sad. Within,
+however, she was furiously angry. But this was not the hour for her to
+triumph.
+
+Flossie had been giggling for a few moments. Now she asked her cousin,
+saucily:
+
+"I say! Where did you pick up that calico dress, Helen?"
+
+"This?" returned the visitor, looking down at the rather ugly print. "It's
+a gingham. Bought it ready-made in Elberon. Do you like it?"
+
+"I love it!" giggled Flossie. "And it's made in quite a new style, too."
+
+"Do you think so? Why, I reckoned it was old," said Helen, smoothly. "But
+I'm glad to hear it's so fitten to wear. For, you see, I ain't got many
+clo'es."
+
+"Don't you have dressmakers out there in Montana?" asked Hortense, eyeing
+the print garment as though it was something entirely foreign.
+
+"I reckon. But we folks on the range don't get much chance at 'em.
+Dressmakers is as scurce around Sunset Ranch as killyloo birds. Unless ye
+mought call Injun squaws dressmakers."
+
+"What are killyloo birds?" demanded Flossie, hearing something new.
+
+"Well now! don't you have them here?" asked Helen, smiling broadly.
+
+"Never heard of them. And I've been to Bronx Park and seen all the birds
+in the flying cage," said Flossie. "Our Nature teacher takes us out there
+frequently. It's a dreadful bore."
+
+"Well, I didn't know but you might have 'em East here," observed Helen,
+pushing along the time-worn cowboy joke. "I said they was scurce around
+the ranch; and they be. I never saw one."
+
+"Really!" ejaculated Hortense. "What are killyloo birds good for?"
+
+"Why, near as I ever heard," replied Helen, chuckling, "they are mostly
+used for making folks ask questions."
+
+"I declare!" snapped Belle. "She is laughing at you, girls. You're very
+dense, I'm sure, Hortense."
+
+"Say! that's a good one!" laughed Flossie. But Hortense muttered:
+
+"Vulgar little thing!"
+
+Helen smiled tranquilly upon them. Nothing they said to her could shake
+her calm. And once in a while--as in the case above--she "got back" at
+them. She kept consistently to her rude way of speaking; but she used the
+tableware with little awkwardness, and Belle said to Hortense:
+
+"At least somebody's tried to teach her a few things. She is no
+sword-swallower."
+
+"I suppose Aunt Mary had some refinement," returned Hortense, languidly.
+
+Helen's ears were preternaturally sharp. She heard everything. But she had
+such good command of her features that she showed no emotion at these side
+remarks.
+
+After luncheon the three sisters separated for their usual afternoon
+amusements. Neither of them gave a thought to Helen's loneliness. They did
+not ask her what she was going to do, or suggest anything to her save
+that, an hour later, when Belle saw her cousin preparing to leave the
+house in the same dress she had worn at luncheon, she cried:
+
+"Oh, Helen, _do_ go out and come in by the lower door; will you? The
+basement door, you know."
+
+"Sure!" replied Helen, cheerfully. "Saves the servants work, I suppose,
+answering the bell."
+
+But she knew as well as Belle why the request was made. Belle was ashamed
+to have her appear to be one of the family. If she went in and out by the
+servants' door it would not look so bad.
+
+Helen walked over to the avenue and looked at the frocks in the store
+windows. By their richness she saw that in this neighborhood, at least, to
+refit in a style which would please her cousins would cost quite a sum of
+money.
+
+"I won't do it!" she told herself, stubbornly. "If they want me to look
+well enough to go in and out of the front door, let them suggest buying
+something for me."
+
+She went back to the Starkweather mansion in good season; but she entered,
+as she had been told, by the area door. One of the maids let her in and
+tossed her head when she saw what an out-of-date appearance this poor
+relation of her master made.
+
+"Sure," this girl said to the cook, "if I didn't dress better nor _her_
+when I went out, I'd wait till afther dark, so I would!"
+
+Helen heard this, too. But she was a girl who could stick to her purpose.
+Criticism should not move her, she determined; she would continue to play
+her part.
+
+"Mr. Starkweather is in the den, Miss," said the housekeeper, meeting
+Helen on the stairs. "He has asked for you."
+
+Mrs. Olstrom was a very grim person, indeed. If she had shown the girl
+from the ranch some little kindliness the night before, she now hid it all
+very successfully.
+
+Helen returned to the lower floor and sought that room in which she had
+had her first interview with her relatives. Mr. Starkweather was alone. He
+looked more than a little disturbed; and of the two he was the more
+confused.
+
+"Ahem! I feel that we must have a serious talk together, Helen," he said,
+in his pompous manner. "It--it will be quite necessary--ahem!"
+
+"Sure!" returned the girl. "Glad to. I've got some serious things to ask
+you, too, sir."
+
+"Eh? Eh?" exclaimed the gentleman, worried at once.
+
+"You fire ahead, sir," said Helen, sitting down and crossing one knee over
+the other in a boyish fashion. "My questions will wait."
+
+"I--ahem!--I wish to know who suggested your coming here to New York?"
+
+"My father," replied Helen, simply and truthfully.
+
+"Your father?" The reply evidently both surprised and discomposed Mr.
+Starkweather. "I do not understand. Your--your father is dead----"
+
+"Yes, sir. It was just before he died."
+
+"And he told you to come here to--to _us_?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"But why?" demanded the gentleman with some warmth.
+
+"Dad said as how you folks lived nice, and knew all about refinement and
+eddication and all that. He wanted me to have a better chance than what I
+could get on the ranch."
+
+Mr. Starkweather glared at her in amazement. He was not at all a
+kind-hearted man; but he was very cowardly. He had feared her answer would
+be quite different from this, and now took courage.
+
+"Do you mean to say that merely this expressed wish that you might live
+at--ahem!--at my expense, and as my daughters live, brought you here to
+New York?"
+
+"That begun it, Uncle," said Helen, coolly.
+
+"Preposterous! What could Prince Morrell be thinking of? Why should I
+support you, Miss?"
+
+"Why, that don't matter so much," remarked Helen, calmly. "I can earn my
+keep, I reckon. If there's nothing to do in the house I'll go and find me
+a job and pay my board. But, you see, dad thought I ought to have the
+refining influences of city life. Good idea; eh?"
+
+"A very ridiculous idea! A very ridiculous idea, indeed!" cried Mr.
+Starkweather. "I never heard the like."
+
+"Well, you see, there's another reason why I came, too, Uncle," Helen
+said, blandly.
+
+"What's that?" demanded the gentleman, startled again.
+
+"Why, dad told me everything when he died. He--he told me how he got into
+trouble before he left New York--'way back there before I was born," spoke
+Helen, softly. "It troubled dad all his life, Uncle Starkweather.
+Especially after mother died. He feared he had not done right by her and
+me, after all, in running away when he was not guilty----"
+
+"Not guilty!"
+
+"Not guilty," repeated Helen, sternly. "Of course, we all know _that_.
+Somebody got all that money the firm had in bank; but it was not my
+father, sir."
+
+She gazed straight into the face of Mr. Starkweather. He did not seem to
+be willing to look at her in return; nor could he pluck up the courage to
+deny her statement.
+
+"I see," he finally murmured.
+
+"That is the second reason that has brought me to New York," said Helen,
+more softly. "And it is the more important reason. If you don't care to
+have me here, Uncle, I will find work that will support me, and live
+elsewhere. But I _must_ learn the truth about that old story against
+father. I sha'n't leave New York until I have cleared his name."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+SADIE AGAIN
+
+
+Mr. Starkweather appeared to recover his equanimity. He looked askance at
+his niece, however, as she announced her intention.
+
+"You are very young and very foolish, Helen--ahem! A mystery of sixteen or
+seventeen years' standing, which the best detectives could not unravel, is
+scarcely a task to be attempted by a mere girl."
+
+"Who else is there to do it?" Helen demanded, quickly. "I mean to find out
+the truth, if I can. I want you to tell me all you know, and I want you to
+tell me how to find Fenwick Grimes----"
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, girl!" exclaimed her uncle, testily. "What good would
+it do you to find Grimes?"
+
+"He was the other partner in the concern. He had just as good a chance to
+steal the money as father."
+
+"Ridiculous! Mr. Grimes was away from the city at the time."
+
+"Then you _do_ remember all about it, sir?" asked Helen, quickly.
+
+"Ahem! _That_ fact had not slipped my mind," replied her uncle, weakly.
+
+"And then, there was Allen Chesterton, the bookkeeper. Was a search ever
+made for him?"
+
+"High and low," returned her uncle, promptly. "But nobody ever heard of
+him thereafter."
+
+"And why did the shadow of suspicion not fall upon him as strongly as it
+did upon my father?" cried the girl, dropping, in her earnestness, her
+assumed uncouthness of speech.
+
+"Perhaps it did--perhaps it did," muttered Mr. Starkweather. "Yes, of
+course it did! They both ran away, you see----"
+
+"Didn't you advise dad to go away--until the matter could be cleared up?"
+demanded Helen.
+
+"Why--I--ahem!"
+
+"Both you and Mr. Grimes advised it," went on the girl, quite firmly. "And
+father did so because of the effect his arrest might have upon mother in
+her delicate health. Wasn't that the way it was?"
+
+"I--I presume that is so," agreed Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"And it was wrong," declared the girl, with all the confidence of youth.
+"Poor dad realized it before he died. It made all the firm's creditors
+believe that he was guilty. No matter what he did thereafter----"
+
+"Stop, girl!" exclaimed Mr. Starkweather. "Don't you know that if you stir
+up this old business the scandal will all come to light? Why--why, even
+_my_ name might be attached to it."
+
+"But poor dad suffered under the blight of it all for more than sixteen
+years."
+
+"Ahem! It is a fact. It was a great misfortune. Perhaps he _was_ advised
+wrongly," said Mr. Starkweather, with trembling lips. "But I want you to
+understand, Helen, that if he had not left the city he would undoubtedly
+have been in a cell when you were born."
+
+"I don't know that that would have killed me--especially, if by staying
+here, he might have come to trial and been freed of suspicion."
+
+"But he could not be freed of suspicion."
+
+"Why not? I don't see that the evidence was conclusive," declared the
+girl, hotly. "At least, _he_ knew of none such. And I want to know now
+every bit of evidence that could be brought against him."
+
+"Useless! Useless!" muttered her uncle, wiping his brow.
+
+"It is not useless. My father was accused of a crime of which he wasn't
+guilty. Why, his friends here--those who knew him in the old days--will
+think me the daughter of a criminal!"
+
+"But you are not likely to meet any of them----"
+
+"Why not?" demanded Helen, quickly.
+
+"Surely you do not expect to remain here in New York long enough for
+that?" said Uncle Starkweather, exasperated. "I tell you, I cannot permit
+it."
+
+"I must learn what I can about that old trouble before I go back--if I go
+back to Montana at all," declared his niece, doggedly.
+
+Mr. Starkweather was silent for a few moments. He had begun the discussion
+with the settled intention of telling Helen that she must return at once
+to the West. But he knew he had no real right of control over the girl,
+and to claim one would put him at the disadvantage, perhaps, of being made
+to support her.
+
+He saw she was a very determined creature, young as she was. If he
+antagonized her too much, she might, indeed, go out and get a position to
+support herself and remain a continual thorn in the side of the family.
+
+So he took another tack. He was not a successful merchant and real estate
+operator for nothing. He said:
+
+"I do not blame you, Helen, for _wishing_ that that old cloud over your
+father's name might be dissipated. I wish so, too. But, remember, long ago
+your--ahem!--your aunt and I, as well as Fenwick Grimes, endeavored to get
+to the bottom of the mystery. Detectives were hired. Everything possible
+was done. And to no avail."
+
+She watched him narrowly, but said nothing.
+
+"So, how can you be expected to do now what was impossible when the matter
+was fresh?" pursued her uncle, suavely. "If I could help you----"
+
+"You can," declared the girl, suddenly.
+
+"Will you tell me how?" he asked, in a rather vexed tone.
+
+"By telling me where to find Mr. Grimes," said Helen.
+
+"Why--er--that is easily done, although I have had no dealings with Mr.
+Grimes for many years. But if he is at home--he travels over the country a
+great deal--I can give you a letter to him and he will see you."
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+"You are determined to try to rake up all this trouble?"
+
+"I will see Mr. Grimes. And I will try to find Allen Chesterton."
+
+"Out of the question!" cried her uncle. "Chesterton is dead. He dropped
+out of sight long ago. A strange character at best, I believe. And if he
+was the thief----"
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"He certainly would not help you convict himself."
+
+"Not intentionally, sir," admitted Helen.
+
+"I never did see such an opinionated girl," cried Mr. Starkweather, in
+sudden wrath.
+
+"I'm sorry, sir, if I trouble you. If you don't want me here----"
+
+Now, her uncle had decided that it would not be safe to have the girl
+elsewhere in New York. At least, if she was under his roof, he could keep
+track of her activities. He began to be a little afraid of this very
+determined, unruffled young woman.
+
+"She's a little savage! No knowing what she might do, after all," he
+thought.
+
+Finally he said aloud: "Well, Helen, I will do what I can. I will
+communicate with Mr. Grimes and arrange for you to visit him--soon. I will
+tell you--ahem!--in the near future, all I can recollect of the affair.
+Will that satisfy you?"
+
+"I will take it very kindly of you, Uncle," said Helen non-committally.
+
+"And when you are satisfied of the impossibility of your doing yourself,
+or your father's name, any good in this direction, I shall expect you to
+close your visit in the East here and return to your friends in Montana."
+
+She nodded, looking at him with a strange expression on her shrewd face.
+
+"You mean to help me as a sort of a bribe," she observed, slowly. "To pay
+you I am to return home and never trouble you any more?"
+
+"Well--er--ahem!"
+
+"Is that it, Uncle Starkweather?"
+
+"You see, my dear," he began again, rather red in the face, but glad that
+he was getting out of a bad corner so easily, "you do not just fit in,
+here, with our family life. You see it yourself, perhaps?"
+
+"Perhaps I do, sir," replied the girl from Sunset Ranch.
+
+"You would be quite at a disadvantage beside my girls--ahem! You would not
+be happy here. And of course, you haven't a particle of claim upon us."
+
+"No, sir; not a particle," repeated Helen.
+
+"So you see, all things considered, it would be much better for you to
+return to your own people--ahem--_own people_," said Mr. Starkweather,
+with emphasis. "Now--er--you are rather shabby, I fear, Helen. I am not as
+rich a man as you may suppose. But I---- The fact is, the girls are
+ashamed of your appearance," he pursued, without looking at her, and
+opening his bill case.
+
+"Here is ten dollars. I understand that a young miss like you can be
+fitted very nicely to a frock downtown for less than ten dollars. I advise
+you to go out to-morrow and find yourself a more up-to-date frock
+than--than that one you have on, for instance.
+
+"Somebody might see you come into the house--ahem!--some of our friends, I
+mean, and they would not understand. Get a new dress, Helen. While you are
+here look your best. Ahem! We all must give the hostage of a neat
+appearance to society."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Helen, simply.
+
+She took the money. Her throat had contracted so that she could not thank
+him for it in words. But she retained a humble, thankful attitude, and it
+sufficed.
+
+He cared nothing about hurting the feelings of the girl. He did not even
+inquire--in his own mind--if she _had_ any feelings to be hurt! He was so
+self-centred, so pompous, so utterly selfish, that he never thought how he
+might wrong other people.
+
+Willets Starkweather was very tenacious of his own dignity and his own
+rights. But for the rights of others he cared not at all. And there was
+not an iota of tenderness in his heart for the orphan who had come so
+trustingly across the continent and put herself in his charge. Indeed,
+aside from a feeling of something like fear of Helen, he betrayed no
+interest in her at all.
+
+Helen went out of the room without a further word. She was more subdued
+that evening at dinner than she had been before. She did not break out in
+rude speeches, nor talk very much. But she was distinctly out of her
+element--or so her cousins thought--at their dinner table.
+
+"I tell you what it is, girls," Belle, the oldest cousin, said after the
+meal and when Helen had gone up to her room without being invited to join
+the family for the evening, "I tell you what it is: If we chance to have
+company to dinner while she remains, I shall send a tray up to her room
+with her dinner on it. I certainly could not _bear_ to have the Van
+Ramsdens, or the De Vornes, see her at our table."
+
+"Quite true," agreed Hortense. "We never could explain having such a
+cousin."
+
+"Horrors, no!" gasped Flossie.
+
+Helen had found a book in the library, and she lit the gas in her room
+(there was no electricity on this upper floor) and forgot her troubles and
+unhappiness in following the fortunes of the heroine of her story-book. It
+was late when she heard the maids retire. They slept in rooms opening out
+of a side hall.
+
+By and by--after the clock in the Metropolitan tower had struck the hour
+of eleven--Helen heard the rustle and step outside her door which she had
+heard in the corridor downstairs. She crept to her door, after turning out
+her light, and opening it a crack, listened.
+
+Had somebody gone downstairs? Was that a rustling dress in the corridor
+down there--the ghost walk? Did she hear again the "step--put; step--put"
+that had puzzled her already?
+
+She did not like to go out into the hall and, perhaps, meet one of the
+servants. So, after a time, she went back to her book.
+
+But the incident had given her a distaste for reading. She kept listening
+for the return of the ghostly step. So she undressed and went to bed. Long
+afterward (or so it seemed to her, for she had been asleep and slept
+soundly) she was aroused again by the "step--put; step--put" past her
+door.
+
+Half asleep as she was, she jumped up and ran to the door. When she opened
+it, it seemed as though the sound was far down the main corridor--and she
+thought she could see the entire length of that passage. At least, there
+was a great window at the far end, and the moonlight looked ghostily in.
+No shadow crossed this band of light, and yet the rustle and step
+continued after she reached her door and opened it.
+
+Then----
+
+Was that a door closed softly in the distance? She could not be sure.
+After a minute or two one thing she _was_ sure of, however; she was
+getting cold here in the draught, so she scurried back to bed, covered her
+ears, and went to sleep again.
+
+Helen got up the next morning with one well-defined determination. She
+would put into practice her uncle's suggestion. She would buy one of the
+cheap but showy dresses which shopgirls and minor clerks had to buy to
+keep up appearances.
+
+It was a very serious trouble to Helen that she was not to buy and disport
+herself in pretty frocks and hats. The desire to dress prettily and
+tastefully is born in most girls--just as surely as is the desire to
+breathe. And Helen was no exception.
+
+She was obstinate, however, and could keep to her purpose. Let the
+Starkweathers think she was poor. Let them continue to think so until her
+play was all over and she was ready to go home again.
+
+Her experience in the great city had told Helen already that she could
+never be happy there. She longed for the ranch, and for the Rose
+pony--even for Big Hen Billings and Sing and the rag-head, Jo-Rab, and
+Manuel and Jose, and all the good-hearted, honest "punchers" who loved her
+and who would no more have hurt her feelings than they would have made an
+infant cry.
+
+She longed to have somebody call her "Snuggy" and to smile upon her in
+good-fellowship. As she walked the streets nobody appeared to heed her. If
+they did, their expression of countenance merely showed curiosity, or a
+scorn of her clothes.
+
+She was alone. She had never felt so much alone when miles from any other
+human being, as she sometimes had been on the range. What had Dud said
+about this? That one could be very much alone in the big city? Dud was
+right.
+
+She wished that she had Dud Stone's address. She surely would have
+communicated with him now, for he was probably back in New York by this
+time.
+
+However, there was just one person whom she had met in New York who seemed
+to the girl from Sunset Ranch as being "all right." And when she made up
+her mind to do as her uncle had directed about the new frock, it was of
+this person Helen naturally thought.
+
+Sadie Goronsky! The girl who had shown herself so friendly the night Helen
+had come to town. She worked in a store where they sold ladies' clothing.
+With no knowledge of the cheaper department stores than those she had seen
+on the avenue, it seemed quite the right thing to Helen's mind for her to
+search out Sadie and her store.
+
+So, after an early breakfast taken in Mr. Lawdor's little room, and under
+the ministrations of that kind old man, Helen left the house--by the area
+door as requested--and started downtown.
+
+She didn't think of riding. Indeed, she had no idea how far Madison Street
+was. But she remembered the route the taxicab had taken uptown that first
+evening, and she could not easily lose her way.
+
+And there was so much for the girl from the ranch to see--so much that was
+new and curious to her--that she did not mind the walk; although it took
+her until almost noon, and she was quite tired when she got to Chatham
+Square.
+
+Here she timidly inquired of a policeman, who kindly crossed the wide
+street with her and showed her the way. On the southern side of Madison
+Street she wandered, curiously alive to everything about the district, and
+the people in it, that made them both seem so strange to her.
+
+"A dress, lady! A hat, lady!"
+
+The buxom Jewish girls and women, who paraded the street before the shops
+for which they worked, would give her little peace. Yet it was all done
+good-naturedly, and when she smiled and shook her head they smiled, too,
+and let her pass.
+
+Suddenly she saw the sturdy figure of Sadie Goronsky right ahead. She had
+stopped a rather over-dressed, loud-voiced woman with a child, and Helen
+heard a good deal of the conversation while she waited for Sadie (whose
+back was toward her) to be free.
+
+The "puller-in" and the possible customer wrangled some few moments, both
+in Yiddish and broken English; but Sadie finally carried her point--and
+the child--into the store! The woman had to follow her offspring, and once
+inside some of the clerks got hold of her and Sadie could come forth to
+lurk for another possible customer.
+
+"Well, see who's here!" exclaimed the Jewish girl, catching sight of
+Helen. "What's the matter, Miss? Did they turn you out of your uncle's
+house upon Madison Avenyer? I never _did_ expect to see you again."
+
+"But I expected to see you again, Sadie; I told you I'd come," said Helen,
+simply.
+
+"So it wasn't just a josh; eh?"
+
+"I always keep my word," said the girl from the West.
+
+"Chee!" gasped Sadie. "We ain't so partic'lar around here. But I'm glad to
+see you, Miss, just the same. Be-lieve me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A NEW WORLD
+
+
+The two girls stood on the sidewalk and let the tide of busy humanity flow
+by unnoticed. Both were healthy types of youth--one from the open ranges
+of the Great West, the other from a land far, far to the East.
+
+Helen Morrell was brown, smiling, hopeful-looking; but she certainly was
+not "up to date" in dress and appearance. The black-eyed and black-haired
+Russian girl was just as well developed for her age and as rugged as she
+could be; but in her cheap way her frock was the "very latest thing," her
+hair was dressed wonderfully, and the air of "city smartness" about her
+made the difference between her and Helen even more marked.
+
+"I never s'posed you'd come down here," said Sadie again.
+
+"You asked was I turned out of my uncle's house," responded Helen,
+seriously. "Well, it does about amount to that."
+
+"Oh, no! Never!" cried the other girl.
+
+"Let me tell you," said Helen, whose heart was so full that she longed for
+a confidant. Besides, Sadie Goronsky would never know the Starkweather
+family and their friends, and she felt free to speak fully. So, without
+much reserve, she related her experiences in her uncle's house.
+
+"Now, ain't they the mean things!" ejaculated Sadie, referring to the
+cousins. "And I suppose they're awful rich?"
+
+"I presume so. The house is very large," declared Helen.
+
+"And they've got loads and loads of dresses, too?" demanded the working
+girl.
+
+"Oh, yes. They are very fashionably dressed," Helen told her. "But see! I
+am going to have a new dress myself. Uncle Starkweather gave me ten
+dollars."
+
+"Chee!" ejaculated Sadie. "Wouldn't it give him a cramp in his pocket-book
+to part with so much mazouma?"
+
+"Mazouma?"
+
+"That's Hebrew for money," laughed Sadie. "But you _do_ need a dress.
+Where did you get that thing you've got on?"
+
+"Out home," replied Helen. "I see it isn't very fashionable."
+
+"Say! we got through sellin' them things to greenies two years back,"
+declared Sadie.
+
+"You haven't been at work all that time; have you?" gasped the girl from
+the ranch.
+
+"Sure. I got my working papers four years ago. You see, I looked a lot
+older than I really was, and comin' across from the old country all us
+children changed our ages, so't we could go right to work when we come
+here without having to spend all day in school. We had an uncle what come
+over first, and he told us what to do."
+
+Helen listened to this with some wonder. She felt perfectly safe with
+Sadie, and would have trusted her, if it were necessary, with the money
+she had hidden away in her closet at Uncle Starkweather's; yet the other
+girl looked upon the laws of the land to which she had come for freedom as
+merely harsh rules to be broken at one's convenience.
+
+"Of course," said Sadie, "I didn't work on the sidewalk here at first. I
+worked back in Old Yawcob's shop--making changes in the garments for fussy
+customers. I was always quick with my needle.
+
+"Then I helped the salesladies. But business was slack, and people went
+right by our door, and I jumped out one day and started to pull 'em in.
+And I was better at it----
+
+"Good-day, ma'am! Will you look at a beautiful skirt--just the very latest
+style--we've only got a few of them for samples?" She broke off and left
+Helen to stand wondering while Sadie chaffered with another woman, who had
+hesitated a trifle as she passed the shop.
+
+"Oh, no, ma'am! You was no greenie. I could tell that at once. That's why
+I spoke English to you yet," Sadie said, flattering the prospective buyer,
+and smiling at her pleasantly. "If you will just step in and see these
+skirts--or a two-piece suit if you will?"
+
+Helen observed her new friend with amazement. Although she knew Sadie
+could be no older than herself, she used the tact of long business
+experience in handling the woman. And she got her into the store, too!
+
+"I wash my hands of 'em when they get inside," she said, laughing, and
+coming back to Helen. "If Old Yawcob and his wife and his salesladies
+can't hold 'em, it isn't _my_ fault, you understand. I'm about the
+youngest puller-in there is along Madison Street--although that little
+hunchback in front of the millinery shop yonder _looks_ younger."
+
+"But you don't try to pull _me_ in," said Helen, laughing. "And I've got
+ten whole dollars to spend."
+
+"That's right. But then, you see, you're my friend, Miss," said Sadie. "I
+want to be sure you get your money's worth. So I'm going with you when you
+buy your dress--that is, if you'll let me."
+
+"Let you? Why, I'd dearly love to have you advise me," declared the
+Western girl. "And don't--_don't_--call me 'Miss.' I'm Helen Morrell, I
+tell you."
+
+"All right. If you say so. But, you know, you _are_ from Madison Avenyer
+just the same."
+
+"No. I'm from a great big ranch out West."
+
+"That's like a farm--yes? I gotter cousin that works on a farm over on
+Long Island. It's a big farm--it's eighty acres. Is that farm you come
+from as big as that?"
+
+Helen nodded and did not smile at the girl's ignorance. "Very much bigger
+than eighty acres," she said. "You see, it has to be, for we raise cattle
+instead of vegetables."
+
+"Well, I guess I don't know much about it," admitted Sadie, frankly. "All
+I know is this city and mostly this part of it down here on the East Side.
+We all have to work so hard, you know. But we're getting along better than
+we did at first, for more of us children can work.
+
+"And now I want you should go home with me for dinner, Helen--yes! It is
+my dinner hour quick now; and then we will have time to pick you out a
+bargain for a dress. Sure! You'll come?"
+
+"If I won't be imposing on you?" said Helen, slowly.
+
+"Huh! That's all right. We'll have enough to eat _this_ noon. And it ain't
+so Jewish, either, for father don't come home till night. Father's awful
+religious; but I tell mommer she must be up-to-date and have some 'Merican
+style about her. I got her to leave off her wig yet. Catch _me_ wearin' a
+wig when I'm married just to make me look ugly. Not!"
+
+All this rather puzzled Helen; but she was too polite to ask questions.
+She knew vaguely that Jewish people followed peculiar rabbinical laws and
+customs; but what they were she had no idea. However, she liked Sadie, and
+it mattered nothing to Helen what the East Side girl's faith or bringing
+up had been. Sadie was kind, and friendly, and was really the only person
+in all this big city in whom the ranch girl could place the smallest
+confidence.
+
+Sadie ran into the store for a moment and soon a big woman with an
+unctuous smile, a ruffled white apron about as big as a postage stamp, and
+her gray hair dressed as remarkably as Sadie's own, came out upon the
+sidewalk to take the young girl's place.
+
+"Can't I sell you somedings, lady?" she said to the waiting Helen.
+
+"Now, don't you go and run _my_ customer in, Ma Finkelstein!" cried Sadie,
+running out and hugging the big woman. "Helen is my friend and she's going
+home to eat mit me."
+
+"_Ach!_ you are already a United Stater yet," declared the big woman,
+laughing. "Undt the friends you have it from Number Five Av'noo--yes?"
+
+"You guessed it pretty near right," cried Sadie. "Helen lives on Madison
+Avenyer--and it ain't Madison Avenyer _uptown_, neither!"
+
+She slipped her hand in Helen's and bore her off to the tenement house in
+which Helen had had her first adventure in the great city.
+
+"Come on up," said Sadie, hospitably. "You look tired, and I bet you
+walked clear down here?"
+
+"Yes, I did," admitted Helen.
+
+"Some o' mommer's soup mit lentils will rest you, I bet. It ain't far
+yet--only two flights."
+
+Helen followed her cheerfully. But she wondered if she was doing just
+right in letting this friendly girl believe that she was just as poor as
+the Starkweathers thought she was. Yet, on the other hand, wouldn't Sadie
+Goronsky have felt embarrassed and have been afraid to be her friend, if
+she knew that Helen Morrell was a very, very wealthy girl and had at her
+command what would seem to the Russian girl "untold wealth"?
+
+"I'll pay her for this," thought Helen, with the first feeling of real
+happiness she had experienced since leaving the ranch. "She shall never be
+sorry that she was kind to me."
+
+So she followed Sadie into the humble home of the latter on the third
+floor of the tenement with a smiling face and real warmth at her heart. In
+Yiddish the downtown girl explained rapidly her acquaintance with "the
+Gentile." But, as she had told Helen, Sadie's mother had begun to break
+away from some of the traditions of her people. She was fast becoming "a
+United Stater," too.
+
+She was a handsome, beaming woman, and she was as generous-hearted as
+Sadie herself. The rooms were a little steamy, for Mrs. Goronsky had been
+doing the family wash that morning. But the table was set neatly and the
+food that came on was well prepared and--to Helen--much more acceptable
+than the dainties she had been having at Uncle Starkweather's.
+
+The younger children, who appeared for the meal, were right from the
+street where they had been playing, or from work in neighboring factories,
+and were more than a little grimy. But they were not clamorous and they
+ate with due regard to "manners."
+
+"Ve haf nine, Mees," said Mrs. Goronsky, proudly. "Undt they all are
+healt'y--_ach! so_ healt'y. It takes mooch to feed them yet."
+
+"Don't tell about it, Mommer" cried Sadie. "It aint stylish to have big
+fam'lies no more. Don't I tell you?"
+
+"What about that Preesident we hadt--that Teddy Sullivan--what said big
+fam'lies was a good d'ing? Aindt that enough? Sure, Sarah, a _Preesident_
+iss stylish."
+
+"Oh, Mommer!" screamed Sadie. "You gotcher politics mixed. 'Sullivan' is
+the district leader wot gifs popper a job; but 'Teddy' was the President
+yet. You ain't never goin' to be real American."
+
+But her mother only laughed. Indeed, the light-heartedness of these poor
+people was a revelation to Helen. She had supposed vaguely that very poor
+people must be all the time serious, if not actually in tears.
+
+"Now, Helen, we'll rush right back to the shop and I'll make Old Yawcob
+sell you a bargain. She's goin' to get her new dress, Mommer. Ain't that
+fine?"
+
+"Sure it iss," declared the good woman. "Undt you get her a bargain,
+Sarah."
+
+"_Don't_ call me 'Sarah,' Mommer!" cried the daughter. "It ain't stylish,
+I tell you. Call me 'Sadie.'"
+
+Her mother kissed her on both plump cheeks. "What matters it, my little
+lamb?" she said, in their own tongue. "Mother love makes _any_ name
+sweet."
+
+Helen did not, of course, understand these words; but the caress, the look
+on their faces, and the way Sadie returned her mother's kiss made a great
+lump come into the orphan girl's throat. She could hardly find her way in
+the dim hall to the stairway, she was so blinded by tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"STEP--PUT; STEP--PUT"
+
+
+An hour later Helen was dressed in a two-piece suit, cut in what a chorus
+of salesladies, including old Mrs. Finkelstein and Sadie herself, declared
+were most "stylish" lines--and it did not cost her ten dollars, either!
+Indeed, Sadie insisted upon going with her to a neighboring millinery
+store and purchasing a smart little hat for $1.59, which set off the new
+suit very nicely.
+
+"Sure, this old hat and suit of yours is wort' a lot more money, Helen,"
+declared the Russian girl. "But they ain't just the style, yuh see. And
+style is everything to a girl. Why, nobody'd take you for a greenie
+_now_!"
+
+Helen was quite wise enough to know that she had never been dressed so
+cheaply before; but she recognized, too, the truth of her friend's
+statement.
+
+"Now, you take the dress home, and the hat. Maybe you can find a cheap
+tailor who will make over the dress. There's enough material in it. That's
+an awful wide skirt, you know."
+
+"But I couldn't walk in a skirt as narrow as the one you have on, Sadie."
+
+"Chee! if it was stylish," confessed Sadie, "I'd find a way to walk in a
+piece of stove-pipe!" and she giggled.
+
+So Helen left for uptown with her bundles, wearing her new suit and hat.
+She took a Fourth Avenue car and got out only a block from her uncle's
+house. As she hurried through the side street and came to the Madison
+Avenue corner, she came face-to-face with Flossie, coming home from school
+with a pile of books under her arm.
+
+Flossie looked quite startled when she saw her cousin. Her eyes grew wide
+and she swept the natty looking, if cheaply-dressed Western girl, with an
+appreciative glance.
+
+"Goodness me! What fine feathers!" she cried. "You've been loading up with
+new clothes--eh? Say, I like that dress."
+
+"Better than the caliker one?" asked Helen, slily.
+
+"You're not so foolish as to believe I liked _that_," returned Flossie,
+coolly. "I told Belle and Hortense that you weren't as dense as they
+seemed to think you."
+
+"Thanks!" said Helen, drily.
+
+"But that dress is just in the mode," repeated Flossie, with some
+admiration.
+
+"Your father's kindness enabled me to get it," said Helen, briefly.
+
+"Humph!" said Flossie, frankly. "I guess it didn't cost you much, then."
+
+Helen did not reply to this comment; but as she turned to go down to the
+basement door, Flossie caught her by the arm.
+
+"Don't you do that!" she exclaimed. "Belle can be pretty mean sometimes.
+You come in at the front door with me."
+
+"No," said Helen, smiling. "You come in at the area door with _me_. It's
+easier, anyway. There's a maid just opening it."
+
+So the two girls entered the house together. They were late to
+lunch--indeed, Helen did not wish any; but she did not care to explain why
+she was not hungry.
+
+"What's the matter with you, Flossie?" demanded Hortense. "We've done
+eating, Belle and I. And if you wish your meals here, Helen, please get
+here on time for them."
+
+"You mind your own business!" cried Flossie, suddenly taking up the
+cudgels for her cousin as well as herself. "You aren't the boss, Hortense!
+I got kept after school, anyway. And cook can make something hot for me
+and Helen."
+
+"You _need_ to be kept after school--from the kind of English you use,"
+sniffed her sister.
+
+"I don't care! I hate the old studies!" declared Flossie, slamming her
+books down upon the table. "I don't see why I have to go to school at all.
+I'm going to ask Pa to take me out. I need a rest."
+
+Which was very likely true, for Miss Flossie was out almost every night to
+some party, or to the theater, or at some place which kept her up very
+late. She had no time for study, and therefore was behind in all her
+classes. That day she had been censured for it at school--and when they
+took a girl to task for falling behind in studies at _that_ school, she
+was very far behind, indeed!
+
+Flossie grumbled about her hard lot all through luncheon. Helen kept her
+company; then, when it was over, she slipped up to her own room with her
+bundles. Both Hortense and Belle had taken a good look at her, however,
+and they plainly approved of her appearance.
+
+"She's not such a dowdy as she seemed," whispered Hortense to the oldest
+sister.
+
+"No," admitted Belle. "But that's an awful cheap dress she bought."
+
+"I guess she didn't have much to spend," laughed Hortense. "Pa wasn't
+likely to be very liberal. It puzzles me why he should have kept her here
+at all."
+
+"He says it is his duty," scoffed Belle. "Now, you know Pa! He never was
+so worried about duty before; was he?"
+
+These girls, brought up as they were, steeped in selfishness and seeing
+their father likewise so selfish, had no respect for their parent. Nor
+could this be wondered at.
+
+Going up to her room that afternoon Helen met Mrs. Olstrom coming down.
+The housekeeper started when she saw the young girl, and drew back. But
+Helen had already seen the great tray of dishes the housekeeper carried.
+And she wondered.
+
+Who took their meals up on this top floor? The maids who slept here were
+all accounted for. She had seen them about the house. And Gregson, too. Of
+course Mr. Lawdor and Mrs. Olstrom had their own rooms below.
+
+Then who could it be who was being served on this upper floor? Helen was
+more than a little curious. The sounds she had heard the night before
+dove-tailed in her mind with these soiled dishes on the tray.
+
+She was almost tempted to walk through the long corridor in which she
+thought she had heard the scurrying footsteps pass the night before. Yet,
+suppose she was caught by Mrs. Olstrom--or by anybody else--peering about
+the house?
+
+"_That_ wouldn't be very nice," mused the girl.
+
+"Because these people think I am rude and untaught, is no reason why I
+should display any _real_ rudeness."
+
+She was very curious, however; the thought of the tray-load of dishes
+remained in her mind all day.
+
+At dinner that night even Mr. Starkweather gave Helen a glance of approval
+when she appeared in her new frock.
+
+"Ahem!" he said. "I see you have taken my advice, Helen. We none of us can
+afford to forget what is due to custom. You are much more presentable."
+
+"Thank you, Uncle Starkweather," replied Helen, demurely. "But out our way
+we say: 'Fine feathers don't make fine birds.'"
+
+"You needn't fret," giggled Flossie. "Your feather's aren't a bit too
+fine."
+
+But Flossie's eyes were red, and she plainly had been crying.
+
+"I _hate_ the old books!" she said, suddenly. "Pa, why do I have to go to
+school any more?"
+
+"Because I am determined you shall, young lady," said Mr. Starkweather,
+firmly. "We all have to learn."
+
+"Hortense doesn't go."
+
+"But you are not Hortense's age," returned her father, coolly. "Remember
+that. And I must have better reports of your conduct in school than have
+reached me lately," he added.
+
+Flossie sulked over the rest of her dinner. Helen, going up slowly to her
+room later, saw the door of her youngest cousin's room open, and glancing
+in, beheld Flossie with her head on her book, crying hard.
+
+Each of these girls had a beautiful room of her own. Flossie's was
+decorated in pink, with chintz hangings, a lovely bed, bookshelves, a desk
+of inlaid wood, and everything to delight the eye and taste of any girl.
+Beside the common room Helen occupied, this of Flossie's was a fairy
+palace.
+
+But Helen was naturally tender-hearted. She could not bear to see the
+younger girl crying. She ventured to step inside the door and whisper:
+
+"Flossie?"
+
+Up came the other's head, her face flushed and wet and her brow a-scowl.
+
+"What do _you_ want?" she demanded, quickly.
+
+"Nothing. Unless I can help you. And if so, _that_ is what I want," said
+the ranch girl, softly.
+
+"Goodness me! _You_ can't help me with algebra. What do I want to know
+higher mathematics for? I'll never have use for such knowledge."
+
+"I don't suppose we can ever learn _too_ much," said Helen, quietly.
+
+"Huh! Lots you know about it. You never were driven to school against your
+will."
+
+"No. Whenever I got a chance to go I was glad."
+
+"Maybe I'd be glad, too, if I lived on a ranch," returned Flossie,
+scornfully.
+
+Helen came nearer to the desk and sat down beside her.
+
+"You don't look a bit pretty with your eyes all red and hot. Crying isn't
+going to help," she said, smiling.
+
+"I suppose not," grumbled Flossie, ungrateful of tone.
+
+"Come, let me get some water and cologne and bathe your face." Helen
+jumped up and went to the tiny bathroom. "Now, I'll play maid for you,
+Flossie."
+
+"Oh, all right," said the younger girl. "I suppose, as you say, crying
+isn't going to help."
+
+"Not at all. No amount of tears will solve a problem in algebra. And you
+let me see the questions. You see," added Helen, slowly, beginning to
+bathe her cousin's forehead and swollen eyes, "we once had a very fine
+school-teacher at the ranch. He was a college professor. But he had weak
+lungs and he came out there to Montana to rest."
+
+"That's good!" murmured Flossie, meaning bathing process, for she was not
+listening much to Helen's remarks.
+
+"I knew it would make you feel better. But now, let me see these algebra
+problems. I took it up a little when--when Professor Payton was at the
+ranch."
+
+"You didn't!" cried Flossie, in wonder.
+
+"Let me see them," pursued her cousin, nodding.
+
+She had told the truth--as far as she went. After Professor Payton had
+left the ranch and Helen had gone to Denver to school, she had showed a
+marked taste for mathematics and had been allowed to go far ahead of her
+fellow-pupils in that study.
+
+Now, at a glance, she saw what was the matter with Flossie's attempts to
+solve the problems. She slipped into a seat beside the younger girl again
+and, in a few minutes, showed Flossie just how to solve them.
+
+"Why, Helen! I didn't suppose you knew so much," said Flossie, in
+surprise.
+
+"You see, _that_ is something I had a chance to learn between times--when
+I wasn't roping cows or breaking ponies," said Helen, drily.
+
+"Humph! I don't believe you did either of those vulgar things," declared
+Flossie, suddenly.
+
+"You are mistaken. I do them both, and do them well," returned Helen,
+gravely. "But they are _not_ vulgar. No more vulgar than your sister
+Belle's golf. It is outdoor exercise, and living outdoors as much as one
+can is a sort of religion in the West."
+
+"Well," said Flossie, who had recovered her breath now. "I don't care what
+you do outdoors. You can do algebra in the house! And I'm real thankful to
+you, Cousin Helen."
+
+"You are welcome, Flossie," returned the other, gravely; but then she went
+her way to her own room at the top of the house. Flossie did not ask her
+to remain after she had done all she could for her.
+
+But Helen had found plenty of reading matter in the house. Her cousins and
+uncle might ignore her as they pleased. With a good book in her hand she
+could forget all her troubles.
+
+Now she slipped into her kimono, propped herself up in bed, turned the
+gas-jet high, and lost herself in the adventures of her favorite heroine.
+The little clock on the mantel ticked on unheeded. The house grew still.
+The maids came up to bed chattering. But still Helen read on.
+
+She had forgotten the sounds she had heard in the old house at night. Mrs.
+Olstrom had mentioned that there were "queer stories" about the
+Starkweather mansion. But Helen would not have thought of them at this
+time, had something not rattled her doorknob and startled her.
+
+"Somebody wants to come in," was the girl's first thought, and she hopped
+out of bed and ran to unlock it.
+
+Then she halted, with her hand upon the knob. A sound outside had arrested
+her. But it was not the sound of somebody trying the latch.
+
+Instead she plainly heard the mysterious "step--put; step--put" again. Was
+it descending the stairs? It seemed to grow fainter as she listened.
+
+At length the girl--somewhat shaken--reached for the key of her door
+again, and turned it. Then she opened it and peered out.
+
+The corridor was faintly illuminated. The stairway itself was quite dark,
+for there was no light in the short passage below called "the
+ghost-walk."
+
+The girl, in her slippers, crept to the head of the flight. There she
+could hear the steady, ghostly footstep from below. No other sound within
+the great mansion reached her ears. It _was_ queer.
+
+To and fro the odd step went. It apparently drew nearer, then
+receded--again and again.
+
+Helen could not see any of the corridor from the top of the flight. So she
+began to creep down, determined to know for sure if there really was
+something or somebody there.
+
+Nor was she entirely unafraid now. The mysterious sounds had got upon her
+nerves. Whether they were supernatural, or natural, she was determined to
+solve the mystery here and now.
+
+Half-way down the stair she halted. The sound of the ghostly step was at
+the far end of the hall. But it would now return, and the girl could see
+(her eyes having become used to the dim light) more than half of the
+passage.
+
+There was the usual rustling sound at the end of the passage. Then the
+steady "step--put" approached.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+FORGOTTEN
+
+
+From the stair-well some little light streamed up into the darkness of the
+ghost-walk. And into this dim radiance came a little old lady--her
+old-fashioned crimped hair an aureole of beautiful gray--leaning lightly
+on an ebony crutch, which in turn tapped the floor in accompaniment to her
+clicking step--
+
+"Step--put; step--put; step--put."
+
+Then she was out of the range of Helen's vision again. But she turned and
+came back--her silken skirts rustling, her crutch tapping in perfect
+time.
+
+This was no ghost. Although slender--ethereal--almost bird-like in her
+motions--the little old lady was very human indeed. She had a pink flush
+in her cheeks, and her skin was as soft as velvet. Of course there were
+wrinkles; but they were beautiful wrinkles, Helen thought.
+
+She wore black half-mitts of lace, and her old-fashioned gown was of
+delightfully soft, yet rich silk. The silk was brown--not many old ladies
+could have worn that shade of brown and found it becoming. Her eyes were
+bright--the unseen girl saw them sparkle as she turned her head, in that
+bird-like manner, from side to side.
+
+She was a dear, doll-like old lady! Helen longed to hurry down the
+remaining steps and take her in her arms.
+
+But, instead, she crept softly back to the head of the stairs, and slipped
+into her own room again. _This_ was the mystery of the Starkweather
+mansion. The nightly exercise of this mysterious old lady was the
+foundation for the "ghost-walk." The maids of the household feared the
+supernatural; therefore they easily found a legend to explain the rustling
+step of the old lady with the crutch.
+
+And all day long the old lady kept to her room. That room must be in the
+front of the house on this upper floor--shut away, it was likely, from the
+knowledge of most of the servants.
+
+Mrs. Olstrom, of course, knew about the old lady--who she was--what she
+was. It was the housekeeper who looked after the simple wants of the
+mysterious occupant of the Starkweather mansion.
+
+Helen wondered if Mr. Lawdor, the old butler, knew about the mystery? And
+did the Starkweathers themselves know?
+
+The girl from the ranch was too excited and curious to go to sleep now.
+She had to remain right by her door, opened on a crack, and learn what
+would happen next.
+
+For an hour at least she heard the steady stepping of the old lady. Then
+the crutch rapped out an accompaniment to her coming upstairs. She was
+humming softly to herself, too. Helen, crouched behind the door,
+distinguished the sweet, cracked voice humming a fragment of the old
+lullaby:
+
+              "Rock-a-by, baby, on the tree-top,
+              When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
+              When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
+              Down will come baby----"
+
+Thus humming, and the crutch tapping--a mere whisper of sound--the old
+lady rustled by Helen's door, on into the long corridor, and disappeared
+through some door, which closed behind her and smothered all further
+sound.
+
+Helen went to bed; but she could not sleep--not at first. The mystery of
+the little old lady and her ghostly walk kept her eyes wide open and her
+brain afire for hours.
+
+She asked question after question into the dark of the night, and only
+imagination answered. Some of the answers were fairly reasonable; others
+were as impossible as the story of Jack the Giant Killer.
+
+Finally, however, Helen dropped asleep. She awoke at her usual
+hour--daybreak--and her eager mind began again asking questions about the
+mystery. She went down in her outdoor clothes for a morning walk, with the
+little old lady uppermost in her thoughts.
+
+As usual, Mr. Lawdor was on the lookout for her. The shaky old man loved
+to have her that few minutes in his room in the early morning. Although he
+always presided over the dinner, with Gregson under him, the old butler
+seldom seemed to speak, or be spoken to. Helen understood that, like Mrs.
+Olstrom, Lawdor was a relic of the late owner--Mr. Starkweather's
+great-uncle's--household.
+
+Cornelius Starkweather had been a bachelor. The mansion had descended to
+him from a member of the family who had been a family man. But that family
+had died young--wife and all--and the master had handed the old homestead
+over to Mr. Cornelius and had gone traveling himself--to die in a foreign
+land.
+
+Once Helen had heard Lawdor murmur something about "Mr. Cornelius" and she
+had picked up the remainder of her information from things she had heard
+Mr. Starkweather and the girls say.
+
+Now the old butler met her with an ingratiating smile and begged her to
+have something beside her customary coffee and roll.
+
+"I have a lovely steak, Miss. The butcher remembers me once in a while,
+and he knows I am fond of a bit of tender beef. My teeth are not what they
+were once, you know, Miss."
+
+"But why should I eat your nice steak?" demanded Helen, laughing at him.
+"My teeth are good for what the boys on the range call 'bootleg.' That's
+steak cut right next to the hoof!"
+
+"Ah, but, Miss! There is so much more than I could possibly eat," he
+urged.
+
+He had already turned the electricity into his grill. The ruddy
+steak--salted, peppered, with tiny flakes of garlic upon it--he brought
+from his own little icebox. The appetizing odor of the meat sharpened
+Helen's appetite even as she sipped the first of her coffee.
+
+"I'll just _have_ to eat some, I expect, Mr. Lawdor," she said. Then she
+had a sudden thought, and added: "Or perhaps you'd like to save this
+tidbit for the little old lady in the attic?"
+
+Mr. Lawdor turned--not suddenly; he never did anything with suddenness;
+but it was plain she had startled him.
+
+"Bless me, Miss--bless me--bless me----"
+
+He trailed off in his usual shaky way; but his lips were white and he
+stared at Helen like an owl for a full minute. Then he added:
+
+"Is there a lady in the attic, Miss?" And he said it in his most polite
+way.
+
+"Of course there is, Mr. Lawdor; and you know it. Who is she? I am only
+curious."
+
+"I--I hear the maids talking about a ghost, Miss--foolish things----"
+
+"And I'm not foolish, Mr. Lawdor," said the Western girl, laughing
+shortly. "Not that way, at least. I heard her; last night I saw her. Next
+time I'm going to speak to her--Unless it isn't allowed."
+
+"It--it isn't allowed, Miss," said Lawdor, speaking softly, and with a
+glance at the closed door of the room.
+
+"Nobody has forbidden _me_ to speak to her," declared Helen, boldly. "And
+I'm curious--mighty curious, Mr. Lawdor. Surely she is a nice old
+lady--there is nothing the matter with her?"
+
+The butler touched his forehead with a shaking finger. "A little wrong
+there, Miss," he whispered. "But Mary Boyle is as innocent and harmless as
+a baby herself."
+
+"Can't you tell me about her--who she is--why she lives up there--and
+all?"
+
+"Not here, Miss."
+
+"Why not?" demanded Helen, boldly.
+
+"It might offend Mr. Starkweather, Miss. Not that he has anything to do
+with Mary Boyle. He had to take the old house with her in it."
+
+"What _do_ you mean, Lawdor?" gasped Helen, growing more and more amazed
+and--naturally--more and more curious.
+
+The butler flopped the steak suddenly upon the sizzling hot plate and in
+another moment the delicious bit was before her. The old man served her as
+expertly as ever, but his face was working strangely.
+
+"I couldn't tell you here, Miss. Walls have ears, they say," he whispered.
+"But if you'll be on the first bench beyond the Sixth Avenue entrance to
+Central Park at ten o'clock this morning, I will meet you there.
+
+"Yes, Miss--the rolls. Some more butter, Miss? I hope the coffee is to
+your taste, Miss?"
+
+"It is all very delicious, Lawdor," said Helen, rather weakly, and feeling
+somewhat confused. "I will surely be there. I shall not need to come back
+for the regular breakfast after having this nice bit."
+
+Helen attracted much less attention upon her usual early morning walk this
+time. She was dressed in the mode, if cheaply, and she was not so
+self-conscious. But, in addition, she thought but little of herself or her
+own appearance or troubles while she walked briskly uptown.
+
+It was of the little old woman, and her mystery, and the butler's words
+that she thought. She strode along to the park, and walked west until she
+reached the bridle-path. She had found this before, and came to see the
+riders as they cantered by.
+
+How Helen longed to put on her riding clothes and get astride a lively
+mount and gallop up the park-way! But she feared that, in doing so, she
+might betray to her uncle or the girls the fact that she was not the
+"pauper cowgirl" they thought her to be.
+
+She found a seat overlooking the path, at last, and rested for a while;
+but her mind was not upon the riders. Before ten o'clock she had walked
+back south, found the entrance to the park opposite Sixth Avenue, and sat
+down upon the bench specified by the old butler. At the stroke of the hour
+the old man appeared.
+
+"You could not have walked all this way, Lawdor?" said the girl, smiling
+upon him. "You are not at all winded."
+
+"No, Miss. I took the car. I am not up to such walks as you can take," and
+he shook his head, mumbling: "Oh, no, no, no, no----"
+
+"And now, what can you tell me, sir?" she said, breaking in upon his
+dribbling speech. "I am just as curious as I can be. That dear little old
+lady! Why is she in uncle's house?"
+
+"Ah, Miss! I fancy she will not be there for long, but she was an
+encumbrance upon it when Mr. Willets Starkweather came with his family to
+occupy it."
+
+"What _do_ you mean?" cried the girl.
+
+"Mary Boyle served in the Starkweather family long, long ago. Before I
+came to valet for Mr. Cornelius, Mary Boyle had her own room and was a
+fixture in the house. Mr. Cornelius took her more--more philosophically,
+as you might say, Miss. My present master and his daughters look upon poor
+Mary Boyle as a nuisance. They have to allow her to remain. She is a life
+charge upon the estate--that, indeed, was fixed before Mr. Cornelius's
+time. But the present family are ashamed of her. Perhaps I ought not to
+say it, but it is true. They have relegated her to a suite upon the top
+floor, and other people have quite forgotten Mary Boyle--yes, oh, yes,
+indeed! Quite forgotten her--quite forgotten her----"
+
+Then, with the aid of some questioning, Helen heard the whole sad story of
+Mary Boyle, who was a nurse girl in the family of the older generation of
+Starkweathers. It was in her arms the last baby of the family had panted
+his weakly little life out. She, too, had watched by the bed of the lady
+of the mansion, who had borne these unfortunate children only to see them
+die.
+
+And Mary Boyle was one of that race who often lose their own identity in
+the families they serve. She had loved the lost babies as though they had
+been of her own flesh. She had walked the little passage at the back of
+the house (out of which had opened the nursery in those days) so many,
+many nights with one or the other of her fretful charges, that by and by
+she thought, at night, that she had them yet to soothe.
+
+Mary Boyle, the weak-minded yet harmless ex-nurse, had been cherished by
+her old master. And in his will he had left her to the care of Mr.
+Cornelius, the heir. In turn she had been left a life interest in the
+mansion--to the extent of shelter and food and proper clothes--when
+Willets Starkweather became proprietor.
+
+He could not get rid of the old lady. But, when he refurnished the house
+and made it over, he had banished Mary Boyle to the attic rooms. The girls
+were ashamed of her. She sometimes talked loudly if company was about. And
+always of the children she had once attended. She spoke of them as though
+they were still in her care, and told how she had walked the hall with
+one, or the other, of her dead and gone treasures the very night before!
+
+For it was found necessary to allow Mary Boyle to have the freedom of that
+short corridor on the chamber floor late at night. Otherwise she would not
+remain secluded in her own rooms at the top of the house during the
+daytime.
+
+As the lower servants came and went, finally only Mrs. Olstrom and Mr.
+Lawdor knew about the old lady, save the family. And Mr. Starkweather
+impressed it upon the minds of both these employes that he did not wish
+the old lady discussed below stairs.
+
+So the story had risen that the house was haunted. The legend of the
+"ghost walk" was established. And Mary Boyle lived out her lonely life,
+with nobody to speak to save the housekeeper, who saw her daily; Mr.
+Lawdor, who climbed to her rooms perhaps once each week, and Mr.
+Starkweather himself, who saw and reported upon her case to his fellow
+trustees each month.
+
+It was, to Helen, an unpleasant story. It threw a light on the characters
+of her uncle and cousins which did not enhance her admiration of them, to
+say the least. She had found them unkind, purse-proud heretofore; but to
+her generous soul their treatment of the little old woman, who must be but
+a small charge upon the estate, seemed far more blameworthy than their
+treatment of herself.
+
+The story of the old butler made Helen quiver with indignation. It was
+like keeping the old lady in jail--this shutting her away into the attic
+of the great house. The Western girl went back to Madison Avenue (she
+walked, but the old butler rode) with a thought in her mind that she was
+not quite sure was a wise one. Yet she had nobody to discuss her idea
+with--nobody whom she wished to take into her confidence.
+
+There were two lonely and neglected people in that fine mansion. She,
+herself, was one. The old nurse, Mary Boyle, was the other. And Helen felt
+a strong desire to see and talk with her fellow-sufferer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A DISTINCT SHOCK
+
+
+That evening when Mr. Starkweather came home, he handed Helen a sealed
+letter.
+
+"I have ascertained," the gentleman said, in his most pompous way, "that
+Mr. Fenwick Grimes is in town. He has recently returned from a tour of the
+West, where he has several mining interests. You will find his address on
+that envelope. Give the letter to him. It will serve to introduce you."
+
+He watched her closely while he said this, but did not appear to do so.
+Helen thanked him with some warmth.
+
+"This is very good of you, Uncle Starkweather--especially when I know you
+do not approve."
+
+"Ahem! Sleeping dogs are much better left alone. To stir a puddle is only
+to agitate the mud. This old business would much better be forgotten. You
+know all that there is to be known about the unfortunate affair, I am
+quite sure."
+
+"I cannot believe that, Uncle," Helen replied. "Had you seen how my dear
+father worried about it when he was dying----"
+
+Mr. Starkweather could look at her no longer--not even askance. He shook
+his head and murmured some commonplace, sympathetic phrase. But it did not
+seem genuine to his niece.
+
+She knew very well that Mr. Starkweather had no real sympathy for her; nor
+did he care a particle about her father's death. But she tucked the letter
+into her pocket and went her way.
+
+As she passed through the upstairs corridor Flossie was entering one of
+the drawing-rooms, and she caught her cousin by the hand. Flossie had been
+distinctly nicer to Helen--in private--since the latter had helped her
+with the algebra problems.
+
+"Come on in, Helen. Belle's just pouring tea. Don't you want some?" said
+the youngest Starkweather girl.
+
+It was in Helen's mind to excuse herself. Yet she was naturally too kindly
+to refuse to accept an advance like this. And she, like Flossie, had no
+idea that there was anybody in the drawing-room save Belle and Hortense.
+
+In they marched--and there were three young ladies--friends of
+Belle--sipping tea and eating macaroons by the log fire, for the evening
+was drawing in cold.
+
+"Goodness me!" ejaculated Belle.
+
+"Well, I never!" gasped Hortense. "Have _you_ got to butt in, Floss?"
+
+"We want some tea, too," said the younger girl, boldly, angered by her
+sisters' manner.
+
+"You'd better have it in the nursery," yawned Hortense. "This is no place
+for kids in the bread-and-butter stage of growth."
+
+"Oh, is that so?" cried Flossie. "Helen and I are not kids--distinctly
+_not_! I hope I know my way about a bit--and as for Helen," she added,
+with a wicked grin, knowing that the speech would annoy her sisters,
+"Helen can shoot, and rope steers, and break ponies to saddle, and all
+that. She told me so the other evening. Isn't that right, Cousin Helen?"
+
+"Why, your cousin must be quite a wonderful girl," said Miss Van Ramsden,
+one of the visitors, to Flossie. "Introduce me; won't you, Flossie?"
+
+Belle was furious; and Hortense would have been, too, only she was too
+languid to feel such an emotion. Flossie proceeded to introduce Helen to
+the three visitors--all of whom chanced to be young ladies whom Belle was
+striving her best to cultivate.
+
+And before Flossie and Helen had swallowed their tea, which Belle gave
+them ungraciously, Gregson announced a bevy of other girls, until quite a
+dozen gaily dressed and chattering misses were gathered before the fire.
+
+At first Helen had merely bowed to the girls to whom she was introduced.
+She had meant to drink her tea quietly and excuse herself. She did not
+wish now to display a rude manner before Belle's guests; but her oldest
+cousin seemed determined to rouse animosity in her soul.
+
+"Yes," she said, "Helen is paying us a little visit--a very brief one. She
+is not at all used to our ways. In fact, Indian squaws and what-do-you
+call-'ems--Greasers--are about all the people she sees out her way."
+
+"Is that so?" cried Miss Van Ramsden. "It must be a perfectly charming
+country. Come and sit down by me, Miss Morrell, and tell me about it."
+
+Indeed, at the moment, there was only one vacant chair handy, and that was
+beside Miss Van Ramsden. So Helen took it and immediately the young lady
+began to ask questions about Montana and the life Helen had lived there.
+
+Really, the young society woman was not offensive; the questions were
+kindly meant. But Helen saw that Belle was furious and she began to take a
+wicked delight in expatiating upon her home and her own outdoor
+accomplishments.
+
+When she told Miss Van Ramsden how she and her cowboy friends rode after
+jack-rabbits and roped them--if they could!--and shot antelope from the
+saddle, and that the boys sometimes attacked a mountain lion with nothing
+but their lariats, Miss Van Ramsden burst out with:
+
+"Why, that's perfectly grand! What fun you must have! Do hear her, girls!
+Why, what we do is tame and insipid beside things that happen out there in
+Montana every day."
+
+"Oh, don't bother about her, May!" cried Belle. "Come on and let's plan
+what we'll do Saturday if we go to the Nassau links."
+
+"Listen here!" cried Miss Van Ramsden, eagerly. "Golf can wait. We can
+always golf. But your cousin tells the very bulliest stories. Go on, Miss
+Morrell. Tell some more."
+
+"Do, do!" begged some of the other girls, drawing their chairs nearer.
+
+Helen was not a little embarrassed. She would have been glad to withdraw
+from the party. But then she saw the looks exchanged between Belle and
+Hortense, and they fathered a wicked desire in the Western girl's heart to
+give her proud cousins just what they were looking for.
+
+She began, almost unconsciously, to stretch her legs out in a mannish
+style, and drop into the drawl of the range.
+
+"Coyote running is about as good fun as we have," she told Miss Van
+Ramsden in answer to a question. "Yes, they're cowardly critters; but they
+can run like a streak o' greased lightning--yes-sir-ree-bob!" Then she
+began to laugh a little. "I remember once when I was a kid, that I got
+fooled about coyotes."
+
+"I'd like to know what you are now," drawled Hortense, trying to draw
+attention from her cousin, who was becoming altogether too popular. "And
+you should know that children are better seen than heard."
+
+"Let's see," said Helen, quickly, "our birthdays are in the same month;
+aren't they, 'Tense? I believe mother used to tell me so."
+
+"Oh, never mind your birthdays," urged Miss Van Ramsden, while some of the
+other girls smiled at the repartee. "Let's hear about your adventure with
+the coyote, Miss Morrell."
+
+"Why, ye see," said Helen, "it wasn't much. I was just a kid, as I
+say--mebbe ten year old. Dad had given me a light rifle--just a
+twenty-two, you know--to learn to shoot with. And Big Hen Billings----"
+
+"Doesn't that sound just like those dear Western plays?" gasped one young
+lady. "You know--'The Squaw Man of the Golden West,' or 'Missouri,'
+or----"
+
+"Hold on! You're getting your titles mixed, Lettie," cried Miss Van
+Ramsden. "Do let Miss Morrell tell it."
+
+"To give that child the center of the stage!" snapped Hortense, to Belle.
+
+"I could shake Flossie for bringing her in here," returned the oldest
+Starkweather girl, quite as angrily.
+
+"Tell us about your friend, Big Hen Billings," drawled another visitor.
+"He _does_ sound so romantic!"
+
+Helen almost giggled. To consider the giant foreman of Sunset Ranch a
+romantic type was certainly "going some." She had the wicked thought that
+she would have given a large sum of money, right then and there, to have
+had Big Hen announced by Gregson and ushered into the presence of this
+group of city girls.
+
+"Well," continued Helen, thus urged, "father had given me a little rifle
+and Big Hen gave me a maverick----"
+
+"What's that?" demanded Flossie.
+
+"Well, in this case," explained Helen, "it was an orphaned calf. Sometimes
+they're strays that haven't been branded. But in this case a bear had
+killed the calf's mother in a _coulee_. She had tried to fight Mr. Bear,
+of course, or he never would have killed her at that time of year. Bears
+aren't dangerous unless they're hungry."
+
+"My! but they look dangerous enough--at the zoo," observed Flossie.
+
+"I tell ye," said Helen, reflectively, "that was a pretty calf. And I was
+little, and I hated to hear them blat when the boys burned them----"
+
+"Burned them! Burned little calves! How cruel! What for?"
+
+These were some of the excited comments. And in spite of Belle and
+Hortense, most of the visitors were now interested in the Western girl's
+narration.
+
+"They have to brand 'em, you see," explained Helen. "Otherwise we never
+could pick our cattle out from other herds at the round-up. You see, on
+the ranges--even the fenced ranges--cattle from several ranches often get
+mixed up. Our brand is the Link-A. Our ranch was known, in the old days,
+as the 'Link-A.' It's only late years that we got to calling it Sunset
+Ranch."
+
+"Sunset Ranch!" cried Miss Van Ramsden, quickly. "Haven't I heard
+something about _that_ ranch? Isn't it one of the big, big cattle and
+horse-breeding ranches?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Helen, slowly, fearing that she had unwittingly got
+into a blind alley of conversation.
+
+"And your father owns _that_ ranch?" cried Miss Van Ramsden.
+
+"My--my father is dead," said Helen. "I am an orphan."
+
+"Oh, dear me! I am so sorry," murmured the wealthy young lady.
+
+But here Belle broke in, rather scornfully:
+
+"The child means that her father worked on that ranch. She has lived there
+all her life. Quite a rude place, I fawncy."
+
+Helen's eyes snapped. "Yes. He worked there," she admitted, which was true
+enough, for nobody could honestly have called Prince Morrell a sluggard.
+
+"He was--what you call it--a cowpuncher, I believe," whispered Belle, in
+an aside.
+
+If Helen heard she made no sign, but went on with her story.
+
+"You see, it was _such_ a pretty calf," she repeated. "It had big blue
+eyes at first--calves often do. And it was all sleek and brown, and it
+played so cunning. Of course, its mother being dead, I had a lot of
+trouble with it at first. I brought it up by hand.
+
+"And I tied a broad pink ribbon around its neck, with a big bow at the
+back. When it slipped around under its neck Bozie would somehow get the
+end of the ribbon in its mouth, and chew, and chew on it till it was
+nothing but pulp."
+
+She laughed reminiscently, and the others, watching her pretty face in the
+firelight, smiled too.
+
+"So you called it Bozie?" asked Miss Van Ramsden.
+
+"Yes. And it followed me everywhere. If I went out to try and shoot plover
+or whistlers with my little rifle, there was Bozie tagging after me. So,
+you see when it came calf-branding time, I hid Bozie."
+
+"You hid it? How?" demanded Flossie. "Seems to me a calf would be a big
+thing to hide."
+
+"I didn't hide it under my bed," laughed Helen. "No, sir! I took it out to
+a far distant _coulee_ where I used to go to play--a long way from the
+bunk-house--and I hitched Bozie to a stub of a tree where there was nice,
+short, sweet grass for him.
+
+"I hitched him in the morning, for the branding fires were going to be
+built right after dinner. But I had to show up at dinner--sure. The whole
+gang would have been out hunting me if I didn't report for meals."
+
+"Yes. I presume you ran perfectly wild," sighed Hortense, trying to look
+as though she were sorry for this half-savage little cousin from the "wild
+and woolly."
+
+"Oh, very wild indeed," drawled Helen. "And after dinner I raced back to
+the _coulee_ to see that Bozie was all right. I took my rifle along so the
+boys would think I'd gone hunting and wouldn't tell father.
+
+"I'd heard coyotes barking, as I thought, all the forenoon. And when I
+came to the hollow, there was Bozie running around and around his stub,
+and getting all tangled up, blatting his heart out, while two big old
+coyotes (or so I thought they were) circled around him.
+
+"They ran a little way when they saw me coming. Coyotes sometimes _will_
+kill calves. But I had never seen one before that wouldn't hunt the tall
+pines when they saw me coming.
+
+"Crackey, those two were big fellers! I'd seen big coyotes, but never none
+like them two gray fellers. And they snarled at me when I made out to
+chase 'em--me wavin' my arms and hollerin' like a Piute buck. I never had
+seen coyotes like them before, and it throwed a scare into me--it sure
+did!
+
+"And Bozie was so scared that he helped to scare me. I dropped my gun and
+started to untangle him. And when I got him loose he acted like all
+possessed!
+
+[Illustration: "LET'S HEAR ABOUT YOUR ADVENTURE WITH THE COYOTE,
+MISS MORRELL." (Page 180.)]
+
+"He wanted to run wild," proceeded Helen. "He yanked me over the ground at
+a great rate. And all the time those two gray fellers was sneakin' up
+behind me. Crackey, but I got scared!
+
+"A calf is awful strong--'specially when it's scared. You don't know! I
+had to leave go of either the rope, or the gun, and somehow," and Helen
+smiled suddenly into Miss Van Ramsden's face--who understood--"somehow I
+felt like I'd better hang onter the gun."
+
+"They weren't coyotes!" exclaimed Miss Van Ramsden.
+
+"No. They was wolves--real old, gray, timber-wolves. We hadn't been
+bothered by them for years. Two of 'em, working together, would pull down
+a full-grown cow, let alone a little bit of a calf and a little bit of a
+gal," said Helen.
+
+"O-o-o!" squealed the excited Flossie. "But they didn't?"
+
+"I'm here to tell the tale," returned her cousin, laughing outright.
+"Bozie broke away from me, and the wolves leaped after him--full chase. I
+knelt right down----"
+
+"And prayed!" gasped Flossie. "I should think you would!"
+
+"I _did_ pray--yes, ma'am! I prayed that the bullet would go true. But I
+knelt down to steady my aim," said Helen, chuckling again. "And I broke
+the back of one of them wolves with my first shot. That was wonderful
+luck--with a twenty-two rifle. The bullet's only a tiny thing.
+
+"But I bowled Mr. Wolf over, and then I ran after the other one and the
+blatting Bozie. Bozie dodged the wolf somehow and came circling back at
+me, his tail flirting in the air, coming in stiff-legged jumps as a calf
+does, and searching his soul for sounds to tell how scart he was!
+
+"I'd pushed another cartridge into my gun. But when Bozie came he bowled
+me over--flat on my back. Then the wolf made a leap, and I saw his
+light-gray underbody right over my head as he flashed after poor Bozie.
+
+"I jest let go with the gun! Crackey! I didn't have time to shoulder it,
+and it kicked and hit me in the nose and made my nose bleed awful. I was
+'all in,' too, and I thought the wolf was going to eat Bozie, and then
+mebbe _me_, and I set up to bawl so't Big Hen heard me farther than he
+could have heard my little rifle.
+
+"Big Hen was always expectin' me to get inter some kind of trouble, and he
+come tearin' along lookin' for me. And there I was, rolling in the grass
+an' bawling, the second wolf kicking his life out with the blood pumping
+from his chest, not three yards away from me, and Bozie streakin' it
+acrost the hill, his tail so stiff with fright you could ha' hung yer hat
+on it!"
+
+"Isn't that perfectly grand!" cried Miss Van Ramsden, seizing Helen by the
+shoulders when she had finished and kissing her on both cheeks. "And you
+only ten years old?"
+
+"But, you see," said Helen, more quietly, "we are brought up that way in
+Montana. We would die a thousand deaths if we were taught to be afraid of
+anything on four legs."
+
+"It must be an exceedingly crude country," remarked Hortense, her nose
+tip-tilted.
+
+"Shocking!" agreed Belle.
+
+"I'd like to go there," announced Flossie, suddenly. "I think it must be
+fine."
+
+"Quite right," agreed Miss Van Ramsden.
+
+The older Starkweather girls could not go against their most influential
+caller. They were only too glad to have the Van Ramsden girl come to see
+them. But while the group were discussing Helen's story, the girl from
+Sunset Ranch stole away and went up to her room.
+
+She had not meant to tell about her life in the West--not in just this
+way. She had tried to talk about as her cousins expected her to, when once
+she got into the story; but its effect upon the visitors had not been just
+what either the Starkweather girls, or Helen herself, had expected.
+
+She saw that she was much out of the good graces of Belle and Hortense at
+dinner; they hardly spoke to her. But Flossie seemed to delight in rubbing
+her sisters against the grain.
+
+"Oh, Pa," she cried, "when Helen goes home, let me go with her; will you?
+I'd just love to be on a ranch for a while--I know I should! And I _do_
+need a vacation."
+
+"Nonsense, Floss!" gasped Hortense.
+
+"You are a perfectly vulgar little thing," declared Belle. "I don't know
+where you get such low tastes."
+
+Mr. Starkweather looked at his youngest daughter in amazement. "How very
+ridiculous," he said. "Ahem! You do not know what you ask, Flossie."
+
+"Oh! I never can have anything I want," whined Miss Flossie. "And it must
+be great fun out on that ranch. You ought to hear Helen tell about it,
+Pa."
+
+"Ahem! I have no interest in such things," said her father, sternly. "Nor
+should you. No well conducted and well brought up girl would wish to live
+among such rude surroundings."
+
+"Very true, Pa," sighed Hortense, shrugging her shoulders.
+
+"You are a very common little thing, with very common tastes, Floss,"
+admonished her oldest sister.
+
+Now, all this was whipping Helen over Flossie's shoulders. The latter
+grinned wickedly; but Helen felt hurt. These people were determined to
+consider Sunset Ranch an utterly uncivilized place, and her associates
+there beneath contempt.
+
+The following morning she set out to find the address upon the letter Mr.
+Starkweather had given to her. Whether she should present this letter to
+Mr. Grimes at once, Helen was not sure. It might be that she would wish to
+get acquainted with him before he knew her identity. Her expectations were
+very vague, at best; and yet she had hope.
+
+She hoped that through this old-time partner of her father's she might
+pick up some clue to the truth about the lost money. The firm of Grimes &
+Morrell had been on the point of paying several heavy bills and notes. The
+money for this purpose, as well as the working capital of the firm, had
+been in two banks. Either partner could draw checks against these
+accounts.
+
+When the deposits in both banks had been withdrawn it had been done by
+checks for each complete balance being presented at the teller's window of
+both banks. And the tellers were quite sure that the person presenting the
+checks was Prince Morrell.
+
+In the rush of business, however, neither teller had been positive of
+this. Of course, it might have been the bookkeeper, or Mr. Grimes, who had
+got the money on the checks. However it might be, the money disappeared;
+there was none with which to pay the creditors or to continue the business
+of the firm.
+
+Fenwick Grimes had been a sufferer; Willets Starkweather had been a
+sufferer. What Allen Chesterton, the bookkeeper, had been, it was hard to
+say. He had walked out of the office of the firm and had never come back.
+Likewise after a few days of worry and disturbance, Prince Morrell had
+done the same.
+
+At least, the general public presumed that Mr. Morrell had run away
+without leaving any clue. It looked as though the senior partner and the
+bookkeeper were in league.
+
+But public interest in the mystery had soon died out. Only the creditors
+remembered. After ten years they were pleasantly reminded of the wreck of
+the firm of Grimes & Morrell by the receipt of their lost money, with
+interest compounded to date. The lawyer that had come on from the West to
+make the settlement for Prince Morrell bound the creditors to secrecy. The
+bankruptcy court had long since absolved Fenwick Grimes from
+responsibility for the debts of the old firm. Neither he nor Mr.
+Starkweather had to know that the partner who ran away had legally cleared
+his name.
+
+But there was something more. The suspicion against Prince Morrell had
+burdened the cattle king's mind and heart when he died. And his little
+daughter felt it to be her sacred duty to try, at least, to uncover that
+old mystery and to prove to the world that her father had been guiltless.
+
+Mr. Grimes lived in an old house in a rather shabby old street just off
+Washington Square. Helen asked Mr. Lawdor how to find the place, and she
+rode downtown upon a Fifth Avenue 'bus.
+
+The house was a half-business, half-studio building; and Mr. Grimes's
+name--graven on a small brass plate--was upon a door in the lower hall. In
+fact, Mr. Grimes, and his clerk, occupied this lower floor, the gentleman
+owning the building, which he was holding for a rise in real estate values
+in that neighborhood.
+
+The clerk, a sharp-looking young man with a pen behind his ear, answered
+Helen's somewhat timid knock. He looked her over severely before he even
+offered to admit her, asking:
+
+"What's your business, please?"
+
+"I came to see Mr. Grimes, sir."
+
+"By appointment?"
+
+"No-o, sir. But----"
+
+"He is very busy. He seldom sees anybody save by appointment. Are--are you
+acquainted with him?"
+
+"No, sir. But my business is important."
+
+"To you, perhaps," said the clerk, with a sneering smile. "But if it isn't
+important to _him_ I shall catch it for letting you in. What is it?"
+
+"It is business that I can tell to nobody except Mr. Grimes. Not in
+detail. But I can say this much: It concerns a time when Mr. Grimes was in
+business with another man--sixteen years or more ago and I have come--come
+from his old partner."
+
+"Humph!" said the clerk. "A begging interview? For, if so, take my
+advice--don't try it. It would be no use. Mr. Grimes never gives anything
+away. He wouldn't even bait a rat-trap with cheese-parings."
+
+"I have not come here to beg money of Mr. Grimes," said Helen, drawing
+herself up.
+
+"Well, you can come in and wait. Perhaps he'll see you."
+
+This had all been said very low in the public hall, the clerk holding the
+door jealously shut behind him. Now he opened it slowly and let her enter
+a large room, with old and dusty furniture set about it, and the clerk's
+own desk far back, by another door--which latter he guarded against all
+intrusion. Behind that door, of course, was the man she had come to see.
+
+But as Helen turned to take a seat on the couch which the clerk indicated
+with a gesture of his pen, she suddenly discovered that she was not the
+only person waiting in the room. In a decrepit armchair by one of the
+front windows, and reading the morning paper, with his wig pushed back
+upon his bald brow, was the queer old gentleman with whom she had ridden
+across the continent when she had come to New York.
+
+The discovery of this acquaintance here in Mr. Grimes's office gave Helen
+a distinct shock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+PROBING FOR FACTS
+
+
+Helen sat down quickly and stared across the room at the queer old man.
+The latter at first seemed to pay her no attention. But finally she saw
+that he was skillfully "taking stock" of her from behind the shelter of
+the printed sheet.
+
+The Western girl was more direct than that. She got up and walked across
+to him. The clerk uttered a very loud "Ahem!" as though to warn her to
+drop her intention; but Helen said coolly:
+
+"Don't you remember me, sir?"
+
+"Ha! I believe it _is_ the little girl who came from the coast with me
+last week," said the man.
+
+"Not from the coast; from Montana," corrected Helen.
+
+"But you are dressed differently now and I was not sure," he said. "How
+have you been?"
+
+"Very well, I thank you. And you, sir?"
+
+"Well. Very. But I did not expect to see you again--er--_here_."
+
+"No, sir. And you are waiting to see Mr. Grimes, too?"
+
+"Er--something like that," admitted the old man.
+
+Helen eyed him thoughtfully. She had already glanced covertly once or
+twice at the clerk across the room. She was quite bright enough to see
+between the rungs of a ladder.
+
+"_You_ are Mr. Grimes," she said, bluntly, looking again at the old man,
+who was adjusting his wig.
+
+He looked up at her slily, his avaricious little eyes twinkling as they
+had aboard the train when he had looked over her shoulder and caught her
+counting her money.
+
+"You're a very smart little girl," he said, with a short laugh. "What have
+you come to see me about? Do you think of investing some of your money in
+mining stocks?"
+
+"No," said Helen. "I have no money to invest."
+
+"Humph. Did you find your folks?" he asked, turning the subject quickly.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What's the matter with you, then? What do you want?"
+
+"You _are_ Mr. Grimes?" she pursued, to make sure.
+
+"Well, I don't deny it."
+
+"I have come to talk to you about--about Prince Morrell," she said, in a
+very low voice so that the clerk could not hear.
+
+"_Who_?" gasped the man, falling back in his chair. Evidently Helen had
+startled him.
+
+"Prince Morrell," she replied.
+
+"What are you to Prince Morrell?" demanded the man.
+
+"I am his daughter. He is dead. I have come here to talk with you about
+the time--the time he left New York," said the girl from Sunset Ranch,
+hesitatingly.
+
+Mr. Grimes stared at her, with his wig still awry, for some moments; then
+the color began to come back into his face. Helen had not realized before
+that he had turned pale.
+
+"You come into my office," he snapped, jumping up briskly. "I'll get to
+the bottom of this!"
+
+His movements were so very abrupt and he looked at her so strangely that,
+to tell the truth, the girl from Sunset Ranch was a bit frightened. She
+trailed along behind him, however, with only a hesitating step, passing
+the wondering clerk, and heard the lock of the door of the inner office
+snap behind her as Mr. Grimes shut it.
+
+He drew heavy curtains over the door, too. The place was a gloomy
+apartment until he turned on the electric light over a desk table. She saw
+that there were curtains at all the windows, and at the other door, too.
+
+"Come here," he said, beckoning her to the desk, and to a chair that stood
+by it, and still speaking softly. "We will not be overheard here. Now!
+Tell me what you mean by coming to me in this way?"
+
+He shot such an ugly look at her that Helen was again startled.
+
+"What do _you_ mean?" she returned, hiding her real emotion. "I have come
+to ask some questions. Why shouldn't I?"
+
+"You say Prince Morrell is dead?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Nearly two months, now."
+
+"Who sent you, then?"
+
+"Sent me to you?" queried Helen, in wonder.
+
+"Yes. Somebody must have sent you," said Mr. Grimes, watching her with his
+little eyes, in which there seemed to burn a very baleful look.
+
+"You are mistaken. Nobody sent me," said Helen, recovering a measure of
+her courage. She believed that this strange man was a coward. But why
+should he be afraid of her?
+
+"You came clear across this continent to interview me about--about
+something that is gone and forgotten--almost before you were born?"
+
+"It isn't forgotten," returned Helen, meaningly. "Such things are never
+forgotten. My father said so."
+
+"But it's no use hauling everything to the surface of the pool again,"
+grumbled Mr. Grimes.
+
+"That is about what Uncle Starkweather says; but I do not feel that way,"
+said Helen, slowly.
+
+"Ha! Starkweather! Of course he's in it. I might have known," muttered the
+old man. "So _he_ sent you to me?"
+
+"No, sir. He objected to my coming," declared Helen, quite convinced now
+that she should not deliver her uncle's letter.
+
+"The Starkweathers are the people you came East to visit?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And how did _they_ receive you in their fine Madison Avenue mansion?"
+queried Mr. Grimes, looking up at her slily again.
+
+"Just as you know they did," returned Helen, briefly.
+
+"Ha! How's that? And you with all that----"
+
+He halted and--for a moment--had the grace to blush. He saw that she read
+his mind.
+
+"They do not know that I have some money for emergencies," said Helen,
+coolly.
+
+"Ho, ho!" chuckled Mr. Grimes, suddenly.
+
+"So they consider you a pauper relative from the West?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Ho, ho!" he laughed again, and rubbed his hands. "How _did_ Prince leave
+you fixed?"
+
+"I--I have something beside the money you saw me counting," she told him,
+bluntly.
+
+"And Willets Starkweather doesn't know it?"
+
+"He has never asked me if I were in funds."
+
+"I bet you!" cackled Grimes, at last giving way to a spasm of mirth which,
+Helen thought, was not nice to look upon. "And how does he fancy having
+you in his family?"
+
+"He does not like it. Neither do his daughters. And one of their reasons
+is because people will ask questions about Prince Morrell's daughter. They
+are afraid their friends will bring up father's old trouble," continued
+Helen, her voice quivering. "So that is why, Mr. Grime's, I am determined
+to know the truth about it."
+
+"The truth? What do you mean?" snarled Grimes, suddenly starting out of
+his chair.
+
+"Why, sir," said Helen, amazed, "dad told me all about it when he was
+dying. All he knew. But he said by this time surely the truth of the
+matter must have come to light. I want to clear his name----"
+
+"How are you going to do _that_?" demanded Mr. Grimes.
+
+"I hope you will help me--if you can, sir," she said, pleadingly.
+
+"How can I help more now than I could at the time he was charged with the
+crime?"
+
+"I do not know. Perhaps you can't. Perhaps Uncle Starkweather cannot,
+either. But, it seems to me, if anything had been heard from that
+bookkeeper----"
+
+"Allen Chesterton?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well! I don't know how you are going to prove it, but I have always
+believed Allen was guilty," declared Mr. Grimes, nodding his head
+vigorously, and still watching her face.
+
+"Oh, have you, Mr. Grimes?" cried the girl, eagerly, clasping her hands.
+"You have _always_ believed it?"
+
+"Quite so. Evidence was against my old partner--yes. But it wasn't very
+direct. And then--what became of Allen? Why did he run away?"
+
+"That is what other people said about father," said Helen, doubtfully. "It
+did not make him guilty, but it made him _look_ guilty. The same can be
+said of the bookkeeper."
+
+"But how can you go farther than that?" asked Mr. Grimes. "It's too long
+ago for the facts to be brought out. We can have our suspicions. We might
+even publish our suspicions. Let us get something in the papers--I can do
+it," and he nodded, decisively, "stating that facts recently brought to
+light seemed to prove conclusively that Prince Morrell, once accused of
+embezzlement of the bank accounts of the firm of Grimes & Morrell, was
+guiltless of that crime. And we will state that the surviving partner of
+the firm is convinced that the only person guilty of that embezzlement was
+one Allen Chesterton, who was the firm's bookkeeper. How about _that_?
+Wouldn't that fill the bill?" asked Mr. Grimes, rubbing his hands
+together.
+
+"If we had such an article published in the papers and circulated among
+his old friends, wouldn't that satisfy you, my dear? Then you would do no
+more of this foolish probing for facts that cannot possibly be
+reached--eh? What do you say, Helen Morrell? Isn't that a famous idea?"
+
+But the girl from Sunset Ranch was, for the moment, speechless. For a
+second time, it seemed to her, she was being bribed to make no serious
+investigation of the evidence connected with her father's old trouble.
+Both Uncle Starkweather and this old man seemed to desire to head her
+off!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+"JONES"
+
+
+"Isn't that a famous idea?" demanded Mr. Grimes, for the second time.
+
+"I--I am not so sure, sir," Helen stammered.
+
+"Why, of course it is!" he cried, smiting the desk before him with the
+flat of his palm. "Don't you see that your father's name will be cleared
+of all doubt? And quite right, too! He never _was_ guilty."
+
+"It makes me quite happy to hear you say so," said the girl, wiping her
+eyes. "But how about the bookkeeper?"
+
+"Who--Allen?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, we couldn't find him now. If he kept hidden then, when there was a
+hue and cry out for him, what chance would there be of finding him after
+seventeen years? Oh, no! Allen can't be found. And, even if he could, I
+doubt but the thing is outlawed. I don't know that the authorities would
+take it up. And I am pretty sure the creditors of the old firm would
+not."
+
+"That is not what I mean," said Helen, softly. "But suppose we accuse this
+bookkeeper--_and he is not guilty, either_?"
+
+"Well! Is that any great odds? Nobody knows where he is----"
+
+"But suppose he should reappear," persisted Helen. "Suppose somebody who
+loved him--a daughter, perhaps, as I am the daughter of Prince
+Morrell--with just as great a desire to clear her father's name as I have
+to clear mine---- Suppose such a person should appear determined to prove
+Mr. Chesterton not guilty, too?"
+
+"Ha, but we've beat 'em to it--don't you see?" demanded Mr. Grimes,
+heartlessly.
+
+"Oh, sir! I could not take such an apparent victory at such a cost!" cried
+Helen, wiping her eyes again. "You say you _believe_ Allen Chesterton was
+guilty instead of father. But you put forward no evidence--no more than
+the mere suspicion that cursed poor dad. No, no, sir! To claim new
+evidence, but to show no new evidence, is not enough. I must find out for
+sure just who stole that money. That is what dad himself said would be the
+only way in which his name could be cleared."
+
+"Nonsense, girl!" ejaculated Fenwick Grimes, scowling again.
+
+"I am sorry to go against both your wishes and Uncle Starkweather's," said
+Helen, slowly. "But I want the truth! I can't be satisfied with anything
+but the truth about this whole unfortunate business.
+
+"It made poor dad very unhappy when he was dying. It troubled my poor
+mother--so _he_ said--all her life out there in Montana. I want to know
+where the money went--who got it--all about it. Then I can prove to people
+that it was not _my_ father who committed the crime."
+
+"This is a very quixotic thing you have undertaken, my girl," remarked Mr.
+Grimes, with a sudden change in his manner.
+
+"I hope not. I hope I shall learn the truth."
+
+"How?"
+
+He shot the question at her as from a gun. His face had grown very grim
+and his sly little eyes gleamed threateningly. More than ever did Helen
+dislike and fear this man. The avaricious light in his eyes as he noted
+the money she carried on the train, had first warned her against him. Now,
+when she knew so much more about him, and how he was immediately connected
+with her father's old trouble, Helen feared him all the more.
+
+Because of his love of money alone, she could not trust him. And he had
+suggested something which was, upon the face of it, dishonest and unfair.
+She rose from her seat and shook her head slowly.
+
+"I do not know how," Helen said, sadly. "But I hope something may turn up
+to help me. I understand that you have never known anything about Allen
+Chesterton since he ran away?"
+
+"Not a thing," declared Mr. Grimes, shortly, rising as well.
+
+"It is through him I hoped to find the truth," she murmured.
+
+"So you won't accept my help?" growled Mr. Grimes.
+
+"Not--not the kind you offer. It--it wouldn't be right," Helen replied.
+
+"Very well, then!" snapped the man, and opened the door into the outer
+office. As he ushered her into the other room the outer door opened and a
+shabby man poked his head and shoulders in at the door.
+
+"I say!" he said, quaveringly. "Is Mr. Grimes----"
+
+"Get out of here, you old ruffian!" cried Fenwick Grimes, flying into a
+sudden passion. "Of course, you'd got to come around to-day!"
+
+"I only wanted to say, Mr. Grimes----"
+
+"Out of my sight!" roared Grimes. "Here, Leggett!" to his clerk; "give
+Jones a dollar and let him go. I can't see him now."
+
+"Jones, sir?" queried the clerk, seemingly somewhat staggered, and looking
+from his employer to the old scarecrow in the doorway.
+
+"Yes, sir!" snarled Mr. Grimes. "I said Jones, sir--Jones, Jones, Jones!
+Do you understand plain English, Mr. Leggett? Take that dollar on the desk
+and give it into the hands of _Jones_ there at the door. And then oblige
+me by kicking him down the steps if he doesn't move fast enough."
+
+Leggett moved rapidly himself after this. He seemed to catch his
+employer's real meaning, and he grabbed the dollar and chased the beggar
+out into the hall. Grimes, meanwhile, held Helen back a bit. But he had
+nothing of any consequence to say.
+
+Finally she bade him good-morning and went out of the office. She had not
+given him Uncle Starkweather's letter. Somehow, she thought it best not to
+do so. If she had been doubtful of the sincerity of her uncle when she
+broached the subject nearest her heart, she had been much more suspicious
+of Fenwick Grimes.
+
+She walked composedly enough out of the building; but it was hard work to
+keep back the tears. It _did_ seem such a great task for a mere girl to
+attempt! And nobody would help her. She had nobody in whom to
+confide--nobody with whom she might discuss the mystery.
+
+And when she told herself this her mind naturally flashed to the only real
+friend she had made in New York--Sadie Goronsky. Helen had looked up a map
+of the city the evening before in her uncle's library, and she had marked
+the streets intervening between this place where she had interviewed her
+father's old partner, and Madison Street on the East Side.
+
+She had ridden downtown to Washington Arch; so she felt equal to the walk
+across town and down the Bowery to the busy street where Sadie plied her
+peculiar trade.
+
+She crossed the Square and went through West Broadway to Bleecker Street
+and turned east on that busy and interesting thoroughfare. Suddenly, right
+ahead of her, she beheld the shabby brown hat and wrinkled coat of the old
+man who had stuck his head in at the door of Mr. Grimes's office, and so
+disturbed the equilibrium of that individual.
+
+Here was "Jones." At first Helen thought him to be under the influence of
+drink. Then she saw that the man's erratic actions must be the result of
+some physical or mental disability.
+
+The old man could not walk in a straight line; but he tacked from one side
+of the walk to the other, taking long "slants" across the walk, first
+touching the iron balustrade of a step on one hand, and then bringing up
+at a post on the edge of the curb.
+
+He seemed to mutter all the time to himself, too; but what he said, or
+whether it was sense, or nonsense, Helen (although she walked near him)
+could not make out. She did not wish to offend the old man; yet he seemed
+so helpless and peculiar that for several blocks she trailed him (as he
+seemed to be going her way), fearing that he would get into some trouble.
+
+At the busy crossings Helen was really worried. The man first started,
+then dodged back, scouted up and down the way, seemed undecided, looked
+all around as though for help, and then, at the very worst time, when the
+vehicles in the street were the most numerous, he darted across, escaping
+death and destruction half a dozen times between curb and curb.
+
+But somehow the angel that directs the destinies of foolish people who
+cross busy city streets, shielded him from harm, and Helen finally lost
+him as he turned down one of the main stems of the town while she kept on
+into the heart of the East Side.
+
+And to Helen Morrell, the very "heart of the East Side" was right in the
+Goronsky flat on Madison Street. She had been comparing that home at the
+same number on Madison Street with that her uncle's house boasted on
+Madison Avenue, with the latter mansion. The Goronsky tenement was a
+_home_, for love and contentment dwelt there; the stately Starkweather
+dwelling housed too many warring factions to be a real home.
+
+Helen came, at length, to Madison Street. She had timed her coming so as
+to reach Jacob Finkelstein's shop just about the time Sadie would be going
+to dinner.
+
+"Miss Helen! Ain't I glad to see you?" cried Sadie. "Is there anything the
+matter with the dress, yet?"
+
+"No, Miss Sadie. I was downtown and thought I would ask you to go to
+dinner with me. I went with you yesterday."
+
+"O-oo my! I don't know," said Sadie, shaking her head. "I bet you'd like
+to come home with me instead--no?"
+
+"I would like to. But it would not be right for me to accept your
+hospitality and never return it," said Helen.
+
+"Chee! you must 'a' had a legacy," laughed Sadie.
+
+"I--I have a little more money than I had yesterday," admitted Helen,
+which was true, for she had taken some out of the wallet in the trunk
+before she left her uncle's house.
+
+"Well, when you swells feel like spendin' there ain't no stoppin' youse, I
+suppose," declared Sadie. "Do you wanter fly real high?"
+
+"I guess we can afford a real nice dinner," said Helen, smiling.
+
+"Are you good for as high as thirty-fi' cents apiece?" demanded Sadie.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Chee! Then I can take you to a stylish place where we can get a swell
+feed at noon, for that. It's up on Grand Street. All the buyers and
+department store heads go there with the wholesale salesmen for lunch.
+Wait till I git me hat!" and away Sadie shot, up the tenement house
+stairs, so fast that her little feet, bound by the tight skirt she wore,
+seemed fairly to twinkle.
+
+Helen had but a few moments to wait on the sidewalk; yet within that short
+time something happened to change the entire current of the day's
+adventures. She heard some boys shouting from the direction of the Bowery;
+there was a crowd crossing the street diagonally; she watched it with some
+apprehension at first, for it came right along the sidewalk toward her.
+
+"Hi, fellers! See de Lurcher! Here comes de Lurcher!" yelled one ribald
+youth, who leaped on the stoop to which Helen had retreated the better to
+see over the heads of the crowd at the person who was the core of it.
+
+And then Helen, in no little amazement, saw that this individual was none
+other than the man whom she had seen driven out of Fenwick Grimes's
+office. A gang of hoodlums surrounded him. They jeered at him, tore at his
+ragged clothes, hooted, and otherwise nagged the poor old fellow.
+
+At every halt he made they pressed closer upon the "Lurcher." It was easy
+to see why he had been given that name. He was probably an old inhabitant
+of the neighborhood, and his lurching from side to side of the walk had
+suggested the nickname to some local wit.
+
+Just as he steered for the rail of the step on which Helen stood, half
+fearful, and reached it, Sadie Goronsky came bounding out of the house.
+Instantly she took a hand--and as usual a master hand--in the affair.
+
+"What you doin' to that old man, you Izzy Strefonifsky? And, Freddie
+Bloom, you stop or I'll tell your mommer! Ike, let him alone, or I'll make
+your ears tingle myself--I can do it, too!"
+
+Sadie charged as she commanded. The hoodlums scattered--some laughing,
+some not so easily intimidated. But the old man was clinging to the rail
+and muttering over and over to himself:
+
+"They got my dollar--they got my dollar."
+
+"What's that?" cried Sadie, coming back after chasing the last of the boys
+off the block. "What's the matter, Mr. Lurcher?"
+
+"My dollar--they got my dollar," muttered the old man.
+
+"Oh, dear!" whispered Helen. "And perhaps it was all he had."
+
+"You can bet it was," said Sadie, angrily. "The likes of him wouldn't
+likely have _two_ dollars all at once! I'd like to scalp those imps! That
+I would!"
+
+The old man, paying little attention to the two girls, but still muttering
+about his loss, lurched away on his erratic course homeward.
+
+"Chee!" said Sadie. "Ain't that tough luck? He lives right around the
+corner, all alone. And he's just as poor as he can be. I don't know what
+his real name is. But the boys guy him sumpin' fierce! Ain't it mean?"
+
+"It certainly is," agreed Helen.
+
+"Say!" said Sadie, abruptly, but looking at Helen with sheepish eye.
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"Say, was yer _honest_ goin' to blow seventy cents for that feed I spoke
+of up on Grand Street?"
+
+"Certainly. And I----"
+
+"And a dime to the waiter?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"That's eighty cents," ran on Sadie, glibly enough now. "And twenty would
+make a dollar. I'll dig up the twenty cents to put with your eighty, and
+what d'ye say we run after old Lurcher an' give him a dollar--say we found
+it, you know--and then go upstairs to my house for dinner? Mommer's got a
+nice dinner, and she'd like to see you again fine!"
+
+"I'll do it!" cried Helen, pulling out her purse at once. "Here! Here's a
+dollar bill. You run after him and give it to him. You can give me the
+twenty cents later."
+
+"Sure!" cried the Russian girl, and she was off around the corner in the
+wake of the Lurcher, with flying feet.
+
+Helen waited for her friend to return, just inside the tenement house
+door. When Sadie reappeared, Helen hugged her tight and kissed her.
+
+"You are a _dear_!" the Western girl cried. "I do love you, Sadie!"
+
+"Aw, chee! That ain't nothin'," objected the East Side girl. "We poor
+folks has gotter help each other."
+
+So Helen would not spoil the little sacrifice by acknowledging to more
+money, and they climbed the stairs again to the Goronsky tenement. The
+girl from Sunset Ranch was glad--oh, so glad!--of this incident. Chilled
+as she had been by the selfishness in her uncle's Madison Avenue mansion,
+she was glad to have her heart warmed down here among the poor of Madison
+Street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+OUT OF STEP WITH THE TIMES
+
+
+"No," Sadie told Helen, afterward, "I am very sure that poor Lurcher man
+doesn't drink. Some says he does; but you never notice it on him. It's
+just his eyes."
+
+"His eyes?" queried Helen, wonderingly.
+
+"Yes. He's sort of blind. His eyelids keep fluttering all the time. He
+can't control them. And, if you notice, he usually lifts up the lid of one
+eye with his finger before he makes one of his base-runs for the next
+post. Chee! I'd hate to be like that."
+
+"The poor old man! And can nothing be done for it?"
+
+"Plenty, I reckon. But who's goin' to pay for it? Not him--he ain't got it
+to pay. We all has our troubles down here, Helen."
+
+The girls had come down from the home of Sadie again, and Helen was
+preparing to leave her friend.
+
+"Aren't there places to go in the city to have one's eyes examined? Free
+hospitals, I mean?"
+
+"Sure! And they got Lurcher to one, once. But all they give him was a
+prescription for glasses, and it would cost a lot to get 'em. So it didn't
+do him no good."
+
+Helen looked at Sadie suddenly. "How much would it take for the glasses?"
+she asked.
+
+"I dunno. Ten dollars, mebbe."
+
+"And do you s'pose he could have that prescription now?" asked Helen,
+eagerly.
+
+"Mebbe. But why for?"
+
+"Perhaps I could--could get somebody uptown interested in his case who is
+able to pay for the spectacles."
+
+"Chee, that would be bully!" cried Sadie.
+
+"Will you find out about the prescription?"
+
+"Sure I will," declared Sadie. "Nex' time you come down here, Helen, I'll
+know all about it. And if you can get one of them rich ladies up there to
+pay for 'em--Well! it would beat goin' to a swell restaurant for a
+feed--eh?" and she laughed, hugged the Western girl, and then darted
+across the sidewalk to intercept a possible customer who was loitering
+past the row of garments displayed in front of the Finkelstein shop.
+
+But Helen did not get downtown again as soon as she expected. When she
+awoke the next morning there had set in a steady drizzle--cold and
+raw--and the panes of her windows were so murky that she could not see
+even the chimneys and roofs, or down into the barren little yards.
+
+This--nor a much heavier--rain would not have ordinarily balked Helen. She
+was used to being out in all winds and weathers. But she actually had
+nothing fit to wear in the rain.
+
+If she had worn the new cheap dress out of doors she knew what would
+happen. It would shrink all out of shape. And she had no raincoat, nor
+would she ask her cousins--so she told herself--for the loan of an
+umbrella.
+
+So, as long as it rained steadily, it looked as though the girl from
+Sunset Ranch was a sure-enough "shut-in." Nor did she contemplate this
+possibility with any pleasure.
+
+There was nothing for her to do but read. And one cannot read all the
+time. She had no "fancy-work" with which to keep her hands and mind busy.
+She wondered what her cousins did on such days. She found out by keeping
+her ears and eyes open. After breakfast Belle went shopping in the
+limousine. There was an early luncheon and all three of the Starkweather
+girls went to a matinee. In neither case was Helen invited to go--no,
+indeed! She was treated as though she were not even in the house. Seldom
+did either of the older girls speak to her.
+
+"I might as well be a ghost," thought Helen.
+
+And this reminded her of the little old lady who paced the ghost-walk
+every night--the ex-nurse, Mary Boyle. She had thought of going to see her
+on the top floor before; but she had not been able to pluck up the
+courage.
+
+Now that her cousins were gone from the house, however, and Mrs. Olstrom
+was taking a nap in her room, and Mr. Lawdor was out of the way, and all
+the under-servants mildly celebrating the free afternoon below stairs,
+Helen determined to venture out of her own room, along the main passage of
+the top floor, to the door which she believed must give upon the front
+suite of rooms which the little old lady occupied.
+
+She knocked, but there was no response. Nor could she hear any sound from
+within. It struck Helen that the principal cruelty of the Starkweathers'
+treatment of this old soul was her being shut away alone up here at the
+top of the house--too far away from the rest of its occupants for a cry to
+be heard if the old lady should be in trouble.
+
+"If they shut up a dog like this, he would howl and thus attract attention
+to his state," muttered Helen. "But here is a human being----"
+
+She tried the door. The latch clicked and the door swung open. Helen
+stepped into a narrow, hall-like room, well furnished with old-fashioned
+furniture (probably brought from below stairs when Mr. Starkweather
+re-decorated the mansion) with one window in it. The door which evidently
+gave upon the remainder of the suite was closed.
+
+As Helen listened, however, from behind this closed door came a cheerful,
+cracked voice--the same voice she had heard whispering the lullaby in the
+middle of the night. But now it was tuning up on an old-time ballad, very
+popular in its day:
+
+                "Wait till the clouds roll by, Jennie--
+                Wait till the clouds roll by!
+                Jennie, my own true loved one--
+                Wait till the clouds roll by."
+
+"She doesn't sound like a hopeless prisoner," thought Helen, with
+surprise.
+
+She waited a minute longer and, as the thin yet still sweet voice stopped,
+Helen knocked timidly on the inner door. Immediately the voice said, "Come
+in, deary. 'Tis not for the likes of you to be knockin' at old Mary's
+door. Come in!"
+
+Helen turned the knob slowly and went into the room. The moment she
+crossed the threshold she forgot the clouds and rain and gloominess which
+had depressed her. Indeed, it seemed as though the sun must be ever
+shining into this room, high up under the roof of the Starkweather
+mansion.
+
+In the first place, it was most cheerfully papered and painted. There were
+pretty, simple, yellow and white hangings. The heavier pieces of old
+furniture had gay "tidies" or "throws" upon them to relieve the sombreness
+of the dark wood. The pictures on the walls were all in white or gold
+frames, and were of a cheerful nature--mostly pictures of childhood, or
+pictures which would amuse children. Evidently much of the furnishings of
+the old nursery had been brought up here to Mary Boyle's sitting-room.
+
+Helen had a glimpse, through a half-open door, of the bedroom--quite as
+bright and pretty. There was a little stove set up here, and a fire burned
+in it. It was one of those stoves that have isinglass all around it so
+that the fire can be seen when it burns red. It added mightily to the
+cheerful tone of the room.
+
+How neat everything appeared! Yet the very neatest thing in sight was the
+little old lady herself, sitting in a green-painted rocker, with a low
+sewing-table at her side, wooden needles clicking fast in her fleecy
+knitting.
+
+She looked up at Helen with a little, bird-like motion--her head a bit on
+one side and her glance quizzical. This, it proved, was typical of Mary
+Boyle.
+
+"Deary, deary me!" she said. "You're a _new_ girl. And what do you want
+Mary to do for you?"
+
+"I--I thought I'd come and make you a little call," said Helen, timidly.
+
+This wasn't at all as she expected to find the shut-in! Instead of gloom,
+and tears, and the weakness of age, here were displayed all the opposite
+emotions and qualities. The woman who was forgotten did not appear to be
+an object of pity at all. She merely seemed out of step with the times.
+
+"I'm sure you're very welcome, deary," said the old nurse. "Draw up the
+little rocker yonder. I always keep it for young company," and Mary Boyle,
+who had had no young company up here for ten or a dozen years, spoke as
+though the appearance of a youthful face and form was of daily
+occurrence.
+
+"You see," spoke Helen, more confidently, "we are neighbors on this top
+floor."
+
+"Neighbors; air we?"
+
+"I live up here, too. The family have tucked me away out of sight."
+
+"Hush!" said the little old woman. "We shouldn't criticise our bethers.
+No, no! And this is a very cheerful par-r-rt of the house, so it is."
+
+"But it must be awful," exclaimed Helen, "to have to stay in it all the
+time!"
+
+"I don't have to stay in it all the time," replied the nurse, quickly.
+
+"No, ma'am. I hear you in the night going downstairs and walking in the
+corridor," Helen said, softly.
+
+The wrinkled old face blushed very prettily, and Mary Boyle looked at her
+visitor doubtfully.
+
+"Sure, 'tis such a comfort for an old body like me," she said, at last,
+"to make believe."
+
+"Make believe?" cried Helen, with a smile. "Why, _I'm_ not old, and I love
+to make believe."
+
+"Ah, yis! But there is a differ bechune the make-believes of the young and
+the make-believes of the old. _You_ are playin' you're grown up, or
+dramin' of what's comin' to you in th' future--sure, I know! I've had them
+drames, too, in me day.
+
+"But with old folks 'tis different. We do be har-r-rking back instead of
+lookin' for'ard. And with me, it's thinkin' of the babies I've held in me
+ar-r-rms, and rocked on me knee, and walked the flure wid when they was
+ailin'--An' sure the babies of _this_ house was always ailin', poor little
+things."
+
+"They were a great trouble to you, then?" asked Helen, softly.
+
+"Trouble, is it?" cried Mary Boyle, her eyes shining again. "Sure, how
+could a blessid infant be a trouble? 'Tis a means of grace they be to the
+hear-r-rt--I nade no preacher to tell me that, deary. I found thim so. And
+they loved me and was happy wid me," she added, cheerfully.
+
+"The folks below think me a little quare in me head," she confided to her
+visitor. "But they don't understand. To walk up and down the nursery
+corridor late at night relaves the ache here," and she put her little,
+mitted hand upon her heart. "Ye see, I trod that path so often--so
+often----"
+
+Her voice trailed off and she fell silent, gazing into the glow of the
+fire in the stove. But there was a smile on her lips. The past was no time
+to weep over. This cheerful body saw only the bright spots in her long,
+long life.
+
+Helen loved to hear her talk. And soon she and Mary Boyle were very well
+acquainted. One thing about the old nurse Helen liked immensely. She asked
+no questions. She accepted Helen's visit as a matter of course; yet she
+showed very plainly that she was glad to have a young face before her.
+
+But the girl from Sunset Ranch did not know how Mrs. Olstrom might view
+her making friends with the old lady; so she made her visit brief. But she
+promised to come again and bring a book to read to Mary Boyle.
+
+"Radin' is a great accomplishment, deary," declared the old woman. "I
+niver seemed able to masther it--although me mistress oft tried to tache
+me. But, sure, there was so much to l'arn about babies, that ain't printed
+in no book, that I was always radin' them an' niver missed the book
+eddication till I come to be old. But th' foine poethry me mistress useter
+be radin' me! Sure, 'twould almost put a body to slape, so swate and grand
+it was."
+
+So, Helen searched out a book of poems downstairs, and the next forenoon
+she ventured into the front suite again, and read ta Mary Boyle for an
+hour. The storm lasted several days, and each day the girl from the West
+spent more and more time with the little old woman.
+
+But this was all unsuspected by Uncle Starkweather and the three girls. If
+Mrs. Olstrom knew she said nothing. At least, she timed her own daily
+visits to the little old woman so that she would not meet Helen in the
+rooms devoted to old Mary's comfort.
+
+Nor were Helen's visits continued solely because she pitied Mary Boyle.
+How could she continue to pity one who did not pity herself?
+
+No. Helen received more than she gave in this strange friendship. Seeking
+to amuse the old nurse, she herself gained such an uplift of heart and
+mind that it began to counteract that spirit of sullenness that had
+entered into the Western girl when she had first come to this house and
+had been received so unkindly by her relatives.
+
+Instead of hating them, she began to pity them. How much Uncle
+Starkweather was missing by being so utterly selfish! How much the girls
+were missing by being self-centred!
+
+Why, see it right here in Mary Boyle's case! Nobody could associate with
+the delightful little old woman without gaining good from the association.
+Instead of being friends with the old nurse, and loving her and being
+loved by her, the Starkweather girls tucked her away in the attic and
+tried to ignore her existence.
+
+"They don't know what they're missing--poor things!" murmured Helen,
+thinking the situation over.
+
+And from that time her own attitude changed toward her cousins. She began
+to look out for chances to help them, instead of making herself more and
+more objectionable to Belle, Hortense, and Flossie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+BREAKING THE ICE
+
+
+As for Floss, Helen had already got a hold upon that young lady.
+
+"Come on, Helen!" the younger cousin would whisper after dinner. "Come up
+to my room and give me a start on these lessons; will you? That's a good
+chap."
+
+And often when the rest of the family thought the unwelcome visitor had
+retired to her room at the top of the house, she was shut in with Flossie,
+trying to guide the stumbling feet of that rather dull girl over the hard
+places in her various studies.
+
+For Floss had soon discovered that the girl from Sunset Ranch somehow had
+a wonderful insight into every problem she put up to her. Nor were they
+all in algebra.
+
+"I don't see how you managed to do it, 'way out there in that wild place
+you lived in; but you must have gone through 'most all the text-books I
+have," declared Flossie, once.
+
+"Oh, I had to grab every chance there was for schooling," Helen responded,
+and changed the subject instantly.
+
+Flossie thought she had a secret from her sisters, however, and she hugged
+it to her with much glee. She realized that Helen was by no means the
+ignoramus Belle and Hortense said.
+
+"And let 'em keep on thinking it," Flossie said, to herself, with a
+chuckle. "I don't know what Helen has got up her sleeve; but I believe she
+is fooling all of us."
+
+A long, dreary fortnight of inclement weather finally got on the nerves of
+Hortense. Belle could go out tramping in it, or cab-riding, or what-not.
+She was athletic, and loved exercise in the open air, no matter what the
+weather might be. But the second sister was just like a pussy-cat; she
+loved comfort and the warm corners. However, being left alone by Belle,
+and nobody coming in to call for several days, Hortense was completely
+overpowered by loneliness.
+
+She had nothing within herself to fight off nervousness and depression.
+So, having caught a little, sniffly cold, she decided that she was sick
+and went to bed.
+
+The Starkweather girls did not each have a maid. Mr. Starkweather could
+not afford that luxury. But Hortense at once requisitioned one of the
+housemaids to wait upon her and of course Mrs. Olstrom's very
+carefully-thought-out system was immediately turned topsy-turvy.
+
+"I cannot allow you, Miss, to have the services of Maggie all day long,"
+Helen heard the housekeeper announce at the door of the invalid's room.
+"We are not prepared to do double work in this house. You must either
+speak to your father and have a nurse brought in, or wait upon yourself."
+
+"Oh, you heartless, wicked thing!" cried Hortense. "How can you be so
+cruel? I couldn't wait upon myself. I want my broth. And I want my hair
+done. And you can see yourself how the room is all in a mess. And----"
+
+"Maggie must do her parlor work to-day. You know that. If you want to be
+waited upon, Miss, get your sister to do it," concluded the housekeeper,
+and marched away.
+
+"And she very well knows that Belle has gone out somewhere and Flossie is
+at school. I could _die_ here, and nobody would care," wailed Hortense.
+
+Helen walked into the richly furnished room. Hortense was crying into her
+pillow. Her hair was still in two unkempt braids and she _did_ need a
+fresh boudoir cap and gown.
+
+"Can I do anything to help you, 'Tense?" asked Helen, cheerfully.
+
+"Oh, dear me--no!" exclaimed her cousin. "You're so loud and noisy. And
+do, _do_ call me by my proper name."
+
+"I forgot. Sure, I'll call you anything you say," returned the Western
+girl, smiling at her. Meanwhile she was moving about the room, deftly
+putting things to rights.
+
+"I'm going to tell father the minute he comes home!" wailed Hortense,
+ignoring her cousin for the time and going back to her immediate troubles.
+"I am left all alone--and I'm sick--and nobody cares--and--and----"
+
+"Where do you keep your caps, Hortense?" interrupted Helen. "And if you'll
+let me, I'll brush your hair and make it look pretty. And then you get
+into a fresh nightgown----"
+
+"Oh, I couldn't sit up," moaned Hortense. "I really couldn't. I'm too
+weak."
+
+"I'll show you how. Let me fix the pillows--_so!_ And _so!_ There--nothing
+like trying; is there? You're comfortable; aren't you?"
+
+"We-ell----"
+
+Helen was already manipulating the hairbrush. She did it so well, and
+managed to arrange Hortense's really beautiful hair so simply yet easily
+on her head that the latter quite approved of it--and said so--when she
+looked into her hand-mirror.
+
+Then Helen got her into a chair, in a fresh robe and a pretty kimono,
+while she made the bed--putting on new sheets and cases for the pillows so
+that all should be sweet and clean. Of course, Hortense wasn't really
+sick--only lazy. But she thought she was sick and Helen's attentions
+pleased the spoiled girl.
+
+"Why, you're not such a bad little thing, Helen," she said, dipping into a
+box of chocolates on the stand by her bedside. Chocolates were about all
+the medicine Hortense took during this "bad attack." And she was really
+grateful--in her way--to her cousin.
+
+It was later on this day that Helen plucked up courage to go to her uncle
+and give him back the letter he had written to Fenwick Grimes.
+
+"I did not use it, sir," she said.
+
+"Ahem!" he said, and with evident relief. "You have thought better of it,
+I hope? You mean to let the matter rest where it is?"
+
+"I have not abandoned my attempt to get at the truth--no, Uncle
+Starkweather."
+
+"How foolish of you, child!" he cried.
+
+"I do not think it is foolish. But I will try not to mix you up in my
+inquiries. That is why I did not use the letter."
+
+"And you have seen Grimes?" he asked, hastily.
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Does he know who you are?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"And you reached him without an introduction? I understand he is hard to
+approach. He is a money-lender, in a way, and he has an odd manner of
+never appearing to come into personal contact with his clients."
+
+"Yes, sir. I think him odd."
+
+"Did--did he think he could help you?"
+
+"He thinks just as you do, sir," stated Helen, honestly. "And, then, he
+accused you of sending me to him at first; so I would not use your letter
+and so compromise you."
+
+"Ahem!" said the gentleman, surprised that this young girl should be so
+circumspect. It rather startled him to discover that she was thoughtful
+far beyond her years. Was it possible that--somehow--she _might_ bring to
+light the truth regarding the unhappy difficulty that had made Prince
+Morrell an exile from his old home for so many years?
+
+Once May Van Ramsden ran in to see Belle and caught Helen going through
+the hall on her way to her own room. It was just after luncheon, which she
+and Belle had eaten in a silence that could be felt. Belle would not speak
+to her cousin unless she was obliged to, and Helen did not see that
+forcing her attentions upon the other girl would do any good.
+
+"Why, here you are, Helen Morrell! Why don't I ever see you when I come
+here?" cried the caller, shaking Helen by both hands and smiling upon her
+heartily from her superior height. "When are your cousins going to bring
+you to call upon me?"
+
+Helen might have replied, truthfully, "Never;" but she only shook her head
+and smilingly declared: "I hope to see you again soon, Miss Van Ramsden."
+
+"Well, I guess you must!" cried the caller. "I want to hear some more of
+your experiences," and she went on to meet the scowling Belle at the door
+of the reception parlor.
+
+Later her eldest cousin said to the Western girl:
+
+"In going up and down to your room, Miss, I want you to remember that
+there is a back stairway. Use the servants' stairs, if you please!"
+
+Helen made no reply. She wasn't breaking much of the ice between her and
+Belle Starkweather, that was sure. And to add to Belle's dislike for her
+cousin, there was another happening in which Miss Van Ramsden was
+concerned, soon after this.
+
+Hortense was still abed, for the weather remained unpleasant--and there
+really was nothing else for the languid cousin to do. Miss Van Ramsden
+found Belle out, and she went upstairs to say "how-do" to the invalid.
+Helen was in the room making the spoiled girl more comfortable, and Miss
+Van Ramsden drew the younger girl out into the hall when she left.
+
+"I really have come to see _you_, child," she said to Helen, frankly. "I
+was telling papa about you and he said he would dearly love to meet Prince
+Morrell's daughter. Papa went to college with your father, my dear."
+
+Helen was glad of this, and yet she flushed a little. She was quite frank,
+however: "Does--does your father know about poor dad's trouble?" she
+whispered.
+
+"He does. And he always believed Mr. Morrell not guilty. Father was one of
+the firm's creditors, and he has always wished your father had come to him
+instead of leaving the city so long ago."
+
+"Then he's been paid?" cried Helen, eagerly.
+
+"Certainly. It is a secret, I believe--father warned me not to speak of it
+unless you did; but everybody was paid by your father after a time. _That_
+did not look as though he were dishonest. His partner took advantage of
+the bankruptcy courts."
+
+"Of--of course your father has no idea who _was_ guilty?" whispered Helen,
+anxiously.
+
+"None at all," replied Miss Van Ramsden. "It was a mystery then and
+remains so to this day. That bookkeeper was a peculiar man, but had a good
+record; and it seems that he left the city before the checks were cashed.
+Or, so the evidence seemed to prove.
+
+"Now, don't cry, my dear! Come! I wish we could help you clear up that old
+trouble. But many of your father's old friends--like papa--never believed
+Prince Morrell guilty."
+
+Helen was crying by this time. The kindness of this older girl broke down
+her self-possession. They heard somebody coming up the stairs, and Miss
+Van Ramsden said, quickly:
+
+"Take me to your room, dear. We can talk there."
+
+Helen never thought that she might be giving the Starkweather family
+deadly offence by doing this. She led Miss Van Ramsden immediately to the
+rear of the house and up the back stairway to the attic floor. The caller
+looked somewhat amazed when Helen ushered her into the room.
+
+"Well, they could not have put you much nearer the sky; could they?" she
+said, laughing, yet eyeing Helen askance.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind it up here," returned Helen, truthfully enough. "And I
+have some company on this floor."
+
+"Ahem! The maids, I suppose?" said May Van Ramsden.
+
+"No, no," Helen assured her, eagerly. "The dearest little old lady you
+ever saw."
+
+Then she stopped and looked at her caller in some distress. For the moment
+she had forgotten that she was probably on the way to reveal the
+Starkweather family skeleton!
+
+"A little old lady? Who can _that_ be?" cried the caller. "You interest
+me."
+
+"I--I--Well, it is an old lady who was once nurse in the family and I
+believe Uncle Starkweather cares for her----"
+
+"It's never Nurse Boyle?" cried Miss Van Ramsden, suddenly starting up.
+"Why! I remember about her. But somehow, I thought she had died years ago.
+Why, as a child I used to visit her at the house, and she used to like to
+have me come to see her. That was before your cousins lived here, Helen.
+Then I went to Europe for several years and when we returned the house had
+all been done over, your uncle's family was here, and I think--I am not
+sure--somebody told me dear old Mary Boyle was dead."
+
+"No," observed Helen, thoughtfully. "She is not dead. She is only
+forgotten."
+
+Miss Van Ramsden looked at the Western girl for some moments in silence.
+She seemed to understand the whole matter without a word of further
+explanation.
+
+"Would you mind letting me see Mary Boyle while I am here?" she asked,
+gravely. "She was a very lovely old soul, and all the families
+hereabout--I have heard my mother often say--quite envied the
+Starkweathers their possession of such a treasure."
+
+"Certainly we can go in and see her," declared Helen, throwing all
+discretion to the winds. "I was going to read to her this afternoon,
+anyway. Come along!"
+
+She led the caller through the hall to Mary Boyle's little suite of rooms.
+To herself Helen said:
+
+"Let the wild winds of disaster blow! Whew! If the family hears of this I
+don't know but they will want to have me arrested--or worse! But what can
+I do? And then--Mary Boyle deserves better treatment at their hands."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+IN THE SADDLE
+
+
+The little old lady "tidied" her own room. She hopped about like a bird
+with the aid of the ebony crutch, and Helen and Miss Van Ramsden heard the
+"step--put" of her movements when they entered the first room.
+
+"Come in, deary!" cried the dear old soul. "I was expecting you. Ah, whom
+have we here? Good-day to you, ma'am!"
+
+"Nurse Boyle! don't you remember me?" cried the visitor, going immediately
+to the old lady and kissing her on both cheeks.
+
+"Bless us, now! How would I know ye?" cried the old woman. "Is it me old
+eyes I have set on ye for many a long year now?"
+
+"And I blame myself for it, Nurse," cried May Van Ramsden. "Don't you
+remember little May--the Van Ramsdens' May--who used to come to see you so
+often when she was about so-o high?" cried the girl, measuring the height
+of a five or six-year-old.
+
+"A neighbor's baby _did_ come to see Old Mary now and then," cried the
+nurse. "But you're never May?"
+
+"I am, Nurse."
+
+"And growed so tall and handsome? Well, well, well! It does bate all, so
+it does. Everybody grows up but Mary Boyle; don't they?" and the old woman
+cackled out a sweet, high laugh, and sat down to "visit" with her
+callers.
+
+The two girls had a very charming time with Mary Boyle. And May Van
+Ramsden promised to come again. When they left the old lady she said,
+earnestly, to Helen:
+
+"And there are others that will be glad to come and see Nurse Boyle. When
+she was well and strong--before she had to use that crutch--she often
+appeared at our houses when there was trouble--serious trouble--especially
+with the babies or little children. And what Mary Boyle did not know about
+pulling young ones out of the mires of illness, wasn't worth knowing. Why,
+I know a dozen boys and girls whose lives were probably saved by her. They
+shall be reminded of her existence. And--it shall be due to you, Little
+Cinderella!"
+
+Helen smiled deprecatingly. "It will be due to your own kind heart, Miss
+Van Ramsden," she returned. "I see that everybody in the city is not so
+busy with their own affairs that they cannot think of other people."
+
+The young lady kissed her again and said goodbye. But that did not end the
+matter--no, indeed! The news that Miss Van Ramsden had been taken to the
+topmost story of the Starkweather mansion--supposedly to Helen's own room
+only--by the Western girl, dribbled through the servants to Belle
+Starkweather herself when she came home.
+
+"Now, Pa! I won't stand that common little thing being here any
+longer--no, I won't! Why, she did that just on purpose to make folks
+talk--to make people believe that we abuse her. Of course, she told May
+that _I_ sent her to the top story to sleep. You get rid of that girl, Pa,
+or I declare I'll go away. I guess I can find somebody to take me in as
+long as you wish to keep Prince Morrell's daughter here in _my_ place."
+
+"Ahem! I--I must beg you to compose yourself, Belle----"
+
+"I won't--and that's flat!" declared his eldest daughter. "Either she
+goes; or I do."
+
+"Do let Belle go, Pa," drawled Flossie. "She is getting too bossy, anyway.
+_I_ don't mind having Helen here. She is rather good fun. And May Van
+Ramsden came here particularly to see Helen."
+
+"That's not so!" cried Belle, stamping her foot.
+
+"It is. Maggie heard her say so. Maggie was coming up the stairs and heard
+May ask Helen to take her to her room. What could the poor girl do?"
+
+"Ahem! Flossie--I am amazed at you--amazed at you!" gasped Mr.
+Starkweather. "What do you learn at school?"
+
+"Goodness me! I couldn't tell you," returned the youngest of his
+daughters, carelessly. "It's none of it any good, though, Pa. You might as
+well take me out."
+
+"I've told that girl to use the back stairs, and to keep out of the front
+of the house," went on Belle, ignoring Flossie. "If she had not been
+hanging about the front of the house, May Van Ramsden would not have seen
+her----"
+
+"'Tain't so!" snapped Flossie.
+
+"_Will_ you be still, minx?" demanded the older sister.
+
+"I don't care. Let's give Helen a fair deal. I tell you, Pa, May said she
+came particularly to see Helen. Besides, Helen had been in Hortense's
+room, and that is where May found her. Helen was brushing Hortense's hair.
+Hortense told me so."
+
+"Ahem! I am astonished at you, Flossie. The fact remains that Helen is a
+source of trouble in the house. I really do wish I knew how to get rid of
+her."
+
+"You give me permission, Pa," sneered Belle, "and I'll get rid of her very
+quickly--you see!"
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed the troubled father. "I--I cannot use the iron hand at
+present--not at present."
+
+"Humph!" exclaimed the shrewd Belle. "I'd like to know what you are afraid
+of, Pa?"
+
+Mr. Starkweather tried to frown down his daughter, but was unsuccessful.
+He merely presented a picture of a very cowardly man trying to look brave.
+It wasn't much of a picture.
+
+So--as may be easily conceived--Helen was not met at dinner by her
+relatives in any conciliatory manner. Yet the girl from the West really
+wished she might make friends with Uncle Starkweather and her cousins.
+
+"It must be that a part of the fault is with me," she told herself, when
+she crept up to her room after a gloomy time in the dining-room. "If I had
+it in me to please them--to make them happier--surely they could not treat
+me as they do. Oh, dear, I wish I had learned better how to be popular."
+
+That night Helen felt about as bad as she had any time since she arrived
+in the great city. She was too disturbed to read. She lay in bed until the
+small hours of the morning, unable to sleep, and worrying over all her
+affairs, which seemed, since she had arrived in New York, to go altogether
+wrong.
+
+She had not made an atom of progress in that investigation which she had
+hoped would bring to light the truth about the mystery which had sent her
+father and mother West--fugitives--before she was born. She had only
+succeeded in becoming thoroughly suspicious of her Uncle Starkweather and
+of Fenwick Grimes.
+
+Nor had she made any advance in the discovery of the mysterious Allen
+Chesterton, the bookkeeper of her father's old firm, who held, she
+believed, the key to the mystery. She did not know what step to take next.
+She did not know what to do. And there was nobody with whom she could
+consult--nobody in all this great city to whom she could go.
+
+Never before had Helen felt so lonely as she did this night. She had money
+enough with her to pay somebody to help her dig back for facts regarding
+the disappearance of the money belonging to the old firm of Grimes &
+Morrell. But she did not know how to go about getting the help she
+needed.
+
+Her only real confidante--Sadie Goronsky--would not know how to advise her
+in this emergency.
+
+"I wish I had let Dud Stone give me his address. He said he was learning
+to be a lawyer," thought Helen. "And just now, I s'pose, a lawyer is what
+I need most. But I wouldn't know how to go about engaging a lawyer--not a
+good one."
+
+She awoke at her usual time next morning, and the depression of the night
+before was still with her. But when she jumped up she saw that it was no
+longer raining. The sky was overcast, but she could venture forth without
+running the risk of spoiling her new suit.
+
+And right there a desperate determination came into Helen Morrell's mind.
+She had learned that on the west side of Central Park there was a riding
+academy. She was _hungry_ for an hour in the saddle. It seemed to her that
+a gallop would clear all the cobwebs away and make her feel like herself
+once more.
+
+The house was still silent and dark. She took her riding habit out of the
+closet, made it up into a bundle, and crept downstairs with it under her
+arm. She escaped the watchful Lawdor for once, and got out by the area
+door before even the cook had crept, yawning, downstairs to begin her
+day's work.
+
+Helen, hurrying through the dark, dripping streets, found a little
+restaurant where she could get rolls and coffee on her way to the Columbus
+Circle riding academy. It was still early when the girl from Sunset Ranch
+reached her goal. Yes, a mount was to be had, and she could change her
+street clothes for her riding suit in the dressing-rooms.
+
+The city--at least, that part of it around Central Park--was scarcely
+awake when Helen walked her mount out of the stable and into the park. The
+man in charge had given her to understand that there were few riders astir
+so early.
+
+"You'll have the bridle-path to yourself, Miss, going out," he said.
+
+Helen had picked up a little cap to wear, and astride the saddle, with her
+hair tied with a big bow of ribbon at the nape of her neck, she looked
+very pretty as the horse picked his way across the esplanade into the
+bridle-path. But there were few, as the stableman had said, to see her so
+early in the morning.
+
+It did not rain, however. Indeed, there was a fresh breeze which, she saw,
+was tearing the low-hung clouds to shreds. And in the east a rosy spot in
+the fog announced the presence of the sun himself, ready to burst through
+the fleecy veil and smile once more upon the world.
+
+The trees and brush dripped upon the fallen leaves. For days the park
+caretakers had been unable to rake up these, and they had become almost a
+solid pattern of carpeting for the lawns. And down here in the
+bridle-path, as she cantered along, their pungent odor, stirred by the
+hoofs of her mount, rose in her nostrils.
+
+This wasn't much like galloping over an open trail on a nervous little
+cow-pony. But it was both a bodily and mental relief for the outdoor girl
+who had been, for these past weeks, shut into a groove for which she was
+so badly fitted.
+
+She saw nobody on horseback but a mounted policeman, who turned and
+trotted along beside her, and was pleasant and friendly. This pleased
+Helen; and especially was she pleased when she learned that he had been
+West and had "punched cows" himself. That had been some years ago, but he
+remembered the Link-A--now the Sunset--Ranch, although he had never worked
+for that outfit.
+
+Helen's heart expanded as she cantered along. The sun dispelled the mist
+and shone warm upon the path. The policeman left her, but now there were
+other riders abroad. She went far out of town, as directed by the officer,
+and found the ride beautiful. After all, there were some lovely spots in
+this great city, if one only knew where to find them.
+
+She had engaged a strong horse with good wind; but she did not want to
+break him down. So she finally turned her face toward the city again and
+let the animal take its own pace home.
+
+She had ridden down as far as 110th Street and had crossed over into the
+park once more, when she saw a couple of riders advancing toward her from
+the south. They were a young man and a girl, both well mounted, and Helen
+noted instantly that they handled their spirited horses with ease.
+
+Indeed, she was so much interested in the mounts themselves, that she came
+near passing the two without a look at their faces. Suddenly she heard an
+exclamation from the young fellow, she looked up, and found herself gazing
+straight into the handsome face of Dudley Stone.
+
+"For the love of heaven!" gasped that astonished young man. "It surely
+_is_ Helen Morrell! Jess! See here! Here's the very nicest girl who ever
+came out of Montana!"
+
+Dud's sister--Helen knew she must be his sister, for she had the same
+coloring as and a strong family resemblance to the budding lawyer--wheeled
+her horse and rode directly to Helen's side.
+
+"Oh, Miss Morrell!" she cried, putting out her gauntleted hand. "Is it
+really she, Dud? How wonderful!"
+
+Helen shook hands rather timidly, for Miss Jessie Stone was torrential in
+her speech. There wasn't a chance to "get a word in edgewise" when once
+she was started upon a subject that interested her.
+
+"My goodness me!" she cried, still shaking Helen's hand. "Is this really
+the girl who pulled you out of that tree, Dud? Who saved your life and
+took you on her pony to the big ranch? My, how romantic!
+
+"And you really own a ranch, Miss Morrell? How nice that must be! And
+plenty of cattle on it--Why! you don't mind the price of beef at all; do
+you? And what a clever girl you must be, too. Dud came back full of your
+praise, now I tell you----"
+
+"There, there!" cried Dud. "Hold on a bit, Jess, and let's hear how Miss
+Morrell is--and what she is doing here in the big city, and all that."
+
+"Well, I declare, Dud! You take the words right out of my mouth," said his
+sister, warmly. "I was just going to ask her that. And we're going to the
+Casino for breakfast, Miss Morrell, and you must come with us. You've had
+your ride; haven't you?"
+
+"I--I'm just returning," admitted Helen, rather breathless, if Jess was
+not.
+
+"Come on, then!" cried the good-natured but talkative city girl. "Come,
+Dud, you ride ahead and engage a table and order something nice. I'm as
+ravenous as a wolf. Dear me, Miss Morrell, if you have been riding long
+you must be quite famished, too!"
+
+"I had coffee and rolls early," said Helen, as Dud spurred his horse
+away.
+
+"Oh, what's coffee and rolls? Nothing at all--nothing at all! After I've
+been jounced around on this saddle for an hour I feel as though I never
+_had_ eaten. I don't care much for riding myself, but Dud is crazy for it,
+and I come to keep him company. You must ride with us, Miss Morrell. How
+long are you going to stay in town? And to think of your having saved
+Dud's life--Well! he'll never get over talking about it."
+
+"He makes too much of the incident," declared Helen, determined to get in
+a word. "I only lent him a rope and he saved himself."
+
+"No. You carried him on your pony to that ranch. Oh, I know it all by
+heart. He talks about it to everybody. Dud is _so_ enthusiastic about the
+West. He is crazy to go back again--he wants to live there. I tell him
+I'll go out and try it for a while, and if I find I can stand it, he can
+hang out his shingle in that cow-town--what do you call it?"
+
+"Elberon?" suggested Helen.
+
+"Yes--Elberon. Dud says there is a chance for another lawyer there. And he
+came back here and entered the offices of Larribee & Polk right away, so
+as to get working experience, and be entered at the bar all the sooner.
+But say!" exclaimed Jess, "I believe one reason why he is so eager to go
+back to the West is because _you_ live there."
+
+"Oh, Miss Stone!"
+
+"Do call me Jess. 'Miss Stone' is so stiff. And you and I are going to be
+the very best of friends."
+
+"I really hope so, Jess. But you must call me Helen, too," said the girl
+from Sunset Ranch.
+
+Jess leaned out from her saddle, putting the horses so close that the
+trappings rubbed, and kissed the Western girl resoundingly on the cheek.
+
+"I just _loved_ you!" said the warm-hearted creature, "when Dud first told
+me about you. But now that I see you in the flesh, I love you for your
+very own self! I hope you'll love me, too, Helen Morrell--And you won't
+mind if I talk a good deal?"
+
+[Illustration: "HERE'S THE VERY NICEST GIRL WHO EVER CAME OUT OF MONTANA."
+(Page 246.)]
+
+"Not in the least!" laughed Helen. "And I _do_ love you already. I am so,
+so glad that you and Dud both like me," she added, "for my cousins do not
+like me at all, and I have been very unhappy since coming to New York."
+
+"Here we are!" cried Jess, without noting closely what her new friend
+said. "And there is Dud waiting for us on the porch. Dear old Dud!
+Whatever should I have done if you hadn't got him out of that tree-top,
+Helen?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MY LADY BOUNTIFUL
+
+
+That was a wonderful breakfast at the Casino. Not that Helen ever
+remembered much about what she ate, although Dud had ordered choice fruit
+and heartier food that would have tempted the most jaded appetite instead
+of that of a healthy girl who had been riding horseback for two hours and
+a half.
+
+But, it was so heartening to be with people at the table who "talked one's
+own language." The Stones and Helen chattered like a trio of young crows.
+Dud threatened to chloroform his sister so that he and Helen could get in
+a word or two during Jess's lapse into unconsciousness; but finally _that_
+did not become necessary because of the talkative girl's interest in a
+story that Helen related.
+
+They had discussed many other topics before this subject was broached. And
+it was the real reason for Helen's coming East to visit the Starkweathers.
+"Dud" was "in the way of being a lawyer," as he had previously told her,
+and Helen had come to realize that it was a lawyer's advice she needed
+more than anything else.
+
+"Now, Jess, will you keep still long enough for me to listen to the story
+of my very first client?" demanded Dud, sternly, of his sister.
+
+"Oh, I'll stuff the napkin into my mouth! You can gag me! Your very first
+client, Dud! And it's so interesting."
+
+"It is customary for clients to pay over a retainer; isn't it?" queried
+Helen, her eyes dancing. "How much shall it be, Mr. Lawyer?" and she
+opened her purse.
+
+There was the glint of a gold piece at the bottom of the bag. Dud flushed
+and reached out his hand for it.
+
+"That five dollars, Miss Helen. Thank you. I shall never spend this coin,"
+declared Dud, earnestly. "And I shall take it to a jeweler's and have it
+properly engraved."
+
+"What will you have put on it?" asked Helen, laughing.
+
+He looked at her from under level brows, smiling yet quite serious.
+
+"I shall have engraved on it 'Snuggy, to Dud'--if I may?" he said.
+
+But Helen shook her head and although she still smiled, she said:
+
+"You'd better wait a bit, Mr. Lawyer, and see if your advice brings about
+any happy conclusion of my trouble. But you can keep the gold piece, just
+the same, to remember me by."
+
+"As though I needed _that_ reminder!" he cried.
+
+Jess removed the corner of the napkin from between her pretty teeth. "Get
+busy, do!" she cried. "I'm dying to hear about this strange affair you say
+you have come East to straighten out, Helen."
+
+So the girl from Sunset Ranch told all her story. Everything her father
+had said to her upon the topic before his death, and all she suspected
+about Fenwick Grimes and Allen Chesterton--even to the attitude Uncle
+Starkweather took in the matter--she placed before Dud Stone.
+
+He gave it grave attention. Helen was not afraid to talk plainly to him,
+and she held nothing back. But at the best, her story was somewhat
+disconnected and incomplete. She possessed very few details of the crime
+which had been committed. Mr. Morrell himself had been very hazy in his
+statements regarding the affair.
+
+"What we want first," declared Dud, impressively, "is to get the _facts_.
+Of course, at the time, the trouble must have made some stir. It got into
+the newspapers."
+
+"Oh, dear, yes," said Helen. "And that is what Uncle Starkweather is
+afraid of. He fears it will get into the papers again if I make any stir
+about it, and then there will be a scandal."
+
+"With his name connected with it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He's dreadfully timid for his own good name; isn't he?" remarked Dud,
+sarcastically. "Well, first of all, I'll get the date of the occurrence
+and then search the files of all the city papers. The reporters usually
+get such matters pretty straight. To misstate such business troubles is
+skating on the thin ice of libel, and newspapers are careful.
+
+"Well, when we have all the facts before us--what people surmised, even,
+and how it looked to 'the man on the street,' as the saying is--then we'll
+know better how to go ahead.
+
+"Are you willing to leave the matter to me, Helen?"
+
+"What did I give you a retainer for?" demanded the girl from Sunset Ranch,
+smiling.
+
+"True," he replied, his own eyes dancing; "but there is a saying among
+lawyers that the feminine client does not really come to a lawyer for
+advice; rather, she pays him to listen to her talk."
+
+"Isn't that horrid of him?" cried Jess, unable to keep still any longer.
+"As though we girls talked any more than the men do. I should say not!"
+
+But Helen agreed to let Dud govern her future course in trying to untangle
+the web of circumstance that had driven her father out of New York years
+before. As Dud said, somebody was guilty, and that somebody was the person
+they must find.
+
+It encouraged Helen mightily to have someone talk this way about the
+matter. A solution of the problem seemed so imminent after she parted from
+the fledgling lawyer and his sister, that Helen determined to hasten to
+their conclusion certain plans she had made, before she returned to the
+West.
+
+For Helen could not remain here. Her uncle's home was not the refined
+household that dear dad had thought, in which she would be sheltered and
+aided in improving herself.
+
+"I might as well take board at the Zoo and live in the bear's den,"
+declared Helen, perhaps a little harsh in her criticism. "There are no
+civilizing influences in _that_ house. I'd never get a particle of
+'culture' there. I'd rather associate with Sing, and Jo-Rab, and the boys,
+and Hen Billings."
+
+Her experience in the great city had satisfied Helen that its life was not
+for her. Some things she had learned, it was true; but most of them were
+unpleasant things.
+
+"I'd rather hire some lady to come out to Sunset and live with me and
+teach me how to act gracefully in society, and all that. There are a lot
+of 'poor, but proud' people who would be glad of the chance, I know."
+
+But on this day--after she had left her riding habit at a tailor's to be
+brushed and pressed, and had made arrangements to make her changes there
+whenever she wished to ride in the morning--on this day Helen had
+something else to do beside thinking of her proper introduction to
+society. This was the first day it had been fit for her to go downtown
+since she and Sadie Goronsky had had their adventure with the old man whom
+Sadie called "Lurcher," but whom Fenwick Grimes had called "Jones."
+
+Helen was deeply interested in the old man's case, and if he could be
+helped in any proper way, she wanted to do it. Also, there was Sadie
+herself. Helen believed that the Russian girl, with her business ability
+and racial sharpness, could help herself and her family much more than she
+now was doing, if she had the right kind of a chance.
+
+"And I am going to give her the chance," Helen told herself, delightedly.
+"She has been, as unselfish and kind to me--a stranger to her and her
+people--as she could be. I am determined that Sadie Goronsky and her
+family shall always be glad that Sadie was kind to the 'greenie' who
+hunted for Uncle Starkweather's house on Madison Street instead of Madison
+Avenue."
+
+After luncheon at the Starkweathers' Helen started downtown with plenty of
+money in her purse. She rode to Madison Street and was but a few minutes
+in reaching the Finkelstein store. To her surprise the front of the
+building was covered with big signs reading "Bankrupt Sale! Prices Cut in
+Half!"
+
+Sadie was not in sight. Indeed, the store was full of excited people
+hauling over old Jacob Finkelstein's stock of goods, and no "puller-in"
+was needed to draw a crowd. The salespeople seemed to have their hands
+full.
+
+Not seeing Sadie anywhere, Helen ventured to mount to the Goronsky flat.
+Mrs. Goronsky opened the door, recognized her visitor, and in shrill
+Yiddish and broken English bade her welcome.
+
+"You gome py mein house to see mein Sarah? Sure! Gome in! Gome in! Sarah
+iss home to-day."
+
+"Why, see who's here!" exclaimed Sadie, appearing with a partly-completed
+hat, of the very newest style, in her hand. "I thought the wet weather had
+drowned you out."
+
+"It kept me in," said Helen, "for I had nothing fit to wear out in the
+rain."
+
+"Well, business was so poor that Jacob had to fail. And that always gives
+me a few days' rest. I'm glad to get 'em, believe me!"
+
+"Why--why, can a man fail more than once?" gasped Helen.
+
+"He can in the clothing business," responded Sadie, laughing, and leading
+the way into the tiny parlor. "I bet there was a crowd in there when you
+come by?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," agreed Helen.
+
+"Sure! he'll get rid of all the 'stickers' he's got it in the shop, and
+when we open again next week for ordinary business, everything will be
+fresh and new."
+
+"Oh, then, you're really not out of a job?" asked Helen, relieved for her
+friend's sake.
+
+"No. I'm all right. And you?"
+
+"I came down particularly to see about that poor old man's spectacles,"
+Helen said.
+
+"Then you didn't forget about him?"
+
+"No, indeed. Did you see him? Has he got the prescription? Is it right
+about his eyes being the trouble?"
+
+"Sure that's what the matter is. And he's dreadful poor, Helen. If he
+could see better he might find some work. He wore his eyes out, he told
+me, by writing in books. That's a business!"
+
+"Then he has the prescription."
+
+"Sure. I seen it. He's always hoping he'd get enough money to have the
+glasses. That's all he needs, the doctor told him. But they cost fourteen
+dollars."
+
+"He shall have them!" declared Helen.
+
+"You don't mean it, Helen?" cried the Russian girl. "You haven't got that
+much money for him?"
+
+"Yes, I have. Will you go around there with me? We'll get the prescription
+and have it filled."
+
+"Wait a bit," said Sadie. "I want to finish this hat. And lemme tell
+you--it's right in style. What do you think?"
+
+"How wonderfully clever you are!" cried the Western girl. "It looks as
+though it had just come out of a shop."
+
+"Sure it does. I could work in a hat shop. Only they wouldn't pay me
+anything at first, and they wouldn't let me trim. But I know a girl that
+ain't a year older nor me what gets sixteen dollars a week trimming in a
+millinery store on Grand Street. O' course, she ain't the _madame_; she's
+only assistant. But sixteen dollars is a good bunch of money to bring home
+on a Saturday night--believe me!"
+
+"Is that what you'd like to do--keep a millinery shop?" asked Helen.
+
+"Wouldn't I--just?" gasped Sadie. "Why, Helen--I dream about it nights!"
+
+Helen became suddenly interested. "Would a little shop pay, Sadie? Could
+you earn your living in a little shop of your own--say, right around here
+somewhere?"
+
+"Huh! I've had me eye on a place for months. But it ain't no use. You got
+to put up for the rent, and the wholesalers ain't goin' to let a girl like
+me have stock on credit. And there's the fixtures--Aw, well, what's the
+use? It's only a dream."
+
+Helen was determined it should not remain "only a dream." But she said
+nothing further.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE HAT SHOP
+
+
+"Them folks you're living with must have had a change of heart, Helen,"
+said Sadie Goronsky, as the two girls sallied forth--Sadie with her new
+hat set jauntily on her sleek head.
+
+"Why do you say that?"
+
+"If they are willing to spend fourteen dollars on old Lurcher's eyes."
+
+"Oh, it isn't a member of my uncle's family who is furnishing the money
+for this charity," Helen replied. Sadie asked no further questions,
+fortunately.
+
+It was a very miserable house in which the old man lodged. Helen's heart
+ached as she beheld the poverty and misery so evident all about her.
+"Lurcher" lived on the top floor at the back--a squalid, badly-lighted
+room--and alone.
+
+"But a man with eyes as bad as mine don't really need light, you see,
+young ladies," he whispered, when Sadie had ushered herself and Helen into
+the room.
+
+He had tried to keep it neat; but his housekeeping arrangements were most
+primitive, and cold as the weather had now become, he had no stove save a
+one-wick oil stove on which he cooked his meals--such as they were.
+
+"You see," Sadie told him, "this is my friend, Helen, and she seen you the
+other day when you--you lost that dollar, you know."
+
+"Ah, yes, wonderful bright eyes you have, Miss, to find a dollar in the
+street."
+
+"Ain't they?" cried Sadie, grinning broadly at Helen. "Chee, it ain't
+everybody that can pick up money in the streets of New York--though we all
+believed we could before we come over here from Russia. Sure!"
+
+"You see," said Helen, softly, "I had seen you before, Mr.--er--Lurcher. I
+saw you over on the West Side that morning."
+
+"You saw me over there?" asked the old man, yet still in a very low
+voice--a sort of a faded-out voice--and he seemed not a little startled.
+"You saw me over there, Miss? _Where_ did you see me?"
+
+"On--on Bleecker Street," responded Helen, which was quite true. She saw
+that the man evidently did not wish his visit to Fenwick Grimes to be
+known. Perhaps he had some unpleasant connection with the money-lender.
+
+"Yes, yes!" said Lurcher, with relief. "I--I come through there
+frequently. But I have such difficulty in seeing my way about, that I
+follow a beaten path--yes! a beaten path."
+
+Helen was very curious about the old man's acquaintance with Fenwick
+Grimes. The more she thought over her own interview with the money-lender
+and mine-owner, the deeper became her suspicion that her father's one-time
+partner was an untrustworthy man.
+
+Anybody who seemed to know him better than _she_ did, naturally interested
+Helen. Dud Stone had promised to find out all about Grimes, and Helen knew
+that she would wait impatiently for his report.
+
+But she was interested in Lurcher for his own miserable sake, too. He had
+lived by himself in this wretched lodging for years. How he lived he did
+not say; but it was evident that his income was both infinitesimal and
+uncertain.
+
+Nevertheless, he was not a mean-looking man, nor were his garments
+unclean. They _were_ ragged. He admitted, apologetically, that he could
+not see to use a needle and so "had sort o' got run down."
+
+"I'll come some day soon and mend you up," promised Helen, when the old
+man gave her the prescription he had received from the oculist at the Eye
+and Ear Hospital. "And you shall have these glasses just as soon as the
+lenses can be ground."
+
+"God bless you, Miss!" said the old man, simply.
+
+He had a quiet, "listening" face, and seldom spoke above a whisper. He was
+more the shadow of a man than the substance.
+
+"Ain't that a terrible end to look forward to, Helen?" remarked Sadie,
+seriously, as they descended the stairs to the street. "He ain't got no
+friends, and no family, and no way to make a decent livin'. They wouldn't
+have the likes of him around in offices, writin' in books."
+
+"Oh, you mean he is a bookkeeper?" cried Helen.
+
+"Sure, I do. That's a business! My papa is going to be in business for
+himself again. And so will I--you see! That's the only way to get on, and
+lay up something for your old age. Work for yourself----"
+
+"In a millinery store; eh?" suggested Helen, smiling.
+
+"That's right!" declared Sadie, boldly.
+
+"Where is the little store you spoke of? Do you suppose you can ever get
+it, Sadie?"
+
+"Don't! You make me feel bad here," said Sadie, with her hand on her
+heart. "Say! I just _ache_ to try what I can do makin' lids for the East
+Side Four Hundred. The wholesale houses let youse come there and work when
+they're makin' up the season's pattern hats, and then you can get all the
+new wrinkles. Oh, I wish I was goin' to start next season in me own store
+instead of pullin' greenies into Papa Yawcob's suit shop," and the East
+Side girl sighed dolefully.
+
+"Let's go see the shop you want," suggested Helen.
+
+"Oh, dear! It don't do no good," said Sadie. "But I often go out of my way
+to take a peek at it."
+
+They went a little farther uptown and Helen was shown the tiny little
+store which Sadie had picked out as just the situation for a millinery
+shop.
+
+"Ye see, there's other stores all around; but no millinery. Women come
+here to buy other things, and if I had that little winder full of tasty
+hats--Chee! wouldn't it pull 'em in?"
+
+They stood there some minutes, while the young East Side girl, so wise in
+the ways of earning a living, so sharp of apprehension in most things,
+told her whole heart to the girl who had never had to worry about money
+matters at all--told it with no suspicion that My Lady Bountiful stood by
+her side.
+
+She pointed out to Helen just where she would have her little counter, and
+the glass-fronted wall cases for the trimmed hats, and the deep drawers
+for "shapes," and the little case in which to show the flowers and
+buckles, and the chair and table and mirror for the particular customers
+to sit at while they were being fitted.
+
+"And I'd take that hunchback girl--Rosie Seldt--away from the millinery
+store on my block--she _hates_ to work on the sidewalk the way they make
+her--she could help me lots. Rosie is a smart girl with some ideas of her
+own. And I'd curtain off the end of the store down there for a workroom,
+and for stock--Chee, but I'd make this place look swell!"
+
+Helen, who had noted the name and address of the rental agent on the card
+in the window, cut her visit with Sadie short, so afraid was she that she
+would be tempted to tell her friend of the good fortune that was going to
+overtake her. For the girl from Sunset Ranch knew just what she was going
+to do.
+
+Dud Stone had given her the address of the law firm where he was to be
+found, and the very next morning she went to the offices of Larribee &
+Polk and saw Dud. In his hands she put a sum of money and told him what
+she wished done. But when Dud learned that the girl had the better part of
+eight hundred dollars in cash with her, he took her to a bank and made her
+open an account at once.
+
+"Where do you think you are--still in the wild and woolly West where
+pretty near everybody you meet is honest?" demanded Dud. "You ought to be
+shaken! That money here in the big city is a temptation to half the people
+you pass on the street. Suppose one of the servants at your uncle's house
+should see it? You have no right to put temptation in people's way."
+
+Helen accepted his scolding meekly as long as he did not refuse to carry
+out her plan for Sadie Goronsky. When Dud heard the full particulars of
+the Western girl's acquaintanceship with Sadie, he had no criticism to
+offer. That very day Dud engaged the store, paid three months' rent, and
+bought the furnishings. Sadie was not to be told until the store was ready
+for occupancy. There was still time enough. Helen knew that the millinery
+season did not open until February.
+
+Meanwhile, although Helen's goings and comings were quite ignored by Uncle
+Starkweather and the girls, some incidents connected with Helen Morrell
+had begun to stir to its depth the fountain of the family's wrath against
+the girl from Sunset Ranch.
+
+Twice May Van Ramsden had come to call on Helen. Once she had brought Ruth
+and Mercy De Vorne with her. And on each occasion she had demanded that
+Gregson take their cards to Helen.
+
+Gregson had taken the cards up one flight and then had sent on the cards
+by Maggie to Helen's room. Gregson said below stairs that he would "give
+notice" if he were obliged to take cards to anybody who roomed in the
+attic.
+
+May and her friends trooped up the stairs in the wake of their cards,
+however--for so it had been arranged with Helen, who expected them on both
+occasions.
+
+The anger of the Starkweather family would have been greater had they
+known that these calls of their own most treasured social acquaintances
+were really upon the little old lady who had been shut away into the front
+attic suite, and whose existence even was not known to some of the
+servants in the Starkweather mansion.
+
+May, as she had promised, was bringing, one or two at a time, her friends
+who, as children when Cornelius Starkweather was alive, had haunted this
+old house because they loved old Mary Boyle. And May was proving, too, to
+the Western girl, that all New York people of wealth were neither
+heartless or ungrateful. Yet the crime of forgetfulness these young women
+must plead to.
+
+The visits delighted Mary Boyle. Helen knew that she slept better--after
+these little excitements of the calls--and did not go pattering up and
+down the halls with her crutch in the dead of night.
+
+So the days passed, each one bringing so much of interest into the life of
+Helen Morrell that she forgot to be lonely, or to bewail her lot. She was
+still homesick for the ranch--when she stopped to think about it. But she
+was willing to wait a while longer before she flitted homeward to Big Hen
+and the boys.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE MISSING LINK
+
+
+Helen met Dud Stone and his sister on the bridle-path one morning by
+particular invitation. The message had come to the house for her late the
+evening before and had been put into the trusty hand of old Lawdor, the
+butler. Dud had learned the particulars of the old embezzlement charge
+against Prince Morrell.
+
+"I've got here in typewriting the reports from three papers--everything
+they had to say about it for the several weeks that it was kept alive as a
+news story. It was not so great a crime that the metropolitan papers were
+likely to give much space to it," Dud said.
+
+"You can read over the reports at your leisure, if you like. But the main
+points for us to know are these:
+
+"In the two banks were, in the names of Morrell & Grimes, something over
+thirty-three thousand dollars. Either partner could draw the money. The
+missing bookkeeper could _not_ draw the money.
+
+"The checks came to the banks in the course of the day's business, and
+neither teller could swear that he actually remembered giving the money to
+Mr. Morrell; yet because the checks were signed in his name, and
+apparently in his handwriting, they both 'thought' it must have been Mr.
+Morrell who presented the checks.
+
+"Now, mind you, Fenwick Grimes had gone off on a business trip of some
+duration, and Allen Chesterton had disappeared several days before the
+checks were drawn and the money removed from the banks.
+
+"It was hinted by one ingenious police reporter that the bookkeeper was
+really the guilty man. He even raked up some story of the man at his
+lodgings which intimated that Chesterton had some art as an actor. Parts
+of disguises were found abandoned at his empty rooms. This suggestion was
+made: That Chesterton was a forger and had disguised himself as Mr.
+Morrell so as to cash the checks without question. Then Fenwick Grimes
+returned and discovered that the bank balances were gone.
+
+"At first your father was no more suspected than was Grimes himself. Then,
+one paper printed an article intimating that your father, the senior
+partner of the firm, might be the criminal. You see, the bank tellers had
+been interviewed. Before that the suggestion that by any possibility Mr.
+Morrell was guilty had been scouted. But the next day it was learned your
+father and mother had gone away. Immediately the bookkeeper was forgotten
+and the papers all seemed to agree that Prince Morrell had really stolen
+the money.
+
+"Oddly enough the creditors made little trouble at first. Your Uncle
+Starkweather was mentioned as having been a silent partner in the concern
+and having lost heavily himself----"
+
+"Poor dad was able to pay Uncle Starkweather first of all--years and years
+ago," interposed Helen.
+
+"Ah! and Grimes? Do you know if he made any claim on your father at any
+time?"
+
+"I think not. You see, he was freed of all debt almost at once through
+bankruptcy. Mr. Grimes really had a very small financial interest in the
+firm. Dad said he was more like a confidential clerk. Both he and Uncle
+Starkweather considered Grimes a very good asset to the firm, although he
+had no money to put into it. That is the way it was told to me."
+
+"And very probable. This Grimes is notoriously sharp," said Dud,
+reflectively. "And right after he went through bankruptcy he began to do
+business as a money-lender. Supposedly he lent other people's money; but
+he is now worth a million, or more. Question is: Where did he get his
+start in business after the robbery and the failure of Grimes & Morrell?"
+
+"Oh, Dud!"
+
+"Don't you suspect him, too?" demanded the young man.
+
+"I--I am prejudiced, I fear."
+
+"So am I," agreed Dud, with a grim chuckle. "I'm going after that man
+Grimes. It's funny he should go into business with a mysterious capital
+right after the old firm was closed out, when before that he had had no
+money to invest in the firm of which he was a member."
+
+"I feared as much," sighed Helen. "And he was so eager to throw suspicion
+on the lost bookkeeper, just to satisfy my curiosity and put me off the
+track. He's as bad as Uncle Starkweather. _He_ doesn't want me to go ahead
+because of the possible scandal, and Mr. Grimes is afraid for his own
+sake, I very much fear. What a wicked man he must be!"
+
+"Possibly," said Dud, eyeing the girl sharply. "Have you told me all your
+uncle has said to you about the affair?"
+
+"I think so, Dud. Why?"
+
+"Well, nothing much. Only, in hunting through the files of the newspapers
+for articles about the troubles of Grimes & Morrell I came across the
+statement that Mr. Starkweather was in financial difficulties about the
+same time. _He_ settled with his creditors for forty cents on the dollar.
+This was before your uncle came into _his_ uncle's fortune, of course, and
+went to live on Madison Avenue."
+
+"Well--is that significant?" asked the girl, puzzled.
+
+"I don't know that it is. But there is something you mentioned just now
+that _is_ of importance."
+
+"What is that, Dud?"
+
+"Why, the bookkeeper--Allen Chesterton. He's the missing link. If we could
+get him I believe the truth would easily be learned. In one newspaper
+story of the Grimes & Morrell trouble, it was said that Grimes and
+Chesterton had been close friends at one time--had roomed together in the
+very house from which the bookkeeper seemed to have fled a couple of days
+before the embezzlement was discovered."
+
+"Would detectives be able to pick up any clue to the missing man--and
+missing link?" asked Helen, thoughtfully.
+
+"It's a cold trail," Dud observed, shaking his head.
+
+"I don't mind spending some money. I can send to Big Hen for more----"
+
+"Of course you can. I don't believe you realize how rich you are, Helen."
+
+"I--I never had to think about it."
+
+"No. But about hiring a detective. I hate to waste money. Wait a few days
+and see if I can get on the blind side of Mr. Grimes in some way."
+
+So the matter rested; but it was Helen herself who made the first
+discovery which seemed to point to a weak place in Fenwick Grimes's
+armor.
+
+Helen had been once to the poor lodging of Mr. Lurcher to "mend him up";
+for she was a good little needlewoman and she knew she could make the old
+fellow look neater. He had got his glasses, and at first could only wear
+them a part of the day. The doctor at the hospital gave him an ointment
+for his eyelids, too, and he was on a fair road to recovery.
+
+"I can cobble shoes pretty good, Miss," he said. "And there is work to be
+had at that industry in several shops in the neighborhood. Once I was a
+clerk; but all that is past, of course."
+
+Helen did not propose to let the old fellow suffer; but just yet she did
+not wish to do anything further for him, or Sadie might suspect that her
+friend, Helen, was something different from the poor girl Sadie thought
+she was.
+
+After the above interview with Dud, Helen went downtown to see Sadie
+again; and she ran around the corner to spend a few minutes with Mr.
+Lurcher. As she went up the stairs she passed a man coming down. It was
+dark, and she could not see the person clearly. Yet Helen realized that
+the individual eyed her sharply, and even stopped and came part way up the
+stairs again to see where she went.
+
+When she came down to the street again she was startled by almost running
+into Mr. Grimes, who was passing the house.
+
+"What! what! what!" he snapped, staring at her. "What brings you down in
+_this_ neighborhood? A nice place for Mr. Willets Starkweather's niece to
+be seen in. I warrant he doesn't know where you are?"
+
+"You are quite right, Mr. Grimes," Helen returned, quietly.
+
+"What are you doing here?" asked Grimes, rather rudely.
+
+"Visiting friends," replied Helen, without further explanation.
+
+"You're still trying to rake up that old trouble of your father's?"
+demanded Grimes, scowling.
+
+"Not down here," returned Helen, with a quiet smile. "That is sure. But I
+_am_ doing what I can to learn all the particulars of the affair. Mr. Van
+Ramsden was a creditor and father's friend, and his daughter tells me that
+_he_ will do all in his power to help me."
+
+"Ha! Van Ramsden! Well, it's little you'll ever find out through _him_.
+Well! you'd much better have let me do as I suggested and cleared up the
+whole story in the newspapers," growled Grimes. "Now, now! Where's that
+clerk of mine, I wonder? He was to meet me here."
+
+And he went muttering along the walk; but Helen stood still and gazed
+after him in some bewilderment. For it dawned on the girl that the man who
+had passed her as she went up to see old Mr. Lurcher, or "Jones," was
+Leggett, Fenwick Grimes's confidential man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THEIR EYES ARE OPENED
+
+
+As her cousins were not at all interested in what became of Helen during
+the day, neither was Helen interested in how the three Starkweather girls
+occupied their time. But on this particular afternoon, while Helen was
+visiting Lurcher, and chatting with Sadie Goronsky on the sidewalk in
+front of the Finkelstein shop, she would have been deeply interested in
+what interested the Starkweather girls.
+
+All three chanced to be in the drawing-room when Gregson came past the
+door in his stiffest manner, holding the tray with a single card on it.
+
+"Who is it, Gregson?" asked Belle. "I heard the bell ring. Somebody to see
+me?"
+
+"No, mem, it his not," declared the footman.
+
+"Me?" said Hortense, holding out her hand. "Who is it, I wonder?"
+
+"Nor is hit for you, mem," repeated Gregson.
+
+"It can't be for _me_?" cried Flossie.
+
+But before the footman could speak again, Belle rose majestically and
+crossed the room.
+
+"I believe I know what it is," she said, angrily. "And it is going to
+stop. You were going to take the card upstairs, Gregson?"
+
+"No, mem!" said Gregson, somewhat heated. "Hi do not carry cards above the
+second floor."
+
+"It's somebody to see Helen!" cried Flossie, clapping her hands softly and
+enjoying her older sister's rage.
+
+"Give it to me!" exclaimed Belle, snatching the card from the tray. She
+turned toward her sisters to read it. But when her eye lit upon the name
+she was for the moment surprised out of speech.
+
+"Goodness me! who is it?" gasped Hortense.
+
+"Jessie Stone--'Miss Jessie Dolliver Stone.' Goodness me!" whispered
+Belle.
+
+"Not the Stones of Riverside Drive--_the_ Stones?" from Hortense.
+
+"Dud Stone's sister?" exclaimed Flossie.
+
+"And Dud Stone is the very nicest boy I ever met," quoth Hortense,
+clasping her hands.
+
+"I know Miss Jessie. Jess, they all call her. I saw her on the Westchester
+Links only last week and she never said a word about this."
+
+"About coming to see Helen--it isn't possible!" cried Hortense. "Gregson,
+you have made a mistake."
+
+"Hi beg your pardon--no, mem. She asked for Miss Helen. I left 'er in the
+reception parlor, mem----"
+
+"She thinks one of us is named Helen!" cried Belle, suddenly. "Show her
+up, Gregson."
+
+Gregson might have told her different; but he saw it would only involve
+him in more explanation; therefore he turned on his heel and in his usual
+stately manner went to lead Dud Stone's sister into the presence of the
+three excited girls.
+
+Jessie by no means understood the situation at the Starkweather house
+between Helen and her cousins. It had never entered Miss Stone's head, in
+fact, that anybody could be unkind to, or dislike, "such a nice little
+thing as Helen Morrell."
+
+So she greeted the Starkweather girls in her very frankest manner.
+
+"I really am delighted to see you again, Miss Starkweather," Jess said,
+being met by Belle at the door. "And are these your sisters? I'm charmed,
+I am sure."
+
+Hortense and Flossie were introduced. The girls sat down.
+
+"You don't mean to say Helen isn't here?" demanded Jess. "I came
+particularly to invite her to dinner to-morrow night. We're going to have
+a little celebration and Dud and I are determined to have her with us."
+
+"Helen?" gasped Belle.
+
+"Not Helen Morrell?" demanded Hortense.
+
+"Why, yes--of course--your Cousin Helen. How funny! Of course she's here?
+She lives with you; doesn't she?"
+
+"Why--er--we have a--a distant relative of poor mamma's by that name,"
+said Belle, haughtily. "She--she came here quite unexpectedly--er quite
+uninvited, I may say. Pa is _so-o_ easy, you know; he won't send her
+away----"
+
+"Send her away! Send Helen Morrell away?" gasped Jess Stone. "Are--are we
+talking about the same girl, I wonder? Why, Helen is a most charming
+girl--and pretty as a picture. And brave no end!
+
+"Why, it was she who saved my brother's life when he was away out
+West----"
+
+"Mr. Stone never went to Montana?" cried Flossie. "He never met Helen at
+Sunset Ranch?"
+
+"Be still, Floss!" commanded Belle; but Miss Stone turned to answer the
+younger girl.
+
+"Of course. Dud stopped at the ranch some days, too. He had to, for he
+hurt his foot. That's when Helen saved his life. He was flung from the
+back of a horse over the edge of a cliff and fortunately landed in the top
+of a tree.
+
+"But the tree was very tall and he could not have gotten out of it safely
+with his wounded foot had not Helen ridden up to the brink of the
+precipice, thrown him a rope, and swung him out of the tree upon a ledge
+of rock. Then he worked his way down the side of the cliff while Helen
+caught his horse. But his foot hurt him so that he could never have got
+into the saddle alone; and Helen put him on her own pony and led the pony
+to the ranch house."
+
+"Bully for Helen!" ejaculated Flossie, under her breath. Even Hortense was
+flushed a bit over the story. But Belle could see nothing to admire in her
+cousin from the West, and she only said, harshly:
+
+"Very likely, Miss Stone. Helen seems to be a veritable hoyden. These
+ranch girls are so unfortunate in their bringing up and their environment.
+In the wilds I presume Helen may be passable; but she is quite, quite
+impossible here in the city----"
+
+"I don't know what you mean by being 'impossible,'" interrupted Jess
+Stone. "She is a lovely girl."
+
+"You haven't met her?" cried Belle. "It's only Mr. Stone's talk."
+
+"I certainly _have_ met her, Miss Starkweather. Certainly I know her--and
+know her well. Had I known when she was coming to New York I would have
+begged her to come to us. It is plain that her own relatives do not care
+much for Helen Morrell," said the very frank young lady.
+
+"Well--we--er----"
+
+"Why, Helen has been meeting me in the bridle-path almost every morning.
+And she rides wonderfully."
+
+"Riding in Central Park!" cried Hortense.
+
+"Why--why, the child has nothing decent to wear," declared Belle. "How
+could she get a riding habit--or hire a horse? I do not understand this,
+Miss Stone, but I can tell you right now, that Helen has nothing fit to
+wear to your dinner party. She came here a little pauper--with nothing fit
+to wear in her trunk. Pa _did_ find money enough for a new street dress
+and hat for her; but he did not feel that he could support in luxury every
+pauper who came here and claimed relationship with him."
+
+Miss Stone's mouth fairly hung open, and her eyes were as round as eyes
+could be, with wonder and surprise.
+
+"What is this you tell me?" she murmured. "Helen Morrell a pauper?"
+
+"I presume those people out there in Montana wanted to get the girl off
+their hands," said Belle, coldly, "and merely shipped her East, hoping
+that Pa would make provision for her. She has been a great source of
+annoyance to us, I do assure you."
+
+"A source of annoyance?" repeated the caller.
+
+"And why not? Without a rag decent to wear. With no money. Scarcely
+education enough to make herself intelligibly understood----"
+
+Flossie began to giggle. But Jessie Stone rose to her feet. This volatile,
+talkative girl could be very dignified when she was aroused.
+
+"You are speaking of _my_ friend, Helen Morrell," she interrupted Belle's
+flow of angry language, sternly. "Whether she is your cousin, or not, she
+is _my_ friend, and I will not listen to you talk about her in that way.
+Besides, you must be crazy if you believe your own words! Helen Morrell
+poor! Helen Morrell uneducated!
+
+"Why, Helen was four years in one of the best preparatory schools of the
+West--in Denver. Let me tell you that Denver is some city, too. And as for
+being poor and having nothing to wear--Why, whatever can you mean? She
+owns one of the few big ranches left in the West, with thousands upon
+thousands of cattle and horses upon it. And her father left her all that,
+and perhaps a quarter of a million in cash or investments beside."
+
+"Not Helen?" shrieked Belle, sitting down very suddenly.
+
+"Little Helen--_rich_?" murmured Hortense.
+
+"Does Helen really _own_ Sunset Ranch?" cried Flossie, eagerly.
+
+"She certainly does--every acre of it. Why, Dud knows all about her and
+all about her affairs. If you consider that girl poor and uneducated you
+have fooled yourselves nicely."
+
+"I'm glad of it! I'm glad of it!" exclaimed Flossie, clapping her hands
+and pirouetting about the room. "Serves you right, Belle! _I_ found out
+she knew a whole lot more than I did, long ago. She's been helping me with
+my lessons."
+
+"And she _is_ a nice little thing," joined in Hortense, "I don't care what
+you say to the contrary, Belle. She was the only one in this house that
+showed me any real sympathy when I was sick----"
+
+Belle only looked at her sisters, but could say nothing.
+
+"And if Helen hasn't anything fit to wear to your party to-morrow night, I
+will lend her something," declared Hortense.
+
+"You need not bother," said Jess, scornfully. "If Helen came in the
+plainest and most miserable frock to be found she would be welcome.
+Good-day to you, Miss Starkweather--and Miss Hortense--and Miss Flossie."
+
+She swept out of the room and did not even need the gorgeous Gregson to
+show her to the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE PARTY
+
+
+Helen chanced that evening to be entering the area door just as Mr.
+Starkweather himself was mounting the steps of the mansion. Her uncle
+recognized the girl and scowled over the balustrade at her.
+
+"Come to the den at once; I wish to speak to you Helen--Ahem!" he said in
+his most severe tones.
+
+"Yes, sir," responded the girl respectfully, and she passed up the back
+stairway while Mr. Starkweather went directly to his library. Therefore he
+did not chance to meet either of his daughters and so was not warned of
+what had occurred in the house that afternoon.
+
+"Helen," said Uncle Starkweather, viewing her with the same stern look
+when she approached his desk. "I must know how you have been using your
+time while outside of my house? Something has reached my ear which
+greatly--ahem!--displeases me."
+
+"Why--I--I----" The girl was really at a loss what to say. She did not
+know what he was driving at and she doubted the advisability of telling
+Uncle Starkweather everything that she had done while here in the city as
+his guest.
+
+"I was told this afternoon--not an hour ago--that you have been seen
+lurking about the most disreputable parts of the city. That you are a
+frequenter of low tenement houses; that you associate with foreigners and
+the most disgusting of beggars----"
+
+"I wish you would stop, Uncle," said Helen, quickly, her face flushing now
+and her eyes sparkling. "Sadie Goronsky is a nice girl, and her family is
+respectable. And poor old Mr. Lurcher is only unfortunate and half-blind.
+He will not harm me."
+
+"Beggars! Yiddish shoestring pedlars! A girl like you!
+Where--ahem!--_where_ did you ever get such low tastes, girl?"
+
+"Don't blame yourself, Uncle," said Helen, with some bitterness. "I
+certainly did not learn to be kind to poor people from _your_ example. And
+I am sure I have gained no harm from being with them once in a while--only
+good. To help them a little has helped me--I assure you!"
+
+But Mr. Starkweather listened not at all to this. "Where did you find
+these low companions?" he demanded.
+
+"I met Sadie the night I arrived here in the city. The taxicab driver
+carried me to Madison Street instead of Madison Avenue. Sadie was kind to
+me. As for old Mr. Lurcher, I saw him first in Mr. Grimes's office."
+
+Uncle Starkweather suddenly lost his color and fell back in his chair. For
+a moment or two he seemed unable to speak at all. Then he stammered:
+
+"In Fenwick Grimes's office?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What--what was this--ahem!--this beggar doing there?"
+
+"If he is a beggar, perhaps he was begging. At least, Mr. Grimes seemed
+very anxious to get rid of him, and gave him a dollar to go away."
+
+"And you followed him?" gasped Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"No. I went to see Sadie, and it seems Mr. Lurcher lives right in that
+neighborhood. I found he needed spectacles and was half-blind and I----"
+
+"Tell me nothing more about it! Nothing more about it!" commanded her
+uncle, holding up a warning hand. "I will not--ahem!--listen. This has
+gone too far. I gave you shelter--an act of charity, girl! And you have
+abused my confidence by consorting with low company, and spending your
+time in a mean part of the town."
+
+"You are wrong, sir. I have done nothing of the kind," said Helen, firmly,
+but growing angry herself, now. "My friends are decent people, and a poor
+part of the city does not necessarily mean a criminal part."
+
+"Hush! How dare you contradict me?" demanded her uncle. "You shall go
+home. You shall go back to the West at once! Ahem! At once. I could not
+assume the responsibility of your presence here in my house any longer."
+
+"Then I will find a position and support myself, Uncle Starkweather. I
+have told you I could do that before."
+
+"No, indeed!" exclaimed Mr. Starkweather, at once. "I will not allow it.
+You are not to be trusted in this city. I shall send you back to that
+place you came from--ahem!--Sunset Ranch, is it? That is the place for a
+girl like you."
+
+"But, Uncle----"
+
+"No more! I will listen to nothing else from you," he declared, harshly.
+"I shall purchase your ticket through to-morrow, and the next day you must
+go. Ahem! Remember that I _will_ be obeyed."
+
+Helen looked at him with tear-dimmed eyes for fully a minute. But he said
+no more and his stern countenance, as well as his unkind words and tone,
+repelled her. She put out her hand once, as though to speak, but he turned
+away, scornfully.
+
+It was her last attempt to soften him toward her. He might then, had he
+not been so selfish and haughty, have made his peace with the girl and
+saved himself much trouble and misery in the end. But he ignored her, and
+Helen, crying softly, left the room and stole up to her own place in the
+attic.
+
+She could not see anybody that evening, and so did not go down to dinner.
+Later, to her amazement, Maggie came to her door with a tray piled high
+with good things--a very elaborate repast, indeed. But Helen was too
+heartsick to eat much, although she did not refuse the attention--which
+she laid to the kindness of Lawdor, the butler.
+
+But for once she was mistaken. The tray of food did not come from Lawdor.
+Nor was it the outward semblance of anybody's kindness. The tray delivered
+at Helen's door was the first result of a great fright!
+
+At dinner the girls could not wait for their father to be seated before
+they began to tell him of the amazing thing that had been revealed to them
+that afternoon by Jessie Stone.
+
+"Where's Cousin Helen, Gregson?" asked Belle, before seating herself. "See
+that she is called. She may not have heard the gong."
+
+If Gregson's face could display surprise, it displayed it then.
+
+"Of course, dear Helen has returned; hasn't she?" added Hortense.
+
+"I'll go up myself and see if she's here," Flossie suggested.
+
+"Ahem!" said the surprised Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"I listened sharply for her, but I did not hear her pass my door," said
+Hortense.
+
+"I must ask her to come back to that spare room on the lower floor,"
+sighed Belle. "She is too far away from the rest of the family."
+
+"Girls!" gasped Mr. Starkweather, at length finding speech.
+
+"Oh, you needn't explode, Pa!" ejaculated Belle. "We are aware of
+something about Helen that changes the complexion of affairs entirely."
+
+"What does this mean?" demanded Mr. Starkweather, blankly. "Something
+about Helen?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Pa," said Flossie, spiritedly. "Who do you suppose owns that
+Sunset Ranch she talks about?"
+
+"And who do you suppose is worth a quarter of a million dollars--more than
+_you_ are worth, Pa, I declare?" cried Hortense.
+
+"Girls!" exclaimed Belle. "That is very low. If we have made a mistake
+regarding Cousin Helen, of course it can be adjusted. But we need not be
+vulgar enough to say _why_ we change toward her."
+
+Mr. Starkweather thumped upon the table with the handle of his knife.
+
+"Girls!" he commanded. "I will have this explained. What do you mean?"
+
+Out it came then--in a torrent. Three girls can do a great deal of talking
+in a few minutes--especially if they all talk at once.
+
+But Mr. Starkweather got the gist of it. He understood what it all meant,
+and he realized what it meant to _him_, as well, better than his daughters
+could.
+
+Prince Morrell, whom he had always considered a bit of a fool, and
+therefore had not even inquired about after he left for the West, had died
+a rich man. He had left this only daughter, who was an heiress to great
+wealth. And he, Willets Starkweather, had allowed the chance of a lifetime
+to slip through his fingers!
+
+If he had only made inquiries about the girl and her circumstances! He
+might have done that when he learned that Mr. Morrell was dead. When Helen
+had told him her father wished her to be in the care of her mother's
+relatives, Mr. Starkweather could have then taken warning and learned the
+girl's true circumstances. He had not even accepted her confidences. Why,
+he might have been made the guardian of the girl, and handled all her
+fortune!
+
+These thoughts and a thousand others raced through the scheming brain of
+the man. Could he correct his fault at this late date? If he had only
+known of this that his daughters had learned from Jess Stone, before he
+had taken Helen to task as he had that very evening!
+
+Fenwick Grimes had telephoned to him at his office. Something Mr. Grimes
+had said--and he had not seen Mr. Grimes nor talked personally with him
+for years--had put Mr. Starkweather into a great fright. He had decided
+that the only safe place for Helen Morrell was back in the West--he
+supposed with the poor and ignorant people on the ranch where her father
+had worked.
+
+Where Prince Morrell had _worked_! Why, if Morrell had owned Sunset Ranch,
+Helen was one of the wealthiest heiresses in the whole Western country.
+Mr. Starkweather had asked a few questions about Sunset Ranch of men who
+knew. But, as the owner had never given himself any publicity, the name of
+Morrell was never connected with it.
+
+While the three girls chattered over the details of the story Mr.
+Starkweather merely played with his food, and sat staring into a corner of
+the room. He was trying to scheme his way out of the difficulty--the
+dangerous difficulty, indeed--in which he found himself.
+
+So, his first move was characteristic. He sent the tray upstairs to Helen.
+But none of the family saw Helen again that night.
+
+However, there was another caller. This was May Van Ramsden. She did not
+ask for Helen, however, but for Mr. Starkweather himself, and that
+gentleman came graciously into the room where May was sitting with the
+three much excited sisters.
+
+Belle and Hortense and Flossie were bubbling over with the desire to ask
+Miss Van Ramsden if _she_ knew that Helen was a rich girl and not a poor
+one. But there was no opportunity. The caller broached the reason for her
+visit at once, when she saw Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"We are going to ask a great favor of you, sir," she said, shaking hands.
+"And it does seem like a very great impudence on our part. But please
+remember that, as children, we were all very much attached to her. You
+see," pursued Miss Van Ramsden, "there are the De Vorne girls, and Jo and
+Nat Paisley, and Adeline Schenk, and some of the Blutcher boys and
+girls--although the younger ones were born in Europe--and Sue Livingstone,
+and Crayton Ballou. Oh! there really is a score or more."
+
+"Ahem!" said Mr. Starkweather, not only solemnly, but reverently. These
+were names he worshipped. He could have refused such young people
+nothing--nothing!--and would have told Miss Van Ramsden so had what she
+said next not stricken him dumb for the time.
+
+"You see, some of us have called on Nurse Boyle, and found her so bright
+and so delighted with our coming, that we want to give her a little
+tea-party to-morrow afternoon. It would be so delightful to have her greet
+the girls and boys who used to be such friends of hers in the time of Mr.
+Cornelius, right up there in those cunning rooms of hers.
+
+"We always used to see her in the nursery suite, and there are the same
+furniture, and hangings, and pictures, and all. And Nurse Boyle herself is
+just the same--only a bit older--Ah! girls!" she added, turning suddenly
+to the three sisters, "you don't know what it means to have been cared
+for, and rocked, and sung to, when you were ill, perhaps, by Mary Boyle!
+You missed a great deal in not having a Mary Boyle in your family."
+
+"_Mary Boyle!_" gasped Mr. Starkweather.
+
+"Yes. Can we all come to see her to-morrow afternoon? I am sure if you
+tell Mrs. Olstrom, your housekeeper will attend to all the arrangements.
+Helen knows about it, and she'll help pour the tea. Mary thinks there is
+nobody quite like Helen."
+
+These shocks were coming too fast for Mr. Starkweather. Had anything
+further occurred that evening to torment him it is doubtful if he would
+have got through it as gracefully as he did through this call. May Van
+Ramsden went away assured that no obstacle would be placed in the way of
+Mary Boyle's party in the attic. But neither Mr. Starkweather, nor his
+three daughters, could really look straight into each other's faces for
+the remainder of that evening. And they were all four remarkably silent,
+despite the exciting things that had so recently occurred to disturb
+them.
+
+In the morning Helen got an invitation from Jess Stone to dinner that
+evening. She said "come just as you are"; but she did not tell Helen that
+she had innocently betrayed her true condition to the Starkweathers. Helen
+wrote a long reply and sent it by special messenger through old Lawdor,
+the butler. Then she prepared for the tea in Mary Boyle's rooms.
+
+At breakfast time Helen met the family for the first time since the
+explosion. Self-consciousness troubled the countenances and likewise the
+manner of Mr. Starkweather and his three daughters.
+
+"Ahem! A very fine morning, Helen. Have you been out for your usual
+ramble, my dear?"
+
+"How-do, Helen? Hope you're feeling quite fit."
+
+"Dear me, Helen! How pretty your hair is, child. You must show me how you
+do it in that simple way."
+
+But Flossie was more honest. She only nodded to Helen at first. Then, when
+Gregson was out of the room, she jumped up, went around the table swiftly,
+and caught the Western girl about the neck.
+
+"Helen! I'm just as ashamed of myself as I can be!" she cried, her tears
+flowing copiously. "I treated you so mean all the time, and you have been
+so very, very decent about helping me in my lessons. Forgive me; will you?
+Oh, please say you will!"
+
+Helen kissed her warmly. "Nothing to forgive, Floss," she said, a little
+bruskly, perhaps. "Don't let's speak about it."
+
+She merely bowed and said a word in reply to the others. Nor could Mr.
+Starkweather's unctuous conversation arouse her interest.
+
+"You have a part in the very worthy effort to liven up old Nurse Boyle, I
+understand?" said Mr. Starkweather, graciously. "Is there anything needed
+that I can have sent in, Helen?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir. I am only helping Miss Van Ramsden," Helen replied,
+timidly.
+
+"I think May Van Ramsden should have told _me_ of her plans," said Belle,
+tossing her head.
+
+"Or, _me_," rejoined Hortense.
+
+"Pah!" snapped Flossie. "None of us ever cared a straw for the old woman.
+Queer old thing. I thought she was more than a little cracked."
+
+"Flossie!" ejaculated Mr. Starkweather, angrily, "unless you can speak
+with more respect for--ahem!--for a faithful old servitor of the
+Starkweather family, I shall have to--ahem!--ask you to leave the table."
+
+"You won't have to ask me--I'm going!" exclaimed Flossie, flirting out of
+her chair and picking up her books. "But I want to say one thing while I'm
+on my way," observed the slangy youngster: "You're all just as tiresome as
+you can be! Why don't you own up that you'd never have given the old woman
+a thought if it wasn't for May Van Ramsden and her friends--and Helen?"
+and she beat a retreat in quick order.
+
+It was an unpleasant breakfast for Helen, and she retired from the table
+as soon as she could. She felt that this attitude of the Starkweathers
+toward her was really more unhappy than their former treatment. For she
+somehow suspected that this overpowering kindness was founded upon a
+sudden discovery that she was a rich girl instead of an object of charity.
+How well-founded this suspicion was she learned when she and Jess met.
+
+Hortense brought her up two very elaborate frocks that forenoon, one for
+her to wear when she poured tea in Mary Boyle's rooms, and the other for
+her to put on for the Stones' dinner party.
+
+"They will just about fit you. I'm a mite taller, but that won't matter,"
+said the languid Hortense. "And really, Helen, I am just as sorry as I can
+be for the mean way you have been treated while you have been here. You
+have been so good-natured, too, in helping a chap. Hope you won't hold it
+against me--and _do_ wear the dresses, dear."
+
+"I will put on this one for the afternoon," said Helen, smiling. "But I do
+not need the evening dress. I never wore one quite--quite like that, you
+see," as she noted the straps over the shoulders and the low corsage. "But
+I thank you just the same."
+
+Later Belle said to her airily: "Dear Cousin Helen! I have spoken to
+Gustaf about taking you to the Stones' in the limousine to-night. And he
+will call for you at any hour you say."
+
+"I cannot avail myself of that privilege, Belle," responded Helen,
+quietly. "Jess will send for me at half-past six. She has already arranged
+to do so. Thank you."
+
+There was so much going on above stairs that day that Helen was able to
+escape most of the oppressive attentions of her cousins. Great baskets of
+flowers were sent in by some of the young people who remembered and loved
+Mary Boyle, and Helen helped to arrange them in the little old lady's
+rooms.
+
+Tea things for a score of people came in, too. And cookies and cakes from
+the caterer's. At three o'clock, or a little after, the callers began to
+arrive. Belle, and Hortense, and Flossie received them in the reception
+hall, had them remove their cloaks below stairs, and otherwise tried to
+make it appear that the function was really of their own planning.
+
+But nobody invited either of the Starkweather girls upstairs to Mary
+Boyle's rooms. Perhaps it was an oversight. But it certainly _did_ look as
+though they had been forgotten.
+
+But the party on the attic floor was certainly a success. How pretty the
+little old lady looked, sitting in state with all the young and blooming
+faces about her! Here were growing up into womanhood and manhood (for some
+of the boys had not been ashamed to come) the children whom she had tended
+and played with and sung to.
+
+And she sung to them again--verses of forgotten songs, lullabies she had
+crooned over some of their cradles when they were ill, little broken
+chants that had sent many of them, many times, to sleep.
+
+Altogether it was a most enjoyable afternoon, and Nurse Boyle was promised
+that it should not be the last tea-party she would have. "If you are 'way
+up here in the top of the house, you shall no more be forgotten," they
+told her.
+
+Helen was the object next in interest to Nurse Boyle. May Van Ramsden had
+told about the Starkweathers' little "Cinderella Cousin"; and although
+none of these girls and boys who had gathered knew the truth about Helen's
+wealth and her position in life, they all treated her cordially.
+
+When they trooped away and left the little old lady to lie down to
+recuperate after the excitement, Helen went to her own room, and remained
+closely shut up for the rest of the day.
+
+At half-past six she came downstairs, bag in hand. She descended the
+servants' staircase, told Mr. Lawdor that her trunk, packed and locked,
+was ready for the expressman when he came, and so stole out of the area
+door. She escaped any interview with her uncle, or with the girls. She
+could not bid them good-by, yet she was determined not to go back to
+Sunset Ranch on the morrow, nor would she remain another night under her
+uncle's roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+A STATEMENT OF FACT
+
+
+Dud Stone had that very day seen the fixtures put into the little
+millinery store downtown, and it was ready for Sadie Goronsky to take
+charge; there being a fund of two hundred dollars to Sadie's credit at a
+nearby bank, with which she could buy stock and pay her running expenses
+for the first few weeks.
+
+Yet Sadie didn't know a thing about it.
+
+This last was the reason Helen went downtown early in the morning
+following the little dinner party at the Stones'. At that party Helen had
+met the uncle, aunt, and cousins of Dud and Jess Stone, with whom the
+orphaned brother and sister lived, and she had found them a most charming
+family.
+
+Jess had invited Helen to bring her trunk and remain with her as long as
+she contemplated staying in New York, and this Helen was determined to do.
+Even if the Starkweathers would not let the expressman have her trunk, she
+was prepared to blossom out now in a butterfly outfit, and take the place
+in society that was rightfully hers.
+
+But Helen hadn't time to go shopping as yet. She was too eager to tell
+Sadie of her good fortune. Sadie was to be found--cold as the day
+was--pacing the walk before Finkelstein's shop, on the sharp lookout for a
+customer. But there were a few flakes of snow in the air, the wind from
+the river was very raw, and it did seem to Helen as though the Russian
+girl was endangering her health.
+
+"But what can poor folks do?" demanded Sadie, hoarsely, for she already
+had a heavy cold. "There is nothing for me to do inside the store. If I
+catch a customer I make somet'ings yet. Well, we must all work!"
+
+"Some other kind of work would be easier," suggested Helen.
+
+"But not so much money, maybe."
+
+"If you only had your millinery store."
+
+"Don't make me laugh! Me lip's cracked," grumbled Sadie. "Have a heart,
+Helen! I ain't never goin' to git a store like I showed you."
+
+Sadie was evidently short of hope on this cold day. Helen seized her arm.
+"Let's go up and look at that store again," she urged.
+
+"Have a heart, I tell ye!" exclaimed Sadie Goronsky. "Whaddeyer wanter rub
+it in for?"
+
+"Anyway, if we run it will help warm you."
+
+"All ri'. Come on," said Sadie, with deep disgust, but she started on a
+heavy trot towards the block on which her heart had been set. And when
+they rounded the corner and came before the little shop window, Sadie
+stopped with a gasp of amazement.
+
+Freshly varnished cases, and counter, and drawers, and all were in the
+store just as she had dreamed of them. There were mirrors, too, and in the
+window little forms on which to set up the trimmed hats and one big,
+pink-cheeked, dolly-looking wax bust, with a great mass of tow-colored
+hair piled high in the very latest mode, on which was to be set the very
+finest hat to be evolved in that particular East Side shop.
+
+"Wha--wha--what----"
+
+"Let's go in and look at it," said Helen, eagerly, seizing her friend's
+arm again.
+
+"No, no, no!" gasped Sadie. "We can't. It ain't open. Oh, oh, oh!
+Somebody's got _my_ shop!"
+
+Helen produced the key and opened the door. She fairly pushed the amazed
+Russian girl inside, and then closed the door. It was nice and warm. There
+were chairs. There was a half-length partition at the rear to separate the
+workroom from the showroom. And behind that partition were low sewing
+chairs to work in, and a long work-table.
+
+Helen led the dazed Sadie into this rear room and sat her down in one of
+the chairs. Then she took one facing her and said:
+
+"Now, you sit right there and make up in your mind the very prettiest hat
+for _me_ that you can possibly invent. The first hat you trim in this
+store must be for me."
+
+"Helen! Helen!" cried Sadie, almost wildly. "You're crazy yet--or is it
+me? I don't know what you mean----"
+
+"Yes, you do, dear," replied Helen, putting her arms about the other
+girl's neck. "You were kind to me when I was lost in this city. You were
+kind to me just for nothing--when I appeared poor and forlorn and--and a
+greenie! Now, I am sorry that it seemed best for me to let your mistake
+stand. I did not tell my uncle and cousins either, that I was not as poor
+and helpless as I appeared."
+
+"And you're rich?" shrieked Sadie. "You're doing this yourself? This is
+_your_ store?"
+
+"No, it is _your_ store," returned Helen, firmly. "Of course, by and by,
+when you are established and are making lots of money, if you can ever
+afford to pay me back, you may do so. The money is yours without interest
+until that time."
+
+"I got to cry, Helen! I got to cry!" sobbed Sadie Goronsky. "If an angel
+right down out of heaven had done it like you done it, I'd worship him on
+my knees. And you're a rich girl--not a poor one?"
+
+Helen then told her all about herself, and all about her adventures since
+coming alone to New York. But after that Sadie wanted to keep telling her
+how thankful she was for the store, and that Helen must come home and see
+mommer, and that mommer must be brought to see the shop, too. So Helen ran
+away. She could not bear any more gratitude from Sadie. Her heart was too
+full.
+
+She went over to poor Lurcher's lodgings and climbed the dark stairs to
+his rooms. She had something to tell him, as well.
+
+The purblind old man knew her step, although she had been there but a few
+times.
+
+"Come in, Miss. Yours are angel's visits, although they are more frequent
+than angel's visits are supposed to be," he cried.
+
+"I do hope you are keeping off the street this weather, Mr. Lurcher," she
+said. "If you can mend shoes I have heard of a place where they will send
+work to you, and call for it, and you can afford to have a warmer and
+lighter room than this one."
+
+"Ah, my dear Miss! that is good of you--that is good of you," mumbled the
+old man. "And why you should take such an interest in _me_----?"
+
+"I feel sure that you would be interested in me, if I were poor and
+unhappy and you were rich and able to get about. Isn't that so?" she said,
+laughing.
+
+"Aye. Truly. And you _are_ rich, my dear Miss?"
+
+"Very rich, indeed. Father was one of the big cattle kings of Montana, and
+Prince Morrell's Sunset Ranch, they tell me, is one of the _great_
+properties of the West."
+
+The old man turned to look at her with some eagerness. "That name?" he
+whispered. "_Who_ did you say?"
+
+"Why--my father, Prince Morrell."
+
+"Your father? Prince Morrell your father?" gasped the old man, and sat
+down suddenly, shaking in every limb.
+
+The girl instantly became excited, too. She stepped quickly to him and
+laid her hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"Did you ever know my father?" she asked him.
+
+"I--I once knew a Mr. Prince Morrell."
+
+"Was it here in New York you knew him?"
+
+"Yes. It was years ago. He--he was a good man. I--I had not heard of him
+for years. I was away from the city myself for ten years--in New Orleans.
+I went there suddenly to take the position of head bookkeeper in a
+shipping firm. Then the firm failed, my health was broken by the climate,
+and I returned here."
+
+Helen was staring at him in wonder and almost in alarm. She backed away
+from him a bit toward the door.
+
+"Tell me your real name!" she cried. "It's not Lurcher. Nor is it Jones.
+No! don't tell me. I know--I know! You are Allen Chesterton, who was once
+bookkeeper for the firm of Grimes & Morrell!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+"THE WHIP HAND"
+
+
+An hour later Helen and the old man hurried out of the lodging house and
+Helen led him across town to the office where Dudley Stone worked. At
+first the old man peered all about, on the watch for Fenwick Grimes or his
+clerk.
+
+"They have been after me every few days to agree to leave New York. I did
+not know what for, but I knew Fenwick was up to some game. He always _was_
+up to some game, even when we were young fellows together.
+
+"Now he is rich, and he might have found me better lodgings and something
+to do. But after I came back from the South and was unfit to do clerical
+work because of my eyes, he only threw me a dollar now and then--like
+throwing a bone to a starving dog."
+
+That explained how Helen had chanced to see the old man at Fenwick
+Grimes's door on the occasion of her visit to her father's old partner.
+And later, in the presence of Dudley Stone--who was almost as eager as
+Helen herself--the old man related the facts that served to explain the
+whole mystery surrounding the trouble that had darkened Prince Morrell's
+life for so long.
+
+Briefly, Allen Chesterton and Fenwick Grimes had grown up together in the
+same town, as boys had come to New York, and had kept in touch with each
+other for years. Neither had married and for years they had roomed
+together.
+
+But Chesterton was a plodding bookkeeper and would never be anything else.
+Grimes was mad for money, but he was always complaining that he never had
+a chance.
+
+His chance came through Willets Starkweather, when the latter's
+brother-in-law was looking for a working partner--a man right in Grimes's
+line, and who was a good salesman. Grimes got into the firm on very
+limited capital, yet he was a trusted member and Prince Morrell depended
+on his judgment in most things.
+
+Allen Chesterton had been brought into the firm's office to keep the books
+through Grimes's influence, of course. By and by it seemed to Chesterton
+that his old comrade was running pretty close to the wind. The bookkeeper
+feared that _he_ might be involved in some dubious enterprise.
+
+There was flung in Chesterton's way (perhaps _that_ was by the influence
+of Grimes, too) a chance to go to New Orleans to be bookkeeper in a
+shipping firm. He could get passage upon a vessel belonging to the firm.
+
+He had this to decide between the time of leaving the office one afternoon
+and early the next morning. He took the place and bundled his things
+aboard, leaving a letter for Fenwick Grimes. That letter, it is needless
+to say, Grimes never made public. And by the time the slow craft
+Chesterton was on reached her destination, the firm of Grimes & Morrell
+had gone to smash, Morrell was a fugitive, and the papers had ceased to
+talk about the matter.
+
+The true explanation of the mystery was now plain. Chesterton said that it
+was not himself, but Grimes, who had been successful as an amateur actor.
+Grimes had often disguised himself so well as different people that he
+might have made something by the art in a "protean turn" on the vaudeville
+stage.
+
+Chesterton had known all about the thirty-three thousand dollars belonging
+to Morrell & Grimes in the banks. Grimes had hinted to his friend how easy
+it would be to sequestrate this money without Morrell knowing it. At
+first, evidently, Grimes had wished to use the bookkeeper as a tool.
+
+Then he improved upon his plan. He had gotten rid of Chesterton by getting
+him the position at a distance. His going out of town himself had been
+merely a blind. He had imitated Prince Morrell so perfectly--after forging
+the checks in his partner's handwriting--that the tellers of the two banks
+had thought Morrell really guilty as charged.
+
+"So Fenwick Grimes got thirty-three thousand dollars with which to begin
+business on, after the bankruptcy proceedings had freed him of all debts,"
+said Dud Stone, reflectively. "Yet there must have been one other person
+who knew, or suspected, his crime."
+
+"Who could that be?" cried Helen. "Surely Mr. Chesterton is guiltless."
+
+"Personally I would have taken the old man's statement without his
+swearing to it. _That_ is the confidence I have in him. I only wished it
+to be put into affidavit form that it might be presented to the courts--if
+necessary."
+
+"If necessary?" repeated Helen, faintly.
+
+"You see, my dear girl, you now have the whip hand," said Dud. "You can
+make the man--or men--who ill-used your father suffer for the crime----"
+
+"But, is there more than Grimes? Are you _sure_?"
+
+"I believe that there is another who _knew_. Either legally, or morally,
+he is guilty. In either case he was and is a despicable man!" exclaimed
+Dud, hotly.
+
+"You mean my uncle," observed Helen, quietly. "I know you do. How do you
+think he benefited by this crime?"
+
+"I believe he had a share of the money. He held Grimes up, undoubtedly.
+Grimes is the bigger criminal in a legal sense. But Starkweather
+benefited, I believe, after the fact. And _he_ let your father remain in
+ignorance----"
+
+"And let poor dad pay him back the money he was supposed to have lost in
+the smashing of the firm?" murmured Helen. "Do--do you think he was paid
+twice--that he got money from both Grimes and father?"
+
+"We'll prove that by Grimes," said the fledgling lawyer who, in time, was
+likely to prove himself a successful one indeed.
+
+He sent for Mr. Grimes to come to see him on important business. When the
+money-lender arrived, Dud got him into a corner immediately, showed the
+affidavit, and hinted that Starkweather had divulged something.
+
+Immediately Grimes accused Helen's uncle of exactly the part in the crime
+Dud had suspected him of committing. After the affair blew over and Grimes
+had set up in business, Starkweather had come to him and threatened to
+tell certain things which he knew, and others that he suspected, unless he
+was given the money he had originally invested in the firm of Grimes &
+Morrell.
+
+"I shut his mouth. That's all he took--his rightful share; but I've got
+his receipts, and I can make it look bad for him. And I _will_ make it
+look bad for that old stiff-and-starched hypocrite if he lets me be driven
+to the wall."
+
+This defiance of Fenwick Grimes closed the case as far as any legal
+proceedings were concerned. The matter of recovering the money from Grimes
+would have to be tried in the civil courts. All the creditors of the firm
+were satisfied. To get Grimes indicted for his old crime would be a
+difficult matter in New York County.
+
+"But you have the whip hand," Dud Stone told the girl from Sunset Ranch
+again. "If you want satisfaction, you can spread the story broadcast by
+means of the newspapers, and you will involve Starkweather in it just as
+much as you will Grimes. And between you and me, Helen, I think Willets
+Starkweather richly deserves just that punishment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+HEADED WEST
+
+
+Just at this time Helen Morrell wasn't thinking at all about wreaking
+vengeance upon those who might have ill-treated her when she was alone in
+the great city. Instead, her heart was made very tender by the delightful
+things that were being done for her by those who loved and admired the
+sturdy little girl from Sunset Ranch.
+
+In the first place, Jess and Dud Stone, and their cousins, gave Helen
+every chance possible to see the pleasanter side of city life. She had
+gone shopping with the girls and bought frocks and hats galore. Indeed,
+she had had to telegraph to Big Hen for more money. She got the money; but
+likewise she received the following letter:
+
+  "Dear Snuggy:--
+
+  "We lets colts get inter the alfalfa an' kick up their heels for a
+  while; but they got to steady down and come home some time. Ain't you
+  kicked up your heels sufficient in that lonesome city? And it looks
+  like somebody was getting money away from you--or have you learnt to
+  spend it down East there? Come on home, Snuggy! The hull endurin' ranch
+  is jest a-honin' for you. Sing's that despondint I expects to see him
+  cut off his pigtail. Jo-Rab has gone back on his rice-and-curry
+  rations, the Greasers don't plunk their mandolins no more, and the
+  punchers are as sorry lookin' as winter-kept steers. Come back, Snuggy,
+  and liven up the old place, is the sincere wish of, yours warmly,
+
+                                                   "Henry Billings."
+
+Helen only waited to see some few matters cleared up before she left for
+the West. As it happened, Dud Stone obtained a chance to represent a big
+corporation for some months, in Elberon and Helena. His smattering of
+legal knowledge was sufficient to enable him to accept the job. It was a
+good chance for Jess to go out, too, and try the climate and the life,
+over both of which her brother was so enthusiastic.
+
+But she would go to Sunset Ranch to remain for some time if Helen went
+West with them and--of course--Helen was only too glad to agree to such a
+proposition.
+
+Meanwhile the Western girl was taken to museums, and parks, and theaters,
+and all kinds of show places, and thoroughly enjoyed herself. May Van
+Ramsden and others of those who had attended Mary Boyle's tea party in the
+attic of the Starkweather house hunted Helen out, too, in the home of her
+friends on Riverside Drive, and the last few weeks of Helen's stay were as
+wonderful and exciting as the first few weeks had been lonely and sad.
+
+Dud had insisted upon publishing the facts of the old trouble which had
+come upon the firm of Grimes & Morrell, in pamphlet form, including Allen
+Chesterton's affidavit, and this pamphlet was mailed to the creditors of
+the old firm and to all of Prince Morrel's old friends in New York. But
+nothing was said in the printed matter about Willets Starkweather.
+
+Fenwick Grimes took a long trip out of town, and made no attempt to put in
+an answer to the case. But Mr. Starkweather was a very much frightened
+man.
+
+Dud came home one afternoon and advised Helen to go and see her uncle.
+Since her departure from the Starkweather mansion she had seen neither the
+girls nor Uncle Starkweather himself.
+
+"He doesn't know what you are going to do with him. He brought the money
+he received from your father to my office; but, of course, I would not
+accept it. You've got the whip hand, Helen----"
+
+"But I do not propose to crack the whip, Dud," declared the Western girl,
+quickly.
+
+"You're a good chap, Snuggy!" exclaimed Dud, warmly, and Helen smiled and
+forgave him for using the intimate nickname.
+
+But Helen went across town the very next day and called upon her uncle.
+This time she mounted the broad stone steps, instead of descending to the
+basement door.
+
+Gregson opened the door and, by his manner, showed that even with the
+servants the girl from Sunset Ranch was upon a different footing in her
+uncle's house. Mr. Starkweather was in his den and Helen was ushered into
+the room without crossing the path of any other member of the family.
+
+"Helen!" he ejaculated, when he saw her, and to tell the truth the girl
+was shocked by his changed appearance. Mr. Starkweather was quite broken
+down. The cloud of scandal that seemed to be menacing him had worn his
+pomposity to a thread, and his dignified "Ahem!" had quite disappeared.
+
+Indeed, to see this once proud and selfish man fairly groveling before the
+daughter of the man he had helped injure in the old times, was not a
+pleasant sight. Helen cut the interview as short as she could.
+
+She managed to assure Uncle Starkweather that he need have no
+apprehension. That he had known all the time Grimes was guilty, and that
+he had benefited from that knowledge, was the sum and substance of Willets
+Starkweather's connection with the old crime. At that time he had been, as
+Dud Stone learned, in serious financial difficulties. He used the money
+received from Grimes's ill-gotten gains, to put himself on his feet.
+
+Then had come the death of old Cornelius Starkweather and the legacy.
+After that, when Prince Morrell sent Starkweather the money he was
+supposed to have lost in the bankruptcy of Grimes & Morrell, Starkweather
+did not dare refuse it. He feared always that it would be discovered he
+had known who was really guilty of the embezzlement.
+
+Flossie met Helen in the hall and hugged her. "Don't you go away mad at
+me, Helen," she cried. "I know we all treated you mean; but--but I guess I
+wouldn't act that way again, to any girl, no matter what Belle does."
+
+"I do not believe you would, Floss," agreed Helen, kissing her warmly.
+
+"And are you really going back to that lovely ranch?"
+
+"Very soon. And some time, if you care to and your father will let you,
+I'll be glad to have you come out there for a visit."
+
+"Bully for you, Helen! I'll surely come," cried Flossie.
+
+Hortense was on hand to speak to her cousin, too. "You are much too nice a
+girl to bear malice, I am sure, Helen," she said. "But we do not deserve
+very good treatment at your hands. I hope you will forgive us and, when
+you come to New York again, come to visit us."
+
+"I am sure you would not treat me again as you did this time," said Helen,
+rather sternly.
+
+"You can be sure we wouldn't. Not even Belle. She's awfully sorry, but
+she's too proud to say so. She wants father to bring old Mary Boyle
+downstairs into the old nursery suite that she used to occupy when Uncle
+Cornelius was alive; only the old lady doesn't want to come. She says
+she's only a few more years at best to live and she doesn't like
+changes."
+
+Helen saw the nurse before she left the house, and left the dear old
+creature very happy indeed. Helen was sure Nurse Boyle would never be so
+lonely again, for her friends had remembered her.
+
+Even Mrs. Olstrom, the housekeeper, came to shake hands with the girl who
+had been tucked away into an attic bedroom as "a pauper cousin." And old
+Mr. Lawdor fairly shed tears when he learned that he was not likely to see
+Helen again.
+
+There were other people in the great city who were sorry to see Helen
+Morrell start West. Through Dud Stone, Allen Chesterton had been found
+light work and a pleasant boarding place. There would always be a
+watchful eye upon the old man--and that eye belonged to Miss Sadie
+Goronsky--rather, "S. Goron, Milliner," as the new sign over the hat shop
+door read.
+
+"For you see," said Miss Sadie, with a toss of her head, "there ain't no
+use in advertisin' it that you are a Yid. _That_ don't do no good, as I
+tell mommer. Sure, I'm proud I'm a Jew. We're the greatest people in the
+world yet. But it ain't good for business.
+
+"Now, 'Goron' sounds Frenchy; don't it, Helen? And when I get a-going down
+here good, I'll be wantin' some time to look at a place on Fift' Av'ner,
+maybe. 'Madame Goron' would be dead swell--yes? But you put the 'sky' to
+it and it's like tying a can to a dog's tail. There ain't nowhere to go
+then but _home_," declared this worldly wise young girl.
+
+Helen had dinner again with the Goronskys, and Sadie's mother could not do
+enough to show her fondness for her daughter's benefactor. Sadie promised
+to write to Helen frequently and the two girls--so much alike in some
+ways, yet as far apart as the poles in others--bade each other an
+affectionate farewell.
+
+The next day Helen Morrell and her two friends, Dud and Jess Stone, were
+headed West. That second trip across the continent was a very different
+journey for Helen than the first had been.
+
+She and Jess Stone had become the best of friends. And as the months slid
+by the two girls--Helen, a product of the West, and Jessie, a product of
+the great Eastern city--became dearer and dearer companions.
+
+As for Dud--of course he was always hanging around. His sister sometimes
+wondered--and that audibly--how he found time for business, he was so
+frequently at Sunset Ranch. This was only said, however, in wicked
+enjoyment of his discomfiture--and of Helen's blushes.
+
+For by that time it was an understood thing about Sunset Ranch that in
+time Dud was going to have the right to call its mistress "Snuggy" for all
+the years of her life--just as her father had. And Helen, contemplating
+this possibility, did not seem to mind.
+
+THE END
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+SOMETHING ABOUT
+AMY BELL MARLOWE
+AND HER BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+In these days, when the printing presses are turning out so many books for
+girls that are good, bad and indifferent, it is refreshing to come upon
+the works of such a gifted authoress as Miss Amy Bell Marlowe, who is now
+under contract to write exclusively for Messrs. Grosset & Dunlap.
+
+In many ways Miss Marlowe's books may be compared with those of Miss
+Alcott and Mrs. Meade, but all are thoroughly modern and wholly American
+in scene and action. Her plots, while never improbable, are exceedingly
+clever, and her girlish characters are as natural as they are
+interesting.
+
+On the following pages will be found a list of Miss Marlowe's books. Every
+girl in our land ought to read these fresh and wholesome tales. They are
+to be found at all booksellers. Each volume is handsomely illustrated and
+bound in cloth, stamped in colors. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New
+York. A free catalogue of Miss Marlowe's books may be had for the asking.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE OLDEST OF FOUR
+
+"I don't see any way out!"
+
+It was Natalie's mother who said that, after the awful news had been
+received that Mr. Raymond had been lost in a shipwreck on the Atlantic.
+Natalie was the oldest of four children, and the family was left with but
+scant means for support.
+
+"I've got to do something--yes, I've just got to!" Natalie said to
+herself, and what the brave girl did is well related in "The Oldest of
+Four; Or, Natalie's Way Out." In this volume we find Natalie with a strong
+desire to become a writer. At first she contributes to a local paper, but
+soon she aspires to larger things, and comes in contact with the editor of
+a popular magazine. This man becomes her warm friend, and not only aids
+her in a literary way but also helps in a hunt for the missing Mr.
+Raymond.
+
+Natalie has many ups and downs, and has to face more than one bitter
+disappointment. But she is a plucky girl through and through.
+
+"One of the brightest girls' stories ever penned," one well-known author
+has said of this book, and we agree with him. Natalie is a thoroughly
+lovable character, and one long to be remembered. Published as are all the
+Amy Bell Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by all
+booksellers. Ask your dealer to let you look the volume over.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM
+
+"We'll go to the old farm, and we'll take boarders! We can fix the old
+place up, and, maybe, make money!"
+
+The father of the two girls was broken down in health and a physician had
+recommended that he go to the country, where he could get plenty of fresh
+air and sunshine. An aunt owned an abandoned farm and she said the family
+could live on this and use the place as they pleased. It was great sport
+moving and getting settled, and the boarders offered one surprise after
+another. There was a mystery about the old farm, and a mystery concerning
+one of the boarders, and how the girls got to the bottom of affairs is
+told in detail in the story, which is called, "The Girls of Hillcrest
+Farm; Or, The Secret of the Rocks."
+
+It was great fun to move to the farm, and once the girls had the scare of
+their lives. And they attended a great "vendue" too.
+
+"I just had to write that story--I couldn't help, it," said Miss Marlowe,
+when she handed in the manuscript. "I knew just such a farm when I was a
+little girl, and oh! what fun I had there! And there was a mystery about
+that place, too!"
+
+Published, like all the Marlowe books, by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and
+for sale wherever good books are sold.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+A LITTLE MISS NOBODY
+
+"Oh, she's only a little nobody! Don't have anything to do with her!"
+
+How often poor Nancy Nelson heard those words, and how they cut her to the
+heart. And the saying was true, she _was_ a nobody. She had no folks, and
+she did not know where she had come from. All she did know was that she
+was at a boarding school and that a lawyer paid her tuition bills and gave
+her a mite of spending money.
+
+"I am going to find out who I am, and where I came from," said Nancy to
+herself, one day, and what she did, and how it all ended, is absorbingly
+related in "A Little Miss Nobody; Or, With the Girls of Pinewood Hall."
+Nancy made a warm friend of a poor office boy who worked for that lawyer,
+and this boy kept his eyes and ears open and learned many things.
+
+The book tells much about boarding school life, of study and fun mixed,
+and of a great race on skates. Nancy made some friends as well as enemies,
+and on more than one occasion proved that she was "true blue" in the best
+meaning of that term.
+
+Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers
+everywhere. If you desire a catalogue of Amy Bell Marlowe books send to
+the publishers for it and it will come free.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH
+
+Helen was very thoughtful as she rode along the trail from Sunset Ranch to
+the View. She had lost her father but a month before, and he had passed
+away with a stain on his name--a stain of many years' standing, as the
+girl had just found out.
+
+"I am going to New York and I am going to clear his name!" she resolved,
+and just then she saw a young man dashing along, close to the edge of a
+cliff. Over he went, and Helen, with no thought of the danger to herself,
+went to the rescue.
+
+Then the brave Western girl found herself set down at the Grand Central
+Terminal in New York City. She knew not which way to go or what to do. Her
+relatives, who thought she was poor and ignorant, had refused to even meet
+her. She had to fight her way along from the start, and how she did this,
+and won out, is well related in "The Girl from Sunset Ranch; Or, Alone in
+a Great City."
+
+This is one of the finest of Amy Bell Marlowe's books, with its
+true-to-life scenes of the plains and mountains, and of the great
+metropolis. Helen is a girl all readers will love from the start.
+
+Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers
+everywhere.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+WYN'S CAMPING DAYS
+
+"Oh, girls, such news!" cried Wynifred Mallory to her chums, one day. "We
+can go camping on Lake Honotonka! Isn't it grand!"
+
+It certainly was, and the members of the Go-Ahead Club were delighted.
+Soon they set off, with their boy friends to keep them company in another
+camp not far away. Those boys played numerous tricks on the girls, and the
+girls retaliated, you may be sure. And then Wyn did a strange girl a
+favor, and learned how some ancient statues of rare value had been lost in
+the lake, and how the girl's father was accused of stealing them.
+
+"We must do all we can for that girl," said Wyn. But this was not so easy,
+for the girl campers had many troubles of their own. They had canoe races,
+and one of them fell overboard and came close to drowning, and then came a
+big storm, and a nearby tree was struck by lightning.
+
+"I used to love to go camping when a girl, and I love to go yet," said
+Miss Marlowe, in speaking of this tale, which is called, "Wyn's Camping
+Days; Or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club." "I think all girls ought to
+know the pleasures of summer life under canvas."
+
+A book that ought to be in the hands of all girls. Issued by Grosset &
+Dunlap, New York, and for sale by booksellers everywhere.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Girl from Sunset Ranch, by Amy Bell Marlowe
+
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