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diff --git a/26538.txt b/26538.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..acb3248 --- /dev/null +++ b/26538.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6036 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Madge Morton's Victory, by Amy D.V. Chalmers + +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: Madge Morton's Victory + +Author: Amy D.V. Chalmers + +Release Date: September 5, 2008 [EBook #26538] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADGE MORTON'S VICTORY *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +[Illustration: Before the Hand Organ Danced a Little Figure. +Frontispiece.] + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Madge Morton's Victory + +By +AMY D. V. CHALMERS + +Author of Madge Morton, Captain of the Merry Maid; +Madge Morton's Secret, Madge Morton's Trust. + +THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY +Akron, Ohio--New York + +Made in U. S. A. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright MCMXIV +By THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + I. Commencement Day at Miss Tolliver's 7 + II. How it Was All Arranged 16 + III. Tania, a Princess 24 + IV. The Uninvited Guest 37 + V. Tania, a Problem 51 + VI. A Mischievous Mermaid 58 + VII. Captain Jules, Deep Sea Diver 65 + VIII. The Wreck of the "Water Witch" 80 + IX. The Owner of the Disagreeable Voice 90 + X. The Goody-Goody Young Man 100 + XI. The Beginning of Trouble 112 + XII. "The Anchorage" 124 + XIII. Tania's Nemesis 131 + XIV. Captain Jules Makes a Promise 141 + XV. The Great Adventure 150 + XVI. A Strange Pearl 161 + XVII. The Fairy Godmother's Wish Comes True 172 + XVIII. Missing, a Fairy Godmother 180 + XIX. The Wicked Genii 198 + XX. A Bow of Scarlet Ribbon 206 + XXI. The Race for Life 215 + XXII. Captain Jules Listens to a Story 224 + XXIII. The Victory Over Fate 232 + XXIV. The Little Captain Starts on a Journey 243 + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +MADGE MORTON'S VICTORY + +CHAPTER I + +COMMENCEMENT DAY AT MISS TOLLIVER'S + + +"O Phil, dear! It is anything but fair. If you only knew how I hate to +have to do it!" exclaimed Madge Morton impulsively, throwing her arms +about her chum's neck and burying her red-brown head in the soft, white +folds of Phyllis Alden's graduation gown. "No one in our class wishes me +to be the valedictorian. You know you are the most popular girl in our +school. Yet here I am the one chosen to stand up before everyone and read +my stupid essay when your average was just exactly as high as mine." + +Madge Morton and Phyllis Alden were alone in their own room at the end of +the dormitory of Miss Matilda Tolliver's Select School for Girls, at +Harborpoint, one morning late in May. Through the halls one could hear +occasional bursts of girlish laughter, and the murmur of voices betokened +unusual excitement. + +It was the morning of the annual spring commencement. + +Phyllis slowly unclasped Madge's arms from about her neck and gazed at +her companion steadfastly, a flush on her usually pale cheeks. + +"If you say another word about that old valedictory, I shall never +forgive you!" she declared vehemently. "You know that Miss Tolliver is +going to announce to the audience that our averages were the same. You +were chosen to deliver the valedictory because you can make a speech so +much better than I. What is the use of bringing up this subject now, just +a few minutes before our commencement begins? You know how often we have +talked this over before, and that I told Miss Matilda that I wished you +to be the valedictorian instead of me, even before she selected you." + +Phil's earnest black eyes looked sternly into Madge's troubled blue ones. +"If you begin worrying about that now, you won't be able to read your +essay half as well," declared Phil impatiently. "Please sit still for a +minute and wait until Miss Jenny Ann calls us." + +Phil pushed Madge gently toward the big armchair. Then she walked over to +stand by the window, in order to watch the carriages drive up to Miss +Tolliver's door and to keep her back turned directly upon her friend +Madge. + +The little captain sat very still for a few minutes. She had on an +exquisite white organdie gown, a white sash, white slippers and white +silk stockings. In the knot of sunny curled hair drawn high upon her head +she wore a single white rose. A bunch of roses lay in her lap, also a +manuscript in Madge's slightly vertical handwriting, which she fingered +restlessly. + +The silence grew monotonous to Madge. + +"Are you angry with me, Phil?" she asked forlornly. + +Madge and Phyllis Alden had been best friends for four years, and had +never had a real disagreement until this morning. + +Phyllis was too honest to be deceitful. "I am a little cross," she +admitted without turning around. "I wish Lillian and Eleanor would come +upstairs to tell us how many people have arrived for the commencement." + +Madge started across the room toward Phil. But Phyllis's back was +uncompromising. She pretended not to hear her friend's light step. +Suddenly Madge's expression changed. The color rose to her face and her +eyes flashed. + +"I won't apologize to you, Phil," she said. "I had intended to, but I see +no reason why I should not say it is unfair for me to be the +valedictorian when you have the same claim to it that I have. It is +hateful in you not to understand how I feel about it. I am going to find +Miss Jenny Ann." Madge's voice broke. + +A knock on the door interrupted the two girls. Madge opened the door to a +boy, who handed her a small parcel addressed in a curious handwriting to +"Miss Madge Morton." The letters were printed, but the writing did not +look like a child's. It was the fiftieth graduating gift that she had +received. Phil's number had already reached the half-hundred mark. + +Madge dropped her newest package on the bed without opening it. She was +half-way out in the hall when Phyllis pulled her back. + +"Look me straight in the face," ordered Phil. Madge obeyed, the flash in +her eyes fading swiftly. "Now, see here, dear," argued Phyllis, "suppose +that Miss Matilda had chosen me to deliver the valedictory instead of +you, wouldn't you have been glad?" + +Madge nodded happily. "I should say I would," she murmured fervently. + +Phyllis laughed, then leaned over and kissed her friend triumphantly. + +"There, you have said just what I wanted to make you say," went on Phil. +"You say you would be glad if Miss Tolliver had chosen me for the +valedictorian instead of you. Why can't you let me have the same feeling +about you? Please, please understand, Madge, dear"--the tears started to +Phil's eyes--"that no one has been unfair to me because you were Miss +Matilda's choice." + +Madge glanced nervously at the little gold clock on their mantel shelf. +"It is nearly time for the entertainment to begin, isn't it?" she +inquired. "I suppose Miss Jenny Ann will call us in time. What a lot of +noise the girls are making in the hall!" + +She idly untied her latest graduating gift. It was a small box, made +after a fashion of long years ago, and its tops and sides were encrusted +with tiny shells. On one side of the box the word "Madge" was worked out +in tiny shells as clear and beautiful as jewels. Inside the box, on a +piece of cotton, was a single, wonderful pearl. It was unset, but the two +girls realized that it was rarely beautiful. There was no name in the +box, no card to show from whom it came. + +Madge turned the box upside down and peered inside of it. "I don't know +who could have sent this to me," she declared, in a puzzled fashion. +"Mrs. Curtis is the only rich person I know in the whole world, and she +has already given us her presents. I must show this to Uncle and Aunt. I +am afraid they won't wish me to keep it. But I don't know how we are ever +going to return it to the giver when he or she is anonymous." + +"Isn't that Miss Jenny Ann calling?" Madge turned pale with the +excitement of the coming hour and thrust the gift under her pillow. + +Phyllis picked up a great bunch of red roses. The eventful moment had +arrived. The graduating exercises at Miss Matilda Tolliver's were about +to begin! + +Neither of the two girls knew how they walked up on the stage. Before +them swam "a sea of upturned faces." It was impossible to tell one person +from another. When Madge and Phil overcame their fright they discovered +that they were among the twelve girl graduates, who formed a white +semi-circle about the stage, and that Miss Matilda Tolliver was making an +address of welcome to the audience. + +Phyllis had no dreaded speech ahead of her. She looked out over the +audience and saw her father and mother, Dr. and Mrs. Alden; and Madge's +uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Butler; but Madge could think of nothing +save the terrifying fact that she must soon deliver her valedictory. + +"Madge," whispered Phil softly, "don't look so frightened. You know you +have made speeches before and have acted before people. I am not a bit +afraid you will fail. See if you can find Mrs. Curtis and Tom. There they +are, smiling at us from behind Eleanor and Lillian." + +Readers of "MADGE MORTON, CAPTAIN OF THE 'MERRY MAID'," will remember the +delightful fashion in which Madge Morton, Eleanor Butler, Lillian Seldon +and Phyllis Alden spent a summer on a houseboat, which they evolved from +an old canal boat and named the "Merry Maid." + +How they anchored at quiet spots along Chesapeake Bay, made the +acquaintance of Mrs. Curtis, a wealthy widow, and what came of the +friendship that sprang up between her and Madge Morton made a story well +worth the telling. + +In "MADGE MORTON'S SECRET" the scene of their second houseboat adventure +found them at Old Point Comfort, where, as Mrs. Curtis's guests, they +partook of the social side of the Army and Navy life to be found there. +The origin of Captain Madge's secret, and of how she kept it in spite of +the humiliation and sorrow it entailed, the mysterious way in which the +"Merry Maid" slipped her cable and drifted through heavy seas to a +deserted island, where her crew lived the lives of girl Crusoes for many +weeks, form a narrative of lively interest. + +In "MADGE MORTON'S TRUST" the further adventures of the "Merry Maid" were +fully related. For the sake of the trip the happy houseboat girls saddled +themselves with Miss Betsey Taylor, a crotchety spinster, who was +troubled with nerves, and who offered to pay liberally for her passage on +their cosy "Ship of Dreams." + +Madge's faith and unshakable trust in David Brewster, a poor young man +who did the work on Tom Curtis's yacht, which made the trip with the +"Merry Maid," her championing of David when suspicion pointed darkly +toward him as a thief, and her unswerving loyalty to the unhappy youth +until his innocence was established, revealed the little captain in the +light of a staunch true comrade and doubly endeared her to all her +companions. + +Madge heard Miss Matilda Tolliver announce that the valedictory would be +delivered by Miss Madge Morton. Phyllis gave her companion a little +nudge, and somehow Madge arrived at the front of the stage and stood +under a huge arch of flowers. Just above her head swung a great bell. +Everyone was smiling at her. Madge was seized with a dreadful case of +stage fright. Her tongue felt dry and parched. She tried to speak, but no +sound came forth. + +Mrs. Curtis's lovely face, with its crown of soft, white hair, smiled +encouragingly at her. Tom was crimson with embarrassment. Lillian and +Eleanor held each other's hands. Would Madge never begin her +valedictory? + +She tried again. No one heard her except her friends and teachers on the +stage. Her voice was no louder than a faint whisper. + +Miss Tolliver leaned over. "Madge, speak more distinctly," she ordered. + +Then the little captain realized that the most humiliating moment of her +whole life had arrived. She had been selected as the valedictorian of her +class, she had been chosen above her beloved Phil because of her gift as +a speaker, yet she would be obliged to return to her seat without having +delivered a line of her address. She would be disgraced forever! + +Madge's knees shook. Her lips trembled. Tears swam mistily in her eyes. +She was a lovely picture despite her fright. + +At eighteen she was in the first glory of her youth, a tall, slender +girl, with a curious warmth and glow of life. Her lips were deeply +crimson, her hair a soft brown, with red and gold lights in it, and her +eyes were full of the eagerness that foreshadows both happiness and +pain. + +Phil and Miss Jenny Ann were exchanging glances of despair--Madge had +broken down, there was no hope for her. Suddenly her face broke into one +of its sunniest smiles. She lifted her head. Without glancing at the +paper she held in her hand she began her address in a clear, penetrating +voice. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOW IT WAS ALL ARRANGED + + +Madge's valedictory address was almost over. She had spoken of +"Friendship," what it meant to a girl at school and what it must mean to +a woman when the larger and more important difficulties come into her +life. "Schoolgirl friendships are of no small consequence," declaimed +Madge; "the friendships made in youth are the truest, after all!" + +Phil listened to her chum's voice, her eyes misty with tears. Only a +half-hour before she and her beloved Madge had come very near to having +the first real quarrel of their lives. Phil turned her gaze from Madge to +glance idly at the arch of flowers above her friend's head. Phil supposed +that she must be dizzy from the heat of the room, or else that she could +not see distinctly because of her tears; the arch seemed to be swaying +lightly from side to side, as though it were blown by the wind. Yet the +room was perfectly still. Phil looked again. She must be wrong. The arch +was built of a framework of wood. It was heavy and she did not believe it +would easily topple down. + +Madge was happily unconscious of the wobbling arch. A few more lines and +her speech would be ended! There was unbroken silence in the roomy chapel +of the girls' school, where the commencement exercises were being held. +Suddenly some one in the back part of the room jumped to his feet. A +hoarse voice shouted, "Madge!" + +Madge started in amazement. Her manuscript dropped to the ground. Every +face but hers blanched with terror. The swaying arch was now visible to +other people besides Phil. Tom leaped to his feet, but he was tightly +wedged in between rows of women. Phil Alden made a forward spring just as +the arch tumbled. She was not in time to save Madge, but some one else +had saved her; for, before Phil could reach the front of the stage, +Madge's name had been called again. Although the voice was an unknown +one, Madge instinctively obeyed it. She made a little movement, leaning +out to see who had summoned her, and the arch crashed down just at her +back. + +The quick cry from the audience frightened Madge, whose face was turned +away from the wreck. She swung around without discovering her rescuer. +Some one had fallen on the stage. Phyllis Alden had reached her friend's +side, not in time to save her, but to receive, herself, a heavy blow from +the great bell that was suspended from the arch. + +Madge dropped on the stage at Phil's side, forgetting her speech and the +presence of strangers. + +Miss Tolliver and Miss Jenny Ann lifted Phyllis before Dr. Alden had had +time to reach the stage. There was a dark bruise over Phil's forehead. In +a moment she opened her eyes and smiled. "I am not a bit hurt, Miss +Matilda; _do_ let the exercises go on," she begged faintly. "Let Madge +and me go up to the front of the stage and bow, Miss Matilda. Then I can +show people that I am all right. We must not spoil our commencement in +this way." + +Miss Matilda agreed to this, and Madge and Phyllis went forward to the +center of the stage. A storm of applause greeted them. Madge and Phil +were a little overcome at the ovation. Madge supposed that they were +being applauded because of Phil's heroism, and Phil presumed that the +demonstration was meant for Madge's valedictory, therefore neither girl +knew just what to do. + +It was then that Miss Matilda Tolliver came forward. She was usually a +very severe and imposing looking person. Most of her pupils were +dreadfully afraid of her. But the accident that had so nearly injured her +two favorite graduates had completely upset her nerves. Instead of making +a formal speech, as she had planned to do, she stepped between the two +girls, taking a hand of each. "I had meant to introduce Miss Alden a +little later on to our friends at the commencement exercises," announced +Miss Tolliver, "but I believe I would rather do it now. I wish to state +that, although Miss Morton has delivered the valedictory, Miss Phyllis +Alden's average during the four years she has spent at my preparatory +school has been equally high. It was her wish that Miss Morton should be +chosen to deliver the valedictory. But Miss Alden's friends have another +honor which they wish to bestow upon her. She has been voted, without her +knowledge, the most popular girl in my school. Her fellow students have +asked me to present her with this pin as a mark of their affection." + +Miss Matilda leaned over, and before Phil could grasp what was happening +had pinned in the soft folds of her organdie gown the class pin, which +was usually an enameled shield with a crown of laurel above it; but the +center of Phil's shield was formed of small rubies and the crown of tiny +diamonds. + +Phyllis turned scarlet with embarrassment, but Madge's eyes sparkled with +delight. She was no longer ashamed of having been chosen as +valedictorian. In spite of herself, Phyllis Alden was the star of their +commencement. + +It was not until the four girls were seated with their dear ones about a +round luncheon table in the largest hotel in Harborpoint that Madge +suddenly recalled the stranger whose warning cry had probably saved her +from a serious hurt. + +Mrs. Curtis and Tom were entertaining in honor of Madge and Phyllis. +There were no other guests except the two houseboat girls, Eleanor and +Lillian, Dr. and Mrs. Alden, and Mr. and Mrs. Butler. + +Madge sat next to Tom Curtis, and during the progress of the luncheon +managed to say softly: "Did you see who it was that called my name so +strangely this morning, Tom? I was so frightened at having to deliver my +valedictory that when I heard that sudden shout, 'Madge!' I was too much +confused to recognize the voice." + +Tom shook his head. "I don't know who it was. I heard the voice but +couldn't discover its owner. It must have been some one at the very back +of the room, for no one in the audience seems to know who called out to +you." + +"I suppose I'll never know," sighed Madge. "It is a real commencement day +mystery, isn't it?" + +Tom nodded smilingly. "By the way, Madge, where are the houseboat girls +going to spend the summer after you come to Madeleine's wedding?" he +asked. "You must be tired after your winter's work." + +Madge shook her head soberly. "We are not going to be on the houseboat +this year," she whispered. "Going to New York to be bridesmaids is about +as much as four girls can arrange. We haven't even dared to think of the +houseboat." + +"I have," interposed Phyllis, who had heard the remark and the reply, +"but we don't wish our families to know. You see, Madge and I are hoping +and planning to go to college next winter, so, of course, we can't afford +another summer holiday," she ended under her breath. + +"What's that, Phil?" inquired Dr. Alden from the other end of the table. + +Phil blushed. "Nothing important, Father," she answered. + +"Oh, then I must have been mistaken," replied Dr. Alden, "for I thought I +caught the magic word, 'houseboat.' No one of you girls has ever spoken +of the 'Merry Maid' as unimportant." + +A cloud instantaneously overspread five faces about the luncheon table. +Neither Mrs. Curtis nor Dr. Alden realized that in mentioning the +houseboat they had forced the houseboat passengers to break a vow of +silence. Only the day before the five of them had met in Miss Jenny Ann +Jones's room. There they had solemnly pledged themselves that, since it +was impossible for them to have this year's vacation aboard the "Merry +Maid," they would bear the sorrow in silence. This time there was no +"Miss Betsey" to pay the expenses of the trip. The girls and Miss Jenny +Ann hadn't a dollar to spare. The cost of going to Madeleine Curtis's New +York wedding was appalling to all of the girls except Lillian, whose +parents were in affluent circumstances. But, of course, Madeleine was +almost a houseboat girl herself. Readers of the first houseboat story +will recall how Madeleine's fiance, Judge Hilliard, rescued Madge and +Phyllis from a serious situation and saved Madeleine from a far worse +plight than that in which he found the two girls. + +"Mrs. Curtis," remarked Dr. Alden in the midst of the mournful silence, +"Mr. and Mrs. Butler, my wife and I have just been talking things over. +We have decided that it would be a good thing for our girls to spend +several weeks on board their houseboat. But, of course, if they have +decided differently----" + +It was a good thing that Mrs. Curtis was not giving a formal luncheon. A +united shriek of delight suddenly arose from four throats. Madge sprang +from the table to hug her uncle, Eleanor blew kisses to her mother from +across the room, Lillian clapped both hands, and Miss Jenny Ann smiled +rapturously. + +Phil's face was the only serious one. "Are you sure we can afford it, +Father?" she queried. + +Dr. Alden nodded convincingly. "For a few weeks, certainly," he +returned. + +"Then we don't need to worry about afterward," rejoined Madge. "And don't +you think, girls, it will be perfectly great, so long as we are going to +Madeleine's wedding in New York, for us to spend this holiday at the +seashore?" + +"Where, Madge?" asked Lillian. + +"I'll tell you," answered Mrs. Curtis, "only, not to-day. It is a secret. +Here is our pineapple lemonade. Let's hope for the happiest of holidays +for the little captain and her crew aboard the good ship 'Merry Maid'." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TANIA, A PRINCESS + + +"Madge, do you think there is any chance that Tom won't meet us?" +inquired Eleanor Butler nervously. "I do wish we could have come on to +New York with Lillian, Phil, and Miss Jenny Ann instead of making that +visit to Baltimore. It seems so funny that they have been in New York two +whole days before us. I suppose they have seen Madeleine's presents, and +our bridesmaids' dresses--and everything!" + +Eleanor sighed as she leaned back luxuriously in the chair of the Pullman +coach, gazing down the aisle at her fellow passengers. + +Madge was occupied in staring very hard at her reflection in the small +mirror between her seat and Eleanor's. She had wrinkled her small nose +and was surreptitiously applying powder to the tip end of it. + +"Of course Tom and the girls will meet us, Eleanor," she replied +emphatically. "Tom would expect us to be lost forever if we were to be +turned loose in New York by ourselves. Oh, dear me, isn't it too splendid +that we are going to be Madeleine's bridesmaids? I wonder if we shall +look very 'country' before so many society people?" + +"Of course we shall," returned Eleanor calmly. "You need not look at +yourself again in that mirror. You are very well satisfied with yourself, +aren't you?" teased Eleanor. + +Madge blushed and laughed. "I _do_ like our clothes, Nellie," she +admitted candidly. "You know perfectly well that we have never had +tailored suits before in our lives. You do look too sweet in that pale +gray, like a little nun. That pink rose in your hat gives just the touch +of color you need. I am sure I don't see why you are so sure we shall +seem countrified," ended Madge. She had liked her reflection in the +glass. She wore a light-weight blue serge traveling suit without a +wrinkle in it, a spotless white linen waist, and her new hat was +particularly attractive. Her cheeks were becomingly flushed and her eyes +glowed with the excitement of arriving for the first time in New York +City. + +"We are almost in Jersey City now, aren't we, Madge?" exclaimed Eleanor, +making a leap for her bag, which promptly tumbled out of the rack above +and fell directly on the head of a young man who was walking down the +aisle of the car. + +Madge giggled. Eleanor, however, was crimson with mortification. The +young man did not appear to be pleased. The girls had a brief glimpse of +him. He had blue eyes and sandy hair and was exceedingly tall. Eleanor's +bag had knocked his glasses off and he was obliged to stoop in search of +them in the aisle. + +"Oh, I am so sorry," apologized Eleanor in her soft, Southern voice, as +she picked up the glasses and restored them to their owner. "I am glad +they were not broken." + +The young man paid not the slightest attention to her apology. + +"Hurry, Nellie," advised Madge, "it is nearly time for us to get off the +train and your hat is on crooked. Don't be such a timid little goose! You +are actually trembling. Of course Tom or some one will meet us, and if +they don't I shall not be in the least frightened." Madge announced this +grandly. "That whistle means we are entering Jersey City. We will find +Tom waiting for us at the gate." + +Eleanor obediently followed Madge out of their coach. The little captain +seemed older and more self-confident since she had been graduated at Miss +Tolliver's, but Nellie hoped devoutly that her cousin would not become +imbued with the impression that she was really grown-up. It would spoil +their good times. + +The two girls had never seen such a headlong rush of people in their +lives. They clung desperately to their bags when a porter attempted to +carry them. A man bumped violently against Madge, but he made no effort +to apologize as he rushed on through the crowd. + +"I never saw so many people in such a hurry in my life," declared Nellie +pettishly. "They behave as though they thought New York City were on fire +and they were all rushing to put the fire out. I shall be glad when Tom +takes charge of us." + +Once through the great iron gates the girls looked anxiously about for +Tom, but saw no trace of him. + +"I suppose Tom must have missed the ferry," declared Madge with pretended +cheerfulness. "We shall have to wait here for only about ten minutes +until the next ferry boat comes across from New York." + +When fifteen minutes had passed and there was still no sign of Tom, Madge +began to feel worried. + +"Madge, I am sure you have made some kind of mistake," argued Eleanor +plaintively. "I know Mrs. Curtis would not fail to have some one here on +time to meet us for anything in the world. Perhaps Tom wrote for us to +come across the ferry, and that he would meet us on the New York side. +Where is his letter?" + +"It is in my trunk, Nellie," replied Madge in a crestfallen manner. She +was not nearly so grown-up or so sure of herself as she had been half an +hour before. "I know it was silly in me not to have brought Tom's letter +with me, but I was so sure that I knew just what it said. Perhaps we had +better go on over to New York. Let's hurry. Perhaps that boat is just +about to start." + +The two young women hurried aboard the boat, which left the dock a moment +later, just as a tall, fair-haired young man, accompanied by two girls, +hurried upon the scene. The young man was Tom Curtis and the young women +were Phyllis Alden and Lillian Seldon. + +In the meantime Madge and her cousin had crossed the river and had landed +on the New York side. What was the dreadful roar and rumble that met +their ears? It sounded like an earthquake, with the noise of frightened +people shrieking above it. After a horrified moment it dawned on the two +little strangers that this was only the usual roar of New York, which Tom +Curtis had so often described to them. + +"There isn't any use of our staying here very long, Eleanor," declared +Madge, feeling a great wave of loneliness and fear sweep over her. "An +accident must have happened to Tom's automobile on his way to the train +to meet us. I am afraid we were foolish not to have stayed at the Jersey +City station. I am sure Tom wrote he would meet us there. I have behaved +like a perfect goose. It is because I boasted so much about not being +frightened and knowing what to do. But I _do_ know Mrs. Curtis's address. +We can take a cab and drive up there." + +Eleanor would fall in with Madge's plans to a certain point; then she +would strike. Now she positively refused to get into a cab. Her mother +and father and Miss Jenny Ann had warned her never to trust herself in a +cab in a strange city. New York was too terrifying! Eleanor would search +for Mrs. Curtis's home on foot, in a car, or a bus, but in a cab she +would not ride. + +Madge was obliged to give in gracefully. A policeman showed the girls to +a Twenty-third Street car. He explained that when they came to the Third +Avenue L they must get out of the car and take the elevated train uptown, +since Madge had explained to him that Mrs. Curtis lived on Seventieth +Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues. + +There was only one point that the policeman failed to make clear to +Eleanor and Madge. He neglected to tell them that elevated trains, as +well as other cars, travel both up and down New York City, and the way to +discover which way the "L" train is moving is to consult the signs on the +steps that lead up to the elevated road. The policeman supposed that the +two young women would make this observation for themselves. Of course, +under ordinary circumstances, Madge and Nellie would have been more +sensible, but they were frightened and confused at the bare idea of being +alone in New York and consequently lost their heads, and they dashed up +the Third Avenue elevated steps without looking for signs, settled +themselves in the train and were off, as they supposed, for Seventieth +Street. + +They were too much interested in gazing into upstairs windows, where +hundreds of people were at work in tiny, dark rooms, to pay much +attention to the first stops at stations that their train made. They knew +they were still some distance from Mrs. Curtis's. Madge was completely +fascinated at the spectacle of a fat, frowsy woman holding a baby by its +skirt on the sill of a six-story tenement house. Just as the car went by +the baby made a leap toward the train. Madge smothered her scream as the +woman jerked the child out of danger just in time. Then it suddenly +occurred to her that this was hardly the kind of neighborhood in which to +find Mrs. Curtis's house. The sign at the next stop was a name and not a +street number. It could not be possible that she and Eleanor had made +another mistake! + +Madge hurried back to the end of the car to find the conductor. + +"We wish to get out at the nearest station to Seventieth Street and +Lexington Avenue," she declared timidly. + +The man paid not the slightest attention to her. Madge repeated her +question in a somewhat bolder tone. + +"You ain't going to get off near Seventieth Street for some time if you +keep a-traveling away from it," retorted the conductor crossly. "You've +got on a downtown 'L' 'stead of an up. Better change at the next station. +You'll find an uptown train across the street," the man ended more +kindly, seeing the look of consternation on Madge's white face. + +The girls walked sadly down the elevated steps, dragging their bags, +which seemed to grow heavier with every moment. They found themselves in +one of the downtown foreign slums of New York City. It was a bright, +early summer afternoon. The streets were swarming with grown people and +children. Pushcarts lined the sidewalks. On an opposite corner a hand +organ played an Italian song. In front of it was a small open space, +encircled by a group of idle men and women. Before the organ danced a +little figure that Madge and Eleanor stopped to watch. They forgot their +own bewilderment in gazing at the strange sight. The dancer was a little +girl about twelve years old, as thin as a wraith. Her hair was black and +hung in straight, short locks to her shoulders. Her eyes were so big and +burned so brightly that it was difficult to notice any other feature of +her face. The child looked like a tropical flower. Her face was white, +but her cheeks glowed with two scarlet patches. She flung her little arms +over her head, pirouetted and stood on her tip toes. She did not seem to +see the curious crowd about her, but kept her eyes turned toward the sky. +Her dancing was as much a part of nature as the summer sunshine, and +Madge and Eleanor were bewitched. + +A rough woman came out of a nearby doorway. She stood with her hands on +her hips looking in the direction of the music. "Tania!" she called +angrily. Elbowing her way through the crowd, she jostled Madge as she +passed by her. "Tania!" she cried again. The men and women spectators let +the woman make her way through them as though they knew her and were +afraid of her heavy fist. Only the child appeared to be unconscious of +the woman's approach. Suddenly a big, red arm was thrust out. It caught +the little girl by the skirt. With the other hand she rained down blows +on the child's upturned face. One blow followed the other in swift +succession. The little dancer made no outcry. She simply put one thin arm +over her head for protection. + +The music went on gayly. No one of the watching men and women tried to +stop the woman's brutality. But Madge was not used to the indifference of +the New York crowd. Like a flash of lightning she darted away from +Eleanor and rushed over to the woman, who was dragging the child along +and cuffing her at each step. + +"Stop striking that child!" she ordered sharply. "How can you be so +cruel? You are a wicked, heartless woman!" + +The woman paid no attention to Madge. She did not seem even to have heard +her, but lifted her big, coarse arm for another blow. + +Madge's breath came in swift gasps. "Don't strike that child again," she +repeated. "I don't know who she is, nor what she has done, but she is too +little for you to beat her like that. I won't endure it," the little +captain ended in sudden passion. + +The woman turned her cruel, bloodshot eyes slowly toward Madge. She was +one of the strongest and most brutal characters in the slums of New York, +and few dared to oppose her. She was even a terror to the policemen in +the neighborhood. + +"Git out!" she said briefly. + +Her arm descended. It did not strike the child. Quick as a flash, Madge +Morton had flung herself between the woman and the child. For a moment +the blow almost stunned the girl. The East Side crowd closed in on the +girl and the woman. If there was going to be a fight, the spectators did +not intend to miss it. Eleanor was numb with fear and sympathy. She did +not know whether to be more frightened for Madge than sorry for the +child. + +The woman's face was mottled and crimson with anger. Madge's face was +very white. She held her head high and looked her enemy full in the +face. + +"Git out of this and stop your interferin'!" shouted the virago. "This +here child belongs to me and I'll do what I like with her. If you are one +of them social settlers coming around into poor people's places and +meddlin' with their business, you'd better git back where you belong or +I'll social-settle you." + +At this moment a thin, hot hand caught hold of Madge's and pulled it +gently. Madge gazed down into a little face, whose expression she never +forgot. It was whiter than it had been before. The scarlet color had gone +out of the cheeks and the big, black eyes burned brighter. But there was +not the slightest trace of fear in the look. Instead, the child's lips +were curved into an elf-like smile. + +"Don't stay here, lady, please," she begged. "The ogress will be horrid +to you. She can't hurt me. You see, I am an enchanted Princess." + +An instant later the child received a savage blow from the woman's hard +hand full in the face without shrinking. It was Madge who winced. Tears +rose to her eyes. She put her arms about the child and tried to shelter +her. + +"Don't be calling me no names, Tania," the woman cried, dragging at the +child's thin skirts. "Jest you come along home with me and you'll git +what is comin' to you, you good-for-nothin' little imp." + +"Is she your mother?" asked Madge doubtfully, gazing at the brutal woman +and the strange child. + +Tania shook her black head scornfully. "Oh, dear, no," she answered. "It +is only that I have to live with her now, while I am under the +enchantment. Some day, when the wicked spell is broken, I shall go away, +perhaps to a wonderful castle. My name is Titania. I think it means that +I am the Queen of the Fairies." + +The woman laughed brutishly. "Queen of gutter, you are, Miss Tania. I'll +tan you," she jeered, as she dragged the little girl from Madge's arms. + +The little captain looked despairingly about her. There, a calm witness +of the entire scene, was a big New York policeman. "Officer," commanded +Madge indignantly, "make that woman leave that child alone." + +The big policeman looked sheepish. "I can't do nothing with Sal," he +protested. "If I make her stop beating Tania now, she'll only be meaner +to her when she gets her indoors. Best leave 'em alone, I think. I have +interfered, but the child says she don't mind. I don't think she does, +somehow; she's such a queer young 'un'." + +Sal was now engaged in shaking Tania as she pushed her along in front of +her. Madge and Eleanor were in despair. + +Suddenly a well-dressed young man appeared in the crowd. There was +something oddly familiar in his appearance to Eleanor, but she failed to +remember where she had seen him before. "Sal!" he called out sharply, +"leave Tania alone!" + +Instantly the woman obeyed him. She slunk back into her open doorway. The +crowd melted as though by magic; they also recognized the young man's +authority. A moment later he was gone. Madge, Eleanor, and the strange +little girl stood on the street corner almost alone. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE UNINVITED GUEST + + +"Are you good fairies who have strayed away from home?" inquired Tania, +calmly gazing first at Madge and then at Eleanor. She was perfectly +self-possessed and asked her question as though it were the most natural +one in the world. + +The two girls stared hard at the child. Was her mind affected, or was she +playing a game with them? Tania seemed not in the least disturbed. "Do go +away now," she urged. "I am all right, but something may happen to you." + +"You odd little thing!" laughed Madge. "We are not fairies. We are girls +and we are lost. We are on our way to visit a friend, Mrs. Curtis, who +lives on Seventieth Street near Fifth Avenue. She will be dreadfully +worried about us if we don't hurry on. But what can we do for you? We +can't take you with us, yet you must not go back to that wicked woman." + +"Oh, yes, I must," returned Tania cheerfully. "I am not afraid of her. +When the time comes I shall go away." + +"But who will take care of you, baby?" asked Eleanor. "Fairies don't live +in big cities like New York. They live only in beautiful green woods and +fields." + +The black head nodded wisely. "Good fairies are everywhere," she +declared. "But I can make handfuls of pennies when I like," she continued +boastfully. "Let me show you how you must go on your way." + +"You can't possibly know, little girl," replied Madge gently. "It is so +far from here." + +However, it was Tania who finally saw the two lost houseboat girls on +board the elevated train that would take them to within a few blocks of +their destination. Tania explained that she knew almost all of New York, +and particularly she liked to wander up and down Fifth Avenue to gaze at +the beautiful palaces. She was not young, she was really dreadfully +old--almost thirteen! + +The last look Madge and Eleanor had of Tania the child had apparently +forgotten all about them. She was gazing up in the air, above all the +traffic and roar of New York, with a happy smile on her elfish face. + + * * * * * + +"My dear children, I wouldn't have had it happen for worlds!" was Mrs. +Curtis's first greeting as she came out from behind the rose-colored +curtains of her drawing room. "Tom has been telephoning me frantically +for the past hour. How did he and the girls miss you? You poor dears, you +must be nearly tired to death after your unpleasant experience." + +While Mrs. Curtis was talking she was leading her visitors up a beautiful +carved oak staircase to the floor above. Her house was so handsomely +furnished that Madge and Eleanor were startled at its luxurious +appointments. + +Mrs. Curtis brought her guests into a large sleeping room which opened +into another bedroom which was for the use of Phil and Lillian. + +Madeleine was to be married the next afternoon at four o 'clock. The +girls had not brought their bridesmaids' dresses along with them, as Mrs. +Curtis had asked to be allowed to present them with their gowns. + +It was all that Madge could do not to beg Mrs. Curtis to show them their +frocks. She hoped that their hostess would offer to do so, but during the +rest of the day their time was occupied in seeing Madeleine, her hundreds +of beautiful wedding gifts, meeting Judge Hilliard all over again, and +being introduced to Mrs. Curtis's other guests. The four girls went to +bed at midnight, thinking of their bridesmaids' gowns, but without having +had the chance even to inquire about them. + +Mrs. Curtis belonged to the old and infinitely more aristocratic portion +of New York society. She did not belong to the new smart set, which +numbers nearer four thousand, and does so much to make society +ridiculous. Madeleine had asked that she might be married very quietly. +She had never become used to the gay world of fashion after her strange +and unhappy youth. It made the girls and their teacher smile to see what +Mrs. Curtis considered a quiet wedding. + +Miss Jenny Ann and her four charges had their coffee and rolls in Madge's +room the next morning at about nine o'clock. Madge peeped out of the +doorway, there were so many odd noises in the hall. The upstairs hall was +a mass of beautiful evergreens. Men were hanging garlands of smilax on +the balusters. The house was heavy with the scent of American Beauty +roses. But there was no sign of Mrs. Curtis or of Madeleine or Tom, and +still no mention of the bridesmaids' costumes for the girls. + +Lillian Seldon was looking extremely forlorn. "Suppose Mrs. Curtis has +forgotten our frocks!" she suggested tragically, as Madge came back with +her report of the house's decorations. "She has had such an awful lot to +attend to that she may not have remembered that she offered to give us +our frocks. Won't it be dreadful if Madeleine has to be married without +our being bridesmaids after all?" + +"O Lillian! what a dreadful idea!" exclaimed Eleanor. + +Even Phyllis looked sober and Miss Jenny Ann looked exceedingly +uncomfortable. + +"O, you geese! cheer up!" laughed Madge. "I know Mrs. Curtis would not +disappoint us for worlds. Why, she has all our measures. She couldn't +forget. Oh, dear, does my breakfast gown look all right? There is some +one knocking at our door. It may be that Mrs. Curtis has sent up our +frocks." + +"Then open the door, for goodness' sake," begged Eleanor. "Your breakfast +gown is lovely; only at home we called it a wrapper, but then you were +not visiting on Fifth Avenue." + +Madge made a saucy little face at Eleanor. Then she saw a group of +persons standing just outside their bedroom door. A man-servant held four +enormous white boxes in his arms; a maid was almost obscured by four +other boxes equally large. Behind her servants stood Mrs. Curtis, smiling +radiantly, while Tom was peeping over his mother's shoulder. + +Madge clasped her hands fervently, breathing a quick sigh of relief. "Our +bridesmaids' dresses! I'm too delighted for words." + +"Were you thinking about them, dear?" apologized Mrs. Curtis. "I ought to +have sent the frocks to you sooner, but I wanted to bring them myself, +and this is the first moment I have had. You'll let Tom come in to see +them, too, won't you?" + +The man-servant departed, but Mrs. Curtis kept the maid to help her lift +out the gowns from the billows of white tissue paper that enfolded them. +She lifted out one dress, Miss Jenny Ann another, and the maid the other +two. + +The girls were speechless with pleasure. + +Mrs. Curtis, however, was disappointed. Perhaps the girls did not like +the costumes. She had used her own taste without consulting them. Then +she glanced at the little group and was reassured by their radiant +faces. + +"O you wonderful fairy godmother!" exclaimed Madge. "Cinderella's dress +at the ball couldn't have been half so lovely!" + +Madeleine's wedding was to be in white and green. The bridesmaids' frocks +were of the palest green silk, covered with clouds of white chiffon. +About the bottom of the skirts were bands of pale green satin and the +chiffon was caught here and there with embroidered wreaths of lilies of +the valley. The hats were of white chip, ornamented with white and pale +green plumes. + +It was small wonder that four young girls, three of them poor, should +have been awestruck at the thought of appearing in such gowns. + +"I shall save mine for my own wedding dress!" exclaimed Eleanor. + +"I shall make my debut in mine," insisted Lillian. + +"We can't thank you enough," declared Phyllis, a little overcome by so +much grandeur. + +Tom was standing in a far corner of the room. + +"I would like to suggest that I be allowed to come into this," he +demanded firmly. + +"You, Tom?" teased Madge. "You're merely the audience." + +Tom took four small square boxes out of his pocket. "Don't you be too +sure, Miss Madge Morton. My future brother-in-law, Judge Robert Hilliard, +has commissioned me to present his gifts to his bridesmaids. Madge shall +be the last person to see in these boxes, just for her unkind treatment +of me." + +"All right, Tom," agreed Madge; "I don't think I could stand anything +more just at this instant." + +Nevertheless Madge peeped over Phil's shoulder. Judge Hilliard had +presented each one of the houseboat girls with an exquisite little pin, +an enameled model of their houseboat, done in white and blue, the colors +of the "Merry Maid." + + * * * * * + +The wedding was over. There were still a few guests in the dining room +saying good-bye to Mrs. Curtis and Tom; but Madeleine and Judge Hilliard +had gone. The four girls and Miss Jenny Ann found a resting place in the +beautiful French music room. + +Madeleine's wedding presents were in the library, just behind the music +room. + +"It was simply perfect, wasn't it, Miss Jenny Ann?" breathed Lillian, as +they drew their chairs together for a talk. + +"Madeleine must be perfectly happy," sighed Eleanor sentimentally. "Judge +Hilliard is so good-looking." + +"Oh, dear me!" broke in Madge, coming out of a brown study. She was +sitting in a big carved French chair. "I don't see how Madeleine Curtis +could have left her mother and this beautiful home for any man in the +world. I am sure if I had such an own mother I should never leave her," +finished the little captain. + +"Until some one came along whom you loved better," interposed Miss Jenny +Ann. + +"That could never be, Miss Jenny Ann," declared Madge stoutly, her blue +eyes wistful. "Why, if my father is alive and I find him, I shall never +leave him for anybody else." + +"What's that noise?" demanded Phyllis sharply. + +It was after six o'clock and the Curtis home was brilliantly lighted. The +window blinds were all closed. But there was a curious rapping and +scratching at one of the windows that opened into a small side yard. + +"It may be one of the servants," suggested Miss Jenny Ann, listening +intently. + +"It can't be," rejoined Madge. "No one of them would make such a strange +noise." + +"I think I had better call Tom," breathed Eleanor faintly. "It must be a +burglar trying to steal Madeleine's wedding gifts." + +Madge shook her head. "Wait, please," she whispered. She ran to the +window. There was the faint scratching noise again! Madge lifted the +shade quickly. Perched on the window sill was the oddest figure that ever +stepped out of the pages of a fairy book. It was impossible to see just +what it was, yet it looked like a little girl. One hand clung to the +window facing, a small nose pressed against the pane. + +"Why, it's a child!" exclaimed Miss Jenny Ann in tones of relief. "Open +the window and let her come in." + +Madge flung open the window. Light as a thistledown, the unexpected +little visitor landed in the center of the room. + +Madge and Eleanor had completely forgotten the elfin child they had met +in the slums of New York City; but now she appeared among them just as +mysteriously as though she were the fairy she pretended to be. + +She wore a small red coat that was half a dozen sizes too tiny for her. +Her skirt was patched with odds and ends of bright flowered materials. On +her head perched a cap, a scarlet flower, cut from an odd scrap of old +wall paper. In her hands Tania clasped a ridiculous bundle, done up in a +dirty handkerchief. + +"You strange little witch!" exclaimed Madge. "However did you find your +way here? Be very still and good until the lovely lady who owns this +house sees you, then I wouldn't be at all surprised if she gave you some +cake and ice cream before she sends you away." + +Tania sat down in the corner still as a mouse. Her thin knees were +hunched close together. She held her poor bundle tightly. Her big black +eyes grew larger and darker with wonder as she had her first glimpse of a +fairyland, outside her own imagination, in the beautiful room and the +group of lovely girls who occupied it. + +Mrs. Curtis came in a minute later, followed by a man who had been one of +the guests at the wedding. Madge, Eleanor, and Tania recognized him +instantly. He was the young man who had protected Tania from the blows of +the brutal woman the afternoon before, but Tania did not seem pleased to +see him. Her face flushed hotly, her lips quivered, though she made no +sound. + +Mrs. Curtis smiled quizzically. Madge could see that there were tears +behind her smiles. "Who is our latest guest, Madge?" she asked, gazing +kindly at the odd little person. + +Tania rose gravely from her place on the floor. "I am a fairy who has +been under the spell of a wicked witch," she asserted with solemnity, +"but now the spell is broken and I've run away from her. I shan't go back +ever any more." + +Mrs. Curtis's young man guest took the child firmly by the shoulders. + +"What do you mean by coming here to trouble these young ladies?" he +demanded sternly. "I thought I recognized your friends, Mrs. Curtis. They +saved this child yesterday from a punishment she probably well deserved. +She is one of the children in our slum neighborhood that we have not been +able to reach. I will take her back to her home with me at once." + +The child's head was high in the air. She caught her breath. Her eyes had +a queer, eerie look in them. "You can't take me back now," she insisted. +"The spell is broken. I shall never see old Sal again." + +Madge put her arm about the small witch girl. "Let her stay here just +to-night, Mrs. Curtis, please," begged Madge earnestly. "I wish to find +out something about her. I will look after her and see that she does not +do any harm." + +Quite seriously and gently Tania knelt on one knee and kissed Mrs. +Curtis's hand. "Let me stay. I shall be on my way again in the morning," +she pleaded, "but I am a little afraid of the night." + +"My dear child," said Mrs. Curtis, gently drawing the waif to her side, +"you are far too little to be running away from home. You may stay here +to-night, then to-morrow we will see what we can do for you. I won't +trouble you with her to-night, Philip," she added, turning to her guest. + +"It will be no trouble," returned Philip Holt blandly. "She lives less +than an hour's ride from here. Her foster mother will be greatly worried +at her absence." + +Mrs. Curtis looked hesitatingly at Tania, who had been listening with +alert ears. The child's black eyes took on a look of lively terror. +"Please, please let me stay," she begged, clasping her thin little hands +in anxious appeal. + +"Won't you let Tania stay here to-night, Mrs. Curtis?" asked Madge for +the second time. "I am sorry to disagree with Mr. Holt, but I do not +believe that poor little Tania is either lawless or incorrigible. The +woman who claims her is the most cruel, brutal-looking person I ever saw. +I am sure she is not Tania's mother. Let me keep her here to-night, and +to-morrow I will inquire into her case." + +"Very well, Madge," said Mrs. Curtis reluctantly. She glanced toward +Philip Holt. His eyes, however, were fixed upon Madge with an expression +of disapproval and dislike. For the first time it occurred to Mrs. Curtis +that Philip Holt might be very disagreeable if thwarted. She immediately +dismissed the thought as unworthy when the young man said smoothly: "I +shall be only too glad to have Miss Morton investigate the child's +record. I am sorry that my word has not been sufficient to convince +her." + +Madge made no reply to this thrust. Then an awkward silence ensued. Mrs. +Curtis looked annoyed, Tania triumphant, Madge belligerent, and the other +girls sympathetic. Making a strong effort, Philip Holt controlled his +anger and, extending his hand to Mrs. Curtis, said: "Pray, pardon my +interference. I was prompted to speak merely in your interest. I trust I +shall see you again in the near future. Good night." He bowed coldly to +the young women and took his departure. + +"What a disagreeable----" Madge stopped abruptly. Her face flushed. "I +beg your pardon, Mrs. Curtis," she said contritely. "I shouldn't have +spoken my mind aloud." + +"I forgive you, my dear," there was a slight tone of constraint in Mrs. +Curtis's voice, "but I am sure if you knew Mr. Holt as I do you would +have an entirely different opinion of him." + +"Perhaps I should," returned Madge politely, but in her heart she knew +that she and Philip Holt were destined not to be friends, but bitter +enemies. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TANIA, A PROBLEM + + +"Don't you think it would be a splendid plan for Tania?" asked Madge +eagerly. "Miss Jenny Ann and the girls are willing she should come to us. +Tania is such a fascinating little person, with her dreams and her +pretences, that she is the best kind of company. Besides, I am awfully +sorry for her." + +Mrs. Curtis and Madge were seated in the latter's bedroom indulging in +one of their old-time confidential talks. + +"Tania would be a great deal of care for you, Madge," argued Mrs. Curtis. +"She is worrying my maids almost distracted with her foolishness. Last +night she wrapped herself in a sheet and frightened poor Norah almost to +death by dancing in the moonlight. She explained to Norah that she was +pretending that she was a moonflower swaying in the wind. I wonder where +the child got such odd fancies and bits of information? She has never +seen a moonflower in her life." Mrs. Curtis laughed and frowned at the +same time. "Poor little daughter of the tenements! She is indeed a +problem." + +"Shall I tell you all I have been able to find out about Tania?" asked +Madge. "Her history is quite like a story-book tale. I think her father +and mother were actors, but the father died when Tania was only a little +baby. That is why, I suppose, they called the child by such an absurd +name as 'Titania.' I looked it up and it comes from Shakespeare's play of +'Midsummer Night's Dream.' I think perhaps her mother was just a dancer, +or had only a small part in the plays in which she appeared, for they +never had any money. Tania has lived in a tenement always. The mother +used to take care of her baby when she could, and then leave her to the +neighbors. But the mother must have been unusual, too, for she taught +Tania all sorts of poetry and music when Tania was only a tiny child. +Indeed, Tania knows a great deal more about literature than I do now," +confessed Madge honestly. "It isn't so strange, after all, that Tania +pretends. Why, she and her mother used to play at pretending together. +When they sat down to their dinner they used to rub their old lamp and +play that it was Aladdin's wonderful lamp, and that their poor table was +spread with a wonderful feast, instead of just bread and cheese. They +tried to make light of their poverty." + +Mrs. Curtis's eyes were full of tears. She could understand better than +Madge the scene the young girl pictured. + +"Tania was eight years old when her mother died," finished Madge +pensively. "Since then poor Tania has had such a dreadful time, living +with that wretched old Sal, who has made a regular slavey of her, and she +just had to go on with her pretending in order to be able to bear her +life at all." + +Madge and Mrs. Curtis were both silent for a moment. The bright June +sunshine flooded the room, offering a sharp contrast to Tania's sad +little story. + +"You see why I wish to take her on the houseboat," pleaded Madge. "It +seems so wonderful that we are going to Cape May and will be on the +really seashore, near you and Tom, that each one of us feels the desire +to do something for somebody just to show how happy we are. Miss Jenny +Ann says we may take Tania, if you think it wouldn't be unwise." + +"She ought to go to school, Madge," argued Mrs. Curtis half-heartedly. +"Tania does not know any of the things she should. Philip Holt, who does +so much good work among the poor in Tania's tenement district, says that +the child is most unreliable and does not tell the truth." + +Madge wrinkled her nose with the familiar expression she wore when +annoyed. Her investigations had proved Philip Holt a liar, but she +refrained from saying so. + +"You don't like Philip, do you?" continued Mrs. Curtis. "It isn't fair to +have prejudices without reason. Mr. Holt is a fine young man and does +splendid work among the poor. Madeleine and I have entrusted him with the +most of the money we have given to charity. I am sorry that you girls +don't like him, because he is coming to visit me at Cape May this +summer." + +Madge dutifully stifled her vague feeling of regret. "Of course, we will +try to like him, if he is your friend," she replied loyally. "It was only +that we thought Mr. Holt had a terribly superior manner for such a young +man, and looked too 'goody-goody'! But you have not answered me yet about +Tania. Do let us have Tania. I'll teach her lots of things this summer, +and it won't be so hard for her when she goes to school in the fall. She +is pretty good with me." + +"Very well," consented Mrs. Curtis reluctantly, "for this summer only. +The child will get you into difficulties, but I suppose they won't be +serious. What is Madge Morton going to do next fall? Is she going to +college with Phil, or is she coming to be my daughter?" + +Madge lowered her red-brown head. "I don't know, dear," she faltered. +"You know I have said all along to Uncle and Aunt that, just as soon as I +was grown up, I was going to start out to find my father. I shall be +nineteen next winter. It surely is time for me to begin." + +"But, Madge, dear, you can't find your father unless you know where to +look for him. The world is a very large place! I am sorry"--Mrs. Curtis +smoothed Madge's soft hair tenderly--"but I agree with your uncle and +aunt; your father must be dead. Were he alive he would surely have tried +to find his little daughter long before this. Your uncle and aunt have +never heard from or of him during all these years." + +"I don't feel sure that he is dead," returned Madge thoughtfully. "You +see, my father disappeared after his court-martial in the Navy. He never +dreamed that some day his superior officer would confess his own guilt +and declare Father innocent. I can't, I won't, believe he is dead. +Somewhere in this world he lives and some day I shall find him, I am sure +of it. Phil, Lillian and Eleanor have all pledged themselves to my cause, +too," she added, smiling faintly. + +"I'll do all that I can to help you, Madge. Just have a good time this +summer, and in the autumn, perhaps, there may be some information for you +to work on. What is that dreadful noise? I never heard anything like it +in my house before!" exclaimed Mrs. Curtis. + +Madge sprang to her feet. There was the sound of a heavy fall in the next +room, a scream, then a discreet knock on Madge's door. + +"Come!" commanded Mrs. Curtis. + +The door opened and the butler appeared in the doorway, his solemn, red +face redder and more solemn than usual. + +"Please, it's that child again," he said. "While the young ladies was out +in the automobile with Mr. Tom, she went in their room, emptied out one +of their trunks and shut herself inside. She said she was 'Hope' and the +trunk was 'Pandory's Box,' or some such crazy foolishness. She meant to +jump out when the young ladies came back, but Norah went into the room +with some clean towels, and when the little one bobs her head out of that +box, just like a black witch, poor Norah is scared out of her wits and +drops on the floor all of a heap. If that child doesn't go away from here +soon, Ma'am, I don't know how we can ever bear it." + +"That will do, Richards," answered Mrs. Curtis coldly. But Madge could +see that she was dreadfully vexed at Tania's latest naughtiness. + +The little captain gave Mrs. Curtis a penitent hug. "It is all my fault, +dear. I should never have brought the little witch here," she murmured. +"I'll go and make it all right with Norah and see that Tania does no more +mischief--for a while, at least." + +Mrs. Curtis looked somewhat mollified, nevertheless, she was far from +pleased, and Madge's championship of little Tania was to cause the little +captain more than one unhappy hour. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A MISCHIEVOUS MERMAID + + +There was a splash over the side of a boat, then another, one more, and a +fourth. The water rippled and broke away into smooth curves. Down a long +streak of moonlight four dark objects floated above the surface of the +waves. For a few seconds there was not a sound, not even a shout, to show +that the mermaids were at play. + +Two dark heads kept in advance of the others. + +"Madge," warned a voice, "we must not go too far out. Remember, we +promised Jenny Ann. My, but isn't this water glorious! I feel as though I +could swim on forever." + +A graceful figure turned over and the moonlight shone full on a happy +face. The two swimmers moved along more slowly. + +"Nellie, Lillian!" Madge called back, "are you all right? Do you wish to +go on farther?" + +Phil and Madge floated quietly until their two friends caught up with +them. + +"I feel as though I could go on all night at this rate," declared Lillian +Seldon. Eleanor put her hand out. "May I float along with you a little, +Madge?" she asked. "I am tired. How wide and empty the ocean looks +to-night! We must not get out of sight of the lights of the 'Merry +Maid'." + +"There is no danger!" scoffed Madge. + +"Look out!" cried Phil Alden sharply. She was swimming ahead. She saw +first the sails of a small yacht making across the bay with all speed to +the line of the shore that the girls had just quitted. + +"Let's follow the boat back home," suggested Madge. "We can keep far +enough away for them not to see us. It will be rather good fun if they +take us for porpoises or mermaids, or any other queer sea creature." + +"Don't run into that Noah's ark that we saw anchored in the creek this +morning, Roy," came a shrill voice from the deck of the yacht. "I saw +half a dozen women going aboard her this afternoon laden with boxes and +trunks--everything but the parrot and the monkey. It looked as though +they meant to spend the summer aboard her." + +"Perhaps they do, Mabel," a man's voice answered. "The 'Noah's Ark' is a +houseboat. It looked very tiny for so many people, but I thought it was +rather pretty." + +"Well, we have girls enough at Cape May this summer--about six to every +man," argued Mabel crossly. "I vote that we give these new persons the +cold shoulder. Nobody knows who they are, nor where they come from. It is +bad enough to have to associate with tiresome hotel visitors, but I shall +draw the line at these water-rats, and I hope you will do the same." + +"She means us," gasped Eleanor. "What a perfectly horrid girl!" + +The high, sharp voice on the yacht was distinctly audible over the water. +The boat had slowed down as it drew nearer to the shore. + +"Swim along with Phil, Nellie," proposed Madge. "I am going to have some +fun with those young persons. I don't care if I _am_ nearly grown-up; I +am not going to miss a lark when there's a chance. I have that rubber +ball that Phil and I brought out to play with in the water. Watch me +throw it on their yacht. They'll think it's a bomb, or a meteor, if I can +throw straight enough. I am going to settle with them this very minute +for the disagreeable things they just said about us and our pretty 'Merry +Maid.'" + +"Don't do it, Madge!" expostulated Phil; but she was too late; Madge had +dived and was swimming along almost completely under the water. She swam +in the darkness cast by the shadow of the boat as it passed within a few +yards of them. + +Like a flash she lifted her great rubber ball. She had better luck than +she deserved. The ball came out of nowhere and landed in the center of +the group of three young people on the yacht. It fell first on the deck, +and then bounced into the lap of the offending Mabel. + +It was hard work for the waiting girls not to laugh aloud as naughty +Madge came slowly back to them. + +A wild shriek went up from on board the yacht. "Oh, dear, what was that?" +one girl asked faintly, when the first cries of alarm had died away. + +"Where is it? What was it?" growled a masculine voice. "Are you really +hurt, Mabel? You are making so much fuss that I can't tell." + +Mabel had dropped back in a chair. She was white with fear and trembling +violently. + +"It is in my lap," she moaned. "It may explode any moment--do take it +away!" + +The owner of the yacht, Roy Dennis, turned a small electric flashlight +full on his two girl guests. There, in Mabel's lap, was surely a round, +globular-shaped object that had either dropped from the sky or had been +thrown at them by an unknown hand. Roy had really no desire to pick it up +without seeing it more clearly. + +The other girl was less timid. She reached over and took hold of Madge's +ball. Then she laughed aloud. Oddly enough, her laugh was repeated out on +the water. + +"Why, it's only a rubber ball!" she asserted. Ethel Swann, who was one of +the old-time cottagers at Cape May, ran to the side of the boat. "See!" +she exclaimed, "over there are some boys swimming. I suppose they threw +the ball on board just to frighten us. They certainly were successful." +She hurled Madge's ball back over the water, but Roy Dennis's small yacht +had gone some distance from the group of mischievous mermaids and he did +not turn back. "If I find out who did that trick, I surely will get even +with them," muttered Roy. "I don't like to be made a fool of." + +"Don't tell Jenny Ann, please, girls," begged Madge, as the four girls +clambered aboard the "Merry Maid." "It was a very silly trick that I +played. I should hate to have the cottagers at the Cape hear of it. I +don't suppose I shall ever grow up." + +"Girls, whatever made you stay in the water so long?" demanded Miss Jenny +Ann, coming into the girls' stateroom with a big pitcher of hot chocolate +and a plate of cakes. "I have been uneasy about you. You have been in the +water for half an hour. That's too long for a first swim. Poor Tania is +fast asleep. The child is utterly worn out with so much excitement. Think +of never having been out of a crowded city in her life, and then seeing +this wonderful Cape May! Tania wanted to stay up to wish you good night. +I left her staring out of the cabin window at the stars when I went into +our kitchen to make the chocolate. When I came back she was asleep." + +"Dear Jenny Ann," said Madge penitently, pulling their chaperon down on +the berth beside her, while Lillian poured the chocolate, "it was my +fault we were late. The bad things are always my fault. But we are going +to have a perfectly glorious time this summer, aren't we? Just think, +next year Phil and I shall be nineteen and nearly old ladies." + +"I wonder if anything special is going to happen to us this holiday?" +pondered Phil, crunching away on her third cake. + +"Something special always does happen to us," declared Lillian. "Let's go +to bed now, because, if we are going to row up the bay in the morning to +explore the shore, we shall have to get up early to put the 'Merry Maid' +in order. We must be regular old Cape May inhabitants by the time that +Mrs. Curtis and Tom arrive." + +Next morning bad news came to the crew of the little houseboat. Mrs. +Curtis had been called to Chicago by the illness of her brother, and Tom +had gone with her. They did not know how soon they would be able to come +on to Cape May; but within a very few days Philip Holt, the goody-goody +young man who was one of Mrs. Curtis's special favorites, would come on +to Cape May, and Mrs. Curtis hoped that the girls would see that he had a +good time. + +Neither Madge, Phil, Lillian nor Eleanor felt particularly pleased at +this information. But Tania, who was the only one of the party that knew +the young man well, burst unexpectedly into a flood of tears, the cause +of which she obstinately refused to explain. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +CAPTAIN JULES, DEEP SEA DIVER + + +The "Water Witch" rocked lazily on the breast of the waves, awaiting the +coming of the four girls, who had planned to row up the bay on a voyage +of discovery. They were not much interested in staying about among the +Cape May cottagers, after the conversation which they had innocently +overheard from the deck of the launch the night before. Of course, if +Mrs. Curtis and Tom had come on to Cape May at once to occupy their +cottage, as they had expected to do, all would have been well. The four +young women and their chaperon would have been immediately introduced to +the society of the Cape. However, the girls were not repining at their +lack of society. They had each other; there was the old town of Cape May +to be explored with the great ocean on one side and Delaware Bay on the +other. + +"Do be careful, children," called Miss Jenny Ann warningly as the girls +arranged themselves for a row in their skiff. "In all our experience on +the water I never saw so many yachts and pleasure boats as there are on +these waters. If you don't keep a sharp lookout one of the larger boats +may run into you. Don't get into trouble." + +"We are going away from trouble, Miss Jenny Ann," protested Phil. "There +is a yacht club on the sound, but we are going to row up the bay past the +shoals and get as far from civilization as possible." + +Madge stood up in the skiff and waved her hand to their chaperon. The +girls looked like a small detachment of feminine naval cadets in their +nautical uniforms. Each one of them wore a dark blue serge skirt of ankle +length and a middy blouse with a blue sailor collar. They were without +hats, as they hoped to get a coating of seashore tan without wasting any +time. + +"I shall expect you home by noon," were Miss Jenny Ann's final words as +the "Water Witch" danced away from the houseboat. + +"Aye, aye, Skipper!" the girls called back in chorus. "Shall we bring +back lobsters or clams for luncheon, if we can find them?" + +"_Clams!_" hallooed Miss Jenny Ann through her hands. "I am dreadfully +afraid of live lobsters." Then the houseboat chaperon retired to write a +letter to an artist, a Mr. Theodore Brown, whose acquaintance she had +made during the first of the houseboat holidays. He had suggested that he +would like to come to Cape May some time later in the summer if any of +his houseboat friends would be pleased to see him, and she was writing to +tell him just how greatly pleased they would be. + +The "Merry Maid" had found a quiet anchorage in one of the smaller inlets +of the Delaware Bay, not far from the town of Cape May. The larger number +of the summer cottages were farther away on the tiny islands near the +sound and along the ocean front. + +The "Water Witch" sped gayly over the blue waters of the bay in the +brilliant late June sunshine. Madge and Phil, as usual, were at the oars. +Tania crouched quietly at Lillian's feet in the stern of the skiff. +Eleanor sat in the prow. + +"What do you think of it all, Tania?" Madge asked the little adopted +houseboat daughter. Tania had been very silent since their arrival at the +seashore. If she were impressed at the wonderful and beautiful things she +had seen since she left New York City, she had, so far, said nothing. + +Her large black eyes blinked in the dazzling light. She was looking +straight up toward the sky in a curious, absorbed fashion. "I was trying +to make up my mind, Madge, if this place was as beautiful as my kingdom +in Fairyland," answered Tania seriously, "and I believe it is." + +"Have you a kingdom in Fairyland, little Tania?" inquired Phil gently. +She did not understand the child's odd fancies, as Madge did. + +Tania nodded her head quietly. "Of course I have," she returned simply. +"Hasn't every one a Fairyland, where things are just as they should be, +beautiful and good and kind? I am the queen of my kingdom." + +Phil looked puzzled, but Madge only laughed. "Don't mind Tania, Phil. She +is going to be a very sensible little houseboat girl before our holiday +is over. Besides, I understand her. She only says some of the things I +used to think when I was a tiny child. But I do wish the people on the +boats would not stare at us so; there is nothing very wonderful in our +appearance." + +The girls were trying to guide their rowboat among the other larger craft +that were afloat on the bay. They wished to get into the more remote +waters. In the meantime it was embarrassing to have smartly dressed women +and girls put up their lorgnettes and opera glasses to gaze at the girls +as the latter rowed by. + +"Can there be anything the matter with us?" asked Phil solicitously. "I +never saw anything like this fire of inquisitive stares." + +"Of course not, Phil," answered Lillian sensibly. "It is only because we +are strangers at Cape May, and most of the people whom we see about come +here each year. Then we are the only persons who live in a Noah's ark, as +those pleasant people on the yacht called our pretty 'Merry Maid' last +night. Don't worry. Have you thought how odd it is that we won't even +know them if we should be introduced to them later? We did not see either +them or their boat very plainly last night; we only overheard them +talking." + +"But I'll know the voice of that woman who screamed," replied Madge +rather grimly. "I just dare her to shriek again without my recognizing +her dulcet tones." + +The girls were now drawing away from the crowded end of the bay. They +kept along fairly close to the shore. There was an occasional house near +the water, but these dwellings were farther and farther apart. Finally +the girls rowed for half a mile without seeing any residence save an +occasional fisherman's hut. They hoped to reach some place where they +could catch at least a glimpse of the wonderful cedar woods that flourish +farther up the coast of the bay. + +Suddenly Lillian sang out: "Look, girls, there is the dearest little +house! It is almost in the water. It rivals our houseboat, it is so like +a ship. Isn't it too cunning for anything!" + +Madge and Phyllis rested on their oars. The girls stared curiously. + +They saw a house built of shingles that had turned a soft gray which +exactly resembled an old three-masted schooner. It had a tiny porch in +front, but the first roof ended in a point, the second rose higher, like +a larger sail, and the third, which must have covered the kitchen, was +about the height of the first. + +"See, Tania, I can make the funny house by putting my fingers together," +laughed Lillian. "My thumbs are the first roof, my three fingers the +second, and my little fingers the last." + +The girls rowed nearer the odd cottage. The place was deserted; at least +they saw no one about. Over the front door of the house hung a trim +little sign inscribed, "The Anchorage." + +"Dear me, here is a boathouse, and we've a houseboat!" exclaimed Eleanor. +"I wish we dared go ashore and knock at the door, to ask some one to show +us over it." + +"I don't think we had better try it, Eleanor," remonstrated Phil. "The +house probably belongs to some grouchy old sea captain who has built it +to get away from people." + +At this moment a man at least six feet tall, wearing old yellow +tarpaulins, came around the side of the house of the three sails with a +large basket on each arm. He sat down on a rock in front of the house and +began lifting mussel and oyster shells out of one of his baskets. He +would peer at them earnestly before throwing them over to one side. He +was a giant of a man, past middle age. His face was so weather-beaten +that his skin was like leather. His eyes were blue as only a sailor's +eyes can be. On one of the man's shoulders perched a wizened little +monkey that every now and then tugged at its master's grizzled hair or +chattered in his ear. + +[Illustration: "Good Morning" Shouted Madge.] + +The man did not observe the girls in the rowboat, although they were only +a few yards away. + +"Good morning," sang out Madge cheerfully, forgetting the vow of silence +which the girls had made that morning against the Cape Mayites. But then, +the girls had never dreamed of seeing such a fascinating seafaring old +mariner. Their vow had been taken against the society people. + +The sailor, however, did not return Madge's friendly salutation; he went +on examining his oyster and mussel shells. + +Madge looked crestfallen. The old sailor had such a splendid, strong +face. He did not seem to be the kind of man who would fail to return a +friendly good morning greeting. + +"I don't think he heard you, Madge. Let's all halloo together," proposed +Lillian. + +"Good morning!" shouted five young voices in a mischievous chorus. + +The seaman lifted his big head. His smile came slowly, wrinkling his face +into heavy creases. "Good morning, mates," he called heartily. "Coming +ashore?" + +"Oh, may we?" cried Madge in return. "We should _dearly_ love to!" + +The five girls needed no further invitation. They piled out of the "Water +Witch" before their host could come near enough to assist them. + +The seaman did not invite them into the house. The girls took their seats +on the big rock near the water. Madge was farthest away, but promptly the +monkey leaped from its master's shoulder and planted itself in Madge's +hair, pulling the strands violently while he chattered angrily. + +"You horrid little thing!" she cried; "you hurt. I wonder if you hate red +hair. Is that the reason you are trying to pull mine out? Please, +somebody, take this playful beast away." + +The old sea captain, as the girls guessed him to be, promptly came to +Madge's rescue and removed the angry monkey. + +"You must forgive my pet," he remarked kindly. "My little Madge is +jealous. She doesn't like strangers and we don't often have young lady +visitors." + +"Madge!" exclaimed the little captain, smiling as she tried to re-arrange +her hair. "What a funny name for a monkey. Why, that is my name!" + +After a few advances the monkey became very friendly with the other +girls, but she would have nothing to do with Madge. She would fly into a +perfect tempest of rage whenever Madge approached her or tried to talk to +her. The monkey even deserted her master to perch in Tania's arms. The +animal put its little, scrawny arms about the queer child's neck, and +there was almost the same elfish, wistful look in both pairs of dark +eyes. + +"Do you catch many fish in these waters?" inquired Eleanor, whose +housewifely soul was interested in the big basket of lobsters that she +saw crawling about, writhing and twisting as though they were in agony. + +"Almost every kind that lives in temperate waters," answered the sailor, +"but there is nothing like the variety one finds in the tropics." + +"Were you once a sea captain?" asked Lillian curiously. + +The man shook his head. "I'm not a captain in the United States service," +he returned. "I am called captain in these parts, 'Captain Jules,' but I +have only commanded a freight schooner." + +"I know I have no right to be so curious," interposed Madge, "but I +dearly love everything about the sea. Were you ever a deep sea diver? +Somehow you look like one." + +"I was a pearl-fisher for many years," the seaman answered as calmly as +though diving for pearls was one of the most ordinary trades in the +world. But his eyes twinkled as he heard Madge's gasp of admiration and +caught the expression on the faces of the other girls. + +"You were looking for pearls in those oysters and mussel shells when our +boat came along, weren't you?" divined Madge, regarding him with large +eyes. + +The man nodded a smiling answer. + +"Yes, but I didn't expect to find any pearls," he answered. "It is +strange how a man's old occupation will cling to him, even after he has +long ago given it up. There are very few pearls to be found now in the +Delaware Bay or the waters around here." + +Captain Jules was gravely removing lobsters from his basket for Tania's +entertainment while he talked to Madge. Tania was watching him, +breathless with admiration and terror. The captain would take hold of one +of the great, crawling things, rub it softly on its horned head as one +would rub a tabby cat to make it purr. He would then set the lobster up +on its hind claws and the funny crustacean would fall quietly asleep, as +though it were nodding in a chair. + +"I never saw anything so queer in my life," chuckled Phil. "You hypnotize +the lobsters, don't you?" + +Captain Jules shook his shaggy head. He was proud of the appreciation his +accomplishment had excited. "No; I don't hypnotize them," he explained. +"Anybody can make old Father Lobster fall asleep if he only rubs him in +the right place. You are not going, are you?" for the girls had risen to +depart. + +"I am afraid we must," said Madge; "we promised to get back to our +houseboat by noon. If you come down to Cape May, won't you please come to +see us? Our houseboat is a rival to your boathouse." + +"You are very kind," answered the old captain, shaking his head, "but I +don't do much visiting. I thank you just the same. Let me fix you up a +basket of fish. Afraid of the lobsters, aren't you, little girl?" he +said, smiling at Tania. + +The old sailor followed his visitors to help them aboard their rowboat. +He walked beside Madge, keeping a careful watch on his monkey, which +still chattered and gesticulated, showing her hatred of the little +captain. + +The girls realized that this man had the manners of a gentleman, although +he looked as rough and uncouth as a common sailor. There was a kind of +nobility about him, as of a man who has lived and fought with the big +things of the earth. + +Madge looked at him beseechingly just before they arrived at their skiff. +Now, when Madge desired anything very greatly she was hard to resist. Her +blue eyes wore their most bewitching expression. "Please," she faltered, +"I want you to do me a favor. I know I have no right to ask it, but, +but----" + +"What is it?" inquired Captain Jules, smiling. + +"Have you your diving suit?" asked Madge. "If you have, and you would +show it to me some day, I would be too happy for words." Madge blushed at +her own temerity. + +The captain shook his head. There was little encouragement in his +expression. "Maybe, some day," he replied vaguely; "but I have had the +suit put away for some time. Who knows when I will go down into the sea +again? Be careful in that small skiff," he warned the girls. "There are +so many launches about on these waters, run by men and women that don't +know the very first principles of running a boat, that a small craft like +yours may easily drift into danger. You must look lively." + +The girls waved their good-byes as Madge and Phil pulled away. Madge +noticed that the old sailor stared curiously at her, and every now and +then he shook his head and frowned. Madge supposed it was because she had +been so bold as to ask a favor of a perfect stranger. Yet, if she could +only see Captain Jules again and he might be persuaded to show her his +diving suit and to tell her something of the strange business of +pearl-fishing, she couldn't be really sorry for her impudence. This +accidental meeting with an old sailor inspired Madge afresh with her love +of the sea and the mystery of it. She could not get the man out of her +mind, nor her own desire to see him soon again and to ask him more +questions. + +As for Captain Jules, when the girls had fairly gone he lighted his pipe +and strode along the line of the shore. "It's a funny thing, Madge," he +said, addressing the monkey, "but when a man gets an idea in his head, +everything and everybody he sees seems to start the same old idea +a-going. I wish I had asked her to tell me her surname. I wonder if she +is the real Madge?" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE WRECK OF THE "WATER WITCH" + + +The girls began their row to the "Merry Maid" with all speed. They had +had such an interesting morning that they did not realize how the time +had flown. They did not know the exact hour now, but they feared it would +be after twelve before they could rejoin Miss Jenny Ann. The sun was so +nearly overhead and shining so brilliantly that the effect was almost +dazzling. Madge and Phil did not try to see any distance ahead in their +course. Lillian, however, was on the lookout. There were several inlets +opening into the larger water-way down which the girls were rowing. Boats +were likely to come unexpectedly out of these inlets, and the girls +should have been far more watchful than they were. + +"It's too bad about Mrs. Curtis and Tom not coming on to Cape May as soon +as we expected them, isn't it?" remarked Phil, resting for half a moment +from the strain of the steady pulling at her oars. "I hope they will +arrive soon, before we have the responsibility of entertaining Mrs. +Curtis's friend, Philip Holt. It won't be much fun to have a strange man +following us about everywhere, even if he should turn out to be nicer +than we think he is." Phil was the stroke oar. She was talking over her +shoulder to Madge, who was paying more attention to her friend's +conversation than to her rowing. + +"Oh, I think Mrs. Curtis and Tom will be along soon," she rejoined. "I +felt dreadfully when we received the telegram this morning. But now I +hope Mrs. Curtis's brother will get well in a hurry. Perhaps they will be +here almost as soon as this Philip. I'll wager you a pound of chocolates, +Phil, that this goody-goody young man can't swim or row, or do anything +like an ordinary person. He will just think every single thing we do is +perfectly dreadful, and will frighten Tania to death with his preaching. +I know he thinks her fairy stories are lies. He told Mrs. Curtis that +Tania never spoke the truth." Madge lowered her voice. "I am sure we have +never caught her in a lie. I suppose this Philip will think my +exaggerations are as bad as Tania's fairy stories. I hate too literal +people." + +"Dear me, whom are you and Phil discussing, Madge?" inquired Lillian, +leaning over from her seat in the stern with Tania, to try to catch her +friends' low-voiced conversation. "If it is that Philip Holt, you need +not think that he will trouble us very much when he comes to Cape May. He +is just the kind of person who will trot after all the rich people he +meets, and waste very little energy on those who have neither money nor +social position." + +Lillian was looking at Madge and Phil as she talked. For the moment she +forgot to keep a sharp watch about on the water. But a moment since there +had been no other boats in sight near them. Eleanor was resting in the +prow with her eyes closed. The sun blazed hotly in her face, she could +only see a bright light dancing before her eyes. + +As Lillian leaned back in her seat in the stern her face took on an +expression of sudden alarm. At the same moment the four girls heard the +distinct chug of a motor engine. Cutting down upon them was a pleasure +yacht run by a gasoline motor. The prow of the yacht was head-on with the +"Water Witch" and running at full speed. The boat had blown no whistle, +so the girls had not seen its approach. + +"Look ahead!" shouted Lillian. + +The young man who was steering the yacht paid no heed to her warning. He +kept straight ahead, although he distinctly saw the rowboat and its +passengers. + +Madge and Phyllis had no time to call out or to protest. They realized, +almost instantly, that the motor launch meant to make no effort to slow +down but to put the full responsibility of getting out of danger on the +rowers. + +The girls had no particular desire to be thrown into the water, nor to +have their boat cut in two, so they pulled for dear life, with white +faces and straining throats and arms. + +They just missed making their escape by a hair's breadth. The young man +running the yacht must have believed that the skiff would get safely by +or else when he found out his mistake it was too late for him to slow +down. The prow of his yacht ran with full force into the frail side of +the "Water Witch" near her stern. + +The little skiff whirled in the water almost in a semi-circle. By a +miracle it escaped being completely run down by the launch. Yet a second +later, before any one of the girls could stir, the water rushed into the +hole in its side and it sank. Madge and Phyllis had had their oars +wrenched from their hands. Then they found themselves struggling in the +water. + +A cry rose from the launch as the "Water Witch" and her passengers +disappeared. But there was no sound from the little rowboat, save the +gurgle of the water and a shrill scream from Tania as the waves closed +over her head. + +The yacht swept on past, borne perhaps by her own headway. + +As Madge went down under the water two thoughts seemed to come to her +mind in the same second: she must look after Eleanor and Tania. Her +cousin, Nellie, was not able to swim as well as the other girls. She had +always been more nervous and timid in the water and was liable to sudden +cramp. Madge knew that being hurled from a boat in such sudden fashion +with her clothes on instead of a bathing suit would completely terrify +Eleanor. She might lose her presence of mind completely and fail to +strike out when she rose to the surface of the water. As for Tania, Madge +was aware that she, of course, could not swim a stroke. The little one +had never been in deep water before in her life. + +Madge struggled for breath for a second as she came to the surface of the +bay again. She had swallowed some salt water as she went down. In the +next desperate instant she counted three heads above the waves besides +her own. Phyllis was swimming quietly toward Eleanor. Evidently she had +entertained Madge's fear. "Make for the 'Water Witch,' Nellie," Madge +heard Phil say in her calm, cool-headed fashion. "It has overturned and +come up again and we can hang on to that. Don't be frightened. I am +coming after you. Try to float if your clothes are too heavy to swim. +I'll pull you to the boat." + +Lillian's golden head reflected the light from the sun's rays as she swam +along after Phil. But nowhere could Madge see a sign of a little, wild, +black head with its straight, short locks and frightened black eyes. + +She waited for another breathless moment. Why did Tania not rise to the +surface like the rest of them? Madge was trying to tread water and to +keep a sharp lookout about her, but her clothes were heavy and kept +pulling her down; swimming in heavy shoes is an extremely difficult +business, even for an experienced swimmer. All of a sudden it occurred to +Madge that Tania might have risen under the overturned rowboat. Then her +head would have struck against its bottom and she would have gone down +again without ever having been seen. + +There was nothing else to be done. Madge must dive down to see what had +become of her little friend, yet diving was difficult when she had no +place from which to dive. Madge knew she must get all the way down to the +very bottom of the bay to see if by any chance Tania's body could have +been entangled among the sea weed, or her clothes caught on a rock or +snag. + +Once down, she looked in vain for the little body along the sandy bottom +of the bay. She espied some rocks covered with shimmering shells and sea +ferns, but there was no trace of Tania. For the second time she rose to +the surface of the water. She hoped to see Tania's black head glistening +among those of her older friends clustered about the overturned boat. She +had grown very tired and was obliged to shake the water out of her eyes +before she dared trust herself to look. + +Then she saw that Phil had hold of one of Eleanor's hands and with the +other was clinging to the slippery side of their overturned boat. Eleanor +was numb with cold and shock. Although her free hand rested on the boat, +Phil dared not let go of her for fear she would sink. + +Phyllis was beginning to feel uneasy about Madge. She had given no +thought to her during the early part of the accident, she knew Madge to +be a water witch herself, but when the little captain did not come to the +skiff with the rest of them Phil's heart grew heavy. What could she do? +Dare she let go her hold on Eleanor? Strangely enough, in their peril, +Phyllis had given no thought to the little stranger, Tania. + +Phyllis Alden breathed a happy sigh of relief when she saw Madge's curly, +red-brown head moving along toward them. + +"Have you seen Tania?" she called faintly, trying to reserve both her +breath and her strength. + +Then Phil remembered Tania with a rush of remorse and terror. "No, I +haven't, Madge. What could have become of the child?" she faltered. + +Lillian looked out over the water. Surely the launch that had wrecked +them would have been able by this time to come back to their assistance. +The boat had stopped, but it had not moved near to them. So far, its crew +showed no sign of giving them any aid. Lillian could not believe her +eyes. + +"I'd better dive for Tania again," said Madge quietly, without intimating +to her chums that she was feeling a little tired and less sure of herself +in the water than usual. She knew they would not allow her to dive. + +When she went down for Tania the second time she chose a different place +to make her descent. She must find the little girl at once. + +She was swimming along, not many inches from the bottom of the bay, when +she caught sight of what seemed to her a large fish floating near some +rocks. Madge swam toward it slowly. It was Tania's foot, swaying with the +motion of the water. Caught on a spar, which might have once been part of +a mast of an old ship, was Tania's dress. On the other side of her was a +rock, and her body had become wedged between the two objects. It was a +beautiful place and might have been a cave for a mermaid, but it held the +little earth-princess in a death-like grasp. + +It is possible to be sick with fear and yet to be brave. Madge knew her +danger. She saw that Tania's dress was caught fast. She would have to tug +at it valiantly to get it away. First, she pulled desperately at Tania's +shoe, hoping she could free her body. A suffocating weight had begun to +press down on her chest. She could hear a roaring and buzzing in her +ears. She knew enough of the water to realize that she had been too long +underneath; she should rise to the surface again to get her breath. But +she dared not wait so long to release Tania. Nor did she know that she +could find the child again when she returned. She must do her work now. + +So Madge pulled more slowly and carefully at Tania's frock, unwinding it +from the spar that held it. With a few gentle tugs she released it and +Tania's slender body rose slowly. The child's eyes were closed, her face +was as still and white as though she were dead. Madge was glad of Tania's +unconsciousness. She knew that in this lay the one chance of safety for +herself and the child. If Tania came to consciousness and began to +struggle the little captain knew that her strength was too far gone for +her to save either the child or herself. She would not leave her. She +would have to drown with her. + +She caught the little girl by her black hair, and swam out feebly with +her one free arm. At this moment Tania's black eyes opened wide. She +realized their awful peril. She was only a child, and the fear of the +drowning swept over her. She gave a despairing clutch upward, threw both +her thin arms about Madge's neck and held her in a grasp of steel. For a +second Madge tried to fight Tania's hands away. Then her strength gave +out utterly. She realized that the end had come for them both. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE OWNER OF THE DISAGREEABLE VOICE + + +It may be that Madge had another second of consciousness. Afterward she +thought she could recall being caught up by a giant, who unloosed Tania's +hands from about her throat. Quietly the three of them began to float +upward with such steadiness, such quietness, that she had that blessed +sense of security and release from responsibility that a child must feel +who has fallen asleep in its father's arms. + +The first thing that she actually knew was, when she opened her eyes, to +look into a pair of deep blue, kindly ones that were smiling bravely and +encouragingly into hers. Near her were her three friends, looking very +wet and miserable, and one little, dark-eyed elf who was sobbing +bitterly. Farther away were two strange girls and one red-faced young +man. Then Madge understood that she had been brought aboard the yacht +that had run down their rowboat. + +The little captain sat up indignantly. "I am quite all right," she said +haughtily, looking with an unfriendly countenance at their wreckers. +Then, feeling strangely dizzy, she sank back and with a little sigh +closed her eyes. + +"Don't do that," protested Eleanor tragically. "You must not faint. +Captain Jules, please don't let her." + +The old captain's strong hands took hold of Madge's cold ones. "Pull +yourself together, my hearty," he whispered. "A girl who can dive down +into the bottom of the bay as you can shows she has good sea-blood in +her. She can see the old captain's diving suit any day she likes--own it +if she has a mind to. Fishing for pearls isn't half so good a trade as +fishing for a human life. You'll be yourself in a minute. Lucky I +happened to walk down the beach in the same direction your boat went." + +One of the two strange girls came to Madge's side at this moment with a +cup of strong tea. "_Do_ drink this," she pleaded. "It has taken some +time to make the water boil. I wish to give some to the other girls, too. +I am so sorry that we ran into you. You must know that it was an +accident." + +Madge drank the tea obediently, gazing a little less scornfully at the +girl who was serving her, her face pale with fright and sympathy. The +other girl stood apart at a little distance with a young man. They were +both staring at the wet and shivering girls with poorly concealed +amusement. + +"We are awfully sorry to give you so much trouble," said Madge to the +girl with the tea. She was trying to control her feelings when she caught +sight of the owner of the small yacht and his friend and her temper got +the better of her. + +"I am sorry," she repeated, "that we are giving _you_ trouble. But, +really, your motor launch had no right to bear down on our boat without +blowing its whistle or giving the faintest sign of its approach. It put +the whole responsibility of getting out of the way on us." + +Madge was sitting beside the old captain. Her direct mode of attack +showed that she was feeling more like herself. + +"What the young lady says is true," declared Captain Jules with emphasis. +"I doubt if you have the faintest legal right to navigate a boat in these +waters. If I hadn't happened to walk along down the shore of the bay +after these young ladies left me two of them would have been drowned. +I'll have to see to it that you keep off this bay if you do any more such +mischief as you did this morning." + +The young man in a handsome yachting suit worthy of an admiral in the +United States Navy frowned angrily at Madge and her champion. + +"I say it wasn't my fault that I ran into your little paper boat," he +protested angrily. "I gave you plenty of time to get out of my way, but +you girls pulled so slowly that we did slide into you. Still, if you will +admit that it was your fault and not mine, I will have your old skiff +mended, if she isn't too much used up and you can get somebody to tow her +back to land for you. I can't; I have enough to carry as it is." + +The girl standing beside the young man giggled hysterically. Madge +decided that she had heard her high, shrill notes before. Phyllis, +Lillian and Eleanor were furiously angry at the young man's retort to +Madge and Captain Jules, but they bit their lips and said nothing. They +were on his yacht, although they were enforced passengers; it was better +not to express their feelings. + +But Madge was in a white heat of passion over the young man's boorish +retort. + +"It was not our fault in the least that we were run down," she said in a +low, evenly pitched voice. "We are not willing to take the least bit of +the blame. You not only ran into our little boat and sunk her, but you +did not take the least trouble to come to our aid when you had not the +faintest knowledge whether any one of us could swim. _Men_ in the part of +the world where I come from don't do things of that kind. Put your boat +back and tow our rowboat to land," ordered Madge imperiously. "We +certainly will not allow you to have it mended. Neither my friends nor I +wish to accept any kind of recompense from a man who is a _coward_!" + +The word was out. Madge had not meant to use it, but somehow it slipped +off her tongue. + +"Steady," she heard the old sailor whisper in her ear. He was gazing at +her intently, and something in his face calmed the hot tide of her anger. +"I am sorry I said you were a coward," she added, with one of her quick +repentances. "I don't think you were very brave, but perhaps something +may have happened that prevented your coming to our aid." + +"Mr. Dennis does not swim very well," the nicer of the two girls +explained, sitting down beside Madge. She was blushing and biting her +lips. "Mr. Dennis meant to put back as soon as he could. I am Ethel +Swann. I received a letter from Mrs. Curtis this morning, who is one of +my mother's old friends. She wrote that she and her son would be down a +little later to open their cottage, but she hoped that we would meet you +girls before she came. I am so sorry that we have met first in such an +unfortunate fashion." + +"Oh, never mind," interrupted Madge impatiently. "If you are Ethel Swann, +Mrs. Curtis has talked to us about you. We are very glad to know you, I +am sure." + +"These are my friends, Roy Dennis and Mabel Farrar," Ethel went on, her +face flushing. The four girls bowed coldly. Mabel Farrar acknowledged the +introduction by a stiff nod. The young man took off his cap for the first +time when Madge introduced Captain Jules. + +"Run your boat along the side of the overturned skiff and I'll tie her on +for you," ordered Captain Jules quietly. "I think I had better go along +back to land with you." + +Roy Dennis, who was a little more frightened at his deed than he cared to +own, was glad to obey the captain's order. + +Just as the girls were landing from the launch Mabel Farrar's foot +slipped and she gave a shrill scream. Instantly the girls recognized the +voice which they had heard the night before condemning them to social +oblivion. + +Although Captain Jules had only a short time before positively refused +the invitation of the girls to come aboard the "Merry Maid" to pay them a +visit, it was he who handed each girl from the deck of Roy Dennis's boat +into the arms of their frightened chaperon. Finally he crossed over to +the deck of the houseboat himself, bearing little Tania in his arms and +looking in his wet tarpaulins like old King Neptune rising from the +brine. + +Captain Jules was made to stay to luncheon on board the houseboat. There +was no getting away from the determined young women. In his heart of +hearts the old sailor had no desire to go. Something inspired him with +the desire to know more of these charming girls. + +When the girls had put on dry clothing they led Captain Jules all over +the houseboat, showing him each detail of it. He insisted that the "Merry +Maid" was as trim a little craft as he had ever seen afloat. + +After luncheon, at which the captain devoured six of Miss Jenny Ann's +best cornbread gems, he sat down in a chair on the houseboat deck, +holding Tania in his arms. He talked most to Phyllis, but he seldom took +his eyes off Madge's face. Sometimes he frowned at her; now and then he +smiled. Once or twice Madge found herself blushing and wondering why her +rescuer looked at her so hard, but she was too interested to care very +much. + +She sat down in her favorite position on a pile of cushions on the deck, +with her head resting against Miss Jenny Ann's knee and her eyes on the +water. "Do tell us, Captain Jules," she pleaded, "something about your +life as a pearl-fisher. You must have had wonderful experiences. We would +dearly love to hear about them, wouldn't we, girls?" + +The girls chorused an enthusiastic "Yes," which included Miss Jenny Ann. + +Captain Jules laughed. "Haven't you ever heard that it is dangerous to +get an old sea dog started on his adventures? You never can tell when he +will leave off," he teased, stroking Tania's black hair. "But I wouldn't +be surprised if Tania would like to hear how once I was nearly swallowed +whole, diving suit and all, by a giant shark. I was hunting for pearls in +those days off the Philippine Islands. I had been tearing some shells +from the side of a great rock when, of a sudden, I felt a strange +presence before I saw anything. I might have known it was time to expect +trouble, because the little fish that are usually floating about in the +water had all disappeared. A creepy feeling came over me. I was cold as +ice inside my diving suit. Then I turned and looked up. Just a few feet +in front of me was a giant shark that seemed about twenty-five feet long. +He was an evil monster. The upper part of his body was a dirty, dark +green and his fins were black. You never saw a diving suit, did you? So +you don't know that all the body is covered up but the hands. I tucked my +hands under my breastplate in a hurry. It didn't seem to me that a pearl +diver would be much good without any hands. Well, the great fish made a +sweep with its tail, and in a jiffy he and I were face to face. I stood +still for about a second. I held my breath, my heart pounding like a +hammer. Nearer and nearer the monster came swimming toward me, with its +shovel nose pointing directly at the glass that covered my face. I +couldn't stand it. I threw up my hands. I yelled way down at the bottom +of the sea with no one to hear me. There was a swirl of water, a cloud of +mud, and my enemy vanished. He didn't like the noise any better than I +liked him." + +The girls breathed sighs of relief. The captain chuckled. "Oh, a diver is +not in real danger from a shark," he went on, "his suit protects him. But +there are plenty of other dangers. Maybe I'll tell you some of them at +another time. Why, I declare, it is nearly sunset. You don't know it, +children, but the bottom of the tropic sea has colors in it as beautiful +as the lights in that sky. The sea-bottom, where the diver is apt to find +pearl shells, is covered with all sorts of sea growths--sponges twelve +feet high, coral cups like inverted mushrooms, sea-fans twenty feet +broad." + +As the old diver talked, the girls could see the magic coral wreaths, +glowing rose color and crimson, the tall ferns and sea flowers that waved +with the movement of the water as the earth flowers move to the stirring +of the wind. And there in the land of the mermaids, hidden between +wonderful shells of mother-of-pearl, lie the jewels that are the purest +and most beautiful in the world. + +Madge's chin was in her hands. She did not hear the old captain get up +and say good-bye. She was wishing, with all her heart, that she, too, +might go down to the bottom of the sea to view its treasures. + +"Madge," Phil interrupted her reverie, "Captain Jules is going." + +Madge put her soft, warm hands into the big man's hard, powerful ones. +"Good-bye," she said gratefully. "There is something I wish to tell you, +but I won't until another time." + +Miss Jenny Ann stared thoughtfully after the giant figure as Captain +Jules left the houseboat and strode up the shore in search of a small +skiff to take him home. + +"You girls have made an unusual friend," she said slowly to Madge. "In +many ways Captain Jules is rough. He may be uneducated in the wisdom of +schools and books, but he is a great man with a great heart." + +Before Madge went to bed that night she wrote Tom Curtis. She told him +how sorry they all were that he could not come at once to Cape May. She +also described the day's adventures. She made as light of their accident +as possible, but she ended her letter by asking Tom if he would not send +her a book about pearl fishing. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE GOODY-GOODY YOUNG MAN + + +"Philip Holt has come, Madge," announced Phyllis Alden a few days later. +"He is staying at one of the hotels until Mrs. Curtis and Tom arrive to +open their cottage. He has already been calling on a number of Mrs. +Curtis's friends here. Now he has condescended to come to see us. Miss +Jenny Ann says we must invite him to luncheon; so close that book, if you +please, and come help us to entertain him. I am sure you will be _so_ +pleased to see him." + +Madge frowned, but closed her book obediently. "What a bore, Phil! I was +just reading this fascinating book on pearl-fishing. A few valuable +pearls have been found in these waters. There was one which was sold to a +princess for twenty-five hundred dollars. Who knows but the 'Merry Maid' +may even now be reposing on a bank of pearls! Dear me, here is that +tiresome Mr. Holt! Of course, we must be nice with him on Mrs. Curtis's +account. I hope she and Tom will soon come along. Let us take Mr. Holt +with us to the golf club this afternoon. We promised Ethel Swann to come +and she won't mind our bringing him." + +The girls were not altogether surprised that the young people whom they +had lately met at Cape May were divided into two sets. The one had taken +the girls under their protection and seemed to like them immensely. The +other, headed by Mabel Farrar and Roy Dennis, treated them with cool +contempt. But the girls felt able to take care of themselves. Not one of +them even inquired what story Mr. Dennis and Miss Farrar had told about +their memorable meeting on the water. + +The Cape May golf course stretches over miles of beautiful downs and the +clubhouse is the gathering place for society at this summer resort. + +Ethel Swann bore off Lillian and Eleanor to introduce them to some of her +friends, and the three girls followed the course of two of the players +over the links. + +Philip Holt was plainly impressed by the smartly-dressed women and girls +whom he saw about him. He was a tall, thin young man with sandy hair and +he wore spectacles. He insisted that Madge and Phyllis should not forget +to introduce him as the friend of Mrs. Curtis, who expected him to be her +guest later on. Indeed, Philip Holt talked so constantly and so +intimately of Mrs. Curtis that Madge had to stifle a little pang of +jealousy. She had supposed, when she was in New York City, that Mrs. +Curtis, who was very generous, only took a friendly interest in Philip +Holt and his work among the New York poor, but to-day Philip Holt gave +her to understand that Mrs. Curtis was as kind to him as though he were a +member of her family. And Madge wondered wickedly to herself whether Tom +Curtis would be pleased to have him for a brother. She determined to +interview Tom on the subject as soon as he should return from Chicago. + +Later in the afternoon Madge and Phyllis were surprised to see Roy Dennis +and Mabel Farrar come down the golf clubhouse steps and walk across the +lawn toward them, smiling with apparent friendliness. Madge's resentful +expression softened. She did not bear malice, and she felt that she had +said more to Roy Dennis about his treatment of them than she should have +done. She, therefore, bowed pleasantly. Phil followed suit. To their +amazement they were greeted with a frozen stare by the newcomers, who +walked to where the two girls were standing without paying the least +attention to the latter. Madge's color rose to the very roots of her +hair. Phil's black eyes flashed, but she kept them steadily fixed on the +girl and man. + +"How do you do, Mr. Holt?" asked Mabel in bland tones, addressing the +girls' companion. "I believe I am right in calling you Mr. Holt. I have +heard that you were a friend of Mrs. Curtis and her son. This is my +friend, Roy Dennis. We are so pleased to meet any of dear Mrs. Curtis's +_real_ friends. We should like to have you take tea with us." + +Philip Holt looked perplexed. He opened his mouth to introduce Madge and +Phyllis to Miss Farrar, but the girls' expressions told the story. + +Miss Farrar and Mr. Dennis had purposely excluded the two girls from the +conversation. + +For the fraction of a second Philip Holt wavered. Mabel Farrar was +smartly dressed. Roy Dennis looked the rich, idle society man that he +was. Moneyed friends were always the most useful in Mr. Holt's opinion, +he therefore turned to Miss Farrar with, "I shall be only too pleased to +accompany you." + +"You'll excuse me," he turned condescendingly to Madge and Phil, "but +Mrs. Curtis's friends wish me to have tea with them." + +Madge smiled at the young man with such frank amusement that he was +embarrassed. "Oh, yes, we will excuse you," she said lightly. "Please +don't give another thought to us. Miss Alden and I wish you to consult +your own pleasure. I am sure that you will find it in drinking tea!" She +turned away, the picture of calm indifference, although she had a wicked +twinkle in her eye. + +"Well, if that wasn't the rudest behavior all around that I ever saw in +my life!" burst out Phil indignantly after the disagreeable trio had +departed. "Mrs. Curtis or no Mrs. Curtis, I don't think we should be +expected to speak to that ill-bred Mr. Holt again. The idea of his +marching off with that girl and man after the way they treated us! I +shall tell Mrs. Curtis just how he behaved as soon as I see her, then she +won't think him so delightful." + +Madge put her arm inside Phil's. "You had better not mention it to Mrs. +Curtis, Phil. Mrs. Curtis is the dearest person in the world, but she is +so lovely and so rich that she is used always to having her own way. She +thinks that we girls are prejudiced against this Mr. Holt because he said +the things he did about Tania. By the way, I wonder what the little witch +has against him? I mean to ask her some day. But let's not trouble about +Philip Holt any more. He is just a toady. I don't care what he says or +does. We have done our duty by him for this afternoon at least. He won't +join us again. Let's go over to that lovely hill and have a good, +old-fashioned talk." + +Phil's face cleared. After all, she and Madge could get along much, +better without troublesome outsiders. + +"Isn't it a wonderful afternoon, Phil?" asked the little captain after +they had climbed the little hill and were seated on a grassy knoll. "We +can see the ocean over there! Wouldn't you like to be swimming down there +under the water, where it is so cool and lovely and there would be +nothing to trouble one?" + +"What a water-baby you are," smiled Phil, giving her chum's arm a soft +pressure. "I sometimes think that you must have come out of a sea-shell. +I suppose you are thinking of the old pearl diver again." + +"Phil," demanded Madge abruptly, "have you ever thought of what +profession you would have liked to follow if you had been born a boy +instead of a girl?" + +"I do not have to think to answer that," replied Phyllis, "I know. If I +were a boy, I should study to become a physician, like my father; but +even though I am a girl, I am going to study medicine just the same. As +soon as we get through college I shall begin my course." + +"Phil," Madge's voice sounded unusually serious, "don't set your heart +too much, dear, on my going to college with you in the fall. I don't know +it positively, but I think that Uncle is having some business trouble. He +and Aunt have been worried for the past year about some stocks they own. +I shan't feel that I have any right to let them send me to college unless +I can make up my mind that I shall be willing to teach to earn my living +afterward. And I can't teach, Phil, dear. I should never make a +successful teacher," ended Madge with a sigh. + +"I can't imagine you as a teacher," smiled Phil, "but I am sure that you +will marry before you are many years older." + +"Marry!" protested Madge indignantly. "Why do you think I shall marry? +Why, I was wishing this very minute that I were a man so that I could set +out on a voyage of discovery and sail around the world in a little ship +of my own. Or, think, one might be a pearl-diver, or lead some exciting +life like that. Now, Phil Alden, don't you go and arrange for me just to +marry and keep house and never have a bit of fun or any excitement in my +whole life!" + +Phyllis laughed teasingly. "Oh, you will have plenty of excitement, Madge +dear, wherever you are or whatever you do. Don't you remember how Miss +Betsey used to say that she knew something was going to happen whenever +you were about? I suppose you would like to be a captain in the Navy like +your father, so that you could spend all your time on the sea." + +"No," returned Madge, "I should want a ship of my own. I wouldn't like to +be a captain in the Navy. There, you always have to do just what you are +told to do, and you know, Phil, that obedience is not my strong point." +The little captain laughed and shook her russet head. "You see, Phil, I +think that if I could go around the world, perhaps in some far-away land +I would find my father waiting for me." + +For several minutes the two chums were silent. At last Phil leaned +forward and gave Madge's arm a gentle pinch. "Wake up, dear," she +laughed, "perhaps some day you will own that little ship and go around +the world in it. Just now, however, we had better go on to the houseboat. +I believe Nellie and Lillian are going to wait at the golf club until the +last mail comes in, so they can bring our letters along home with them. +We must say good-bye to that nice Ethel Swann. She is a dear, in spite of +her ill-bred friends." + +Phyllis and Madge found Miss Jenny Ann sitting in a steamer chair on the +houseboat deck exchanging fairy stories with Tania. The little girl knew +almost as many as did her chaperon, but Tania's stories were so full of +her own odd fancies that it was hard to tell from what source they had +come. + +"Do you know the story of 'The Little Tin Soldier,' Tania?" Miss Jenny +Ann had just asked. "He was the bravest little soldier in the world, +because he bore all kinds of misfortunes and never complained." + +With a whirl Tania was out of Miss Jenny Ann's lap and into Madge's arms. +The child was devoted to each member of the houseboat party, but she was +Madge's ardent adorer. She liked to play that she was the little +captain's Fairy Godmother, and that she could grant any wish that Madge +might make. + +Phil, Madge and Tania sat down at Miss Jenny Ann's feet to hear more +about "The Brave Little Tin Soldier." Tania huddled close to Madge, her +black head resting against the older girl's curls, as she listened to the +harrowing adventures that befell the Tin Soldier. + +The sun was sinking. Away over the water the world seemed rose colored, +but the shadows were deepening on the land. Phil espied Lillian and +Eleanor coming toward the houseboat. Lillian waved a handful of white +envelopes, but Eleanor walked more slowly and did not glance up toward +her friends. + +Miss Jenny Ann rose hurriedly. "I must go in to see to our dinner," she +announced. "Phil, after you have spoken to the girls, will you come in to +help me? Madge may stay to look after Tania." + +The little captain was absorbed in a quiet twilight dream, and as Tania +was in her lap she did not get up when Phil went forward to meet Lillian +and Eleanor. + +Instantly Phil realized that something was the matter with Nellie. +Eleanor's face was white and drawn and there were tears in her gentle, +brown eyes. Lillian also looked worried and sympathetic, but was +evidently trying to appear cheerful. + +"What is the matter, Eleanor? Has any one hurt your feelings?" asked Phil +immediately. Eleanor was the youngest of the girls and always the one to +be protected. Phyllis guessed that perhaps some one of the unpleasant +acquaintances of Roy Dennis and Mabel Farrar might have been unkind to +her. + +But Eleanor shook her head dumbly. + +"Nellie has had some bad news from home," answered Lillian, tenderly +putting her arm about Eleanor. "Perhaps it isn't so bad as she thinks." + +Madge overheard Lillian's speech and, lifting Tania from her lap, sprang +to her feet. + +"Nellie, darling, what is it? Tell me at once!" she demanded. "If Uncle +and Aunt are ill, we must go to them at once." + +"It isn't so bad as that, Madge," answered Eleanor, finding her voice; +"only Mother has written to tell us that Father has lost a great deal of +money. He has had to mortgage dear old 'Forest House,' and if he doesn't +get a lot more money by fall, 'Forest House' will have to be sold." + +Nellie broke down. The thought of having to give up her dear old Virginia +home, that had been in their family for five generations, was more than +she could bear. + +Madge kissed Eleanor gently. In the face of great difficulties Madge was +not the harum-scarum person she seemed. "Don't worry too much, Nellie," +she urged. "If Uncle and Aunt are well, then the loss of the money isn't +so dreadful. Somehow, I don't believe we shall have to give up 'Forest +House.' It would be too frightful! Perhaps Uncle will find the money in +time to save it, or we shall get it in some way. I am nearly grown now. I +ought to be able to help. Anyhow, I don't mean to be an expense to Uncle +and Aunt any more after this summer." Madge's face clouded, although she +tried to conceal her dismay. "Do Uncle and Aunt want us to leave the +houseboat and come home at once?" + +Phil's and Lillian's faces were as long and as gloomy as their other +chums' at this suggestion. + +But Eleanor shook her head firmly. "No; Father says positively that he +does not wish us to leave the houseboat until our holiday is over. It is +not costing us very much and he wishes us to have a good time this +summer, so that we can bear whatever happens next winter." + +No one had noticed little Tania while the houseboat girls were talking. +Her eyes were bigger and blacker than ever, and as Madge turned to go +into the cabin she saw that there were tears in them. + +"What is it, Tania?" putting her arms about the quaint child. + +"Did you say that you didn't have all the money you wanted?" inquired +Tania anxiously. "I didn't know that people like you ever needed money. I +thought that all poor people lived in slums and took in washing like old +Sal." + +Madge laughed. "I don't suppose the people in the tenements are as poor +as we are sometimes, Tania, because they don't need so many things. But +don't worry your head about me, little Fairy Godmother. I am sure that +you will bring me good luck." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE + + +"Madge, I am afraid that you and the girls are not having as good a time +at Cape May as I had hoped you would have," remarked Mrs. Curtis to the +little captain about a week later as they strolled along the beautiful +ocean boulevard that overlooked the sea. Only the day before Mrs. Curtis +and Tom had returned from Chicago. Just behind them, Lillian, Miss Jenny +Ann, Phyllis, Tom Curtis and Mrs. Curtis's protege, Philip Holt, loitered +along the beach. They were too far away to overhear the conversation of +the two women. + +"On the contrary, we are having a perfectly beautiful time," answered +Madge, her face radiant with the pleasure of her surroundings. "I think +Cape May is one of the loveliest places in the whole world! And we girls +have met the most splendid old sea captain. He has the dearest, snuggest +little house up the bay! He was once a deep-sea diver and knows the most +fascinating stories about the treasures of the sea." Madge ceased +speaking. She could tell from her friend's slightly bored expression that +Mrs. Curtis was not interested in the story of a common sailor. + +"Yes, Madge, I know about all that," Mrs. Curtis returned a little +coldly. "What I meant is that I fear you girls are not enjoying the +social life of Cape May, which is what I looked forward to for you. I do +wish, dear, that you cared more for society and less for such people as +this old sailor and a tenement child like Tania. I doubt if this man is a +fit associate for you." + +Madge's blue eyes darkened. She thought of the splendid old sailor, with +his great strength and gentle manners, his knowledge of the world and his +fine simplicity, and of queer, loving little Tania, but she wisely held +her peace. "I am sorry, too, that I don't like society more if you wish +it," she replied sweetly. "I do like the society of clever, agreeable +people, but not--I like Ethel Swann and her friends immensely," she +ended. "And, please, don't say anything against my old pearl diver, Mrs. +Curtis, until you see him. I am sure that you and Tom will think that he +is splendid." + +Mrs. Curtis looked searchingly at Madge, and Madge returned her gaze +without lowering her eyes. Mrs. Curtis's face softened. She found it hard +to scold her favorite, but she had been very much vexed at the story that +Philip Holt had repeated to her of Madge's escapades at Cape May, and how +she accused Roy Dennis of cowardice when he had taken her and her friends +on his boat after Madge's and Phil's own heedlessness had caused their +skiff to be overturned. Somehow, the tale of the throwing of the ball on +board Roy Dennis's yacht and of frightening Mabel Farrar had also gone +abroad in Cape May. Lillian had confided the anecdote to Ethel Swann +under promise of the greatest secrecy. The story had seemed to Ethel too +ridiculous to keep to herself, so she had repeated it to another friend, +after demanding the same promise that Lillian had exacted from her. And +so the story had traveled and grown until it was a very mischievous tale +that Philip Holt had recounted to Mrs. Curtis, taking care that Tom +Curtis was not about when he told it. + +Mrs. Curtis thought Madge too old for such practical jokes. She also +believed that Madge should have more dignity and self-control. She loved +her very dearly, and she wished her to come to live with her as her +daughter after her own, daughter, Madeleine, had married, but Mrs. Curtis +was determined that the little captain should learn to be less impetuous +and more conventional. + +"Philip Holt has told you something about me, hasn't he, Mrs. Curtis?" +asked Madge meekly, hiding the flash in her eyes by lowering her lids. + +"Philip told me very little. He is the soul of honor," answered Mrs. +Curtis quickly. "You are absurdly prejudiced against him. But with the +little that he told me and what I have gathered from other sources, I +feel that you have been most indiscreet. I can't help thinking that the +various things that have happened may be laid at your door, and that the +other girls have just stood by you, as they always do." + +Madge bit her lips. "Whatever has occurred that you don't like is my +fault, Mrs. Curtis," she confessed, "and Phil, Lillian and Nellie _have_ +stood by me. I am sorry that you are angry." + +The other young people were coming closer. Not for worlds would Madge +have had them overhear her conversation with Mrs. Curtis. She was too +proud and too hurt to ask Mrs. Curtis just what Philip Holt had said +against her. Neither would she retaliate against him by telling her +friend of his rudeness. + +Mrs. Curtis put one arm about Madge. "It is all right, my dear," she +said, softening a little, "but you must promise me that you will not do +such harum-scarum things again, and that you will try to keep your +temper." Mrs. Curtis was on the point of asking Madge to give up her +acquaintance with the sailor and not to see the man again, but she knew +that her young friend was feeling a little hurt and no doubt resentful +toward her, so she put off making her request until a later time. + +"Tania has behaved very well, so far, hasn't she, Madge?" Mrs. Curtis +tactfully changed the subject. "I confess I am surprised. Philip Holt +assured me that the child was continually in mischief in the tenement +neighborhood where she lives. When he took her into the neighborhood +house to try to help her she positively stole something. I am afraid +Tania's mother was not the woman you think she was; she was only a cheap +little actress, a dancer." Mrs. Curtis glanced at her companion. Madge +was eyeing her seriously. + +"It isn't like you, Mrs. Curtis, dear, to say things against people. +Philip Holt must have----" Madge stopped abruptly. At the same time Tom +Curtis came up from behind to join his mother and the girl. + +"Come on, Madge, and have a race with me across the sands," he urged. +"Mother will be trying to make you so grown-up that we can't have any +sport at all. Besides, you are looking pale. I am sure you need exercise. +There is a crowd over there in front of the music pavilion. I will wager +a five-pound box of candy that I can beat you to it. Philip Holt will +entertain Mother. She likes him better than she does the rest of us, +anyhow, because he devotes his time to good works and to working good +people," added Tom teasingly, under his breath. + +While Tom was talking Madge darted off across the sands. She never would +get over her love of running, she felt sure, until she was old and +rheumatic. The color came back to her cheeks and the laughter to her +eyes. + +Tom was close behind her. "Madge Morton, you didn't give me a fair +start," he protested, "you rushed away before I was ready. I thought you +always played fair?" + +Madge dropped into a walk. "I do try to, Tom," she answered more +earnestly than Tom had expected. His remark had been made only in fun. +"You believe in me, don't you, Tom?" she added pleadingly. + +"Now and forever, Madge, through thick and thin," answered Tom steadily. + +They had now come up nearer the crowd of people on the beach. Up on a +grand stand a band was playing an Italian waltz, and an eager crowd had +gathered, apparently to listen to the music. + +But the two young people soon saw that on the hard sand a child was +dancing. Tom stopped outside the circle of watchers, but Madge went +forward into it. She had at once recognized little Tania! Eleanor had +been left on the houseboat to take care of the child, but Eleanor was now +nowhere to be seen, and her charge had wandered into mischief. + +Tania was dancing in her most bewitching and wonderful fashion. Madge +could not help feeling a little embarrassed pride in her. The child was +moving like a flower swayed by the wind. She poised first on one foot, +then on the other, then flitted forward on both pointed toes, her thin, +eager arms outstretched, curving and bending with the rhythm of the +music. She wore her best white dress, the pride of her life, which +Eleanor had lately made for her. On her head she had placed a wreath of +wild flowers, which she must have woven for herself. They were like a +fairy crown on her dark head. With the love of bright colors, which she +must have inherited from some Italian ancestor, she had twisted a bright +scarlet sash about her waist. + +Again Madge saw that Tania was utterly unconscious of the audience about +her. She looked neither to the right nor to the left, but straight upward +to the turquoise-blue sky. + +How different Tania's audience to-day from the crowd of people that had +watched her on the street corner when Eleanor and Madge had first seen +her! Yet these gay society folk were even more fascinated by the child's +wonderful art. They could better appreciate her remarkable dancing. + +Tania did not even see her beloved Madge, who was silently watching her. +Tania's usually pale cheeks glowed as scarlet as her sash. Unconsciously +the little girl's movements were like those of a butterfly, a-flutter +with the joy of the sunshine and new life. + +The music stopped suddenly and with it Tania's dance ceased as abruptly. +She stood poised for a single instant on one dainty foot, with her +graceful arms still swaying above her flower-crowned head. Her audience +watched her breathlessly, for the effect of the child's grace had been +almost magical. + +"Wasn't that a wonderful performance?" whispered Tom in Madge's ear. "The +child is an artist! Where do you suppose she learned to dance like +that?" + +But Tania had come back to earth in a brief second. To Madge's +mystification, Tania started about among the people who had been watching +her performance with her small hands clasped together like a cup. + +The child courtesied shyly to a fat old lady. Her gesture was +unmistakable. The woman rummaged in her chain pocket-book and dropped a +silver quarter into Tania's outstretched hands. The next onlooker was +more generous. Tania's eyes shone as she felt the size and weight of a +big silver dollar. + +Few people in the Cape May crowd knew who Tania was, or whence she had +come. They probably thought that the object of the dance had been to earn +money. + +For a few moments Madge had been paralyzed by Tania's peculiar actions. +She did not realize what they meant. In this lapse of time the rest of +their party joined them. + +It was the expression on Mrs. Curtis's face that made Madge appreciate +what Tania was doing. + +"What on earth is Tania about?" exclaimed Lillian in puzzled tones. She +saw the child standing before a young man who was evidently teasing her +and refusing her request for money. + +"She has been dancing like a monkey with a hand organ," answered Philip +Holt scornfully. "I am afraid Cape May people will hardly understand it. +It looks as though the young women on the 'Merry Maid' were in need of +money." The young man laughed as though his last remark had been intended +for a joke. + +"None of that talk, Holt." Madge caught Tom's angry tone as she hurried +forward to Tania. The little captain could have cried with mortification +and embarrassment. In the crowd of curious onlookers she caught sight of +Mabel Farrar's and Roy Dennis's sneering faces. + +"Tania!" she cried sharply. "What in the world are you doing? Stop taking +that money at once!" + +Tania glanced around and discovered Madge. Instead of looking ashamed of +herself, the child's face grew radiant. "Madge," she cried, in a high +voice that could be heard all about them, "it is all for you!" + +Tania rushed forward with her outstretched hands overflowing with +silver. + +Madge could have sunk through the sands for shame. Mrs. Curtis's face +flamed with anger and chagrin. She might have been able to explain to her +friends that Tania was only a street child and knew no better than to +dance for money; but how could she ever explain the remark to Madge? It +looked as though Madge had been a party to Tania's dancing and begging. + +Madge was overcome with embarrassment and humiliation. She knew that she +must, for the minute, appear like a beggar to the crowd of Cape May +people. For just that instant she would have liked to repulse Tania, to +have thrust the child and her money away from her before every one. But a +glance at Tania's eager, happy face restrained her. She put her arm +protectingly about the little girl, hiding her in the shelter of her +body. "I don't want the money, Tania," she whispered. "It wasn't right +for you to have taken it from these people." + +"Don't you want it?" faltered Tania. "I thought you said last night that +you and Eleanor were very poor, and that you needed some money very much. +All the time I was in bed last night I thought of what your Fairy +Godmother could do to help you. I know how to do but one thing--to dance +as my mother taught me. How can it be wrong to take the money from +people? I have often done it in New York. They only gave it to me because +they liked my dancing." Madge could feel Tania's hot tears on her hands. + +She clasped Tania closer. "It isn't exactly wrong, Tania; I was mistaken. +It was just different. I will have to explain it to you afterward. Now we +must give the money back to the people again." + +Holding tight to Tania's hand, Madge walked among the group of strangers, +explaining Tania's actions as best she could without hurting the little +girl's feelings. It was one of the hardest things that the proud little +captain had ever been called upon to do. But a part of the crowd had +scattered. It was not possible to find them all and return their silver. +Tania was too puzzled and heart-broken to continue her errand long. She +did not understand why Madge had refused to take her gift, which she +thought she had fairly earned. Finally she could hold back her sobs no +longer. Dropping her few remaining nickels and dimes on the sand she +broke away from Madge's clasp and ran like a little wild creature away +from everyone. + +Madge stopped for just a second among her friends before following +Tania. + +"You see, Madge," remarked Mrs. Curtis coldly, "Tania is quite +impossible. I knew the child would get you into difficulties, and it is +just as I feared. She must be sent away at once." + +But Madge shook her head with a decision that was unmistakable. + +"No," she answered quietly, "Tania shall not be sent away. None of you +understand, and I can't explain it to you now, but Tania thought she was +doing something for Nellie and me. She was foolish, of course, and I will +see that she never does it again." + +With her head held high, Madge hurried away in pursuit of her Fairy +Godmother. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"THE ANCHORAGE" + + +Madge was alone in the "Water Witch," which had been mended and was as +good as new. She had just come from an interview with Mrs. Curtis, in +which she had tried to make her friend understand the reason for Tania's +behavior of the day before. Mrs. Curtis, however, would not take the +little captain's view of the matter. She dwelt on the fact that Tania had +slipped away from the houseboat without letting Eleanor know of it, and +that she was a naughty and disobedient child. + +Madge also believed that Mrs. Curtis no longer loved her so dearly as in +the early days of their acquaintance. The young girl was sure that some +influence was being brought to bear to prejudice her friend against her. +But what could she do? Philip Holt was trying to destroy the affection +Mrs. Curtis felt for Madge in order to ingratiate himself. It looked as +though he were going to succeed. Madge was too proud to ask questions or +to accuse Philip Holt with deliberately trying to influence her friend +against her. Although she was only a young girl, she realized that love +does not amount to very much in this world unless it has faith and +sympathy behind it. So long as she had done nothing she knew to be wrong, +and for which she should make an apology, she could only wait to see if +Mrs. Curtis's affection would be restored to her or cease altogether. + +As usual, when she was troubled, the impulse came to her to be alone on +the water. She had explained to Miss Jenny Ann that she might be gone for +several hours, so there was no immediate reason why she should return to +the houseboat. The other girls were yachting with some Cape May friends. + +Madge rowed her boat up the bay toward the home of the old sailor. She +was not far from the very place where Captain Jules had rescued Tania and +her a short while before. She thought of the strange-looking beam +sticking up out of the sandy bottom of the bay on which Tania's dress had +caught. It had certainly looked like the broken mast of an old ship. She +determined to ask Captain Jules if any wrecks had recently occurred near +that part of the bay, and concluded that she would row up to the sailor's +house for the express purpose of asking him this question. Of course, +this was only an excuse. She was deeply anxious to call on the old sailor +again and, if possible, persuade him to keep his promise to her to show +her his diving suit, and to tell her more of his strange experiences at +the bottom of the sea. + +Captain Jules was sitting in his favorite place on the big rock just by +the water in front of his house. He was mending the sail of his fishing +boat. + +Madge's boat came round a slight curve in the bay, dancing toward him. +This time Captain Jules spied his guest and saluted her as he would have +greeted a superior officer. + +The little captain blushed prettily as she returned his salute in her +best naval fashion. + +The old captain looked hurriedly toward his small house. There was no +sight or sound of any one about. He seemed uncomfortable for a moment, +then his face cleared. His deep blue eyes gleamed and his mouth set +squarely. "Coming ashore to make me a call, Miss Madge?" he asked +invitingly. + +Madge nodded. "If I shan't be in your way. You must let me just sit there +on the rock by you. I have been reading a perfectly thrilling book about +pearl-divers," she announced as soon as she was comfortably settled, "but +none of the stories were as thrilling as the ones you told us. The book +said that pearls had been found in New Jersey. I wonder if you have ever +thought of diving down to the bottom of this bay to see if it holds any +treasures?" + +The sailor was studying the girl's face so earnestly that he forgot to +answer her. + +"Oh, yes, I have thought of it," he replied a little later, smiling at +his guest. "A man never wholly forgets his trade. But what a taste you +have for sea yarns, little lady! I half-way think, now, that if you had +not been born a girl you might have followed the sea for your calling." + +"I should have loved it best of anything in the world," answered Madge +fervently, gazing at the beautiful expanse of sunny, blue water. "I never +feel as much at home anywhere as I do on the sea. You see," she continued +confidingly, "I have a reason for loving the water. My father was a +sailor. He was a captain in the United States Navy once." + +"'A captain in the United States Navy,'" Captain Jules repeated huskily. +"I thought so. I thought so." + +"Why?" asked Madge wonderingly. + +Captain Jules pulled his needle slowly through a heavy piece of sail +cloth. It must have stuck, he was so long about it, and his big hands +fumbled it so clumsily. + +"Oh, because of your liking for the water, Miss Madge," he returned +quietly. "You see, there are two great loves born in the hearts of men +and women that you never can get away from. The one is the love of the +soil and the other is the love of the sea. No matter what your life is, +if you have those two passions in you, you've got to get back to the +country or to the water when your chance comes. But why do you say that +your father was once a captain in the United States Navy? Is he dead?" + +"I am afraid so," replied Madge faintly. Of late she was beginning to +believe that her uncle and aunt, Mrs. Curtis and all her older friends +were right. If her father were not dead in all these long years, surely +he would have tried to find her. He would have sought to discover some +news of the daughter whom he had left when she was only a baby. + +Captain Jules seemed about to say something, then, changed his mind. He +shook his great, shaggy, gray head and looked at Madge tenderly. "Is your +mother living?" he inquired. + +"No, she died soon after my father went away to join his ship on his last +voyage," Madge went on sadly, her eyes filling with tears. She was half +tempted to tell the old sailor her father's story, then decided to +reserve it until some future day when she felt that she knew him better. +In spite of her liking for the old sea captain, she realized that she had +hardly known him long enough to make him her confidant. + +Captain Jules continued to sew. He opened his mouth, to speak once or +twice and then closed it again. Finally he asked Madge huskily, "What was +your father's name, child?" + +"Captain Robert Morton," replied Madge slowly. "He was from Virginia. If +I knew him to be alive, I'd be the happiest girl in the world." + +Captain Jules cast a peculiar glance in her direction which Madge did not +see. + +"My dear little mate," he said slowly, "some day a young man will come +along who will be far more to you than any old father could have been. +But what made your father go away? If he was a captain in the Navy, what +made him resign his command?" + +"I can't tell you that to-day, Captain Jules. Perhaps I'll tell you some +day when I know you better; in fact, I am sure I shall tell you. Perhaps +when I do tell you I shall ask you to do me a great favor. Perhaps I +shall ask you to help me hunt for him. I'll tell you a secret. Uncle and +Aunt have been good to me and I love them dearly, but I want my own +father, and I can't, I won't, believe he is dead. That is, not until I +have absolute proof." + +"Little girl!" exclaimed Captain Jules in such a strange voice that Madge +was startled, "I promise you that I'll help you find him." Then in a +calmer tone of voice he said: "I told you that I would show you my +diver's suit. If you will wait on my porch I will go around inside the +house to see if I can find it." + +He rose hastily and disappeared into the house, leaving Madge to wonder +why the few words she had spoken concerning her father had affected the +old sea captain so strangely. + + + + +Chapter XIII + +TANIA'S NEMESIS + + +Captain Jules was gone a long time, but Madge did not mind waiting for +him. She loved the odd house with its roof shaped like three sails and +its restful name, "The Anchorage." + +When Captain Jules came back with the great suit his face was pale, +almost haggard, but he was smiling good-humoredly. "Come, stand over here +by this window while I show you my old togs. I haven't looked at this +diving suit myself for several years." + +Madge was too much interested in the diving dress to glance in at the +captain's window to see if she could catch a glimpse of the inside of the +snug little house that she had not yet been invited to enter. + +The diving suit was much lighter than she had expected to find it. It +weighed only about twenty pounds. It was made of water-proof material and +had a large helmet of copper with great circular glasses in front that +looked like goggle eyes. + +Captain Jules explained that there were two lines with which the diver +communicated with the outside world. The one was the air line, and it was +used to pump air down to the man below in the water. The life line was +usually hitched around the diver's waist. This line was let out to any +depth the diver required, and by pulling on it the diver could signal to +the men who followed his course: one jerk, pull up; two, more air; three, +lower the bag. Madge was utterly fascinated with the netted bag, made of +rope, that Captain Jules showed her. He told her that the pearl-diver +always carried a bag to hold the treasures that he finds at the bottom of +the sea. To her vivid imagination, the empty bag was even now filled with +shining pearls, the rarest treasures of the sea. + +The young girl persuaded Captain Jules to let her dress up in his diver's +suit, when she stumbled about the veranda in it, her gay laughter +mingling with the captain's deep chuckles of delight. + +"O Captain Jules!" she pleaded, "do take me down to the bottom of the sea +with you. I have always wanted to be a mermaid, and this may be the only +chance I shall ever have. 'Only divers know of things below, of water's +green and fishes' sheen,'" she chanted gayly. + +The old sea captain gazed at Madge, breathing a deep sigh of +satisfaction. "I believe you have the courage to do it if I were to let +you try," he murmured. "It comes nearer to convincing me than anything +else." + +"Captain Jules," continued the girl earnestly, "please, please let's go +down to the bottom of this bay. You could take me with you and then there +wouldn't be any danger. We have been down together without diving suits +and here we are safe and sound on land again! You said you thought there +might be pearls in the oyster beds of this bay. We could look, at any +rate. I saw the most wonderful things when I was searching for Tania. It +seemed as though her dress was caught on the broken spar of an old ship, +though, of course, I couldn't be sure. Have there been many wrecks in +this bay? Do you suppose it was a ship's spar?" + +"There are always wrecks on the water, child. And you mustn't be talking +nonsense about diving down in this bay along with me," answered Captain +Jules severely. He kept his eyes fastened on his diving suit with an +affectionate gleam in them. "Maybe, though, I will make a diving party of +one and go down in the bay alone. I'd give you the pearls I found down +there." + +Madge shook her head. "That wouldn't be fair," she said, setting her red +lips together obstinately. Captain Jules, she felt sure, would be easy to +manage. If he did any diving in the Delaware Bay within the next few +weeks, he must take her with him. + +She wrote secretly to New York City to ask what a diver's suit would +cost. She was discouraged by the answer, but she did not give up hope. +She was also very careful not to let Miss Jenny Ann or Mrs. Curtis know +anything of the wild scheme that was evolving in her head. + +Almost every day the girls saw Captain Jules. Either they went up the bay +to call on him, or he made a visit to the houseboat. + +The old captain never invited the girls inside his house, but they had +great frolics in his tidy yard. The captain explained that his house was +not neat enough to be seen by young ladies, as it had only a man +housekeeper. + +Even Mrs. Curtis became a little less prejudiced against Captain Jules. +She could not but confess that he was a fine old man, though she still +did not see why Madge was so much attracted by him. But the girl bided +her time. The four girls and their friends went off on long fishing trips +with Captain Jules. Sometimes Mrs. Curtis, Tom, and their guest, Philip +Holt, went with them. The enmity between Madge and Philip increased every +day, nor did Madge any longer make much effort to conceal her dislike for +him. + +Philip Holt had a special reason for his dislike for Madge Morton. He had +come to Cape May with the idea of making Mrs. Curtis do an important +favor for him upon which his whole future depended. He feared that Madge, +who looked upon him as a hypocrite, would find out his true character, +tell her friend, and thus ruin his prospects. + +A singular misfortune had befallen him. Who could have guessed that one +of the few people who knew his real history, Tania, the little street +child, would be picked up by the houseboat girls and brought to Cape May +for the summer? Tania must not be allowed to betray him. If she did, Mrs. +Curtis must not believe either Madge or Tania. The young man had to lay +his plans carefully, but he was a born hypocrite and he meant to +accomplish his end. + +His first opportunity to further his cause came one morning when he and +Mrs. Curtis were sitting on the veranda of her summer cottage. Tom had +gone out sailing and was not expected back for several hours, so that +Philip believed that the coast was clear. He began by telling Mrs. Curtis +something of the charity work that he had recently done in New York City +and so brought the subject about to Tania. + +"Dear Mrs. Curtis, you are so generous," the young man said admiringly. +"I have just learned that after the summer holiday is over you intend to +send Miss Morton's protege, Tania, to a boarding school. It is so kind in +you." + +Mrs. Curtis shook her head. "Oh, no," she answered, "it is very little to +do. Really, I don't see what else could be done with the child. She is +very queer and not attractive to me, but Madge is fond of her and, as I +am very fond of Madge, I shall do what is best for the little girl." + +"Ah," murmured Philip Holt vaguely, "but do you feel sure that a boarding +school is the best place for the girl? She is so unruly, so untruthful! I +fear that she would give you a great deal of trouble and responsibility +unless she were placed under greater restraint. I have wondered for some +time what should be done for the child. She has caused a lot of mischief +among the children on the street in her tenement section. It seems to me +that she ought to be sent to some kind of an institution where she would +be more closely watched--an asylum or home for incorrigible children." + +Mrs. Curtis looked worried and bit her lips. "That is rather hard on the +child, isn't it? Still, I could not undertake to be responsible for +Tania's good behavior at school. She seems very hard to control. I will +watch her more closely, and, if she shows more signs of untruthfulness, I +shall have to consider your suggestion. However, I will talk the matter +over with Madge. I wish you would walk down to the houseboat for me and +invite the girls to come up to the hotel for luncheon. I hope they are +not off somewhere with Captain Jules. He seems to claim the greater share +of their attention lately." + +Philip Holt walked off, very well pleased with his interview. He had +conveyed to Mrs. Curtis precisely the impression he had intended to +convey. + +Ever since his arrival at Cape May Philip Holt had wished to see little +Tania alone. He had warned the child that she was not to behave as though +she had ever seen him before, yet he was still afraid that she might make +a confidante of Madge. He needed to make his threat to her more +terrifying. He decided to find her and intimidate her so thoroughly that +she would not dare betray her previous acquaintance with him. + +There was but one person in the world of whom the queer, elf-like Tania +was afraid. That person was Philip Holt! She had feared him since the day +of her own mother's death, and the very thought of him was enough to fill +her childish soul with terror. + +Tania was playing alone on the sands near that houseboat at the time Mrs. +Curtis and Philip Holt were discussing her future. Madge and Miss Jenny +Ann were inside the houseboat, within calling distance of Tania, but not +where they could see her. The little girl had just built a house of +shining pebbles and was gazing at it with a pleased smile when she heard +a step near her on the sand. Tania stared up at Philip's thin, blonde +face in terror-stricken silence. + +"Tania," the young man asked harshly, "have you told any one down here +that you have ever seen or known me before?" + +Tania shook her head mutely. + +"Remember, if you do, I am going to have you shut up in a big house with +iron bars at the windows where you can never go out or see your friends +any more," Philip Holt went on, keeping his voice lowered to a whisper. + +Slowly Tania's black eyes dropped. She tried to be brave and to pretend +that she did not care, but the loss of her freedom was the one thing that +Tania feared with all her soul. If she were shut up somewhere, how could +she ever talk to her fairies, or see the blue sky that she so loved? And +now, to be parted from the girls forever was too dreadful! Indeed, she +would not dare to tell what she knew. Philip Holt was sure of it. + +It was at that moment that Madge slipped out on the houseboat deck to see +if Tania were all right. To her surprise she saw that Philip Holt was +talking to the little girl. She had not thought that Philip Holt cared +enough for children to waste a minute's time with them. She therefore +wondered at his sudden interest in Tania. Madge walked quietly off the +houseboat. She was wearing tennis shoes and her softly-shod feet made no +sound. She caught one glimpse of Tania's mute, white face and stopped +short in time to hear Philip say: + +"Even if you do tell that old Sal is my mother, Tania, no one will +believe you. She herself will deny it and help me to have you shut up," +declared Philip Holt menacingly. + +Madge caught each word as though it had been addressed to her. For +Tania's sake, and because she knew that for many reasons it was wiser, +she held her peace for the time being. + +"How do you do, Mr. Holt?" she asked innocently. "I just saw you from the +deck of the houseboat." + +Philip Holt leaped to his feet. But Madge's eyes were so clear and +serene, her face so calm, that it was utterly impossible she could have +overheard him. + +Philip delivered Mrs. Curtis's message and then left the two girls +together. Madge dropped down on the sands by Tania and put her arm about +her. "You need never tell me who Mr. Holt is, nor why you are afraid of +him, Tania," she whispered; "I overheard what he said, and you need not +be afraid. I will take care of you!" + +"He is the Wicked Genii," faltered Tania, "who hated the Princess and +wanted to drive her away from her kingdom in Fairyland." + +"But he can't harm you, Tania, dear," comforted Madge. "He dare not try +to take you away from us. I am going to tell Mrs. Curtis all about this +Wicked Genii and if I'm not mistaken it will be he, not you who is sent +away." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CAPTAIN JULES MAKES A PROMISE + + +Little by little Madge was able to put together the whole story of Philip +Holt's life. He was old Sal's son, and "Holt" was not his own name, but +he rarely came near his mother, never gave her any help, and denied his +relationship with her whenever it was necessary. When Philip Murphy was a +small boy, he had been taken into the home of a wealthy family named +Holt, but he had never been legally adopted as their child. He was raised +in luxury and had made a great many wealthy friends, and he had learned +to love money more than anything else in the world. But his rich patrons +would not allow him entirely to desert his own mother. Twice every month +he was made to go to see old Sal Murphy in her tenement home on the East +Side. Philip Holt, who now went by the name of his foster parents, fairly +loathed these visits. It was because of his hatred of them that he began +to take his spite out on Tania when he was a lad of about fifteen, and +poor Tania a baby of only six years old. + +Tania's mother had died in the same tenement where old Sal lived. There +had been no one who wanted the little girl, so old Sal had taken her, +beaten and starved her, and made her useful in any way that she could. + +When Philip Holt had grown to manhood his foster parents lost most of +their money. A little later they died, leaving their foster son nothing. +The young man had been used to luxury and rich friends, and he could not +give them up, therefore he told his wealthy friends that because he had +once been a poor boy he meant to devote his life to charity. He proposed +to work among the New York poor and asked their cooperation. Large sums +of money were given him to be used for charity, but Philip Holt believed +too strongly in the theory that charity begins at home. Whenever it was +possible he used a part of this money for himself. To make more, he began +speculating in Wall Street. He lost two thousand, then five thousand +dollars of the money that had been entrusted to him. For almost a year he +had been the treasurer of a New York charitable organization, and the +time was near at hand when he must give a report of the money that he had +misused. He knew that disgrace, imprisonment, stared him in the face +unless he could persuade Mrs. Curtis to advance him five thousand dollars +for some charitable purpose, or give it to him for himself. He, +therefore, did not intend to be balked in his plan by either Madge or +Tania, no matter what desperate measures he had to employ. + +So there were two persons at Cape May who came to believe that they stood +in dire need of money. Yet they wished it for very different reasons: +Philip Holt wanted money to save himself from disgrace; Madge desired it +to help her uncle and aunt save their old home, "Forest House," to send +Eleanor back to graduate at Miss Tolliver's in the fall, to start on her +search for her father, and, last of all, to take care of Tania. + +For Madge had managed the little waif's affairs most undiplomatically. +When she discovered the threat that Philip held over Tania if she told +his secret, the little captain went to Mrs. Curtis with the story. She +did not wish her friend to be deceived by the young man, so she confided +to Mrs. Curtis that Philip Holt, who was supposedly the son of some old +friends, was really the child of old Sal of the tenements. Mrs. Curtis +thought that Madge must be mistaken. She wrote to old Sal to ask her if +it were true. The Irish woman was devoted to her son. She would have done +anything in the world not to disgrace him. She answered Mrs. Curtis's +letter by declaring that Philip Holt was no relative of hers, but a young +man whom she knew because of his kindness to the poor. Mrs. Curtis was +indignant. She insisted that Tania had told Madge a falsehood, and that +Philip Holt was right in his opinion of Tania. It would not be well to +send the child to a school; she should be put in some kind of an +institution. This, however, Madge was determined should never happen. She +had no money of her own, nor did she know where she was to obtain the +means, but she made up her mind to find some way to provide for her +quaint little Fairy Godmother. + +The morning after Madge's disquieting talk with Mrs. Curtis the four +girls and Tania wandered up the bay to spend the morning in the woods +near the water. Phyllis carried a book that she meant to read aloud, +Madge a box of luncheon, and Eleanor and Lillian their sewing. Tania +skipped along with her hand in Madge's. John had promised to join them +later in the day if he returned in time from his trip on the water. + +The girls settled themselves under some trees whence they could command a +view of the land and the bay. Madge lay down in the soft grass and rested +her head in her hands. She meant to listen to Phil's reading, not to +puzzle over her own worries. Phil's book gave a thrilling account of the +early days in the Delaware Bay, when it was the favorite cruising place +for pirates. It was rather hard to believe, when the girls gazed out on +the smooth, blue water, that it had once been the scene of so many fierce +adventures with pirates. Once a crew of seventy men, belonging to the +famous Captain Kidd, had actually sailed up the Delaware Bay and +frightened the people of Philadelphia. + +Madge had forgotten to listen. She could hear Phil's voice, but not her +words. The history of piracy, of course, was very thrilling, but Madge +did not see how any long-ago dead and buried pirates or their hidden +treasures could help her out of her present difficulties. She stood in +need of real riches. + +A sailboat dipped across the horizon and headed for the landing not far +from where the girls were sitting, but no one of them noticed it. + +"Look ahoy! look ahoy!" a friendly voice cried out from across the +water. + +Phyllis closed her book with a snap, Lillian and Eleanor dropped their +sewing, Tania ran to the water's edge, and Madge sat up. + +It was Captain Jules who had hailed them. + +"Well, my hearties, is this a summer camp?" demanded the old sailor as +his boat came near the land. "I have been all the way to the houseboat to +find you. I have something to show you." Captain Jules's broad face shone +with good humor. He was clad in his weather-beaten tarpaulins, and on his +shoulder perched the monkey. + +Madge covered the sides of her curly head with her hands. "Please don't +let the monkey pull my hair this morning," she pleaded as the captain +came up. + +He tossed the monkey over to Tania, who cuddled it affectionately in her +arms, and began talking softly to it. + +Then Captain Jules seated himself on the grass and the houseboat girls +gathered about him in a circle. He put one great hand in his pocket. +"I've some presents for you," he announced, trying to look very serious, +but smiling in spite of himself. + +"What are they?" asked Lillian eagerly. + +"That's telling," returned the captain. "You must guess." + +"Shells," said Tania quickly. + +Captain Jules shook his head. "You're warm, little girl," he replied, +"but you haven't guessed right yet." + +Lillian sighed. "I never could guess anything," she remarked sadly. +"Please do tell us what it is." + +The captain relented and drew out of his pocket a handful of what seemed +to be either oyster or mussel shells. + +"You've brought some oysters for our luncheon, haven't you?" guessed +Eleanor. "You must stay and eat them with us." + +Captain Jules chuckled. "Oysters are out of season, child, and these are +never good to eat." + +But Madge had clapped her hands together suddenly, her eyes shining. "You +have been down to the bottom of the bay, haven't you, Captain Jules? And +you've found some pearls!" + +Captain Jules shook his head. "I wouldn't call them pearls, exactly. +They're too little and too poor. But come, now; maybe they are seed +pearls. I went down under the water with the men who were looking over +the oyster beds yesterday. Pearl oysters are not found in beds, like the +edible oysters, so I wandered around on the bottom of the bay a bit and +picked up these." The captain extended his great hand. Five pairs of +eager eyes peered into it. There lay four nearly round, thick shells, +horny and rough with tiny little pearls embedded in them. + +"'Pearls are angel's tears'," quoted Phil softly. + +Captain Jules seemed worried. "I searched about everywhere in the bay, +but I could only find these four tiny pearls, and pretty lucky I was to +find them!" the sailor continued. "They aren't of much value, but I +wanted to give them to five girls, and that's just the difficulty." The +captain looked at the houseboat party, which now included Tania, as +though he did not know just what he should make up his mind to do. + +"Let's draw straws for them," suggested Eleanor sensibly. + +Madge shook her head. "No; Captain Jules is to give them to you and to +leave me out. Remember, some stranger gave me a handsome pearl when I +graduated. I have never had it mounted." Madge slipped her arm +confidingly through the old sea captain's and gazed into his face with +her most earnest expression. "Captain Jules is going to do something else +for me; he is going down to the bottom of the bay again in his diving +suit, and he is going to take me with him." + +"What a ridiculous idea!" protested Eleanor. "Just as though Captain +Jules would think of doing any such thing." + +Lillian laughed unbelievingly, but Phil's face was serious. "It would be +awfully jolly, wouldn't it? There wouldn't be any danger if Captain Jules +should take you. Do please take Madge down with you, and then take me," +she insisted coaxingly. + +Captain Jules shook his head, but the little captain observed that he did +not look half so shocked at the idea as he had the first time she +proposed it. This was encouraging. + +Phil took hold of one of the captain's hands, and Madge the other. + +"Please, please, _please_!" they pleaded in chorus. + +"Miss Jenny Ann wouldn't let you," objected Captain Jules faintly. + +"But if we were to get her permission," argued Madge triumphantly, "then +you would take us down to the bottom of the bay. I just knew you would, +you are so splendid! I shall send to New York to see if we can rent a +diving suit." + +"Never mind about that, I'll see about the suit," promised Captain Jules. +"But it's all nonsense, and I have never said that I would take you. I +wish I weren't a sailor. There is an old saying that a sailor can never +refuse anything to a woman." + +"Here comes Tom," announced Lillian hurriedly. + +"Then don't say anything to him about the diving," warned Madge. "He will +think it is perfectly dreadful for girls to attempt it." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE GREAT ADVENTURE + + +The news that old Captain Jules Fontaine, the retired pearl diver, whose +history was a mystery to most of the inhabitants at Cape May, was to take +Madge Morton down to the bottom of Delaware Bay with him spread through +the town and seaside resort like wildfire. It was in vain that the +houseboat party and Captain Jules tried to keep the affair a secret. +There were necessary arrangements to be made, men to be engaged to assist +in the diving operations; it was impossible to deny everything. + +At first the plan seemed to outsiders like mere midsummer madness. Then +the story began to grow. Cape May residents learned that Captain Jules +had found pearls in the bottom of the bay. No one would believe the +captain's statement that the pearls were of little value; gossip made the +tiny pearls grow larger and larger, until they were fit for an empress. + +Captain Jules was besieged at his little house up the bay, although, as +usual, he kept the door fastened against intruders. Half the fishermen +and oystermen in the vicinity begged to be permitted to accompany the old +sea diver in his descent into the water. Captain Jules politely explained +that he needed no companions; he was merely going on a diving expedition +to amuse two of his friends, Phyllis Alden and Madge Morton, who had a +taste for watery adventure. He did not expect to find anything of value +in the bottom of the bay. They were going down merely for sport. + +There was one person at Cape May who listened eagerly to any tale of the +fabulous riches that the old pearl diver was evidently expecting to +unearth. He was Philip Holt. The time of his visit at Cape May was +rapidly passing. Mrs. Curtis was exceedingly kind and interested in her +guest, but Philip did not feel that he dared approach her too abruptly +with the request for so large a sum of money as five thousand dollars. +Besides, Philip Holt knew that Tom Curtis disliked him heartily. Tom was +not likely to approve a man whom Madge mistrusted; nor would Mrs. Curtis +give away or lend five thousand dollars without first consulting her son. +So the marvelous tale of the pearls to be found in the Delaware Bay +rooted itself in Philip Holt's imagination. Here was another way to get +out of his scrape. He was not fond of adventure, but he would do anything +in the world for money. Perhaps he could find pearls enough not only to +pay his debt, but to make him rich forever afterward. + +Quietly, and without a word to any one, Philip Holt made a secret visit +to the house of the three sails. He implored Captain Jules to make him +his diving companion. He attempted to bribe him with sums of money that +he did not possess. He even threatened the old sailor that he would make +investigations about his life and expose any secrets that the captain +might wish to keep. Captain Jules only laughed at these threats. He was +not going down in the bay for treasures, he declared. He expected to find +absolutely nothing of any value. Positively he would not allow any one to +accompany him but the two girls. + +Madge and Phyllis had a hard fight to persuade Miss Jenny Ann to give her +consent to their plan for playing mermaid. But she was getting so +accustomed to the exciting adventures of her girls that, when Captain +Jules assured her there was really no special danger, so long as he kept +a close watch on the diver with him, she finally agreed to the scheme. +Captain Jules gave the two girls every kind of instruction in the art of +diving that he thought necessary, and the day of the great watery +adventure was set for the week ahead. + +On the morning of Tuesday, July 12th, Madge awoke at daybreak. She felt a +delicious, shivery thrill pass over her that was one part fear and the +other part rapture. + +"Phil," she whispered a few seconds later, when she heard her chum +stirring in the berth above her, "can you feel fins growing where your +feet are? Your flop in the bed sounded as though you were a real mermaid! +Just think, at ten o'clock sharp we are going down to explore a new +world! I wonder if there were ever any girl divers before? You are +awfully good to let me go down first." + +"No, I am not," answered Phil soberly. "If there is any danger, I am +letting you go down to it first. But I shall watch above the water, with +all my eyes, to see that everything goes right. The captain has explained +the whole business of diving to us so thoroughly that I believe I can +tell if anything is wrong with you below the surface. You'll be careful, +won't you, Madge? You know you are usually rather reckless. Don't stay +down too long." + +"Oh, Captain Jules won't let me be reckless this time. We are not going +down into very deep water, anyway, and a professional diver can stay +under several hours when the water is only about five fathoms deep." + +Madge and Phyllis ate a very light breakfast. Captain Jules had told them +that a diver must never go down into the water on a full stomach, as it +would make him too short-winded. While the two prospective divers were +eating poor Miss Jenny Ann was wondering what had ever induced her to +give her consent to so mad an enterprise as this diving. + +Every effort had been made to keep a crowd away from the pier from which +Captain Jules meant to send out the boats with the tenders, who were the +men to look after the safety of Madge and himself. + +As the girls came up, with Miss Jenny Ann, to join Captain Jules they saw +twenty or thirty people about. Mrs. Curtis and Tom, accompanied by Philip +Holt, had come down to the pier. Mrs. Curtis would hardly speak to Madge, +she was so angry at the risk she believed the little captain was running. +She and Madge had not been very friendly since they had disagreed so +utterly in Madge's report of the real character and name of Philip Holt. + +Madge and Phyllis each wore a close fitting, warm woolen dress. Madge had +tucked up her red-brown curls into a tight knot. Her eyes were glowing, +but her face was white and her lips a little less red when Captain Jules +came forward to fasten her into her diving suit. + +"Don't attempt it, Madge, if you are frightened," urged Miss Jenny Ann, +who was feeling dreadfully frightened herself. "I am sure Captain Jules +will forgive you if you back out." + +Captain Jules looked at Madge searchingly. Her eyes smiled bravely into +his, although her heart was going pit-a-pat. + +"Miss Madge is not afraid," answered Captain Jules curtly. "Robert +Morton's daughter has no right to know fear." + +Madge first slipped her feet into a pair of heavy leather boots. She gave +a gay laugh as she slipped into her rubber cloth suit, which was made in +one piece. "I feel just like a walrus," she confided to Tom Curtis, who +was watching her with set lips. + +Then Madge and Captain Jules, who was in exactly the same costume, got +into their boats and moved out a little distance from the shore. + +Tom Curtis had asked Captain Jules's consent to sit in one of the boats +with Phil. At the last moment Philip Holt stepped calmly into the other. +No one stopped to argue with him, or to thrust him out; the whole party +was too much excited. + +Not for all the pearls in all the seas would Captain Jules Fontaine have +allowed one hair of Madge's head to be injured. But he really did not +believe that she would be in any danger under the water with him. He had +arranged every detail of the diving perfectly. He would watch her every +movement at the bottom of the bay. To tell the truth, Captain Jules was +immensely proud of Madge's and Phil's bravery in desiring to accompany +him. + +The final moment for the dive arrived. Madge waved her hand to the crowd +of her friends lining the shore. She flung back her head and looked +gayly, triumphantly, up at the blue sky above her, with its sweep of +white, sailing clouds. Below her the water looked even more deeply blue. + +"Remember, Madge," whispered Captain Jules calmly, "the one quality a +diver needs more than anything else is presence of mind. Keep a clear +head under the water and nothing shall harm you, I swear. But above all, +don't forget your signals." + +With his own hands Captain Jules fastened the brass corselet about +Madge's slender neck and set a big copper helmet which he screwed over +her head to her corselet. Madge then surveyed the world only through the +glass windows at each side of her head and in front. Her air-tube entered +her helmet at the back. Two men in one of the boats were to keep the +young girl diver supplied with oxygen by pumping fresh air down through +this tube. + +A moment later Captain Jules stood rigged in the same costume as Madge. + +"Steady, my girl," Captain Jules warned her. + +"Aye, aye, Captain," returned Madge quietly, "I'm ready. Let us go down +together to the bottom of the bay." + +"Pump away," ordered the captain. + +There was a splash on the surface of the clear water, a long-drawn gasp +from Madge's friends; then a few bubbles rose. Rapidly, skillfully, +Madge's tenders played out her life and pipe lines, and Madge Morton +disappeared from the world of men. Captain Jules made his plunge a few +seconds in advance of his companion. + +In the boat where Tom Curtis and Phyllis Alden sat there was a +breathless, intense silence. The boy and girl happened to be in the boat +with the men who were looking out for the welfare of Captain Jules. +Philip Holt was with Madge's tenders. + +Phyllis knew that there was but one way in which she could follow her +chum's course below the surface of the water. She could watch her life +and air lines. Captain Jules had made it plain to Phyllis that all the +time the diver is under water small ripples will appear near his air +line. These bubbles are caused by the air that the diver breathes out +from the valve in the side of his diving helmet. + +Phyllis watched the lines doggedly. Captain Jules was to keep Madge under +water only about fifteen or twenty minutes, but at that a minute may +appear longer than an hour. + +Suddenly Phyllis Alden discovered that the man who was tending Madge's +air pump seemed to be working less vigorously. He pumped unevenly. Once +he swayed, as though he were about to fall over in his seat. + +In a second it flashed over Phyllis that the man was ill. He was a +strong, red-faced individual, but his face turned to a kind of ghastly +pallor. It was all so quick that Phil had no time to speak from her boat. +Philip Holt, who was in the same boat with the man, grasped the situation +as quickly as Phyllis did. With a single motion he took the tender's +place at the air-pump. Phil saw that he was pumping away with vigor. + +At this moment Phil turned to speak to Tom Curtis. "Tom, how long have +they been under the water?" she whispered. + +"Ten minutes," returned Tom, glancing hastily at his watch. + +"It seems ten hours," murmured Phil, as though she dared not speak +aloud. + +Tug, tug! Phil thought she saw Madge's air line give two desperate jerks. +Two pulls at the line was the diver's signal for more air. Phil knew that +without a doubt. Yet Philip Holt seemed to be pumping vigorously. At +least, he had been only the second before when Phil last looked at him. + +Again Phil saw Madge's air line jerk twice. + +Tom Curtis and the two men in Captain Jules's boat were vainly trying to +interpret some signals that Captain Jules was making to them. The two +boats were at no great distance apart. + +"I am afraid something is the matter below, Phil," Tom Curtis turned to +mutter hoarsely. But Phyllis Alden, who had been sitting near him a +moment before, was no longer there. + +Phyllis believed she saw that Philip Holt was only pretending to pump +sufficient air down to Madge. She may have been wrong. Who could ever +tell? But Phil knew there was no time to discuss the matter. One minute, +two minutes, five or ten--Phil did not know how long a diver at the +bottom of the water can be shut off from his supply of fresh air and +live. She did not mean to wait, to ask questions, or to lose time. Phil +made a flying leap from the skiff that held her to the one in which +Philip Holt sat by the air-pump. She landed in the water, just alongside +the boat. Quietly, though more quickly than she had ever moved before in +her life, Phil climbed into the boat and thrust Philip Holt away from the +air pump. In the minute it had taken her to make her plunge she had seen +Madge's signal again, but this time the line jerked more feebly than it +had before. + +Phil set the pump to working again; the signal answered from below, "All +is well!" + +The tender had recovered from his attack of faintness and resumed his +work at Madge's airline. + +But Philip Holt sat crouched in the bottom of the boat, his face white +with anger. What would Phyllis Alden's action suggest but that he was +trying to suffocate Madge in the water below? + +Whether or not Philip Holt meant to stifle Madge Morton he himself never +really knew. The impulse came to him as he placed his hands on her +air-pump. It flashed across his mind that it was Madge who had tried to +injure his prospects with Mrs. Curtis, and who had kept him from going +down with Captain Jules to search for the pearls that he firmly believed +would be found at the bottom of the bay. It was while these thoughts +passed through Philip Holt's mind his pressure on Madge's air-pump had +wavered. But Phyllis Alden had discovered it. She gave him no opportunity +either for action or regret. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A STRANGE PEARL + + +Madge felt herself in a great fairy world peopled with giants. Every +thing below the water is magnified a thousandfold. Slowly she went down +and down! The fishes splashed and tumbled about her, hurrying to get away +from this strange, new sea-monster that had come into their midst. + +The little captain felt no mental sensation except one of wonder and of +awe; no physical impression save a pressure as of a great weight on her +head and a roaring of mighty waters in her ears. She no longer had any +idea of being afraid. + +At the first plunge into the water she had shut her eyes, but now, as she +approached the bottom of the bay, she kept them wide open. + +The water was clear as crystal, like the reflection in a mammoth mirror. +She could see nearly fifty feet ahead of her. Captain Jules walked just +in front of her, swinging his great body from side to side, peering down +into the sandy bottom of the bay. Madge discovered that the only way in +which she could get a view, except the one directly in front of her, was +by turning her head inside her helmet, to look through her side window +glasses. The goggles over her eyes gave her just the view that a horse +has with blinkers. + +There were hundreds of things that Madge would have liked to confide to +Captain Jules. However, for once in her life, she was compelled to hold +her tongue. Her eyes, her hands, and her feet she could keep busy. Now +and then she gave a little ejaculation of wonder inside her copper helmet +at the marvels she saw. No one heard her cry out. Captain Jules wasted no +time. He was exceedingly business-like. He motioned to Madge just where +she should go and what she should do, and she obediently followed. + +There were long, level flats of sand in the bottom of Delaware Bay, like +small prairies. Then there were exquisite oases of waving green seaweed, +gardens of sea flowers and ferns, and hillocks of rocks, with all sorts +of queer sea animals, crabs, jelly-fish, and devil-fish, scurrying about +them. + +Caught in the moss, encrusted on the rocks, sunken in the yellow sands, +were opalescent, shining shells and pebbles, each one more beautiful than +the last. Madge did not realize that if she carried these shells and +pebbles above the water they would look like ordinary stones. Every now +and then the young diver would stoop and drop one of them in her netted +bag with a thrill of excitement. + +Again and again Captain Jules had assured Madge that she must not expect +to find any pearls of much value in Delaware Bay. There were few pearls +in edible oysters. The beds about Cape May were meant to supply the +family table, not the family jewels. Of course, it was true, the Captain +admitted, that a pearl did appear now and then in an ordinary oyster. Yet +this was an accident and most unlikely to occur. + +Madge had really tried not to believe that she was going to find any kind +of prize in the new world under the water. In spite of all her efforts +she had been thinking and planning and hoping. Perhaps--perhaps she would +find a pearl of great price. Then her troubles would be at an end. + +All this time Madge had been breathing naturally and comfortably inside +her helmet as she traveled along the bed of the bay. She was so +unconscious of any difficulty that she was beginning to believe that she +was, in truth, a mermaid, and that water, and not air, was her natural +element. Suddenly she felt a little uneasy, as though the windows of her +room had been closed for too long a time. It was nothing, she was sure. +The stifling sensation would pass in another second. + +At this moment Captain Jules gazed hard at Madge. He had never forgotten +his charge for a moment. But all seemed well with her, and the captain +thought he saw ahead of him something that was well worth investigating. +He dropped on his knees in the soft mud. With him he had a small hammer +and a fork, not unlike a gardener's. Shining through some green sea moss +so soft and fine that it might have been the hair of a water-baby, +Captain Jules had espied some glittering shells. To his experienced eye +the glow was that of mother-of-pearl. It is the mother-of-pearl shell +that usually covers the precious pearl. The old sailor set to work. Madge +was eagerly watching him, when once again the faint stifling sensation +swept over her. Surely it was not possible to faint in a diving suit. +Besides, Madge's heart was beating so furiously with excitement that it +was small wonder she could not get her breath. She believed that Captain +Jules was about to discover a wonderful pearl. He had wrenched the shells +free and was trying to open them. Madge stood some feet away from him, +quivering with excitement. + +"'And the sea shall give up its treasures'," she quoted softly to herself +as she watched. + +The next moment her hands made an involuntary movement in the water. Had +she been on land her gesture would have meant that she was fighting for +breath. To her horror she realized that she was slowly suffocating. +Something must have happened to her air-pump above the water. She was not +faint from any other cause, but was getting an insufficient supply of +fresh air. + +At this moment Madge proved her mettle. She remembered Captain Jules's +injunction, "Keep a clear head under the water and there is nothing to +fear." She knew the signal for more fresh air, and gave two hard, quick +pulls on her life line. Then she waited. Relief would surely come in a +moment. + +For the first and only time since their descent to the bottom of the bay +Captain Jules had temporarily neglected Madge. He certainly had not +expected to find any pearls in so unlikely a place as Delaware Bay; yet +the shells he held in his hand were most unusual. The thrill of his old +occupation seized hold of the pearl fisher. His big hands fairly trembled +with emotion. He felt, rather than saw, Madge jerk her life line twice, +but it never dawned on him that her signal for more air might fail to be +answered. + +Madge signaled again. A loud buzzing seemed to sound in her ears. Her +tongue felt thick and swollen. She could not see a foot ahead of her. All +the dazzling, shimmering beauty of the world under the water had passed +into blackness. The little captain's eyes were glazing behind the glass +windows of her helmet. She felt that she must be dying. But she had +strength to give one more signal. Air! air! How could she ever have +believed that there was anything in the world so precious as fresh air? +Madge had a vision of a field of new-mown hay in her old home at "Forest +House." The wind was blowing through it with a delicious fragrance. Had +she the strength to pull her life line once again? The water that she +loved so dearly was to claim her at last. She made a motion to go toward +Captain Jules, but she had no control of her limbs. + +Then Captain Jules became aroused to action. He realized that Madge had +signaled for air, not once, but several times. This meant that her signal +had not been answered. The captain had been for too many years a deep-sea +diver not to guess instantly the girl's condition. The groan inside his +helmet came from the bottom of his heart. Captain Jules's hands shook. He +dropped the shells that he believed might contain priceless pearls down +into the soft sand in the bed of the bay. + +It was at this moment that Tom Curtis and Phyllis Alden, as well as the +captain's boat tenders, caught his confusing signals from below. More +fresh air was pumped down the tube to Captain Jules, but not to Madge. + +Phil's leap and quick work at Madge's air-pump must have taken place not +more than three minutes afterward, but they were horrible, agonizing +moments. Madge hardly knew how they passed. Captain Jules suffered the +regret of a lifetime. How could he have been so unwise as to entrust the +safety of this girl, whose life was so dear to him, to the perils of a +diver's experiences? In the few weeks of their acquaintance Madge Morton +had become all in all to Captain Jules Fontaine. + +There was but one thing for Captain Jules to do for his companion. He +must signal to have her drawn up to the surface of the water again, +trusting that she would not suffocate for lack of air in her ascent. + +Madge was near enough to lay her hand on Captain Jules's arm. Phil's +relief had come just in time. The life-giving fresh air from the world +above pressed into her copper helmet. It filled her nose and mouth, it +poured into her aching lungs. She received new life, new energy. Now she +was no longer afraid. She did not wish to go above the surface of the +water. Surely all above was now well. She yearned to continue her +adventures on the under side of the world. + +She it was, not Captain Jules, who dropped down on her hands and knees to +grope for the captain's lost pearl shells. + +But the sand had covered them up forever, or else the water had carried +them away! + +Captain Jules wished to take Madge out of the water immediately, yet he +yielded for a minute to her disappointment. What treasures had they lost +when he threw the mother-of-pearl shells away? Neither of them would ever +know. The old diver looked about in the soft mud, while Madge raked +furiously near the spot where she thought the sailor had dropped the +shells. Captain Jules walked on for a little distance. He had seen beyond +them a tangled mass of other shells and seaweed and it occurred to him +that the water might have carried his shells into some hidden crevice +nearby. + +But Madge never left her chosen spot. Deeper and deeper she dug. What a +swirl of mud arose and eddied about her, darkening the clear water in +which she stood! The little captain's hammer struck against something +hard. Was it a rock embedded in the sand? Yet a distinct sound rang out, +as of one metal striking against another! + +Madge did not know how she summoned Captain Jules back to her side. She +was wild with curiosity and excitement. Captain Jules was smiling behind +his copper mask. The young girl diver had probably found a piece of old +iron cast off from some ship. Still, she should unearth whatever she had +discovered so near the dark kingdom of Pluto. + +The captain worked with her. Whatever her find might be, it was larger +and heavier than Captain Jules had expected. They could afford to spend +no more time with it. It was time for Madge to leave the water. + +It is difficult to make an imploring gesture in a diver's suit. Yet, +somehow, Madge must have managed to do so. For one moment longer the old +pearl diver relented. The hole that they were digging in the bottom of +the bay was widening before them. A chunk of what looked like solid iron +was visible. Then a triangular end came into view. It was rusted until it +shone like beautiful green enamel. The top was absolutely flat and of +some depth, as it was so hard to excavate. + +The time was growing short. Madge had been under the water as long as was +safe for any amateur diver. The captain was a man to be obeyed, as she +knew instinctively. She gave one more dig into the mud about her iron +treasure. It now became plain, both to her and to Captain Jules, that she +had found an old iron chest. The captain tugged at it with both his +great, strong hands. It was strangely heavy. But he managed to lift it in +his arms. + +Straightway he gave the signal to ascend; three sharp tugs at his life +line. Madge followed suit. But she cast one long backward glance at the +watery world into which she might never again descend, as slowly, +steadily, the boat tenders pulled up her long life line. Her feet dangled +above the sandy bottom of the bay. Now she could see even farther off. +About forty feet from the rapidly filling hole from which she and the +captain had extracted the iron chest was a spar of a ship jutting above +the sand. The little captain may have been wrong, but it looked like the +very spar on which Tania's dress had caught the day she was so nearly +drowned. Madge could not tell how far she and Captain Jules had traveled +on the bottom of the bay, but she knew they had made their descent at a +place no very great distance from the spot where Roy Dennis's yacht had +run down their skiff, and Captain Jules had rescued Tania and herself. + +Thought travels swifter than anything else in the created world. So +Madge's thoughts had reached the upper world before she followed them. +She wondered if the girls would be very sadly disappointed when she +returned bearing, instead of a costly pearl, nothing but a rusted iron +box! + +Would Phil have better luck when she descended to the depths of the bay? +What had happened in the outside world since she had disappeared from it +a long, long time ago? + +A flare of blinding sunlight smote across the glass goggles in Madge's +copper helmet. She felt herself picked up and lifted bodily into a boat. +Her helmet and corselet were unscrewed. She lay still, smiling faintly as +the boat made for her friends who crowded, watching, on the pier. Captain +Jules, bearing the small iron chest, landed a moment later. The little +captain had been in a new world, into which few men and rarely any women +have ever entered. She had been out of her human element, a creature of +the water, not of the air, and it seemed to her that she must have lived +a whole new lifetime as a deep-sea diver. + +Tom Curtis stared anxiously at his watch and smiled into her white face. +He breathed a sigh of relief and of wonder. Captain Jules Fontaine and +Madge Morton had been down at the bottom of Delaware Bay exactly thirty +minutes! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE FAIRY GODMOTHER'S WISH COMES TRUE + + +Captain Jules decided to wait until another day before taking Phyllis +Alden on the journey from which he and Madge had just returned. The old +sailor was too deeply thankful to see his first charge safe on land. Poor +Miss Jenny Ann could do nothing but lean over Madge and cry; the nervous +strain of waiting while the girl was under the water had been too great. +Indeed, even the people who, Madge knew, were not in the least interested +in her, appeared dreadfully upset. Philip Holt's face was very pale and +his eyes shifted uneasily from Phyllis's to Madge's face. + +Phyllis was the most self-possessed of the four girls. She was greatly +disappointed at the captain's determination to put off the time for her +diving expedition until a later date. But Phyllis was always unselfish. +She realized that her chaperon and her friends had had about as much +anxiety as they could endure in one day. Madge had been under the water, +and she could not dream of what the others had suffered above, while +awaiting her return. + +Mrs. Curtis put her arms about the little captain and embraced her with +an affection she had not shown her during the summer. + +"My dear," she murmured, "will you ever stop being the most reckless girl +in the world? What possible good could that wretched diving feat of yours +do anybody on earth? If my hair weren't already white I am sure it would +have turned so in the last half-hour. Look at poor Philip Holt. He seems +as nervous as though you were his own sister." + +Madge and Captain Jules had both taken off their heavy diving suits and +were soon shaking hands with every one on the pier. Even Roy Dennis and +Mabel Farrar, much as they disliked Madge, could not conceal the fact +that they thought her extremely plucky. + +Captain Jules had laid the iron chest on the ground and for the moment +they had forgotten it. + +It was little Tania who danced up to it and tried to lift it. + +"Show us the pearls you found, Madge," Eleanor begged her cousin at this +instant, her brown eyes twinkling. + +The little captain looked crestfallen. "I am afraid we didn't find +anything of value," she said, trying to pretend that she was not +disappointed. "I have only some pretty shells and stones that I gathered +on the bottom of the bay for Tania." + +She pulled her sea treasures out of her netted diving bag. Sure enough, +the water had dried on them and the shells and stones appeared quite dull +and ugly. There were almost as pretty shells and pebbles to be picked up +at any place along the Cape May beach. + +"Why, Madge!" exclaimed Lillian, before she realized what she was saying, +"surely, you didn't waste your time in bringing up such silly trifles as +these?" + +Madge shook her head humbly. "We didn't find anything else but this old +iron chest. Captain Jules, may I take it back to the houseboat with me as +a souvenir, or do you wish it? Tania, child, you can't lift it, it is too +heavy." + +Tom Curtis brought the chest to Captain Jules. Some of the crowd had +moved away, now that the diving was over. But a dozen or more strangers +pressed about the girls and their friends. + +"There is something in this little chest, Captain," declared Tom Curtis +quietly, as he set it down before the captain and Madge. "I could feel +something roll around in the box as I lifted it." + +Captain Jules shook the heavy safe. Something certainly rattled on the +inside. + +There were bits of moss and tiny shells and stones encrusted on the upper +lid of the box. Deliberately Captain Jules scraped them off with a stick. +The houseboat party and Tom were beginning to grow impatient. What made +Captain Jules so slow? Philip Holt, who was standing by Mrs. Curtis's +side, gazed sneeringly at the operations. He was glad, indeed, that he +had not risked his life in descending to the bottom of the bay in search +for pearls, only to bring up a rusty chest. + +"The box is fastened tightly; it will have to be broken open," remarked +Madge indifferently. She was feeling tired, now that the excitement of +her diving trip was over. She wished to go home to the houseboat. She did +not wish Captain Jules to guess for an instant how disappointed she was +that they had found nothing of value on their diving adventure. If only +the captain had not dropped the shells in which there might have been a +chance of finding pearls! + +Captain Jules had hold of the iron hammer that he used when diving. +Click! click! click! he struck three times on the lock of the iron safe. +Like the magic tinder-box, the lid flew open. Tania's long-drawn +childish, "Oh!" was the only sound that broke the tense and breathless +stillness that pervaded the group. + +A single pearl! The scorned iron chest almost full of shining coins and +precious stones! There were coins of gold and silver--strange coins that +no one in the watching crowd had ever seen before. Some of them bore +dates and inscriptions of English mintings of the early part of the +eighteenth century. + +Of course, it was incredible! No one believed his eyes. A treasure-chest +unearthed after more than two hundred years? It was impossible! + +Yet instantly each one of the girls remembered that the pirates had sunk +many vessels in Delaware Bay in the latter part of the seventeenth and +the beginning of the eighteenth century. In those days many wealthy +English families came over with their servants and their treasure to +settle in the new country of America. + +Phil's book on the history of piracy had recalled this information to the +girls only ten days before. It was then, when Madge lay with her head +resting in her hands, looking dreamily out over the waters, that she had +wondered how anything so remote from her as the story of the early +American battles with pirate ships could help her to solve her present +troubles? Yet here, like a miracle before her eyes, lay the answer! + +The little captain was the last of the onlookers to know what had +happened. She was too dazed, perhaps, from her stay under the water. + +It was only when Tania flung her eager, thin arms about her beloved Fairy +Godmother's neck that Madge actually woke up. + +"The fairies who live under the water have given you these wonderful +things," whispered Tania. "I prayed that they would come to see you, +bringing you all the good gifts that they had." + +Captain Jules reached over and set the priceless box before Madge. She +was encircled by Miss Jenny Ann and her beloved houseboat chums. + +"It is all yours, Madge," asserted Captain Jules solemnly. "You found it, +child. I should never have discovered it but for you." + +Madge shook her red-brown head. "Captain Jules, that chest is far more +yours than it is mine. I should never have gone down under the water but +for you. If Phil had only dived first, instead of me, she would have +found it, I won't have any of the money or the jewelry unless I can share +it with the rest of you." + +Then, to Madge's own surprise, she began to cry. + +"There, there, little mate, it will be all right," Captain Jules assured +her quietly. "You've had a bit too much for one day. We don't know the +value of what we have found just yet, but the old jewelry will make +pretty trinkets for you girls. We'll see about the rest later on." + +Miss Jenny Ann put her arm about Madge on one side. Phil was on the other +side of her chum. + +"We will go home now, dear," said Miss Jenny Ann to Madge. "You are worn +out from all this excitement." + +"I'll look after the girls, Captain," promised Tom Curtis quietly, "then +I will come back to you." A flash of understanding passed between Captain +Jules and Tom Curtis. They had both guessed that Madge's iron box of old +jewelry and coins represented more money than the girls could comprehend, +and that it was better for the news of the discovery to be kept as quiet +as possible for the time being. + +"You will walk home with me, won't you, Philip?" Mrs. Curtis asked her +guest. "I am rather tired from the excitement of this most unusual +morning." + +But Philip Holt had forgotten that he wished to keep on the good side of +his wealthy hostess. His eyes were staring eagerly and greedily at the +closed iron box which old Captain Jules was guarding. He took a step +forward, stopped and looked at the little crowd standing near. + +"No; I can't go back with you now, Mrs. Curtis," he answered abruptly, "I +have some important business to transact." + +Mrs. Curtis walked away deeply offended. Philip Holt, however, was too +fully occupied with his own disappointment to note this. A sudden daring +idea had taken possession of him. Perhaps Madge Morton was not so lucky +after all. Finding a treasure did not necessarily mean keeping it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MISSING, A FAIRY GODMOTHER + + +Several days after the finding of the treasure-chest experts came down +from Philadelphia to appraise its value. It was not easy to decide, +immediately, what market price the old jewels, set in quaintly chased +gold, would bring. But the least that the coins and stones would be worth +was ten thousand dollars! It might be more. An extra thousand dollars or +so was hardly worth considering, when ten thousand would make things turn +out so beautifully even. + +Madge and Captain Jules, Miss Jenny Ann and the other houseboat girls had +many discussions about Madge's discovery of the iron safe. + +The little captain was entirely alone on one side of the argument. The +others were all against her. Yet she won her point. She continued to +insist that her wonderful find was purely an accident. How could she ever +have unearthed a box, lost from a sunken ship, that had probably been +buried for centuries, if Captain Jules Fontaine had not listened to her +pleadings and taken her on the wonderful diving trip with him? Though she +had actually struck the first blow on the piece of iron embedded in the +bay, she could never have dragged the safe out of the mud, or been able +to carry it up to the surface, without Captain Jules's assistance. + +Madge and the old sailor started their discussion alone. The captain had +come over to the houseboat, bringing the iron safe with him so that the +girls might have a better view of its wonders. He had firmly made up his +mind that Madge must be made to understand that the money the treasure +would bring was to be all hers. He would not accept one cent of it. Fate +had been kinder to him than he had hoped in allowing him to guide Madge +to the discovery of her fortune. + +"Ten thousand dollars!" exclaimed Madge ecstatically, when the old sailor +reported the news to her. "It's the most wonderful thing I ever heard of +in my life. I didn't dream it was worth so much money. Will you please +lend me a piece of paper and a pencil, Captain Jules. I never have been +clever at arithmetic." Madge knitted her brows thoughtfully. "Ten +thousand dollars divided by two means five thousand dollars for you and +the same sum for us." + +The captain cleared his throat. "What's the rest of the arithmetic?" he +demanded gruffly. "I don't think much of that first division." + +But Madge was hardly listening. She was biting the end of her pencil. +"Six doesn't go into five thousand just evenly," she replied +thoughtfully, "but with fractions I suppose we can manage. You see that +will be eight hundred and thirty-three dollars and something over for +Miss Jenny Ann to put in bank to take care of her if she ever gets sick, +or has to stop teaching; and the same sum will pay for Phil's first year +at college and for Eleanor's graduating at Miss Tolliver's, so uncle +won't have to worry over that any more. Then my little Fairy Godmother +can go to some beautiful school in the country, and not be shut up in a +horrid home with a capital 'H,' which is what Philip Holt has persuaded +Mrs. Curtis ought to be done with her. And Lillian can save her money to +buy pretty clothes, because she is not as poor as the rest of us and +dearly loves nice things, and----" Madge's speech ended from lack of +breath. + +The captain rubbed his rough chin reflectively. "Oh! I see," he nodded, +"I am to get half of the money and you are to get a sixth of a half. Is +that it?" + +[Illustration: Madge and Captain Jules Started Their Discussion Alone.] + +Madge lowered her voice to a whisper. "Dear Captain Jules," she said in a +wheedling tone, "you'll help me, won't you? The girls and Miss Jenny Ann +declare positively that they won't accept a single dollar of the money. I +shall be the most miserable girl in the world if they don't. Why, we four +girls and Miss Jenny Ann have shared everything in common, our +misfortunes and our good fortunes, since we started out together. If any +one of the other girls had happened to discover the treasure instead of +me, she would certainly have divided it with the others. Phil, Lillian, +Eleanor and Miss Jenny Ann don't even dare to deny it. So they simply +must give in to me about it." + +"Well," continued the captain, "I am yet to be told what Madge Morton +means to do with the one-sixth of one-half of her wealth when it finally +gets round to her." + +The little captain's eyes shone, though her face sobered. "I am not going +to college with Phil, though I hate to be parted from her," she replied. +"Somehow, I think I am not exactly meant for a college girl. I believe I +will just advertise in all the papers in the world for my father. Then, +if he is alive, I shall surely find him. With whatever money is left I +shall go to him. If he is poor, I will manage to take care of him in some +way," ended Madge confidently. + +"You will, eh?" returned Captain Jules gruffly. "It seems to me, my girl, +that this is a pretty position you have mapped out for me. I am to take +half of our find--nice, selfish old codger that I am--while you divide +yours with your friends. I am not going to take a cent of that money, so +you can just do your sums over again." + +It was at this point that Madge called Miss Jenny Ann and the other +houseboat girls into the discussion. It ended with the captain's agreeing +to take one-seventh of the money, if all the others would follow suit. + +"Because, if you don't," declared Madge in her usual impetuous fashion, +"I shall just throw this chest of money and jewelry right overboard and +it can go down to the bottom of the bay and stay there, for all I care." + +Captain Jules remained to dinner on the houseboat that evening. After +dinner the girls proceeded to adorn themselves with the old sets of +jewelry found in the safe. Madge wore the pearls because, she insisted, +they were her special jewels, and she had gone down to the bottom of the +bay to find them. Phil was more fascinated with some old-fashioned +garnets, Lillian with a big, golden topaz pin, and Eleanor with some +turquoises that had turned a curious greenish color from old age. + +It was well after ten o'clock when the captain announced that he must set +out for home. Tom Curtis had been spending the evening on the houseboat +with the girls, but he had gone home an hour before to join his mother +and her guest, Philip Holt. Before going away the captain concluded that +it would be best for him to leave the iron safe of coins and precious +stones on the houseboat for the night. It was too late for him to carry +it back to "The Anchorage" alone. As no one but Tom knew of its being on +the houseboat, the valuables could be in no possible danger. The captain +would call some time within the next day or so to take the iron box to a +safety deposit vault in the town of Cape May. + +Together Miss Jenny Ann and the captain hid the precious chest in a small +drawer in the sideboard built into the wall of the little dining room +cabin of the houseboat. They locked this drawer carefully and Miss Jenny +Ann hid the key under her pillow without speaking of it to any one. + +In spite of these precautions no one on the houseboat dreamed of any +possible danger to the safety of their newly-found prize. Remember, no +one knew of its being on the houseboat save Tom Curtis and Captain Jules. +Up to to-night Captain Jules had been guarding the treasure at his house +up the bay. No one had been allowed to see it since the famous day of its +discovery, except the experts who had come down from Philadelphia to give +some idea of the value of Madge's remarkable find. + +Little Tania was in the habit of sleeping in the dining room of the +houseboat on a cot which Miss Jenny Ann prepared for her each night. She +went to bed earlier than the other girls, so in order not to disturb her, +she was stowed away in there instead of occupying one of the berths in +the two staterooms. Soon after the captain's departure Miss Jenny Ann +tucked Tania safely in bed. She closed the door of the dining room that +led out on the cabin deck and also the door that connected with the +stateroom occupied by Madge and Phil. The cabin of the "Merry Maid" was a +square divided into four rooms, and Miss Jenny Ann's bedroom did not open +directly into the dining room. + +It was a dark night and a strangely still one. The weather was unusually +warm and close for Cape May. Over the flat marshes and islands the heat +was oppressive. The residents of the summer cottages left their doors and +windows open, hoping that a stray breeze might spring up during the night +to refresh them. No one seemed to have any fear of burglars. + +On the "Merry Maid" the night was so still and cloudy that the girls sat +up for an hour after Captain Jules left them, talking over their +wonderful good fortune. They were almost asleep before they tumbled into +their berths. Once there, they slept soundly all night long. Nothing +apparently happened to disturb them, but Madge, who was the lightest +sleeper in the party, did half-waken at one time during the night. She +thought she heard Tania cry out. It was a peculiar cry and was not +repeated. She knew that Tania was given to dreaming. Almost every night +the child made some kind of sound in her sleep. Madge sat up in bed and +listened, but hearing no further sound, she went fast asleep again +without a thought of anxiety. + +Miss Jenny Ann was the first to open her eyes the next morning. It must +have been as late as seven o'clock, for the sun was shining brilliantly. +She slipped on her wrapper and went into the kitchen to start the fire. A +few moments later she went into the dining room to call Tania and to help +the child to dress. But the dining room door on to the cabin deck was +open. Tania's bedclothes were in a heap on the floor. The child had +disappeared. + +Miss Jenny Ann was not in the least uneasy or annoyed. She knew that +Tania had a way of creeping in Madge's bed in the early mornings and of +snuggling close to her. Miss Jenny Ann tip-toed softly into Madge's and +Phil's stateroom. There was no dark head with its straight, short black +hair and quaint, elfish face pressed close against Madge's lovely auburn +one. Madge was slumbering peacefully. Miss Jenny Ann peered into the +upper berth. Phil was alone and had not stirred. + +Tania was such a queer, wild little thing! Miss Jenny Ann felt annoyed. +Perhaps Tania had awakened and slipped off the boat without telling any +of them. She had solemnly promised never to run away again, but she might +have broken her word. Miss Jenny Ann explored the houseboat decks. She +called the child's name softly once or twice so as not to disturb the +other girls. There was no answer. She went back into the cabin dining +room. Neatly folded on the chair, where Miss Jenny Ann herself had placed +them the night before, were Tania's clothes. The child could hardly have +run away in her little white nightgown. + +When the girls finally wakened Madge was the only one of them who was +alarmed at first. She recalled Tania's strange cry in the night. She +wondered if it could have been possible that she had heard a sound before +the little girl cried out. But she could not decide. She would not +believe, however, that Tania had forgotten her promise and gone away +again without permission. + +As soon as Eleanor and Lillian were dressed they went ashore and walked +up and down near the houseboat, calling aloud for Tania. Phyllis was the +most composed of the party. She had two small twin sisters of her own and +knew that children were in the habit of creating just such unnecessary +excitements. Still, it was better to look for a lost child before she had +had time to wander too far away. + +"Madge," suggested Phil quietly, "don't be so frightened about Tania. I +have an idea the child has walked off the houseboat in her sleep. She +must have done so, for the dining room door is unlocked from the inside. +Our door on to the deck was not locked, but Tania's was, because Miss +Jenny Ann recalls having locked it herself. She came through our room +when she joined us outdoors after putting Tania to bed. You and I had +better go up at once to find Tom Curtis. Dear old Tom is such a comfort! +He will help us search for Tania. Then, if it is necessary, he will ask +the Cape May authorities to have the police on the lookout for her. If +Tania has wandered off in her sleep, the poor little thing will be +terrified when she wakes up and finds herself in a strange place. Surely, +some one will take her in and care for her until we find her." + +Madge and Phil were wonderfully glad to find Tom Curtis up and alone on +his front veranda. He had just come in from a swim. He seemed so strong, +clean, and fine after his morning's dip in the ocean that his two girl +friends were immediately reassured. Tom would tell them just what had +better be done to find Tania. + +"Mrs. Curtis's and Philip Holt's window blinds are still down, thank +goodness!" whispered Madge to Phil, "so I suppose they are both asleep. +Let us not tell them anything about Tania's disappearance. They would +just put it down to naughtiness in her, and that would make me awfully +cross." + +Tom Curtis felt perfectly sure that he would soon run across the lost +Tania. So he left word for his mother that he had gone to the houseboat +and that she was not to expect him until she saw him again. + +For two hours Tom and the houseboat party continued the hunt for the lost +child without calling in assistance. Then Madge and Tom went to the town +authorities of Cape May. The police investigated the city and the houses +in the nearby seaside resort without finding the least clue to Tania. +Toward the close of the long day Tom Curtis began to fear that Tania had +fallen into the water. Cape May is only a strip of land between the great +ocean and the bay, and the land is broken into many small islands nearly +surrounded by salt water and marshes. + +Tom managed to get the girls safely out of the way; then, with Miss Jenny +Ann's permission, he had the water near the houseboat thoroughly dredged. +But Tania's little body was not found for the second time down in the +bottom of the bay. It was not possible to have all the water in the +neighborhood dragged in a single day, so Tom said nothing of his fears to +his anxious friends. + +It was late in the evening. Miss Jenny Ann had prepared dinner for the +weary and disheartened girls. She had snowy biscuit, broiled ham, roasted +potatoes, milk, and honey, the very things her charges usually loved. Tom +Curtis felt impelled to go back home. All that day he had seen nothing of +his mother or of their visitor, Philip Holt, and Tom was afraid they +would begin to wonder what had become of him. + +Madge caught Tom by the sleeve and looked at him with beseeching eyes. +"Please don't go, Tom," she begged, with a catch in her voice, "I am sure +your mother won't mind. She has Mr. Holt with her, and I can't bear to +see you go." + +Tom and Madge were near the gangplank of the houseboat and Tom was trying +to make up his mind what he should do, when he and Madge caught sight of +a gray-clad figure walking toward them through the twilight mists. + +"It's Mother," explained Tom in a relieved tone. "Now I can make it all +right with her." + +"And that horrid Philip Holt isn't along," declared Madge delightedly, +"so I can tell her about poor little Tania." + +Mrs. Curtis caught Madge, who had run out to meet her, by the hand. "My +dear child, what is the matter with you?" the older woman asked +immediately. "Even in this half-light I can see that your face is pale as +death and you look utterly worn out. If one of you is ill, why have you +not sent for me?" + +When Madge faltered out her story of the lost Tania Mrs. Curtis hugged +her to her in the old sympathetic way that the little captain knew and +loved. + +"I am so sorry, dear," soothed Mrs. Curtis, "but I am sure than Tom and +Philip Holt will find her. I suppose that is why they have both been away +all day." + +"Philip Holt!" exclaimed Tom in surprise. "He hasn't been with us. I +thought he was at home with you." + +Mrs. Curtis shook her head indifferently. "No; he hasn't been at the +cottage all day. Have any of you thought to send word to Captain Jules to +ask him about Tania? It may be that the child is with him. In any event, +I know Captain Jules would give us good advice." + +"Bully for you, Mother!" cried Tom, glad to catch a straw as he saw the +shadow on Madge's face lighten. "As soon as I have had a bite of supper +with the girls I'll get hold of a boat and go after the captain." + +Tom did not have to make his journey up the bay to "The Anchorage" that +night. While he and his mother were at supper with the girls they heard +the sound of Captain Jules's voice calling to them over the water. He had +to come ashore lower down the bay, where the water was deeper than it was +near the houseboat, but he always hallooed as he approached. + +"O Jenny Ann!" faltered Madge, trembling like a leaf, "it is our captain. +Perhaps he has brought Tania back with him. I--I--hope nothing dreadful +has happened to her." + +Without a word Tom fled off the houseboat. A moment later he espied +Captain Jules coming toward him, alone! + +"Halloo, son!" called out Captain Jules cheerfully. "Glad to know that +you are down here with the girls. Funny thing, but I've had these girls +on my mind all day. It seemed to me that they needed me, and I couldn't +go to bed without finding out that everything was well with them. What's +wrong?" Captain Jules had caught a fleeting glimpse of Tom's harassed +face. "Is it--is it Madge?" he asked anxiously. "Is anything the matter +with my girl?" + +Tom shook his head reassuringly. It took very few words to make the +captain understand that the trouble was over Tania and not Madge. + +When, a moment later, the captain went aboard the "Merry Maid" he was +able to smile bravely at the discouraged women. + +"Here, here!" he cried gruffly, while Madge clung to one of his horny +hands for support and Eleanor to the other, "what is all this nonsense I +hear? Tania is not really lost, of course. I'll bet you we find the +little witch in no time. She has just gone off somewhere in these New +Jersey woods to join the fairies she talks so much about. They are sure +to take good care of her. We can't do much more looking for her to-night, +but I'll find her first thing in the morning." + +Both Captain Jules and Mrs. Curtis insisted that the girls and Miss Jenny +Ann go early to bed. Just as Captain Jules was saying good night it +occurred to Miss Jenny Ann that she would rather turn over to the old +sailor the box of coins and jewelry. While Tania was lost there would be +so many persons in and out of the houseboat that Miss Jenny Ann feared +something might happen to the valuables. + +She went to the drawer in the sideboard in the saloon cabin without +thinking of the key under her pillow, and took hold of the knob. To her +surprise the drawer opened readily. There was no iron safe inside it. +Miss Jenny Ann ran to her bed and felt under her pillow. The key was +still there as though it had never been disturbed. + +Captain Jules and Tom decided that the simple lock to the houseboat +sideboard had been easily broken open. When, or how, or by whom, nobody +knew, but it was certain that the jewels and money were gone. Fortune, +the fickle jade, who had brought the houseboat girls such good luck only +a short time before, had now cruelly stolen it away from them. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE WICKED GENII + + +Tania had been aroused in the night by seeing a dark figure standing with +his back to her only a few feet from her bed. Involuntarily the child +stirred. In that instant a black-masked face turned toward her and Tania +gave the single, terrified scream that Madge had heard. Before Tania +could call out again, a handkerchief was tied so closely around her mouth +that she could make no further sound. + +A moment later the mysterious, sinister visitor picked the child up in +his arms and bore her swiftly and quietly away from the shelter of the +houseboat and her beloved friends. The little girl was very slender, yet +her abductor staggered as he walked. He had something besides Tania that +he was carrying. + +About a quarter of a mile from the houseboat Tania was dumped into the +rear end of an automobile and covered with a heavy steamer blanket. Then +the automobile started off through the night, going faster and faster, it +seemed to her, with each hour of darkness that remained. + +At times the little prisoner slept. When she awakened she cried softly to +herself, wondering who had stolen away with her and what was now to +become of her. But Tania was only a child of the streets and she had been +reared in a harder school than other happier children, so she made no +effort to cry out or escape. She knew there was no one near to hear her, +and the motor car was moving so swiftly that she could not possibly +escape from it. + +Tania and her unknown companion must have ridden all night. Evidently the +driver of the car had not cared about the roads. He had pushed through +heavy sand and ploughed over deep holes regardless of his machine. Speed +was the only thing he thought of. + +By and by the automobile stopped, after a particularly bad piece of +traveling. The driver got down, lifted Tania, still wrapped in her +blanket, in his arms and carried her inside a house. The child first saw +the light in an old room, up several flights of steps, which was drearier +and more miserable than anything she had ever beheld in her life in the +tenements. It was big and mouldy, and dark with cobwebs swinging like +dusty curtains over the windows that had not been washed for years. The +windows looked out over a swamp that was thick with old trees. + +But Tania saw none of these things when the blanket was first lifted from +her head. She gave a gasp of fright and horror. For the first time she +now realized that her captor was her childhood's enemy and evil genius, +Philip Holt. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, with a long-drawn sigh that was almost a sob, "it is +_you_! Why have you brought me here? What have I done?" Then a look of +unearthly wisdom came into Tania's solemn, black eyes. She continued to +stare at the young man so silently and gravely that Philip Holt's blonde +face twitched with nervousness. + +"Didn't you recognize me before?" he asked fiercely. "You were quite +likely to shriek out in the night and spoil everything, so I had to carry +you off with me, little nuisance that you are! You can just make up your +mind, young woman, that you will stay right here in this room until I can +take you to that nice institution for bad children that I have been +telling you about for such a long time. You'll never see your houseboat +friends again." + +Tania made no answer, and Philip Holt left her sitting on the floor of +the gloomy room wide-eyed and silent. + +For three days Tania stayed alone in that cheerless room. She saw no one +but an old, half-foolish man who came to her three times a day to bring +her food. He gave Tania a few rough garments to dress herself in and +treated the little prisoner kindly, but Tania found it was quite useless +to ask the old man questions. She was a wise, silent child, with +considerable knowledge of life, and she understood that there was nothing +to be gained by talking to her jailer, who would now and then grin +foolishly and tell her that she was to be good and everything would soon +be all right. Her nice, kind brother was going to take her away to school +as soon as he could. The wicked people who had been trying to steal her +away from her own brother should never find her if her brother could help +it. + +So the long nights passed and the longer days, and little Tania would +have been very miserable indeed except for her fairies and her dreams. It +is never possible to be unhappy all the time, if you own a dream world of +your own. Still, Tania found it much harder to pretend things, now that +she had tasted real happiness with her houseboat girls, than she had when +she lived with old Sal. It wasn't much fun to play at being an enchanted +princess when you knew what it was to feel like a really happy little +girl. And no one would care to be taken away to the most wonderful castle +in fairyland if she had to leave the darling houseboat and Madge and Miss +Jenny Ann and the other girls behind. + +So all through the daylight Tania sat with her small, pale face pressed +against the dirty window pane, waiting for Madge to come and find her. +She even hoped that a stranger might walk along close enough to the house +for her to call for aid. But a dreary rain set in and all the countryside +near Tania's prison house looked desolate. More than anything Tania +feared the return of Philip Holt. Once he got hold of her again, she knew +he would fulfill his threats. + +During this dreadful time Tania had no human companion, but she was not +like other children. She was part little girl and the rest of her an elf +or a fay. The trees, the birds, and flowers were almost as real to her as +human beings. For, until Madge and Eleanor had found her dancing on the +New York City street corner, she had never had anybody to be kind to her, +or whom she could love. + +Just outside Tania's window there was a tall old cedar tree. Its long +arms reached quite up to her window sill, and when the wind blew it used +to wave her its greetings. Inside the comfortable branches of the tree +there was a regular apartment house of birds, the nests rising one above +the other to the topmost limbs. + +Tania held long conversations with these birds in the mornings and in the +late afternoons. She told them all her troubles, and how very much she +would like to get away from the place where she was now staying. However, +the birds were great gad-abouts during the day, and Tania could hardly +blame them. + +There was one fat, fatherly robin that became Tania's particular friend. +He used to hop about near her window and nod and chirp to her as though +to reassure her. "Your friends will come for you to-day, I am quite sure +of it," he used to say, until one day Tania really spoke aloud to him and +was startled at the sound of her own voice. + +"I don't believe you are a robin at all," she announced. "I just believe +you are a nice, fat father of a whole lot of funny little boys and girls. +I believe you are enchanted, like me. Oh, dear! I was just beginning to +believe that I wasn't a fairy after all but a real little girl with +pretty clothes and friends to kiss me good night." Tania sighed. "I +suppose I must be a fairy princess after all, for if I was a real little +girl no one would have cast another wicked spell over me and shut me up +in this dungeon in the woods, which is a whole lot worse than living with +old Sal." + +Yet playing and pretending, and, worse than anything, waiting, grew very +tiresome to Tania. On the morning of the fourth day of her imprisonment +Tania awoke with a start. Something had knocked on her window pane. It +was only the old cedar tree, and Tania turned over in bed with a sob. But +the tapping went on. She got up and went to her window. Quick as a flash +Tania made up her mind to run away. Why had she never thought of it +before? It was true, her bedroom door was always locked, but here were +the branches of the cedar tree reaching close up to her window. Really, +this morning they seemed to speak quite distinctly to Tania: + +"Why in the world don't you come to me? I shall hold you quite safe! You +can climb down through all my arms to the warm earth and then run away to +your friends." + +It was just after dawn. The pink sky was showing against the earlier +grayness when Tania slipped into her coarse clothes and, like a small +elf, crept out of her window into the friendly branches of the old tree. +She was silent and swift as a squirrel as she clambered down. But she +need not have feared. No one in the lonely country place was awake but +the child. + +Once on the ground, Tania ran on and on, without thinking where she was +going. She only wished to get far away from the dreary house where Philip +Holt had hidden her. There was a thick woods about a mile or so from +Tania's starting place. No one would find her there. Once she was through +it Tania hoped to find a town, or at least a farm, where she could ask +for help. In spite of her queer, unchildlike ways, Tania knew enough to +understand that if she could only find some one to telegraph to her +friends they would soon come to her. + +But the forest through which Tania hoped to pass was a dreadful cedar +swamp, and in trying to cross it Tania wandered far into it and found +herself hopelessly lost. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A BOW OF SCARLET RIBBON + + +In the three days that had passed since the disappearance of Tania from +the houseboat everything that was possible had been done to discover her +whereabouts. + +It never occurred to Tom or to Mrs. Curtis to connect Philip Holt's odd +behavior with the lost Tania or the vanished treasure box. True, he had +not been seen for the past three days, but Mrs. Curtis had received a +note from him the day after his disappearance from her house, saying that +he had been unexpectedly called away on very important business so early +in the morning that he had not wished to awaken her, but he had left word +with the servants and he hoped that they had explained matters to her. + +Mrs. Curtis's maids and butler insisted that Mr. Holt had given them no +message. They had not seen or heard him go. So, as Mrs. Curtis did not +regard Philip Holt's withdrawal as of any importance, she gave very +little thought to it. + +Madge Morton, however, had a different idea. She laid Tania's +disappearance at Philip Holt's door. She, therefore, determined to take +Tom Curtis into her confidence, but to ask him not to betray their +suspicions of Philip Holt to Mrs. Curtis until they had better proof of +the young man's guilt. Madge had never told even Tom that she had once +overheard Philip Holt reveal his real identity, nor how much she had +guessed of the young man's true character from Tania's unconscious and +frightened reports of him. + +Tom at first was indignant with Madge, not because she and the other +girls believed that Philip Holt had stolen both their little friend and +their new-found wealth, but because she had not sooner shared her +suspicion of his mother's guest with him. Tom had never liked Philip, so +it was easy for him to think the worst of the goody-goody young man. + +Without a word to Mrs. Curtis, Tom and the houseboat girls set to work to +trace Philip Holt, believing that once he was overtaken Tania and the +stolen treasure would be accounted for. + +It was not easy work. Philip Holt had not been a hypocrite all his life +without knowing how to play the game of deception. A detective sent to +New York City to talk to old Sal had nothing worth while to report. The +woman declared positively that Philip was no connection of hers; that she +had neither seen nor heard of the young man lately. As for Tania, Sal had +truly not set eyes on her from the day that Madge had taken the little +one under her protection. + +Philip Holt knew well enough that his mother would be questioned about +his disappearance. He believed that Tania had told Madge his true +history. So old Sal was prepared with her story when the detective +interviewed her. Yet it was curious that the Cape May police were unable +to find out in what manner the young man had left the town. Inquiries at +the railroad stations, livery stables, and garages gave no clue to him. + +The houseboat girls were in despair. Madge neither ate nor slept. She +felt particularly responsible for Tania, as the child had been her +special charge and protege. Madge had been deeply grieved when her +friend, David Brewster, had been falsely accused of a crime in their +previous houseboat holiday, when they had spent a part of their time with +Mr. and Mrs. Preston in Virginia; but that sorrow was as nothing to this, +for David was almost a grown boy and able to look after himself, while +Tania was little more than a baby. When no news came of either Philip +Holt or Tania, Madge began to believe that Philip Holt had accomplished +his design. He had managed to shut Tania up in some kind of dreadful +institution. The little captain did not believe that they would ever find +the child, and was so unhappy over the loss of her Fairy Godmother that +she lost her usual power to act. + +Phyllis Alden, however, was wide awake and on the alert. She knew that it +was not possible for Philip Holt to leave Cape May without some one's +assistance. Some one must know how and when he had disappeared. The whole +point was to find that person. + +Phil thought over the matter for some time. Then she quietly telephoned +to Ethel Swann and asked her to arrange something for her. She made an +appointment to call on Ethel the same afternoon, and she and Lillian +walked over to the Swann cottage together. It seemed strange to Madge +that her two friends could have the heart for making calls, but, as there +was absolutely nothing for them to do save to wait for news of Tania that +did not come, she said nothing save that she did not feel well enough to +accompany them. + +As Lillian and Phyllis Alden approached the Swann summer cottage they saw +that Ethel had with her on the veranda the two young people who had been +most unfriendly to them during their stay at Cape May, Roy Dennis and +Mabel Farrar. + +Roy Dennis got up hurriedly. His face flushed a dull red, and he began +backing down the veranda steps, explaining to Ethel that he must be off +at once. + +Phyllis Alden was always direct. Before Roy Dennis could get away from +her she walked directly up to him, and looking him squarely in the eyes +said quietly: "Mr. Dennis, please don't go away before I have a chance to +speak to you. It seems absurd to me for us to be such enemies, simply +because something happened between us in the beginning of the summer that +wasn't very agreeable. I wished to ask you a question, so I asked Ethel +to arrange this meeting between us this afternoon." + +"What do you wish to ask me?" he returned awkwardly. + +Phil plunged directly into her subject. "Weren't you and Philip Holt +great friends while he was Mrs. Curtis's guest?" she asked. + +Roy Dennis looked uncomfortable. "We were fairly good friends, but not +pals," he assured Phil. + +"But you, perhaps, know him well enough to have him tell you where he was +going when he left Mrs. Curtis's," continued Phil in a calmly assured +tone. "Mrs. Curtis has not received a letter from him since he left here, +so she does not know just where he is. We girls on the houseboat would +also like very much to know what has become of Mr. Holt." + +"Why?" demanded Roy Dennis sharply. + +Phyllis determined to be perfectly frank. "I will tell you my reason for +asking you that question," she began. "You may not know it, but our +little friend, Tania, disappeared from Cape May the very same day that +Philip Holt left the Cape. We all knew that Mr. Holt had known Tania for +a number of years before we met her. He thought that the child ought to +be shut up in some kind of an institution, but Miss Morton wished to put +the little girl in a school. So it may just be barely possible that Mr. +Holt took Tania away without asking leave of any one." Phil made +absolutely no reference to the stolen money and jewels in her talk with +Roy Dennis. If they could run down Philip Holt and Tania the treasure-box +would be disclosed as a matter of course. + +Roy Dennis hesitated for barely a second. Then he remarked to Phil, +half-admiringly: "You have been frank with me, Miss Alden, and, to tell +you the truth, I think it is about time that I be equally frank with you. +I have no idea where Philip Holt now is, but I do know something about +how he got away from Cape May, and I am beginning to have my suspicions +that there might have been something 'shady' in his behavior that I did +not think of at the time. Three nights ago, it must have been about +eleven o'clock, I was just about ready for bed when Mr. Holt rang me up +and asked to speak to me alone. He said that he had just had bad news and +wished to get out of Cape May as soon as possible. He asked me if I would +lend him my car so that he could drive to a nearby railroad station where +he could get a train that would take him sooner to the place he wished to +go. I thought it was rather a strange request and asked him why he didn't +borrow Tom Curtis's car? He said that Mrs. Curtis had gone to bed and +that he did not like to disturb her. He and Tom had never been friendly, +so he did not wish to ask him a favor. Well, I can't say I felt very +cheerful at letting Philip Holt have the use of my car, but he said that +he would send it back in a few hours and it would be all right. I got it +out for him myself and he drove away in it. It didn't come back until +this morning, and you never saw such a sight in your life, covered with +mud and the tires almost used up." + +Phil nodded sympathetically. "Who brought the car back to you?" she +asked. "Was it Mr. Holt?" + +Roy Dennis shrugged his heavy shoulders. "No, indeed! He sent it back by +a chap who wouldn't say a word about himself, Holt, or from which +direction he had come." + +"Is the man still in town?" asked Phil, her voice trembling, "and would +you mind Tom Curtis's asking him some questions? We are so awfully +anxious." + +Roy Dennis rose quickly. "I believe the fellow is around yet, and I'll +get hold of him and take him to Tom at once. I don't think that Philip +Holt has had anything to do with the kidnapping of the little girl, but +his whole behavior looks pretty funny. We will make the chauffeur chap +tell us where Philip Holt was when he turned over my car to him." Roy was +off like a flash. + +Phyllis and Lillian were making their apologies to Ethel for being +obliged to hurry off at once to the houseboat when Mabel Farrar took hold +of Phil's hand. Her usually haughty expression had changed to one of the +deepest interest. "I am _so_ sorry about the little lost girl," she said. +"I hope you will soon find her. She is a queer, fascinating little thing. +I have watched her all summer, and she certainly can dance. I can't +believe that Philip Holt has actually stolen her, yet I don't know. Roy +Dennis just told Ethel Swann and me something awfully queer. He says he +found a bright scarlet ribbon, like a bow that a child would wear in her +hair, in the bottom of his motor car when the chauffeur brought it back +to him to-day." + +Phil's black eyes flashed. "If I ever needed anything to convince me that +Philip Holt stole Tania away from us that would do it," she returned +indignantly. "Little Tania slept every night with her hair tied up with a +scarlet ribbon so as to keep it out of her eyes. When we find where +Philip Holt is we shall find Tania, and if I have any say in the matter +he shall answer to the law for what he has done." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE RACE FOR LIFE + + +It took the united efforts of the Cape May police, Tom Curtis, and Roy +Dennis to make the chauffeur who had come back with Roy's car say where +he had met Philip Holt, and when Philip had turned over the automobile to +him to be brought back to Roy. + +The chauffeur was frightened; he finally broke down and told the whole +story. Philip Holt had driven from the farmhouse where he left Tania to +the nearest village. There he had hired the chauffeur and the man had +taken Philip within a few miles of New York. In the course of the ride, +Philip had told the automobile driver the same story about Tania that he +had told the old man in the tumbled-down farmhouse: + +Tania was Philip's sister. He was hiding her from enemies, who wished to +steal the child away from him. If anybody inquired about the child or +about him the chauffeur was to say nothing. Philip would pay him +handsomely for bringing the car back to Cape May. + +The reason that Philip Holt had sent back Roy Dennis's automobile was +because he knew that Roy would put detectives on his track if he failed +to return it. Besides, it would be far easier for Philip Holt to get away +with his precious iron safe if he were free of all other entanglements. + +It was nearly midnight before the story that the chauffeur told was clear +to Tom Curtis. The man believed that he knew the very house in which +Tania was probably concealed. There was no other place like it near the +town where the chauffeur lived. + +Tom got out his own automobile. The chauffeur would ride with him. They +would go directly to the old farmhouse. Tania would be there and all +would soon be well. + +It was about nine o'clock the next morning when Tom's thundering knock at +the rickety farmhouse door brought the foolish old man to open it. As +soon as Tom mentioned Tania, the old fellow was alarmed. He was stupid +and poor, but Philip Holt's behavior had begun to look strange even to +him. + +The old farmer was glad to tell Tom Curtis everything he knew. It was all +right. Tania was safe upstairs. He would take Tom up at once to see her. +He was just on his way up to take Tania her breakfast. Indeed, the old +man explained with tears in his eyes, he had not meant to assist in the +kidnapping of a child. He was only a poor, lonely old fellow and he +hadn't meant any harm. He had never seen Philip until the moment that the +young man appeared at his door in his automobile and asked him to look +after his sister for a few days. + +The farmer's story was true. Philip Holt had no idea how he could safely +dispose of Tania. Quite by accident, as he hurried through the country, +he had espied the old house. If Tania could be kept hidden there for a +few days he would then be able to decide what he could do with her. + +Tom would have liked to bound up the old stairs three steps at a time to +Tania's bedroom door. Poor little girl, what she must have suffered in +the last three days! But Tom's thought was always for Madge. Before he +followed the farmer to Tania's chamber he wrote a telegram which he made +the chauffeur take over to the village to send immediately. It read: "All +is well with Tania. Come at once." And it was addressed to Madge Morton. + +Tom was trembling like a girl with sympathy and compassion when he +finally reached little Tania's bedroom door. He wished Madge or his +mother were with him. How could he comfort poor Tania for all she had +suffered? + +Tania's jailer unlocked the door and knocked at it softly. The child did +not answer. He knocked at it again and tried to make his voice friendly. +"Come to the door, little one," he entreated. "I know you will be glad to +see who it is that has come to take you back to your home." + +Still no answer. Tom could endure the waiting no longer, but flung the +door wide open. No Tania was to be seen. There was no place to look for +her in the empty room, which held only a bed and a single chair. But a +window was open and the arm of the old cedar tree still pressed close +against the sill. Tom could see that small twigs had been broken off of +some of the branches. He guessed at once what had happened. Tania had +climbed down this tree and run away. But Tom felt perfectly sure that he +would be able to find her before the houseboat party and his mother could +arrive. + +The houseboat girls and Miss Jenny Ann were overjoyed at Tom's telegram. +Mrs. Curtis was with them when the message came. She was perhaps the +happiest of them all, although she had never been an especial friend of +little Tania's. In the last few days her conscience had pricked her a +little and her warm heart had sorrowed over the missing child. + +Yet, up to this very moment, Mrs. Curtis did not know the truth about +Philip Holt. Just before they started for the train that was to bear them +to Tom and Tania Madge told Mrs. Curtis that Philip had stolen the child +from them and that they also believed he had run off with their +treasure-chest. + +Mrs. Curtis listened very quietly to Madge's story. When the little +captain had finished she asked humbly, "Can you ever forgive me, dear? I +am an obstinate and spoiled woman. If only I had listened to what you +told me about Philip this sorrow would never have come to you. Tom also +warned me that I was being deceived in Philip Holt. But I believed you +were both prejudiced against him. When we recover Tania I shall try to +make up to her the wrong I have done her, if it is ever possible." + +During the journey Madge and Mrs. Curtis sat hand in hand. Captain Jules +looked after Miss Jenny Ann, Lillian, Phil and Eleanor, although he was +almost as excited by Tom's news as they were. + +At the country station the chauffeur was waiting to drive Tania's friends +to the lonely old farmhouse that the child had thought a dungeon. + +Tom and Tania would probably be standing in the front yard when the +automobile arrived. They were not there. The old farmer explained that +Tom and Tania had gone out together. They would be back in a few minutes. +To tell the truth, the man did expect them to appear at any time. He +could not believe that Tania was really lost, although Tom had been +searching for her since early morning and it was now about four o'clock +in the afternoon. + +For two hours the houseboat party waited. The girls walked up and down +the rickety farmhouse porch, clinging to Captain Jules. Mrs. Curtis and +Miss Jenny Ann remained indoors. At dusk Tom returned. He was alone and +could hardly drag one foot after the other, he was so weary and +heartsick. To think that after wiring her he had found Tania he must face +Madge with the dreadful news that the child was lost again! + +Two long, weary days passed without news of the lost Tania. The houseboat +party made the old farmhouse their headquarters while conducting the +search. At first no one thought to penetrate the cedar swamp where Tania +had hidden herself, but the idea finally occurred to Tom Curtis, and on +the third morning he and Captain Jules started out. + +All that third anxious day the girls searched the immediate neighborhood +for Tania. When evening came they gathered sadly in the wretched +farmhouse, to await the return of Tom Curtis and the old sea captain. + +Madge was lying on a rickety lounge, with her face buried in her hands. +Phyllis was sitting near the door. Mrs. Curtis stood at the window, +watching for the return of her son. In a further corner of the room, Miss +Jenny Ann, Lillian and Eleanor were talking softly together. + +Suddenly each one of the sad women became aware of the captain's presence +as his big form darkened the doorway. A ray of light from their single +oil lamp shone across his weather-beaten face. Phil saw him most +distinctly and read disaster in his glance. With the unselfish thought of +others that invariably marks a great nature, she went swiftly across the +room and dropped on her knees beside Madge. + +Madge sprang from her lounge and stumbled across the room toward the old +sailor. Phil kept close beside her. + +"Tania!" whispered Madge faintly, for she too had seen the captain's +face. "Where is my little Fairy Godmother?" + +"We have found Tania, Madge," said Captain Jules gently, "but she is very +ill. We found her lying under a tree in the swamp, delirious with fever. +She is almost starved, and she is so frail--that----" The old man's voice +broke. + +"Don't say she is going to die, Captain Jules," implored Mrs. Curtis. "If +she does, I shall feel that I am responsible. Surely, something can be +done for her." The proud woman buried her face in her hands. + +At that moment Tom entered, bearing in his arms a frail little figure, +whose thin hands moved incessantly and whose black eyes were bright with +fever. + +With a cry of "Tania, dear little Fairy Godmother, you mustn't, you +shan't die!" Madge sprang to Tom's side and caught the little, restless +hands in hers. + +For an instant the black eyes looked recognition. "Madge," Tania said +clearly, "he took me away--the Wicked Genii." Her voice trailed off into +indistinct muttering. + +"She must be rushed to a hospital at once." Captain Jules's calm voice +roused the sorrowing friends of little Tania to action. + +"I'll have my car at the door in ten minutes," declared Tom huskily. +"Make her as comfortable as you can for the journey." + +It was in Captain Jules's strong arms that little Tania made the journey +to a private sanatorium at Cape May. Madge sat beside the captain, her +eyes fixed upon the little, dark head that lay against the captain's +broad shoulder. The strong, magnetic touch of the old sailor seemed to +quiet the fever-stricken child, and, for the first time since they had +found her, Tania lay absolutely still in his arms. + +Mrs. Curtis occupied the front seat with her son, who drove his car at a +rate of speed that would have caused a traffic officer to hold up his +hands in horror. It had been arranged that Tom should return to the +farmhouse as soon as possible for the rest of the party. + +No one of the occupants of the car ever forgot that ride. Once at the +hospital, no time was lost in caring for Tania. The physician in +attendance, however, would give them no satisfaction as to Tania's +condition beyond the admission that it was very serious. Mrs. Curtis +engaged the most expensive room in the hospital for the child, as well as +a day and night nurse, and, surrounded by every comfort and the prayers +of anxious and loving friends, Tania began her fight for life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CAPTAIN JULES LISTENS TO A STORY + + +Tania did not die. After a few days the fever left her, but she was so +weak and frail that the physician in charge of her case advised Mrs. +Curtis to allow her to remain in the sanatorium for at least a month. +When she should have sufficiently recovered Mrs. Curtis had decided to +take upon herself the responsibility of the child's future. She had been +a constant visitor in the sickroom and during the long hours she had +spent with the imaginative little one had grown to love her, while Tania +in turn adored the stately, white-haired woman and clung to her even as +she did to Madge, a fact which pleased Mrs. Curtis more than she would +admit. + +Philip Holt was discovered hiding in New York City. The treasure-box was +in the keeping of old Sal, for Philip had not dared to dispose of the +coins or the jewelry while the detectives were on the lookout for him. +Tom Curtis saw that the case against Philip Holt was conducted very +quietly. The houseboat girls had had enough trouble and excitement. Their +treasure was restored to them and they had no desire ever to hear Philip +Holt's name mentioned again. + +Tom Curtis was more curious. In questioning Philip, Tom learned that he +himself was innocently to blame for Philip's crime. Holt recalled to Tom +the fact that, on returning from the houseboat after spending the evening +with Captain Jules and his friends, Tom had mentioned to his mother that +the precious iron safe was on the houseboat, and that if she cared to +look at the old jewelry again Miss Jenny Ann would unlock the sideboard +drawer and show it to her the next day. In that moment Philip Holt +decided on his theft, but he did not expect Tania to thwart him. He had +slipped through one of the open staterooms into the dining room of the +houseboat, broken the lock of the sideboard and opened the dining room +door from the inside to make his escape. Philip Holt believed that in +taking Tania with him he had accomplished his own downfall. + +If he had not stopped to leave the child at the deserted farmhouse, his +movements would never have been traced. + +Madge Morton was a good deal changed by the events of the last few weeks. +She was so unlike her usual happy, light-hearted and impetuous self that +Miss Jenny Ann and the houseboat girls were worried about her. They +ardently wished that Madge would fly into a temper again just to show she +possessed her old spirit. But she was very gentle and quiet and liked to +spend a good deal of the time alone. + +Miss Jenny Ann consulted with Lillian, Phil and Eleanor. They decided to +write to David Brewster to ask him to come to spend a few days with them +on the houseboat. Madge was fond of David and the young man had done such +fine things for himself in the past year that her friends hoped a sight +of him would stir her out of her depression. + +David was visiting Mrs. Randolph--"Miss Betsey"--in Hartford. He replied +that he would try to come to Cape May in another week or ten days, but +please not to mention the fact to Madge until he was more sure of +coming. + +One bright summer afternoon Madge returned alone from a long motor ride +with Mrs. Curtis and Tom. She found the houseboat entirely deserted and +remembered that the girls and Miss Jenny Ann had had an engagement to go +sailing. She curled up on the big steamer chair and gave herself over to +dreams. + +A small boat, pulled by a pair of strong arms, came along close to the +deck of the "Merry Maid." Madge looked up to see Captain Jules's faithful +face beaming at her. + +"All alone?" he called out cheerfully. "Come for a row with me. I'll get +you back before tea." + +Madge wanted to refuse, but she hardly knew how, so she slipped into the +prow of the skiff and sat there idly facing him. + +Captain Jules frowned at the girl's pale face, which looked even paler +under the loose twists of her soft auburn hair. Madge looked older and +more womanly than she had the day the captain first saw her. There was a +deeper meaning to the upper curves of her full, red lips and a gentler +sweep to the downward droop of her heavy, black lashes. She was +fulfilling the promise of the great beauty that was to be hers. It was +easy to see that she had the charm that would make her life full of +interest. + +Still Captain Jules frowned as though the picture of Madge and her future +did not please him. + +"How much longer are you going to stay at Cape May, Miss Morton?" he +inquired. + +Madge smiled at him. "I don't know anything about 'Miss Morton's' plans, +but Madge expects to be here for about two weeks more." + +Recently the captain had been calling the houseboat girls by their first +names, as he was with them so constantly in their trouble. But he had now +decided that he must return to the formality of the beginning of their +acquaintance. It was best to do so. + +"And afterward?" the old sailor questioned, pretending that he was really +not greatly interested in Madge's reply. + +The girl's expression changed. "I don't know," she returned. "Of course, +Eleanor and I will go back to 'Forest House' for a while. Aren't you glad +that Uncle has been able to pay off the mortgage? When Nellie and Lillian +go to Miss Tolliver's and Phil to college I don't know exactly what I +shall do. Mrs. Curtis and Tom have asked me to make them a visit in New +York next winter." + +The captain frowned again. It was well that Madge was looking over the +water and not at him, for she never could have told why he looked so +displeased. + +"You and Tom Curtis are very good friends, aren't you, Madge?" said +Captain Jules abruptly. + +Madge smiled to herself. She felt as though she were in the witness box. +Was her dear old captain trying to cross-examine her? + +"Of course, I like Tom better than almost any one else. He is awfully +good to me. You know you like Tom yourself, so why shouldn't I?" she +ended wickedly. + +"I like him. Certainly I do. He is a fine, upright fellow and his money +hasn't hurt him a mite, which you can't say of the most of us. But it's a +different matter with you, young lady, and I want you to go slowly." + +"But I am not going at all, Captain," laughed Madge. "It seems to me that +I want only one thing in the world, and that's to find my father. +Sometimes I am afraid that perhaps I shall never find my father after +all!" + +Captain Jules coughed and his voice sounded rather husky. It had a +different note in it from any that Madge had ever heard him use to her. + +"Don't play the coward, child," he said sternly; "just because you have +had one defeat don't go about the world saying you must give up. It may +be that your father did that once and is sorry for it now. Keep up the +fight. No matter how many times we may be knocked down in this world, if +we have the right sort of courage we'll always get up again." + +Madge sat up very straight. Her blue eyes flashed back at Captain Jules +with an expression that he liked to see. "I am not going to give up my +search," she answered defiantly. "One hears that it is Fate which +separates two persons. If I find Father, I shall feel that I have won a +victory over Fate. But I can't help longing to tell my father that I know +that he is innocent of the fault for which he was disgraced and dismissed +from the Navy, and that I have the proof in my possession that would make +it clear to all the world as well as to me." + +The old captain gave vent to a sudden exclamation that sounded like a +groan. His face looked strangely drawn under his coat of tan. + +"Are you sick, Captain Jules?" asked Madge hastily. "Do take my place and +let me have the oars. I am sure I can row you." + +Captain Jules smiled back at her. "What made you think I was sick?" he +asked. "What was that you were telling me? How do you know that your +father was guiltless of his fault? Why, Captain Robert Morton was one of +the kindest men that ever trod a deck, and yet he was convicted of +cruelty to one of his own sailors." + +"Captain Jules," continued Madge earnestly, "I would like to tell you the +whole story if you have time to listen to it. You know I promised long +ago to tell you. Two years ago, when we were on the second of our +houseboat excursions, we spent part of our holiday near Old Point +Comfort. There I met the man who had been my father's superior officer. +Some unpleasant things happened between his granddaughter and me, and she +told my father's story at a dinner in order to humiliate me. Long +afterward her grandfather heard of what his granddaughter had done and he +made a statement before my friends which cleared my father's name. He +confessed to having allowed my father to suffer for something he had +commanded him to do. My father was too great a man to clear himself at +the expense of his superior officer, so he left the Navy in disgrace and +has never been heard of since that dreadful time. + +"There isn't much more to tell. Only the old admiral has died since I met +him. However, he left a paper that was sent to me, in which he acquits my +father of all blame and takes the whole responsibility for my father's +act on himself. Must we go back home, Captain Jules?" for, at the end of +her speech, Madge observed that the captain had turned his skiff and was +rowing directly toward the houseboat. He handed Madge aboard a few +moments later with the air of one whose mind is elsewhere. + +It was impossible for Miss Jenny Ann to persuade the old pearl diver to +remain to supper. With very few words to any of the party he turned Madge +over to her friends and rowed hurriedly away toward his home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE VICTORY OVER FATE + + +Early the next morning word was brought by a small boy that Captain Jules +Fontaine wished Miss Madge Morton to come out to "The Anchorage" alone, +as he had some important business that he wished to talk over with her. + +It was a wonderful morning, all fresh sea breezes and sparkling sunshine. +Madge had not felt so gay in a long time as when the other houseboat +girls fell to guessing as to why Captain Jules desired her presence at +his house. + +"He intends to make you his heiress, Madge," insisted Lillian. "Then, +when you are an old lady, you can come down here to live in the house +with the roof like three sails, and ride around in the captain's rowboat +and sailboat and be as happy as a clam." + +Madge shook her head. "No such thing, Lillian. I don't believe the +captain wants me for anything important. He may be going to lecture me, +as he did yesterday afternoon. At any rate, I'll be back before long. +Please save some luncheon for me." + +Madge was surprised when her boat landed near "The Anchorage" not to see +Captain Jules in his front yard, with his funny pet monkey on his +shoulder, waiting to receive her. She began to feel afraid that the +captain was ill. She had never been inside his house in all their +acquaintance. But Captain Jules had sent for her, so there was nothing +for her to do but to march up boldly to his front door and knock. + +She lifted the heavy brass knocker, which looked like the head of a +dolphin, and gave three brisk blows on the closed door. + +At first no one answered. The little captain was beginning to think that +the boy who came to her had made some mistake in his message and that +Captain Jules had gone out in his fishing boat for the day, when she +heard some one coming down the passage to open the door for her. + +She gave a little start of surprise. A tall, middle-aged man, with a +single streak of white hair through the brown, was gazing at her +curiously. + +"I would like to see Captain Jules," murmured Madge stupidly, unable to +at once recover from the surprise of finding that Captain Jules did not +live alone. + +The strange man invited Madge into a tiny parlor which rather surprised +her. The room was filled with bookshelves, reaching almost up to the top +of the wall. The young girl had never dreamed that her captain was much +of a student. The only things that reminded her of Captain Jules were the +fishnets that were hung at the windows for curtains and the great sprays +of coral and sponge which decorated the mantelpiece. + +The man sat down with his back to the light, so that he could look +straight into Madge's face. + +"Captain Jules will be here after a little, Miss Morton," he said +gravely, "but he wished me to have a talk with you first." + +Madge looked curiously at the unknown man. She could not obtain a very +distinct view of his face, but she saw that he was very distinguished +looking, that his eyes seemed quite dark, and that he wore a pointed +beard. He did not look like an American. At least, there was something in +his appearance that Madge did not quite understand. It struck her that +perhaps the man was a lawyer. It could not be that Lillian was right in +her guess. The treasure in the iron safe had not yet been sold, so it +might be that this man wished to make some offer for it. Whoever he might +be the silence was becoming uncomfortable. The little captain decided to +break it. + +"I wonder if you wish to talk to me about the treasure that we found?" +she inquired, smiling. "I would rather that Captain Jules should be in +here when we speak of that." + +The stranger shook his head. He had a very beautiful voice that in some +way fascinated the girl. + +"No, I don't wish to talk about your treasure, but I do wish to speak of +something else that was lost and is found again. I don't know that you +will value it, child, or that it is worth having, but Captain Jules +thinks you might." + +Madge's heart began to beat faster. This strange man had something of +great importance to tell her. She wondered if she had ever seen him +anywhere before. There was something in his look that was oddly familiar. +But why did he look at her so strangely and why did not her old friend +come to her to end this foolish suspense? + +"I have been down here on a visit to Captain Jules a number of times this +summer and he has always talked of you," went on the fascinating voice. +"I have longed to see you, but----Miss Morton, Captain Jules Fontaine and +I knew your father once, long years ago. The news that you had proof of +his innocence made us very happy last night." + +Madge would have liked to bounce up and down in her chair, like an +impatient child. Only her age restrained her. Why didn't this man tell +her the thing he was trying to say? What made him hesitate so long? + +"Yes, yes," she returned impatiently, "but do you know whether my father +is alive now? That is the only thing I care about." + +Madge gripped both arms of her chair to control herself. She was +trembling so that she felt that she must be having a chill, though it was +a warm summer day, for the stranger had risen and was coming toward her, +his face white and haggard. Then, as he advanced into the brighter light +of the room, Madge saw that his eyes were very blue. + +"Your father isn't dead," the man replied quietly. "He is here in this +very house, and he cares for you more than all the world in spite of his +long silence!" + +The little captain sprang to her feet, her face flaming. "Captain Jules! +_He_ is my father? He seemed so old that I didn't realize it. Yet he has +said so many things to me that might have made me guess he knew +everything in the world about me. Oh, where is he? My own, own Captain +Jules?" + +The stranger, whose arms had been outstretched toward Madge, let them +fall at his sides, but Madge had no eyes for him. Captain Jules had +entered the room and she had flung herself straight into his kindly +arms. + +So, after all, it was Captain Jules Fontaine who had to make it clear to +Madge that he was not her father, but her father's lifelong and devoted +friend. The captain told Madge the story while he held both her cold +hands in his big, rough ones, and the man who was her own father sat +watching and waiting for her verdict. + +Jules Fontaine had never been captain of anything but a sailing schooner, +but he had been a gunner's mate on Captain Robert Morton's ship. He alone +knew that Captain Morton had been forced into the fault that he had +committed by order of his admiral. When Captain Morton was dismissed from +the United States Naval Service Jules Fontaine, gunner's mate, had +procured his discharge and followed the fortunes of his captain. The two +men drifted south to the tropics. Every American vessel is equipped with +a diving outfit, and some of the men are taught to go down under the +water to examine the bottoms of the boats. Jules Fontaine liked the +business of diving. When the two men found themselves in a strange land, +without any occupations, Captain Jules joined his fortunes with the pearl +divers and for many years followed their perilous trade. + +Captain Morton had a harder time to get along, but after a while he +studied foreign languages and began to translate books. Five years before +the two men had come back to the United States. Since that time Captain +Morton had tried to follow every movement of his daughter. Captain Jules +wanted his friend to make himself known to his own people, but Robert +Morton feared that they would never forgive his long silence or his early +disgrace. He believed that Madge would be happier without knowledge of +him. It was her own longing for her father, reported by Captain Jules, +that had impelled Robert Morton at last to reveal himself to her. + +Madge could not comprehend all of this at once. She did not even try to +do so. She realized only that, after being without any parents, she had +suddenly come into two fathers at the same time, her own father and +Captain Jules, who was her more than foster father. + +With a low, glad cry she went swiftly across the room. She did not try to +think or to ask questions at that moment about the past, she only flung +her young arms about her father's neck in a long embrace, feeling that at +last she had some one in the world who was her very own. + +While Madge, her father, and Captain Jules were trying to see how they +could bear the miracle and shock of their great happiness, a small, dark +object darted into the room and planted its claws in Madge's hair. It +pulled and chattered with all its might. + +[Illustration: "I am Going to Keep House for You at 'The Anchorage.'"] + +The little captain laughed with the tears in her eyes. "It's that +good-for-nothing monkey!" she exclaimed as she disentangled the +creature's tiny hands. Then she kissed her father and afterwards Captain +Jules. "Now I know why this monkey is called Madge, and I am sorry to +have such a jealous, bad-tempered namesake." + +The captain scolded the monkey gently. "Don't you fret about this +particular namesake. If you only knew all the others you have had! Every +single pet that two lonely old men could get to stay around the house +with them we have named for you." + +Captain Morton did not go back to the houseboat with his daughter. Madge +thought she would rather tell her friends of her great happiness alone. +She wouldn't even let Captain Jules escort her. "You'll both have plenty +of my society after a while," she argued, "for I am going to come to keep +house for you at 'The Anchorage' some day." + +Madge rowed slowly back to the "Merry Maid." She was thinking over what +she would say to Miss Jennie Ann and the girls. How should she announce +to them that her quest was ended, her victory over Fate won? + +As she neared the houseboat she saw that her companions were gathered on +deck, evidently watching for her. Madge rested on her oars and waved one +hand to them. Four hands waved promptly back to her. A moment more and +she had come alongside the "Merry Maid." As she clambered on deck she +cast a swift upward glance at her friends, who, with one accord, were +looking down on her, their faces full of loving concern. + +With a little cry of rapture Madge threw herself into Miss Jenny Ann's +arms. "O, my dear!" she cried, "I've found him! I've found my father!" + +And it was with her faithful mates' arms around her that Madge told the +strange story of how her quest had ended in the little sitting room of +"The Anchorage." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE LITTLE CAPTAIN STARTS ON A JOURNEY + + +Six weeks had passed since Madge Morton's discovery of her father, and +many things had happened since then. It was now toward the latter part of +September, and on a beautiful fall morning one of the busy steamship +docks in the lower end of New York City was crowded with a gay company of +people. There were four young girls and three young men, a beautiful +older woman, with soft, white hair and a look of wonderful distinction; a +woman of about twenty-six or seven, with a man by her side, who in some +way suggested the calling of the artist; a white-haired old man and an +elderly lady, who, in spite of the fact that she answered to the name of +Mrs. John Randolph, would have been mistaken anywhere for a New England +spinster. Two men were the only other important members of the group. One +of them was a distinguished-looking man of about fifty-three with a +rather sad expression, and the last a bluff old sea captain, whose laugh +rang out clear and hearty above the sound of the many voices. + +In front of the wharf lay a beautiful steam yacht, painted pure white and +flying a United States flag. The boat was of good size and capable of +making many knots an hour, but she looked like a little toy ship +alongside the immense ocean-going steamers that were entering and leaving +the New York harbor, or waiting their sailing day at their docks. + +One of the girls, dressed in a white serge frock and wearing a white felt +hat, was walking up and down at the back of the crowd, talking to a young +man. + +"David, more than almost anything, I believe I appreciate your coming to +New York to see me off. It would have been dreadful to go away for a +whole year, or maybe longer, without having had a glimpse of you. Who +knows what may happen before I am back again?" The girl's eyes looked +wistfully about among her friends, although her lips smiled happily. + +For a few seconds the young man made no answer. He had never been able to +talk very readily, now he seemed to wish to think before he spoke. + +"I shall be a man, Madge, before you are back again," he replied slowly. +"I am twenty now, so I shall be ready to vote. But, best of all, I shall +be through college and ready to go to work." The young man threw back his +square shoulders. His black eyes looked serious and steadfast. "I am +going to make you proud of me, Madge. You remember I told you so, that +day in the Virginia field, when you helped me out of a scrape and started +me on the right road." + +The little captain nodded emphatically. "I am proud of you already, +David," she declared warmly. "I think it is perfectly wonderful that you +have been able to take two years' work in college instead of one, beside +helping Mr. Preston on the farm. You are going to make me dreadfully +ashamed when I come back, by knowing so much more than I. Phil enters +Vassar this fall and Tom will graduate at Columbia in another year. I am +going to try to study on the yacht, but I shall be so busy seeing things +that I know I won't accomplish very much. Just think, David, I am going +around the world in our own boat with my father and Captain Jules! Isn't +it wonderful how one's dreams come true and things turn out even better +than you expect them to? I believe, if it weren't for leaving my beloved +houseboat chums and Mrs. Curtis and Tom, and Miss Jenny Ann and you, I +should be the happiest girl in the world." + +"I don't suppose I count for much, Madge," answered David honestly, "but +I am more grateful to you than you can know for putting me on that list. +Some day----" The young man hesitated, then his sober face relaxed and a +brilliant smile lighted it. "It's pretty early for a fellow like me to be +talking about some day, isn't it, Madge?" + +Madge laughed, though she blushed a little and answered nothing. + +Just then Phyllis Alden and a young man in a lieutenant's uniform joined +Madge and David Brewster. + +"Lieutenant Jimmy is saying dreadful things, Madge," announced Phil +mournfully. "He says he is sure you won't come back home in a year. +You'll stay over in Europe until you are grown up or married, or +something else, and you'll never be a houseboat girl again!" Phil's voice +broke. + +Lieutenant Jimmy looked uncomfortable. "See here, Miss Alden," he +protested, "I never said anything as bad as all that. I only said that +perhaps Captain Morton and Captain Jules would stay longer than a year. +Almost any one would, if they owned that jolly little yacht." + +"I'll wager you, Lieutenant Jimmy, a torpedo boat full of the same kind +of candy that you sent us at the end of our second houseboat holiday, +that if you come down to this dock one year from to-day you will see our +yacht, which Captain Jules has named 'The Little Captain,' paying her +respects to the Statue of Liberty. Come, let's go and make Father and +Captain Jules convince him, Phil," proposed Madge, hugging Phyllis close +to her, as if the thought of being parted from her for so long as one +year was not to be borne. + +"I'll take that wager, Miss Morton," replied Lieutenant Jimmy jokingly, +"because I would be so awfully glad to have to pay it." + +"Madge simply must come back on time, Lieutenant Jimmy," whispered Phil, +nodding her head mysteriously toward a young woman and a man. "It's a +state secret, and I ought not to tell you, but Miss Jenny Ann and Mr. +Theodore Brown, the artist, are to be married a year from this fall. We +must all be at the wedding. Miss Jenny Ann couldn't possibly be married +unless every one of the 'Mates of the Merry Maid' were there. If we can +arrange it, Miss Jenny Ann is going to be married on the houseboat. Won't +it be the greatest fun?" + +For the moment Phil was so cheered at the thought of another houseboat +reunion, though a whole twelve months off, that she forgot that her best +beloved Madge was to leave in another half-hour for her trip around the +world. + +Phyllis and Lieutenant Jimmy were standing a little behind Madge. David +Brewster stopped to talk to Mrs. Curtis and Tom. + +At the far end of the dock Captain Jules Fontaine was giving some orders +to four sailors who formed the entire crew of his new yacht, for the old +pearl diver was to pilot his own boat, which was to sail under Captain +Morton's orders. The beautiful little yacht was Captain Jules's own +property. The old man had made a comfortable fortune in his life in the +tropics, but he had little use for it, and no desire, except to make +Madge and her father happy. The little captain's love for the water was +what endeared her most to the old sailor. He could not be happy away from +the sea and he couldn't be happy away from Madge and Captain Morton. The +fortunate girl's two fathers had discussed very seriously Madge's own +proposal to come to keep house for them at "The Anchorage." Both men knew +that she could not settle down at their lonely little house far up the +bay and several miles from the nearest town, which was Cape May. +Wonderful as the fathers thought Madge, they realized that she was very +young and must go on with her education. They could not bear to send her +away to college after all the long years of separation. Captain Jules +conceived the brilliant idea of educating her by taking her on a trip +around the world. The old sailor couldn't have borne being cooped up in +liners and on trains with other people to run them. So Madge's dream of a +ship all her own, which was to sail "strange countries for to see," had +come true with her other good fortune. + +Leaving her friends for a moment, Madge made her way toward the end of +the dock to beg Captain Jules to reassure her friends of their return at +the end of a year. The captain did not notice her approach. Apparently no +one was looking at her. + +On the end of the wharf were gathered three or four small street arabs. +They had no business on the wharf, which was precisely their reason for +being there. They were playing behind a number of large boxes and some +other luggage, and, until Madge approached, no one had observed them. +They were having a tug-of-war and it was hardly a fair battle. Two +good-sized urchins were pulling against one other strong fellow and +another small boy, so thin and pale, with such dark hair and big, black +eyes that, for the moment, he made Madge think of Tania, who was almost +well enough to leave the sanatorium and had sent her Fairy Godmother many +loving messages by Mrs. Curtis. Madge stopped for half a minute to watch +the boys. In her stateroom were so many boxes of candy she would never be +able to eat it all in her trip around the world. If she only had some of +them to give this lively little group of youngsters! + +Captain Jules was at one side of the wide wharf with his back toward her +and the group of boys. His yacht was occupying his entire attention. The +street urchins did not realize how near they were to the edge of the dock +because of the pile of luggage that surrounded them. + +The tug-of-war grew exciting. Madge clapped her hands softly. She had not +believed the smallest rascal had so much strength. Suddenly the older +lad's grip broke. The boys fell back against a pile of trunks that were +set uneasily one above the other. One of the trunks slid into the water +and the smallest lad slipped backward after it with an almost noiseless +splash. His boy companions stared helplessly after him, too frightened to +make a sound. + +Of course, Madge might soon have summoned help. She did think of it for a +brief instant, for she realized perfectly that her white serge suit would +look anything but smart if she plunged into the river in it. Then, too, +her friends, Captain Jules, and her father might be displeased with her. +But the little lad had given her such an agonized, helpless look of +appeal as he struck the water! And his eyes were so like Tania's! + +Captain Jules turned around at the sound of feet running down the dock. +David Brewster and Tom Curtis were side by side. But they both looked +more surprised than frightened. In the water, a few feet from the dock, +Captain Jules espied Madge Morton, her white hat floating off the back of +her head, her face and hair dripping with water. She was smiling in a +half-apologetic and half-nervous way. In one hand she held a small boy +firmly by the collar. "Fish us out, somebody?" she begged. "I am +dreadfully sorry to spoil my clothes, but this little wretch would go and +fall into the water at the very last moment." + +Captain Jules and one of his sailors pulled Madge and the small boy +safely onto the wharf again. The captain frowned at her solemnly, while +David and Tom laughed. + +"How am I ever going to keep her out of the bottom of the sea?" the +captain inquired sternly. "I don't know that I care for the role of +playing guardian to a mermaid." + +Madge could see Mrs. Curtis, Miss Jenny Ann, her chums and her father, as +well as their other friends, hurrying down toward the end of the dock. +She gave one swift glance at them, then she looked ruefully at her own +dripping garments. Tom and David long remembered her as they saw her at +that moment. Her white dress clung to her slender form; the water was +dripping from her clothing, her cheeks were a brilliant crimson from +embarrassment at her plight; her red-brown hair glinted in the bright +sunlight, and her blue eyes sparkled with mischief and dismay. Before any +one had a chance to scold or to reproach her, she had dashed across the +wharf, run aboard the yacht and had shut herself up in her stateroom. + +A few minutes later, dressed in a fresh white serge frock, she emerged to +say good-bye. The houseboat girls had made up their minds that not one +tear would any one of them shed when the moment of parting came. Lillian +and Phil stood on either side of Eleanor, for neither of them had much +faith that Nellie could keep her word when it came to the test. + +Madge went first to Mr. and Mrs. John Randolph. "Miss Betsey" took both +her hands and held them gravely. "Madge, dear, remember I have always +told you that wherever you were exciting things were sure to happen. You +have convinced me of it again to-day. Now, you are going around the world +and I hope you will see and know only the best there is in it. Good-bye." +Miss Betsey leaned on her distinguished old husband's arm for support and +surreptitiously wiped her eyes. + +"Jenny Ann Jones, you promised I wouldn't have to say good-bye to you," +protested Madge chokingly. Miss Jenny Ann nodded, while Mr. Theodore +Brown gazed at her comfortingly. Madge rallied her courage and smiled at +both of them. "Do you remember, Jenny Ann," she questioned, "how on the +very first of our houseboat trips you said that you would marry some day, +just to be able to get rid of the name of 'Jones'? I am sure you will +like 'Brown' a whole lot better." Madge turned saucily away to hide the +trembling of her lips. + +Mrs. Curtis said nothing. She just kissed Madge's forehead, both rosy +cheeks and once on her red lips. But when the little captain left her, +and Mrs. Curtis turned to find her son standing near her, his face white +and his lips set, his mother faltered brokenly: "I am trying hard not to +be selfish, Tom, and I am glad, with all my heart, that Madge found her +father, but no one will ever know how sorry I am not to have her for my +daughter." + +"Maybe you will some day, after all, Mother," returned Tom steadily. "We +are young, I know, and neither of us has seen much of the world. Still, I +am fairly sure I know my own mind. Perhaps Madge will care as much as I +do now when the right time comes." + +At the last, Madge could not say farewell to her three chums. Her eyes +were so full of tears that Captain Jules had to lead her aboard the +yacht. She stood on the deck, kissing both hands to them as long as she +could see them, until their little boat had been towed far out into the +great New York harbor. + +Madge's father stood by her, watching the sunlight dance upon the water. + +"My little girl," Captain Morton began, with a view of distracting her +attention from the sorrow of parting, "I have always forgotten to tell +you that I saw you graduate at Miss Tolliver's. Jules was not with me +that day. He knew of you but never saw you until you went to Cape May. I +wonder I didn't betray myself to you then, dear. It was I who first +called out to you when I saw that arch tottering over your head." + +Madge nodded. "I know it now," she replied. "I must have caught a brief +glimpse of your face. You and Captain Jules sent me the wonderful pearl. +We never could guess from whom it had come." + +"Yes," answered Captain Morton, "Jules and I had kept it for you for many +years. We determined that sooner or later you should have it. I shall +never forget the day when Jules came hurrying into 'The Anchorage' with +the news that he had seen you and talked with you about me. He was sure +that you were our Madge even before he knew your name to be Morton. It +was wonderful to hear that your dearest wish was to find me." + +Madge slipped her arm into that of her father and laid her curly head +against his shoulder. "If it was Fate that separated us, then I shall +never be dismayed by it again, for love and determination are far greater +and through them I found you," she declared softly. + +"I am afraid I am very selfish to take you away for a whole year from +Mrs. Curtis and Tom and the houseboat girls," said her father, almost +wistfully. "You are not sorry you are going to spend the next few months +with no one but two old men for company?" + +"But I spent eighteen years without you," reminded Madge. "Don't you +believe I ought to begin to make up for lost time? Just think,"--her eyes +grew tender with the pride of possession--"I have what I've longed for +more than anything else in the world, my father's love. Perhaps when we +come back next year we can anchor the 'Little Captain' in Pleasure Bay +and invite the 'Merry Maid' and her crew to visit us. Then Miss Jenny Ann +could be married on the houseboat. We must be very sure to come home on +time if we carry out that plan." + +"Aye, aye, Captain Madge," smiled her father, "unless our good ship fails +us we'll anchor next September in Pleasure Bay and send a special +invitation to the crew of the 'Merry Maid' to meet us there." + +The End + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Madge Morton's Victory, by Amy D.V. 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