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diff --git a/36176-h/36176-h.htm b/36176-h/36176-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b79fd59 --- /dev/null +++ b/36176-h/36176-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8396 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Nan Sherwood’s Summer Holidays, by Annie Roe Carr. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2 {text-align: center; clear: both;} +h1 {line-height: 150%; margin-top: 3em;} +h2 {line-height: 200%;} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +p.tp { + text-align: center; + font-size: 120%; + font-weight: normal; + line-height: 120%; +} + +p.tp2 { + text-align: center; + font-size: 90%; + font-weight: normal; + font-style: italic; + line-height: 140%; +} + +hr.l1 {width: 65%; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 4em;} +hr.l2 {width: 20%; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 4em;} + +table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} +td {padding-left: .75em; padding-right: .75em;} +td.col2 {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps;} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 94%; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: right; + color: gray; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.r1 {margin-top: -1em;} +.r6 {margin-top: 6em;} + +.rght {float: right; margin-right: 2em;} +.rght2 {float: right; margin-right: 5em;} +.rght3 {float: right; margin-right: 4em;} + +.note {margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em;} +.note1 {position: absolute; left: 35%;} +.note2 {position: absolute; left: 40%;} +.note3 {position: absolute; left: 45%;} + +.figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center; padding: 1em;} + +.poem {text-align: left; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.tnote { + border: dashed 1px; + font-size: 90%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + padding: .5em 1em .5em 1em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Nan Sherwood's Summer Holidays, by Annie Roe Carr + +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: Nan Sherwood's Summer Holidays + +Author: Annie Roe Carr + +Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #36176] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NAN SHERWOOD'S SUMMER HOLIDAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, eagkw, Dave Morgan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="404" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/summer1.png" width="400" height="657" alt="Title Page" title="" /> +</div> + +<h1>NAN SHERWOOD’S<br /> +SUMMER HOLIDAYS</h1> + +<p class="tp">BY<br /><br /> + +<big>ANNIE ROE CARR</big></p> + +<hr class="l2"/> + +<p class="tp">THE WORLD SYNDICATE<br /> +PUBLISHING COMPANY<br /> +CLEVELAND NEW YORK +</p> + +<hr class="l1"/> + +<p class="tp2">Published 1937 by<br /> +The World Syndicate Publishing Co.</p> + +<div class="r6"><div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/summer2.png" width="100" height="104" alt="Logo" title="" /> +</div></div> + +<p class="tp2"><i>Printed in the United States of America</i> +</p> + +<hr class="l1"/> + +<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr><td align="right"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td class="col2"> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">I</td><td class="col2">New Year’s Eve</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II</td><td class="col2">Secrets</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III</td><td class="col2">Plans and More Plans</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IV</td><td class="col2">Doubt on All Sides</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">V</td><td class="col2">Surprise for Everyone!</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VI</td><td class="col2">Adventures Ahead!</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VII</td><td class="col2">A Mysterious Letter</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VIII</td><td class="col2">Old friends and an Enemy</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IX</td><td class="col2">They’re Off</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">X</td><td class="col2">Trouble for Nan</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XI</td><td class="col2">Bess Holds Her Temper</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XII</td><td class="col2">A Score to Even Up</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIII</td><td class="col2">Friends Aboard Ship</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIV</td><td class="col2">A Storm at Sea</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XV</td><td class="col2">In the Ship’s Hospital</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVI</td><td class="col2">The Hunch-back Again</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVII</td><td class="col2">Nan Puzzles Over Her Secret</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVIII</td><td class="col2">The Captain’s Dinner</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIX</td><td class="col2">Land is Sighted</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XX</td><td class="col2">Be Careful, Nan!</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXI</td><td class="col2">Welcome, Lassies, to Scotland</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXII</td><td class="col2">Emberon</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIII</td><td class="col2">Scottish Games and Scottish Tunes</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIV</td><td class="col2">An Accident Near the Castle</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXV</td><td class="col2">James Blake Does Some Explaining</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVI</td><td class="col2">Nan’s Disappearance</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVII</td><td class="col2">Bess Has Her Say</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_216">216</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVIII</td><td class="col2">Nan Comes Into Her Own</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIX</td><td class="col2">London On Holiday</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXX</td><td class="col2">The King is Crowned</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + + +<h1>NAN SHERWOOD’S<br /> +SUMMER HOLIDAYS</h1> + +<div class="r1"><div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/summer3.png" width="400" height="33" alt="decoration" title="" /> +</div></div> + + +<h2>CHAPTER I<br /> + +<small>NEW YEAR’S EVE</small></h2> + + +<p>“I just can’t believe it’s true! I’ve pinched myself +a dozen times. I’ve pulled my own hair. I’ve +looked at myself in the mirror again and again +and told myself that it is a fact, that I am I, Nan +Sherwood of Tillbury, United States of America +and student of Lakeview Hall, and that I am going +to sail away next spring to Scotland to visit—”</p> + +<p>The end of the sentence was lost in a muffle +as Nan pulled off the simple silk frock she had +been wearing.</p> + +<p>Bess Harley, her closest friend since primary +school days, finished it.</p> + +<p>“Emberon, the home of your mother’s ancestors.” +Her voice sounded unusually heavy. Nan +looked around and immediately was all contrition, +for Bess’s eyes were full of tears.</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess, darling, forgive me. I’m nothing +but a thoughtless old meany.” So saying, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +wiped Bess’s tears away and sat down beside her.</p> + +<p>Bess caught her lip between her teeth and shook +her head as she fought for self-control. “I’m just +an old silly myself,” she half apologized. “But I +can hardly bear the thought of your going so far +away from all of us for a whole summer. And it’s +true you are going, Nan, as true as the fact that +Walter Mason cut in on more than half your +dances tonight.”</p> + +<p>With this jibe, Bess’ eyes twinkled, and she +felt better.</p> + +<p>Nan blushed. “Oh, Bess, was it really so bad? +I told him not to, but he said he was under orders +to see that I didn’t get into any more scrapes.”</p> + +<p>Bess laughed. “You dear! Of course, it was all +right. We all danced with him—for a few seconds +at least.”</p> + +<p>Nan looked somewhat unconvinced. Walter, +she felt, was paying her rather special attention +these days and because she did like him, she hardly +knew whether to be pleased or angry. She +succeeded only in being embarrassed.</p> + +<p>Now, a knock diverted her thoughts. She +jumped up, but before she could open the door, +two of her other companions at Lakeview Hall +entered.</p> + +<p>“May we come in?” It was pretty little Grace +Mason speaking. After her followed Rhoda Hammond,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +her dark eyes sparkling with excitement.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Grace, it was such a nice party!” Nan exclaimed +enthusiastically as she placed chairs for +the two visitors. “Your mother and dad are perfect +peaches to have us all here tonight.”</p> + +<p>Grace smiled shyly. “It was fun for me, too. Do +you know, I’ve never before stayed up to watch +the old year out and the New Year in! It’s my first +New Year’s party.”</p> + +<p>“And we’ll always remember it, too,” Rhoda +chimed in. Then she looked rather sad, for it was +the first time she had ever spent the holiday away +from her pretty blind mother, her dad, and Rose +Ranch.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” it was curly headed Bess speaking now. +“We will. Would you believe it? Tonight when +I stood down there near the big windows, looking +out across the room, and saw you all with +dishes of ice cream in your hands, the clock +chimed out eleven-thirty and I felt as though Mrs. +Cupp should come in, clap her hands, and tell us +all to report to Dr. Prescott’s office tomorrow. +That’s almost always happened, you know, when +we have had a really good spread at school.”</p> + +<p>The girls laughed merrily. They had pictures +in their minds of everybody at the party dropping +their dishes and scurrying away at the appearance +of Mrs. Cupp.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> + +<p>“If you feel too guilty,” Nan looked across at +Bess, “I’ll tell Dr. Beulah when we get back to +Lakeview next Wednesday. Perhaps she can be +persuaded to impose the silent treatment on you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Nan,” Bess laughed, “Remember the time +she did that to you and I tried so hard to make +you talk. It was so dull having a roommate who +did nothing but shake her head when I opened my +mouth and let out words of wisdom.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t remember,” Nan tried to keep her +face straight as she made the statement and then +paused before she added—“the words of +wisdom.”</p> + +<p>The girls all laughed. Then there was silence +as each one thought of all the good times they +had had in the past years. It was Grace who spoke +first.</p> + +<p>“Mother will be in before long, I’m afraid,” +she said, “to tell us that we must go to bed. Nan, +before she does, tell us more about your going +to Europe. Just imagine—”</p> + +<p>“Please, Grace,” Nan interrupted her friend. +“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything more +tonight.”</p> + +<p>With this, all the girls looked more questioning +than ever and Rhoda protested, “But Nan, +you can’t be mysterious about a trip abroad. We +simply couldn’t stand it!” This was unusual coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +from the generally quiet Rhoda and for a +moment they all looked at her. Her face flushed +slightly. The words sounded strange even to her. +Could she be forgetting those southern manners +that always made her so mindful of others’ feelings? +Now, as she saw the expression on Nan’s +face and then looked at Bess, she guessed at Nan’s +reasons for wishing to delay talk of the European +trip. With her usual tact, she changed the subject +entirely.</p> + +<p>“Have any of you made any New Year’s resolutions?” +she asked.</p> + +<p>Almost as quick as Rhoda to sense the reason +for Nan’s unwillingness to talk, Grace answered +the question.</p> + +<p>“I’ve thought of a million things I ought to resolve +to do, but it’s so discouraging. I never seem +to be able to keep any of my resolutions.”</p> + +<p>Nan smiled her thanks to both of the girls, and +then turned to Bess. “There’s one resolution we +all ought to make,” she said.</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” Bess asked as she tried to guess +what fault they all had in common.</p> + +<p>“To be nicer to Linda Riggs when we go back +to school.”</p> + +<p>“Nicer to Linda Riggs!” Bess exploded. “Why, +if I make any resolution at all about that girl, +it will be to utterly ignore her when I get back!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +Nicer to Linda Riggs! Why, Nan Sherwood, and +after all she has done to you! If I had her here +this minute I’d like to slap her snobbish face. Just +because her father happens to own a railroad, she +thinks that she owns the world.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess!” Nan exclaimed. “Be quiet! +There’s no point in your talking that way about +her, no matter what she does. If you don’t keep +quiet, I’ll think you are as bad as she.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe so,” Bess half admitted. “Just the +same, I wish she wasn’t coming back to school at +all. I don’t think she should be allowed to after +causing that explosion. She might have killed us +all.”</p> + +<p>Nan nodded her head at this last. It was true +that Linda had done a very risky thing in meddling +with the steam valve in the basement of the +school.</p> + +<p>“Yes, but even so, I’m going to be nicer to her +in the spring term,” Nan resolved. “Maybe she +has some good qualities we don’t know about.”</p> + +<p>“Nan means,” Rhoda interpreted, “that there +is some good in all of us. Perhaps she is right. +Perhaps Linda has never been given a chance.”</p> + +<p>Bess snorted very inelegantly. “You can all turn +the other cheek if you want to,” she insisted, “but +I’m not going to. She’s just a mean hateful old +thing, and I don’t care what you think, Nan. I’m<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +going to watch her. You had better do it too, if +you’re going to live to go to Europe.”</p> + +<p>At this, Grace giggled. “Nan could live through +almost anything, I believe,” she said. “Mama says +she never knew a girl who at Nan’s age had had +so many adventures and had come up so smiling +from all of them. Dad agrees. He thinks Nan has +a charmed life, that she has at least nine lives—”</p> + +<p>“Like a cat?” Nan interrupted, for she was +embarrassed at this praise of herself. Now, her +eyes twinkled as the girls all laughed. Nan was +really a charming girl. Her clear brown eyes were +frank and trusting. Her brown, bobbed hair, cut +in a wind-blown style and brushed so that it shone +and looked soft and silky, gave her an almost +boyish appearance. But her quick sympathy, her +readiness to help anyone in distress, and her fondness +for children made a real girl of her. Everyone +liked her, but Bess Harley liked her most of +all.</p> + +<p>Bess was a pretty girl with curly hair. Though +indulgent parents had spoiled her so that she was +inclined to over-value the luxuries money could +buy, her constant association with Nan through +the years had somewhat remedied that. However, +this New Year’s Eve, she did feel out of sorts. +The thought of being separated from Nan was +still new to her. Moreover, she was envious. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +had heard some place that Linda Riggs was going +to spend the summer in Europe, and she did not +want Linda to go any place that she couldn’t go. +Now, as she sat quietly, after expressing herself +on the matter of that overly proud young person, +she was really thinking of ways and means of +persuading her parents to let her go to Europe, +too.</p> + +<p>“Anyway,” Grace brought the girls back to the +subject of Linda, “maybe Nan is right. So, I hereby +resolve,” she said solemnly, “to be nice to +Linda Riggs for one whole month, the month of +January. During that time, I will not say one +mean thing to her.”</p> + +<p>“Bravo!” Nan applauded. “And you, Rhoda?”</p> + +<p>But it was not Linda Riggs that troubled the +pretty southern girl. She had really never had any +direct contact with her. So when Nan turned to +her, she began, “Well, Linda doesn’t really annoy +me. I simply overlook her. But there is something +else that does bother me. You all know that when +I first came to Lakeview Hall, it was hard for +me to fit into your way of doing things.”</p> + +<p>The girls nodded their heads sympathetically. +Rhoda had stood apart from them for some +weeks after her arrival but they had forgiven her +for her apparent misunderstanding of them. They +had long before forgotten that she had been a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +“poor sport” at the hazing when she first entered +Lakeview. Now Rhoda herself brought it back to +mind.</p> + +<p>“I simply couldn’t understand your way of making +me welcome when I came north,” she said in +her own soft southern drawl. “I puzzled about it +for a long time, sure all the while that you were +wrong and I was right!”</p> + +<p>Nan caught her eye and smiled. “We were +mean, weren’t we?” she admitted.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Nan, it wasn’t you,” the loyal Bess interposed. +“You tried to make everything easier for +Rhoda, but we simply wouldn’t help you. Why, +I believe we were jealous,” she ended as though +the idea was an entirely new one. “Girls, remember +how Rhoda looked the first time we ever saw +her?”</p> + +<p>They all nodded.</p> + +<p>“You were lovely,” she went on speaking directly +to Rhoda.</p> + +<p>Rhoda blushed slightly at the frank praise, but +Bess paid no heed. “You were dressed in the most +perfect brown hat and coat I’ve ever seen,” she +continued. “I’ll never forget it.”</p> + +<p>“Nor will I,” Rhoda ruefully agreed. “I have +never in my life felt so strange and so entirely +alone. You were all talking among yourselves +and having a grand time. Everyone seemed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +know everyone else. I was such an outsider! And +when Laura Polk addressed me as Rollicking +Rhoda from Rustlers’ Roost, the wild Western +adventuress that you had heard so much about, +I wished that the floor would open wide and +swallow me.</p> + +<p>“Since it didn’t, I wanted to turn and run, run +as fast as I could back to Rose Ranch and the people +I knew. Have you ever felt like that?”</p> + +<p>“Many, many times,” Grace agreed heartily. +“I’ve wanted to run when I flunked in recitations +before the whole class. I’ve wanted to go away +and hide just dozens of times when things went +wrong. I can hardly bear it when Mrs. Cupp tells +me before everyone that Dr. Beulah wants to +see me.”</p> + +<p>“Especially when Linda Riggs is there and +hears it and looks as though she was the most +perfect person in the world,” Bess chimed in. +“Sometimes, when I see her looking that way +when you people have to go to the office, I feel +as though I’d like to tell all I know about her.”</p> + +<p>At a warning look from Nan, Bess subsided. +Nan patted Grace on the shoulder. “You mustn’t +take those things too seriously,” she said. “We all +feel that way.”</p> + +<p>“But you just can’t help yourself,” Rhoda continued. +“My mother has always tried to teach me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +to have poise, but generally, when I feel as I did +that night, I forget everything she has ever said, +and I act like such a fool. I feel miserable afterwards, +because I know how disappointed she +would be.</p> + +<p>“Now, I want to resolve to be a good sport, no +matter what happens. I want to remember to +stand my ground and not run just because things +seem to be unpleasant.”</p> + +<p>The girls were silent for a moment after this. +Rhoda was so utterly sincere that they realized +for the first time how unhappy she must have +been in the days after her hazing, when for so +long they ignored her.</p> + +<p>“Well, I declare,” the cheery voice of Grace’s +mother broke in on the silence. “A good old fashioned +round table, I do believe!” She had entered +the room quietly and now stood alone near the +doorway. “I hate to send you all off to bed, but it +really is getting late. Tomorrow you must all be +up early, pack, and catch that early train for +Lakeview. I promised Dr. Prescott on my word +of honor that I’d have you all back to school on +time.”</p> + +<p>At this, the girls got up, wished one another +and Mrs. Mason a Happy New Year, and then +prepared for bed.</p> + +<p>“It has been a happy, happy day,” each one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +thought as she pulled the covers up over her +shoulders and fell off to sleep. It was only Nan +who lay awake. She was thinking of her trip and +wondering what lay before her. But had the others +been able to see into the future, they, too, +would have lain awake thinking, and planning, +and hoping.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER II<br /> + +<small>SECRETS</small></h2> + +<p>“Where’s Nan?” Rhoda whispered as she +stuck her head into Bess and Nan’s room at Lakeview +Hall.</p> + +<p>Bess got up from the gayly covered studio +couch where she had been reading and opened +wide the door. “It’s all right. Come on in,” she +invited. “Nan’s gone away for the afternoon, +down to old Mrs. Bagley’s to see how she’s getting +along.”</p> + +<p>“How did you manage?” Rhoda asked as she +pulled off her pretty brown sports coat. “Do you +think she smells a plot.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t think so. She’s been intending to +go down there for some time, and today was the +first free time she has had. I’m sure she doesn’t +suspect, but we will have to be careful.”</p> + +<p>“I know it! Nan’s so smart that she will catch +on in a minute if we make her suspicious at all.” +Rhoda lowered her voice to a whisper as someone +passed by the door. “When are the others +coming?” she asked when the footsteps had died +away.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<p>“They’ll be here any time now,” Bess answered. +“I can hardly wait, can you? I’m so anxious to get +things started.”</p> + +<p>Rhoda nodded as she peered out of the double +windows near her to see if she could sight her +friends coming up the long hill from the village.</p> + +<p>“Anyone coming, Sister Anne?” Bess laughed.</p> + +<p>Rhoda grinned. “Do you always feel like the +sister of Bluebeard’s wife, too, when you keep +watching for someone?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Always. For some reason, that gory fairy +tale and Cinderella were my favorites when I was +a kid.”</p> + +<p>“I liked them, too,” Rhoda agreed, “but they +weren’t my favorites, not by any means. I was +brought up on stories of buried treasure, tales +that have been handed down from generation to +generation till no one knows whether they are +true or false.”</p> + +<p>Rhoda’s eyes were alight as she spoke, and +her face had a far away look on it. She was recalling +the tales an old Spanish maid had regaled her +with as a child. They were tales of bloody massacres, +of hidden treasure, of gold and silver and +rubies and sapphires locked in heavy Spanish +chests and concealed in caves, of lost mines, richer +than any man has ever remembered, of wandering +tribes who knew the answers but would never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +tell lest the wrath of God descend upon them and +wipe them all away.</p> + +<p>She sighed softly.</p> + +<p>Bess sat quietly, waiting and hoping that Rhoda +would talk more. But the girl was silent, as she +once more looked down the hill. “You’re expecting +Grace Mason, Procrastination Boggs, and +Laura Polk, aren’t you?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Yes, they’ve been the closest friends Nan has +had here,” Bess returned. “So I asked them all.”</p> + +<p>Bess was right. They were Nan’s closest +friends, as anyone who has read the complete +Nan Sherwood series knows. Of all the girls, +Bess is the only one who has been with Nan since +the beginning. She made her appearance in the +very first volume of the series, “Nan Sherwood at +Pine Camp, or the Old Lumberman’s Secret.” +This volume opens with Nan living happily on +Amity Street in Tillbury with her mother and +dad.</p> + +<p>She goes to Tillbury High School, enjoys +sports, makes good grades, and is popular with +her classmates. Her only real regret, which she +carefully conceals from her parents, is the knowledge +that she cannot afford to accompany Bess +Harley to Lakeview Hall where they had both +always hoped to go together. Suddenly Papa +Sherwood loses his job and Mama inherits a fortune<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +in Scotland that makes it necessary for the +two to cross the ocean, leaving Nan behind. The +plucky young girl then accompanies her uncle, a +bluff, hearty lumberman, to Northern Michigan. +There in a series of adventures that follow one on +the other in swift succession, Nan clears up the +mystery surrounding her uncle’s title to a valuable +piece of property and wins the admiration of all +whom she meets.</p> + +<p>In “Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall or the +Mystery of the Haunted Boathouse,” the two +girls arrive at the big boarding school on the bluff +overlooking Lake Huron and immediately find +themselves in trouble with Laura Riggs. In chapter +after chapter of fun and excitement and thrills +galore we see the two girls at school. Constantly +getting in and out of difficulties themselves, they +involve their new friends, Grace Mason, whose +acquaintance you have already made in this book, +Laura Polk, a lively red-headed girl with a vivid +imagination, and Amelia “Procrastination” Boggs, +a serious soul with a roomful of clocks. But perhaps +the principal character is a ghost that nearly +does away with Mrs. Cupp, the stern watchful +assistant of Dr. Beulah Prescott, the school’s +principal. Nan meets the ghost and conquers it +with some help from Walter Mason, Grace’s +brother, amid much mystery and much trouble.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>This over, the Masons invite Nan and her +friends to spend the Christmas holidays with them +in Chicago. So, in “Nan Sherwood’s Winter Holidays +or Rescuing the Runaways” we see her continuing +her adventures in the biggest city she has +ever visited. How she makes friends with a famous +movie star and solves the mystery of the disappearance +of two young farm girls who have +come to the city to make their fortunes is told in +this volume.</p> + +<p>In her next big adventure, recounted in “Nan +Sherwood at Rose Ranch or The Old Mexican’s +Treasure”, our heroine and her friends meet +Rhoda Hammond a pretty, young westerner at +school and accompany her to her home, a big +ranch, for their vacation. What a vacation that is! +A raid! An antelope hunt! A stampede! Lost +treasure! And a pretty Mexican girl, Juanita! +This is a volume brimming over with new +experiences.</p> + +<p>From Rose Ranch, Nan and her chums return +once more to Lakeview to work and study. They +do well, so when Mrs. Mason invites them all to +accompany Grace and Walter to Florida, they +have no trouble getting permission from home. In +“Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach or Strange Adventures +among the Orange Groves” they all have +a part in solving poor old Mrs. Bagley’s troubles,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +and Walter has cause to admire again the boundlessness +of Nan’s pluck.</p> + +<p>She is as generous as she is plucky, and so the +Saturday afternoon on which this chapter opens, +Nan is down in Freeling, the village below Lakeview +Hall, working away in Mrs. Bagley’s cottage.</p> + +<p>“By the way, how is Mrs. Bagley?” Rhoda +asked, in an effort to keep herself from watching +the windows so constantly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, she’s getting along all right, I think, since +she got her money. But you know how Nan is. +She’s always afraid something might happen. +Why, I honestly believe that she still fears that +those horrid men who tried to get the deed to +Mrs. Bagley’s property away from her might +turn up again after they get out of prison.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess Harley, I don’t believe she thinks +any such thing!” Rhoda exclaimed. “You are the +one. You know you have been frightened half to +death of the dark ever since Nan had those awful +scares down in Palm Beach!”</p> + +<p>Bess looked guilty. “Well, maybe it is me,” she +conceded ungrammatically. “But I do worry, at +times about Nan. Sometime something’s going +to happen to her—”</p> + +<p>“Going to happen to whom?” queried a new +voice and Laura Polk, red-headed and freckle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +faced and homely but withal very likable, bounded +into the room.</p> + +<p>In the confusion that followed the question +went unanswered. Grace and Amelia Boggs were +right at Laura’s heels. “Don’t ask me why we are +late,” Laura grinned impishly, “Or I might tell.”</p> + +<p>“That is just what I am afraid of,” Bess +replied.</p> + +<p>“—And if you don’t, I’ll tell anyway,” Laura +continued. “We met a tall handsome dark-haired +man—”</p> + +<p>“You didn’t either,” Bess interrupted.</p> + +<p>“Well, then he was short and fat.”</p> + +<p>“Laura Polk, you know very well that you +didn’t meet any man at all. You either lingered +too long over the chocolate soda that you have +spilled on that plaid skirt or, and this is more +likely, you relied on Amelia’s watch which is always +slow.”</p> + +<p>“If it isn’t old Sherlock Holmes himself! And +what a disguise! Why, Sherlock, if it weren’t for +your super intellect and your remarkable powers +of observation, which no one could mistake, I’d +swear on a stack of Bibles that you were Elizabeth +Harley of Lakeview Hall, otherwise known +to her intimates as Lunch-Box Lizz. Really, Sherlock, +you amaze me,” Laura continued as she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +turned Bess slowly around. “Amazing, truly +amazing.”</p> + +<p>Bess laughed and blushed. “Lunch-Box Lizz” +was an appellation that was hard to swallow, but +she knew from of old that there was absolutely +no use in trying to silence Laura.</p> + +<p>“Anyway,” she retorted, as she winked at +Rhoda, “You missed the fudge that Mrs. Cupp +sent up to us.”</p> + +<p>“If Mrs. Cupp sent you up fudge, then I’m a +monkey,” Laura returned. Nevertheless, she proceeded +to look around for the empty plate, muttering +the while that if Bess was any kind of +friend at all she’d have saved some of the loot.</p> + +<p>Bess watched her for a few seconds. Then +feeling anxious to get on with the business of the +day, she laughed, “There’s no plate and no +crumbs and no fudge, but you’re a monkey, anyway, +Laura Polk.”</p> + +<p>Laura laughed, as the other girls joined in. +“Well, you see it’s like this,” she explained, “It’s +been so long since I’ve had anything besides a +chocolate soda, that I’m just starved for something +good to eat. But, Bess, since I wouldn’t eat +any old chocolate fudge even if you offered it to +me on a great big silver platter, will you please +break down and tell me what all the mystery is +about.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes, for Pete’s sake,” Amelia exploded, +“What have you got on your mind? You and +Rhoda have been going around the last two days +looking as though you knew the answer to why +Dr. Beulah wanted to know if our parents were +at home this winter. What a question that was! +I wrote home right away to find out what was up. +What happened? Nothing. I don’t even get an +answer.”</p> + +<p>“What’s more, I don’t either,” Rhoda joined +in. “Do you know I haven’t had a letter from +my mother for two weeks now! I hope that if +Dr. Beulah has something to write home, she +is getting more response than I am.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, we’re all neglected,” Laura dismissed the +question. “What I want to know is, what have +you two companions in mystery cooked up now? +Come on, spill it,” she looked menacingly at Bess.</p> + +<p>Bess turned to Rhoda, “You tell them,” she +said.</p> + +<p>Rhoda shook her head, “No, it’s your idea. +Come, Bess, they are dying to know.”</p> + +<p>Bess cleared her throat. “Well—”, and she +looked around the room at the girls sitting on the +chairs and cross-legged on the floor. It was nice +to be there holding their attention.</p> + +<p>“Bess Harley,” Laura threatened, “Don’t you +go trying to pull any of my stunts. It’s all right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +for me to go round working up suspense, but I +won’t have you doing it. I can’t stand it. Are you +going to tell what’s eating you, or aren’t you?”</p> + +<p>Bess got up, went to the door and looked up +and down the hall, “Just want to make sure that +Linda Riggs isn’t around,” she explained.</p> + +<p>“Oh, she’s not here at all now and you know +it,” Laura laughed. “Come on, you tell us your +secret and I’ll tell you really and truly what Grace +and Amelia and I were doing down in the village +this afternoon.”</p> + +<p>Bess looked doubtful. “She will, honestly,” +Grace couldn’t contain herself any longer. “If she +doesn’t, I will. Now come on, Bess, don’t be +mean.”</p> + +<p>“Can’t you guess?” Bess asked. “Can’t you +guess, when you know as I do that Nan will be +leaving about the end of April to go away?”</p> + +<p>“Can’t you guess,” Rhoda chimed in, “When +you know that it’s a secret, that it’s about Nan, +that you are all—”</p> + +<p>“Invited,” supplied Amelia.</p> + +<p>“That there will be food,” Grace put in her +bit.</p> + +<p>“That everybody will know eventually,” Bess +added.</p> + +<p>“That it’s to be a great big surprise party on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +Nan!” they all chorused together, and then +laughed.</p> + +<p>“Sh! Did I hear somebody at the door?” Bess +broke in on the confusion.</p> + +<p>Immediately everybody was silent. The room +was quiet as a tomb, as Bess got up and went to +the door.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER III<br /> + +<small>PLANS AND MORE PLANS</small></h2> + + +<p>She clasped the knob firmly in her hand and +opened the door suddenly. Though she saw nothing, +she felt something soft and furry brushing +against her legs. She turned white and screamed.</p> + +<p>It was Laura who brought her back to her +senses. “Oh Bess, be quiet!” she commanded. +“You’ll have the whole dormitory in here. You’ll +spoil everything. You are not afraid of a cat, are +you?”</p> + +<p>“A cat!” Bess exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“Yes, a cat. What’s more it is as frightened as +you are!” Laura said in great disgust. “How did +it get into the building anyway?”</p> + +<p>“How do I know?” Bess asked shortly, for she +was still frightened.</p> + +<p>“Now, there, don’t take it so hard,” Amelia +comforted her friend, as Bess turned to view her +unexpected visitor.</p> + +<p>In a far corner of the room, its back arched +high in anger was a very black, very angry looking +cat.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + +<p>“What’s the matter, pussy cat?” Rhoda coaxed. +“Did Bess nearly scare you out of a year’s +growth?”</p> + +<p>But the cat was not to be appeased. At the +sound of Rhoda’s voice directed toward it, it +moved, slowly, around the edge of the room with +its back still arched, however, and its heavy tail +slowly curling.</p> + +<p>“Ooh, it <em>is</em> mad!” Grace exclaimed as she got +up from her place on the floor. “Better get it out +of here.”</p> + +<p>“What do you suppose I’m trying to do?” Bess +helplessly asked.</p> + +<p>Laura took command of the situation. “Now, +don’t move, any of you,” she warned. “I’ve a way +with cats.”</p> + +<p>“And it doesn’t work,” Amelia rejoined, as +the black ball of fury snarled at the red-headed +girl.</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ll show you, Mrs. Cat, who is boss.” +Laura’s temper had been aroused. She grabbed +Grace’s green suede jacket.</p> + +<p>“Get out of here—now,” she ordered, shaking +it before the animal.</p> + +<p>The cat turned, leaped over a chair, jumped +up on a bookcase, sprang to the window-sill and +pushing out the already loose screen, it leaped +across space to a tree outside, jumped to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +ground and was disappearing around a corner +just as the girls, recovering from their surprise, +got to the window.</p> + +<p>“Well, that is that.” Laura pretended to wash +her hands of the whole matter. “Did I get rid of +that cat, or didn’t I?”</p> + +<p>“You did!” Bess agreed emphatically, as she +slammed down the window as though to preclude +the possibility of the animal’s doing a leap in +reverse as she had seen swimmers do in news +reels. “But will you tell me,” she asked, “what +it all means?”</p> + +<p>“Simply that someone left a door open downstairs,” +answered the practical Amelia.</p> + +<p>“And the cat smelled a mouse. So she came up +here.” Rhoda dismissed the question.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you two know what I mean,” Bess exclaimed +impatiently. “I don’t like black cats, especially +when they walk right in on a party I’m +planning.”</p> + +<p>“You think it casts a great big black spell over +everything?” Laura supplied.</p> + +<p>Bess shook her head. She was almost in tears.</p> + +<p>“Oh, come, Bess,” Rhoda put her arm around +the girl’s shoulder. “Don’t be like that. That black +cat can’t do you or anybody else any harm. Don’t +be superstitious.”</p> + +<p>Bess smiled through her tears. “Guess I was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +more upset than I thought,” she half apologized. +“If that door is closed,” she nodded toward the +one the cat had entered, “let’s go on with what +we were talking about.”</p> + +<p>The party! The girls now all sat down close +together in a circle on the floor. It was Bess who +remembered in spite of her recent scare.</p> + +<p>“Say, you two,” she said, addressing Laura and +Amelia. “You had a secret, too. What was it?”</p> + +<p>Both the girls looked guilty.</p> + +<p>“You fooled me!” Bess was indignant.</p> + +<p>“No, not exactly that, O Suspicious One,” +Laura denied, “But the truth is that Amelia and +I had thought of a going away party too, and we +were down in the village to find out about how +much it would cost.”</p> + +<p>“Just a whole gang of people with a single +idea,” Rhoda laughed.</p> + +<p>“And that idea is Nan!” Bess agreed. “Now +let’s get busy before she comes,” she continued +as she raised her arm to note the time. The watch +had been a Christmas present and Bess was still +self-conscious about it and very, very proud. “It’s +four-thirty,” she said. “We’ll all have to get ready +for dinner shortly, and Nan will be here, if she +isn’t coming already,” she added as she heard +footsteps in the hall.</p> + +<p>“Sounds like Mrs. Cupp,” Laura whispered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<p>“It was,” Bess breathed a sigh of relief. “No +one else rustles like that.”</p> + +<p>“Good reason,” Laura couldn’t help adding. +“No one else has a figure like that.”</p> + +<p>The girls giggled appreciatively.</p> + +<p>“How will we organize this?” Bess appealed to +Rhoda for help.</p> + +<p>“Let’s have committees,” Grace answered the +question.</p> + +<p>“I’ll take charge of food,” Laura jumped in +with a suggestion.</p> + +<p>“Not if I have anything to do about it,” Amelia +contributed her bit.</p> + +<p>“And I’d like to know why not!” Laura retorted.</p> + +<p>“Simply because I was just down in the village +with you and I know what kind of food we would +get, if you did the buying, just one course after +another of chocolate sodas with chocolate cream, +and then you would top it all off with devil’s food +cake a la mode.” With this, Amelia looked significantly +at the spot on the front of Laura’s skirt.</p> + +<p>“Oh, darling, let’s make peace,” Laura capitulated, +“or we will never accomplish anything at all +this afternoon. I nominate Rhoda to have charge +of the food. Do I hear a second?”</p> + +<p>“I second the motion,” Bess replied. “All in +favor say ‘Aye’.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was a chorus of “Ayes”.</p> + +<p>“The motion is carried,” Bess, the self-appointed +chairman closed the question. “Now, who +wants to take charge of the guest list?”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t we getting pretty high-hat with guest +lists, and all?” Laura asked. “Just ask the people +to come. There doesn’t have to be any fuss about +it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Laura, it’s about time you grew up,” Bess +silenced her friend. “We’re going to do this party +up right. It’s not going to be a secret midnight +spread, though they are fun,” and her eyes twinkled +as she remembered the one down in the boathouse +at which they had entertained Mrs. Cupp.</p> + +<p>“Let’s make this different than anything we have +ever had before. Let’s make it dignified and have +everybody wear party dresses. Let’s invite Dr. +Beulah and Professor Krenner. Nan loves them +both. I’m sure she would feel very proud, if they +came.”</p> + +<p>“Bess, you will have to hire a hall,” Grace +rather timidly interposed. “How can we ever entertain +all those people? They’ll scare the life out +of me. Just imagine going up to Dr. Beulah and +saying, ‘We are going to have a party, will you +come to it?’ What if she said, ‘No!’ Then what +would the person who had asked her say? Why, it +gives me gooseflesh just to think about it.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Never you mind, little Gracie, you won’t have +to do the asking,” Laura reassured her, “We’ll let +either Bess or Rhoda do that.”</p> + +<p>“That’s an idea!” Amelia approved. “Rhoda +already has a job. Bess, you make up a list of people +you think we ought to invite and then you invite +them. It seems to me, though, if you are going +to do it in a grand manner, you really ought to write +out the invitations, and that you will have to invite +Mrs. Cupp.”</p> + +<p>The girls groaned.</p> + +<p>“That’s right.” Amelia stuck to her point.</p> + +<p>For a second Bess looked crestfallen, almost as +though she had rather give up the party than have +grim looking Mrs. Cupp present watching over it.</p> + +<p>Laura, however, cheered her up. “Never mind, +Bess,” she consoled, “she’s really not so bad, you +know, after you have thawed her out with something +warm to drink and given her something good +to eat. Really, she can be quite human when she +wants to be.”</p> + +<p>“At any rate, we don’t have to think about Linda +Riggs this time,” Bess said in an effort to find one +patch of brightness in the situation. “My, doesn’t +it seem good not to have her here this term!”</p> + +<p>“Better than anything that has happened to us +for a long time,” Grace agreed. “But let’s not +crow too loud about it, you never know when she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +will turn up. Then you’ll invite Mrs. Cupp, too?” +she asked Bess, looking as though she was very +glad she didn’t have to do it.</p> + +<p>“I suppose so,” Bess agreed half heartedly. +“How many will we invite?”</p> + +<p>“I’ve been wondering about that, too,” Rhoda +spoke up. “And I can see no end to a list. Nan has +so many friends that it is positively embarrassing! +We can’t possibly have a dinner, even if Dr. Beulah +and Mrs. Cupp would let us. There just wouldn’t +be enough room.”</p> + +<p>“Nor enough money,” Amelia added significantly.</p> + +<p>“That’s right,” Laura stuck in her oar. “How +are we going to get the money to pay for all of +this.”</p> + +<p>The question fell on a quiet room. No one had +thought of paying for it!</p> + +<p>Finally, Bess broke in on the silence, “Maybe I +could get my father to send me some extra money +this month,” she offered doubtfully. “I could write +and ask him for two months’ allowance at once. I +think he would do it.” Bess did have a way with her +father and mother that usually secured for her +what she wanted, for she was an only child and they +loved her dearly. For this reason, she had no conception +at all of the value of money. “You seem to +think,” Nan often told her, “that it is something<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +you go out and pick off from bushes. Don’t you +know that people work for money?”</p> + +<p>Now it was Amelia who put a damper on Bess’s +generous but thoughtless offer. “That wouldn’t be +fair at all,” she rejected Bess’s proposal.</p> + +<p>“Why?” This from Bess.</p> + +<p>“Because we are all giving the party, and we all +want to help.”</p> + +<p>“Thata girl, Amelia,” Laura applauded +slangily.</p> + +<p>“Why can’t we,” Rhoda began slowly as though +she hadn’t quite worked the idea out in her own +mind yet, “make up a list of people that we know +would like to do something for Nan—goodness +knows, there’s enough of them—and invite them +asking each one to contribute fifty cents to help +take care of expenses?”</p> + +<p>“But we couldn’t ask Dr. Beulah to give fifty +cents!” Grace cried out without even thinking.</p> + +<p>“Of course not!” Laura agreed. “But we could +make out a list of extra special people whom we +would invite as guests. They wouldn’t pay anything +at all.”</p> + +<p>“That’s perfect!” Bess chimed in. “That takes +care of everything. At fifty cents apiece, we will +have some money left, and we can use that to buy +Nan a going away present.”</p> + +<p>“And Laura and Amelia and I will be the committee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +to buy the gift,” Grace added. “And let’s +have the party on a Sunday afternoon and just +serve simple refreshments so that there will be +lots of money left over!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, we want to get something nice for Nan, +something that she would never buy for herself +and something that she will use all the time she is +away, so that she will think of us often,” Bess +added rather sadly, for she wasn’t quite reconciled +yet to Nan’s going away without her.</p> + +<p>“Sh! I hear someone coming, and it’s not a cat +this time,” Laura whispered in the silence that +followed Bess’s statement.</p> + +<p>Bess jumped up. “Everybody get busy,” she +just had time to say, “so that this will be the very +nicest party Lakeview Hall has ever seen,” before +Nan burst into the room on the conspirators.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER IV<br /> + +<small>DOUBT ON ALL SIDES</small></h2> + + +<p>“Do you think she suspects?” Amelia asked +Laura as the two walked down the corridor of +the dormitory after working their way out of the +confusion that followed Nan’s breaking in on +their secret meeting.</p> + +<p>“She’s pretty smart,” Laura answered. “We’ll +never be sure but I think that Rhoda saved the +day.”</p> + +<p>“The poise that girl has!” Amelia admired. +“Every once in a while she does something with +such grace and tact that you can just feel the generations +of good breeding that are in back of her. +She always knows what to say and when to say it. +She’s a girl in a million and so utterly unaware of +it all too,” she added half wistfully.</p> + +<p>Tall, thin, angular Amelia had grown somewhat +self-conscious about herself in the days since +she first came out of Wauhegan to Lakeview +Hall. It had done her good, however. She was +developing into a less abrupt, more considerate +sort of person than she was when, as a newcomer +to Lakeview, she had taken part in the Procession +of the Sawneys.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes, she is unaware of it, fortunately,” Laura +answered. “She would be an awful snob, if she +wasn’t. Now, take Nan. I don’t think she could be +a snob no matter what happened to her. She’s +true blue all the way through.”</p> + +<p>“That’s because she has known what it is to be +poor,” Amelia replied. “Her family has often had +to fight to get along.”</p> + +<p>“Not even money would have made a difference,” +Laura maintained. “Not to our Nan. Gee, +but she’s swell!”</p> + +<p>But how “swell” she was, neither of the girls +could really know, even as they couldn’t know +what a big surprise the surprise party they themselves +were planning was going to be. Even as the +arch-conspirators talked and planned the days +away, a certain lady that was head of a certain +school that you have all heard about in the Nan +Sherwood books smiled to herself.</p> + +<p>“This school is so full of plots,” Dr. Beulah +Prescott said to herself one night as she closed +her office before retiring, “That I’m afraid it is +positively demoralizing.” But as she said it, her +grey eyes twinkled and she looked for a moment +as though she liked nothing better than plots and +plotters. “Now let’s see,” she paused as she put +the keys into her purse, “tomorrow I must see +Professor Krenner and get in touch with Grace’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +parents again. I don’t see how we are going to +manage about Walter.”</p> + +<p>At the thought, she shook her head. Then she +smiled again to herself. “Problems, problems, +problems all the while,” she said as if she relished +them all.</p> + +<p>Alone in her own apartments in the dormitory +that night, Dr. Beulah sat down with books and +maps and plans and worked away until the small +hours of the morning.</p> + +<p>“Is there something wrong?” Nan asked the +next day as the girls left German class. Bess +started guiltily.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean, ‘wrong’?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t know exactly,” Nan replied. “It’s +just a feeling I have that there is something in the +air. Say, Bess, is Dr. Beulah sick?”</p> + +<p>Bess breathed a sigh of relief. “Safe again,” +she thought. “Why, not that I know of,” she answered +quite truthfully. “What makes you ask?”</p> + +<p>“I was up last night, late, sorting out some +things that I don’t want to take away with me, +because I couldn’t sleep, I was so excited. There +was a light across the garden court in Dr. Beulah’s +apartment. I wondered about it then, but +forgot it this morning until I noticed that Dr. +Beulah was not in Chapel. That’s quite unusual.”</p> + +<p>“I noticed that, too,” Bess puzzled, “but then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +so many strange things have been happening lately, +that I’ve given up trying to solve them.”</p> + +<p>“Do you expect me to believe that?” Nan +teased.</p> + +<p>“Well, anyway,” Bess half retracted what she +had said, “I’m not as interested as I once was.”</p> + +<p>“And why, pray tell?” Nan was curious now.</p> + +<p>Bess blushed, but the postman coming down +the hall toward the offices relieved her discomfiture +and perhaps saved the situation. It was hard +for Bess to keep a secret from Nan.</p> + +<p>Now they both paused to speak to the genial +old man who brought their mail up from the +village. “Anything for us?” It was Nan who +spoke.</p> + +<p>“Sure, and if it isn’t pretty Nan Sherwood this +fine mornin’,” the old Irishman paused to look +through the mail he was carrying. “And pray, +who’d be after writing you in this springtime. Is +it poetry you are expecting from some good-looking +young gentleman?”</p> + +<p>Bess giggled and Nan blushed till even the tips +of her ears were pink.</p> + +<p>Old Pat went on fingering his way through the +mail, “Dr. Prescott, Professor Krenner, Lakeview +Hall, Dr. Prescott again. Sure and she’s a +fine lady. And another and another for her.” He +looked up regretfully at the girls. “There’s none<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +for you today,” he shook his head sadly, for Pat +did love a romance. “Sure and you’d better tell +him where he is headin’ in,” he shook an admonishing +finger at Nan as he started on.</p> + +<p>“But Pat,” Nan and Bess stopped him again, +“are you sure there’s nothing there for us from +Tillbury?” Pat sighed and looked through again.</p> + +<p>“So you’ll not give up,” he chuckled. “Well, +let’s see. Till—Tillbury,” he almost spelled out as +he looked at the postmarks. Nan put out her +hand.</p> + +<p>“But it’s not for you, girlie. Not today. Nothing +for either of you,” he added and walked on, +leaving two very crestfallen and somewhat worried +girls behind him.</p> + +<p>At first neither spoke, and Bess swallowed a +hard lump in her throat. Nan put an arm around +her shoulder. “Never mind, honey,” she consoled. +“We’ll probably hear tomorrow.”</p> + +<p>“But there was something there from Tillbury, +I saw it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you probably made a mistake,” Nan said, +though she too felt sure that she had seen a Tillbury +postmark. “You’re not such an expert at +reading upside down. Moreover, those postmarks +weren’t stamped very plainly, and it would be +easy to misread them.”</p> + +<p>“Nan, you might be able to convince yourself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +that everything is as it should be, but you can’t +convince me.” Bess stamped her foot. “Do you +know that something has happened and are you +keeping it from me?” she half accused Nan.</p> + +<p>“Elizabeth Harley, what are you saying?” Nan +was genuinely indignant. “Here, I’ve been thinking +all week that you were keeping something +from me, you’ve been acting so strangely, but I’ve +said nothing about it. Now you go and jump on +me.”</p> + +<p>This brought Bess to her senses as nothing else +could have. She laughed and with remarkable control +for her, carried the situation off and allayed +Nan’s suspicions. “Oh, Nan, have you?” she burst +out. “If I’ve been acting more strangely than usual +it’s because I have been worried about not hearing +from mother. It’s two weeks now, you know.” +And she seemed so utterly sincere about it, for +she was in part, that as they pushed open the big +doors of the class building they were in and +walked across the quadrangle to the Hall, Nan +believed her entirely.</p> + +<p>That night, Bess was alone for a second with +Rhoda. “Do you know,” she confided, “I’ll be so +glad when this party is over that I’ll be willing to +kiss Mrs. Cupp—well, almost,” she qualified, as a +picture of that lady came to her mind.</p> + +<p>Rhoda laughed. “I want to be there when you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +do it,” she said. “But tell me, why are you so +anxious to have the party over and done with? +I thought you loved to plan parties.”</p> + +<p>“I do, generally, but I’m so afraid that I’m going +to have a fight with Nan before this one is +over that I don’t know which way to turn. We’ve +never had a fight as long as we have known one +another. Wouldn’t it be just my luck to have one +over something nice I was trying to do for her!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t worry, you won’t have a fight. Nan +won’t let that happen. Anyway, the party is tomorrow +afternoon, so there is only one more day +to wait.” Rhoda’s face was alight, for she, too, +found it hard to wait.</p> + +<p>“Have you been able to find out,” she continued, +“what it is that Laura’s committee has +bought for a present?”</p> + +<p>“No, not yet,” Bess answered. “I’ve asked, but +they vow they won’t tell unless they know what +the refreshments are going to be.”</p> + +<p>“And I won’t tell that,” Rhoda confirmed a +previous stand. “Besides, I think it’s more fun, if +the committees do keep their decisions secret. It’s +like Christmas when every cupboard and closet +in the house is brimming over with surprises.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, isn’t it. Do you know, I’ll bet I won’t +sleep a wink tonight,” Bess admitted. “I’m so +excited about the whole thing.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Sleep tonight!” Rhoda exclaimed. “Why, I +haven’t slept for a week!”</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t have either, if I had had your +job,” Bess admitted. “I think it is the hardest +one of them all.”</p> + +<p>“I liked it,” Rhoda smiled. “How did your +end of it work out?”</p> + +<p>“You’ll see for yourself, tomorrow,” Bess +looked mysterious, too. “I’ll just say this, Dr. +Beulah is the most charming person I’ve ever +come across. She wrote the sweetest note thanking +us for the invitation! And she offered to help +us in any way she could. In fact, do you know +what she’s done?”</p> + +<p>Rhoda shook her head.</p> + +<p>“She’s solved the problem of what to do with +Nan until everything is ready. She asked her if +she would mind going down to the village tomorrow +morning on an errand that will take her all +day. Then she asked her to call Mrs. Bagley and +bring her up here for Sunday afternoon tea. And +did Nan ever fall for it? It did my heart good. +She’s going to be the most surprised person in this +county tomorrow!” Bess rubbed her hands gleefully. +It was fun putting something over on Nan!</p> + +<p>Sunday was a grand day, bright and clear and +fresh as only an early spring day can be. The +crisp ruffles of the curtains in Nan and Bess’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +room waved slightly in the breeze. Nan dressed +herself in a fresh looking dark silk print as she +breathed deeply of the soft, warm air.</p> + +<p>“Oh, it’s good to be alive!” she exclaimed, +“and this is one of those days when you feel sure +there is nothing but good in store for you.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe so,” Bess responded as unenthusiastically +as she could, for she was afraid to let Nan +even guess at her own excitement. “My only hope +is that there is a good breakfast waiting downstairs +in the dining hall. This being Sunday, I +would like orange juice and pancakes and sausage +and some good hot cocoa with whipped cream +swimming around on top.”</p> + +<p>“Ugh!” Nan made a wry face. “You and +Laura Polk and your whipped cream. I don’t see +how you can bear to have it for breakfast.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t let it trouble you, darling,” Bess was +in an extraordinarily pleasant mood, “we won’t +get it. You’ll never catch Mrs. Cupp feeding us +whipped cream at any time. Says it’s not good +for our school-girl complexions.” With this, she +went off to bathe and dress.</p> + +<p>“You don’t mind,” Nan called after her, “do +you, if I don’t wait for you this morning. I want +to go to early chapel so that I can go down to +the village on the bus.”</p> + +<p>“Run along, and forget me,” Bess urged her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +“I’m going to take my own lazy time about dressing +this morning. I’m going to late breakfast and +late chapel and late everything. I’ve got spring +fever with a bang.”</p> + +<p>So Nan went off and left a houseful of schemers +behind her.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER V<br /> + +<small>SURPRISE FOR EVERYONE!</small></h2> + + +<p>At long last came four o’clock. Dr. Prescott +walked down the big, winding stairway of the +castle-like structure that she had transformed +from a run-down neglected dwelling into a boarding +school for girls. She was proud of the school, +proud of the work she had done there. She looked +up. Why, she was proud of every big beam that +supported the high ceilings!</p> + +<p>As she entered the long reception room with +its lovely bouquets of fresh spring flowers and +was greeted by Rhoda Hammond, she had a momentary +twinge of regret. “The girls were getting +so much older! Today,” and she smiled a little to +herself as the thought crossed her mind, “they +were acting especially grown-up.” She looked +down at the lovely corsage of sweet-smelling +violets on her gray dress and touched them tenderly. +They were a gift, a thoughtful one, from +the girls who had planned the party. Now, as she +circulated among them all and felt the excitement +that there was in the room, she was glad that she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +had a secret too. She looked across the room and +caught Professor Krenner’s eye. He smiled and +nodded. How nice everything seemed!</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Bess and Rhoda and Laura were +conferring near a big silver tea tray. There were +piles of dainty sandwiches on it, olives and pickles +and salted nuts, a plate of lemon slices with whole +cloves in the center of each, a bowl of sugar +cubes with lovely silver tongs projecting from it, +a graceful silver pitcher filled with cream, and, +off to one side, pretty cups and saucers were +stacked, waiting to be used.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I wish Nan would come,” Bess exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“She’ll be here any minute now,” Rhoda answered, +“and when she comes—”</p> + +<p>But the sentence was never finished, for just at +that moment Nan, accompanied by Mrs. Bagley, +appeared in the doorway, and with one accord +everyone called, “Surprise!”</p> + +<p>It was a moment such as Nan had never experienced +before. She seemed stunned, unable entirely +to comprehend what was happening. Then, +as all her friends came forward, smiled and shook +her hand and Dr. Beulah leaned over and kissed +her, she seemed to regain her composure. But she +admitted later in private to Bess that she hardly +knew all afternoon what she said or what had +been said to her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<p>There were one or two things, however, that +did stand out clearly in her mind.</p> + +<p>Before the tea was poured, Laura, as chairman +of the gift committee, called her to her side, and, +in the name of all those present, put three boxes in +her hands and told her to open them. From the +first, Nan pulled forth a gay corsage of daffodils +which Bess promptly pinned to her shoulder. How +pretty they looked there! So yellow and bright! +Nan looked down at them, seeming for a moment +to forget her other gifts.</p> + +<p>Bess prodded her. So did Laura. Nan murmured +a pardon and picked up another box. It +was the largest of the three, much longer and +wider than the first and was tied with a big perky +bow which Nan proceeded to untie, oh, so slowly, +it seemed to her friends, for in her confusion her +fingers fumbled over the knot. Finally, however, +the ribbon was off, the cover removed, the tissue +paper pulled aside, and Nan drew forth a lovely +long satin negligee, more beautiful than any she +had ever seen.</p> + +<p>“How lovely!” she exclaimed and buried her +face for a second in its softness, for she was so +happy that she was almost crying. Then she +looked out at all the faces watching her.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I thank you, many times I thank you,” +she said, before she looked down at the robe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +again. It was hard to tear her eyes away from it. +But at another prod from Bess, she looked down +at the third package on the table near her. “Could +it be——?” She opened it and pulled forth the cleverest +pair of little bedroom slippers! Everything +was just perfect!</p> + +<p>Nan smiled shyly at her friends. “What could +she say?” In the pause that followed, Dr. Prescott +came to her rescue, moved over closer to her, +and, standing between her and Bess, she spoke.</p> + +<p>“May I have the attention of all of you, for a +moment?”</p> + +<p>Immediately, everyone was quiet, expectantly +waiting.</p> + +<p>“What was coming?” The question was in +everyone’s mind. The girls looked at Dr. Beulah +and then at one another, as a million answers +rushed through their heads.</p> + +<p>She smiled reassuringly into their puzzled +faces, seemed about to speak, but then paused as +though to choose her words carefully. Finally, she +began.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know as I have ever,” she said, “been +prouder of Lakeview Hall and all it stands for +than I have today, and today somehow marks a +turning point in its history.</p> + +<p>“You all know that my life has been bound +up in the fortunes of this place for some years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +now. When I first came here, there were about +twenty-five girls registered. We taught a little +French, some music, fine needlework, literature, +and something of the social graces. Walking was +about the most strenuous of the sports for girls +in those days. Hiking was unheard of, for young +ladies, I mean. It was considered quite the thing +to grow pale and to faint on the slightest provocation, +that is, if the young lady did it gracefully.</p> + +<p>“Nan here would have been quite out of place +in that old school with her bobbed hair, her keen +enjoyment of all the sports, and her interest in +Professor Krenner’s class in architectural +drawing.”</p> + +<p>The girls laughed. Although the course had +been listed in Lakeview Hall’s catalogue ever +since Professor Krenner joined the faculty, Nan +had been the first to actually elect the subject. +The story of how and why she did had long ago +become a campus joke as those who have read +"Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall" are well aware.</p> + +<p>Now, for the first time Nan herself began to +see how really queer that listing “Architectural +Drawing” must have looked when it first appeared +on the catalogue. She giggled, as she thought of +young women with long dresses that trailed along +the gravel paths of the campus taking such a serious +course.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sharing the joke with Dr. Beulah, she smiled +up at her.</p> + +<p>“Yes, Nan would have been quite out of place +there,” Dr. Beulah repeated. “Not one among +those twenty-five girls was trained to take care of +herself. Here, today in the very hall where they +sometimes gathered for their lessons in “The Social +Graces” and practiced entering and leaving the +room, using that door over there,” she said, nodding +toward the doorway from which Nan had +first viewed the surprise party, “you girls of the +modern day have planned a party for one of your +number who has had more adventures than those +girls had ever dreamed or read about.</p> + +<p>“Whereas they walked, danced some, and +fainted most expertly, you go boating, hiking, +horseback riding, and, in the winter, sleighing. +You play basketball and volleyball and golf. How +they would envy you! Now, your party is for one +among you who is going to Europe. There, all +sorts of adventures await her. Just as Nan cannot +imagine what these will be, just as I could not +have twenty years ago imagined this big school +with its two hundred self-reliant girls, you young +ladies in planning this party had no conception of +what a big thing was going to happen to you +shortly.</p> + +<p>“While you have been whispering and plotting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +among yourselves looking forward to this day +which is being so successful, I, too, have been fostering +a few secrets.”</p> + +<p>At this Bess looked over at Nan. There was an +I-told-you-so gleam in her eye. Nan nodded +quickly. They were both thinking of their conversation +of a few days ago in the corridor, both +remembering their disappointing encounter with +the old mailman. They turned their eyes back toward +Dr. Beulah’s face. How sweet she looked! +Nan sighed. If she would only hurry and get to +the point of her talk! Nan felt that she simply +could not wait any longer.</p> + +<p>“Nan’s parents,” Dr. Beulah continued, “felt +that they wanted her to go to Europe under the +chaperonage of some responsible person, and so, +several months ago they wrote to me.”</p> + +<p>This was news to Nan, and she was all attention +as Dr. Beulah went on.</p> + +<p>“I made inquiries of the schools and colleges +which offer conducted tours and was about to recommend +that Nan join a party from a girls’ school +on the Hudson that was going to England. However, +before the letter was written to Mr. and +Mrs. Sherwood, Grace Mason’s mother asked me +a question that has changed everyone’s plans.”</p> + +<p>Rhoda Hammond put a reassuring arm around<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +Grace, who blushed slightly as all eyes were +turned on her.</p> + +<p>“She and Mr. Mason,” the head of the school +explained, “wondered whether it would be possible +for me to recommend a girls’ camp for +Grace to stay in for the summer. Well, one thing +led to another, and before the week was out Professor +Krenner and I were in conference behind +closed doors.</p> + +<p>“As a result, plans have been definitely made,” +her voice was clear and firm in spite of the excitement +in it, “for a whole party of you to go to +England this spring to see the king and queen +crowned in London!”</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER VI<br /> + +<small>ADVENTURES AHEAD!</small></h2> + + +<p>There was a murmur of surprise in the room +as Dr. Prescott made her announcement. She +raised her hand to quiet it and waited a moment +before she went on.</p> + +<p>“Much as I would have liked to have all of +you go,” she continued finally to the expectant +girls before her, “that was impossible. So, it was +necessary to choose those girls who have been +outstanding in one way or another since they have +been here at school. Another year, there will be +more of you able to go, for I hope on this trip +to be able to establish contacts that will make exchange +scholarships between Lakeview Hall and +similar schools abroad, possible. Therefore, to +those who have that keen desire to make the trip, +to be explorers too, and do not find their names +on the list which I shall read presently, I want +to say, ‘Don’t be too disappointed.’</p> + +<p>“Most of you are younger than the girls who +have been chosen, and your opportunity will come +when you are a little older. Then you may profit +by the experiences that we shall have on this first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +trip, yes, and by our mistakes too, for, in a sense, +we shall be explorers setting out for strange countries. +We are going to find out for sure whether +the things we have been reading and hearing +about for these many years are true. We are +going to see whether, if we board a boat in New +York and sail east, we really come to a continent +called Europe on our maps.</p> + +<p>“Those of you who follow after, will but verify +our findings and will have as strange and wonderful +experiences then, as we shall have now. So, +again I say, you will not be the girls I think you +are, if you do not, after the list is read, rally +round those girls who are going. Help them all +you can. There is much to do between now and +the time they sail, and they and the school will +need your help.</p> + +<p>“Now after conferences with your parents and +teachers, I have chosen and secured permission +for the following six girls to go: Nan Sherwood, +Amelia Boggs, Grace Mason—”</p> + +<p>The room was tense with suspense as she +paused to clear her throat, for she was excited +too, almost as excited as the girls themselves.</p> + +<p>“Rhoda Hammond—” She smiled over at the +girl, for she was fond of this proud southern girl, +so different, she thought, than the rest of her +brood.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Laura Polk and—”</p> + +<p>Nan put her arm around Bess’ shoulder. The +same question was in both their minds. Could it +be possible that Bess’ name was not on the list?</p> + +<p>“Elizabeth—Harley!”</p> + +<p>The room was in a hubbub. Nan was kissing +Bess and Bess kissing Nan; Rhoda, shaking hands +with Laura; Laura, telling Grace not to cry; Dr. +Beulah Prescott, looking as though her customary +serenity was most difficult to maintain; and Professor +Krenner was smiling his kindly smile on +all of them.</p> + +<p>Everyone shook hands with everyone else and +the girls that weren’t going were so lifted up by +the excitement that they hardly knew who was +going and who was not. In the commotion, Rhoda +somehow or other managed to pour the tea, and +Amelia, Bess, Nan, Laura, and Grace to pass the +sandwiches and olives and pickles and cakes and +nuts and candies, but no one, as Rhoda dolefully +remarked afterwards, knew what they were +eating.</p> + +<p>“The refreshment committee could have served +mounds of spinach,” she said, “instead of molded +boats of ice-cream, and no one would have been +the wiser.” Maybe so. At any rate, the little +round sandwiches, the long narrow sandwiches, +and the sandwiches shaped like balls and covered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +with cheese, were all eaten to the last crumb. The +olives, pickles, and nuts disappeared. Finally, the +ice cream and fancy cakes were all gobbled up, +too, so that when the matron of the Hall had the +maid wheel out the tea-wagon, none of Rhoda’s +refreshments were left.</p> + +<p>It was quite the nicest party Lakeview Hall had +ever had. That night no one slept very soundly, +least of all the six girls on Corridor Four who +were going to England for the Coronation of the +King and Queen.</p> + +<p>All rules, Dr. Prescott, had wisely said, would +be suspended for the one night. Though Mrs. +Cupp shook her head lugubriously over the “goings +on”, at ten o’clock that night Laura, Grace, +Amelia and Rhoda found themselves by one accord +collected in Bess and Nan’s room.</p> + +<p>“What if it’s all a dream?” Rhoda asked as +they lounged about on the day-bed and in the easy +chairs. “What if we awaken tomorrow and find +that none of it’s true, that it is as we thought +when we planned the party in the first place? +What if we find that only Nan is going after all?”</p> + +<p>“That wouldn’t be a dream. That would be a +nightmare,” Laura answered. “The thing I can’t +understand is, how I managed to get in under the +wire. I was never more surprised in all my life +than I was when she read my name. Imagine me,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +the red-headed cyclone from nowhere, going to +Europe. Even my well-known imagination fails at +the prospect. I can believe some of my own stories +quicker than this one that the powers that be +have thought up. Truth is indeed stranger than +fiction. I never thought that I would live,” she +said as though she was at least a hundred, “to see +the day when I would admit that.”</p> + +<p>“Nor did I either,” Nan said contentedly. How +pleased she was that all her friends were going! +“Remember the night we sat up like this in this +very room and talked of going to Florida. We +thought nothing could be so grand as that! Now +the whole lot and caboodle of us,” she went on +inelegantly, “are going on a little jaunt over to +Europe.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Laura laughed and tried to yawn, “it’s +all in a day’s work.”</p> + +<p>“The thing that tickles me,” Bess spoke up at +last, she had been quite silent since the party, +unable yet to accept the fact that she was, after +all, going to Europe with her chum, “is the way +Dr. Beulah kept my name until last. Did you see +the twinkle in her eye when she finally read it off? +I almost died of suspense when she said ‘Elizabeth’ +and then hesitated for so long before she +said ‘Harley’.”</p> + +<p>“I did, too,” Nan said. “Really, Bess, if your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +name hadn’t been on that list with all the others +I would have wept bitter tears with you. I don’t +believe I could have gone without you.”</p> + +<p>“Nan, do you mean that, honestly?” Bess +asked.</p> + +<p>“Honest and truly,” Nan reiterated. “But, +girls,” she cried suddenly to them all, “there’s +something I know that none of you do.”</p> + +<p>“What is it?” they all chorused.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t know whether I ought to tell or +not,” Nan teased.</p> + +<p>“Nan Sherwood,” Bess threatened, “if you +don’t break right down and tell us at once I’ll—I’ll—I’ll +throw this pillow at you.” With this, +she picked up one big soft pillow and raised her +arm as though to pitch it right at Nan.</p> + +<p>“I’ll give up,” Nan capitulated amid much +laughter. “Do you know,” she said slowly and +solemnly as though to give her words greater +weight, “That Professor Krenner is going to +Europe, too, this summer, that he will be in London +when we are, and that he will take us on +some of the sight-seeing tours that we are to +take?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that’s nothing,” Grace Mason depreciated. +“I know something better, that none of +you know. My mother and father are going to +London and they are going to meet us there before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +we leave! What’s more, they are going to +take Walter with them!”</p> + +<p>Nan blushed. She had been secretly wondering +whether or not Walter was going to get a chance +to go to Europe this summer. She had been reluctant +to ask Grace, because she hated so to be +teased. Now she tried to be nonchalant about it.</p> + +<p>“Oh, that’s nice,” she said, trying to act very +much disinterested. The girls exchanged significant +glances.</p> + +<p>“Yes, <em>isn’t</em> it,” they emphasized.</p> + +<p>Nan was dying to ask how it happened that +Walter was going and who it was that had told +Grace, but she didn’t dare to ask any questions. +She held her peace and hoped that someone else +would solve the riddle.</p> + +<p>For a few moments, no one said anything. It +was like a mutual conspiracy to tantalize Nan, +but after a while, Bess’ own curiosity got the +better of her. “How do you know, Grace,” she +asked, “surely no mail has come through to you +lately?”</p> + +<p>“Not a particle!” Grace exploded. “But Dr. +Beulah says that everyone has been so busy with +these plans, writing back and forth, checking and +rechecking on details, that there was no time to +write just ordinary letters. It was she who told +me that dad is going over on business and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +Walter and mother are going along with him. +Why, I’m almost as pleased as Nan,” she tormented +her friend further, though she was secretly +pleased that Nan liked her brother so much.</p> + +<p>“But tell me, Nan,” she begged. “What were +you and Dr. Beulah talking about so earnestly in +the corner over your tea. I wanted like everything +to interrupt, but even though everything +was so informal that no less a person than Mrs. +Cupp condescended to congratulate us, I hesitated +to break in on one of Dr. Beulah’s tete-à-tetes. +I hope she doesn’t scare the life out of me, while +we are away. Imagine, being with her every day, +eating—you do eat on a boat, don’t you?—at her +table, walking the deck with her, and perhaps +even sharing your cabin with her!”</p> + +<p>Nan laughed heartily at Grace’s last exclamation. +“Why, Grace Mason,” she burst forth, after +she had wiped her eyes with her handkerchief, +“If you were dressed in clothes instead of those +pajamas, I’d take you by the ear right now and +march you straight over to Dr. Beulah’s apartment +and introduce her to you. She doesn’t bite. +She’s one of the nicest, if not the very nicest, +person I have ever known. I can’t imagine a pleasanter +person in all this wide world to take us on +this trip.</p> + +<p>“She was telling me,” she added as an afterthought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +and in answer to Grace’s question, “that +we are to go over on a steamship line that will +land us in Glasgow, for we are to stop first at +Emberon. It seems some distant relatives of mine +want to be the first to welcome us when we land.”</p> + +<p>“What fun!” Bess exclaimed. “All the words +about going sound like magic, don’t they? Sailing, +walking on deck, landing, and passports and visas +and going through customs. Do you know,” she +admitted, “it almost scares me, when I think of +all the strange new things that are going to happen. +Why, we will be foreigners in a strange +country!” she ended in amazement.</p> + +<p>“Yes, and I hope they don’t treat us as we treat +them sometimes,” Nan added.</p> + +<p>“Well, they hadn’t better,” Bess retorted indignantly, +as all the girls joined heartily in laughing +at her. Bess laughed too, when she realized +what she had said, “What I mean is—”</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Bessie,” Nan comforted. “We +know you are not as rude as you sound, and that +you don’t mean half of what you say,” she ended +teasingly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t care what you say,” Bess returned +nobly, “I feel so happy that I am going to be on +that boat with all of you that there is nothing +that you could say that would bother me.”</p> + +<p>“Not even,” Laura goaded her, “the statement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +that we are going over cabin class while Linda +Riggs is going first class on the same boat.”</p> + +<p>“It’s not true,” Bess denied without thinking.</p> + +<p>“Of course it isn’t, Bess,” Rhoda looked reprovingly +across at Laura. “No one has heard a +thing about Linda for months now. She might just +as well be living in another world so far as we +are concerned.”</p> + +<p>“I wish she was.” Bess pouted somewhat as +she made the statement. The truth was that she +was secretly triumphant at the thought that if +Linda was going to Europe, she was too. She +half hoped that somewhere they would meet, that +sometime she would be able to embarrass Linda +as Linda had frequently, in the past embarrassed +her. But even as the thought crossed her mind, +Nan whisked it away by saying, “I wonder what +it will all be like!”</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER VII<br /> + +<small>A MYSTERIOUS LETTER</small></h2> + + +<p>“Oh, Nan, there’s so much to do before we +go that I sometimes think we never will get +started!” Bess exclaimed to her roommate one +morning several weeks later.</p> + +<p>She was sitting on the floor sorting a boxful +of things she had been saving for her memory +book and was holding the dance program of the +Grand Guard Ball they had attended during their +first year at Lakeview, when she spoke.</p> + +<p>Nan did not answer.</p> + +<p>“Nan, aren’t you listening to what I say?” she +asked without looking up. She flourished the +dance program in the air. “Doesn’t this bring up +memories though,” she said half wistfully. “When +I remember what a jewel Walter was that night, +I’m almost jealous,” she went on.</p> + +<p>Again there was no answer. Bess looked up.</p> + +<p>“Why, Nan Sherwood, whatever is the matter?” +she cried when she saw the expression on +Nan’s face. Dropping the things in her lap on the +floor, she got up and went over to the day-bed +where Nan was reading a letter.</p> + +<p>“Nan, tell me,” she urged. “Don’t sit there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +looking as though the bottom had dropped out of +everything. What’s happened?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t be silly,” Nan forced a smile, “I +just received a letter from home and it made me +homesick. That’s all.”</p> + +<p>“You homesick!” Bess didn’t believe a word +of it.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Nan reiterated rather crossly, “I began +to think how far away we are going and how +seldom it is we see our parents these days. It made +me sad for a while.”</p> + +<p>Bess accepted the explanation without further +comment. She knew that it wasn’t altogether true, +just as she knew that it would be utterly impossible +to drag the real facts from Nan at the +moment. However, she determined not to forget +the incident. But despite her resolve, it was not +until several weeks later when they were on the +other side of the Atlantic Ocean that the subject +was reopened. Then it was not Bess who reopened +it, but a set of very peculiar circumstances.</p> + +<p>Now, to further divert Bess’ attention, Nan put +her letter away, most carefully, and began to +busy herself about the room. So, they were both +sorting out their belongings when Grace broke in +on them.</p> + +<p>“What do you think?” She was breathless with +excitement for she had run all the way from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +mail boxes where she had read the letter she was +now waving in her hand, “I’ve just had a letter +from home and mother and dad say that you +should all come to Chicago with me for a few +days during the holidays.</p> + +<p>“They say that it is almost necessary,” she continued +as she noted the doubtful look on Nan’s +face and Bess’ too. “Because you can take care +of your passports and visas much easier there than +from Freeling.</p> + +<p>“Mother says further,” and Grace turned to +her letter to read directly from that,</p> + +<p>“‘Dad and I have at last given Walter our +consent to take his car along with him. He wants +to so much! We feel that since it might be the +only time he ever makes the trip that we will let +him do as he wishes in so far as possible. So you +and the girls may plan on taking a few side trips +to Stratford-on-Avon, Canterbury, Eton, Windsor, +and wherever else you have a mind to go by +auto—that is, and this always holds true, if Dr. +Prescott is willing. You are to be in her hands +entirely, you know.</p> + +<p>“‘Now, don’t fail to keep in touch with me, +Grace. I want to know at every step how your +plans are progressing.<br /> + +<span class="rght2">“‘My love,</span><br /> +<span class="rght">“‘Mother.’”</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Isn’t—that——just———grand!” Bess was +the first to speak after the letter was finished. +“Oh, Grace, your mother and dad are so good to +us. Think of it, Nan, we will be able to take +some drives over the lovely English countryside in +the spring of the year.”</p> + +<p>“I am,” Nan answered quietly, though inside +she was really more excited than Bess. She liked +Walter’s car and had already had some pleasant +drives in it. Now, she could see herself in imagination +skimming over the English roads. “By the +way,” she turned to Grace, “when is it Walter +will be crossing?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, not until several weeks after we do,” +Grace answered. “Dad’s going to be busy until +well into April. But we’ll all be together for the +coronation, I am sure. Did I tell you this? Mother +says someplace at the beginning of her letter that +a business acquaintance of Dad’s has written that +we may watch the procession go by from his +offices. It seems he is right down in Piccadilly and +has an ideal location. The King and Queen and +all of them will pass right by there on their way +to Westminster from Buckingham Palace to be +crowned. Then, they will pass by, too, on their +way back. Why, dad says that if we bought such +seats, we would have to pay at least a hundred +dollars apiece!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Oh, Grace, what would we do without you!” +Nan exclaimed. “That’s the biggest piece of news +yet! Dr. Prescott has been having trouble getting +good seats for us, I know, for we put in our bid +so late. I wrote to the solicitors in Edinburgh +who handled mother’s inheritance just the other +day to find out whether anything could be done. +It will be almost a month before I can possibly +hear, and I was so afraid that it would be too +late! Now, you have settled the problem entirely.”</p> + +<p>Grace blushed. She adored Nan. Praise from +her sent her spirits skyward. Now she returned +to her original question. “Will you stop in Chicago +at the beginning or the end of the vacation,” +she persisted.</p> + +<p>“Oh, at the end,” Nan capitulated. “I couldn’t +possibly stop at the beginning, I am that anxious +to get home and see Momsey! There are at least +a million questions I want to ask her about all of +this. I wish the Easter vacation was twice as long +as it is and that it was going to begin tomorrow. +Then I wish that we were leaving the day after +vacation ends. Oh, girls, I sometimes feel I’m +going to burst!</p> + +<p>“If you only knew how much I’ve wanted to +see all those places Momsey and Papa wrote +about when they were over in Scotland a year or +so ago! They tell me that the old castle that belonged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +to the ancient Lairds of Emberon is a +queer spooky old place. Most of it is not in use +anymore, but there are a few rooms that have +never been closed. These are the ones that are to +be ours for the time we stay there. Sounds thrilling, +doesn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“Thrilling!” Bess took up the word. “Why, +there’s nothing like this trip ever happened to us +before!”</p> + +<p>“What are you people cooking up now?” It +was Laura’s voice that broke in on them. “I declare, +sometimes I think I’d better move my trunk +and belongings right into this room. Then I’d be +on the spot when things happened.”</p> + +<p>“My sentiments exactly,” Rhoda chimed in as +she entered.</p> + +<p>“Late as usual,” Laura observed as Amelia +also came in. “Now tell us what we’ve been +missing.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, we’re all to stop at Grace’s in Chicago +before we come back to school. Her mother has a +whole list of things that can best be done from +there.” Bess couldn’t wait for Grace to extend the +invitation.</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s the truth,” Nan verified Bess’ +statement. “Now you’d all better clear out of +here,” she laughed. “I love every hair of your +funny heads, but I can’t accomplish a thing when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +you’re around. Do you realize that after all, we’re +at school, and that trip or no trip, we’ve got to +get through with exams before we leave?”</p> + +<p>The girls sobered up at once.</p> + +<p>“Ooh Nan, don’t bring them up,” Laura +begged. “I just remembered that I faithfully +promised the French Prof that I’d prepare my +lesson for tomorrow. She declared today that she +was utterly disgusted with the assignments I had +been handing in. Poor thing! I have been trying +her patience.”</p> + +<p>“And I and I and I,” they all chorused.</p> + +<p>“Now, get out!” Nan laughed, but never-the-less +achieved firmness.</p> + +<p>“Well, guess we’d better take the hint.” Laura +started for the door and the others followed. +“Bet I get a better French grade than any of +you, tomorrow,” she challenged, just before the +door was closed behind them with an air of +finality.</p> + +<p>“Such people!” Nan laughed to Bess when +they were once more alone. “There’s one thing +I’m sure of—”</p> + +<p>“And that?” Bess looked up.</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Cupp is going to be so happy when the +bus drives away from the entrance of this school +carrying all of us and our baggage, that, if she +were human at all, she’d dance a little jig of joy.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bess giggled. “If I thought she’d do that I’d +almost be willing to stay, for that would be something +worth seeing.”</p> + +<p>“Bess, there are so many things worth seeing,” +Nan took up the end of the sentence seriously, +“that I wish I were quintuplets so that I could be +in at least five places at once.”</p> + +<p>“You and me, too,” Bess agreed, “but just now +the one me that is here is going to buckle down +to work. Those exams are no joke.”</p> + +<p>So the two girls took out their books, and before +long there was no sound to be heard in the +room but the ticking of the clock and the occasional +turning of a page. They studied until the +signal came, “Lights out!”</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII<br /> + +<small>OLD FRIENDS AND AN ENEMY</small></h2> + + +<p>“Welcome to our city!” It was Walter’s hearty +voice greeting Nan and Bess as their train pulled +into the busy Chicago station.</p> + +<p>Nan caught her breath. How nice he looked! +How much older he seemed. She smiled up at +him.</p> + +<p>“You seem to have a habit of meeting us at +stations,” she remarked. They all laughed, remembering +Nan and Bess’ first entrance into +Freeling, their first ride with Walter and Linda +Riggs’ consequent anger.</p> + +<p>“And you seem to have a habit of going +places,” Walter returned as he smiled back at +them. How pretty they looked! How much older +they seemed! How pink Nan’s cheeks were! Could +it be that she was embarrassed? The very same +thoughts that were running through Nan’s mind +were running through his. They both felt easier +when Grace, Amelia, Laura, and Rhoda descended +on them.</p> + +<p>“Come on, you old pokes,” Grace said. “We’ve +got things to do.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Amelia contributed her bit, “and we’re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +late already.” With this she looked meaningly at +her latest acquisition—a new wristwatch.</p> + +<p>“What, another?” Laura appeared to be +stunned at the information.</p> + +<p>“Yes, funny,” Amelia wrinkled up her nose at +her friend. “It was a going away present from +my dad. Don’t you like it?”</p> + +<p>The girls all crowded round to see. It was a +pretty little thing, small and oblong and tailored +looking and it went quite perfectly with the pretty +tailored suit that Amelia was wearing. She turned +it so they could see her initials on the back and +the date, all engraved in Old English style.</p> + +<p>Now as they crowded into the Mason town car +and were whisked away to the big Mason home, +they compared notes on their visits. Nan and Bess +had been to four—no less than four—bon voyage +parties, and they were laden with all sorts of gifts +from their friends and former class-mates at Tillbury +High School. Rhoda was the proud possessor +of new luggage, the gift of cowboys on her +Dad’s ranch. Amelia had her watch, Grace a sizable +check to do with as she pleased on her trip. +And Laura had the greatest surprise of all.</p> + +<p>She had had her bright red hair curled so that +it was like a soft halo all around her pert little +face! “Turn around,” the girls commanded when +she took her hat off.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> + +<p>“It looks just darling, Laura,” Bess said.</p> + +<p>“Perfectly lovely,” Nan agreed. “You’ll be the +belle of the boat.”</p> + +<p>“Do you really like it?” Laura sounded just a +little worried as she looked at them. “Do you +think that Dr. Prescott will approve?” she asked +Nan anxiously.</p> + +<p>“Of course she will,” Nan answered confidently. +“Why Laura,” she said, turning her +friend’s head around so that she could get a side +view again, “you’ve changed from an ugly duckling +to a pretty young lady. I don’t see how Dr. +Prescott could possibly object.”</p> + +<p>Laura grinned roguishly. “Do you know, when +I look into the mirror, I hardly recognize myself, +but then when I open my mouth and hear what +comes out, I’m perfectly sure that I haven’t +changed a bit. Then I feel utterly discouraged.” +She looked as woeful as possible, when she finished +the sentence, but nothing could disguise the +fact that Laura and the whole crowd of Lakeview +Hall students were on top of the world. It was a +merry bunch that tumbled out of the car and into +the Mason home.</p> + +<p>In no time at all, they had unpacked, washed, +changed their clothes and were coming down the +broad stairway together for lunch. They stopped +midway.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Whose voice is that?” Bess whispered the +question.</p> + +<p>“Could it be—” Nan paused to listen again,—“Dr. +Beulah?”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid it is,” Grace laughed. “In the excitement, +I forgot entirely to tell you. Mother +asked her to stop on her way back to school, too, +and we are all to go together this afternoon for +our passports.”</p> + +<p>“Hey, come here!” It was Nan’s whisper +again, arresting Laura who had tried to retreat +up the stairway as soon as she heard Dr. Beulah. +Nan caught her by the arm. “You can’t do that,” +she said, “You’ve got to face the music sometime.”</p> + +<p>“Just give me a little time,” Laura entreated. +“This is too unexpected. Let me have time to +think up something to say.”</p> + +<p>“Then you would be in trouble.” Nan started +down the stairs. “Come on, brace up,” she whispered.</p> + +<p>At that moment, Mrs. Mason heard them all +and came to the stairway. “Come, girls,” she +called. “Lunch is ready.”</p> + +<p>Nan held fast to Laura’s arm and advanced +into the room.</p> + +<p>Dr. Prescott looked up at their entrance. +“Why, Nan, how well you are looking.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<p>“And—Laura! Why, Laura Polk!”</p> + +<p>Laura looked sheepish and blushed, but for +once no words came forth. Dr. Prescott looked at +her thoughtfully. Finally, the verdict came.</p> + +<p>“Well—” she said slowly, but with a bright +gleam in her eye. “I must admit that though I +have always been opposed to artificial curls, you +look very charming, Laura, and I don’t blame you +a bit for doing it. Now, turn around so that I can +see the back.”</p> + +<p>Laura turned.</p> + +<p>“Yes, it is indeed—charming, very becoming +to you,” she repeated. “Don’t you like it, girls?” +she nodded toward the others and in the general +conversation that followed, Laura regained her +composure.</p> + +<p>Lunch was followed by a conference in the Mason +library. Then they were all whisked off to the +photographers to have passport pictures taken. +Each one was taken into a small room, seated on +a chair, and told to look straight into the camera. +In a second it was all over.</p> + +<p>“Don’t they look just awful!” Bess exclaimed +when she saw hers. “Why, they can’t use that +thing to identify me. I won’t even admit that I +posed for that.” She laughed.</p> + +<p>“But will you look at mine!” this from Laura. +“I look like—like—”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Like Puck,” Nan supplied the word which +Laura was searching for. “Imagine the trouble +we’ll have dragging you past immigration officials +and through customs. We’ll have to explain to +every officer we meet, ‘No, this isn’t Puck. This is +Laura Polk.’ And they’ll look at you and make +marks in their notebooks. Then they’ll talk among +themselves and debate as to whether or not they +should lock you up in a dark dungeon.”</p> + +<p>“That’s the girl, Nan.” Laura commended her +friend, “And if they hear you they’ll lock you up +with me. The United States Government will protest—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, it won’t,” Amelia cut in. “It will send +word to keep you locked up, two such crazy loons! +Now, if we don’t get a move on, the Passport +Agent’s office will be closed and none of us will +ever be able to even leave the country!”</p> + +<p>“What’s this about not leaving the country?” +Dr. Prescott came into the room from an inner +office.</p> + +<p>“Oh, we were just teasing Laura,” Nan explained, +“about her passport photo. They are all +really very poor, Dr. Prescott. Do you think that +they will be all right?” Nan was genuinely worried.</p> + +<p>Dr. Prescott smiled at her. “Don’t fret, dear,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +she reassured her. “Everything will be quite all +right, I’m sure.”</p> + +<p>It seemed so. They went to the Passport +Agent’s office, stopped at a bank to find out about +foreign money, to tea—“so that we can get used +to having it in England in the middle of the afternoon,” +Grace explained.</p> + +<p>Before they parted so that each might do her +own errands, Dr. Prescott called Nan aside. +“Will you do something for me, Nan,” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Of course.” Nan was all eagerness. It was an +honor to be asked to help Dr. Prescott.</p> + +<p>“Will you stop at the travel agent’s on Madison +Avenue and pick up the portfolio of maps +and time-tables he is holding there for me? You +can’t miss the place, it’s near the Wrigley Building, +and it has a huge revolving globe of the world +in the window. It won’t take you long, and it +might be an interesting place to stop.”</p> + +<p>How interesting and upsetting this errand +would be—neither could know as Nan waved +good-bye to her friends and went off adventuring +by herself. Just as Dr. Prescott had said, she +couldn’t miss the Wrigley Building, nor the window +with the revolving globe. She stood for a +second watching it, watching North and South +America, the Atlantic Ocean, Europe and Africa, +Asia and Australia, the Pacific Ocean merge, one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +into the other, as the ball moved around. Then +she tore herself away, opened the door, and went +in.</p> + +<p>There, standing at a long counter talking to the +agent, was Linda Riggs, proud and superior looking +as usual! Nan gasped. Linda turned, and the +two faced one another.</p> + +<p>“Why, Linda!” Nan spoke first, but Linda +looked her up and down, stared into her face +coldly and most rudely, and then, without saying +a word, turned her back.</p> + +<p>Nan tried to cover up her confusion, as she +went forward to claim Dr. Prescott’s folio. Could +she have made a mistake? She looked again. No, +no one could mistake the angle of that up-turned +chin.</p> + +<p>“I’ll take the cabin on the upper deck,” she +heard Linda say in her slow affected way. “I want +the very best cabin you have,” she said, talking +a little louder so that Nan couldn’t help but hear. +“I always like the best of everything.”</p> + +<p>It was really disgusting to hear the girl talk. +Everyone in the office looked up at her. She might +have been a pretty girl, but instead she looked +over-dressed, haughty, and artificial. Two or three +in the room laughed to themselves and turned +away. They did not even like to look at her. +Others shook their heads. Nan tried not to pay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +any attention. She wanted to get out of the office +as soon as possible. She asked for Dr. Prescott’s +package quietly and would have gone without even +looking at Linda again, but that girl’s own words +stopped her.</p> + +<p>“I beg your pardon,” she heard Linda saying +to one of the agents, “but who is that girl that is +leaving now. It—seems that I have seen her someplace +before. Oh, yes, she is the one who was +caught shoplifting in a Chicago department +store.” She said it loudly so that everyone could +hear.</p> + +<p>Nan stopped. They couldn’t say that about her. +It wasn’t true! She knew it, and so did Linda. +Everyone who has read “Nan Sherwood’s Winter +Holidays” knows it. But here Linda was, declaring +it was true in front of a whole crowd of +strange people!</p> + +<p>Nan wanted to protest, but the agent who had +given her Dr. Prescott’s package spoke quietly. +“If I were you,” he said, for he knew that what +Linda was telling was a lie, “I’d say nothing. +Here, let me help you.” He took her by the arm +and escorted her to the door. “Don’t let it bother +you,” he said as she went out.</p> + +<p>Linda turned and followed Nan with her eyes. +“What strange people,” she drawled, “one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +meets.” No one paid any attention. They had +liked Nan.</p> + +<p>Outside, Nan held the package close to her +side and lost herself in the crowd. It had been +hard, not answering Linda, but by keeping still, +she had won the day. Now, as she walked along +Madison Avenue thinking of what had happened, +she remembered Linda’s first statement, “I want +a cabin on the upper deck, the best you have.”</p> + +<p>As she thought of it, she breathed a short +prayer. “Please don’t let Linda be on the same +boat with us,” it said.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER IX<br /> + +<small>THEY’RE OFF</small></h2> + + +<p>“Ticket—passport—traveller’s checks—baggage +tags—trunk keys.” Nan checked them +off on her list as she put them into her purse. +“There, Bess,” she said, turning to her friend, +“everything is done, and I’m all ready, absolutely +all ready to go. And you?”</p> + +<p>The two girls were standing in their room in +Lakeview Hall as Nan asked the question. They +were both dressed in tweed coats and matching +felt hats. Around them stood their baggage, waiting +for the school janitor to take it down to the +school bus. It was the day of all days, the day on +which they were leaving for Europe.</p> + +<p>Bess looked bewildered as Nan put the question +to her. “I—I—I—guess so. I guess I’m all +ready,” she answered. “Do you know, I’m so +excited that I hardly know whether I’m going or +coming. I can’t remember what I packed and what +I didn’t pack. I don’t know—why, I don’t even +know where my baggage keys are!” she exclaimed +as she began to look frantically around the room. +“What will I do?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<p>Already she was moving pillows, looking under +books, in the corners of chairs, and around the +floor. Nan joined the hunt and when Laura, a few +seconds later, stuck her head in the doorway, they +were both turning the room upside down in search +of the keys.</p> + +<p>“Say, you two,” the red-headed girl began, +“They’re coming for your trunks next. Be ready. +We’ve just time to catch the train.” With this +she disappeared.</p> + +<p>They heard Rhoda’s voice down the hall. +“Everybody ready? The bus is coming.”</p> + +<p>They heard Amelia. “Grace,” she called, “Dr. +Prescott says to come downstairs. It’s time to go.” +She sang the words out.</p> + +<p>But it was not until they themselves heard the +chug-chug of the old school bus as it rolled up to +the entrance and came to a halt that Nan discovered +the keys in the most obvious place of all, +the lock of the trunk itself!</p> + +<p>Now everything was all right. Bess gave one +more look at herself in the mirror. The janitor +came for the luggage. The girls took one last +lingering look at their room. Then they left.</p> + +<p>The next morning they awakened in New York +City to one of the most exciting days they had ever +had. Everything around them was new, for none +of them had ever been to this largest city in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +world before. As they came out of Grand Central +Station, with porters hurrying after them with +their luggage, they were caught up in a rush of +people hurrying to work.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Nan!” Bess grabbed for her friend’s arm.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Bess!” Nan exclaimed. “Did you ever see +anything like it!” Nan’s face was shining. She +looked around for the rest of their crowd, caught +Dr. Prescott’s eye, and smiled. It was all so new +and so much fun! Dr. Prescott smiled back. But +there was not time to say anything.</p> + +<p>They piled into a big car and went threading +through the heavy morning traffic, under elevated +railway tracks, past tall white buildings, through +narrow crowded streets, around big double decker +busses, and finally rolled to a stop at the +wharves.</p> + +<p>There ship after ship was lying in the docks. +There were great big ones, bigger than any hotel +they had ever seen; little fishing schooners with +loose sails flapping in the breeze; busy tugs nosing +around; and off in the distance, a gray United +States battleship was lying at anchor.</p> + +<p>Everyone was hustling about. The place seemed +one mad scramble of porters, sailors, travellers, +trunks, luggage carts, and taxis depositing more +and more people all the time. It seemed as though +the whole United States was sailing off for foreign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +ports. Unconsciously, the girls huddled together. +Dr. Prescott looked anxiously down at her brood +and realized for the first time what a task she had +undertaken. Then Nan touched her arm.</p> + +<p>“There, Dr. Prescott,” she said, “there it is, +our ship.”</p> + +<p>Sure enough, there ahead of them, riding +proudly in the dock was their boat, the S. S. +Lincoln. But before they could reach it, before +Bess could place her foot on the gang-plank as +she had been seeing herself do for weeks past, in +imagination a familiar voice cried excitedly, +“Here they are! Here they all are!” and they +looked up into the faces of mothers and fathers +and friends who had come to see them off.</p> + +<p>Immediately the whole rush of the outside +world was forgotten. Nan was in Momsy Sherwood’s +arms. Rhoda was kissing her father. Amelia +was assuring hers that her watch was running +perfectly. Laura was off to one side talking to +her mother. Grace was telling her folks all about +the trip from Lakeview. Bess was declaring to +her mother that she had her keys—safe. There +were introductions all round and then the group +made its way up the gang plank, proudly and +happily and a little bit tearfully.</p> + +<p>“Nan Sherwood—Miss Nan Sherwood——Nan +Sherwood—” Gradually the fact that Nan’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +name was being called sifted through the minds +of the happy crowd. It was Bess who noticed it +first.</p> + +<p>“Nan, why, Nan, they’re calling your name,” +she tried to get her friend’s attention. At last Nan +looked up.</p> + +<p>“A telegram for Miss Nan Sherwood,” the +boy called again. Nan reached through the crowd +for it.</p> + +<p>“Miss Elizabeth Harley—Miss Harley,” the +boy began calling again. So, one by one, the girls +received letters and telegrams, cards and flowers +and books, candy and fruit, gifts and messages +from friends in Florida and Chicago and Michigan +and the West where Rhoda lived, wishing +them “A Safe Journey and a Happy Landing!”</p> + +<p>Because of all the excitement, it was not until +the cry rang out “All’s ashore that’s going +ashore,” that Momsy and Papa Sherwood were +able to warn Nan. “Now,” Papa Sherwood said, +“Remember, there are—as I have told you before +those at Emberon who might want to do +you harm. Some there have never become reconciled +to your mother’s having inherited the fortune. +They might try to make trouble for you.”</p> + +<p>“Please don’t worry,” Nan herself looked serious +as she answered her father. “I’ll be most +careful.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Careful, did you say?” Bess was at her side. +“Why Mrs. Sherwood, of course we’ll be careful. +We’ll all be very careful.” Then as she noted the +serious expression on both Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood’s +face, she stopped short. Bess looked puzzled. +Somewhere in the back of her mind there was +something unsolved that this reminded her of. +She tried to remember, but couldn’t. It troubled +her vaguely even as she kissed Mrs. Sherwood +good-by. Then she forgot it, for Nan was laughing +and smiling and telling her mother and dad to +hurry and get off if they didn’t want to be taken +along too.</p> + +<p>Next, they were all standing at the ship’s rail, +waving with hats and handkerchiefs to the crowds +on shore. The ship’s orchestra was playing one +last tune. Tugs pushed at the boat. Slowly and +majestically, it moved away from the dock to the +harbor and the open sea, carrying Nan Sherwood +and her Lakeview Hall friends along with it.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER X<br /> + +<small>TROUBLE FOR NAN</small></h2> + + +<p>“Now what?” Bess was feeling a little forlorn +as the big ship gathered steam and the figures on +shore faded away to nothing.</p> + +<p>Nan turned. She had been watching the white +sea gulls swooping in great arcs down over the +boat, missing it, and turning to swoop again. It +looked like such fun!</p> + +<p>“I haven’t the slightest idea,” she answered, “but +let’s go and find out.” She took Bess’s hand and +went inside, down the elevator, through a long +corridor toward their cabins.</p> + +<p>Midway, they were stopped by a white jacketed +steward. “I beg your pardon, Miss,” he addressed +Bess, “but are you Miss Sherwood?”</p> + +<p>Bess couldn’t find her tongue. Nan spoke up. +“I’m Nan Sherwood,” she said, “Is there anything +wrong?”</p> + +<p>“How many pieces of baggage did you have?” +he answered her question with another.</p> + +<p>“Two,” Nan answered quickly.</p> + +<p>“What were they?”</p> + +<p>“A small trunk and a suitcase.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>“The color?” He was making notations on a +small slip of paper.</p> + +<p>“Brown.”</p> + +<p>“Did you have them sent to storage or directly +to your cabin?”</p> + +<p>“To the cabin.”</p> + +<p>“Were they properly tagged?”</p> + +<p>“Why, I thought so,” Nan was completely +baffled at the questions.</p> + +<p>“Your cabin number?” He smiled at the girl +now. “There’s been some confusion,” he said, +“and one of the other passengers is quite excited +about it. I’m trying to straighten out the difficulties.”</p> + +<p>“648. I thought my baggage was in my cabin.” +Nan <em>was</em> puzzled now.</p> + +<p>“Of course it was,” Bess chimed in. “Your +father and my father came down and checked on +that to make sure before they got off the boat. +I’m certain they said your baggage was there. +Come let’s look.”</p> + +<p>The two girls and the steward continued down +the corridor to the cabins where the rest of the +Lakeview crowd was already at work unpacking.</p> + +<p>“Oh, here they are now.” Rhoda looked up as +the two girls entered. “We were just wondering +about you. The angriest looking red-headed man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +we’ve ever seen was just here demanding to see +Miss Sherwood.”</p> + +<p>“He was near-sighted and slightly hunch-backed,” +Laura continued. “He lifted his shoulders, +puckered his brows, and peered at Rhoda as +though she was either hiding you in this cabin or +lying when she said that she didn’t know where +you were.”</p> + +<p>“He looked slowly around,” Grace contributed, +“as though you must surely be here. I thought for +a moment that he was going to open the cabinet. +But he hesitated and just stared at it. I’m sure he +looked right through those doors and saw that +you weren’t there.” She shuddered as she remembered +the man’s expression.</p> + +<p>“Yes, and when Rhoda advanced toward that +doorway, easing him gently out, you know,” Amelia +too looked frightened, “his face got so red +that I thought he was going to die of apoplexy.”</p> + +<p>“Then all of a sudden he changed,” Rhoda +took up the story again. “He begged our pardon, +said there was some confusion about baggage, and +went away to find a steward.”</p> + +<p>Nan turned to the steward at her side. “Is that +the man whose baggage you are enquiring about?” +she asked.</p> + +<p>“Answers the description perfectly, Miss.” He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +was all politeness. “If you will pardon me now, I +would like to see your luggage.”</p> + +<p>The other girls moved to one side and attempted +to get their scattered belongings out of +the way. The cabin was small, and they had not yet +finished unpacking. Laura and Amelia, whose cabin +was across the corridor left—reluctantly.</p> + +<p>The steward stepped over the other bags in the +room and went directly to Nan’s trunk. He looked +at it carefully, turned it over, and examined the +tag. Finally, he looked up. “I’m sorry, Miss Sherwood,” +he said, “The porters have made a mistake. +This luggage was meant for room 846 instead +of 648. See.”</p> + +<p>Nan stepped over the luggage, as he had done, +and looked at the tag. “No,” she said, more +puzzled than ever, “that isn’t my luggage. I can +see now that it isn’t quite the same color, though +it is the same size and shape.”</p> + +<p>“But where is yours?” Bess asked the question +that was on the tip of Nan’s tongue.</p> + +<p>“I’ll bring it presently.” The steward picked +up the bag and walked out.</p> + +<p>“Has the great mystery been solved,” Laura +asked as she and Amelia came back into the cabin.</p> + +<p>“Well, partly,” Nan said slowly, for she was +still puzzled. “I don’t see how Papa made such a +mistake. I don’t understand this yet.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> + +<p>“You would understand it even less, if you +have seen the villain in the piece,” Laura volunteered. +She liked mysteries. “If I were in your +shoes,” she continued, “I wouldn’t venture out +of this cabin at any time during the crossing and +I wouldn’t let a morsel of food cross my lips until +some one had tasted it. At night, I’d lock that +porthole and bar the door, and I’d never stay +alone for a second. You’re in danger, lass.” She +shook her head sadly. “There’s a deep, deep plot,” +she added, as she saw that Bess seemed to be believing +every single word of what she was saying, +“to do away with you. Only the utmost caution +will ever get you over this Atlantic Ocean alive.” +Her voice was deep and husky as she finished the +sentence, and her eyes stared ahead as though +she could see into the future.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Laura, be still,” Nan laughed at her friend. +“You have Bess believing you now, and if you are +not careful, she’ll be seeing hunch-backed men disappearing +into every cabin along that corridor.”</p> + +<p>Bess said nothing. Her busy mind was remembering +Papa Sherwood’s warning just before he +left the boat. “There are those at Emberon,” he +had said, “that might want to do you harm. Be +careful!” Again, as then, she had a vague feeling +that there was something that had happened in +the past, something strange and mysterious, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +she ought to remember. Again, it eluded her.</p> + +<p>She shook herself, partly in annoyance, partly +to bring herself back to the present and cabin +648. “He’s awfully slow in bringing that baggage, +isn’t he?” she asked.</p> + +<p>Amelia looked at her watch. “Yes, he’s been +gone fifteen minutes,” she answered. “Maybe you +had better ring for another steward, Nan. There +is something queer about all of this.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, do!” Grace urged. “I feel rather +frightened.”</p> + +<p>“Now there is no sense in getting all worked up +over nothing.” Nan was the only one who really +appeared calm. “Baggage often gets mixed in the +boats.”</p> + +<p>“Nan, will you please stop being calm, and do +something?” Bess was working herself up into a +real frenzy. “Maybe someone has stolen your +luggage.”</p> + +<p>“Then you’ll have to wear my clothes and will +you ever be a sight!” This from Amelia who was +fully two inches taller than Nan and much, much +thinner.</p> + +<p>“Or mine,” This for Laura who was shorter +than Nan, and plumper.</p> + +<p>“I thank you all, but I guess I’ll wear my own.” +Nan stepped toward the doorway as a steward +knocked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Miss Sherwood?” he asked. Nan opened the +door.</p> + +<p>“Why-y-y, yes,” she answered, hesitantly, for +it was not the same steward who had taken the +other bag away.</p> + +<p>“Your bag, I believe,” he half questioned as +he dropped it inside the doorway and left.</p> + +<p>The girls could hardly wait until they had +examined it. The number on the tag was wrong +just as the mysterious visitor had said, and the +bag did look much like the other.</p> + +<p>“Nan, get your keys!” It was Laura speaking. +“It looks to me as though this lock has been +meddled with.”</p> + +<p>“Right here,” Nan opened her purse.</p> + +<p>The six girls all stooped over the bag, as +Laura tried the key. “Oh, that isn’t the right +one.” She was impatient at the delay.</p> + +<p>Nan handed her another.</p> + +<p>“Please, will you all move round so I have +more light?” Laura asked. “This doesn’t seem to +fit, either.”</p> + +<p>They stood up and watched her.</p> + +<p>“Something is wrong, Nan.” Laura moved to +one side. “Here, you try.”</p> + +<p>Nan took the key, fussed with the lock a second, +pushing and pulling, until finally the case +flew open.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XI<br /> + +<small>BESS HOLDS HER TEMPER</small></h2> + + +<p>Nan said nothing, but sat staring at the contents, +a puzzled expression on her face. The girls +looked from the trunk to Nan and back to the +trunk again.</p> + +<p>“Everything is all right, isn’t it?” Bess asked +the question.</p> + +<p>“I—don’t——know.” Nan answered slowly +and doubtfully. “Everything seems to be as I left +it. Yet somehow it’s all changed too.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” Grace questioned +timidly.</p> + +<p>Nan looked up from her place on the floor into +the anxious faces of the girls around her. “I’m as +baffled as you are,” she admitted. “I can’t really +tell whether anyone has touched the things in my +trunk or not. The underwear—slips—stockings—blouses” +she touched each pile of things as she +named it,—“pajamas, and even the dresses, are +folded the same and in the same places as they +were when I packed. I’m sure of that.</p> + +<p>“Still, when that case flew open, I had a peculiar +feeling that someone besides myself had been +through it and touched everything there.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Ugh.” Bess shuddered. “Don’t say things like +that, Nan. They give me the creeps.”</p> + +<p>“Me too,” Grace was really pale. “Especially +when I remember the expression on that hunchback’s +face when he asked for you.”</p> + +<p>“What are you going to do about it?” Rhoda +inquired. Generally calm, Rhoda was seriously +worried now. The red-headed man had looked +mean.</p> + +<p>“Yes, what are you going to do?” Bess repeated +the question. She was more troubled than +any of the rest, because she had more reason than +they to be suspicious.</p> + +<p>“Come, Nan,” Amelia urged, as Nan sat, silently +considering. “You’ve got to do something.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, girls, I don’t know what to do,” Nan +finally burst forth. “It can’t be reported. The +whole thing would sound silly. The purser would +probably pat us on the back, tell us to be good, +and warn us not to read so many detective stories. +I’m afraid that there is just nothing to do but keep +quiet and see what happens next, if anything. +After all, it might have been a very innocent +mistake.”</p> + +<p>Laura snickered. “I only hope no innocent mistakes +come walking into my cabin,” she said. Then +she grew serious. “Really, Nan, I’m not generally +a fraidy-cat, but if I were you, I would be careful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +and watch out for red-headed men. I can’t for the +life of me see why anyone in the world would be +after you, but strange things do happen.”</p> + +<p>“I will be careful,” Nan agreed. “Now, I wonder +what that gong was I heard a few minutes +ago.”</p> + +<p>“Girls, girls, girls!” It was Dr. Prescott at the +doorway. “What have you been doing? Don’t you +know that the second gong for dinner has rung +and that if you don’t hurry you won’t get anything +to eat.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing to eat! And me so starved after the +whiffs I’ve been getting of the fresh salt air.” +Laura was up and out of the room before she +had finished the sentence. Amelia followed after. +Ten minutes later the girls were headed down the +corridor to the ship’s dining room.</p> + +<p>“Have you got your ticket?” Nan asked as she +held up a little red card that resembled the seat +stubs in a theatre.</p> + +<p>“Ticket, what ticket?” Laura stopped short.</p> + +<p>“The ticket for your place in the dining room.” +Bess was proud of this bit of knowledge.</p> + +<p>“Why, I never had one,” Laura declared. +“They never even gave me one.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes they did,” Bess assured her. “Remember, +after the purser looked at our passports when +we came aboard ship, he sent us to a window<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +where the dining room steward was sitting. The +steward had a plan of the dining room before +him, with all the tables pictured on it. He looked +at us and at our passports and then gave us this +little stub. Remember?”</p> + +<p>Laura looked perfectly blank. “What will I +do now?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Here, you take mine,” Bess was feeling generous. +“Since I know just where to go, I’ll go up +and get another. You all start eating, though. +Don’t wait for me.” With this she was off to the +purser’s office.</p> + +<p>“Come on, Laura.” Nan took Laura’s arm as +the girl hesitated wondering whether, if, after all, +she shouldn’t get her own ticket.</p> + +<p>“Yes, or we won’t get anything to eat.” Amelia +was slightly impatient. “Come, let’s hurry. There +doesn’t seem to be anybody else around at all. Do +you know where the dining room is?” she turned +to Nan with the question.</p> + +<p>“I do,” Laura answered. “It’s up on Deck B. I +looked in when I first came down to our cabin. +Just follow me.”</p> + +<p>There was music as the girls hurried up the +stairway and in through wide double doors. +“Looks like a hotel dining room,” Grace whispered +as the chief steward came toward them.</p> + +<p>“Your stubs, please?” he asked and then escorted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +them to a big round table in the center of +the room, a table all their own, perfectly set for +seven people.</p> + +<p>There was a low bowl of flowers in the center +and a card which read,</p> + +<p class="note"> +<span class="note1">“To Nan Sherwood,</span><br /> +<span class="note2">S. S. Lincoln,</span><br /> +<span class="note3">c/o Chief Steward.</span><br /></p> + +<p>“May each day of your journey be more exciting +and more pleasant than the one past.”</p> + +<p>“Who is it from, Nan?” Even Dr. Prescott was +eager to know. She had been sitting at the table +waiting for the girls to appear.</p> + +<p>Nan turned the card over. “Why, how nice!” +she exclaimed, “and how thoughtful!” Then she +looked up at Dr. Prescott and the girls waiting at +their places. “It is from a famous movie actress,” +she said rather shyly, and her face was all aglow, +“whom I met once in Chicago. She’s a perfectly +grand person.” Nan was silent as the details of +that meeting rushed through her mind, as she remembered +how an unfortunate encounter with +Linda had brought it about. As she sat down, she +wondered idly whether the summer holidays that +were before her would be as exciting as those +winter holidays, spent in Chicago at Grace’s home, +had been.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> + +<p>“What’s happened to Elizabeth?” Dr. Prescott +asked as she picked up her menu. “Not sea-sick +already, I hope?”</p> + +<p>“Far from it,” Nan laughed. “Bess is too busy +being an ocean traveller to even have time to think +of such a thing. Really, Dr. Prescott,” Nan +leaned across the table and said earnestly, “you +can’t imagine what a kick we are getting out of +all of this. It’s like something girls do in story +books.”</p> + +<p>“And the journey has just begun.” Dr. Prescott +smiled at her young charges. “It all brings my +first trip—I was a little older than you are now—back +to me most vividly. Now, what will we have +to eat?”</p> + +<p>“Oh-h-h, will you look at this menu,” Laura +spoke up now. “Not much like one of Mrs. Cupp’s—” +she stopped suddenly and blushed. It was +hard to remember that Dr. Prescott, the head of +Lakeview Hall, was present. Laura looked up +over the top of her menu, ready to apologize. But +Dr. Prescott seemed not to have heard. She +seemed wholly occupied in choosing the mid-day +meal. “What a brick she is!” Laura thought to +herself as she, too, turned to the business at hand.</p> + +<p>“Just one warning,” Dr. Prescott cautioned +before the girls turned to the table steward to +give him their orders. “You eat about six times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +a day on the boat—” She paused as the girls +gasped. “You have a big breakfast, bouillon and +wafers in the middle of the morning, lunch, tea +and cakes in the afternoon, dinner, and then +before you go to bed, there are sandwiches and +perhaps something warm to drink. If you are going +to eat each time,” she went on, “you’ll have +to be careful. Otherwise you’ll be spending the +hours in your stateroom. There,” she finished, +“that is my only lecture for the day. Now, do as +you will.”</p> + +<p>So they chose—carefully, except Laura, who +could not resist having both French pastry and +ice-cream for desert. “Bess will never forgive me,” +she spoke up after she had ordered, “if she doesn’t +get here in time for this first meal on the boat.”</p> + +<p>“She ought to be here any time now,” Amelia +looked at her watch. “It doesn’t take long to get +your table card. You don’t suppose they lock the +dining room doors when everyone is in and that +they won’t let her through now?” she directed +the question to Dr. Prescott.</p> + +<p>“Why, I hardly think so.” Dr. Prescott smiled. +“People are coming and going all the time, you +see.”</p> + +<p>“Bess will get here. Never fear.” Nan spoke up +confidently. “Let’s eat. She told us not to wait.” +As the lunch progressed, however, from soup<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +through a dainty salad and slices of cold chicken +to dessert, Nan grew uneasy.</p> + +<p>“It is strange that she doesn’t appear,” she +finally admitted, and was about to leave the dining +room and go in search of her when Bess was +ushered to the table.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry to be so late,” Bess murmured as she +sat down and unfolded her napkin, “but I couldn’t +help it.” Her face was flushed. She looked confused +and angry.</p> + +<p>“Please don’t say anything now,” she begged +as Nan was about to speak. “I’m afraid I’ll make +a scene, if you do, but if ever I see that girl +again—”</p> + +<p>She stopped short as the steward presented +her with a menu.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XII<br /> + +<small>A SCORE TO EVEN UP</small></h2> + + +<p>“Now tell us what happened!” The Lakeview +girls were reclining in deck chairs on the sun deck +in the late afternoon. Dr. Prescott was in her +stateroom, making it more presentable, she said, +so it was the first opportunity to talk over Bess’ +experience.</p> + +<p>Bess raised herself up and tucked the steamer +rug more securely around her legs. The April +breezes were fresh, and rather chilly.</p> + +<p>“It still makes me mad,” she fumed as she +yanked the rug around further. “You can’t go +anyplace, not even across the ocean, but what that +girl turns up.”</p> + +<p>“What girl?” Laura feigned innocence.</p> + +<p>“Linda Riggs, of course.” Bess was utterly +disgusted. “When I left you down in the corridor, +I went straight up to the steward’s window. I took +my place in line with others, paying no attention +to anyone. All I cared about was getting my ticket +and getting down to the dining room. I moved +along in line like the others and was just about +ready to show the steward my passport, when +someone gave me a shove.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Well, I wasn’t going to stand for that, so I +stood my ground.”</p> + +<p>“You mean,” Nan interpreted, “that you +shoved right back.”</p> + +<p>“Well, if you want to call a little push that, +yes,” Bess admitted. “But if I’d known who it +was, I would have knocked her down.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Bess!” Nan was horrified and amused. +“You little beast! I’m surprised at you.”</p> + +<p>“She’s always getting us into trouble.” Bess +was indignant all over again. “There I was, minding +my own business, thinking nice thoughts, and +having quite a perfect time. No one was farther +from my concern than she. And what happens? +She walks right into me, pushes me aside, never +begs my pardon, and presents her passport first.”</p> + +<p>“Then what did you do?” Laura asked. She +was as amused as Nan.</p> + +<p>“What could I do?” Bess inquired sharply. “I +couldn’t fight with her there in front of all those +people. She had the advantage and knew it. She’s +the most unfair person I’ve ever come across. I +hate her!”</p> + +<p>“Was that all that happened?” Laura was reluctant +to let the subject drop.</p> + +<p>“All! Wasn’t that enough?” Bess exploded +again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Well—yes.” Laura admitted. “But don’t you +know anything more about her. Did you leave +right away?”</p> + +<p>“Of course not!” Bess answered resentfully. +“How could I? I didn’t even have my check yet +for the table. There wasn’t anything to do,” she +added regretfully, “except to take a place behind +her in line and listen to her make her demands of +the steward.”</p> + +<p>“Now we are getting someplace,” Laura leaned +forward as Bess let drop this piece of information. +“What did you find out about her?”</p> + +<p>Nan shook her head at this line of conversation. +She did not approve of eavesdropping. But +no one paid any attention to her.</p> + +<p>“Oh, it makes me angry all over again to think +of it,” Bess jerked at the steamer rug again. “As +I said before, she didn’t pay any attention to me. +I might have been just anyone.”</p> + +<p>“She gave the steward her passport, stepped +back slightly, almost treading on my feet, and +looked at him through a lorget—”</p> + +<p>“You mean lorgnette,” Laura interrupted, “but +it doesn’t matter. Go ahead.”</p> + +<p>“Lorgnette, then,” Bess corrected. “Anyway, +she looked at the steward through it as though +he had been put there just to do as she ordered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +as though he was a puppet that she could dangle +as she wished.</p> + +<p>“You know how she does it in that stuck-up way +of hers. Why, if I had been him, I would have +thrown the plans right in her face. But he was +just as meek as I am before Mrs. Cupp, the fool!”</p> + +<p>“Bess, do be careful,” Nan put a restraining +hand over her mouth, “other people will hear +you.”</p> + +<p>Bess lowered her voice as she went on. “She +told him that he had made a mistake, a perfectly +dreadful mistake. Devastating, I think, was the +word she used—whatever that means. At any +rate, he had given her a stub for a table down here +in Tourist Class.”</p> + +<p>“And, my dears, Linda Riggs,” Bess mimicked +Linda’s voice as she continued, “the daughter of +the great railway magnate, never has anything but +the best, the very best, when she travels.”</p> + +<p>At this Nan hooted. She was remembering her +own encounter with Linda at the travel agent’s +a few weeks previously.</p> + +<p>“And then—” Laura wanted more about this +exciting encounter.</p> + +<p>“Then he begged her pardon. Can you imagine +that?” Bess looked at her friends for an answer. +There was none. “Gave her a new stub, asked her +if there was anything else he could do for her, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +all but personally escorted her back to First +Class.</p> + +<p>“She didn’t even thank him for his trouble. She +just turned, looked some of the people up and down +as though they were curiosities in a zoo, and +swept over to the elevator.”</p> + +<p>“What? She didn’t walk on you again,” Laura +was purposely baiting Bess now.</p> + +<p>“I should say not!” Bess answered emphatically. +“Before she turned, I stepped way back so +that there wasn’t any more danger of that.”</p> + +<p>“Good for you, Bess,” Rhoda now spoke up for +the first time.</p> + +<p>“It seems to me,” Nan grinned impishly as she +thought about it, “That one or two of us made a +New Year’s resolution about Linda Riggs. Remember +Bess?”</p> + +<p>“Remember, why should I remember?” Bess +asked. “I never in all this wide world made a +resolution about Linda, unless it was to get even +with her for the times she has embarrassed us.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, but Bess,” Nan pursued her train of +thought, “You remember how, after the New +Year’s Eve party at Grace’s, we went up to our +room and made resolutions?”</p> + +<p>“You did.” Bess corrected her abruptly and +very positively. “You and Grace said that for one +month you would be nice to Linda, no matter what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +happened. Then Linda never did come back to +school, so it didn’t count.”</p> + +<p>“Anyway,” Nan attempted to dismiss the unpleasant +subject, “There’s no reason why she +should bother us. She’s up in First Class.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and we’re down here in Tourist.” It was +a sore point with Bess, who was always irritated +when Linda was able to show her superiority in +money matters. Bess wanted most intensely to be +able to look down on Linda. She wanted to have +something so much better than Linda that the +arrogant girl would envy her.</p> + +<p>“Even so,” Nan resolved as she rose from her +deck chair, “I’m not going to let her spoil my trip. +Come,” she half coaxed, “Come, Bess, let’s all +take a turn about deck.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, let’s,” Grace encouraged, “I’d like to +walk once, clear around the boat.”</p> + +<p>“But you can’t,” Laura supplied the information, +as she looked at Bess, “You can walk only +so far and then there’s a gate that separates you +from first class.”</p> + +<p>“Please, forget it!” Nan looked reprovingly at +Laura. “Come with me,” she invited again. “I +know a place where you can stoop under some +rigging and come out on a little part of the deck +that’s almost like a balcony with the ocean below +it and nothing but the sky above.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>“And I know a place,” Rhoda contributed, +“where you can get way up front, so that you are +at the prow of the boat. When you stand there, +you feel as though you yourself are cutting +through the water.”</p> + +<p>“A mermaid at large.” Laura laughed. “I know +that place, too. I found it right after lunch and +thought, until now, that it was my private +property.”</p> + +<p>“But I know a place that’s even better than +that,” Grace boasted. “It’s a large room with +portholes all along both ends. There are tables in +it—”</p> + +<p>“And tea and cakes for all who come,” Laura +finished. “Let’s go there.”</p> + +<p>They went, but neither tea nor cakes could +make Bess forget that she had a score to even up +with Linda.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XIII<br /> + +<small>FRIENDS ABOARD SHIP</small></h2> + + +<p>“Hello, down there!” Nan stretched her head +over the edge of her berth and looked down to the +bunk below where Bess was still sleeping. “Hello, +I say,” she repeated a little louder when the first +call brought no response. Then she waited. She +could feel the vibration of the great ship as it +forged ahead and hear faintly the steady throb +of its engines. It was nice to be getting someplace, +she thought, even while you were asleep.</p> + +<p>“Hello!” Nan called again. “You awake?”</p> + +<p>Bess rubbed her eyes and leaned out so she +could see Nan above. “Of course I am,” she +declared. “How long have you been awake?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, for hours and hours,” Nan responded. “I +heard the first gong for breakfast and then the +second. After that I went back to sleep.”</p> + +<p>“You didn’t either!” Bess was really awake +now. “But if you did,” she continued half hopefully, +“it’s too late to get breakfast in the dining-room, +so we’ll just have to ring that bell over +there by the door and ask the stewardess to bring +our breakfast to the cabin. Just think of being able<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +to order anything you want and having it brought +to you on a big tray!”</p> + +<p>Bess stretched luxuriously and then turned over +on her side. “You know,” she said, “I feel like a +movie queen. My pajamas are of satin and fine +lace. My robe is long and trailing with marabou +around the neck. These bed covers are made of +silk and down, and your bunk up there is not really +a bunk. It’s the canopy of my bed.”</p> + +<p>Nan looked over the side. “I beg your pardon?” +she asked as though she hadn’t heard.</p> + +<p>Bess started to repeat, “Your bunk is the canopy”—but +didn’t finish, for Nan was up and on +her way down the ladder which stretched from +the floor to her upper berth.</p> + +<p>“I can’t sleep any longer on this canopy,” she +laughed. “Moreover, I’m starved and a tray +would never hold all I’m going to eat this morning. +You may stay here, my movie queen, and eat +daintily from a tray while your back is propped +comfortably against pillows. I want bacon and +eggs,” she finished, as she opened the wardrobe at +the end of the berths and took out a skirt and +bright sweater.</p> + +<p>“You may spend your morning in the cabin,” +she went on, washing and dressing the while, “but +I’m going out on the deck and see what’s doing.” +She combed her hair before the mirror over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +washstands and sat down at a small dressing table +while she tied a three-cornered scarf around her +head. With a small hand mirror, she looked at it +from all sides, and then pulled a wisp of hair out +at the front and looked again. Satisfied, she put +the mirror down, blew a kiss to her lazy chum, +and was off.</p> + +<p>Not waiting for the elevator, she walked up the +stairs, opened a door, and stepped out. The morning +sun was already high above the horizon, and +the deck was bright with its light. Nan squinted +her eyes. Then, as she became accustomed to the +dazzle and opened them wide, she saw approaching +her a merry looking, pleasant person, the +ship’s hostess.</p> + +<p>“You are—” the stranger paused and smiled at +Nan.</p> + +<p>“Nan Sherwood.” With this Nan was introduced +to a group of young people her own age.</p> + +<p>First, there was Hetty Warren, a young English +girl whom Nan liked right away. She had +blond hair and blue eyes and a complexion even +fairer than that of most English girls. She had, +she told Nan a little wistfully, just left her parents +in Washington, where her father was a member +of the English Embassy. Her grandmother +was taking her back to London to witness an event +which she said, no grandchild of hers would ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +miss, the crowning of the new King and Queen.</p> + +<p>Then, there was Jeanie MacFarland, a brown-eyed +Scotch lass whose father, she said proudly, +was on the Edinburgh committee to buy a gift for +the king. And Maureen O’Grady, Irish as her +name, headed first for home and then for London. +Her mother was helping to make the lace for +the Queen’s train.</p> + +<p>Oh, they all had stories, these girls. One had +lived once in far away India, in Bombay. Another, +in the British colony in Shanghai. The father of +one was a caretaker at the King’s favorite castle +and the brother of another, a lieutenant in His +Majesty’s Fleet stationed at Gibraltar.</p> + +<p>They were coming from all corners of the +world, Nan found, to be in England in May, to +see the King and Queen parade in a golden coach +from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Cathedral, +to attend the balls and the garden parties +and the Colonial fairs, to see the King review the +British fleet at Spithead and hear the crowds cheer +the pretty little princess at her party for the English +school children. Everyone, young and old, +Hetty’s grandmother said, was to have a part in +the joyous week.</p> + +<p>School children throughout the Empire were to +have seven days of vacation. “Boy Scouts from +Australia and India and British South Africa are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +even now,” she told Nan, “coming on boats to act +as a special guard for the little prince. Others, in +England and Scotland have charge of the tremendously +big bonfires that will be lighted on +each hilltop the night after the king and queen are +crowned. These beacon fires will proclaim to +everyone that a new King and Queen have come +to the throne. And, with the lighting of the fires, +the people all over the British Empire will sing +‘God Save the King.’”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and the Girl Scouts,” Hetty went on, +“are having a big party in the gardens of Buckingham +Palace. The little princess will be there +and the Queen too. A thousand poor children have +been invited and the princess has a gift for each +one. They have a gift for the princess too, and +one for the Queen. Oh, I can hardly wait until the +big day arrives.”</p> + +<p>“And,” Jeanie contributed, “All over Scotland, +the wee lassies and laddies have each given a tuppence +piece to their school teachers. When the King +and Queen come to Edinburgh after the golden +crowns have been put on their heads, all this +money will be put in a golden bag and presented +to the Queen. Her Majesty will use it to help the +children whose fathers were killed in the wars. +An orphan from one of Her Majesty’s orphanages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +will present it at a banquet which the Lord +Mayor will give.”</p> + +<p>“Will you be there?” Nan was wide-eyed,</p> + +<p>“If I only could.” Jeanie’s voice was full of +longing.</p> + +<p>“If we only could,” Hetty echoed the statement +and included everybody.</p> + +<p>“But it’s not for the likes of us,” Maureen +shook her head as everyone fell silent. “It’s for +the great ladies, they who live up in the castles on +the hills and in the palaces in the cities. They +were born to such things. No, it’s not for the likes +of us,” she repeated.</p> + +<p>“Don’t, Maureen,” Hetty said earnestly. +“Don’t say that. Don’t say it isn’t for the likes of +us!”</p> + +<p>Hetty’s grandmother smiled at the seriousness +of her grand-daughter. “Hetty is remembering,” +she said, “the time the Queen stopped at our country +cottage.”</p> + +<p>“Were you there?” The girls all looked at +Hetty.</p> + +<p>“No, it was before she was born,” the bright-eyed +old lady went on. “It was back in the days of +the good Queen Victoria before people drove +around in gasoline buggies.” She stopped as +though she had finished, but Nan saw a twinkle in +her eye.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Please go on,” she begged. “Please tell us all +about it.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Grandmother,” Hetty laughed, “you +know you want to.”</p> + +<p>The old lady ruffled her grand-daughter’s hair +playfully, as she continued, “We were sitting in +the kitchen, my mother and I. She, like the model +housewife she was, God bless her soul, was scouring +pots and pans and giving me a few instructions +on the proper behavior of a young lady.</p> + +<p>“‘Mind what I say about your curiosity,’ she +was telling me, when a crash outside interrupted. +She dropped everything, making such a clatter as +I’ve never heard since and nearly fell over me in +her anxiety to get to the window.</p> + +<p>“‘Glory be!’ I heard her exclaim and ran after +her. There, in front of the house a big coach had +broken down. Two coachmen had climbed down +from their high seats and were helping three +ladies out the door and up the path to our house.</p> + +<p>“My mother whisked off her blue checked +apron, smoothed down her hair and opened the +door. I stood back—afrighted, as the three grand +ladies came into the front parlor. Then I disappeared +back into the kitchen. Mother made tea +and gave them shortbread and was so a-flutter +herself that she broke one of her company dishes.</p> + +<p>“They wanted to pay for it, but she wouldn’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +let them. She said it was nothing at all. After +they went, I saw her wiping a tear out of her +eye and she scoured the pans harder than she ever +scoured them before. That night she told my +father that she was never going to pay any attention +to any big coaches again.</p> + +<p>“But weeks later when another big coach +stopped in front of the house, she was at the door +again. This time a man came and left a big box. +Mother said it wasn’t for her, but he insisted it +was. Finally, she accepted it, and he had hardly +driven away, before she and I were opening it.” +The old lady paused here to enjoy the eager faces +of the young girls around her. Then she cleared +her throat and went on.</p> + +<p>“Inside we found a dozen dainty cups and +saucers and a card. Our visitors had been two +princesses and Her Majesty, Queen Victoria!”</p> + +<p>“And great-grandmother always said,” Hetty +added, “that the great Queen herself painted the +cups. So, Maureen,” she ended triumphantly, “you +don’t know, really, what there is for the likes of us.”</p> + +<p>“No, you don’t,” her grandmother agreed, “so +make the most of today. Now, begone with you +all, and gather up the news of the ship and bring +it all back to me. There are many strange people +aboard,” she ended, closing her eyes and so dismissing +the girls.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XIV<br /> + +<small>A STORM AT SEA</small></h2> + + +<p>“How strange the sky looks!” Nan exclaimed. +She and her Lakeview Hall companions were +standing on deck watching the sun drop below the +horizon.</p> + +<p>“How cold!” Grace added, as she pulled her +coat around her, held it in place with her hand, +and then huddled closer to Nan as if for protection.</p> + +<p>“A-a-and the wind!” Rhoda supplied, with +difficulty. “It’s l-l-lashing at me so that I can’t—get—my +breath.”</p> + +<p>“Nor—me——either.” Amelia gasped. “I—I—I +guess the Captain was right after all. +He said, there was going to be a heavy gale tonight. +Come, let’s go in.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, stay just a minute longer,” Nan pleaded. +“I like to see it roll. Look, see how the fish are +jumping the waves! They are coming in higher +and higher all the time. I wonder how this boat +behaves when there is a real storm at sea.”</p> + +<p>“One of the sailors told me this morning,” +Laura volunteered, “that ‘she’s a trusty old tub’, +if that will comfort you any.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t need comforting,” Nan replied. +“I’m not afraid.”</p> + +<p>“You mean to say you wouldn’t be afraid in a +storm?” Grace asked incredulously.</p> + +<p>“Of course not.” Nan answered. “Would you?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you the answer to that later,” Grace +threw over her shoulder as she made for the +doors to go in. “Just now I’d rather watch this +from the windows in the lounge where it’s warm.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll be in, in a second,” Amelia called after +her, “Save a place for us. Have you people seen +the ship’s log?” She went on, turning to Nan. “It’s +posted inside, near the elevators. There is a map +of the United States, the Atlantic Ocean, and +Europe with the course of our voyage marked in +little lines on it. Each day the purser sticks a flag, +representing our ship on this line, so that it shows +where we are and how far we have traveled during +the day. Underneath, there is a little weather +chart telling how fast the wind is going, what the +temperature is, whether or not the sea is rolling, +and what might be expected for the next twenty-four +hours.”</p> + +<p>“What does it say for today,” Nan asked.</p> + +<p>“The temperature is dropping—”</p> + +<p>“We know that,” Laura interrupted. “What +else does it say?”</p> + +<p>“That the sea is slightly rolling.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> + +<p>“We can feel that,” Laura put in again, for +the ship was rolling with the waves.</p> + +<p>“That we are headed into a storm. There, Miss +Smarty, you didn’t know that,” Amelia laughed.</p> + +<p>“Did too,” Laura retorted. “My creaking +bones told me. Now, I’m going in before I get +rheumatism.” So saying, she followed Grace. The +others, except Nan, whom not even Bess could +persuade to come in as yet, followed her.</p> + +<p>Alone on the dark deck, Nan stood for a while +at the rail, watching the white foam of the waves, +listening to the roar of the wind, and glancing now +and then at the clouds, swiftly gathering overhead. +Save for a pale moon, the only light was +the ship’s beacon which every few seconds, passed +in its circle, over Nan’s head.</p> + +<p>Once, Nan was tempted to follow her friends. +She could hear voices, singing and laughter, and +the sound of a piano inside. She even started toward +the door, but then a dark passageway at +her right tempted her and she went exploring.</p> + +<p>Hugging the side of the boat closely, she followed +around through the passageway between +the ship’s riggings, and then on down the deck +until she came to the barrier between first and +second class that Laura had taunted Bess about. +She examined it carefully. It was impossible to get +by. There was no moving it. She tried sliding it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +and pushing it. It wouldn’t budge.</p> + +<p>She turned and retraced her steps, going back +to some narrow iron stairs that went up. The +“Keep Off” sign, which she couldn’t read in the +dark, she shoved aside. She was determined now +to make a complete circle of the boat. She went +up the stairs, around another deck, and down +some steps again.</p> + +<p>This was becoming a real adventure and Nan +was enjoying every minute of it. If her conscience +troubled her at all, she paid no heed. Others on +the boat had told her of going out of bounds, and +she could see no real harm in it.</p> + +<p>She walked around deckchairs piled high +against the side of the boat, caught a glimpse of +some phosphorescent fish in the ocean, and walked +over to the rail. How pretty they looked in the +deep black of the water! She stood for a while +watching the colors at play and then went on. It +was almost as though she was motivated by some +force outside herself.</p> + +<p>She heard no sounds from people in the boat +now, for she had passed the lounges and the recreation +rooms. She felt almost alone on the boat, +and laughed a little to herself as she thought how +timid Grace would be in such a situation. However, +Nan liked it.</p> + +<p>It brought back to her mind nights at Pine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +Camp. How far away all that seemed now! How +far away it was! Northern Michigan was in another +world. The people there, Aunt Kate, Injun +Pete, Toby Vanderwiller, and Gedney Raffer, all +of them, were like people she had dreamed about. +She shook herself impatiently, driving away some +eerie thoughts, and then went on until she came +to the very back of the vessel, the stern.</p> + +<p>Here she stopped, and looked back over the +ocean which the boat was putting behind it. The +wake, the white foamy path of the boat stretched +out as far as she could see. The waters, which +made it, rolled aside in big white waves leaving +the center black and deep.</p> + +<p>How much colder it was getting! And how +much rougher! Nan clung to the rail, and held +her head high as the wind whipped her hair back +so that it stung the sides of her cheeks. She +watched the waves coming, each one higher than +the last and angrier. She counted them, “One, two, +three,” someone had told her once that the seventh +was always the highest, “four, five.” She +could feel the spray on her face and the air was +full of mist. “Six, seven—why the seventh wasn’t +any bigger than any of the rest! And—eight.” It +was the eighth that was the biggest of all! It +climbed up the boat, over the rail, and across the +deck, taking Nan off her feet!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>She lost her balance completely, wrenched her +arm as she fell, and was afraid for a second that +she would go over with the wash of the wave. But +she held on, and as the boat righted itself after +the inundation, Nan rose to her feet, half dazed.</p> + +<p>She rubbed her hair out of her eyes, winced with +the pain in her arm, and being very careful now, +started toward the door. She stopped short.</p> + +<p>Was that a cry she had heard? She raised her +head, listening attentively for some sound other +than the roaring of the waves. There wasn’t any. +She must have imagined it. She went on across the +deck, now shiny after its bath with sea water. +There was something white at her feet. She +stooped to pick it up—a handkerchief. Again, she +thought she heard a low moan and stopped dead +still.</p> + +<p>Yes, there it was again. Nan hesitated, deciding +whether to investigate herself or call for help. +The crash of the waves drowned out everything +and decided Nan. She could hear them coming, +one, two—what direction had the sound come +from?—three, four, five. There it was again, over +at her right. She started toward it and lost her +balance, grabbed hold of a flagpole, and then +crept forward. Six—seven—it was the seventh +that was the biggest this time, but before it had +struck with its full force Nan’s hand reached out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +and grabbed the coat of someone lying on the +deck. With her other, as the wave struck, she held +fast to the pole.</p> + +<p>There it was, the wave! It came up and over +the two, tugged at them, first their hips, and then +their feet, and finally reluctantly, went on over the +side without them.</p> + +<p>Nan screamed, again and again. The form at +her hand seemed to have no life. There was no +answer to her call. She, herself, was weaker, much +weaker than she thought.</p> + +<p>She got up slowly and painfully and tried to +pull her burden after her. She couldn’t budge it. +She could hear, as from some far off land, the +waves coming again. She shook her head, aware +now that her senses had been dulled. Now, she +could count them again, one, two—the second +one splashed lightly over the deck. They were +getting higher all the time. Three, four—Nan +reached down with her strained arm, put it under +the limp form, and half dragged, half carried it +to the door, a partial shelter, as the fifth wave +swept like a fury over the deck.</p> + +<p>Nan reached up to open the door. It was +locked. In a frenzy, she beat upon it. It was double +locked against the storm! She knocked it again, +screamed, and then, for the first time in her life, +fainted dead away.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XV<br /> + +<small>IN THE SHIP’S HOSPITAL</small></h2> + + +<p>“I hope she dies of pneumonia!” Bess was +frankly crying as she walked down the corridor +toward the ship’s hospital. “I’d like nothing better +than to witness a funeral at sea, if it was Linda +Riggs’,” she stated most emphatically, and then +wiped her eyes.</p> + +<p>“She’s a cat, that’s what she is or she would +have died long ago. Remember,” she recalled, +“when we planned that surprise party on Nan +back in Lakeview and that black cat came into the +room. That was the soul of Linda Riggs,” Bess +vowed. “She’s a cat and a witch.”</p> + +<p>Grace looked impressed, but Laura snickered.</p> + +<p>“See here, Bess,” Rhoda stopped and put a restraining +hand on Bess’s arm. “You’re not going +into that hospital room and talk like that before +Nan. She needs rest and quiet. The doctor said so. +Now, are you going to curb your anger, or aren’t +you?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I will,” Bess answered. “Just give me a +couple of seconds to cool off. Every time I think +of Nan risking her life to save that good-for-nothing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +it riles me clear through. Nan’s so good to +everyone, and Linda, well, she tramps all over +everybody.”</p> + +<p>“There, Bess, take it easy,” Laura for once +tried to placate the girl. “We won’t have any more +trouble from her this trip. The nurse told me +Linda has to stay in bed until the boat docks. If +Nan is careful, she’ll be down in her own cabin +tomorrow.”</p> + +<p>“So remember, Bess,” Amelia implored, “not +to say anything about Linda or about that other +either.”</p> + +<p>“What other?” Bess asked, and then remembered. +“Oh, you mean the cabin?” she supplied +the answer herself.</p> + +<p>“Yes, just keep still about everything unpleasant,” +Rhoda warned. “We want Nan out of here +as soon as possible.” With this, she pushed +open the white door of the ship’s hospital and a +nurse came forward.</p> + +<p>“You’ve came to see Miss Sherwood,” she +smiled.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Rhoda was spokesman for the group. +“Is it all right for us all to go in together?”</p> + +<p>The nurse looked doubtful a moment, noting +the marks of tears that were still on Bess’s cheeks. +Bess felt her glance and blushed. “Oh, I’m all +right now,” she reassured the nurse. “I promise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +to be good,” and she smiled so winningly that the +nurse gave in.</p> + +<p>“Well, you may go in,” she said, as she looked +professionally at her watch, “for half an hour. +But remember, you are not to disturb the patient.” +With this she opened the door to a private room, +and the girls went in.</p> + +<p>There, lying in a white hospital bed, looking +pale and very wan, was Nan. She smiled at their +entrance. “I’m all right,” she said. “Don’t look so +scared. Come in and sit down.”</p> + +<p>They did, and it was a few seconds, a few awkward +seconds, before anyone could think of anything +to say. Twice Bess opened her mouth to +speak, but when her friends looked at her warningly, +she closed it again.</p> + +<p>Finally, Rhoda found her voice. “Why, Nan,” +she asked, and her glance, like that of the other +girls was riveted on a big bouquet of red roses, +“where in the world did you get those flowers?”</p> + +<p>The color came back into Nan’s cheeks. “Can’t +you guess?” She grinned rather defiantly at them. +“They aren’t from anyone on the boat.”</p> + +<p>“But how could anyone on shore know?” Bess +already had her suspicions as to the person.</p> + +<p>“And if he did,” Grace was very positive about +the “He,” “How could He send them?”</p> + +<p>“Come, Nan, spill it,” Laura was as curious as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +the rest. “Heroines can’t have secrets, you know. +Their lives are public property.”</p> + +<p>“That’s just what I am afraid of.” Nan nodded +from her place among the pillows. “However, I +couldn’t keep it to myself if I wanted to. They’re +from Walter!”</p> + +<p>“But how—” Bess just couldn’t wait.</p> + +<p>“He sent them from shore when the boat was +in dock and asked the steward to keep them until +we were in mid-ocean. They brought them up here +this morning and when I opened my eyes—there +they were.” Nan’s eyes were shining and her +cheeks were almost as red as the roses.</p> + +<p>“They are just gorgeous,” Rhoda stooped +over to smell them, “so red, and fragrant, and +fresh.”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t they though?” Nan reached out and +touched them softly. “But tell me now,” she +looked up. “What’s new?”</p> + +<p>“You should know,” Laura answered. “You +are the news around here. Everyone’s talking +about you. There are at least a dozen different +versions of what happened last night making the +rounds of this ship. One has it that Linda actually +went over the side of the boat and that you leaped +in and saved her from drowning. Then you caught +hold of a rope, and a sailor, out to see that everything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +was shipshape, heard your cries, and hauled +the two of you in.”</p> + +<p>“Another,” Amelia said further, as Nan +laughed, “has you in a fight with Linda. Oh, I +mean,” she corrected herself when Nan looked +worried, “that Linda is supposed to have become +so frightened that she didn’t know what she was +doing. She tore at your hair and scratched you. +(Here Nan ran her hand over her face. It was +perfectly whole.) Finally, when you realized that +she was beyond reason, you are supposed to have +hit her over the head so hard that you knocked +her out!”</p> + +<p>“And another—” Laura began.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t tell me any more,” Nan shook her +head. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to go +out of here and face all those people. It scares me +to think of it.”</p> + +<p>“You needn’t worry, Nan,” Rhoda took her +friend’s hand in hers. “We’ll all rally round. +Everybody, really, is just being grand. I didn’t +know there were so many nice people in the +world.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it so?” Nan forgot her embarrassment. +“Look at that pile of cards and notes and books +and magazines. Why, I believe all the passengers +on the ship have stopped in to ask about me and +one little boy”—she stopped and giggled before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +she went on—“wanted my autograph! Can you +imagine anything so silly? But tell me, what did +happen? I fainted, didn’t I? I don’t remember a +thing after I found those doors were locked.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Nan,” Bess couldn’t restrain herself any +longer. “Maybe you were there for hours, we +don’t know. We only know this: after we left you +out there on deck we all went into the lounge and +talked and played games for a long time.”</p> + +<p>“We wondered where you were, didn’t we?” +She looked at the others for confirmation. They +nodded their heads as Bess went on, “but we +thought that you were probably off somewheres +with that English girl, what is her name?”</p> + +<p>“You mean Hetty Warren?” Nan supplied.</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s it. Well, we thought you were with +her and her grandmother until about ten o’clock +when we went down to the cabin and met Hetty. +She was bringing a travel book about England to +you. She said she hadn’t seen you all evening.</p> + +<p>“We were worried then, and she went with us +to see whether you were with either Jeanie or +Maureen. They said they hadn’t seen you, either. +We didn’t know what to do then, so finally we +went to Dr. Beulah. She had been in her cabin all +evening, because she wasn’t feeling very well. She +called a steward and he said he would hunt you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +up. He was gone for hours, while we sat in her +cabin and talked and wondered and worried.</p> + +<p>“When he finally came back, he didn’t have any +news! Dr. Beulah got up and dressed then and +called the Captain. He told us all to come up to +his office. We went at once, and he asked a million +questions about you. Then he got busy on the +phone and started a boat-wide search.</p> + +<p>“It wasn’t any time at all after that when they +called Dr. Beulah and told her to come to the +hospital right away.” Here Bess started to cry +again, for she remembered so vividly how frightened +they had all been at that call.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Bess,” It was Nan speaking. “Come here, +I’m so sorry I caused you all that trouble.”</p> + +<p>“Anyway,” Bess grinned through her tears. +“Dr. Beulah went up and the first person she saw +there was Linda Riggs. I guess she was pretty +disgusted herself for once, though she would +never say it. Then the nurse took her in to see +you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I remember from then on,” Nan continued. +“I came to when they were carrying me +here, so that when Dr. Beulah came up I knew +what it was all about. I was only scared for fear +she would give me the scolding I deserved for +going off that way by myself. But she didn’t. She +just took me in her arms and kissed me and then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +went off and talked to the nurse and doctor. I +don’t know what she said or did to them, but they +have been fluttering around me all the time as +though I was a Royal Princess.”</p> + +<p>“Wait until you get up!” Laura exclaimed. +“Then you’ll find out who you are.” She looked +both merry and mysterious as she said this last. +Nan looked questioningly at her.</p> + +<p>But there was no opportunity for any more +talk. The nurse came in, felt Nan’s pulse and +smiled at the girls.</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry,” she said, nodding toward the +door. So they got up and left, leaving Nan looking +wistfully after them.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XVI<br /> + +<small>THE HUNCH-BACK AGAIN</small></h2> + + +<p>“But this isn’t where our cabin is!” Nan exclaimed +the next morning as Bess and Rhoda, one +on each side of her, walked her slowly from the +hospital back to the stateroom.</p> + +<p>“Yes, it is, Nan,” Rhoda maintained.</p> + +<p>“But ours was number 648. It was an outside +cabin.” Nan continued to protest. “Or have I +gone completely batty?”</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t say that,” Rhoda teased, “though +you do do some pretty strange things sometimes. +However, this is your cabin now and it’s not an +outside one. There just wasn’t another outside +one free.”</p> + +<p>“But why did I need another? What was wrong +with the one I had? What happened? Please tell +me,” she pleaded. The questions tumbled one +after another out of Nan’s mouth, for she was +impatient, still somewhat shaken after her frightening +experience during the storm.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Nan, it’s nothing at all,” Bess comforted. +“That is, I hope it isn’t, because it’s all my fault,” +she added very contritely. “It was so warm here +the night of the storm that I opened the porthole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +when I came down to leave my heavy coat. Amelia +called me and told me to hurry and, rattle-brained +as I am, I ran after her completely forgetting +about the storm and the porthole. You can guess +what happened. One of those big waves that +nearly did away with you plopped in and made a +miniature lake.”</p> + +<p>“Was anything ruined?” Nan asked.</p> + +<p>“Nothing, except my own silk dress. Remember, +I threw it down in disgust that afternoon because +the snaps had been pulled off the sleeves. +Well, you should see it now. It’s a complete wreck. +Serves me right to have to get along without it. +I only hope you don’t feel too disappointed in the +new cabin.” Bess looked genuinely troubled.</p> + +<p>“Don’t worry,” Nan reassured her friend. “I +don’t care what kind of a cabin I have,” she said +lightly, for such things really didn’t matter to +her.</p> + +<p>But the words were hardly out of her mouth +when Bess pushed the door open and revealed to +Nan a big stateroom with twin beds, a chaise +longue, two big easy chairs, dainty dressing tables, +a large wardrobe, and a little private sitting +room!</p> + +<p>Nan gasped. “This isn’t ours,” she exclaimed +incredulously.</p> + +<p>Rhoda and Bess looked from Nan to the stateroom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +and back again to Nan. “It is,” they cried. +“It’s yours.”</p> + +<p>Nan stepped into the room and looked around. +The sitting room had big windows overlooking +the deck and the sea. There were books and magazines, +a victrola, comfortable chairs and a rug. +Over it all the morning sun was streaming.</p> + +<p>“But why?” Nan’s eyes were wide open in +amazement.</p> + +<p>“Captain’s orders,” Rhoda answered.</p> + +<p>“Why?” Nan persisted.</p> + +<p>“I told you why,” Bess smiled. “It’s because +our cabin was inundated by the recent flood.”</p> + +<p>“I still don’t believe that’s the truth,” Nan +asserted. “But I love this place just the same.”</p> + +<p>“Do we walk right in?” It was Laura at the +door. “Or do we have to send cards first?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Laura!” Nan exclaimed. “Come here. +Have you seen this?” She moved the dial of a +small radio.</p> + +<p>“Have I seen that? Why, darling, I moved +your things in,” Laura laughed. “And what’s +more, I was here when the Captain came.”</p> + +<p>“The Captain!” They all exclaimed at once.</p> + +<p>“Yes, he came down in all his glory. He has a +stern looking face complete with a Vandyke beard, +and he wore a uniform with epaulettes and much +fancy braid. He carried a cap in his hand. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +came ‘to see if Miss Sherwood’s stateroom was +satisfactory.’” Laura tried to clip the sentence +off as the Captain had.</p> + +<p>“You should hear his accent!” she exclaimed. +“It’s Oxford or Cambridge or something equally +as exclusive, I’m sure. I’m quite in love with the +man! He’s perfectly darling!” she finished.</p> + +<p>“I beg your pardon.” The girls jumped and +looked up, startled, for it was a man’s voice. They +recognized at once the uniform, the cap, and the +Vandyke beard. It was the Captain! He must +have heard them!</p> + +<p>He looked sternly down on their confusion. +“Miss Sherwood?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Captain.” Nan answered meekly and +started to get up.</p> + +<p>“No, no,” he motioned her to remain seated.</p> + +<p>Nan sat down again. The voice was one that +was accustomed to being obeyed.</p> + +<p>“I merely wanted to make certain that everything +was satisfactory.” He looked critically about +the room.</p> + +<p>“Oh, it is! It is!” Nan exclaimed. “It’s just +perfect!” Not even her confusion could keep the +note of sincerity out of her voice.</p> + +<p>The Captain seemed preoccupied with his inspection +of the stateroom. “Your baggage has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +been moved.” It was more a statement than a +question. “You are feeling—well.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, thank you, sir,” Nan hastened to reply. +Had she felt otherwise she wouldn’t have dared +to admit it in the face of his assurance.</p> + +<p>“You want for nothing?”</p> + +<p>“No—no, sir. Nothing at all.” Nan was annoyed +at her own inability to be at ease. If only +he had come at another time!</p> + +<p>Then his glance seemed to take in Laura for +the first time.</p> + +<p>“And Miss Polk, I trust that you are comfortable +too.” Again, it was a statement and Laura +gulped, not knowing whether she was supposed +to answer or not.</p> + +<p>“I thank you, ladies.” With this he turned and +went out.</p> + +<p>Even before his measured tread was entirely +out of earshot, Laura was lamenting. “If only I +had kept my mouth shut!” she exclaimed. “‘Oxford +or Cambridge accent.’” She sounded completely +disgusted. “‘I’m in love with the man! +He’s perfectly darling.’ And then he walks in on +me! What can I do? You can’t walk up to a man +and apologize for anything like that.” She looked +hopelessly at her friends.</p> + +<p>Nan was laughing so hard she was holding both +her sides and so was Bess. Rhoda was stuffing a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +handkerchief into her mouth. “Oh, I never saw +anything so funny in my life,” she said.</p> + +<p>“Funny!” Laura was indignant. “I’d like to +know what was funny about that! Funny!” she +muttered.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Laura,” Nan was wiping the tears out of +her eyes. “If you could have seen the expression +on your face when he asked whether you were +comfortable, you would laugh too.”</p> + +<p>Laura grinned with them at this. “The old +meany,” she said. “He heard every word of what +I said, and he was just rubbing it in. And I +thought he was a chivalrous old duck! I wish he +would come back now. I’d tell him what was +what.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t, don’t say that.” Rhoda raised a protesting +hand. “You’ll meet him soon enough as +it is.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, I won’t,” Laura denied. “I’m not going +to stir out of my cabin from now until the +time the boat docks. I just couldn’t face that man +again.” She turned as though to leave, but stopped +as Grace came into the room.</p> + +<p>“What man?” Grace asked. “Did you see him +too?” Her face was pale and scared looking.</p> + +<p>“What are you talking about?” Rhoda rushed +over and closed the door behind Grace.</p> + +<p>“That man, that red-headed hunchback. Oh,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +the one that went through Nan’s bags. Surely, +you haven’t forgotten him. Did you see him, +too?” She directed the question at Laura again.</p> + +<p>“Why, Gracie, no, I haven’t seen him.” Laura +was very serious now. “Have you?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes.” Grace was pale and frightened. +“He’s out there. I think he followed me down +the hall.” She was almost hysterical.</p> + +<p>Laura moved toward the door and reached +out as if to open it.</p> + +<p>“Don’t do that!” Grace’s voice was a command. +“He followed me. I tell you he followed +me!” She almost shrieked the last.</p> + +<p>Nan got up, went over to the girl, and put +a reassuring arm around her. “Grace, please,” +she begged. “Get hold of yourself. You’ll be making +us all panicky. There, now, calm down.” She +wiped the girl’s eyes.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you’re treating me like a baby!” Grace +shook herself out of Nan’s arms. “I tell you—” +She paused and, for a second, the room was in +complete silence.</p> + +<p>Through it came the sound of a knock at the +door. The girls looked questioningly at one another, +but no one moved. Then, they heard it +again, faintly.</p> + +<p>Laura stirred. “I’m going to open it,” she whispered. +Nan nodded her head. But before Laura<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +could, they heard Amelia’s voice. Everyone +breathed a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>Nan herself walked to the door and threw it +wide open. “Come in, Amelia,” she said, and then +closed the door after her friend.</p> + +<p>“What’s up?” Amelia sensed the tenseness in +the room right away.</p> + +<p>“Did you see anyone at all in the corridor?”</p> + +<p>Nan answered the question with another.</p> + +<p>“Why, no.” Amelia looked puzzled. “No one, +that is, except the stewardess. She’s sitting out +there on a stool, knitting.”</p> + +<p>“You didn’t see the red-headed hunchback?” +Grace couldn’t believe it. “You didn’t see him +standing right out there watching this room?”</p> + +<p>“Are you sure, Amelia,” Nan asked the question, +“that you didn’t see anyone besides the +stewardess?”</p> + +<p>“Positive,” she answered. “I know, because as +I came down the corridor I looked for people.”</p> + +<p>“Why?” Nan questioned her again.</p> + +<p>“Say, what is this?” Amelia asked. “The third +degree or something? I looked simply because I’ve +been wondering what kind of people lived down in +this end of heaven. Evidently they are all queer.” +She looked significantly at the people around her.</p> + +<p>“Well, you’d be queer, too,” Grace asserted, +“if you’d seen and heard what I did. I was coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +down the corridor alone thinking of Nan and +the new cabin when I heard someone say in a mean +rasping voice, ‘Well, you find out the answer +pretty soon, or you’ll never live to see Scotland +again.’</p> + +<p>“I was scared and would have run, but the cabin +door opened. As it did, I ducked into another and +waited. Oh, it seemed as though I was there for +hours in some strange person’s cabin, afraid to +stay and afraid to go. Finally, I couldn’t stand it +any longer, so I opened the door quietly and +looked out. There was no one in sight. I tiptoed +down the corridor, and was just about to come +in here, when I saw that awful looking hunchback +standing out there.</p> + +<p>“I’m sure he was watching this cabin. I would +have turned and run or gone right past him, but +I saw his eyes.” Grace shuddered.</p> + +<p>“They’re terrible eyes. I couldn’t go on. I had +to come in here.” Grace looked up at Nan as +though asking for approval for what she had +done.</p> + +<p>“Of course you did, Grace,” Nan said quietly +and soothingly. “Of course, you had to come in. +But tell me,” she questioned further. “Why did +you say he followed you?”</p> + +<p>“Did I say that?” Grace looked puzzled.</p> + +<p>They all nodded.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t know,” Grace shook herself as +though she had difficulty in remembering clearly. +“I guess I was just afraid he was, and I knew +that his eyes were on me. Why should he watch +this cabin?” She looked up at Nan. The others +followed her glance. They too felt, somehow, that +Nan knew the answer.</p> + +<p>Nan sat silently considering.</p> + +<p>Should she tell them what she knew or shouldn’t +she? Could she trust them? She looked around at +their faces, at Rhoda’s and Amelia’s, and was +tempted to tell. Both of these girls seemed to +be calm in all the excitement. “They might be +able to offer some help if needed,” Nan thought. +Then she heard Grace stifle a sob and saw again +how frightened and worried the girl looked. She +hesitated. She looked up at Bess, her closest +friend, and was tempted again.</p> + +<p>There was a noise outside. Bess jumped nervously. +She was scared, too. Then Laura spoke, +and Nan gave up all thought of revealing, at the +present at least, what little she knew about the +things that were happening.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XVII<br /> + +<small>NAN PUZZLES OVER HER SECRET</small></h2> + + +<p>“I wonder if your hunchback is the mysterious +passenger everyone is talking about,” Laura said +thoughtfully, when she was convinced that Nan +was not going to speak.</p> + +<p>“I never thought of that!” This from Rhoda. +“But it all fits together perfectly. They say he +never appears at the table for his meals and that +he has his own servants to take care of him.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Bess contributed, “a steward told the +stewardess and the stewardess told me that no +one of the ship’s crew has been in that cabin since +the boat left dock.”</p> + +<p>“It must have been the same stewardess,” +Laura picked up the story, “who told me that +nothing has gone right in this end of the ship since +he came in. She says there has been trouble, trouble +all the while. She’s a superstitious old soul. +She thinks he has cast a spell over everything +around here.” Laura’s voice was a half whisper as +she imparted her information.</p> + +<p>“Well, you’d think so too, if you had seen him,” +Grace whispered too. “I don’t see why in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +world they ever let him get a passport and get +on the ship.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I heard somebody say today,” Amelia +supplied, as Grace’s statement recalled the conversation +to her mind, “that he came up the gang-plank +in New York behind the queerest looking +outfit he’d ever seen in all the times he has crossed +the ocean.</p> + +<p>“He said the man was all swathed up to the +eyes in an overcoat and a heavy scarf of Scotch +plaid. His collar was turned up and his cap pulled +down so that none of his face was visible. He said +nothing to anyone, refused to let a porter take +a small black valise he was carrying, and went +directly to his cabin.</p> + +<p>“The man who was telling the story said his +stateroom is close by, but that he has never once +met him in the halls. However, he did say, that +from time to time he has heard someone in that +cabin speak in a strong Scotch burr, ordering a +servant around in no uncertain terms.”</p> + +<p>“Did the man that you heard,” she looked at +Grace, “speak like that?”</p> + +<p>“Amelia, I didn’t notice what kind of an accent +he used!” Grace sounded almost impatient. “I was +too frightened to notice anything like that. I only +know what I’ve told you already.”</p> + +<p>“Did the man who came looking for me that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +first day we came on the boat speak like that?” +Nan hardly dared to ask the question. She wanted +information, but she didn’t want to give any.</p> + +<p>For a moment the girls sat thinking. Then +Laura spoke up. “You would think that we would +have noticed that,” she said, “but I can’t honestly +say I did. It was all such a surprise and we were +so excited anyway that I only noticed what he +looked like.”</p> + +<p>“Well, he didn’t say very much,” Rhoda added. +“Remember. He spent most of his time looking +around the room and at us as though he wanted +to be sure to remember us always. Ooh, I don’t +like to think about it.”</p> + +<p>“Nor I either,” Bess was most emphatic. “I +haven’t seen him at all, and still I don’t like to +think about it. It’s perfectly horrid to have him +bothering us at all, and if he ever follows me, +I’m going to scream so loud that everybody on +this boat will come running. He has no business +at all annoying us this way. We haven’t done anything +to him.</p> + +<p>“Nan didn’t want his old baggage. It wasn’t +her fault that it was brought to our cabin. Why, +I’ll bet he did it himself or ordered that servant +of his to do it. What for, I don’t know, but if +he’s queer, there is no accounting for what he +does. I wish they would lock him up or dump him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +overboard or something. We just get rid of Linda +and then he comes here to annoy us. Why can’t +people leave us alone?” Bess was thoroughly incensed. +“We only have a couple of more days on +boat—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, come let’s forget it all,” Nan interrupted. +She was more than anxious to put the problem +aside for the time being. “Let’s talk of something +else. Or even better than that, let’s go upstairs +and see the pictures the ship’s photographer has +been taking.”</p> + +<p>“What photographer? What pictures?” +Amelia looked puzzled.</p> + +<p>“You mean to say you haven’t seen the photographer +at all!” Bess was incredulous. “Why, he’s +always around with that camera of his. It’s almost +impossible to sit or stand any place on deck without +his taking your picture!”</p> + +<p>“Old Procrastination Boggs,” Laura teased, +“has been so busy trying to figure out the time +so as to keep her clocks straight that she hasn’t +known what was going on around her. Have you +decided yet,” she asked, “whether you set the +clock ahead or back when you are traveling east?</p> + +<p>“I went into Amelia’s cabin last night,” she explained +to the others, “and there she was sitting +on the floor with her clocks all around her. She +looked just as she did the night we first saw her in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +her room at Lakeview. This time, however, she +had a pencil and paper in her hand. At first, I +thought she had lost her mind, for there were +little marks like chicken scratches on the paper.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, it didn’t look like that at all,” Amelia +protested. “You just don’t recognize a good +sketch when you see one. That round mark was +the sun. The long straight one was the path it +takes as it moves from the east to the west.”</p> + +<p>“But the sun doesn’t move,” Rhoda interrupted. +“The earth does.”</p> + +<p>“Well, anyway,” Laura continued her teasing, +“there she was on the floor with her clocks. Each +one was set at a different time and Amelia was +drawing pictures. I heard her muttering to herself, +‘Now, if the sun rises in the east and sets in +the west and the ship travels east, then we lose +no, we gain time. No, we lose time.’ She couldn’t +make up her mind, so she began all over again, +‘if the sun rises in the west, I mean the east, and +we travel west, no east’—Say, which way are we +traveling?” Laura had confused herself.</p> + +<p>“East.” Nan laughed. “And don’t go any further +or you’ll have us all confused. Upstairs, near +the Purser’s window, there’s a blackboard. On it, +it says, ‘Ship’s passengers please note: set your +watches ahead 40 minutes each night at 9, if you +wish them to agree with ship’s time.’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I know that now,” Amelia laughed, ruefully. +“I saw it the morning after I’d had such a time. +And you needn’t act so superior,” she looked at +Laura, “because you sat down on the floor with +me and tried to figure it out too!”</p> + +<p>The picture that this brought to mind caused all +the girls to laugh.</p> + +<p>“Let’s go up and see those photographs, right +now,” Laura changed the subject.</p> + +<p>“Yes, let’s,” Amelia agreed. So, walking and +talking the six friends left the cabin and went to +an upper deck.</p> + +<p>“Bess Harley,” Nan exclaimed as they stood +around the pictures. “How did you ever manage +to get yours taken so many times?”</p> + +<p>Bess blushed. She had contrived to have her +picture taken more than anyone else. Now, as +she thought of the number of times she had purposely +posed, hoping that the photographer would +see her, she felt guilty. There were pictures of her +in the deck chair, posed against a life preserver, +and standing at the rail. There was one of her in +a bathing suit on the morning she had gone swimming, +another of her in slacks when she was +headed for the ship’s gymnasium, and another in +leather jacket and skirt when the wind was blowing +so hard that her hair was standing on end.</p> + +<p>“Anyhow, they are all cute,” Nan comforted,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +“and I’m as jealous as anything, because there +aren’t any of me.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, there is, Nan. Look!” Rhoda pointed +her finger to a picture of Nan posted right in +the center of the board. The photographer had +caught her when she was totally unaware of the +rest of the world. He had made a silhouette of +her on the ship’s rail, in the place she called her +balcony, looking out over the sea.</p> + +<p>“Oh, how nice!” Nan herself was pleased. “I’ll +have to send one home to Momsy.” Then a sad +look flashed across her face. She was lonesome +sometimes amid all the new strange things for +her mother, her father, and the little cottage on +Amity street. There were times when she wished +most earnestly that she could consult with her +father or have the bright hopefulness of her +mother’s comfort to encourage her.</p> + +<p>Her thoughts flashed back to her father’s warning +and then to the letter she had received at +Lakeview Hall, the letter she had concealed from +Bess. Was this hunchback who seemed to be +watching her connected in any way with either of +the two? Was he the one her father was warning +her against? Had he had anything to do with +the letter? Nan resolved to get it from the purser +with whom she had left her valuables, look at it +again, and see whether it contained any undiscovered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +clues.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter, Nan,” Bess brought her +thoughts back to the present. “Your mind seems +miles away. We’ve all ordered our pictures, and +you haven’t had a word to say for the last ten +minutes.”</p> + +<p>Nan started guiltily, laughed with them at her +own absent-mindedness, bought photographs of +herself and her friends for her memory book, +and then, with them, went into the ship’s store to +buy souvenirs for friends back home.</p> + +<p>So, in spite of Grace’s frightening experience, +the morning was a gay one for the Lakeview Hall +crowd and the afternoon brought a surprise that +even Bess, in her wildest dreams of the nice things +that might happen to them on the boat, had never +imagined.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII<br /> + +<small>THE CAPTAIN’S DINNER</small></h2> + + +<p>“Oh, Nan, I wonder if all the girls received +them! I hope they did!” Bess was waving a small +white envelope in her hand. “Look, it has the +boat’s flag engraved on it and the United States +flag too. Isn’t it just too perfect for words!</p> + +<p>“Nan,” Bess hugged her friend, “I’m sure, as +sure as I am of anything, that it’s because of your +saving Linda the way you did, that we got them.”</p> + +<p>Nan’s face was alight too. “Oh, Bess, it isn’t +either,” she contradicted. “It’s because Dr. +Beulah is the person she is. The Captain was going +to invite her and he thought he had to invite +us too, or we would get into trouble. He doesn’t +trust us since the night of the storm.”</p> + +<p>“You old silly,” Bess was not to be gainsaid. +“You are just being modest. But go on. I don’t +care what the Captain thinks anyway as long as +he continues to do things in the grand manner. +This cabin,” she looked around it proudly—already +she had sent many letters home telling +friends and relatives about every little detail of +its luxuriousness, “and now these invitations. +Why, we are practically the belles of the boat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +even if Dr. Beulah,” she said dolefully, “does +try to make us remember that we are still +children.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Bess, she doesn’t either.” Nan sprang to +the defense of their preceptor. “You know she +doesn’t. You know she had been just as nice as she +could possibly be on this trip. She couldn’t let you +wear that dress you wanted to the other night. It +wouldn’t have looked right. It was, just as she +said, too formal for a young person to wear. It +makes you look old. She was really very pleasant +about it.”</p> + +<p>“Of course she was,” Bess calmed Nan’s ruffled +feelings. “I was only fooling. She was just as +sweet as she could be. Now, come, let’s go up and +see if the others have received cards, too.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, we have, we have!” Grace exclaimed excitedly +when Nan and Bess finally located the +others. “We all have invitations to the Captain’s +table for dinner tonight! Dr. Beulah says we are +to go, that we may wear our very best dresses, +and that we may stay up tonight for the costume +ball. It’s to be the very nicest night on board ship, +for tomorrow morning, early, we sight land and +some of the passengers will be leaving.” Grace +was breathless as she finished the end of the +sentence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> + +<p>“But where’s Laura?” Nan looked in vain for +the red-headed girl.</p> + +<p>“Yes, where is she?” Bess echoed, and then +added, “Surely, she received one too. The Captain +didn’t leave her out, did he?” Bess looked +worried, for she remembered suddenly Laura’s +unfortunate encounter with the commander of the +boat.</p> + +<p>“She received one all right,” Rhoda responded, +“and she’s down in her cabin practically crying +her eyes out.”</p> + +<p>“Why?” Nan and Bess chorused.</p> + +<p>“She says she can’t possibly go to that dinner +and face him. She knows he will laugh at her. She +says she has never been in such an embarrassing +position before. She almost wishes she hadn’t +come on this trip at all. You go, Nan, and see +what you can do with her. The more I say, the +harder she cries. I have never seen her in such a +state.”</p> + +<p>“All right. You people stay here and I’ll see if +I can persuade her to come up.” Nan started off, +but then changed her mind and came back for the +rest of the girls. “Come, let’s all go down,” she +suggested. “I think, after all, that that would +be better.” So they went.</p> + +<p>They found Laura lying across her bunk with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +her face buried in the pillow. Her shoulders were +heaving and she was sobbing.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Laura, don’t take it so seriously,” Nan +stooped over the sobbing girl and gently pulled +her around so that she faced her friends. Her +eyes were red and swollen with crying, and her +red hair was tousled. She put a wadded, tear-wet +handkerchief up to her eyes and wiped them.</p> + +<p>“I—I——I guess you would take it seriously +too,” she wept, “if you couldn’t go to the Captain’s +dinner, if you had to send regrets, saying +you were ill.”</p> + +<p>“Laura, you haven’t done that, have you?” The +girls all gasped.</p> + +<p>“N—N—Not yet!” Laura sobbed some more. +“But it’s not because I didn’t try to write it. I’ve +got to ask Dr. Beulah how to address it,” she +sniffled. “I guess I’ll go up and ask her now.” +She sat up on the bunk. “Then it will be all over +with.”</p> + +<p>“Laura,” Nan took her friend firmly by the +shoulders. “Don’t you know that you can’t refuse. +An invitation from the Captain is practically the +same as a command.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I guess I can’t go if I have scarlet +fever.” Laura was still crying.</p> + +<p>“Yes, but if you have scarlet fever, we can’t go +either,” Bess was troubled. “I don’t care what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +you tell him, but you can’t tell him that.” A look +from Nan silenced Bess.</p> + +<p>“See here, Laura,” Nan shook her friend. +“You’ve got to come to your senses. You simply +have to go. You might just as well make up your +mind to do it now, because you are going if we +have to dress you and drag you there.” Nan tried +to look very serious, but somehow she couldn’t +suppress a twinkle that came to her eyes. Already +the other girls were smiling. They knew that +Laura would have to give in. The situation +seemed amusing now.</p> + +<p>“You wouldn’t go either,” Laura continued, “if +you had said the things I did and he had heard +you. The next time I’m going to keep my mouth +shut.”</p> + +<p>“Of course you will,” Nan sounded full of conviction. +“And this time you’ll go, and he will shake +your hand, and you’ll smile up at him, and then +everything will be all right.”</p> + +<p>“Do you really think so?” Laura was already +more than half willing to be convinced.</p> + +<p>“I haven’t a doubt in the world but what it +will,” Nan sounded very positive.</p> + +<p>“Then I’ll go,” Laura gave in at last, “if you’ll +all promise on your word of honor to stick by +me and come to my rescue if anything embarrassing +happens.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> + +<p>“We will, Laura, we will.” Grace was almost +jumping up and down with joy. She grabbed Nan’s +hand. Nan took Laura’s. Laura took Bess’s. +Amelia and Rhoda were drawn into the circle and +they all danced around the cabin until they fell +breathless to the floor.</p> + +<p>“Oh, such fun!” Bess wiped the tears of excitement +out of her eyes, as they all proceeded to +the business of deciding what to wear to the Captain’s +dinner and how to dress for the costume +ball.</p> + +<p>That night was unforgettable.</p> + +<p>Laura and the Captain were friends just as +Nan had said they would be. Bess was a triumph +in a pretty silk dress. Amelia and Rhoda were +almost speechless when they were seated between +two tall handsome army officers enroute to London +to take part in the coronation, but they forgot +themselves and had the time of their lives as the +dinner progressed. Grace, in her place next to a +foreign diplomat was equally well taken care of.</p> + +<p>And Nan, well, as the reader has already +guessed, the dinner invitation was in her honor. +She was seated in the place of honor next to the +Captain and never was a young girl more praised +and honored in an evening than she.</p> + +<p>It was all very grand and lovely. Bess had her +moment of supreme rejoicing when she saw out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +the corner of her eye that Linda had recovered +and had been allowed to come down for dinner. +There she was, across the dining room from the +Captain’s table, watching with envious eyes her +former schoolmates at Lakeview Hall. Bess might +be forgiven, if, when paper caps and toy horns +were passed out, she blew her horn extra loud—a +blast of triumph in Linda’s direction.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XIX<br /> + +<small>LAND IS SIGHTED</small></h2> + + +<p>The next morning all the cabins on the boat +looked as though a cyclone had struck them. The +cabins belonging to the girls from Lakeview Hall +were no exception.</p> + +<p>“Bess, if we go on collecting things at this +rate,” Nan protested to her friend, “we’ll have to +buy new luggage. Nothing short of a huge trunk +will hold everything.”</p> + +<p>“I know it,” Bess laughed. “And it’s so hard +to throw anything away.” She was holding favors +from the costume ball of the night before in her +hand. “I simply can’t part with these.”</p> + +<p>The two girls were packing. It was very early +in the morning, but the boat was due to make its +first stop shortly, and they wanted to be on deck +when land was sighted. “I can’t part with these +either,” Nan held up the limp bags of a half +dozen balloons. “A handsome army officer got +them for me last night, by climbing up on a chair +and pulling them by their strings down from the +ceiling.”</p> + +<p>“Wasn’t the ballroom lovely, though?” Bess +paused in her packing, while she remembered the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +lights and the palms and the balloons and the +other decorations. Then she recalled all the people +in fancy costume marching around, dancing and +singing.</p> + +<p>“The nicest thing of all,” Nan paused in her +packing too, “was that glass promenade through +which you could see the stars and the sky overhead. +The moon was so big and full that no other +lights were needed. I shall never forget it—nor +that quartet of sailors that sang all those funny +old sea ballads and then danced the hornpipe.”</p> + +<p>The girls laughed together at the recollection, +and then busied themselves in earnest. Nan kept +the balloons for a couple of children back in Tillbury +whose idol she was. Bess kept the favors, +because she couldn’t bear to throw them away.</p> + +<p>Again and again, the ship’s foghorn blasted the +early morning quietness. “I’m sure we must be +almost in sight of land.” Bess hurried faster.</p> + +<p>“But the steward promised,” Nan protested, +“that he would tell us so that we would be up on +deck when land was sighted.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t suppose he has forgotten?” Bess +questioned.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think so,” Nan was a little worried +too. “But let’s hurry and get out of here. I +wouldn’t miss seeing Maureen off for anything.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, is she getting off here?” Bess took one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +last look around the cabin to see whether she had +all her belongings.</p> + +<p>“Sure an’ she’s headed right for Dublin.” Nan +tried to give an Irish turn to her sentence.</p> + +<p>“You’ll never see her again?” Bess was wide-eyed +as it suddenly dawned on her that they were +saying good-by, perhaps forever, to their shipboard +acquaintances.</p> + +<p>“Never say that,” Nan unconsciously interpreted +the lesson Hetty’s grandmother had taught +so sweetly several days before. “You never know +when or where you will meet these people again. +Have you kept many addresses?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, just dozens,” Bess answered. “If I ever +hear from a third of them again, I’ll be happy.”</p> + +<p>“I feel the same way,” Nan agreed. “Only +Maureen, Hetty and Jeanie have all agreed to +have tea with us in London. I knew you would all +approve.” She looked up at Bess.</p> + +<p>“Approve? Of course,” Bess agreed. “Tea in +London with Maureen, Hetty, and Jeanie. Oh, I +hope they won’t forget.”</p> + +<p>“They won’t,” Nan said confidently, as she got +up from her place on the floor by her bags. +“There, I’m all packed and ready for the steward +to come and put the tags on them. Are you?”</p> + +<p>“Just a second—yes, I’m all ready, too, now.” +Bess closed hers. “Let’s go up on deck.” So they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +went up and out, and saw, for the first time while +on the boat, the sunrise. The sky was full of +promise for a bright day.</p> + +<p>Even as they watched the light breaking brighter +and brighter, the ship’s whistle gave three loud +blasts. There were three more from shore, and +Nan clutched Bess’s arm. “See, there it is—Ireland, +the coast of Ireland. See the lights?”</p> + +<p>“Sure an’ ’tis me home,” Maureen had come +up behind them, “the grandest place in all the +world.”</p> + +<p>“What county is that?” Nan looked to Maureen +for information.</p> + +<p>“I’m not so certain,” Maureen replied, “but +I’m after thinking that that’s the coast of Donegal, +and a lovelier spot you’ll not find for many +miles. Beyond lies Londonderry and after that +you’ll be seeing Portrush and then at last Belfast! +It’s beauty, beauty all the way.</p> + +<p>“Your America, it’s fine and grand with all its +tall buildings and great cities, but me heart is +warm for Ireland. There me mother and father +and little brothers and sisters will be waiting. Oh, +it’s good to be back.” Maureen wiped tears from +her eyes.</p> + +<p>“Come, Maureen,” Nan and Bess were close +to tears too, for her pang of homesickness had +turned their own thoughts back to America.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +“Come, let’s go down into the dining room. Let’s +see if we can find one big table so that we can all +have this last breakfast together.” As she finished +speaking, Nan tucked Maureen’s arm through +hers and started.</p> + +<p>It was a merry breakfast and a sad one in the +weird light of the dining room, half daylight, +half electricity. There were people glad to be +home and people sad to be parting from newfound +friends. Breakfast was eaten hastily, so that +everyone was up on deck waving goodbyes, calling +last minute messages, urging care, and trying +to joke, all in one breath, as the great steamer +settled to anchor and a small tender nestled up +to it.</p> + +<p>Maureen’s dad, a burly looking Irishman with +eyes of the deepest blue and lashes long and +heavy, came aboard and took her in his arms. +“Sure and ’tis good to have me baby home agin,” +he said. “And it’s mighty fine you’re looking in +that perky new bonnet.” He pushed her straw hat +up and looked into her eyes. “And it’s not changed +a bit you are after all that long journey,” he +added.</p> + +<p>He turned to her friends, “And you’ll not be +comin’ to Ireland this trip?” He sounded genuinely +disappointed. “But you’ll be comin’ back.” +He smiled kindly down upon them all. “And then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +you’ll be stoppin’ here and we’ll be meetin’ you +and you’ll be off to Dublin Town with the likes +of us.”</p> + +<p>Nan liked Maureen’s father. So did her +friends. As he and Maureen went across the gang-plank +to the tender, they all hung over the rail +and waved. “We’ll be seeing you in London,” +Nan called.</p> + +<p>“Don’t forget,” Bess followed suit, “it’s tea in +London in coronation week.”</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XX<br /> + +<small>BE CAREFUL, NAN!</small></h2> + + +<p>“Are your passports all stamped for landing? +Is your baggage tagged for Glasgow? Are you +sure you have everything?” Dr. Beulah smiled +down at the excited brood of young girls under +her charge. “Have each of you a supply of English +pounds and shillings? In short, are you ready +to leave this boat and step your foot on foreign +soil?”</p> + +<p>They were all standing together on the boat’s +deck watching the maneuverings as the ship came +to rest in its dock just outside Glasgow. There +had been no end to the excitement since the girls +waved Maureen off at Belfast and the ship +steamed across the North Channel to the Firth +of Clyde, passing countless fishing boats along the +way.</p> + +<p>Bess had turned from waving Maureen off and +started back to the cabin. Midway, she had a +strange presentiment that something was vitally +wrong. She walked gingerly down the hallway, +looking to the right and left at the narrow corridors +between groups of staterooms. When she +came to that from which Grace had said the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +Scotch hunchback had come forth several mornings +before, she walked very quietly and listened +attentively. She neither heard nor saw anything. +It was as if the cabin was empty.</p> + +<p>That in itself was strange, for the doors of +all the cabins along the way were open. In each, +baggage awaited porters who were even now busy +in front cabins labeling it and carting it to an +upper deck. “Maybe the mystery has taken his +baggage and walked out on us,” Bess thought as +she continued down the corridor intent on making +one more check of the stateroom to make certain +that nothing was being forgotten.</p> + +<p>The thought relieved her, and she was even +humming a little tune when she turned into her +own stateroom. She stopped short. There, kneeling +in front of Nan’s baggage, was the red-headed +hunchback!</p> + +<p>He turned and looked at her. She would have +screamed, but in a flash he was at her side and +his hand was clamped over her mouth. He looked +at her very intently with strange piercing eyes.</p> + +<p>But his voice was almost gentle as he spoke. +“’T would be weel, ver-r-ry weel,” he said in a +strong Scotch burr, “if ye didna speak. These +things ha’ no par-r-t of ye.” With this, he turned +and left the room.</p> + +<p>Bess sank into a chair, full of conflicting emotions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +and was there thinking, when Nan came +into the stateroom after her.</p> + +<p>“Bess, why Bess,” Nan exclaimed, “what is the +matter with you? You looked scared to death.”</p> + +<p>Bess whimpered softly, “I am.” This sounded +strange coming from Bess, and was strange in the +face of her avowal of a few days before that +if she ever came upon him alone she would scream +so loud that everybody on the boat would come +running. It was strange too, because Bess, generally, +when upset at all, responded with a torrent +of words. Now, she looked wilted as though every +ounce of energy had been squeezed out of her.</p> + +<p>Nan got her a glass of water and held it as +she sipped slowly. Then she smiled wanly and sat +silent, for a while, collecting her thoughts.</p> + +<p>“Nan, it’s that red-headed hunchback again,” +she said, finally. “You’ve got to tell me what +you know about him. I came upon him just now +in our cabin. He was over there,” her voice grew +stronger as she spoke, but sounded sharp and +nervous, “by your baggage.”</p> + +<p>Nan went over and carefully examined her +locked baggage. It hadn’t been tampered with. +She felt this instinctively just as soon as she put +her hands on it. What had the hunchback intended +to do before Bess discovered him?</p> + +<p>“What did he say to you?” She turned to Bess.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bess considered before answering. Were the +deformed little man’s words a warning? Had he +meant that she shouldn’t repeat what he had said? +Had he meant that she shouldn’t tell of his presence +at all? Bess was startled as this latter +thought came to her, startled and frightened.</p> + +<p>“I—I——don’t remember what he said,” Bess +began.</p> + +<p>“Elizabeth Harley,” Nan looked down at her +sternly, “You know very well that you remember +what he said. Come, now, tell me. I have to +know.”</p> + +<p>“<em>You</em> have to know!” Bess was angry now. +“Nan, I’d like to know, too, what all this is about. +This man has been watching you ever since we +boarded the steamer in New York. You know it, +and I know it, too. Moreover, your father warned +you, just before he left, to be careful. I thought +at the time that it meant nothing more than the +warning my mother gave me, to take care of my +luggage and myself. Now I think differently. +Somehow, his voice sounded more earnest than +that of the rest of our parents. I think he meant +more.</p> + +<p>“Then there’s something else, some other clue +that I can’t quite remember, that makes me certain +things are all wrong. Nan, please explain +what it’s all about,” Bess pleaded. But before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +Nan had a chance to say anything, Bess went on +untangling the confused jumble in her own mind.</p> + +<p>“There’s this I can’t understand either,” she +said, “Grace couldn’t remember whether he had +a Scotch accent or not. I think it’s something you +couldn’t possibly overlook.”</p> + +<p>Nan made a mental note and kept quiet, hoping, +that Bess would go on revealing what she had +found out.</p> + +<p>“Besides,” Bess continued, all unaware that she +was doing just what Nan wanted her to do, +“Grace was scared to death and kept talking +about his piercing eyes that looked right through +you and made you do what he wanted you to. The +other girls spoke about them too, after he confronted +them in the cabin that first morning. His +eyes are strange, but when he spoke to me, his +voice was as gentle as it could possibly be. Why, +he all but patted me on the shoulder.” Bess herself +was surprised that the thought didn’t bring any +feeling of revolt.</p> + +<p>Nan looked at her. “Why, I’d almost say you +liked the mysterious old Scotchman,” she said in a +surprised tone.</p> + +<p>“No, not that,” Bess responded thoughtfully, +“but I did feel almost sorry for him. He looked +meek and gentle, but withal very frightened as he +left this room.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> + +<p>“When he said, referring to the mysteries hereabouts, +‘that these things didna ha’ no part of me,’ +he really sounded very kindly.”</p> + +<p>“Did he say that?” The question was out before +Nan thought. She had been worried for fear +the plot that involved her would draw her friends +into its net.</p> + +<p>With Nan’s question, Bess suddenly realized +that she had revealed all she knew without learning +a thing. “Why, you double-dyed deceiver,” +she said in a surprised tone, “I’ve told you everything +I know, and you haven’t said a thing.”</p> + +<p>Nan looked confused. “I couldn’t help it, Bess,” +she confessed. “I had to know what had happened, +and there seemed no other way of finding +out. Now, let’s forget it all for the time being.”</p> + +<p>“Just tell me one thing,” Bess begged, when +she saw that Nan was not going to reveal all that +she knew. “Do you know who the red-headed +Scotchman is?”</p> + +<p>Nan considered the question. “I’m not certain,” +she said as though to herself.</p> + +<p>“But you think—” Bess spoke quietly, hoping +that Nan would finish her deliberations aloud. +She was trying Nan’s own tactics now.</p> + +<p>“That it is some distant member of my mother’s +family,” Nan said slowly. “I saw the names +and stateroom numbers, on a bulletin outside, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +those who are disembarking at Glasgow. The man +in cabin 846 is Robert Hugh Blake! ‘Hugh’ is +an old family name on my mother’s side and +‘Blake’ is her maiden name.</p> + +<p>“You remember the passenger list that was +given us at the Captain’s dinner?”</p> + +<p>Bess nodded her head. Hers was among the +things she was saving for souvenirs.</p> + +<p>“His name is on that, too. And it has his home +listed as ‘Glasgow.’”</p> + +<p>“You don’t know anything more about him. +You’ve never heard your mother or anyone speak +of him?” Bess followed up Nan’s revelation, hoping +to hear more.</p> + +<p>Nan ignored the first question. “Momsy never +did speak very much of her people in Scotland,” +she said in answer to the second. “She was very +fond of her great uncle, Hugh Blake, the one +whose estate she inherited, but I don’t think she +ever saw him. She liked him, because her father +did. She loved everything that he loved. Since this +great uncle is the only one he ever talked much +about, he is the only one I know of.</p> + +<p>“Oh, she has mentioned others, vaguely, from +time to time, but I don’t remember their names. +However, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the name +of this particular person.”</p> + +<p>“Do you know at all why he should be camping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +on your doorstep?” Bess questioned further.</p> + +<p>But Nan was not revealing any more now. Certain +that her friend had recovered from her shock, +she ignored the question, took one more look at +her baggage, and called a steward. He came +promptly, and before Nan and Bess left their +stateroom again, all the baggage had been taken +upstairs.</p> + +<p>“There, I guess that fixes that,” Nan observed +as they left the stateroom for the last time. “The +steward will have charge of the baggage now +until we land.”</p> + +<p>“What I can’t understand,” Bess began as +though there was only one question left in her +mind, “is why Mr. Robert Hugh Blake is so determined +to get into your baggage. What have +you that’s so valuable?”</p> + +<p>“Nothing, lassie, nothing,” Nan answered. +“Only a lot of dresses that wouldn’t become him, +even if he could get them on.”</p> + +<p>Bess giggled at this. Nan took her by the arm. +“Please,” she said earnestly and quickly, “don’t +say anything to anyone about what has happened +today. I’m sure it wouldn’t do any good.”</p> + +<p>Bess remembered a similar promise, given at a +time of other trouble in Florida, just as those +readers who have read “Nan Sherwood at Palm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +Beach” will remember. “Of course I won’t,” she +reassured her friend.</p> + +<p>Nan looked her thanks. As the sound of the +skirling of bagpipes reached them, they hastened +their steps and joined Dr. Beulah Prescott and +the rest of their Lakeview Hall friends on deck, +and so were in the group when Dr. Prescott asked +the question, “Are you ready to leave this boat +and step your foot on foreign soil?”</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXI<br /> + +<small>WELCOME, LASSIES, TO SCOTLAND</small></h2> + + +<p>Dr. Beulah’s question went unanswered. The +clank of the chain as deckhands dropped the gang-plank +from ship to shore attracted the attention +of the girls even as she asked it. Now they moved +forward slowly, with the rest of the passengers.</p> + +<p>“We’re almost there! We’re almost there!” +Bess could hardly contain herself. “Now we are +getting nearer and nearer and nearer. One more +step. Two more steps. We made it!” she exclaimed +triumphantly as she stepped her foot on +the gangplank and carefully walked its length. +Nan was at her heels. Then one by one the others +disentangled themselves from the crowded deck +and joined those on shore, until they all stood +together, “like a group of lost baffled children,” +Dr. Prescott said, as she joined them and herded +them through a door and into a long shed-like +station.</p> + +<p>There, everything seemed in confusion. “It’s +like the Grand Central Station in New York and +the dock where we boarded the ship all rolled into +one,” Laura whispered into Nan’s ear.</p> + +<p>“Yes, only you don’t see kilted highlanders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +and bagpipes and English officers in either of +those places,” Nan returned, waving and smiling +across the top of somebody’s bags to Hetty, who +had attracted her attention from the distance.</p> + +<p>“Welcome, lassies, to Scotland.” A voice from +behind them caused them to turn and there was +Jeanie. “Ha’ ye learned your way aboot yet?” she +grinned at her American friends.</p> + +<p>“We’re no so guid as that.” Nan recalled as +best she could her own mother’s Scotch dialect, +but let it go again as she called after Jeanie, +“Remember, it’s tea in London during coronation +week.”</p> + +<p>“Aye, and I’ll not be forgettin’,” Jeanie flung +over her shoulder before she was lost in the crowd +of English, Irish and Scotch people.</p> + +<p>“Porter, porter, porter.” “Taxi, taxi.” “Car +for Royal Scott Hotel.” The calls were all around +them in more variations of the English tongue +than they ever knew existed.</p> + +<p>“Here, girls, this way,” Dr. Prescott beckoned +them to follow her. “Here’s the baggage.”</p> + +<p>Bess turned and followed her. Rhoda, Amelia, +Grace, and Laura were already at her side. Nan +started too, but a small child, tears streaming +down its face, halted her.</p> + +<p>She stooped down, pulled its grimy fists out of +its eyes, pushed its blond hair back, and comforted,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +“There, child, there. Don’t cry. What has +happened?”</p> + +<p>“I didna ken.” The child cried harder than +ever.</p> + +<p>“Are you lost?”</p> + +<p>“I didna ken,” the answer was the same, but +he grabbed hold of her coat and pulled her along +after him.</p> + +<p>She glanced back toward her friends, but could +catch no one’s attention. She stopped. The small +force below her tugged hard at her coat.</p> + +<p>“Ye canna stop noo.” He was a persistent little +Scotsman.</p> + +<p>“No, I canna,” Nan thought to herself and +followed, wondering what it was all about. He +led her past the baggage, the train, and a small +window where men were busy changing American +dollars to English pounds. They passed lunch +carts, magazine racks, and an information tower. +Once Nan stopped, but the little urchin’s eyes +filled so quickly with tears that she gave up completely +and resolved to find out what was wrong.</p> + +<p>Finally, they came to a high iron fence through +the gates of which no one could go without a passport +or permit. The small boy shied away from +this public entrance, followed the fence around +to its joining with the wall. There, stuffed between +fence and concrete floor, was a bagpipe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +almost as big as the child himself. He stooped +over and tugged at it. It wouldn’t budge.</p> + +<p>Nan knelt down and tugged, too. Between the +two of them, after much twisting and turning, +pushing and pulling, the bagpipe was pulled +through. The child swung a strap over his shoulder, +looked up at her brightly now, and with a +“thank ye, thank ye” ran along ahead of her playing +“On the Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch +Lomond.”</p> + +<p>She saw him once again before she left the +station. It was just before the train pulled out. +He stood beneath her compartment window and +played the same tune again. This time tourists +were throwing pennies and ha’pennies at his feet +and he was smiling broadly.</p> + +<p>He waved up at Nan and called, “Noo ane for +ye.” She laughed and nodded, as he swung into +the tune a third time. At the end, Nan tossed him +a coin. He fingered it carefully, his Scotch thrift +fighting with his feeling of gratitude, but finally +the better man won and he threw it back up to her.</p> + +<p>The sound of his playing was still in her ears +as the train pulled out for Emberon. Though she +could not have known it then, the single tune that +he knew was to be a kind of theme song playing +itself most unexpectedly through her Emberon +experience.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p> + +<p>The ride from Glasgow, Great Britain’s second +largest city, to Emberon, a small village on the +coast of one of Scotland’s many fjords took only +a few hours.</p> + +<p>“It was a short ride,” Nan wrote later to her +mother, “from Glasgow to Emberon, but such +fun! The trains were queer, like those you see +sometimes in the movie with a corridor the whole +length of each car. The passengers all sit in little +compartments that have two seats facing one another. +We all sat together, of course. Laura, Bess, +and Dr. Beulah were on one side and Grace, +Rhoda, Amelia, and myself on the other. When +we ate, as we did soon after we were outside the +city, the steward pulled a little table down between +us so that we were really quite snug and +cozy.</p> + +<p>“It was nice, eating Scotch broth (and how +good it was!) while a Scotch landscape unwound +itself at your side. I say this now, but, really, we +were so excited that we hardly knew at all what +was happening. Oh, mother, we are seeing so +many strange new things all the time that my +tongue can hardly keep up with my eyes! When +I get home I’m going to talk and talk and talk +until you feel as though you had taken the trip +yourself, but then you and Papa know all about it, +because you were here not long ago.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> + +<p>“You’d be surprised how many people I meet +who remember you. The old coachman who met +us at the station, the people in the village, oh, +everyone here, tells me what a nice mother and +father I have, until sometimes I grow very lonesome +to see you. I got your cable at Glasgow. I +am being very careful, truly, and I will write you +all about everything when I get to Edinburgh +where I am hoping there will be some letters from +you. Until then—<br /> + +<span class="rght3">My love,</span><br /> +<span class="rght">Nan.”</span><br /></p> + +<p>“Until then”—the words were simple, but how +much was to happen “until then.”</p> + +<p>Nan had been told what Emberon was like and +had told her friends, but even then it came as a +surprise. She had known that it was a gray and +dreary looking place high up on a hill some distance +from the village, but how dreary she never +could have imagined.</p> + +<p>It was dusk when they drove up the steep rough +road that was the only entrance to the ancient +estate. The high old-fashioned carriage that they +had climbed up into at the station rocked precariously +from side to side as the horses, almost +as ancient as the carriage itself, pulled it along.</p> + +<p>In the half light, the girls looked at one another +and at Dr. Beulah. “It’s almost spooky,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +Grace huddled closer to Laura as she spoke, “isn’t +it?”</p> + +<p>“These old estates,” Dr. Beulah explained, +“were almost all fortresses at one time. They are +built high up on hills so that they have a natural +means of defense against the surrounding country. +The original owners were lords who were +almost kings in their own right. They fought, +now against one another, now against England, +holding princes and princesses, kings and queens +as pawns. No man knew for sure who was his +friend and who his enemy.</p> + +<p>“The stakes were high in those days. Each man +thought that Scotland was his for the fighting. +So, when he got himself some land and built himself +his castle, he went out to conquer the surrounding +country. It was fight, fight, fight all the +time, one Scottish clan against another.</p> + +<p>“Then it was Scotland against England and +the Scottish world was full of spies. That very +song the lad back in the station played over and +over again ‘On the Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch +Lomond,’ is the story of a Scotsman who was +captured by the English. The lake itself is not +very far from here.”</p> + +<p>“I believe,” she went on, as she saw that she +had the attention of all the girls, “that the hero +of that song belonged to one of the Highland<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +clans and was captured by the English at the +battle of Culloden. He was taken to Carlisle +where he was tried for treason and condemned +to be executed.</p> + +<p>“But as a special favor,” she paused and waited +while the carriage went around a sharp bend in +the road, and then continued, “the night before +his execution, he was allowed to receive a visit +from his betrothed. In bidding her goodby—and +she is supposed to have been a very beautiful +Scotch girl—his heart turned homeward to the +scenes of other, happy days. He told her that his +spirit would be there before she arrived, that he +would meet her at their former trysting place.”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“We’ll meet where we parted in yon shady glen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nan was humming the words over to herself +even as the carriage came to a stop before the +gates of the ancient estate. The driver climbed +down from his high seat in front and pulled a +rope. A bell rang in the distance, the gates +opened, and now, almost proudly, the horses +pulled the carriage up a short driveway and +stopped. A proud dignified old gentleman came +out to greet them.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXII<br /> + +<small>EMBERON</small></h2> + + +<p>“Welcome, thrice welcome to Emberon,” he +greeted. “And you, my dear,” he continued as +they walked in through big doors to a high old +hall, “you, I’m sure, are Nancy Sherwood.” His +voice was soft and low as he spoke to her. He +placed his hand on her head. “A Blake through +and through,” he went on, smiling down at her +surprise at his instant recognition.</p> + +<p>“The same clear eyes, determined little chin, +and proud carriage. Your mother has it too, when +she is well. And her father before her, Randolph +Hugh Blake—he was a wee lad when he first +visited his uncle here—he had those eyes. You +are all cut from the same pattern as Hugh Blake, +the well-beloved steward of Emberon for nigh on +to sixty years.</p> + +<p>“We are glad to see you, little mistress,” he +said quaintly, as he rang a bell for a servant.</p> + +<p>Nan looked up, startled, at the term “mistress.” +Was it right to address her so? A wave of +shyness came over her. She looked about at the +ancient hall with its obsolete firearms hanging +on the walls, its big soft rug, tapestries, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +armor of a knight long dead standing in the +corner. So this was Emberon! This was the estate +her mother had inherited! This was the place her +mother and father had visited a year, two years +before, while she had been in Pine Camp and then +at Lakeview Hall. Nan drew a deep breath, trying +hard to realize it all.</p> + +<p>For a few moments, they all stood around telling +the venerable old gentleman, James Blake, +who was a distant relative of Mrs. Sherwood’s, +of their journey. Then, as the servant he had +summoned appeared, he spoke again to Nan with +the utmost deference.</p> + +<p>“Your apartments are ready upstairs,” he said. +“Go quickly, for it is late and some in the village +have prepared an entertainment for the lassies +from America. It is quite necessary that you go +down, for most of them down there are people +who know the Blake story from beginning to end. +Hugh Blake was an idol in these parts.</p> + +<p>“He treated those who were under him with +such kindness and thoughtfulness that they looked +upon him almost as a father. He took care of +them when they were sick, watched over them +when they were in trouble, comforted them when +their young folks went off to the cities or to America. +He saw that none went hungry. He helped +them whenever he could, and when he died, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +mourned as though he was one of theirs. Now +they are anxious to see his youngest descendant.</p> + +<p>“Though I know you are tired,” he chuckled as +they all shook their heads, “you must make the +most of your short stay here. Upstairs, my sister +has everything in readiness. Now, begone with +you.” He dismissed them and turned toward the +big fireplace to warm his hands.</p> + +<p>“Why, Nan Sherwood!” Bess exclaimed as +soon as they left the reception hall, “it’s a castle! +And you are the princess!” Although Bess was +fooling, she was very much impressed at all she +had seen.</p> + +<p>“You are my subjects and you had better behave,” +Nan laughed as they were ushered into a +group of big bedrooms with high canopied beds, +huge chests, heavy rugs, thick damask drapes, +everything dark and faded, the luxuries of ages +gone by.</p> + +<p>“Yes, princess of Emberon,” Laura made a +brief curtsey. “We are at your command. Your +ladies in waiting await your orders.” She took +Nan’s hand and led her to a high-backed oaken +chair where Nan seated herself for a moment.</p> + +<p>“Your subjects, madame,” Laura waved her +hand toward the others, and then added, “They +don’t amount to much, but they are the best we +have to offer at present.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> + +<p>“That’s treason!” Amelia exclaimed, “treason! +We’re loyal subjects and true. We are daughters +of Scotland and defenders of the Blake clan.”</p> + +<p>The girls were acting. It was their own version +of a scene from a class play they had once acted +in at Lakeview. The room’s setting had brought it +all back to mind. But in acting they were prophesying +too, prophesying something even more +romantic than the scene the present brought to +mind.</p> + +<p>“Defenders of the Blake clan! Ah, how it +needs you! Come, rally round!” Nan pretended +to sound the call to battle as she left her regal +seat and plunged into the job of unpacking.</p> + +<p>The others followed suit. The stern faces of +the ancient lairds of Emberon that looked down +on them from heavy gilt frames on the wall never +saw six more industrious girls than those in the +Lakeview crowd as they unpacked and dressed.</p> + +<p>Once Laura looked up at them. “I must say,” +she said then to Nan, “that this isn’t a very cheerful +looking bunch of ancestors that is watching +us.”</p> + +<p>Nan paused in her work to look, too. “They +aren’t, are they?” she agreed, walking around +the room and looking intently at each of their +faces. “These are portraits, I think, of the first +of the lairds of Emberon. A fighting lot they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +were and as straight-laced as the best of the +Scotsmen.”</p> + +<p>“They look it,” Laura answered. “I, personally, +feel as though they disapprove of every single +dress I’m taking out of this bag.”</p> + +<p>“Let’s see, how should they be made to satisfy +those crusty old gentlemen?” She held one up to +herself. “It should be tighter in the bodice, have +a ruff around the neck, and the skirt,” she looked +down at the trim pleats in her own, “oh, that’s +all wrong! It should be long and full, just touching +the floor. No wonder they disapprove. I am +disgusted myself,” she added, looking up at one +of the solemn faces and winking.</p> + +<p>“Why, Laura Polk,” Rhoda had been watching +and listening to the little by-play, “You had better +be more respectful to your hosts,” she nodded toward +the portraits, “or tonight, at the parade of +the ghosts, you will be taught a well-deserved +lesson.”</p> + +<p>“Parade of the ghosts!” The exclamation was +Grace’s.</p> + +<p>“Why, of course, I had forgotten completely +about that,” Laura looked very serious. “At the +stroke of midnight in these ancient castles, all of +the skeletons come out of the closets and the dungeons +and the secret stairways and the cellars +and the attics, walk through the halls, rattle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +around a bit, clank a few chains and then do some +fancy haunting. If they are healthy ghosts, they +groan. If they are weaklings, they just whistle +round a bit. Oh, there is no end to the excitement +in these hoary places.</p> + +<p>“Besides the ghosts and skeletons, there are +always a few dissatisfied retainers who welcome +the first opportunity to polish off the living owners. +They hang around,” Laura was entirely oblivious +to the fact that she had, for once in her +life, startled Nan, “in caves, abandoned buildings, +and sometimes behind sliding doors, and appear +on the slightest pretext.</p> + +<p>“But never fear, my lassies,” her voice came +from the depths of her case, as she searched +around the bottom for a small gold bracelet, “the +line of the lairds of Emberon has died out, the +Princess tells me, and so there’s no one here to be +polished off. We have nothing to worry about,” +she ended as she found the bracelet and clasped +it around her wrist, “except ghosts and +skeletons.”</p> + +<p>“And old Mr. Blake who is waiting downstairs +for us, I am sure,” Nan added as she moved toward +the doorway.</p> + +<p>“He wouldn’t harm a hair of anyone’s head,” +Rhoda joined Nan. “Are all the Blakes so nice?”</p> + +<p>Nan didn’t answer. Both Laura and Rhoda had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +brought to mind one of the Blakes whom she was +trying hard to forget—Robert Hugh Blake, the +hunchback. She remembered suddenly that she +had forgotten completely to reread the letter that +had come to mind again those last days on the +boat. Now, there was no time as together they +went out, joined Dr. Prescott, and descended to +the Great Hall where old James Blake was awaiting +them.</p> + +<p>“Are you all quite comfortable?” He smiled at +the excited faces. It was good to have voices and +laughter ringing through the rooms again. It reminded +him of the old days when people were +always about. In his mind’s eye he saw men returning +from the hunt, couples dancing, great +tables groaning with food, excited groups discussing +politics, Christmas parties for the young folk, +feasts for everyone, servants and all, on the master’s +birthday.</p> + +<p>Then, in a flash, for he was a religious soul, +the vision changed, and it was Sunday morning. +The Laird himself was at the head of the room, +there near one of the two great fireplaces. The +Bible was open before him, and he was reading +to the household of Emberon, kneeling in the +Great Hall before him.</p> + +<p>Those had been the good days. James Blake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +wiped an involuntary tear out of his eye. He was +an old man and tears came easily.</p> + +<p>“Come, come,” he said gruffly as he nodded to +the girls, “the carriage is waiting and already we +are late.” He led the way out of the room to a +side entrance. Soon the dull sound of the horses’ +hoofs beating against the road was echoing back +through the night to the castle, as the carriage +wound its way down the road to the lighted +village.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII<br /> + +<small>SCOTTISH GAMES AND SCOTTISH TUNES</small></h2> + + +<p>It was a gala scene that met their eyes as they +drove into the village.</p> + +<p>There, around a game field lighted by myriads +of small electric bulbs, the whole population of +the town was collected. Everyone was in holiday +mood. All eyes were riveted on a brass band of +kilted Highlanders marching up and down the +field when Nan and her friends made their appearance. +At a signal, the band struck up a happy +welcoming tune as the girls were ushered directly +to a group of seats opposite the very center of +the field. Everyone stood up and clapped.</p> + +<p>“Seems almost like the good old high school +days at Tillbury,” Bess whispered to Nan, “I half +expect a cheerleader to appear.”</p> + +<p>“Sh!” The warning was Nan’s, for after the +girls acknowledged the greeting by bowing and +smiling and had seated themselves, the contests +began.</p> + +<p>First, there was the bagpipe competition. At opposite +ends of the field on wooden platforms, +raised so that everyone could see, the Angus MacPhersons,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +Donald MacDonalds, and James Mackenzies +of the village marched very slowly around +and around playing jigs and reels and all sorts +of Scottish Highland tunes.</p> + +<p>How weird the music seemed to the ears of the +American girl! It wasn’t gay enough for Bess +who liked only the jazz music that she could hear +at home. She grew restless. But Nan and Laura, +always interested in strange new things, sat on the +very edge of their seats, anxious not to miss any +detail of what was happening.</p> + +<p>“How I’d like to awaken Mrs. Cupp some +drizzly dark morning with bagpipe music!” +Laura’s eyes danced merrily at the thought.</p> + +<p>“You’d be expelled as sure as anything,” Nan +whispered back. “Will you look at that?” She almost +fell off the edge of the seat in her excitement.</p> + +<p>The Highlanders had retired for a while and, +racing across the field now, were teams of two +men each, one pushing a wheelbarrow and the +other in it. When they missed the goal, as they +generally did, a bucket, suspended from a beam +above the goal line, tipped and drenched the two +with water, to the great amusement of the crowd.</p> + +<p>“Oh, what fun!” Laura exclaimed. “Look! +There goes another bucket over. He got it right +in the face!”</p> + +<p>“And look at the next one,” Bess was interested<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +too, now. “Is he going to get by safely? No, +look, Nan!” She grabbed her friend’s arm. “The +wheelbarrow and everything is going to go over +now! Are they hurt?” She closed her eyes and +looked the other way.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Bess, they’re not hurt, they’re just half +drowned,” Nan was laughing heartily. This was +fun to watch, better than any circus. The crowd +cheered and laughed and clapped and laughed +again. “Tilting the Bucket” was one of the favorite +Scottish games.</p> + +<p>Next came the highpoint of the evening—the +dancing of the Highland Fling and the Sword +Dance. Such dancing! The tall, straight, skirted +Highlanders with their white jackets and green +kilts went from movement to movement, swinging +rhythmically and gracefully, leaving the girls +breathless at the end. The crowd applauded, long +and loudly.</p> + +<p>The dancers came back and did the Highland +Fling over again. The crowd wouldn’t let them +leave. They cheered and whistled. The dancers +repeated again and again, each time doing it +better than the last.</p> + +<p>The group of three that finally won the evening’s +prize, a five pound note, climaxed their conquest +of the crowd by donating the money to the +village coronation fund! The winner of the bagpipe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +contest followed suit and then the Broad +Jump champion, the winner of the Mile Run and +the Hurdle Races joined in. Before the crowd +really realized what it was doing, everyone was +throwing coins toward the center of the field. The +band started to play “God Save the King!” Everyone +stood up. They sang, first the English National +Anthem and then Scotch song after Scotch +song.</p> + +<p>Finally the lights blinked. The band played +“God Save the King” again and everyone moved +slowly away. It had been a grand evening with +some fifty pounds added to the village fund for +a stupendous celebration on the day of the crowning +of the King and Queen.</p> + +<p>Nan and her friends shook hands with the committee +that had planned the evening’s entertainment. +Villager after villager stopped to talk with +this young descendant of Hugh Blake who had +come from far away America to see the old estate. +They were simple folk, straightforward and honest +in their appraisal of the brown-eyed American, +but they found nothing to criticize. Somehow, +Nan was able to make them feel that she was one +of them, and as they went away gossiping about +Old Hugh and young Nan, they all agreed that +she was a “bonnie, bonnie lassie.”</p> + +<p>The committee, escorting the visitors back to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +the carriage, urged them to stay in Emberon for +the coronation celebration.</p> + +<p>“Aye, and it will be a gr-r-r-and day here,” +William MacDonald, the chairman, urged. “In +London, noo, I’ll gr-r-r-ant ye, it will be ver-r-ry +guid too, but mind ye, ye cudna find no better +celebration than the one here at Emberon. It’s +ver-r-ry proud we are of his Royal Highness and +her Ladyship. They pass here ver-r-ry often on +their way to the North. Aye, and even once they +stopped to watch the games. That was the time +young MacDonald, my nephew, ye ken,” he explained +proudly, “tossed the caber so high and +over so cleanly, that the guid king himself, mind +ye, shook him by the hand. Aye, and that was a +gr-r-r-and day.” The old man stopped while he +thought it all over again, remembering how he +had stood right next to his nephew when the king +congratulated him.</p> + +<p>“Will ye stay?” He repeated his invitation, as +with an effort, he shook the memory of that bygone +day from his mind and came back to the +present and the young Blake lass.</p> + +<p>“Noo, and she cudna,” old James Blake stepped +into the conversation. “Ither, bigger things,” he +lapsed into the dialect of the villagers about him, +“are hers in London town.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> + +<p>Old MacDonald looked up. A flash of understanding +passed between the two.</p> + +<p>“Ye’re right, Jamie,” he said, “and she’s a +right bonnie lass to carry on.”</p> + +<p>With this, Nan and her friends were hurried +along by James Blake toward the carriage, and +in the moonlight, they drove up the steep hill toward +the gray castle on the summit.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV<br /> + +<small>AN ACCIDENT NEAR THE CASTLE</small></h2> + + +<p>What a ride! Earlier in the evening, Grace had +called it spooky. Now she said nothing, but just +sat thinking, watching the tall old trees through +the carriage window as the equipage rumbled +along.</p> + +<p>She thought of her mother and father and +Walter and of the coming meeting in London. She +thought of Nan and her brother and smiled. +She thought—but the thought winged away, as +the carriage swayed far over to the right, and +James Blake stuck his head out and shouted to the +driver, “Be careful there!” The carriage slowed +down. Grace breathed easier. Then the warning +was forgotten and the whole thing forged ahead +again, bumping over stones and rocks and ruts.</p> + +<p>The horses seemed possessed. The old carriage +creaked and groaned under the strain. Momentarily, +the passengers felt that the whole thing would +topple over, or that the carriage, like the one-hoss +shay, would collapse into a thousand pieces. Grace +now was visibly frightened. Nan looked at her +anxiously and gave a warning look to Bess whom, +she was afraid, would break out in a tirade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +against the carelessness of the driver. Finally, +they rounded the sharp turn in the road which +Nan remembered as just preceding the castle +gates.</p> + +<p>They all breathed easier. They could see the +castle now, beyond the gates and beyond the +drive. But just as they looked reassuringly at one +another, just as old James Blake murmured, +“Home again,” the carriage gave a sharp lurch. +The horses stopped suddenly, stumbled, regained +their balance, and then stood, shaking their heads +vigorously. The carriage gave one mighty shake, +shivered, and settled down to silence on its ancient +springs.</p> + +<p>Inside, the occupants were jolted one on top of +the other. The girls unscrambled quickly. Young +and hardy, the jolt did not hurt them, but old +James Blake had toppled over so that he was +lying senseless against the door.</p> + +<p>Nan knelt down beside him. She pulled out a +handkerchief and pushed his tousled hair back +from his face. There was an ugly gash in his +forehead. Dr. Prescott felt his pulse. It was faint. +Together, they raised him to the seat.</p> + +<p>They called for the coachman. There was no +answer. They exchanged significant glances. “Do +you suppose he was hurt, too?” Grace could +hardly speak she was so frightened.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> + +<p>Laura made a move to get out, but as she did +so old James Blake stirred. “Dinna go out there,” +he murmured as he slowly opened his eyes. He +looked around. His eyes found Nan and he +reached out and touched her. “I dinna ken what +it’s all aboot,” he said weakly and seemed about +to drop off again. He caught himself.</p> + +<p>He raised his hand and tried to push the door +open. It was stuck. He knocked at it weakly with +his fist. Then he kicked at it and it flew open.</p> + +<p>“Hey, up there,” he called to the coachman.</p> + +<p>There was no answer. He got out, slowly and +painfully. Nan followed and took his arm. He +patted hers reassuringly.</p> + +<p>“Better take care, lass,” he murmured, half +stumbling, half walking around to the front of the +coach. Nan shook herself impatiently as an eerie +feeling came over her. Nevertheless, it was comforting +to hear someone descend from the coach +at her back.</p> + +<p>“Be careful, Nan.” Dr. Prescott’s voice came +through the darkness.</p> + +<p>“Can I help you?” It was Laura’s tone, low +and confident.</p> + +<p>“We’re all right,” Nan called back. She stood +now, next to James Blake looking up at the coachman’s +seat. It was empty!</p> + +<p>What had happened? A number of possibilities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +flashed through Nan’s mind as she moved closer +to James Blake. Had the driver been hurt and +fallen down the other side? Had he jumped down +and run away after the carriage stopped so suddenly? +Had—had he been in the carriage at all +during the wild drive up the hill?</p> + +<p>She followed James Blake as he picked his way +carefully around the whinnying horses. Was this +all a part of the strange series of events that had +seemed to pursue her ever since she knew for certain +that she was to make this trip?</p> + +<p>Nan stepped up beside the old Scotsman when +he paused to examine the feet of one of the horses +in passing. What did he know about all of this? +She determined to ask him when they were alone +again. Now, she took comfort in noting the kindly +expression on his face as he rubbed the head of +one of the horses that seemed to be hurt. The +animal nuzzled his nose in the master’s hand.</p> + +<p>“Easy now,” he encouraged and almost at once +the animals stopped the impatient shaking of their +heads.</p> + +<p>They reached the other side of the coachman’s +seat and fearfully looked around. There was nothing +there. They walked back over the road for +several yards. Still they found no signs of the +missing person.</p> + +<p>James Blake scratched his head reflectively.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +“Come, now,” he took Nan’s hand firmly in his, +“come, stay close to me and we’ll clear this mystery +up.” His voice sounded confident, but inside +he was sure, as sure as he was of anything that this +was no mere accident.</p> + +<p>He felt the warmness of Nan’s hand in his. He +noted her apparent fearlessness. “The lass should +never have been allowed to come to Emberon,” he +thought and was annoyed that his own desire to +see her had allowed him, in the early months of +the year, to persuade himself that it would be +all right.</p> + +<p>Why hadn’t he allowed the Edinburgh solicitors +who had handled the estate carry out the final +terms of the will of old Hugh without his meddling? +Ah, but it was too late to think of that now. +She was here and had to stay, at least for the +night. Perhaps tomorrow he could send her on to +Edinburgh. But now, now it was best to get her +mind off this—accident. It was best to get her +back in her apartment at Emberon. He could +guard her there.</p> + +<p>“Come, lass,” he spoke, as he turned from his +search along the side of the road, “these things +are not for young ladies. You and your friends +must go back to the house. We’ll let someone from +there make the necessary inquiry.”</p> + +<p>“But what if the coachman is lying along the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +road, hurt?” Nan protested. “If we wait, it might +be too late to help him. Please, let me look down +the road a way further.” She almost wrenched +her hand free from his as she spoke.</p> + +<p>“That’s a brave lass,” he complimented her. +Nevertheless he didn’t let her go. He turned +abruptly and started back toward the carriage. +Against her will, she went along with him.</p> + +<p>“Did you find him?” Laura was waiting beside +the door of the carriage as they came up to it +again.</p> + +<p>Nan shook her head. What was this all about? +Why had old James Blake stopped the search for +the missing coachman so suddenly? Exhausted +from the day’s events, the landing at Glasgow, the +trip to Emberon, the excitement over the Scotch +games, and then this mystery, she felt impatient +with the old gentleman. She was still afraid that +the coachman lay out there in the dark somewhere, +injured.</p> + +<p>Her feeling of impatience continued as James +hustled the girls into the carriage, closed the door +after them, and then walked alone to the big gate +and pulled three times on the big bell rope.</p> + +<p>In the stillness of the night, the girls, huddled +in the carriage, could hear very faintly the sound +of the bell up at the big house. Then they heard, +or thought they heard, the sound of a door, footsteps,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +and at long last, there was someone at the +gate. Though they couldn’t see anyone, they knew +that James Blake was in whispered consultation.</p> + +<p>Finally, there was the grating noise of the gates +swinging back on rusty hinges. James Blake sent +a man from the house to drive the carriage the +rest of the way. The girls were glad to hear the +slapping sound of the reins as the new driver put +them in place over the horses’ backs.</p> + +<p>The carriage pulled out of a rut, lunged forward +and then came to a stop again.</p> + +<p>“Careful!” The voice was that of the old steward. +The driver tried again. This time a horse +stumbled.</p> + +<p>“Whoa, there,” James Blake ordered, “we canna +drive them. The poor beastie is hurt.”</p> + +<p>So it happened that at sometime after midnight, +six Lakeview Hall girls and Dr. Prescott got out +of a carriage and walked along the lonely entrance +road to Emberon Castle.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXV<br /> + +<small>JAMES BLAKE DOES SOME EXPLAINING</small></h2> + + +<p>They were all wary as they picked their way +over the dry rutted road, but Nan more so than +any of them. Even as James Blake felt responsible +for her, so she felt responsible for her friends. +There was small comfort now, in this lonely place, +in the memory that the hunchback had told Bess +that “these things had no part of her.” The accident, +if such it might be called, on the hill just +now, might very well have killed them all. Nan +shuddered as she thought of how serious it might +have been.</p> + +<p>She peered this way and that into the tangle +of bushes, grass, and thistles along the way, not +knowing what she was looking for, but suspicious +of every dark shadow.</p> + +<p>Once, she looked gratefully up at the sky, the +big moon, and the bright stars. She stumbled.</p> + +<p>“No star gazing tonight,” Laura steadied her +as she almost fell. “And what a moon, and what +a sky, and what a shadow.” Laura pointed off to +the right. “Look,” she whispered, half in fun, +half in seriousness, “look, it’s like a man carrying +something long in his hand.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nan’s glance followed Laura’s. The shadow—was +it a man’s? She watched it. Was it moving? +Then she breathed a deep sigh.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Laura,” she chided her friend, “it’s only +a tree! Will you stop teasing?”</p> + +<p>“What was a tree?” Grace was on edge too, +anxious to get inside, anxious to get away from +this castle that had seemed so wonderful and so +grand only a few hours ago.</p> + +<p>“Nothing, Grace.” Nan tried to keep her own +voice from seeming worried as she spoke. +“Laura’s seeing things in the dark.”</p> + +<p>Grace didn’t answer, because she had been seeing +things too. In the face of Nan’s quietness and +calmness, it did seem silly. With this thought, she +felt encouraged and looked more bravely around +her. An owl hooted. She jumped. All the girls +jumped. It was Dr. Prescott’s voice this time that +calmed them down.</p> + +<p>“Almost there, girls!” her voice actually +sounded cheery in the night.</p> + +<p>“Aye, and safely too.” Old James Blake had +been particularly silent since they left the carriage. +Now, he spoke with a great sense of relief. +Already he could see that a door was open and +inside there was light and security.</p> + +<p>He stepped his foot on the first of the broad +stone steps and stood there as the girls walked on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +up through the door and into the light of the +great hall. After watching them disappear, he +turned, gave one last penetrating glance into the +night, but saw nothing to disturb him further. He +listened then for the sound of the horses, heard +one whinny. It was a rather pleasant, comforting +sound. He was satisfied that they were being +properly cared for, so he too walked up the steps, +conscious now for the first time that the wound in +his forehead ached and that his head hurt.</p> + +<p>The pain angered him. Again he turned away +from the light. This time, he shook his fist at the +unseen forces out there in the dark.</p> + +<p>“Ye’ll not do her harm,” he said, “as long as +James Blake can fight.” With this, he set his chin +firmly and followed the American lassies into the +castle.</p> + +<p>Already, at Dr. Prescott’s insistence they had +found their way to their rooms. She lingered in +the apartment until they had undressed and were +safely in bed. Then she herself carefully closed +their doors before she returned to the Hall where +James Blake was sitting before the big open fireplace, +puzzling over the whole situation.</p> + +<p>“Your head, is it injured badly?” There was a +real note of concern in her voice as she spoke. She +liked this old Scotsman, even if she couldn’t +understand the ways of his household.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p> + +<p>“It’s nothing at all,” he waived all consideration +of himself. “Are the lassies all right?” He +nodded his head in the direction of the stairs.</p> + +<p>Dr. Prescott knew by his tone that his entire +thought was for them. “Quite all right at present,” +she answered as she sat down in the chair he +had pulled out for her with a quaint courtly sort +of grace. “Now, tell me,” she entreated, “what +is this all about? What happened down on the +hill?”</p> + +<p>He didn’t answer at once, but sat thinking. +Should he tell as much of the story as he knew? +Would it help or hinder this woman to know? +For a moment he sat appraising her. She looked +capable enough, he decided, but then, there was +no telling about women. He shook his head and +winced, without thinking, at the pain. After all, +he decided finally, this pleasant looking woman +was Nan’s guardian in the absence of her mother +and father. It was only fair that she know everything +that he did. Then, too, if things worked out +rightly, she would have to be Nan’s sponsor in +the whole London business.</p> + +<p>Dr. Prescott, though she couldn’t read his +thoughts exactly, knew, from her long experience +with people, approximately what was going on in +his mind. She sat silent while she saw him coming +to his decision.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> + +<p>Eventually, he spoke. “You know, of course,” +he said, “the story of Mrs. Sherwood’s inheritance?” +Dr. Prescott nodded her head. “And why +Nancy is here?” he continued.</p> + +<p>Dr. Prescott was a little puzzled at this question. +“Why—yes,” she agreed slowly, “to see the +estate.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, in part.” James Blake seemed to be feeling +his way along now. “That is the reason that +was given, at least, for our anxiety to have her +come, that and the fact that we wanted to see her. +An old man’s whim, you know, that is what Nan’s +mother, bless her heart, thought. But actually, +there is more behind this than appears on the +surface.</p> + +<p>“Old Hugh Blake was more of a power in this +section of Scotland than most people of this generation +realize,” he went on. “The Blake family, +in the beginning of Scotland’s history, was, if you +will pardon my saying so, for I, too, am one of +his descendants, because of its wealth and intelligence, +very close to the royal family. However, +the old line gradually died out. This explains how +it happened Mrs. Sherwood inherited the estate.</p> + +<p>“But in the old days, when the clans hereabouts +practically ruled the country, the Blakes of Emberon +were frequently called to London to advise +the king’s ministers. At such times they were generally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +rewarded in one way or another. Sometimes +it was with land, sometimes with important foreign +posts, sometimes with court privileges that +were highly prized in those days. Yes, and highly +respected,” he added, as the thought of the day’s +happenings again crossed his mind.</p> + +<p>“So it happened that Hugh Blake the fourth, +the original Laird of Emberon—it was he who +built this Hall we are sitting in—back in the sixteenth +century performed a service to the King +that won for him an ambassadorship to France. It +was a particularly ticklish post then, for France +and Scotland and England were continually +having trouble.</p> + +<p>“Well, Hugh Blake, he is supposed to have +been a very charming young man at the time, +gifted and well-educated, became a favorite at the +French court, and well-beloved of the French +king. So it was, that once, in the tangled history +of the time, he succeeded in getting some concessions +from the French that were most advantageous +to the English.</p> + +<p>“London and the court there was so pleased +with young Hugh that they bestowed on him and +his descendants forever the privilege of assisting +at the coronation of English kings.” His voice was +excited and nervous as he finished the sentence.</p> + +<p>“You understand what I am saying?” The old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +man looked at Dr. Prescott intently. Then he +shook his head.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps I don’t make myself quite clear,” he +added. “The simple fact is,” he explained further, +“that Mrs. Sherwood’s inheritance carried with +it the right to assist at the present coronation! +Moreover, her great uncle, Hugh Blake, who got +his name from the old line, specified to those of +us who were his friends, that young Nan, if she +seemed to us to be worthy, should be the one to +carry on! That is why we wanted her to come. +That is why the villagers were so anxious to see +her. And that is why,” he lowered his voice now, +“I was fearful of her safety out there this night.”</p> + +<p>“You mean there is some opposition?” Dr. +Prescott asked when she found her voice after this +amazing story had been told.</p> + +<p>“Yes, on the part of one or two,” the old man +admitted, “who think, and wrongly so, that if +some means can be found to prevent Nan’s taking +part at the crowning this spring, they will be able +to prove their right to carry on when the court of +claims, where such things are argued before the +king’s representatives, meets a few days hence in +London.”</p> + +<p>“Does Mrs. Sherwood know of all of this?” +Dr. Prescott asked further.</p> + +<p>“Not yet. This portion of the inheritance was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +bestowed under the terms of another will which +was put in my keeping by Hugh Blake. The Edinburgh +solicitors who handled the estate for Mrs. +Sherwood when she and her husband were here, +know this story I have told you, however. Even +now, they are awaiting word from me as to how +to proceed. They are anxious, too, for Nan to +come. Tonight, with your consent,” he continued, +“I will send off a cable to America, explaining the +circumstances. We will not proceed until we hear +from Nancy’s parents.”</p> + +<p>Somewhere in the large rooms of the old castle +a clock now chimed slowly, one, two, three.</p> + +<p>Dr. Prescott looked at her watch. “Will you +be so kind,” she said as she arose from her chair, +“as to wait and send that cable in the morning? +What you have told me here tonight has come so +unexpectedly that I’d like an hour or two to think +it over before communicating with Nan’s parents.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t object,” James Blake seemed +startled at the mere thought, “to Nan’s taking +part in the coronation?”</p> + +<p>“None whatsoever,” Dr. Prescott hastened to +assure him. “It will be a great privilege and honor +indeed, doubly so, because she is an American +girl.”</p> + +<p>“Aye, that has been some of the cause for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +trouble,” he said, “with the people hereabouts. +They didn’t want the honor to go across the seas. +But Nancy’s mother, when she came over to take +possession of the estate quite won the heart of +everyone. Now Nancy has done the same. There +will be no more trouble of that sort,” he promised, +“and no more trouble of any kind, if I can +help it.” He finished the sentence belligerently.</p> + +<p>His own fighting mood brought back to Dr. +Prescott’s mind the accident in the carriage.</p> + +<p>“Do you know at all what happened tonight?” +she asked.</p> + +<p>“You mean what caused the accident?” he parried, +for here was something he did not want to +talk about as yet.</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“I am not certain as yet,” he admitted half the +truth, “but if you will have faith in an old man +and leave your question rest for a few hours,” he +was very serious as he spoke, “I will answer it +later. There is no need for you to worry,” he concluded. +With this he walked with her over to the +stairway and watched her as she went up.</p> + +<p>Alone in the hall now, he rang a bell and called +for the servant who had been left with the carriage.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI<br /> + +<small>NAN’S DISAPPEARANCE</small></h2> + + +<p>Somewhere on the estate a cock crowed.</p> + +<p>Nan stirred sleepily and turned over. The cock +crowed triumphantly again. Nan turned once +more and saw that the morning sun was filtering +in through the heavy drapes at the windows. She +rubbed her eyes and stretched. She looked +around. Where was she? Then she spied the ancestral +portraits frowning down upon her and she +remembered everything.</p> + +<p>So she had slept after all! She remembered +vaguely an urge the night before to stay awake and +watch to see that nothing happened. Why, it was +music that had lulled her to sleep! She remembered +it now, the faint far away sound of a bagpipe +playing. It had been like a dream, for with +the wind around the castle and the creaking of the +old floors, she had been completely unable to follow +the thread of the tune. It had come, died +away, and come again. In trying to follow it, she +had fallen asleep at last.</p> + +<p>Now she lay listening. There were no sounds +at all to be heard in the old castle. She got up +quietly, slipped into her robe and slippers, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +walked softly over to the windows, careful all the +while not to disturb anyone. She pulled the curtains +back and stood looking down on the castle +grounds, seeing them in the daylight for the first +time.</p> + +<p>The big gray stone building she was in, she +could see now, was built on a pinnacle so that on +all sides there were valleys below. She remembered +what Dr. Beulah had said the night before +about the old castles. Now she saw in imagination +the leaders of clans in days gone by standing +where she was, watching the approach of the +enemy below.</p> + +<p>She peopled the towers that she could see with +beautiful princesses, the crumbling walls of the +older unused parts of the castle with knights in +armor, singing, talking, laughing, and fighting. +She imagined all sorts of plots and counterplots, +and now in the valleys there was grain growing +and cattle grazing! How pretty it looked in the +early morning sunshine! So different than it had +seemed the night before!</p> + +<p>Now she thought again of the accident on the +hill. What had caused it? Could she learn more by +daylight than she had been able to by night? A +bird sang cheerily outside. Another flew across her +line of vision. Everything seemed to be beckoning +her to come out and explore. She turned from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +window and dressed hastily. Perhaps she could +solve last night’s mystery by going down the hill. +Perhaps she could solve it and set everyone’s mind +at rest!</p> + +<p>She opened the door carefully and walked +slowly down the big staircase into the Great Hall. +There James Blake was asleep before the big fireplace +where the embers of last night’s fire were +still burning. She saw that his head was bandaged +and that he looked tired and worried, even in +sleep. She couldn’t know that he had dropped off +only a half hour before from sheer exhaustion. He +had spent the few hours remaining after his talk +with Dr. Prescott and his servant in personally +watching to see that nothing further happened.</p> + +<p>Now, as he slept, she walked quietly past his +back. He stirred and muttered something. She +stopped. He sank back into quiet sleep and she +went on and out, opening the door carefully and +closing it the same.</p> + +<p>James Blake stirred again and awakened then +with a start. He looked around. “Auld fool!” he +muttered. “Sleeping, when ye’d set yourself to +watch those lassies.” He got up and walked +around the room. Everything seemed to be all +right. Stiff from his night in the chair he stretched, +threw a knotted log of wood on the fire, and then +rang for a servant.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> + +<p>“The young lassies upstairs are tired,” he said. +“See that everything is kept quiet so they will +sleep until late. Before the day is over, they will +be off to Edinburgh.” So it was not until hours +after she had slipped through the door, walked +down the road past the bushes that had seemed +such a menace the night before, and passed +through the gate, that Nan’s disappearance was +discovered.</p> + +<p>It was Bess who missed her first. Awakening +much later than Nan, she lay for some time enjoying +the luxury of the room in which she slept. +She noted every detail of the furnishings and determined +that when she returned to school in the +fall, nothing of all this would be lost in the telling. +She half hoped that she would have the opportunity +to tell Linda Riggs. In her mind’s eye, she +picked out one or two others that she would like +to impress. No one that she knew, she thought +with satisfaction, had ever even seen such a place +as this old castle, much less stayed in one.</p> + +<p>The more she thought of it, the grander it +seemed. A little feeling of envy came over her. +Why was it that the nice things that happened to +Nan never happened to her? Why couldn’t her +father or mother have a place like this? Bess was +a thoughtless unappreciative little person at times. +Though her father and mother gave her everything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +within their means, she was still dissatisfied. +Her hand touched the satin cover that was over +her. As quickly as the feeling of envy had come, +it went. She listened for sounds. Was Nan awake +in the next room?</p> + +<p>She got up and stuck her head in through the +door. The bed was empty! Was everyone except +herself up? She went across the hall to Laura’s +room, and found her still sleeping. She looked in +the big double room where Amelia and Grace +were. They were sleeping too. So was Rhoda. She +debated once as to whether or not she should look +into Dr. Prescott’s apartment. “I don’t dare to do +that,” she decided, “Nan’s probably downstairs +waiting for us. Maybe she will come up, if I stay +here.”</p> + +<p>She went back into her own room, and because +she was cold, she crawled back into bed. +But then her curiosity as to Nan’s whereabouts +got the better of her. Maybe Nan was out exploring! +It would be fun to walk around the castle +grounds!</p> + +<p>She dressed almost as quickly as Nan had, +slipped out quietly too, and went downstairs.</p> + +<p>“Weel, lassie,” James Blake greeted her as she +entered the big hall. “Ye’re up bright and early +this morning.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> + +<p>“But I’m not the first,” Bess smiled back, +“Where’s Nan?”</p> + +<p>“Why, the lass is still asleep,” he began heartily, +and then noting the puzzled expression on +Bess’s face, he added, “Isn’t she?” A world of +possibilities came to his mind as he asked the question +and he repeated it before Bess could answer. +“Tell me quickly, isn’t she upstairs? Isn’t she with +her other friends, with the school mistress? Isn’t +she about up there some place?”</p> + +<p>Bess was frightened too now and turned. “I’ll +ask Dr. Prescott,” she called over her shoulder +as she went up the stairs. “Shall I?”</p> + +<p>“Aye, lass, and be quick!” Old James Blake +followed her half way up the stairs.</p> + +<p>But Dr. Prescott, awake herself in her apartment, +heard their voices, and came out on the +landing. “Is there anything wrong?” Before the +question was answered, she knew the response. +“Nan’s missing!” For a moment the two older +people stood with Bess between them looking +hopelessly into one another’s faces. Then they all +got busy.</p> + +<p>A hurried check of Nan’s room showed that +what they feared most had not happened. The +young girl had left the apartment of her own accord. +She had not been kidnapped, at least not +while in her room. “She’s probably just gone exploring.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +Bess took the whole thing calmly at first, +for she knew Nan’s habits.</p> + +<p>“Aye, maybe so,” old James Blake agreed, “but +’tis better to have her here with us. We’ll all do +our exploring together.” With this, he called the +servants and tried to check on Nan’s movements. +No one had seen her.</p> + +<p>A search was organized. Everyone was sent to +a different part of the estate. Old James Blake +himself climbed to the top of the highest tower +and looked out over the grounds. He came down +sadly.</p> + +<p>There was no Nan to be seen or found anyplace.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII<br /> + +<small>BESS HAS HER SAY</small></h2> + + +<p>“I just can’t believe things won’t turn out all +right!” Bess exclaimed, as she and her other +Lakeview Hall friends sat together in Nan’s room +in the great castle. “And I hate having to stay +here! I don’t see why they can’t let us help too! +After all, Nan’s our friend and if she is in trouble, +we ought to be allowed to help her get out of it.”</p> + +<p>“But Bess,” Rhoda spoke softly, “they told us +to stay here so that we would be handy in case we +were needed. I’m sure that if there was anything +at all in the world that we could do, Dr. Prescott +would call us.”</p> + +<p>“I’m not so sure of that,” Bess answered. “She +treats us most of the time as though we were +babies. It happens this time,” she continued with +some satisfaction, “that we know more than anyone +about what has been going on.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” Laura spoke up now.</p> + +<p>“Well, for one thing,” Bess began, “we know +about the hunchback and nobody else does.”</p> + +<p>“Do you think he has anything to do with +this?” Laura looked at Bess intently. “After all,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +you know, no one is certain but what Nan has just +gone out and lost herself. You all know how she +likes to wander around strange places by herself.”</p> + +<p>“I said that downstairs, myself,” Bess answered, +“but I don’t believe it at all. Nan +wouldn’t worry us like this. Moreover, when we +got on the train at Glasgow I thought I saw that +old hunchback getting on, too. I didn’t say anything +about it then, because I didn’t want to spoil +the good time we were having. But I’m sure I saw +him.” She waited, watching the effect of her announcement +on the others.</p> + +<p>“Well, that settles it,” Laura got up, “I’m going +right downstairs now and tell them about him. +Maybe it will help them to find Nan.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you do that.” It was Bess who stopped +her. “We promised Nan we wouldn’t say anything +about him and we’re not going to. Anyway, +Dr. Prescott would be angry to know that those +things happened on the boat and that we didn’t +tell her. You know she would, and it would spoil +all the rest of our trip.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe Bess is right,” Grace agreed timidly. +“Maybe we had just better wait for a while and +see what happens.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll wait for two hours,” Amelia looked at +her watch, “and if Nan hasn’t come back by then, +I think we should tell everything we know. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +really might help Mr. Blake. He seems terribly +worried.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, there’s something more to this than we +know about, I’m sure. I heard Dr. Prescott and +him talking about sending for some people in the +village to help join in the search.”</p> + +<p>“Have they done it?” Bess asked quickly.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe so,” Laura answered. “She +asked him to wait, to give Nan time to come back +if she had wandered off by herself. She doesn’t +want any of this to get into the newspapers, if she +can help it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, if it does, it will frighten all our people +back home and we’ll have to go back right away, +I know,” Bess was worried at this thought. “Why +didn’t Nan stay here with us?”</p> + +<p>“Maybe we ought to tell all that we know +now,” Rhoda returned to the question that had +been set aside a few moments before. “It certainly +can’t do any harm. Dr. Prescott probably will +scold us, but that’s nothing beside the risk of +harming Nan by not telling.”</p> + +<p>“Rhoda’s right,” Laura got up once more, “and +I don’t care what the rest of you think, I’m going +downstairs now and tell. I just can’t stand sitting +here any longer and not doing anything.”</p> + +<p>“All right, then,” Bess gave in, for she too was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +becoming tired of just waiting. “Let’s all go down +together. Are the rest of you agreed?”</p> + +<p>Grace still seemed reluctant to go, for she was +one to obey orders and felt that if the people +downstairs wanted them, they would call. She +said something of this to her friends.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Grace, don’t be so afraid,” Laura was +impatient with her now, “You can just bet that, if +they thought we had anything at all worth telling, +they would have asked us long ago. Now, come +on, don’t be a baby.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe it isn’t worth telling.” Grace was +growing stubborn now.</p> + +<p>“Well, all I can say is,” Laura replied to this, +“that if the fact that a mysterious person went +through Nan’s luggage once and then followed +her from the time we got off the boat until we got +here isn’t worth telling, then nothing is. Now, +come on.”</p> + +<p>There was no more argument. Together the +girls went downstairs to where James Blake and +Dr. Prescott were holding consultation with two +villagers who had been called in when Dr. Prescott +had finally given her consent to ask for outside +help.</p> + +<p>“You understand,” James Blake was saying, as +they entered, “the lassie has gone off by herself +and been lost. There is to be no word of anything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +else told to anyone, but we want a thorough +search made of every likely hiding place in the +neighborhood. No one would hurt her, but as you +both know, there might be good reason to keep +her in hiding until after the good king is crowned. +Now, mind you, hold your tongues, and report +back to me as quickly—” He left the sentence unfinished +as he saw the girls.</p> + +<p>“What is it lassies?” He smiled reassuringly +down at them.</p> + +<p>Laura plunged into her story without any preliminaries.</p> + +<p>“And he was—a hunchback—red headed—with +strange eyes?” The old man seemed to grow +much older even as he repeated the words. “Then +it is as I feared. The man we want is Robert Hugh +Blake, my own poor, misguided brother!”</p> + +<p>He rubbed his hand across his face, as he +spoke. For a moment, he looked as though the +whole thing was more than he could possibly +stand.</p> + +<p>Those in the room watched him silently, feeling +at once how deeply he was hurt. To Bess +alone, the name, Robert Hugh Blake, had a familiar +ring. As she heard it, her thoughts flashed +back to the last day on the boat when she had +surprised the hunchback at Nan’s luggage. She +remembered Nan’s revelation then, remembered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +her own puzzling over a clue that just escaped her +memory.</p> + +<p>Now, she puckered her brows over it again +and tried to go back further over the things that +had happened. There! No, it didn’t quite come. +She tried harder, sure now that the fact that was +escaping her had an important bearing upon the +present mystery. She went back in time over the +scenes on the boat, their farewells to their parents, +the trip to New York, the last days at school, +the worry when for so long they didn’t receive any +letters—</p> + +<p>There, she had it now! It was a letter, the mysterious +letter Nan had read in their room at Lakeview! +It was the letter Nan had refused to explain, +although it had left her nervous and +excited! Bess remembered the scene all quite +clearly now. She knew now, as she knew then, that +Nan’s explanation that it made her homesick +wasn’t the truth. She knew that that letter had +been the beginning of all their troubles!</p> + +<p>Without thinking further, she blurted out what +she knew about it. James Blake, Dr. Prescott, +everyone in the room listened intently to everything +that Bess had to say. For once, she made a +clean breast of everything and told all that she +knew of what had been happening.</p> + +<p>“And where, lassie, is that letter?” James<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +Blake made a distinct effort to forget his own +sorrow at the turn of events. Action was needed +now.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know, unless it is in her bags,” Bess +started upstairs at once. “I’ll go look.” At last +she felt important, as though she was doing her +part to help locate Nan.</p> + +<p>But much as she wanted to, she couldn’t find +the note in question. She looked over everything +most thoroughly, admiring, even in her excitement, +the extreme neatness of Nan’s bags. But +she found nothing unusual at all. She went slowly +back downstairs and reported.</p> + +<p>“Did you ever see the letter at all?” Dr. Prescott +questioned her, “the envelope, the stamps, +or the postmark?”</p> + +<p>Bess shook her head, wishing now that when +she had first noticed Nan sitting troubled over it, +she had insisted on knowing what it was all about. +“If I hadn’t been so interested in that old memory +book,” she thought regretfully, “I might have +known more now.”</p> + +<p>But regrets were of no use, now. All in the +room felt regrets in one form or another, but that +did not bring Nan back.</p> + +<p>Old James Blake had sat silently by, during Dr. +Prescott’s questioning, knowing that she thought +as he did, that the letter Nan had received in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +Lakeview was some sort of warning as to what +would happen to her, if she left the United States. +He knew, too, that in asking about the postmark, +she was trying to find out whether or not it had +been mailed in Scotland.</p> + +<p>“There is only one thing to do,” he spoke +rather sadly, “and much as I hate to have it happen, +I must tell you to do it. You must ring that +bell over there, call for a servant, and either go +yourself or have him go and report this whole +thing to the authorities. It’s a case, I think, for +Scotland Yard.”</p> + +<p>“You are sure that that is the only course?” +Dr. Prescott was most sympathetic.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I am sure,” the old man said, “My +brother, the one whom you all call the hunchback, +was injured during the late war so that he was +deformed for life and his mind was affected. He +has, since his discharge from the hospital, been a +recluse, refusing to see anyone except myself and +a very few friends. He has spent most of his time +searching old family records with the aim in view +of writing a family history.</p> + +<p>“He has always loved this estate and felt, for +no very good reason, that he and I were the logical +heirs. When it passed to someone across the +water, the blow almost killed him. However, he +recovered, and we kept him under close guard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +when Nancy’s parents were here some time ago.</p> + +<p>“Apparently, after their departure, since they +left the care of the place in our hands, he was +resigned to what had happened. However, when +the old king died and he saw that our old Scotch +privilege of taking part in the coronation was +given to an American, the old wound was reopened. +For days he was like a mad man around +here. Then he quieted down, and I thought that +he was accepting fate again. When he disappeared +some weeks ago, I made a quiet search. Unable to +find out anything, I let the matter rest, hoping +against hope that he had gone into retirement as +he often has in recent years.</p> + +<p>“What must have happened you know as well +as I. That he is somewhere in this vicinity, I am +certain, as certain as I am that he was the driver +of the coach last night on the wild drive up the +hill. Why it was that he stopped, that he didn’t +carry out what I think was his original intention, +to drive you all over the embankment, I can only +guess.</p> + +<p>“It wasn’t for fear of losing his own life, I +know. I believe that it was concern for me. We +have always been very fond of one another.”</p> + +<p>He said this last simply, and made a motion, as +no one else moved, to go himself and pull the bell +chord.</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII<br /> + +<small>NAN COMES INTO HER OWN</small></h2> + + +<p>“Wait!” Dr. Prescott gave the command as the +old Scotsman raised his arm to pull the chord. +“Someone’s coming!”</p> + +<p>With one impulse, everyone in the room turned +toward the door. They were all tense as it was +opened from without and a group of villagers entered +with Robert Hugh Blake in their midst!</p> + +<p>“I tell you,” he was protesting, “I don’t know +where the lassie is.” His eyes were wild and staring +as he spoke. “I tell you I don’t——” He broke +off his sentence when his eyes lighted on his +brother. His whole attitude changed. “James, I +don’t know where she is,” he almost whimpered.</p> + +<p>James Blake stepped over to his brother’s side. +He motioned to the others in the room to keep +quiet.</p> + +<p>“There, there, Bobby,” he spoke as he would +to a child, “Of course you don’t know where she +is now. But where was she when you last saw +her?”</p> + +<p>“Down in the old gatehouse at the foot of the +hill.” Robert Blake answered. He was accustomed +to obeying his brother. “But I didn’t hurt her, not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +at all.” His voice was earnest as he spoke and so +sincere, that even Dr. Prescott, worried as she +was, believed him.</p> + +<p>“I was there playing on the bagpipe,” he continued, +“as I always do, when she came in through +the door. I swear that that’s the truth. She sat +and talked to me for a long time. She’s a sweet +little lassie. Then I excused myself and went out +for something, telling her that I would be right +back. But I locked the door behind me. I was +going to keep her there until it was too late for +you to find her, but I had forgotten something——” +he paused as though he couldn’t remember what +it was.</p> + +<p>“Your bagpipe,” James Blake supplied.</p> + +<p>“Yes, that was it. It was my bagpipe,” he went +on looking at his brother throughout his confession. +“When I opened the door again, she wasn’t +there! How she got away I don’t know.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I do!” James Blake’s exclamation fell +like a thunderbolt on the rapt listeners. “I know +where she is,” he repeated, “And I’ll have her +here in a minute now!”</p> + +<p>“Have who?” Everyone look around startled. +It was Nan’s voice!</p> + +<p>James Blake went over to her side. “Then you +found it, lass! You found it!” His voice rang out +through the Hall. “I might have known you would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +find it!” In his joy, he forgot completely that the +assembled crowd didn’t know what he was talking +about.</p> + +<p>“Found what?” Dr. Prescott asked the question +everyone had on his tongue.</p> + +<p>“The passage, the secret passage from the old +gatehouse to the castle here,” he answered. “Only +a few know of its existence. Evidently my brother +here has forgotten. How did you find it, lass?”</p> + +<p>“I scarcely know,” Nan admitted. “When I +found myself locked up, I tried all sorts of ways +of getting out without any success at all. I was +standing on a chair and trying to climb to that +window high above——”</p> + +<p>“But that’s impossible, lass,” James Blake interrupted.</p> + +<p>“I know,” Nan agreed, “but I was so anxious +to get out of there that nothing seemed impossible. +Climbing up as I did, I felt closer to the +outside anyway. I thought, too, that there was a +slight chance of my getting hold of those rough +stones that the walls are made of in such a way +that I could climb up to the window.</p> + +<p>“I couldn’t, of course, but in trying, my foot +slipped into a nick of some kind in the wall. I +pressed down hard on it, hoping to boost myself +up. I couldn’t. I slipped. I fell. When I picked +myself up, I saw that a sliding panel on the opposite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +wall had moved to one side leaving a great +opening.</p> + +<p>“I went through. It closed then. I walked on +through the dark, and after what seemed ages, I +came to the end. I groped around, knowing that +there had to be something to make another panel +move. Finally, I found it.”</p> + +<p>“That you did, lass,” James Blake was beaming +on her now, “and there’s not another in England +or Scotland or America either that would +have found the same. I am proud of you, so proud +of you that I’d like to have you stay here always. +But that’s not to be. Already there are things +afoot that require your presence and the presence +of your friends in London.”</p> + +<p>“In London! I know, but we’re not leaving +here yet, are we?” Nan’s voice was almost pleading. +“Not when we’ve just come.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, lass, that you are.” James Blake was +regretful, too. “But you’ll be coming back.”</p> + +<p>“But why, why must we leave so soon?” Nan +had learned just enough in her morning adventures +about the grounds to make her want to explore +every inch of the old castle. She had even +considered, on her walk down the road and +through the fields to the fateful gatehouse, the +possibility of staying in Emberon through the +coronation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> + +<p>She had toyed with the idea of giving up the +great London celebration so that she could live in +the castle for a while. She had dismissed the +thought, of course. Mr. and Mrs. Mason and +Walter were to be in London. She was to meet the +friends she had made on the boat there, and the +London celebration at the crowning of the new +King and Queen would be, she knew, grander than +anything she had ever seen.</p> + +<p>She wanted to go on to London and she wanted +to stay here in Emberon, too! These things all +rushed through her mind as she stood in the great +old Hall talking to James Blake.</p> + +<p>“Yes, lass,” he repeated, “you’ve got to go. +There’s something waiting there for you that’s +far greater than anything that’s ever happened to +you before.</p> + +<p>“You, in America, I don’t know what you play +when you are wee tots, but the children here are +kings and queens when they play. A wooden box +is their throne. With a lace curtain as a train for +the queen then, and gold paper for a crown, they +have all the trappings of royalty. All take part. +Some are aids to the king. Others, to the queen.</p> + +<p>“They live and breathe this from the time they +first begin to notice things around them. So when +the old king dies and the new king and queen come +to live at Buckingham Palace and go to Westminster<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +Cathedral to have the state crowns, gold +with all sorts of precious jewels in them, put on +their heads and the state swords put in their +hands, then all the wee tots pretend they are +ladies-in-waiting to the queen or gentlemen attendants +of the king.</p> + +<p>“When they see the grand pictures every place +of the crowning at Westminster, they imagine +themselves giving a sword to the king or helping +to arrange the train of the queen. Aye, in imagination +they are all there in that beautiful Cathedral +helping with the service.</p> + +<p>“But actually, only a few are so honored in real +life. The privilege to assist at the crowning of +the English king is passed down by great families +from generation to generation.” He paused here +to let the young lassies get the full importance of +his words.</p> + +<p>Nan looked from him to her friends. What was +this all about? What did it have to do with her +going to London? Dr. Prescott seemed to know! +She was smiling down at Nan. The other girls, +did they know, too? They seemed to understand. +Their faces were radiant as the old Scotsman +spoke, for the truth is, they were understanding +for the first time what James Blake had meant an +hour before. He had said something then about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +the privilege of taking part in the coronation going +across the water. Could he have meant——</p> + +<p>Now they all looked up at him as he concluded. +“Nancy dear,” he said, “as you know, the old +Blake line has died out. Those who would have +carried out the ancient privilege of assisting at the +present crowning in London are dead. However, +under terms of the will of the late Hugh Blake, +you” he spoke low and slowly now, but very distinctly, +“are chosen to act as a lady-in-waiting to +the queen, God bless her soul! That is why you +must be off to London now.”</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX<br /> + +<small>LONDON ON HOLIDAY</small></h2> + + +<p>“But I don’t want to do it!” Nan was up in her +room in the old castle, packing, when she made +this astonishing remark.</p> + +<p>“Why, Nancy Sherwood, how you talk!” Bess +just wouldn’t believe that anyone could be so foolish +as to mean what her closest friend had just +said. “You don’t want to be in Westminster +Cathedral with all those lords and ladies, ambassadors +and ministers, kings and queens, when they +crown the English king and queen? Why, Nan, +you don’t mean that at all. You know you don’t.”</p> + +<p>“I do too mean it.” Nan’s chin was firm and +her voice very positive as she spoke. “I want to +be with all of you, just as we had planned, when +we are in London.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be silly!” Bess paused in her packing to +look at her friend. “You’ll have a better time than +any of us can ever hope to have. If I didn’t like +you so much, I’d just be green with envy. Think +of it! You’ll see the whole royal family and talk +to them.</p> + +<p>“You’ll have a long white court dress like those +we have been seeing in the papers. You’ll be driven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +up to Westminster in a carriage behind the royal +coach and you’ll go in there and see everything +that we can only read about. And if you don’t remember +every single detail of what happens, I’ll +never speak to you again!</p> + +<p>“You’ll see all the court dresses, the ermine +capes, the little coronets of the peeresses, and the +grand coronation robes of the king and queen. +You’ll see the little prince and princess, the duchess +and her handsome husband, and that new +Ambassador from the United States that everyone +is talking about.</p> + +<p>“You’ll see them all and talk to them. Why, it’s +all something to dream about and here it’s happened +to you! Oh, Nan, I’m so excited I could +cry.”</p> + +<p>“There, there, Bess,” Laura came into the +room, “if you cry all over that taffeta dress you +are packing, you’ll die of grief and never see Nan +in all her glory.</p> + +<p>“Nan,” she turned to her friend, “you run +along downstairs. They want you. I’ll finish your +packing and don’t you dare let anyone at all hear +you say what I heard you say to Bess about not +wanting to be a lady-in-waiting to the queen! Forsooth! +They hang people for less or else they +throw them into musty old dungeons and let them +die. It would be a shame to have you pining away<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +in a prison, while we were sitting in the pleasant +May sunshine watching golden coaches full of fair +ladies drive by.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’ll be good from now on,” Nan promised +as she disappeared down the stairs.</p> + +<p>There, everything was in a turmoil, and Nan +was the center of it all. It was, “Nan, darling, +here’s a cable from your mother,” “Lass, a telegram +from Edinburgh,” and “Miss Nan, a phone +call from London,” and a thousand and one other +exciting things until Nan didn’t know which way +to turn next.</p> + +<p>Then she was whisked off with her friends to a +train. They had a private coach this time, one +provided by the village of Emberon from the +funds collected at the celebration on the night of +Nan’s arrival. The whole town turned out to see +them off. There was music and laughter and good +wishes all round and a promise exacted from Nan +to come back again.</p> + +<p>James Blake was the last to bid her good-by. +He pushed her through the crowd that swarmed +about her on the station steps, took her into her +coach, and seated her.</p> + +<p>“Now, lass,” he said, “forget the unpleasant +things that have happened and remember that +Emberon is your home, too.”</p> + +<p>Nan nodded her head, and swallowed the lump<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +that was in her throat. She couldn’t speak. The +excitement in leaving the castle and listening now +to all the nice things that were being said was +almost too much.</p> + +<p>The old man understood her feelings, so without +waiting for her to answer, he went on. “When +you are down there in London, don’t forget that +the Blakes are a proud lot and that on this occasion, +you are their representative. If you find that +I can help you further, call me by phone. I’d give +the world to be there,” he added longingly, “but +other matters that you know about keep me here. +My brother must be taken care of now.</p> + +<p>“So, lass,” he ended, “do your best and make +us all proud of you.” With this, he kissed her +lightly on the cheek and left her. The last thing +that she saw clearly on the station steps, as the +great engine gathered speed, was old James Blake +waving goodby with a big white handkerchief. +The last thing that she heard was the refrain of +“The Bonnie, Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I remember now,” Nan exclaimed, when +the last cottage in the village had disappeared +from view, “I remember what it was that poor +old Robert Blake was playing on his bagpipe! It +was that song they were just singing back there. +And that was the song that I heard last night when +I dropped off to sleep.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Why, that must be the lake he was telling me +about this morning in the gatehouse when he told +me something of his boyhood. He said he couldn’t +remember the name of the place where he used +to go so many times alone when he was a lad, to +read and write and dream, but that he was sure +that it was beautiful.</p> + +<p>“He said that there was a mountain by a lake +that had clear green water in it. He said that once +when he was there, he came upon a camp of +gypsies and that the old queen told his fortune.”</p> + +<p>“What did she say?” Bess asked when it +seemed that Nan wasn’t going to go on.</p> + +<p>“She told him all about his youth,” Nan continued +rather sadly, “and then about the war. +After that she stopped. She said that she couldn’t +be sure whether he was going to live through it +or not.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear,” Nan looked away from the girls +and out the windows at the landscape skimming +by, as she finished, “I feel so sorry for him!”</p> + +<p>“So do I,” Grace agreed. “But, tell us, Nan, +why was it he insisted on searching through your +baggage the way he did?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Grace, he wanted to get that letter I told +Mr. Blake about,” Bess answered the question. +“What I want to know is, what became of it?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes, and what in the world was in it?” Laura +contributed.</p> + +<p>“I had it with me when you were hunting for +it,” Nan explained, “and as for what was in it—it +was a warning that if I came to Scotland and to +Emberon that I’d never live to see the coronation!”</p> + +<p>“Nan! And you didn’t say a word to anyone +about it!” Bess felt like scolding her friend. “You +might have been killed!”</p> + +<p>“I know I was foolish,” Nan admitted. “And +I hereby promise never to do anything like that +again,” she ended solemnly.</p> + +<p>So, all the way to London, the girls talked of +things that had happened and things that were +going to happen. Their one big regret was the +fact that they weren’t going to see Edinburgh on +this trip. Messrs. Kellam and Blake, attorneys +for the Emberon estate, had insisted that Nan go +directly to London to present her claims to assist +at the coronation.</p> + +<p>The next morning found them rolling into Euston +Station where Walter, Mr. and Mrs. Mason, +and Professor Krenner were all waiting for them. +How good it seemed to see familiar faces!</p> + +<p>“My, this is the very nicest part of the trip!” +Nan exclaimed and then blushed when she saw +that Walter’s eyes were upon her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> + +<p>The others were bundled into a taxi, but Walter +insisted that Nan go in his car to her hotel. So +her first sight of London and the River Thames +was with Walter, a fact that she was never to +forget in her whole long happy life.</p> + +<p>In the days that followed, Nan Sherwood and +her friends were in a constant whirl. There were +a million things to be done and a million places to +go, and they wanted to do everything and go +every place.</p> + +<p>With banners flying from all the buildings, +bunting draped across streets, and wreathes bearing +portraits of the king and queen hanging every +place, London was in a festive mood. The streets +were thronged with people of all nationalities. +Troops from all over the British Empire, to the +number of 50,000, added color and gaiety to the +crowd.</p> + +<p>Every hotel in the great city was filled to capacity. +Big ships lay at anchor in the port, floating +hotels for visitors from Australia, South Africa, +the American continents, the West Indies, from +the remotest corners of the globe.</p> + +<p>During the day, all these people poured out +into the streets. With bands playing, troops +marching, parades wherever you looked, it was +all very gay and exciting.</p> + +<p>“Did you ever see anything like this in your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +whole life?” Nan looked about and laughed. +Walter was at her side, making way for her, as +she pushed her way through the crowds outside +the royal offices where the court of claims had +just met.</p> + +<p>“No, Princess,” Walter grinned down at her.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t call me that,” Nan protested. +“Really, I sometimes feel awfully silly about this +whole business. Imagine me acting as lady-in-waiting +to a queen. Did you see all those people +stare at me in there?”</p> + +<p>“They weren’t staring. They were admiring +you.” Walter could be gallant at times. Now he +was secretly a little awed at the turn of events, +impressed by Nan’s new importance, for her claim +had been presented to the solemn be-wigged court +and accepted.</p> + +<p>She was to assist at the coronation and, according +to an ancient ruling, receive in payment eight +seats inside Westminster to be distributed as she +willed! Their promised seats in Piccadilly, obtained +by Mr. Mason, had been of the best, but +these, these were priceless! It was impossible to +buy them. They could be obtained only through a +special grant from the king, even as Nan had received +hers.</p> + +<p>Now, she could hardly wait as Walter drove +slowly along with the left hand traffic that is peculiar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +to London. She had seats, she thought to herself, +for Bess, Laura, Amelia, Rhoda, Grace and +Walter—how nice he was being to her!—Dr. +Prescott, and Professor Krenner, and she wanted +to tell them all right away!</p> +<hr class="l1"/> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXX<br /> + +<small>THE KING IS CROWNED!</small></h2> + + +<p>The day of the coronation came at last. It was +a bright clear day, king’s weather the Londoners +called it.</p> + +<p>The streets all along the route of the procession +were crowded with great masses of people, +held back from the road by London bobbies. They +hung out of windows, sat in trees, covered the +tops of buildings, and filled immense grandstands. +Some of them had been in their places all night. +Others, long before dawn, had found their way +through the dark streets. It seemed as though all +the world was there, waiting expectantly for the +royal family.</p> + +<p>When the procession came at last, wave after +wave of cheering swept along the crowds. From +her place in a coach, Nan looked out on a merry +happy throng, for the king was well beloved by +his people.</p> + +<p>Nan, with others who were to surround the +royal family in its moment of triumph, was ushered +through a side door of the Cathedral and +taken to her place under the great pointed arches. +Here, in this church, every English sovereign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +since the beginning of England’s history had received +his crown, and here, now amid the tombs +of kings and queens and the distinguished dead of +all ages, a new king and queen were to take their +vows.</p> + +<p>These things ran through Nan’s mind as she +glanced about the Cathedral and tried to locate +her friends. Was that Bess that she saw in a gallery +high above her? And that Walter sitting next +to her? Nan puckered her brows and looked +again. Yes, it was, and she had no more than +found them, when the deep tones of the great +cathedral organ spread out through the church. +The Westminster choir joined in singing, “I was +glad when they said unto me, we will go into the +House of the Lord.”</p> + +<p>With this, the king and queen entered, walking +slowly and solemnly down the long coronation +carpet to the altar where they stopped and knelt.</p> + +<p>During the service that followed, so solemn and +serious that many in the church were crying, Nan, +for the first time began to realize what a great +honor had been bestowed upon her in allowing +her to be present. She felt humble and insignificant +as the ceremony proceeded from one climax +to another.</p> + +<p>When the Archbishop of Canterbury finally +placed the crown on the king’s head and said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +“God crown you with a crown of glory and righteousness,” +no other sound could be heard under +the great vaulted arches. Then, as he finished his +words, drums and trumpets broke into a clamor +and the shout of “God Save the King!” rang +through the Abbey, from floor to roof, while far +away outside, guns announced to the waiting +throngs that a new king had been crowned.</p> + +<p>The peers put on their coronets. In the same +manner as the king, the queen was crowned. The +peeresses put on their coronets.</p> + +<p>When it was all over, a procession formed and +passed, under the slanting rays of light that came +through the big rose windows, to the wide open +doors and then out, where all London waited to +sing and shout, “May the King live forever! Long +live the King!”</p> + +<p>“I’ll never forget it,” Nan said to her friends, +her Lakeview Hall friends and Jeanie, Hetty, and +Maureen at the tea that followed. It was the tea +that had been planned so long before on the boat, +and was given now by Hetty’s grandmother in +honor of Nan so that all might hear of the wonderful +things that had been happening.</p> + +<p>“Nor will we,” her friends echoed, for each +had seen something special in the coronation.</p> + +<p>So we will leave them, comparing notes on the +biggest event of their summer holidays. As we go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +out, it’s Hetty who turns to Maureen and reminds +her, “Remember, grandmother said on the boat +that you never can tell what’s going to happen to +the likes of us.”</p> + +<p>Maureen nods her head, and Hetty adds as we +close the door, “What happened to Nan proves +it.”</p> + +<p>You can hear them talking about it now and +agreeing. You’ll agree too, if you read of their further +adventures in the next exciting volume in the +series, “Nan Sherwood on the Mexican Border.”</p> + + +<hr class="l1"/> + +<div class="tnote"> +<p><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b> Obvious printer’s errors were silently corrected. Otherwise spelling, +hyphenation, interpunction and syntax of the original have been +preserved.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Nan Sherwood's Summer Holidays, by Annie Roe Carr + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NAN SHERWOOD'S SUMMER HOLIDAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 36176-h.htm or 36176-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/7/36176/ + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, eagkw, Dave Morgan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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