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diff --git a/36176.txt b/36176.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87f5f52 --- /dev/null +++ b/36176.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6391 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + + + + + + NAN SHERWOOD'S + SUMMER HOLIDAYS + + BY + + ANNIE ROE CARR + + [Illustration] + + THE WORLD SYNDICATE + PUBLISHING COMPANY + CLEVELAND NEW YORK + + + + + _Published 1937 by + The World Syndicate Publishing Co._ + + [Illustration] + + _Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I NEW YEAR'S EVE 1 + II SECRETS 13 + III PLANS AND MORE PLANS 24 + IV DOUBT ON ALL SIDES 34 + V SURPRISE FOR EVERYONE! 44 + VI ADVENTURES AHEAD! 52 + VII A MYSTERIOUS LETTER 62 + VIII OLD FRIENDS AND AN ENEMY 70 + IX THEY'RE OFF 80 + X TROUBLE FOR NAN 86 + XI BESS HOLDS HER TEMPER 93 + XII A SCORE TO EVEN UP 101 + XIII FRIENDS ABOARD SHIP 108 + XIV A STORM AT SEA 116 + XV IN THE SHIP'S HOSPITAL 123 + XVI THE HUNCH-BACK AGAIN 131 + XVII NAN PUZZLES OVER HER SECRET 141 + XVIII THE CAPTAIN'S DINNER 149 + XIX LAND IS SIGHTED 156 + XX BE CAREFUL, NAN! 162 + XXI WELCOME, LASSIES, TO SCOTLAND 171 + XXII EMBERON 179 + XXIII SCOTTISH GAMES AND SCOTTISH TUNES 187 + XXIV AN ACCIDENT NEAR THE CASTLE 193 + XXV JAMES BLAKE DOES SOME EXPLAINING 200 + XXVI NAN'S DISAPPEARANCE 209 + XXVII BESS HAS HER SAY 216 + XXVIII NAN COMES INTO HER OWN 225 + XXIX LONDON ON HOLIDAY 232 + XXX THE KING IS CROWNED 241 + + + + +NAN SHERWOOD'S SUMMER HOLIDAYS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +NEW YEAR'S EVE + + +"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--" + +The end of the sentence was lost in a muffle as Nan pulled off the +simple silk frock she had been wearing. + +Bess Harley, her closest friend since primary school days, finished it. + +"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. + +"Why, Bess, darling, forgive me. I'm nothing but a thoughtless old +meany." So saying, she wiped Bess's tears away and sat down beside her. + +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." + +With this jibe, Bess' eyes twinkled, and she felt better. + +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." + +Bess laughed. "You dear! Of course, it was all right. We all danced with +him--for a few seconds at least." + +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. + +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. + +"May we come in?" It was pretty little Grace Mason speaking. After her +followed Rhoda Hammond, her dark eyes sparkling with excitement. + +"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." + +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." + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"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--" + +"Please, Grace," Nan interrupted her friend. "I'm sorry, but I can't +tell you anything more tonight." + +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 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. + +"Have any of you made any New Year's resolutions?" she asked. + +Almost as quick as Rhoda to sense the reason for Nan's unwillingness to +talk, Grace answered the question. + +"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." + +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. + +"What's that?" Bess asked as she tried to guess what fault they all had +in common. + +"To be nicer to Linda Riggs when we go back to school." + +"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! 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." + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +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 going to watch her. +You had better do it too, if you're going to live to go to Europe." + +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--" + +"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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +"Bravo!" Nan applauded. "And you, Rhoda?" + +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." + +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 "poor sport" at the hazing when she first entered +Lakeview. Now Rhoda herself brought it back to mind. + +"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!" + +Nan caught her eye and smiled. "We were mean, weren't we?" she admitted. + +"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?" + +They all nodded. + +"You were lovely," she went on speaking directly to Rhoda. + +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." + +"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 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. + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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." + +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." + +"But you just can't help yourself," Rhoda continued. "My mother has +always tried to teach me 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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +At this, the girls got up, wished one another and Mrs. Mason a Happy New +Year, and then prepared for bed. + +"It has been a happy, happy day," each one 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. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SECRETS + + +"Where's Nan?" Rhoda whispered as she stuck her head into Bess and Nan's +room at Lakeview Hall. + +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." + +"How did you manage?" Rhoda asked as she pulled off her pretty brown +sports coat. "Do you think she smells a plot." + +"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." + +"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. + +"They'll be here any time now," Bess answered. "I can hardly wait, can +you? I'm so anxious to get things started." + +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. + +"Anyone coming, Sister Anne?" Bess laughed. + +Rhoda grinned. "Do you always feel like the sister of Bluebeard's wife, +too, when you keep watching for someone?" she asked. + +"Always. For some reason, that gory fairy tale and Cinderella were my +favorites when I was a kid." + +"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." + +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 tell lest the wrath of God descend upon them and wipe them +all away. + +She sighed softly. + +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. + +"Yes, they've been the closest friends Nan has had here," Bess returned. +"So I asked them all." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, and Walter has cause to admire again the +boundlessness of Nan's pluck. + +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. + +"By the way, how is Mrs. Bagley?" Rhoda asked, in an effort to keep +herself from watching the windows so constantly. + +"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." + +"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!" + +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--" + +"Going to happen to whom?" queried a new voice and Laura Polk, +red-headed and freckle faced and homely but withal very likable, bounded +into the room. + +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." + +"That is just what I am afraid of," Bess replied. + +"--And if you don't, I'll tell anyway," Laura continued. "We met a tall +handsome dark-haired man--" + +"You didn't either," Bess interrupted. + +"Well, then he was short and fat." + +"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." + +"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 turned Bess slowly around. "Amazing, truly +amazing." + +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. + +"Anyway," she retorted, as she winked at Rhoda, "You missed the fudge +that Mrs. Cupp sent up to us." + +"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. + +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." + +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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +Bess turned to Rhoda, "You tell them," she said. + +Rhoda shook her head, "No, it's your idea. Come, Bess, they are dying to +know." + +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. + +"Bess Harley," Laura threatened, "Don't you go trying to pull any of my +stunts. It's all right 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?" + +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. + +"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." + +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." + +"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?" + +"Can't you guess," Rhoda chimed in, "When you know that it's a secret, +that it's about Nan, that you are all--" + +"Invited," supplied Amelia. + +"That there will be food," Grace put in her bit. + +"That everybody will know eventually," Bess added. + +"That it's to be a great big surprise party on Nan!" they all chorused +together, and then laughed. + +"Sh! Did I hear somebody at the door?" Bess broke in on the confusion. + +Immediately everybody was silent. The room was quiet as a tomb, as Bess +got up and went to the door. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +PLANS AND MORE PLANS + + +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. + +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?" + +"A cat!" Bess exclaimed. + +"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?" + +"How do I know?" Bess asked shortly, for she was still frightened. + +"Now, there, don't take it so hard," Amelia comforted her friend, as +Bess turned to view her unexpected visitor. + +In a far corner of the room, its back arched high in anger was a very +black, very angry looking cat. + +"What's the matter, pussy cat?" Rhoda coaxed. "Did Bess nearly scare you +out of a year's growth?" + +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. + +"Ooh, it _is_ mad!" Grace exclaimed as she got up from her place on the +floor. "Better get it out of here." + +"What do you suppose I'm trying to do?" Bess helplessly asked. + +Laura took command of the situation. "Now, don't move, any of you," she +warned. "I've a way with cats." + +"And it doesn't work," Amelia rejoined, as the black ball of fury +snarled at the red-headed girl. + +"Well, I'll show you, Mrs. Cat, who is boss." Laura's temper had been +aroused. She grabbed Grace's green suede jacket. + +"Get out of here--now," she ordered, shaking it before the animal. + +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 ground and was +disappearing around a corner just as the girls, recovering from their +surprise, got to the window. + +"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?" + +"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?" + +"Simply that someone left a door open downstairs," answered the +practical Amelia. + +"And the cat smelled a mouse. So she came up here." Rhoda dismissed the +question. + +"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." + +"You think it casts a great big black spell over everything?" Laura +supplied. + +Bess shook her head. She was almost in tears. + +"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." + +Bess smiled through her tears. "Guess I was 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." + +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. + +"Say, you two," she said, addressing Laura and Amelia. "You had a +secret, too. What was it?" + +Both the girls looked guilty. + +"You fooled me!" Bess was indignant. + +"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." + +"Just a whole gang of people with a single idea," Rhoda laughed. + +"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. + +"Sounds like Mrs. Cupp," Laura whispered. + +"It was," Bess breathed a sigh of relief. "No one else rustles like +that." + +"Good reason," Laura couldn't help adding. "No one else has a figure +like that." + +The girls giggled appreciatively. + +"How will we organize this?" Bess appealed to Rhoda for help. + +"Let's have committees," Grace answered the question. + +"I'll take charge of food," Laura jumped in with a suggestion. + +"Not if I have anything to do about it," Amelia contributed her bit. + +"And I'd like to know why not!" Laura retorted. + +"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. + +"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?" + +"I second the motion," Bess replied. "All in favor say 'Aye'." + +There was a chorus of "Ayes". + +"The motion is carried," Bess, the self-appointed chairman closed the +question. "Now, who wants to take charge of the guest list?" + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +The girls groaned. + +"That's right." Amelia stuck to her point. + +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. + +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." + +"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!" + +"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 +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. + +"I suppose so," Bess agreed half heartedly. "How many will we invite?" + +"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." + +"Nor enough money," Amelia added significantly. + +"That's right," Laura stuck in her oar. "How are we going to get the +money to pay for all of this." + +The question fell on a quiet room. No one had thought of paying for it! + +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 +you go out and pick off from bushes. Don't you know that people work for +money?" + +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. + +"Why?" This from Bess. + +"Because we are all giving the party, and we all want to help." + +"Thata girl, Amelia," Laura applauded slangily. + +"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?" + +"But we couldn't ask Dr. Beulah to give fifty cents!" Grace cried out +without even thinking. + +"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." + +"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." + +"And Laura and Amelia and I will be the committee 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!" + +"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. + +"Sh! I hear someone coming, and it's not a cat this time," Laura +whispered in the silence that followed Bess's statement. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +DOUBT ON ALL SIDES + + +"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. + +"She's pretty smart," Laura answered. "We'll never be sure but I think +that Rhoda saved the day." + +"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. + +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. + +"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." + +"That's because she has known what it is to be poor," Amelia replied. +"Her family has often had to fight to get along." + +"Not even money would have made a difference," Laura maintained. "Not to +our Nan. Gee, but she's swell!" + +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. + +"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 parents again. I don't see how we are going to manage about +Walter." + +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. + +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. + +"Is there something wrong?" Nan asked the next day as the girls left +German class. Bess started guiltily. + +"What do you mean, 'wrong'?" she asked. + +"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?" + +Bess breathed a sigh of relief. "Safe again," she thought. "Why, not +that I know of," she answered quite truthfully. "What makes you ask?" + +"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." + +"I noticed that, too," Bess puzzled, "but then so many strange things +have been happening lately, that I've given up trying to solve them." + +"Do you expect me to believe that?" Nan teased. + +"Well, anyway," Bess half retracted what she had said, "I'm not as +interested as I once was." + +"And why, pray tell?" Nan was curious now. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +Bess giggled and Nan blushed till even the tips of her ears were pink. + +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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +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." + +"But there was something there from Tillbury, I saw it." + +"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." + +"Nan, you might be able to convince yourself 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +Rhoda laughed. "I want to be there when you 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." + +"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!" + +"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. + +"Have you been able to find out," she continued, "what it is that +Laura's committee has bought for a present?" + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"Sleep tonight!" Rhoda exclaimed. "Why, I haven't slept for a week!" + +"I wouldn't have either, if I had had your job," Bess admitted. "I think +it is the hardest one of them all." + +"I liked it," Rhoda smiled. "How did your end of it work out?" + +"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?" + +Rhoda shook her head. + +"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! + +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 +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +"Run along, and forget me," Bess urged her. "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." + +So Nan went off and left a houseful of schemers behind her. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SURPRISE FOR EVERYONE! + + +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! + +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 had a +secret too. She looked across the room and caught Professor Krenner's +eye. He smiled and nodded. How nice everything seemed! + +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. + +"Oh, I wish Nan would come," Bess exclaimed. + +"She'll be here any minute now," Rhoda answered, "and when she comes--" + +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!" + +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. + +There were one or two things, however, that did stand out clearly in her +mind. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"Oh, I thank you, many times I thank you," she said, before she looked +down at the robe 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! + +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. + +"May I have the attention of all of you, for a moment?" + +Immediately, everyone was quiet, expectantly waiting. + +"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. + +She smiled reassuringly into their puzzled faces, seemed about to speak, +but then paused as though to choose her words carefully. Finally, she +began. + +"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. + +"You all know that my life has been bound up in the fortunes of this +place for some years 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +Sharing the joke with Dr. Beulah, she smiled up at her. + +"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. + +"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. + +"While you have been whispering and plotting among yourselves looking +forward to this day which is being so successful, I, too, have been +fostering a few secrets." + +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. + +"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." + +This was news to Nan, and she was all attention as Dr. Beulah went on. + +"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." + +Rhoda Hammond put a reassuring arm around Grace, who blushed slightly +as all eyes were turned on her. + +"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. + +"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!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ADVENTURES AHEAD! + + +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. + +"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.' + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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--" + +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. + +"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. + +"Laura Polk and--" + +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? + +"Elizabeth--Harley!" + +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. + +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. + +"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 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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"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, 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." + +"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." + +"Yes," Laura laughed and tried to yawn, "it's all in a day's work." + +"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'." + +"I did, too," Nan said. "Really, Bess, if your 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." + +"Nan, do you mean that, honestly?" Bess asked. + +"Honest and truly," Nan reiterated. "But, girls," she cried suddenly to +them all, "there's something I know that none of you do." + +"What is it?" they all chorused. + +"Oh, I don't know whether I ought to tell or not," Nan teased. + +"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. + +"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?" + +"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 we leave! What's more, they +are going to take Walter with them!" + +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. + +"Oh, that's nice," she said, trying to act very much disinterested. The +girls exchanged significant glances. + +"Yes, _isn't_ it," they emphasized. + +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. + +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?" + +"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 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. + +"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-a-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!" + +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. + +"She was telling me," she added as an afterthought 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." + +"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. + +"Yes, and I hope they don't treat us as we treat them sometimes," Nan +added. + +"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--" + +"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. + +"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." + +"Not even," Laura goaded her, "the statement that we are going over +cabin class while Linda Riggs is going first class on the same boat." + +"It's not true," Bess denied without thinking. + +"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." + +"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!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A MYSTERIOUS LETTER + + +"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. + +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. + +Nan did not answer. + +"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. + +Again there was no answer. Bess looked up. + +"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. + +"Nan, tell me," she urged. "Don't sit there looking as though the +bottom had dropped out of everything. What's happened?" + +"Oh, don't be silly," Nan forced a smile, "I just received a letter from +home and it made me homesick. That's all." + +"You homesick!" Bess didn't believe a word of it. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"What do you think?" She was breathless with excitement for she had run +all the way from the 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. + +"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. + +"Mother says further," and Grace turned to her letter to read directly +from that, + +"'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. + +"'Now, don't fail to keep in touch with me, Grace. I want to know at +every step how your plans are progressing. + + "'My love, + "'Mother.'" + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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!" + +"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." + +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. + +"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! + +"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 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?" + +"Thrilling!" Bess took up the word. "Why, there's nothing like this trip +ever happened to us before!" + +"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." + +"My sentiments exactly," Rhoda chimed in as she entered. + +"Late as usual," Laura observed as Amelia also came in. "Now tell us +what we've been missing." + +"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. + +"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 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?" + +The girls sobered up at once. + +"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." + +"And I and I and I," they all chorused. + +"Now, get out!" Nan laughed, but never-the-less achieved firmness. + +"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. + +"Such people!" Nan laughed to Bess when they were once more alone. +"There's one thing I'm sure of--" + +"And that?" Bess looked up. + +"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." + +Bess giggled. "If I thought she'd do that I'd almost be willing to stay, +for that would be something worth seeing." + +"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." + +"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." + +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!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OLD FRIENDS AND AN ENEMY + + +"Welcome to our city!" It was Walter's hearty voice greeting Nan and +Bess as their train pulled into the busy Chicago station. + +Nan caught her breath. How nice he looked! How much older he seemed. She +smiled up at him. + +"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. + +"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. + +"Come on, you old pokes," Grace said. "We've got things to do." + +"Yes," Amelia contributed her bit, "and we're late already." With this +she looked meaningly at her latest acquisition--a new wristwatch. + +"What, another?" Laura appeared to be stunned at the information. + +"Yes, funny," Amelia wrinkled up her nose at her friend. "It was a going +away present from my dad. Don't you like it?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"It looks just darling, Laura," Bess said. + +"Perfectly lovely," Nan agreed. "You'll be the belle of the boat." + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"Whose voice is that?" Bess whispered the question. + +"Could it be--" Nan paused to listen again,--"Dr. Beulah?" + +"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." + +"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." + +"Just give me a little time," Laura entreated. "This is too unexpected. +Let me have time to think up something to say." + +"Then you would be in trouble." Nan started down the stairs. "Come on, +brace up," she whispered. + +At that moment, Mrs. Mason heard them all and came to the stairway. +"Come, girls," she called. "Lunch is ready." + +Nan held fast to Laura's arm and advanced into the room. + +Dr. Prescott looked up at their entrance. "Why, Nan, how well you are +looking." + +"And--Laura! Why, Laura Polk!" + +Laura looked sheepish and blushed, but for once no words came forth. Dr. +Prescott looked at her thoughtfully. Finally, the verdict came. + +"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." + +Laura turned. + +"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. + +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. + +"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. + +"But will you look at mine!" this from Laura. "I look like--like--" + +"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." + +"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--" + +"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!" + +"What's this about not leaving the country?" Dr. Prescott came into the +room from an inner office. + +"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. + +Dr. Prescott smiled at her. "Don't fret, dear," she reassured her. +"Everything will be quite all right, I'm sure." + +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. + +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. + +"Of course." Nan was all eagerness. It was an honor to be asked to help +Dr. Prescott. + +"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." + +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 into the other, as the ball moved around. Then she tore herself +away, opened the door, and went in. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"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." + +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 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. + +"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. + +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! + +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. + +Linda turned and followed Nan with her eyes. "What strange people," she +drawled, "one meets." No one paid any attention. They had liked Nan. + +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." + +As she thought of it, she breathed a short prayer. "Please don't let +Linda be on the same boat with us," it said. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THEY'RE OFF + + +"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?" + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +"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. + +They heard Rhoda's voice down the hall. "Everybody ready? The bus is +coming." + +They heard Amelia. "Grace," she called, "Dr. Prescott says to come +downstairs. It's time to go." She sang the words out. + +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! + +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. + +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 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. + +"Oh, Nan!" Bess grabbed for her friend's arm. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"There, Dr. Prescott," she said, "there it is, our ship." + +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. + +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. + +"Nan Sherwood--Miss Nan Sherwood----Nan Sherwood--" Gradually the fact +that Nan's name was being called sifted through the minds of the happy +crowd. It was Bess who noticed it first. + +"Nan, why, Nan, they're calling your name," she tried to get her +friend's attention. At last Nan looked up. + +"A telegram for Miss Nan Sherwood," the boy called again. Nan reached +through the crowd for it. + +"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!" + +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." + +"Please don't worry," Nan herself looked serious as she answered her +father. "I'll be most careful." + +"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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TROUBLE FOR NAN + + +"Now what?" Bess was feeling a little forlorn as the big ship gathered +steam and the figures on shore faded away to nothing. + +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! + +"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. + +Midway, they were stopped by a white jacketed steward. "I beg your +pardon, Miss," he addressed Bess, "but are you Miss Sherwood?" + +Bess couldn't find her tongue. Nan spoke up. "I'm Nan Sherwood," she +said, "Is there anything wrong?" + +"How many pieces of baggage did you have?" he answered her question with +another. + +"Two," Nan answered quickly. + +"What were they?" + +"A small trunk and a suitcase." + +"The color?" He was making notations on a small slip of paper. + +"Brown." + +"Did you have them sent to storage or directly to your cabin?" + +"To the cabin." + +"Were they properly tagged?" + +"Why, I thought so," Nan was completely baffled at the questions. + +"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." + +"648. I thought my baggage was in my cabin." Nan _was_ puzzled now. + +"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." + +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. + +"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 we've +ever seen was just here demanding to see Miss Sherwood." + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +"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." + +Nan turned to the steward at her side. "Is that the man whose baggage +you are enquiring about?" she asked. + +"Answers the description perfectly, Miss." He was all politeness. "If +you will pardon me now, I would like to see your luggage." + +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. + +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." + +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." + +"But where is yours?" Bess asked the question that was on the tip of +Nan's tongue. + +"I'll bring it presently." The steward picked up the bag and walked out. + +"Has the great mystery been solved," Laura asked as she and Amelia came +back into the cabin. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +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 she ought to remember. +Again, it eluded her. + +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. + +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." + +"Yes, do!" Grace urged. "I feel rather frightened." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +"Or mine," This for Laura who was shorter than Nan, and plumper. + +"I thank you all, but I guess I'll wear my own." Nan stepped toward the +doorway as a steward knocked. + +"Miss Sherwood?" he asked. Nan opened the door. + +"Why-y-y, yes," she answered, hesitantly, for it was not the same +steward who had taken the other bag away. + +"Your bag, I believe," he half questioned as he dropped it inside the +doorway and left. + +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. + +"Nan, get your keys!" It was Laura speaking. "It looks to me as though +this lock has been meddled with." + +"Right here," Nan opened her purse. + +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. + +Nan handed her another. + +"Please, will you all move round so I have more light?" Laura asked. +"This doesn't seem to fit, either." + +They stood up and watched her. + +"Something is wrong, Nan." Laura moved to one side. "Here, you try." + +Nan took the key, fussed with the lock a second, pushing and pulling, +until finally the case flew open. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +BESS HOLDS HER TEMPER + + +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. + +"Everything is all right, isn't it?" Bess asked the question. + +"I--don't----know." Nan answered slowly and doubtfully. "Everything +seems to be as I left it. Yet somehow it's all changed too." + +"What do you mean?" Grace questioned timidly. + +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. + +"Still, when that case flew open, I had a peculiar feeling that someone +besides myself had been through it and touched everything there." + +"Ugh." Bess shuddered. "Don't say things like that, Nan. They give me +the creeps." + +"Me too," Grace was really pale. "Especially when I remember the +expression on that hunchback's face when he asked for you." + +"What are you going to do about it?" Rhoda inquired. Generally calm, +Rhoda was seriously worried now. The red-headed man had looked mean. + +"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. + +"Come, Nan," Amelia urged, as Nan sat, silently considering. "You've got +to do something." + +"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." + +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 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." + +"I will be careful," Nan agreed. "Now, I wonder what that gong was I +heard a few minutes ago." + +"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." + +"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. + +"Have you got your ticket?" Nan asked as she held up a little red card +that resembled the seat stubs in a theatre. + +"Ticket, what ticket?" Laura stopped short. + +"The ticket for your place in the dining room." Bess was proud of this +bit of knowledge. + +"Why, I never had one," Laura declared. "They never even gave me one." + +"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 +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?" + +Laura looked perfectly blank. "What will I do now?" she asked. + +"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. + +"Come on, Laura." Nan took Laura's arm as the girl hesitated wondering +whether, if, after all, she shouldn't get her own ticket. + +"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. + +"I do," Laura answered. "It's up on Deck B. I looked in when I first +came down to our cabin. Just follow me." + +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. + +"Your stubs, please?" he asked and then escorted them to a big round +table in the center of the room, a table all their own, perfectly set +for seven people. + +There was a low bowl of flowers in the center and a card which read, + + "To Nan Sherwood, + S. S. Lincoln, + c/o Chief Steward. + +"May each day of your journey be more exciting and more pleasant than the +one past." + +"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. + +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. + +"What's happened to Elizabeth?" Dr. Prescott asked as she picked up her +menu. "Not sea-sick already, I hope?" + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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. + +"Just one warning," Dr. Prescott cautioned before the girls turned to +the table steward to give him their orders. "You eat about six times 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." + +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." + +"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. + +"Why, I hardly think so." Dr. Prescott smiled. "People are coming and +going all the time, you see." + +"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 +through a dainty salad and slices of cold chicken to dessert, Nan grew +uneasy. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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--" + +She stopped short as the steward presented her with a menu. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A SCORE TO EVEN UP + + +"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. + +Bess raised herself up and tucked the steamer rug more securely around +her legs. The April breezes were fresh, and rather chilly. + +"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." + +"What girl?" Laura feigned innocence. + +"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. + +"Well, I wasn't going to stand for that, so I stood my ground." + +"You mean," Nan interpreted, "that you shoved right back." + +"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." + +"Why, Bess!" Nan was horrified and amused. "You little beast! I'm +surprised at you." + +"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." + +"Then what did you do?" Laura asked. She was as amused as Nan. + +"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!" + +"Was that all that happened?" Laura was reluctant to let the subject +drop. + +"All! Wasn't that enough?" Bess exploded again. + +"Well--yes." Laura admitted. "But don't you know anything more about +her. Did you leave right away?" + +"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." + +"Now we are getting someplace," Laura leaned forward as Bess let drop +this piece of information. "What did you find out about her?" + +Nan shook her head at this line of conversation. She did not approve of +eavesdropping. But no one paid any attention to her. + +"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." + +"She gave the steward her passport, stepped back slightly, almost +treading on my feet, and looked at him through a lorget--" + +"You mean lorgnette," Laura interrupted, "but it doesn't matter. Go +ahead." + +"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, as +though he was a puppet that she could dangle as she wished. + +"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!" + +"Bess, do be careful," Nan put a restraining hand over her mouth, "other +people will hear you." + +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." + +"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." + +At this Nan hooted. She was remembering her own encounter with Linda at +the travel agent's a few weeks previously. + +"And then--" Laura wanted more about this exciting encounter. + +"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 all but personally +escorted her back to First Class. + +"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." + +"What? She didn't walk on you again," Laura was purposely baiting Bess +now. + +"I should say not!" Bess answered emphatically. "Before she turned, I +stepped way back so that there wasn't any more danger of that." + +"Good for you, Bess," Rhoda now spoke up for the first time. + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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 +happened. Then Linda never did come back to school, so it didn't count." + +"Anyway," Nan attempted to dismiss the unpleasant subject, "There's no +reason why she should bother us. She's up in First Class." + +"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. + +"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." + +"Yes, let's," Grace encouraged, "I'd like to walk once, clear around the +boat." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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--" + +"And tea and cakes for all who come," Laura finished. "Let's go there." + +They went, but neither tea nor cakes could make Bess forget that she +had a score to even up with Linda. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +FRIENDS ABOARD SHIP + + +"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. + +"Hello!" Nan called again. "You awake?" + +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?" + +"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." + +"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 to order anything you want and having it brought to you on +a big tray!" + +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." + +Nan looked over the side. "I beg your pardon?" she asked as though she +hadn't heard. + +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. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +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. + +"You are--" the stranger paused and smiled at Nan. + +"Nan Sherwood." With this Nan was introduced to a group of young people +her own age. + +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 miss, the crowning of the new King and Queen. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +School children throughout the Empire were to have seven days of +vacation. "Boy Scouts from Australia and India and British South Africa +are 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.'" + +"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." + +"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 will present it at a banquet which the Lord Mayor +will give." + +"Will you be there?" Nan was wide-eyed, + +"If I only could." Jeanie's voice was full of longing. + +"If we only could," Hetty echoed the statement and included everybody. + +"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. + +"Don't, Maureen," Hetty said earnestly. "Don't say that. Don't say it +isn't for the likes of us!" + +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." + +"Were you there?" The girls all looked at Hetty. + +"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. + +"Please go on," she begged. "Please tell us all about it." + +"Now, Grandmother," Hetty laughed, "you know you want to." + +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. + +"'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. + +"'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. + +"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. + +"They wanted to pay for it, but she wouldn't 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. + +"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. + +"Inside we found a dozen dainty cups and saucers and a card. Our +visitors had been two princesses and Her Majesty, Queen Victoria!" + +"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." + +"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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A STORM AT SEA + + +"How strange the sky looks!" Nan exclaimed. She and her Lakeview Hall +companions were standing on deck watching the sun drop below the +horizon. + +"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. + +"A-a-and the wind!" Rhoda supplied, with difficulty. "It's l-l-lashing +at me so that I can't--get--my breath." + +"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." + +"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." + +"One of the sailors told me this morning," Laura volunteered, "that +'she's a trusty old tub', if that will comfort you any." + +"Oh, I don't need comforting," Nan replied. "I'm not afraid." + +"You mean to say you wouldn't be afraid in a storm?" Grace asked +incredulously. + +"Of course not." Nan answered. "Would you?" + +"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." + +"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." + +"What does it say for today," Nan asked. + +"The temperature is dropping--" + +"We know that," Laura interrupted. "What else does it say?" + +"That the sea is slightly rolling." + +"We can feel that," Laura put in again, for the ship was rolling with +the waves. + +"That we are headed into a storm. There, Miss Smarty, you didn't know +that," Amelia laughed. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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 and pushing it. It +wouldn't budge. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +It brought back to her mind nights at Pine 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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 and grabbed the coat of someone lying on the +deck. With her other, as the wave struck, she held fast to the pole. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +IN THE SHIP'S HOSPITAL + + +"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. + +"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." + +Grace looked impressed, but Laura snickered. + +"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?" + +"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, it riles me clear through. Nan's so good to everyone, +and Linda, well, she tramps all over everybody." + +"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." + +"So remember, Bess," Amelia implored, "not to say anything about Linda +or about that other either." + +"What other?" Bess asked, and then remembered. "Oh, you mean the cabin?" +she supplied the answer herself. + +"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. + +"You've came to see Miss Sherwood," she smiled. + +"Yes," Rhoda was spokesman for the group. "Is it all right for us all to +go in together?" + +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 to be good," and she +smiled so winningly that the nurse gave in. + +"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. + +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." + +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. + +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?" + +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." + +"But how could anyone on shore know?" Bess already had her suspicions as +to the person. + +"And if he did," Grace was very positive about the "He," "How could He +send them?" + +"Come, Nan, spill it," Laura was as curious as the rest. "Heroines +can't have secrets, you know. Their lives are public property." + +"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!" + +"But how--" Bess just couldn't wait. + +"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. + +"They are just gorgeous," Rhoda stooped over to smell them, "so red, and +fragrant, and fresh." + +"Aren't they though?" Nan reached out and touched them softly. "But tell +me now," she looked up. "What's new?" + +"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 was shipshape, heard your +cries, and hauled the two of you in." + +"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!" + +"And another--" Laura began. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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 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." + +"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." + +"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?" + +"You mean Hetty Warren?" Nan supplied. + +"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. + +"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 up. He was gone for +hours, while we sat in her cabin and talked and wondered and worried. + +"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. + +"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. + +"Oh, Bess," It was Nan speaking. "Come here, I'm so sorry I caused you +all that trouble." + +"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." + +"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 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." + +"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. + +But there was no opportunity for any more talk. The nurse came in, felt +Nan's pulse and smiled at the girls. + +"I'm sorry," she said, nodding toward the door. So they got up and +left, leaving Nan looking wistfully after them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE HUNCH-BACK AGAIN + + +"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. + +"Yes, it is, Nan," Rhoda maintained. + +"But ours was number 648. It was an outside cabin." Nan continued to +protest. "Or have I gone completely batty?" + +"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." + +"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. + +"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 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." + +"Was anything ruined?" Nan asked. + +"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. + +"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. + +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! + +Nan gasped. "This isn't ours," she exclaimed incredulously. + +Rhoda and Bess looked from Nan to the stateroom and back again to Nan. +"It is," they cried. "It's yours." + +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. + +"But why?" Nan's eyes were wide open in amazement. + +"Captain's orders," Rhoda answered. + +"Why?" Nan persisted. + +"I told you why," Bess smiled. "It's because our cabin was inundated by +the recent flood." + +"I still don't believe that's the truth," Nan asserted. "But I love this +place just the same." + +"Do we walk right in?" It was Laura at the door. "Or do we have to send +cards first?" + +"Oh, Laura!" Nan exclaimed. "Come here. Have you seen this?" She moved +the dial of a small radio. + +"Have I seen that? Why, darling, I moved your things in," Laura laughed. +"And what's more, I was here when the Captain came." + +"The Captain!" They all exclaimed at once. + +"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 came 'to see if Miss +Sherwood's stateroom was satisfactory.'" Laura tried to clip the +sentence off as the Captain had. + +"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. + +"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! + +He looked sternly down on their confusion. "Miss Sherwood?" + +"Yes, Captain." Nan answered meekly and started to get up. + +"No, no," he motioned her to remain seated. + +Nan sat down again. The voice was one that was accustomed to being +obeyed. + +"I merely wanted to make certain that everything was satisfactory." He +looked critically about the room. + +"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. + +The Captain seemed preoccupied with his inspection of the stateroom. +"Your baggage has been moved." It was more a statement than a question. +"You are feeling--well." + +"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. + +"You want for nothing?" + +"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! + +Then his glance seemed to take in Laura for the first time. + +"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. + +"I thank you, ladies." With this he turned and went out. + +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. + +Nan was laughing so hard she was holding both her sides and so was +Bess. Rhoda was stuffing a handkerchief into her mouth. "Oh, I never saw +anything so funny in my life," she said. + +"Funny!" Laura was indignant. "I'd like to know what was funny about +that! Funny!" she muttered. + +"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." + +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." + +"Don't, don't say that." Rhoda raised a protesting hand. "You'll meet +him soon enough as it is." + +"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. + +"What man?" Grace asked. "Did you see him too?" Her face was pale and +scared looking. + +"What are you talking about?" Rhoda rushed over and closed the door +behind Grace. + +"That man, that red-headed hunchback. Oh, 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. + +"Why, Gracie, no, I haven't seen him." Laura was very serious now. "Have +you?" + +"Oh, yes." Grace was pale and frightened. "He's out there. I think he +followed me down the hall." She was almost hysterical. + +Laura moved toward the door and reached out as if to open it. + +"Don't do that!" Grace's voice was a command. "He followed me. I tell +you he followed me!" She almost shrieked the last. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +Laura stirred. "I'm going to open it," she whispered. Nan nodded her +head. But before Laura could, they heard Amelia's voice. Everyone +breathed a sigh of relief. + +Nan herself walked to the door and threw it wide open. "Come in, +Amelia," she said, and then closed the door after her friend. + +"What's up?" Amelia sensed the tenseness in the room right away. + +"Did you see anyone at all in the corridor?" + +Nan answered the question with another. + +"Why, no." Amelia looked puzzled. "No one, that is, except the +stewardess. She's sitting out there on a stool, knitting." + +"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?" + +"Are you sure, Amelia," Nan asked the question, "that you didn't see +anyone besides the stewardess?" + +"Positive," she answered. "I know, because as I came down the corridor I +looked for people." + +"Why?" Nan questioned her again. + +"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. + +"Well, you'd be queer, too," Grace asserted, "if you'd seen and heard +what I did. I was coming 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.' + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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?" + +"Did I say that?" Grace looked puzzled. + +They all nodded. + +"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. + +Nan sat silently considering. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +NAN PUZZLES OVER HER SECRET + + +"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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +"Well, you'd think so too, if you had seen him," Grace whispered too. +"I don't see why in the world they ever let him get a passport and get +on the ship." + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"Did the man that you heard," she looked at Grace, "speak like that?" + +"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." + +"Did the man who came looking for me that 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. + +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." + +"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." + +"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. + +"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 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--" + +"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." + +"What photographer? What pictures?" Amelia looked puzzled. + +"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!" + +"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? + +"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 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." + +"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." + +"But the sun doesn't move," Rhoda interrupted. "The earth does." + +"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. + +"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.'" + +"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!" + +The picture that this brought to mind caused all the girls to laugh. + +"Let's go up and see those photographs, right now," Laura changed the +subject. + +"Yes, let's," Amelia agreed. So, walking and talking the six friends +left the cabin and went to an upper deck. + +"Bess Harley," Nan exclaimed as they stood around the pictures. "How did +you ever manage to get yours taken so many times?" + +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. + +"Anyhow, they are all cute," Nan comforted, "and I'm as jealous as +anything, because there aren't any of me." + +"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. + +"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. + +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 clues. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE CAPTAIN'S DINNER + + +"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! + +"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." + +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." + +"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, even if Dr. Beulah," she said dolefully, "does try to make us +remember that we are still children." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +"But where's Laura?" Nan looked in vain for the red-headed girl. + +"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. + +"She received one all right," Rhoda responded, "and she's down in her +cabin practically crying her eyes out." + +"Why?" Nan and Bess chorused. + +"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." + +"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. + +They found Laura lying across her bunk with her face buried in the +pillow. Her shoulders were heaving and she was sobbing. + +"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. + +"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." + +"Laura, you haven't done that, have you?" The girls all gasped. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Well, I guess I can't go if I have scarlet fever." Laura was still +crying. + +"Yes, but if you have scarlet fever, we can't go either," Bess was +troubled. "I don't care what you tell him, but you can't tell him that." +A look from Nan silenced Bess. + +"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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Do you really think so?" Laura was already more than half willing to be +convinced. + +"I haven't a doubt in the world but what it will," Nan sounded very +positive. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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. + +That night was unforgettable. + +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. + +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. + +It was all very grand and lovely. Bess had her moment of supreme +rejoicing when she saw out of 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +LAND IS SIGHTED + + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +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." + +"Wasn't the ballroom lovely, though?" Bess paused in her packing, while +she remembered the 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"But the steward promised," Nan protested, "that he would tell us so +that we would be up on deck when land was sighted." + +"You don't suppose he has forgotten?" Bess questioned. + +"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." + +"Oh, is she getting off here?" Bess took one last look around the cabin +to see whether she had all her belongings. + +"Sure an' she's headed right for Dublin." Nan tried to give an Irish +turn to her sentence. + +"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. + +"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?" + +"Oh, just dozens," Bess answered. "If I ever hear from a third of them +again, I'll be happy." + +"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. + +"Approve? Of course," Bess agreed. "Tea in London with Maureen, Hetty, +and Jeanie. Oh, I hope they won't forget." + +"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?" + +"Just a second--yes, I'm all ready, too, now." Bess closed hers. "Let's +go up on deck." So they 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. + +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?" + +"Sure an' 'tis me home," Maureen had come up behind them, "the grandest +place in all the world." + +"What county is that?" Nan looked to Maureen for information. + +"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. + +"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. + +"Come, Maureen," Nan and Bess were close to tears too, for her pang of +homesickness had turned their own thoughts back to America. "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. + +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. + +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. + +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 you'll be stoppin' here +and we'll be meetin' you and you'll be off to Dublin Town with the likes +of us." + +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. + +"Don't forget," Bess followed suit, "it's tea in London in coronation +week." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BE CAREFUL, NAN! + + +"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?" + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +Bess sank into a chair, full of conflicting emotions and was there +thinking, when Nan came into the stateroom after her. + +"Bess, why Bess," Nan exclaimed, "what is the matter with you? You +looked scared to death." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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? + +"What did he say to you?" She turned to Bess. + +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. + +"I--I----don't remember what he said," Bess began. + +"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." + +"_You_ 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. + +"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 Nan had a chance +to say anything, Bess went on untangling the confused jumble in her own +mind. + +"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." + +Nan made a mental note and kept quiet, hoping, that Bess would go on +revealing what she had found out. + +"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. + +Nan looked at her. "Why, I'd almost say you liked the mysterious old +Scotchman," she said in a surprised tone. + +"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. + +"When he said, referring to the mysteries hereabouts, 'that these things +didna ha' no part of me,' he really sounded very kindly." + +"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. + +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." + +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." + +"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?" + +Nan considered the question. "I'm not certain," she said as though to +herself. + +"But you think--" Bess spoke quietly, hoping that Nan would finish her +deliberations aloud. She was trying Nan's own tactics now. + +"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 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. + +"You remember the passenger list that was given us at the Captain's +dinner?" + +Bess nodded her head. Hers was among the things she was saving for +souvenirs. + +"His name is on that, too. And it has his home listed as 'Glasgow.'" + +"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. + +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. + +"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." + +"Do you know at all why he should be camping on your doorstep?" Bess +questioned further. + +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. + +"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." + +"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?" + +"Nothing, lassie, nothing," Nan answered. "Only a lot of dresses that +wouldn't become him, even if he could get them on." + +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." + +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 +Beach" will remember. "Of course I won't," she reassured her friend. + +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?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +WELCOME, LASSIES, TO SCOTLAND + + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"Yes, only you don't see kilted highlanders 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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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. + +"Here, girls, this way," Dr. Prescott beckoned them to follow her. +"Here's the baggage." + +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. + +She stooped down, pulled its grimy fists out of its eyes, pushed its +blond hair back, and comforted, "There, child, there. Don't cry. What +has happened?" + +"I didna ken." The child cried harder than ever. + +"Are you lost?" + +"I didna ken," the answer was the same, but he grabbed hold of her coat +and pulled her along after him. + +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. + +"Ye canna stop noo." He was a persistent little Scotsman. + +"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. + +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 +almost as big as the child himself. He stooped over and tugged at it. It +wouldn't budge. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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-- + + My love, + Nan." + +"Until then"--the words were simple, but how much was to happen "until +then." + +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. + +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. + +In the half light, the girls looked at one another and at Dr. Beulah. +"It's almost spooky," Grace huddled closer to Laura as she spoke, "isn't +it?" + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"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 +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. + +"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." + + "We'll meet where we parted in yon shady glen, + By the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EMBERON + + +"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. + +"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. + +"We are glad to see you, little mistress," he said quaintly, as he rang +a bell for a servant. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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 mourned as though he was one +of theirs. Now they are anxious to see his youngest descendant. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"That's treason!" Amelia exclaimed, "treason! We're loyal subjects and +true. We are daughters of Scotland and defenders of the Blake clan." + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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." + +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 were and as straight-laced as the best of +the Scotsmen." + +"They look it," Laura answered. "I, personally, feel as though they +disapprove of every single dress I'm taking out of this bag." + +"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. + +"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." + +"Parade of the ghosts!" The exclamation was Grace's. + +"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 +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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"And old Mr. Blake who is waiting downstairs for us, I am sure," Nan +added as she moved toward the doorway. + +"He wouldn't harm a hair of anyone's head," Rhoda joined Nan. "Are all +the Blakes so nice?" + +Nan didn't answer. Both Laura and Rhoda had 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. + +"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. + +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. + +Those had been the good days. James Blake wiped an involuntary tear out +of his eye. He was an old man and tears came easily. + +"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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +SCOTTISH GAMES AND SCOTTISH TUNES + + +It was a gala scene that met their eyes as they drove into the village. + +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. + +"Seems almost like the good old high school days at Tillbury," Bess +whispered to Nan, "I half expect a cheerleader to appear." + +"Sh!" The warning was Nan's, for after the girls acknowledged the +greeting by bowing and smiling and had seated themselves, the contests +began. + +First, there was the bagpipe competition. At opposite ends of the field +on wooden platforms, raised so that everyone could see, the Angus +MacPhersons, 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. + +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. + +"How I'd like to awaken Mrs. Cupp some drizzly dark morning with bagpipe +music!" Laura's eyes danced merrily at the thought. + +"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. + +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. + +"Oh, what fun!" Laura exclaimed. "Look! There goes another bucket over. +He got it right in the face!" + +"And look at the next one," Bess was interested 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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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." + +The committee, escorting the visitors back to the carriage, urged them +to stay in Emberon for the coronation celebration. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +Old MacDonald looked up. A flash of understanding passed between the +two. + +"Ye're right, Jamie," he said, "and she's a right bonnie lass to carry +on." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +AN ACCIDENT NEAR THE CASTLE + + +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. + +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. + +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 against the carelessness of the +driver. Finally, they rounded the sharp turn in the road which Nan +remembered as just preceding the castle gates. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Hey, up there," he called to the coachman. + +There was no answer. He got out, slowly and painfully. Nan followed and +took his arm. He patted hers reassuringly. + +"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. + +"Be careful, Nan." Dr. Prescott's voice came through the darkness. + +"Can I help you?" It was Laura's tone, low and confident. + +"We're all right," Nan called back. She stood now, next to James Blake +looking up at the coachman's seat. It was empty! + +What had happened? A number of possibilities 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? + +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? + +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. + +"Easy now," he encouraged and almost at once the animals stopped the +impatient shaking of their heads. + +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. + +James Blake scratched his head reflectively. "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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"But what if the coachman is lying along the 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. + +"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. + +"Did you find him?" Laura was waiting beside the door of the carriage as +they came up to it again. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +The carriage pulled out of a rut, lunged forward and then came to a stop +again. + +"Careful!" The voice was that of the old steward. The driver tried +again. This time a horse stumbled. + +"Whoa, there," James Blake ordered, "we canna drive them. The poor +beastie is hurt." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +JAMES BLAKE DOES SOME EXPLAINING + + +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. + +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. + +Once, she looked gratefully up at the sky, the big moon, and the bright +stars. She stumbled. + +"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." + +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. + +"Oh, Laura," she chided her friend, "it's only a tree! Will you stop +teasing?" + +"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. + +"Nothing, Grace." Nan tried to keep her own voice from seeming worried +as she spoke. "Laura's seeing things in the dark." + +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. + +"Almost there, girls!" her voice actually sounded cheery in the night. + +"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. + +He stepped his foot on the first of the broad stone steps and stood +there as the girls walked on 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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Dr. Prescott was a little puzzled at this question. "Why--yes," she +agreed slowly, "to see the estate." + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"You understand what I am saying?" The old man looked at Dr. Prescott +intently. Then he shook his head. + +"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." + +"You mean there is some opposition?" Dr. Prescott asked when she found +her voice after this amazing story had been told. + +"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." + +"Does Mrs. Sherwood know of all of this?" Dr. Prescott asked further. + +"Not yet. This portion of the inheritance was 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." + +Somewhere in the large rooms of the old castle a clock now chimed +slowly, one, two, three. + +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." + +"You don't object," James Blake seemed startled at the mere thought, "to +Nan's taking part in the coronation?" + +"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." + +"Aye, that has been some of the cause for 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. + +His own fighting mood brought back to Dr. Prescott's mind the accident +in the carriage. + +"Do you know at all what happened tonight?" she asked. + +"You mean what caused the accident?" he parried, for here was something +he did not want to talk about as yet. + +"Yes." + +"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. + +Alone in the hall now, he rang a bell and called for the servant who +had been left with the carriage. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +NAN'S DISAPPEARANCE + + +Somewhere on the estate a cock crowed. + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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! + +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 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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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 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? + +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." + +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! + +She dressed almost as quickly as Nan had, slipped out quietly too, and +went downstairs. + +"Weel, lassie," James Blake greeted her as she entered the big hall. +"Ye're up bright and early this morning." + +"But I'm not the first," Bess smiled back, "Where's Nan?" + +"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?" + +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?" + +"Aye, lass, and be quick!" Old James Blake followed her half way up the +stairs. + +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. + +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." Bess took the whole thing calmly at first, for she +knew Nan's habits. + +"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. + +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. + +There was no Nan to be seen or found anyplace. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +BESS HAS HER SAY + + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"What do you mean?" Laura spoke up now. + +"Well, for one thing," Bess began, "we know about the hunchback and +nobody else does." + +"Do you think he has anything to do with this?" Laura looked at Bess +intently. "After all, 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." + +"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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Maybe Bess is right," Grace agreed timidly. "Maybe we had just better +wait for a while and see what happens." + +"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 +really might help Mr. Blake. He seems terribly worried." + +"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." + +"Have they done it?" Bess asked quickly. + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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." + +"All right, then," Bess gave in, for she too was becoming tired of just +waiting. "Let's all go down together. Are the rest of you agreed?" + +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. + +"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." + +"Maybe it isn't worth telling." Grace was growing stubborn now. + +"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." + +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. + +"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 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. + +"What is it lassies?" He smiled reassuringly down at them. + +Laura plunged into her story without any preliminaries. + +"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!" + +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. + +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 her own puzzling over a +clue that just escaped her memory. + +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-- + +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! + +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. + +"And where, lassie, is that letter?" James Blake made a distinct effort +to forget his own sorrow at the turn of events. Action was needed now. + +"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. + +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. + +"Did you ever see the letter at all?" Dr. Prescott questioned her, "the +envelope, the stamps, or the postmark?" + +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." + +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. + +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 +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. + +"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." + +"You are sure that that is the only course?" Dr. Prescott was most +sympathetic. + +"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. + +"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 when Nancy's parents were here some time ago. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +He said this last simply, and made a motion, as no one else moved, to +go himself and pull the bell chord. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +NAN COMES INTO HER OWN + + +"Wait!" Dr. Prescott gave the command as the old Scotsman raised his arm +to pull the chord. "Someone's coming!" + +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! + +"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. + +James Blake stepped over to his brother's side. He motioned to the +others in the room to keep quiet. + +"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?" + +"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 at all." His voice was earnest as he spoke and so sincere, that +even Dr. Prescott, worried as she was, believed him. + +"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. + +"Your bagpipe," James Blake supplied. + +"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." + +"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!" + +"Have who?" Everyone look around startled. It was Nan's voice! + +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 +find it!" In his joy, he forgot completely that the assembled crowd +didn't know what he was talking about. + +"Found what?" Dr. Prescott asked the question everyone had on his +tongue. + +"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?" + +"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--" + +"But that's impossible, lass," James Blake interrupted. + +"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. + +"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 wall had moved to one side leaving a great +opening. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"Yes, lass, that you are." James Blake was regretful, too. "But you'll +be coming back." + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +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 +the privilege of taking part in the coronation going across the water. +Could he have meant-- + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +LONDON ON HOLIDAY + + +"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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +"You'll have a long white court dress like those we have been seeing in +the papers. You'll be driven 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! + +"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. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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 in a prison, while we were sitting in +the pleasant May sunshine watching golden coaches full of fair ladies +drive by." + +"Oh, I'll be good from now on," Nan promised as she disappeared down the +stairs. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Now, lass," he said, "forget the unpleasant things that have happened +and remember that Emberon is your home, too." + +Nan nodded her head, and swallowed the lump 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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"What did she say?" Bess asked when it seemed that Nan wasn't going to +go on. + +"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." + +"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!" + +"So do I," Grace agreed. "But, tell us, Nan, why was it he insisted on +searching through your baggage the way he did?" + +"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?" + +"Yes, and what in the world was in it?" Laura contributed. + +"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!" + +"Nan! And you didn't say a word to anyone about it!" Bess felt like +scolding her friend. "You might have been killed!" + +"I know I was foolish," Nan admitted. "And I hereby promise never to do +anything like that again," she ended solemnly. + +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. + +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! + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Did you ever see anything like this in your 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. + +"No, Princess," Walter grinned down at her. + +"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?" + +"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. + +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. + +Now, she could hardly wait as Walter drove slowly along with the left +hand traffic that is peculiar 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! + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE KING IS CROWNED! + + +The day of the coronation came at last. It was a bright clear day, +king's weather the Londoners called it. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + +With this, the king and queen entered, walking slowly and solemnly down +the long coronation carpet to the altar where they stopped and knelt. + +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. + +When the Archbishop of Canterbury finally placed the crown on the +king's head and said, "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. + +The peers put on their coronets. In the same manner as the king, the +queen was crowned. The peeresses put on their coronets. + +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!" + +"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. + +"Nor will we," her friends echoed, for each had seen something special +in the coronation. + +So we will leave them, comparing notes on the biggest event of their +summer holidays. As we go 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." + +Maureen nods her head, and Hetty adds as we close the door, "What +happened to Nan proves it." + +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." + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Note: Obvious printer's errors were silently corrected. +Otherwise spelling, hyphenation, interpunction and syntax of the +original have been preserved. + + + + + +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.txt or 36176.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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