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diff --git a/6853.txt b/6853.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..621098c --- /dev/null +++ b/6853.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5909 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Betty Gordon in Washington, by Alice B. Emerson + +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: Betty Gordon in Washington + +Author: Alice B. Emerson + +Posting Date: March 11, 2014 [EBook #6853] +Release Date: November, 2004 +First Posted: February 2, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON *** + + + + +Produced by Avinash Kothare, Tom Allen, Charles Franks and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON + +OR + +Strange Adventures in a Great City + +BY + +ALICE B. EMERSON + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + +I THE GORED COW + +II HOSPITALITY UNDER DIFFICULTIES + +III BOB HAS GREAT NEWS + +IV AT THE VENDUE + +V CONSEQUENCES + +VI THE RUNAWAY MISSED + +VII A BELATED LETTER + +VIII GOOD-BY TO BRAMBLE FARM + +IX NEW FRIENDS + +X FELLOW TRAVELERS + +XI A SERIOUS MIX-UP + +XII STRAIGHTENING THINGS OUT + +XIII WASHINGTON MONUMENT + +XIV LIBBIE IS ROMANTIC + +XV OFF TO INVESTIGATE + +XVI WHAT HALE HAD TO TELL + +XVII MORE SIGHTSEEING + +XVIII BETTY UNDERSTANDS + +XIX AN UNEXPECTED MEETING + +XX MUTUAL CONFIDENCES + +XXI THE ACCIDENT + +XXII BEING RESCUED + +XXIII ANOTHER RESCUE + +XXIV BOB IS CLEARED + +XXV FUTURE PLANS + + + + +BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GORED COW + + +For lack of a better listener, Betty Gordon addressed the saucy +little chipmunk that sat on the top rail of the old worn fence and +stared at her with bright, unwinking eyes. + +"It is the loveliest vase you ever saw," said Betty, busily sorting +the tangled mass of grasses and flowers in her lap. "Heavy old +colonial glass, you know, plain, but with beautiful lines." + +The chipmunk continued to regard her gravely. + +"I found it this morning when I was helping Mrs. Peabody clean the +kitchen closet shelves," the girl went on, her slim fingers selecting +and discarding slender stems with fascinating quickness. "It was on +the very last shelf, and was covered with dust. I washed it, and +we're going to have it on the supper table to-night with this bouquet +in it. There! don't you think that's pretty?" + +She held out the flowers deftly arranged and surveyed them proudly. +The chipmunk cocked his brown head and seemed to be withholding his +opinion. + +Betty put the bouquet carefully down on the grass beside her and +stretched the length of her trim, graceful self on the turf, burying +her face luxuriously in the warm dry "second crop" of hay that had +been raked into a thin pile under the pin oak and left there +forgotten. Presently she rolled over and lay flat on her back, +studying the lazy clouds that drifted across the very blue sky. + +"I'd like to be up in an airplane," she murmured drowsily, her +eyelids drooping. "I'd sail right into a cloud and see--What was that?" + +She sat up with a jerk that sent the hitherto motionless chipmunk +scurrying indignantly up the nearest tree, there to sit and shake his +head angrily at her. + +"Sounds like Bob!" said Betty to herself. "My goodness, that was Mr. +Peabody--they must be having an awful quarrel!" + +The voices and shouts came from the next field, separated from her +by a brook, almost dry now, and a border of crooked young willow +trees grown together in an effective windbreak. + +"Anybody who'll gore a cow like that isn't fit to own a single dumb +creature!" A clear young voice shaking with passion was carried by +the wind to the listening girl. + +"When I need a blithering, no-'count upstart to teach me my +business, I'll call on you and not before," a deeper, harsh voice +snarled. "When you're farming for yourself you can feed the +neighbors' critters on your corn all you've a mind to!" + +"Oh, dear!" Betty scrambled to her feet, forgetting the bouquet so +carefully culled, and darted in the direction of the willow hedge. "I +do hope Mr. Peabody hasn't been cruel to an animal. Bob is always so +furious when he catches him at that!" + +She crossed the puttering little brook by the simple expedient of +jumping from one bank to the other and scrambled through the willow +trees, emerging, flushed and anxious-eyed, to confront a boy about +fourteen years old in a torn straw hat and faded overalls and a tall, +lean middle-aged man with a pitchfork in his hands. + +"Well?" the latter grunted, as Betty glanced fearfully at him. "What +did you come for? I suppose you think two rows of corn down flat is +something to snicker at?" + +They stood on the edge of a flourishing field of corn, and, +following the direction of Mr. Peabody's accusing finger, Betty +Gordon saw that two fine rows had been partially eaten and trampled. + +"Oh, that's too bad!" she said impulsively, "What did it--a stray +cow?" + +"Keppler's black and white heifer," answered Mr. Peabody grimly. +"Bob here is finding fault with me because I didn't let it eat its +head off." + +"No such thing!" Bob Henderson was stung into speech. "Because the +poor creature didn't get out fast enough to suit you--and you +bewildered her with your shouting till she didn't know which way to +turn--you jabbed her with the pitchfork. I saw the blood! And I say +nobody but an out and out coward would do a thing like that to a dumb +animal." + +"Oh!" breathed Betty again, softly. "How could you!" + +"Now I've heard about enough of that!" retorted Mr. Peabody angrily. +"If you'd both attend to your own business and leave me to mind mine, +we'd save a lot of time. You, Bob, go let down the bars and turn that +critter into the road. Maybe Keppler will wake up and repair his +fences after all his stock runs off. You'd better help him, Betty. He +might step on a grub-worm if you don't go along to watch him!" + +Bob strode off, kicking stones as he went, and Betty followed +silently. She helped him lower the bars and drive the cow into the +road, then put the bars in place again. + +"Where are you going?" she ventured in surprise, as Bob moodily +trudged after the animal wending an erratic way down the road. + +"Going to take her home," snapped Bob, "Peabody would like to see +Keppler have to get her out of the pound, but I'll save him that +trouble. You can go on back and read your book." + +"Just because you're mad at Mr. Peabody is no reason why you should +be cross to me," said Betty with spirit. "I wasn't reading a book, +and I'm coming with you. So there!" + +Bob laughed and told her to "come on." He was seldom out of sorts +long. Indeed, of the two, Betty had the quicker temper and cherished +a grudge more enduringly. + +"Just the same, Betty," Bob announced, as he skillfully persuaded +the cow to forego the delights of a section of particularly sweet +grass and proceed on her course, "I'm about through. I can't stand it +much longer; and lately I've been afraid that in a rage I might +strike Mr. Peabody with something and either kill him or hurt him +badly. Of course, I wouldn't do it if I stopped to think, but when he +gets me furious as he did to-day, I don't stop to think." + +"Well, for mercy's sake, Bob Henderson," ejaculated Betty in an +instant alarm, "don't kill him, whatever you do. Then you'd be put in +prison for life!" + +"All right," agreed Bob equably, "I won't kill him--just nick him in +a few places--how will that do?" + +"But I'm really serious," insisted Betty. "Don't let the cow turn up +that lane. Think how awful you would feel if you were sent to prison, +Bob." + +Bob took refuge in a masculine stronghold. + +"If that isn't just like a girl!" he said scornfully. "Who said I +was going to prison? I merely say I don't want to lose my temper and +do something rash, and you have me convicted and sentenced for life. +Gee, Betty, have a little mercy!" + +Betty's lips trembled. + +"I can't bear to think of you going away and leaving me here," she +faltered. "I'm not going to stay either, Bob, not one minute after I +hear from Uncle Dick. I'm sure if the Benders knew how things were +going, they would think we had a right to leave. I had the loveliest +letter from Mrs. Bender this morning--but it had been opened." + +Bob switched an unoffending flower head savagely. + +"You come out of that!" he shouted to the perverse cow that seemed +determined to turn to the left when she was plainly asked to turn to +the right. "Wait a minute, Betty; here's Fred Keppler." + +The half-grown boy who accosted them with "What are you doing with +our cow?" grinned fatuously at Betty, showing several gaps in a row +of fine teeth. + +"Keep your cow at home where she belongs," directed Bob +magnificently. "She's been making her dinner off our corn." + +"Oh, gee," sighed the boy nervously. "I'll bet old Peabody was in a +tearing fury. Look, Bob, something's tore her hide! She must have +been down in the blackberry bushes along the brook." + +"Well, see that it doesn't happen again," commanded Bob, gracefully +withdrawing by walking backward. "Corn that's as high as ours is +worth something, you know." + +"You never told him about the pitchfork," said Betty accusingly, as +soon as Fred Keppler and the cow were out of earshot. "You let him +think it was blackberry bushes that scratched her like that." + +"Well, his father will know the difference," grinned Bob cheerfully. +"Why should I start an argument with Fred? Saving the cow from the +pound ought to be enough, anyway. Mr. Keppler has had to buy more +than one animal out before this; he will not pay attention to his +fences." + +Betty sat down on a broad boulder and leaned up against an old +hickory tree. + +"Stone in my shoe," she said briefly. "You'll have to wait just a +minute, Bob." + +Bob sat down on the grass and began to hunt for four leaf clovers, +an occupation of which he never tired. + +"Do you think Mr. Peabody opened your letter?" he asked abruptly. + +Betty paused in the operation of untying her shoe. + +"Who else would?" she said thoughtfully. "It wasn't even pasted +together again, but slit across one end, showing that whoever did it +didn't care whether I noticed it or not. I'll never mail another +letter from that box. I'll walk to Glenside three times a day first!" + +"Well, the only thing to do is to clear out," said Bob firmly. +"You'll have to wait till you hear from your uncle, or at least till +the Benders get back. We promised, you know, that we wouldn't run +away without telling them, or if there wasn't time, writing to them +and saying where we go. That shows, I think, that they suspected +things might get too hot to be endured." + +"I simply must get a letter from Uncle Dick or go crazy," sighed +Betty feverishly. She put on her shoe and stood up. "I wish he would +come for me himself and see how horrid everything is." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOSPITALITY UNDER DIFFICULTIES + + +Betty Gordon had come to Bramble Farm, as Mr. Peabody's home was +known, early in the summer to stay until her uncle, Richard Gordon, +should be able to establish a home for her, or at least know enough +of his future plans to have Betty travel with him. He was interested +in mines and oil wells, and his business took him all over the country. + +Betty was an orphan, and this Uncle Dick was her only living +relative. He came to her in Pineville after her mother's death and +when the friends with whom she had been staying decided to go to +California. He remembered Mrs. Peabody, an old school friend, and +suggested that Betty might enjoy a summer spent on a farm. These +events are related in the first book of this series, called "Betty +Gordon at Bramble Farm." + +That story tells how Betty came to the farm to find Joseph Peabody a +domineering, pitiless miser, his wife Agatha, a drab woman crushed in +spirit, and Bob Henderson, the "poorhouse rat," a bright intelligent +lad whom the Peabodys had taken from the local almshouse for his +board and clothes. Betty Gordon found life at Bramble Farm very +different from the picture she and her uncle had drawn in +imagination, and only the fact that her uncle's absence in the oil +fields had prevented easy communication with him had held her through +the summer. + +Once, indeed, she had run away, but circumstances had brought her +and Bob to the pleasant home of the town police recorder, and Mr. and +Mrs. Bender had proved themselves true and steadfast friends to the +boy and girl who stood sorely in need of friendship. It was the +Benders who had exacted a promise from both Bob and Betty that they +would not run away from Bramble Farm without letting them know. + +Betty had been instrumental in causing the arrest of two men who had +stolen chickens from the Peabody farm, and at the hearing before the +recorder something of Mr. Peabody's characteristics and of the +conditions at Bramble Farm had been revealed. + +Anxious to have Betty and Bob return, Joseph Peabody had practically +agreed to treat them more humanely, and for a few weeks, during which +the Benders had gone away for their annual vacation, matters at +Bramble Farm had in the main improved. But they were gradually +slipping back to the old level, and this morning, when Peabody had +gored the cow with his pitchfork, Bob had thought disgustedly that it +was useless to expect anything good at the hands of the owner of +Bramble Farm. + +As he and Betty tramped back after delivering the cow, Bob's mind +was busy with plans that would free him from Mr. Peabody and set him +forward on the road that led to fortune. Bob included making a +fortune in his life work, having a shrewd idea that money rightly +used was a good gift. + +"Where do you suppose your uncle is?" he asked Betty, coming out of +a reverie wherein he bade Bramble Farm and all the dwellers there +with a single exception a cold and haughty farewell. + +"Why, I imagine he is in Washington," returned Betty confidently. +"His last letter was from there, though two days ago a postal came +from Philadelphia. I think likely he went up to see his lawyer and +get his mail. You know it was held there while he was out West. I +hope he has all my letters now, and last night I wrote him another, +asking him if I couldn't leave here. I said I'd rather go to the +strictest kind of a boarding school; and so I would. I'll mail the +letter this afternoon in Glenside." + +"It's too long a walk for you to take on a hot afternoon," grumbled +Bob. "I'm going over to Trowbridge, and I'll mail it there for you." + +Betty pulled the letter from her blouse pocket and handed it to him. + +"Where's Trowbridge?" she asked, as they came in sight of the +boundary line of Bramble Farm and sighted Mr. Peabody in conversation +with the mail carrier at the head of the lane. "Can I go with you?" + +"We'd better hurry," suggested Bob, quickening his steps. +"Trowbridge is four miles beyond Laurel Grove. You've never been +there. No, you can't go, Betty, because I have to ride the sorrel. I +suppose in time old Peabody will buy another wagon, but no one can +tell when that will come to pass." + +The wagon house had burned one night, and the master of Bramble Farm +could not bring himself to pay out the cash for even a secondhand +wagon. As a result, the always limited social activities of the farm +were curtailed to the vanishing point. + +"What are you going for?" persisted Betty, who had her fair share of +feminine curiosity with the additional excuse that interesting events +were few and far between in her present everyday life. + +Bob grinned. + +"Going to a vendue," he announced. "Now how much do you know?" + +Betty tossed her head, and elevated her small, freckled nose. + +"A vendue?" she repeated. "Why, a vendue is a--a--what is it, Bob?" + +"A sale," said Bob. "Some farmer is going to sell out and Peabody +wants a wagon. So I have to ride that horse fourteen miles and back--and +he has a backbone like a razor blade!--to buy a wagon; that is, +if no one bids over me." + +"And Mr. Peabody won't pay more than six dollars; he said so at the +supper table last night," mourned Betty. "You'll never be able to buy +a wagon for that. I wish I could go, too. Bob, I never saw a country +vendue. Please, can't I?" + +"You cannot," replied Bob with unaccustomed decision. Betty usually +wheedled him into granting her requests. "Haven't I just told you +there is nothing to go in? If you see yourself perched on that raw-boned +nag with me, I don't, that's all. But I tell you what; there's +a sale to-morrow at a farm this side of Glenside--I'll take you to +that, if you like. I guess Peabody will let me off, seeing as how +there are wagons advertised. We can easily walk to Faulkner's place." + +This promise contented Betty, and she ate her dinner quietly. Bob +rode off on the old horse directly after dinner, and then for the +first time Betty noticed that Mrs. Peabody seemed worried about +something. + +"Don't you feel well? Won't you go upstairs and lie down and let me +do the dishes?" urged the girl. "Do, Mrs. Peabody. You can have a +nice, long rest before it's time to feed the chickens." + +"I feel all right," said Mrs. Peabody dully. "Only--well, I found +this card from the new minister back of the pump this morning. It's a +week old, and he says he's coming out to call this afternoon. There's +no place in the house I can show him, and I haven't got a decent +dress, either." + +Betty swallowed her first impulse to say what she thought of a +husband who would make no effort to see that his wife received her +mail, and instead turned her practical mind to consideration of the +immediate moment. The so-called parlor was hopeless she knew, and she +dismissed it from the list of possibilities at once. It was a +sparsely furnished, gloomy room, damp and musty from being tightly +closed all summer, and the unpainted, rough boards had never been +carpeted. + +"There's the porch," said Betty suddenly. "Luckily that's shady in +the afternoon, and we can bring out the best things to make it look +used. You let me fix it, Mrs. Peabody. And you can wear--let me see, +what can you wear?" + +Mrs. Peabody waited patiently, her eyes mirroring her explicit faith +in Betty's planning powers. + +"Your white shirtwaist and skirt," announced the girl at length. +"They're both clean, aren't they? I thought so. Well, I'll lend you a +ribbon girdle, and you can turn in the high neck so it will be more +in style. You'll see, it will look all right." + +While Mrs. Peabody washed her dishes with more energy than usual +because she had a definite interest in the coming hours, Betty flew +to the shabby room that was titled by courtesy the parlor. She flung +up the windows and opened the blinds recklessly. She would take only +the plain wooden chair and the two rockers, she decided, for the +stuffed plush furniture would look ridiculous masquerading as summer +furnishings. The sturdy, square table would fit into her scheme, and +also the small rug before the blackened fireplace. + +She dashed back to the kitchen and grabbed the broom. She did not +dare scrub the porch floor for fear that it would not dry in time, +but she swept it carefully and spread down the rug. Then one by one, +and making a separate trip each time, she carried out the table and +the chairs. With a passing sigh for the bouquet abandoned in the +field and probably withered by this time, she managed to get enough +flowers from the overgrown neglected garden near the house to fill +the really lovely colonial glass vase she had discovered that morning. + +"It looks real pretty," pronounced Mrs. Peabody, when she was +brought out to see the transformed corner of the porch. "Looks as if +we used it regular every afternoon, doesn't it? Do you think it will +be all right not to ask him in, Betty?" + +"Of course," said Betty stoutly. "Don't dare ask him in! If he wants +a drink of water, call me, and I'll get it for him. You must be +sitting in your chair reading a magazine when he comes and he'll +think you always spend your afternoons like that." + +"I'll hurry and get dressed," agreed Mrs. Peabody, giving a last +satisfied glance at the porch. "I declare, I never saw your beat, +Betty, for making things look pretty." + +Betty needed that encouragement, for when it came to making Mrs. +Peabody look pretty in the voluminous white skirt and stiff +shirtwaist of ten years past, the task seemed positively hopeless. +Betty, however, was not one to give in easily, and when she had +brushed and pinned her hostess's thin hair as softly as she could +arrange it, and had turned in the high collar of her blouse and +pinned it with a cameo pin, the one fine thing remaining to Mrs. +Peabody from her wedding outfit, adding a soft silk girdle of gray-blue, +she knew the improvement was marked. Mrs. Peabody stared at +herself in the glass contentedly. + +"I didn't know I could look that nice," she said with a candor at +once pathetic and naive. "I've been wishing he wouldn't come, but now +I kinda hope he will." + +Betty gently propelled her to the porch and established her in one +of the rocking chairs with a magazine to give her an air of leisure. + +"You'll come and talk to him, won't you?" urged Mrs. Peabody +anxiously. "It's been so long since I've seen a stranger I won't know +what to say." + +"Yes, you will," Betty assured her "I'll come out after you've +talked a little while. He won't stay long, I imagine, because he will +probably have a number of calls to pay." + +"Well, I hope Joseph stays out of sight," remarked Joseph Peabody's +wife frankly. "Of course, in time the new minister will know him as +well as the old one did; but I would like to have him call on me like +other parishioners first." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BOB HAS GREAT NEWS + + +The new minister proved to be a gentle old man, evidently retired to +a country charge and, in his way, quite as diffident as Mrs. Peabody. +He was apparently charmed to be entertained on the porch, and saw +nothing wrong with the neglected house and grounds. His near-sighted +eyes, beaming with kindness and good-will, apparently took comfort +and serenity for granted, and when Betty came out half an hour after +his arrival, carrying a little tray of lemonade and cakes, he was +deep in a recital of the first charge he had held upon his graduation +from the theological seminary forty years before. + +"There, that's over!" sighed Mrs. Peabody, quite like the +experienced hostess, when the minister's shabby black buggy was well +on its way out of the lane. "You're dreadful good, Betty, to help me +through with it. He won't come again for another six months--it takes +him that long to cover his parish, the farms are so far apart. Let me +help you carry back the chairs." + +Betty longed to suggest that they leave them out and use the porch +as an outdoor sitting room, but she knew that such an idea would be +sure to meet with active opposition from the master of Bramble Farm. +Long before he came in to supper that night the chairs had been +restored to their proper places and Mrs. Peabody had resumed the gray +wrapper she habitually wore. Only the vase of flowers on the table +was left to show that the afternoon had been slightly out of the +ordinary. That and the tray of glasses Betty had unfortunately left +on the draining board of the sink, intending to wash them with the +supper dishes. + +"Whose glasses, and what's been in 'em?" demanded Mr. Peabody +suspiciously. "There's sugar in the bottom of one of 'em. You haven't +been making lemonade?" He turned to his wife accusingly. + +Bob had not come home yet, and there was only Ethan, the hired man, +Betty, and the Peabodys at the supper table. + +"I made lemonade," said Betty quietly. "Those are my own glasses I +bought in Glenside, and the sugar and lemons were mine, too. So were +the cakes." + +This silenced Peabody, for he knew that Betty's uncle sent her money +from time to time, and though he fairly writhed to think that she +Could spend it so foolishly, he could not interfere. + +As soon as it was dark the Peabody household retired, to save +lighting lamps, and this evening was no exception. Betty learned from +a stray question Mrs. Peabody put to Ethan, the hired man, that Bob +was not expected home until ten or eleven o'clock. There was no +thought of sitting up for him, though Betty knew that in all +likelihood he would have had no supper, having no money and knowing +no one in Trowbridge. + +She was not sleepy, and having brushed and braided her hair for the +night, she threw her sweater over her dressing gown and sat down at +the window of her room, a tin of sardines and a box of crackers in +her lap, determined to see to it that Bob had something to eat. + +There was a full moon, and the road lay like a white ribbon between +the silver fields. Betty could follow the lane road out to where it +met the main highway, and now and then the sound of an automobile +horn came to her and she saw a car speed by on the main road. Sitting +there in the sweet stillness of the summer night, she thought of her +mother, of the old friends in Pineville, and, of course, of her +uncle. She wondered where he was that night, if he thought of her, +and what would be his answer to her letter. + +"Is that a horse?" said Betty to herself, breaking off her reverie +abruptly. "Hark! that sounds like a trotting horse." + +She was sure that she could make out the outlines of a horse and +rider on the main road, but it was several minutes before she was +positive that it had turned into the lane. Yes, it must be Bob. No +one else would be out riding at that hour of the night. Betty glanced +at her wrist-watch--half-past ten. + +The rhythmic beat of the horse's hoofs sounded more plainly, and +soon Betty heard the sound of singing. Bob was moved to song in that +lovely moonlight, as his sorry mount was urged to unaccustomed spirit +and a feeling of freedom. + + "When in thy dreaming, + moons like these shall shine again, + And, daylight beaming, + prove thy dreams are vain." + +Bob's fresh, untrained voice sounded sweet and clear on the night +air, and to Betty's surprise, tears came unbidden into her eyes. She +was not given to analysis. + +"Moonlight always makes me want to cry," she murmured, dashing the +drops from her eyes. "I hope Bob will look up and know that I'm at +the window. I don't dare call to him." + +But Bob, who had stopped singing while still some distance from the +house, clattered straight to the barn. + +Betty hurried over to her lamp, lit it, and set it on the window sill. + +"He'll see it from the barn," she argued wisely, "and know that I am +not asleep." + +Her reasoning proved correct, for in a few minutes a well-known +whistle sounded below her window. She blew out the light and leaned +out. + +"Oh, Betty!" Bob's tone was one of repressed excitement. "I've got +something great to tell you." + +"Have you had any supper?" demanded Betty, more concerned with that +question than with any news. "I've something for you, if you're +hungry." + +"Hungry? Gee, I'm starved!" was the response. "I didn't dare stop to +ask for a meal anywhere, because I knew I'd be late getting home as +it was. The horse was never cut out for a saddle horse; I'm so stiff +I don't believe I can move to-morrow. Where's the eats?" + +"Here. I'll let it down in a moment," answered Betty, tying a string +to the parcel. "Sorry it isn't more, Bob, but the larder's getting +low again." + +Bob untied the can and cracker box she lowered to him, and Betty +pulled in the string to be preserved for future use. + +"Thanks, awfully," said Bob. "You're a brick, Betty. And, say, what +do you think I heard over in Trowbridge?" + +"Don't talk so loud!" cautioned Betty. "What, Bob?" + +"Why, the poorhouse farm is this side of the town," said Bob, +munching a cracker with liveliest manifestations of appreciation. +"Coming back to-night--that's what made me late--Jim Turner, who's +poormaster now, called me in. Said he had something to tell me. It +seems there was a queer old duffer spent one night there a while +back--Jim thought it must have been a month ago. He has a secondhand +bookshop in Washington, and he came to the poorhouse to look at some +old books they have there--thought they might be valuable. They +opened all the records to him, and Jim says he was quite interested +when he came to my mother's name. Asked a lot of questions about her +and wanted to see me. Jim said he was as queer as could be, and all +they could get out of him was that maybe he could tell me something +to interest me. He wouldn't give any of the poorhouse authorities an +inkling of what he knew, and insisted that he'd have to see me first." + +"Where is he?" demanded Betty energetically. "I hope you didn't come +away without seeing him, Bob. What's his name? How does he look?" + +"His name," said Bob slowly, "is Lockwood Hale. And he went back to +Washington the next day." + +Betty's air castles tumbled with a sickening slump. + +"Bob Henderson!" she cried, remembering, however, to keep her voice +low. "The idea! Do you mean to tell me they let that man go without +notifying you? Why I never heard of anything so mean!" + +"Oh, I'm not important," explained Bob, quite without bitterness. +"Poorhouse heads don't put themselves out much for those under +'em--though Jim Turner's always treated me fair enough. But Lockwood Hale +had to go back to Washington the next day, Betty. There honestly +wasn't time to send for me." + +"Perhaps they gave him your address," said Betty hopefully. "But, +oh, Bob, you say he was there a month ago?" + +Bob nodded unhappily. + +"He hasn't my address," he admitted. "Jim says he meant to give it +to him, but the old fellow left suddenly without saying a word to any +one. Jim thought maybe he had the name in mind and would write +anyway. I'd get it, you know, if it went to the poorhouse. But I +guess Hale's memory is like a ragbag--stuffed with odds and ends that +he can't get hold of when he wants 'em. No, Betty, I guess the only +thing for me to do is to go to Washington." + +"Well, if you don't go to bed, young man, I'll come down there and +help you along," an angry whisper came from the little window up +under the roof. "You've been babbling and babbling steady for half an +hour," grumbled the annoyed Ethan. "How do you expect me to get any +sleep with that racket going on? Come on up to bed before the old man +wakes up." + +Thankful that it was Ethan instead of Mr. Peabody, Bob gathered up +his sardines and the remnants of the crackers and tiptoed up the +attic stairs to the room he shared with the hired man. + +Betty hastily slipped into bed, and though Bob's news had excited +her, she was tired enough to fall asleep readily. + +In the morning she watched her chance to speak to Bob alone, and +when she heard him grinding a sickle in the toolhouse ran out to tell +him something. + +"You must let me lend you some money, Bob," she said earnestly. "I +know you haven't enough to go to Washington on. I've been saving, +thanks to your advice, and I have more than I need. Besides, I could +borrow from the Guerins or the Benders. You will take some, won't you?" + +"I have enough, really I have," insisted Bob. "You know Dr. Guerin +sold every one of those charms I carved, and I haven't spent a cent. +It's all buried in a little canvas bag under the rose bush, just like +a movie. I hate to take money from a girl, Betty." + +"Don't be silly!" Betty stamped her foot angrily. "It's only a loan, +Bob. And you'd feel cheap, wouldn't you, if you had to come back +after you ran away because you didn't have enough money? You take +this, and you can pay it back as soon as you please after you have +seen the old bookstore man." + +She pushed a tight little wad of money into the boy's perspiring hand. + +"All right," he capitulated. "I'll borrow it. I would like to know I +had enough. Sure I'm not crippling you, Betsey?" + +Betty shook her head, smiling. + +"I've enough to buy a ticket to Washington," she assured him. +"That's all we need, isn't it, Bob? Oh, how I wish Uncle Dick would +send for me!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AT THE VENDUE + + +"You, Bob!" + +The shout awakened Betty at dawn the next morning, and running to +the window she saw Bob disappear into the barn, Mr. Peabody close on +his heels. + +"Oh, goodness, I suppose he's scolding about something," sighed the +girl. "There always is something to find fault about. I hope Bob will +keep his temper, because I want him to be able to take me to the +vendue this afternoon." + +Joseph Peabody came into breakfast in a surly frame of mind, a +mental condition faithfully reflected in the attitude of his hired +man who jerked back his chair and subsided into it with a grunt. +Betty's irrepressible sense of humor pictured the dog (the Peabodys +kept no dog because the head of the house considered that dogs ate +more than they were worth) tucking his tail between his legs and +slinking under the table as a port in the storm. The dog, she +decided, glancing at Mrs. Peabody's timid face, was all that was +needed to set the seal on a scene of ill-nature and discomfort. + +Bob, when he came in late with the milk pails, wore a black scowl +and set his burden down with a crash that spilled some of the +precious fluid on to the oilcloth top of the side table. + +"Be a little more careful with that," growled Mr. Peabody, taking +the last piece of ham, which left nothing but the fried potatoes and +bread for Bob's breakfast. "The cows are going dry fast enough +without you trying to waste the little they give." + +Bob, looking as though he could cheerfully fling the contents of +both pails over his employer, sullenly began to pump water into the +hand basin. This habit of "washing up" at the kitchen sink while a +meal was in progress always thoroughly disgusted Betty, and Bob +usually performed his ablutions on the back porch. This morning he +was evidently too cross to consider a second person's feelings. + +"Always ready enough to throw out what doesn't belong to you," went +on Mr. Peabody grumbling. "Born in the poorhouse, you're in a fair +way to die there. If I didn't watch you every minute, you'd waste +more than I can save in a year." + +Bob, his face buried in the roller towel, lost his temper at this +point. + +"Oh, for Pete's sake, shut up!" he muttered. + +But Mr. Peabody had heard. With a quickness that surprised even his +wife, for ordinarily he slouched his way around, he sprang from his +chair, reached the side of the unconscious Bob, and soundly boxed his +ears twice. + +"I'll take no impudence from you!" he cried, enraged. "Here, come +back!" he yelled, as Bob started for the door. "You come back here +and sit down. When you don't come to the table, it will be because I +say so. Sit down, I say!" + +Bob, his face livid, his ears ringing, dropped into a chair at the +table. Ethan continued to eat stolidly, and Betty kept her eyes +resolutely fastened on her plate. + +"Just for that, you stay home from the Faulkner sale!" announced Mr. +Peabody who was more than ordinarily loquacious that morning. "I'll +find something for you to do this afternoon that'll keep your hands +busy, if not your tongue. Eat your breakfast. I'll have no mincing +over food at my table." + +Poor Bob, who had often been forbidden a meal as punishment, now +mechanically tried to eat the unappetizing food placed before him. +Betty was terribly disappointed about the sale, for she had set her +heart on going. There were few pleasures open to her as a member of +the household at Bramble Farm, and, with the exception of the Guerin +girls in town, she had no girl friends her own age. Bob had proved +himself a sympathetic, loyal chum, and he alone had made the summer +endurable. + +"Don't care!" she cried, to console the boy, as Peabody and his +helper went out of the house to begin the field work for the day. +"Don't care, Bob. I really don't mind not going to the sale." + +Mrs. Peabody was in the pantry, straining the milk. + +"We're going," whispered Bob. "You meet me right after dinner at the +end of the lane. I'm sick of being knocked around, and I think Jim +Turner will be at the sale. I want to see him. Anyway, we're going." + +"But--but Mr. Peabody will be furious!" ventured Betty. "You know +what a scene he will make, Bob. Do you think we had better go?" + +"You needn't," said Bob ungraciously. "I am." + +"Of course, if you go, so will I," replied Betty, swallowing a sharp +retort. Bob was badgered enough without a contribution from her. +"Perhaps he will not miss us--we can get back in time for supper." + +Immediately after dinner at noon Mr. Peabody sent Bob out to the hay +loft to pitch down hay for the balers who were expected to come and +set up their machine that night, ready for work the next day. He +could not have selected a meaner job, for the hay loft was stifling +in the heat of the midday sun which beat down on the roof of the +barn, and there were only two tiny windows to supply air. Mr. Peabody +himself was going up in the woods to mark trees for some needed fence +rails. + +Bob departed with a significant backward glance at Betty, which sent +her flying upstairs to get into a clean frock. Mrs. Peabody +manifested so little interest in her activities that the girl +anticipated no difficulty in getting safely out of the house. As it +happened, her hostess made the way even easier. + +"If you're going to Glenside, Betty," she remarked dully, stopping +in the doorway of Betty's room as the girl pulled on her hat, "I wish +you'd see if Grimshaw has any meat scraps. Joseph might get me a bit +the next time he goes over. Just ask how much it is, an' all--the +hens need something more than they're getting." + +Betty knew that Joseph Peabody would never buy meat scraps for his +wife's hens. Indeed, she had priced stuff several times at Mrs. +Peabody's request and nothing had ever come of it. But she agreed to +go to Grimshaw's if she got that far in her walk, and Mrs. Peabody +turned aside into her own room without asking any questions. + +"Gee! thought you never were coming," complained Bob, when the slim +figure in the navy serge skirt and white middy met him at the end of +the lane road. "The sale starts at one sharp, you know, and we'll +miss the first of it. Lots of 'em will come in overalls, so I'll be +in style." + +Before they had walked very far they were overtaken by a rattling +blackboard, drawn by a lean, raw-boned white horse and driven by a +cheerful farmer's wife who invited them to "hop in," an invitation +which they accepted gratefully. She was going to the Faulkner vendue, +she informed them, and her heart was set on three wooden wash tubs +and seven yards of ingrain carpet advertised in the list of household +goods offered for sale. + +"My daughter's going to set up for herself next fall," she said +happily, "and that ingrain will be just the thing for her spare room." + +When they reached the Faulkner farm, a rather commonplace group of +buildings set slightly in a hollow, they found teams and automobiles +of every description blocking the lane that led to the house. + +Bob tied the white horse to an unoccupied post for the woman, and +she hastened away, worried lest the ingrain carpet be sold before she +could reach the crowd surrounding the auctioneer. + +Betty, for whom all this was a brand-new experience, enjoyed the +excitement keenly. She followed Bob up to the front porch of the +house where the household effects were being put up for sale, Bob +explaining that the live stock would be sold later. + +"Well, look who's here!" cried a hearty voice, as a man, moving +aside to give Betty room, allowed the person standing next to him to +see the girl's face. "Betty Gordon! And Bob, too! Not thinking of +going to farming, are you?" + +Gray-haired, kindly-faced Doctor Guerin shook hands cordially, and +kept a friendly arm across Bob's thin shoulders. + +"Friends of yours coming home next Tuesday," he said, smiling as one +who knows he brings pleasant news. "The Benders are due in Laurel +Grove. Mrs. Guerin had a postal card last night." + +Betty was glad to hear this, for she did not want Bob to leave +Bramble Farm without seeking the advice of the fine young police +recorder who had been so good to them and whose friendship both she +and Bob valued as only those can who need real friends. + +"I came to bid on a secretary," Doctor Guerin confided presently. +"It's the only good thing in the whole house. Rest of the stuff is +nothing but trash. That antique dealer from Petria is here, too, and +I suspect he has his eye on the same piece. Don't you want to bid for +me Bob, to keep him in the dark?" + +Bob was delighted to do the doctor a service, and when the mahogany +secretary was put up for sale the few other bidders soon dropped out, +leaving the field to the Petria dealer and the lad in the faded +overalls. The dealer, of course, knew that Bob must represent some +buyer, but he could not decide for whom he was bidding, and so was in +the dark as to how high his opponent would go. Had he known that +Doctor Hal Guerin was bidding against him, he would have been +enlightened, for the doctor's collection of antiques was really +famous and the envy of many a professional collector. + +"I suppose some rube wants the desk for his sitting room," thought +the Petria man lazily, his eye, keen as it was, failing to see the +doctor in the crowd. "Let him have it, and I'll buy it from him for +ten dollars more before he leaves the sale. He can't resist turning +over his money quick like that." + +So when the auctioneer boomed "Sold for forty dollars," and in +answer to his request for the buyer's name Bob said clearly, "Doctor +Guerin," in his own language, the man from Petria was "just plain +sick." + +After the household things were sold--and Betty noted with +satisfaction that the three tubs and the ingrain carpet went to the +woman who had so coveted them--she and Bob went out to the barn and +watched the horses and cows, wagons, harnesses and farm machinery +sold. It was an absorbing and colorful scene, and the boy and girl, +fascinated, lingered till the last item was checked off. Then, with a +start, Bob heard a farmer announce that it was half past five. + +"Oh dear!" sighed Betty nervously, "you ought to be milking this +minute. Oh, Bob, let's not go home! Couldn't we stay overnight with +Doctor Guerin?" + +"Now don't you be afraid, there won't anything happen to scare you," +responded Bob soothingly. It must be confessed that the knowledge of +the little sum of money tucked away under the rosebush gave him a +bolder outlook on the future. + +Hiram Keppler, who owned the farm just beyond the Peabody place, +gave them a lift as far as their lane, and as they hurried down the +road Betty tried her best to master her dread of the coming +interview. She had not a doubt but that Bob's absence would have been +noticed. Looking ahead fearfully, she saw a sight that confirmed her +worst forebodings. + +Joseph Peabody stood at the barnyard gate, a horsewhip in his hand + + + + +CHAPTER V + +CONSEQUENCES + + +"Oh, Bob!" Betty clutched the boy's sleeve in a panic. "And the +balers have come!" + +"So!" began Mr. Peabody, in tones of cold fury. "That's the way you +carry out my orders! Not one forkful of hay pitched down, and the men +ready to go to work to-morrow. You miserable, sneaking loafer, where +have you been?" + +"To the vendue," said Bob defiantly. + +"Flatly refuse to mind, do you? Well, I'll give you one lesson you +won't forget!" the man reached over and gripped Bob by his shirt +collar. Struggling violently, he was pulled over the five-barred gate. + +"I'll learn you!" snarled Peabody, raising the whip. + +Betty sprang up on the gate, her eyes blazing. + +"How dare you!" she cried, her voice shaking with anger. "How dare +you strike him! I'll scream till some one comes if you touch him. +Those men at the barn won't stand by and see you beat a boy." + +"Hoity toity!" sputtered the amazed farmer, confronting the angry +girl in the middy blouse with the blazing cheeks and tangled dark +braids. + +Bob tried to pull himself free, but was brought up short by a quick +twist. + +"I'm not through with you," Peabody informed him grimly. He glanced +quickly toward the barn and observed the men watching him covertly. +It was the better part of discretion, something told him, not to flog +the boy before so many witnesses. + +"I'm through with you!" declared Bob through clenched teeth. "I'm +going! You've had all out of me you're going to get. Let go of me!" + +For answer, Peabody tightened his hold on the worn shirt collar. + +"Is that so?" he drawled. "Let me tell you, Mr. Smarty, you'll go +out to that barn and pitch down the hay you were supposed to do this +afternoon or you'll go back to the poorhouse. You can take your +choice. The county has a place for incorrigible boys, and if you go +far enough you'll land in the reform school. Are you going out to the +barn or not?" + +"I'll go," agreed Bob sullenly. + +"Then see that you do. And you needn't bother to stop for supper--you've +several hours' lost time to make up," said Peabody nastily. +"Now go!" + +He shook the boy till his teeth rattled and then released him with a +powerful sling that sent him spinning into the dust. Bruised and +shaken, Bob picked himself up and started for the barn. + +"You hold your tongue a bit better, or something'll come your way," +said Peabody shortly, eyeing Betty with disfavor and turning on his +heel at a shout of "Ho, Boss!" from the foreman of the balers. + +"Hateful!" cried Betty stormily, climbing down from the gate. "He's +the most absolutely hateful man that ever lived! I wonder if he could +send Bob back to the poorhouse?" + +The same thought was troubling Bob, she found, when after supper she +went out to the barn and climbed the loft ladder to see him. She had +brought him some bread and water, the latter contributed by the +Peabody pump and the bread saved from Betty's own meal. + +"Do you know, Betty," confided the boy, wiping the heavy +perspiration from his face with a distressingly hot looking red +cotton handkerchief, "I've been thinking over what old Peabody said. +He might take it into his head to send me back to the poorhouse. He +really needs a younger boy, one he can slam about more. I'm getting +so I can fight back. I don't fancy hanging on here till he makes up +his mind to get another boy, and running away from the poorhouse +isn't a simple matter. I'd better make the plunge while there's good +swimming." + +It was stifling in the loft, and Betty felt almost giddy. She sat at +the top of the ladder, her feet hanging over the edge of the floor +and regarded Bob anxiously. + +"Well, perhaps you had better go early next week," she said +judiciously. "It would be dreadful if he did return you to the +poorhouse." + +"Therefore, I'm going to-night," announced Bob coolly. "There's an +eleven-thirty train from Glenside that will make some sort of +connection with the southern local at the Junction. Wish me luck, +Betty!" + +"To-night!" gasped Betty in dismay. "Oh, Bob! don't go to-night. +Wait just one night more, ah, please do!" + +Betty had the truly feminine horror of quick decisions, and she was +frankly upset by this determination of Bob's. Even as she pleaded she +knew he had made up his mind and that it was useless to ask him to +change it. + +"I don't see how you can go--you're not ready," she argued +feverishly. "Your shirts are on the line; I saw them. You're dead +tired after all this work, and it's a long walk to Glenside. Wait +just till to-morrow, Bob, and I won't say a word." + +"No, I'm going to-night," said Bob firmly. "I haven't so much +packing to do that it will take me over fifteen minutes. I'll help +myself to the shirts on the line as I go in. By to-morrow morning +I'll be as far away from Bramble Farm as the local can take me." + +"But--but--I'll miss you so!" protested Betty, the catch in her +voice sounding perilously close to tears. "What shall I ever do all +alone in this hateful place!" + +"Oh, now, Betty!" Bob put a clumsy hand on her shoulder in an effort +to comfort her. "Don't you care--you'll be going to Washington as +soon as you get word from your uncle. Maybe I'll be there when you +come, and we'll go sightseeing together." + +"Are you going right to Washington?" asked Betty, drying her eyes. +"And are you sure you have enough money?" + +"Oceans of cash," Bob assured her cheerfully. "That's right, brace +up and smile. Think what it will mean to have one peaceful breakfast, +for the last week Peabody has ragged me every meal. Sure I'm going to +Washington to dig out a few facts from this Lockwood Hale. Now I'll +throw down a little more hay for good measure and we'll go on in. +Mustn't rouse suspicions by staying out too long. Peabody will +probably sit up for me to come in to-night." + +Betty waited till the hay was pitched down, then followed Bob to the +main floor of the barn. + +"Couldn't I walk just a little way with you?" she asked wistfully. +"How soon are you going to start? I could go as far as the end of the +lane." + +"I'd rather you went to bed and to sleep," said Bob kindly. "You +couldn't very well traipse around at night, Betty, and I'm not going +till it is good and dark. There's no moon to-night, and you might +have trouble getting back to the house." + +"Well--all right," conceded Betty forlornly. "There doesn't seem to +be anything I can do. Whistle under my window, please do, Bob. I'll +be awake. And I could say good-by. I won't make a fuss, I promise." + +The boy's packing was of the simplest, for he owned neither suitcase +nor trunk, and his few belongings easily went into a square of old +wrapping paper. He had earned them, few as they were, and felt no +compunctions about taking them with him. + +After the bundle was tied up he waited a half hour or so, purely as +a precaution, for the Peabody household went to bed with the chickens +and, with the possible exception of Mrs. Peabody, slumbered heavily. +Bob slipped down the stairs, waking no one, unfastened the heavy +front door, never locked and only occasionally, as to-night, bolted +with a chain, and stepped softly around to the bush where his +precious tin box was buried. + +This box was Bob's sole inheritance from his mother, and he had only +a vague knowledge of the papers entrusted to it. Among the yellowed +slips was the marriage certificate of his parents, and he knew that +there were one or two letters. When Joseph Peabody had taken him from +the poorhouse, the lad had buried the box for safekeeping, and during +the three or four years he had been with Mr. Peabody had never taken +it up. + +It was not buried very deeply, and he easily uncovered it, smoothing +down the earth to hide the traces of his hasty excavating. He went +around to Betty's window and whistled softly, half hoping that she +might be asleep. + +"Hello, Bob dear!" she called instantly, leaning from the window, +her vivid face so alight with affection and hope for him that it was +a pity he could not see her clearly. "I'm wishing you the best of +luck, and I hope the old bookstore man has splendid news for you. You +wait for me in Washington." + +"I will!" whispered Bob heartily. "And you tell Mr. Bender, won't +you? He'll understand. I'll write him the first chance I get, and Doc +Guerin, too. Good-by, Betty--I--I--" + +To his surprise and confusion, Bob suddenly choked. + +"Here's something to take with you," said Betty softly, dropping a +little packet that landed at his feet. "Good-by, Bob. I just know +things will turn out all right for you." + +The dark head was withdrawn, and Bob, picking up the little package, +turned and began his long walk to the Glenside station. A hoot-owl +screeched at mournful intervals, and the night sounds would have +tried a city lad's nerves in that long dark stretch that led him +finally to the station. But Bob could identify every sound, and +nature had always proved kind to him, far kinder than many of the +people he had known. He trudged along sturdily, and, twenty minutes +before the train was due, found himself the solitary passenger on the +Glenside platform. + +He stood under the uncertain rays of the lamp to examine the parting +gift Betty had given him. Tucked under half a dozen chocolate wafers +was a five dollar bill folded into the tiniest possible wad. The +choky feeling assailed Bob again. + +"She certainly is some girl!" he thought with mixed gratitude and +admiration. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE RUNAWAY MISSED + + +Bob's absence was not discovered till breakfast time, for Ethan, who +was a sound sleeper, when he woke and saw Bob's empty cot, supposed +the boy had risen earlier than usual and gone to the barn. Mr. +Peabody, too, took it for granted that the boy was milking, and it +was not until they were seated at the table and half way through the +meal that anything out of the ordinary was suspected. + +"Why in tarnation doesn't that good for nothing bring in the milk?" +grumbled Mr. Peabody. "I declare he gets later and later every +morning. The balers will be over to start work at seven, and if he +thinks he's going to spend half an hour dawdling over his breakfast +after they get here, he's much mistaken." + +The men who were to bale the hay had slept at the adjoining farm, +according to the agreement made, and would be at Bramble Farm for +dinner and supper and to spend that night. + +"You're finished, Ethan. Go hurry him up," ordered Joe Peabody. +"Send him in here flying and turn the cows out to pasture." + +"He hasn't milked!" Ethan cleared the porch steps at a single bound +and burst into the kitchen, shouting this intelligence. Excitement +was scarce in Ethan's life, and he enjoyed the pleasurable sensation +of carrying unusual tidings, even if unpleasant. "The barn door was +shut and the cows were bellowing their heads off. Not a one of 'em's +been milked!" + +"I want to know!" said Joseph Peabody stupidly. "Was he in bed when +you came down, Ethan?" + +"No, he wasn't," answered the hired man. "I thought he'd gone on +out. Do you suppose something's happened to him?" + +Mr. Peabody stepped to the porch and gave a quick glance at the +bench where the milk pails were usually left to air and dry. They +were there, just as they had been left the night before. + +"I think he's cleared out!" he announced: grimly. "Betty, do you +know what this young scoundrel is up to?" + +Betty's eyes brimmed over, and she flung herself blindly into Mrs. +Peabody's arms which closed around her, though that good woman was +unaccustomed to demonstrations of affection. + +"There, there." She tried to soothe the girl, for Betty's convulsive +sobbing really alarmed her. + +"Don't you go to feel bad, dearie. If Bob's gone, he's gone, and +that's all there is to it." + +Peabody, milk pail in hand, motioned to Ethan to go out and begin +milking. + +"That isn't all there is to it, not by a long shot!" he growled at +his wife. "If I get my hands on that boy he'll rue the day he ever +set foot off this farm. He'll go back to the poorhouse and there +he'll stay till he's of age." + +Betty sat up, pushing the tumbled hair from her hot forehead. + +"I'm glad Bob ran away!" she cried recklessly. "He's gone where you +won't catch him, either. You never treated him fairly, and you know +it." + +Peabody banged the kitchen door by way of relieving his feelings, +but the latch did not fasten so that he heard Betty's next sentence +addressed to his wife. + +"I'm only waiting for a letter from Uncle Dick," confided Betty. +"Then I'm going to Washington. Things will never be any different +here, Mrs. Peabody; you've said so yourself. I wish Uncle Dick would +hurry and write. It's been a good while since I heard." And there was +a catch in the girl's voice. + +The man slouched off the porch, a peculiar smile on his lean, shrewd +face. One hand, thrust into his ragged coat pocket, rested on a +letter there. As he felt it beneath his fingers, his crafty eyes +brightened with a gleam of mockery. + +Mrs. Peabody may have been curious about Bob's departure, but she +asked no questions, somewhat to Betty's surprise. + +"I'm glad she doesn't ask me," thought Betty, helping mechanically +in the preparations for dinner which were more elaborate than usual +because of the presence of the three balers. "Bob must be half way to +Washington by now, and I don't believe they have the slightest idea +he is headed for there." The Peabodys, she reasoned, knew nothing of +Lockwood Hale, and of the attraction the capital of the country held +for the orphan lad. + +Betty insisted on doing a fair share of the extra work after the +noon meal, and then ran upstairs to get ready to go over to Glenside. +She wanted to tell the Guerins that Bob had gone, and from their +house she knew she could telephone to those other good friends, the +Benders. Laurel Grove was too far to walk, even for a practised hiker +like Betty. + +To her dismay, as she left the house, Mr. Peabody joined her and +fell into step. + +"I'll go as far as Durlings with you," he announced affably, Durling +being their neighbor on the south, his farm lying along the road in +the direction of Glenside. "Sorry the horses haven't shoes, Betty, or +you might drive." + +Betty shot him a suspicious glance. The three horses never were +shod, except when a certain amount of traveling had to be done on the +stone road. In all the weeks she had spent at Bramble Farm a horse +had never been offered for her convenience, and all of her trips to +town had been either afoot, or taken with Bob in the rattling, +shabby, one-horse work wagon. + +"Where did you say Bob was going?" came next. + +Betty bit her lip. + +"I didn't say," she said evenly. "I--I don't think it's fair to ask +me." + +"But you know," snapped Mr. Peabody. "I guess I have a right to know +where he's gone. I'm responsible for him. I've got papers that show +it. The poorhouse folks are going to ask me what becomes of him. You +just tell me where he went, and I'll satisfy 'em. I won't follow him +and try to bring him back, Betty. He's too old for that. Making his +bed, he'll have to lie on it. I won't follow him." + +The girl twisted her handkerchief nervously. She was not afraid of +the man. That is, she feared no physical violence at his hands, but +he was capable, she knew, of forcing her back to the farm and locking +her up in her room till she furnished him with the required +information. And what harm could it do Bob? It was not likely that +Peabody could find the boy in a large city. + +"He won't be made to come back," repeated her tormentor. + +"I wish I could believe you," said Betty pitifully. + +She looked so young and helpless, trying to pit her girlish +intelligence and strength against the wily miser, that another man +would have been ashamed to press her. Not so Peabody--he had always +considered that he was entitled to whatever he could get from others, +information, cash, or work, it mattered not. + +They were approaching the Durling farm now, and suddenly Betty's +pointed chin lifted. + +"I won't tell you!" she said firmly. "I do know where Bob went, but +he was perfectly justified in leaving a place where he was treated +worse than a dog. You would do him no good--I'm sure of that. And if +the poorhouse authorities make a fuss about his running off, I'll +tell them what he had to endure." + +Joseph Peabody's mouth dropped in astonishment. He had seen Betty +lose her temper before, but she had never so openly defied him. + +"You think you're high and mighty," he sneered. "Let me tell you, +Miss, there's more ways than one of getting what you want in this +world. Joe Peabody isn't checkmated very often, and it takes more +than an impudent girl to do it. I'm going into Lem Durling's and +telephone Jim Turner, the poormaster. I kind of surmise he can give +me a line on the direction Bob's taken." + +Betty walked on, disdaining to answer, her head very high in the air +but her heart in her shoes. Jim Turner would be sure to tell of +Lockwood Hale, and Mr. Peabody would be astute enough to guess that +Bob's destination was Washington. + +When she reached Doctor Guerin's house, between the heat and the +dust and the long walk and her anxiety, she was in a highly excited +state, and the doctor's wife made her lie down on the couch and rest +before she would allow her to telephone to the Benders. Mrs. Bender's +sister answered the telephone. The recorder and his wife had made a +detour on their homeward trip that would extend their absence for +another week. + +"Betty, you'll be ill if you're going to get all worked up like +this," scolded Mrs. Guerin, for Betty was crying as she hung up the +receiver. "I never saw you so unstrung, my dear. You won't be fit to +go to your uncle when he does send for you. I wonder if the doctor +hadn't better see you?" + +Norma and Alice Guerin, two pretty girls, the former about Betty's +age, the latter a year or two older, looked at her anxiously. Betty +in tears was an unusual sight to them. + +"I'm all right," gulped that young person, inwardly alarmed at the +thought of being too ill to travel when the word came. "I didn't +sleep very well last night, thinking of Bob. Is that the secretary he +bid on at the Faulkner sale?" + +Knowing that the quickest way for Betty to get control of her nerves +was to forget her troubles, Mrs. Guerin entered into an enthusiastic +description of the beauties of the old desk, showing the secret +drawer and the half score of carved pigeonholes and dwelling on the +doctor's delight in securing such a treasure at a bargain. Mrs. +Guerin succeeded in having Betty more like her old self before Doctor +Hal Guerin came in from a round of calls. + +He was delighted to see Betty, who was an especial favorite of his, +and much interested in her account of Bob's flight. + +"Did the lad have money enough?" he growled. "I suppose he'd walk +before he'd borrow from me." + +"He had enough," Betty assured him. "All the charms you sold for him +amounted to quite a lot, and he had saved every cent of that." + +"And you probably helped him out," commented the doctor shrewdly. +"Well, well, the lad may yet whittle his way to fame and fortune." + +He referred to Bob's knack for fashioning pretty and quaint little +wooden charms and pendants, which he polished to satin smoothness and +painted and stained in bright colors. Norma Guerin had worn one at +boarding school, and it was through her and her father that Bob had +secured a large number of orders which had netted him a tidy little +sum. + +When the time came for Betty to go, the doctor insisted that he +would take her as far as the lane, and on the trip she told him that +as soon as she heard from her uncle she meant to pack her trunk and +leave for Washington. + +"I don't like the idea of your making the journey alone," grumbled +Doctor Guerin; "but I don't see who there is to go with you. One +thing, Betty girl, brushing up against the Peabodys has given you a +practical fund of self-reliance. You're better fitted than Alice to +find your way about alone. Not that I would have chosen to have you +get your knocks just in the manner they've been handed to you, but +the results leave nothing to be desired. You're standing squarely on +your own feet, Betsey, and it's this summer's grilling training that +has done it." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A BELATED LETTER + + +The hay was all baled by the next morning, and the balers, atop the +lumbering machine, caroled loudly if not musically as the fat horses +dragged them slowly up the lane. Neat bales of hay were piled high on +the barn floor, to be carted over to Hagar's Corners and loaded on a +freight car. That would be Ethan's job, and he grumbled at the +prospect of doing it without Bob's help. + +Betty, coming in from the garden, stumbled over something in the +narrow entry. It was a man's coat--Mr. Peabody's, she recognized when +she picked it up and shook it slightly to free it from dust. A letter +fell from the pocket as she replaced it on the hook where it usually +hung, and, stopping to pick it up, she saw to her surprise that it +was addressed to her. + +"From Washington!" she said aloud, deciphering the postmark. "And +mailed five days ago! He's carried it in his pocket ever since it +came!" + +At first she feared it had been read, but evidently Mr. Peabody had +not troubled to open it; so hastily tearing the envelope, she read +the brief note. A check was enclosed for her, and Mr. Gordon +suggested that she go to Pineville and visit old friends there for a +week or two until his plans were definitely shaped. + +"I know the Arnolds are in California," he wrote; "but the +Bensingers will be glad to have you, or any of your mother's old +friends. You do not have to stay one minute where you are unhappy." + +Betty looked up as a shadow fell across the sunny floor. It was Mr. +Peabody, and he had the grace to show confusion when he saw the +letter in her hand. + +Betty sprang to her feet. + +"Why did you keep my letter?" she demanded hotly. "How did you dare +to hold back mail? This must have been in your coat pocket three or +four days. It was mailed five days ago!" + +"Been rummaging in my coat pocket, have you?" sneered the farmer. + +"I have not! The coat was on the floor, and I fell over it. The +letter fell out while I was trying to hang it up. No one has a right +to hold back another person's mail!" + +"Now hold your horses," advised Peabody pacifically. "Who's been +holding back mail? If a body takes the mail out of the box and +carries it around in his coat a day or two, because he doesn't +remember it, that ain't such a crime that I ever knew. I just forgot +there was a letter for you." + +Betty turned away in disgust and went out to her favorite apple tree +to think things over. She did not believe for one moment that Mr. +Peabody had forgotten her letter. Indeed, absent-mindedness was far +from being one of his traits. However, there was absolutely nothing +to be gained by arguing, and the way was now clear for her to leave +Bramble Farm. Surely the worst of her troubles were over. + +"I might go to Pineville," she thought meditatively. "I'd love to +see the Bensingers again and the dear little house where we lived. +I'll pack this afternoon." + +Betty was an orderly little person, and at her work that afternoon +she stopped frequently to sew on a button here, to mend a rip in this +garment or to whip a frayed edge that might mar an otherwise dainty +belonging. Singing softly over her task, a timid knock at her door +wakened the girl from a happy reverie. + +"Come in, Mrs. Peabody," she called cheerfully. "Do sit down and +give me advice about where things should go. I thought I hadn't +bought anything this summer, but I seem to have a great deal more +stuff than I brought with me." + +"You're packing then?" asked Mrs. Peabody, taking a chair near the +bed and regarding Betty oddly. "Are you really going, Betty?" + +"Oh, yes," Betty answered matter-of-factly, "Uncle Dick wants me to +stop in Pineville and visit old friends for a bit. And there's no use +in pretending, Mrs. Peabody, that--that--" + +"No, I suppose not," sighed the woman, understanding only too well. +"Land knows, if I could get away I'd have no misgivings about the +right of it. I'll miss you, though. You've been a sight of company +this summer, and no one could have been sweeter to me, Betty." + +"Agatha!" came a stentorian shout from the front hall. "Are you +going to stay up there all day?" + +"My stars, I forgot what I came up for!" Mrs. Peabody rose +hurriedly. "Joseph sent me up to tell you he wanted to ask you +something, Betty. And here I sit right down and him waiting there all +this time!" + +Betty was far from concerned over Mr. Peabody's wasted time, but she +wondered uneasily what he could wish to ask her. Something connected +with Bob, doubtless. She followed Mrs. Peabody downstairs and found +the master of Bramble Farm striding up and down impatiently. + +"Never saw the beat of women," he muttered. "Gabble, gabble, and an +hour right out of a day's work means nothing to 'em. Oh, here you +are, Miss. You know that gray alpaca coat of mine you took the letter +from this morning?" + +"The coat the letter fell out of?" corrected Betty, knowing that +such quibbling was foolish On her part and might provoke serious +irritation in her questioner, yet unable to refrain. "Of course I +remember it; what about it?" + +Peabody accepted her description of the coat. He was plainly excited +and nervous, and betrayed a curious disposition to conciliate Betty, +instantly detected in his change of tone. + +"Did you pick up any other papers?" he asked quite politely. "Any +folded sheets, I mean, or a long envelope? I thought you might have +put them back of the clock or somewhere for safe keeping and +forgotten to mention them to me." + +Betty looked her astonishment. Automatically her eyes traveled to +the clock which was pulled out of its place against the wall. So the +man had actually looked there, believing that out of chagrin she +might have concealed his papers from him! + +"Nothing fell out of your pocket except my letter," she said +earnestly and with a quietness that carried conviction. "I saw +absolutely nothing else on the floor. If I had picked up other +papers, I should have returned them to you, of course." + +Mrs. Peabody cleared her throat, usually a sign of coming speech on +the rare occasions when she did open her mouth in her husband's +presence. + +"What you lost, Joseph?" she asked eagerly. "Something missing out +o' your pocket?" + +"Yes, something out of my pocket!" said her husband savagely. "You +wouldn't know if I told you, but it's an unrecorded deed and worth a +good deal of money. And I'll bet I know who took it--that measly +runaway, Bob Henderson! By gum, he carried the coat up to the house +for me from the barn the day before he lit out. That's where it's +gone. I see his game! He'll try to get money out of me. But I won't +pay him a cent. No sir, I'll go to Washington first and choke the +deed out of his dirty pocket." + +"Did Bob go to Washington?" quavered Mrs. Peabody, her mind seizing +on this concrete fact, the one statement she could understand in her +husband's monologue. "How'd you find out, Joseph?" + +"Not through Betty," returned Peabody grimly. "She's willing to take +the scoundrel's part against honest folks any time. Jim Turner told +me. Leastways he told me of some old duffer who runs a crazy shop +down there, and he thinks Bob's gone looking him up to find out about +his parents. Just let him try blackmailing me, and he'll learn a +thing or two." + +Betty had kept still as long as she could. + +"Bob is no thief!" she said bravely. "You ought to be ashamed to +say such a thing about him. I know he didn't take your old deed. What +earthly use would it be to him? Besides, Bob would never touch a +thing that wasn't his!" + +"I don't believe he would take anything, Joseph," urged Mrs. Peabody +with perfectly amazing temerity. As a rule she took neither side in a +controversy. "Besides, as the child says, what good would an +unrecorded deed do him? Unless--Joseph, have you bought the Warren +lots?" + +"You tend to your housework, and I'll manage my own affairs," +snapped Peabody, turning a dull brick red, however. "I meant to put +the thing in the safety deposit box over to the bank, and then that +sick cow took my mind completely off it. If Betty didn't take it, Bob +did. It's gone, and they're the only two that could have put hands on +it." + +"I tell you that I haven't seen the deed," said Betty firmly. "And I +am equally certain that Bob never took it. He's the soul of honor, +whatever you may think, and he would no more take what wasn't his +than he would lie to you about it." + +Peabody caught hold of her right hand suddenly. + +"What you carrying?" he demanded suspiciously. "A trunk key? Looks +mighty funny, doesn't it, to be packing up with something pretty +valuable missing? The law would likely give me the right to search +your trunk." + +"What a dreadful old man you are!" cried Betty, involuntarily, +shrinking from the sinister face that grinned malevolently into hers. +"You have no right to touch my trunk." + +"Well, no call to look like that," muttered Peabody, turning toward +the door. "I knew that other young one took it, and I aim to make it +hot for him." + +"Bob didn't take any deed!" stormed Betty to Mrs. Peabody, her +packing forgotten for the moment. "Why does he keep insisting Bob +stole it? And why, oh, why did that poorhouse man have to tell where +Bob had gone?" + +Mrs. Peabody's natural curiosity had to be satisfied, and as it was +no longer a secret Betty told her of Lockwood Hale and Bob's +determination to find out more about himself. + +"He doesn't want any deed," she finished scornfully. "Can't you make +Mr. Peabody see how foolish such an accusation is?" + +Mrs. Peabody leaned against the kitchen table wearily. + +"I know what he's thinking," she said dully. "I know more than I +want to know, Betty. Joseph has bought the Warren lots, and that +means he's got 'em for his own price. Old man Warren is in his dotage +and these lots have been surveyed and cut up into building plots on +the stone road over t'other side of Laurel Grove where the trolley's +coming through this spring. Joseph will probably sell 'em for three +times what he's paid for 'em. That's why he doesn't have the deed +recorded; Warren's children will get hold of it, and I doubt if the +sale would hold in court. Everybody knows the old father isn't +competent to handle his property. There was talk of having one of the +sons made his guardian some months ago. Joseph has just talked him +into selling. If he wasn't my husband, I should say the sale was a +plain swindle." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GOOD-BY TO BRAMBLE FARM + + +Betty was still mystified. + +"What has Bob to do with it?" she urged. "I don't see how the deed +would be of any use to him; he couldn't claim the lots." + +"No, he couldn't claim the lots," admitted Joseph Peabody's wife. +"But he could hold the deed and threaten to notify George Warren, if +Joseph didn't pay him a good round sum of money. Mind you, I'm not +saying he would do that, Betty, but he could. That's what Joseph +thinks he means to do." + +"Well, I call that very silly," said Betty briskly. "Bob Henderson +isn't a thief or a blackmailer, whatever Mr. Peabody chooses to +think. That deed is probably in another coat pocket this minute, or +else he's lost it over in Glenside." + +"I expect that worries him some, too," confided Mrs. Peabody. "He +would hate to have it known that he's bought the Warren lots. But I +guess it would have been better to have had the deed recorded than to +run the risk of losing it and the whole town likely to pick it up on +the street." + +Before supper that night Betty had her trunk packed and her simple +belongings gathered up. She knew that Peabody was fully aware of her +intention to leave, but, as her board was paid for nearly a week in +advance, he could make no possible objection. It was sheer +perversity, she decided, that kept him from mentioning the subject to +her. + +"I'm going to-morrow, Mr. Peabody," she said pleasantly at the +supper table, having waited till Ethan had gone to the barn to milk. +"What time would be most convenient to take my trunk over to Glenside +or to Hagar's Corners?" + +"I'm not going to either place to-morrow," was the composed answer. +"Don't know exactly when I shall be going over again, either. Ethan +and me's got our hands full right here with the late-season +cultivating." + +"But I have to get to the station," protested Betty. "I can walk, of +course, but some one will have to take my trunk. You met me at the +station when I came, or rather Bob did, you know. Why aren't you +willing to help me go now that the summer is nearly over?" + +"You haven't done me so many favors that I should put myself out for +you," retorted Peabody sourly. "I don't care how you get to the +station, but none of my rigs go off this place to-morrow, that's +flat. And you haven't got that thieving nimble-fingers to plot and +plan with you now. You'll have to manage by yourself." + +"What are you going to do, Betty?" asked Mrs. Peabody anxiously, +following the girl to the door after the meal was over. "You're not +going to walk to Glenside to-night to try to get a team to come after +you?" + +"No, I'm only going over to Kepplers," replied Betty capably. "I'm +sure one of the boys will drive me over, if not to Glenside, to +Hagar's Corners, where I can get some kind of train for the Junction. +All the through trains stop at Hagar's Corners, don't they? I came +that way. Perhaps that station is better than Glenside, after all." + +The walk across the fields tranquillized her, and she was able to +enlist the aid of the Keppler's oldest boy without entering into too +detailed an account of Mr. Peabody's shortcomings. Indeed, the +Kepplers, father and sons, having been the nearest neighbors to +Bramble Farm for eleven years, had a very fair idea of what went on +there. + +"Sure, I'll take you, and the trunk, too," promised Fred Keppler +heartily. "Any time you say, Betty. There's a good train for +Pineville, not too many stops, at twelve-three. How about that?" + +It was settled that he should come for her about half past ten, and +Betty walked home filled with thoughts of the little home town to +which she would be speeding on the morrow. + +"If Uncle Dick knew the things I've had to endure, I'm sure he'd say +that I haven't lost my temper often, considering," she mused. "Is +that something sticking out of the mail box? Why. it is, and a +newspaper. I guess Mr. Peabody forgot to come down to the box to-day." + +She opened the box and found the paper was addressed to her. The +familiar wrapper and type told her it was the _Pineville Post_, to +which she had subscribed when she left the town, and, tucking it under +her arm, she went on to the house, intending to read an hour or so +before going to bed. + +Lighting the lamp in her room, Betty glanced toward her trunk +mechanically. She had left it locked, but the lid was now ajar. Had +some one been tampering with the lock? + +"He's opened it!" she cried to herself, making a hasty examination. +"How did he dare! And look at the mess everything's in!" + +Alas for Betty's hour of neat and careful packing! Dainty garments +were tossed about recklessly, her shoes rested on her clean +handkerchiefs, and it was plain that no attempt had been made to +conceal the fact that a heavy hand had thoroughly explored the +contents of the trunk. + +"I'm only thankful he didn't break the lock," said Betty, trying to +find a ray of brightness. "Whatever he opened it with, nothing is +broken. I suppose the only thing to do is to take everything out and +do it all over. And to-morrow morning I'll sit on the top till Fred +Keppler comes." + +Taking out her clothes and repacking was a tiresome job, and all +thoughts of reading well gone from Betty's mind when the task was +completed and the trunk locked for a second time. With the feeling +that, in view of what the next day might bring, she ought to go to +bed early, she began at once to prepare for bed. Brushing her thick, +dark hair, her eyes fell on the unopened paper. + +"I suppose I'll be there to-morrow night," she thought, picking it +up and slitting the wrapper with a convenient nail file. + +She opened and smoothed out the first page. The first words that +caught her attention, in large black headlines across four columns, +were: + + GYPSY BAND STRICKEN WITH SMALL-POX: + + WHOLE TOWN QUARANTINED! + +Then followed the account of the discovery of illness among a band +of gypsies camped on the outskirts of Pineville, of the diagnosis of +smallpox, and of the strict quarantine immediately put in force. The +issue of the _Post_ was only two days old. + +"Well, I never!" gasped Betty, doing some rapid thinking. "I'm glad +it didn't happen after I got there. I might be held up for weeks. I +can't stay here, that's certain. There's nothing to do but drive to +Glenside and take the train for Washington. I guess Fred will be +willing to change his plans." + +She decided that she would say nothing to the Peabodys about the +alteration of her traveling schedule, fearing that if Mr. Peabody +heard she was going to Washington he might accuse her of a conspiracy +with Bob in connection with the lost deed. + +Bright and early the next morning she was up, her pretty traveling +bag, the gift of her uncle, packed, her room in perfect order. There +was really no one or nothing to say good-by to, for she felt more +pity than affection for Mrs. Peabody, and the Bramble Farm animals +had been too unused to petting to respond readily to her overtures. +Betty, at the breakfast table, had a swift conviction that she would +be leaving with far different feelings if Bob had been there to stay +behind. + +Mr. Peabody asked her no questions about her plans and stalked off +as usual to the barn with Ethan when he had finished the meal. + +"I declare I'm going to miss you, Betty," said Mrs. Peabody once, in +the middle of the dishwashing, with which Betty insisted on helping. + +That was a good deal for her to say, and the girl, who had a natural +longing to be missed, was grateful. And when Fred Keppler drove into +the yard, promptly at half-past ten, and went upstairs for her +trunk--for neither Peabody nor his hired man was in sight--Mrs. Peabody +kissed her warmly and with tears in her eyes. + +"Hop right in, Betty," said Fred cordially. "Got a nice day for your +trip, haven't you? All fixed? All right, then." + +He gathered up the reins and had turned the horse's head when, +apparently from the clouds, Mr. Peabody appeared on the scene. + +"Long as you're going over to Hagar's Corners you won't mind giving +me a lift, will you?" he drawled. "I have an errand over at the +station, and it won't take me a minute. I can come right back with +you. Go on, Fred; I'll sit in here with the trunk and you and Betty +needn't mind me." + +Without waiting for an invitation, he swung himself up on top of the +trunk, and smiled pleasantly. He was saving his own horse a long +drive and getting a necessary errand done at the expense of a +neighbor, always a desirable consummation in the Peabody mind. + +Fred opened his mouth and closed it wordlessly. His father would +have known what to do, but fifteen-year-old Fred did not know how to +deal with such a display of assurance. There seemed nothing to do but +to take this unwelcome passenger to Hagar's Corners and back. + +Betty, for her part, could have cried with vexation. Gone was her +chance of asking Fred to take her to Glenside, and with it the hope +of getting to Washington. She knew that after the noon train at +Hagar's Corners there were no more till four o'clock. She wanted to +say good-by to the Guerins and to cash her uncle's check. No wonder +she was assailed by a strong desire to tumble the satisfied Mr. +Peabody out head over heels. + +The drive was taken almost in silence, each of the three busy with +his own thoughts. At the station Betty and her trunk were put down, +and then she had a few minutes to speak to Fred while Mr. Peabody was +talking to the freight agent, who was also the passenger agent, the +telegraph clerk and the janitor. + +"Don't you want some money?" whispered Fred hurriedly. "Mother told +me to ask you. And she sent you this." + +He thrust into her hands a box of lunch. + +"I have a check I want to cash," said Betty nervously. "Will the +station agent do it, do you suppose? It's for fifty dollars. And, +Fred, Pineville is quarantined for smallpox and I want to go to +Washington, but I didn't want Mr. Peabody to know. Hush! Here he +comes now!" + +Fred Keppler had what his fond mother called a "good head," and as +Peabody and the agent stopped in the station doorway to continue +their discussion he proceeded to bear out her theory by thrusting a +wad of bills into Betty's hand. + +"Money for the calves," he explained. "Just fifty there. Haven't +seen Dad to turn it over to him. Give me the check and it will be all +right. And you ask Dan Gowdy, the agent, about trains. I guess he can +dope out a way to get you to Washington. You still have ten minutes." + +"Good-by, and thank you heaps!" cried Betty warmly, shaking his +hand. "I don't know what I should have done without you, Fred!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NEW FRIENDS + + +Her hands filled with the bank bills Fred had thrust into them, her +bag under one arm and the lunch box under the other, Betty stood +forlornly on the platform and watched the horse and wagon out of +sight. Mr. Peabody had merely nodded to her by way of farewell, and +Betty felt that if she never saw him again there would be little to +regret. As a matter of fact, she was to meet him again and not under +much more favorable aspects. But of that she was happily ignorant. + +The whistling of the lanky young station agent, who was covertly +staring at her under pretense of sweeping up the already neat boards +before the door, roused her. She remembered that she did not want to +go to Pineville. + +"Why, I guess I can fix it up for you," said Dan Gowdy cheerfully, +when she had stated her predicament, withholding only the reason for +not telling Mr. Peabody. "Let me see--twelve-three stops at +Centertown. But you don't want to spend the night on the train. Going +from Centertown, you'd get to Washington about ten in the morning." + +"I'd rather not sleep on the train," answered Betty timidly, hoping +that she was not unreasonable. Aside from the expense, she was not +used to traveling, and the idea of a night alone on the train for the +first time rather daunted her. + +"Well, then--Wait a minute, I've got it!" shouted the agent +enthusiastically. "You buy a ticket up the line to Halperin. That's +quite a town, and the through trains all stop. My brother-in-law's +telegraph operator there, and I'll send him a message to look out for +you, and he and my sister will keep you over night. They've got a +pretty place right in the country--trolley takes you to the door--and +a baby that's named for me and some kid if I do say it. Then in the +morning you can take the seven-forty-five for Washington and get +there at five-fifty-two if it isn't late. How's that?" + +"But your sister!" stammered Betty. "She doesn't know me. What will +she say?" + +"She'll say you have eyes just like Juliet, the little sister who +died when she was about your age," declared Dan Gowdy gently. "Don't +you fret, Sister, she'll be glad to have you. Now here's your ticket, +and I'll talk to Steve as soon as you're on board the train. That's +her smoke now." + +Betty was conscious that there was something else on her mind, but +it was not until she was seated in the train and had had her ticket +punched that she remembered. She had thanked kind Dan Gowdy rather +incoherently, though as warmly as she could, and had only half heard +his explanation that she was taking the 12:01 train up the line +instead of the 12:03 down, and it was no wonder that in the bustle of +boarding the train she had forgotten her intention of telegraphing to +her Uncle Dick. He had given her his address as the Willard Hotel, +and the letter was already six days old. + +"But I really think in the morning will be better," decided Betty, +watching the flying landscape. "He wouldn't have given me the address +if he didn't expect to be there for some time. Before I take the +Washington train I'll telegraph him and let him know when to meet me." + +The train made three stops before Halperin was reached, and Betty +stepped down to find herself before a pretty, up-to-date station +built of cream-colored brick, with a crowd of stylish summer folk +mingling on the platform with farmers and townspeople. Several +automobiles were backed up waiting for passengers, and there were one +or two old-fashioned hacks. A trolley car was rounding the street +corner, the motorman sounding his bell noisily. + +"Betty Gordon, isn't it?" asked a pleasant voice. + +A round-faced man was smiling down at her, a young man, Betty +decided, in spite of the white hair. His keen dark eyes were +pleasant, and he held out his hand cordially. + +"Dan told me you had cornflowers on your hat," he said quizzically, +"and I, knowing that Dan calls all blue flowers cornflowers, picked +you out right away. Only they are forget-me-nots, aren't they?" + +"They're supposed to be larkspur," answered Betty, laughing and +feeling at ease at once. "Perhaps the milliner didn't have a garden." + +"Well, anyway, they're blue," said the brother-in-law comfortably. +"Don't suppose Dan told you my name?" + +He was guiding her around the station toward the trolley tracks as +he spoke. + +"He said the baby was named for him, but he didn't say what your +name was," admitted Betty dimpling. + +"Just like him!" grinned her companion. "Dan's so all-fired proud of +that youngster he never lets a chance slip to tell we named him +Daniel Gowdy Brill. Though Dan senior usually forgets to add the +Brill." + +"Does--does Mrs. Brill know I'm coming?" ventured Betty. + +"She sure does! I telephoned her the minute I heard from Dan, and I +suspect she and the baby are sitting out on the fence now watching +for you to come along. Sorry I can't go with you, but I've just come +on duty. You tell the conductor to let you off at Brill's, and I'll +see you at supper to-night." + +He helped her on the car, tipped his hat, and ran back to the +station, leaving Betty with the comfortable feeling that the Brills +were used to company and rather liked it. + +She repeated her instructions to the conductor, who nodded silently, +and, after a quarter of an hour's ride, signaled to her that her +destination was reached. They had passed the town limits, and were in +the open country. Betty had noticed several farmhouses, of the +artistic remodeled type, evidently summer homes of the well-to-do, as +the car rattled along. + +She saw one of these as she stepped from the trolley car, and also, +under a tree, a young woman holding a beautiful, rosy baby. These two +immediately swooped down upon her. + +"I'm so glad you've come!" Mrs. Brill kissed her unaffectedly. "Kiss +Danny, too! Isn't he a nice baby? We waited lunch for you, and if +you're half as starved as we are--" + +Still chattering, she led the way into the house. Mrs. Brill was an +elder sister of the Hagar's Corner's agent and very like him in face, +manner, and bright, cheery way of speaking. The house was tastefully +furnished, and a white-capped maid could be seen hovering over the +table as they went upstairs. Betty learned long afterward that Mr. +Brill's father was wealthy and idolized his son's wife, who had given +the younger man the ambition and spur his career had lacked until he +met and married her. It was lovely Rose Gowdy who persuaded Steve +Brill to take the job of telegraph operator, forgetting his +prematurely white hair, and she who encouraged him to work his way to +the top of the railroad business. Rose, and Rose's son, were given +all the credit of that ultimate success by the older Brill. + +"I had a little sister once who looked just like you," said Mrs. +Brill, as she watched Betty smooth her hair at the mirror in the +chintz-hung guest room. "Her name was Juliet. Poor old Dan nearly +broke his heart when she died." + +"He said something about her," replied Betty shyly. "Oh, look at +that cunning baby! He thinks he can eat his own foot!" + +"He will, too, if he doesn't get his bottle soon," said the baby's +mother, rising. "Come, dear, we'll go down. Danny has his bottle in +his wheeler right in the dining-room." + +The little maid served them a dainty meal, and the round-eyed baby +fell asleep as they ate and talked, lying in blissful content in a +white-enameled contrivance that was like a crib on four wheels, and +sucking quietly on his bottle. + +"Now if you want to lie down, you may," said Mrs. Brill when they +had finished. "I'll be busy for the next couple of hours with two of +my neighbors who are planning a minstrel show for the country club. +They had already planned to come when Steve telephoned. If you're not +tired, perhaps you'll enjoy looking over our farm. Even if you've +spent your summer on one, you may find things to interest you." + +Betty was not tired, and she had been longing to explore the belt of +green fields that encircled the old farmhouse. Hatless, but carrying +her sweater over her arm, she went happily out. + +There was a small but well-kept poultry yard with some handsome +white leghorns lazily sunning themselves; a gentle-eyed Jersey cow +stood close to the first pair of bars; and a fat, lazy collie snoozed +under a cherry tree but declined to accompany Betty on her +explorations, though she petted and flattered and coaxed him with all +her powers of persuasion. He wagged his tail cordially and beamed +upon her good-naturedly, but as to getting up and walking about so +soon after dinner--well, he begged to be excused. + +"You're a lazy thing!" said the girl indignantly, finally giving up +the task as hopeless and climbing the fence into a larger pasture. + +Over in one corner of the field she spied something that quickened +her steps with pleasure. A baby colt, long-legged, sleek of head and +altogether "adorable" as Betty would have said, ambled more or less +ungracefully about enjoying the shade of a clump of trees and +sampling the grass at intervals. + +"Oh, I do hope you're tame!" whispered Betty softly. + +She was fond of animals, and Bramble Farm, with the exception of a +few lambs, had had no young life in its pastures and stables. The +little calves were always sold as early as possible that there might +be more milk for butter, and Betty was fairly aching to pet something. + +She walked cautiously up to the colt, who sniffed at her +suspiciously, but stood his ground. He pricked his ears forward and +looked at her inquiringly. + +"You dear!" said the girl quietly. "You little beauty! You wouldn't +mind if I patted you, would you?" + +She put out one hand and touched the rough side of the little +animal. He stood perfectly still, and she stroked him for a minute or +two, speaking gently to him. Presently he nuzzled her playfully. + +"Oh, you darling!" she cried delighted. "Wouldn't I love to take you +with me and have you for a pet! If you wouldn't grow any larger than +you are now, I'd take you everywhere just like a dog." + +She had both arms around the colt's neck now, and he seemed to enjoy +being petted. All at once Betty thought she heard hoof-beats on the +ground, and at the same time the colt raised his head and whinnied. + +Betty looked up and across the field toward the house. She stood +back from the colt and stared in dismay and astonishment at what she +saw. + +Tearing across the ground, headed directly for her, was a fierce +animal with flashing red nostrils, huge mouth open wide and showing +two great rows of strong yellow teeth bared to the gums. Sparks +seemed to fly from the hoofs and a coarse black tail streamed in the +wind. + +"Good gracious!" gasped Betty weakly. "That must be the colt's +mother!" + +The colt whinnied again in welcome and delight, but Betty felt +rooted to the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +FELLOW TRAVELERS + + +It is sometimes said that in moments of danger one's whole life +passes swiftly in review through the mind, but Betty always declared +that she had just a single thought when it seemed that in another +moment she would be trampled under the mare's hoofs; she had not +telegraphed to her uncle and he would not know where she had gone. + +The horse continued to cover the ground rapidly, and then, when it +had almost reached the terrified girl, fear lent sudden wings to +Betty's leaden feet. She turned and ran. + +Speeding over the field toward the fence at the other end, she could +hear the steady pounding of the mare's hoofs, though she did not dare +to glance over her shoulder. Her thoughts worked busily, trying to +figure out a way to climb over or under the fence, and she had a +lively fear of those terrible teeth nipping her as she tried to +climb. As the fence seemed to her strained vision to rise suddenly +from the ground and come to meet her, a way to safety opened. + +Before she began to run she had unconsciously stooped to gather her +sweater from the ground where she had dropped it, and now she turned +and waved the garment frantically in the furious animal's face. +Bewildered and confused, the mare stopped, and, as Betty continued to +flap the sweater, she turned and dashed back to her colt. Weakly the +girl tumbled over the fence and the adventure was over. + +"She thought you were going to hurt Pinto," said Mrs. Brill, when +she heard the story. "Goodness, I certainly am glad you had the +presence of mind to shake your sweater at old Phyllis. Wouldn't it +have been dreadful if she had bitten you!" + +The next morning, Betty said good-by to the hospitable family who +had been so wonderfully kind to her, and, much refreshed after a +luxurious hot bath and a night's sleep in the pretty guest room, took +the trolley car into town with Mr. Brill, who at the station door +bade her farewell in his capacity of host and two minutes later as +telegraph operator sent her message to Uncle Dick in Washington. + +The 7:45 was on time to the minute, and as the long train pulled in +and the porter helped her on, Betty drew a long breath of relief. +Surely there could be no more delays and in a comparatively few hours +she might hope to be with her uncle and know the comfort of telling +him her experiences instead of trusting their recital to letters. + +The train had been made up late the night before and many of the +passengers were still sleepy-eyed after restless hours in their +berths. A good many of them were at breakfast in the dining car, and +as there was no parlor car Betty had to take half a section already +occupied by a rather frowsy young woman with two small children. + +"We take on a parlor car at Willowvale," the porter assured Betty, +only too sympathetically, for he had been waiting on the woman and +her children since the afternoon before. "I'll see that you get a +chair then, Miss." + +Betty settled herself as comfortably as she could and opened her +magazine. + +"Read to me?" suggested a little voice, and a sticky hand caressed +her skirt timidly. + +"Now don't bother the lady," said the mother, trying to pull the +child away. "My land, if I ever live to get you children to your +grandmother's I'll be thankful! Lottie, stop making scratches on that +window sill!" + +Lottie pursed her pretty mouth in a pout and drummed her small heels +discontentedly against the green plush of the seat. + +Betty smiled into the rebellious blue eyes and was rewarded by a +sudden, radiant smile. She closed her magazine and found the mother +gazing at her with a look almost as childlike in its friendly +curiosity as her little daughter's. + +"You've got a way with children, haven't you?" said the woman +wistfully. "I guess everybody on this train will be glad when we get +off. The children have been perfect torments, and Lottie cried half +the night. We're none of us used to traveling, and they're so mussed +up and dirty I could cry. At home I keep 'em looking as neat as wax. +We're going to see my husband's mother, and I know she'll think I +started with 'em looking like this." + +Betty was far older than many girls her age in some things. She was +self-reliant and used to observing for herself, and she had a rich +fund of warm and ready sympathy that was essentially practical. She +saw that the mother of these lively, untidy children was very young, +hardly more than a girl, and worn-out and nervous as a result of +taking a long journey with no help and little traveling experience. +She was probably, and naturally, anxious that her children should +impress their father's mother favorably, and it took little +imagination to understand that in her home the young mother had been +used to praise for her excellent management. Betty, added to her +qualities of leadership and sound judgment, had a decided "knack" +with children. In Pineville she had been a general favorite with the +little ones, and many a mother had secretly marveled at the girl's +ability to control the most headstrong youngster. Now she seized the +opportunity presented to help a fellow-passenger. + +"Have you had your breakfast?" she asked. "No? I thought not. Well, +I had mine before I got on the train. If you are willing to trust the +children with me, I'll amuse them while you go into the diner and +have a quiet meal. You'll feel much better then." + +"Oh, it's been a nightmare!" confided the young mother with a sudden +rush of feeling. "Nobody ever told me what it would be like to travel +with two children. Lottie upset her milk and Baby spilled her supper +on the floor. And people just glare at me and never offer to help. It +will be heavenly to eat my breakfast without them, but I feel that +I'm imposing on you." + +Betty managed to send her off convinced that everything was as it +should be, and to the mother's surprise the children snuggled down +like little mice to listen to the honorable and ancient story of the +Three Bears. By the time a rested and radiant mother came back to +them, for she had stolen a little time in the dressing room and +rearranged her fair hair and adjusted her trim frock, something she +had found it impossible to accomplish with two restless children +clinging to her skirts, Lottie and Baby were firm friends with Miss +Betty. + +"I never knew any one as lovely as you are!" The gratitude of the +woman was touching. "I was just about crazy. My husband tipped the +porter, and he did try to look after me, but he didn't know what to +do. Usually there is a maid on this train, they told us, but she was +taken sick, and there wasn't time to get any one to fill her place. +Now don't let the children bother you. They had their breakfast +early, and I can read to them till we get to Willowvale where their +grandmother will meet us." + +But Betty had not finished. She loved the feel of soft little arms +about her neck and there was not much connected with a baby's welfare +she did not know about. Many a Pineville baby she had washed and +dressed and fed as correctly as a model baby should be. + +"Let me take them one at a time and tidy them up?" she suggested. +"They'll take to it kindly, because I am new and that will lend to +the washing a novelty. If we go in relays, we can't upset the whole +car." + +So first with Lottie, and then with Baby, who seemed to be without +other name, Betty went into the dressing-room and there washed pink +and white faces and hands till they shone, and brushed silk locks +till they lay straight and shining. Clean frocks were forthcoming, +and two spick and span babies emerged to beam upon a transformed +world no longer seen through a veil of tears. This new friend could +tell the most wonderful stories, invent delightful games, and sing +dozens of foolish little rhymes in a low sweet voice that disturbed +no one and yet allowed every word to be distinctly understood. + +Both children went to sleep during the morning, and then Betty heard +that Mrs. Clenning, as the mother introduced herself, lived in the +West and that this journey to Willowvale was the first she had taken +since the birth of the babies. + +"My husband's mother is crazy to see them because they are her only +grandchildren," she explained. "I didn't want to come without Mr. +Clenning, but he couldn't get away for a couple of months. He is to +come after us and take us home. If he didn't, I'm sure I'd live East +the rest of my days, or at least till the children are grown up. I'll +never have the courage to try a long train trip with them again." + +Before Willowvale was reached Betty helped Mrs. Clenning get her +wraps and bags together and tied the babies into bewitching white +bonnets with long fluted strings. The porter came for the bags, but +Betty carried the younger child to the car door and handed her down +to the mother, who had gone first with Lottie. She saw a tall, +stately, white-haired woman, dressed all in white from her shoes to +her hat, gather all three into her arms, and then went back to her +seat satisfied that the mother's troubles were over. + +"Parlor car's ready, Miss," announced the porter, coming up to her. +"Shall I take you on in?" + +Betty followed him, to be established comfortably on the shady side +of the car, with the window adjusted at the most comfortable height. +She did not hear the porter's comment to the conductor when he passed +him in the vestibule of the parlor car. + +"That girl in seat fourteen, she's one perfect little lady," said +the dusky porter earnestly. "You jest observe her when you takes her +ticket. 'Member that lady with the two children what racketed all day +and all night? Well, she done fix those two kids up till you wouldn't +know 'em, and cheered their mother up, too. And all jest as pretty +and like a lady. That mighty fine lady in the red hat (I give her a +seat on the sunny side of the car a-purpose) wouldn't do nothing +yesterday when I axted her to hold a glass of milk while I went to +get a extra pillow. Said she wasn't going to be nursemaid to no +stranger's brats!" + +So Betty was zealously looked after by the whole train crew, for the +story had spread, and the siege of Clenning had been a protracted one +with a corresponding fervency of gratitude for release; and at six +o'clock that night the attentive porter handed her down the steps to +the platform of the beautiful Union Station in Washington. + +She had only her light traveling bag to carry, so she followed the +crowd through the gates, walking slowly and scanning the faces +anxiously in order that she might not pass her uncle. She did not +wish to go through the station out on the plaza, lest she make it +more difficult for him to find her, and she was keenly disappointed +that he had not been at the gate, for the train was half an hour late +and she had confidently expected him to be waiting. She took up her +stand near the door of the waiting room and scanned the eddying +circles of travelers that passed and repassed her. + +"Something must have delayed him," she thought uneasily. "He +couldn't miss me even in a crowd, because he is so careful. I hope he +got the telegram." + +She had turned to compare her wrist-watch with the station clock +when a voice at her back said half-doubtfully, "Betty?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A SERIOUS MIX-UP + + +"You are Betty, aren't you?" the girlish voice insisted, and this +time Betty identified it as belonging to a girl a year or two older +than herself who stood smiling uncertainly at her. + +"Yes, of course I'm Betty," said Betty Gordon smiling. + +The face of her questioner cleared. + +"All right, girls," she called, beckoning to two others who stood a +little way off. "She's Betty. I was sure I hadn't make a mistake." + +Betty found herself surrounded by three laughing faces, beaming with +good-will and cordiality. + +"We must introduce ourselves," said the girl who had first spoken to +her. "This is Louise," pointing to a gray-eyed miss apparently about +Betty's age. "This is Esther." A girl with long yellow braids and +pretty even white teeth bobbed a shy acknowledgment. "And of course +I'm Roberta, Bobby for short." + +"And if we don't hurry, we'll be late for dinner," suggested the +girl who had been called Louise. "You know Carter isn't as patient +as he once was; he hates to have to wait." + +Bobby thrust her arm through Betty's protectingly. + +"Come on, Betty," she said comfortably. "Never mind about your trunk +check. Carter will drive down after it early in the morning." + +Betty's bewildered mind was vaguely appreciative of the wide sweep +of open plaza which lay before them as they came out on the other +side of the station, but before she could say a word she was gently +bundled into a handsome automobile, a girl on either side of her and +one opposite, and the grim-faced, silver-haired old chauffeur, +evidently slightly intolerant of the laughter and high spirits of his +young passengers, had started to thread his way through the lane of +taxicabs and private cars. + +Betty was intensely puzzled, to put it mildly. Her uncle had +mentioned no girls in his letters to her, and even supposing that she +had missed some letters, it was hardly possible that he should not +have let fall an explanatory word or two from time to time. + +"I thought Uncle Dick would come down to meet me," she said, voicing +her surprise at last. + +"Oh, poor dear, his heart is almost broken to think he has to stay +cooped up in the house," answered Bobby, who seemed to be the general +spokesman. "But how stupid of us--of course you don't know that he +hurt his foot!" + +"Is he hurt?" Betty half rose from her seat in alarm. "Is he badly +injured? When did it happen?" + +Bobby pulled the excited girl down beside her. + +"You see it happened only yesterday," explained Louise, finding her +voice with a rush. "You'd better believe we were frightened when they +brought him to the house in the ambulance. His foot has some little +bones broken in it, the doctor says, but he'll be all right in a +month or so. He has to hobble around on crutches till the bones knit." + +"But it isn't serious, so don't look like that," urged Bobby. "Why, +Betty, your lips are positively white. We're so thankful it was his +foot and not his head--that would have been something to worry about." + +"How--how did it happen?" gasped Betty, anxious and worried in spite +of these assurances. "Was he in an accident?" + +"He was the whole accident," announced Bobby cheerfully. "You see +he's completely wrapped up in these new buildings they're putting up +on the outskirts. We'll take you out to see 'em while you're here and +perhaps you'll understand the construction, which is more than I do. +Anyway, the whole firm and every workman is absorbed in the +experiment, and they're burnt as red as the bricks from working +outdoors all day." + +"Uncle Dick does love to be outdoors," murmured Betty. + +"He sure does," agreed Bobby. "Well, nothing would do yesterday but +that he must climb up on the roof of one they've just started and +take a peek at the chimney. I guess it needed looking after, for the +whole thing tumbled over on him, coming down full-weight on his right +foot. Forcet, the foreman, had an awful time getting him down from +the roof, and instead of telephoning for the car, some nervous person +sent for the ambulance and scared us all into fits." + +Betty blinked again. No mention of building houses had been made in +Uncle Dick's letters to her. + +"Did he get my telegram?" she asked, leaning forward to look at a +monument they were passing. + +"A little before noon," replied Bobby. "Louise and Esther and I had +such a violent argument as to which of us should come to meet you +that we didn't even dare draw lots; it seemed safer for us all to +come along." + +Esther, who sat opposite Betty, had noticed her interest in the +Washington Monument. + +"We're going to take you sightseeing to-morrow," she promised. +"Aren't we, Bobby? And I don't see why we don't go home by way of +Fort Myer. It doesn't take any longer, and dinner isn't till seven, +you know." + +"All right." Bobby leaned forward and spoke to the chauffeur. "Take +us round by Fort Myer, please, Carter," she directed. + +The car turned sharply, and in a few minutes they were rattling over +an old bridge. + +"We live out in the country, Betty, I warn you," said the voluble +Bobby. "But it has its compensations. You'll like it." + +Betty, a stranger to Washington, decided that the Willard must be a +country hotel. It would be like Uncle Dick, she knew, to shun the +heart of the city and establish himself somewhere where he could see +green fields the first thing every morning. + +"What is Fort Myer?" she asked with lively curiosity, as the car +began to climb a steep grade. "Is that where they had training camps +during the war?" + +"Right," said Bobby. "It's an army post, you know. See, here are +some of the officers' houses. I only hope we live here when Louise +and I are eighteen--they give the most heavenly dances and parties." + +Betty looked with interest at the neat houses they were passing. The +names of the officers were conspicuously tacked on the doorsteps, and +there was a general air of orderliness and military spic and spanness +about the very gravel roads. Occasionally a dust-colored car shot +past them filled with men in uniform. + +"Do you ride?" asked Betty suddenly. "Uncle Dick has always wanted +me to learn, but I've never had a good chance." + +"Well, you can begin to-morrow morning," Bobby informed her. "We've +three ponies that are fine under the saddle. Betty, I do wish you'd +make up your mind to live in Washington this winter. There's no +reason in the world why you shouldn't, and we were talking it over +last night, making plans for you." + +"Why! that's entirely as Uncle Dick says," returned Betty, +surprised. "I haven't any say in the matter." + +Bobby shot a triumphant glance toward the other girls. + +"He said he hadn't much right to dictate, but I told him I knew +better," she said with satisfaction. "He wants you as much as we do, +and that's considerable, you know." + +Again a wave of doubt swept over Betty. Uncle Dick had said he had +not much right to dictate! When he was her only living relative! + +"Uncle hasn't a fever or anything, has he?" she asked apprehensively. +"I mean the injury to his foot hasn't, it didn't--" she floundered. + +"Oh, that old hurt to his head never amounted to anything," declared +Bobby with convincing carelessness. "No, indeed, he's perfectly well +except for the crutches, and the doctor says keeping him indoors for +a few days will give him a much-needed rest." + +Betty recalled the accident in which her uncle had been stunned when +he had slipped down a bank into an excavation made along a road on +which they had been driving. Bobby evidently referred to that old +injury. + +"Now you can begin to watch for the house," said the silent Esther, +as Carter swung the car around another curve in the beautiful road. +"I don't see why I couldn't have been named Virginia!" + +"Esther has a personal grievance because she's the only one of us +born in the South, and she had to be named for an aunt like the rest +of us," laughed Bobby. "Every tenth girl you meet down here seems to +be named Virginia." + +"But was she born in Virginia?" asked Betty. "Where did you live +then?" + +Bobby stared. Then she laughed. + +"Oh, I see," she said. "We lived at Fairfields. Of course you know +that. But, like so many friends, you have always thought of us as +living in Washington. We're in Virginia, Betty, didn't you know that?" + +"No." Betty's puzzlement was plainly written on her face. + +"When we crossed the bridge, we left the District of Columbia," +explained Bobby. "Of course we're very close to the line, but still +we are not in Washington." + +"There's the house!" exclaimed Louise. "I wonder if mother got back +from shopping. I don't see her on the porch." + +Betty saw a beautiful white house, dazzlingly white against a +background of dark trees, with a broad lawn in front circled by a +wide white driveway. A terraced garden at the side with a red brick +walk was arranged with wicker chairs and tables and a couple of +swings protected with gay striped awnings. It was a typical Southern +mansion in perfect order, and Betty reveled in its architectural +perfections even while she told herself that it did not look in the +slightest like a hotel. What was it Bobby had called her home? +"Fairfields"--that was it; and she, Betty, wanted to go to the +Willard. Had they made a mistake and brought her to the wrong place? + +There was no time to ask for explanations, however. The girls swept +her out of the car and up the low steps through the beautiful +doorway. A well-trained man servant closed the door noiselessly, and +the three bore Betty across the wide hall into a room lined with +books and boasting three or four built-in window seats, in one of +which a gentleman was reading. + +"We found her! Here she is!" shouted the irrepressible Bobby. "Don't +tell us we can't pick a girl named Betty out of a crowd!" + +The gentleman closed his book, and, steadying himself with a cane +lying near by, rose slowly. There was no recognition in the gaze he +fastened on Betty, and she for her part hung back, staring wildly. + +"You're not Uncle Dick!" she gasped accusingly. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +STRAIGHTENING THINGS OUT + + +Betty's speech was shock number one. Another quickly followed. + +The gentleman tugged quizzically at his short gray mustache. + +"And you," he announced quietly, "are not my niece, Betty Littell!" + +Esther and Louise stared, round-eyed, while Bobby collapsed +dramatically on a convenient couch. + +"Have we kidnapped anybody?" she asked, a bit hysterically. "Good +gracious, Dad, don't tell me I've forcibly run off with a girl? +Haven't you made a mistake? She must be Betty--she said so." + +"My darlings, I'm sorry to be late," said a new voice, a rich, sweet +contralto, and a stout woman with a kindly, florid face swept through +the doorway. "Why, what is the matter?" she demanded hurriedly, +confronting the tense group. + +"Momsie!" exclaimed Bobby, hurling herself upon the newcomer. "Oh, +Momsie, isn't this Betty Littell? We went to meet her and she said +her name was Betty, and all the way home she talked about Uncle Dick, +and now she says dad isn't her uncle! I'm afraid I've made a mess of +things." + +"Yes, I think you have," said Betty, with blazing cheeks. "I came to +Washington to meet my uncle, Mr. Richard Gordon, who is stopping at +the Willard. Of course my name is Betty. I'm Betty Gordon, and he's +my Uncle Dick. And goodness only knows what he is doing now--he'll be +about crazy if he came to meet me." + +Bobby began to laugh uncontrollably. + +"I never heard of such a thing in my life!" she giggled, wiping her +eyes. "Dad's name is Richard Littell, and we've been expecting our +cousin Betty Littell to arrive to-day from Vermont for a long visit. +We haven't seen her since she was six years old, but I took a chance +on recognizing her. And then there was the name! How could I guess +there would be two Bettys looking for two Uncle Dicks! Don't be mad, +Betty; you can see a mix-up like that wouldn't happen twice in a life +time." + +"She isn't mad," interposed Mr. Littell, lowering himself carefully +to the window seat, for he had been standing all this time and his +foot began to pain again. "After she knows you a little better, +Bobby, she will expect this sort of denouement to follow whatever you +undertake. I say we ought to have some dinner, Mother, and then talk +at the table." + +"Of course, of course," agreed motherly Mrs. Littell. "The poor +child must be famished. Take Betty--you don't mind if I call you +Betty, do you, dear?--up to your room, Bobby, and when you come down +dinner will be served." + +"But my uncle!" urged Betty. "He will be so worried. And the other +girl--where do you suppose she is?" + +"By George, the child has more sense than I have," said Mr. Littell +energetically. "I'd give a fortune if Bobby had half as level a head. +Our Betty is probably having hysterics in the station if she hasn't +taken the next train back to Vermont." + +His keen eyes twinkled appreciatively at Betty, and she knew that +she liked him and also sensed instinctively that his eldest daughter +was very like him. + +"Why, Father, how you do talk!" reproved Mrs. Littell comfortably. +"I'll call up the station while the girls are upstairs and then Betty +shall call the Willard, or you do it for her, and then perhaps we can +eat dinner before the souffle is quite ruined." + +The girls took Betty upstairs to a luxurious suite of rooms they +shared, and when she had bathed her face and hands and brushed her +hair, they came down to find that Mr. Littell had called up the Union +Station and discovered that because of a freight wreck the Vermont +express had been delayed and would not be in before nine o'clock that +night. + +"So our Betty is probably having a comfortable dinner on the train," +he announced. "Now just a minute, and I'll have the Willard for the +other Betty. We'll tell your uncle you are safe and that we'll bring +you into Washington to-night." + +In a few minutes he had the connection, and they heard him ask for +Mr. Richard Gordon. His mobile face changed as the clerk answered, +and Betty, watching, knew that he had disconcerting news. He turned +to them, covering the mouthpiece with his hand. + +"Mr. Gordon left early this morning for Oklahoma," he said. "He left +an address for mail, and there's a telegram which came after he left. +It was sent from Halperin and was received at eleven-thirty this +morning." + +"That's the one I sent!" answered Betty. "And Uncle Dick's gone to +Oklahoma! What on earth shall I do?" + +"Do!" repeated Mr. and Mrs. Littell in concert. "Why, stay right +here with us, of course! Do you suppose we'd let a young girl like +you knock around alone in a city? We'll be glad to have you stay as +long as you will, and you mustn't be uncomfortable another second. +When you hear from your uncle there'll be plenty of time to make +other plans." + +Betty did not try to express her gratitude to these new kind +friends, for she knew that she could never say one-half the thanks +she felt toward them. They were cordiality itself, and did everything +in their power to make her feel at home. An excellent dinner was +served in the charming dining-room with a mixture of formality and +simple home courtesy that was as unusual as it was delightful, and in +this atmosphere of good breeding and tact, Betty bloomed like a +little rose. + +"A charming girl, whoever she is," said Mr. Littell to his wife, as +he smoked his cigar after dinner and the girls drew Betty to the +piano. "She has plenty of spirit, but lacks Bobby's boisterousness. +It will be a good thing for the girls to have some one like her, +self-reliant and quiet and yet with decided snap, to chum with." + +"I like the idea of five girls in the house," beamed Mrs. Littell, +who was the soul of hospitality and fairly idolized her three +daughters. Whatever discipline they had came from their father. "And +now I think I had better go to the station, after our Betty, don't +you?" + +"Oh, Mother!" came in concert from the piano, where Bobby was +rattling off a lively waltz. "We all want to go. Please? There's +plenty of room in the car." + +Mrs. Littell looked undecided. + +"One of you may go with your mother," said Mr. Littell decisively. +"I think it had better be Louise. Now, there is no use in arguing. +One girl is enough. Betty will be tired after traveling all night and +all day, and she will be in no mood for talking and carrying on. I'll +tell Carter to bring the car around, Mother." + +Bobby pouted for a few moments after her mother and sister had gone, +but her good-nature was easily restored and she and Betty and Esther +were deep in an exchange of confidences when Mrs. Littell returned +bringing the missing Betty with her. + +"Now stand up for a minute, you two Bettys," commanded Bobby, when +greetings had been exchanged and explanations made. "I want to see if +I made such a dreadful mistake in taking Betty Gordon for Betty +Littell." + +The two girls stood side by side, and though they both had dark eyes +and hair, there the resemblance ceased. Betty Littell was a dumpling +of a girl with curly hair, a snub nose and round face. She looked the +picture of good-nature, and her plumpness suggested a fondness for +sweets that subsequent acquaintance with her fully sustained. + +Betty Gordon had grown tall through the summer, and she was of a +slender, wiry build that hinted of a fondness for outdoor life. Her +heavy straight hair was wrapped around her well-shaped little head in +braids, and her exquisite little hands and feet, so far her one claim +to beauty, though later promises lay in her glowing face, gave her, +as Louise afterward confided to her mother, "an air like an Indian +princess." + +"No, you don't look much alike," conceded Bobby, after a prolonged +scrutiny. "But Betty Gordon looks the way I thought Betty Littell +would look, so I don't see that I am to blame." + +"Trust Bobby to excuse herself from a scrape," chuckled her father. +"By the way, how are you going to arrange about names? Two Bettys in +the family will involve complications." + +"I think we'll have to call Betty Littell, 'Libbie'" suggested Mrs. +Littell, smiling. "That was your mother's name at home, always, Betty." + +"Yes, I know it; and that's why they called me Betty," replied the +Littell girl. "Two names, the same names, I mean, do make confusion. +I'm willing to be called Libbie, Aunt Rachel, if you let me have a +little time to get used to it. If I don't answer right away, you'll +understand that I'm listening for 'Betty.'" + +"Well, Mother, I think at least two of these girls need sleep," +announced Mr. Littell. "Betty Gordon looks as if she couldn't keep +her eyes open another moment, and Betty Littell has yawned twice. I +should say we all might retire--it's after eleven." + +"Goodness, so it is," said his wife hastily. "Time does fly so when +you're talking. Come, girls, if you are going sightseeing to-morrow, +you'll need a good night's rest." + +There were three bedrooms and a private bath at the disposal of the +girls, and separate beds in all the rooms. Betty Gordon shared a room +with Bobby, Louise and Betty Littell had the one adjoining, and +Esther slept alone in the third room, which was also connected with +the others. + +Long after the other girls were asleep Betty lay awake, thinking +over the happenings of the day. Finally she worked around to the +suggested change in names. + +"They must expect me to stay if they plan to avoid confusion of +names," she thought. "I must talk to Mr. Littell in the morning and +ask him if it's really all right. I feel as if it were an imposition +for me, a perfect stranger, to accept their hospitality like this." + +In the morning she was up and dressed before the rest, fortunately +having a fresh blouse in her bag so that, although she had nothing +but her suit skirt, she looked well-groomed and dainty. Betty Littell +was also without her trunk, though Bobby promised that both trunks +should be brought from the station that morning. + +"I'd like to speak to your father a minute," said Betty, when she +was dressed. + +Bobby, on the floor tying her shoes, blew her a kiss. + +"You'll find him on the terrace probably," she said confidently. "Go +ahead, dear, but it won't do you any good. We're determined to keep +you to play with us." + +So the astute Bobby had guessed what she wanted to say! +Nevertheless, Betty was determined to carry out her resolution. She +went slowly down the wide staircase and stepped out through double +screen doors on to the bricked terrace. Sure enough, there sat Mr. +Littell, smoking comfortably and reading his morning paper. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WASHINGTON MONUMENT + + +"You're up early!" the gentleman greeted Betty cordially. "Guess +you're ahead of even Esther, who usually leads the van. Sleep well? +That's good," as she nodded. "No troubles this bright morning?" + +Betty gave him a grateful glance. + +"I can't help it," she said bravely. "You know how I feel, coming +here like this--you don't know me--" + +"No-o," drawled Mr. Littell, pulling forward a gay-cushioned chair +and motioning for her to sit down. ("Can't have any manners when your +foot is smashed," he explained in an aside.) "No, Betty, it's true we +don't know you. But mother and I think we know a nice girl when we +see her, and we're glad to have you stay with us just as long as you +can feel comfortable and at home. If I were you, I'd just bury these +uneasy feelings you speak of. Fact is, I'll give you two good reasons +why you should make us a little visit. One is that if we had had the +pleasure of your acquaintance you would have had a regular letter +from mother weeks ago, asking you to come and spend the summer with +us. The second is that I know how your uncle would feel to think of +you alone in the city or the country. Guess how I'd take it if one of +my own daughters was waiting for word from me and no one made things +pleasant for her. Won't you shake hands and make a bargain with me +that you'll try to see our side of it, your uncle's and mine, and +then just plan to have a happy time with the girls until we can reach +him in the West?" + +Betty placed her small hand in the larger one held out to receive +it, and smiled back at Mr. Littell. He had a smile very few people +could resist. + +"That's better," he said with satisfaction. "Now we're friends. And, +remember, I'm always ready to give advice or listen. That's what +fathers and uncles are for, you know. And I'd like to have you look +on me as a second Uncle Dick." + +Thus encouraged, Betty briefly outlined for him her story, touching +lightly on her experiences at Bramble Farm, but going into detail +about Bob Henderson, her uncle, and her pleasant recollections of +Pineville. + +By the time she had finished, the four girls had joined them on the +terrace and presently a table was brought out and spread with a +cloth, and, Mrs. Littell following the maid with a silver coffee urn, +breakfast was served. + +"The girls will want to go into town to-day, I suppose," said the +motherly lady, selecting the brownest muffin for Betty and signaling +her husband to see that the maid served her an extra portion of +omelet. "I have some shopping to do, so I'll go in with them in the +car. But I absolutely refuse to 'do' the Monument again." + +"Poor mother!" laughed Bobby. "She hates to ride in an elevator, and +yet I know by actual count she's gone up in the Monument a dozen +times." + +"I suppose every one who comes to Washington wants to go +sightseeing," said Betty Littell, or, as she must begin to be called +now, Libbie, "I know how it is in our little town at home. There's +just one monument--erected to some Revolutionary hero--and I get +fairly sick of reading the inscription to all the visiting aunts and +uncles." + +"Well, I like to go around," declared the energetic Bobby. "But just +once I had an overdose. We had a solemn and serious young theological +student who made notes of everything he saw. He was devoted to +walking, and one of his favorite maxims was never to ride when he +could walk. He dragged me up every one of those nine hundred steps in +the Washington Monument and down again, and I was in bed for two days." + +"Wait till you see the steps, and you'll understand," said Louise to +Libbie and Betty. "If you try to walk down you're apt to get awfully +dizzy." + +After breakfast Carter brought the car around, and Mr. Littell +hobbled to the door to see them off. + +"Betty wants to send a telegram to her uncle," he said in an aside +to his wife, while she stood at the long glass in the hall adjusting +her veil. "Better help her, for she'll feel that she is doing +something. If Gordon is in the oil regions, as I think from what she +tells me he is, there isn't much chance of a telegram reaching him +any quicker than a letter. However, there's no use in dampening her +hopes." + +"Now we'll drop you at the Monument," planned Mrs. Littell, as the +car bore them down the driveway. "You can walk from there to that +pretty tea-room--what is its name, Bobby?--can't you?" + +"The Dora-Rose, you mean, Mother," supplied Bobby. "Of course we can +walk. But Carter is taking the longest way to the Monument." + +"We're going to the station first," answered her mother. "Betty +wants to send her uncle a telegram, and Carter is going to leave +directions to have the trunks sent up to the house. You have your +baggage checks, haven't you, girls?" + +They produced them, and Carter slipped them into his pocket. Betty +had leisure and opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the handsome +building as they approached it this perfect morning, and she could +not help exclaiming. + +"Yes, it is fine, every one says so," admitted Bobby, with the +carelessness of one to whom it was an old story. "Finer, daddy says, +than the big terminals in New York." + +Libbie had the advantage of being the only one of the girls who had +been to New York. + +"This has lots more ground around it," she pronounced critically. +"Course in a city like New York, they need the land for other +buildings. But you just ought to see the Pennsylvania Station there!" + +"All right, take your word for it," said Bobby. "Where do we go to +send a telegram, Momsie?" + +Mrs. Littell smiled. + +"Betty and I are all who are necessary for that little errand," she +said firmly. "The rest of you stay right in the car." + +Carter opened the door for them and then went in search of the +baggage man. Betty and Mrs. Littell found the telegraph window and in +a few minutes a message was speeding out to Richard Gordon, Flame +City, Oklahoma, telling him that his niece was in Washington, giving +her address and asking what he wished her to do. + +"I'll write him a letter to-night," promised Mrs. Littell when this +was accomplished. "Then he'll know that you are in safe hands. You +must write to him, too, dear. Flame City may consist of one shack and +a hundred oil wells and be twenty miles from a post-office, you know." + +Carter reported that the trunks were already on their way to +Fairfields, and now the car was turned toward the gleaming Monument +that seemed to be visible from every part of the city, Betty, her +mind relieved by the sending of the telegram, abandoned herself to +the joys of sightseeing. Here she was, young, well and strong, in a +luxurious car, surrounded by friends, and driving through one of the +most beautiful cities in the United States. Any girl who, under those +circumstances, could remain a prey to doubts and gloom, would indeed +be a confirmed misanthrope. + +The car was stopped at one of the concrete walks leading to the base +of the Monument, and with final instructions as to the time and place +they were to meet her, Mrs. Littell drove away. + +"Why, there's a crowd there!" cried Libbie in wonder. + +"Waiting to be taken up," explained Louise. "Come on, we'll have to +stand in line." + +The line of waiting people extended half way around the Monument. +The girls took their places, and when the crowd streamed out and they +were permitted to go inside, Betty and Libbie, the two strangers, +understood the reason for the delay. The elevator seemed huge, but it +was quickly filled, and when the gates were closed the car began to +mount very slowly. + +"We'd be sick and dizzy if they went up as fast as they do in +department stores and office buildings," said Bobby. "It takes about +fifteen minutes to reach the top. Watch, and you'll see lots of +interesting things on the floors we pass." + +Betty was wondering how Bobby had ever survived the climb up the +stairs and the trip down again with the enthusiastic theological +student, when a cry somewhere in the back of the car startled her. + +"What's the matter?" demanded the elevator operator, without turning +his head. + +"John isn't here!" declared a hysterical feminine voice. "Oh, can't +you stop the car and go down and get him? He pushed me in, and I +thought he was right behind me. Aren't you going back?" + +"Can't, Madam," was the calm answer. "Have to finish the trip. You +can go right back with the next load." + +"Oh, goodness gracious," moaned the voice. "What'll I do? If I go +back I may miss him. If I wait at the top it will be half an hour. +Suppose he walks up? Maybe I'd better start to walk down to meet him." + +Bobby stifled a giggle with difficulty. + +"Bride and groom," she whispered to Betty. "Washington's full of +'em. Guess the poor groom was lost in the shuffle. Is she pretty--can +you see?" + +Betty tried to look back in the car, though the press of passengers +standing all about her made it difficult. The bride was easily +identified because she was openly crying. She was an exceedingly +pretty girl, modishly gowned and apparently not more than twenty +years old. + +"We'll get hold of her and persuade her to wait," planned Bobby. +"I'll show her the sights to amuse her while we're waiting for the +next elevator load to come up. Here we are at the top." + +A crowd was waiting to descend, and as they walked from the +elevator, the bride meekly following, Bobby plucked her sleeve. + +"Excuse me," she said bluntly, but with a certain charm that was her +own, "I couldn't help hearing what you were saying. Your husband +missed the elevator, didn't he?" + +The bride blushed and nodded. + +"Well, don't try to walk down," advised Bobby. "I did it once, and +was in bed for two days. He'll come up with the next load. No one +ever walks up unless they are crazy--or going to theological +seminary. Your husband isn't a minister, is he?" + +"Oh, no, he's a lawyer," the bride managed to say. + +"All right," approved Bobby, noting with satisfaction that the +elevator gate had closed. "Come round with us and see the sights, and +then when your husband comes up you can tell him all the news. This +is Betty Gordon, Libbie Littell and Louise, Esther and Bobby Littell, +all at your service." + +"I'm Mrs. Hale," said the bride, stumbling a little over the name +and yet pronouncing it with obvious pride. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +LIBBIE IS ROMANTIC + + +The girls, marshaled by Bobby, made a tour of the windows, and +though Betty was fascinated by the views of the city spread out +before her and bought post cards to send to the Pineville friends and +those she knew in Glenside and Laurel Grove, her mind was running +continuously on young Mrs. Hale's announcement. + +"She couldn't be the old bookstore man's wife," she speculated, her +eyes fixed on the Potomac while Bobby cheerfully tangled up history +and geography in a valiant effort to instruct her guests. "Lockwood +Hale was an old man, Bob said. He didn't say he had a son, but I +wonder----Oh, Bobby, the Jesuit fathers didn't sail down the Potomac, +did they?" + +"Well, it was some river," retorted Bobby. "Anyway, Miss, you didn't +seem to be listening to a word I said. What were you thinking about +in such a brown study?" + +Betty made a little face, but she had no intention of revealing her +thoughts. She wanted to find out about the bookshop quietly, and if +possible get the address. Always providing that Mrs. Hale was related +to the man who had shown such an interest in Bob Henderson's +almshouse record. + +"Of course Hale is an ordinary enough name," she mused. "And yet +there is just a chance that it may be the same." + +The girls were planning to take the next car down, and yet when it +came up they lingered diplomatically to catch a glimpse of the +bridegroom. "John" proved to be a good-looking young man, not +extraordinary in any way, but with a likeable open face and square +young shoulders that Libbie, who startled them all by turning +poetical late that night, declared were "built for manly burdens." + +Louise, Esther and Bobby were the last to squeeze into the car, +Libbie, the prudent, having ducked earlier. As Betty turned to follow +them, the gate closed. + +"Car full!" said the operator. + +"Oh, Betty!" Bobby's wail came to her as the car began to disappear. +"We'll wait for you," came the parting message before it dropped from +sight. + +Mrs. Hale laughed musically. + +"Now you know something of how I felt," she said merrily. "May I +present my husband? John, those five girls have been so nice to me. +And now you'll go round with us, won't you?" + +But Betty knew better than that. + +"I'm going to write some of my post cards," she said. "But I would +love to ask you a question before you go. Do you know a man in +Washington who keeps a bookshop? His name is Lockwood Hale." + +Mr. and Mrs. Hale exchanged glances. + +"Know him?" repeated the young man. "Why, I should think we did! +He's my great-uncle." + +"I'm very anxious to see him to ask about a friend of mine," +explained Betty. "Mr. Hale thought he might be able to tell him +something of his parents who died when he was a baby. As soon as I +heard your name I hoped you could tell me where to find the bookstore." + +"Yes, uncle is a wizard on old family records," admitted the nephew. +"Sometimes I think that is why he hates to part with a book. He keeps +a secondhand bookshop, you know, and he's positively insulting to +customers who try to buy any of the books. The old boy is really +queer in his head, but there's nothing to be afraid of. He wouldn't +hurt a flea, would he, Elinor?" + +Mrs. Hale said doubtfully, no, she supposed not. + +"Elinor didn't have a very good impression of him," laughed her +husband. "We're on our wedding trip, you know,"--he blushed +slightly--"and mother made us promise we'd stop in to see the old man. +He hasn't seen me since I wore knickerbockers, and we had a great time +making him understand who we were. Then he said that he hoped we +liked Washington, and went back to his reading." + +"And the shop is so dirty!" shuddered the bride. "I don't think she +ought to go to such a place alone, John." + +"I won't," promised Betty hastily. "If you'll let me have the +address, I'll be ever so grateful and it may be a great help to my +friend." + +Young Mr. Hale wrote down the street and number on the back of the +brand-new visiting card his wife pulled from her brand-new purse, and +Betty thanked them warmly and turned to her card writing, leaving +them free to enjoy each other and the view to their hearts' content. +She had directed post cards to a dozen friends before the elevator +returned, and this time both she and the bridal couple made sure that +they were among the first to step in. + +Betty felt of the little slip in her purse several times during the +afternoon, inwardly glowing with satisfaction. If she could find Bob +Henderson in Washington through the old bookseller, or learn +something definite of the lad, she would find it easier to wait for +word from her uncle. + +After luncheon, which was calculated to please healthy appetites of +five girls to a nicety, they went into several of the large shops +with Mrs. Littell, and then, because it had begun to rain and did not +promise pleasant weather for driving, they went to a moving picture +show. + +"Had a full day?" asked Mr. Littell at dinner that night. "Libbie, +what did you see?" + +Libbie's answer provoked a gust of laughter. She was so essentially +a matter-of-fact little personage in appearance and manner that when +she opened her red mouth and announced, "A bride and groom!" the +effect was startling. + +That started Bobby, and she told the story of the lost John, told it +as her father would have, for neither Bobby nor Mr. Littell were at +all inclined toward sentimentality. + +"Well, Betty," Mr. Littell beckoned to her afterward when they were +all in the pleasant living-room across the hall, "think you're going +to like Washington, even if it is overrun with brides and grooms?" + +"It's lovely," Betty assured him fervently. "We've had the most +perfect day. And, Mr. Littell, what do you think--I've found out +something important already." + +She had told him about Bob that morning, and he was interested at +once when she narrated what the bride and groom had told her of old +Lockwood Hale. + +"Why, I know where his shop is. Everybody in Washington does," said +Mr. Littell when she had finished. "He has lots of rare books mixed +in with worthless trash. Funny I didn't take in you meant that Hale +when you spoke of him. I suppose you'll want to go there to-morrow +Carter will take you in the car, and you'd better have one of the +girls go with you. Bobby is all right--she may be scatter-brained but +she doesn't talk." + +For some reason none of the girls was sleepy that night, and after +going upstairs they all assembled in Bobby and Betty's room to talk. +Libbie could not keep her mind off the bride. + +"I wonder how I'd look in a lace veil," she said, seizing the fluted +muslin bedspread and draping it over her head. "It must be lovely to +be a bride!" + +"You've been reading too many silly books," scolded Bobby. "Anyway, +Libbie, you're too fat to look nice in a veil. Better get thin before +you're old enough to be married, or else you'll have to wear a +traveling suit." + +Libbie eyed her scornfully and continued to parade up and down in +her draperies. + +"Betty would look pretty in a veil," said Louise suddenly. "Come on, +girls, let's stage a wedding. Libbie won't sleep all night if she +doesn't have some romantic outlet. I'll be the father." + +She seized a pillow and stuffed it in the front of her dressing gown +so that it made a very respectable corpulency. + +"I'll be the mother!" Esther began to pin up her hair, a dignity to +which she secretly aspired. + +"I'm your bridesmaid, Libbie," announced Betty, catching up the +bride's train and beginning to hum the wedding march under her breath. + +"If you _will_ be silly idiots, I'm the minister," said Bobby, +mounting the bed and leaning over the foot rail as if it were a pulpit. + +The bride stopped short, nearly tripping up the devoted bridesmaid. + +"I don't think you should make fun of ministers," she said, looking +disapprovingly at her cousin. "It's almost wicked." + +"I'd like to know how it's any more wicked than to pretend a +wedding," retorted Bobby wrathfully. "Weddings are very solemn, +sacred, serious affairs. Mother always cries when she goes to one." + +Betty began to laugh. She laughed so hard that she had to sit down +on the floor, and the more the two girls glared at each other, the +harder she laughed. + +"I don't see what's so funny," resented Bobby, beginning to snicker, +too. "For goodness sake, don't have hysterics, Betty. Mother will +hear you and come rapping on the door in a minute." + +"I just thought of something." The convulsed Betty made a heroic +effort to control her laughter and failed completely. "Oh, girls," +she cried, wiping her eyes, "here you are bickering about the bride +and the minister, and not one of us thought of the bridegroom. We +left him out!" + +Louise and Bobby rolled over on the bed and had their laugh out. +Libbie collapsed on the floor, and Esther leaned against the bureau, +laughing till she cried. + +"They say the bridegroom isn't important at a wedding, but I never +heard of ignoring him altogether," gasped Bobby, and then they were +off again. + +They made so much noise that Mrs. Littell tapped on the door to ask +why they were not in bed, and when Bobby told her the joke, she had +to sit down and laugh, too. + +"I'll send you up some sponge cake and milk if you'll promise to go +right to sleep after that," she told them, kissing each one good +night all over again. "Libbie shall at least have the wedding cake, +if she can't have a wedding." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +OFF TO INVESTIGATE + + +Drip! drip! drip! + +Betty listened sleepily, and then, as she raised herself on one +elbow to hear better, she knew the noise was made by the rain. + +"If that isn't too provoking!" Bobby sat up with an indignant jerk +and surveyed Betty across the little table at the head of the beds. +"I thought we'd all go down to Mount Vernon to-day, and now it's gone +and rained and spoiled it all. Oh, dear! I don't think I'll get up"; +and she curled down in a dejected heap under the white spread. + +"Well, I'm going to get up," announced Betty decidedly, springing +out of bed with her accustomed energy. "Rainy days are just as much +fun as sunny ones, and there's something I have to do to-day, weather +or no weather." + +"She's a dear," said Louise warmly, smiling as the sound of Betty's +carolling came to them above the sound of running water in the +bathroom. "Mother says she likes her more and more every day. I wish +her uncle would never write to her and she'd just go on living with +us all the time." + +"And go to school with us in the fall. That would be nice," agreed +Bobby reflectively. "But, of course, Betty's heart would be broken if +she never heard from her uncle. However, we'll be as nice to her as +we can, and then maybe she will want to stay with us anyway, even if +he does send for her." + +"What are you two plotting?" asked Betty gaily, emerging warm and +rosy from her vigorous tubbing. "Do you know, I've just remembered +that I promised to show Libbie how to make mile-a-minute lace before +breakfast? I hope there is time." + +"What on earth do you want to make lace for?" demanded the practical +Bobby, as her cousin appeared in the doorway, rubbing sleepy eyes. +"It's too early to begin on Christmas presents." + +Libbie was not at all confused in her ideas, and she had a very +clear reason for wishing to add this accomplishment to her rather +limited list. + +"It's for my hope-chest," she informed Bobby with dignity, and not +even the shout of laughter which greeted this statement could ruffle +her. "You may think it's funny," she observed serenely, "but I have +six towels and three aprons made and put away all ready." + +"My aunt!" sighed Bobby inelegantly, shaking her head. "You believe +in starting young, don't you? Why, I'm fourteen, and I've never given +a thought to a hope-chest." + +Here Esther, the early riser of the family, created a diversion by +coming in fully dressed and announcing that Mammy Lou was willing to +teach as many girls as cared to come after breakfast how to make +beaten biscuit. + +"Take Libbie," giggled Bobby, whose sense of humor was easily +tickled. "She's collecting stuff for her hope chest and I should +think biscuit recipes would be just the thing. Do you want to learn +to cook, Betty? Esther has a kitchen hobby and rides it almost to +death." + +"I do not!" retorted Esther indignantly. "Do I, Louise? Mother loved +to cook when she was a girl, and she says she likes to see me fussing +in the kitchen." + +Betty was showing Libbie how to hold her crochet hook, and now she +looked up from her pupil. + +"Why, I'd love to learn to make those wonderful biscuits Mammy Lou +makes," she said slowly, "but I really have to go into Washington to-day. +That is, if it will not upset any one's plans? I can easily walk +to the trolley line, and I won't be gone longer than a couple of +hours." + +A trolley line ran about half a mile from the house, and to Betty +who had frequently walked ten miles a day while at Bramble Farm, this +distance seemed negligible. + +"Let me go with you, Betty?" coaxed Bobby. "Carter will take us in +the machine. I won't bother you, and if you have personal business to +attend to, I'll wait for you in the library or some place. Cooking +and making lace drives me wild, and if you leave me at home as likely +as not I'll pick a quarrel with some one before the morning is over." + +"Worse than that, she'll insist on singing while I'm trying to +practice," said Louise. "I'm three or four days behind with my +violin, and a rainy morning is a grand time to catch up. Do take her +with you, Betty." + +"Why, goodness, she will be taking me," insisted Betty. "Of course +you know I'll love to have you, Bobby. As a matter of fact, I wanted +to ask you to go with me because it is a strange place and your +father said not to go alone. Only I didn't want to disturb any plans +you might have made for to-day. I'll tell you about it on the way," +she added noting the look of growing curiosity on Bobby's face. + +After breakfast the girls scattered to their chosen occupations, and +Mrs. Littell settled herself to read to her husband on the glass +enclosed piazza that extended half way across the back of the house. +The car was brought round for Betty and Bobby and, commissioned to do +several small errands in town, they set off. + +"Now where are we going?" demanded Bobby bouncing around on the seat +cushions more like a girl of seven than fourteen. "Do tell me, for +I'm simply devoured with curiosity." + +So Betty briefly outlined for her a little of Bob's history and of +what she knew Lockwood Hale had told the poorhouse master. She also +explained how she had obtained the old bookshop man's address from +the bride they had met in the Monument the day before. + +The rain came down steadily, and the country road was already muddy, +showing that it had stormed the greater part of the night. Carter was +a careful driver, and the luxurious limousine had been substituted +for the touring car so that the girls were protected and very +comfortable. Quite suddenly Carter brought the car to a stop on a +lonely stretch of road just above a sharp turn. + +"Goodness, I hope he hasn't a puncture," said Bobby. "I was so +interested in listening to you I never heard anything. What's wrong, +Carter?" she called. + +"There's a little dog in the road, Miss Bobby," said Carter slowly +and distinctly, as he always spoke. Bobby had once declared that she +did not believe a fire would shake Carter from his drawling speech. +"A puppy, I guess you'd call it. I'll have to move it to one side +before we can drive past, because it is in the middle of the road." + +Bobby leaned out to look. + +"It must be hurt!" she cried. "Bring it in here, quick, Carter. Why, +it's just a tiny puppy, Betty," she added; "a black and white one." + +Carter, mingled pain and reproach in his face, brought the dog to +them, holding it gingerly away from him so as not to soil his coat. + +"It's very muddy, Miss Bobby," he said disapprovingly. "Your mother +won't like them nice gray cushions all stained up." + +"Well, couldn't you lend me your handkerchief, Carter?" suggested +Bobby gently. "I'll wipe him off. There now, he's all right. My +handkerchief's so small it wouldn't have done one of his paws." + +Carter, minus his handkerchief, started the car and they rounded the +curve. The puppy seemed to be all right except that he was wet and +shivering, and Bobby and Betty had decided that he was very young but +otherwise in perfect health when the car stopped again. + +"There's another one of 'em, Miss Bobby," groaned Carter. "You don't +want this one, do you?" + +The girls thrust out their heads. Sure enough, another black and +white puppy lay abandoned in the roadway. + +"Certainly, we'll pick it up," said Bobby indignantly. "Do you +suppose we're going to go past a dog and let it die in the rain? +Bring it here, please, Carter." + +The old man got down stiffly and picked up the dog. This time he +handed over a second handkerchief with a ludicrous air of +"take-it-and-ruin-it." + +"That's the last handkerchief I have with me, Miss Bobby," he +announced feelingly, watching his young mistress mopping water and +mud from the rescued puppy. + +"Well, there won't be any more puppies, Carter," Bobby assured him +cheerfully. + +But they had not gone twenty rods when they found another, and, +after that, a few rods further on, a fourth. + +"Here's where we use our own handkerchiefs," giggled Bobby. "And +what are we going to do with a car full of dogs?" + +The problem was solved, however, before they crossed the bridge into +Washington. On the hill leading to the bridge they overtook a small +colored boy weeping bitterly. Bobby signaled Carter to stop, and +leaning out asked the child what the matter was. + +"I done lost my dawgs!" he sobbed. "We-all is moving, and I had 'em +in a basket with a burlap bottom. I done tol mammy that burlap was +rotten." He held up the basket for them to see the hole in the cloth +tacked across the bottom. "I was going to sell them dawgs for fifty +cents apiece when they was bigger," he finished with a fresh burst of +grief. + +His joy when the girls showed him the puppies and explained how they +had found them was correspondingly noisy. He had an old gingham apron +with him, and into this the dogs were unceremoniously bundled and +securely knotted. Betty and Bobby each gave him a shining ten-cent +piece, and a blissful boy went whistling over the bridge, his world +changed to sunshine in a few brief minutes. + +The car threaded a side street, turned twice, and brought up before +a quaint old house with a basement shop tucked away under a bulging +bay-window. + +"This is Hale's bookshop, Miss," said Carter respectfully to Betty, + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WHAT HALE HAD TO TELL + + +The door of the bookstore opened with a loose old-fashioned latch, +and one fell down two steps without warning into a long, narrow room +lined with books. Betty went first, and Bobby, stumbling, would have +fallen if she had not caught her. + +"Gracious! I'm a little bit scared, aren't you?" Bobby whispered. +"It seems like such a spooky place." + +It was certainly very quiet in the shop, and for a few moments Betty +thought they must be alone. Then some one stirred, and, looking down +the room, they saw an old man bent over a book open on a table near a +dusty window. He wore big horn spectacles and was evidently extremely +nearsighted, for he kept his face so near the book that his nose +almost touched the pages. + +"That must be Mr. Hale," said Betty. "I wonder if it's all right to +interrupt him?" + +"I should say the only way to make him understand you're here, would +be to go up and take that book away," rejoined Bobby. + +"He can't be very anxious to sell anything, or he'd pay more +attention to his store," giggled Betty. + +"I'll wait here," said Bobby hastily, as Betty moved toward the rear +of the store. "I'd probably say the wrong thing anyway. Let me see, +I'll be reading this fat brown book. They all look alike to me, but +this may be thrilling in spots." + +Betty approached the motionless old man, whose lean brown forefinger +traced the curious black characters in the book before him so slowly +that it did not seem to budge at all. + +"I beg your pardon?" she said tentatively. + +No response. + +"I want to ask you----" Betty began again, a little breathlessly. +"I want to ask you about a boy named Bob Henderson." + +"Name's Hale," said the old man, without looking up and speaking in +a cracked, hoarse voice. "Lockwood Hale, dealer in new and secondhand +books. Just look around on the tables and you'll likely come across +what you want. I'll wrap it for you when you find it. Just now I'm +busy." + +Betty looked desperately at Bobby, who was listening over the top of +her book, and stifled a desire to laugh. + +"I don't want a book," she insisted gently. "I want to ask you a +question. About Bob Henderson. You know you were interested in the +records of the Oliver County almshouse, and you thought you might +know something of his people." + +The old man pushed his spectacles up on his forehead fretfully and +regarded the girl impatiently from a pair of near-sighted blue eyes. + +"The books weren't worth anything," he told her seriously. "I spent +near a day going over 'em, and there wasn't a volume worth bringing +back with me. Folks get the idea in their heads that a book's worth +money just because it is old. 'Tain't so--I could fill my tables and +shelves with old trash and still not have any stock. Jim Turner don't +know a valuable book from a turnip." + +Mr. Hale gave every indication of returning to the absorbing volume +before him, and Betty plunged in hastily with another question. + +"You know a boy named Bob Henderson, don't you?" she urged. + +"Yes, he was in here some time last week," answered Hale calmly. +"Was it Wednesday, or Tuesday--that load of old almanacs was +delivered that same afternoon." + +"Well, I'm a friend of his." Betty almost stuttered in her eagerness +to explain before the old man should be lost again in his book. "He +worked on the farm where I spent the summer, and he told me about you +and how anxious he was to see you and find out about his people. I've +been anxious, too, to learn if he reached Washington and whether he +is here now. Do you know?" + +Now that the shopkeeper's mind was fairly detached from his printed +page he seemed to be more interested in his caller, and though he did +not offer to get Betty a chair, he looked about him vaguely as though +he might be seeking a place for her to sit. + +"I don't mind standing. I mustn't stay long," she said hurriedly, +afraid to let him fix his attention on outside objects. "Didn't Bob +Henderson say where he was going? Did he mention anything about +leaving Washington?" + +"Well, now let me see," considered the old man. "Bob Henderson? Oh, +yes, I recollect now how he looked--a manly lad with a frank face. +Yes, yes, his mother was Faith Henderson, born a Saunders. That's +what caught my eye on the almshouse record book. Years ago I traced +the Saunders line for a fine young lady who was marrying here in +Washington. She wanted a coat of arms, and she was entitled to one, +too. But there was a break in the line, one branch ending suddenly +with the birth of Faith Saunders, daughter of Robert and Grace. I +never forget a name, so when I read the almshouse record and saw the +name of this lad's mother there I knew I had my chart complete. Yes, +the boy was interested in what I could tell him." + +Betty, too, was interested and glad to know that Bob had succeeded +in finding the old bookseller and learning from him what he had to +tell. But if Bob was still in Washington, she wanted to see him. He +could doubtless tell her what to do in case she did not hear from her +uncle within a few days--and Betty was growing exceedingly anxious as +no answer came in reply to her telegram. And above all, she wanted to +see an old friend. The Littells were kindness itself to her, but she +craved a familiar face, some one to whom she could say, "Do you +remember?" + +"Didn't Bob say where he was going?" she urged again. + +"Going?" Mr. Hale repeated the question placidly. "Oh, I believe he +went to Oklahoma." + +Oklahoma! Betty had a sudden wild conviction that her thoughts had +been so centered on that one locality that she was beginning to lose +her mind and imagine that every one repeated the word to her. + +"Did you--did you say Oklahoma?" she ventured. "Why, how funny! I +have an uncle out there in the oil fields. At least we think he is in +the oil fields," she added, a sudden look of worry flashing into her +eyes. "It seems so funny that Bob should go away off there." + +The old man peered up at her shrewdly. + +"Aye, aye, funny it may be," he croaked. "But suppose I should tell +you I advised the lad to go there? Would that seem funny, eh?" + +Betty stared in complete bewilderment. + +"Oh, it isn't always in the story books, sometimes it happens to +real boys," he nodded exultantly. "Suppose I told you, in strictest +confidence, young lady, for I think you're a true friend to him, that +he has relatives out there? His mother's two sisters, both of 'em +living on the old homestead? Neither of 'em married and without near +kith or kin so far as they know? Suppose I tell you that the old +farm, as I locate it, is in the oil section? Suppose the lad is +entitled to his mother's interest in the place? Eh? Suppose I tell +you that?" + +He made a question of each point, and emitted a dry cackle after +every assertion. + +"I told the lad to go out there, and if he had any trouble proving +who he was to come back here to me," said Hale importantly. "I can +help him straighten out the tangles. I've untied many a knot for +families more tangled up than this. So he may be back, he may be +back. Drop in any day, and I'll tell you whatever I know." + +Betty thanked him warmly and he followed the girls to the door, +repeating that he would be glad to tell them everything he knew. + +They were going to one of the large shops to do a few errands for +Mrs. Littell, and since their visit to the bookstore had taken so +long they agreed to separate and each do one or two commissions and +then meet at the door within half an hour. + +Betty's mind was busy with the astonishing revelations Lockwood Hale +had made, and as she deftly matched wool for a sweater, she turned +the information over in her mind. + +"I don't believe Bob has gone so far West at all," she said to +herself firmly. "He wouldn't have money enough, I'm sure. I suppose +he has written to me, but my mail will go to the farm, of course, and +Mr. Peabody would be the last person to forward it. I must write the +postmaster to hold and redirect my mail--when I know where I am to be." + +Although she had promised herself not to worry, Betty was becoming +very anxious to hear from her uncle. She had written to the Benders +in Laurel Grove and to Norma Guerin at Glenside, explaining her +situation and asking them to let her know as soon as the quarantine +in Pineville should be lifted. She knew that she could visit friends +there indefinitely. But that did not much lighten the burden. Anxiety +for her uncle and growing fear that she might never again hear from +him, it had already been so long a time since his last letter, at +times oppressed her. + +Their chopping finished, she and Bobby were reunited and were glad +to enter the car and drive quietly home to luncheon. It was still +raining, and they found the other girls impatient for their return. + +"We know all about beaten biscuit," boasted Esther. "And I stirred +up a gold cake every bit myself." + +"Practising all done," reported Louise. "And I'm just aching for a +good lively game. No wedding stuff, Libbie, I warn you. I can see a +romantic gleam in your eye." + +Libbie said nothing then, but after lunch when they were debating +what to do, she had a suggestion. + +"Let's play hide-and-go-seek," she said enthusiastically. + +"Well, I didn't know you had that much sense," approved Bobby, who +was blunt almost to a fault but undoubtedly fond of her younger +cousin. "Come on, girls, we'll have one more good game before the +family begin to hint I'm too old for such hoydenish tricks. We'll go +up to the attic and make as much noise as we can." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MORE SIGHTSEEING + + +Libbie waited till they were safely in the attic before she followed +up her suggestion. + +"I read the loveliest story last summer," she said dreamily. "It was +about a bride--" + +A shout of laughter from the listening girls interrupted her. + +"I knew there would be a bride in it somewhere," rippled Bobby. +"Now, Libbie, once and for all, this is hide-and-go-seek, not a mock +wedding." + +"You might let me finish," protested Libbie. "I only meant to say +this story was about a bride who ran away from her wedding guests for +fun and hid in a great carved chest; the chest had a spring lock and +it closed tight when she pulled it down. Her husband and all the +guests hunted and hunted, and they never found her. Years and years +after, when they opened the chest, there were only some bones and the +wedding dress and veil." + +"And you call that a lovely story!" Bobby's scorn was immeasurable. +"Well, I think it's gruesome. And what kind of housecleaning did they +have in those days? My mother opens every chest and trunk and box in +the house at least twice a year." + +The game started merrily, and, forewarned by Libbie's story, the +girls knew exactly where to find her when she hid from them and +unerringly pulled her out of every chest into which she hopefully +squeezed her plump self. + +"You never should have mentioned 'chest' to us," laughed Betty, when +Libbie was "it" for the third time. "We know your line of reasoning +now, you see." + +Libbie good-naturedly began her counting, and Betty looked about for +a good place to hide. The attic was long and wide and a splendid +place to play. It was rather too well lighted for hide-and-seek, but +the trunks and boxes arranged neatly around the walls offered a fair +chance to escape detection. A peculiar fan-shaped box near a window +attracted Betty's attention, apparently being a built-in box. + +"I'll hide there," she resolved, running lightly over to it. + +Louise and Esther and Bobby were already stowed away in various +corners, and Betty slipped into the box noiselessly. Libbie ceased +counting. + +The three Littell girls reached "home" without being detected, and +then perched merrily on an old trunk to watch Libbie prowl about +after Betty. A five-minute search failed to reveal her, and Libby +gave up. + +"All safe, you may come in!" they called in unison. + +No Betty appeared, and they shouted again. + +"Well, if that isn't queer!" Louise looked at Bobby in doubt. "Where +do you suppose she is hiding?" + +Bobby, a furrow of anxiety between her eyes, searched the attic with +level glances, her sisters and cousin watching her apprehensively. + +"Something must have happened to her," Louise was beginning, when +Bobby gave a cry and raced for the door. + +"I'll bet I know where she went," she flung over her shoulder. +"Haven't time--to stop--don't bother me----" She flew down the +stairs, the others after her at top speed. + +Down, down, down, through the third, second and first floors, the +four girls fled like a whirlwind, down, always following flying +Bobby, to the laundry in the basement where modern electric equipment +made washing clothes a scientific process. + +Bobby brought up her mad flight before a tall cupboard in one +corner, turning the catch on the door, opened it and out +tumbled--Betty! + +"Are you hurt?" demanded Bobby, helping her to her feet. "Oh, Betty, +darling, do say you're all right! It's a wonder you weren't +suffocated or didn't break any bones." + +"I'm all right," said Betty, smoothing out her skirts. "But I'm +still a bit dazed. It was such a sudden drop. What have I done that I +shouldn't, Bobby?" + +Libbie, too, was bewildered, and stared at the disheveled Betty with +puzzled wonder. + +"Why, my dear child," explained Bobby, with a funny maternal manner, +"you fell down the laundry shoot. It opens into the attic for good +ventilation. I'm glad there were some soiled clothes at the bottom +for you to land on, otherwise you might have had a bad bump. Sure +you're all right?" + +"Yes, indeed," insisted Betty. "I thought I was climbing into a box +and went in feet first without looking. Instead of hitting the floor, +I slid gently on and on. I hadn't any breath to scream with I went so +fast. Anyway, there wasn't time to scream. I just sat here for a time +after I landed. And I was wondering where I was and how I could get +out when you opened the door for me." + +That ended the game for the day, and the rest of the afternoon the +girls were content to spend quietly, Betty in writing a long letter +to Mrs. Arnold, one of her mother's old friends who had moved to +California, and the others with books and sewing. + +The next morning was fair and sunny, and before breakfast Bobby had +it planned that they should spend the day at Mount Vernon. Of course +Betty and Libbie were very anxious to see the famous place, and the +three sisters were glad to have the opportunity to take them for the +first time. + +"It's never the same again," explained Louise, obligingly tying +Esther's hair-bow for her. "There's a wonderful thrill you get when +you see the things that really were Washington's and were handled by +him that never comes again. Though we love to go there and never tire +of looking at the rooms." + +"What a chatter-box you are, child!" expostulated her mother, who +had come up to tell them breakfast was ready. Indeed the gong had +sounded fully fifteen minutes before. "How nice you look, all of you! +I'll be proud to take five girls to Mount Vernon. We're going to-day, +aren't we?" + +Dear Mrs. Littell! Betty already loved her dearly, as indeed did +every member of the household. She was so unaffected, so affectionate +and generous, and she allowed money to change her simple, happy +nature not at all. The Littells had not always been wealthy, and the +mistress of the beautiful mansion did not hesitate to tell of the +days when she had done all of her own housework and taken care of two +babies. + +Soon after breakfast the party started, the plan to go by motor +being abandoned in favor of the trip down the river. It was decided +that Carter should come down later with the car and bring a basket +luncheon, taking them home in the afternoon. + +Mount Vernon is sixteen miles below Washington, and the sail down +the Potomac was delightful in the cool of the morning, and Betty +thought she had never seen anything more beautiful than the deep +greens of the trees and grass on either bank. By common consent the +boatload of chattering people became silent as they came in sight of +Mount Vernon, and as the glimmer of the house showed white between +the trees. Betty's heart contracted suddenly. Louise, who was +watching her, squeezed her arm sympathetically. + +"I know how you feel," she whispered. "Mother told me that the first +time she went abroad and dad took her to see the Colosseum she cried. +You're not crying, are you, Betty?" + +Betty shook her head, but her eyelashes were suspiciously damp. + +Libbie was staring in unaffected enjoyment at the scene before her +and fairly dancing with impatience to be off the boat. + +"I do want to see Martha Washington's things," she confided, as they +went ashore. "Her ivory fan and her dishes and the lovely colonial +mahogany furniture." + +"George Washington's swords for mine," announced Bobby inelegantly. +"I've seen 'em every time I've been here, and I'd give anything to +have one to hang in my room." + +"Bobby should have been a boy," remarked Mrs. Littell indulgently. +"You're mother's only son, aren't you, dear?" + +"Well, my name is as near as I'll ever come to it," mourned Bobby. +"However, I manage to have a pretty good time if I am only a girl." + +Mrs. Littell led them first to the tomb of Washington. The plain +brick building was directly at the head of the path leading from the +landing, and a reverent group stood, the men with bared heads, for a +few moments before the resting place of the Father of his Country. + +High above the river, overlooking the land he loved, stands the +Mount Vernon mansion. From the tomb the Littell party went directly +to the house. + +Each of the girls, although interested in the whole, showed her +personality distinctly in her choice of special relics. + +It was Betty who lingered longest in the library, fascinated by the +autographed letters of Washington, his tripod used in surveying, and +his family Bible. Bobby had to be torn bodily from the room which +contained the four swords. Esther spent her happiest hour in the old +kitchen, admiring the huge fireplace and the andirons and turnspit. + +Louise and Mrs. Littell were able to go into raptures over the old +furniture in Martha Washington's bedroom and sitting room, though +they, of course, had seen it all many times before. + +Mrs. Littell herself had a collection of antique furniture of which +she was justly proud, and mahogany furniture was sure of her +intelligent appreciation. Strange to say, Libbie remained cool toward +the very things she had voiced a desire to see, and in the middle of +the morning they missed her. + +They were on their way to the barn Washington's father had built, +and Betty volunteered to run back and see if the missing girl had +stayed behind in the house. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BETTY UNDERSTANDS + + +Betty hurried back and began a hasty inspection of the rooms. She +recollected seeing Libbie upstairs at the door of Washington's room +the last time she had definitely noticed her, and she ran upstairs to +see if she might not be there. + +No Libbie was in any of the rooms. + +Downstairs she searched hurriedly, peeping under people's elbows, +trying not to annoy others and yet to make a thorough hunt in a short +time so as not to keep the others waiting. Then in the music room, or +East Parlor, as it is often called, she found the truant, gazing with +rapt eyes at the quaint old harpsichord which had belonged to Nellie +Custis. + +"Every one is waiting for you," announced Betty, pulling her gently +by the sleeve. "Come on, Libbie, we're all going. We've seen the +whole house." + +Libbie followed in a sort of daze, and when they rejoined the others +she seemed to be still in a brown study. + +"For goodness sake," prodded Bobby impatiently, "what were you doing +back there? We nearly went off and left you. Where did you find her, +Betty?" + +"I was in the music room," announced Libbie with dignity. "I wanted +to see the harpsichord. Say, girls, did you know Washington gave that +to Nellie Custis when she was married? He wore his uniform when he +gave her away, and--" + +"Well, for pity's sake!" Bobby's disgust was ludicrous. "Trust +Libbie to dig up a romance wherever she goes. What else did you find +connected with weddings, Lib?" + +Libbie was inclined to be ruffled, but Mrs. Littell soothed the +troubled waters by telling them that the old barn, which they had +reached by this time, was built in 1733 by Washington's father and +that the bricks were supposed to have been imported from England. + +The beautiful old formal garden further mellowed their tempers, for +it was impossible to say sharp things walking along the very paths +which George Washington had often trod and between the rows of box +brushed by the silken skirts of Mrs. Washington. Where her rose +bushes used to be are planted others, and Mrs. Littell assured the +girls that it was one of the great pleasures of the First Lady of the +Land to gather rose leaves for her potpourri jars and to make a +perfumed unguent for which she was famous among her friends. + +"She was a wonderful housekeeper," added Mrs. Littell, smiling at +Libbie, whose momentary resentment had quickly faded, "and a very +fine manager. We are told that she was thoroughly domestic in her +tastes and that she made her husband ideally happy." + +Presently Carter came with a hamper of luncheon and their appetites +did full justice to Mammy Lou's dainties. Betty wondered, sitting on +the grass, the Potomac flowing lazily several feet below, whether she +was dreaming and might not wake up to find herself at Bramble Farm +with Mr. Peabody scolding vigorously because something had not gone +to suit him. She often had this odd feeling that her present +happiness could not be real. + +This, too, brought the thought of her uncle to her mind, and again +she wondered if she would ever hear from him--if something dreadful +had not happened to him, leaving her almost as much alone in the +world as Bob Henderson. She shivered a little, then resolutely threw +herself into the chatter of the other girls and soon forgot all but +the present pleasure and excitement. + +After rambling about the grounds another hour or so, the party from +Fairfield was ready to go, and they all found it restful to lean back +in the comfortable car and spin back to the city. + +"If you're not too tired I think we might drive down Pennsylvania +Avenue," suggested Mrs. Littell. "Our guests haven't seen the White +House yet, have they?" + +Neither Betty nor Libbie had, and as the car turned into the famous +thoroughfare both girls sat up alertly so as not to miss a single +sight of interest. Carter slowed down as they approached a high iron +fence, and at the first glimpse of the white mansion separated from +the fence and street by a wide stretch of lawn, Libbie shouted +joyfully. + +"The White House!" + +"Well, you needn't tell everybody," cautioned Bobby. "Think of the +weddings they've held in there, Libbie!" + +"I imagine any one who has ever seen a picture of the White House +recognizes it instantly," said Betty, fearing a resumption of +cousinly hostilities. "How beautiful the grounds are." + +"You must go through it some day soon," said Mrs. Littell. "And now +we'll drive to the Capitol. Day after to-morrow would be a good time +for you to take the girls to the Capitol, Bobby." + +The Capitol reminded Libbie of a pin tray she had at home, and awoke +recollection in Betty's mind of a bronze plaque that had been one of +Mrs. Arnold's treasures in the stiff little parlor of the Pineville +house. All good Americans know the White House and the Capitol long +before they make a pilgrimage to Washington. + +On their arrival at Fairfields they found Mr. Littell playing +solitaire, and something in his undisguised relief at seeing them +made Betty wonder if time did not hang heavily on his hands. + +After dinner Bobby proposed that they turn on the phonograph and +have a little dance among themselves. + +"Oh, that will be fine!" cried Betty. + +"Then you can dance?" + +"A little--mother taught me." + +So the girls danced and had a good time generally for an hour or +more, with Mr. and Mrs. Littell looking on. Then Betty sank down on +the arm of Mr. Littell's chair. + +"I've been thinking of something," she half whispered. "Do you like +to play checkers? If you do, I know how." + +Maybe Mr. Littell understood that she was doing it largely to keep +him company. But he said nothing, and they played checkers for nearly +two hours. Betty was a fairly good player and managed to land several +victories. + +"With a little more practice you'll make a very good player," +declared Mr. Littell. "I appreciate your staying to play with a +cripple like me," he added gratefully. "Does your Uncle Dick play?" + +"I don't really know," replied the girl, and now her face clouded +for an instant. Oh, why didn't she hear from Uncle Dick? + +The next few days were filled with sightseeing trips. Betty was kept +too busy to have much time to worry, which was fortunate, for no word +came from her uncle and no word reached her from Bob Henderson. The +Guerins and the Benders wrote to her, and each letter mentioned the +fact that Bob had sent a postal from Washington, but that no later +word had come from him. + +"I met Peabody on the road yesterday," ran a postscript to Norma +Guerin's letter, written by her doctor father. "He hinted darkly that +Bob had done something that might land him in jail, but I couldn't +force out of him what fearful thing Bob had done. I hope the lad +hasn't been rash, for Peabody never forgives a wrong, real or fancied." + +Betty knew that the farmer's action had to do with the unrecorded +deed, but she did not feel that she should make any disclosures in +that connection. Of Bob's innocence she was sure, and time would +certainly clear him of any implication. + +The girls visited the Capitol, seeing the great bronze doors that +are nineteen feet high and weight ten tons. Betty was fascinated by +the eight panels, and studied them till the others threatened to +leave her there over night and call for her in the morning. Then she +consented to make the tour of the three buildings. But the historical +paintings again held her spellbound. When she reached the Senate +chamber, which was empty, except for a page or two, the Senate not +being in session, she dropped into a gallery seat and tried to +imagine the famous scenes enacted there. They spent the better part +of a day at the Capitol, and saw practically everything in the +buildings. They were so tired that night that Libbie went to sleep +over her dessert, and Betty dreamed all night of defending the city +with a shotgun from the great gilded dome. But she and Libbie agreed +that they would not have missed it for anything. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +AN UNEXPECTED MEETING + + +"That's twice you've made a wrong play, Betty," observed Mr. +Littell. "What lies heavy on your mind this evening?" + +Betty blushed, and attempted to put her mind more on the game. She +was playing checkers with Mr. Littell, whose injured foot still kept +him a prisoner most of the time, and she had played badly all the +evening, she knew. Truth to tell, she was thinking about her uncle +and wondering over and over why she did not hear from him. + +After the rubber was played and the other girls who had been around +the piano, singing, had gone out to get something to eat, for the +maids had the evening off, Betty spoke to her host. + +"I suppose you think I'm foolish," she ventured; "but I am really +worried about Uncle Dick now. He has never answered the telegram and +the two letters I've written. His Philadelphia lawyer writes that he +is waiting to hear from him. He seems to have dropped out of the +world. Do you think he may be sick in some hospital and not able to +communicate with us?" + +"That's a possibility," admitted Mr. Littell soberly. "But I tell +you honestly, Betty, and not simply to relieve your mind, that I +consider it a very remote one. Business men, especially men who +travel a great deal, as you tell me your uncle does, seldom are +without somewhere on their person, their names and addresses, and +directions about what is to be done in case of sickness or accident. +I never travel without such a card. Ten to one, if your uncle were +ill or injured, his lawyer would have been notified immediately." + +A weight of anxiety slipped from Betty's heart, for she immediately +recognized the sound common sense in this argument. Still, something +else was troubling her. + +"Don't you think," she began again bravely, "that I had better go to +Pineville? The quarantine is lifted, I hear, and the Bensingers will +take me in till I can hear from Uncle Dick. You and Mrs. Littell and +the girls have been so lovely to me, but--but--" her voice trailed off. + +Mr. Littell leaned back in his chair and lit a fresh cigar. + +"Well, now of course," he said slowly, "if you feel that you want to +go to Pineville, we really have no right to say anything. But if I +were you, I'd stay right here. Your uncle may be intending to come +back to Washington. In any case, he will address his letter to you +here. Of that much we are certain. You'll hear more quickly if you +don't move about. Besides, there is that Henderson lad. I'm counting +on making his acquaintance. He's likely to bob up any day--though I +didn't mean to pun. If you want my advice, Betty, it is to stay here +quietly with us and wait as patiently as you can. We like to have +you, you know that. You're not a stranger, but a friend." + +He went on to explain to her in his quiet, even, matter-of-fact way, +that to the disturbed girl was inexpressibly soothing, his belief +that her uncle was on an exploration trip for oil and might easily +find a month's accumulation of mail awaiting him on his return. + +"It's only here, in the heart of civilization, that we think we +can't live without four mails a day," Mr. Littell concluded. "I've +been out of touch with a post-office for three weeks at a time +myself, and our sailors, you know, often go much longer without +letters." + +On one particularly lovely morning the four girls, with Mrs. +Littell, started off on the pleasant mission of seeing the White +House. Betty's and Libbie's acquaintance with it was confined solely +to the glimpses they had had from the street, but Louise and Bobby +had attended several New Year's receptions and had shaken hands with +the President. + +The party spent a delightful morning, visiting the famous East Room, +admiring the full length portraits of George and Martha Washington, +about which latter the story is told that Mrs. Dolly Madison cut it +from its frame to save it from the approaching enemy in 1814. They +were also fortunate to find a custodian taking sightseers through the +other official apartments so that they saw more than the casual +visitor does in one visit. They visited in turn, the Green Room, the +Red Room, and the Blue Room, saw the state dining-room with its +magnificent shining table about which it was easy to imagine famous +guests seated, and enjoyed a peep into the conservatory at the end of +the corridor. They did not go up to the executive offices on the +second floor, knowing that probably a crowd was before them and that +an opportunity to see the President on the streets of the city was +likely to present itself. + +"Well, I shouldn't want to live there," sighed Betty, as they came +down the steps, "It is very grand and very stately, but not much like +a home. I suppose, though, the private rooms of the President and his +family are cozy, if one could see them." + +"Beyond a doubt," agreed Mrs. Littell. + +They lunched at one of the large hotels, and afterward Mrs. Littell +had a club engagement. The girls, she announced, might spend the +afternoon as they chose, and she would pick them all up at five +o'clock with Carter and the car. + +"Esther and I want to see 'The Heart of June,'" announced Libbie, +who found romance enough to satisfy her in the motion-pictures. + +Louise was interested, too; but Betty had promised to take some +papers for Mr. Littell and see that they reached an architect in one +of the nearby office buildings. Bobby elected to go with her, and +they decided that, that errand accomplished, they might do a little +shopping and meet the others at the theater door at five o'clock. + +"Mr. Waters won't be in till three o'clock," announced the freckle-faced +office boy who met them in the outer office of the architect's suite. + +"Then we'll have to come back," decided Betty, glancing at her +watch. "It is just two now." + +"You can leave anything with me," said the boy politely. "I'll see +that he gets it as soon as he comes in." + +"Yes, do, Betty," urged Bobby. "Dad would say it was all right to +leave that envelope of papers. They're not terribly important." + +"We can do our shopping and then come back," insisted Betty, to the +evident disgust of Bobby and the hardly less concealed impatience of +the office boy. + +"Why wouldn't you leave 'em?" demanded Bobby, when they were once +more in the street. + +"Dad hasn't any secret service stuff, I'm sure of that. Now we have +to come all the way back here again, and that means hurrying through +our shopping." + +"You needn't come," said Betty mildly. "Your father asked me to give +those papers personally to Mr. Waters. He didn't say they were +important; I don't know that they are. But if I say I am going to +give an envelope personally to any one, I don't intend to give that +envelope to a third person if there's nothing in it more valuable +than--hair nets!" + +The window they were passing suggested the comparison, and Bobby +laughed good-naturedly and forebore to argue further. Promptly at +three o'clock she and Betty entered the elevator in the office +building and were whirled up to the fifth floor to find Mr. Waters in +his private office. + +"Mr. Littell telephoned half an hour ago," he told them, taking the +envelope and running over the papers with a practised eye as he +talked. "He hoped to catch you before you left here. I believe he +wants to speak to his daughter. There's a booth right there, Miss +Bobby." + +Bobby had a brief conversation with her father and came out in a few +minutes in evident haste. + +"He wants us to do a couple more errands, Betty," she announced. +"We'll have to hurry, for it's after three." + +The architect had written a receipt for the papers, and Bobby now +hurried Betty off, explaining as they went that they must take a car +to Octagon House. + +Octagon House proved to be the headquarters for the American +Institute of Architects, and Bobby's errand had to do with one of the +offices. Betty admired the fine woodwork and the handsome design of +the house while waiting for her companion, and in less than fifteen +minutes they were back on the street car bound for "the tallest +office building in Washington," as Bobby described it. + +"Dad wants an architectural magazine that's out of print, and he +thinks I can get it there," she said. "Afterward, if we have time, +we'll go to the top of the building. The root is arranged so that you +can step out, and they say the view is really splendid. Not so +extensive as from the Monument, of course, but not so reduced, +either. I've always wanted to get up on the roof and see what I could +see." + +Finding the office her father had specified did not prove as easy a +task as Bobby had anticipated, and she said frankly that if she had +been alone she would have given up and taken another day for the +search. + +"But if you can keep a promise down to the last dot of the last +letter, far be it from me to fall short," she remarked. "Oh, Betty, +do you see any office that looks like Sherwood and David on this +board?" + +At last they found it under another name, which, as Bobby rather +tactlessly told the elevator boy, was not her idea of efficiency. The +copy of the magazine Mr. Littell especially wanted was wrapped up and +placed safely in Bobby's hands. + +"And now," declared that young person gaily, "as the reward of +virtue, let's go up on the roof. It is after four, but we'll have +time if we don't dawdle. We can get from here to the theater in +fifteen minutes." + +They started for the elevator, and as a car came up and the gates +opened a boy got off. He would have brushed by without looking up, +but Betty saw him at once. + +"Bob!" she cried in amazement "Why, Bob Henderson!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MUTUAL CONFIDENCES + + +"Betty! Oh, Betty! _Betty!_" Bob Henderson's familiar, friendly +voice rose to a perfect crescendo of delight, and several passengers +in the elevator smiled in sympathy. + +Bobby Littell, who had entered the car, backed out hastily and the +gate closed. + +"Bobby, this is Bob Henderson," Betty performed a hasty +introduction. "And, Bob, this is Roberta Littell, always called Bobby." + +The latter held out an instant cordial hand to Bob. + +"I know about you," she proclaimed frankly. "Betty thinks you are +fine. We ought to be good friends, because our names are almost alike." + +"I must talk to you, Bob," said Betty hurriedly. "Where are you +going? Have you heard from Bramble Farm or Uncle Dick? How long have +you been in Washington? Did you get out to Oklahoma?" + +Bobby laughed and touched Betty on the arm. + +"There's a seat over by the elevator," she suggested. "Why don't you +sit there and talk? I'll come back and get you at a quarter to five--I +want to get some new hair-ribbons for Esther." + +"But you wanted to go up on the roof!" protested Betty, longing to +talk to Bob and yet mindful of Bobby's first plans. + +"Plenty of other days for that," was the careless response. "See you +quarter to, remember. Good-by, Bob--though I'll see you again, of +course." + +She disappeared into a down elevator, and Betty and Bob sat down on +the oak settle in the corridor. + +"Wasn't it lucky we met you!" exclaimed Betty, getting a good look +at the boy for the first time. "Seems to me you're thinner, Bob. Are +you all right?" + +"Couldn't be better!" he assured her, but she noticed there were +rings under his eyes and that his hands, white enough now in contrast +to the tan which still showed at his wrists, were perceptibly +thinner. "Fact is, I work in this building, Betty. Kind of junior +clerk for a man on the fourth floor, substituting while his clerks +are away on vacation. Hale got me the place." + +Betty told him of her interview with the old bookshop man, and Bob +listened intently. + +"So that's how you heard about Oklahoma," he commented. "You could +have knocked me down with a feather when you said it. I guess Hale +forgot I was working here--he really is dreadfully absent-minded--or +else he thought you weren't to be trusted with so important a secret. +He's as queer as they make 'em, but he was very good to me; couldn't +seem to take enough pains to trace out what he knew of my mother's +people." + +Bob went on to explain that his money had given out and that he had +to work in order to get together enough to pay his fare out to the +West and also to board himself and pay for some new clothes. Betty +guessed that he was scrimping closely to save his wages, though she +did not then suspect what she afterward learned to be true, that he +was trying to live on two meals a day, and those none too bountiful. +Bob had a healthy boy's appetite, and it took determination for him +to go without the extra meal, but he had the grit to stick it out. + +"When Bobby comes back you must go with us and meet Mrs. Littell," +observed Betty. "She'll want to take you home to dinner. Oh, Bob, +they are the loveliest people!" + +Bob shifted his foot so that the patch on one shoe was hidden. + +"I'll go with you to meet her on one condition," he said firmly. "I +won't go to dinner anywhere to-night--that's flat, Betty. My collar +isn't clean. And who are the Littells?" + +That led to long explanations, of course, and Betty told in detail +how she had left Bramble Farm, of the mix-up at the Union Station, +and her subsequent friendship with the hospitable family. She also +told him of Mr. Gordon's sudden trip to Oklahoma and his almost +inexplicable silence, but kept to herself her worry over this silence +and as to her own future if it continued. She gave him the latest +news of the Benders and the Guerins and handed over the two letters +from these friends she happened to have in her purse that he might +read and enjoy them at his leisure. In short, Betty poured out much +of the pent-up excitement and doubt and conjecture of the last few +weeks to Bob, who was as hungry to hear as she was to tell it. + +"They certainly are fine to you!" he exclaimed, referring to the +Littells. "There isn't another family in Washington, probably, who +would have been as kind to you. I think you'll hear from your uncle +soon, Betty. Lots of times these oil wells, you know, are miles from +a railroad or a post-office. You take that Mr. Littell's advice--he +sounds as if he had a heap of common sense. And whatever they've done +to you, you're looking great, Betty. Pretty, and stylish and--and +different, somehow." + +Betty blushed becomingly. She had brightened up amazingly during her +stay in Washington, despite her anxiety about her uncle and, lately, +Bob, The serene and happy life the whole household led under the roof +of "Fairfields" had a great deal to do with this transformation, for +the bickering and pettiness of the daily life at Bramble Farm had +worn Betty's nerves insensibly. She tried to say something of this to +Bob. + +"I know," he nodded. "And, Betty, what do you think? I met the old +miser right here in Washington!" + +Instinctively Betty glanced behind her. + +"You didn't!" she gasped. "Where? Did he--was he angry?" + +"Sure! He was raving," replied Bob cheerfully. "What do you think he +accused me of this time? Stealing an unrecorded deed! Did you know +anything about that, Betty?" + +Betty described the incident of her delayed letter and told of the +morning she had picked it from the floor and hung up Mr. Peabody's +coat. + +"He insists you took it, but I never believed it for one moment," +she said earnestly. "I'm sure Mrs. Peabody doesn't either; and I +didn't think Mr. Peabody really thought you took it. You know how he +flies into a temper and accuses any one. But if he came down to +Washington and said pointblank to you that you took it, it looks as +if he thought you did, doesn't it?" + +"You wouldn't have any doubts if you had heard him," Bob said +grimly. "He had me by the coat collar and nearly shook my teeth +loose. Perhaps he expected to shake the deed out of my pocket. What +on earth does he think I could do with his old deed, anyhow?" + +Betty explained the transaction of the lots as Mrs. Peabody had +explained it to her, and Bob understood that the farmer, basing his +reasoning on his own probable conduct under similar conditions, +suspected him of intended blackmail. + +"How did you get away from him?" asked Betty presently. "Where did +he shake you? Couldn't you call a policeman?" + +"He wanted a policeman," said Bob, chuckling. "He walked me about +two blocks, hunting for a cop. Then a crowd collected and I decided +it was better to wriggle out, and I did, leaving the only coat I +owned in his hands. But I never go out without looking up and down +the street first. I don't want to be arrested, even if I didn't steal +anything. Besides, with Peabody, I have a feeling that he might be +able to prove whatever he wanted to prove." + +"You've bought a new suit," said Betty irrelevantly. "You don't +suppose Mr. Peabody will stay in Washington, hunting for you, do you?" + +"If he doesn't have to pay too much for board he will," said Bob. +"That deed evidently means a lot to him. I wish I could find it, if +only to send him back to the farm. I'll bet a cookie it's in some of +his coat pockets this minute, and he hanging down here to nab me. +Sure, I bought a new suit--had to, before I could get a job. By the +way, Betty, if you need some cash--" He patted his pocket invitingly. + +"Oh, I have enough," Betty assured him hastily. "I'd feel better if +the Littells would only let me spend a little money. Why, what's this?" + +For Bob had put a small white envelope into her reluctant hands. + +"That's the loan," he said gravely. "I've carried it just like that +for days, ready to give you the first time I saw you. You're a great +little pal, Betty. If it hadn't been for you, I never should have got +to Washington." + +Betty put the money away in her purse, conscious that it meant self-denial +on the lad's part, but knowing that she would hurt his pride irreparably +did she refuse to take it. + +"Have you written to Mr. Bender?" she prodded gently. "You promised +to, Bob." + +The police recorder had taken a warm interest in Bob, and Betty knew +from his wife's letters that he was anxious to hear from him. + +"I will write," promised Bob. "I'm tired at night, Betty, and that's +the truth. I never seem to get enough sleep. But I will write, +perhaps this Sunday." + +"Well, folks, all talked out?" called Bobby's gay voice, and she +came smilingly up to them. "Betty, mother and the girls are +downstairs in the car. I met them on the way and they know all about +our meeting with Bob. Mother wants him to come home to dinner." + +Bob replied that while he appreciated Mrs. Littell's kindness, he +could not come that night, and, as he followed Bobby to the elevator, +gave Betty a significant glare which, correctly interpreted, read: +"Don't forget what I told you!" + +Mrs. Littell took to Bob at once, and the bevy of girls, simple and +friendly and delightfully free from selfconsciousness, adopted him at +once as Betty's friend and theirs. When the mother found that he +could not be persuaded to come home with them that night--and Betty +loyally supported him, mindful of the collar--she would not be +satisfied until she had arranged for him to spend the next Saturday +afternoon and Sunday with them at "Fairfields," promising to send the +car in for him at noon, so that he might have lunch with them. + +"Betty hasn't tried her riding habit on once," said Mrs. Littell +when Bob had promised to come. "Perhaps when you come out the girls +will find time to give her, her delayed riding lesson. They've been +doing Washington pretty thoroughly." + +This reminded Betty of Bobby's plan to visit the roof of the office +building, and Bob had the same thought. + +"Couldn't you all come in to-morrow morning and let me take you up +on the roof?" he asked them. "The view is really worth while, and I'm +up there anyway half the morning looking after my employer's +experiments. He is head of a dye house, and is always trying the +effect of sunlight on new shades." + +So it was decided that the girls should come in again in the +morning. Then they drove away home, and Bob went on his errand. +Luckily he had been told that he need not return to the office that +afternoon after its completion, or he might have found himself +involved in a maze of explanations and excuses for his lengthy absence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE ACCIDENT + + +"I'd like to live up here!" It was Esther who spoke so enthusiastically, +as she stood, with Bob Henderson and the four girls, on the roof of the +building proudly pointed out as the tallest in Washington. + +A soft breeze was blowing, and it was a cloudless day so that the +city was clearly spread before them. + +"Wouldn't I like to go up in an airplane!" exclaimed Betty. "See, +they're flying over the Navy Yard now. I'd give anything to know how +it feels to fly." + +"If you go much nearer that edge you'll know how it feels all +right," Bob warned her. "Come down here and I'll show you our drying +racks. Perhaps that will keep your mind off airplanes." + +The wooden racks held lengths of silk and cloth, weighted at the +ends to keep them from blowing away. The materials were dyed in +crude, vivid colors, and Bob explained that they were brought from +the factory after being dipped so that his employer might personally +observe the changes they underwent after exposure to strong sunlight. + +"We only take orders and send out salesmen from the office +downstairs," he said. "The factory is near Georgetown and employs +about two hundred hands." + +After they had made the circuit of the roof, picking out familiar +landmarks and wrangling lazily over distances and geographical +boundaries, they were ready to go down. Bob must return to work, and +the girls had planned a trip to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. + +"I tell you I was glad our office wasn't on the top floor this +morning," Bob casually remarked as they stood waiting for the +elevator. "Something was the matter, and everybody had to walk up. +The fourth floor was plenty far enough up for us then." + +"Mother always says we don't appreciate conveniences till we have to +do without them," said Bobby. "Here comes the car." + +The grinning negro boy who operated the elevator smiled a wide smile +as they filed into his car. + +"You-all get a nice view?" he asked sociably. + +They assured him that they had, and he seemed pleased, but his red +light glowing at that moment, he gave all his attention to stopping +at the next floor. Two women got on and, at the next floor, two men. + +The gate had just closed after this last stop, and Betty had opened +her mouth to tell Bobby that her hat was tipped crookedly when with a +sickening speed the car began to drop! + +"We's slipping! I can't stop her! Oh, good gracious, the brakes or +nothin' don't work!" The frenzied wail of the negro who was working +valiantly at his levers gave the first intimation of danger. + +Betty saw Bob spring to his aid, saw Esther sink in a miserable +little white heap to the floor, Bobby put her hands up to her eyes as +if to shut out the light, and Louise mechanically try to defend +herself from the strangle hold of the woman who stood next to her. It +seemed minutes to Betty that the car was falling, and she watched the +others' behavior with a curious, semi-detached interest that was +oddly impersonal. One of the men passengers began to claw at the gate +frantically and the other kept muttering under his breath, softly and +steadily, biting off his words crisply and quite unconscious of what +he was saying. The woman who had clutched Louise was silent at first, +but her companion instantly screamed, and in a fraction of a second +she, too, was screaming. + +Now Betty had never heard the sound of women in terror, and she was +unprepared for the wild anguish of those shrill voices. + +The experience was terrifying, but it was all over very swiftly. The +mechanism jammed between the third and second floors and the elevator +came to a stop with a suddenness that jarred the teeth of the +passengers. It had begun to fall after leaving the seventh floor. + +For a moment every one stared at every one else stupidly. Bobby +Littell was the first to find her voice. + +"Well, I guess we're all here," she observed matter-of-factly. +"Esther, are you hurt?" + +"No-o, I think not," said Esther slowly. "Wasn't it awful! Let's get +out of here, quick." + +A hasty investigation proved that no one was injured, and as one of +the men said, shaken nerves could not be allowed to count. + +"That was a narrow escape, a mighty narrow escape!" said the other +man. "I fully expected to be smashed in the wreck of the car when it +struck the concrete well." + +"I'll never ride in another elevator, never!" ejaculated the woman +who had seized Louise. "Why, I'll dream of this for weeks to come." + +The girls said nothing, though their lips were white and Betty's +knees were trembling. She was rather angry that she should feel this +loss of control after everything was over, but it was natural. + +"How do we get out?" Bob addressed the operator briskly. "Can you +open the doors? Come on now, nothing is going to hurt you--the danger +is over." + +The poor darky was actually gray with fright, and his face was +bruised where he had been thrown against the grating when the car +stopped. + +"I doan know how you-all kin get out, Boss," he said tremulously. +"We's stuck between the floors." + +"Hello! Hello you, down there! Anybody hurt?" a friendly bellow came +down to them from the grating of the floor above. + +A crowd had collected on each floor, having heard the screams, and +all these people now ran downstairs to get as close to the stranded +car as they could. They collected about the gate on the third floor, +and many from the street, hearing that there had been an accident, +crowded around the shaft on the second floor. They were advised that +no one was hurt and what was needed was a way of escape from the +brass cage. + +"Knock a hole in the roof," some one advised cheerfully. "You can +crawl out on the top of the car and then shinny your way up to us. Or +we'll let down a rope to you." + +"What'll we knock a hole in the roof with?" demanded Bob, and when +offers were made to drop an axe down to him he had difficulty in +calming the woman who had so nearly strangled Louise, and who had +visions of being accidently decapitated. + +"I cain't get the doors open," announced the darky, after tinkering +vainly with them. "I reckon the lock's done got jammed. If I could +get 'em open the lil girl under the seat could shinny up the wall and +that would be one out, 'tannyrate." + +Attention thus focused upon her, Libbie crawled from under the seat +where she had dived, following an ostrich-like impulse to hide her +head from coming danger. Her confusion was increased by the tactless +comment of the operator who, seeing her "full view" for the first +time, exclaimed: + +"Lawsy, Missie, you couldn't shinny up no wall. You is too fat." + +Many suggestions were forthcoming, all of them impractical, and the +already frayed nerves of the passengers began to show evidence of +reaching the snapping point. Bob's employer was among those who had +gathered in the corridor, and he decidedly favored the axe idea. + +The plan to chop their way out gained in favor, and a boy had been +dispatched for one of the fire axes when the woman who had grasped +Louise created a diversion by going into hysterics and declaring that +she would not have them dropping axes on her head. Her companion +tried in vain to soothe her, but she was in a highly nervous state +and it was impossible to explain or reason with her. She began to +scream again, and this was more than those imprisoned in the car with +her could be expected to stand. + +"That settles it--call off the axe!" shouted the older man, +exchanging a desperate glance with Bob. "If this goes on much longer +we'll be floated out on a river of salt tears. It's all right, Madam, +they are not going to send any axes down." + +The women continued to sob violently for a time, but at last they +got her quieted and were free to consider other ways and means of +escape. + +Pat Kelly, the genial engineer of the building, was sent down to the +basement to see what he could do with the refractory machinery, for +although the elevator people had been telephoned to, their men had not +yet put in an appearance. Pat's contribution was to create a horrible +din by hammering on every pipe he came to, stopping at three-minute +intervals to yell, "Can ye be moving now?" + +"Call that man off!" shouted the younger of the two men passengers. +"What do you think this is--a boiler factory? About all the good +he'll do will be to dislodge the car, and we'll fall the rest of the +way." + +This was a bad suggestion, and only by hard work were two more cases +of hysterics averted. + +"I think what we need is a drink of water," declared Betty timidly. +"Do you think they could get some down to us? And, Bob, why don't +they send for the fire department?" + +"I suppose because we are not on fire," answered Bob seriously. +"What good could the firemen do?" + +"Oh, I don't know," said Betty vaguely. "Only in Pineville the +firemen get people out of all sorts of scrapes. They can climb you +know, and they have long ladders and ropes----" + +"By George, the girl is right!" The elder man looked at Betty +admiringly. "Hey, some of you who want to help! Go and 'phone the +fire department. And say, send us down some water--we're dry as dust +after this rumpus." + +Half of the waiting crowd scattered to telephone to the fire +department and the other half ran for the water coolers. Their zeal +outstripped their judgment in this latter service, and the result was +an icy stream of water that poured into the car. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +BEING RESCUED + + +The water struck the lady given to hysterics, and she promptly +opened her mouth and shrieked again. + +"We're drowning!" she cried, her terrified mind picturing a broken +water pipe. "I tell you, we're drowning!" + +"And I tell you we're not!" Betty stifled a desire to laugh as one +of the men contradicted her. "Some idiot--" + +The crash of the water cooler against the top of the car as it +slipped from the hands of the person holding it interrupted his +assurance and weakened it hopelessly. A chorus of shrieks arose from +those in the car. + +"Well, there's your drink, Betty," grinned Bob, assisting the girls +to crowd on to the one seat, for the floor was soaked with ice-cold +water. "And here come your firemen--maybe they'll have better luck." + +Some of the firemen went to the third floor and others obeyed orders +to stay on the second. + +"I'd say knock 'er down," said the grizzled old fire chief after a +careful inspection of the wedged car. "We'll fix it up to break the +fall. And, anyway, a drop from the third to the basement would not be +dangerous." + +But the occupants of the elevator protested vigorously against this +plan. They made it quite clear that they had had all the "drop" they +wanted for that day, and some of them intimated that they preferred +to spend the night there rather than be experimented with. + +"Women is like that," they heard the fire chief confide sadly to his +lieutenant. "You can't reason with 'em. Well, we'll have to dope out +another scheme." + +After a consultation, it was proposed, via the chiefs voice which +had a carrying quality that was famous throughout the city, to let a +ladder down from the third floor, have a fireman chop a hole in the +top of the car, and assist the prisoners up the ladder to safety. + +This plan met with the approval of all but the two rather prim and +elderly women who flatly refused to walk up a ladder, even to get out +of their present unpleasant predicament. + +"Well, then, you'll have to stay here," announced the fire chief +disgustedly. "The others are willing, and we can't hang around here +all day. If there was a fire you wouldn't be consulted. A fireman +would have you up or down a ladder before you could open your mouth +to object. I ain't used to arguing with anybody." + +"There's another way that might work, chief," suggested his aide. +"If we can fix ropes and rig up a windlass, we can maybe hoist the +car up to the level of the gate." + +It was decided to try this plan, but the wily chief first extracted +a promise from every one in the car that if the scheme failed, they +would submit to a ladder rescue. + +"'Cause I ain't saying this will work, and I don't aim to cook up a +different plan every minute till you're all suited," he declared, +with commendable precaution. "You all agree to the ladder if this +ain't a go?" + +An unanimous chorus assured him that they did. + +It took some time to arrange the ropes, but at last, creakingly and +slowly, the car began to make its ascent. + +"Bless the Lord!" ejaculated the darky operator fervently, "I done +guess our troubles is ovah!" + +He changed his mind in a minute when it was discovered that the car +gates were jammed. There the eleven imprisoned passengers stood, on a +level with the third floor, a crowd gathered in the corridor as far +as the eye could see, a thin iron grating separating them from escape. + +"I don't know but I'd just as lief stay here as to face that mob," +murmured Bob, but some one heard him. + +"You're among friends, bub," a man called. "Keep up a stout heart." + +There was a general laugh, and some one was dispatched to get a +file. Ten minutes' work with this, and the stubborn catch was filed +through, the gates slid back and those behind them found themselves +once more on good solid mosaic tiling. + +Bob's employer came up to him, and was presented to the girls. He +was a pleasant, prosperous-looking man, middle-aged, and evidently +fond of Bob. He immediately offered him the rest of the day off, +insisting that after such an experience he should rest quietly for a +few hours. + +"By the way," he remarked _sotto voce_, "those two young men over +there at the head of the stairs are newspaper reporters. One has a +camera. I imagine they want to get a story on your morning's +sensations." + +Bob had not yet met Mr. Littell, but he had a lively idea of what +that gentleman might say should he find his daughters' pictures +spread over the first page of the evening papers, accompanied by a +more or less accurate analysis of their emotions during the trying +period through which they had just passed. + +"Whisk us into your office, can't you, Mr. Derby?" he urged, +"They're stopping people as they go down; they'll take no notice of +us if we go on up to the fourth floor." + +The crowd, satisfied that no one had been killed or was likely to +be, had drifted down the staircase, the two alert youths questioning +each one in an effort to get the stories of those who had been in the +stalled car. The negro operator had already furnished enough copy for +a half-column of thrills. + +Mr. Derby managed to usher the girls and Bob upstairs to his office +without exciting suspicion, and once there the question of how to get +to the street was considered. There were still enough people in the +corridors to make a quick run down impossible, and the elevator was, +of course, out of commission. + +"I'll tell you," said Mr. Derby suddenly. "Go down the fire escape +to the second floor and get in at the hall window. It's always open. +I'll have to wait here for Anderson, Bob. He had an appointment at +eleven, but telephoned he was delayed. But perhaps the nerves of the +young ladies are not equal to a climb down the fire escape? In that +case you could all remain here and I'll have lunch sent in." + +The girls, however, ridiculed the idea of nervousness. And indeed, +with the elasticity of youth, they had already dismissed the accident +from their minds except as an exciting story to tell at home that +afternoon or evening. + +"I'll go first," said Bob, stepping out on the fire escape. "All +there is to do is to take it easy, don't hurry, and don't push. +There's only two flights, so you can't get dizzy." + +"Isn't this a lark!" chuckled Bobby, as she and Betty waited for the +younger girls to go first after Bob. "I never had so much fun in my +life. What's Bob stopping for?" + +Bob was working with the window directly over the fire escape on the +second floor. The girls caught up with him before he turned with a +flushed face. + +"The blame thing's locked," he announced. "Isn't that the worst +luck! It's a rule of the building that all hall windows be left open +unless there's a storm. Well, I suppose we might as well go back. +There's no window on the first floor." + +"We could climb in there," suggested Betty, pointing to another +window, half-opened. "See, Bob, I can reach it easily." + +She drew herself up before Bob could stop her, and, raising the +window as high as it would go, scrambled over the sill. + +"It's fine--come on in," she laughed back at the others. "Cunning +office and no one in it. I suppose the owner has gone out to see us +rescued." + +Bob lifted up Libbie, who was the shortest, and, one after the +other, the girls climbed in, Bob following last. + +It was a finely furnished office and one Bob had never been in, +though he had a speaking acquaintance with many of the tenants in the +building. A pair of tiny scales and a little heap of yellow dust lay +on the highly polished mahogany desk. + +The door into the corridor was partly open, and as they had to pass +the desk to reach the door, it was natural that the group should draw +nearer and glance curiously at the pair of scales. + +"No nearer are you to come!" snapped a sharp voice with the +precision of a foreigner who is not sure enough of his English to +speak hurriedly. "I warn you not to put a finger out." + +Libbie squawked outright in terror, and the others fell back a step. +A little man with very black eyes stood facing them, and at them he +was leveling a small, businesslike looking revolver. The door had +closed noiselessly, and he had evidently been behind it. + +"I saw you all to enter," he informed them sternly. "I, of all in +the building, remembered that it is in excitement that sneak thieves +do their best work. Mr. Matthews is trusting, but I--I stood on +guard. It is well. You are not to move while I telephone to the +police." + +"Look here," said Bob determinedly, almost overwhelmed with his +responsibility and blaming himself for having placed the girls in +such an awkward position. "We're no thieves. You can telephone +upstairs to Mr. Derby and he'll vouch for us." + +"I know no Mr. Derby," said the little man stubbornly. "Why should +you pick out a jeweler's office and creep in through the window? +Answer me that! Are there not stairs?" + +"Well we wanted to avoid some--er--men," blurted Bob. + +"Yah--already the police seek you!" triumphed their captor. "Well, +they will not have long to seek." + +"They were not the police." Betty found her voice and spoke +earnestly. "They were reporters, and we didn't want to be +interviewed. We came down the fire escape from the fourth floor, and +found the hall window locked. This window was open, and we crawled +in, intending to get out into the hall. That is the absolute truth." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ANOTHER RESCUE + + +The black eyes of the little man suddenly disappeared. They were so +bright and glistening that their disappearance was noticeable. He had +closed them tight and was laughing! + +As suddenly as he had laughed, his mirth stopped, and he stared +sternly at the anxious Betty. + +"You expect me to believe that?" he asked incredulously. + +"It is true," she said quietly. + +"True--bah!" The vehemence of his tone quite startled her. "True! +When all you had to do to reach the first floor--had access to the +street been your object--was to let down the folding flight to the +ground." + +Betty's jaw dropped. She and Bob looked at each other helplessly. + +"We--we never thought of that!" she faltered. + +It was true. In her excitement she had not noticed the folding +flight of steps that let down to the ground in an emergency, and for +protection against sneak thieves was always drawn up except during +fire drills. Bob had been equally careless. As for the Littell girls, +like docile sheep, they had never thought to question their leaders. + +Still keeping the revolver pointed at them, the little man took down +the telephone receiver. + +"Bob!" whispered Betty. "Oh, Bob, this is dreadful! What will Mrs. +Littell say? And those reporters! If they get hold of this, the +elevator story will be nothing." + +Bobby and Louise and Esther and Libbie stood in a forlorn group, +their gaze fixed trustingly on Bob and Betty, whom they trusted to +get them out of this scrape somehow. + +As for Bob, he was handicapped by numbers. He could easily have +planned a way to get himself and one girl out of the room, but to +hope to spirit away five substantial maidens under the black eyes +fastened unwaveringly upon him, was too great a problem for quick +solution. He did not fear trouble in establishing their innocence, +but the notoriety accompanying such an episode could not be otherwise +than distinctly unpleasant. + +"I suppose that's gold dust in the tray," thought Bob wretchedly. +"Of all the poor luck, to pick out an office with gold dust floating +around as free as air! Why didn't the dub lock it up in his safe?" + +The little man was having trouble to get "Central." He jiggled the +hook frantically in flat defiance of all telephone rules, and he +shouted loudly into the transmitter, as though enough noise could +rouse the number he sought. + +Just at this moment the outer door opened and a man entered. He was +a man of middle age with a closely clipped gray moustache and kindly +gray eyes. It was Mr. Matthews, the owner of the business. + +The little man, seeing him, flung the receiver into the hook with a +bang and poured forth a volley of French, emphasized by wild gestures. + +After listening for a few moments, Mr. Matthews turned a wondering +gaze on the group of subdued looking young people. His expression +soon turned to one of amusement. + +After a word or two in French to the little man, evidently of thanks +for his zeal, he said to Bob and the girls: + +"Won't you please tell me your side of the story? I find it hard to +believe that you have set forth to rob and steal." + +The tale came out with a rush, Bob, Betty, and Bobby taking turns or +all talking together, the others, fortunately, being content to let +the three tell the story. + +Mr. Matthews was sympathetic and apologetic, but he was also amused, +and he laughed heartily. It seemed he knew Mr. Littell. The "robber +band," as Bobby afterwards named them, laughed with him; in fact, in +their relief, laughing till the tears came. The black-eyed man, +meanwhile, left the room, still, evidently, suspicious of them. + +"Monsieur Brissot," explained Mr. Matthews, "is a Belgian diamond +cutter who has just come to this country. He seems to be suspicious +of everybody, and, I fear, does not always use judgment in his +handling of such matters. I am grateful, however, for the interest he +takes in my business, and trust you young people will overlook his +excess of zeal." + +Mr. Matthews showed them to the door, and as by this time the +reporters were well away intent on other affairs, they went out of +the building in the regular way-a more seemly way than scuttling down +fire escapes and breaking into jewelry shops, so Betty declared. + +"Well, good gracious!" observed Bobby, when they were once outside. +"If this hasn't been an exciting morning! First we get nearly killed, +then we're rescued, and next we're almost arrested." + +They boarded a street car and went to the Bureau of Engraving and +Printing, where they spent an interesting afternoon touring the +immense plant, the best equipped of its kind in the world. + +The recital of their adventures at the dinner table that night +provoked mingled merriment and concern. + +"Never mind, it will teach 'em self-reliance," Mr. Littell insisted, +when his wife protested that the girls would have to be more closely +chaperoned on subsequent trips. "Falling into scrapes is the finest +lesson-book ever opened to the heedless." + +Sunday morning the girls and Mrs. Littell motored to Washington and +attended services in one of the fine old churches. There they had an +excellent opportunity to observe the President of the United States +and his wife, who, as Libbie said disappointedly at dinner that day, +"looked just like anybody." + +"I hope you didn't expect them to get up and make a speech?" teased +her uncle. "However, I'm glad you saw them, my dear. A country where +the head of the government 'looks just like anybody' and goes to +church as simply and reverently as any one else is the finest in the +world." + +Early in the new week Bobby announced that it was their duty, +meaning the girl contingent, to go into the city and pay a call upon +a friend of the Littells' who was staying with an aunt at one of the +large hotels. They had met them at church, and a tentative promise +had been given, which Bobby was determined should be kept. + +"If it wasn't for me this family would have no manners," she +scolded. "Now, I don't like Ruth Gladys Royal a bit better than you +do, Louise; but I hope I know what is the right thing to do." + +Mrs. Littell, who was hopelessly unfashionable as far as conventions +that were merely polite went, announced serenely that she was going +to her sewing circle and that if the girls chose they might go +calling. Her engagement stood. + +"Mother thinks Ruth Royal is snobbish," commented Bobby, as her +mother serenely departed for the little sewing circle of the country +church in which she maintained a keen interest and which she +virtually supported. "As far as that goes, I think she is. But Louise +told her we'd come and call on her, and I think a promise ought to be +kept." + +"Well, I'll go with you if Betty will," said Louise. "I don't see +why you pick out a perfectly lovely afternoon to martyr us all in, +but if it must be done, let's get it over with. Esther and Libbie +have wheedled dad into taking them to the movies, and I suppose we +can go in the car with them." + +The three ascended the stairs to put on their best bibs and tuckers +and came down again to find Mr. Littell and the other two girls +joyously arranged on the back seat, with Carter having hard work to +keep from smiling at their jokes and quips. + +"How elegant we look," jeered Mr. Littell, whose injured foot was +still stiff but who began to talk about returning to his office. "I +don't suppose you could be persuaded to go to see 'The Rose-Pink +Curtains' with us, and have a sundae afterward?" + +Bobby shook her head sternly. + +"Don't tempt us when we're having a hard time to do our duty," she +admonished. "We have to go to see Ruth Royal; honestly we do. But +we'll meet you for the sundae; won't we, girls?" + +It was arranged that they should meet at quarter to five, and then +the three callers were set down before the ornate hotel entrance. +Just off the lobby was a pretty, richly furnished parlor where they +decided to wait while they were being announced. + +"Let's hope she isn't in," suggested the irrepressible Louise. "Then +we'd still have time to see 'The Rose-Pink Curtains.'" + +Betty sat nearest the door and from her seat she could see a section +of the lobby and one of the elevators. The boy who had taken their +names came back in a few minutes with the information that Miss Royal +and her aunt were out. + +"The clerk says they left word at the desk that they expect to be +back about half-past seven to-night." + +"All right, that excuses us," declared Bobby cheerfully, hardly +waiting till the boy had left the room. "Come on, girls, we'll go to +the movies. Betty, for mercy's sake, what are you staring at?" + +Betty had risen and was peering through the velvet portieres. She +turned and put a finger to her lips, then drew Bobby close to her. + +"Look out there in the corridor, over by the desk," she whispered. +"See that man who is shouting at the clerk?" + +"I hear him," admitted Bobby, screwing up her eyes and peeping +through the curtains. "What do you suppose he is arguing about?" + +"That," announced Betty, unintentionally dramatic, "is Joseph +Peabody!" + +The girls had heard about Joseph Peabody, a little from Betty, and +more from Bob, who had spoken freely to their father. They knew about +his miserly nature and they were acquainted with the fact that he +believed Bob had stolen something that did not belong to him. The +real story of the unrecorded deed both Bob and Betty had told only to +Mr. Littell. It was characteristic of Bobby's loyal nature that her +first thought should be for Betty. + +"You don't suppose he is down here after you, do you?" she +whispered, clutching Betty by the elbow in a sudden panic. "Oh, +Betty, suppose he wanted to drag you back to Bramble Farm?" + +Betty had to laugh, in spite of the anxiety she was feeling. + +"He has no authority over me," she explained. "Besides, he would +have no earthly use for me if my board wasn't paid in advance." Her +face clouded involuntarily as the thought of her missing uncle thus +came to her mind. "No," she went on, "I'm terribly afraid that he is +here looking for Bob. You know he threatened to have him arrested +that time Bob managed to escape him. I wonder if I can't get to a +'phone booth without being seen and telephone to Bob or Mr. Derby." + +Louise rather impatiently pushed her sister aside that she might +take a peep at the unconscious Mr. Peabody. As she put her eye to the +crack between the curtains she uttered a little shriek that she tried +to stifle with her hand. + +"Betty!" she cried so shrilly that those in the lobby must have +heard her if the harsh call of a siren outside had not sounded +opportunely. "Betty, here comes Bob!" + +Sure enough, in through the revolving door, neatly dressed and +looking every inch the intelligent young junior clerk, came Bob +Henderson, his eyes glued to a letter he had taken from his pocket. + +Betty would have given even her hope of a letter from Oklahoma to +have been able to call a warning. Instead, she had to stand +helplessly by and watch the lad walk directly to the desk, where he +put a question to the clerk. Instantly Joseph Peabody whirled and had +the boy by the collar. + +"Got you at last, you young imp!" he chortled gleefully. "This time +I don't calculate to let go of you till I land you where you're +going--behind the bars. That is, unless you hand over what you've got +of mine!" + +Several people turned to stare curiously, and Betty sympathized +acutely with the crimson-faced Bob, who was protesting hotly that he +had nothing belonging to Peabody. + +"You stay here," she ordered Louise and Bobby. "There's no need of +you mixing in this. I'm going to see if I can help Bob." + +She sped across the hall to the desk, followed by her two faithful +shadows, who were determined to stand loyally by. + +"Well, I swan, if it isn't Betty!" ejaculated the farmer when he +caught sight of her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +BOB IS CLEARED + + +"Betty, you stay out of this," commanded Bob sternly. "If there's +going to be a scene, two actors will be a-plenty. You go away and +take the girls with you." + +The clerk who had been regarding them curiously over his ledger now +took a hand. + +"If this argument is likely to be prolonged," he suggested +sarcastically, "I'd advise you either to go up to your room, Mr. +Peabody, or into that card room there. That's deserted in the day +time." + +"Yes, come on in here," said Betty, anxious to get away from the +gaze of the other guests. She led the way into the card room which +opened off the lobby and was preferable to making a public journey in +the elevator. "Close the door, Louise." + +Mr. Peabody kept his hold on Bob's collar and from time to time he +shook him vigorously, whether with the idea of shaking the +stubbornness out of him or merely to indicate that he held the whip +hand, Betty was undecided. + +"You can let go of Bob," she said heatedly, as soon as they were in +the room with the door shut. "He isn't going to run away." + +"I'll see that he doesn't," was the grim reply. "You hand over that +deed, young man, or I'll call a policeman in two minutes." + +"I tell you I haven't got it!" protested Bob desperately. "I never +saw the thing. What would I be doing with a paper of yours? I haven't +got it, and that's all there is to it." + +"Of course he hasn't!" For the life of her Betty could not keep +still, though perhaps caution dictated that she hold her tongue. "I +know he hasn't that deed, Mr. Peabody. And having him arrested won't +give you what he hasn't got." + +"How do you know he hasn't got it?" demanded the farmer. "Deeds +don't walk off and hide themselves, young lady. Bob happens to know +why I want that deed. And if he doesn't produce it, and that mighty +quick, he'll find himself where they can shake the truth out of him +with no fooling." + +Bobby sprang to her feet from the leather chair where she had curled +up to listen to the proceedings. + +"I'll telephone my father," she cried. "He'll help Bob to sue you +for false arrest. If you have some one arrested and it is found he +didn't do what you said he did, he can sue you for damages. I've +heard my father say so. Don't you care, Bob, Daddy will find a way to +beat this horrid old man." + +An unpleasant smile spread over the mean, shriveled face. + +"Is that so?" queried Joseph Peabody. "Well, I don't know who you +are, Miss, but you need a lesson on how to keep a civil tongue in +your head. All the fine friends Mister Bob has picked up in +Washington won't stand by him long when they find out he's a +poorhouse rat and a runaway at that. There'll be some explaining for +you to do before the almshouse authorities are satisfied, young man." + +Betty's anger flamed as the familiar odious phrase fell from the +farmer's lips, and added to her anger was the crystallized fear that +had been haunting her for weeks. She did not know whether Bob could +really be returned to the poor-house or whether it was another trick +of Peabody's, but she feared the worst and dreaded it. + +"You try to return Bob to the poorhouse!" she cried, her cheeks +blazing, her hands clenched. She took a step toward Peabody and he +fell back, dragging Bob with him so that a chair stood between them +and the furious girl. "You try to return Bob to the poorhouse, and +I'll tell every one what I know about that deed," flared Betty. "I +know all about the Warren lots and the kind of sale you forced +through. You--you--" to her distress and amazement, Betty burst into +tears. + +"Don't cry, dear," whispered Bobby, putting her arm around her. +"Daddy won't let them do anything to Bob. You see if he does." + +Joseph Peabody was apparently impervious to verbal assaults and tears. + +"Once more I ask you," he shook Bob violently, "are you going to +hand over that paper? Yes, or no?" + +"I tell you I haven't got it," said Bob doggedly. "Shaking my teeth +out won't help me get a paper I never saw in my life. As for having +me arrested, you keep up this racket much longer and the hotel +authorities will send for the police on their own responsibility." + +Peabody picked up his hat. + +"All right, you come along with me," he said sourly. "You won't go +before a soft-headed police recorder this time, either. You'll find +out what it means to face a real judge." + +He was marching Bob toward the door when a sharp rap sounded. +Louise, nearest the door, had the presence of mind to open it. A +bellboy stood there with a telegram on a tray. + +"Telegram for Mr. Joseph Peabody," he announced impassively, his +alert eyes darting about the room from which such angry voices had +been coming for the last quarter of an hour. + +"All right--give it here." The farmer snatched the yellow envelope +and shut the door in the boy's face without making a motion to tip him. + +His back against the door, to prevent Bob's escape, Joseph Peabody +slit the envelope and read the message. The others saw his jaw drop +and a slow, painful flush creep over his face and neck. + +"I'm called back to Bramble Farm right away," he mumbled, refusing +to meet their gaze. "Being hurried, and having so much to tend to, +I'm willing to drop the matter of having you arrested, Bob. But let +this be a lesson to you, to hoe a straight row." + +Bob stared at the man stupidly, frankly bewildered. But Betty's +quick wit solved the sudden change of front. She had seen how quickly +Peabody folded up the telegram when he had read it. + +"Isn't that a message from Mrs. Peabody?" she demanded crisply. "And +doesn't she say she's found the deed? Where was it--in one of your +coat pockets?" + +The farmer was taken by surprise, and the truth was shocked out of +him. + +"She's found it under the seat in the old market wagon," he blurted. +"I recollect I put it there for safe-keeping, meaning to take it over +to the deposit box the next day. Well, I've wasted more time an' +money in Washington than I like to think of. Got to go home and make +up for it." + +Without another word or glance, without the shadow of an apology to +Bob, he swung out of the room and strode over to the desk. In a +moment they heard his harsh voice demanding the amount of his bill. + +Bob looked at Betty, who stared back. Louise and Bobby were equally +silent. Then Betty snickered, and the tension was broken. Peal after +peal of laughter rang out, and they dropped helplessly into chairs +and laughed till they could laugh no longer. + +"Oh, dear!" Betty sat up, wiping her eyes. "Did you ever see +anything like that? He never said good-by, or admitted that he'd made +a mistake, or--or anything! What do you suppose people in the hotel +must think of him?" + +That reminded Bobby of the girl they had come to see and who was +really responsible for their visit to the hotel. + +"The first kind thing Ruth Royal ever did for me," she declared +frankly. "I wouldn't have missed seeing Mr. Peabody for worlds." + +"How did you ever happen to come here, Bob?" asked Betty, who had +been wondering about this ever since she had seen Bob walk right into +the one man he most wished to avoid. + +"I brought a letter from Mr. Derby for one of the guests stopping +here," explained Bob. "That reminds me, I haven't delivered it yet. +Peabody threw me off the track. I'll turn it in, and then I'll have +to hurry back to the office; they'll think I've been run over for +sure." + +He went off, promising again to see them on Saturday, and the girls, +feeling too upset to settle down to the quietness of a motion picture +house, went out to walk up and down in the sunshine of Pennsylvania +Avenue until it was time to meet Mr. Littell and Libbie and Esther. + +Of course they had much to tell them, and Mr. Littell in particular +was a most appreciative listener. He was genuinely fond of Bob and +interested in him, and he got quite purple with wrath when he learned +of the indignity he had suffered at the hands of the ill-bred farmer. + +"Then he went off and never had the grace to ask the lad's pardon!" +sputtered the builder when Betty reached the end of her recital. "I +wish I had him by the collar--just for three minutes. Perhaps I +wouldn't drive a little of the fear of justice into his narrow mind!" + +They had lingered over their ice-cream, and although Carter drove at +a good speed, they found that unless they hurried they would be late +for dinner. It was one of Mrs. Littell's few unbreakable rules that +the girls must change into simple, light frocks for the evening meal, +and they went directly upstairs to take off their street clothes. + +When they came down dinner had been announced and they went directly +to the table. They had so much to tell Mrs. Littell and she was so +interested that it was not until they were leaving the table that she +remembered what she had meant to ask Betty as soon as the girl came in. + +"Betty, darling," she said comfortably, "you found your letter on +the hall table all right, didn't you?" + +"Why, I never thought to look for mail," returned Betty in surprise. +"No, Mrs. Littell, I didn't stop in the hall. Was there a letter for +me?" + +Mrs. Littell nodded and swept her family across the hall into the +living-room, saying something to her husband in a low voice. Betty +hurried to the console table where the mail was always laid on a +beaten silver tray. The solitary letter lying there was addressed to +her. And the postmark, she saw as she picked it up, was a town in +Oklahoma! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +FUTURE PLANS + + +Betty's first impulse was to run up to her room and close the door. +Then she sat down on the edge of the bed and tore open the envelope +eagerly. She read the half dozen closely written sheets through +twice, thrust them back into the envelope, and ran down to tell the +Littells the good news. + +"I've heard from Uncle Dick!" she cried radiantly, facing them as +they turned at her entrance. Betty's vivid personality often betrayed +her mood without a word, and to-night she was vibrant with happiness +so that she fairly glowed. "He has just got back to Flame City, where +he found the telegram and my letters. And he wants me to come out to +him, as he expects to be there for the next few months. He's been on +a long prospecting trip, and he can't get East till his company sends +out another representative. You may read the letter!" + +She thrust it into Mr. Littell's hands and buried her head on Mrs. +Littell's broad shoulder. + +"I'm so happy!" she choked, while the motherly hands smoothed her +hair understandingly. + +"It's been so long, and I was afraid he might have died--like my +mother. I don't think I could stand it if Uncle Dick should die--he's +the only one who belongs to me." + +"Why, Betty, child!" Mrs. Littell gathered her into her lap and +rocked her gently as though she had been a little child. "You're +nervous and unstrung. We ought to have taken better care of you and +not let this waiting wear you out so." + +"If you're going to cry, Betty, so'll I," promised Bobby, putting an +awkward arm around Betty's neck. Bobby was as undemonstrative as a +boy and rarely kissed any one. "What in the wide world are we going +to do without you?" + +Betty sat up and pushed the damp hair from her forehead. The four +girls were regarding her dolorously. + +"I won't stay forever," she assured them. "Uncle Dick doesn't intend +to live out there, you know. The company he represents will likely +send him East this very winter." + +"Well, that's a mighty interesting letter," commented Mr. Littell, +folding up the missive and returning it to Betty. "Though you're +going to leave a hole in this household, Sister, when you set sail. +You see, he's been out of sight and hearing of trains and post-offices +for a long time. I'd like to be able to lose myself in the +desert or a wilderness for a month or two. Think of having no +telephone bell to answer!" + +The next morning a letter came to Mr. Littell from Mr. Gordon, +thanking him warmly for his kindness to Betty, containing the +assurance of the writer's lasting gratitude, and asking him if he and +his wife would oversee her preparations for the journey, help her +engage a berth, and start her on her way. A generous check was +enclosed, and Mrs. Littell and the girls immediately set about +helping Betty do the necessary shopping, while Mr. Littell engaged +her reservations on the Western Limited. She had decided to leave the +following Wednesday, and when Bob came out to spend the week-end, he +immediately announced his intention of going too. + +"I figure out Flame City is the nearest station to my aunt's old +place. I have enough money saved now, and there's no reason why I +should stay on here. Hurrah for Oklahoma!" + +The preparations went forward merrily after that, and Wednesday +found Betty on the Western Limited, bound for Flame City. What +happened to her there and her experience in the great oil fields will +be told in another volume to be called, "Betty Gordon in the Land of +Oil; or, The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune." + +Bobby insisted that they make the week-end at Fairfields a farewell +celebration to be remembered, and the six young people managed to get +the maximum of enjoyment out of every hour. Bob had been brought out +to Saturday luncheon, and as soon as he had heard about the Oklahoma +trip and announced his own plans, Louise insisted that Betty was to +have a lesson in riding. + +"Of course you'll want to ride out West," she said. "They all do in +pictures. Come on out to the barn, and we'll get the ponies out." + +A stable boy brought out a gentle, coal-black pony, and Betty +mounted him trustingly. + +"Why, it's lovely!" cried Betty, enjoying the sensation to the full. +"He goes like a rocking chair, bless his heart! I'm sure I can learn +to ride." + +"Of course you can!" Bobby encouraged her swiftly. "You must try him +at a slow canter in a minute. Here comes Esther with the camera." + +A picture of Betty was taken, and then the lesson was resumed. At +the close of the afternoon Bobby announced that Betty was in a fair +way to become a good horsewoman. + +Mr. and Mrs. Littell took them into Washington to the theater that +night, and to make up the hours of lost sleep all the young people +slept late the next morning. + +Instead of going into Washington to church, they all went to the +little country church that Mrs. Littell attended and loved, and after +the service they spent a quiet, pleasant day about the house and +grounds of Fairfields. + +That evening the five girls and Bob gathered on the spacious white +steps of the house to watch the beautiful Virginia sunset. + +"Let's promise each other," suggested Betty, her pretty face serious +and thoughtful, "to meet five years from now, wherever we may be, and +compare notes. We'll be almost grown up then and know what we're +going to be." + +"No matter how often we meet, or how seldom, five years from to-day +we'll promise to come together," agreed Bobby. "Here's my seal." + +She put out her hand and the hands of the six interlocked in a tower. + +"To our close friendship," murmured Betty, as they unclasped. + +Then, the sun having set, they went into the glow and welcome of the +lighted lamps. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Betty Gordon in Washington, by Alice B. 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