CHAPTER II--LOST, STRAYED OR STOLEN
"Mollie Thurston, has Barbara driven off with those awful horses?"
It was Grace Carter who spoke. She had reached the doorway of thecottage just in time to catch a glimpse of the departing equipage.
Without waiting for a reply, she turned from the open door to the groupinside just as Mollie rejoined them, exclaiming:
"Barbara is driving the runaways to the hotel for the machine!"
Mrs. Thurston started. She had been downstairs for some time helping tomake the victims of the accident comfortable. She was a slim,sweet-faced little woman, whose entire world lay in her two lively youngdaughters, in whom she had unlimited faith.
But, in a moment, she smiled and said, "I am not afraid to trust Barbarawith anything."
Ruth Stuart's lately pale face was glowing. "I think that is regularlysplendid of her!" she exclaimed, with more animation than she had shownsince she had left the carriage.
"Oh, Barbara is used to taking care of herself," Gladys Le Baroninterposed with a supercilious smile.
Mollie looked at her cousin a moment. "Yes," she answered steadily, "wethink it is a pretty good thing in our family."
Gladys flushed, and had no reply ready. Ruth looked surprised and Graceplunged into the breach.
"Oh," she tried to murmur off-handedly, "Barbara and Mollie and Gladysare cousins, you know."
"And you never----" Ruth turned to Gladys, then stopped and smiled. "Well,it's awfully jolly to have met you all in this nice, informal way. Gracehas often spoken of you," she said.
The girls had to laugh at this, so Ruth continued: "I'm well enough nowto be proper and conventional, I suppose. I believe you know I'm RuthStuart. Mrs. Thurston, Mollie, have you met Gladys's friend, Mr.Townsend?"
The young man came out from the corner near the window, where he hadbeen seated, and bowed gayly. Ruth nodded in a satisfied fashion.
"There, doesn't that finish it?" she sighed. "The rest of you are allacquainted, aren't you? Now, won't one of you, please tell me why thoseawful horses aren't running still? I know some horrible white hay-capsstarted them, and Jones fell off the seat, and now we are here. Whostopped us?"
Everybody turned to Ruth at once. "Why, Barbara stopped them," Gracemanaged to say first. "Barbara----"
A gay laugh sounded in the doorway, and Barbara herself appeared beforethem.
"Now I've caught you!" she cried merrily, her bright eyes sweeping thecircle. Then she turned to Ruth with a mock curtsey.
"Your ladyship's chariot waits," she declaimed, then continuing in quickexplanation: "You see, your driver was scarcely hurt and he rushed backto the hotel at once and sent the automobile along the road where he hadseen the horses disappearing. Before I'd gone a quarter of a mile, I metthe machine with the chauffeur, and doctor and Jones himself. We sentJones back with the horses, though they weren't bothering me a bit, andI came back in the automobile. How are you feeling?" and the brightvoice softened sympathetically, as she noted Ruth's pale cheeks.
For answer the girl arose quickly, and held out both hands to Barbara."You're a brick," she said simply. "I fainted, like a goose, and they'vejust told me what you did. I am so glad I know you, and I guess myfather will be glad, too--not to say thankful! Now, please won't you andyour sister dine with us to-morrow? No? Make it lunch; then I'll see yousooner. I won't take no for an answer, because I have a very importantplan. Dad decides as quickly as I do. So if you'll only say yes--but Ican't tell you about it now. Perhaps, if I make you curious, you'll bemore interested when the time comes!" Ruth laughed mischievously.
"What have you up your sleeve now, Ruth Stuart?" asked Grace, curiously."I never saw such a girl as you are for chain-lightning projects!"
"You'll see," laughed Ruth. "You're in it too, you know. You must be oneof my lunch party to-morrow. I know you and Mr. Townsend have anotherengagement, Gladys, so you will pardon my delivering my invitationbefore you. Now, I won't say another word.
"Come," she continued, addressing the party, "we must be off at once. Ifthe news of this runaway circulates through the hotel and reaches eitheryour father or mine, Gladys, they'll be wild with fright. Good-bye, Mrs.Thurston, and thank you. You've been awfully good to us. As for youtwo"--holding out her hands to Barbara and Mollie--"wait till tomorrow atlunch!"
Drawing the two Thurston girls with her, she stepped outside the doorand to the gate, the rest of the party following. The machine waswaiting in the road, and out of it hurried the hotel doctor toward Ruth.
"Aren't you hurt, Miss Stuart?" he cried. "I would have come in, butMiss Thurston said she would go in first and see how you were."
"I'm perfectly well, doctor," smiled Ruth. "It's too bad you had to comeway out here. I hope father will not hear you have been sent for!"
She patted affectionately the nearest tire-rim of the big automobile."Bless the 'bubble's' heart," she murmured. "He wouldn't run away withhis missus. Barbara, Mollie, this is my best friend, Mr. A. Bubble. Ithink you'll get better acquainted with him before long. I wish youcould come with me now, but I'm afraid neither you nor 'Bubble' would bequite comfortable. And you three must get along well together from thestart."
The doctor helped Ruth into the big red touring car and Gladys and Gracefollowed. The two men and the chauffeur crowded together in the frontseat.
"Au revoir," chorused the autoists, and "see you tomorrow," nodded Ruthemphatically to the girls. Then, in a whirl of dust, the big machinesped out of sight.
"Isn't she a dear?" burst forth Mollie, as the sisters turned to go backto the house. "How her eyes shine when she talks! I wonder if I could domy hair that way. I was sure she'd be nice--but what do you suppose shemeans by that plan? Barbara, for heaven's sake, how did you happen tothink of that umbrella stunt? It was great, but you did look sofunny--like a sort of desperate, feminine Darius Green with his flyingmachine! No wonder you stopped the horses!"
"Oh, I heard of a man who stopped a stampede of cattle that way out Westonce," Barbara answered abstractedly. There was a puzzled look on herface. "Mollie," she said abruptly, as they entered the house, "youdidn't take our money with you, when you went into the bedroom forpencil and paper?"
"Why, no," replied Mollie wonderingly. "It must be over there on thetable now. I remember I noticed it as I came into the room. I wondered,for a second, why you'd gone away and left it so near the open window.That was before I looked through the window and saw what you were doing.It must be there," and Mollie hurried over to the window.
The next moment she turned an astonished face to her sister. "Barbara!"she exclaimed, "it isn't here, anywhere!" Indeed, the marble top of thelittle table was absolutely bare. There was no sign of either of thegold pieces.
"Let's look on the floor," said Barbara, quietly. "One of our guests mayhave unconsciously brushed them off."
Both girls stopped and began a careful survey of the carpeted floor,under the table, and near the window. Their search was unrewarded.
"Let's look in the grass outside," suggested Mollie. "You might havebrushed them off as you went through the window."
"But didn't you say you saw them on the table, when you came back intothe room and found me gone?" queried Barbara, thoughtfully.
"I was sure I did," Mollie replied. "But sometimes one remembersimaginary things. And if the money had been in the room when I came in,it would be there now. I'll ask mother----"
"No, don't," said Barbara quickly; "at least, not yet." Mrs. Thurstonhad gone into the kitchen directly after her return from the gate, andhad heard none of the conversation. "There's no need to worry motherabout it now. Of course we must find it somewhere. Money doesn't walkoff by itself. We'll go out and look in the grass under the window."
On hands and knees the girls worked through the closely cropped grassunderneath the sitting room window. Not two days before, they themselveshad clipped this bit of lawn with big shears, and it was so close thatthere seemed no possibility of anything being hidden in it. Cert
ainlynothing was to be found. The girls even looked over the short path, andground near it. "Your skirts might have switched those small things along way," observed Mollie, wisely. Yet, as before, the resultwas--nothing.
Giving it up, at last, the girls sat down in a little garden seat at oneside of the tiny yard, and looked at each other ruefully.
"I am so glad I feel sure Miss Stuart will invite us to her party, now,"commented Mollie dryly. "Our new gowns and the pink hair ribbons and thesilk stockings will be so awfully fetching! But where, where, where, byall that's mysterious, can those double-eagles have flown?"
Suddenly she looked curiously at her sister. "Barbara, you are thinkingof something!" she exclaimed. "Have you any nameable idea?"
"No," said Barbara, quickly; "it isn't nameable."
"All right; you never would talk when you didn't want to," complainedMollie. "And I know you want that money back as badly as I do. Tell youwhat--I'll say the fairies' charm. Don't you remember the one the oldgypsy woman taught us? Wish she were here to say it for us! She promisedto do all sorts of things for me when I found her in the field with asprained ankle and helped her back to camp. Why! why! Barbara, this is_uncanny_--she's coming now!"
In truth, down the road a queer little bent figure was seen approaching."I know her," continued Mollie eagerly, "by that funny combination ofred and yellow handkerchiefs she wears on her head. Do let's go and meether and tell her--it can't do any harm."
"What nonsense, Mollie!" laughed Barbara. But she followed her youngersister, who had already started down the road toward the quaint, little,gaudily-turbaned dame.
Between them, the girls brought her into the yard, Mollie meanwhilebusily explaining their predicament. "You'll help us, won't you, GrannyAnn?" she coaxed childishly. "You said, that time that I helped youhome, you'd always be near when I wanted you."
Granny Ann sat on the garden seat, looking gravely down at thehalf-laughing, half-serious girls huddled at her feet.
"I knowed," she began in a high, cracked voice, "I knowed my little fairone," lightly touching Mollie's curls, "would need me to-day. Far away Iwas, when I heard the shadow of her voice callin' out to me--and miles Ihave traveled to reach her. Granny Ann is thirsty, and she has had nofood since morning." The old woman looked reproachfully at herlisteners.
Barbara's eyes twinkled at Mollie's rather crestfallen face, when thesybil voiced this most human request. But she said cheerily: "All right,Granny; supper isn't ready yet, but I know mother'll have something."Then Barbara hurried into the house, the gypsy dame waiting solemnlyuntil she reappeared, a moment later, with sandwiches, doughnuts and abig glass of milk.
Granny Ann smiled, but she didn't speak until the lunch had quitedisappeared. Then the old woman rose impressively. "There's one suremagic for fetching back money that has gone," she declaimed. "Becauseyou have been good to me, 'Little Fair One,' you and your sister, I willsay the golden spell for you." With her hands crossed, Granny Ann beganto croon dreamily:
Gold is gladsome, gold is gay, Here to-night and gone to-day, Here to-day and gone to-morrow, Guest of joy and host of sorrow. Gold of mine that's flitted far, Forget me not, where'er you are. Mine you are, as Pluto wrought you, Mine you are, whoever's sought you, Come by sea or come by land-- Homeward fly into my hand!
Three times Granny Ann repeated this. Then, with a queer dignity, oddlyassorting with her variegated raiment, she turned to the girls. "It willreturn," she said; "now, I must go to my own people."
"But I thought you said you came here for us by yourself!" protestedMollie.
The gypsy dame drew herself up. "I travel not alone!" she said, stiffly."Good-bye."
"Oh, good-bye, and thanks ever so much, Granny Ann!" cried both of thegirls.
But Granny Ann did not turn her head. Barbara looked at Mollie, her eyesdancing. "The blessed old fraud!" she teased; "her people decided tocamp somewhere about, and she thought she'd come over for a call and alunch, and whatever else she could get! I believe she actually expectedus to cross her palm with silver for saying that little rhyme. But Iwish I knew really----"
All at once a faint chug-chug sounded in the distance. In a moment a bigred touring car appeared, enveloped in dust. "Why, it looks like Ruth'scar!" exclaimed Mollie, excitedly. "Yes, I do believe that young manseated beside the chauffeur is the Mr. Townsend who was with them.Barbara----"
But Barbara was walking quickly toward the gate. A moment later theautomobile stopped before it, and Harry Townsend stepped out.
"Miss Thurston," he began, soberly, "have you lost any money?"
"Oh, yes!" burst out Mollie, who was just behind, before Barbara couldspeak; "two twenty-dollar gold-pieces! We've hunted and hunted. We hadthem this afternoon----"
"Then these must be yours," said the young man, extending his hand toBarbara. In it were two golden double-eagles. "When the young ladieswere getting out at the hotel these were found on the seat, and MissStuart was sure you had dropped them out of your pocket, Miss Thurston,during the few moments you were in the machine. I am very glad to beable to restore them to you."
"Yes," said Barbara, "but I----" Then she stopped. "Thank you, Mr.Townsend," she said, giving him a clear, direct glance. For some unknownreason the young man's eyes wavered under it, and he climbed hurriedlyinto the automobile. "I am very glad," he murmured again.
"Miss Stuart expects you to-morrow," he added quickly, and the machinebacked round and hurried off.
Barbara stood looking at it, the money still in her hand. But Mollie waslaughing happily. Then she saw Barbara's face. "Barbara, what is it,dear?" she demanded. "You look exactly as you did before Granny Annappeared, and I asked you if you were thinking of something. What is it?Can't you tell me?"
Barbara shook her head. "It really isn't anything, Molliekins. I didhave an idea in my head, but I must be mistaken somehow. You are sureyou saw the money on the table after I left the room? It must have beenthere, then, when the crowd from the automobile came in. I thought I sawsome one standing near the table with one hand resting on it, when Icame back and called out: 'Now, I've caught you!' But I must not thinkanything more about it. Please don't ask me any questions. Let us justbe glad we have the money back. It is queer, though. Mr. Townsend saysthe money was found on the seat. I wonder who found it, and whether itwas found on the front or back seat? Let's ask Grace. I don't understandit. But he brought the money back, and he's Miss Stuart's friend. Ofcourse we will keep quiet, you and I, Mollie, whether the money waslost, strayed or stolen!"
"Well, I am sure, Barbara Thurston," Mollie answered a littleindignantly, "I am not likely to talk of what I know nothing about. Ifthere is any mystery about the disappearance of that money, I am sureyou have left me utterly in the dark."
"Don't be cross," said Barbara, putting her arm in Mollie's. "But do youknow if Mr. Townsend is a special friend of Gladys's?"
Mollie shook her head. "How should I know?" she said. "Let's go in, it'snearly dark."