CHAPTER IX
AUNT SALLY ADDS TO THE MYSTIFICATION
THE two girls walked home in a state bordering on stupefaction. Everylittle while Phyllis would stop to ejaculate: "Who would have thought it!The horrid little snob! I really can't believe yet that it is she,Leslie--our 'mysterious she!' I'm sure there must be some mistake."
"Well, of course, it _may_ not be so," Leslie admitted, "but you must seehow many things point to it. The beads are identical. I stood so near herthat I had a fine chance to see them closely. Her name is the same as theone on the envelop in the book--"
"Yes, but that isn't the name of the man who hired the bungalow,"objected Phyllis.
"That's quite true, but even so, you can't tell what connection there maybe with the other name. It isn't exactly a common one, and that makes itall the more likely that we may be right. And then, there's the fact ofher being so near here--right in the village. I have always imagined thatwhoever it was had to come from quite a distance, and I've alwayswondered how she managed it, so late at night."
"But Leslie, why on earth should she come to that bungalow in the dead ofnight, in a storm, and hide that 'Dragon's Secret'? What mysteriousaffair can she be mixed up with, anyway?"
Leslie, however, had no solution to offer to this poser, but she did havea sudden idea that made her stop short in the road and gasp:
"Do you realize, Phyllis Kelvin, that we are doing a veryquestionable--yes, a _wrong_ thing in keeping the 'Dragon's Secret,' whenit evidently belongs to this girl?"
"How do you _know_ it belongs to this girl?" countered Phyllis. "You only_guess_ that it may, when all's said and done. You didn't see her hide itthere--you didn't even see _her_ at the bungalow. We may be way off thetrack, for all you know, and we'd be a pretty pair of geese to go andmeekly hand it to her, shouldn't we! And do you know, even if I wassimply _positive_ it was hers, I just wouldn't give it to her, anyway,for a while. I'd let her stew and fret for it for a good longspell--after such hatefulness!"
Phyllis's manner was so vindictive that Leslie had to smile in spite ofherself.
"But oh, see here!" Phyllis went on. "_I_ have an idea--a glorious idea!It may help to clear up a lot of things. I know Aunt Sally Blake verywell, and we'll go and see her--this very afternoon! Perhaps she can giveus more light on the subject."
"But wouldn't that seem too plainly like tracking down this--MissRamsay?" objected Leslie, "especially as she doesn't appear to care forour acquaintance!"
"Not a bit!" declared Phyllis, positively. "You don't realize how well_I_ know Aunt Sally. Why, she's a regular village institution--everybodyknows her and thinks the world of her. She's a plump, jolly, delightfulold lady who lives in a delightful old house full of dear, old-fashionedfurniture. She keeps a lot of chickens and often sells them and the fresheggs, and she does a little sewing, and sometimes takes a boarder or two,and goes out nursing occasionally--and oh, I don't know what all! But Iknow that we couldn't get along at all around here without Aunt Sally.We'll go down to her house this afternoon and call (I really haven't beento see her since I came down this time), and I'll ask her if she has anice roasting chicken that I can have. That'll be a perfectly goodexcuse. And if our polite young lady isn't around, I'll try and get herto talk. Aunt Sally loves to talk, but she isn't a gossip like old Mrs.Selby, and we'll have to go at it a little more carefully."
They solaced themselves with this thought, and awaited with more than alittle impatience the visit that afternoon. Surely Aunt Sally, if anyone, would be able to solve some of their mysteries!
By afternoon, the weather had turned warm, almost sultry, and they foundAunt Sally sitting on her front porch, rocking gently and humming toherself over her sewing. She was delighted to see Phyllis again and tomake the acquaintance of Leslie, whom Phyllis introduced as her neighborand very dear friend. When they had chatted about topics of commoninterest for a while, Phyllis introduced the subject of the chicken.
"Bless your heart, dear!" cried Aunt Sally. "I'm so sorry, but I haven'ta roasting chicken just now in the whole yard--nothing but fowls. But Ican give you a couple of nice young broilers--and I've plenty of fresheggs."
Phyllis straightway arranged to have two broilers ready for her when shecalled for them next day, and skilfully changed the subject.
"Oh, Aunt Sally! do show Leslie those begonias you've been raising allsummer. I do think they are the most beautiful things! You certainly arevery successful at making things grow!"
Highly flattered, Aunt Sally rose to lead the girls indoors to the sunnyroom where she kept her plants. While they were admiring them, she askedthem to sit down and rest a while and talk--an invitation they acceptedwith great alacrity. At length, after a detailed account of the healthand affairs of her entire family, Phyllis craftily led the conversationback to Aunt Sally herself.
"And are you alone now, Aunt Sally, or is your sister still with you? Iheard she was going back to Ohio."
"Yes, she's gone and I'm alone," sighed Aunt Sally; "at least,--I'm notquite alone. I have a boarder at present."
"Oh, _have_ you!" exclaimed Phyllis, guilefully, as if it were all newsto her. "Why, that's very nice. I hope the boarder will stay a longwhile. It will be some company for you."
"Well, I dunno how long she'll stay, and she ain't much company for _me_,I must confess!" admitted Aunt Sally, with a somewhat worried air. "Thetruth is, I can't exactly make her out."
This was precisely the line that Phyllis wished her to take, yet even nowcaution must be observed or Aunt Sally might shy away from it.
"Oh, it's a lady then!" remarked the artful Phyllis.
"Well, no, it ain't exactly a lady--it's a young girl 'bout the age ofyou two, I should guess."
"Still, I don't see why she shouldn't be company for you, even so,"argued Phyllis, quite as if she were still completely in the dark as tothis new boarder.
"The reason she ain't much company," went on Aunt Sally, "isbecause--well, I don't know as I ought to say it, but I guess she thinksshe's too sort of--high-toned to 'sociate with the person who keeps herboarding-house!" Aunt Sally laughed, an amused, throaty little chuckle atthis, and then the worried frown came back.
"Why, she must be rather horrid, I think," commented Phyllis, with moreheartfelt reason than Aunt Sally could guess!
"No, I don't think she means to be horrid--she's just been brought upthat way, I guess. I wish she could be more friendly. I sort of feel aresponsibility about her. You see, she's here all alone. She was stayingat the hotel with her grandfather, and he suddenly took awful sick andhad to be taken to the hospital up at Branchville. She stayed on at thehotel so's to be near him (she runs up there every day in her car), andthen the hotel had to close down for the season. The manager come to meand asked me if I could take her in, 'cause he was kind of sorry for her,her grandfather bein' so ill, an' she couldn't seem to find no otherplace. So I did, but she worries me a lot, somehow. I don't like to see ayoung girl like that with no one to look after her, and she runningaround loose in that auto all the time. Why, she even took it out onerainy night last week at ten o'clock. Said she was worried about hergrandfather, but I didn't approve of her running all the way up there toBranchville in the rain."
Here Phyllis glanced significantly at Leslie and interjected a question."Did she and her grandfather have one of the bungalows on the beach thissummer, do you know, Aunt Sally?"
"Why, not that I know of. She said she'd been visiting some friendssomewhere in Maine, and then come on here to join her grandfather just afew days before he was taken sick. I don't think it likely she everstayed in one of the bungalows. She didn't seem to know anything aboutthis region at first. And I'd likely have heard of it if she had. But,laws! I got biscuits in the oven and I'm clean forgetting them!" And witha whisk of skirts, Aunt Sally vanished for a moment into the kitchen.
"What did I tell you!" whispered Leslie. "Went out in the rain one nightlast week about ten o'clock! I warrant sh
e didn't go to the hospital, or,if she did, it was after she'd visited Curlew's Nest!"
But Aunt Sally was back almost immediately, bearing some hot biscuits andjam which she hospitably invited her guests to try. And while they werepartaking of this refreshment she sighed:
"My, how I have been gossiping about that poor girl! I sort of feelconscience-stricken, for I could like her real well if she'd only let me.She's a sort of lovable-looking child! I wish she knew you two girls. Ibelieve it would do her a lot of good to be around with you. There she isnow!"--she cried, as a car flashed past the window and up the drivewaytoward the barn. "Just wait till she comes in and I'll introduce you--"
"No, no!" exclaimed Phyllis, hastily springing up. "Better not, AuntSally. If she doesn't care for you, I'm sure she wouldn't for us.Besides, we must go right away. Remember, we're both the _cooks_ in ourfamilies, and even as it is, we won't be back very early. It's a longwalk. Good-by, and thank you, and I'll send for the broilers to-morrow!"And with Leslie in tow, she hurried away, leaving a somewhat bewilderedAunt Sally gazing after them.
"Well, I guess not! The idea of trying to get acquainted a second timewith that difficult young person!" Phyllis exploded, when they were outof ear-shot.
"And yet," mused Leslie as they swung along, "unpleasant as the thoughtof it is, I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea--to get acquainted?"