CHAPTER XI
ANDY'S WARNING
The parlor maid tapped at Cora's door. Gentle as was the touch, itawakened the girl, who answered quickly.
"Miss," said the maid, "there is a little boy downstairs who says hemust see you at once. He simply won't take no for an answer."
"A little boy?" repeated Cora, sleepily. "Why, it's only six o'clock!"
"Yes, I know that, miss," went on the girl, "but Mary says he wasoutside on the step when she came down at five. He's a poor-lookinglittle boy, but he doesn't want anything to eat. He says he must speakto you."
Without the slightest idea who her caller might be, Cora hurried intoa robe and went down.
"He's on the side porch, Miss Cora," said the maid.
Cora went out through the opened French window.
"Why, Andy!" she exclaimed, for her early visitor was none other thanthe boy from the strawberry patch. "Whatever brought you into Cheltonso early?"
"It's about the girls," he said under his breath, looking aroundsuspiciously. "And it's about that old Mrs. Blazes!"
"No one will hear you," Cora assured him, taking a seat by his side."What about the girls, and Miss Schenk?"
"Yes, and I was afraid I would not get here in time. She's comin' inhere--to scare you. I heard her tell Mrs. Ramsy so."
"And you hurried in to warn me!" cried Cora, much amused at the lad'ssimplicity. "I am sure I am very, very much obliged. But tell me, whatdid she say?"
Andy shifted about uneasily. Evidently the information he had was notof the nature pleasant to impart.
"It was awful late last night when I heard it," began the boy. "Mrs.Ramsy owed mother for some washing, and she said if I went after themoney late, when she had time to--bother with me, she would give it tome. Well, I waited until I saw she had slicked up the work the girlsused to do, and I was going to knock at the side door, when I saw twostrange men get out of an automobile, and make for Ramsy's frontdoor."
Andy paused, evidently expecting some show of surprise at thisinformation.
"Well, go on, Andy," urged Cora. "What did the strange men have to dowith it all?"
"They asked for Miss Schenk, and I just guessed right. They weredetectives!"
Andy's eyes opened and closed in nervous excitement. To talk ofdetectives! To have seen them and to have heard _them_ talk!
"Well," spoke Cora, almost smiling, "it was certainly right for MissSchenk to have detectives look for her valuables."
"That's all right," assented the boy, "but wait till you hear! Theytold her--them two big fellows, that you--had the empty earring box, andthat they got it from you!"
For a moment Cora was quite as indignant as she rightly supposed Andyto be.
"Did they say they got it from me?" she questioned.
"They said they were on the right track and would have the diamondsback to Miss Schenk in one day. Then, when I heard them say your name,and that they had got the box out here, I just rubbered fer fair, Idid."
"Now, are you sure, Andy, that you understood just what they said?"asked Cora, to whom the actual report of the detectives to Miss Schenkmeant so much. "Try to tell me word for word."
"Oh, I heard them all right," replied the lad, "fer I crawled straightunder the window, and I was as close as if I was in the old rockingchair under Mrs. Ramsy's arm. The thin fellow said he had found thebox. Mrs. Ramsy asked where, and I thought she would swallow her newteeth the way she--gulped. Then the fellow said he had got them from ayoung lady out in Chelton. This was like a firecracker to the women,and they both went off at such a rate, that the fellows had to stopuntil they cooled off. Then, when they had said about all they couldthink of about girls in automobiles, and girls that came out makin'believe to buy berries, and just to steal--then, the other fellow--hehas young whiskers--he said, that he couldn't say any more just then,but he did have to say that he got the box from Miss Cora Kimball."
This was a very long, and trying explanation for a boy like Andy, andhe showed how the effort affected him. He jabbed his hands into hispockets, crossed and recrossed his sunburned legs, then at last, withone final attempt at self-possession, he got up and deliberatelychased the cat off the porch.
"Was that your cat?" he asked sheepishly, realizing that he had noright to interfere even with a cat on another person's stoop.
"Why, yes," replied Cora, "but it is too early for his breakfast, andhe knows he is not fed--here. So it's all right."
Then Andy sat down again, a little shy from his error, for he suddenlyremembered a story his mother used to tell him of a rich young ladyand her pet cat.
"But you were saying," Cora reminded him, her voice kinder if possiblethan before, "that these detectives claimed I gave them the box. Ordid you say they claimed to have taken it from me?"
Andy scratched his head, right at the left ear which always served asa cue to the forgotten thing.
"They didn't say neither one," he replied finally. "They--said--they gotthe box in Chelton--off a young lady!"
Cora never before realized what an error in speech might involve, butshe knew it was useless to question the boy further.
"Well, don't worry about it," she said, "and I think now you ought tobe ready for breakfast. Come, I guess Mary has something ready."
The boy stood up beside Cora, then, following an impulse that heplainly could not resist, he stepped between her and the door to thedining room.
"I ain't hungry, miss," he said, "but I want to warn you. You bettergit out of the state!"
So sudden and so unexpected was this bit of advice that Cora almostlaughed, but looking into the earnest face before her she wasconstrained to repress even a smile.
"Why, Andy," she cried, "I am not afraid of any one. I don't have torun away."
"Well, you better be," he declared, his cheeks reddening to the verytint of his hair. "You better be afraid of Ramsy and Schenk. They're ahot team."
"But what have I done?" continued Cora, for the boy's manner demandedattention.
"My uncle didn't do anything either when he got out of the state. Andif it hadn't been for that he would have been sent up. Fer nothin',too."
That there was more wisdom than eloquence in this was plain to Cora,but, even at that, she failed to grasp the whole meaning of Andy'swarning.
"Will you go to-day?" he almost begged.
"Why, Andy?"
"Yes, please do go. I would hate to see you git into that--mix-up."
"Now, little boy, you must not worry about me. See what a big stronggirl I am, and you know what a strong man Jack is."
"'Taint a matter of fists," Andy declared, clenching up his brownhands, "but it's them womens' tongues. You don't know what sneaks theyare, and if you don't say you will go away to-day, before they git atyou, I think I had better tell your brother all about it."
"Haven't you told _me_ all about it?"
"Not quite," said Andy. "I don't suppose a girl ought--to knoweverything about--scraps!"