CHAPTER XX THE REWARD
For an instant nobody spoke or moved; then Mrs. Vincent got up andcrossed the room to greet the unexpected visitor.
"Won't you come in and sit down, Mrs. Brock?" she asked, pulling forwarda rocking chair which Katharine had just vacated.
"Not going to stay, thank you," was the crisp response. "Just came aftermy watch."
"How the dickens did she know that it had been found?" whispered Anne toFrances, who was standing beside her on the opposite side of the room.
"Can't imagine," began Frances; then stopped short, as Jane, who hadheard the question, looked back and formed the one word "Rhoda" with herlips.
"Well, where is it?" demanded the old lady, looking at Patricia as if shesuspected her of having sold it for old gold.
"It's at the police station in Millersville, Mrs. Brock," repliedPatricia.
"That's fine!" commented the old lady sarcastically. "Whatever possessedyou to let it out of your hands?"
"Why, I had to," faltered Patricia, somewhat timidly. This fierce oldlady was enough to intimidate a far bolder person than Patricia.
"Had to! Had to!" began the caller, when Jack spoke up in order to shieldPatricia a little.
"The police take charge of all articles until after a case is settled."
"Oh, they do, do they? And who are you?"
"Jack Dunn," replied the boy, flushing at the bluntness of the question.
Mrs. Brock gazed at him fixedly for a full minute; then wheeled about andstarted for the door.
"Won't you stay a while, and have a cup of tea with us?" asked Mrs.Vincent hospitably.
"No, thanks," was the curt reply. "I get tea enough at home."
The door opened and closed, and she was gone.
"Did you ever!" exclaimed Katharine.
"Never!" responded Jane promptly.
"Not a word about the reward, either," lamented Anne.
"Hope she doesn't forget all about it after she gets the watch back,"remarked Frances.
"Why, Frances," interposed Patricia reprovingly.
"Well, she's so queer, who can tell what she's likely to do."
"Let's forget about her and have that tea you mentioned a minute ago,Mrs. Vincent," suggested Ted.
"And while you're getting it ready, we'll run out and get some cakes orsomething to go with it," proposed Craig. "Come along, fellows."
Mrs. Vincent good-naturedly waived the ten-thirty rule, and the rest ofthe evening passed happily. So exhausted was everyone by excitement andmerriment, that heads were hardly on the pillows when their owners weresound asleep. Only Rhoda tossed restlessly, and fearfully awaited themorrow.
Monday morning's paper contained a full account of the discovery of"Crack" Mayne on a lonely detour by several Granard students who werereturning to college after a week end out of town.
"Bless his heart!" cried Patricia, as she read rapidly through thearticle.
"Whose!" inquired Anne. "Crack's?"
"No; Craig's. I begged him to keep our names out of the paper, but I wasafraid he wouldn't. You know reporters just can't help using everythingthey can get hold of."
"He owed you something, I should think, for telephoning him the storyright away for his paper. He got a--what do they call it?"
"Scoop!" said Patricia, smiling at the recollection of Craig's fervent,"You darling girl!" when she had called him up from the Hall as soon asthey got in the night before. "He was especially sporting about it, sincehe was on the trail of Crack himself when we met him at home."
"He was? Now if he'd only come with us instead of going by train!"
"That's what he said."
The evening paper was not so considerate, and the names of all the girlswere mentioned, along with the finding of the famous watch by PatriciaRandall who would, the paper stated, receive the reward offered by Mrs.Brock. All four girls would share in the $500 reward offered for thecapture of the burglar.
"Capture is good!" jeered Katharine, as the Gang was poring over thepaper in Jane's room. "Anybody could capture a dead man."
"Well," said Frances belligerently, "if Pat hadn't run over him you'dnever--"
The rest of her remark was drowned by a burst of laughter; for Frances'hostility was as funny as that of a small kitten who arches her back atimaginary foes.
A couple of days later, when the Gang came in from lunch, Rhoda handedPatricia an envelope.
"This was left for you this morning," she explained.
"Thank you, Rhoda," said Patricia, smiling in her usual friendly fashion;but there was no answering smile on the maid's grave face.
"What's the matter with Rhoda?" asked Anne, as they went on down the hallto Patricia's room.
"I don't know; she isn't a bit like herself, and sometimes she looks asif she'd been crying. I wish I knew what's troubling her."
"Yes; perhaps we could do something."
But what was disturbing Rhoda would never be revealed to the inmates ofArnold Hall. Little did they suspect that "Crack" Mayne was their maid'sbrother; that he had been the one to rob Mrs. Brock of her money andjewelry; and that, maddened by his sister's refusal to give him access tothe Hall, he had, in a spirit of revenge, set fire to it. That wasinformation which Rhoda would keep strictly to herself. Sorrow for herbrother's violent death was tempered by relief that no longer need sheshiver with fear each night as she wondered where he was and what he wasdoing.
"Open it quick," begged Anne, when they were safely inside Patricia'sroom.
Tearing open the envelope, she drew out a sheet of note paper upon whichwas written in an old-fashioned cramped hand: "The promised reward forfinding my watch." Inside the double sheet were laid five ten dollarbills.
"Congratulations!" cried Anne, jumping up from the bed and flinging openthe door. "Girls," she called to the corridor at large, "Pat's got herreward!"
From all the rooms on that floor flocked various members of the Gang togather joyfully around Patricia, exclaiming over the crisp new bills ashappily as if they were the property of each individual there.
"You'll have to go over and thank Mrs. Brock, Pat," declared Katharinemischievously.
"I shall express my gratitude in a very formal, but sincere, note,"replied Patricia, tucking the bills into her hand bag.
"How are you going to spend it!" inquired Clarice, who was wanderingrestlessly around the room, examining articles on dressers and desks.
"I'm not sure. Probably lay it aside for a while."
"You might donate it to the scholarship fund, and then this housewouldn't have to take part in the annual entertainment to raise money forit," suggested Lucile.
"Don't you do it!" was Frances' prompt veto. "Spend it on yourself."
"Speaking of our stunt for the 25th, we've got to have a meeting anddecide what we _are_ going to do," declared Jane firmly.
"Let Pat and Jack do that dance they put on the other night," suggestedAnne.
"The very thing! It could be part of a ballet," agreed Katharine.
"Will you?" asked Jane, as Patricia looked doubtful.
"If Jack will; but maybe he won't want to."
"Why not?" demanded Betty.
"I don't know; but you can never tell what ideas a fellow has about thatsort of thing."
"Well, I hope he agrees to it; for you're both a peach of a dancer,"commented Katharine.
"Kay! Your English!" objected Frances.
"I don't care. You know what I mean."
"Ask Jack today, will you, Pat?" asked Jane. "Then we can build up therest of our stunt around you two. We'll need some of the other boys, too;so Jack need not fear being conspicuous."
"I'll see him after Shakespeare class," promised Patricia.
She was as good as her word, and reported to the committee that eveningthat Jack had accepted, after much urging. Rehearsals began immediatelyamid great secrecy; for each group tried to keep its contribution to theentertainment a secret until the n
ight it was presented. BesidesPatricia, only Anne, Katharine, Hazel and Frances of the Alley Gang wereto take part, with Jane as director of the Arnold Hall production.
"There are loads of better actors than we are among the girls upstairs,"was Jane's reply to Frances' protest at not having all the Gang in theaffair. "And it's only right to use as many as we can. They think we'retoo prominent in the house as it is, and it wouldn't look well to keepthe whole show to ourselves. They have exactly as much right to be in itas we have."
Frances pouted, flounced out of the room, and disappeared for the rest ofthe evening.
"What's the matter with her?" inquired Betty, who had collided withFrances in the doorway.
"Peeved because the whole Gang isn't to be used in our act."
"I must confess I thought you had your nerve with you to leave Clariceout," commented Betty, helping herself to a piece of candy from a box onJane's dresser.
"I suppose I have brought down Mrs. Vincent's disapproval on myself; butwhile I have nothing against Clarice personally, it seems to me hardlyfitting for a girl who is always behind in her studies, and who has beenquite so talked about, to represent Arnold Hall in the big entertainmentof the year."
"Jane always stands by her guns," remarked Anne admiringly, as she shookout the costume she was working on.
"How well I know that," laughed Ruth. "I have yet to see her back downfrom any stand she has taken."
"Well, I hate people who are always changing their minds," admitted Jane,gazing critically at a poster she was making for the entertainment. "Makea decision, and then stick to it. That's my motto."
Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, who the ancient Greeks believedlistened to the boasts of mortals and promptly punished them, must havemade a heavy mark against Jane's name just then.