CHAPTER XXV
THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED
After dinner in the living-room of the Hostess House, a snapping,dancing, crackling fire in the grate, and the girls gathered in anexpectant semicircle about it.
They were nervous, too, for every once in a while one of them wouldget up, look out the window, throw an extra log upon the fire and sitdown again with a "why-don't-they-come?" look of impatience upon herface.
A ring at the door bell!
"I'll answer it," cried Betty, jumping up and nearly overturning achair in her eagerness. When she returned a couple of minutes later,her face held a look of unutterable disgust.
"Only one of the guests," she said, as the girls looked up eagerly."I was sure that must be the boys."
"They're terribly late," grumbled Mollie, kicking an overturned edgeof the rug into place, as if even that small vent to her feelings wasa relief. "They'll be all talked out before they get here."
Another ring at the door bell!
This time there was no mistake. A chorus of excited voices greetedBetty as she opened the door for them and a moment later the boysburst into the living-room, fairly exhaling importance. The girlswelcomed them eagerly and drew up more chairs before the fire.
"Gee, but we've had some time," cried Allen, fairly panting fromexertion and excitement. "If you girls were heroines before, you'remore than ever so, now."
"But where's Will?" asked Grace, with that old, anxious look. "Ithought he was coming with you."
"He is," Frank answered her. "But he was summoned to a very importantconference with the colonel----"
"The colonel!" they cried incredulously, while Grace stamped her footwith impatience.
"What do you mean?" she demanded.
"Just that," he answered, enjoying their mystification too much toenlighten them at once. "When he received the order he told usfellows to come on over and he'd join us as soon as he could breakaway."
"Oh, Allen, please tell me what it all means." Grace was fairlycrying with excitement and eagerness. "Please don't keep me waitingany longer!"
"I'm sorry, Grace--I didn't think," said Allen, in quick compunction."It means," he added, with a ring of pride in his voice, "that Willis what we always believed him to be--one of the finest fellows thatever lived. I'm proud to be called his friend!"
"Oh, Allen!" Grace felt blindly for a handkerchief and Betty slippedit into her hand. "Oh, Allen,----"
"But what did he do?" demanded Mollie impatiently. "You haven'tgotten to the point yet."
"Well," Allen continued, while Betty put a sympathetic arm about herfriend and snuggled close, "all the time we were wondering down inour hearts why Will didn't enlist--although we never doubted he hadgood reasons," he added hastily, "he was really working harder,spending more time and energy for the government than we ever thoughtof spending. There's one important thing we forgot--that Will was asecret service man!"
"Oh!" cried Betty, her eyes gleaming in the firelight, "now, I know Iguessed right!"
"What did you guess?" asked Allen, remembering to marvel, even inthat moment of excitement, how very becoming firelight was to Betty!"Out with it."
"Why," said Betty, leaning forward eagerly, "after Amy told us thatshe had met Will and the soldiers half way to the spot where we foundthe spy, I seemed to see the whole thing as plainly as if some onehad told it to me.
"I remembered Will's special interest in the spy the first time wemet Adolph Hensler on Pine Island--then how, soon after we saw himhere again, Will wrote Grace that he was coming on. That would seemas though he were hot on his trail--"
"He was," said Allen, while the others hung on every word.
"Well, the rest is simple," said Betty. "I suppose that Will kept onshadowing him till he got what he wanted. He was on his way tocapture the spy, while we were hanging on to the door, praying forhelp. Oh, it all fits together like parts of a puzzle!"
"You're a wonder, Betty!" said Allen, while the others drew a deepbreath, trying to take it all in. "But there was one little bit, orrather, I should say, big bit, of cleverness on Will's part thatneither you nor anybody else could guess at. You remember the codeletter we picked up that night on Pine Island?"
"Yes," they cried eagerly.
"Well, Will had the code deciphered and found out who wrote thedocument. It proved, by the way, that Adolph Hensler is one of themost dangerous and most wanted German spies in this country."
"And what else?" cried Mollie, who could never wait for the end of astory.
"The clever part of it," Allen continued, leaning forward, veryhandsome and eager in the firelight, "was Will's copying of thehandwriting on the envelope."
"Sure," chuckled Roy. "I told him I wouldn't be surprised to see himstart a life of crime any time now."
"Surely no experienced forger could have done it better," Allenagreed whimsically, while the girls waited with unconcealedimpatience. "Anyway, he wrote a short note--a decoy--to Adolph inthis handwriting, requesting an interview at the very spot where yougirls came upon him."
"Oh!" cried Betty, in dismay. "Then it would have been better if we'dleft him alone. We took a chance of spoiling all Will's well-laidplans."
"How could it have been better?" asked Allen. "Will started out tocapture him and found you girls had beat him to it, that's all."
"Yes and they might have had a good deal more trouble rounding him upthan you did," put in Frank. "From what Will tells us, you girls suredid do a neat job."
The girls flushed with pleasure, but Mollie, being truthful to afault, put an arm about Betty and told where most of the credit wasactually due.
"Why, it was Betty who thought of cutting him off," she said, whileBetty vainly tried to stop her. "No, I'm going to tell the truth! Andit was Betty that really captured him. She saw him go in the door,followed him, and was holding on for dear life when we came uponher."
"Yes, and how long would I have been able to hold on, I'd like toknow," protested the Little Captain vigorously, "if you girls hadn'tcome along just then. No, sir, if there's any credit at all, it's gotto be divided equally among us!"
"You'll be surprised to see how much credit everybody's giving you,"chuckled Roy. "When you make your next debut into society, I wouldn'tbe surprised if they greeted you with brass bands."
"Goodness, I wish they would," cried Mollie eagerly. "For the firsttime in my life, I'd have a chance to feel like a regular soldier!"
"But Will is the real hero," said Betty quietly. "To go on workingfor your county, taking a chance on having people think things of youthat you don't deserve, that sort of thing is the real heroism."
"And I'm so glad and happy," added Grace, who had been seeing happyvisions in the firelight, "to think that all his friends had faith inhim when he most needed it."
"You bet we did," said Allen heartily. "There wasn't one of us whodoubted him for a minute."
"I wonder when he'll get here," said Amy, rising slowly and strollingover to the window. "I hope the colonel lets him out before twelveo'clock."
"Oh, he'll be here almost any minute now," said Allen reassuringly."Meanwhile, suppose you play something for us, Betty--something softand sweet to match the firelight--and you," this last so softly thatnone but Betty heard.
Smiling a little, Betty rose and walked over to the piano. Allenfollowed her.
"What shall I play?" she asked, looking up at him with a sweetseriousness, that made him want desperately to gather her in his armsand tell her--oh, so many things! Instead, he said:
"Play 'Keep the Home Fires Burning.' It's the most appropriate thingto-night. And Betty, sing it--sing it--to me----"
"If I can," she murmured. "You know what happened when I tried tosing it before--and it's apt to be harder to-night."
"Try, anyway," he urged; and so she began, in the sweetest voice inthe world, or so Allen thought, to sing one of the most beautifulsongs ever composed.
And how she sang it! Before she had half finished it, the girls werefeeling for
their handkerchiefs and the boys were staring hard intothe fire.
She sang it again--more softly than before, and when the last sweetnote had died away, there was not a dry eye in the room.
"Betty, oh, Betty!" cried Allen, leaning across the piano toward her,thrilling her with the new earnestness in his voice, "will you keepthe home fires burning for me--so that when I come back--Betty, whenI come back----"
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and held out a tremblinghand to him.
"There will always be one--waiting for you," she whispered softly.
"Hello, folks!"
They turned suddenly and found Will standing in the doorway. Then,such a welcome as they gave him! It made up to him for all thesemonths when he had seemed to stand on the outside, looking in.
"Come over to the fire and tell us all about it," Betty commanded."Allen told us something, but we want to know the whole story--everylittle bit of a detail."
Will fairly beamed and entered into the story with the greatestenthusiasm.
"I really didn't do anything much," he finished modestly. "And at theend it was you girls that did all the work. I was just an 'alsoran.'"
"But, isn't there something you left out?" drawled Frank, pretendingto yawn and gazing into the fire. "It seems to me----"
"Gee," said Will, surprised at himself, "if I didn't really forgetthe most important part----"
"Now what are you talking about?" cried Mollie, while the girlspricked up their ears and began to scent a new mystery. "What did youforget?"
"Well," said Will, his eyes twinkling, and speaking with exasperatingslowness, "do you happen to remember an eventful night on PineIsland, when Roy went to sleep----"
"Aw, cut it out," grumbled Roy. "I guess I'll never be able to livethat down."
"Well, what about it?" cried Betty, at the limit of her patience,while the other girls looked threatening. "Please, Will----"
"Do you happen to remember," drawled Will, "that on that same nightyou lost some jewelry?"
"Oh, you found it!" they cried, fixing him with four pairs of bright,incredulous eyes. "Will, where is it?"
"Some of it's here," he went on, pulling a small bag from his pocketand opening it carefully while they crowded around him, fairlysmothering him in their eagerness, "and the rest of it's in the pawnshop. We found the tickets on him, though--"
"My watch!"
"My necklace!"
"My lavalliere!"
"My pearl brooch!"
These and other exclamations like them made such a babel of soundthat the boys clapped their hands over their ears and looked at oneanother in comic dismay. This lasted so long that the boys had topick up their caps and start for the door, before the girls consentedto notice them.
"Where are you going?" asked Betty, while the other three stoppedtalking long enough to look surprised.
"We didn't think you'd miss us," said Roy plaintively. "So we weregoing away from here--that's all."
"Now, who's a flock of geese, I'd like to know," laughed Betty, asthey coaxed their neglected swains back to the fire. "We couldn'tvery well help being excited, could we?"
"And to think," said Grace, beaming, "that we not only helped tocatch a wanted spy, but helped to recover our own jewelry at the sametime!"
"No wonder we had to pat ourselves on the back," chuckled Mollie,"Just wait till we tell the folks at home about it."
"Pretty good day's work," Roy admitted indulgently. "Couldn't havedone much better myself."
They fell silent after that, each one busy with his own thoughts,each one seeing, in the fantastic, ever-changing heart of the fire, alittle of his or her own future. And they were very happy.
Suddenly Grace broke the silence.
"And now," she said, glancing with love and pride at Will, who smiledfondly back at her, "what do you expect to do, dear?"
"Enlist," cried Will, jumping to his feet. "Thank heaven I can do itnow with a clear conscience. I'm going to get into the big game quickand help give Fritz some of his own medicine. Gee, fellows, are wegoing to do it--are we?"
"I should smile!" they cried, their eyes gleaming with anticipation."All we want is the chance!"
Quick as a flash Betty ran to the piano and began to play the"Star-Spangled Banner." Instantly the others were on their feet andsinging with all the pent-up fervor of the last six months, emotionsalmost too big to master finding expression in the stirring melody.
"And we're all in it together," cried Betty, eyes bright and cheeksflaming, "for our dear country--for America!"
And, at the greatest moment of their lives, fired by patriotism,confident of victory, we once more, slowly, reluctantly, with manybackward glances, take leave of our Outdoor Girls.
THE END
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