CHAPTER XIV
THE BROKEN RAIL
Dumb amazement held the girls in suspense for a moment. Then came achorus of cries.
"Mollie, you never did that!"
"Forgot our lunch!"
"And we're so hungry!"
"Oh, Mollie, how could you?"
"You don't suppose I did it on purpose; do you?" flashed back the guiltyone, as she looked at the three pairs of tragic, half-indignant andhopeless eyes fastened on her.
"Of course you didn't," returned Betty. "But, oh, Mollie, is it reallygone? Did you leave it there?"
"Well, I haven't it with me, none of you have, and I don't rememberpicking it up after we slumped down there in the shade. Consequently Imust have left it there. There's no other solution. It's like one ofthose queer problems in geometry, or is it algebra, where things that areequal to the same thing are equal to each other," and she laughed withjust the hint of hysteria.
"But what are we to do?" demanded Grace. "I am so hungry, and I knowthere were chicken sandwiches, and olives, in that lunch. Oh, Mollie!"
"Oh, Mollie!" mocked the negligent one. "If you say thatagain--that way--"
Her temper was rising but, by an effort, she conquered it and smiled.
"I am truly sorry," she said. "Girls, I'll do anything to make up for it.I'll run back and get the lunch--that is, if it is there yet."
"Don't you dare say it isn't!" cried Betty.
"Why can't we all go back?" suggested Amy. "Really it won't delay us somuch--if we walk fast. And that was a nice place to eat. There was alovely spring just across the road. I noticed it. We could make tea--"
"Little comforter!" whispered Betty, putting her arms around the other."We will all go back. The day is so perfect that there's sure to be alovely moon, and we can stop somewhere and telephone to your cousin if wefind we are going to be delayed. She has an auto, I believe you said, andshe might come and get us."
"Stop!" commanded Mollie. "We are a walking club, not a carriage or autoclub. We'll walk."
"Then let's put our principles into practice and start now," proposedGrace. "We'll have a good incentive in the lunch at the end of thistramp. Come on!"
There was nothing to do but retrace their steps. True, they might havestopped at some wayside restaurant, but such places were not frequent,and such as there were did not seem very inviting. And Aunt Sallie hadcertainly put up a most delectable lunch.
The girls reached the spot where they had stopped for a rest, much soonerthan they had deemed it possible. Perhaps they walked faster than usual.And, as they came in sight of the quiet little grassy spot, Mollieexclaimed:
"Oh, girls, I see it. Just where I so stupidly left it; near that bigrock. Hurry before someone gets there ahead of us!"
They broke into a run, but a moment later Grace cried:
"Too late! That tramp has it!"
The girls stopped in dismay, as they saw a rather raggedly-dressed manslink out from the shadow of a tree and pick up the lunch valise. Hestood regarding it curiously.
"Oh, dear!" cried Grace. "And I was so hungry!"
Betty strode forward. There was a look of determination on her face.She spoke:
"Girls, I'm not going to let that tramp take our lovely lunch. Come on,and I'll make him give it back!"
"Betty!" cried Amy. "You'd never dare!"
"I wouldn't? Watch me!"
The man was still standing there, looking at the valise as if in doubtwhether or not to open it. Betty with a glance at her chums walked on.They followed.
"That--that's ours, if you please," said Betty. Her voice was weaker thanshe had thought it would be, and quite wobbly, too. Her knees, sheconfessed later, were in the same state. But she presented a brave front."That--that's our lunch," she added, swallowing a lump in her throat.
The man--he certainly looked like a tramp, as far as his clothes wereconcerned, but his face was clean--turned toward the girls with a smile.
"Your lunch!" he exclaimed, and his voice was not unmusical, "howfortunate!"
He did not say whether it was fortunate for them--or himself.
"We--we forgot it. We left it here," explained Mollie. "That is, Ileft it here."
"That is--unfortunate," said the man. "It seems--it seems to be a fairlysubstantial lunch," and he moved the bag up and down.
"It ought to be--for four of us," breathed Amy.
"Allow me," spoke the man, and with a bow he handed the missing lunch toBetty. The girls said afterward that her hand did not tremble a bit asshe accepted it. And then the Little Captain did something mostunexpected.
"Perhaps you are hungry, too," she said, with one of her winning smiles,a smile that seemed to set her face in a glow of friendliness. "We areon a tramping tour--I mean a walking tour," she hastily correctedherself, feeling that perhaps the man would object to the word "tramp."She went on:
"We are on a walking tour, visiting friends and relatives. We generallytake a lunch at noon."
"Yes, that seems to be the universal custom," agreed the man. "That is,for some persons," and he smiled, showing his white teeth.
"Are you--are you hungry?" asked Betty, bluntly.
"I am!" He spoke decidedly.
"Then perhaps--I'm sure we have more here than we can eat--and we'llsoon--I mean comparatively soon--be at a friend's house--perhaps--"
She hesitated.
"I would be very glad," and again the man bowed.
Betty opened the little satchel--it was a miniature suitcase--and averitable wealth of lunch was disclosed. There were sandwiches withoutnumber, pickles, olives, chunks of cake, creamy cheese--
"Are you sure you can spare it?" asked the man. "I'm sure I don'twant to--"
"Of course we can spare it," put in Mollie, quickly.
"Well then I will admit that I am hungry," spoke the unknown. "I am notexactly what I seem," he added.
Betty glanced curiously at him.
"Don't be alarmed," he went on quickly. "I am not exactly sailing underfalse colors except in a minor way. Now, for instance, you took me for atramp; did you not?" He paused and smiled.
"I--I think we did," faltered Mollie.
"And I don't blame you. I have, for the time being, assumed thehabiliments of a knight of the road, for certain purposes of my own. Iam--well, to be frank, I am trying to find something. In order to carryout my plans I have even begged my way, and, not always successfully.In fact--"
"You are hungry!" exclaimed Grace, and her chums said she made a move asthough to bring out some chocolates. Grace, later, denied this.
"I am hungry," confessed the tramp--as he evidently preferred to appear.
Betty took out a generous portion of food.
"It is too much," the wayfarer protested.
"Not at all," Betty insisted. "We have a double reason for giving it toyou. First, you are hungry. Second, please accept it as a reward for--"
"For not eating all of your lunch after I found it, I suppose you weregoing to say," put in the man, with a smile. "Very well, then I'llaccept," and he bowed, not ungracefully.
He had the good taste--or was it bashfulness--to go over to a littlegrove of trees to eat his portion. Grace wanted to take him a cup ofchocolate--which they made instead of tea--but Betty persuaded her notto. The girls ate their lunch, to be interrupted in the midst of it bythe man who called a good-bye to them as he moved off down the road.
"He's going," remarked Amy. "I wonder if he had enough?"
"I think so," replied Betty. "Now, girls, we must hurry. We have beendelayed, and--"
"I'm so sorry," put in Mollie. "It was my fault, and--"
"Don't think of it, my dear!" begged Grace. "Any of us might haveforgotten the lunch, just as you did."
As they walked past the place which the tramp had selected for his diningroom, Betty saw some papers on the ground. They appeared to be letters,and, rather idly, she picked them up. She looked into one or two of thetorn envelopes.
"I wouldn't do that," said Grac
e. "Maybe those are private letters. Hemust have forgotten them. I wonder where he has gone? Perhaps we cancatch him--he might need these papers. But I wouldn't read them, Betty."
"They're nothing but advertising circulars," retorted the Little Captain."Nothing very private about them. I guess he threw them all away."
She was about to let them fall from her hand, when a bit of paperfluttered from one envelope. Picking it up Betty was astonished to readon the torn portion the words:
"_I cannot carry out that deal I arranged with you, because I have hadthe misfortune to lose five hundred dollars and I shall have to_--"
There the paper, evidently part of a letter to someone, was torn off.There were no other words.
"Girls!" cried Betty, "look--see! This letter! That man may be the onewhose money we found! He has written about it--as nearly as I can recall,the writing is like that in the note pinned to the five hundred dollars.Oh, we must find that tramp!"
"He wasn't a tramp!" exclaimed Grace.
"No, I don't believe he was, either," admitted Betty. "That's what hemeant when he spoke of his disguise, and looking for something. He'shunting for his five hundred dollars. Oh, dear! which way did he go?"
"Toward Middleville," returned Amy.
"Then we must hurry up and catch him. We can explain that we havehis money."
"But are you sure it is his?" asked Mollie.
"This looks like it," said Betty, holding out the torn letter.
"But some one else might have lost five hundred dollars,"protested Grace.
"Come on, we'll find him, and ask him about it, anyhow," suggestedBetty. "Middleville is on our way. Oh, to think how things may turn out!Hurry, girls!"
They hastily gathered up their belongings and walked on, talking of theirlatest adventure.
"He was real nice looking," said Mollie.
"And quite polite," added Amy.
"And do you think he may be traveling around like a tramp, searching forthat bill?" asked Grace.
"It's possible," declared Betty: "Perhaps he couldn't help looking like atramp, because if he has lost all his money he can't afford any otherclothes. Oh, I do hope we find him!"
But it was a vain hope. They did not see the man along the road, andinquiries of several persons they met gave no trace. Nor had hereached Middleville, as far as could be learned. If he had, no one hadnoticed him.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Betty, when they had exhausted all possibilities, "Idid hope that money mystery was going to be solved. Now it's as far offas ever. But I'll keep this torn piece of letter for evidence. Poorfellow! He may have built great hopes on that five hundred dollarbill--then to lose it!"
They went to the house of Amy's cousin in Middleville. There they spentan enjoyable evening, meeting some friends who had been invited in. Amysaid nothing about the disclosure to her of the strange incident in herlife. Probably, she reflected, her relative already knew it.
Morning saw them on the move again, with Broxton, where a married sisterof Grace lived, as their objective point. The day was cloudy, but it didnot seem that it would rain, at least before night.
And even the frown of the weather did not detract from the happinessof the chums. They laughed and talked as they walked on, making merryby the way.
Stopping in a country store to make sure of their route they wereinformed that by taking to the railroad track for a short distance theycould save considerable time.
"Then we ought to do it," decided Betty, "for we don't want to get caughtin the rain," and she glanced up at the clouds that were now morethreatening.
They reached the railroad track a short distance out of the littlevillage, and proceeded down the stretch of rails.
"There's a train in half an hour," a man informed them, "but you'll beoff long before then."
"I hope so," murmured Amy.
They had nearly reached the end of the ballasted way, when Betty, who wasin the lead, came to a sudden halt.
"What is it," asked Mollie, "a snake? Oh, girls!"
"No, not a snake," was the quick answer. "But look! This rail is broken!It must have cracked when the last train passed. And another one--anexpress--is due soon! If it runs over that broken rail it may be wrecked!Girls, we've got to stop that train!" and she faced her chums resolutely.