The Amazing Inheritance Part 25

Tessie did pound on the gla.s.s then, but the chauffeur never turned his head. He just swung the car around another corner, and down another narrow street, and stopped before a brick house. He jumped out and opened the door and motioned to Tessie to step out. But Tessie never moved a muscle. She sat on the broad gray seat of the limousine, as if she never would step out.

"Suppose you take me home now," she said coldly and calmly, although inwardly she was anything but calm and cold. "I know Mrs. Kingley isn't here. And Miss Kingley isn't here, either. You've made a mistake. Take me to the Waloo Hotel at once!"

She spoke like a queen, as if she were accustomed to issuing orders and to being obeyed, and not at all like the frightened little girl she really felt. She told herself that it was ridiculous to feel frightened. Nothing could happen to her! Not on the street in Waloo in broad daylight!

It made her feel safer to see a group of small boys playing ball on the vacant lot next to the red brick house. One of the boys failed to catch the ball, and it rolled almost under the car.

"Take me home!" ordered Tessie, in her most royal manner.

But the chauffeur only showed his teeth. They made a white streak in his yellow face as he motioned toward the door of the red brick house.

"Ka-kee-ta," he said very slowly and distinctly. "You want Ka-kee-ta?"

"Ka-kee-ta!" That was a very different pair of shoes. So Miss Kingley, or perhaps it was Mrs. Kingley, had found Ka-kee-ta--although what he was doing away down here, miles from the Waloo, Tessie could not imagine--and had sent the chauffeur to take her to him. How kind! How very kind of the Kingleys. She jumped up, eager questions tumbling from her lips. "Why is he here? Why didn't he come home? Is he hurt?" For she was sure that nothing but an injury would keep Ka-kee-ta away from her and from the Tear of G.o.d. She was glad she had the Tear of G.o.d in the safety bag around her waist. She could show Ka-kee-ta that it was safe.

Her face whitened as she thought that Ka-kee-ta might be, must be, badly injured. But still she hesitated to go to him. She stood on the running board of the car and looked up and down the narrow little street.

"Ka-kee-ta, he want you!" exclaimed the chauffeur, and he would have taken her arm to help her, but she pushed him away. She had taken a dislike to him, she did not know why, but she did not want him to touch her, although it was kind of him to bring her to Ka-kee-ta.

She glanced at the red brick house. Was that Ka-kee-ta's frizzled head at an upper window? It looked like it. So he was not badly injured, or he would not be at the window. She drew a long breath of relief. She would go and see what was the matter with him, and if it was nothing serious, she would give him a good big piece of her mind for worrying her. Of course, a queen would have to look after her bodyguard even if her bodyguard had been disobedient and careless. Indeed she would tell Ka-kee-ta what she thought of him.

She stepped forward hurriedly, and in her eagerness to tell Ka-kee-ta how disobedient he had been, she dropped her little beaded bag. It fell from the big embroidered pocket of her Canton crepe frock and rolled under the car, but Tessie never knew it. The chauffeur, who was close at her side, never knew it, either.

The door of the red brick house opened before Tessie could ring the bell, and she went in. The chauffeur waited until the door closed behind her, and then ran back to his car. He jumped in and drove rapidly away.

The small boy in search of his ball had to wait a minute, until the car had dashed away. And then he saw the beaded bag lying in the street beside the curb and beside the ball.

"Crickey!" he exclaimed, holding it up for the other boys to see. "Look what I found!"

There was no one in the hall as the outside door closed behind Tessie.

She stood still for a second, feeling very small and neglected. Since she became a queen, she had been met at front doors with more or less ceremony, and it puzzled her that no one met her now. There was a door at her right. She walked toward it. She could not remember at just which window she had caught that glimpse of a frizzled head. Perhaps Ka-kee-ta was in the room at the right. But when she opened the door, she did not see Ka-kee-ta. She saw Frederic Pracht.

He stepped forward. "Welcome!" he said pleasantly. "Welcome, Your Majesty!"

"Why--why--" stammered Tessie, so surprised she could do nothing but stammer. She sent a hurried glance around the room, but she could not see a trace of her bodyguard. "I thought Ka-kee-ta was here," she managed to say after she had swallowed twice, and impatiently tossed her head to free the frightened lump in her throat.

Mr. Pracht laughed softly, unpleasantly. "This is the Waloo headquarters of the Sons of Sunshine," he explained gently, and as if she should know that Ka-kee-ta would never be found at the headquarters of that revolutionary organization.

"The Sons of Sunshine," repeated Tessie faintly. The bright color left her face, her bones suddenly felt starchless and limp, but she looked bravely at Mr. Pracht. She remembered that Granny had told her that the Gilfoolys were never afraid. She must not let Mr. Pracht think that a Gilfooly could be afraid, but she half closed her eyes and wished with all of her heart that Joe Cary were with her--or Mr. Bill! If only Mr.

Bill were there, she would not mind the unpleasant little smile with which Mr. Pracht was regarding her. She would not mind anything!

"Yes. I am sure that you are going to be a most amiable and obliging queen, and grant the Sons of Sunshine what they ask," Mr. Pracht said, and his voice was far more pleasant than his smile. It was too pleasant, so very pleasant that if Tessie had been any one but a valiant Gilfooly, she would have fainted immediately. "If you refuse," went on the unpleasantly pleasant voice, "you will have to remain here until you see how reasonable their demands are. A strange people, Your Majesty--a strange people! And they have strange customs in their far-away islands.

I think I told you of some of them?" And he looked at her and shook his thatched tow-head.

Tessie straightened herself proudly. She would not let him see how frightened she was. She would die first.

"You told me of one," she said as scornfully as she could, when she had no starch at all left in her bones. "Something about boiling the kings they don't like in shark oil." And she managed a contemptuous toss of her head, as if she did not believe a word of Mr. Pracht's story.

"Yes," he agreed cheerfully. "That is one of their little customs. But I am sure that they will not have to resort to it soon again. You cannot blame them for wanting a native ruler. You really have no claim on them.

Just because your uncle was an unscrupulous man, and influenced the old king to disinherit his sons, is no reason why the people should have to accept another white ruler when they don't want one." He would have gone on to tell Tessie other things about the islands and the rebels, but she interrupted him.

"What do you want of me?" she asked bluntly.

"I told you. Your rights to the Sunshine Islands," he told her as bluntly.

But Tessie, soft, little, frightened Tessie, felt the hot blood of the Gilfoolys rush through her. It seemed to put the starch back in her bones so that she could stand boldly before this hateful, smiling man.

Her islands! The very idea! Words Joe Cary had said rushed through her mind. It was funny that she should remember what Joe had said about responsibilities and duties now. But Joe was right. She did have responsibilities and duties. So instead of telling Mr. Pracht exactly what she thought of him, she swallowed the hot words which rushed to her lips, tossed her head, and looked at him questioningly. She must meet craft with craft.

"How do I know that you are what you say?" she asked doubtfully. "You tell me that you represent the Sons of Sunshine, and that the Sons of Sunshine want a native ruler, but I have only your word for it. You must have some credentials or something. I can't dispose of my rights to the islands my Uncle Pete left me and turn the people over to just any one.

That wouldn't be right! Joe Cary--" And suddenly she remembered something else Joe Cary had told her. She stared at Mr. Pracht with big astonished eyes. "Joe Cary told me once that there was some country that would like to get possession of my islands so it would have a base, I think he said, nearer the United States. He said the j.a.panese would give their eyeteeth to get control of the Sunshine Islands. I remember all about it now. How do I know you aren't acting for the j.a.panese, instead of for the Sons of Sunshine?" she asked shrilly.

He jumped, and all the muscles of his face seemed to tighten as he stared at her. "j.a.panese!" he repeated sharply.

"Yes. And it was a j.a.p who drove the car that brought me here,"

remembered Tessie, putting two and two together. "I would never sell my islands to the j.a.panese!" she declared firmly. "Never! I don't trust them! And it wouldn't be patriotic! Joe said it wouldn't! And the Baileys, who lived next to us before I was a queen, were from California, and they told me things about the j.a.panese. If you are working for them, you can tell them I would never think of selling my islands to them!" And she turned away as if to let him know that her decision was made and the interview was over.

Out on the steps, a small boy with a beaded bag in his hand was ringing the doorbell. It sent a loud peal through the house.

"Some one is at your front door," Tessie told Mr. Pracht, who stood biting his nails, and frowning at her as though he had not heard the bell.

"Let it ring," he muttered staring at her. Suddenly he shrugged his shoulders. He had decided on his course of action. "You want Ka-kee-ta?"

he said curtly. "Come upstairs."

"I thought you said he wasn't here," she exclaimed. "That surprised me, for I was sure I saw him at the window."

"Come upstairs," repeated Mr. Pracht. "Ka-kee-ta needs you."

Of course, if one of her people needed her, there was nothing for a queen to do but follow Mr. Pracht up the stairs and down the hall.

Outside the front door, a small boy stuffed a beaded bag in his pocket and ran down the steps and up the street.

Mr. Pracht threw open the door of a room at the end of the hall, and stood aside for Tessie to enter. She hesitated for the room was dark. It seemed to have no light but from the open door, and she could see nothing in it but shadows.

"Ka-kee-ta?" she called from the threshold. "Ka-kee-ta, are you there?"

She was almost sure that Ka-kee-ta was not there, but before she could say so, she was pushed over the threshold and into the darkened room.

The door slammed behind her.

"You will stay there until you agree to give up your rights to the Sunshine Islands!" Mr. Pracht called through the door. "Your rights to the islands and the Tear of G.o.d! And the sooner you agree the better.

Sharks have sharp teeth, you know!"

XX

The afternoon papers carried the story of the mysterious disappearance of Queen Teresa and her bodyguard, but strangely enough, there was very little in the story about the Evergreen. Indeed the store was merely mentioned in the closing paragraph which reminded Waloo where Queen Teresa had been found.

Granny had been interviewed, and she had tearfully told of the appearance of a white-headed, big-nosed, fat man who had wanted to buy the Sunshine Islands, and who had threatened the queen with all sorts of barbarous cruelties if she did not abdicate at once. Granny made no bones about telling the press what she knew of Frederic Pracht, which was little, and what she thought of him, which was much.

"I don't believe the Sons of Sunshine have anything to do with this,"

she insisted. "I think it was all that Pracht man. He stole the marriage license of her father and mother, and now he's stolen her. I know he has!"