The Amazing Inheritance Part 26

"Be careful, Granny," cautioned Joe with a worried frown. "You don't want to say anything that will make it worse for Tess."

"No, I don't!" choked Granny. "But I think people should know the truth. I'm not as pleased with this queen business as I was, Joe. I used to think it was grand to be a queen, and there are parts of it that are pleasant, I must say, but there are other parts that I don't hold with at all. I don't see how Pete stood it all alone, away off there in the Pacific Ocean. I've just about made up my mind that Tessie shan't ever go there. She's too little and helpless. What could she do, if those savages should turn against her? You don't think any one would hurt little Tessie, do you, Joe? She's all right, isn't she?" And she went closer to Joe and peered into his face so that her eyes, as well as her ears, could tell her what Joe thought. "You'll find her for me, won't you, Joe?"

"Sure, we'll find her!" declared Joe, with far more confidence than he felt. "The police--every officer in Waloo!--is trying to find her!"

"I'll bet the Boy Scouts can find her!" bragged Johnny, who was thrilled to the very marrow to think that his sister--his own sister who was a queen--had been kidnaped. Gee whizz! what would the fellows say!

Joe gave a start and looked at Johnny. "Thunder!" he said slowly, and then he added more quickly, "Johnny, I believe you've said something!

Who's at the head of your Scouts?"

"We got a Scoutmaster for every troop," boasted Johnny, but Joe did not wait for him to finish. Joe was at the telephone impatiently asking Central for heaven's sake to give him the number he wanted, and not half a dozen numbers he couldn't use.

In an incredibly short time, each Scoutmaster in the city had been asked to have the boys in his troop help find the missing queen of the Sunshine Islands.

"Your boys have been taught to observe," Joe eagerly told the Scoutmasters. "Perhaps one of them saw the car which carried off Miss Gilfooly." Joe never could speak of Tessie as Queen Teresa. It was too ridiculous, and then he did not believe in queens. "The number is 13,023. Just get in touch with your Scouts, and ask them if they have seen it. I know it's just a chance, but Waloo is so big and Miss Gilfooly is so little that we have to s.n.a.t.c.h at every chance. Her brother is a Scout, you know," he added, while Johnny stood beside him all puffed with pride.

"We'll do our best!" promised the Scoutmasters. "And our boys are all over town. If one of them saw the car, I'm sure he'll report at once.

Sorry about the queen. She seemed a nice little girl!"

"She is a nice little girl!" declared Joe, with considerable emphasis.

"You'll find her all right," prophesied the Scoutmaster. "Queens can't be kidnaped in this country."

"Miss Gilfooly was kidnaped!" Joe reminded him curtly. "If you hear anything, call me up at once, at the Waloo!"

He did not feel quite as confident as the Scoutmaster, as he hung up the receiver, but he nodded encouragingly to Granny.

"They'll find her," he said.

"I'm sure I hope so," wailed Granny. "Poor little Tessie! I never should have allowed her to be a queen! I might have known there would be trouble! Queens aren't as fashionable as they were."

"No," agreed Joe. "They aren't. Gee whizz, Granny!" He jumped to his feet and stared down at Granny. "Where do you suppose Tessie is? And Ka-kee-ta? I'd like to ring old Kingley's neck!" he said fiercely.

Granny stumbled to her feet and stared at him. "What has he got to do with it?" she said quickly. "What has Mr. Kingley got to do with Tessie's being kidnaped, Joe?" She caught his arm and held it tight as she questioned him.

"That," Joe told her with a frown, "is something I'm going to find out."

"But there must be something that makes you think he had a hand in it?"

insisted Granny, clinging to his arm.

"Nothing definite," scowled Joe. "But it was his car that carried Tessie away!"

Granny clutched his arm tighter and shook him. "You don't think Mr.

Bill had a hand in it too, Joe?" she cried shrilly. "You don't blame Mr.

Bill too, do you?"

"No!" Joe shook his head. He did not see how Mr. Bill could be blamed.

Mr. Bill had been working untiringly to find a clue which would lead him to Tessie. He had sworn a mighty oath that he would not close his eyes until he found Tessie. "No," Joe told Granny, "I don't think Bill Kingley knows any more than I do."

"Oh!" Granny released Joe's arm and dropped into a chair. "I thought perhaps you might mean that Tessie had eloped with Mr. Bill, and his father knew about it. I thought that was what you might mean when you said you'd like to wring old Mr. Kingley's neck."

"No, I didn't mean that!" But Joe did not tell her what he did mean. He just stood and stared at the telephone, as if he would force it to ring and tell him where Tessie was.

Granny threw her handkerchief over her face and broke into loud lamentations. Johnny ran to her.

"Don't you cry, Granny! Don't you cry! The Scouts'll find Tessie all right! I wish you'd let me go and help them!"

Granny put her arms around him tight. "No, you can't go, Johnny!" she sobbed. "You can't go! The Sons of Sunshine might take you, too. You stay here with me!"

"It's dreadful!" Norah Lee told Joe. Norah's face was white and anxious, and her voice shook. "If you only knew where to look!"

"That's it!" groaned Joe. "We haven't any idea where to look! It's worse than a needle in a haystack! She might be anywhere!"

"Poor little queen!" sighed Norah. "You know, Joe, there have been moments when I've envied her. I know it was silly, but I did! It was so romantic, you know, and old Mr. Kingley and everybody made such a fuss over her. The world just seemed to center around Tessie Gilfooly. The rest of us weren't there at all. We all envied her!"

"You can't envy her now!" Joe had nothing but scorn for one who envied a queen. He looked oddly at Norah. He could not see why Norah should envy any girl.

"No, we can't envy her now. I'm awfully sorry for you, Joe," she said after a moment. "You must be nearly crazy!"

"It's not knowing where she is," Joe said simply. "And when you think what savage brutes those Sunshine Sons really are, it's enough to make us all crazy!"

"Poor old Joe!" And Norah put her hand on his and squeezed his fingers with friendly sympathy. "Poor old Joe!"

"I'm not any good at all," frowned Joe. "That's what takes the starch out of a fellow. I don't know what to do! Bill Kingley is running around town like a mad dog, but he isn't getting anywhere. We aren't any of us as helpful as Johnny here."

Johnny raised his head from Granny's shoulder. "The Boy Scouts'll help!"

he insisted. "You just see!"

At almost that very moment Charlie Deakin, the young Scoutmaster of Beaver Troop in Northeast Waloo, was going home in the early twilight.

He had been thrilled to his heels when Joe called him to the telephone, and asked him to help find Queen Teresa. He had been interested in the queen ever since he read the first story in the _Gazette_. He had gone to the sale in the Evergreen bas.e.m.e.nt for the benefit of the Sunshine Island's shoe fund, and had bought an aluminum stewpan which he had given to his mother, to her undying amazement. He often had seen Tessie driving with her bodyguard and had admired both of them immensely. And now the queen had been kidnaped! He could not believe that any one would be so dastardly as to kidnap such a charming little girl. But if any one had, he would like to find her. He would give everything he had in the world to find her. And as he went home in the early twilight, he considered several plans for calling his troop together, and setting the boys to the task so that they really would find Queen Teresa. At the corner he met Neddie Black, who was an ardent young Scout.

"h.e.l.lo, Ned!" called Charlie. "I'm glad I met you! I've work for you to do! What's that in your hand?" For from Neddie's fingers dangled a beaded bag, something no Scout would carry.

"I picked it up in the street," explained Neddie, "but I can't find the owner. I thought it belonged to a girl who went into that red-brick house, but no one answered when I rang the bell. There is a dollar and seventy-five cents in it, a vanity case, a handkerchief, a pencil, a lot of samples, some pieces out of the newspaper, a veil, three chocolates and a piece of paper. See!" And he showed Charlie a card on which several words were scribbled.

"'Talc.u.m powder,'" read Charlie Deakin. "'Frederick O'Brien's South Sea Island book!'" His voice rose excitedly. "'Insect powder.' 'Cocoanut oil for Ka-kee-ta!' Where did you find this, Ned?" He gave Ned a little shake, as he questioned him eagerly.

Ned told him that he had been playing ball with a bunch of fellows in the vacant lot over there--he nodded in the direction of the red-brick house--and a limousine had driven up to the curb. Their ball had rolled under the car--the license number was 13,023--Neddie proudly remembered, and he had run to pick it up and had found the purse.

"A girl got out of the car. I supposed it belonged to her. But when I rang the bell, n.o.body came to the door. The car had gone away, so I put the bag in my pocket. Whose is it, Mr. Deakin, do you know?"

"Neddie Black!" exclaimed Charlie, his voice shaking with excitement.

"You go and sit on that curb!" he pointed to the curb in front of the red brick house. "And if any one comes out of that house, you yell as if you were being killed. I have to telephone!" He looked wildly about for a telephone.

"What is it, Mr. Deakin?" begged Neddie, pulling his sleeve. "What is it?" He knew it was something, because Mr. Deakin was so excited and so breathless. He felt a little tingle of excitement himself.

"It means we have a clue to Queen Teresa!" declared Charlie triumphantly. "I'll go in here and telephone, and if you see any one come out of that house, you yell. Gee whizz! Wouldn't it be great if we were to find the Queen! Just suppose she is in the house now!" He stared at the house. "I believe I'll ring the bell and see!"