The Automobile Girls at Newport Part 22

"The truth is, miss," interrupted the other detective, whom Bab saw for the first time this morning, "we think you have given us the clue to a pretty clever customer. We've been looking for him before. He's known to the service as 'The Boy Raffles.' We tried to catch him two years ago when he played this same game at Saratoga. But he got off to Europe without our ever finding the goods on him. So you see, this time we've got to nail him. My partner and I," the wiry little dark man pointed to the big blond one, "have been talking matters over and we believe this here 'Raffles' has got what we detectives call a 'confed' with him-some one who receives the stolen goods. So that's why we want to ask your help. Have you any idea of anyone who could be playing the game along with him? We think he is giving the jewels to some one to keep in hiding for him. The gems have not been sent out of town, and we have made a thorough search of Mrs. Erwin's house, where Townsend is staying. There is nothing there."

"Could the young lady I saw him in the garden with last night be a partner of his?" asked the blond detective.

"Oh, my goodness, no!" cried Barbara, in horror. "She is my cousin, Gladys Le Baron."

"Now, that's just it, miss. You can see we need some one like you, who's on the inside, to keep us off the wrong track. Can you suggest anyone else?"

Barbara was silent. Then she shook her head. "I don't know of anyone now," she said. "You'll have to give me time to think and watch."

"All right, miss, and thank you. You can write a note to this address if you have anything to communicate." One of the men handed her a card with the number of a Newport boarding house on it. "My name is Burton," said the big man, "and my a.s.sistant is Rowley. We both came up from the New York office, and we're at your service, miss."

On the way home Barbara tried to make up her mind whether she ought to tell Miss Sallie what she was doing.

"I don't think it best to tell her now," she concluded. "She would only be worried and frightened to death. What is the good? Miss Sallie would be sure to think that girls did not hunt for jewel thieves in her day.

And she'd probably think they ought not to hunt for them in my day,"

Barbara confessed to herself, honestly. "I'll just wait a while, and see how things develop. Now I am in this detective business, I might as well confess to myself that it is very interesting."

Barbara walked slowly. "I wish Ruth would find out how things are going," she thought to herself. "She is so shrewd and she already guesses I have something on my mind. But Ruth was so positive I was wrong about Harry Townsend, at Mrs. Erwin's ball, that she would probably think I was wrong again. So the female detective will pursue her lonely way for a little while longer-and then, I just must tell some one," Bab ended.

Miss Sallie and the girls were coming down-stairs to breakfast, when Bab entered at the front door. Miss Stuart was plainly displeased with Barbara's explanation. "I couldn't sleep very well, Miss Sallie," said Barbara, "and I went out for a walk." "That is partly true," she reflected, "but half truths are not far from story-telling."

"Well, I must ask you, Bab," said Miss Sallie, in firm tones, "not to leave the house again in the morning, unless some one is with you. I was most uneasy."

"Didn't Mollie give you the note I left on the bureau to explain where I had gone?" inquired Bab.

"Mollie did not see the note until we were almost ready to come downstairs. Naturally, we did not understand your absence."

"I am so sorry, Miss Sallie," cried Bab. "I never will do it again."

Barbara was beginning to understand Miss Sallie better since Ruth's accident. She knew that her cold exterior hid a very warm heart.

As for Miss Sallie, she finally smiled on Bab and gave her a forgiving kiss. "I could forgive Bab anything," she thought to herself, "after her wonderful heroism in saving Ruth. I suppose I have to expect a girl of so much spirit to do erratic things sometimes."

Ralph kept his eyes lowered when he said good morning and hardly spoke during breakfast.

"Ralph is out of sorts," his mother complained, "but, man-like, he won't tell what is the matter with him."

"Perhaps you are tired from the party last night, Ralph?" suggested Mollie. Then Ralph laughed a mirthless laugh. "No, I am not tired, Mollie," he replied.

Yet all through breakfast he did not once speak to Bab.

"Remember," said Grace, "that our crowd and just a few other people are invited over to Mrs. Cartwright's to-night. She is going to have a porch party, and we are to play the famous game 'eyeology' that she was talking of to Gladys the other day. Do you know what she means?"

n.o.body at the table had ever heard of it.

"I begged Donald to tell me," Grace added, "but he declares he is as much in the dark about it as the rest of us, and Mrs. Cartwright simply says, 'wait and see!'"

"I suppose," said Miss Sallie, "that you children never intend to rest again. I should think that Mrs. Cartwright would be perfectly used up from so much entertaining."

"O Aunt Sallie," pleaded Grace, "we shall rest well enough when we are back in sleepy old Kingsbridge. There is too much doing in Newport. And, you know, we've only about a week longer to stay. What a wonderful time we have had!"

"Let's see what we have ahead of us," pondered Mollie. "The only especially big things we know about are the tennis tourney and the ball after it. Then Miss Ruth Stuart and Mr. Hugh Post are to win a silver cup, in order to spread more l.u.s.ter upon the reputation of the automobile girls at Newport. Bab helped pull Ruth out of an abyss! The two girls held up a burglar! Ruth is a famous tennis champion! Only you and I are no good, Grace. What can we do for our country?" finished Mollie.

"Nothing at all, dear!" laughed Miss Sallie, and the rest of the party.

"Much as I admire these two clever la.s.sies, I am very glad to have my other two girls of a more peaceful and quiet variety, or my hair would certainly turn whiter than it is now, if that were possible." Miss Stuart touched her snow-white hair, which was very handsome with her delicate skin and bright color.

"Now I insist," she said, "that you girls have a quiet day if you are going out again this evening."

"May I have a row on the bay with Ralph?" asked Barbara. "Have you forgotten, Ralph, that you invited me several days ago?"

"I am sorry, Barbara," Ralph answered, quietly, "but I had forgotten it.

If you will excuse me, I have something else on hand for today that I must attend to. Perhaps you will go with me some other time," he proposed, without any enthusiasm.

"All right, Ralph," Bab nodded. "Of course, I do not mind. We did not have a real engagement, anyway." "He won't let me make up with him," Bab thought. "I wonder why he is so angry?"

At five o'clock Barbara came down on the veranda, dressed for the evening. She spied Ralph walking alone down the garden path, which was arched with trellises of crimson and pink rambler roses. There were several seats along the walk, and it had formed a favorite retreat for the girls ever since they had arrived at Mrs. Ewing's home.

Perhaps another girl than Barbara would not have tried again to make friends with Ralph, after his refusal to take her boating in the morning; but Bab was so open-hearted and sincere that she could not bear a misunderstanding. She was fond of Ralph, he had been kind to her, and his manner toward her had changed so suddenly that she felt she must have done something to wound him. Bab did offend people, sometimes, with her quick speeches and thoughtlessness, but she was always ready to say she was wrong and to make amends.

"Ralph!" she called. "Ralph!" The boy was obliged to stop and turn round, as Barbara was hurrying after him.

"I want to talk to you, please," she said, coaxingly. "You are not too angry with me to let me speak to you, are you?"

"I have not said I was angry with you, Miss Thurston," replied Ralph.

"Now, Ralph!" Barbara put her hand lightly on his sleeve. "You know you don't call me Miss Thurston. We decided weeks ago it was silly for us to call each other Miss and Mister when we were such intimate friends. I want you to do me a favor. Will you take me over to Mrs. Cartwright's to-night? Donald and his guest, 'the freshman,' are coming for Grace and Mollie. Ruth, of course, is going over with Hugh, and I could go with them, but I want to talk to you. I can't say what I have to say to you now, because already the girls are calling me. Please say you will take me."

Barbara's eyes were so pretty and pleading that Ralph felt his anger already melting. Yet Ralph's feeling toward Barbara was not only anger.

It was a much more serious thing, a growing sense of distrust. But he answered: "Of course, Bab, I shall be delighted to take you."

Barbara and Ralph let the rest of their friends start ahead of them.

They wanted to have their walk alone.

Miss Sallie had pleaded fatigue, and remained at home. "Besides, children," she explained, "I am much too old to take any further interest in games, 'eyeology,' or any other 'ology.'"

Ralph and Barbara walked in silence down the street for several minutes.

Then Bab spoke. "Tell me, Ralph, what is the matter? If you were angry with a man you would tell him what the trouble was, if he asked you. It is not fair not to be open with me because I am a girl. If you think you are being more polite to me by not telling me why you are angry, then I don't agree with you. I think you are acting a whole lot worse."

Ralph continued to go on in moody silence.

"All right, then, Ralph," said Barbara; "I can't ask you any more questions, or beg your pardon, when I don't know what I have done to offend you. Only I am sorry."

"Oh, it isn't that you have offended me, Bab," Ralph burst out. "Do you suppose I would act like such a bear if you had just thrown me down, or some little thing like that, when we have been such jolly good friends before? I didn't like your sending me off yesterday, when you went to look for Mollie, because-because--"

"Go on, Ralph," insisted Barbara.

"Very well, then, Bab; I was angry and hurt because, if you did join Mollie, you couldn't have stayed with her a minute. I saw you, just afterwards, holding a long conversation with a strange man."

"Well, Ralph," argued Bab, "was that such a dreadful offense? I am sure I should not have been angry with you, if you had talked to any number of strange women." Bab's eyes were twinkling. She had made up her mind that she wanted a confidant. Here was Ralph, the best one she could have.