The Automobile Girls at Palm Beach Part 21

The darkey scratched his head reflectively.

"Ole Miss Thorne might take you in, Ma.s.sa. Her place am about two miles from here. She's my old missis. I live thar. I jest comes down here and helps fishin' parties to land and takes them out in my boat in the daytime. Nights I sleeps at my old missis's place. She comes of a fine family she do. But she's a little teched in the head, suh."

"All right, Jim; show us the way to the house. But how are we to find a horse and wagon? My sister and Madame de Villiers will not care to walk that distance."

"I got an old horse and wagon hitched near here, Ma.s.sa," Jim returned.

"I come over in it this morning."

Mr. Stuart finally installed Miss Sallie, Madame de Villiers, and the young countess in the bottom of Jim's old wagon. He also stored their lunch baskets away under the seats. Food might be precious before they found their way back to their hotel.

Then Jim started his patient old horse, while Mr. Stuart and the "Automobile Girls" followed the wagon which led the way along a narrow road through the heart of the jungle.

But before leaving the deserted sh.o.r.e, Mr. Stuart went back to the launch. He tacked a note on the outside of the cabin. The note explained the accident to their engine. It also stated that Mr. Stuart and his party had gone to seek refuge at the home of a Miss Thorne, two miles back from the sh.o.r.e.

Mr. Stuart did not believe the wrecker would return to the boat. He had accomplished his evil purpose. But Mr. Stuart did hope that another launch might visit the coast either that evening or in the early morning. Therefore he requested that any one who discovered his letter would come to Miss Thorne's home for his party.

CHAPTER XVI

WELCOME AND UNWELCOME GUESTS

The sun was just sinking when Mr. Stuart's weary cavalcade stopped in front of a great iron gate. The gate was covered with rust and hung loose on its hinges. It opened into a splendid avenue of cypress trees.

As far as the eye could see on each side of the road, ran overgrown hedges of the Rose of Sharon. The bushes were in full bloom and the ma.s.ses of white blossoms gleamed in the gathering shadows like lines of new fallen snow.

"How beautiful!" exclaimed the four "Automobile Girls" in chorus.

Mr. Stuart looked anxiously up the lonely avenue as his party stumbled along the rough road and peered cautiously into the hedge first on one side then on the other. It would have been easy for an army to hide itself in the cover of the thicket, which hemmed them in on all sides in an impenetrable wall of green.

"I feel extremely uneasy, Robert," declared Miss Sallie, her face pale under the stress of the day's experiences.

Old Madame de Villiers smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "I have no fear for myself," she said. "My husband is a soldier. I have followed him through two great wars. What comes must come. It is all in the day's business. But the countess, she is different. She is in my charge; nothing must happen to her. I a.s.sure you, Mr. Stuart, it is of the utmost importance that the Countess Sophia be protected."

Miss Sallie held her head very high. Madame de Villiers was their guest, so Miss Stuart would say nothing. But why should Madame de Villiers think the safety of the Countess Sophia of more importance than that of the four "Automobile Girls?" Miss Sarah Stuart had other ideas. She was equally determined that no harm should overtake any one of her charges.

The narrow avenue finally broadened into a lawn overgrown with flowers and vines. Back of it stood an old house that had once been a fine colonial mansion. The house seemed to frown on the intruders, who had come to destroy its sacred quiet.

"I should think anybody might be 'teched' in the head, who lived alone in a queer place like this," whispered Ruth to Bab, as the two girls stood with their arms about each other, staring ahead of them.

"Will you see Miss Thorne first, Jim, and explain our plight to her?"

Mr. Stuart asked the old colored man. "Or do you think it would be better to have me make matters clear?"

"I'll do the 'splainin', Ma.s.sa," returned old Jim. "My missis will allus listen to me. I done tole you she wasn't jes' like other folks."

"Is your mistress insane, Jim?" inquired Miss Sallie anxiously.

"No-o, ma'am," returned the old man. "Miss Thorne she ain't crazy. She's puffectly quiet, suh, and she's all right on every subject 'cept one. I hates to tell you what that thing is."

"Out with it, Jim. What is the lady's peculiarity?"

"She imagines, suh, that her fambly is still with her, her own ma and pa, and young ma.s.sa, and her sister Missy Lucy. Missy Rose ain't never been married."

"Where is her family, Jim?" Ruth asked.

"They lies yonder in the buryin' ground, Missy," replied the old darkey, pointing toward a clearing some distance from the house, where a few white stones gleamed in the twilight.

Miss Sallie shuddered. Grace and Mollie huddled close to her, while Ruth and Bab gave each other's hands re-a.s.suring pressures.

"Do you look after this Miss Thorne?" Mr. Stuart inquired further.

"Yes, suh; me and my wife Chloe looks after her. Chloe cooks and I works about the place when I'se not down to the beach with my boat. But my missus ain't so poor. She's got enough to git along with. I jest likes to earn a little extra."

By this time Jim had climbed down from his shaky old wagon. He now opened the front door.

"Walk right in," he said hospitably, making a low bow. "I'll go find Miss Rose."

Mr. Stuart's party entered a wide hall that seemed shrouded in impenetrable gloom. On the walls hung rows of family portraits. The place was inexpressibly dismal. The "Automobile Girls" kept close to Mr.

Stuart. In silence they waited for the appearance of the mistress of the house.

Two candles flickered in the dark hallway. Out of the gloom emerged an old lady, followed by her two servants, who were bearing the lights. She was small and very fragile. She wore a gray silk gown of an old fashioned cut. Her dress was ornamented with a bertha and cuffs of d.u.c.h.ess lace.

The old lady advanced and held out her small hand. "I am pleased to offer you shelter," she declared to Mr. Stuart. "Jim has explained your predicament to me. We shall be only too happy to have you stay with us for the night."

At the word "we," the "Automobile Girls" exchanged frightened glances.

Their hostess was alone. But that one word "we" explained the situation.

Did she mean that all the ghosts of her past still waited in the house to welcome unexpected visitors?

"It has been many years since we have had guests in our home," continued Miss Thorne. "But I think we have rooms enough to accommodate you."

Chloe conducted Miss Sallie, Madame de Villiers, the Countess Sophia and the four "Automobile Girls" into a great parlor. The room was furnished with old fashioned elegance. Candles burned on the high mantel shelves.

But the dim lights could not dispel the shadow of desolation that pervaded the great room.

A few minutes later Miss Thorne entered the room. "You must tell me your names," she inquired sociably. "I wish to run upstairs and tell Mama about you. Poor Mama is an invalid or she would come down to see you."

Then calling Chloe to her, she said in a loud whisper:

"Notify Miss Lucy and Master Tom at once. Papa can wait. He is busy in the library."

An uncanny silence followed Miss Thorne's speech. Every one of the seven women looked unhappy and Mr. Stuart tried vainly to conceal a sense of uneasiness. But Chloe quietly beckoned the party from the room.

"I'll jes' show the ladies upstairs," she explained gently and her mistress made no objection.

Miss Sallie would on no account sleep alone in such a dismal house. She shared a large chamber with Ruth and Bab. The countess asked to spend the night with Mollie and Grace, and Madame de Villiers, who was afraid of nothing, had a room to herself. Mr. Stuart went up to the third floor.

"Let us talk and laugh and try to be cheerful, girls," proposed the countess. "This poor old soul is quite harmless, I believe, and she seems very sad. Perhaps we may be able to cheer her a little."