The Blue Grass Seminary Girls on the Water Part 53

"I guess you know what I mean, all right," she made reply. "Do you remember saying something like that to me once?"

"But I had reason to," protested Mabel. "It was so plain in d.i.c.k's case."

"No more so than in Captain Von Blusen's case," declared Shirley.

"I don't see--"

"Oh, yes you do. You mean you just won't admit it. Well, you don't have to. Why, what makes your face so red, Mabel?"

"I don't know what you are talking about," declared Mabel, and turning about quickly, she rushed to her cabin, leaving Shirley laughing to herself.

The steamship _Yucatan_ was forging ahead at full speed now, and was rapidly lessening the distance to the first California port-San Diego.

"Dad," said Shirley, "isn't there a second fair at San Diego?"

"Yes," replied her father, "why?"

"Well then, why can't we stop off there for a day or two and go on to San Francis...o...b.. rail?"

"We can if you wish it," replied Mr. Willing.

"Then let's do, Dad."

"All right."

And so it was arranged. Shirley went below where she and Mabel immediately began gathering their things together so that they would be ready to leave the boat the moment it docked at San Diego.

There was no question that the girls had become great favorites with all the pa.s.sengers. Many pressed them to continue the trip to San Francisco, Captain Anderson being one of the most anxious to keep them aboard as long as possible.

"I don't know what I shall do without you," he told Shirley and Mabel.

"We have had lots of excitement on this voyage, more than ever before, and you two girls have been mainly responsible for it. I hope that I shall see you again some time."

"Why," said Shirley, "there are many more summers coming, and if we ever decide to make this trip again we shall not ever think of taking any boat but yours."

"May the time come soon," said the captain.

The pa.s.sengers bade them an affectionate good-bye as they left the _Yucatan_ at San Diego, and then they entered a taxi and were driven to a hotel, where they once more made themselves comfortable for a stay ash.o.r.e.

They spent two days at the San Diego exposition, and then took a train for San Francisco to view, as Shirley expressed it, "the greatest sight they ever expected to see."

And none of the party was a whit disappointed in the great exposition.

In fact, it was far beyond expectations. For two weeks they remained in the California metropolis, spending every minute possible upon the large exposition grounds overlooking the Golden Gate and the broad expanse to the Pacific.

When the time came for them to betake themselves homeward, it was with regret that they realized it would be long before they could again hope to see the beauties of the far-off state of California.

There remains yet one incident to be told.

Two weeks after their return home, Mabel received a registered package postmarked Rome, Italy. Eagerly she ran to her room with it, where she opened it in solitude; nor could she repress a cry of admiration when she drew out a beautifully bejeweled cross, patterned after the Iron Cross of Germany-the Iron Cross with which the German Emperor decorates his troops for bravery.

With it there was a brief note, with the signature "Captain Von Blusen."

Looking closer at the piece of paper on which the message was written, Mabel perceived a seal of peculiar design. She ran hastily for her dictionary, and turned to the seals of the various nations.

There was a striking similarity between the seal on the paper and the Imperial German seal, as reproduced, in colors, in her big dictionary.

For perhaps half an hour the girl sat silent, musing.

"Can it be possible?" she asked herself at last "I wonder--"

She rushed downstairs to consult Shirley, who at that moment was holding a tete-a-tete with d.i.c.k on the sunny front porch.

THE END.