The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach Part 34

Just come along with us. Don't you be afraid that any one is going to hurt you," for he saw distrust in Rose's face. "You are among friends--all friends!"

"You bet!" cried Andy. "I got left from the boat just in time to tell them where you were."

"Come along," said Jack kindly. "You both look ready to--collapse."

"I was just going to," declared Nellie, rubbing her hand over her inflamed eyes. "I was going to jump into the water before Rose could stop me, but when she called our mother to help us I--couldn't--then."

"Nellie!" exclaimed Rose in surprise.

"Now do come along," begged Cora. "You must need food and rest. I am almost dead myself from running around----"

"After us?" asked Nellie innocently.

The officer and young men smiled.

"Well, you see," began Jack, "we just caught Andy 'getting left,' as he put it, and he told us where you were----"

"But Andy's mother will be scared to death," insisted Nellie, brightening up.

"Oh, we have attended to that," said Jack. "We sent her a message.

Andy is going to visit us 'bungaloafers' for a few days. We just need a boy like Andy to help us get in shape," and Jack patted the smiling boy kindly.

"Our cars are out on the road," said Cora, "and we are all to go to the cottage. So, come on, girls. We are just dying to tell your odd story to several people. Your friends in the candy kitchen have been dreadfully worried since you left them so suddenly."

"They thought you jumped in the ocean," blurted out Andy, who had no regard for propriety in making such remarks.

The orphans acted almost frightened--it seemed too strange to be true, that they were going to get in an automobile, and be allowed to go to a house without being hunted and chased--without hiding or sneaking!

"Here we are," announced Ed, who cranked up one car into which Andy "piled" without any ceremony whatever.

Jack started up the _Whirlwind_, and into the big car Nellie and Rose were a.s.sisted. Cora sat beside Jack, and the detective insisted upon walking as he had "to meet a man" on the road and had scarcely time to keep this appointment.

Nellie was completely dazed. She sat bolt upright, as if afraid to lean against the soft cushions of the car.

Rose was more composed, but she also appeared ill at ease in the luxurious surroundings.

It was only a short ride to Clover Cottage. Bess and Belle were outside as they drove up. They clapped their hands almost like children when they saw who were in the cars.

"Oh, you have found them!" exclaimed Belle. "Come right in. We have tea all ready, and you are not to speak one word until you are refreshed," and she grasped Nellie's hand, and gave Rose a most welcome greeting.

Andy was loath to leave the car. He wanted to start it, to stop it, and to do all sorts of things with the interesting machine. Finally, when Rose and Nellie had been refreshed, Bess and Belle provided seats for all on the broad porch, just as the detective and a strange man turned around the corner and they, too, joined the happy group.

"This is a reporter for the daily paper," said the detective. "I thought it best to have him come right down now, and get this thing all straight. It will be best to tell the story from the start, and so clear up the false impressions about the girls."

The newspaper man took out a pad of paper and a pencil in the most businesslike way, without presuming on any personal privilege, such as an introduction, or a word of acknowledgment, for the detective's rather flattering account of the scribe's ability.

"Perhaps I had better ask you a few questions," the reporter began simply, turning to Rose. "Why did you run away from Mrs. Ramsy's house?"

"Because she was unjust to us," replied Rose. "She had never treated us decently, but when she took the very last thing we owned of our dead mother's--her wedding ring--we just took the little case it had been in, put it in a crate of berries we left under the tree for this young lady, and then--we went away."

"Where did you get that jewel case?" asked the tall detective, who seemed to be doing the most of the talking.

"We found it in Miss Schenk's sc.r.a.p basket. She told us to throw out everything in the basket, and so, when we found the little leather case we decided it would be nice to keep mamma's ring in."

"And that was how you got the case!" Cora could not help exclaiming.

"Yes. Why?" asked Nellie in surprise.

"Oh, nothing. Go on," said the detective.

"Then I found the card with the address of this house," continued Rose. "We intended to come down this way to work for the summer, and we knew that this house was vacant. That is how we came to sleep here one night."

"That's the card I picked up under the window," interrupted Andy, to whom the whole proceedings seemed as "thrilling as could be any professional theatrical performance."

"Then," Nellie helped out, "we slept one dreadful night in an old stone house. And it was haunted."

"That was the house by the spring," volunteered Jack, "where we found the hat, and other things."

"Yes," said Nellie, "we did leave some things there."

"And I found your dress away out on the road one night, very late,"

Bess put in, while the newspaper man smiled at the queer story with so many "personal contributions."

"Oh, yes! We were waiting for a trolley car, and we heard an automobile coming. Then I had to throw away a bundle--I didn't want to take it along with me. I thought Aunt Delia might describe our clothes."

"You got along pretty well for amateurs," remarked the detective with a laugh. "Some experts might have done worse."

"Then you came straight to Lookout Beach?" asked the reporter.

"Oh, no," answered Nellie. "We had to work our way down. First we went to work at the Wayside Inn."

"Now, I want to speak," announced Jack with a comical gesture. "I would like to know whose shadow it was I was chasing one night around the Wayside? I never had such an illusionary race before in all my life. I came near concluding that my mind was haunted."

Nellie laughed outright. "Oh, wasn't that funny!" she exclaimed. "I was trying to hide something, and you were trying to see who I was. I thought I would never get away from you, but I did fool you, after all."

"That's right," admitted Jack. "But you left me a lock of your hair."

Nellie blushed to her ear tips. Rose frowned, and shook her head to call her sister's attention to the man who was taking notes.

"Where does my story come in?" demanded Andy. "I had a part in this show."

"Oh, we are coming to you," replied the reporter. "Seems to me this will make a serial. It's a first-rate story, all right."

"Don't say anything about the graveyard," whispered Belle to Ed. "I should hate to have that to get into print."

"Oh, that's another story," replied the scribe. "We've got one end of that. The chauffeur declares he went after you, and spent all night in a cemetery--looking for the party he had left stalled there."

Jack and Ed took a hand at story telling at this juncture, and it was the orphans' turn to listen in surprise at the disclosures. Finally the boys got back to the runaways' part in the happenings.