THE MISSING DIAMOND
Three or four men, half a dozen boys and a policeman were running
toward the two automobiles that, as Ted had said, were in a “smash-up.”
The accident had happened directly in front of the home of the
Curlytops, and they were anxious to know if anyone had been hurt. They
also wanted to know how it had happened.
“My, that one car is all smashed!” cried Janet.
“They’re both smashed!” said Ted.
“It’s like when my toy train ran into the stove!” said Trouble, trying
to wiggle his way between his brother and sister so that he might first
get out of the front gate and nearer to the scene of the accident.
Just then Skyrocket, the Curlytops’ dog, came rushing, barking, out of
the house. He, too, had heard the excitement.
“Look out, Trouble! Look out!” cried Janet, as she saw what was about
to happen. But it was too late. Skyrocket tried to dash between the
legs of little William, but the opening was not wide enough, and
Trouble stumbled and fell in a heap on the dog.
Dog and boy howled together, though neither of them was much hurt.
At the same time Janet saw the policeman lift a man from one of the
wrecked cars.
“Oh, I guess they’ll have to take him to the hospital!” she exclaimed.
“Maybe,” agreed Ted, as he stopped to pick Trouble up, finding that his
small brother was more frightened than hurt.
Then the three Martin children proceeded on out into the street to look
at the accident, about which had gathered a crowd of men and boys, with
a few girls and women.
And while the policeman is trying to find out how it all happened,
and look after the two injured men--for there were two--this will
be a chance to let my new readers know a little something about the
Curlytops--who they were, where they lived, and what they had done up
to this time. I will not take very long in telling it, as I think you
want to keep on with the story part.
Ted, or Teddy, whose real name was Theodore, and Janet, or “Jan,” as
she was called for short, were the children of Mr. and Mrs. Richard
Martin, who owned a large store in Cresco, in an eastern state. Because
of their ringlets of golden hair, Ted and Janet were called Curlytops,
and under that name I have written several books about them. The first
volume is called “The Curlytops at Cherry Farm,” and while there the
children, including small William Anthony Martin, otherwise known as
“Trouble,” had many adventures.
Following that the Curlytops went to Star Island, they were snowed in,
they visited at Uncle Frank’s ranch, and spent a vacation at Silver
Lake. Then they helped take care of some animal pets belonging to
Uncle Toby, and just before the present story I told of the adventures
of Ted, Janet and Trouble in the book named “The Curlytops and Their
Playmates.”
The Curlytops--and I include Trouble with them, though his hair did
not curl as did that of Ted and Janet--were always playing and having
adventures, just as you have read about them starting to play house in
this book.
As I have mentioned, Trouble was always in mischief of some sort or
other, and often it might not be his fault--it was more of an accident,
as when Skyrocket the dog tried to run between the legs of the little
fellow.
For a time all was forgotten about playing house. Janet gave no more
heed to being dressed like a lady to get Daddy Ted’s supper. Ted forgot
all about playing conductor in the tree airship, and while Trouble was
with his brother and sister looking at the auto accident, all the worms
he had dug crawled out of the shallow can into which he had put them,
and away they wiggled.
The accident was rather a serious one. Two cars had come together with
a loud crash right in front of the Curlytops’ house, and both were
badly damaged. The driver of each one was hurt and Policeman Kelly had
to call the ambulance to take them both to the hospital.
“How did it happen?” asked Ted of Harry Kent, one of his chums.
“I didn’t see it,” Harry answered; “but I heard a man say one car tried
to turn the corner and the man in it didn’t put his hand out.”
“You ought always to put your hand out when you’re going to turn a
corner,” said Ted.
“Sure you ought,” agreed Harry. “I guess he’ll do it after this.”
“Here comes the ambulance!” cried Janet, as a loudly clanging bell was
heard down the street. Up dashed the vehicle and soon the doctor was
attending to the two men, who had been laid on the grass near the curb.
After putting some bandages on the injured men the doctor had some
bystanders help him lift them into the ambulance and away they were
taken, leaving the two smashed cars for the crowd to stare at.
The Curlytops met many of their friends at the accident, for boys and
girls, hearing of it, came from the near-by houses. And Ted, Janet and
Trouble knew most of the girls and boys for several blocks around.
The excitement of the accident drove all thoughts of playing house from
the minds of the Curlytops and they remained out in front of their
house so long, talking with their playmates, that it was time for Mr.
Martin to come home from the store for supper before Ted and Janet
thought of what they had been doing. Mrs. Martin had also come out to
look at the wrecked automobiles, but had gone inside again, to tell the
cook about the meal.
“Well, Curlytops, did you do this?” asked Daddy Martin, with a laugh,
as he stopped in front of his house to watch men from a garage starting
to take away the wrecked cars. “I suppose Trouble did the most of it,”
added Mr. Martin.
“I not mash those autos!” cried Trouble, evidently thinking his father
was in earnest. “They did mash up theirselves!”
“And a pretty good piece of work they made of it,” said Mr. Martin.
“Anyone hurt, Curlytops?” he asked.
“The two drivers,” said Ted.
There was a rustling in the tree under which the children stood talking
with their father, and, looking up, Janet cried:
“It’s Jim, Mr. Jenk’s crow!”
“He’s flying home,” added Ted
“Well, what have you been doing all day, children?” asked Mr. Martin.
“Don’t take that, Trouble!” he quickly cried, as the little boy pulled
some papers from the side pocket of his father’s coat. “I need those.
I’ll have to use them if I go to Mount Major to open a store for the
lumber camp.”
“Oh, are you going away?” cried Janet.
“For a while, maybe,” her father answered, as he looked to make sure
Trouble had taken none of his papers.
“When are you going?” asked Ted. “Mount Major is where they cut lumber,
isn’t it, Dad?”
“Yes, they cut a great deal of lumber there,” said Mr. Martin, as he
watched the lame, tame crow of his neighbor fly down into a tree in Mr.
Jenk’s yard. “And they are starting work for the summer now, felling a
lot of trees to get ready to saw up into lumber this fall. They want me
to go up there and start a store, so the lumbermen may be able to buy
things to eat without having to travel so far.”
“Are you going?” asked Janet.
“When?” inquired Ted once more.
“Oh, it’s too early to talk about that now,” laughed Mr. Martin. “But
tell me what you Curlytops did all day. I suppose you studied your
lessons, didn’t you?”
“Lessons? On Saturday!” cried Janet, not seeing the funny twinkle in
her father’s eyes.
“He’s only joking!” declared Ted, and this was true. Mr. Martin liked
to tease his children a little.
“Well, what were you doing?” he asked. “It looks as though Trouble had
been digging in the garden,” he added.
“I was diggin’ worms for to go fishin’ with,” said the little boy.
“And he fell down when Skyrocket tried to run between his legs,” added
Teddy.
“That was when we heard the auto crash and all ran out to see what it
was,” explained Janet. “Before that we were playing house, and Trouble
was going to be a miner, and Ted was a conductor on an airship up in a
tree, and I was--Oh, I was----”
Janet suddenly stopped speaking, clapped her hand over her mouth and
started to run around to the back porch.
“I forgot all about it!” she cried.
“What is it?” asked Mr. Martin, for he could tell by Janet’s face that
it was something important. “What did she forget about?” asked Mr.
Martin of Ted and Trouble.
The two boys shook their heads. Their father followed Janet around to
the back door and the brothers went with him. They saw Janet eagerly
searching about the playhouse, looking on and in boxes and around the
chairs and pieces of wood. Just then Mrs. Martin came to the back door.
She greeted her husband with a kiss and then, turning to Janet, she
said:
“Please give me back my diamond locket, my dear. You have played with
it long enough.”
“Oh, Mother!” gasped Janet. “Haven’t you--didn’t you come out and take
it? Haven’t you your locket?”
“Why, no, Janet, I haven’t it,” was the surprised answer. “I let you
take it and you said you would bring it back to me.”
“I know I did, and I meant to. I took it off my neck to wash the dishes
after our play dinner, and Trouble asked me to let him look at it
and--Oh, Trouble, you have mother’s locket, haven’t you? That’s right,
I let you take it. What did you do with it? Where is mother’s shiny
gold and diamond locket, Trouble?”
Trouble looked surprised.
“I no have got it,” he said.
“But I let you take it!” insisted Janet. “You wanted to hold it in your
hand because it sparkled so nice, and I let you. Didn’t you have the
locket, Trouble?”
“Yes, I did have,” gravely admitted the small boy. “An’ it was pretty.
It shined like the sun. But I gived it back to you, Jan. You put it on
the box in the play kitchen. Don’t you ’member? I gived it back to you
out of mine own hand!”
Janet gave a start and looked at the box. She remembered now.
“Yes, that’s right, Trouble. You did give it back to me after I let you
take it,” she said slowly. “You gave it back to me and I put it on the
box so I wouldn’t catch anything in the chain when I unset the play
table and washed the dishes. Ted, you didn’t take the locket, did you?”
she asked, turning to her older brother.
“No,” he answered. “But I saw you put it on the box. It ought to be
there now.”
“Well, it isn’t,” and there were tears in Janet’s eyes. “Oh, Mother,”
she half-sobbed, “I can’t find your lovely diamond locket! I’m afraid
it’s lost!”
Mrs. Martin looked anxious, for the locket was one she prized very
highly. She did not want to lose it.
“Perhaps it may have been knocked off the box when you all ran out to
see the auto accident,” suggested Mr. Martin. “Be careful where you
step, and we’ll look around the porch.”
This was done, but with all the searching no diamond locket was found.
Mrs. Martin helped, and after all the boxes, boards and toy furniture
had been cleared from the rear porch the place was carefully swept.
“Well, I guess it’s gone,” said Mr. Martin, looking at his wife. “I
shall have to buy you another.”
“I don’t want any other!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin, with tears in her
eyes. “I want my own dear little diamond locket! Oh, Janet, why did you
lose it?”
“I--I didn’t mean to,” and Janet began to sob.
“Oh, I know you didn’t, child,” said her mother, patting the curly
head. “I shouldn’t have given in to you and let you take it. Are you
sure Trouble didn’t drop it somewhere?”
“I no take it!” stoutly cried William. “I did hab locket but I gived
it back to Jan and she losted it. I not lost _everything_!” and he was
quite indignant about it, for Trouble knew that he had no very good
reputation about losing things.
“Yes, Trouble gave it back to me,” declared Janet. “And I put it on
the box. Maybe I picked it up again and was going to put it on my neck
when the auto crash happened. I don’t exactly remember what I did with
it. Oh, dear, I wish I could find it!”
“Never mind,” consoled Mrs. Martin. “If it’s gone it can’t be helped.
We’ll look around the yard to-morrow.”
But before the next day came something else happened.
It was after supper in the home of the Curlytops. They had been talking
over the events of the day, including the tricks of Jim, the black
crow, the loss of the locket, and the auto crash, when the telephone
bell jingled. Mr. Martin answered, but at almost the first words he
heard over the wire he cried:
“What’s that? My store on fire? I’ll be right down!”