One Saturday morning early in September Miss Helen Campbell gave a
breakfast party to her four favorite Blue Birds. It was to be the
beginning of an eventful day for the young girls, three of whom were to
take their first long motor trip, and, furthermore, the motor party was
to end with a visit to Shell Island, where this excited and happy
company of young people were to spend the night, motoring back to West
Haven next day.
Miss Campbell herself was excited.
"It's a novelty for me, my dears," she exclaimed, beaming on her guests
from behind the silver urn at the head of the breakfast table. "I'm a
very dull, lonesome old woman, and having this nice child here with me
is going to wake me into life again. I shall never be able to give you
up, Wilhelmina. You had better write your father that you have been
adopted by a very obstinate old party, who believes that possession is
nine points of the law."
"I'm quite willing to be possessed, Cousin Helen," answered Billie. "If
I could only see papa sometimes, I think I could say that I never was so
gloriously happy in all my life."
Miss Campbell smiled with pleasure and the girls thought they had never
seen her look more beautiful. Her white hair glistened like a bank of
snow in the sunshine and her soft eyes were as blue as patches of West
Haven Bay on a clear, still morning in summer.
There were times when the lonely spinster looked faded and worn, and at
such times she used to shut herself up in her big gray stone house on
Cliff Street and refuse to see even her most intimate friends.
"It's just one of my lonesome moods," she used to say, "and I would not
for worlds inflict myself on innocent people when one is on me."
But Miss Campbell had not had a single attack of loneliness since Billie
had come to live with her. The vigorous, active young girl had awakened
the entire household which had run on its steady even course for so many
years, and now the place hardly recognized itself, filled with the happy
voices and gay laughter of Billie and her friends.
It was an unusual sight for the big mahogany table in the dining room to
be loaded with the best cut glass and silver and adorned with delicate
lace doilies, which had belonged to Miss Campbell's grandmother. These
thing had been laid away for many years. In the centre of the table was
a crystal vase filled with forget-me-nots.
"They are the only flowers I could think of which were the color of your
blue birds," Miss Campbell had explained. "Besides, they are my favorite
color. You know, I always wear blue when I don't wear gray. Sometimes I
wear black----"
"Black, Cousin Helen?" repeated Billie. "I didn't know you ever wore
anything so mournful."
"You shall never see me in it, child, if I can help it. But I have a
black dress, only one, and I do wear it at times in my bedroom."
Some thirty years before Miss Campbell, then a young and beautiful girl,
had come to West Haven to live with her grandfather and there she had
lived ever since, except for an occasional trip abroad. It was supposed
that she had suffered a great sorrow at some time in her life, but the
real story had never been known. Captain Campbell, her grandfather, had
been a jovial, pleasure loving old man, fond of company and
entertaining. He liked to have his beautiful granddaughter stand at his
side and receive his guests in a brocaded ball gown, with the famous
Campbell diamonds blazing in her hair and the diamond and sapphire
necklace around her throat.
But after General Campbell's death there were no more balls and dinners
in the big, old house. The long parlors were seldom opened except to be
cleaned and aired, and Miss Campbell, now a somewhat shrivelled pink and
white little lady of fifty-five, interested herself only in the
charities of West Haven.
"Yes, my dear children, this household and its mistress have got into
such a lethargy that it is time they were waked up. We have been sunk in
so deep a rut, my old servants and I, that it might have closed over our
heads and the world gone on just the same."
"Lots of poor families would have gone begging at Christmas, then, Miss
Campbell," put in Elinor.
"And what would all those poor old seamen have done?" went on Nancy.
"And the Blue Birds," added Mary Price. "We should have had to use a
corner of the gymnasium at school for our most secret society meetings."
Miss Campbell paid the rent of the Blue Bird club rooms.
"And, pray, what should I have done?" finished Billie. "I should have
been knocking around still with papa, trying to get on with the queer
people who live in hotels, and never have had nice girls to go with or a
delightful home to stay in."
Miss Campbell blushed with pleasure.
"I have a great many surprises up my sleeve for my little Motor Maids. I
shall only tell you one, though. What would you say to a Blue Bird
Thanksgiving ball?"
"Oh, oh, oh! How splendid!" cried the young girls.
"Honk, honk!" went the motor horn at the front entrance, which was a
signal for breakfast to come to an end and the party to be off.
A hamper of luncheon had been strapped behind the car with the suit
cases. Miss Campbell sat between Elinor and Mary in the back, while
Nancy took the seat now understood to be hers always, beside her friend
Billie, in front. The four Campbell servants, who had grown old in their
mistress's service, stood in a row on the gravel walk to witness the
strange sight of their beloved "Miss Helen" sailing away in a red
infernal machine, her blue automobile veil streaming out behind like a
piece of flying cloud.
"Don't go too fast, Billie," she exclaimed, as they turned the corner of
Cliff Street, and whirled down the steep, rather slippery Main street of
West Haven. "Remember that you have got a decrepit old woman in the back
who has never ridden behind anything faster than a pair of ambling
carriage horses in all her life."
"How about the five-thirty express, Cousin Helen?" Billie called over
her shoulder.
"A locomotive with an engineer is a very different thing from a young
girl guiding a scarlet comet," the little lady answered; but as they
left the street for the country road and Billie gradually increased the
speed, Miss Campbell leaned back with a look of blissful enjoyment on
her face.
"It is one of the most exhilarating things I have ever experienced," she
confided to Elinor.
At noon they stopped for lunch. The road now lay along a high cliff
overlooking the ocean, which on this calm September morning was as
serenely blue and still as a mill pond. White sails dotted it here and
there, and an occasional wave rippled on the pebbly beach with a
murmuring, drowsy sound.
They had pulled up at the side of a little pine grove just off the road
and spread the lunch cloth on a carpet of pine needles.
Then the delicious cakes and sandwiches which Miss Campbell had ordered
from Mrs. Price were arranged in neat piles, while Elinor opened her tea
basket, a present from an aunt in Ireland, and made tea for the company.
It was all very delightful and they were enjoying themselves thoroughly,
when Billie and Nancy, who were seated facing the others, received a
slight shock. A tall, slender woman, dressed in black, with a long black
chiffon veil completely concealing her face, suddenly emerged from
behind a clump of dwarf oak and bay trees at the far end of the grove
and beckoned to them.
The two girls exchanged glances of amazement and Nancy was about to say:
"Why, look at that woman!" when the woman, herself, put her finger to
her lips and shook her head violently.
"I think she's crazy, Nancy," said Billie, in a low voice, under cover
of the conversation of the others. "We had better not take any notice.
It would just alarm Cousin Helen and spoil the day."
Nancy agreed with her, and the two girls were about to suggest that they
start on again, when the woman began making the most extraordinary
motions of entreaty, imploring them with outstretched arms, beseeching
them with every gesture to come to her. And still the two girls hung
back. Then the woman raised the sleeve of her loose black silk wrap and
showed her arm bound with a bloody handkerchief.
Nancy gasped at this. The sight of blood was always sickening to her.
But, seeing Billie's meaning glance in Miss Campbell's direction, she
pretended that she had choked on her tea.
The other three were deep in a conversation. Miss Campbell was
describing a beautiful ball she had once been to where she had danced
with a real prince, and they hardly noticed when Nancy and Billie
strolled over to the clump of bushes.
The woman, who had been waiting for them, seized Billie's arm and in a
low, rapid voice said:
"I see that you are both unusually nice girls whom I can trust. I am in
great trouble. You will help me, will you not? It is very simple, what I
am going to ask you. You see, I have been in a wreck."
"A motor wreck?" asked Billie.
"Yes, yes," replied the woman, not impatiently but as if she were very
much pressed for time. "The car rolled over the embankment. You will see
it below there. It happened just in the curve of the road. There was no
excuse except that we were going too fast and the wheels did--what is it
you call it? Skidded? We saved ourselves, all three, by jumping.
Fortunately the back wheels were caught in the sand and there was just
time to climb out as the car was overturned. The others have left me.
They will return at any moment now with another car. Hidden under the
seat of the wrecked car is a small box. I must have it. I must indeed. I
cannot get it myself. I have sprained my knee, and can stand only by
supporting myself against this tree. Will you get that box for me and
place me in your debt always, always? You cannot understand how
important it is for me to have it."
"Of course, we will," Billie assured her, "and won't you let us help you
over to our party, or make you comfortable here with the cushions until
your friends come back?"
"No, no, no," replied the stranger. "I do not wish to be seen if
possible. I only beg you to make haste. I will wait here."
As the woman grew more in earnest, her voice seemed to deepen and
vibrate like a musical instrument, and the girls almost forgot to listen
to her words under the spell of its wonderful tones; and when she threw
back her veil, they still stood rooted to the spot, for she was really
quite the most beautiful person they had either of them ever seen. Her
eyes and hair were dark, her skin rather creamy in texture; there was a
generous curve to her lips, a straight nose and full, rounded chin. She
smiled a little as she noticed the admiration of the two girls, showing
two rows of white, even teeth.
"You will not refuse?" she asked again.
And they helped her to sit down on the ground and hurried out of the
grove to the roadside. There, sure enough, lying on its side in the
sand, some forty feet below the road, was the wrecked motor car.
"Nancy, I would do anything for her," observed Billie, as they clambered
down the embankment.
"Isn't she perfect?" exclaimed Nancy. "And still, Billie, I can't help
believing that she's slightly off in her upper story. She was so queer.
But a shock like that would be enough to turn anybody delirious, jumping
out of an automobile as it turned over an embankment."
"It'll all depend on whether we find the box. If it is just a delirious
dream, there won't be any box and we will have had our climb for
nothing."
They searched the upturned car and there was nothing in it. The ground
was strewn with wreckage. Cushions and rugs were scattered about in wild
confusion. The girls searched the place hurriedly all the way down to
the foot of the cliff.
"There is no need of wasting any more time, Nancy, dear," said Billie at
last. "It's very evident to me that the beautiful lady was out of her
mind and we've been 'stung,' as the boys say. Let's go back. Perhaps she
will let us help her get somewhere."
[Illustration: Half buried in the sand was a small box of highly
polished wood.]
"Yes, I am afraid it's just a case of King George's men marched up the
hill and then marched down again," said Nancy.
"And I got two grass stains when I fell down just now," added Billie,
looking ruefully at her white serge skirt.
"My shoes are full of sand, and I've soiled my white stockings," went on
Nancy. "Look," she cried suddenly; "look, Billie, here it is right under
our noses. I suppose that little bay tree hid it from us on our way
down. I ask the beautiful lady's pardon; but I still can't imagine why
her own friends couldn't have got it for her just as well as we could."
Half buried in the sand was a small box of highly polished wood, six or
eight inches square. Two broad bands of silver reinforced it at the back
and sides, and a little silver combination lock took the place of the
keyhole. In the middle of the box was a small, round silver plate, on
which a coat of arms was engraved.
"This is the box, all right enough," said Billie, examining it with much
curiosity. "Now let's return it to that mysterious lovely person and go
on our ways, rejoicing."
But they were not destined to get rid of the box that day nor for many
another day. Just as they reached the top of the cliff they heard the
whirring of a motor engine. A car was just starting from the grove. Two
men were on the front seat, while the owner of the box was lying almost
helplessly in the back seat, her veil thrown back and her face white and
drawn. There was no top to the car and the girls could see her plainly.
They thought she must have fainted, but when Nancy called: "Wait, please
wait," she raised herself quickly, put her finger to her lips in token
of silence and dropped a card into the road.
The next instant the strange motor car was lost to sight around the
curve. Billie picked up the card with some irritation.
"How silly," she exclaimed, "What are we to do with this thing? Why
couldn't she have waited a minute?"
"Because she didn't want the men to know she had the box, goosey,"
answered Nancy. "It's as plain as the nose on your face. What does the
card say?"
It was a man's business card and read:
"Pierre Lafitte, Avocat,
Rue----21. Paris."
On the back of the card had been painfully written with a pencil:
"I knew when you were gone so long that you would be too late. If
you are merciful and kind, keep the box a secret from all the world.
You will not regret it. Send your name to this address and you shall
be relieved at once."
"Burdened with another secret," cried Billie, in a resigned voice.
"Where can we hide the thing?"
"I'll sit on it for the time being," answered Nancy, laughing. "There
come the girls."
"What are you two infants up to?" called Elinor, appearing just then at
the edge of the grove. "We thought you had gone in the other direction
and we've been looking everywhere for you."
"We have--er----" hesitated Billie, who never could tell fibs. "What
have we been doing, Nancy?"
"We've been looking at a wreck. Don't you want to see it?"
"Nancy Brown," cried her friend Mary, putting her hands on Nancy's
shoulders and gazing into her face, "you've got a secret. I can tell by
your expression. You are hiding something."
"I'm trying to hide it, but I find it rather difficult. I feel like a
bantam hen sitting on a goose egg."
"Let's push her off her goose egg," cried Elinor, "and see what it
really is."
"Help, Billie, help!" screamed Nancy, while the four friends engaged in
a school girl romp, and Miss Campbell, who was dozing in the grove, half
opened her eyes and smiled.
"Is there anything more charming and sweeter than the sound of
children's voices out of doors?" she said to herself. She could never
get used to the idea that Billie was not still the little eight-year-old
girl who had spent a summer in West Haven seven years before.
In the meantime, the guardian of the box was well defended by Billie
until she began to laugh, and when Nancy was taken with the giggles her
father used to say she was nothing but an abandoned lunatic. The place
rang with the joyous peals and the other girls were obliged to pause in
the struggle and join in. Then this foolishly happy child rolled
helplessly onto the ground, upsetting the box.
But there came a sudden end to the laughter, for the top of the box had
sprung open and its contents were scattered on the roadside.
The girls clasped their hands excitedly and gazed at each other with
wide-eyed amazement, for at their feet glittered dozens of the most
beautiful jewels. There were a diamond and sapphire necklace, strings of
pearls, earrings, rings, and broaches.
"Great heavens, what have you girls been doing?" exclaimed Mary.
"Nancy, you explain," answered Billie, grown very grave, all of a
sudden. "I'll gather these things up and get them out of sight as
quickly as possible. I think my suit case is the safest place for the
time being, and we can take it into the front of the car with us. Then
we can discuss later what we had better do."
While the girls listened to Nancy's strange story of the beautiful
injured woman, Billie collected and replaced the jewels in the box with
the card, and packed it in the bottom of her suit case.
In another ten minutes the motor party was on the road again, the
younger members somewhat sobered by the secret responsibility which had
been thrust upon them.