NAN IS WORRIED
Bert Bobbsey was not a long while falling through the trapdoor. In
fact, it took hardly a second. But in that short time the boy had time
to hear Danny Rugg come clattering down the stairs that led to the
balcony of the church. And from the speed with which Danny ran, Bert
guessed that the other boy was frightened.
“I guess the noise I made when I stumbled and yelled scared Danny,”
thought Bert. Later he learned that this was so.
But poor Bert did not have time to think of much. He felt himself
falling, he heard Danny’s frightened rush out of the church, and then
Bert landed on what seemed to be a pile of old bags in the basement of
the church.
Then Bert felt a sharp pain in his head, which struck something
hard, and a moment later stars seemed to be dancing in front of his
eyes--stars in the darkness. Then Bert knew nothing more. He was
unconscious, just as if he had fainted.
And there the poor lad was, alone in the dark basement.
Danny Rugg did not know who or what it was that had made the noise. He
did not stop to inquire, but darted to the side door of the church,
and, making sure by looking up and down the street that no one saw him,
he slipped out and ran on to school.
Nan Bobbsey, with the smaller Bobbsey twins, had gone in some time
before. Leaving Flossie and Freddie in their classroom, Nan went to
hers to do a little early studying. She expected Bert to come in soon,
and when it got to be a quarter of nine and her brother had not yet
entered, though several other pupils had, Nan was not worried. She
thought Bert, after going back after his arithmetic, had met some of
his chums and was having fun with them on the way to school.
Bert was seldom late, but often he and some of his chums entered the
classroom just as the last bell was ringing its last strokes.
But when the hands of the clock pointed to five minutes of nine, when
Miss Skell was at her desk, and most of the other boys and girls were
in their seats, Nan began to get uneasy. Each time footsteps sounded in
the hall outside the room she hoped it would be Bert who was coming.
But he did not enter.
The last bell began to ring. Nan moved uneasily in her seat. She did
not want her brother to be late.
The last bell stopped ringing.
“Oh, dear!” thought Nan, with a sinking heart. For now Bert could not
enter without being marked tardy. And to Nan, as well as to many other
pupils, this was a sad thing to have happen.
Miss Skell took out her roll book and began to call the names of the
pupils. They were arranged in alphabetical order, beginning with those
whose last name started with the letter A. And of course Bobbsey,
beginning with B, was soon reached.
“Bert Bobbsey!” called Miss Skell.
There was no answer. The teacher raised her eyes from the book and
looked around the room.
“Bert Bobbsey!” she called again, for Bert was seldom absent and Nan
could not remember when he had been late.
There was no answer, of course. For at that moment, though none in the
room knew it, poor Bert was lying unconscious in the church basement.
Then Miss Skell looked at Nan, whose name was next on the list. She
marked Nan as being present, and then asked:
“Is Bert sick to-day, Nan?”
“Oh, no, Miss Skell,” said Nan, very seriously. “He started for school
the same time I did. Then he didn’t have his arithmetic and went back
after it. I don’t know what happened to him. I don’t know why he isn’t
here.”
Nan’s voice began to tremble a little. A thought entered her mind that
perhaps, when Bert went back to get his book, something had happened at
home--either to Dinah or Mrs. Pry--and Bert had had to stay to look
after things.
“Or,” thought Nan to herself, “maybe a telegram came with bad news
about Uncle Rossiter--or mother or daddy--and Bert had to go out there.”
But on second thoughts she hardly believed this possible. Bert would
not start alone on a long journey without telling her.
Miss Skell saw that Nan was troubled, so the teacher said:
“Probably Bert had an errand to do that detained him. Or, after coming
to school, Mr. Tarton may have met him downstairs and asked him to
do something. I think that is it--Bert has gone on an errand for the
principal. In that case I will not mark him tardy. I will wait until
after the morning exercises.”
Nan Bobbsey breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Bert might have been
sent somewhere by the principal. The Bobbsey boy had often gone on
errands for the head of the school, and this, of course, always excused
one from being marked tardy.
Miss Skell went on calling the roll, and soon the boys and girls
marched to the big assembly hall where the morning exercises were held.
Mr. Tarton was in charge, as usual, and as Nan looked at the principal,
up on the platform, she wished she could ask him whether or not he had
sent Bert on an errand.
Miss Skell, however, seemed to know what was going on in Nan’s mind,
for when the class was back in its room the teacher said:
“Nan, you may go to Mr. Tarton’s office to ask whether he sent Bert on
an errand. Then come back and tell me.”
The Bobbsey girl hurried down the stairs and into the office where Mr.
Tarton sat at his desk. Many books were in cases about the room. The
principal’s office was rather a solemn place, and especially so for any
of the boys or girls who were sent there when they had done something
against the rules. However, Nan was easy in her mind on this point,
though she was worried about her brother.
“Well, Nan, what is it?” asked Mr. Tarton. Though he had a large
school, he knew nearly every pupil in it by his or her first name.
“Did Miss Skell send you with a note to me?” he went on.
“No, sir,” answered Nan. “But she said I might come to ask about my
brother Bert.”
“What about Bert?” asked the principal, with a smile. “Has he been
throwing any more snowballs? I won’t ask if he has broken any more
windows, for, even though Sam Todd says Bert did it, I have doubts in
my mind on that point. But what about Bert?”
“Did you send him on an errand?”
“Why, no, Nan. What do you mean?”
“Bert isn’t in his class. He didn’t come to school. He started with
me and ran back to get his arithmetic, and I--I don’t know what has
happened to him.”
Nan’s voice faltered and she was about to cry. Mr. Tarton noticed this
and said kindly:
“Don’t worry. We’ll find Bert for you. Very likely when he got back
home your mother sent him to the store. He may come a little late, but
if he does, and has a good excuse, he will not be marked tardy.”
“Oh, my mother couldn’t send Bert to the store, because she and my
father have gone away!” exclaimed Nan.
“Well, then some one at your house may have sent Bert to the store.”
“Yes, Mrs. Pry or Dinah might,” admitted Nan.
“We can soon find out,” went on the principal. “You have a telephone,
haven’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I will call up and ask if Bert went anywhere. Wait a moment.”
The principal was about to call up the Bobbsey house when he happened
to think of something.
“Perhaps I had better not do this,” he said to Nan. “It might be that
Bert went off by himself. I don’t mean that he played truant, Nan,”
he said, as he heard the girl gasp. “I mean he might have met some
one from your father’s office, or something like that. Those at your
house--the servant or this old lady that you told me was helping you
keep house--would know nothing about it, and it might worry them if we
asked about Bert.”
“I’ll tell you what to do. I’ll ask Miss Skell to excuse you, and you
may go home to see if Bert is there. If he isn’t, come back and let me
know. Then I will do something else. You need not alarm Dinah or Mrs.
Pry. I will ask you to go home to get me a certain book. Let me see, I
remember Bert once brought to school a book of your father’s containing
a number of fine poems for recitation. I’ll send you home to get that
book. Then you won’t worry the old lady. How will that do, Nan?”
“It will be a good plan, I think,” Nan answered. “And I hope I’ll find
Bert there.”
“Yes. Or at least learn whether or not he has been sent on an errand,”
added the principal. “Give this note to Miss Skell.”
He hastily wrote one, and when Miss Skell read it she said to Nan:
“Get on your hat and coat and go.”
The boys and girls in the room, noting that Bert was not present and
seeing Nan go out, did not know what to think. It was very mysterious.
But it was more than mysterious to Nan Bobbsey when she reached home
and saw nothing of Bert. Mrs. Pry saw the girl coming up the steps and
opened the door for her.
“Why, my dear, school isn’t out already, is it?” asked the old lady.
“No, I came back to get a book for Mr. Tarton,” Nan answered. “Did Bert
get his arithmetic?” she inquired.
“Yes, he found it,” said Mrs. Pry, “and he hurried right out with it. I
told him to hurry so he wouldn’t be late for school.”
So Nan learned, without really asking, that Bert had not been sent on
an errand by either Mrs. Pry or Dinah.
“Oh, where can he be?” thought poor Nan, as she hurried back to school
with the book of poems. “What has happened to him? How can Mr. Tarton
ever find him?”