Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, eagkw, Roger Frank and the
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NAN SHERWOOD
ON THE
MEXICAN BORDER
BY
ANNIE ROE CARR
[Illustration]
THE WORLD SYNDICATE
PUBLISHING COMPANY
CLEVELAND NEW YORK
_Published 1937 by
The World Syndicate Publishing Co._
[Illustration]
_Printed in the United States of America_
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I UNEXPECTED GUESTS 1
II YOU'RE GOING WITH ME 12
III ADAIR MACKENZIE SPEAKS UP 24
IV TROUBLE AT THE BORDER 32
V TELL US ABOUT THE HACIENDA 40
VI SOMETHING ABOUT MEXICO 48
VII BESS SMELLS A ROMANCE 57
VIII TROUBLE FOR RHODA 66
IX RESOLUTIONS 73
X FIRST MEXICAN EXPERIENCE 81
XI A LEGEND 90
XII LINDA RIGGS TURNS UP 97
XIII NAN TURNS PHOTOGRAPHER 104
XIV SMUGGLERS 111
XV A BULLFIGHT 117
XVI END OF THE FIGHT 124
XVII A HASTY DEPARTURE 132
XVIII LINDA PERFORMS AN INTRODUCTION 140
XIX FLOATING GARDENS 149
XX GOOD-BYE TO MEXICO CITY 156
XXI THE HACIENDA 165
XXII STUBBORN FOOLS 174
XXIII IN A PATIO 183
XXIV STOLEN! 189
XXV BESS HAS SUSPICIONS 195
XXVI SERENADERS 200
XXVII WALKER DEPARTS 208
XXVIII NAN'S BIG ADVENTURE 214
XXIX HAPPILY EVER AFTER! 220
NAN SHERWOOD ON _the_ MEXICAN BORDER
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I
UNEXPECTED GUESTS
Elizabeth Harley jumped down from her bicycle and dropped it noisily
against the steps of the Sherwood back porch.
"Nan, oh, Nan!" she called.
There was no answer. She ran up the steps and into the cottage, letting
the screen door bang behind her. A friend since primary school days of
Nan Sherwood, she was like one of the family and always ran into the
Sherwood home on Amity Street without the formality of ringing the
doorbell or pausing to knock.
Now she was more than anxious to find Nan. She had something important
to tell her, news, she felt, that had to be told right away.
Grace and Rhoda and Laura and Amelia, the whole crowd that had gone to
England to see the king and queen crowned in Westminster the year before
were coming to Tillbury by motor to spend a couple of weeks. Nan and
Bess had invited them during the last busy days at school, but Bess had
only just now received a telegram saying they could come. Oh, there was
so much to do!
"Nan, Nan!" she called again. They would have to have parties and
picnics and hikes. Bess's mind was busy planning even as she wondered
where in the world Nan was. They would have a steak fry down on the
shore of the lake. They would stay late and after the moon was up, they
would sit on the shore and sing and talk and build the fire up high and
then when the embers were low, they would toast marshmallows and talk
some more until it was time to go home. But where was Nan?
Bess called again. Again there was no answer, but Bess heard the sound
of voices in the front of the house. She walked on through. Excited
herself, she failed to notice the excitement in the voices that
attracted her, so when she stuck her head through the door between the
hall and the Sherwood front parlor, she was taken completely by
surprise.
There were strangers in the room! Bess withdrew her head in
embarrassment, but Nan had seen her and came towards her laughing.
"Oh, Bess," she said, reaching her hand out toward her friend and
pulling her into the room. "Come on in, you are just the person we
wanted to see."
"Yes, Bess, it's so," Mrs. Sherwood nodded her head reassuringly at her
daughter's young friend.
"Yes, lassie, come in," one of the strangers, a white-haired old man
spoke up. "Come over here by me, and let me look at you." His bright
blue eyes twinkled as he noted the blush on the girl's cheek but he did
nothing to relieve her embarrassment. On the contrary, he adjusted his
glasses on his nose, and carefully looked her up and down.
"Hm-m-m, a pretty bit," he smiled as he rendered his verdict and then
reached over and drew Nan, who was standing close beside Bess, near to
him. "So this is another of the lassies who went over to see the good
king crowned," he addressed his remark to Nan. "And I gather you are
pretty good friends."
Nan and Bess both nodded at this.
"And you go to the same school and you pay attention to your lessons and
you mind your own business?" The old gentleman tried to look severe as
he asked these questions.
"We try to, sir." Bess found her voice at last.
"You obey your elders and you think you are going to spend your
vacation here in Tillbury, a God-forsaken place, with a half dozen
bright lassies like yourself?"
"Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir." Bess didn't know what to answer. This
strange old man was like no one she had ever met before. She wanted to
protest that Tillbury was not a God-forsaken place, that she and Nan
both liked it, but she didn't quite dare. She wanted to speak up and
tell him that vacation in Tillbury with all her friends would be fun,
but she didn't dare do that either. She didn't quite know what to think
of this white-haired gentleman who seemed so fond of Nan and was so
outspoken. In her confusion, she was tongue-tied.
But he wasn't. Each time that he opened his mouth, the words that came
forth were more astonishing than they had been before. Bess found
herself listening in amazement.
"Well, you're not going to stay here in Tillbury for the summer," he
continued his discussion of Bess and Nan's vacation. "I won't have it.
And your friends aren't going to either. You're all coming with me.
England one summer, and Tillbury the next. Forsooth! I thought you all
had more imagination than that. You, Nan, I'm disappointed in you." His
eyes twinkled merrily as he looked at his young cousin, for the stranger
was Adair MacKenzie, first cousin to Mrs. Sherwood, and a wealthy
Memphis, Tennessee, business man.
"Now, let's see, when can we start?" He took out his watch as he spoke.
"Hm-m-m. It will take a little time to pack," he reflected. "Lassies are
such fussy creatures. They have to have two or three dresses--"
"Two or three!" Nan exclaimed, "Why, cousin Adair, we have to have just
dozens if we are going to stay away all summer."
"Who said you were?" The old Scotchman roared and then threw back his
head and laughed long and heartily at the young girl who seemed so
self-possessed no matter what he said or did. Nan laughed with him and
then, turning toward Bess, she introduced her eccentric old relative and
his pretty daughter, Alice, a young lady about five years older than Nan
who, up to this time, had said nothing, but had watched her father with
amusement.
At the introduction, Adair MacKenzie bowed gracefully and, taking Bess's
hand lightly in his, kissed it quickly. "You're a nice lassie," he said
then. "Now let's all sit down and talk a while about this trip to
Mexico."
"To Mexico!" Bess was wide-eyed as the exclamation slipped off her
tongue. "Are we going to Mexico?"
"Why, yes. That was all settled weeks ago," MacKenzie knitted his brows
as he looked at Bess. "Such a bright young lassie and yet she didn't
know that!"
"Don't mind father," Alice took Bess's hand in hers. "He goes about
planning all these things and never says anything to anyone until he has
everything all ready. It used to wear me out, but now I think it is
quite charming of him. Of course, it keeps everyone at home in a
constant state of turmoil and it makes the housekeeper furious, but then
we manage."
"Manage!" the old man exploded again. "Manage! Why, you imp, you, you
love it and you know you do. It's the spice of life to you. Mexico,
Europe, Alaska, South America, Egypt, why, the world's a place to live
in, not just to read about. India and China and Japan, these are places
we haven't been."
"And daddy, we're not going just yet." Alice acted as though she wanted
to forestall any possibility of their starting off the next day or the
next hour for the Orient. "Remember, it's Mexico we're going to this
summer. We're going to live in that big hacienda that was dumped into
your hands when you sued those clients of yours that were exporters in
Mexico City. Oh, daddy, remember, when you came back the last time, you
said it was a grand old place with gorgeous vines flinging scarlet
sprays all over everything."
"Yes, I remember. I said that the sunsets were more gorgeous, the birds
more brilliant, the flowers brighter, the moon more silver, the sea
bluer than anything we've ever seen."
"And that wasn't all you said," Alice seemed to be baiting her father
now.
"I know it." He fell right into the trap of the daughter whom he adored.
"I said also that there was a bunch of darn Mexicans cluttering up the
place down there who put the politeness of us Southerners to shame.
Never saw anything like it," he turned to Mrs. Sherwood with this. "They
fall all over themselves every time they turn around, and women just eat
it up. Can't stand it myself. Never get anything done. Have to change
that."
Mrs. Sherwood laughed softly at this. Adair had not changed a bit since
she saw him last, and that was longer ago than she liked to remember.
That was at her wedding. She smiled now to herself in recalling it. She
and Bob, in their anxiety to escape from the wedding reception without
being followed, had taken Adair into their confidence. He had promised
to get them a horse and buggy, to see that they got off safely to the
train that was to bring them up North on their honeymoon. He had told
them to leave everything to him, and, in their innocence, they had.
Adair had meant well, but somehow or other in his peremptory handling of
events, he got everything in such confusion that practically the whole
town turned out to see the Sherwoods off. They, in their turn, almost
missed the train, for the horse and buggy never did arrive. However, it
had all turned out happily, and when the bride and groom stood on the
back of the train and waved to their friends, they had an especially
fond feeling for Adair. He, however, felt pretty glum, and their last
view of him was of a perplexed young man standing off alone on one
corner of the station platform, wondering how in the world all of the
people had happened to be there.
No, Adair, she could see, hadn't changed a bit. He still liked to manage
people, still liked to follow up any impulsive idea that came to his
active mind. Through the years, tales of his adventures had reached her
by letter from friends and relatives. Adair himself was not given to
writing. "Takes too much time," he said. "Can't sit still that long."
His visit now was a surprise. He had arrived, unannounced, when she and
Nan were in a turmoil unpacking the trunks that Nan had brought back
from school with her. Only the peremptory peal of the doorbell had
announced his coming. When she opened the door, he had taken her in his
arms and kissed her and then, without even introducing Alice whom she
had never met, he began immediately to call for Nan.
"Where's that girl?" he asked almost before he was inside the door.
"Come all the way up here from Memphis to see her and then she doesn't
even come to greet me." In his impatience, he pounded on the floor with
his cane. Mrs. Sherwood called her daughter.
"You're Nan," he said positively, when Nan finally entered the room.
"I'm Adair. I would have known you anyplace. You look and walk and talk
(Nan hadn't said a word) just like your mother. The same eyes, the same
hair, the same determined chin. Now I believe everything I've been
hearing about you. Didn't before. Sounded like a bunch of nonsense to
me."
"Young school girl takes part in English coronation. Young school girl
saves child from rattlesnake. Young school girl saves life of old lady.
Didn't believe a word of it. Now I do. You're going to Mexico with me."
"Adair MacKenzie!" Mrs. Sherwood exclaimed. "Will you please lay your
cane aside, take off your coat, put your hat down and have a chair
before you go sweeping Nan off her feet with your scatterbrained ideas.
"Nan, don't worry, darling," she turned toward her daughter and laughed.
"This man is really quite harmless. He is Adair MacKenzie, our cousin.
Remember, the one we wrote to some years ago when we were in such
trouble. He can't help being like this. He's always been so."
"Well, well, well!" Adair grinned rather winningly at Mrs. Sherwood. "I
must say, Jessie, you haven't changed either. Still think you can manage
me, do you? Alice," he turned toward his daughter now for the first
time, "this woman you see here is the only woman who ever thought she
could wind me around her finger."
Mrs. Sherwood and Alice exchanged sympathetic glances at this. Alice,
too, if her father only knew it, had her ways of managing him. Nan's
mother knew this instinctively and liked Alice.
Nan liked her too. She was tall, slender, with blond curly hair and deep
blue eyes. She was pretty and happy looking. And she liked Nan and hoped
against hope that her father could work out his plan to induce Nan and
her friends to come to Mexico with them. She sat quietly by while he
plunged into the matter.
"Come here, Nancy," he commanded when he had taken off his coat. Nan
walked across the room and stood in front of him. "You want to go to
Mexico?"
Nan hesitated. She had never before thought of going to Mexico.
"You want to go to Mexico? Yes, or no?"
"Why, I can't." Nan hesitated as she answered.
"No such word. Never say can't to me. Don't like it. Why can't you?"
Adair MacKenzie frowned at Nan.
"Why, sir, I have friends coming to stay with me for a few weeks. I
can't run away from them." Nan hardly knew what to say.
"You like them?"
"Of course."
"Are they as nice as you?"
"Nicer."
"Don't be modest. They couldn't be. When are they coming?"
"I'm not just sure. Perhaps next week."
"That's all right then. They'll come with us. We'll all go to Mexico
together. Now, that's taken care of."
It was on this decision, that Bess had entered the room so
unexpectedly.