WHO WON THE PRIZE?
"We'd better take our sweaters," said Dolly, as she handed the two
white, fleecy garments to Dotty. "You carry them, Dot, and I'll carry
the cake; you'd be sure to drop it."
Dotty took the two sweaters and flung them over her arm, well knowing
the precious cake would be safer in Dolly's steady hand.
"Now we're all ready," Dolly said, as she tucked a handkerchief into her
sash folds. "Wait for me here, Dot, and I'll get the cake."
Dolly went to the kitchen and on through to the pantry, where she had
left the cake on a shelf by the window. But it was not there.
"Maria," she called, wondering what the old darky had done with it.
There was no reply and Dolly called again louder.
"Yas'm, I'se comin'," and the old cook came in at the back door of the
kitchen. "What yo' want, honey? I spec' I jes' done drapped asleep fer
a minute, settin' out dere in de sun. What is it, honey chile?"
"Where's the cake, Maria?"
"On de pantry shelf, whar yo' done left it. I ain't teched it, dat I
ain't."
"But it isn't there. You must have put it someplace else."
"No, Miss Dolly, I nebber laid a hand on dat cake. I know jes' how
choice you was of it, an' I lef it jes' whar yo' put it."
"But it isn't there, and who would disturb it?"
"Tain't dar! Land o' goodness! Den whar is it?" Maria's black eyes
rolled in dismay. "Somebody's done stole it!"
"Stole it? Nonsense! Nobody would do that. Dot--_ty_!" and Dolly's loud
call brought Dotty flying.
Mrs. Rose followed, and both stood aghast with consternation when Dolly
announced, "The cake is gone!"
"Gone! What do you mean?" and Dotty looked around the shelves in a dazed
sort of way.
"I mean what I say," cried Dolly impatiently. "Our cake is gone, and, as
Maria says, somebody must have stolen it."
"Stolen it! Our cake!" and Dotty gave a wild shriek.
"It can't be stolen," said Mrs. Rose, looking puzzled; "we've never had
anything stolen all the years we've been here."
"Then where is it?" demanded Dolly. "Where can it be?"
"Didn't you take it into the dining-room?" suggested Mrs. Rose, unable
to think of any other solution of the mystery.
"No, indeed; I left it right here till we were ready to start. I had it
in the open window, because the kitchen was so hot, and of course some
tramp has come along and stolen it. Oh, Dotty, what shall we do?"
But Dotty was beyond speech. Her staring eyes gazed at the table where
the cake had been. Vaguely she glanced round the pantry shelves, and
then flew through the kitchen to the dining-room and looked all around
there. But of course she saw no cake, for Dolly had left it in the
pantry.
"Where are the boys?" asked Dolly, suddenly.
"Gone to a motor boat race," said Mrs. Rose. "They went off half an hour
ago. But they wouldn't steal your cake."
"They might do it for a joke," said Dolly.
"No," said Mrs. Rose, decidedly; "they wouldn't do that. They were too
interested in the success of you girls, and they felt about that cake
just as we all did. No, Bob and Bert never stole the cake! Where's
Genie?"
"Upstairs, I think," said Dotty, and going to the foot of the staircase
she called her sister.
Genie came running down and was as greatly disturbed as the other girls
at the disappearance of the cake.
"Of course I never touched it!" she said indignantly. "I wanted my Dotty
and my Dolly to take the prize. Do you s'pose I'd steal their lovely
cake?"
There was no mistaking the little girl's honesty and good faith, and
Mrs. Rose said finally: "Then it _must_ have been stolen by some one
passing by, but I can't understand it. There are no tramps around here,
Long Sam is as honest as the day, and nobody else would be passing by
this window. I wish your father were here, Dotty."
"So do I, but he couldn't do anything. The cake's gone, and it must have
been taken by somebody. What do you say if we make another, Dolly?"
Dolly looked blank. "Make another!" she said slowly; "why it's three
o'clock now, and the fair begins at four. We couldn't do it, Dot, and
anyway we couldn't make a prize one. I wouldn't have the heart to try
again as hard as I did for that one. Would you?"
"Yes, I would! I'd just like to fly at it and make one as good as that
or better! I know who stole that cake, Dorinda Fayre! It was some girl
who had made a cake herself and who was afraid ours would take the
prize, and so she came and stole it!"
"Oh, Dorothy Rose! aren't you ashamed to think such a thing! And anyway,
how could any girl do that even if she was mean enough?"
"Of course she could!" and Dotty's eyes flashed; "everybody knew about
our cake, and they knew it would take the prize, and so of course they
wanted it out of the way! Now that's just what happened, because it's
the only thing that can have happened. As Mother says, there aren't any
tramps around here. We always set cakes or pies on that window shelf and
they've never been stolen. Come on, I say, let's make another; I hate to
have any girl get ahead of me like that!"
"Oh, Dotty, it just seems as if I couldn't make another. Why we were
three hours on that one this morning. It would be after six o'clock
before we could get another done. And I know it wouldn't be any good,
I'm too upset to make it properly. I'm all of a quiver. And besides we
haven't all the things in the house."
"No, we've no pineapple. But let's make some other kind of a cake,
chocolate, or something."
"Yes! I think I see a chocolate cake taking the prize! Why don't you
make ginger-bread and be done with it? That prize won't go to any common
kind of cake, like chocolate."
"It might if it was awful good chocolate. Oh, Dolly, our cake was so
beautiful!" And Dotty's overwrought nerves gave way and she burst into
violent sobbing.
"Well, crying won't do any good, Dot," and Dolly drew a long sigh; "I
don't blame you for crying, 'cause I know you can't help it. But I can't
seem to cry, I'm too--too flattened out."
Dolly looked the picture of disheartened woe, but it was not her nature
to give way to tears. She felt absolutely dismayed and utterly cast
down, as if under a depression that would not lift, but she gave no
physical sign of this except by her tense, drawn face and her frequent
despairing sighs.
"It's just awful, girlies," said Mrs. Rose, full of helpless sympathy;
"but I can't think of anything to do. I don't believe you could make
another cake successfully, you're too nervous and upset, both of you."
Maria, however, did not take it so calmly. Her grief was more boisterous
even than Dolly's. She ran round the kitchen, throwing her apron over
her head, and wailing and moaning like a crazy woman.
"Oh, dat cake! dat cake!" she groaned, dropping into a chair and rocking
back and forth in ecstasies of woe. "Dat hebenly cake! Sho'ly Miss Dotty
and Miss Dolly yo' could make anudder. I kin help yo', and we'll whisk
it up in a jiffy. Do make some kind, oh do, now!"
"No, Maria," and Dolly looked positive; "we can't make another cake.
It's out of the question. Shall we go to the fair at all, Dot?"
"Yes, of course we will! I want to find out what girl was mean enough
and smart enough to cut up this trick!"
"Come on then. You'd better wash your face, you're all teary looking. I
s'pose we might as well go, but I don't feel a bit like it. All the
fun's gone out of it."
Dotty ran away to bathe her reddened eyes, and Dolly gravely walked
round the kitchen, looking here and there as if the cake might have
voluntarily hidden itself somewhere.
"It's most mysterious," said Mrs. Rose. "I never heard of anything being
stolen up in this region before. I wish Mr. Rose were here, but of
course he couldn't do anything, and I think we may feel sure that he
didn't steal the cake."
"Where is he?" asked Dolly, smiling a little at the jest.
"Gone over to the Norris camp, I think. I wish the boys were here; of
course they couldn't do anything, but they could help us express our
indignation."
"Yes, they could do that, but it wouldn't do any real good. Hello, Dot,
ready?"
The two girls started off down the path and Mrs. Rose watched them go
with a sad heart. She knew how disappointed they were, after all their
trouble to make the cake, and she couldn't imagine what had become of
it.
"I can't believe any of the girls came and took it," she said to Maria.
"No, ma'am, dat dey didn't! dat cake was sperrited away by ghos'es.
Dat's what it was!" And the big black eyes rolled in terrified
apprehension. "Yas'm, sho'ly fer certain, dat's what happened. It's de
work of dem sperrits!"
Mrs. Rose went on into the house unwilling to subscribe to Maria's
theory, but equally unable to propound any of her own.
* * * * *
The girls reached the hotel where the fair was held and joined the gay
throngs of people that were entering.
"Hello," said Maisie Norris as she met them. "Where's your cake?"
Now Dolly and Dotty had made up their minds not to tell of the
catastrophe, until they could make some endeavour to find out if there
were any suspicious looks or hints to be noticed among the other young
cake makers.
"Where's yours?" Dotty said to Maisie.
"Oh, I left mine in the committee room. You know the committee take all
the cakes, and then those that haven't any chance at all, they send out
to the cake table to be sold. But the ones that have a chance at the
prize they keep for final decision. They've kept mine so far, but Edith
Holmes' was just sent out. It's too bad, it's a lovely chocolate cake."
"It is too bad," agreed Dotty, "but I don't believe a chocolate cake
will take the prize, do you?"
"No, probably not," said Maisie. "Mine's a variety cake. What sort is
yours?"
Dotty hesitated, for she well knew they had no cake in the committee
room, but Dolly said: "We made up ours. We mixed things together that we
never heard of combining before. It was mostly Dot's invention."
"But Dolly made the layers and did the icing," put in Dotty, unwilling
to take all the credit.
"Sounds lovely," said Maisie, and then her attention was diverted
elsewhere and she ran away.
No more embarrassing questions were asked, for every one assumed that
Dotty and Dolly had given their cake to the committee when they arrived.
A dozen times during the afternoon they were asked, "Has your cake been
sent out yet?" And they truthfully answered no.
But no hint could they glean from the words or looks of any girl to make
them suspect wrong-doing.
"I can't keep it up any longer, Dot," said Dolly at last, in an
undertone. "I feel as if I'm telling a lie, when I let them all think we
have a cake with the committee."
"Fiddlesticks! it's none of their business. And anyway they have just
that much more chance at the prize. Don't tell anybody, Doll, it can't
do any harm to keep it to ourselves, and if one certain person takes
the prize, I just want to see how she looks or what she says when I tell
her our cake was stolen."
"Why, Dotty Rose! Do you mean to say you suspect anybody?"
"I don't say that; and I won't mention any name, even to you, but just
you wait and see. They'll announce the prize winner at six o'clock and
it's after five now."
So Dolly deferred to Dotty's wishes in the matter, and as there was much
going on and plenty of diverting incidents, the hour slipped away and
soon a whisper was passed around that the committee had made their
choice.
Mrs. Van Zandt, the aristocratic and somewhat eccentric old lady who had
offered the prize, came over to the cake table and smiled as she began
her speech.
"It has been rather difficult," she said; "to decide among the beautiful
and delicious cakes selected by the committee, for my final test. There
were half a dozen at the last judging, that seemed equally well made and
delightful of taste. Of course, I did not know who made the various
entries, and so I decided, entirely on the merits of the cake itself.
And considering everything, the method, the execution and the delicacy
of flavours, I adjudge the best cake submitted in this contest to be
the one that represents the joint work of Miss Dorothy Rose and Miss
Dorinda Fayre. And I'm greatly pleased to present these two young ladies
with the golden double eagle I offered as a prize, and I consider it
well earned and honestly won."
If Dolly and Dotty had been amazed when they missed the cake from the
pantry window, they were ten times more amazed now. What could it mean?
There must be some mistake. Dotty's quick thought was that somehow their
names had been connected with some other girl's cake, but in a moment
that illusion was dispelled by the sight of their own beautiful white
cake being brought in and placed in the very centre of the cake table.
It was positively their own cake, although a portion had been cut from
one corner for the members of the committee to taste.
Realising that by some miracle their cake had been submitted, and had
won the prize, Dolly and Dotty suddenly became aware that they must do
their part, and together they stepped forward to receive the prize from
Mrs. Van Zandt.
"I'm sorry it is not in two ten dollar gold pieces," she said, as she
smilingly held it out to the blushing girls; "but you must divide it
between you."
Smiling, Dolly and Dotty held out their hands together, and together
received the gold piece, holding it between them as they bowed their
thanks.
Then there was a hubbub of congratulations and laughter and chatter from
the girls. It seemed unnecessary to say anything about the cake having
been stolen, so the two D's smiled and beamed as they listened to
flattering words about their prize winning cake.
Soon they were flying homeward to tell the family all about it.
"Our cake was there, and we took the prize!" cried Dotty, as they rushed
into the living-room of the Rose bungalow.
"How did it get there?" cried Mrs. Rose, and Mr. Rose and Genie
exclaimed in surprise, while Maria appeared in the kitchen doorway,
holding up her hands and crying out: "Dem sperrits jes' nachelley wafted
dat cake right ober to de fair place!"
"We don't know," Dolly went on, taking up the tale. "I asked two or
three ladies of the committee, and they didn't seem to know anything
about it--about how it got there. They just said it was there, entered
in our names, and it sounded so silly to ask them to find out who
brought it, that I just didn't."
"It _was_ our cake," declared Dotty; "and it took the prize. So that's
all right. But, however did it get there, unless it walked over itself.
You didn't take it, did you, Daddy?"
"No," said Mr. Rose; "I did not. I would willingly have done so, but you
girls insisted on taking it yourselves."
Just then the boys rushed in.
"Great sport!" cried Bob, flinging his cap and sweater on a chair;
"Norris's boat is the swiftest thing ever!"
"You bet it is! Wow, but it was a great race!" And Bert Fayre waved his
hands in enthusiasm; "Hello, girls, did your dinky white cake catch the
gold piece? Did you bamboozle the judges into thinking it was fit to
eat?"
"Yes, we did!" cried Dolly, her blue eyes sparkling with delight; "but,
oh, Bert, what do you think! We don't know how the cake got there!"
"Got there? Why, Bob and I took it over. We knew you girls never could
transport that masterpiece of modern architecture all that way in
safety."
"You boys took it over?" and Dotty looked dumfounded.
"Sure we did," said Bob; "weren't you glad?"
"But why didn't you tell us? we almost went crazy!"
"Crazy nothing! We left a note on the pantry shelf saying we took it. We
called to you girls but you were primping in your room and didn't
answer. Maria wasn't on deck, so I just scribbled on a paper that we'd
taken the cake and left the paper in its place."
Bob looked injured at the thought that their kindness was not
appreciated.
"We didn't see any note," said Dolly; "where did you leave it?"
"Right on the pantry shelf, where we took the cake away from. You don't
seem awful grateful, for what we thought would be a boon and a blessing
to you. I can tell you we had to work pretty hard to get the old thing
over there without a smooch on it, and I didn't dare put anything over
it for fear it would stick to the icing."
While he was talking, Dotty had flown out to the pantry and returned
with the bit of scribbled paper. "Here it is!" she cried; "it was on the
floor under the shelf!"
"Must have blown off," said Bert, carelessly; "well, no harm done; cake
got there all right. Took prize all right. Everybody happy."
"Yes, we are now," and Dolly grinned contentedly; "but we had a pretty
miserable afternoon."
"Oh, pshaw, now," and Bob tweaked the black curls that clustered round
her temple; "you must have known we took it, even without the note.
Where else _could_ it have gone to?"
"That's so," agreed Dotty; "and it's all right now. But next time you
leave an important document for me, don't leave it in an open window on
a breezy afternoon."