DON!
"We'd better get the ladder," Janet suggested.
They went down into the cellar and found it close by the door. It was
only a matter of minutes before they had it waiting in readiness in the
yard. Luckily Annie and Lucy were too busy preparing supper to notice
them.
They were back in the house just in time to meet Chuck.
"He's gone," he announced, "and there was another man with him, and I
heard him say he was due down town by five o'clock."
"Are you sure he was the caretaker?" Phyllis inquired, and Chuck gave a
satisfactory description.
"Then I'm off," she said as she hurried into her coat. "Give me time
to get there before you start."
She hurried to the house on the next street and rang the bell
violently, and waited; then she rang it again, three short rings.
"Perhaps I can make her think it's a telegram," she thought, and her
scheme was rewarded, for after a little wait she heard some one
scuffling downstairs. The door creaked as the bolt was drawn back, and
then it opened a crack.
"What do you want?" Miss Pringle's voice quavered as she asked.
Phyllis put her foot in the crack as she had seen villains do in the
movies.
"Why, I just came around to see you for a minute, Miss Pringle," she
said sweetly. "I saw you come in here the other day, so I knew where
to find you and so to-day when the girls were wondering what had become
of you I told them I knew and they asked me if I would come and see you
and ask you if you would make the costumes for our Christmas play.
It's to be a queer sort of play, and we want very original costumes,
and, of course, you are the only person in the world that can advise
us." Poor Phyllis was forced to pause for breath, but Miss Pringle had
only time to whisper a flurried, "Oh, no young lady," before she was
off again.
"The play is all about India and the heroine--Daphne Hillis is to take
the part--is a little slave, but of course she turns out to be the
queen in the end, and Madge Cannon is to be the prince, and the
important parts will be filled by the seniors and juniors. Just a few
of our class are to be in it, but I'm one of them and so is my twin.
We look so alike that we are to be pages, you know, and,--" a sound on
the stairs made her heart stand still but she went bravely on--"I never
told you what a lark we had at our masquerade, did I? It was really a
perfect circus, everybody mixed us up,"--Miss Pringle attempted to say
something, and Phyllis interpreted it her own way.
"But of course you're more interested in the play, as you say. Well
there have to be ever so many costumes. Daphne alone has three, one
when she is the slave and another for the queen, and the third when the
king condemns her to be beheaded. It's so sad, you know. He says 'Off
with her head' and then Daphne lays her beautiful head on the block and
the executioner lifts his terrible sword and--" she stopped.
Daphne's fair head was saved by the timely arrival of Chuck, carrying
the sleeping Don.
Miss Pringle gave a scream of terror and tried to shut the door, but
Phyllis's foot made that impossible.
"Out of my way," Chuck commanded in a voice so strong that, coming as
it did on top of Phyllis's description of swords and executioners, poor
Miss Pringle lost all the little presence of mind she had. She fell
back limply, and Chuck gained the street.
Phyllis took her foot out of the door and closed it gently on the limp
figure.
"Give him to me," she begged, as she caught up with Chuck.
"He's too heavy, but look at him all you want to; it's really Don,
Phyllis, and you found him." Tears were running down Chuck's face, but
he didn't even know it.
Phyllis took one of the little hands that hung limply across his
shoulder and kissed it gently.
At the corner they found Janet, and a big burly policeman who was just
hanging up the receiver of a police 'phone attached to the telegraph
pole.
"So you've found the little man, glory be!" he exclaimed. "It will be
a pill for the force to swallow, but they deserve it! To think I have
passed that house every day and never suspected. Well, I'll be after
making up for lost time now by watching it like a cat until his nibs
comes home and then off he'll go!"
"And the woman?" Phyllis inquired.
"Sure, she'll go with him to keep him company,"--the policeman grinned
at what he really considered fine wit, tightened his belt importantly
and grasping his night stick more firmly he walked down the street and
stopped in a business like way before Miss Pringle's door.
The girls escorted Chuck back to the house. Auntie Mogs had returned
during their absence and met them at the door.
"Children, where have you been? I have been so worried--" She stopped
abruptly, as her eye fell on Chuck and his precious armful.
"Not little Don?" she asked excitedly.
"Yes, Auntie Mogs, we've found him." Phyllis's explanation tumbled out
in hysterical phrases, the other two adding their own version, and in
the midst of it Don woke up.
"I want to go home," he said sleepily and then, seeing Chuck, he opened
his blue eyes wide in wonder.
"Give him to me," commanded Auntie Mogg, and she hugged him tight in
her arms as she comforted and petted him.
Chuck, almost too excited for speech, called up his mother on the
'phone.
"Come straight over to Miss Carter's and bring Uncle Don with you," he
said excitedly. "We have news for you, wonderful news."
He left the 'phone, grinning.
"I guess Mother had her hat on before she hung up the receiver,"--he
laughed. "She didn't even wait to say good-by."
"No wonder," Auntie Mogs said, her lips brushing Don's gold hair.
"I want my daddy," Don announced. "I want to tell him lots of fings
about that bad mans and that silly old woman who said she was my nurse.
I told her she was not any such fing 'cause Nannie's my nurse, isn't
she?"
"Of course she is, darling," Miss Carter assured him.
Don looked about him and smiled suddenly at Phyllis.
"You're my girl," he said, dimpling, "and that's your twin."
Phyllis was on her knees beside him in a minute, and he rumpled her
hair contentedly until Annie ushered in Mrs. Vincent and Mr. Keith, all
out of breath.
"Chuck, what is it?" Mrs. Vincent asked eagerly.
For answer Miss Carter put Don into her arms.
The next few minutes were taken up by repeated explanations, while Don,
held tight by his father's big hand, helped out by many illuminating
bits of information about "ve bad mans and the silly woman."
"And I have you to thank, my dear." Mr. Keith held out his hand to
Janet as they rose to go.
Chuck laughed, "Wrong guess, Uncle. This is the one," and he pointed
to Phyllis.
Mr. Keith laughed, and took Phyllis's hand and gave it a mighty squeeze.
"Some day I will thank you for what you have done for me," he said
huskily, "all of you. You have made me the happiest man in the world."
Mrs. Vincent kissed both the girls, and there was a glint of tears in
her soft gray eyes as she shook hands with Miss Carter.
Chuck was the only one who was quite master of himself. He nodded, as
befitted a hero, to them all, until he came to Phyllis.
"S'long," he said, taking her hand. "I'll see you to-morrow at two."
"So will I," Don's baby voice called from the depth of his father's
shoulder; "and every day after that as long as I ever live," he added
stoutly.