A MAID OF MYSTERY.
Frank and Bart waved their hands and lifted their hats. Hodge dashed up
the veranda steps to join his wife, while Merry paused to bend over the
baby carriage.
"Why, he's wide awake," laughed Merry, as he surveyed the baby. "He's
chipper and bright as a new-minted dollar, but he isn't raising much of
a racket."
"Oh, he has ze most splendid tempaire for ze baby zat I evaire see,"
said Lizette. "He no make ze cry, ze squawk, ze squeal all ze time, like
some babeez. When he is hungaire he hollaire some. Zat is naturaile."
"Quite," laughed Merry. "When I'm hungry I'm inclined to put up a holler
myself. Hey, hey, toddlekins, you're getting a dimple!"
He touched the baby's cheeks, and the tiny hands found and grasped his
finger. A moment later that finger was in the baby's mouth.
"Hold on, you cannibal!" protested Frank, in great delight. "You're
trying to eat your own father! Haven't you any heart or conscience!
Haven't you any feeling for your dad! I believe he's hungry now,
Lizette. I believe he's perishing! Lizette, you're starving him!"
"Oh, oh, monsieur!" cried the nurse. "I nevaire starve heem. He have all
he need. You gif heem too much he git ze colic--he git ze cramp. You
make heem sick. You know how to feed ze big boys to make zem strong and
well, but you know not how to feed ze baby. You leave it to Lizette. She
takes ze perfect care of heem."
"I fancy that's right, Lizette," said Merry, straightening up and
looking at her. "You've proved that you know your business. I'll
remember you well, my girl. But, say, Lizette, what makes you do your
hair so queerly? What makes you hide your ears with it?"
The nurse seemed confused, and bowed her head until he could not see her
face fairly.
"Oh, maybe I have ze very ugly ear, monsieur. Eef not zat, mebbe I like
ze way I do ze hair. You know one time ze many girl do ze hair zis way
like Cleo de Merode."
"Well, you don't need to advertise yourself, and that was one of Cleo's
advertising dodges. Have you a brother?"
"A brothaire?"
"Yes."
"Why you ask it?"
"Because there's something wonderfully familiar in your appearance.
Because I've either seen you before or some one very much like you. Have
you a brother?"
"I have not ze brothaire."
"Then it must be a coincidence, but somehow I seem to remember dimly a
boy who looked like you. I may be mistaken."
"I have neither the brothaire nor the sistaire. I am all alone in ze
world, monsieur. I have ze hard time to geet ze living once. It gif me
ze great work."
"Well, don't worry about that any more, my girl. We need you right here
at Merry Home."
Inza was calling to him, and Frank hastened up the steps.
"I didn't expect you'd be able to come so soon, Frank," said his wife,
as he drew his chair close to hers.
"Oh, I arranged it to get off early this forenoon. Hodge has been
helping me. Diamond and Browning are still hard at work keeping the boys
pegging away."
"Everything is going well at the school?"
"Things couldn't go better. I don't know a boy who hasn't made great
improvement, although some have done far better than others. Each day it
seems that they take hold of the work with fresh enthusiasm and energy."
"You've got a great baseball bunch there, Merry," said Hodge. "I don't
wonder they trimmed everything in their class hereabouts. As a pitcher,
that fellow Sparkfair is the real article."
Frank nodded.
"You're right. Sparkfair is a wonder."
"But I can't quite fathom him," confessed Hodge. "If ever I saw a
deceptive young scoundrel, it's that chap. At times he's so meek and
modest that he dazes me. At other times he's so flippant and forward
that I want to collar him and shake him out of his clothes. I wouldn't
know how to deal with him, Frank."
"In some respects it was a problem with me," confessed Merry; "but
fortunately I struck on the proper course. Once I found out how to
manage, it was not hard to handle Sparkfair. He raised a lot of dust
when he first landed at Farnham Hall. It didn't take him long to get
arrested as a highwayman, and right on top of that I had to kill a fine
horse in order to keep the horse from killing Sparkfair. He's as full of
queer quirks and unexpected moves as an egg is full of meat. If there's
a practical joke perpetrated, I generally look for Sparkfair at the
bottom of it. About nine times out of ten I find him there. Still, he's
not malicious, and in a case of emergency I believe I can depend upon
him to be on the right side. For instance, when the boys started a
rebellion against manual labor Sparkfair refused to join them, and it
was his scheme that put a prompt and ludicrous end to the rebellion."
"I think he's a splendid boy," said Inza. "I took a liking to him the
first time I saw him."
"He's done a great deal in the way of helping young Joe Crowfoot along,"
said Frank.
"There's another marvel!" exclaimed Bart. "If any one except you were to
tell me that your Indian boy has made such astonishing progress from
savagery to civilization in such a brief time, I'd disbelieve the yarn.
I've been giving him points on his work behind the bat. He grasps
everything almost instantly."
"He's remarkably apt," nodded Merriwell. "With his whole soul he's
determined to learn everything the white man can teach him. Old Joe
swore the boy to this obedience, and young Joe has never faltered or
hesitated. Still, I know he is sometimes consumed with a longing for the
wild life that's natural to one of his race. At times he wanders alone
in the fields and woods. He takes pleasure in following the trail of any
wild animal if he happens to find such a track. As a trailer, I believe
he's almost as wonderful as a bloodhound."
The conversation wandered on to other topics, and finally Inza spoke of
the wedding gift to Bart and Elsie. Hodge seemed quite overcome and
unable to express himself.
"Not a word, old fellow!" cried Frank, glancing at his watch and rising
quickly. "Come on if you're going into town with me."
"Are you going into town?" asked Inza.
"Oh, we won't be gone long," smiled Merry. "It's a little matter that
requires attention. Perhaps we'll bring back a surprise."
"Oh, now you've aroused my curiosity!"
"I intended to."
"Aren't you going to tell me what it is?"
"Then it wouldn't be a surprise."
"But I can't wait."
"Just like a woman," chuckled Merry. "Give them a hint of a surprise in
store for them, and they'll badger you to death until they spoil the
surprise. Let's take flight, Bart. Let's get away before the girls coax
it out of us."
He snatched a kiss and sprang down the steps, followed by Hodge.
"I think you're real mean!" cried Inza. "You just wait and see if I
don't play it back on you! I'll have a secret some time and keep it from
you!"
"Impossible!" said Merry. "No woman ever kept a secret."
"Especially from her husband," put in Hodge.
"Oh, you'll see--you'll see!" threatened Inza.
But the two laughing young men disappeared round the corner.
"Now, I'd just give anything in the world to know what they're up to,"
said Inza. "Aren't you dying to know, Elsie?"
"I am, but still I think I'll survive," was the answer.
Proceeding to the stable, Merry called Toots, who promptly appeared,
jerking off his cap and bowing as he showed his teeth in a grin.
"How'd do, Marsa Frank--good mawnin', sah," he said. "How'd do, Mist'
Hodge? What ken Ah do fo' yo' dis lubly mawnin'?"
"Hitch the span into the surrey," said Merry. "I want you to drive us to
the station."
While the colored man was hitching up, Frank and Bart talked.
"I heard some of the things you were saying to that French nurse girl,
Merry," said Hodge. "You seem to have an idea that you've seen her
before."
"I can't get over the feeling," confessed Frank. "Still, it doesn't seem
so much as if I'd seen her as it does seem that I've seen some one like
her."
"You asked her if she had a brother?"
"Yes."
"She said no?"
"Yes."
"Do you think that she told you the truth?"
"I had no reason to think otherwise."
"You trust her?"
"She seems perfectly trustworthy to me."
"Well, you may be right. In old times I was forever suspecting some one
you trusted. In most cases I was wrong, and I suppose I am wrong this
time."
"Then you suspect Lizette?"
"I have a queer feeling about that girl. I can't give my reasons for it,
Merry. Still, after you were through talking with her a little while ago
and you started up the veranda steps, I saw her give you a queer look
behind your back."
"What sort of a look?"
"I can't describe it. She just flashed you one daggerlike glance with
those black eyes."
"Oh, well, that meant nothing. Are you ready, Toots?"
"Yes, sah, all ready, sah. Git right in, gemmans. Whoa dar, Flossie!
Don't yo' git so nimpatient! Stop yo' dancin', old girl. You're gittin'
Dick all fretted up."
Frank and Bart sprang in and took the rear seat. In a moment Toots was
on the front seat, and the horses clattered out of the stable.