AN OLD FRIEND
Later Dorothy related the details of this conversation to Tavia, and
even that sanguine one could find little of use in it.
“It seems to leave us just about where we were before,” she commented.
“Never mind, honey, we shall soon be in Desert City, and, once on the
ground, I reckon we’ll find ourselves in possession of more unpleasant
facts than we need or want.”
“How comforting you are,” complained Dorothy, as she turned restlessly
in the velvet-covered seat. “I am horribly nervous, Tavia. Suppose Joe
hasn’t reached Desert City! Suppose he took the wrong train or
something! So many things may happen to a boy traveling all alone.
Remember, he didn’t even have money to buy himself food!”
“Now you stop worrying, Doro Doodlekins.” Tavia’s arms had circled her
chum in a comforting embrace. “If that telegram has reached Garry, as of
course it has, I’ll guarantee he has Joe as safe as a bug in a rug by
this time.”
A little sound broke from Dorothy that was more sob than laugh, but she
tried to turn it into a laugh as she answered Tavia’s reassurance with a
wistful:
“That does sound wonderful, Tavia. If it is only true!”
“Of course it’s true. Did you ever know me to tell a fib?” retorted
Tavia, and wished in her heart that she was as certain as her words
sounded.
Then came their arrival at Dugonne and the embarrassment and indecision
of the two girls as to just how they were to get rid of their two
acquaintances now that they had reached their destination.
“I imagine we won’t have to worry about it much,” Dorothy remarked
shrewdly. “When they find that our destination is the Hardin ranch and
that I am engaged to Garry Knapp whose property adjoins the Hardin
ranch, they probably will keep their distance from us.”
“That’s all right after they learn,” assented Tavia. “What I was
worrying about was the meantime.”
As it happened, they were spared the embarrassment of sending Blake and
Gibbons about their business by the sudden and unexpected appearance at
the station of an old friend of theirs, or rather, of Tavia’s.
The girls had descended to the platform hoping that, since Blake and
Gibbons were almost at the other end of the train, they would be able to
get away before the men came up to them.
Dorothy searched with eager eyes the faces of those who had gathered to
meet the train, expecting confidently to see Garry.
Had she not wired him of her impending arrival and of the very time of
her arrival? And of course Garry would be there, eagerly looking for
her, as she was for him.
But Garry was not there. Dorothy realized this with incredulity. Garry
was not there!
Then suddenly her incredulity was engulfed by a terrible apprehension.
If Garry was not there, there could be only one reason. Garry could not
come! Something had happened to him!
“Well, that young Knapp fellow seems to be conspicuous by his absence,”
Tavia observed flippantly. “Guess we’d better get a bus, Doro, and ride
up to the Hardin ranch in style. Horrors, here come those awful men!”
Dorothy gave a quick glance up the platform and saw that Blake and
Gibbons were bearing rapidly down upon them. Something must be done
right away. They couldn’t stand there gaping like Eastern “tenderfoots.”
It was at this critical moment that Tavia discovered her old friend.
“Lance! Lance Petterby!” she called, literally dragging Dorothy along by
the hand to the far end of the station where stood a dilapidated Ford
car. “Well, if this isn’t the greatest luck ever!”
The broad-hatted young fellow behind the wheel of the battered car
looked bewildered for a moment. Then he smiled broadly and, with a
sweeping gesture, removed his sombrero.
The next moment he had leaped to the ground, his tanned, good-looking
face alight with smiles.
“Well, if it ain’t Miss Tavia and Miss Dorothy!” he cried. “Jerusha
Juniper, but it’s good to see you both!”
The familiar exclamation brought a smile from both the girls, for it was
the phrase with which Lance greeted every emergency of his life.
“What can I do for you?” asked Lance, as he looked about at the
fast-diminishing throng around the station. “No one to meet you, eh?” He
was surprised, for he had heard of Garry Knapp’s engagement to Dorothy.
“Not a soul,” agreed Tavia. Lance stepped aside and she saw with
embarrassment that he was not alone in his ancient equipage. “Oh,” she
cried, “we didn’t know you had any one with you.”
“’Tain’t no one, only my wife,” said Lance, with a fond possessive
smile. “Ladies, meet Mrs. Petterby, and a finer, prettier wife you
wouldn’t meet nowheres.”
The plump young person thus described smiled genially and the girls saw
that she was very pretty indeed and of the type generally described as
“wholesome.”
“Lance is always ridiculous, but most so when describin’ me,” she said,
in a pleasant drawl. “Do be still, Octavia Susan!”
Tavia started, and was very much taken aback until she saw that this
remark was not addressed to her but to the small infant in the arms of
Susan Petterby.
Lance immediately captured the infant, bringing it forward for closer
inspection by the laughing girls.
Octavia Susan Petterby was a pretty little thing, resembling closely her
blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked mother.
“My godchild!” exclaimed Tavia dramatically. She stretched out her arms,
intending to clasp the baby in a warm embrace, that seeming the right
and proper thing to do with one’s godchild. But she got no further than
the gesture, for Octavia Susan suddenly shut her eyes and opened her
mouth and let out a wail that would have daunted a more phlegmatic
person than Tavia.
Even Lance seemed to be slightly apprehensive, for he restored the
infant to its mother’s arms with marked alacrity.
“She doesn’t like me!” cried Tavia, in mock chagrin, adding, with a
chuckle: “I don’t believe she even knows I’m her godmother.”
“There’s a heap she’s got to learn yet, Miss Tavia,” Lance agreed, with
a grin. “And probably that’s one of them. But say, Miss Dale,” he added,
turning to Dorothy, “I suppose you are hankerin’ to get out to the
Hardin ranch. If you don’t mind hittin’ the high spots in the old
flivver, me and the wife will have you out there in a jiffy. Funny
nobody came to meet you,” he added, as the girls accepted with thanks
and climbed into the tonneau of the car.
The reiteration irritated Dorothy and she was about to reply rather
sharply when she thought suddenly of the two men, Blake and Gibbons, who
had been hurrying to meet them when Tavia spied Lance Petterby and his
car.
Her quick glance scanned the platform, but she saw they had gone. Seeing
her and Tavia with Lance, they had probably thought it advisable to go
away quickly.
“By the way, Miss Dale,” Lance asked in his drawling tones, “I meant to
ask you when I first saw you. Was you lookin’ for your brother Joe?”