A STARTLING REVELATION
It was a wonderful journey, that one to Jacksonville, and one the girls
never forgot. At first the weather was unpleasant, cold and blowy, but
toward the afternoon of the second day the gentle winds of the south
fanned them with their welcoming breath, and heavy wraps began to feel
burdensome.
At first the girls had been afraid that they would become seasick and
had wondered what they would do should such a weakness overtake them.
"I know I'll just lie down and die, if I get sick on this steamer," Bess
had declared.
"Oh, no, you won't, Bess," Nan had made reply. "You'll do as everybody
else has to--grin and bear it."
"But to be sick on a ship that is rolling and pitching all the time----"
"You can keep in your berth, you know."
"There is no fun in that."
"Then go on deck--and make an exhibition of yourself."
"Nan Sherwood, I think that, on occasion, you are utterly heartless."
"So are you."
"Oh, I see. Trying to get square for what I said about Walter Mason."
"Not at all. I am only----"
But there Nan had had to stop, for a sudden lurch of the steamer had
thrown her against the wash-stand. Bess had gone sprawling on the floor.
"I--I didn't think it would be so rough," Bess had gasped out, on
arising.
"I--I don't think it is going to be so awful bad," Nan had declared. And
she had been right. By noon of the second day the sea was quite smooth.
Neither of the girls felt a bit of seasickness and both were glad to go
on deck and enjoy the sunshine.
"What a change since yesterday," said Bess, as the two girls stood by
the rail looking out over the lazily rolling water. "It seems almost
like magic, doesn't it?"
"It's wonderful," breathed Nan happily. "It seemed so silly to pack all
my summer things when the wind was blowing like mad and it was ten above
zero in Tillbury. But now I'm mighty glad we did. Whew, isn't this coat
warm!"
"Cheer up," cried Bess gaily. "Maybe by to-night it will be so warm we
can put all our winter things in storage and blossom out in silk
georgette and white flannels like veritable butterflies from a
crystal--I mean chrysalis. Nan, are you listening to me?" she demanded
severely, for Nan's eyes had deserted the long line of lazy combers and
were following the figures of two men, one long and one short, who were
strolling slowly down the deck.
"Bess, do you see those men?" asked Nan, with a troubled inflection that
caused Bess to look at her sharply.
"Yes, my dear," she answered. "My eyes are still in good working
condition."
"Does there seem anything strange about them?" Nan insisted. "Anything
like spying?"
Bess jumped and regarded the back of her chum's head reproachfully.
"For goodness' sake, Nan!" she cried, "you are never going to start that
all over again, are you? I thought you had got over that silly notion
you had of being followed."
"I wish it were only a notion, Bess," said the girl, turning such a
serious face to her chum that for once even careless Bess was sobered.
"Why, Nan, what do you mean?" she asked. "You can't mean that there is
really somebody spying upon you!"
"That's just what I do mean," said Nan soberly. "I didn't want to worry
you, Bess, so I didn't tell you. But something happened last night----"
She stopped suddenly, for the two men were coming back again, apparently
absorbed in conversation.
[Illustration: Nan's eyes were following the figures of two men
strolling down the deck. (_See page 140_)]
Presently the tall man and his short companion passed and as they did so
Nan gave each a searching look. The men did not happen to see the girls,
and soon were out of sight around a turn.
"I am almost sure they are the same," murmured Nan and her face was a
study.
"Nan, you talk in riddles!" cried her chum. "What does it mean?"
"I'll tell you, Bess, even though I don't want to frighten you still
more."
And thereupon Nan related how she had seen two strange men near her home
and at the local drugstore and the railroad station, and how one had
stepped up as if to speak to her and then hurried away.
"I am almost sure they are the same, and, oh, Bess, one of them has such
an awful look in his eyes! I am sure they cannot be at all nice."
"Humph! That is certainly strange," murmured Bess. "I guess those chaps
will bear watching. What can they be up to, do you think--watching your
house and following you like that?"
"I haven't finished. Last night----"
"Oh, yes, you started to tell about last night. Go ahead--oh, it's so
exciting--just like a movies!"
"You remember we went down to the dining-room together," Nan went on in
a low tone, "and I suddenly remembered that we had forgotten to lock the
door. I was a little frightened, for I thought of Mrs. Bragley's papers
and our jewelry, and I almost ran back.
"Just as I opened the door," Nan's voice quickened with excitement and
Bess leaped forward eagerly, "I saw a shadow on the glass of the other
door--the one that opens upon the deck."
"Why, Nan! are you sure?" gasped Bess, catching herself up quickly to
add, "Never mind. Don't bother to answer me. What happened next?"
"Well, for a minute I just stood there," said Nan, her eyes searching
nervously for the reappearance of the two men on deck. "I guess I was
just too surprised or frightened to speak, for the shadow on the door
was that of a man, and he was trying the door!"
"Oh, Nan, what did you do?" demanded her wide-eyed chum. "I should just
have screamed and run away."
"A lot of good that would have done," said Nan, a little contemptuously.
"I wanted to scream, but I didn't think of running away."
"Of course you wouldn't," said Bess humbly. "But go on, Nan. What did
you do?"
"I threw a bathrobe over my grip in the first place," said Nan. "I had
left it standing out in the room. And then I pulled the door open just
as the man started to open it from the outside."
"Oh, Nan!" cried Bess again. "Then he really meant to come in?"
"Of course he did--although he said he didn't," said Nan grimly. "When I
pulled the door open suddenly and stood looking at him he acted as if I
was a ghost or something. He did for a minute, that is. Then he
straightened up and sort of put on a smile--you know, the way you would
put on a coat to cover up a soiled dress or something----"
"Why, Nan, I never----" Bess began indignantly, then interrupted herself
again. "Never mind me," she begged. "You've got me so excited that I
don't know just what I'm saying. What happened then, Nan? Didn't you say
something?"
"Of course I said something," returned Nan. "I asked him what he was
doing at my stateroom door and what he wanted."
"What did he say?" whispered Bess, her eyes wide in wonder.
"He said that he was very sorry. That he thought this was his stateroom.
That he wouldn't have startled me for the world. And then he bowed
himself out and I slammed the door after him."
"But, Nan," Bess had regained her breath again and felt in the mood for
an argument, "how do you know that the man really hadn't made a mistake?
I suppose it would be easy enough to get mixed up."
"Bess, that man didn't make any mistake," said Nan Sherwood with such
conviction in her voice that once more Bess was startled.
"How do you know?"
"He was the meanest man I ever saw--his looks I mean," said Nan,
apparently not noticing her chum's interruption. "If you could have seen
him as I opened the door, you would feel just the way I do. He had
probably seen us going down to dinner and thought it was a good chance
to get into the stateroom and steal----"
"Steal!" gasped poor Bess, for Nan was getting her pretty thoroughly
frightened. "You mean he was a thief, Nan?"
"Of course," Nan returned impatiently. "I don't suppose honest men are
in the habit of sneaking into empty staterooms."
"But if it was a mistake----" Bess interrupted, grasping at a straw.
"It wasn't any mistake," Nan repeated gravely. "If he had thought it was
his own door, he would have opened it quickly. He wouldn't have been so
slow and cautious about it."
"But, Nan! what could he have wanted to steal from us? It isn't as
though we had one of those handsome staterooms down below that cost a
fortune to hire even for a night. We haven't anything so very valuable."
"Except Mrs. Bragley's papers," said Nan grimly. "I wonder you didn't
think of them."
"Oh!" said Bess. "The papers! Yes, of course there were the papers. Why,
Nan," she turned upon her chum excitedly, "do you really suppose they
can be as important as that? Why, I never dreamed----"
"I know you didn't. But I did," said Nan decidedly. She then added under
her breath as the two men turned a corner and again headed down the deck
toward them: "Don't say anything. Wait until these men have passed and
then look at them, the tall, thin one in particular."
Bess was about to exclaim, but Nan silenced her with a look and they
waited quietly while the strangers once more sauntered past them.
Evidently they were taking a prolonged constitutional about the deck.
Bess stole a quick glance at them and then turned back to her chum.
"They are the same men who passed us just a little while ago," she said
with a puzzled frown.
"Yes. And one of them, the tall, thin one with a slit for a mouth, is
the man who tried to enter our stateroom," said Nan earnestly. "I'm just
telling you this so that you will be more careful to lock our stateroom
door whenever you go in or out."
"Goodness--Gracious--Agnes!" gasped Bess, mimicking Procrastination
Boggs in her agitation. "You are actually making me nervous, Nan
Sherwood. Lock the door, indeed! As if we were afraid of being murdered
in our beds! Why, I sha'n't sleep a wink to-night. I never heard of such
a thing."
"You needn't look at me as if I were to blame," said Nan with spirit. "I
didn't ask that horrid thin thing and his little fat friend to follow us
all over and nearly give me heart failure. I'll be glad when this trip
is over, I'll tell you that."
"So will I," said Bess morosely. "But I'll be gladder still when you get
rid of those old papers of Mrs. Bragley's--if that is what they are
after."
"The one thing that makes me feel good," said Nan thoughtfully, as if
speaking to herself, "is that the papers must be worth something or
these horrid men wouldn't be so anxious to get them back. Maybe we shall
find that poor Mrs. Bragley is a rich woman yet."
"Either that, or else that we have made a big mistake and the men are
not after the papers at all."
"But if not after the papers, what?"
"I don't know."