AN ATTEMPTED THEFT
That night the girls were very careful to lock both doors and Bess even
went to the length of suggesting that they pile some furniture against
them.
"It might be a good idea," Nan had replied, laughing at her, "if there
were only some furniture to pile. What are you doing, Bess? You aren't
stuffing cotton in the keyhole?"
"You needn't laugh, Miss Smarty," Bess had retorted, straightening up
defiantly with a large wad of the cotton still in her hand and a
telltale tuft of it protruding from the keyhole. "I'm not going to have
any skinny old man with a funny mouth looking in at me while I sleep, I
can tell you! Nan Sherwood," she added threateningly, as Nan went off
into a gale of uncontrollable mirth, "if you don't stop laughing, I'll
stuff the rest of this cotton down your throat, and I just hope you'll
choke."
"Oh, Bess! Elizabeth Harley!" gasped Nan. "You look so foolish standing
there with that wad of cotton in your hand. And the keyholes look as if
they had the earache. Oh, oh!" and she went off again into half
hysterical laughter.
Bess, after staring at her a minute, gave up all attempt at being
dignified and joined in merrily.
"Goodness! you would make an Egyptian mummy laugh, Nan Sherwood," said
Bess, as she wiped away the tears of mirth. "Who ever heard of keyholes
having the earache! Just the same," she added more soberly, as she
started to unfasten her dress, "you have got me terribly worried about
those men. I know I'll dream of them all night."
"Oh, no, you won't," said Nan serenely, as she set about the business of
undressing. Then she added, with a chuckle: "I feel perfectly safe now
that the keyholes are stuffed!"
It was not long after this that the two girls laid down to sleep. But
Nan was restless and could hardly close her eyes.
"Those old papers," she murmured to herself. "I should have turned them
over to Mr. Mason, or put them in the ship's safe. I don't see why I
make myself keep them, unless it is that I want to prove to myself that
I have _some_ backbone."
Presently she heard Bess breathing heavily, showing her chum was in the
land of slumber, and then gradually she dozed off.
Nan had been asleep about an hour when she awoke with a start.
She had heard a noise, of that she felt certain--a noise out of the
ordinary and not connected with the running of the ship.
What was it? Was somebody trying the door?
She turned over and, feeling for the push button, turned on the electric
light. This move awakened Bess.
"What's the matter, are you sick?" asked the latter.
"No. I--I heard something--it woke me up," Nan replied and got to her
feet.
"Maybe those men----"
"Hush! If they are outside the door they may hear you, Bess."
With caution the two girls tiptoed to first one door and then the other
and peered out.
In the cabin only a porter sleeping in an armchair was to be seen, while
out on the deck not a soul was in sight.
"You must have been dreaming, Nan," said Bess, yawning. "Come, let us
try to get some more rest before morning."
Nan was not satisfied and looked all around the stateroom, thinking a
mouse might be wandering around. But no mouse was found, and at last
both girls retired again. But Nan did not sleep very well and was glad
when the rising sun proclaimed another day at hand.
Nan, swinging one bare foot experimentally over the edge of her berth,
felt it caught and held tight by an invisible hand. She peered over the
edge of the berth at the imminent risk of falling over herself and
breaking her neck, and found, as she had expected, that Bess was her
captor. The latter was holding on to her foot with one hand and rubbing
her eyes sleepily with the other.
"Say, let go my foot," Nan hailed her inelegantly. "Haven't you got
enough of your own that you have to steal one of mine?"
"You talk as if we were centipedes," said Bess, releasing Nan's foot and
sitting up grumpily in the berth. "I told you I wouldn't sleep a wink
last night, and I didn't."
"You aren't the only one," said Nan, as she swung her other foot over
the edge of the berth and felt gingerly for a footing on the one below.
"I didn't sleep very well myself. But never mind," she added, as she
slipped safely to the floor, unharmed by her perilous descent. "We'll
forget all about such little things as sleepless nights when we get out
on deck. Have you forgotten that we reach Florida to-day?"
Bess stared at her a minute, then scrambled quickly out of bed and began
pulling on her clothes hastily, getting them awry in her eagerness to
get dressed in the shortest time possible.
"Gracious, Nan," she cried reproachfully, as she began to drag the comb
impatiently through her tumbled curls, "you scared me so with those men
and Mrs. Bragley's horrible papers that I forgot everything else. Fancy!
A few hours more and we shall be in Florida!"
Immediately this thought put all other thoughts to flight in the mind of
careless but lovable Bess Harley, and she would have left the door of
their stateroom wide open had not Nan reminded her to close it and turn
the key in the lock.
The girls ate breakfast hurriedly, and when they came out on deck it was
after eight o'clock. That gave them just time to pack their few
belongings before the _Dorian_ steamed up the St. Johns River into the
busy harbor of Jacksonville.
Bess's prediction had come true. Over night the weather had become so
delightfully mild that heavy clothing was not only unnecessary, but very
uncomfortable, and the girls had donned white suits and white hats with
stockings and shoes to match. They were looking distinctly
attractive--and knew it. At least Bess did. And it must be admitted that
even modest Nan had been surprised and not a little pleased by her
radiant reflection in the tiny mirror in their stateroom.
And now, though they knew that the last minute packing should be done
first, they still lingered by the rail, gazing over the brilliantly calm
water to where the tropically beautiful Florida coast stood out boldly
against the skyline.
"What wonderful, wonderful weather!" sighed Nan, as they finally
deserted the rail and made their way through the excited crowd--for
nearly every one on board the _Dorian_ had come out on deck, clad in
white flannels and other summery attire, eager to get their first
glimpse of Florida--and on toward their stateroom.
Suddenly Nan clutched her friend's arm and pointed excitedly.
"Look!" she cried in a low voice. "The tall man! He's there with the fat
one in front of our door. And, Bess, look! He has something in his hand.
It's a key!"
"Oh, Nan!" gasped Bess, "he would never dare. Not in this crowd!"
"Come on!" ejaculated Nan tensely, as she elbowed and pushed her way
through the crowd.
The two girls were almost upon the thin man and his companion before
they were discovered. Then the fat man nudged his friend sharply, and
before the girls could blink the men had slipped around the corner of
the cabin and were lost to view among the crowd.
"Let's go after them," cried Bess excitedly. "We mustn't let them get
away from us, Nan. Why, they were trying to get into our room. I saw
them."
"Oh, Bess, hush," begged Nan as several people turned to look at the
girls curiously. "Come inside a minute. I want to talk to you."
She opened the door and half pushed, half dragged the excited Bess
inside the stateroom where the latter sank upon the berth and stared at
her friend indignantly.
"You've gone and let them get away," she accused her hotly. "And that
ugly thin man was trying to get in. We saw him."
"I know all that," said Nan a trifle impatiently. For several days her
nerves had been under a considerable strain and the effort to think and
act for Bess as well as herself was beginning to tell on her. "It
wouldn't have done us the slightest good in the world to have gone after
him. We never could have found him."
"But we can at least tell the captain," returned Bess, jumping to her
feet impatiently. "I never saw a girl like you, Nan. I really believe
you intend to let him get away."
"Well, what else can I do?" asked Nan quietly. "If I go to the captain
and tell him I found a couple of men standing in front of my door and
that I want them arrested, he will think that I'm crazy."
"But they had a key! They were trying to get in! We saw them!" insisted
Bess, pacing excitedly up and down the small stateroom.
"I know we did," said Nan patiently. "But the captain could never arrest
the men on such evidence. He would want proof. And you know as well as I
do that we haven't any."
"We-el," said Bess irresolutely, sitting down on the edge of the berth
and staring blackly at the opposite wall, "I suppose you are right, Nan
Sherwood. You usually are. But I do know one thing." She stirred
impatiently and mechanically straightened her pretty white hat. "And
that is that I won't enjoy myself one bit till we make those men stop
following us around and trying to get into our room with skeleton keys.
I suppose that is what he had. Oh, dear, it does seem as if something
were always happening to take the joy out of life!"
Nan ventured a shaky little laugh at this and began automatically
picking up her things and stuffing them into her bag.
"You had better get ready, Bess," she advised. "We shall reach
Jacksonville in a little while. We don't want to be left behind."
"I should say not!" said Bess vehemently. "I wouldn't stay on this old
boat another night after what happened this morning--not for anything. I
hope," she added, as she slammed her brush into her suitcase, "that we
sha'n't see any more of those horrid men after we once get on shore."
"I hope we sha'n't." Nan echoed the wish fervently, but in her heart she
was very sure that they had not seen the last of the tall, thin man and
his chubby companion.
That they were after the papers that had been entrusted to her care by
poor, confiding Sarah Bragley, she had little doubt. And the fact that
whoever these men were, they were desperately anxious to recover the
papers showing the widow's title to the tract of land in Florida,
fostered Nan's belief that the property must be of considerable value
and automatically strengthened her determination to hold on to the
papers at all cost.
She was so engrossed with her own thoughts that Bess had to speak to her
twice before she could bring her back to a realization of the present.
"Hurry up," she cried, handing Nan her suitcase and fairly pushing her
out on the deck. "From the noise everybody is making, I guess we're
there. For goodness' sake, Nan!" she exclaimed as her chum switched her
suitcase from one hand to the other, so that it would be between Bess
and herself, "don't bump that bag into me--especially right behind the
knees. You are apt to make me sit down suddenly."
"You couldn't. There's too much of a crowd," laughed Nan, then added in
a lower tone, while her eyes nervously searched the crowd about her:
"Please help me to look out for my bag, honey. I'm awfully afraid I
might lose it."