THE JET NECKLACE REAPPEARS
The girls and boys stared at each other, dismay written on their faces.
The road closed and the rain pouring down in torrents--a nice
predicament! It was Mrs. Irving's calm voice which first broke the
silence.
"There must be some way around," she said. "It will take us a little
longer, that's all."
"Oh, of course we shall be able to strike the main part of the road
again if we go a couple of miles out of our way," Frank agreed, a
worried frown on his forehead. "The only question is, how are we going
to find our way? I didn't bring a chart with me--worse luck."
"Perhaps Roy has one," Betty suggested. "He usually carries a lot of
junk like that around with him."
"Well, if he has this particular species of junk it will come in mighty
handy just now," said Frank, hopefully. "I'll stick my head out and yell
at him. Gee, it sure is raining some!" and he craned his neck toward
the other car, squinting his eyes to keep out the stinging drops. "Hey,
Roy!" he shouted. "Do you happen to have anything like a map of the
surrounding country in your inside vest pocket? If you have, throw it
over. We are stuck good and plenty."
"I don't get you, old man," Roy shouted back. "Say the first part of
that speech over again, will you?"
Frank drew in his head and mopped his face and hair with a huge silk
handkerchief. "Two minutes before the next plunge," he announced to the
amused occupants of his car. "Allen, if he doesn't get me this time you
will have to change places with me. I'll be almost drowned," then he
thrust his head out once more and shouted in the direction of Mollie's
car.
"I said, have you a map of this here countryside?" he repeated. "Betty
says you usually carry such things with you."
"Sorry I can't oblige," came his disappointing answer. "I left that home
in my old coat this morning."
"Of course, just when you knew we would probably need it!" Frank
retorted scathingly. "Now we'll have to hike along and trust to luck.
Nobody knows where we will end up."
"Well, you needn't blame it on me," Roy shouted wrathfully. "I couldn't
be expected to see twenty miles down the road from Deepdale."
"Nobody accused you of it," Frank answered, in the same belligerent
voice. "But as long as you had the chart you might have thought far
enough----"
Grace seized Frank's arm and pulled him back into the machine. "For
goodness' sake, what is the use of making such a fuss about that old
map?" she said. "And in the rain, too!"
"Yes, if that were you and I, Grace," said Betty, "the boys would say
something about 'isn't that just like a woman,' or, 'aren't girls the
limit--always arguing about nothing?'"
"Votes for women!" Allen shouted. "Since when have you taken to stump
oratory, Betty?"
"Oh, she is just naturally eloquent," said Grace languidly and they all
laughed, even Frank--although his brow clouded anxiously a minute later.
"However, all this isn't getting us anywhere," he said. "We can't stay
out here in the rain all night, you know."
"I don't believe any of us expect to," said Allen, dryly. "What do you
say we take that side road we passed a little way back, Frank? We can at
least see where it leads and we can inquire our way as we go along."
"I don't know whom we shall find to inquire of," said Frank, who,
contrary to his usual custom, persisted in looking at the gloomy side of
everything. "We didn't pass a soul on the way down."
"Please cheer up, Frank," laughed Betty. "You ask us to make a
suggestion and then when we do you scout it. Suppose you tell us what
_you_ would like to do."
"I know what I should _like_ to do," he added, readily. "I should like
to break down that board that is in our way and go ahead whether they
like it or not. Nothing would give me greater pleasure."
"However?" suggested Allen.
"However, I know we'd get pinched--pardon, ladies--I mean, pulled in.
That doesn't sound just right, either, does it?" and he regarded them
with laughing eyes.
"I imagine 'arrested' is the word you want," said Betty, demurely.
"That's it, thank you," he said, all irritability gone as suddenly as it
had come. "So, as long as that is understood, perhaps we might do worse
than follow Allen's suggestion, after all."
"Genius always triumphs in the end," said Allen, with a gravity that set
them laughing.
"Perhaps it would be better if we hurried a little," Mrs. Irving
suggested, when they had had their laugh out. "With no delay it would
take us almost till sundown to reach The Shadows and I don't want to be
too late."
"All right, here goes to try to back the old bus out of this mud-hole
and turn her around," Frank agreed. "I don't know how long it will take
us, though."
"You had better tell Roy what you are going to do," Grace suggested. "We
don't want any collisions."
Frank obediently thrust out his head, only to jerk it back quickly the
next instant with a startled exclamation. "They are gone!" he said.
"Gone!" the others cried together.
"But they couldn't have gone far," Mrs. Irving added.
"Probably they have motored back to the crossroads to wait for us,"
Allen suggested. "When they saw the blockade they knew there was just
one thing to do and they did it."
"Well, they might at least have told us where they were going," Frank
grumbled. "They should have known Mrs. Irving would be worried."
"They probably thought they'd decamp before the mud got so bad," said
Betty. "Just the same, they should have told us."
"You are right," Mrs. Irving agreed. "However, the only thing to do now
is to follow them as quickly as possible."
For answer, Frank threw in the clutch, and the big machine very slowly
and painfully plowed its way through the clinging mud of the road and
turned its face toward the crossroads and, in all probability, Mollie's
runaway car.
"No wonder they want to repair the road," said Frank when they were well
under way. "If the rest of it is any worse than this I should think they
would need a new one."
"There's Mollie's car, straight ahead," said Grace a moment later. "I
wager they are just sitting there as large as life, laughing at us."
"Let them laugh," said Frank savagely. "It's good to see somebody
happy."
"Well, if that's all you want," sang Betty, cheerily, "just look at
Grace and Mrs. Irving and Allen and me. I, for my part, am having the
time of my life. And look, everybody," she added, "it isn't raining
nearly so hard as it was. We will be seeing the sun next!"
"There is just one thing that is better to have along than the sun,"
said Allen, softly. Mrs. Irving, hearing, smiled knowingly to herself.
When they overtook the car ahead, Roy explained that they had gotten out
of the way to make room for Frank's big car to turn around.
"You surely gave us plenty of it," Frank remarked dryly, upon hearing
the explanation. "But we will have to hurry now if we expect to get
anywhere before dark."
As they all heartily agreed to this, especially Mrs. Irving, there was
no further discussion and the cars swung down the narrow side road at a
very good pace--good, that is, considering the going.
They had been riding for half an hour when suddenly Betty's prediction
came true. The rain stopped entirely and the sun peeped out from behind
the clouds, touching the leaden sky with gold.
"I knew it, I knew it!" cried Betty in delight. "Now we can take down
the top, can't we, Frank? Oh, let's do it!"
"Mighty good suggestion, Betty," Frank agreed, bringing the car to a
stop once more. "The good old sun sure does change everything, doesn't
it?"
Five minutes later the cars started on again, with the breeze fanning
the faces of the occupants and the sun pouring down goldenly upon them.
As Frank had said, "The world was a different place to live in."
A moment later those in Frank's car were surprised to see Roy stop his
automobile and signal them to draw up alongside.
"Did you see that gypsy girl who just passed in front of us?" Mollie
whispered when they had done as they were desired. Then, as the girls
nodded assent, she continued excitedly: "Well, I am almost sure she had
on that jet necklace that disappeared with mother's silver! Oh, if we
could only follow the girl we might find that too! Oh, can't we--can't
we?" she added, fairly dancing with excitement.
"Sure, come ahead, fellows!" cried Allen, who was always ready for
adventure. "Did you see which way she went, Roy?"
"Over this way, I think," Roy answered. "We may be able to trace her to
the gypsy camp. There must be one near here, and it is probably the
same."
"We'll be back in a minute," called Will, and then the boys disappeared
in the underbrush.
"Oh, I'm afraid to have them go," whispered Betty fearfully. "Suppose
one of those murderous-looking gypsies should stab them in the back!"
"One gypsy couldn't do it all," said Grace with a little nervous laugh.
"I guess they can take care of themselves, Betty. We needn't worry."
"What do you think, Mrs. Irving?" Amy asked quietly. "The boys went off
in such a hurry they didn't give you a chance to say anything if you had
wanted to."
"I imagine talking wouldn't have done much good anyway," answered Mrs.
Irving with a smile. "Besides, there should not be any danger if they
only keep their wits about them."
"Oh, mother will be the happiest woman in the world if they can only
find her silver for her." Mollie was so agitated she was actually
trembling. "Girls, do you think they will?"
"There, there, don't get so excited about it, Mollie, dear," cautioned
the Little Captain. "You may be sure the boys will do the very best they
can."
At the end of the hardest hour they had ever spent, for inaction was not
easy for Outdoor Girls, they heard the welcome sound of masculine voices
and the regular tramp-tramp of the boys' feet.
"Oh, oh," they cried together in whole-souled relief, while Mollie added
eagerly: "Did you get it--did you?"
Allen, who was in the lead, shook his head regretfully. "We couldn't
find a sign of anything," he said. "Not even the camp."
"But if you didn't find anything, what ever in the world kept you so
long?" Betty demanded. "We imagined all sorts of horrible things
happening to you."
"Oh, you couldn't get rid of us," said Will, cheerily. "We hated to come
back empty handed--that's all."
"Well, we are mighty glad to get you back," said Mollie, who, after the
first disappointment, had become resigned to the inevitable.
"That's the way to make them appreciate us; eh, fellows?" said Frank, as
he flung himself into the car. "They don't realize how good we really
are till they think we are gone."
"Right you are, Frank," said Roy. "What do you say to full speed ahead?"
"Full speed ahead it is," Frank agreed, and they were off like a shot
down the road.