to look over the crowd. The shipbuilders had passed on. Along surged
the approaching host, fifteen thousand strong, men and women! They had
stripped the works of flags and carried them now high in the air with
arms that could not tire! The discordant blasts of their band was
heavenly music to their ears! Old men stepped along like boys;
scattered through the lines were hundreds of girls in their working
overalls and caps.
Renee was puzzled. These men, many of them, did not look like the
Americans she had seen! One of them shouted out in a strange tongue,
but he carried a banner that said "We are for the U.S.A." Perhaps, like
herself, he had come to America for refuge and was giving now of his
strength and loyalty to the mother country he had sought.
"Can't we march, too, Aunt Pen?" cried Pat.
Some one from the lines shouted to them to come in! They made a place
in the ranks for them and even the little old woman with the shawl
joined the procession. A voice from behind hailed them and Pat saw her
father marching with his men.
"Could a day be more wonderful? But I am as hungry as a bear," declared
Pat at luncheon. "And, oh joy, chicken and biscuits! What shall we do
this afternoon, Aunt Pen?"
"Dear me, Pat, do you think as fast as you talk? For the sake of your
digestion I shall keep the plans for this afternoon a secret until you
are through luncheon! But it is going to be something you'll _just_
love!" and Aunt Pen imitated perfectly Pat's characteristically
enthusiastic tone.
"Aunt Pen, I'll choke if you don't tell even a _teeny_ word! Let us
guess!"
But Aunt Pen was firm, and not until the last crumb of luncheon had been
eaten would she say one word!
Then: "Your father says we may all go through the Works!"
"All--Sheila and Keineth and Peggy?"
"Yes. And we will start in half an hour. That will give Renee a chance
to write her letter to Susette." For Renee had found on her plate an
envelope containing a money order for one hundred dollars!
Because of the day's celebration the Works were almost deserted and for
the first time in months the great wheels were still and the furnaces
smouldering. Mr. Everett met the girls and took them himself from
building to building, explaining carefully every process of manufacture.
Peggy and Sheila were intent listeners; Keineth, more imaginative than
the others, thought that the wheels were like great giants, harmless now
as they slumbered! And Renee loved the empty, dusty spaces, the
gleaming metals of the engines and dull glow of the furnaces! Pat's
most lasting impression was pride that her father should know so much!
Sheila became particularly absorbed in the pattern shop. She had
lingered behind the others to examine more closely a series of beltings.
Of an inquiring and inventive mind, she was always deeply interested in
the putting together of any piece of mechanism. Suddenly she realized
that she was alone and hurried out of the building to overtake the
others. They had gone on through a long, enclosed alleyway to the main
shop. She could still hear Mr. Everett's voice.
As she rushed through the passage she ran headlong into a man who
appeared suddenly from a doorway letting into the passage. He was as
startled as she! "_Du verdamte dumkopf!_" he snarled, under his breath,
hurrying on. Sheila stood motionless.
"That was _German_!" she thought. She turned quickly. The man was
disappearing at the end of the passage. And in a flash she recognized
him as her mother's new lodger!
Pat's voice came to her from the other direction.
"Shei-la! Come along!"
A multitude of thoughts were whirling in Sheila's head! She did not
hear one word of the light chatter about her, for the exploring party
had ended now in Mr. Everett's office. That man had certainly cursed in
German and there had been an evil look in his face; she had frightened
him so that he had lost control of himself for an instant! And what
could he have been doing there--like that--when all the other men were
off celebrating?
Down deep in her heart a voice told her that she ought to tell Mr.
Everett immediately! But another voice warned her that that would
surely mean the man would be discharged and her mother would lose her
lodger! The back room would be empty again--and the music! She had
begun her lessons and Miss Sheehan had said she "was learning quickly!"
It had been a precious dream come true--
She listened to the second voice--it was very coaxing! "Perhaps he is a
German who has become a loyal citizen of the United States," it told
her, and that sounded very reasonable! She had startled him and he had
spoken in the old, forgotten language! And the evil look she had caught
in his eyes might have been imagined--for she had been startled, too!
Besides, had the fighting not ended this very day? What harm could an
enemy do now! If she told Mr. Everett and he laughed she would feel
very foolish! Mr. Everett was placing them in the automobile and
instructing Watkins to take them to Huyler's where they would have
chocolate and cakes to end the great day. She could not tell him now!
But the doubt in her heart made her sweets taste bitter, and while the
others chattered merrily Sheila sat silent and absorbed. She had
listened within herself to the pleasanter voice, but in her ears still
rang that muttered "_Du verdamte dumkopf_," and she was haunted by the
gleam of evil eyes.
*CHAPTER X*
*A SCOUT'S HONOR*
That night Sheila dreamed all the great wheels she had seen in the
Everett Works were rolling down the street after her and, though she ran
as fast as she could, they advanced more quickly and came nearer and
nearer; then they began to roar and to wave arms of hot metal towards
her! The nearest reached out and caught at her with fiery fingers and
just as she felt them close about her, she wakened!
Paddy was barking furiously, running from her bed to the door and back,
as though to implore her to come!
Her fingers clutched at the bedclothes--with terrified eyes she peered
into the darkness of the room! It had been a dream--she was safe in her
bed!
"Woof! Woof!" growled Paddy.
Sheila crept out of bed, scolding Paddy in whispers, that she might not
waken her mother who slept in the next room. Barefooted she stole down
the stairs to the kitchen, Paddy leaping on ahead of her. The kitchen
was dark; it was a moment or two before Sheila's eyes could make out the
familiar objects. Paddy growled and barked again! A sound outside
startled Sheila so that she had to clap her hand over her mouth to still
a scream! Then she realized it was the lodger going up the outside
stairway! Each step creaked under his foot; she heard the door above
close and a key turn in the lock!
But Paddy was not satisfied! He did not bark again, for Sheila had
soundly rapped his nose, but he ran to the window, and placing his
fore-paws on the sill, looked out and whined. Sheila, following him,
peeped through the curtains. A light snow had covered the ground in the
small backyard; it was still falling. Not an object was visible except
the bare lilac bush in the sorrier.
"I s'pose it's a cat--you bad dog!" Sheila muttered crossly. "Come
right upstairs, now, and be quiet!" So the two scampered back to
Sheila's room and Sheila cuddled down under the bedclothes, pulling them
well up over her face. Paddy jumped upon the bed and laid down very
close to her feet and, though Sheila knew this was against the Quinn
rules, she was grateful for his company and did not drive him away!
In the morning Sheila was not her cheerful self; she helped prepare the
breakfast, clear it away and get the three small brothers ready for
school in an abstracted manner. Her mother watched her start off
herself with an anxious heart.
"Land o' goodness, what's got into my sweetness this morning?" she
thought. "Never mind--if it's anything wrong she'll be telling her
mother!"
Which was exactly what, at noon-time, Sheila ran all the way home from
school to do. Not for a moment longer could she bear the self-reproach
and doubt that was tormenting her! And her mother gave her the counsel
she expected!
"You go just as straight to Mr. Everett as you can, dearie! And don't
worry!"
Sheila found the Everett family in a state of intense excitement. She
needed only to glance once at Mr. Everett's stern face to know that
something terrible had happened! And with incredible instinct, born of
remorse, something within her told her what it was! She stood quite
still and looked from one face to another down the length of the table
upon which the day's luncheon had been spread.
"Oh, Sheila, somebody has stolen some dreadfully important formulas from
the Works----" began Pat.
"No--no--no!" cried Sheila, as though her protest must stop the truth!
Then she realized that they were staring at her in amazement! She
clutched the back of a chair and tried to speak but not a sound would
come.
"It is true," explained Mr. Everett in a tired voice. "It must have
been the work of a very clever band of spies! All three copies of the
formula have been taken! Each one had been put in a place we considered
absolutely safe! We had just completed them and were ready to turn them
over for the examination of the government experts!"
"And think of it, Sheila, Daddy says that it was for an explosive so
dreadfully powerful that just having the formula and knowing how to make
it would help prevent wars! Isn't that what he said, Aunt Pen?" Pat
was greatly excited.
"To keep the secret in our country will certainly help to prevent future
wars! There is no doubt but that the theft is the work of German
agents," Mr. Everett answered. "And I did not know that we had a man we
could not trust!"
Then Sheila swallowed hard. As she began to speak she felt as though
her voice was coming from a great way off--that it did not belong to her
at all! Everything in the room began to whirl around her excepting Mr.
Everett.
In broken words she told her little story. And at the end she burst
out, tears choking her voice: "I just hate myself for not having told
you right then and there!"
It seemed to Sheila that long minutes of silence followed her outburst
and as though every face in the room was turned upon her in
condemnation. Her own eyes were fixed on the rug at her feet. But
presently Mr. Everett's voice answered with a hopeful ring it had not
had before and, gaining courage, Sheila looked up to find Aunt Pen
nodding in approval and Pat regarding her with open envy.
"My dear girl," exclaimed Mr. Everett, "I believe you've given us an
important clue! I'll call up the secret service detectives and will ask
you to repeat your story to them--if you will wait!" He quickly left
the room as he spoke.
"Sheila Quinn, you're just like a real detective! Isn't it grand and
exciting? I'd never have thought a thing about that awful man!" Pat
cried.
And Aunt Pen was solicitous that Sheila should have some hot luncheon
immediately!
From that moment on everything happened with exciting rapidity. Sheila
repeated her story to the two detectives who came at Mr. Everett's call.
It was too late to return to school, so, hurrying home, she went grimly
about various little household tasks, constantly listening for a knock
at the door, starting at every sound!
"Do you know, Sheila," her mother whispered, "I'm as nervous as can be!
I'm sure I heard Mr. Marx go upstairs the front way! He's never done
that before! I believe he just doesn't want a body to know he's in the
house! Hark!" Holding hands tightly they listened; a soft pad-pad
overhead made them certain someone was moving about in the room above.
"I wish they'd hurry and come and arrest him," Sheila groaned. And
scarcely had the words left her lips when the front doorbell gave out
its rusty clang.
Mrs. Quinn met three men at the door who briefly explained that they
came with a warrant for the arrest of one Mr. John Marx who they thought
might be found in her house. With a nodding of the head that set awry
all sorts of little gray curls, Mrs. Quinn made it known that she was
very certain the gentleman was at that moment right up in her back room!
She started up the stairs with two of the men while the third lingered
uncertainly in the hall below.
"Quick--come and watch these stairs outside," cried Sheila running to
him. She led him back to the kitchen. They reached there just in time
to hear the outside door above close quietly and quick steps on the
rickety stairs. Not quick enough, though, for as Mr. John Marx opened
the door at the foot of the stairs he faced the muzzle of a revolver!
Sheila, frightened and unnerved, shrank to a corner of the kitchen. She
heard quick, angry voices, a sharp command, a click of metal as of a
lock snapping shut! Her mother and the two other officers had come into
the kitchen. Then the one man and his prisoner went away and the others
returned to the room above to search its contents.
"Dear me, I feel almost as though we'd done something ourselves," sighed
Mrs. Quinn, worn out with excitement. "And he was a nice appearing man,
too, with always a pleasant word when he brought me the----" she
stopped. For the first time it came to her that she had lost her
lodger!
And as though the same thought tormented Sheila the girl dropped her
work and went to the old piano. It had been tuned and polished and Mrs.
Quinn had draped a linen and lace square over one end of it. Sheila sat
down and slowly, with a lingering touch, ran her fingers up and down the
scale. Then she rose abruptly and closed the cover over the keys with a
resolute bang.
"It's not half the punishment I deserve--but I did want to learn!" and
bursting into tears she, rushed off to her room to fight out by herself
the disappointment she must face.
And as though the day had not brought enough to "just clean tucker one
out," as poor Mrs. Quinn put it, that evening, after the boys had gone
to bed, Mr. Everett and Pat came to the door! Mrs. Quinn's hospitable
soul was greatly distressed that she could not invite her guest into the
parlor--occupied now by old Mr. Judkins at twenty-five dollars a
month--but Mr. Everett declared that he could not ask for a more
comfortable chair than the old rocker nor for a more cosy room! With
his usual tact he made Mrs. Quinn feel that they were old acquaintances.
He told them--keeping Pat's voice out of the story with difficulty--how
the arrest of John Marx had led to the rounding up of the entire band;
how they had been quickly proven to be Germans and paid agents of the
German government and how--although as yet the formulas had not been
found and their whereabouts remained a deep mystery, it must be only a
short time before they _would_ be discovered, as some of the best secret
service men in the United States were working on the case!
Mr. Everett's face looked worn and worried. Nevertheless he spoke
cheerfully, as though to relieve Sheila's concern.
"And now, my dear," he concluded, "you have helped us so much in this
matter I want you to tell me frankly--is there not some way in which I
can show my appreciation? Is there not something you want to do? Girls
like you and my Pat here have so many air castles and I would like----"
"Oh, _please_ stop!" Sheila sprang to her feet, her face burning. "I
just can't _bear_ it! If I had done what I knew, right then, I _ought_
to do--and told you, there at the Works--they might have been
stopped--in time! But I didn't! I waited! The only way I can bear
thinking about it is knowing that--I'm being punished!" Her shame-faced
glance went from the piano to her mother's face. "So please don't say
anything to me about----" she stopped, held by a sudden thought, and
drew from the pocket of her blouse a small, flat package of tissue
paper. With trembling fingers she unwrapped it and held up to view her
badge of the Golden Eagle.
"I didn't live up to it! I didn't keep my Scout's honor! Mr. Everett,
please, will you take it and keep it for me--until the formulas are
found? I cannot wear it!"
There was no doubting the resolution in Sheila's face. The man marveled
at the courage with which this mere girl inflicted upon herself the
punishment she thought she deserved! In spite of a half-smothered
exclamation from Pat, he took the badge, carefully re-wrapped it, and
put it away in his pocket.
"Sheila, you are evidently determined not to forget this lesson! Many
of us make mistakes often by hesitating to heed the voice of our
conscience, but I know one girl that isn't going to let it happen
again!" He patted her affectionately upon her shoulder. "I don't
know," he added, enigmatically, "but that this all may not be worth more
than the formulas--for us all!"
Then he shook Mrs. Quinn's hand warmly in parting.
"I congratulate you, madam." And though Mrs. Quinn was too flustered to
know what in the world for, nevertheless she beamed with pleased pride!
*CHAPTER XI*
*YOUNG WINGS*
"Tat! Tat! Tat! T-tat!"
The mystic door of the Eagles' Eyrie opened wide enough to admit Peggy
Lee and Keineth Randolph.
All sorts of greetings assailed them. "Hello, Eagles!" "We were afraid
you wouldn't come!" "A half-holiday and such a storm," regretfully from
Pat.
"We'd come through flood and fire!" cried Peggy, with magnificent
expression. "We are the bearers of good tidings!"
"What? What? What?" came at once from three throats.
"The Wasps have challenged us to another game, and if we don't beat the
pigskin right off of 'em--I'll resign as captain of the team!"
"Peg--you talk more and more like Billy!"
"Garrett, if you please," and Peggy struck a fine pose! "Now that he
has come into the dignity of long trousers, my dear brother desires to
be called Garrett! Billy is far too childish for him and William would
confuse him with his respected father who is also my dear daddy----"
"Well, Garrett, then," Keineth laughed, "only I heard you promise your
mother you would not use any more slang!"
"So I did, and I am trying, and what I really mean is that if my dear
little Yellowbirds do not play an exquisitely nice game and defeat the
Wasps I shall be prostrated with chagrin and shall send in my----"
"Oh, for goodness sake, Peg!" they begged.
Peggy now became very earnest. The Wasps, Troop Nine's basketball team,
was the only scout team that Troop Six had not been able to beat. Now
the Yellowbirds were going to have another chance! For the next two
weeks they must practice as they had never practiced before! They
_must_ uphold the honor of Troop Six!
Pat's face, as she listened to the plans, wore a wistful look. She
wanted so much to make the Troop team! No one of the scrubs worked
harder at practice! And Peggy had told her, too, that she was beginning
to play a good game. Of course it was wicked to wish that anything
might happen to any of the valiant Yellowbirds, however--
Renee interrupted the plans of the young athletes by abruptly pushing
back the one sound chair in the room which she had been occupying.
"It's too dark to work!" she declared, shutting her paint box.
"Let's just sit around and talk," suggested Pat "I feel lazy! Anyway,
Ren, you work too hard! I heard Aunt Pen say so."
Against the windows of the Eyrie the storm beat relentlessly--rain and
hail; gusts of wind, sounding like witches' voices around the gable.
The girls stretched out on the floor. Sheila shut the book she had been
reading. Pat pulled Keineth's head into her lap that she might "play,"
as she called it, with the bright curls escaping from the band that held
them back.
"You'd almost think there were fairies around! Listen!" Keineth held up
her hand. "It makes me think of a story poor Tante used to tell me
about the kind fairies who came to whisper to the princess what she
should do when she had been shut in the tower of the castle by the
wicked prince. Tante used to try and make me understand how one could
learn something from all those fairy tales--the wicked prince was our
own selfish natures, the beautiful princess was, of course, our bestest
selves that we'd shut away in the prison tower and the fairy voices that
whispered and sang 'round the tower were the voices of Opportunity!
But, dear me, I used to think it was more fun just to believe that the
princess was a real princess!"
"I wish a fairy would come right now and tell me what _would_ rhyme with
"long" besides "song!" sighed Pat.
"And _I_ wish a fairy would just guide my fingers for me," put in little
Renee from her corner.
"Let's all tell what we want to be," cried Peggy. "I've always said I
was going to be an actress! I was in a play once and did awfully well!
But Barbara met Ethel Barrymore when she visited college and she told
the girls that only a few of the women who go on the stage are really
happy or become famous! I don't believe Barb told her about me but Barb
got the idea that she sort of--meant me! And Billy--or Garrett--says my
feet are too big, anyway, and I guess he's right! So now I'm trying to
decide whether to be a chemist or a doctor! I love to fuss with the
cunning little dishes and mix up all sorts of things, and if I don't
blow myself up Dad says I'll be all right. But I'd like to be a doctor,
too!" Poor Peggy's forehead wrinkled in a deep frown over the
perplexing problem of her future.
"My father says that after four more years of school he will take me
abroad to study my music from great masters! And I will learn to play
and to write beautiful music!" said Keineth softly, looking as though
off in the shadows of the room she could see her dearest dreams come
true.
"Your turn, Ren!"
Renee blushed under the serious glances turned toward her. "I've wanted
ever since I was a little girl, to make things out of clay and marble,
like my father used to make--and Emile. Emile had promised to teach me
when I was older. My mother could never bear to see the clay and tools
around, it made her very sad, I think because it made her think of my
poor father. One summer mother and Emile and I went to the sea, and
when we'd sit on the beach Emile would help me make rabbits and cats and
birds out of the wet sand. I love to draw and paint, but when I am
older I shall learn to carve, too!"
"Now, Sheila!"
Sheila laughed. "Goodness, girls, I've never had a moment to make nice
dreams like yours! I _did_ want to learn to play the piano----" she
stopped short; the hurt of disappointment and the smart of remorse had
not healed in her heart. "But I never could have earned any money--with
it! I just want to hurry through school as fast as I can so that I do
something that will help the boys and mother along! They'll want,
maybe, to go to college! I think I'd like sometime to be a nurse! I'm
awfully big and strong, you see, and mother has taught me a lot of
sensible things!"
"You be a nurse and I'll be a doctor!" exclaimed Peggy.
"We've all told but you, Pat!"
"What are you going to be?"
Pat looked around the circle of earnest faces. It was a moment of noble
thoughts, of precious confidences!
"Girls, I'll tell you all a secret if you'll _promise_ not to tell!"
"We'll promise!"
"Cross your hearts?"
"Cross our hearts and on our scout's honor."
"Well"--Pat hitched along to the center of the circle--"I'm going to be
a poet! And I'm writing a ballad--_right now_," she mysteriously tapped
her pocket from which protruded a long pencil and a corner of paper.
"And it's about Aunt Pen!"
"Aunt Pen!" cried Renee.
"Yes--_that's_ the secret! You think she's happy but she has a secret
sorrow and _I found it out_!"
"Oh, tell us! What is it? _Do_ hurry, Pat!"