A TIMID CALLER
“My book! Where is it?”
Miss Martha continued to stare severely at the spot where her book had
so lately lain.
“I saw you sitting there reading it,” affirmed Eleanor positively. “I
remember looking up toward you just before that cranky old crab nipped
my foot.”
“Certainly I was reading it. I laid it down beside my parasol. It never
walked away by itself. Someone stole it. This is very unpleasant. I
don’t like it at all. It simply goes to show that I was right in not
allowing you girls to come down here alone. Some unknown person has
evidently been hidden back there in those woods watching us.”
Miss Martha shook a dramatic finger toward the jungle.
“Oh!” Bee gave a quick, startled gasp. “I wonder----”
“What is it, Beatrice? Tell me instantly,” commanded Miss Carroll.
“Why--nothing--only----” Bee hesitated. “Yesterday when we were down
here,” she continued, “I saw a--a young girl standing back in a thicket
watching us. She might be the one----”
“She might indeed,” grimly concurred Miss Martha. “I haven’t the least
doubt but that she appropriated it. I have been told that the negroes
down here are a thieving lot. Strange she didn’t take my parasol.”
“But this girl I saw was as white as Patsy or I,” protested Bee. “She
was so pretty. I don’t believe----”
“I would far rather lay the loss of my book to her than to some
prowling tramp,” retorted Miss Martha.
“A person who would take an ordinary cloth-bound book and not an
expensive white silk parasol can’t be a very desperate character,”
surmised Patsy gaily. “I guess there’s really nothing to worry about.
Perhaps this wood nymph of Bee’s is fond of reading.”
“I am not inclined to pass over the incident so lightly,” disagreed
her aunt. “I shall insist on Robert’s finding out who this girl is and
all about her.”
Some further discussion of the affair ensued during which Miss Carroll
again repeated her stern injunction: “You must never come down here
to bathe unless either my brother or I are with you. It strikes me
that this community is entirely too full of thieves and lunatics for
comfort.”
“I’m pretty sure that it was our wood nymph who made off with Aunt
Martha’s book,” confided Patsy to Bee as they finally started for the
bath house. “I have a scheme of my own that I’m going to carry out. If
it works--well, just watch me to-morrow and see. I’m not going to tell
you about it now, so don’t ask me.”
“All right, keep it to yourself. I’d rather not hear it, anyway,”
amiably responded Bee. “It will be more fun just to watch your
mysterious movements and----”
“Bee,” interrupted Patsy, “things _are_ really a little mysterious,
aren’t they? First we run across that queer, terrible old woman who
talks in riddles about Eulalie and Camillo and our being thieves, etc.
Then you see a wood nymph, and next day Auntie’s book vanishes into
thin air. We simply must find someone who can tell us something about
who’s who at Las Golondrinas. The minute I get back to the house I’m
going to hunt up Dad’s new man, Carlos, and quiz him. He must certainly
know a little about things around here.”
It being after one o’clock when the party returned to the house,
luncheon immediately claimed Patsy’s attention. Inquiry of her father
as to where she might find Carlos resulted in the disappointing
information that he had ridden out to the stock farm early that morning
and would not return until late in the evening.
Mr. Carroll appeared somewhat concerned over his sister’s account
of the sudden disappearance of her book. Informed of the young girl
Beatrice had spied watching the Wayfarers from the bushes on the
previous day, a light of sudden recollection leaped into his eyes.
“Was the girl you saw a black-eyed, elfish-looking youngster with long
black hair hanging about her face?” he asked Beatrice.
“Yes,” nodded Beatrice. “You must have seen her, too,” she added with
quick interest.
“Where did you see her, Dad?” demanded Patsy excitedly.
“Uncle Jemmy and I surprised her the other day in the orange grove
nearest to the lower end of the estate. She was sitting under a
palmetto tree, singing to herself. She had a wreath of white flowers on
her head and looked for all the world like a mischievous wood sprite.”
Mr. Carroll smiled reminiscently. “The moment she caught sight of us
she jumped up from the ground and was off like the wind through the
grove. I haven’t the least idea where she went. I asked old Jemmy about
her, but he’d never seen her before. He’s not familiar with this part
of the country, you know.”
“As I remarked this morning to the girls, there seem to be altogether
too many queer persons in this vicinity for comfort,” Miss Martha
commented in a displeased tone. “Have you made inquiry yet, Robert, of
your new man regarding that demented old woman?”
“No; I forgot all about her,” Mr. Carroll admitted rather sheepishly.
“I’ll make it a point to do so to-morrow.”
“You might inquire about this girl at the same time,” pursued his
sister. “It is very necessary that we should know exactly who these
persons are and what we may expect from them.”
“This little girl may be the daughter of one of the fishermen. There
are a few families of fisher-folk living in shacks farther up the
beach. I noticed half a dozen bare-footed youngsters playing on the
sands when I called on old Nathan, the fisherman, yesterday.”
“It is unfortunate that this property of yours happens to be so
isolated,” deplored Miss Carroll. “Our only neighbors are, apparently,
fisher-folk, one lunatic and a few negroes.”
“Never mind, Auntie. The Wayfarers are sufficient unto themselves,”
consoled Patsy. “We can get along beautifully without neighbors.”
“If you feel uneasy about staying here, Martha, then I’ll make
arrangements for you and the girls at one of the Beach hotels,” offered
Mr. Carroll solicitously.
“I’m not in the least uneasy,” calmly assured Miss Martha. “I rather
enjoy the novelty of this old place. Certainly I would not care to
leave it now, since you have gone to so much trouble to get it ready
for us. I merely wish to be sure that we shall not be annoyed by
irresponsible or dangerous characters. The very fact that we have no
near neighbors of our own class makes it necessary for us to protect
ourselves against unpleasant intruders.”
The Wayfarers had awaited Miss Carroll’s reply to her brother’s
offer with bated breath. When it came, each girlish face expressed
unmistakable relief. The charm of Las Golondrinas had taken hold of
them. Patsy, in particular, felt that to be torn away from it now and
returned to the artificiality of hotel life would be a cross indeed.
She was anxious to discover if the old house really held a mystery.
“I hardly believe you will be,” responded Mr. Carroll. “A few days and
I shall have my affairs arranged so as to be with you on most of your
jaunts. Then we shall be able to find out a good deal more about Las
Golondrinas and its environments than I’ve had time, thus far, to look
into.”
“I hope so, I’m sure,” Miss Martha replied in a tone which implied
anything but hope.
“How would you like to drive to Palm Beach this afternoon, stop at the
Cocoanut Grove for tea and later take dinner at one of the hotels?”
proposed Mr. Carroll, with diplomatic intent to change the subject.
This proposal met with instant enthusiastic response from the girls.
Even Miss Carroll graciously admitted that it would be pleasant.
Luncheon over, the Wayfarers promptly scurried upstairs to decide
the momentous questions of gowns. To go to Palm Beach merely for an
afternoon and evening’s outing was an entirely different matter from
going there for the remainder of their vacation. Tea in the Cocoanut
Grove promised to be interesting.
When, at three o’clock that afternoon, the automobile sped down the
oleander drive laden with its freight of daintily gowned girls, Miss
Martha’s equanimity had quite returned. Seated in the tonneau between
Mabel and Eleanor, she looked very stately and imposing in a smart
frock of heavy wistaria silk, a plumed hat to match setting off to
perfection her thick snowy hair and patrician features.
Bee was wearing her best gown, a becoming affair of pale pink taffeta
which had been fashioned by her mother’s clever fingers. Mabel had
chosen a dainty little dress of pale green jersey silk, embroidered
with white daisies. Eleanor wore a fluffy blue chiffon creation, while
Patsy was radiantly pretty in white net over white taffeta.
That the Wayfarers presented a charming appearance in their
delicately-hued finery at least one spectator to their departure could
testify. As the car swept through the gateway and onto the white public
road, from behind a flower-laden bush situated just inside the gates,
a black-haired, bare-footed girl emerged and peered wistfully through
the iron palings after the fast vanishing automobile.
When it had entirely disappeared from view, the elfish little watcher
turned and threw herself face downward in the tangled grass and began
a low disconsolate wailing, her thin shoulders shaking with convulsive
sobs. There she continued to lie, beating the long grass with two small
brown clenched hands.
Her emotion having finally spent itself she slowly dragged herself to
her feet, tossed her long heavy black hair out of her eyes, and sped
like a fawn across the lawn. Coming at last to a clump of low growing
bushes, she dived in under them and reappeared, holding something in
her hand. Then she was off again, this time toward the house. Slipping
through the oleander hedge with the ease of a wood sprite, she made
final port at the entrance to the patio.
The doors stood open. Like a shadow she flitted through the doorway and
into the patio beyond. On a rustic seat near the fountain, she laid the
object which she carried in one thin brown hand. Then she turned and
ran in the direction from which she had come like a timid, hunted young
animal.