"Have we a new maid, Kurt?" asked Kingdon at the breakfast table next
morning. "I had a glimpse of a pretty little girl talking to Agatha."
"Mrs. Kingdon sent her here to do the sewing and look after the children,"
explained Kurt.
"And she's got a funny name," said Francis. "Her name is Bobbie Burr."
Hebler's fork fell with a clatter.
"Bobbie Burr!" he exclaimed in amazement.
"Bobbie Burr!" echoed Kingdon.
"Where is she? Let me see her at once. She's the very person I am looking
for!"
"I'll go and get her," offered Billy, running from the room.
He returned in a few moments followed by Marta.
"Oh, you aren't Bobbie Burr!" said Hebler, visibly disappointed.
"No, sir," said Marta. "I just took the name because I liked it. My name
is really Marta Sills."
"But it won't be that long," reminded Betty. "You're going to have another
name soon. Jo Gary told me so."
"Oh, ho!" laughed Kingdon comprehendingly, while Marta fled in confusion.
"Jo's going to take her with him to Westcott's this morning," said
Francis. "They're going to drive over in the buckboard. I think they are
engaged."
"He hasn't given her a diamond ring," said Betty. "Every girl who is
engaged wears a diamond ring. Doris told me so."
"Speaking of diamond rings," said Hebler, as they all rose from the table,
"reminds me that I very carelessly left mine on a table yesterday and I
forgot to put it away, or to even see if it were there this morning."
"It will be all right," assured Kingdon. "Every one in the hill country is
honest."
"Still you'd better put it away," cautioned Kurt anxiously.
"All right," said Hebler, leaving the room.
"Don't forget we want an early start for town," Kingdon called after him.
"I'll go out and look over my car."
Kurt followed him, but lingered on the veranda to light his pipe. While he
stood there, Jo and Marta drove past at a smart pace. A few moments later
Hebler came to him in great consternation.
"Walters, that ring I was speaking of is gone! I've made a thorough search
for it."
When he had assured Kurt that there could be no mistake as to having left
it on his table before he started for Westcott's, the foreman said
earnestly:
"I am quite sure that I can secure your ring for you, Mr. Hebler. I should
like to settle this matter quietly, though; so please say nothing about it
to anyone until I have investigated."
"Certainly," agreed Hebler. "I'll go on to town with Kingdon now, and you
can be looking about for it."
Kurt hastened upstairs and knocked at Pen's door.
"Hebler has missed his ring--a very valuable diamond, he tells me," he
said abruptly, as she came out.
"Oh!" she gasped, turning pale and trembling slightly.
"He left it on his table near the door and just thought of looking for it.
I told him not to mention it for the present and I'd deliver the goods.
Marta has gone away with Jo; evidently she intends to skip. She'll not get
away with this. I am going after them in the car. I shall turn her over to
the authorities. You can pack her things and send them after her."
"Oh, wait!" she cried, as he started to go down stairs. "It wasn't Marta.
It was I."
"What!" he cried incredulously. "You!"
"Yes."
"When did you take it?"
"On my way to bed last night after I left you. His door was open--the ring
on a table near by--in easy reach. He shouldn't have left anything like
that around loose."
"I never dreamed of your taking it," he said bitterly. "I thought you had
reformed."
She laughed, a little reckless laugh that had a sound like silver bells.
"I don't like that ring either. It's gaudy."
He looked at her with a new thought and hope.
"Are you a kleptomaniac?"
"I should think not! I never take anything unless it is of some value or
use."
"Didn't it occur to you that you might be suspected and caught with the
goods?"
"No; I thought I knew Hebby and that he was too much of a good fellow to
report a loss at first blink. Sort of banal, you know. You don't know much
of human nature to suppose a thief could undergo such a sudden
reformation. There are no modern miracles like that. Marta is the only one
I knew who could change. But she isn't a born thief. I really was trying
to be good; but I suppose I will slip and fall countless times--like a
drunkard."
"This is the first time since you came here?"
"Absolutely; but to be honest, thieves don't always lie--I've not been so
strongly tempted before."
"And you could do it then--right after--"
"After you had done me the great and regretted honor? Well, I didn't yield
all at once. I walked right past it with the 'Get thee behind me' pose and
closed my door and went to the window and--looked up at the hills and
then--something stronger than all my resolutions carried me back to look
at it once more. It was all off."
Anger and something else battled in his face.
"Why," she asked curiously, "did you suspect Marta instead of me?"
"I don't know," he said spiritlessly.
"You see Marta has an incentive to keep her straight--an incentive that I
lack."
He winced.
"Have you," she asked cynically, "always been so straight that you don't
know what temptation means? Have you never wanted anything so much that
you--"
"That I wanted to steal? No; not even to steal your affections when I
thought they belonged to Jo. I will spare you exposure. When I return the
ring to Hebler I will tell him it was found on the floor by a servant."
"Thank you," she said meekly. "If he knew I were here, he'd know who the
'servant' was. What do you propose to do with me now? Return the goods to
Bender, or squeal on me to Hebby?"
"I don't know until I have talked it over with Mrs. Kingdon."
"That is very considerate and fair in you," she commended. "Some way I
feel confident she will think I should have another chance. You owe me
something. 'Kind Kurt,'" she continued lightly, with a return of the
flippancy that had so jarred him on their first meeting, "suppose I had
been weak enough to accept your proposal last night? I knew my lapses too
well and was too considerate of your happiness to say 'yes.' Suppose I
had. Would your sense of honor have been equal to the sacrifice of keeping
faith with me? No; I see by your face it would not have been. So you see
your love--your _man's_ love, isn't great enough for even a thief to
consider."
"Give me the ring," he said coldly.
"No; I prefer to return it myself. I'll take my chances with Hebby. Even
he isn't as merciless as you. And as I said, his claim is prior to yours.
I never expected to take refuge with Hebby! Where is he now?"
"He has gone to the garage. Wait! You shall not go."
He put out a detaining arm, under which she ducked and fled nimbly down
the stairs and out to the door. She heard him pursuing, but she jumped on
Francis' wheel which stood near and was soon coasting down the driveway to
the garage.
"Hebby! Oh--oh, Hebby!" she called to the man sauntering at some distance
ahead of her.
"The thief!" he exclaimed as she came up to him and dismounted. "So, at
last I've found you!"
"_Found_ me! Well, I like that! Here I come chasing after you and doing
the finding myself. Really lost your ring this time, Hebby? Didn't seem
like your 'code' to mention your loss to so new an acquaintance. Sort of a
breach, wasn't it?"
He flushed shamefacedly, but his discomfiture, short-lived, was succeeded
by a broad grin.
"Then it was _you_ who took it! That tall, solemn guy seemed to think he
could recover it, but I am more delighted at recovering you than a hundred
rings."
"May I keep it, Hebby?"
"You always said you detested that ring--that it was very parvenu and so
forth. But what are you doing up here, and how did you get in with these
folks?"
"Can't a thief break in anywhere? It's far more surprising how _you_ got
in."
"You'll not escape me again. You'll go with me when I leave."
"Thank you, Hebby. I'm through here. Will you do me a favor?"
"You don't deserve favors."
"You never did favor the deserving, you know. Will you tell the 'tall,
solemn guy' that you have your ring all right? I'll see you get it. I
haven't it on me. But this is the real favor. No one here, except Mrs.
Kingdon and one of the men on the place, knows very much about my
chequered career and they only know me by my baptismal name."
"Which I'm not sure that I know, Meg. You have so many names."
"I took my own as a perfect disguise. It's Penelope Lamont."
"Fine name. I'll make a note of it for future use. I'll keep your secret
if you'll not try to run away again. You haven't told me how you came
here."
"I was--apprehended. But I am not on a thief's errand. It's for a reason
apart from my other life. You know, Hebby, thieves do have a code of
honor."
"You are the one and only thief! I take off my hat to you. Say, how did
that tall guy know you had it?"
"He didn't. He suspected someone else. You can have it back, Hebby. It's
so garish it puts my eyes out. I didn't want it. I just wanted to steal
it."
"Ruling passion, Meg."
"No; you're way off. Here comes the 'solemn guy.' Tell him I found it and
returned it to you."
Just then Kingdon drove around the curve.
"Glad to see you again, Miss Pen. I thought you had forsaken us. I see
you've made Mr. Hebler's acquaintance. But I must take him away from you
for a while."
As Hebler got into the car, Kurt came up.
"Oh, Mr. Walters, I'm happy to say I have my ring. Meg--Miss Lamont saw it
and took it for a joke on me. Sorry I mentioned it."
A little wave of remorse swept over Pen for a second as she turned to Kurt
and saw the look in his eyes when the two men had driven off.
"He seemed to have an air of proprietorship," he said jealously. "Has he
really a legal right to take you away?"
"Looks that way. Mrs. Kingdon thought so. I never could get legal stuff
through my head. It was for an offense committed long ago, but not
outlawed. There is something I want to say to you. Last night you asked me
to marry you. Don't look so afraid of the cars! I am not going to sue you
for breach of promise. I wouldn't marry the grandest man living unless he
loved me supremely--enough, at least, to overlook the stealing of a ring.
Kurt," she added after a pause, "did it occur to you I might have had a
reason for stealing that ring? To put you to the test--your love, I
mean--before answering you?"
"Pen--"
"Never mind, now. Jo wouldn't have gone back on me if he had been my
lover. There's the ideal lover for you. There's one thing I didn't try to
steal up here--Jo from Marta. Well, it's all over now, and I am going
back--back with Hebby."
"You are not going away with that man," he said hotly. "Mrs. Kingdon
arrives to-day. She will find a way out."
"I think not. You don't know Hebby. I think I want to go with him."
"You see," he said looking at her wistfully, "you didn't love me--"
"Then we're quits," she laughed, jumping quickly on the wheel and speeding
toward the house.
"The beans are sure spilled now," she thought, when she had gained her
room. "I've outwitted Kurt, and I must give Hebby the same treatment, but
how can I make my getaway? Hebby in town--and such a small town. They took
the racer. The big car is out of commission. Sandy rode to the corral in
Kurt's shebang. No horse leaves the stables without Kurt's O. K. Oh, for
the wings of a dove! There's my inspiration! I know some better wings than
a dove's. I'll telephone Larry and literally fly from here."
She went into Mrs. Kingdon's room where there was an extension telephone
and called up Larry at the hotel. Fortunately he was within call.
"Want to do something for me Larry, dear? Hebby is here! I'm in a mix-up
as I generally am. No way out unless you'll fly to me up here. I mean it.
Inquire the way to Westcott's ranch--the next beyond Top Hill where I am.
Land by a big red-roofed barn--only red roof in vicinity. I'll be there at
three this afternoon, and be yours forever after if you'll have me. I knew
I could count on you. This is really serious, Larry. If you love me, don't
fail me."
She hung up the receiver with a sigh of relief.
"To think of falling back on Larry whom I used to consider a lightweight.
He is my last ditch, and then I'm off by the overhill and skyville route.
In the meantime I'll make some manuscript memoirs to leave behind."
A note to Marta and a shorter one to Jo occupied but a few moments time,
but she wrote swiftly and steadily for an hour on a longer one. When she
had a bulky package she sealed it and addressed it to Kurt. An explanatory
letter to Mrs. Kingdon then followed.
"I'll have to travel light--a beach comber's outfit," she thought as she
prepared for departure.
She gave the notes for Jo and Marta to Agatha to be delivered on their
return. She had a few moments confidential conversation with Francis, bade
the others good-bye and then sped down the road to Westcott's.