AT THE GRANGER MILLS
"I really think, little Miss Robin, that you ought to go."
"Why, I should think you'd be _crazy_ to go!"
"If I may be so bold's to remind you, the man is waiting for an answer."
Robin looked from her guardian's face to Beryl's to Harkness'.
"You're all conspiring against me, I do believe!" she cried. "I'll go if
you say I ought to, but I just hate to. I don't want to meet the young
people, there. And I'm dreadfully afraid of Mrs. Granger since Susy
spoiled her dress."
"Mrs. Granger was one of your Aunt Mathilde's closest friends--until the
death of young Christopher. Then, in the strange mood your aunt
encouraged, she let the intimacy drop. I've often wondered if the
Grangers did not resent that. You have an opportunity now, Robin, to
restore the old terms between the two families, so that when your--aunt
returns she will find the old tie awaiting her."
Robin stared, wide-eyed, at her guardian. It was the first time he had
spoken of her aunt's return.
"When is my aunt coming back? Do you know I never _think_ of her coming
back? Isn't that dreadful? I know she won't like me--"
"Don't let's worry about that now," broke in Cornelius Allendyce with
suspicious haste. And Harkness, standing stiffly by the table, waiting
instructions, fell suddenly to rearranging the books and magazines which
had been in perfect order.
Mrs. Granger's chauffeur had brought a note to the Manor asking Robin to
make them a few days' visit during the coming week. "My son and daughter
have some young people here and you will find it a lively change from
the quiet of your aunt's."
Robin used her last argument. "But you've only been here for a few days,
guardian dear. And there's a _lot_ more I want to tell you--oh, that's
very important."
"Can't it wait until I come again? I'd have to go back to New York
tomorrow, my dear, anyway. Come, this little visit of yours is as
necessary to your education as a Forsyth as any of Mr. Tubbs' tiresome
lessons. And then, as I said, you can win back my lady Granger's
affection."
"Well, I'll go," cried Robin, in such a miserable voice that Beryl gave
her a little shake.
Beryl saw in the visit all kinds of adventure. First, Robin must keep
her eyes open and determine whether Miss Alicia Granger still mourned
for young Christopher or whether she was faithless to his memory. Then
there'd be the young people, probably from New York, with all kinds of
new clothes and new slang and new stories of that happy whirl in which
Beryl fancied all young people of wealth lived. And then there was the
son, Tom. And Robin could wear the white and silver georgette dress.
"I wish it were you going instead of me," Robin mourned, not at all
encouraged by Beryl's enthusiasm. "You're so tall and pretty, Beryl, and
can always think of things to say."
There shone, however, one bright ray in all the gloom--the Granger home,
Harkness had said, was only a mile from the Granger Mills. Adam Kraus
and Dale had spoken of the Granger Mills as though they were almost
perfect. She wanted to see them, at least, on the outside.
With a heart so heavy that she scarcely noticed the sheen of soft green
with which the early spring had dressed the hills, Robin arrived at
Wyckham, the Granger home, at tea time. She was only conscious of a
wide, low door, level with the bricked terrace, flanked by stone seats;
that this door opened and revealed a circle of merry-voiced young people
gathered around a great fireplace. As the impressive under-butler took
her bags from Williams one of the group rose quickly and came toward
her. She was very tall and slender with an oval-shaped face and a
prominent nose like Mrs. Granger's. Robin knew she was Miss Alicia. She
answered something unintelligible to Miss Alicia's informal greeting and
let herself be drawn into the circle.
There were four girls, ranging in age anywhere from sixteen to
twenty--three very pretty, obviously conscious of their modish garments
and wanting everyone else to be conscious of them, too; another, Rosalyn
Crane, tall and tanned and strong in limb and shoulder, with frank dark
eyes and red lips which smiled and displayed regular, gleaming-white
teeth. Robin liked her best, and Rosalyn Crane felt this and promptly
tucked Robin under her wing.
For the next several hours life moved forward for Robin at such a
dizzying pace that she felt as though she were sitting apart from her
body and watching her flesh-and-bones do things they had never dreamed
of doing before; the noisy tea-circle, the room she shared with the nice
girl, the casual welcome from Mrs. Granger, the georgette and silver
dress and the silver slippers that matched, the beautiful drawing room
so alive with color and jollity, the long table gleaming with crystal
and silver, the voices, voices, (everyone's but hers) the bare shoulders
and the bright eyes and the red, red cheeks, the Japanese servants,
velvet-footed, the big, hot-house strawberries, music and dancing,
(everyone dancing but her) and then, at last, bed.
Out of the whirl stood two pleasant moments: one when Mr. Granger had
spoken to her, the other--Tom.
Mr. Granger had a kind face, all criss-crossed with fine lines that
curved up when he smiled. He patted her on the shoulder and said: "A
Forsyth girl, eh?" and made Robin feel that he liked her. And she was
not afraid of him and answered easily and not in the tongue-tied way she
spoke to Miss Alicia and her friends.
And Tom Granger looked like his father. He had a jolly way of talking,
too, and talked mostly to Rosalyn Crane. He had sat between her and
Robin at dinner and had made Robin feel quite comfortable by acting as
though they were old acquaintances and did not need to keep up a fire of
banter like the others.
The next morning Robin came downstairs to find the house deserted except
for the noiseless butlers who stared at her as though she were some
strange freak. Apparently no one stirred before noon, for Tom, coming in
from the garage, greeted her with a pleasant: "Say, you're an early
bird, aren't you?" and then directed one of the butlers to bring her
some breakfast in the sun-room.
"_You've_ got some sense. Al's crowd will miss half of this glorious
day!" he commented, leading Robin into a glass-enclosed room, in the
centre of which splashed a jolly fountain.
Tom sat with her while she ate the breakfast the Jap brought on a
lacquered tray. He kept up a fire of breezy talk just as though she were
the nice Rosalyn Crane. It was mostly about the baseball nine at
Hotchkiss, of which he was manager, and the new golf holes and an
inter-school swimming match and such things, concerning which poor
Robin knew nothing, but he was so boyish and jolly that Robin did not
feel in the least shy or awkward.
"Say, don't you want to go with me while I try out my new car? The road
toward Cornwall is good and I've bet that I can get her up to sixty.
Great morning, too. Are you game?"
Robin felt game for anything that would take her away from Miss Alicia's
friends--except Rosalyn. Tom took her back to the garage and tucked her
into half of the low seat and climbed in beside her.
For the next two hours they tore back and forth over the Cornwall road
at a pace that caught Robin's breath in her throat. Occasionally Tom
talked, but most of the time he bent over the wheel, his eyes on the
road ahead with a frenzied challenge in them, as though the innocent
stretch of macadam was prey for his vengeance.
Just outside of the town he slowed the car down to a snail's pace.
"Some baby, isn't she?" he asked and at Robin's perplexed eyes he went
off into rollicking laughter. "Why she _eats_ the road! Dad said I
couldn't get it out of her. I'll tell the world. Whew!"
Robin sat forward, suddenly alert.
"Are those the Mills?"
"Yep."
They were not so very unlike the Forsyth Mills--brick walls, dust, dirt,
smoke, towering chimneys, and noise, noise. But beyond them and the
river were rows of neat little white cottages, each with a yard, already
green.
"Best mills in New England. But Dad's prouder of his model village--as
Mother calls those cottages over there--than of his profit sheet. And
look at the school--Dad wanted a school good enough for his own son and
daughter, but Mother wouldn't let us go. I wish she had--I'll bet
there's enough good batting material right in this town to whip every
nine in this part of the country. There's Dad's library, too--"
But Robin did not heed the direction of his nod. She had suddenly seen
something that made her heart leap into her throat; Adam Kraus walking
into the office building carrying the square box with the leather
handles, which she knew contained Dale's model. He was taking it to Mr.
Granger.
A panic gripped Robin. She must do something to save that model for the
Forsyth Mills--she did not know just what, but _something_--
"Stop, oh, stop. Couldn't I see your--father? I'd _like_ to."
Tom looked puzzled, but good-naturedly turned the car. Robin climbed out
with amazing speed.
"Take me to his office, oh, _please_ take me," she begged, with such
earnestness that Tom wondered if she'd gone "clean dotty."
Inside the office building there was no sign of Adam Kraus, for the
reason, though Robin did not know it, that it was his second visit; he
was there by appointment, and he had used a stairway that led directly
to Mr. Granger's office, while Tom took Robin through the main office
where a neatly dressed girl blocked their way.
Mr. Granger was busy but the young lady could wait, this efficient young
person informed them, quite indifferent to the fact that she addressed
Thomas Granger and Gordon Forsyth. And Robin walked into an enclosure,
half consulting room, half waiting room, and sat down with fast beating
heart, upon a leather and mahogany chair.
"I'll wait out here 'til you see Dad," Tom told her, to her relief, and
she heard him telling one of the clerks how his "baby" could make sixty
as easy--
Suddenly Robin took in other voices, one deep, one soft and drawling. A
door at the end of the room stood half-open. She leaned toward it,
alertly listening.
"And you say this invention is your own, Kraus? Have you your patents?"
"My applications have all gone in and I have some of the patents. Yes,
sir, it's my own."
"Doran reported very favorably. With one or two changes--suppose we find
Doran, now." There came the sound of a chair scraping backward. "Oh, the
model will be quite safe here. I want Doran to point out one or two
things on our new loom. It will only take a moment. Then we'll bring
him back here."
Oh, would they come out through the waiting-room--thought Robin,
shrinking back. And what had Adam Kraus said?
But Mr. Granger had opened another door--Robin heard it close. She
stepped noiselessly toward that half-open door at the end of the room.
Her head was clear, her heart atingle.
He, Adam Kraus, had _dared_ to say the invention was his! The wicked
man, the traitor--to betray Dale's trust, his friendship!
The office was quite empty. And on the big desk, amid a litter of papers
and letters and books and ledgers, stood the little model in its clumsy
box.
Robin caught it up and held it close to her, defiantly. She snatched a
pencil and scrawled a few lines on the back of an envelope, then she
tiptoed out into the consulting office and on through the main office.
Tom was waiting at the end of the room. It seemed to Robin as though
hundreds of eyes accused her; in reality only a few lifted from the work
of the day to stare at the young girl Tom Granger had brought to see his
father. And if anyone wondered why she carried the queer box, no one of
them was likely to presume to question any friend of the Grangers.
"Did y'see Dad?" But Tom, to Robin's relief, took that for granted and
turned back to his acquaintance among the clerks.
"I'll take you out with me and _prove_ it to you!"
Robin wanted to beg Tom to run but she did not dare. He asked to carry
the box and she let him, for fear, if she refused, he might suspect
something. Queer shivers raced up and down her spine and a dreadful
sinking feeling attacked her heart and dragged at her throat so that she
could scarcely speak.
He helped her into the car and climbed in himself. He leisurely
experimented with the gears, until Robin almost screamed in her anxiety.
Then just as he started the motor, a shout hailed them from the office
door, and both turned to see Adam Kraus tearing down the steps
bareheaded, wildly waving his arms, followed by a half-dozen clerks and
Mr. Granger, himself.
"Go! _Go!_" implored Robin, catching his arm, and so frightened rang her
voice that Tom instinctively obeyed and stepped on the accelerator with
such force that the car shot forward. "Oh, _faster! Faster!_" she
sobbed. "_He's coming._" A backward glance had told her that Adam Kraus
intended to give chase; still bareheaded, he had jumped into a Ford
standing in the road.
"Well, I don't know what we're running away from, but my baby can give
anything on wheels a good go-by!" laughed Tom, his eyes keen. He leaned
over the wheel, his face fixed on the road with its "eat-her-up"
tensity.
They turned into the Cornwall road. At a rise Robin saw the other car
with its bareheaded driver tearing after them.
"Oh, he's coming," she moaned, sinking down into the seat.
"Say, Miss Forsyth----I'm keen----on--running----away--but
what--the--deuce--from? Who's that----fellow----following--us----why are
you----afraid?" He flung the words jerkily, sideways, at Robin.
"I'll tell you--afterwards," Robin gasped back. The wind whistled past
her, she lost her hat. She crouched in her seat, her hands clinging
tightly to the box, her head turned as though expecting their pursuer to
overtake them any moment.
Suddenly Tom frowned. At the same time the engine gave a grating
"b-r-r-r."
"Oh, what is it?"
"Oil's getting low----Bad----" she caught in answer. "Pulling
some----I'll----fool him, though--" He slowed down.
"Don't--" implored Robin.
"We'll turn down this road. _He'll_ go straight on. Clever, eh? Say, I
wouldn't have guessed you had all this spunk in you!" he took the time
to say, casting her an admiring glance.
He made the turn and the "baby" ploughed through the soft rough road at
a perilous clip. The road wound through thickly wooded hills, up and
down, apparently leading to nowhere.
Suddenly it twisted up a long hill. Tom's car climbed easily, slackening
its speed for a few moments at the top. Turning, Robin could make out
the course over which they had come and, to her horror, the little car
plunging over it.
"Look--_look!_" she cried.
"Well, I'll be--blowed!" Tom Granger stared as though he could not
believe his eyes. "He saw the marks of my new tires, I guess. He's a
sharp one. Cheer up--we're not caught yet." He increased the speed; they
tore down the slope in breakneck haste.
But, in the hollow, the car slopped out of the muddy ruts, gave a
sickening lurch sidewise and dropped with a jolt into mud to the axles.
His face white with excitement Tom Granger tore at the gears, tried to
go back, to go forward, but in vain. And, presently, they both heard the
distant throb of a motor.
Robin jumped down from the car, hugging her box. "I'll run. Good-bye,
Tom, thank you _so_ much!" She was far too excited to realize the
familiar way in which she had addressed him. She had cleared the ditch
and stood on the fringe of the deep woods.
"I'll tell you sometime--about it!" she flung to him.
"I'm--not--stealing! That man--will know--" and she disappeared among
the leafing undergrowth.
"Well, I'll--be--Oh, I _say_, Miss Forsyth, don't--" But the boy's
attention, quite naturally, turned to meet the enemy, who at that moment
appeared over the crest of the hill.