ROBIN'S RESCUE
Just as the shrill of the train whistle echoed through the little
valley, Moira Lynch set her lighted lamp in the window. She did not sing
tonight as she performed the customary ceremony, nor had she for many
nights. Her throat seemed too tired, her arms dropped with the weight of
her lamp, a dull little pain at the back of her neck gripped her with a
pulling clutch.
The doctor had told her she was "tired out." She had gone to him very
secretly, lest Dale or big Danny should know and worry. But even to be
"just tired out" was very terrifying to Mother Moira--if her arms and
head and heart failed, who would take care of big Danny and keep a
little home for Dale and watch over Beryl?
With her habitual optimism she tried to laugh away her alarm, but the
pulling ache persisted and her arms trembled under tasks that before had
seemed as nothing. She told herself that it was all her own fault that
her big Danny seemed harder to please, but when, under a particularly
trying moment, she broke down and cried, she knew she was reaching the
end of her endurance.
"Did the train stop?" queried big Danny.
"Sure and it did!" cried Mrs. Moira, trying to throw excitement into
her voice to please the invalid man. Big Danny took childish pleasure in
listening for the incoming and New York-bound trains.
"What's keeping Dale? Prob'bly hanging 'round the Inn!"
Mrs. Moira smothered the quick retort that sprang to her lips in defense
of her boy.
"He'll be here any minute," she said instead, comfortingly. "There he is
now!" Her quick ear had caught a step outside.
Beryl, not Dale, opened the door and confronted them. Suppressed
excitement, impatience, eagerness, an inward disgust of herself for
being a "selfish thing anyway" combined to give Beryl's face such an
unnatural pallor and haggard tensity of expression that big Danny
whirled his chair toward her and Mrs. Lynch caught her hands over her
heart.
"Beryl?" she cried, standing quite still.
Beryl walked to her and very quietly gathered her into her young arms.
"Don't look so scared, Mom, dear. Oh, _don't_ cry! Why, I'm near crying
myself! After I've told you all that has happened I shall just _bawl_.
I'm too dreadfully happy. Sit down here, Mom, and hold my hand tight.
Wait--I must take my things off first."
In a twinkling she had her stage "set" for her surprise. Strangely
stirred herself, she had to gulp once or twice before she could begin
her story. It was difficult to keep it coherent, too, because Mrs.
Moira interrupted her so often with little unnecessary questions.
"Did you really go to New York?"
"And 'twas all night you stayed at the Allendyces themselves?"
Because of her mother's agitation, Beryl abandoned the details with
which she had planned to lead up to the great surprise. She plunged
abruptly to the point of the story.
"Those beads. They _weren't_ just plain beads. They were a precious
necklace made by some queer people, ages and ages ago. _Queens_ have
worn 'em and all sorts of wicked people and they've gone from hand to
hand--I s'pose I ought to say neck to neck--for all these years and
then, suddenly, no one could find them. And Mr. Allendyce's friend--the
collector--gave me _this money_ outright for them and--"
Mrs. Lynch suddenly sprang to furious life. She stood erect, her eyes
flashing, her fingers working in and out, her lips trembling.
"You sold my--_you sold my beads!_ Beryl Lynch, how _dared_ you.
My--my--"
Beryl stared at her. She could not speak for sheer amazement.
"My beads! They--were--the last--thing--I--had that
held--me--to--my--dreams." Her voice died off in a heart-broken whisper
that hurt Beryl to the soul.
"Mother! Mother, _please_ don't. It isn't too late. I can get them
back. I didn't know you cared, don't you see?"
Beryl of course did not know about the pulling ache at the back of
Mother Moira's neck or she would have understood that her mother's
hysteria was due partly to that. She had never seen her mother look so
queer and old and pale and it frightened her.
Mrs. Lynch crossed the room until she stood behind Danny's chair.
Involuntarily her hand moved to his shoulder.
"No, you wouldn't know. It isn't your fault. Of course it's just beads
they were, but they belonged to the young part of me when my heart was
that light and full of beautiful dreams and so strong that it hurt the
inside of me. And nothing in this world was too fine for the likes of my
Danny and me. And we thought 'twas just ours for the asking. And then
when the clouds come--" her hand pressed big Danny's shoulder ever so
lightly, "I told myself the dreams were my own and no one could _take
them_ away from me and if I couldn't make them come true, as true for
himself and me, sure, I'd keep them for my boy and girl. And 'twas the
beads were like a dear voice out of the past telling me to be strong,
for Father Murphy, with the saints in Heaven now, God rest him, gave
them to me himself with his blessing and saying might my dreams come
true! Ah, well--sure it's a punishment, maybe, for me wanting things
just for my own--"
"Mother!" broke in Beryl, sternly. "As if you could be punished for
anything! Will you tell me one thing? Which would you rather have--those
beads--or--or--a nice little farm in the hills with a cow and chickens
and pigs and a little orchard and--and a Ford--and a girl to do the
cooking so's you could stay with Pop, and Dale studying engineering in
some college, if he wanted to, and me--"
"Beryl Lynch, are ye crazy?" cried big Danny, suspecting that the girl
was in someway trying to mock her mother.
"_No_, I'm not crazy, though I ought to be, with old Jacques Henri
scolding me and now mother--" She bit her lip childishly. "Will you
please just answer me, mother?"
"A farm--with a garden--and a cow--and trees and a good stretch of the
green meadow--ah, sure I'd think it a bit of Heaven."
"Mother, you can have it! You can have it!" Beryl rushed to and knelt by
big Danny's chair. "That's what I was trying to tell you. That man will
give you fifteen thousand dollars for those beads! Really, truly. See,
he gave me all this money today. And Mr. Allendyce will put the rest in
the bank. Oh, I know it's hard to believe but it's true. You can ask Mr.
Allendyce."
Big Danny, with trembling hands, took the roll of bills from Beryl's
purse. They were undisputable proof of her story.
"Moira girl, 'tis true!" Big Danny's voice trembled.
"'Tis Father Murphy's blessing," whispered Mrs. Lynch, a strange light
in her eyes. "May I be worthy of it!" Then she roused and laughed, a
tinkling laugh. "Ah--my girl shall have her music, now! Oh, it's too
wonderful."
"Where's Dale?" cried Beryl, her heart jubilant that the unexpected
crisis had passed. "Won't he be surprised?"
"What ever can be keeping the boy? 'Tis long past the hour."
"Now, mother, don't you begin a-worrying. Dale's old enough to look
after himself."
"It's a fussing old hen I am, as true as true!" And because once more
her heart was so light inside of her that it hurt, she kissed her big
Danny on the top of his head.
"I wish Dale would come. I ought to go back to the Manor. Harkness is
probably worrying his head off over my strange visit to New York."
But Harkness had other things to worry about.
Dale burst in upon his family just a few moments after Beryl had spoken
but she did not tell her story. He gave her no opportunity.
"Gordon Forsyth's lost!"
"_Lost?_"
"Yes. Somewhere in the woods between Cornwall and South Falls. Strangest
thing you ever heard. She made young Tom Granger run off with
her--goodness knows where they were headed for, and when his car went
into the ditch she made a dash for the woods and that's the last
anyone's seen of her."
"Why, Dale, she couldn't--" cried Beryl.
"Couldn't? Easiest thing in the world. Woods are thick and miles deep
through there."
"I mean she couldn't be running off with Tom Granger. Why, she never met
him until yesterday--"
"Well, it wasn't exactly _with_ him but she made him, _take_ her off.
She was running away from some one. Granger's been over here talking to
Norris. They called me in. Seems Kraus had taken my model to sell to
Granger, and called it his own, and Miss Gordon heard him. And she just
walked in when they weren't in the room and--took it. Granger wouldn't
say any more. He's too worried. What I think is that Kraus chased
them--Miss Gordon and Tom Granger--"
"How _thrilling! What_ an adventure," exclaimed Beryl, her eyes shining.
Oh, exciting things _were_ happening!
"Thrilling! Won't be thrilling if anything's happened to the kid. It's
four hours now and Granger's had a bunch of men hunting ever since his
son walked into the office and gave the alarm. Can you give me a bite in
a hurry, Mom? The Manor car's going to take six of us over to meet young
Granger and make a thorough search."
"But it's tired to death you look now, Dale. Can't--"
"I'm not tired--just bothered. Mom, I hate to think of that little thing
getting into this fix just for my model. Granger was awfully decent
about the thing; told Norris he was a fool not to jump at it. He said he
had some sort of a note Miss Robin had left and it seemed to amuse him,
but he didn't offer to show it. It isn't only because she's a Forsyth I
care, but she's such a square little thing. Hurry up, please, Mom,
Williams may stop any moment."
"_I_ ought to go up to the Manor. They must be in an awful state."
"Wait, as soon as ever I can fix your father I'll go with you myself,"
cried Mrs. Lynch.
* * * * *
Toward noon of the next day, in answer to an urgent telegram, Cornelius
Allendyce arrived at the Manor, having come down from New York by motor.
Just as he was gulping down the coffee Harkness had brought to him, Mr.
Granger, Senior, was ushered in.
The men knew one another well. They shook hands, then Cornelius
Allendyce motioned him to a chair opposite him at the table.
The lawyer only needed to look at the other man's face to know that he
brought no good news.
"Tom telephoned from Cornwall at six o'clock. Not a sign. Not so much as
a red hair! Strangest thing I ever heard of. They're going to search
the ravines today--easy enough for her to stumble into them if she was
frightened or hurrying. Then there's the kidnapping possibility!"
"Improbable!" protested the lawyer.
"Well, _nothing's_ improbable. You'd have said it wasn't to be thought
of that a youngster like that would run off with that model. I want to
give you the details of this whole matter--they'd be extremely
interesting if one were not so concerned." He told of his two interviews
with Adam Kraus and of Dale's invention. "A master contrivance. I can't
understand your man, here, letting it get away from him. Why, it's worth
a lot to me, but in these Mills--well, you may not know what I think of
your mills," he laughed. "I'll tell you another time. The girl saw this
Kraus go into my office, and persuaded my boy, who'd been taking her for
a ride, to stop. She was waiting in my outer office and heard Kraus
claim the invention as his own--scoundrel that he was--and when I took
Kraus to see my head foreman, didn't she walk in, help herself to the
model and leave me this." He drew an envelope from his pocket and handed
it to Cornelius Allendyce. "Read it."
"This model is Dale Lynch's. I am taking it to him. When I see my
guardian, I shall make him buy it for the Forsyth Mills.
GORDON FORSYTH."
Cornelius Allendyce looked up from the bit of paper. He had suddenly
recalled the frightened little girl he had first brought to Gray Manor.
"Who'd believe that the child had the nerve?"
"That's what I said. Well, she ran off with it, Kraus gave chase, Tom
headed toward Cornwall, then switched off on an unimproved road and came
to grief. Just as Kraus was about to overtake them the child ran off
into the wood. Tom didn't have the vaguest idea what it was all about,
but he tried to head off Kraus and when Kraus started for the wood he
did a little wrestling trick that surprised the fellow, got him down,
tied him in the Ford and went himself in search of Miss Gordon. When he
came back after an hour's search he found Kraus and the Ford gone and he
walked back to South Falls. That's all."
"That model may be worth a lot, but it is not worth another tragedy to
this house," groaned Cornelius Allendyce.
"No. It is worth a good deal--but not--that much."
A few moments' deep silence prevailed. Wrinkles of worry twisted the
lawyer's face. What a mess it all was, anyway--he had urged Robin to go
to the Granger's in hopes that she'd bring the two families into close
intimacy again and instead of that she had gotten herself into this fix.
If they found her safe and sound she ought to be spanked and taught to
keep her hands off the Mill affairs until she was older. But down in
his heart he knew this was only a vexatious expression of his
concern--you couldn't punish Robin for anything.
"As her guardian I appreciate your alarm. I share it with you, not alone
because Miss Forsyth was a guest at my house but because I took a great
fancy to the child. It struck me, as I looked at her, that her coming to
Wassumsic--to the Manor, might change things, here, quite a bit."
"It has--it will," mumbled Mr. Allendyce. For a moment, just to relieve
his feelings, he wondered if he might not confide in this very human man
the ordeal he must face with Madame Forsyth when his reckoning came.
"My wife is prostrated with it all. She does not know the particulars
but she is deeply concerned. I do not like to add to your worry but do
you think there is any possibility that the child returned to the road,
and that Kraus, freed from Tom's rope, captured her and went off with
her?"
"Why, every possibility in the world!" shouted Robin's guardian. "Why
did you hug that idea to yourself? We'll telephone the New York police.
He's sure to make straight for the city."
Both men welcomed action. They rushed to the library and put in a long
distance call and then, while waiting, paced the room's length back and
forth. Harkness, shaking and white and miserable, glued his ear to the
crack in the door, hopeful for one crumb of comforting news.
Below stairs Mrs. Budge, flatly refusing to believe that "Miss Robin"
could be lost just when she had learned to love her, beat up a cake for
her homecoming, unmindful of the tears that splashed into the batter.
In the little sitting-room they had shared, Beryl, who did not even have
the heart to play with Susy, sat with her nose against the window
watching the ribbon of road over which anyone would come if they came.
That was why she was the first of the Manor household to spy the
dilapidated Ford approaching, snorting up the incline. Something about
it made her think of the general dilapidation of the Forgotten Village.
It might be some word! She rushed down the stairs, two steps at a time,
past the startled Harkness, through the big front door. The
strange-looking car had turned into the Manor gate. A man with long
white whiskers was driving it. And yes, a bareheaded girl, who looked
like Robin, sat on the back seat. It _was_ Robin. Beryl waved her hand
wildly and Robin answered. But who rode with her? Beryl's flying feet
came to a quick halt.
"As sure as I'm _alive_ it's the Queen of Altruria!"
Turning, Beryl rushed back to the Manor.
"Harkness! _Harkness!_" she cried, bursting in through the door.
"Robin's coming! She's _here!_ And she's brought the Queen of Altruria
with her! Oh, _what'll_ we do?" For surely some ceremony befitting
royalty should be prepared.
"The Queen of _what_--" cried Mr. Granger and Cornelius Allendyce
rushing from the library. "Oh, the girl's _crazy_--" asserted the
lawyer. Nevertheless he ran to the door, followed by Mr. Granger and
Harkness and Beryl and Hannah Budge and Chloe, who had heard Beryl's
glad cry in the kitchen.
At close range the dilapidated Ford looked even more dilapidated; Robin,
letting her royal companion talk terms of payment with the bewhiskered
scion of the Forgotten Village, clambered out the moment the car stopped
and fell into Beryl's arms. From their shelter, after the briefest
instant, she lifted her face to greet her guardian and found him staring
at the Queen in a sort of stupid unbelief.
"I brought--" Robin started an introduction, but did not finish. For,
recovering, with an obvious effort, his natural manner of politeness,
her guardian was hurrying down the steps to the little car.
"Madame Forsyth, I did not expect--"