"I will, and gladly," said Bessie. "But I haven"t so very much time. Can you walk with me as I go home?"
So, with Tom Norris to look after her, Bessie began her trip back to the Mercer house, and, on the way, she told him the story of her flight from Hedgeville, and the adventures that had happened since its beginning.
"I suppose I was foolish to go after Jake Hoover that way," she concluded, "but I thought I might be able to help. I didn"t like to see him following Mr. Jamieson that way, when he was trying to be so nice to us."
"Maybe you were foolish," said Tom. "But don"t let it worry you too much. You meant well, and I guess there"s lots of us are foolish without having as good an excuse as that."
"Oh, there"s Mr. Jamieson now!" cried Bessie, suddenly spying the young lawyer on the other side of the street. "I think I"d better tell him what"s happened, don"t you, Mr. Norris?"
"I do indeed. Stay here, I"ll run over. The young fellow with the brown suit, is it?"
Bessie nodded, and Tom Norris ran across the street and was back in a moment with Jamieson, who was mightily surprised to see Bessie, whom he had left only a short time before at the Mercer house. He frowned very thoughtfully as he heard her story.
"I"m not going to scold you for taking such a risk," he said. "I really didn"t think, either, that it was you they would try to harm. I thought your friend Zara was the only one who was in danger."
"I suppose they"d try to get hold of Miss Bessie here, though," said the conductor, "because they"d think she"d be a good witness, perhaps, if there was any business in court. I don"t know much about the law, except I think it"s a good thing to keep clear of."
"You bet it is," said Jamieson, with a laugh.
"That"s fine talk, from a lawyer!" smiled Tom Norris. "Ain"t it your business to get people into lawsuits?"
"Not a bit of it!" said Jamieson. "A good lawyer keeps his clients out of court. He saves money for them that way, and they run less risk of being beaten. The biggest cases I have never get into court at all. It"s only the shyster lawyers, like Isaac Brack, who are always going to court, whether there"s any real reason for it or not."
"Brack!" said Tom. "Why, say, I know him! And, what"s more, this man Weeks does, too. Brack"s his lawyer. I heard that a long time ago. Brack gets about half the cases against the railroad, too. Whenever there"s a little accident, Brack hunts up the people who might have been hurt, and tries to get damages for them. Only, if he wins a case for them, he keeps most of the money--and if they lose he charges them enough so that he comes out ahead, anyhow."
"That"s the fellow," Jamieson said. "We"ll get him disbarred sooner or later, too. He"s a bad egg. I"m glad to know I"ve got to fight him in this case. If this young Hoover was following me, I"ll bet Brack had something to do with it."
"He was certainly following you," said Bessie. "Whenever you turned around he got behind a tree or something, so that you wouldn"t see him."
"He needn"t have been so careful. He might have walked right next to me all the way into town, and I"d never have suspected him. As it happened, I wasn"t going anywhere this morning--anywhere in particular, I mean. It wouldn"t have made any difference if Brack had known just what I was doing. But I"m mighty glad to know that he is trying to spy on me, Bessie. In the next few days I"m apt to do some things I wouldn"t want him to know about at all, and now that I"m warned I"ll be able to keep my eyes and my ears open, and I guess Brack and his spies will have some trouble in getting on to anything I choose to keep hidden from them."
"That"s the stuff!" approved Tom. "I told Miss Bessie here she"d done all right. She meant well, even if she did run a foolish risk. And there"s no harm done."
"Well, we"d better hurry home," said Jamieson. "I don"t want them to be worried about you, Bessie, so I"ll take you home in a taxicab."
The cab took them swiftly toward the Mercer house. When they were still two or three blocks away Jamieson started and pointed out a man on the sidewalk to Bessie.
"There"s Brack now!" he exclaimed. "See, Bessie? That little man, with the eyegla.s.ses. He"s up to some mischief. I wonder what he"s doing out this way?"
When they arrived, Eleanor Mercer, her eyes showing that she was worried, was waiting for them on the porch.
"Oh, I"m so glad you"re here!" she exclaimed.
"I"m so sorry if you were worried about me, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie, remorsefully.
"I wasn"t, though," said Eleanor. "It"s Zara! She"s upstairs, crying her eyes out and she won"t answer me when I try to get her to tell me what"s wrong. You"d better see her, Bessie."
CHAPTER IV.
A NEW DANGER.
Alarmed at this news of Zara, Bessie hurried upstairs at once to the room the two girls shared. She found her chum on the bed, crying as if her heart would break.
"Why, Zara, what"s the matter? Why are you crying?" she asked.
But try as she might, Bessie could get no answer at all from Zara for a long time.
"Have I done anything to make you feel bad? Has anything gone wrong here?" urged Bessie. "If you"ll only tell us what"s the matter, dear, we"ll straighten it out. Can"t you trust me?"
"N--nothing"s happened--you haven"t done anything," Zara managed to say at last.
"Surely nothing Miss Eleanor has said has hurt you, Zara? I"m certain she"d feel terrible if she thought you were crying because of anything she had done!"
Zara shook her head vehemently at that, but her sobs only seemed to come harder than before.
Bessie was thoroughly puzzled. She knew that Zara, brought up in a foreign country, did not always understand American ways. Sometimes, when Bessie had first known her, little jesting remarks, which couldn"t have been taken amiss by any American girl, had reduced her to tears. And Bessie thought it entirely possible that someone, either Miss Eleanor, or her mother, or one of the Mercer servants, might have offended Zara without in the least meaning to do so.
But Zara seemed determined to keep the cause of her woe to herself. Not all of Bessie"s pleading could make her answer the simplest questions. Finally, seeming to feel a little better, she managed to speak more coherently.
"Leave me alone for a little while, please, Bessie," she begged. "I"ll be all right then--really I will!"
So Bessie, reluctantly enough, had to go downstairs, since she understood thoroughly that to keep on pressing Zara for an explanation while she was in such a nervous state would do more harm than good.
"Could you find out what was wrong?" asked Eleanor anxiously when Bessie came down. Charlie Jamieson was still with her on the porch, smoking a cigar and frowning as if he were thinking of something very unpleasant. He was, as a matter of fact. He was changing all his ideas of the case in which Eleanor"s encounter with the two girls had involved him, since, with Brack for an opponent, he knew only too well that he was in for a hard fight, and if, as he supposed, the opposition was entirely without a reasonable case, a fight in which dirty and unfair methods were sure to be employed.
Bessie shook her head.
"She wouldn"t tell me anything--just begged me to leave her alone and said she"d be all right presently," she answered. "I"ve seen her this way before and, really, there"s nothing to do but wait until she feels better."
"You"ve seen her this way before, you say?" said Jamieson, quickly. "What was the matter then? What made her act so? If we know why she did it before, perhaps it will give us a clue to why she is behaving in such a queer fashion now."
Bessie hesitated.
"She"s awfully sensitive," she said. "Sometimes, when people have just joked with her a little bit, without meaning to say anything nasty at all, she"s thought they were angry at her, or laughing at her for being a foreigner, and she"s gone off just like this. I thought at first--"
"Yes?" said Eleanor, encouragingly, when Bessie stopped. "Don"t be afraid to tell us what you think, Bessie. We just want to get to the bottom of this strange fit of hers, you know."
"Well, it seems awfully mean to say it," said poor Bessie, "when you"ve been so lovely to us, but I thought maybe someone had joked about her in some way. You know she sometimes p.r.o.nounces words in a funny fashion, as if she"d only read them, and had never heard anyone speak them. In Hedgeville lots of people used to laugh at her for that. I think that"s why she stopped going to school. And I thought, perhaps, that was what was the matter--"
"It might have happened, of course," said Eleanor, "and without anyone meaning to hurt her feelings. I"d be very careful myself, but some of the other people around the house wouldn"t know, of course. But, no, that won"t explain it, Bessie. Not this time."
"Are you sure, Eleanor!" asked Jamieson.
"Positively," she answered. "Because, after you went off, she was out here with me for quite a long time. Then I was called inside, and I"m quite sure no one from the house saw her at all after that until I found her crying. She"d been outside on the porch all the time--"
"Aha!" cried Jamieson, then. "If no one in the house here talked to her, someone from outside must have done it. Listen, Bessie. She wouldn"t go off that way just from brooding, would she, just from thinking about things?"
"No, I"m quite sure she wouldn"t, Mr. Jamieson. She"s felt bad two or three times since we left Hedgeville, when she got to thinking about her father"s troubles, and everything of that sort. But she"s always told me about it and it hasn"t made her feel just as she seems to now, anyhow."
"Well, then, can"t you see? No one here said anything to her, so it must have been someone who isn"t in the house--someone who spoke to her after you left her out here alone, Eleanor. And I know who it was, too!"
"That nasty looking man you pointed out to me as we were coming along with Mr. Norris?" cried Bessie.
"Yes, indeed--Brack!" said Jamieson. "He"s just the one who would do it, too! Oh, I tell you, one has to look out for him! He"s as mean as a man could be and still live, I guess. I"ve heard of more harsh, miserable things he"s done than I could tell you in a week. Whenever he"s around it"s a warning to look out for trouble. Suppose you go up to her, Bessie, and see if mentioning his name will loosen her tongue."
But just as she was entering the house Zara, with only her reddened eyes to show that she had been crying at all, came out on the porch.
"I"m ever so ashamed of myself, Miss Eleanor," she said, smiling pluckily. "I suppose you think I"m an awful cry-baby, but I was just feeling bad about my father and everything, and I couldn"t seem to help it."
Bessie looked at Zara in astonishment. To the eyes of those who didn"t know her as well as Bessie, Zara might seem to be all right, but Bessie could see that her chum was still frightened and weak. She wondered why Zara was acting, for acting she was. She meant that Miss Mercer and everyone should think that her fit of depression had been only temporary, and that now everything was all right. And Bessie, loyal as ever, decided to help her.
But when Charlie Jamieson took his leave again to go back to his office and his interrupted work, he looked at her keenly and when he started to go he took Bessie by the hand playfully and pulled her off the porch, and out of sight of the others.
"Listen," he said, earnestly, "there"s something more than we know about or can guess very easily the matter with your friend, Bessie. She"s been frightened--badly frightened. And it"s dollars to doughnuts that it"s that scoundrel Brack who"s frightened her, too. Keep your eyes on her--see that she doesn"t get a chance to speak to him or anyone else alone."
"Do you think there"s any danger of his coming back?" asked Bessie, alarmed by his serious tone.
"I don"t know, Bessie, but I do know Brack. And I"ve found out this much about him. He"s like a rabbit--he"ll fight when he"s driven into a corner. And the time he"s most dangerous is when he seems to be beaten, when it looks as if he hadn"t a leg to stand on."
"Do you think he"s beaten now, Mr. Jamieson?"
"No, I don"t! And just because he"s the man he is. If it were anyone else, I"d say yes, because I don"t see what they can expect to do. But you can depend upon it that Brack has some dirty trick up his sleeve, and from all you tell me of this man Weeks, he"s the same sort of an ugly customer. So you keep your eyes open, and if anything happens to worry you, call me up right away. Get me at my office if it"s before five o"clock; after that, call up this number." He wrote down a telephone number on a slip of paper and handed it to Bessie.
"That"s the telephone at my home, and if I"m not there myself ask for my servant, Farrell. He"ll be there, and he"ll manage to get word to me somehow, no matter where I am."
"Oh, I do hope I shan"t have to bother you, Mr. Jamieson."
"Don"t you worry about that. That"s what I"m here for, to be bothered, as you call it, if there"s any need of me. Remember that you can"t do everything yourself--and you may only get into trouble yourself without really helping if you try to do it all. So call on me if there"s any need. And, whatever you do, don"t let Zara go out of the house alone on any pretence. Remember that, will you?"
"I certainly will, Mr. Jamieson. You"re awfully good to us, and I know Zara would be grateful, too, if she were herself. She will be as soon as all this trouble is over."
"I know that, Bessie. Don"t you fuss around being grateful to me until I"ve really done something for you. You know, you"re the sort of girl I like. You"ve got pluck, and you don"t get discouraged, like so many girls--though Heaven knows you"ve had enough trouble to make you as nervous as any of them."
"I get awfully frightened. Indeed, I do!"
"Of course you do, but you"ve got pluck enough to admit it. Remember this: the real hero is the man who does what"s right, and what he knows he ought to do, even if he"s scared so that he"s shaking like a leaf. Any fool can do a thing if it doesn"t frighten him to do it, and he doesn"t deserve any special credit for that. The real bravery is the sort a man shows when he goes into battle, for instance, and wants to turn around and run as soon as he hears the bullets singing over his head."
"I"m sure I would want to do just that--"
"But you wouldn"t! That"s the point, you see. And you always think things are going to be all right. That"s fine--because about half the time we can control the things that happen to us. If we think everything will come right in the end, we can usually make them work out our way. But if we start in thinking that nothing is going to be right, why, then we"re licked before we begin, and there"s not much use trying at all. Now, you didn"t say Zara would feel differently if things came out right. You said she would when everything was straightened out. And that"s the spirit that wins. Try to put some more of it into her, and try to make her tell you what happened, too."
But all of Bessie"s efforts to win Zara"s confidence that day were in vain. Zara, however, seemed to be all right. She was brighter and livelier than she had been since Bessie had known her. All day long she laughed and burst into little s.n.a.t.c.hes of song, and Miss Mercer was delighted.
Nevertheless Bessie wasn"t satisfied, and she kept a close watch on Zara all day. It seemed time wasted, however. Zara made no attempt to keep away from her; seemed anxious, indeed, to be with her chum, that they might talk over their plans for winning enough honors as Camp Fire Girls to become Fire-Makers.
Had Bessie"s eyes and her perceptions been less keen she would have thought her first idea, the one she shared with Charlie Jamieson, a mistaken one. But more than once, when Zara thought she was un.o.bserved, and was therefore off her guard, Bessie saw the corners of her mouth droop and a wistful look come into her eyes. There was fear in those eyes, too, though of what, Bessie could not imagine.
It was long after midnight that night when Bessie was aroused, she scarcely knew how. Some instinct led her to turn on the light--and she could scarcely repress a scream when she saw that Zara"s bed was empty!
CHAPTER V.
STRANGE SUSPICIONS.
For a moment she stood in the middle of the room, dazed, wondering what could have happened. The door was closed. Bessie rushed to it, and looked out, but there was no sign of Zara in the hall. She listened intently. The house was silent, with the silence that broods over a well regulated house at night, when everyone is or ought to be asleep. But then there was a noise from outside--a noise that came through the windows, from the street.
Bessie rushed back into the room and over to the window. She knew now that the noise she heard was the same one that had awakened her.
And, looking out of the window, Bessie saw what had made the noise--a big, green automobile, that, even as she looked, was gliding slowly but with increasing speed away from the Mercer house. She stood rooted to the spot, unable to cry out, or to make a move. But somehow, though she could never explain afterward how it happened, since the importance of it did not strike her at all at the time, Bessie managed to get a mental photograph of one thing that was to prove important in the extreme--the number of the automobile, plainly visible in the light of the tail lamp that shone full upon it. The figures were registered in her brain as if she had studied them for an hour in the effort to memorize them--4587.
Then, when the car was out of sight around the corner, Bessie"s power of movement seemed to be restored to her as mysteriously as it had been taken away. Her first impulse was to cry out and arouse the household. But the futility of that soon struck her, and she remembered what Charlie Jamieson had said. If anything happened, if she was frightened, she was to call on him. And certainly something had happened. Of her alarm there could be no doubt. She was shaking like a leaf, as if she were exposed to a cold wind, although the night was hot and even sultry.
Swiftly she sought for and found the telephone number the lawyer had written down for her. Then, in her bare feet, lest she make a noise and arouse the whole household, she crept downstairs to reach the telephone.
"Oh, I do hope they won"t see me or hear me," she breathed to herself. "There"s nothing they can do, and maybe, if I get hold of Mr. Jamieson at once, we can have Zara back before they know she"s gone."
At that hour of the night it was hard work to get the connection she wanted, and Bessie chafed at the delay, knowing that every moment might be precious, were Zara in real danger. But she got the number at last, after Central had tried to convince her no one would answer at such a time.
"What"s happened? Has something gone wrong?" Jamieson asked anxiously as soon as he recognized her voice.
"Oh, I"m terribly afraid it has--and it was all my fault! I was asleep, Mr. Jamieson--and Zara"s gone!"
"By herself, or don"t you know?"
"I don"t know positively, but I think she was taken off in a big automobile. But, Mr. Jamieson, I think she wanted to go!"
"Why, what makes you think that?"
"She"s taken all the things that were given to her. And then, she got out so quietly that I didn"t hear her. If anyone had carried her away, they"d have waked me up, I"m sure."
"That"s bad--if she went away of her own accord. Makes it harder to find her, harder to get her back."
"What shall we do, Mr. Jamieson? You will try to get her back, won"t you, even if she did go with them willingly?"
"Yes, yes, of course! I"ll come out right away. Better not tell the others yet, if you haven"t done it already."
Then Bessie told him about the automobile, and the number she had seen.