"But the ribbon--why should that be in his car?"
"Let me see it."
She handed him the ribbon, and he looked at it carefully.
"Why, that doesn"t seem to be very promising evidence, Bessie," he said. "I suppose you could find ribbon like that in any dry goods store almost anywhere. Thousands of girls must have pieces just like it. Even if it is just the same as the one Zara wore, that doesn"t prove anything. You"d have to have more evidence than that. However, I"ll keep it in mind. You never can tell what"s going to turn up, and I suppose it"s easily possible to imagine stranger things than Mr. Holmes being mixed up in this affair. Well, you can depend upon it that everything possible is being done, and no one could do more than that. I wish I knew more, that"s all."
So did Bessie, and she was thinking hard as they left his office and made their way toward some of the shops in which, the day before, she had so longed to be. Feminine instinct has more than once proved itself superior to masculine logic, and although both Jamieson and Eleanor seemed inclined to laugh at her, Bessie felt that she was right--that Mr. Holmes, in some queer way, was intimately concerned in the web in which she and Zara seemed to be caught.
She couldn"t pretend to explain, even to herself, the manner in which he might be affected, but of the main fact she was sure. She knew that her memory had not deceived her; she had seen the man in Hedgeville. And the fact that he had deliberately lied about that seemed to her good evidence that he had something to conceal.
He knew Farmer Weeks. And in some fashion Farmer Weeks was intimately bound up with the affairs of Zara and her father. Everything that had happened since their flight from Hedgeville proved that beyond the shadow of a doubt. He had run great risks to get Zara back; although he was such a notorious miser, he had spent a good deal of money. And he was mixed up with Brack.
Suddenly a thought came to Bessie. Zara"s father! He must know. And if he did, wasn"t there a chance that he might be willing to talk to her, if she could only manage to see him? He distrusted Charlie Jamieson evidently, since he had refused to talk to him just when the lawyer had been sure that he was going to get some facts that would throw light on the mystery. But with Bessie he might well take a different stand. He had seen her in the country; he knew that she was a friend of Zara.
"Miss Eleanor," said Bessie, quickly, "I"ve got an idea and I wish you would let me talk to Mr. Jamieson about it. Will you, please--and by myself? You"re angry still at Zara and her father, and perhaps you"d think I was all wrong."
"I"m not exactly angry, Bessie," said Eleanor. "I was hurt, but I"m beginning to see that very likely I am wrong, and that they were honestly mistaken, not deliberately ungrateful. At any rate, if Charlie Jamieson can stand the way Zara"s father treats him, I guess I don"t need to worry about it."
"Then may I go?"
"Yes, and hurry, or you"ll find that he"s left his office. You won"t be long, will you?"
"No, indeed; only a few minutes. Will you be here in this store, Miss Eleanor, when I come back?"
"Yes, I"ll meet you at the ribbon counter."
"Thank you, thank you ever so much, Miss Eleanor! I"ll hurry just as much as I can, and I certainly won"t be long."
Then she was off, and luckily enough she found that the lawyer had not yet gone. He listened to her suggestion with a smile.
"By George," he said, when she had finished, "maybe you"ve hit the right idea, Bessie, at that! I"m afraid I can"t manage it today, but I"ll take you to the jail myself in the morning, and see that you get a chance to talk to him. I doubt if he"ll say anything, he"s either obstinate or badly frightened. But it"s worth the chance, if you don"t mind going to the jail to see him. It"s not a very nice place, you know."
Bessie laughed.
"I"d do worse than that if I thought I could help Zara, Mr. Jamieson," she said. "Do you know I"ve got the strangest feeling that she"s in trouble? It"s just as if I could hear her calling me and as if she were sorry for leaving us, and wanted to be back."
Jamieson smiled grimly.
"I think the chances are that she"s feeling just about that way," he said. "She certainly ought to be--if we"re at all near to guessing the people she"s gone with. They won"t treat her as well as the Mercers, I"ll be bound."
"That"s what I"m afraid of, too," said Bessie.
Then thanking him for his promise she made her way to the street, and started to go back to the store where she had left Eleanor. But she was intercepted. And, to her amazement, the person who checked her, as she was walking swiftly along the crowded street, was Jake Hoover.
""Lo, Bessie," he said shamefacedly, as she started with surprise at the sight of him. "Say, you"re pretty in them new clothes of your"n. I"d never "a" known you."
"I wish you hadn"t, then," said Bessie, with spirit. "I"m through with you, Jake Hoover! You won"t have me around home any more, to take the blame for all your wickedness. When things happen now they"ll know whose fault it is--and maybe they"ll begin to think that you may have done some of the things I used to get punished for, too."
"Aw, now, don"t get mad, Bessie," he said, trying to pacify her. "This here"s the city--"tain"t Hedgeville! Maybe I was mean to you sometimes back home, Bessie, but I was jest jokin". Say, Bess, here"s a gentleman wants to talk to you. He"s a lawyer an" a mighty smart man. An" he thinks he knows somethin" about your father and mother."
Another figure had loomed up beside that of Jake, and Bessie was hardly surprised to find that it was Brack who was leering at her.
"He"s right. I know something about them," he said. "There"s precious little old Brack don"t know, my dear--an" that"s a fact you can bet your last dollar on."
He chuckled, and made a movement as if he intended to take Bessie"s hand, but she brushed his claw-like hand away with a motion of disgust.
"I haven"t got time to be talking to you now," she said, decisively. "If you know anything you think I ought to be told, tell it to Mr. Jamieson."
"Oh, ho, tell it to him, eh!" he said. "Maybe you"d better be careful, girl! Maybe you wouldn"t like everyone to know why your parents had to run away and leave you in such a hurry. Maybe they"re in prison, and deserve to be. How"d you like to have people hear that, eh!"
"I wouldn"t like it, but I don"t believe it"s true!" said Bessie, scornfully. "Not for a minute!" And she pressed on, but Brack followed and walked close beside her.
"Remember this--you"ll never see them again, except through me," he said, malevolently.
CHAPTER VII.
OFF TO THE FARM.
The next morning Bessie was doomed to be disappointed. She had looked forward confidently to seeing Zara"s father, and had come to believe that there was a good chance for her to clear away some of the mystery that hung so heavily over Zara"s affairs, even though she made no great progress toward straightening out her own confused ideas regarding herself and the reason for the disappearance of her parents. But, instead of the telephone call to Jamieson"s office, for which she had waited with poorly concealed impatience from breakfast until nearly noon, she had a visit from Jamieson himself. The lawyer looked discouraged.
"Bad news, Bessie," he said, as soon as he saw her. She was waiting for him on the porch, and her eyes lighted with eagerness as soon as she saw him coming. "They"ve stolen a march on me."
"Why, how do you mean? Won"t I be able to see Zara"s father, after all?"
"Not just yet. Brack is cleverer than I thought. He"s got a lot of political pull, and he got hold of a judge I thought was above stooping to anything wrong. So he was able to get this judge to sign an order putting him in my place as lawyer for Zara"s father. The only way you can see the prisoner now is for Brack to give you permission, and if I know Brack, that"s the last thing he"ll do."
Bessie showed her discouragement.
"I"m afraid you"re right there," she said. "I saw him yesterday, after I left you."
"You did? Whew! There"s something queer here, Bessie. Now, try to remember just what was said and tell me all about it."
It was not hard for Bessie, guided by a few questions from Jamieson, to do that, and in a few moments she had supplied him with a complete review of her interview with the shyster, Brack, He nodded approvingly when she had finished.
"You did just right," he said, cheerfully. "I guess Mr. Brack won"t get much change out of you, Bessie. There"s one thing sure, you managed to acquire a lot of sense while you lived in Hedgeville. The sort we call common sense, though I don"t know why, because it"s the rarest sort of sense there is. Keep on acting just like that when people ask you questions and try to get you to tell them things."
"Do you think anyone else is likely to do that, Mr. Jamieson?"
"You can"t tell. I"m all in the dark, you see. This thing acts just like a Chinese puzzle. They"re simple enough when you know how to fit the pieces together, and you wonder why they ever stumped you. But until you do guess them--" He stopped, with a comical shrug of his shoulders to indicate his helplessness and his bewilderment, and Bessie laughed.
Then Eleanor came out, and the story of Brack"s shrewdness had to be told to her.
"What are you going to do now?" she asked.
Jamieson threw up his hands with a laugh.
"Wait--and keep my eyes open," he said. "I"m going to act as if I"d lost all interest in the case. That may fool Brack. Our best chance now, you see, is to wait for the other side to make a mistake. They"ve made some already; the chances are they"ll do it again. Then we can nab them. What I want to do is to make them think they"re quite safe, that they needn"t be afraid of us any more."
"You won"t need Bessie, then, right away?"
"No. Really, she worries me. I feel as if she weren"t safe here. They seem to be afraid of her, and I wouldn"t put it past them to try to get hold of her and keep her where she can"t do any talking until they"ve done what they want to do."
"But, Charlie, they must know that she"s told us everything she knows already. Why should they want to take her away now?"
"If I knew that I could answer a lot of other questions, too. But here"s a guess. Suppose she knows something without knowing at all what it means, or how important it is? That might easily be. She might be able to clear up the whole mystery with some single, seemingly unimportant remark. They may have good reason to know she hasn"t done it yet, but they may also be afraid that, at any time, she will entirely by accident give away their whole game. And I"ve got an idea that if their game ever is exposed, someone will be in danger of going to jail. See? I"d like to figure out some good safe place for Bessie, where she"d be out of the way of all their tricks."
Eleanor clapped her hands.
"Then I"ve got the very place!" she said. "This business has upset the plans I"d made, but now I"m going to take my Camp Fire Girls down to dad"s farm in Cheney County. You laughed at me when I was made a Camp Fire Guardian, Charlie, but you"re going to see now what a fine thing the movement is."
"I didn"t mean to laugh at you, Eleanor," he said, contritely. "And I got over doing it long ago, anyhow. I used to think this Camp Fire thing was a joke--just something got up to please a lot of girls who wanted to wear khaki skirts and camp out because their brothers had joined the Boy Scouts and told them what a good time they were having."
"That"s just like a man," said Eleanor, quietly triumphant. "None of you think girls can do anything worth while on their own account. The Camp Fire Girls didn"t imitate the Boy Scouts, and they"re not a bit like them, really. We haven"t anything against the Boy Scouts, but we think we"re going to do better work among girls than even the Scout movement does among boys. Well, anyhow, we"re going down to the farm, and Bessie shall go along. If anyone tries to kidnap her while she"s with the girls, they"ll have a hard time. We stick together, let me tell you, and Wohelo means something."
"You needn"t preach to me, Eleanor," said the lawyer, laughing. "You converted me long ago. I"ll stand for anything you do, anyhow. You"re all right--you"ve got more sense than most men. It"s a pity there aren"t more girls like you."
"That"s rank flattery, and it isn"t true, anyhow," laughed Eleanor. "But if I am any better than I used to be, it"s because I"ve learned not to think of myself first all the time. That"s what the Camp Fire teaches us, you see. Work, and Health, and Love, that"s what Wohelo means. And it means to work for others, and to love others, and to bring health to others as well as to yourself. Come down to the farm while we"re there, and you"ll see how it works out."
Jamieson got up.
"I probably will," he said, smiling as he held out his hand in farewell. "I"ll have to come down to consult my client, you see."
"And you"ll let us know if there"s any news of Zara, Mr. Jamieson, won"t you?" said Bessie. "I love the idea of going to the farm, but I rather hate to leave the city when I don"t know what may be happening to Zara."
"You can"t help her by staying here," said the lawyer, earnestly. "I"m quite sure of that. And I really think she"s all right, and that she"s being properly treated. After all, it"s pretty hard to carry a girl like Zara off and keep her a prisoner against her will. It would be much better policy to treat her well, and keep her contented. It"s quite plain that she thought she was going with friends when she went, or she would have made some sort of a row. And their best policy is to keep her quiet."
"But they didn"t act that way before we got away from Hedgeville--clear away, I mean," said Bessie. "Farmer Weeks caught her in the road, you know, and locked her in that room the time that I followed her and helped her to get away through the woods."
"Yes, but that was a very different matter, Bessie. In that state Weeks had the law on his side. The court was ready to name him as her guardian, and to bind her over to him until she was twenty-one. In this state neither he nor anyone else, except her father, has any more right to keep her from going where she likes than they have to tell me what I must do--as long as we obey the law and don"t do anything that is wrong."
"Then you think she"s well and happy?"
"I"m quite sure of it," said Jamieson heartily. "This isn"t some foreign country. It"s America, where there are plenty of people to notice anything that seems wrong or out of the ordinary; And if they were treating Zara badly, she"d be pretty sure to find someone who would help her to get away."
"Yes, this is America," said Bessie, thoughtfully. "But you see, Zara has lived in countries where things are very different. And maybe she doesn"t know her rights. After all, you know, she thinks her father hasn"t done anything wrong, and still she"s seen him put in prison and kept there. What I"m afraid of is that she"ll get to think that this is just like the countries she knows best, and be afraid to do anything, or try to get help, no matter what they do."
"Well, we mustn"t borrow trouble," said Jamieson, frowning slightly at the thoughts Bessie"s words suggested to him. "We can"t do anything more now, that"s sure. Have a good time, and stop worrying. That"s the best legal advice I can give you right now."
Once her mind was made up, Eleanor acted quickly. The outing at her father"s farm, which was not at all like the Hoover farm in Hedgeville of which Bessie King had such unpleasant memories, was one that had long been promised to her girls, and she herself had been looking forward to going there. The troubles of Bessie and Zara had almost led her to abandon the idea of going there herself, and she had arranged for a friend to take her place as Guardian for a time. Now, however, she sent word to all her girls, and that very evening they met at the station and took the train for Deer Crossing, the little station that was nearest to the farm.
"They"ll meet us in the farm wagons," said Eleanor, when the girls were all aboard. "So we"ll have a ride through the moonlight to the farm--the moon rises early to-night, you know."
It was a jolly, happy ride in the train, and Bessie, renewing her acquaintance with the Camp Fire Girls, who had seemed to her and Zara, when they had first seen them, like creatures from another world, felt her depression wearing off. They had a car to themselves, thanks to the conductor, who had known Eleanor Mercer since she was a little girl, and as the train sped through the country scenes that were so familiar to Bessie, the girls laughed and talked and sang songs of the Camp Fire, and made happy plans for walks and tramps in the country about the farm.
"It"s just like the country around Hedgeville, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie, as the Guardian stopped beside the seat she shared with her first chum among the Camp Fire Girls, Minnehaha. "The houses look the same, and the stone fences, and--oh, everything!"
"I wonder if you aren"t a little bit homesick, down in your heart, Bessie?" laughed Miss Mercer. "Come, now, confess!"
"Perhaps I am," said Bessie, wonderingly. "I never thought of that. But it"s just for the country, and the cows and the animals, and all the things I"m used to seeing. I wouldn"t go back to Maw Hoover"s for anything."
"You shan"t, Bessie. I was only joking," said Eleanor, quickly. "I know just how you feel. I"ve been that way myself. When you get away from a place you begin very quickly to forget everything that was disagreeable that happened there, and you only remember the good times you had. That"s why you"re homesick."
"We"ll be able to take walks and go for straw rides here, won"t we, Wanaka?" asked Minnehaha. She used Eleanor"s fire name, Wanaka, just as Minnehaha was her fire name; her own was Margery Burton.
"You"ll have to, if you expect to be in fashion," laughed the Guardian. "And you shall learn to milk cows and find eggs and do all sorts of farm work, too. I expect Bessie will want to laugh often at you girls. You see, she knows all about that sort of thing, and you"ll all be terrible greenhorns, I think."
"I ought to know about a farm," said Bessie. "I lived on one long enough. And I don"t see why I should laugh at the rest of the girls. They know more about the city now than I ever will know. I"ve been there long enough to find that out, anyhow."
Just then the conductor put his head inside the door, and called "Deer Crossing!"
As the train slowed up, all the girls made a rush for their bags and bundles, and five minutes later they were standing and watching the disappearing train, waving to the amused conductor and trainmen, who were all on the platform of the last car. Then the train disappeared around a curve, and they had a chance to devote their attention to the two big farm wagons that were waiting near the station, each with its team of big Percherons and its smiling driver. The drivers were country boys, with fair, tousled hair, and both wore neat black suits. At the sight of them Eleanor burst into a laugh.
"Why, Sid Harris--and you, too, Walter Stubbs!" she cried. "This isn"t Sunday! What are you doing in your store clothes, just as if you were on your way to church?"
Both the boys flushed and neither of them had a word to say.
"Did you get mixed up on the days of the week!" Eleanor went on, pitilessly.
All the girls were enjoying their confusion, and black-eyed Dolly Ransom, the tease of the party, laughed aloud.
"I bet they never saw so many girls together before, Miss Eleanor," she said, with a toss of her pretty head. "That"s why they"re so quiet! They probably don"t have girls in the country."
"Don"t they, just!" said Eleanor, laughing back at her. "Wait until you see them, Dolly. They"ll put your nose out of joint, the girls around here. If you think you"re going to have it all your own way with the boys out here, the way you do so much at home, you"re mistaken."
Dolly tossed her head again. She looked at the confused, blushing boys on the wagons, who could hardly be expected to understand that Dolly was only teasing them, and wanted nothing better than a perfectly harmless flirtation.
"They"re welcome to boys like those," she said airily. "I"ll wait until I get home, Miss Eleanor."
Then she turned away, and Eleanor, her face serious for a moment, turned to Bessie.
"She"ll wait until she"s grown up, too, if I"ve got anything to say about it," she said. "Bessie, when Zara comes back, of course you"ll be with her mostly. But I wish you"d make a friend of Dolly Ransom,--a real friend. Her mother"s dead, and she has no sisters."
"I hope I can," said Bessie, simply. "I like her ever so much."
CHAPTER VIII.