"And Purt Sweet was there?" queried Laura earnestly.
"Mr. Sweet certainly was present, too," said the other girl. "You girls need not be so jealous if we are the only two from Central High that got invited,"
"You can have my share and welcome," said Bobby.
"And mine, too," confessed Jess.
"These interrogations are not inspired by jealousy," laughed Mother Wit.
It was on Friday as the girls gathered for recitations that this conversation occurred. Lily Pendleton was inclined to object to having her intimacy with Hester Grimes inquired into.
"Do you remember what night that party was held, Lily?" asked Laura.
"Why, no. On a Sat.u.r.day night, I believe."
"Quite so. And on a particular Sat.u.r.day night," said Laura.
"You said it!" murmured Bobby.
"I don"t know what you mean!" cried Lily Pendleton.
"But you will before I get through with you," said Laura. "Now, listen! You know about that man who had his leg broken on Market Street?"
"The one the police say Purt ran down with his car?"
"The same."
"Of course I do," Lily cried. "And Purt is as innocent as you are!"
"Granted," said Laura. "Therefore you will help us explain the mystery, and so relieve Purt Sweet of suspicion. For he refuses to say anything himself to the police."
"Why--why----What do I know about it?" demanded Lily.
"Do you know that the party was held the very Sat.u.r.day night the man was hurt?"
"No! Was it?"
"It was. And Purt had his car up there at the Grimes" house."
"Did he? I didn"t know. He went away early, I believe."
"And earlier still a couple of boys, or men, borrowed Purt"s car without his knowing it--until afterward," Laura declared earnestly. "One of those fellows had to catch a train."
"Why, that was Hester"s cousin, Jeff Rounds! He lives at Norridge. Don"t you know?"
"Who was the other fellow?" asked Laura sharply.
"Why--I----Oh! it must have been Tom Langley. He lives next door to Hester. Do you know," said Lily, preening a little, "I think Tom is kind of sweet on Hessie."
"Good night!" moaned Bobby. "What is the matter with him? Is he blind?"
"He must have had very bad eyesight or he would not have run down that poor Mr. Weld on Market Street!" exclaimed Jess tartly.
"What do you mean?" gasped Lily. "Tom Langley has gone away for the winter anyway. He went suddenly----"
"Right after that party, I bet a cooky," cried Bobby.
"Well--ye-es," admitted Lily.
"Scared!" exclaimed Jess.
"The coward!" cried Laura.
"And left poor Purt to face the music," Bobby observed. "Well, old Purt is better than we ever gave him credit for. Now we"ll make him square himself with the police."
It was Mr. Nemo of Nowhere, now Mr. Peyton J. Weld, who had the most to do with settling the police end of Purt Sweet"s trouble. It was some weeks before he could do this, for the shock of his mental recovery racked the man greatly. For some days the surgeon would not let the young folk see their friend whose mind had been so twisted.
"I don"t know but we did more harm than good, Laura," Chet Belding said anxiously, when they discussed Mr. Weld"s condition.
"I don"t believe so," his sister said. "At any rate, we revealed him as Janet"s Uncle Jack, and the discovery has done Mrs. Steele a world of good already."
That the man who, for a time, had forgotten who he was and had forgotten a number of years of his life, finally recovered completely, can safely be stated. His very first outing from the hospital was in Purt Sweet"s car, and the boy drove him first of all to the office of the Chief of Police.
Purt had refused utterly to make trouble for either Hester Grimes" cousin Jeff or for Tom Langley. Mr. Weld a.s.sured the Chief of Police that, although it was Purt"s car that had struck him down on the icy street, Purt had not been in the car at the time.
Nor did the boy of Central High have anything to do with the accident. His car had been borrowed without permission by "parties unknown," as far as Mr. Weld was concerned, and to this day the police of Centerport are rather hazy as to just who it was that stole Purt Sweet"s car and committed the a.s.sault.
"And I feel sort of hazy myself," Jess Morse said, when they were all talking it over at one time. "Mostly hazy about this Man from Nowhere. How did he so suddenly become Janet Steele"s Uncle Jack?"
"And his name "Peyton"?" added Nellie Agnew.
"Why, his middle name was John--they always called him by it at home,"
explained Laura Belding. "And, of course, Janet and her mother knew nothing about the name written on those Osage bank bills. I didn"t suspect the relationship myself.
"But I began to be quite sure that he must have had something to do with the bank for which those bills were issued. And it seemed probable that, as he had so much money with him when he landed in Centerport, that he must be somebody in Osage of wealth and prominence. I wrote secretly to the postmaster at Osage and learned that the president of the Drovers" Levee Bank had gone East on a vacation--presumably to hunt up some relatives that he had not seen for some time."
"Sly Mother Wit!" cried Jess.
"Not such a wonderful thing to do," laughed Laura.
"Not half so wonderful," put in the irrepressible Bobby Hargrew, "as it seemed to the countryman who came to town and stood gazing up at the tall steeple of the cathedral. As he gazed the bell began to toll The hick stopped a pa.s.ser-by and said:
""Tell me, why does the bell ring at this time of day?"
"The other man studied the hick for a moment and then said: "That"s easy.
There"s somebody pulling on the rope.""
"Well," said Nellie, when the laugh had subsided, "I guess Janet and her mother are glad our Laura had such a bright idea."