"Then you came to Clover Cottage?" suggested Cora, smiling at the two girls.
"Yes, we came here the first night. After that we got work in the motion picture show."
"And was it your nose I almost burned off?" asked Ed. "I beg--your--pardon," and he made a courtly bow to Nellie.
"Yes. That was a great trick," said Rose. "We almost killed ourselves trying to hide that night. We managed to walk right past you, though, without your knowing us."
"And were you the "carrier pigeon?"" asked Belle. "It was you, of course, who came up in the automobile, played ghost, and hung the note on the lamp?"
"Oh, yes. The manager of the show wanted us to stay on, and we felt so dreadful that Nellie told him something about our trouble. Then he said he would drive us out to the cottage if we wanted to leave a message. He wrote the note for us, and Nellie crept in and hung it where she said you would be sure to see it."
"We saw it, all right," commented Jack, smiling broadly.
"And so they thought we took the old earrings," spoke up Rose indignantly.
"Well, it did look bad," said the detective, "since you had thrown the case away."
"As if we would steal!" snapped Nellie, her pretty eyes flashing.
"When we saw that story in the newspaper we had to run away again,"
sighed Rose. "Oh, it was dreadful!"
"But I was determined from the first that I would find you," said Jack mischievously, "and you see--I did."
"No, I did!" burst out Andy.
"Hush there, boy! Didn"t I find you?" asked Jack.
"Well, we are found, anyhow," commented Nellie, "and I don"t want to be lost again. But who got the earrings?"
"Me for the jig!" shouted Andy. "Now I come in. You see," and he straightened up, and thrust his hands in his pockets as he always did when he had anything important to divulge, "I gave the young lady the card. I gave her the tip about the cops. I piped off old lady Schenk and Ramsy, and say! You ought to see them tear around Chelton when they found everybody in the game had cleared out!"
Andy stopped to laugh. The others laughed without stopping.
"And then--golly! If me mother didn"t do the old lady"s wash again just because there was a strike at the patch. And--then----She finds the sparklers tied up tight in an old rag of a handkerchief!"
"Your mother found them!" all the girls present asked in accord.
"Sure thing!" replied Andy.
"And Andy knew enough to fetch them to me," said the detective. "That is how he came to get the hundred dollars reward!"
"Hundred dollars reward!" repeated Rose and Nellie.
"Don"t I look it?" demanded Andy, swinging around to show off to advantage his new clothes.
"You look a couple of hundred," replied Ed. "Say, I"d like to get one like that."
The reporter said something about not having a camera, but Andy did not hear the remark.
"And now," resumed the detective, "what are we to do with these young ladies? We have sufficient evidence to keep them away from Mrs. Ramsy.
She is not a person capable of looking after children. She has all she can do to look after the mighty dollar."
"Oh, if you will only let us work," pleaded Rose. "I know a lot about housework."
"Why, we want some one right away," said Bess. "Our maid has nervous prostration from the fright that those two dreadful Squaton women gave her the day they visited our house after going to Cora"s. Couldn"t you let Rose and Nellie stay right here, officer? We could give them both something to do."
"They certainly can wash dishes nicely," put in Cora, smilingly.
"Why, I don"t see what"s the objection," said the detective. "Of course we will have to have a guardian appointed. Until then they could be placed in charge of your mother!"
Nellie opened her eyes wider than ever. Rose bit her lip to hide her confusion.
"Wouldn"t that be jolly?" said Cora. "I was sure we would be able to manage it all right. Why, you girls will have a good time, after all, at Lookout Beach!"
"You bet they will," declared Andy. "I"m going to stay down here for a few days, and I"ve got some money to spend!"
The reporter arose to go. The detective followed his example.
"We are greatly obliged," said the newspaper man. "I am sure this will make a fine story."
Down the steps of the cottage went the tall detective and the reporter.
"Don"t poke fun at the poor girls," begged Cora of the newspaper man, in a whisper. "They have suffered enough."
"Indeed, and I intend to show up the woman responsible for them running away, rather than to make a spread about the poor things," the reporter a.s.sured her. "Never fear, leave it to me," and with a pleasant smile he departed.
Bess ran upstairs, where her mother was resting. So far, Mrs. Robinson had heard nothing of the ending of the quest after the runaways. Bess quickly told her the whole story, and broached her plan of having Nellie and Rose do the housework at the cottage.
"Indeed, my dear, they shall do nothing of the sort," instantly decided Mrs. Robinson. "They shall learn some useful trade. I will see to it myself." She felt rather flattered, than otherwise, that the fate of the orphan girls rested, somewhat, with her; and she resolved to make the most of her opportunity. The housework at Clover, she said, could be done by any or all of the motor girls.
Rose and Nellie gladly acquiesced in the plan, and thus their shadows were turned to sunshine. Arrangements were made for their board at a cottage where the crippled woman and her daughter, who had been rescued from the surf, had spent a few days. The invalid, after paying a formal call on Mrs. Robinson, to thank the young people for what they had done, went back to her home.
"Well, all"s well that ends the way it ought to," spoke Jack Kimball that night, as they were all gathered on the Clover porch. "But those runaways certainly gave us a chase."
"And to think how strangely it began, and how it unfolded bit by bit,"
remarked Cora.
"It"s all to the----" began Bess.
"Bess!" exclaimed Belle, and Bess subsided, but muttered something under her breath that made Ed and Walter laugh.
"Well, we certainly have had exciting times at Lookout Beach," spoke Ed, after a pause. "May there be more of them."
"Not quite so exciting, please," pleaded Cora. But the Motor Girls were destined to have further adventures, as will be told of in the next book of this series, to be called "The Motor Girls Through New England, Or, Held by the Gypsies." In that volume we shall learn all about a delightful tour and of a happening to Cora Kimball that was far out of the ordinary.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" suddenly exclaimed Jack, leaping to his feet, and striking an att.i.tude.
"Forgot what?" demanded Bess.