"Why?" asked Cora curiously.
"Because in about one minute you will see her trailer, the insufferable Sid, and I am not in Sid"s humor.
"I would like to speak with Ida," objected Cora. "I really wanted to ask her something."
"Save it," commanded the ungovernable brother. "A thing like that gets better with time."
So they pa.s.sed along, Cora having to be content with a bow and a smile to Ida Giles, who returned both promptly.
"Jack," said Cora, when they were also up to the hill behind which they hoped to find the idler by the brook, "do you know I think I have an actual clue to Wren"s table. An antique man out Breakwater way has an order for one. I am watching that order."
"That"s easy. When you know that Reed has been in and out of the place for some days. That"s the best of being a girl. You can trace around after the most important clues and no one would ever suspect you of knowing what you are after. Now, I rather think when the fete is "pulled off," if I may use the term," and he laughed his apology, "then there will be some doin"s. I just want to see rocky Rob rumpled."
"Let us not delay talking long with Ed," proposed Cora, "for I must be at Hazel"s at one--I am so anxious about Paul."
"About Paul? Why, he"s all right. He"s out and has been to the office," was the brother"s surprising answer. "Didn"t you hear about Mr. Robinson wanting to send him away for his health? Robinson has taken a great fancy to Paul. The stolen doc.u.ment business is also near a climax. I had a fine time trying to keep Clip"s name out of the paper, the day they had the hearing about Wren. You see, I--the great first person--ran into the courtroom just as the judge was dismissing the absurd case set up against Mrs. Salvey. Of course, that was nothing more or less than a trick to get information for the other side. Well, Mr. Robinson was hurrying to court and he has pa.s.sed his running days creditably, I believe when he met me. I took up his run at a moment"s notice, reached the courtroom, waved my hands wildly in the air--"
"Oh, Jack!" interrupted Cora; "don"t be so absurd. You know I am just dying to hear what happened."
"Then don"t die until you do hear," and he slowed up at the hill. "The fact is, I just caught the whole City News force red-handed with a great story about Clip. The reporters had called her the modern Clara, and all that, but I got it away from them. I know one of the best of them, and he agreed, so they all had to. It was a good little story, for the lawyers were matched against a motor girl. That made it interesting from a newspaper viewpoint. h.e.l.lo! Didn"t I tell you?
Say, there, Mr. Foster! Chain up the ram, Ed. We want to approach."
Just as they rounded the hill, Ed could plainly be seen as Jack had foretold--idling by the brook with the ram in the same picture, but at a polite distance from its owner.
"I thought Walter wanted the ram," remarked Cora as they neared the spot where Ed was "getting himself together."
"Oh, he did. But do you remember what the man said about having to put his overcoat on to feed that animal? Well, he wouldn"t even stand for Walter, with or without the ulster. He tried his best raincoat and all, but the ram just went for him. But look how he purrs around Ed--tame as a kitten."
"I am not going to trust him, though," decided Cora. "One experience with Mr. Minus is enough for me. Shout to Ed to come over. I must hurry."
Cora"s invitation to go to Breakwater came almost as a shock, Ed declared, but coming from Cora he would accept. Consequently he hurried the ram to its quarters, and, agreeing to look up Walter, the girl was left to pay her visit to Hazel.
"We fellows will start from here about daybreak," Jack decided, "and we will reach Breakwater about ten o"clock. That"s the time Doc Bennet gave me for the official gun to go off."
It happened that Ed knew the young doctor slightly, so that he took Jack"s urgent "appeal" as coming from the actual host.
"I told you he would be glad to join the Motor Girls" Club," remarked Jack, while Ed was exchanging civilities with Cora. "He"s just been pining around here like a lost--"
"Now, Jack, be square," interrupted the handsome young man, whom Cora thought had actually grown handsomer in the days since she had last seen him. "I never pine. I growl--just plain growl."
"You take me over to Hazel"s, Jack?" asked Cora. "Then you may go along and help look for Walter. I must meet Dr. Bennet at two-thirty.
And then, I wonder, will we be able to get back to Breakwater by six."
She was thinking of her experience coming out to Chelton; also she kept on the lookout for Mr. Reed. He had hinted that there were interesting things developing in Chelton just then. He had said openly that his interest and Cora"s were mutual. Would he again molest her?
With this thought she determined not to get too far away from Jack.
She would have him call at the Hastings" house for her.
And the Roland, Reed & Company lawyers knew that Cora Kimball was a leader among the motor girls the club that had avowed its purpose of finding the book, as well as the table.
All this was complicated and involved, but to the shrewd lawyers, Cora knew the working out of the details was merely a matter of opportunity.
Having failed to prove Wren a subject for some "shut-in" inst.i.tution, these same lawyers were now engaged on another scheme, that of trying to show that the child was detained against her will, and was actually in the possession of Cora Kimball.
Jack had told Cora all this, trying to make it a matter of small importance, and laughing at Rob Roland"s initial performance, as Jack put it; but Cora felt that it was no laughing matter, and that at least the happiness of two persons--Mrs. Salvey and her delicate little daughter--was involved.
Cora and Jack were on the road, and Jack had cranked up. Ed, having made the ram secure in the field, was about to walk to his own lodgings. Suddenly a flash of red swept across the streak of brown highway. Cora recognized it instantly as Dr. Bennet"s car.
He was coming at such a pace that in drawing up the gears and brakes of his machine protested with unpleasant, grinding sounds.
Dr. Bennet seemed flushed and excited. He began, without any preliminaries, to tell Cora that she must get into his car, and hurry back to Breakwater.
"I have been on the wildest hunt," he said, smiling an acknowledgment to Cora"s introduction to Ed, and bowing to Jack, whom he had met earlier in the day. "I have been all over Chelton, but of course did not expect to locate you out here."
Duncan Bennet possessed that manner which is at once persuasive and at the same time courteous combination of the doctor and the man.
"You see," he continued, "I happened to overhear that you are to be subpoenaed in that Robinson patent case. In fact, I heard Reed say he would have you in an hour, so I determined to beat him back home--get you over the State line before he can serve the papers. Now, you had best jump right in. Clip is waiting for us at Wiltons". We will pick her up and then fly."
"Oh!" gasped Cora, seizing at Jack"s arm. "I am not going to run away.
I will stay right at home--with my brother." Cora was as near crying as any young lady with the reputation of strength of character might safely venture. But Jack knew more of the case than he had confided to her, and he instantly agreed with Dr. Bennet.
"Run along, sis," he advised, with the jollity that makes a brave boy ever a girl"s hero. "I"ll be after you with the others, and it will be no end of fun. Clip"s going, and I"ll try to have Paul and Hazel join--if Paul is fit. Then with Ed and Walter-- Say, we will have the time of our young lives! Get in with Dr. Bennet, and I"ll turn back and stop in front of the ice cream place. Of course, Reed or Roland will come along that way, and of course you will be inside eating frapped subpoenas."
Cora was now climbing in beside Dr. Bennet.
"And that is why that horrid man tried to get me to ride in town with him!" cried Cora. "He wanted to make me take those papers--"
"Certainly," interrupted Duncan. "But we have fooled him thus far. Be sure to come to the show, boys," this to Ed and Jack. "My crowd will be out there to-night, but I suppose we will not see the Chelton throng until to-morrow. Excuse haste--and a bad pen," he added, laughing, while Tom gave a signal on the horn. "This is the time we make a run against the law."
CHAPTER XXVIII
CONFIDENCES
"Now, Tom," called Duncan Bennet to his chauffeur, after Clip had joined Cora, "you had better slow up some. The young ladies may want to find out whether or not they still wear hats." They had ridden fast and far.
"Oh!" exclaimed Clip, "I never had such a delightful ride. I suppose that is what you call being motor mad--going and going until you cannot go fast enough. They say it is a disease, isn"t it, doctor?"
"I believe it is so defined," answered Duncan with mock dignity. "But we are not to talk disease, if you please, young lady," and he smiled a command which might easily be interpreted to mean: "You must rest from that sort of thing for a while."
Cora turned to look back over the dusty road. Her face, usually alive to every mood, was strangely set--as if too anxious to venture a change of expression. Duncan from the front seat saw her look.
"Oh, he is not coming," he said. "No need to worry now. We are across the State line."
"I never was so frightened in my life," admitted Cora. "Not that I was afraid of going to court, but I was mortally afraid we would not be able to make the run in time. I should have known better, however, for Tom had qualified before to-day."