第 13 页

“I don’t know until I have talked it over with Mrs. Kingdon.”

“That is very considerate and fair in you,” she commended. “Some way I feel confident she will think I should have another chance. You owe me something. ‘Kind Kurt,’” she continued lightly, with a return of the flippancy that had so jarred him on their first meeting, “suppose I had been weak enough to accept your proposal last night? I knew my lapses too well and was too considerate of your happiness to say ‘yes.’ Suppose I had. Would your sense of honor have been equal to the sacrifice of keeping faith with me? No; I see by your face it would not have been. So you see your love—your man’s love, isn’t great enough for even a thief to consider.”

“Give me the ring,” he said coldly.

“No; I prefer to return it myself. I’ll take my chances with Hebby. Even he isn’t as merciless as you. And as I said, his claim is prior to yours. I never expected to take refuge with Hebby! Where is he now?”

“He has gone to the garage. Wait! You shall not go.”

He put out a detaining arm, under which she ducked and fled nimbly down the stairs and out to the door. She heard him pursuing, but she jumped on Francis’ wheel which stood near and was soon coasting down the driveway to the garage.

“Hebby! Oh—oh, Hebby!” she called to the man sauntering at some distance ahead of her.

“The thief!” he exclaimed as she came up to him and dismounted. “So, at last I’ve found you!”

“Found me! Well, I like that! Here I come chasing after you and doing the finding myself. Really lost your ring this time, Hebby? Didn’t seem like your ‘code’ to mention your loss to so new an acquaintance. Sort of a breach, wasn’t it?”

He flushed shamefacedly, but his discomfiture, short-lived, was succeeded by a broad grin.

“Then it was you who took it! That tall, solemn guy seemed to think he could recover it, but I am more delighted at recovering you than a hundred rings.”

“May I keep it, Hebby?”

“You always said you detested that ring—that it was very parvenu and so forth. But what are you doing up here, and how did you get in with these folks?”

“Can’t a thief break in anywhere? It’s far more surprising how you got in.”

“You’ll not escape me again. You’ll go with me when I leave.”

“Thank you, Hebby. I’m through here. Will you do me a favor?”

“You don’t deserve favors.”

“You never did favor the deserving, you know. Will you tell the ‘tall, solemn guy’ that you have your ring all right? I’ll see you get it. I haven’t it on me. But this is the real favor. No one here, except Mrs. Kingdon and one of the men on the place, knows very much about my chequered career and they only know me by my baptismal name.”

“Which I’m not sure that I know, Meg. You have so many names.”

“I took my own as a perfect disguise. It’s Penelope Lamont.”

“Fine name. I’ll make a note of it for future use. I’ll keep your secret if you’ll not try to run away again. You haven’t told me how you came here.”

“I was—apprehended. But I am not on a thief’s errand. It’s for a reason apart from my other life. You know, Hebby, thieves do have a code of honor.”

“You are the one and only thief! I take off my hat to you. Say, how did that tall guy know you had it?”

“He didn’t. He suspected someone else. You can have it back, Hebby. It’s so garish it puts my eyes out. I didn’t want it. I just wanted to steal it.”

“Ruling passion, Meg.”

“No; you’re way off. Here comes the ‘solemn guy.’ Tell him I found it and returned it to you.”

Just then Kingdon drove around the curve.

“Glad to see you again, Miss Pen. I thought you had forsaken us. I see you’ve made Mr. Hebler’s acquaintance. But I must take him away from you for a while.”

As Hebler got into the car, Kurt came up.

“Oh, Mr. Walters, I’m happy to say I have my ring. Meg—Miss Lamont saw it and took it for a joke on me. Sorry I mentioned it.”

A little wave of remorse swept over Pen for a second as she turned to Kurt and saw the look in his eyes when the two men had driven off.

“He seemed to have an air of proprietorship,” he said jealously. “Has he really a legal right to take you away?”

“Looks that way. Mrs. Kingdon thought so. I never could get legal stuff through my head. It was for an offense committed long ago, but not outlawed. There is something I want to say to you. Last night you asked me to marry you. Don’t look so afraid of the cars! I am not going to sue you for breach of promise. I wouldn’t marry the grandest man living unless he loved me supremely—enough, at least, to overlook the stealing of a ring. Kurt,” she added after a pause, “did it occur to you I might have had a reason for stealing that ring? To put you to the test—your love, I mean—before answering you?”

“Pen—”

“Never mind, now. Jo wouldn’t have gone back on me if he had been my lover. There’s the ideal lover for you. There’s one thing I didn’t try to steal up here—Jo from Marta. Well, it’s all over now, and I am going back—back with Hebby.”

“You are not going away with that man,” he said hotly. “Mrs. Kingdon arrives to-day. She will find a way out.”

“I think not. You don’t know Hebby. I think I want to go with him.”

“You see,” he said looking at her wistfully, “you didn’t love me—”

“Then we’re quits,” she laughed, jumping quickly on the wheel and speeding toward the house.

“The beans are sure spilled now,” she thought, when she had gained her room. “I’ve outwitted Kurt, and I must give Hebby the same treatment, but how can I make my getaway? Hebby in town—and such a small town. They took the racer. The big car is out of commission. Sandy rode to the corral in Kurt’s shebang. No horse leaves the stables without Kurt’s O. K. Oh, for the wings of a dove! There’s my inspiration! I know some better wings than a dove’s. I’ll telephone Larry and literally fly from here.”

She went into Mrs. Kingdon’s room where there was an extension telephone and called up Larry at the hotel. Fortunately he was within call.

“Want to do something for me Larry, dear? Hebby is here! I’m in a mix-up as I generally am. No way out unless you’ll fly to me up here. I mean it. Inquire the way to Westcott’s ranch—the next beyond Top Hill where I am. Land by a big red-roofed barn—only red roof in vicinity. I’ll be there at three this afternoon, and be yours forever after if you’ll have me. I knew I could count on you. This is really serious, Larry. If you love me, don’t fail me.”

She hung up the receiver with a sigh of relief.

“To think of falling back on Larry whom I used to consider a lightweight. He is my last ditch, and then I’m off by the overhill and skyville route. In the meantime I’ll make some manuscript memoirs to leave behind.”

A note to Marta and a shorter one to Jo occupied but a few moments time, but she wrote swiftly and steadily for an hour on a longer one. When she had a bulky package she sealed it and addressed it to Kurt. An explanatory letter to Mrs. Kingdon then followed.

“I’ll have to travel light—a beach comber’s outfit,” she thought as she prepared for departure.

She gave the notes for Jo and Marta to Agatha to be delivered on their return. She had a few moments confidential conversation with Francis, bade the others good-bye and then sped down the road to Westcott’s.

* * *

* * *

CHAPTER XIII

Agatha came out to the driveway to stop the buckboard and deliver the notes.

Marta read the one handed to her as they drove on to the stables.

“What ’tis, honey,” Jo asked in alarm, as he reined up and turned to her.

There was a wild, distraught look in Marta’s eyes, and her face had suddenly turned very pale.

“Oh, Jo! Pen—”

“Wait!” he cautioned, as Gene came out of the stable.

“Unhook for me, will you, Gene?” he asked.

“Now, Marta, what is it?” he again asked anxiously as they were walking back to the house.

“Read your letter, Jo, and see what it says.”

He read aloud:

“DEAR JO: Leaving Top Hill forever by the Excelsior Route. Had to. Never go back on Little Marta. Will see you somewhere, sometime. At four this afternoon, come to Westcott’s red-roofed barn and get Francis’ wheel.

“Yours,

“PENNY ANTE.”

“What has happened to send her off in such skyrocket fashion?” he asked. “What did she say to you?”

“Jo, we must find her at once. Let’s go to Westcott’s the quickest way we can.”

“What is it, Marta?”

“That Mr. Hebler who is visiting here, you know,” said Marta breathlessly. “Well, he missed a diamond ring. He left it on a table near his door—I saw it. When we came back from our walk last night, I went to Miss Lamont’s room. His door was open. A great whopping diamond ring was on the table—and—”

“Yes, Marta,” he said encouragingly, as she paused.

“When she found it was gone, she told Mr. Walters and Mr. Hebler that she took it, so as to protect me. That’s why she has gone.”

“She’s a trump! Read me her note, Marta.”

“DEAR LITTLE MARTA:

“You must do just as I say. I told Mr. Walters and Mr. Hebler I took the ring. Give it to Mr. Hebler and tell him I left it with you to hand to him. Never do it again, Marta. Jo is worth a whole mine of diamonds. When I am safely and far away, will let you hear from me.

“With Love,

“PEN.”

“Some girl!” exclaimed Jo. “But she isn’t as keen as I thought, or she’d have known you didn’t take the ring.”

“Jo, do you believe—”

“Shucks, honey! I know you didn’t. I wouldn’t believe you did if I saw you take it. Here, little girl—”

He stopped, put his arm around her, lifted the little face and kissed the tears from it.

“What’s matter with you?”

“Jo, I didn’t take it!”

“Don’t I know you didn’t, honey!”

“It’s nice in you to know it, Jo. But—suppose, I had taken it—”

“I’d have given it back and rustled around till I could have bought you the biggest diamond in Chicago.”

“Who do you suppose did take it, Jo?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he never lost it.”

“Wasn’t it grand in her to take the blame?”

“Yes,” he admitted grudgingly, “but I don’t like her thinking you took it.”

“But, Jo. Of course she would think it was I, and—I remember now—when I saw that diamond I thought how easy it would be for anyone to lift it, and then when I was in her room, I hardly heard a word she said because I was thinking, ‘It’s Jo! It’s Jo’s love that’s made me different,’ and then I got scared thinking that I might want to take it, and how awful it would have been if I had never met you and loved you. I got up and walked right out of the room so I could be alone and think about you. It must have looked queer to her the way I acted—till she found the ring had been taken.”

“I’ll see Kurt,” said Jo, “and tell him about it, and he will find her.”

“What’s that sound?” interrupted Marta, looking about her in a puzzled way. “I’ve heard it before somewhere. Oh, I know! It’s an airship.”

They looked up and, for the moment, lost all interest in things below.

“Holy Smoke!” exclaimed Jo. “First one I ever saw! Gene said there was one in town a few days ago. Look! It’s coming down corkscrew style! It’s going to land there by Westcott’s!”

* * *

* * *

CHAPTER XIV

Down the road from the corral, Kurt chugged homeward in his crude little car. He had the manner of one whose heart is heavy, but whose resolution was still invincible.

A strange unaccustomed sound, a faint, far-away buzzing made him glance upward. Two sharp winged points were skimming through the air. He felt a thrill—the thrill of the unknown. He knew it must be one of the craft, foreign as yet to the hill country. In the distance he saw it swirl, loop and maneuver, spiral gracefully downward, skim the earth lightly, rise again and then descend from sight hidden by one of the hills.

In a few moments he saw it ascending again. It passed over him—so high up that it seemed but of bird size.

He was startled—lifted momentarily and dazedly from his plodding existence.

He had read of these ships of the air, but their reality had not been borne in on him until now.

He went on to the house. Three children rushed at him with football fury.

“Attaboy!” he cried, catching up Billy. “What is it?”

“Mother is in town with father and Mr. Hebler. Father just telephoned—”

Kurt had the feeling of something lifted—of help at hand.

“And,” continued Francis placidly, “father said you were to take us to town in the big car and we’ll all have dinner at the hotel and come back together. And he said to bring Aunt Pen. But you can’t now.”

“Run up to her room, Francis, and tell her I want to speak to her.”

“Aunt Pen has gone,” said the boy soberly.

“Gone! When—where?”

“I don’t know. She kissed us good-bye and she gave me a letter to give to you at dinner time.”

“Give it to me now, Francis.”

“No; she said she trusted me, and I told her I wouldn’t give it to you till she said.”

“Come with me, Francis,” said Kurt, drawing him away from the other children. “I want to talk to you as man to man. We must always protect women, you know. Your Aunt Pen went away because she thought it best for her. It isn’t best. Your mother is her best friend, and if she had been here, she wouldn’t have let her go. If I had the letter, you see, I might be able to find where she had gone. Then I could ask her to come back.”

Francis looked up at him oddly and said in his little, old-man fashion:

“Maybe it would be best, but father says that a real man never breaks his word to a woman.”

Kurt flushed slightly.

“I take off my hat to you, Francis. You are right.”

Not believing that Pen would start out on foot, he went down to the garage. The cars were all accounted for. A visit to the stables proved the same as to the horses.

On his way back to the house, he met Betty, who said to him in a stage whisper.

“Uncle Kurt, Aunt Penny is going to France. She went by way of Westcott’s. Is that the way to France? Don’t tell Francis I told. She is going to help the French and the Beligum babies.”

“Thank you very much, Betty.”

This was a clue. She had doubtless started toward Westcott’s expecting to get a lift to town. If no one had picked her up en route, he could easily overtake her in the big car, which Gene had now repaired.

“Go and tell the boys to get ready, Betty.”

Betty sped gleefully away.

“Oh, Mr. Walters!” hailed Mrs. Merlin, coming from the house, “when you see Mr. Hebler, tell him I put his diamond ring away. I’m awfully forgetful. I—”

“You put his diamond ring away? Where?” asked Kurt faintly.

“It was like this. I couldn’t get to sleep last night because a window was rattling in the hall, so I got up and went out to fix it. When I passed by Mr. Hebler’s door, I saw his diamond ring on a table near the door. Ain’t it awful how careless folks are! I opened a drawer in the table and slipped it in, and I clean forgot all about it till a little while ago. Maybe he’s got it on by this time, though.”