The on the Farm Part 3 (1/2)

”Oh, that's different!” he exclaimed. ”There's no use my coming to the house then--not right away, at least. I'll find out whose car that is right away--and then perhaps we'll be able to get a clue more quickly. Someone is almost sure to have noticed that number, you see. Policemen have a way of keeping their eyes on car numbers as late as this, just on the chance that there may be something wrong about people who are chasing around in this town when they ought to be in bed. You go back to sleep, if you can. I'll let you know as soon as there's something new.”

”I don't see how I can sleep, Mr. Jamieson. Isn't there something I can do, please? That would make me feel ever so much better, I'm sure.”

”I know, I know! But there isn't a thing you can do to-night. There's precious little I can do, for that matter, myself. You get some rest, so that you'll be fresh and strong in the morning. No telling what may turn up then; and we may need you to do a whole lot. Got to keep yourself in condition, you know. Remember that, always. That's the way to help. Good-night! I'm going to hurry out now and see what I can find out about that car.”

So Bessie went back to her room, and, knowing that the lawyer had given her good advice when he had urged her to rest, she tried hard to go to sleep again. But trying to sleep and actually doing it are very different, and Bessie tossed restlessly for the remainder of the night. The sun, s.h.i.+ning through her window in the early morning, was the most welcome of all possible sights, and she got up and dressed, glad that the night of inactivity was over, and that the time for action, if action there was to be, was at hand.

Eleanor was shocked and frightened when she heard what had happened.

”I'm sorry you didn't wake me, Bessie,” she said. ”It must have been dreadful for you, waiting for morning all alone up there. We could have talked, anyhow, and sometimes that helps a good deal.”

”Well, I didn't see any use in spoiling the night for you and I'd have stayed awake anyhow, I think, even if I hadn't been alone. So there was no use keeping you up and awake, too.”

”I'll telephone at once and see if anything has been found out, Bessie. Then we'll know better what to do. But I'm afraid there's not much that we can do--not just now.”

Jamieson was not in his office, or at his home, when Eleanor telephoned. But when she stopped to think she realized that he was almost certain to be busy in his search for some clue to the missing girl.

”Come with me. Let's go down town,” she said to Bessie. ”I want to get some things for you, anyhow, and anything is better than sitting around the house here, just waiting for news. That's terrible. Don't you think so?”

”Yes, indeed. But suppose some news came when we were out?”

”Oh, we can easily telephone to the house and then, if there should be a message, we can get it right away, you see. I'll tell them here to write down any message that comes, and we'll telephone every fifteen minutes or so.”

”Shall we see Mr. Jamieson while we're down town?”

”Yes, we will. That's a good idea. It will save his time, too, and there may be something he wants us to do.”

So they started. Eleanor wanted to walk. But before they had gone very far a big automobile drew up along the sidewalk, and a cheery, pleasant man, middle aged, with a smiling face, and white hair, though he seemed too young for that, hailed them.

”h.e.l.lo, Miss Mercer!” he said: ”Jump in, won't you? I'll take you wherever you want to go. I've got lots of time--nothing in the world to do, and I'm lonely.”

”Why, thank you very much, Mr. Holmes,” said Eleanor, smiling at him. ”This is my new friend, Bessie King, Mr. Holmes. Mr. Holmes is one of our family's oldest and best friends.”

”Well, well, this is very nice!” he said. ”I'd better be careful, though, or I'll have all the young fellows in town down on me, when they see an old codger like me driving two pretty young ladies around. Where shall we go, eh?”

”If you're really not in a hurry, Mr. Holmes,” said Eleanor, ”I wish you would take us down town by the long way around. I'd like Bessie to see the river and the Kent Bridge.”

”Splendid!” said Mr. Holmes. ”That's fine! You see, they say I'm a back number, now that I don't know how to run my store any more. I guess they're right, too. I just seem to be in the way when I go down there. So I stay away as long as I can find anything else to do.”

Eleanor laughed, but Bessie somehow felt that the jovial words didn't ring true. There was a strange look in the eyes of their kindly host, and despite her attempts to convince herself that she was foolish, she didn't like him. But she enjoyed the ride thoroughly. He took them out of the town, and then, skirting the suburbs by a beautiful road, approached the heart of the business section by a new road that Bessie had not seen before. But then, though he had said, and, indeed, proved, that he was in no hurry, Mr. Holmes began to increase the speed of his car.

”He's going very fast if he's not in a hurry,” suggested Bessie, sure that the driver could not hear in the rush of the wind made by the car's speed.

Eleanor laughed merrily.

”He always does everything in a hurry,” she said. ”This is the fastest car in town, and before automobiles got so popular, Mr. Holmes had the fastest horses. He just likes to go quickly. That's why his business was so successful, they say.”

Just then the car stopped, and Holmes, laughing, turned to them.

”I heard that,” he said. ”After all, what's the harm? It would have taken you an hour to get down town if you'd walked all the way, wouldn't it, Miss Eleanor?”

She nodded.

”All right, then, I'll get you there as soon as that, and have time for a bit of a spin in the country, as well. We'll go pretty fast, so just put on these goggles, young ladies, and you'll have no trouble getting specks in your eyes. I'll do the same. I really intended to drive slowly today--that's why I haven't got mine on. But somehow, when I get a wheel between my hands, I can't drive slowly; it isn't in me, somehow!”

He handed them their goggles, and then put on his own, and changed his soft hat, which had two or three times threatened to blow off, for a cap that would stay on in any wind. And, as he faced them, Bessie had all she could do to suppress a sharp cry of amazement, and she was more than thankful for the goggles that partly concealed her start of surprise and dismay. For the sight of Holmes, thus equipped, had recalled something that seemed in a way, at least, to explain her feeling of distrust and dislike.

Eleanor saw that Bessie was troubled, even though Holmes was ignorant of the sensation he had caused, and, as soon as the car was moving at high speed again, she leaned over close.

”What is it, Bessie! What startled you so?”

”I'll tell you later, Miss Eleanor,” whispered Bessie. ”I'm not sure enough yet--really I'm not! But as soon as I am, I'll tell you all I know.”

Mr. Holmes was as good as his word. He brought them into the central part of the town just at the time he had promised, and sprang out to open the door of the tonneau for them.

”Must you really go now?” he said, dejectedly. ”You'll be leaving me all alone, you know. Can't you finish your shopping, and then let me run you out to Arkville for luncheon?”

”You speak as if it were just across the street,” laughed Eleanor. ”And you know, Bessie, it's really fifty miles or more away, and it's actually over the state line. It's in your old state--the same one Hedgeville is in. But it's in a different direction, and it's even further from Hedgeville than we are here, I guess. Isn't it, Mr. Holmes?”

”I'd have to know just where Hedgeville is to answer that, Miss Mercer. And I've never been there nor even traveled through it, so far as I can remember. I'll look it up on my road map, though, if you like--”

”Oh, no, please don't bother to do that. It's not of the slightest importance.”

”Then we shall have to put off Arkville to another day, you think, Miss Mercer?”

”I'm afraid so, really. We've a good deal to do today, and there are reasons that I won't bother you with for our having to be in town. Thank you ever so much for the ride.”

”Yes, thank you ever so much,” echoed Bessie.

They were near Charlie Jamieson's office, and, as the car turned and disappeared in the ma.s.s of traffic, Bessie clutched Eleanor's arm.

”Oh, do come quickly, Miss Eleanor, please! Look at this. Don't you think we ought to tell Mr. Jamieson about it right away?”

She held out a piece of ribbon, torn and stained. It was not large, but there was enough of it to identify it easily. And, as Eleanor looked at it, she remembered faintly having seen it before.

”What is that? Where did you find it?” she asked, puzzled.

”It's the ribbon Zara wore in her hair, and I found it in the car. It fell on the floor when he opened the door for us to get out--it must have been caught there. And do you remember, we got in on the other side, so that that door wasn't opened then?”

Eleanor looked more puzzled than ever.

”I don't see how that can be Zara's ribbon,” she protested. ”What would she have been doing in Mr. Holmes' car? It's just an accident, Bessie. It's just a coincidence that that ribbon should be there. It might have belonged to someone else--I'm sure it did, in fact.”

”Oh, please, please, I know!” said Bessie. ”Won't you let me tell Mr. Jamieson about it!”

”Oh, yes, course, but he'll say just what I do, Bessie. You mustn't let this affect you so that you get nervous and hysterical, Bessie. That's not the way to help Zara.”