Part 18 (1/2)

”Rob Roland,” she said calmly, ”my friend, Miss Thayer, is not only a lady, but she is also a student of human ills. She has been interested in little Wren that she might be cured. It appears that some of her relatives consider her incurable.”

”Cured!” he sneered. ”That misfit made right! Why, she has only a few months to live. Your friend is very foolish. She should put her energy on something worth while. And she should be careful how she handles their property. That sc.r.a.pbook, for instance.”

”How dare you, Rob Roland!” exclaimed Cora. ”Miss Thayer says the child has been ill-treated through alleged treatment, and it appears the man who has been treating her was paid by your father.”

”Oh, my!” The fellow sank deeper into his linen coat. ”I had no idea of your dramatic powers, Miss Kimball. I beg a thousand pardons. I never dreamed that the Thayer girl was so close to you. In fact, I rather thought you merely took her up out of charity. Every one in Chelton knows that the Thayers are just poor working-people.”

That was too much for Cora. She stepped to the door of the tea-room with dismissal in her manner. He knew she intended him to leave at once.

”But what I want to know,” he said, deliberately following her, ”is just who this Thayer girl is. It is important that we should know, to go on with the--”

”We!” interrupted Cora. ”Pray, who are 'we'?”

”Why, my father's firm, the lawyers, you know,” he stammered. ”Some day, Miss Kimball, I expect to represent the firm of Roland, Reed & Company.”

Cora turned and looked at him. It was on that very spot that she had turned to Ed--Ed was so like this young man, the same dark, handsome youth, and just about his age.

But Ed was, after all, so different--so very different.

Cora was gaining time as she strove to hold him by her magnetic glance.

Any youth would accept it; he did not despise it.

”Mr. Roland,” she said, in her own inimitable velvet tones, ”you are making a very great mistake. If you really believe that Cecilia Thayer had anything to do with the loss of that child's book, you are wrong; if you think she had any other than humane motives in visiting the child, you are wrong again. Cecilia Thayer--”

”Oh, now come, Cora,” he interrupted. ”You don't mind me calling you Cora? I know the whole scheme. Your brother Jack is--well, he is quite clever, but not clever enough to cover up his tracks.” He grasped Cora's arm and actually dragged her to him. ”Don't you know that Cissy Thayer and Jack Kimball are suspected of abduction? That Wren Salvey has been stolen-stolen, do you hear?”

CHAPTER XVI

A STRANGE MESSAGE

Uproarious laughter from the girls with the wild flowers aroused Cora.

Rob Roland was gone.

Had she fainted? Was that roaring in her ears just awakened nerves?

”Cora! Oh, Cora! We had the most darling time,” Bess was bubbling.

”You should have been along. Such a dear old farmer. He showed us the queerest tables. And he had the nicest son. Cora-- What is the matter?”

”Oh,” lisped Ray, ”another Co-Ed message over the telephone.”

”Cora, dear,” exclaimed Gertrude, ”we should not have left you all alone. Are you ill?”

”Cora! Cora!” gasped Adele.

”Cora, dear!” sighed Tillie.

”Oh, Cora!” moaned Belle. ”What has happened?”