Part 31 (2/2)
Cora thought for a moment. Then her face showed quicker than her words that she guessed who might answer those descriptions.
”Sid Wilc.o.x and Ida Giles!” she exclaimed. ”But what motive could they have?”
”Sid Wilc.o.x and Rob Roland are termed the Heavenly Twins, they are so often together. Now, Rob Roland has been the paragraph and the period, so to speak, in this story,” said Jack meaningly.
”But why should Ida stoop to such a thing?”
”Didn't you run over her dining-car one day early this summer?” Jack reminded her. ”Or was it Bess? No matter just who, it was one of the motor girls. And, besides, you did not ask her to go on the run.”
”If I thought Ida Giles knew anything about that book I would go directly to her house and demand an explanation,” said Cora, flus.h.i.+ng.
”Ida is too apt to be influenced by Sid Wilc.o.x. I thought she had seen enough of the consequences of such folly.”
”Oh, Ida is ambitious in that line,” replied the cool, deliberate Jack.
”Well, let us start,” suggested Cora. ”I have quite some ground to cover. Dr. Bennet has agreed to find and fetch Clip.”
”Has, eh? Smart fellow, Doc Bennet! I tried all afternoon yesterday to locate the lithersome Clip. Took a coy little jaunt of two miles afoot--some one said she had a friend out Bentley way, but I did not locate her. Hope Doc has better luck.”
Jack said this in a way that opposed his words to their own meaning.
He evidently meant he hoped Dr. Bennet would not have better luck.
”I am so anxious about the report on Wren,” commented Cora, as they finally started off in Jack's runabout. ”It will mean so much to her mother, and to her, of course.”
”Well, if Clip has had any influence, I should say Wren would turn out an artist's model, physically. Clip has just about lived with the child since you went away. Of course, we had Miss Brown, and if she isn't Brown by nature as well as by name. I wouldn't say so. I never got one single smile to cut across her map.”
”Shall we look for Ed first?” and Cora could not control a most provoking flush that threatened her cheeks.
”Just as you say, lady. But I have not told you--let the last moment be the hardest. Ed has taken to the ram. He is training the ram.
Can't get him away from the ram. Mary's little lamb is a 'bucking bronco' to it.”
”Oh, I have been wondering about that,” said Cora. ”I thought I was to wear the ram's fleece as a sort of real baby-lamb coat next winter.”
”Nothing of the sort, girl. Ed's ramifications are the talk of the town. He is to give an exhibition at college when we get back. A clear case of the lamb and Mary's school days.”
”Well, where shall we hope to find him?” and she glanced at her watch.
”I must find some one soon.”
”Come along. I'll hunt him up. He is likely at this very moment giving Minus his morning ablutions. He called the ram Minus because the animal takes away so much of his time. Joke, eh?”
Jack directed his machine toward the same little creek that figured in my first story of the motor girls, when Ed rescued them from a sorry plight, the Whirlwind having run into a mudhole.
”Now, I'll bet we find him by the brookside with Minus chewing daisies and, incidentally, Ed's stray clothing,” declared Jack.
Along the way people appeared surprised to see Cora, and their greetings were a mixture of query and astonishment.
”There's Ida!” suddenly exclaimed Jack. ”Don't let on you see her. I don't want to stop here to talk to her.”
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