Part 5 (1/2)
”Well, anyway, we thought so. And thinking is the same as speaking. That wish has come true because the homesickness has all gone, hasn't it?”
They were obliged to admit that it had. The adventure had dispelled their doleful vapors.
”We should all unite on the third wish, then,” said Mary, ”seeing that the other wishes were common to everybody.”
”What shall it be, then?” demanded Nancy. ”Quick, before the luck gets by.”
”Foolish child,” said Miss Campbell, ”I believe that little head of yours is cramful of nonsense.”
”You are a doubter, Miss Campbell,” objected Nancy. ”We shall have to banish you from the magic circle if you feel that way. You cast a dark shadow over the spell.”
”Oh, no, dear, don't make me an outsider, I beg of you. I promise not to scoff.”
The truth is, Miss Campbell was slightly superst.i.tious herself.
”But what is to be the wish?” they asked.
”Something we all of us want.”
It is difficult to make one wish common to five separate and distinct individualities.
”I might wish to get my fifty dollars back,” observed Miss Campbell, ”only I don't look for miracles.”
”We might wish for a safe journey to San Francisco,” laughed Billie; ”but that would cover too much ground for one wish.”
”Suppose we wish to see Peter Van Vechten again soon,” suggested Nancy.
Not one of the five ladies who would not have been pleased, secretly of course, to meet once more that strange adventurer of the skies, in spite of the grave suspicion which rested upon him.
”You might ask him for your purse, Cousin Helen,” suggested Billie.
”I shall always believe there was some mistake,” answered her cousin.
”Anyhow, let's take the chances and wish for another meeting,” said Elinor, ”then Miss Campbell can say, 'Mr. Van Vechten, kindly restore my property.' Only she won't, because she hates to hurt other people's feelings.”
”Very well, then, all at once,” cried Nancy, forcing them into a close circle. ”Now join hands and close your eyes and make the silent wish.
Concentrate two minutes.”
”Nancy, dear, I think you have been studying dream books,” exclaimed Miss Campbell, amused at this ridiculous mummery.
Nevertheless, at precisely two minutes to one o'clock by the timepiece on the mantel, five pairs of hands joined together and five identical and simultaneous wishes went forth into s.p.a.ce. Five little thought messengers linked together by a single wish, went out together into the vast universe. Then they separated and each took a different direction in search of that mysterious birdman, whose eyes at least were clear and brown and honest. And the first little winged thought who found Peter Van Vechten was to summon his aerial brothers from the ether. Promptly they would join hands and dancing in a circle about his head, as each pa.s.sed an ear would whisper the message.
When the clock struck one the Motor Maids and Miss Campbell unlocked hands, and smiling quite gravely, considering it was all a joke, proceeded with their toilet for the luncheon of glorious antic.i.p.ation.
That Mr. Daniel Moore's establishment was guiltless of any woman's touch was plainly evident. There was not a sign of femininity about it. It was as bare as a barracks and as plain as an old shoe. But the beds were soft and comfortable, as Miss Campbell could testify, for she took a nap on one of them in the interval which must be spent before lunch was announced.
After the girls had fluffed up their front hair or smoothed it out according to custom, and had brushed every fleck of dust from their neat traveling skirts, and washed the stains of the journey from their fresh young faces, they began to look about the rooms, to peer from the windows and peep into the hall, while they talked in whispers.
On a shelf in one of the rooms were some books, the one human touch they noticed. Mary, always a bookworm, began dipping her inquisitive little nose into these immediately. She had opened a volume of Kipling's poems and was reading aloud in a sing-song voice:
”On the road to Mandalay, Where the flying fishes play--”