Part 22 (1/2)
”The truth is, miss,” interrupted the other detective, whom Bab saw for the first time this morning, ”we think you have given us the clue to a pretty clever customer. We've been looking for him before. He's known to the service as 'The Boy Raffles.' We tried to catch him two years ago when he played this same game at Saratoga. But he got off to Europe without our ever finding the goods on him. So you see, this time we've got to nail him. My partner and I,” the wiry little dark man pointed to the big blond one, ”have been talking matters over and we believe this here 'Raffles' has got what we detectives call a 'confed' with him-some one who receives the stolen goods. So that's why we want to ask your help. Have you any idea of anyone who could be playing the game along with him? We think he is giving the jewels to some one to keep in hiding for him. The gems have not been sent out of town, and we have made a thorough search of Mrs. Erwin's house, where Townsend is staying. There is nothing there.”
”Could the young lady I saw him in the garden with last night be a partner of his?” asked the blond detective.
”Oh, my goodness, no!” cried Barbara, in horror. ”She is my cousin, Gladys Le Baron.”
”Now, that's just it, miss. You can see we need some one like you, who's on the inside, to keep us off the wrong track. Can you suggest anyone else?”
Barbara was silent. Then she shook her head. ”I don't know of anyone now,” she said. ”You'll have to give me time to think and watch.”
”All right, miss, and thank you. You can write a note to this address if you have anything to communicate.” One of the men handed her a card with the number of a Newport boarding house on it. ”My name is Burton,” said the big man, ”and my a.s.sistant is Rowley. We both came up from the New York office, and we're at your service, miss.”
On the way home Barbara tried to make up her mind whether she ought to tell Miss Sallie what she was doing.
”I don't think it best to tell her now,” she concluded. ”She would only be worried and frightened to death. What is the good? Miss Sallie would be sure to think that girls did not hunt for jewel thieves in her day.
And she'd probably think they ought not to hunt for them in my day,”
Barbara confessed to herself, honestly. ”I'll just wait a while, and see how things develop. Now I am in this detective business, I might as well confess to myself that it is very interesting.”
Barbara walked slowly. ”I wish Ruth would find out how things are going,” she thought to herself. ”She is so shrewd and she already guesses I have something on my mind. But Ruth was so positive I was wrong about Harry Townsend, at Mrs. Erwin's ball, that she would probably think I was wrong again. So the female detective will pursue her lonely way for a little while longer-and then, I just must tell some one,” Bab ended.
Miss Sallie and the girls were coming down-stairs to breakfast, when Bab entered at the front door. Miss Stuart was plainly displeased with Barbara's explanation. ”I couldn't sleep very well, Miss Sallie,” said Barbara, ”and I went out for a walk.” ”That is partly true,” she reflected, ”but half truths are not far from story-telling.”
”Well, I must ask you, Bab,” said Miss Sallie, in firm tones, ”not to leave the house again in the morning, unless some one is with you. I was most uneasy.”
”Didn't Mollie give you the note I left on the bureau to explain where I had gone?” inquired Bab.
”Mollie did not see the note until we were almost ready to come downstairs. Naturally, we did not understand your absence.”
”I am so sorry, Miss Sallie,” cried Bab. ”I never will do it again.”
Barbara was beginning to understand Miss Sallie better since Ruth's accident. She knew that her cold exterior hid a very warm heart.
As for Miss Sallie, she finally smiled on Bab and gave her a forgiving kiss. ”I could forgive Bab anything,” she thought to herself, ”after her wonderful heroism in saving Ruth. I suppose I have to expect a girl of so much spirit to do erratic things sometimes.”
Ralph kept his eyes lowered when he said good morning and hardly spoke during breakfast.
”Ralph is out of sorts,” his mother complained, ”but, man-like, he won't tell what is the matter with him.”
”Perhaps you are tired from the party last night, Ralph?” suggested Mollie. Then Ralph laughed a mirthless laugh. ”No, I am not tired, Mollie,” he replied.
Yet all through breakfast he did not once speak to Bab.
”Remember,” said Grace, ”that our crowd and just a few other people are invited over to Mrs. Cartwright's to-night. She is going to have a porch party, and we are to play the famous game 'eyeology' that she was talking of to Gladys the other day. Do you know what she means?”
n.o.body at the table had ever heard of it.
”I begged Donald to tell me,” Grace added, ”but he declares he is as much in the dark about it as the rest of us, and Mrs. Cartwright simply says, 'wait and see!'”
”I suppose,” said Miss Sallie, ”that you children never intend to rest again. I should think that Mrs. Cartwright would be perfectly used up from so much entertaining.”
”O Aunt Sallie,” pleaded Grace, ”we shall rest well enough when we are back in sleepy old Kingsbridge. There is too much doing in Newport. And, you know, we've only about a week longer to stay. What a wonderful time we have had!”
”Let's see what we have ahead of us,” pondered Mollie. ”The only especially big things we know about are the tennis tourney and the ball after it. Then Miss Ruth Stuart and Mr. Hugh Post are to win a silver cup, in order to spread more l.u.s.ter upon the reputation of the automobile girls at Newport. Bab helped pull Ruth out of an abyss! The two girls held up a burglar! Ruth is a famous tennis champion! Only you and I are no good, Grace. What can we do for our country?” finished Mollie.