Part 10 (1/2)
”We have a visitor,” she announced in a strangled voice. ”And he is between us and the only door in the place. Come on, girls, let's see who it is.”
They stepped out into the cluttered living room and came face to face with a young man who seemed more startled at seeing them than they had been at sight of him.
”Well, I'll be jiggered!” he exclaimed, and at sound of the commonplace phrase the girls could have hugged the speaker in relief. Also they felt a rather hysterical desire to laugh long and foolishly.
As it was, the stranger stood staring at the girls and the girls at him so long that the funny side of the situation struck Betty and she really did begin to laugh.
”We haven't the slightest idea who you are,” she told the astonished young man. ”But I am sure of one thing, and that is that we were never so glad to see any one in all our lives as we are to see you.”
Chapter X
Hurrah for Allen
The young man stared for a moment longer. Then the humor of the situation seemed to strike him too, and he smiled pleasantly.
”It surely is a pleasure to be as welcome as all that,” he said pleasantly, and the girls noticed that he was a well set up young fellow and that he wore his uniform easily, as if he had been used to wearing it for a long, long time. ”I am Wesley Travers,” he went on. ”I live in a cottage down the road and I came over this way to see if the old professor had come back yet. I saw the door open--came in--and found you.”
He smiled again pleasantly and looked as though he considered that he had fallen into rather good luck. But at his mention of the professor Betty had sobered instantly.
”Oh, then you know something about Professor Dempsey?” she questioned eagerly.
”Please tell us what happened to him,” added Amy breathlessly.
”Did he do this?” asked Mollie, with a comprehensive sweep of her hand about the cluttered room.
”I'm afraid he did,” answered the young fellow, sobering instantly. ”You see, I just returned from overseas about a week ago and a couple of days later my dad read in the paper about the death of this queer old man's two sons. The pater had always been interested in the lonely old boy, so he sent me over to see if I could do anything for him. I found the place like this and--the bird had flown. Went dopy I suppose about the bad news and tore things up a bit.”
Though the boy's words were slangy, there was real sympathy in his tone and the girls liked him the better for it.
”And you haven't heard anything from him since?” asked Betty softly.
”Not a word or a sign,” answered the boy, with a shake of his head. ”Just clean cleared out, that's all. Pretty hard luck, I call it. Just at the end of things too--when he had a right to expect the fellows home. Pretty tough luck. I wish I could find the poor old duffer and do something for him.”
The girls heartily echoed the wish. Before leaving the place for good, they looked about the rooms once more for some sign or message that might give them a clue to the whereabouts of the professor. They found nothing, however, and finally were forced to give up the search.
As the young people stepped outside once more and closed the door after them upon the desolate house a great wave of pity swept over Betty.
Somehow it did not seem right to go off like this as though they were abandoning the old man to his fate. Yet what could they do more than they had done?
”Girls,” she said, a little quiver in her voice, ”I would give almost everything I own to find the poor old professor and help him back to happiness. If I only could,” she added after a pause. ”Well,” said Wesley Travers, as he looked admiringly at Betty's flushed, sympathetic little face, ”I imagine if any one could find him and bring him happiness, you would be that one.”
The young soldier accompanied them back to the road. After thanking him for the information he had given them, the girls climbed into their cars and headed toward home, leaving Wesley Travers still standing in the road and looking after them thoughtfully.
”A mighty nice bunch of girls,” thought the latter. ”Especially the little brown-haired one. They seemed rather interested in that dotty old professor too. Lucky fellow to have four girls like that interested in him!” After this remark he started off toward home.
Luckily for the girls, the next few days were so crowded with preparations for the trip to Wild Rose Lodge that they had not much time to dwell on the poor old professor and his misfortunes.
Only at night would they sometimes dream queer dreams in which wild-eyed men went around smas.h.i.+ng everything in sight and a little cottage stood lonely and desolate and ghostlike amid a silent forest of trees.
After a night like this the girls were always glad to awake and find the suns.h.i.+ne streaming cheerfully in their windows. And they would throw themselves with more than usual energy into the activities of the day. Yet try as they would, they could never quite blot the tragedy from their minds.