Therewas no time to repeat to Trixy the story Jack had told Gloria, but the “high spots” could not be suppressed even temporarily so Gloria repeatedly told those on her way to the village.
“And that explains the riders’ mystery,” she commented. “You see this treasure business is supposed to be hidden in some wild mountain place.”
“It is so like the usual silly yarn, with the prospect of some similar spectacular and impossible ending,” replied Trixy, “that really, Glo, I could hardly work up interest in it. Can you?”
“Of course not,” agreed Gloria promptly, “I’m not interested in the treasure hunt, but in Jack’s predicament. She’s a real little brick, Trixy. You should hear her stand up for this queer installment plan mother. I hope the ogress won’t eat me up over the wire.”
“Doesn’t the treasure hunt sound a little like the Pirate’s Daughter?” Trixy said, quizzically.
“Oh, I thought of that, and made more than one leading remark in its direction,” admitted Gloria, “but I couldn’t catch even a glimmer of suspicion. Not that I would disturb Jack about it now, but I can’t help wanting to know who bestowed the black necklace upon me. I almost took the token in to our village jeweler for his opinion yesterday. But that must all wait now. Don’t you really feel sorry for proud, high-strung Jack, Trix? I think I would feel exactly like her if I had to hide the weakness of some one I loved. I couldn’t let others see it to scoff.” The black eyes threw out threatening gleams and vouched promptly for the girl’s loyalty to a friend in need.
“Yes, it is hard for Jack to manage that sort of person. I would rather do most anything than try to cover up relatives’ shortcomings. They always crop out and spoil everything at the critical time,” said Trixy.
“Yes.” Gloria paused reflectively. Her father was a gentleman, always, Aunt Harriet, Hazel’s mother was old fashioned but naturally polite, even Jane, though no relative and really only a nurse, was instinctively considerate. “Yes, itmust be humiliating for a girl to have to fight vulgarity,” Gloria concluded.
“And you know, Trix,” she continued, “Jack just jokes about her money. Says it is all done up in little prize packages so that she can use a week’s or month’s supply without counting it. Isn’t that like Jack?”
“Exactly. But here we are. I’ll wait for you at the soda counter. I want the joy of a soda undisturbed. I may have another with you while you swallow your favorite lime.”
“Oh, there’s Blanche, and Edna,” Gloria grumbled, catching sight of a group of girls within the store.
“And worse yet, there’s Jean. However did they all get out here so early?”
“Working hard on the essay, I suppose, so they came in early in order to have a long evening. Are you going in for it, Trix?”
“No, I’m too old and grown-up for prize essays,” laughed Trix. “But I hope you’ll win out. Of course you know that, Lambikins.”
“I want to, for dad’s sake,” replied Gloria evenly, “and I really do love the subject. It’s no trouble at all to write it.”
“I imagine you would love it. Now slip intothe phone while I flag the others. Don’t get excited and don’t make any rash promises.”
Ten minutes later Gloria emerged from the booth, her cheeks aflame and her eyes shining.
“Whew!” she whispered to Trixy. “That was some message. I’m not sure I succeeded in allaying Mrs. Corday’s fears for Jack. Somehow she already had the news.”
“Want a soda? Youlookpuffed out,” commented Trixy, beckoning the clerk. “Take your time, Glo, the others have all gone. Just as you suspected, they are in for the prize. It seems Jean’s mother is a Daughter of the Wars, and the Daughters, it also seems, are interested in the success of the contest. And harken! If you win the prize you may have cash or the especially struck off medal. You should have heard what the girls are going to buy for the cash consideration,” Trixy enjoyed the joke.
“I suppose so,” Gloria was fanning with the soda list and still panting. Presently she said, “Trixy, there is something queer about Jack’s Steppy. I don’t wonder Jack wants to keep her away from carping critics. She got so excited I thought she would short circuit the system.”
Trixy laughed. “Then you are not sure you have forestalled her coming?”
“No, I’m not.”
“It wouldn’t do Jack any good to worry about her just now. The doctor told Miss Taylor that Jack was suffering from what is termed an athletic heart, and she must be kept quiet. He really insinuated her condition could easily become critical.”
Gloria sipped her soda thoughtfully. She was still flushed and uncomfortable.
“But if she insists upon coming? There is no doubt of it she thinks the world of our Jack, and who can blame her for wanting a glimpse of the girl? What a shame she had to get the worst end of the news.”
“Cheer up! Here’s a letter, if you are calm enough to read it. Go right ahead, I have one I’ll re-read. It’s from dad. Yours has a favorite post mark, I noticed,” said Trixy.
“From Jane. Dear old Jane!” exclaimed Gloria. “I’d just love to see her. Have I time to read this? I’ll just glance through it——”
“Do.” The business letter head was again drawn from the business envelope and Trixy smiled over every word as she re-read.
Gloria’s face lit up like a blaze.
“Oh, she’s coming! Jane is coming down to see me! Isn’t that delicious! Janie, the calico lady! The only woman on earth who can wear a tight bonnet, strings under her chin and look pretty! She does. Trixy, I can just see her landing in Altmount. I hope she comes at recreation so every one sees her——”
Gloria was fairly dancing. Trixy had paid the check and they were ready to leave. The prim young lady clerk was smiling broadly.
“No danger of you wanting to hide your near-mother,” remarked Trixy. “Perhaps Jack is too sensitive. Why should she so fear to have the girls see the woman?”
This was said as they struck the homeward stride. “Well, you see, Trix,” replied Gloria, “she has some little kink in her mentality, and Jack says she knows she would blurt out the family history, unabridged, first thing.”
“Oh,” an emphatic pause drew out the single syllable until it included a quizzical sentence.
“You see, with Jack’s money,” Gloria quickly defended. But that didn’t explain the fear of publishing the family history. “Really,” she began again lamely, “you would think her fortunewas a joke. The way she speaks of it. I wouldn’t wonder but she’ll do some huge thing just to show the girls how mistaken they have been. But that isn’t half as interesting as the coming of Jane!” Trixy’s arm stood the battery of a powerful love squeeze just then.
“How is she coming?”
“Didn’t say, but I hope by auto. I wouldn’t know when to meet her. And let’s hurry, Trix. I’ll have to work until all hours to have a little time off tomorrow.” They both quickened the already lively pace. “And of course,” Gloria rattled on, “I’ll have to tell Jack——Dear me! What shall I tell her?”
“The best yarn you can fix up. Remember that sick people sometimes need poison in medicine and—shall I say good healthy falsehoods are the same sort of mental antidote?”
“I see. Of course, I’ll try to make her mind easy. But you know, Trix, I couldn’t get the woman to say she would wait to hear when Jack might have a free day. She talked so much, so fast, so loud! My ears still tingle.”
“Just tell Jack you fixed it all right——”
“And then set Sam to watch the trains! Trix,if she ever comes what will happen to my essay? I have to retype it tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry, lamb, perhaps she won’t come. I’d offer to watch for her and corral her, if necessary, but I have a test, in physics at that, and I’ve been plugging for nights on the stuff, but somehow I don’t get the big idea.”
“How about Mary? Suppose we could make her understand? Oh, but that wouldn’t do either,” Gloria hastened to correct. “I promised Jack to tell no one but you. She mentioned Mary’s name but did not include her.”
They were climbing the second hill in Altmount grounds, and the evening was in quite a hurry to finish up its duties, for already shadows were plunging into Night’s canopy.
“I hope poor Jack is asleep,” remarked Gloria. She showed real agitation now, as her task became more complicated.
“She may be asleep, for medicines often have that sort of secondary action. Glo, love, I’m glad I’m here now. It has been rather stupid after the wildly lovely times we had together out in the reckless world,” she explained more fully, with a charming but most unworldly manner characteristicof the real unspoiled girl, “and now,” she continued, “you the little old reliableyouthat has bewitched me, have precipitated the most alluring episode of all, including pirate’s daughter, hiding gem laden trunks, losing guilty blood stones and surreptitiously rewarding the poor but honest finder with a black jade necklace. Naturally, we’re afraid the necklace is hoodooed, but I’m going to borrow it some day and find out.”
“Glad I was able to inject a little variety into the solitude,” murmured Gloria, “but as far as I am personally concerned, I’d like to thin it out right now. I didn’t count on irate stepmothers shocking snobby school girls into fear of social contamination. There! see how my English has improved?”
“Marvelously! You’ll surely win that prize——”
“And Jack is trying——”
“I know. I’ve been helping her a little——”
“Oh.”
“You don’t mind, Glo? I wouldn’t help her against you. But she’s pitifully weak on spelling, for instance. It’s a strange thing that she should be so low in grade if she has always been—in such affluent circumstances.”
“Yes. I don’t think it’s gossipy to remark on her lack of many things that usually come with money,” said Gloria wisely. “All of which would point to sudden wealth.”
“Or, perhaps, to some circumstance not compatible with wealth. Sometimes a big mill manager may really be rich and yet have to live in a horrible district,” reasoned Trixy. Her own father was a manufacturer and a magnate, but their home in Sandford was the show place of the town. Yet Beatrix Travers was well versed in such limitations.
“I don’t believe it is that,” said Gloria. “It appears to me——”
“Oh, naturally it must fit in with all the other thrilling details.” They were in the hallway, but no one seemed to be about. “Just as we thought they are—plugging,” smiled Trixy. “I’ll make a sign for our door while I wait for you. They might just come down on us for curiosity’s sake.”
Gloria tossed back a smile as she took the other corridor. In spite of her confidence with Trixy there was always a subtle something she could not find words to express. She knew, instinctively, that Jack had hidden more than she had divulged, she also knew that the sensitiveness could not accountfor such alarm as Jack had betrayed, therefore there was something definite Jack was bound to hide from her companions.
This line of reasoning was suddenly interrupted by Mary Mears almost colliding with Gloria on the turn near Jack’s door.
“Oh!” both exclaimed.
“She’s asleep,” said Mary. “Did you get her mother on the wire?”
“Yes,” murmured Gloria surprised that Mary should ask.
“Is she—satisfied to wait—until Jack is stronger?”
“I think so——”
“She was—excited?”
“Mary,” whispered Gloria, drawing the girl into a nearby alcove. “Did Jack—tell you?”
“Yes and no,” said Mary frankly. “But Gloria, I know something of Jack’s anxiety and you need not fear you are divulging confidence. In fact, it is really more important for me to know if Mrs. Corday is coming here than it is for Jack.”
“For you to know?” repeated Gloria, incredulously.
“Yes,” said Mary decisively. “And if you know whether or not she is coming, Gloria, can’tyou trust me far enough to let me know?” The voice and manner were subtly ingratiating.
“Certainly, Mary,” promised Gloria, and the next moment she was in her own room holding her confused head in two unwilling hands.
“The waters gather,” she groaned to Trixy.
“They rush along,” finished the girl under the yellow lamp shade.