The signing of the hotel register was not an easy task, for there were many other guests waiting to do the same thing. Mr. Mason finally managed it, however, and he and his rather large family were whirled up in a roomy elevator to the fifth floor and were shown to their rooms by a well-mannered and friendly bellboy.
Bess and Nan were to room together and Grace and Rhoda had a room right off theirs, connected by a door, so that it was really as if the girls were all in one room.
"Come down on the porch when you are ready, girls," said Walter, just before he disappeared into his own room, "and we'll wander around and see the sights."
Nan and Bess were delighted with their room, for it was large and airy and commanded a beautiful view of Lake Worth, upon which the Royal Poinciana Hotel is situated. Grace's and Rhoda's room also faced the lake.
"Oh, girls, look at all the boats!" squealed Bess,dancing delightedly up and down before one of the windows. "They are so thick you can hardly see any water between them."
"TheBargain Rushis down there somewhere," said Grace, as she and Nan ran across the room to peek over Bess's shoulder. "Dad made an awful fuss about having it shipped all the way, but Walter said he didn't want to come if he couldn't have it."
"But, Grace, this is the first word you have said about theBargain Rush," said Bess reproachfully. "And you know just how unhappy we'd be if we did not have a boat down here."
"I've heard about Lake Worth being such a beautiful harbor for the pleasure boats of the Palm Beach tourists," said Rhoda happily, "but I never imagined it was half so beautiful."
"But where is the ocean?" asked Bess, as they turned from the window and began a hurried "freshening process." "I declare, I'm all mixed up."
"The ocean is in back of us, silly," Nan informed her. "Didn't you notice the beautiful beach down there as we came along? There were people in bathing, too. Oh, don't I wish I could go in myself this very minute. Just think of it—surf bathing in February!"
"Br-r-r, stop it," commanded Bess with a shiver. "You make me chilly."
They were ready to see the sights in a surprisingly short time, and Bess noticed as they stepped out intothe corridor that Nan locked the door very carefully and slipped the key into her pocket.
"You aren't worrying about those men yet, are you?" she asked.
"No-o," said Nan a little doubtfully. "But it is always just as well to be on the safe side."
Together with other girls and boys and men and women, all, like themselves, on pleasure bent, the girls made their way down to the lobby of the great hotel. Seeing nothing of Walter there, they rather timidly stepped out upon the veranda.
The size of it made them gasp, and for a moment they just stood staring stupidly at the seemingly endless vista of chairs and tables and people—Nan and the others were sure there were millions of people.
They might have stood there forever, had not Nan become suddenly aware of the admiring glances of several of the crowd that thronged the piazza. For the four modishly dressed girls formed a very pretty and striking picture.
"Let's sit down or something—everybody is staring at us," she whispered to Rhoda, but at that moment Rhoda caught sight of Walter and waved a commanding hand.
"So here you are," said the boy, his face lighting up with pleasure at the unexpected sight of the girls. "Right this way, ladies. Say," he added, as they started down the steps together, "you're lookinggreat, girls. It isn't every fellow who has the chance to escort four pippins at Palm Beach."
"Pippins!" repeated Grace emphatically, while the others giggled. "You know that's vulgar, Walter."
"Vulgar or not, it's the truth," said Walter cheerfully. "Isn't this some garden?" he went on.
The Royal Poinciana Hotel was set in a tropical paradise of gorgeous flowers and shrubs and trees, the beauty of which no one who has not seen it can imagine.
One tree in particular caught Nan's eye and she pointed it out eagerly.
"Look at that gorgeous thing," she cried. "What is it, Walter—a shrub or a tree or a flower, or a mixture of all of them?"
"That's the Royal Poinciana tree," explained Walter. "It is a beauty, isn't it? The hotel is named for the tree, you know."
They wandered on again, exclaiming at every step, so happy and excited that more than one person in passing turned to look after them with an indulgent smile.
There were the golf links between the two hotels, and men who "looked old enough to know better," to quote Bess, were wandering over the velvet green sward with faithful caddies trailing along in the rear.
"I don't see what possible fun they can find in just batting a foolish little ball about," was Nan'scomment, and Rhoda turned to her with a laugh.
"About the same pleasure that you find in batting a foolish little tennis ball about," she said, and Nan caught her up indignantly.
"But that's different!" she said, and they laughed at her.
"Look!" cried Grace, a moment later, pointing to some beautiful level tennis courts where several animated sets of singles were in progress. "You can't say we don't give you every kind of amusement here, Nan."
"It's wonderful," sighed Nan happily. "I'm glad now that I thought to pack my racket before I started. My, how I would like to be out there now." For Nan was a tennis enthusiast, and really could play the game well.
"I'll play you a game to-morrow morning," challenged Walter, and she took him up eagerly.
"Any time you say," she laughed. "And I'll take the court with the sun in my eyes!"
They must have wandered on for a long time, for the sun was getting low when they finally turned to go back. They had passed "cottages" which must have cost their owners a small fortune to build and several small fortunes to maintain.
Walter pointed out to them a club of millionaires whose membership was something like two hundred, with three hundred more prospective members on the waiting list.
"Goodness!" exclaimed Bess, "I think I shall have to break in there some time. Think of seeing two hundred millionaires all in one place, instead of only a dozen!"
"If you break in, Bess, you may get into trouble," said Walter, with a twinkle in his eye. "What if several of the millionaires proposed to you at once? You wouldn't know which one to take, you know you wouldn't."
"Then I wouldn't take any of them," announced the girl from Tillbury promptly.
"What, throw a real millionaire overboard?" and Walter gave a pretended gasp.
"Of course. A millionaire might be nice to look at and very hateful to live with," and Bess flung back her head as if that settled it.
"Oh, let's give the millionaires a rest," put in Rhoda. "I know what I'd like."
"What?" came from several of the others.
"A horseback ride down there on the beach."
"Nothing easier," said Walter. "When do you want to go, now? If you do, I'll get you a horse—over at the stand yonder."
"Will you go?" questioned the girl from Rose Ranch, turning to her school chums.
"Hadn't we better wait until we are a little better acquainted?" questioned Nan.
"All right. I suppose it's a bit hot to-day anyway," said Rhoda.
"I guess you miss the riding you used to do on the ranch," said Grace.
"I certainly do. Not but what this is very nice for a change."
It was late when they reached the hotel at last, and the girls began to realize for the first time that they were tired.
"See you to-night," whispered Walter to Nan, as Grace, Bess and Rhoda disappeared into the lobby. "And don't forget that tennis engagement for to-morrow. Ten o'clock sharp."
Nan played tennis with Walter the next day, and what is more, she beat him, four out of six. She declared later that it must have been either pure luck, or the fact that Walter was so dazed with surprise at finding that it was possible for a girl to beat him that he had given her two sets before he had recovered from the shock.
Be that as it may, the fact remained that Nan had to work her hardest to wrest a set from him after that, and felt very lucky if she managed to win one out of three.
On the other hand, Walter had to work his hardest to keep Nan from making a "fool" of him and winning everything. Consequently his admiration for the girl from Tillbury rose at least ten points.
The other girls were interested in the game also, although of the three, Grace was by far the best player. Lazy Bess much preferred reading a magazine on the immense piazza of the hotel to chasing a ball around in the hot sun.
There were so many wonderful things to occupytheir attention that a week flew by before they knew it. Almost without sensing it, the girls had drifted into the routine of gay activities that prevailed at the resort.
There was usually a brisk walk before breakfast. That is, there was for Nan, Rhoda, Grace and Walter. Bess was often too tired after the gaiety of the day before to get up before breakfast to take anything so uninteresting as a walk.
Then came breakfast, an event in itself, for the food was delicious, especially to such ravenous appetites as the girls and Walter brought back to it, and the beautiful dining-room of the hotel was a treat to the eye.
After breakfast the majority of the guests sallied forth to the delights of motoring or sailing or tennis, while the others either lingered on the porch or sauntered over to the golf links to play a game of golf, or, if anglers, went out on a fishing excursion.
The golf course was between the two hotels, so that the players not only furnished amusement for themselves but for all those who cared to watch them.
Later in the morning, somewhere between eleven o'clock and noon, was the hour for bathing. Then all who cared to go in the water made a dash for the ocean, and had a cool, invigorating plunge before luncheon. This was the hour that Nan liked best of all.
Later in the afternoon, one could either go over to the cocoanut grove for afternoon tea and a dance or two or take what was in many cases a much-needed rest.
At night the girls loved to have dinner in the Garden Grill, for the place itself was a romantic dream of beauty with its palm trees and boxes of shrubs. And the music—the music carried them far away from the present on golden wings of melody and made them forget that there was anything sordid or unpleasant in all the world.
Perhaps the evening was the time that most of the Palm Beach visitors lived for. Then came the chance to display beautiful gowns and flashing jewels of fabulous worth.
There was a glamor about the lights and music and gowns and jewels that quite went to wealth-loving Bess's head, and even made steady Rhoda's heart beat faster and eyes shine brighter.
As for Nan and Grace—they were just in their element, and showed it.
Of course they met Linda Riggs occasionally. It would have been impossible for them not to have done so. But as the disagreeable girl continued consistently to ignore them, the chums just as consistently adopted the same attitude.
They met several other girls of about their own age, and two of these girls had their brothers with them, and these youths had two chums along—sonone of the girls wanted for partners when it came to dancing or playing tennis. In fact, sometimes they had "more partners than were really needed," as Bess put it.
"But you are not going to complain because you have enough partners, are you?" queried Grace.
"Oh, no, indeed," cried Bess. "I am glad there are more boys here. Imagine Walter having to take care of all of us."
One day all of them went for a horseback ride. This put Rhoda in her element, and, seated on a fine, spirited steed, the girl from Rose Ranch gave as fine an exhibition of horsemanship as had been seen at Palm Beach for a long time.
"Your chum rides like a regular western girl," said one of the boys present, to Nan.
"And that is just what she is," answered Nan. "And one of the best girls in the world besides."
"I don't doubt it. I wish I could ride half as well."
"Maybe Rhoda will give you lessons."
"No such luck, I'm afraid," said the boy. "But I'll ask her anyway," and he did, with the result that he and Rhoda went out half a dozen times, and the girl from Rose Ranch taught him many of her best riding tricks.
"He's a splendid fellow, Will Halliday is," said Rhoda to Nan. "He likes outdoor life—and that's the best there is."
"Does he come from out West?"
"The middle West—Iowa."
"You are making a good rider of him, Rhoda."
"Well, I like somebody who takes a real interest in a horse," answered the girl from Rose Ranch.
One night in the ballroom, Rhoda espied Linda across the room and with her was a girl who looked familiar. She called Nan's attention to the fact.
"Why, yes," said Nan with a puzzled frown. "It looks like—why, Rhoda, it is——"
"Cora Courtney!" finished Rhoda in a "what-will-happen next" tone of voice.
"Let's go over and make sure," said Nan, and they started to skirt the floor, hugging the wall to escape the dancers, for the floor was already crowded with them. But when they reached the spot where Linda and her companion had been, the latter were gone, and, try as they would, the girls could not find them.
"It seems awfully strange," said Nan as they disappointedly found their way back to their seats, "that if the girl was really Cora we haven't seen her before."
They told Bess and Grace about it later, and they agreed that the incident looked queer, to say the least. However, they had so many things to think about in the days that followed, that Linda slipped entirely from their minds.
One morning the girls decided to forego theirusual game of tennis and take an early dip instead. Nan had complained of an ache in the muscles of her right arm, and as the trouble almost undoubtedly came from overstrain, Walter had insisted that she take "a day off."
The weather had seemed uncomfortably warm at the hotel, but when they reached the beach the girls were surprised to find that they felt chilly.
"Goodness!" said Bess with a shiver, "I think I will let you girls go in and I'll stay here. Experience has taught me that the beautiful green ocean about these parts isn't always as balmy and warm as it's reported to be."
"No, you don't," said Nan decidedly. "You know very well it spoils all the fun if one of us backs out. Come on, Rhoda, you take the other arm. One—two—three—go!" and Bess was hurried, half laughing and half angry and wholly protesting, down to the water's edge and promptly ducked under a foam-tipped, hungry, man-eating wave.
She came out on the other side and struck out manfully, puffing and steaming like a young whale.
The girls watched her laughingly for a minute, then plunged in after her.
"My, the water is cold," sputtered Grace, as the girls struck out abreast with long, beautifully even strokes. "Poor Bess! I don't know but what she had the right idea after all."
The hour being so early, the girls had that particularportion of Old Man Ocean almost to themselves. There were a few early bathers, however, and among these was a man with a long, thin face and a mouth that was set in a hard, straight line.
Nan, doing the crawl with her head under water, came up directly in front of this unpleasant-looking person and was so startled and surprised in consequence that she almost forgot to keep herself afloat.
Her paralysis remained only a moment, however, and in a flash of time she was swimming back toward her companions.
As for the man, having given Nan a careful look, he suddenly made a dash for the shore and one of the bathhouses.
"I reckon this is my chance," he said, as he got into his clothing with all speed. "I'll do the trick while she is in bathing."
Nan was almost out of breath when she reached her chums.
"Listen to me!" she gasped. "I've got to get up to the hotel—and at once!"
"Nan Sherwood, is it serious this time, or is this only another of your attacks?" asked Bess impatiently. "Here you are the one who dragged us into the water at this early hour, and now you want to spoil all the fun by breaking up the party. For goodness' sake, listen to reason," she wailed, as Nan, with a determined shake of her red-capped head, started in toward shore.
"Haven't time," she flung back.
"You can at least tell us what the matter is," called Grace, as reluctant as Bess to cut short the fun.
"Haven't time," Nan repeated, half way in to shore now.
Bess and Grace paddled the water and looked at each other helplessly.
"Don't you think we had better go, too?" asked Rhoda uncertainly.
"No, I don't," was Bess's cross answer. "Nan's acting awfully funny these days, anyway. I think she has another secret."
As for Nan, she did not wait to see whether the girls were following her or not, but ran posthaste to her bathhouse, where she exchanged her bathing suit for more formal attire. Then she hurried on to the hotel.
She had not seen this man since his arrival at Palm Beach, and the sudden appearance of his face so close to hers in the water had startled her horribly. Her first thought had been of the documents in her suitcase and her one desire to get to them as soon as possible.
"Oh, what a fool I was not to give those papers to Mr. Mason, or have them placed in the hotel safe," she scolded to herself. She called herself several kinds of a goose as she ran down the quiet corridor to her room. As she stood before the doora slight noise within sent her heart suddenly into her mouth, and she hesitated before turning the knob.
Then, with desperate courage, she flung the door wide and stepped into the room. Before her bed a tall, thin man was standing, and on the bed was a bag, her bag, partly open, with the contents showing!
In a moment her fear changed to flaming indignation, and she sprang forward, flinging herself before the bag and pushing the man away from her with furious, impotent little fists.
"You little imp!" the fellow snarled, catching her wrists and holding them in an iron grip. "You just dare make a noise, and I'll show you who's boss. You little——"
"Nan! Oh, Nan, what's the matter?"
The voice held a frightened note, and its owner was evidently running along the corridor toward Nan's open door. The man said something under his breath, released Nan's wrists, and darted toward the window.
Nan, conscious of a stabbing pain in her wrists, followed him, but not in time to stop his flight. She saw him disappear down the fire escape and then, with a little stifled sob, turned back into the room and found herself face to face with her startled chums.
"Nan! you look like a ghost," cried Bess, flingingan arm about the girl and drawing her to the bed.
"We thought we heard a man's voice," added Rhoda, staring with fascinated eyes from Nan to the half-opened bag on the bed.
Grace was plainly frightened. "Nan! was that man here?"
"Yes," said Nan faintly. "He was here and he—oh, girls, it was dreadful! I can't talk about it." And she broke down with a sob and buried her head on Bess's shoulder.
When Nan told her story to the Masons a little later they were not only indignant but very genuinely worried. Walter declared that he would "catch that man and wring his neck before the day was up," which boast, though extremely extravagant, brought strange comfort to Nan, shocked as she had been by the events of the morning.
Mr. Mason wanted to shadow the man, but Nan begged him not to do that until after they had had a chance to look up Mrs. Bragley's property for her and see what it was worth.
"If that's the way you feel," Mr. Mason decided sympathetically, "it seems to me the best thing to do is to get to Sunny Slopes as soon as possible, take a look at this land, and employ an attorney, if need be, to be sure her title is clear. Then if this man is illegally trying to wrest the land from its rightful owner, we will employ a detective and see that the fellow is brought to justice. I want to lift the load from these young shoulders," he said, looking down at Nan with the nice smile that made everybody likehim. "They are too young to carry the troubles of other people yet."
Nan smiled up at him gratefully, and perhaps the interview might have ended there had Walter allowed it to. But Walter was still tremendously worried about Nan.
"But Dad," he said, turning to his father accusingly, "you certainly can't mean that you are going to let that man wander around loose so that he can worry Nan all he wants to. Why, this is four or five times already that he has nearly frightened her to death. Why," he continued, waxing more excited as he thought about it and glaring at the anxious group of people as though it were in some way all their fault, "he isn't going to stop when he so nearly got what he wanted to-day. He may come back again to-night——"
"That is very unlikely," Mr. Mason broke in, in a cheerful, matter-of-fact tone. "He knows that we are on our guard now. For all he can tell, we may have detectives in every corridor and he will be very careful how he ventures near Nan's room to-night. No, he will try some other way since this one has failed. And in a day or two we will motor down to Sunny Slopes and relieve Nan's mind about this woman's property."
In spite of Mr. Mason's very reasonable conviction that the man would not return to Nan's room, the girls were nervous that night, especially Bess,and they were all glad when the sun, creeping in through the window, announced that another beautiful day had begun.
"Goodness!" said Bess, stretching fretfully, "if this keeps up much longer, Nan Sherwood, I'll just be a wreck, that's all."
"Get your cold water plunge and you will feel better," said Nan, at which practical suggestion Bess merely grunted.
They were to play a tennis match that day, Rhoda and Walter against Nan and Grace, and naturally they all had set their hearts upon winning. Bess had begged off on the ground that it was too warm to play.
It was a glorious morning for the sport, sunshiny and clear, yet cool, and the girls forgot their restless night as they stepped out upon the court.
It was not till they started to "warm up" and Nan wound up for her usual swift serve that they had an inkling of the thing that was to spoil the fun for that morning, at least.
Nan struck weakly at the ball, which landed ignominiously in the net and then dropped her racket with a little cry of pain. The girls and Walter ran to her anxiously, Walter jumping the net and scooping up the ball as he came.
"What is the matter, Nan Sherwood?" Bess wanted to know. "That's the funniest ball I ever saw you serve."
"It's my wrist," said Nan apologetically. "It turned just at the wrong minute. I don't seem to have any power in it."
"Let me see," Walter demanded masterfully, and as he held her little wrist in his hand Nan noticed that it was red and swollen.
"Oh-h!" she said impulsively, "that must be where the man grabbed me so tight yesterday. I'm dreadfully sorry to spoil your game," she added, thinking, as always, more of every one else than of herself.
"Hang the old game," said Walter explosively. "We can play that any time. But if I could get my hands on that—that——"
"Don't say it," begged Nan, with a little laugh. "You mustn't talk about people behind their backs, you know."
"But now our game is spoiled, and we have a whole long morning on our hands," wailed Grace. "I wish I had slept a couple of hours longer."
"I tell you what we'll do," said Walter, with sudden inspiration. "We'll take some fishing tackle—Grace and I have enough to go round—and go out in the little oldBargain Rushto a place I know of where the fish just come trotting up begging to be caught. How about it, girls? Are you on?"
It seemed that they were, enthusiastically so, and half an hour later Grace was declaring that she was sorry about poor Nan's wrist, of course, but if this wasn't better than playing a hot game of tennis andprobably getting beaten, her name wasn't Grace Mason, that's all.
Walter was right about the fish—they seemed to enjoy being caught, and when, almost at noon time, they came back to the hotel with Walter bringing up the rear with the result of the morning's sport proudly displayed, strangers followed them with envious eyes and people they knew stopped them to ask where they had found the fish.
As for Nan, she tried hard to enter into the old round of gaieties with her usual enthusiasm, for she knew that to show how worried she was would only spoil the fun of her friends. But to herself she acknowledged that she would not really be able to enjoy anything again until the mystery of those dangerous papers in her bag was finally cleared up and she was free from espionage once more.
Walter seemed to be the only one who really understood her state of mind and when she pleaded a headache that afternoon and broke an engagement with the girls to go to the cocoanut grove for tea, it was Walter who silenced their protests and took her himself up to her room.
"I'm awfully sorry about this," he said, taking the wrist, which had been rubbed with liniment and neatly bandaged by Mrs. Mason, in one of his sunburned hands and patting it awkwardly. "Does it ache very much now?"
"N-no. It doesn't ache at all," said Nan, addingquickly to cover her confusion as she drew her hand away, "I think you had better go down to the girls now, Walter. They will think you've deserted them."
"Oh, all right," said Walter, and perhaps it was only Nan's imagination that made her think he looked hurt. "Be sure and save the first two dances for me to-night."
He went out quietly, and for a long time after he had gone Nan stood looking at the closed door. Then her glance dropped to her bandaged wrist and she smiled a little.
"Boys are so funny," she murmured—to no one in particular.
There was a big dance that night, and when the time came to dress Nan still further incensed the girls by refusing to dress.
"How would I look in an evening dress and—this thing?" she asked, holding up her bandaged wrist.
"No one ever would look at your wrist when your face is along, Nan Sherwood," said Rhoda, at which Nan laughed but still remained firm.
"Oh, well," said Bess, flouncing over to her closet and taking out a pretty white net and blue satin dress, "I suppose you will have your own way, Nan. But one way or another, that old Mrs. Bragley and her miserable papers have just spoiled our trip. I wish she was in Jericho!"
"It was Guinea last time," Nan laughed at her.
Since Nan refused to dance that night, Walter also refused. Try as she might, Nan could not get him to alter his decision, and finally gave up the attempt in despair.
"Grace and Bess will be furious," she said.
"Let them," he answered recklessly. "There are plenty of other fellows around. See that moon over there? Say, Nan, I have a bully idea."
They were standing in one corner of the veranda of the Royal Poinciana. The veranda looked strangely deserted that night, the dance being at its height in the ballroom within, and it being still a little early for the inevitable drifting of couples from the heat of the ballroom to the cool breezes of the porch.
"An idea?" asked Nan, feeling adventurous herself. "Tell me."
"Back there somewhere theBargain Rushis waiting," said Walter, his voice boyishly eager. "Since we can't dance, we might as well 'putt.' And—it seems too bad to waste that moon."
Nan thought so, too, and a moment later they were running hand in hand through the garden to the spot where theBargain Rushwaited. They scrambled on board, Walter started the engine, and they drifted out into the magic stillness of the night.
"Now tell me," said Walter after a while, his eyes shifting from the moonlit waters of the lake to Nan where she sat curled up in one of the chairs, gazingdreamily out over the shadowy water, "isn't this better than dancing?"
"It's awfully nice," admitted Nan.
"I get so tired of the hot ballroom, and the bright lights," went on the boy, as he bent over the engine, to see that it was running properly.
"Well, I get tired of the lights myself, Walter."
"And those flashing jewels! Why will some of the women load themselves with so much jewelry?"
"I'm sure I don't know. I think too much jewelry is horrid."
"I suppose some folks think that is the one way to let others know that they have money."
Nan drew a deep breath. "Look at the moon, Walter, isn't it simply wonderful?"
"Sure is. And I think——"
Walter came to a sudden stop. Another motor boat had loomed up, running dangerously close to theBargain Rush.
"Hi, keep away from there!" called out the boy.
"They'll run into us!" exclaimed Nan, in sudden alarm.
"Don't get scared, sonny!" sang out a man in the other motor boat and then he suddenly veered out of the way, but with only an inch or two to spare.
"The great big clown!" burst out Walter, in just anger. "He did that just to give us a scare."
"It was no way to do," said Nan. She was not a little shaken by the unexpected happening.
"I hope he runs into a tree, or a rock, or something."
"There he goes, along the other shore of the lake," said Nan, a few seconds later. "See, I think he is trying to scare the folks in that other motor boat."
"He's either crazy or a fool," murmured Walter.
The unknown motorist was evidently amusing himself at the expense of those less daring than himself, and he raced up and down the lake several times. But soon a larger motor boat put out and bore down upon him.
"We've been laying for you," said a man who was evidently an official. "You'll not try any more of those tricks."
"That's right—place him under arrest," said another man, one who had come close to suffering a collision. "I'll make a charge against him."
"I was only having a little fun," whined the man who had been racing around.
"You can tell your story at the police station," was the answer. And then the fellow was placed under arrest.
Nan and Walter continued their ride in the moonlight, and soon the unpleasant incident was forgotten. They talked of their good times at Palm Beach, and then the youth referred to what Nan proposed to do for Mrs. Bragley.
"Nan, I'm awfully sorry you are so worried about those old property papers," remarked Walter presently."Why don't you turn them over to my dad?"
"I thought you'd say that, Walter," she returned. "I've been expecting it. Why don't I? Well, to tell the truth, I don't know. I—I guess I am a little headstrong about it."
"Headstrong?" he repeated, plainly puzzled.
"Yes. You see Bess and the others think I am so—so—well, so scared I can't keep them in my possession. Well," Nan drew a deep breath, "I am scared. But, just the same, I'm not so scared as all that—and I'm going to prove it to them, so there!"
Walter gazed at her in open admiration for a moment.
"Nan, you're a brick!" he cried.
Mr. Mason, by inquiry, had found out that the district known as Sunny Slopes was about sixty miles from Palm Beach, and the next morning they set off by motor for the place, Mrs. Mason having declared to her husband the night before that "it was of no use to put the thing off any longer. The girl's nerves were all on edge over that queer widow's mysterious papers. He may not have noticed it, but she had been watching Nan very closely."
So it came about that a big machine, carrying Mr. and Mrs. Mason, Nan and Bess and Rhoda, and enough luggage to last them at a hotel for a few days, and a torpedo-shaped little car bearing Walter and Grace set out bright and early to make the trip to Sunny Slopes.
Walter had taken it for granted that Nan would ride with him, and had seemed inclined to sulk when she decidedly refused. For Nan had taken herself very severely to task when she had reached her room the night before. She had broken her rule never to go anywhere with Walter unless the girls werealong, and she would never, never do it again. She was particularly hard on herself to-day—and on poor Walter—because of the fact that she had enjoyed that dreamlike sail over the moonlight waters of Lake Worth more than she had ever enjoyed anything before.
So Walter, coming behind the big machine with Grace, sulked, and Grace scolded because, in his preoccupation, he nearly ran her and himself into a ditch.
Their route lay over the lake to West Palm Beach and then along a beautiful highway lined on either side with gorgeous palms.
"I don't wonder the place is called Palm Beach," remarked Rhoda. "I never dreamed of seeing so many fine palm trees before."
They had made careful inquiries concerning the route, and once the houses and bungalows were left behind they "hit it up" to a very respectable rate of speed. The roads, for the most part, were very good, and the only spots covered where they had to be careful were where there had been washouts.
"It is certainly a pretty landscape," remarked Grace, as they sped past one settlement after another. "I don't wonder that you said you'd like to make sketches, Nan."
"But I haven't made any yet," was Nan's answer, with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
They reached Sunny Slopes about noon, and decided—atleast their ravenous appetites decided for them—that they had better have something to eat before they inquired further into the mystery of Mrs. Bragley's papers.
Nan was the only one who seemed very much excited, and the others did not notice that the girl scarcely touched her lunch. It seemed an age to her before the meal was finished and Mr. Mason declared that they were ready to make their investigations.
Nan and her friends would have been very much surprised had they known that they were being followed on their trip to Sunny Slopes, yet such was a fact. The two men who had tried so hard to gain possession of Sarah Bragley's documents were growing desperate.
"We've got to do something and do it quick," snapped the tall, thin man. "Do you hear me?"
"I certainly do," growled the other.
"If we fail we won't get a cent of the cash that was promised to us."
"I know that, too," answered the short man, and scowled deeply.
Mr. Mason had once, in his less affluent days, been a real estate broker himself, and so pooh-poohed his wife's suggestion that he get some one who knew the country to direct them.
"My dear," he said, "if this Mrs. Bragley has any property around here, I'll find it."
He had, with Nan's consent, examined the documents the widow had given her and had seemed, to Nan's eager eyes, to have been considerably impressed by them.
So now as they crowded out of the restaurant—it was the first one they had come to, and they had been too hungry to argue about its elegance or lack of it—and climbed into the cars again, Nan could hardly keep still in her eagerness to know the truth at once.
They passed down a short business street, and then, making a turn, came out on a broad country road.
"Sunny Slopes begins about a mile from here," said Mr. Mason. "It covers quite a bit of territory, I am told. While one end is quite barren, the other end is excellent for orange growing and is covered with bearing trees."
"Oh, dear, I hope Mrs. Bragley's end is the orange-growing end!" cried Nan.
"Don't be too much disappointed if it isn't," said Mrs. Mason kindly.
Suddenly Bess, who had been laughing and talking with Rhoda about school affairs, gave a little bounce and cried out excitedly:
"Look there! Isn't that an orange grove?"
"It surely is," Mr. Mason called back to her, adding in a voice that showed his rising excitement: "Your widow's property ought to be somewhere inhere, Nan. I think I'll stop the car and we can go forward on foot."
"Oh!" said Nan softly, as, a moment later, she jumped out into the road. "I never saw an orange grove before. Isn't it wonderful!"
"Goodness!" said Bess, as Grace and Walter drew up behind the big car and ran around and joined them, "it looks as if they had all been drawn after the same pattern—the trees, I mean. Did you ever see anything so symmetrical in all your life?"
It was the first time any of them, except the Masons, had been close to an orange grove, and they all went forward for a closer look at it. The grove was set quite a way back from the road and seemed to cover many acres of ground, stretching symmetrically back as far as the eye could see.
The orange trees were not tall, and were shaped very much like the little toy trees the children use to build their landscape gardens—broad at the bottom and tapering up almost to a point at the top.
From his examination of the documents carried by Nan, Mr. Mason had jotted down a number of facts and figures. Now the lawyer walked forward slowly and presently examined a number of stone markers he found set in the ground. Then he walked to a side road and read the signs thereon. A smile of satisfaction crossed his face.
Nan, standing close to Mr. Mason, touched his arm timidly.
"Is this Mrs. Bragley's property?" she asked in an awed tone.
"These are most certainly the orange groves mentioned in her documents," he said gravely. "How much of it she owns will have to be determined by an attorney. But I guess," he added, looking down at Nan with a kindly smile, "that the property she holds here is worth a tidy sum, several thousand dollars at least. Of course the orange grove itself is worth a fortune."
"I'm so glad!" cried Nan happily. "I just can't wait to let poor Mrs. Bragley know about it."
"Well, I must say," said Bess, "that this is the first time I've really thought those old papers were worth anything, Nan. Perhaps now we can get rid of them so we won't have any more trouble."
"Then there was a real reason for those men shadowing Nan," said Walter, adding with an unusually fierce scowl: "If they turn up again, I will kill them, that's all, even if it lands me in jail."
"My, aren't we dangerous," said Nan, laughing at him.
Nan never afterward knew just how it happened, but some way or other, among the orange trees, she managed to get separated from the rest of the party. She was so engrossed with happy thoughts of the success of her plan to help Mrs. Bragley and so absorbed in imagining the woman's surprise and joy at the news she was about to receive that it was sometime before she woke up to the fact that she was alone.
The predicament—if indeed it was one—did not particularly worry her, for she knew that she could find her way back to the road easily enough and that there was no possibility in the world of her becoming really lost.
As she stood reveling in the tropical beauty of the scene and smiling happily to herself, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind that banished the smile from her lips and brought an anxious frown to her brow.
"I've left my bag in the car!" she told herself. "And with all Mrs. Bragley's papers in it! If I should lose them now, after bringing them safely all this way——"
Action followed swift upon the thought, and she started through the grove in the direction she had come.
"Not so fast! Not so fast!" said a voice beside her, and the next moment a man darted out from the shelter of the trees and stepped directly in her path. He was, as Nan knew the minute she heard his voice, the tall, thin man with the straight line for a mouth, with whom she had had so many unpleasant meetings before. His face showed a desperate expression.
Nan did not scream, although much alarmed. She glanced over her shoulder with a half-formedthought of escape, but the man sprang forward and laid a rough hand on her arm.
"None of that, my little lady," said the sneering voice. "You are not going to get away from us this time until we get what we want. Just a little document or two is all we want. Quick now—hand it over."
"I—I haven't any document!" gasped Nan, adding with a little flare of temper: "If you don't let go of my arm I—I'll scream."
"Oh, no, you won't! Slicker, that's your job."
Before Nan could move a soft, fat hand was pressed over her mouth from behind and she twisted about to find that her second captor was the short, fat man who had been the companion of her more dangerous enemy on the boat.
"Come, we're in a hurry," snapped the latter, and Nan's terrified eyes came back to his. "Will you give 'em to us or do we have to take them?"
Nan shook her head, and with a snort of impatience the man laid rough hands upon her and began to search her clothing for the papers. Then, finding nothing, he turned upon her in a towering rage.
"You're a sly one," he growled between his teeth. "But let me tell you this, you little imp——"
"Easy, Jensen, easy," cautioned the fat man, whose hand still covered Nan's mouth.
"If we don't find those papers within the nextforty-eight hours," raged the other, not noticing his companion, "you will be mighty sorry. Something is going to happen to you! Get me?"
"You—you brute!" gasped Nan, as the fat man removed his hand from her mouth.
"It won't do you any good to call names, Miss. You get those papers for us. And don't you dare to hand 'em to any of your friends either. If you do—well, you'll be sorry. We are out for those papers, and we are bound to have 'em."
He pushed Nan from him with such force that she stumbled and fell full length on the ground, where she lay, a bewildered heap of indignant girlhood.
For a moment the tall man looked at her with a cruel smile touching his thin mouth. Then he took his companion by the arm and disappeared through the trees.