CHAPTER XXVTHE STOLEN CHILD
Withher eyes sparkling with rage the old queen looked very ferocious. But Chief Hogg did not quail. It would be a pretty thing to tell if he had shown the white feather in the face of a woman, no matter if she was a swarthy gypsy queen.
“I have here,” he went on to say, pompously, never noticing the slur in her language when she addressed him; “a legally sworn warrant, charging you with having in your wagon a small child—yes, a girl at that—which it is claimed you have abducted, kidnapped, carried away from its proper parents or guardians. And by virtue of my office, and this document, I am directed by the justice to bring both woman and child before him at once. So produce the child, and prepare to accompany us back to town.”
He made a motion, and his men closed in. The old queen looked as though she might defy the authorities of Columbia; but a glance around showedthat not a single one of her men was within call. So she knew she must give up.
“I have a child, I confess,” she said, scornfully, addressing Frank rather than the big policeman; “and it does not belong to my tribe, but I expected to adopt it after a while, if no one claimed it. A woman came to us several months ago, when, we were camped far away from here. She seemed to be out of her mind, and we took her in. The little girl was with her. She died soon afterwards, and the child was left with us. All this can be proved. What have I to fear?”
Turning, she spoke to someone behind her, when the girl the boys had seen before, and whom the queen had called her granddaughter, Mena, shoved forward. She, too, looked scornfully at the big policeman, and undoubtedly the defiant nature of the old queen had descended to the child.
She was leading a small girl, whose hair seemed to be black enough, and her skin as dusky as that of the genuine gypsy, but whose eyes were a bonny blue.
She looked eagerly at the boys, and seeing Lanky, held out her hands toward him.
“What is your name, little girl?” Lanky asked, ready to give a shout, so filled with excitement did he seem.
“Effie!” was the quick reply, in a childish voice,as the little one shrank from the old queen, who must have been very cruel to her, Frank thought.
“That settles it!” yelled Lanky, as he turned on Frank, the light of a second great victory in one day filling his dancing eyes.
The Chief would take no delay. He realized that should the gypsy men return and find him arresting their queen, trouble of some sort was apt to ensue. And while Chief Hogg could look very imposing in his fine uniform, and possibly frighten boys, and hungry hoboes, everyone knew he did not particularly like a rough-and-tumble fight.
And so they all climbed up into the wagon, when the return journey to town was begun. Fortunately they happened to meet none of the gypsies on the way. And the old queen seemed to be sure that she could prove her statement, so that she would be held guiltless. If anyone was guilty of abduction it must have been the half-crazed woman who came with the child. And she had long since passed to a land where human laws could never reach her.
It turned out just as the gypsy queen had said. She had been wise enough long before to write an account of the happening, and have it published in some little country paper, that, having no circulation outside of the village where it was printed, was never seen by those who searched far and widefor traces of the long-lost daughter of the rich Elversons.
And when she produced a copy of this it was seen that she could not be held on any charge, unless that of cruelty toward the child. But she had been smart enough never to whip the little girl in a manner that would leave any traces; and so, there being no witnesses, and a mere child’s word not holding against that of the whole tribe, she was finally allowed to go.
The tribe disappeared that same hour, nor did they ever again come back to the vicinity of Columbia.
On the day after the rescue of little Effie, her parents arrived. Frank and Lanky met them at the train. When they saw a beautiful, though sad-looking, lady, accompanied by a tall gentleman, get off the train, and look hungrily around, they waited no longer, but rushed up to them.
“I’m the Lanky Wallace that sent the message, Mr. Elverson!” cried the boy; and his happy face caused the lady to cry:
“Oh! tell me, have you found her, my poor little lamb?”
For answer Lanky just turned and gave a whistle he had arranged with Effie, who had been left in the station. And as the child came running toward them, the lady started in amazement; for as yet nobodyhad been able to remove the stain that had been used to color her hair and her whole body, so that even her mother did not recognize her.
But when her childish voice piped up the one word “mommy,” and the lady had a single look into those laughing blue eyes, she doubted no longer, but squeezed the little waif to her heart, laughing and crying at the same time.
Of course they made a great ado over the two boys, and Frank in vain tried to prove that it had been all Lanky’s doings. His chum declared that they were partners through it all; and that he would never have been able to do the least thing toward learning the truth if it had not been for the advice and backing of Frank.
Later on they had to go over the whole story, telling everything that had the slightest connection with the gypsies and little Effie.
And before they went away with their recovered darling, Mr. Elverson and his wife made the two boys accept a most generous reward as a slight token of their esteem.
“It is only what would have been paid to a stranger who recovered our child for us,” the former declared, “and which has long been standing as an inducement for the detectives of the country to exert themselves; but outside of that, my dear boys, we can never forget what you have done. Our homeshall be open to you always, as though you were kith and kin to us. And Effie will expect to see you there as often as you can make it convenient.”
Of course the boys enjoyed all this. The story had leaked out, and was told in every home in Columbia. Chief Hogg seemed to have an added strut to his walk; and it puzzled everyone to decide whether this came from seeing his name mentioned in the big New York dailies, as helping to recover the long-lost child of the millionaire, Adolph Elverson; or on account of the bulge in his pocket where he kept his wallet, after Mr. Elverson had visited him at headquarters.
Columbia High soon settled down to the duties of the season, and that year Prof. Tyson Parke admitted that the averages had never been so high. He secretly gave it as his opinion that the encouragement which clean athletics met with in his school, backed by the far-seeing trustees, was the cause for this increased interest shown by the pupils in their studies.
Lanky was very proud of his gold watch. He had to show it about twenty times a day for weeks after the long run, and the victory won, had gained him such a prize. And then his father, fearing that it was making him vain, bought him a dollar nickel timepiece, which he said was good enough for the rough-and-tumble school life of a boy. The prizewas put away; only to be worn on Sundays, and special occasions; for it would do him when he grew up.
During the vacation that now loomed up before them, some of the boys who have figured extensively in these stories were to decide whether they would go to college, or, as Frank had suggested, take a post-graduate course under Prof. Parke; since their parents considered them rather young to break away from all home ties, and face the many temptations that beset the college student, especially in his freshman year.
Bill Klemm recovered, though he was laid up for two months. And there were many who echoed what the good doctor told Bill and his parents, that only for the first aid to the injured tactics of Frank Allen, the boy would hardly have pulled through. It doubtless would serve as a lesson to Bill, and everybody hoped for the sake of his parents that he would reform his ways.
If, as seems likely, Frank and a number of his chums who reached the graduation class on the last June school exhibition decide to stay in Columbia High another year, we shall hope and expect to meet them again amid scenes of boyish sports, where the honor of the school is the magnet that leads the contestants on to do their level best.
THE END.