Augusta Huiell Seaman

“ Patricia Meade dropped her suitcase on a convenient chair and gazed curiously about her. A hotel bedroom, with stiff-looking twin brass beds, two willow rockers, one straight chair, an imposing mahogany bureau and one small table—absolutely all the furniture, if one excepted the stiff draperies at the windows and one or two not particularly artistic pastel pictures adorning the wall. ”

“ Patricia, who had been perched on his knee, snuggling her head in his coat collar, suddenly sat up straight and looked him in the eyes. "Daddy, can't you tell me what it is you're doing?" she begged. "I don't ask just from idle curiosity. I want to understand. I want to help you if I can. I love America, and I am a soldier's daughter, and I want to act intelligently about things and be of some use. ”

“ He can do beautiful work, but I only just love it and admire it."
"Ah, your father is also an artist?" demanded Virginie, interested afresh.
"Well, I don't know that I'd call him exactly an artist," qualified Patricia. "He can draw and paint 'most everything fairly well, but he does excel in one thing. He's crazy about it,—it's a regular hobby with him,—entomology, you know, the study of bugs and moths and caterpillars and butterflies, and all that sort of thing. And he can make the most beautiful sketches of them. ”

“ She decided to tell her at once about Virginie, and did so while they were standing outside the door of the room where the Belgian girl was. Mrs. Quale had met her casually at the hotel, in company with Patricia, and had always cherished a liking for the lonely, diffident girl. When she had heard all the story, she stood thinking a moment and then said decisively:
"You simply cannot go back to that hotel. It is no place for you after all that has happened. ”

“ Rather startled, Patricia nodded her head. Then she looked alarmed, to think that, by even so much, she had revealed something of her father's secret.
"Never you mind!" Chet assured her. "Don't get scared because you think you're giving anything away. I know a heap more than any one thinks I do." And at her amazed expression, he added:
"I'm goin' to tell you somethin'. It's a secret and don't you let on to anybody. I ain't goin' to be a bell-hop all my life, I ain't. I got ambition, and this here hotel life ain't for me." ”

“ THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN SHUTTERS It was a short and breathless ride out to Hanford, through a part of the country quite unfamiliar to Patricia, as it was off the regular trolley and railroad lines. They passed through the little town at a breakneck speed, purposely, as Chet explained. It was such a tiny place and so out of the world that every passing vehicle was apt to be an object of interest to the inhabitants and he didn't want their car to be specially noticed and commented upon. Twice Delia protested strongly against the pace, but Patricia pretended not to hear her, and they sped on. ”

“ The girl looked at her in some bewilderment. American slang was something she had yet to become acquainted with, and Chet's last remarks were as incomprehensible to her as if they had been uttered in Choctaw.
"We want you to come with us," Patricia explained. "You must not stay any longer with these dreadful people, Virginie. We think we can get you away from them, and you will have a happy life and never, never be tormented by them again." ”

“ A great hotel full of people,—literally hundreds of them,—coming and going continually,—some of them friends, some of them enemies, perhaps,—and she, Patricia Meade in the center of it, she and her father the very center of a whirlpool of plots and danger, perhaps! ”

“ Virginie nodded lifelessly. "I am truly a Belgian—but I am their helpless tool."
"But your aunt?" cried Patricia, still unconvinced. "Surely Madame Vanderpoel is a 158Belgian too. Why does she not protect you? Is she, too, in their power?"
Virginie shuddered. "Madame Vanderpoel is no Belgian. She is a German by birth—and at heart. She married my mother's brother,—he is now dead,—and she lived for many years in our country and was to all outward appearance a Belgian. But she has been secretly, all these years, in the service of the German spy system. ”

“ And without further remark, the Captain dismissed him.
"Daddy, I don't like that man," whispered Patricia when he was gone. "He looks like an alien enemy. I don't believe he's Swiss at all. Can't we have another? I know he's going to make me uncomfortable and worry me."
"Oh, he's all right," replied the Captain easily. "You must learn not to mind an unprepossessing outer appearance. If he makes a good waiter, nothing else about him will matter much to us. Don't get 'spies' on the brain." ”

“ I can't be around all the time. I may even have to be away several days at a time. A young girl like you can't stay alone in a big hotel. What in sancho are we going to do?" He ran his hands through his hair despairingly. "It was only on the basis of her being able to join us that your mother and I consented to this arrangement at all. I guess now you'll have to go out to Chicago and stay with her, after all. There's no where else for you to go."
"Oh, Daddy, Daddy, don't!" implored Patricia, hurling herself at him in a panic. ”

“ By the way, when we get down to the dining-room, please try to act as nearly normal as possible, and as if nothing were wrong. It might be fatal to let the world at large notice that all is not as usual. And, of course, don't touch this subject, as far as conversation goes, with a forty-foot pole!"
His latter injunctions Patricia found rather difficult to carry out. It was far from easy to appear her usual care-free self when weighed down with such a hideous burden of trouble. If she hadn't felt the thing to be all her own fault, unwitting though it was, she could have borne it better. ”

“ She is an exceedingly clever woman. His only uneasiness about her arose from the rather peculiar actions of your little friend, Virginie de Vos. Still, as I say, Brainerd could not seem to connect her with any doubtful matters. Franz he did think was watching him, but even he did nothing to arouse direct suspicion. And, by the way, the 'Hofmeyer' that Chester heard referred to is none other than this precious 'Madame Vanderpoel.' It is, in fact, her real name, for she married, after her first husband died, a German named Hofmeyer. ”

“ But what on earth are we going to do? She's in danger and we don't even know where she is; and I'm in danger and I'm here all alone, except for Mrs. Quale's Delia, who is with me for to-night. It's dreadful. Just dreadful! I don't know which way to turn. I'd call up the police and put the thing in their hands if I dared. But I don't dare. It would spoil everything for Father if anything about this secret became generally known, and I don't even think I ought to speak to the hotel authorities for the same reason. What am I going to do? ”

“ She looked so appealingly at her friend that Patricia went down on her knees beside the crouching girl and put both arms about her.
"I never yet failed to keep a promise, Virginie dear. Believe me, I love you and trust you just as much as ever, and always will. I think there is some terrible secret that is making you act very differently from what you would under ordinary circumstances. ”

“ I'm going to put you right in this room by yourselves, and you can rest as long as you wish till some one comes for you." And she led them into a neat, ugly little bedroom and left them to themselves.
Patricia made Virginie lie down on the bed, while she established herself in a comfortable old rocker near by. Delia, having assured herself that her young charges were in good hands, departed for the hotel to be there when Mrs. Quale returned. For half an hour the two girls remained as she had left them, each too much overcome to utter a single word. ”

“ Then her mind reverted to the strange, unnerving revelations the boy had made concerning her father, the unknown pair who had known so much about his affairs and had left before they arrived, and the terrible Franz and Hofmeyer who had doubtless been spying on them all the time, and who, even now, were probably in possession of the Crimson Patch. And Peter Stoger—spy without doubt and a disguised one at that—confirming her worst suspicions of him! ”

“ The threat is powerless. Your father died during the siege of Antwerp—a painless death. A shell struck and exploded near his villa, damaging it. He was not injured, apparently, at the time, but the shock evidently affected his heart, for he was found soon afterward lying peacefully in his chair—dead. You should rejoice that this is so, for he is happy and at peace, and he never could have been so again had he remained alive. May God have some happiness in store for you in the future. ”

“ Virginie seemed fairly to shrink into herself at this suggestion. "Oh, you do not understand!" she moaned. "There is something else, something more terrible than you have any idea of. Gladly, only too gladly would I do as you suggest. Indeed, I would have done it long ago. I would have done it even had it meant 160my own death. But the safety of one I love depends wholly on my complete obedience to her—to them."
"What—oh, what do you mean?" breathed Patricia, a partial light breaking in on her bewilderment. ”

“ But her brain was a-whirl with feverish, delicious excitement. "Spies," "danger," "secret mission"—the magic words gave her an indescribable thrill! And yet, with it all, she realized too the gravity of the affair; and the realization served to give her a mental balance beyond her years.
"But now let's go down to dinner!" cried the Captain gaily, glad to change to a subject less tense. "I've an appetite worthy of an ex-prisoner in a German camp!"
As they passed out into the corridor, Patricia 14glanced up at the number over their door. ”

“ I do not care for her on general principles. Sometimes we have only instinct to trust, and mine tells me, just now, simply to be careful. That's all. Now call her up on the 'phone and say you will not be able to accompany them, and thank her, of course, for so kindly thinking of you."
Patricia did as she was bid, and was answered by Virginie, who said Madame Vanderpoel was not there. "I'm so sorry that I'll not be able to go, but Father had made another engagement for me," Patricia assured her, and there was a murmured reply over the instrument that the captain could not catch. ”

“ You do not understand. They are not all here—in this house. Only Madame—and Melanie, her maid, and the chauffeur, Hermann Klausser (they call him Jacques Thierrot in public) are here. But there are many, many others in New York—everywhere. They are all in these plots. They would find out what had happened, and they would send the message. I am not safe though you were to shut up a dozen of them in jail at once. Do you not see?"
They did see. Chet scratched his head in perplexed thought and Patricia stared at them both helplessly. ”

“ I'm awfully interested in that sort of thing, though I don't do much of the kind myself."
"Ah, yes!" cried Virginie, brightening at once. "I have a whole portfolio in my room. I will go to fetch it. I love the work, and I turn to it whenever I have an opportunity." She ran out of the room and hurried back with a batch of color sketches that she spread out on the couch. They were really exceedingly clever, as Patricia recognized at once. ”

“ You can't go on forever this way with Madame Vanderpoel. Some day they might put an end to your father's life for some reason of their own, and you couldn't do a thing to stop it, mightn't even know it. You'd be perfectly helpless. Whereas, if you get yourself out of their power, you stand some chance, at least, of rescuing your father too. Take the chance, Virginie. These people are not so powerful as they seem to you because you have been so shut up with them. They have let you know nothing. Take the chance. I believe it is your 179only chance to help your father and yourself! ”

“ He wants to be a detective, but he is cut out for even better things if he only has the education and opportunities. I am going to arrange to have him put in a good school, 219and later he shall follow any line of work he seems best fitted for. He will certainly make his mark in the world some day."
"Well," murmured Patricia, with a little sigh of content, "Chester and Virginie have certainly lost nothing and gained much by the disappearance of the Crimson Patch, so I feel as if the adventure had been well worth while in every way, even though it did cause us an awful lot of worry!" ”

“ I've brought a lot of fancy-work, too, and I'm going to do Red Cross knitting and make all my Christmas presents during these three summer months, so I'll be very, very busy. Do say yes, Daddy!"
Captain Meade looked only half convinced. "I don't like it at all, Patricia. It will not only be lonely, for you, it may possibly even be dangerous. There are spies about us all the time. ”

“ Madame Vanderpoel 37hurried on. "I am called away to New York this morning on the most urgent business—something that cannot be postponed. Unfortunately, my dear little charge, Virginie, Mademoiselle de Vos, is quite miserable—a violent nervous headache; she is subject to them frequently, poor little soul! I dread to leave her alone all day in the care only of that stupid chambermaid, yet my business is such that I simply cannot postpone it. ”

“ I might better have let 218you into the secret of the importance of the sketch and the fact that our waiter was only a secret-service man in disguise. But I wanted to spare you all worry about the matter, and I thought it would be perhaps safer for you if you knew nothing about my affairs. I see now that I should have done differently. But, at any rate, it has all turned out so well that we won't regret anything."
"But what a trump Chester has been! Did you ever see any one quite so clever?" cried Patricia, enthusiastically. "He is really the one who saved the whole situation." ”

“ Can it be true? Let no circumstances detain you. Need I say more to you? If they stay in town while here, I can no longer visit them. We go out every week to see cousins. Their house is quite new in the suburbs. See Hanford before you leave. At a store there once had good cream. Meet Mary soon and you will find Josephine there.
"F." "Well of all the silly letters!" thought Patricia, after the first reading. "What can it all mean? Of course, it refers to people and circumstances I don't know anything about, but even so, it sounds sort of scrappy. I wonder why Chet wanted me to read it? ”

“ I will tell you why. After luncheon Madame always goes to her room to rest and sleep. Melanie will be busy in the kitchen, and if the chauffeur does not come back, it will all be quite safe. I 186think he will not come back. I have a feeling that he has gone to New York to consult with—with the rest of them. But Madame may not leave the sketch in her desk. She may lock it in her safe, but I will go back, though she is terrible when she is angry."
"But remember this, always, Virginie," Patricia assured her; "she can do nothing now to harm you personally. ”