Lilian Garis

“ Every one said Cara Burke was “all eyes” and her eyes were lovely.
“It’s queer how every one thinks Barbara is so wonderful,” Esther was determined to find fault. “She just acts like an old lady, it seems to me.”
“Esther Phester! How dare you!” mocked Cara. “Now, you’re being jealous. You see, it’s like this. There are lots of wise old ladies but a wise young lady is different.”
“You talk rather wise yourself and you’re not so old,” retorted Louise.
“I am old. I love to be. Children are a pest, so please don’t act so childish, girls,” Cara in turn retorted. ”

“ It so happened that this was the week that Dudley Burke and Glenn Gaynor left for camp. So much always happens in the late summer. The night before they left the boys took all the girls out, all the girls that the girls could gather up. And they had a wonderful time, from sodas at Hills, to movies at the Ritz, after which delightful hours were spent upon the porch of a Monmouth hotel, where the party too young and too informal to take part, listened to the orchestra and watched the dancing, from the great ocean-front porches. ”

“ Both Cara and Babs laughed over the foolish idea that summer folks had to be more carefully guarded than winter folks—those who lived at Sea Cosset the year around—but Babs was too busy with other and more important affairs to worry over such trifles.
Her heart was singing these days, because she was so expectant. Something wonderful was about to happen. She was going to find out who carved the beautiful wooden candlesticks, and why Nicky’s folks were afraid of being known to strangers. This would surely satisfy her thirst for adventure. ”

“ You’re rich in a lot of things, Babs,” spoke up Cara. “And if you wanted to take Nicky you would soon find out what a real help he could be.”
“I wish I had taken him—last night,” declared Babs, tossing her head to one side so far that her hair came tumbling down like a curtain over one eye. “But it’s too late to make wishes; what we have got to do is to make plans. You see, Cara, it would be so much better if we could get hold of Nicky right away, because Miss Davis’ twin sister Tillie is away. If we could find him, somehow I feel we would find the Santa Maria.” ”

“ Cara had snatched it up from a bench and handed it to her when they entered the court. Now, Barbara paused to note the burnt-in letters the racket was marked with; Dudley Burke. Yes, it belonged to Cara’s brother, Dud, and he had a local reputation as a crack tennis player. Naturally interested in sports, she was also interested in its advocates, and as if her thoughts had gone by wireless, at this instant a boy’s whistle sounded through the shrubbery.
Barbara started guiltily. Why? All alone in the strange grounds, a stranger—what would the girls say if they should come along? ”

“ Ruth interrupted Lida. “I heard something.”
“So did I,” breathed Cara in a hushed voice. She seemed frightened suddenly, for the noise was too unmistakably close by.
“Oh! A man is—groaning!”
“Hark!”
They huddled together in a far corner away from the window that opened on a little upper porch. No one spoke. They certainly had heard a very queer noise, all of them.
“Some one is calling,” Babs insisted, moving as if to answer the call.
“Calling! It’s past twelve o’clock,” replied Cara.
“And a storm is coming. Hear the thunder,” gasped Esther, shuddering in her fright. ”

“ Then, suddenly and without a cause which could be thought of by Barbara, he turned, ducked behind the boxes again and was as completely out of sight as if they had never seen him.
“I wonder what he did that for?” Babs exclaimed in astonishment.
“He didn’t want to see you, evidently,” replied Dr. Hale, throwing his car into gear again.
“Those youngsters can’t be depended upon,” said Miss Davis sagely. “They have no one to teach them anything so they pick up what is wrong.”
“Not Nicky,” defended Barbara. “He’s a fine little fellow.” ”

“ WASHINGTON ANSWERS
“We certainly are meeting difficulties,” remarked Cara as they left the road to the lighthouse behind them. “Ruth would call them snags, difficulties are different, aren’t they?”
“But imagine the Marcusis camping in the woods,” said Babs, ignoring frivolity. “What did the captain say about some one being sick?”
“He didn’t say it, he caught himself in time. Seems as if there’s a mystery in that somewhere,” said Cara more seriously.
“Why ever should there be a mystery in a person being sick? How silly!”
“Well, we’ll soon know,” Cara assured her. ”

“ No, Barbara did not love clothes well enough to go to much trouble for them. She was afraid she wouldn’t have much fun in Cara’s finery, although it was certainly lovely. But neither would she feel right to refuse and hurt Cara. Which would be worse? To hurt her own pride or to hurt Cara’s generosity?
“Oh, clothes!” she repeated again, “what a nuisance they are, either to have or to need! They’re not really of such importance and yet we are so proud we feel we must be all decked out like the poor helpless Christmas trees. Everything must dazzle us or we don’t want it,” she reflected cynically. ”

“ Babs reminded him, for the other girls were actually coming down the stairs and she had not yet gone up. Also she didn’t want to hear his excuse.
It seemed as if Dudley’s bright-red hair always took part in his emotions. Perhaps it pricked him or tickled him, or something, for he ran his fingers through it and spoiled it so far as the part went, unmarking a beautiful straight line of curls that began at his forehead and made a border right over the top of his head. Boys hate curly hair, but girls love it—even on boys. ”

“ Just as the girls came to within a few feet of the roadway a small car drew up and from it sprang two persons.
“Look!” gasped Louise. “There she is now!”
“Is that—Barbara!” exclaimed Cara in an undertone, for the two in bathing suits—a young girl and a young man—were racing along through the sands quite close to them.
“Yes,” answered Esther and Louise in one voice.
“Isn’t she stunning in a bathing suit?” continued the entranced Cara. “She must be dandy at athletics.” The two figures under scrutiny were now far enough away to be out of possible reach of the girls’ voices. ”

“ Do you suppose Miss Davis is a sort of shadowy cousin to me?” asked Babs.
“Shadowy anyhow. She’s thin enough. But she’s nice. If only we can lay hold of that miserable little Nicky and wring out of him the story of the boat model.”
“Cara Burke!” exclaimed Babs, rebukingly. “You stop making fun of my adopted brother. Didn’t you say I should adopt him?”
“Looks right now as if he would be the adopted son of Captain Quiller,” went on Cara, for both girls were in that mood that made them feel like saying silly things and laughing at them, as if they were the very best jokes they had ever heard. ”

“ She who could sally forth triumphantly in a skirt, unhemmed (frayed out for effect!) ; in a sweater that Dora made for the church fair and it didn’t sell, in a hat—no, without a hat. Around home and in her unhampered outdoor life all of this and even worse was all right, rather individual and by no means a hardship. But now, here with these daintily dressed girls, of whom even the careless Ruth Harrison admitted paying two dollars and a half for sport stockings, here Barbara fully realized her shabbiness. ”

“ It was all very unreal to Barbara. These beautiful grounds, the gaily dressed girls, so care-free, so frivolous and more than anything else, so girlish. It must be fine to feel free from anxiety. There were Dora’s wages due, and Dr. Hale’s bills not coming in promptly, there were the cultures for experiments to be paid for and they were so expensive. And now, if her father was determined to shut her help out, that would mean also the loss of Glenn Gaynor’s assistance, for he worked with Barbara, enjoying the experiments and calling them fun when they worked them out together. ”

“ The inference was plainly that she preferred to have refused even Cara.
“And why should you refuse?” demanded Dr. Hale. “Look here, Babs,” he spoke a little sharply. “Do you know this won’t do? I won’t have folks talking about you as if I—as if I were depriving you of—of everything.”
“Dadykins!” Barbara burst out, and all the pallor of her face was now dyed with an angry flush. “Who has said that? Whose business is it what we do or how we live? Just because I want to keep to myself more than other girls do, they think I’m being deprived of—of what?” ”

“ He seemed to be enjoying himself.
“You see,” he pursued, “the girls all think you’re sort of different.”
“Why?” Barbara asked so suddenly and so frankly that Dudley’s cheeks flared. He couldn’t have been blushing, yet his face certainly had gone red.
“Oh,” he faltered, “I suppose because you don’t run around a lot. And then, you are so fond of study.”
“I hate it,” flung back Barbara, unconsciously shifting her position, which was alongside of him since Nicky’s departure.
“I mean, studying with your father.”
“That isn’t studying at all; it’s just experimenting. Don’t you like to experiment?” ”

“ Barbara loved that feeling of relationship, however remote it was, for she had been much alone since her Aunt Katherine moved away out West, and there was after that no woman but the well-meaning Dora to offer her protection. It was all well enough to be considered different from other girls, to have her father tell her gallantly that she was almost as good as a boy, to have boys call her a pal and a chum and flatter her in their favorable comparisons, not a bit like other girls; but a girl needs a woman’s sure arm around her ”

“ Barbara hated to feel limited by her appearance. Not that she didn’t love pretty things, but because she felt them beyond her reach. She was obliged to build up some other real interest, and that had come to her as she naturally developed an aptitude for helping her father.
Bugs, germs, cultures, and the other symbols of bacteriology meant more to Barbara than frocks, hats, and articles of dainty apparel, dear to the heart of every normal girl. ”

“ Babs declared, still in a grumbling mood. “Dads again, you know.”
“And Nicky,” Cara reminded her companion. “You know, Babbsy, you must show Nicky’s candlesticks.”
“No, I don’t think I will,” Babs surprised her friend by saying. “Women aren’t like us. They would demand to know who made them, and that would, or might,” she corrected herself, “bring trouble to Nicky.”
“Oh, Babs!” exclaimed Cara, in real surprise. “You don’t mean to say you wouldn’t. Not show those darling little candlesticks,” she repeated. “Why, they would be sure to win a prize,” Cara faltered in disappointment. ”

“ He helps me and he works like a man; all night if we must hurry,” declared the cousin proudly. He seemed very fond of his small cousin Nicky.
“Lov-ell-ly!” breathed Cara, to whom the news brought a vision of little Nicky as an artist. Nicky, the obscure Italian boy, whom they had been talking about adopting. How absurd! And this splendid young man, Benato, was the person who had been hiding behind the poverty of the Marcusi home. And the girls talked of “black handers!”
She could not help smiling when she thought of it all. How unfair it is to judge people merely by appearances? ”

“ If only I did that might help,” sighed Babs. “But Cara, I can’t help thinking that Nicky looked guilty when he bolted out before Dad’s car. Even Miss Davis noticed that.”
“Oh, Miss Davis!” scoffed Cara. “She’d be sure to think that. But it doesn’t mean a thing. Babs, I’m sure Nicky wouldn’t go off without leaving some word for you. He’s too smart to forget you.”
“Why?” asked Babs innocently.
“Why? Because he idolizes you. Because he thinks you are his guardian angel. Don’t you know the girls even said your father was going to adopt him?”
“Cara Burke!” That left Babs speechless. ”

“ Now she was coming along with Dudley. As the strong headlights of the big car caught the group standing waiting a remarkable picture was presented.
“Oh,” squealed Ruth to Dudley. “Just look!”
There stood Cara in the white dress, which shone plainly beneath the cape, Nicky next with his bandaged arm and tattered clothing, his black hair making streaks on his forehead and seeming to hide so much of his small face. On the other side of him, and insisting on holding on to him was Babs in her college gown, and somehow still managing to keep on her head that ridiculous mortar-board cap. ”

“ They despised foreigners, although none of their own class would have tended a railroad gate and risked a life to save a fractious horse.
It was this daring deed that had so enthused Barbara, and she was determined never to turn from her door little Nicky and Vicky—not for Dora nor for a dozen like her! She would buy every egg they brought; she couldn’t often buy the junk the children uncovered at the dump, but she had given them fifty cents once for an old pewter mug. ”

“ Babs laughed. “To be as smart as a boy, as smart as some boys wouldn’t mean a lot; would it, Cara?” she countered.
“No. But he meant, of course, as smart as a smart boy——”
“Smarter than a smart boy?”
“Just let’s call it smart,” suggested Cara, but there was a seriousness about her manner that did not chime in with her words. Cara Burke was evidently trying to understand Barbara Hale.
Barbara was merely beginning to undress. She had never been so poky. She felt very unreal. ”

“ Louise spoke up rather like a small girl again, “it’s a perfectly darling idea. Even if we all do live around here; what difference would a train ride make in a house party?”
“None; not a speck,” confirmed Esther, both the girls bracing Cara up in her resolve to give the party and worrying secretly lest she back out.
“Except,” chimed in Cara, “that when they come a distance they have to stay. If you girls get bored to death you could even sneak home in your nighties,” she wound up, turning a very good hand-spring to prove why she was such a fine basketball player. ”

“ They like girls who keep them guessing.”
“Oh, Barbara Hale can do that well enough,” scoffed Esther. “Isn’t she keeping us guessing?”
“Just because she keeps to herself,” retorted Cara. “Now, that’s just why I’m so crazy to know her. There must be a reason for her, oh, you know,” again stumbled Cara, who wanted to say there must have been a reason for Barbara’s aloofness, or was it reticence?
“Since you are so keen about it Cara, I’ll do my best,” offered Louise. “You know, her father is a sort of doctor and has some of the awfully rich folks on his list.” ”

“ Oh, we must hurry to Captain Quiller,” wailed Babs. “Miss Davis is so nervous she might go to old Chief Morgan, and he doesn’t know any more about police work than the ugly old stupid yellow dog that hounds his heels.”
“I’m sorry I said that, Babs,” confessed Cara, seeing how newly excited Babs had become. “There is no reason in the world to worry about Nicky. Why shouldn’t he move away if his mother wanted to?” ”

“ All one could hear was “quilts”; every one seemed to have a collection of at least one, and those who didn’t own one knew just where they could borrow one. So a quilt deluge was threatened.
Candlesticks were probably next in point of popularity, and Barbara knew something about them. She knew that Nicky could supply a pair, beautifully carved in new or old wood, for he had done so when Cara offered him her patronage. Who carved them or where he got them was as mysterious to Babs as to the other girls, and boys too, for that matter, for Babs had insisted upon leaving the Italians to themselves. ”

“ Barbara asked impatiently.
“Nary a word. But say, Babs, they don’t move, they flit, like the birds. And a good thing too. Lucky dogs! Everybody ought to flit instead of moving. Remember when we last moved, little sister?”
“Oh, forget it,” answered Cara. “Don’t try to remember it. But say Dud, listen. Where has Nicky flitted to? That’s the great question.”
“How should I know? He just plunked the wooden thing under my nose and I plunked a dollar bill in his fist, and there you are!” Dudley could be brief and expressive at times.
“Let’s go, Cara,” urged Babs. ”

“ Why had Dudley taken the girls over the railroad when there were endless other beautiful drives to be enjoyed?
The noisy arrival of a car load of boys, including Dudley and Dick Landers who had dined at the Club, cut short the girls’ dinner—which was a real charity, for the meal had been dragging along like a box-party picnic.
“We’re all going to the movies,” Cara announced. “That may not be a very original way to spend a house-party evening, but there’s a wonderful picture at the Ritz and the boys will take us.” ”

“ As if a mantel were of any possible beauty or use!
“Barbara! Babs!”
Her father calling. “Dear Dads!” This was not a sigh of self-pity. “It isn’t his fault. I wonder why brains, real brains are sold so cheap? Yes, Dad,” she answered, patting her face with the powder puff, “I’m coming.” She was on her feet again and going back to the party. Of course she would have to go. Nicky’s accident had seemed like a temporary release, but she must go back to Cara’s.
Nicky!
Why was he fearful of Dudley Burke or any stranger going to his place? Yes, he must have something to hide. ”