Margaret Penrose

“ PLAYING A PART Dorothy braced up mentally and prepared for the encounter.
Stanley Blake was coming toward them down the aisle with Gibbons following close at his heels like a squat little tug in the wake of a graceful steamboat.
Tavia’s eyes danced as she watched them. She was evidently prepared to enjoy herself thoroughly. To see her outspoken Dorothy Dale play a part was a novelty and a most amusing one.
“Like going to a play, only lots better,” was her unspoken thought. “For this, Tavia Travers, is real drama. True to life, if not truer.” ”

“ At that moment Dorothy stirred, lifted her hand in an aimless gesture and made as though to rise.
Tavia put a hand beneath her chum’s head, lifting her a little.
“Take it easy, Doro honey,” she advised gently. “You have had a pretty hard knock, and it may take a little while for you to remember what happened. Oh, keep still, will you!” she cried to the elements in senseless fury as a crash of thunder shook the earth, drowning out her last words. “Don’t you know it isn’t polite to interrupt a person while she’s talking? ”

“ THE DASTARDLY PLOT The two girls waited to make sure there was no one else in the cave besides Joe, listened until the sounds made by his captor crashing through the underbrush had died away.
Then Dorothy ran to him, sank to her knees beside him, laughed and cried over him as she lifted his head and held it tight against her.
“Joe, Joe! why did you run away? We’ve been nearly crazy, dear! No, no, don’t cry, Joe darling! It’s all right. Your Dorothy is here. Nothing, nothing will ever hurt you again.” ”

“ Dorothy gave her a curious glance.
“Yes, you do!” she gibed. “I can see you living in that atmosphere just about one week, Tavia Travers, before you’d die from boredom. Excitement is your meat, my dear. Without it, you must starve.”
“How well you have read my nature,” said Tavia, with a sigh. “However, there is apt to be excitement enough if you can believe Ma Petterby and Sue,” she added, with a giggle. “How about that man-eating panther they were telling about?” ”

“ The broad-hatted young fellow behind the wheel of the battered car looked bewildered for a moment. Then he smiled broadly and, with a sweeping gesture, removed his sombrero.
The next moment he had leaped to the ground, his tanned, good-looking face alight with smiles.
“Well, if it ain’t Miss Tavia and Miss Dorothy!” he cried. “Jerusha Juniper, but it’s good to see you both!” ”

“ Dorothy was ahead, leading her horse carefully up the narrow trail that rose steeply as it followed the rise of the mountain. Her voice, muffled, came back eerily to Tavia as she followed. “I suppose Aunt Winnie would think we were crazy to do a thing like this.”
“We are,” retorted Tavia, adding with a chuckle: “But as soon as I cease to be crazy I shall want to die!”
“The Major would understand though,” said Dorothy, still as though talking to herself. “He would know that I couldn’t stand back and just wait when Joe was in danger.” ”

“ The young Mexican who had saddled the animals saw the pony coming, swung to the back of another, and caught the bridle of the running pony as it passed, dragging it to a quivering standstill.
Tavia shifted to a more secure position in the saddle, felt her hair to see how greatly it had been disarranged, and, when Dorothy came up, was smiling winningly at the Mexican. ”

“ We can’t very well stay where we are.”
“No, we can’t stay where we are,” repeated Dorothy automatically, adding, as she pressed her hand, palm out, against her forehead: “But I am so dizzy, Tavia. When I look down it seems as if the earth rose up to meet me.”
“Then don’t look down!” cried Tavia sharply, noting with an access of alarm that Dorothy reeled in the saddle as she spoke. “Look up as much as you can, Doro, and hold on tight to the pony’s mane if you feel yourself slipping. Oh, I wish Garry were here!” ”

“ Dorothy motioned her sharply to be still.
“They are talking of Garry,” she explained, in a tense whisper.
“Who? When? Where?” cried Tavia, screwing her head about most absurdly in a vain effort to bring the entire dining room within her range of vision at the same time. “What do you mean, Doro?”
Dorothy gestured toward the two men at the table next to them, at the same moment making an imploring gesture pleading silence.
“Why, Stanley Blake and his dear little friend!” exclaimed Tavia in a tone of pleased surprise. “Always turning up like the proverbial bad penny, aren’t they, Doro? ”

“ Tavia retorted. “That good-looking cowboy—Steve, did Garry call him—said that the two men and the boy disappeared in that direction,” and she swept an arm toward the mountains rising majestically before them. “Look!” she cried suddenly, leaning from the saddle and gripping Dorothy’s arm. “Do you see those two tall peaks with the smaller one between? If we keep our eye on that formation we can’t go far wrong.”
“But we shall lose sight of your church spires as soon as we enter the woods,” objected Dorothy, and Tavia’s face fell. ”

“ Dorothy did not answer. She had lapsed into her former mood and Tavia regarded her chum thoughtfully. Then she deserted the foot of the bed for the arm of Dorothy’s chair.
“Come on, Doro, snap out of it!” she urged. “Nothing ever has been gained by surrendering to the doleful dumps. Suppose Napoleon had been discouraged!”
“Perhaps he was—at Waterloo,” returned Dorothy. But she added quickly in response to Tavia’s impatient gesture: “Now don’t you go lecturing me, Tavia Travers. I will have the doleful dumps or any other kind if I feel like it.” ”

“ They would know soon—probably did already, for they had seen her and Tavia in conversation with Lance Petterby—that she and her chum had other interests in Desert City than the pursuit of a runaway boy.
Stiffbold had even confided in her to some extent concerning his plans. Would it not be natural then, when he learned, as he must, that she was engaged to Garry Knapp, for him to include her in any villainous schemes he might be hatching?
Dorothy felt a thrill of foreboding. She had been so busy worrying about others that she had never given a thought to her own safety. ”

“ Dorothy flamed at him, and the man retreated before her fury. “And then, when this boy defies you, what do you do? Act like honest men? Of course you do! You threaten to ‘put the screws on’ until he is too weak to defy you, a boy against four—honest—men! If that is honesty, if that is bravery, then I would rather be like that slimy toad out in the woods who knows nothing of such things!”
“Hold on there, you!” George Lightly started forward, his hand uplifted threateningly. ”

“ Why, you never did this before!”
“I know it,” replied Dorothy, dabbing at her eyes with a sodden handkerchief. “But I ache so, Tavia, and I am so frightened about Joe, and I wish Garry were here. Then, when you spoke of the ranch kitchen, it was just about the last straw!”
“You might know I would go and put my foot in it!” cried Tavia penitently and quite at a loss what to do next. “You poor girl. You got horribly banged up with that fall. If you weren’t the best sport ever you wouldn’t go on at all. But honestly, Doro, I don’t know what to do.” ”

“ Tavia was out of her seat bent on joining the general stampede for the door, but Dorothy held her back firmly.
“You will be hurt in that rush!” she cried. “Wait a minute; do, Tavia.”
Tavia obeyed, and crouched down in the seat and covered her eyes with her trembling hands.
“Oh, listen to those cries, Doro!” she wailed presently. “Somebody must be horribly hurt.”
“Just hysterics, Miss.”
A man, one of those who had been the first to jump from the train, returned and sank into a seat opposite the two girls. “The car ahead of us jumped the track, and it’s a mercy the whole train wasn’t wrecked. ”

“ Tavia gave a little exclamation of pity and this time it was Dorothy who held up her hand for silence.
“I say I lend him ten cents——”
“Ten cents!” repeated Tavia hysterically. “But ten cents wouldn’t take him ten miles——”
“But he have all the rest himself,” explained the Italian, with the air of one who has told the answer to a clever riddle. “All he need more than he got, ten cents. I give him.” ”

“ With these words something seemed to snap in Dorothy’s brain. Her horrible anxiety of the past few hours fanned the indignation she felt against this lad. She reached out and gripped him fiercely by the shoulders.
“It is so, and you know it,” she said in a tone that terrified the cowardly boy. “And if you don’t tell me the truth now, Jack Popella, I will turn you over to some one who will make you. Maybe they will be able to find out then, who really set Jud Haskell’s store on fire!” ”

“ Nat regarded her as though he thought she might have gone temporarily insane.
“But, my dear girl, why——” he began, but Tavia impatiently interrupted him.
“Oh, you men are so stupid!” she cried. “You never can think of anything without a map to help you. Can’t you see that Roger, hoping to escape attention, would take the path through the woods, rather than go by the main thoroughfare?” ”

“ Suppose Joe hasn’t reached Desert City! Suppose he took the wrong train or something! So many things may happen to a boy traveling all alone. Remember, he didn’t even have money to buy himself food!”
“Now you stop worrying, Doro Doodlekins.” Tavia’s arms had circled her chum in a comforting embrace. “If that telegram has reached Garry, as of course it has, I’ll guarantee he has Joe as safe as a bug in a rug by this time.” ”

“ Philo Marsh is pretty closely connected with Larrimer and those other arch-knaves, Stiffbold and Lightly, just now; but of course it might have been any of the others.”
“What did you mean just now by saying that they might hope to strike at you through Joe?” asked Dorothy slowly, as though she were painstakingly trying to reason things out for herself. “I didn’t quite understand you, Garry.”
“That is only because you do not know my enemies, dear,” returned Garry. “Those fellows have done everything in their power to run me off my land. The longer I thwart them, the more determined they get. ”

“ But Ma Petterby did not return Tavia’s smile. She remained unusually grave and the face of Sue reflected that gravity.
“No lions or tigers that I knows on,” she replied. “But they’s been a panther hauntin’ these woods of late.”
“A panther! How gorgeous!” cried the irrepressible. “I have always wanted to meet one, Mrs. Petterby.”
“Panthers aren’t likely to attack without provocation, are they?” asked Dorothy, and this time it was Sue who answered.
175“Most animals—wild animals, that is—would rather slink off without making a fuss unless they’re cornered and have to fight,” she said. ”

“ Only the word of that slimy little toad—who, by the way, will bear considerable watching, if you will listen to me,” she added significantly.
“But Jack Popella didn’t run away and Joe did!” Dorothy pointed out to her miserably.
“Oh-ho, so that’s what’s worrying you! Well, I wouldn’t let it, if I were you. Don’t you know that the smartest criminals believe that the safest place in the world for them is right in the vicinity of their crime?”
“Good gracious, Tavia, I wish you wouldn’t speak of criminals so much,” interrupted Dorothy unhappily. “It makes me feel uncomfortable.” ”

“ But as she turned the pony’s head and looked 212back over the sharply-sloping trail up which they had clambered, Dorothy’s heart misgave her.
The descent would be infinitely more difficult than the ascent had been. The ponies, though sure-footed and used to the rough mountain trails, would be in constant danger of slipping on the wet rocks and moss.
Guessing her thoughts, Tavia urged her own pony close to her chum and stood for a moment beside her, staring down the steep descent. ”

“ Mechanically they walked through the excited crowd on the platform to the spot where the car had jumped the track. There it stood, its wheels on the gravel bed of the roadside, tilted crazily and only held upright by the cars in front and at the rear of it.
“The people in this car must have been jolted up for fair. Thought it was an earthquake or something,” murmured Tavia, interest getting the better of her anger at Dorothy. ”

“ Tavia confessed. “When do we start, Doro?”
“Hold your horses a minute, will you?” cried Nat. “You two girls aren’t going on a journey like that all alone—not by a long shot!”
“O-ho! The cave man speaks!” gibed Tavia. “Who says we are not, Mr. Smarty?”
“You really ought to stay here, Nat,” Dorothy interposed swiftly. “We need both you and Ned here on the spot, both to take care of Dad and follow up any new clue that may turn up.” ”

“ Susan Petterby adjured her husband. “You can be the most aggravatin’ person when you wants to, Lance Petterby. Takin’ so long to think and puttin’ a body off so. Can’t you see the young lady is worried nigh to death?”
“Guess that’s so, though you’re always the one for seein’ things, Sue,” said Lance penitently. “Your brother Joe was going to Garry Knapp’s ranch when I saw him, Miss Dale.”
“Oh, then everything is all right,” cried Dorothy, with a great sigh of relief. “Once he gets to Garry all my worries will be over.” ”

“ Stiffbold’s face was suffused with fury as he recognized Dorothy and Tavia, and he took a threatening step forward. Philo Marsh reached out a hand and drew him back, saying in mild tones:
“Easy there, Stiffbold. Don’t do anything you are likely to regret.”
“So, ladies to the rescue, eh?” sneered Lightly, thrusting his hands into his pockets and regarding the girls with an insulting leer. “Regular little heroines and all, ain’t you? Well, now, I’ll be blowed!”
“Young ladies, this isn’t the place for you, you know.” Philo Marsh took a step forward, reaching out his hand toward Joe. ”