Babs

“ 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.” ”

“ But the most degrading exhibition of all is when Babs and Charlie get together. Then in order to show, each to each, that time writes no wrinkles on their azure brows, they give a miserable display of mature skittishness. They see which of them can scream loudest, laugh most, eat most, drink most, romp most, and, in a word, be grizzliest. ”

“ 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?” ”

“ Cochrane said vexedly:
"Hold on! Confound it, I didn't know I was so transparent! I'm sorry, Babs. Look! Tell me something for my own good!"
Babs hesitated, and then said very cheerfully:
"You only see things the way a man sees them. This show, this trip—this whole business doesn't thrill you because you don't see it the way a woman would."
"Such as how? What does a woman see that I don't?"
"A woman," said Babs, "sees this planet as a place that men and women will come to live on. ”

“ Flying is largely automatic. There was not enough traffic to bother me. The details of leaving the office so hastily had been too engrossing for thought of Alan and Babs. But now, in my little pit at the controls, my mind flung ahead. They had located him. That meant Franz Polter, for whom we had been searching nearly four years. And my memory went back into the past with vivid vision....
The Kents, four years ago, were living on Long Island. Alan and Babs were fourteen years old, and I was seventeen. Even then Babs represented to me all that was desirable in girlhood. ”

“ Miss Davis declared excitedly, getting hold of Barbara’s arm and squeezing it with more vigor than might have been expected, even after Babs had felt the first decided squeeze.
“Oh, how wonderful!” trilled the girl. Her exclamation had a twofold meaning, and one fold applied to her relief that the other matter was not being brought up before her father.
“Now let those girls cut,” she was thinking. “I guess I can have some friends of my own, and relations even. Think of it! An enemy, one to be feared, to turn out some precious relation. All through a faded old sampler!” ”

“ It was a relief to both Babs and Cara when Benato and Dr. Hale entered the tent and left them to talk with Nicky.
“The ship model——” began Babs.
“He can make anything,” the boy interrupted proudly, “and when I told him about the other, Miss Davis’ you know” (he stumbled over that) , “he got out his books and copied one. He is making it for you,” Nicky told Barbara, just a little shyly. ”

“ She did exactly what Dora said she would do—“put some life in Barbara.”
And now that they were really companions, Babs just wondered how she used to get along, all alone or with Glenn Gaynor. Glenn too had changed his habits, and was having a wonderful time going around with Dudley Burke.
“Hope it doesn’t rain,” Cara remarked as the girls made for their bath-houses. “Because you know, Babs, this afternoon——”
“Oh, yes, I know. We’re to have a tiresome old meeting,” grumbled Babs. “Why do old ladies so love to get things up for young ladies? Why can’t they manage their own old patchwork show?” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Babs interrupted. “You see, those people have to work, even the children, and it’s pretty early to expect to find them around home.”
“But that boy,” (how Barbara wished she would not so persistently attack Nicky) “he must be around some place. It seems to me I have met him along the road every day this summer but just today,” wailed Miss Davis.
“Don’t worry,” Cara ventured to remark. “We know how to find the youngsters; don’t we Babs?” and she shot a look at Babs that was infinitely comforting. ”

“ And a grim thought swooped down on Barbara. What if he resigned everything! Went out into the dark! Men did sometimes—she knew—caught like this in the full flush of passion. But surely not Miltoun, with his faith! 'If the lark's song means nothing—if that sky is a morass of our invention—if we are pettily creeping on, furthering nothing—persuade me of it, Babs, and I'll bless you.' But had he still that anchorage, to prevent him slipping out to sea? This sudden thought of death to one for whom life was joy, who had never even seen the Great Stillness, was very terrifying. ”

“ Babs continued. “You know how foreigners are. They have an idea the whole world is their enemy, I guess.”
“Not youngsters who go to American schools; they know better. No, Babs, I don’t believe it was just scare, it was alarm. They were afraid we would go to the door, although they slammed it good and hard, you just bet,” Dudley declared emphatically. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Hold the railing, George. When the room moves it goes with a rush."
Babs laughed softly. It must have seemed to her, after being alone in here, that now our plight was far less desperate. She had told me how she was captured. A man accosted her on the terrace, saying he wanted to speak to her about Alan. Then a weapon threatened her. Amid all those people she was held up in old fashioned style, hurried to a taxicar and whirled away.
She was saying now, "When Polter moves, it is dizzying. You'll see." ”

“ And she fairly gasped in astonishment.
“How ever did you do it?” she demanded. “I thought I had the original masquerade idea.”
“Ideas go in flocks,” laughed Babs. “Why don’t you cheer for our Alma Mater?”
“Oh, girls!” breathed Esther. “Aren’t we dreadful? It must be past midnight and we certainly aren’t whispering.”
“No need to,” replied Cara in full voice. “We have this end of the house to ourselves and we’re having a party. But do let me see you, Babs, a real, honest-to-goodness cap and gown! Any one can be a bride——”
“I don’t know about that,” interrupted Louise. ”

“ Everything suddenly grew very dull. The garden looked more deserted than usual, and after the pony carriage had come round and taken Finny and Auntie Anna and Egbert for a drive, there was not another sound to break the stillness. Babs began to feel neglected; she had not once been left alone like this, ever since she was first taken ill, and she found it extremely depressing. If it was really necessary for the future happiness of Jill that she should be kept in the barn all the afternoon, some one else might have been told off to take her place in the sickroom. ”

“ I did not see where Babs went. I turned from the black vial of Polter's enlarging drug, and with the huge pellet under my arm I ran leaping over the rough ground and flung myself into a gully. I lay prone, flattened against a rock. In the murky distance of a pseudo-sky overhead, the mon [354] strous head and shoulders of Polter were visible. I could see down to just below his waist. The empty cage with its door flapping open hung against his shirt-front. He had stooped to try and recover Babs. And instinctively his hands went to his belt to seize his enlarging drug. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Since then, years, as impatient novelists so often inform us, passed. Babs’s philosophy of life was excellent as far as it went, and the only objection to it was that it did not go far enough. In spite of his vitality, Charlie did not, as a sensible young man should, see about getting another girl; for perhaps he was wounded a little deeper than either he or Babs knew. The tragedy about it all is that they both had the constitution of grizzly
The Grizzly Kittens. ”

“ 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. ”

“ She says being good isn’t worth much, if you’re only good because some one else tells you to be good.’
‘That’s all very well,’ objected Babs, ‘but suppose you don’t know without being told?’
‘Well, if you don’t know that behaving like a wild Indian is wrong, it’s not much good being there to tell you so,’ said Jean, bluntly.
The point of her remark was quite lost on Barbara, who was still puzzling over a question that had never occurred to her before. ‘At home,’ she observed, ‘we never talk about whether a thing is right or wrong. ”

“ Cara said sensibly. “We’ll drown in tidies and center-pieces if we don’t. Dad would send a carpenter over to fix up a nice rack, with hooks that couldn’t tear. Where’s Babs?”
“Yes, where is Babs?” joined in a number of the girls, for Barbara being chairman of the girls’ committee, and the girls being in charge of all the ladder climbing and the dusting of the old nooks and cobwebby corners—to say nothing of taking the goods from the loving hands of the lenders—they certainly expected Barbara to be around all the time and in every place at once. ”

“ It seemed to her of the first importance that everybody should know which class she was to be in, and she was distinctly surprised when Jean Murray, whom she had addressed, turned her back on her and began talking loudly to some one else. ‘Don’t you hear?’ persisted Babs, coming round in front of her again. ‘I’m going to be in your class for everything except––’
‘Sneak!’ burst out Jean Murray, unable to control herself any longer. ‘Tell-tale! You oughtn’t to be in anybody’s class, you oughtn’t!’
Barbara stood stockstill, and looked at her. ”

“ The next moment the girls gazed amazedly at an old man in the garb of a seaman, and Babs, at least, instantly recognized him as Davy Quiller, the lighthouse keeper.
“Davy!” she gasped. “What ever do you want here?”
“I want oil, lamp oil, and I’ve got to get it,” thundered the intruder. “I knew you were up ’cause I could see you per’radin’ around. And the rest of this house must be dead ’cordin’ to the way they sleep. I’ve been a-poundin’ on every winder an’ door. And I couldn’t wait another minute. Got any kerosene oil on these premises?”
Babs and Cara understood. ”

“ But the chance could not be made during scraps of such whispered conversation as the two girls were having in a crowded “movie” house.
CHAPTER X
HOW GIRLS CHOOSE CHUMS
When the girls had quite exhausted all their powers of teasing Babs for again going off with the boys—just as she knew they would—she decided to ride to the ice-cream place in the big car, and she also decided to sit in the back with all the girls.
“Take your boys,” Babs told them, in imitation of their own manner. “For my part I’m just dying for a chat with you girls. Don’t you realize I’ve hardly become acquainted yet?” ”

“ Babs began again, “Washington has answered our letter and maybe you’ll get a medal.”
“A medal!” grinned Nicky. “What good is a medal?”
“Not much, son,” agreed the captain, strange to say. “But then, it’s a mighty good thing to have friends at Washington. There’s all-powerful people there,” and Nicky’s shoulder again responded under Captain Quiller’s fatherly pat. It whacked.
“Oh, I know!” gasped Babs. “I know—something.”
“What? Don’t choke on it. What is it?” asked Cara. ”