this charge was so absolutely from a clear sky that the radio girls remained motionless for a moment, staring incredulously at the slanderer and her smirking companion. they were thunderstruck. it seemed impossible that even belle ringold should have said such a thing to them.
it was little hen who recovered first, and with a shrill shriek of rage she charged to the attack.
“you horrid old thing!” she cried, one hand clenched and making frantic gestures in the air while the other tugged wildly in a vain attempt to free itself from jessie’s grip upon it. “you know that’s a wicked fib, you do! that’s why you said it! oh, just wait till i get at you! oh—oh——” jessie’s hand closed firmly over her mouth, choking off the furious words.
“stop it, henrietta!” she commanded. “you only make it worse by talking like that. come on, amy, let’s get away from here.”
“going to meet darry and burd, i suppose,” sneered belle, not moving from the path.
“i think it is simply disgraceful—” added the sharp voice of sally moon, who could always be depended upon to back up the girl she fawned upon, “i think it is a shame the way you kids run after those two boys——”
“especially since one of them happens to be my brother,” said amy, disgustedly. “really, you girls are too absurd.”
seeing that belle and sally were just warming up to a fresh display of rudeness and knowing that amy would soon lose her temper completely, jessie started once more to pass belle. the latter did not budge an inch, but looked at jessie with such sneering disdain that even her mild temper gave way to exasperation.
“are you going to let me pass, belle ringold?” she asked, in a low tone.
“i would like to know why i should,” retorted the other girl, with an impudent toss of her head. “i don’t see why i should get out of the way for a person who passes counterfeit bills. as a matter of fact, i expect them to get out of my way.” this was too much for henrietta. her face was red with fury and every freckle seemed to stand out upon it in a little brown blotch.
“let me go, miss jessie! just let me get at her! i’ll scratch her eyes out, i will, the mean old thing!”
“oh, henrietta, henrietta, hush. don’t say any more.” and while she tried to quiet the frantic child jessie was conscious of amy’s voice, saying furiously:
“if you don’t get out of the way and let us by, belle ringold, i’ll——” but the threat was destined never to be finished.
there was the familiar growl of a motor horn, and as the girls looked around they saw the long low body of a touring car glide up to the curb and slow to a standstill. at the wheel was burd alling, a grin upon his cheery countenance, and in the tonneau was darry and a lady whom the girls did not recognize. however, it was sufficient that, at that moment, they recognized darry and burd!
“hello!” sang out the latter in a tone that showed he had estimated the situation perfectly. “just in time to give you a lift, girls.”
“what did i tell you?” snapped belle, chagrined at the interruption. “didn’t i say they had a date with darry and burd?”
“always tagging around,” sally moon’s voice reached them, as, without another word, the radio girls, with bertha and henrietta in tow, turned toward the car. “just like big kids——”
“sorry we can’t take you all, girls,” called burd to belle and her crowd as he shifted the lever to low and the car moved slowly forward. “but, you see, we have a pretty good load as it is.”
darry introduced the strange lady as miss alling, “aunt emma,” and the girls were delighted at this opportunity to make her acquaintance. the lady who was to chaperone them on the two weeks’ jaunt to forest lodge was not at all the type of person that the inconsequential chatter of the boys had led them to expect.
to be sure, miss alling was thin, but hers was not the thinness of the dried-up spinster but rather the slenderness of an athletic woman who has kept herself physically fit. her face was not handsome, but it was humorously alert and alive. only around her mouth was a hint of the obstinacy for which burd gave her credit.
miss alling was unmistakably enthusiastic about having the young folks with her at forest lodge, greeting them, as burd had prophesied, as “gifts from heaven.”
when they were nearing nell stanley’s house, jessie suddenly remembered the ice-cream cones they had promised to bring the young ones at the parsonage, and insisted that the boys stop long enough to pay a visit to a convenient candy store.
by that time little hen was once more becoming an “empty void,” or at least she declared herself to that effect, so the entire party trooped into the store for ice cream.
later they stopped at the parsonage, but did not stay long as “aunt emma” alling declared herself in a tremendous hurry to get home. but miss alling met nell and gave her in person a cordial invitation to join the party at forest lodge.
they saw henrietta and bertha to the very door of mrs. foley’s shack in dogtown (for henrietta had evinced a strong desire to visit her former guardian), thereby arousing a good deal of interest and admiration on the part of the dwellers there. “my, but that henrietta haney had come up in the world, with her fine friends, and all. her ownin’ an island and visitin’ on it and drivin’ around in automobiles and the like. it’s a credit to the neighborhood, she’s getting to be.” so tongues clacked and heads wagged in dogtown.
as for henrietta, you would have thought she was a princess at least by the way she held her freckled little nose to the sky upon entering the humble abode of mrs. foley.
the girls chuckled as the machine left the squalid streets of dogtown and entered the exclusive residential district of roselawn.
jessie, amy and darry alighted at the gates of the norwood estate, after gaining a promise from miss alling that she would visit jessie the following evening and see the wireless set “in action.”
when the car bearing burd and “aunt emma” had departed, the three young people turned with common consent toward the norwood porch.
“what were belle ringold and sally moon up to?” queried darry, as they reached the house. “they looked mad enough to bite nails when we first caught a glimpse of them.”
“humph, i guess we were the ones who should have looked mad,” grumbled amy as she settled herself comfortably in one of the big chairs on the porch. “belle ringold has called us just about every name in the calendar, but to-day she thought up a new one.”
“she said we were passing counterfeit money,” added jessie, a shadow crossing her face as she thought of that accusation.
“she said what?” asked darry again, staring. and when jessie repeated belle’s words he threw back his head and roared with laughter.
“well, that is rich!” he said, when he had recovered his breath.
“i don’t see anything to laugh about,” said jessie, seriously. “we did not feel very much like laughing at the time.”
“we were more inclined to throw bricks,” agreed amy. “those girls are getting impossible, darry!”
“i know they are,” returned the young fellow, seriously. “but what i was wondering about,” he added, curiously, “was how in time they got hold of the information that amy got stung with the counterfeit bill!”
“i don’t know,” said amy, indifferently, adding with a chuckle: “i’m sure there is one girl who hasn’t told about it, and that is the tall thin girl who gave the bill to me.”
“i have been wondering about her a good deal,” jessie confessed. “i have a feeling that that girl is in trouble——”
“well, if she isn’t, she ought to be,” returned amy, vehemently. “just think of my five dollars and you won’t pity her so much.”
“but she looked sick—almost as if she hadn’t had enough to eat,” insisted jessie. “she was so tall and thin, and that white face against her coal black hair looked ghastly.”
“hold on a minute!” cried darry, leaning forward and regarding jessie intently. “did this girl have blue eyes and unusually long, black lashes?”
“good gracious, darry! do you suppose we studied the length of the girl’s lashes at a time like that?” drawled amy. “do have a heart!” but jessie had made an impatient gesture.
“she did have long lashes, darry—black like her hair,” she said, eagerly. with a low whistle darry sank back in his chair.
“gosh,” he muttered, “i wonder if that could have been link’s sister!”
