"i've got something to show you all," billy announced at the luncheon table. he wore the satisfied air of one who has accomplished something long desired.
"what've you got?" peggy answered promptly.
"guess!" billy fixed his attention upon his plate in a tantalizing way.
"oh, i know--it's a new sending set! i guessed first!"
"you didn't guess, either! i'll bet you saw joe gary bring it!"
"what is a sending set?" asked keineth.
"i'll show you afterwards," billy answered, with a kindness meant to crush peggy.
mr. lee broke in: "but i thought you had to save three dollars more before you could buy one--"
billy flushed. "well, this ain't exactly mine--yet, dad! joe gary made it and he's going to make another and he says i can use this one until i want to buy it or at least for a while. i have that dollar i was saving and my onions and radishes."
"good gracious!" barbara laughed, "i suppose we'll live on onions and radishes three times a day."
mr. lee turned to billy. "don't you think, son, it might be better to wait until you have the money to pay joe? and a little more practice?"
"billy's always spending money on all those foolish things," barbara put in. "he doesn't seem to want to save and help you!"
"well, say, don't you think those things are foolish! you read all sorts of things how wireless messages save people--"
"on sinking ships, yes!"
"well, lots of other ways, too!" billy's face blazed with wrath. "i'll just show you some time!"
"molly sawyer's brother knows a boy who is a wireless operator in the canadian army and sends messages from trees!"
"and if i have a little more practice i can try the troop exams next winter and get a certificate!"
"billy," broke in his mother, "run over to mrs. clark's and tell alice to come home at once. nora rang the bell for her but she did not hear."
"why, mother," said peggy, suddenly alarmed, "janet clark was with us this morning!"
janet clark was alice's closest playmate. the two families lived in adjoining houses. mrs. lee had returned to the house at noon and nora had told her that she had last seen alice running through the gate between the two gardens.
it was only a worried moment before billy came home to say that alice had not been there that morning! it was not like alice to be long away from home. mrs. lee, hiding her concern, directed the children to scour the neighborhood.
not until they had come back from the club and beach and neighboring houses and reported no sign of her did the mother and father openly express alarm. the children saw a look come into their mother's face that it had never worn before! like a shock its agony pierced into each child's heart! very white, billy rushed off to enlist the services of his boy friends for a thorough search of the beach. barbara, with her father, started in the motor for middletown. "i will stay here near the telephone," mrs. lee had said in answer to her husband's quick, concerned look.
peggy came running down the stairs.
"her bathing suit is gone, mammy, and her pink apron--"
"and her penny bank is broken!" keineth held out in her hands the pieces of the china pig which had held alice's collection of pennies. "it's all broken!" and, miserably, keineth looked down at the fragments.
"we will find her," said mrs. lee, bravely, putting an arm about each child. "you girlies must stay with me and help me."
from middletown mr. lee telephoned that they had found a clue. a child answering alice's description had stopped at a small candy store and had purchased a selection of lolly-pops. she had paid for them in pennies. someone in the store had seen her climb upon a trolley car bound for the city. mr. lee and barbara were going on to the city.
but at dusk they returned with no further news. in the crowd at the city station no one had seen the child! and billy and his boy friends had found no trace upon the beach!
"the police are working," the children heard their father say. then mrs. lee suddenly sank limp against his arm and he led her away.
"courage--courage!" they heard him whispering.
nora laid a tempting meal upon the table and carried it away, for no one could eat a mouthful. peggy had run to her room, where keineth found her-her face buried deep in her pillow.
"oh," she sobbed, "i've been so mean to allie lots of times and maybe she's dead somewhere and i can't ever tell her--"
keineth could offer small comfort, but the two locked their arms tight about one another and listened as though in the gathering darkness they might hear alice's dear voice.
mr. lee had rushed off again to the city after a whispered word to barbara to stay close to her mother. billy, his heart breaking, his eyes burning with the tears which his boyish pride would not allow him to show, and feeling the bitterness of his youth and his uselessness, slowly mounted the stairs to the corner of the attic which was his own particular den. the nickel of his beloved wireless apparatus gleamed at him through the darkness. like a flash a hope sprang into his heart! snatching up the phone he placed it upon his head, then ticked off his message, with call after call, in every direction!
now and then someone picked up his words--an unsatisfactory answer would come back. however, finding relief in doing something, billy repeated his calls; listening intently for any answer.
just as to his mind vividly came the picture of alice's hurt face, when, that very morning, he had roughly taken from her his old stamp book, his own call came through the air. every nerve in his body tingled a response! it was freddie murdock--they had often talked back and forth across the lake from where, on the canadian shore, freddie murdock's father had a cottage. and the words that freddie was sending to him by the waves of the air were: "sister found--all right!"
shouting the good news billy rushed three steps at a time down the stairs straight into his mother's arms! she clung to him, burying the boy's face, down which the tears were streaming, close to her heart.
and while they clung together, crying and half laughing, barbara reached her father on the telephone to tell him how alice had been found!
two hours later genevieve brought the little truant home. mrs. lee carried her off for a warm bath and bed, while nora, her eyes very red with weeping, fixed her a bowl of hot milk toast.
"i coaxed the story from her," mr. lee told his wife and barbara later; "that child wanted to see midway beach! do you remember how hard she begged to go with the clarks when they went over and how unreasonable she thought we were in refusing? well, she just made up her mind to go alone. she took her bathing suit and her pennies. she walked from here to middletown, took the trolley there for the city. on the trolley she saw a party of picnickers headed for midway beach and she just walked along with them. it was very simple. she watched the merry-go-rounds and spent all her pennies! when it began to grow dark she laid down on the beach and fell asleep. they found her there, later, after young murdock had given the alarm of a child lost! she didn't seem to be frightened until they handed her over to a policeman to take her back to the city; then the seriousness of her runaway must have come to her. i do not think you will have to worry that she will do it again."
up in her cot alice lay wide awake. beside her peggy and keineth, exhausted by their anxiety, were breathing heavily. below alice could hear voices that she knew were her father's and mother's. she wished awfully that her mother would come to her! with a child's instinct she had read on her mother's face the suffering she had caused. suddenly she felt terribly alone--perhaps none of them would love her now or want her back. she had been so very, very naughty. she clutched the blanket with frightened fingers.
the voices ceased below and in a moment alice saw her mother's face bending over her. with a little cry she threw her arms about the dear neck.
"oh, mammy, mammy," she cried, in a passion of sobs, "say you love me--say you want me back! i don't ever, ever, ever want to go away alone! i thought it would be fun--i didn't think i was so naughty. hold me close, mammy----" exhausted, she hid her face.
"oh, my dear--my baby," the mother breathed in comfort and forgiveness, and the loving arms did not relax their hold until the child was fast asleep.
"i think, billy," said mr. lee, the next morning, "the family will present to you with their compliments the finest sending set we can find!"
"and aren't they useful?" billy cried in just triumph.
