The Corner House Girls Among the Gypsies Part 29

"Ha!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the man. "You have not give it to Beeg Jeem?"

"We have given it to n.o.body. And we will not let you or anybody have it until Mr. Howbridge tells us what to do. Go away!" begged Agnes.

"I go to that man. He no have the Queen Alma bracelet. _You_ have it--"

"Just as sure as I get home," cried the frightened Agnes, "I will send that bracelet down to the lawyer's office and they must keep it. It shall be in the house no longer! Don't you dare come there for it!"

She got past him then and ran as hard as she could along Willow Street. When she finally looked back she discovered that the man had not followed her, but had disappeared.

"Oh, dear me! I don't care what the children say. That bracelet goes into Mr. Howbridge's safe this very afternoon. Neale must take it there for me," Agnes Kenway decided.

She reached the side door of the Corner House just as Mrs. McCall entered the front door, having got off the car at the corner. The housekeeper came through the hall and into the rear premises a good deal like a whirlwind. She was so excited that Agnes forgot her own fright and stared at the housekeeper breathlessly.

"Is it you home again, Agnes Kenway?" cried Mrs. McCall. "Well, thanks be for _that_. Then you are all right."

"Why, of course! Though he did scare me. But what is the matter with you, Mrs. McCall?"

"What is the matter wi' me? A plenty. A plenty, I tellit ye. If I had that jackanapes of a boy I'd shake him well, so I would!"

"What has Neale been doing now?" cried the girl.

"Not Neale."

"Then is it Sammy?"

"Nor Sammy Pinkney. 'Tis that other lad that came here wi' a lying note tae get me clear across town for naething!"

"Why, Mrs. McCall! what can you mean? Did a boy fool you, too?"

"Hech!" The woman started and stared at the girl. "Who brought you news of that little girl being sick?"

"But she wasn't sick!" cried Agnes. "That boy was an awful little story-teller."

"Ye was fooled then? That Maria Maroni--"

"Was not ill at all."

"And," cried Mrs. McCall, "that boy who brought a note to me from Hedden never came from Mr. Howbridge's house at all. It nearly scar't me tae death! It said Mr. Howbridge was ill. He isn't even at home yet, and when Mr. Hedden heard from his master this morning he was all right--the gude mon!"

"Oh, Mrs. McCall!" gasped Agnes, gazing at the housekeeper with terrified visage. "What can it mean?"

"Somebody has foolit us weel," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the enraged housekeeper.

"But why?"

The woman turned swiftly. She had grown suddenly pale. She called up the back stairs for Linda. A sleepy voice replied:

"Here I be, mum!"

"Where are the children? Where are Tess and Dot?" demanded Mrs.

McCall, her voice husky.

"They was in the yard, mum, the last I see of them."

"That girl!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the housekeeper angrily. "She neglects everything. If there's harm happened to those bairns--"

She rushed to the porch. Uncle Rufus was coming slowly up from the garden, hoe and rake over his shoulder. It was evident that the old colored man had been working steadily, and for some time, among the vegetables.

"Oh, Uncle Rufus!" cried the excited woman.

"Ya-as'm! Ya-as'm! I's a-comin'," said the old man rather querulously.

"Step here a minute," said Mrs. McCall.

"I's a-steppin', Ma'am," grumbled the other. "Does seem as though dey wants me for fust one t'ing an' den anudder. I don't no more'n git t'roo one ch.o.r.e den sumpin' else hops right out at me. Lawsy me!" and he mopped his bald brown brow with a big bandanna.

"I only want to ask you something," said the housekeeper, less raspingly. "Are the little ones down there? Have you seen them?"

"Them chillun? No'm. I ain't seen 'em fo' some time. They was playin'

up this-a-way den."

"How long ago?"

"I done reckon it was nigh two hours ago."

"Hunt for them, Agnes!" gasped the housekeeper. "I fear me something bad has happened. You, Linda," for the Finnish girl now appeared, "run to the neighbors--all of them! See if you can find those bairns."

"Tess and Dottie, mum?" cried the Finnish girl, already in tears. "Oh!

they ain't losted are they?"

"For all _you_ know they are!" declared Mrs. McCall. "Look around the house for them, Uncle Rufus. I will look inside--"

"They may be upstairs with Aunt Sarah," cried Agnes, getting her breath at last.

"I'll know that in a moment!" declared Mrs. McCall, and darted within.

Agnes ran in the other direction. She felt such a lump in her throat that she could scarcely speak or breathe. The possibility of something having happened to the little girls--and with Ruth away!--cost the second Corner House girl every last bit of her self-control.

"Oh, Neale! Neale!" she murmured over and over again, as she ran to the lower end of the premises.

She fairly threw herself at the fence and scrambled to her usual perch. There he was cleaning Mr. Con Murphy's yard.

"Neale!" she gasped. At first he did not hear her, but she drubbed upon the fence with the toes of her shoes. "Neale!"

"Why, hullo, Aggie!" exclaimed the boy, turning around and seeing her.

"Oh, Neale! Come here!"

He was already coming closer. He saw that again she was much overwrought.