Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point Part 12

"That might give away where you come from, eh?" put in Mercy.

"It might," and Nita laughed.

"But what is your name?" asked Ruth.

"Nita, I tell you."

"Nita what?"

"Never mind. Just Nita. Mebbe I never had another name. Isn't one name at a time sufficient, Miss?"

"I don't believe that is your really-truly name," said Ruth, gravely.

"I bet you're right, Ruth Fielding!" cried Heavy, chuckling.

"'Nita' and 'Jib Pottoway' don't seem to go together. 'Nita' is altogether too fancy."

"It's a nice name!" exclaimed the strange girl, in some anger. "It was the name of the girl in the paper-covered novel--and it's good enough for me."

"But what's your real name?" urged Ruth.

"I'm not telling you that," replied the runaway, shortly.

"Then you prefer to go under a false name--even among your friends?"

asked the girl from the Red Mill.

"How do I know you're my friends?" demanded Nita, promptly.

"We can't very well be your enemies," said Helen, in some disgust.

"I don't know. Anybody's my enemy who wants to send me back--well, anyone who wants to return me to the place I came from."

"Was it an inst.i.tution?" asked Mary c.o.x quickly.

"What's that?" demanded Nita, puzzled. "What do you mean by an 'inst.i.tution'?"

"She means a sort of school," explained Ruth.

"Yes!" exclaimed The Fox, sharply. "A reform school, or something of the kind. Maybe an almshouse."

"Never heard of 'em," returned Nita, unruffled by the insinuation.

"Guess they don't have 'em where I come from. Did _you_ go to one, Miss?"

Heavy giggled, and Madge Steele rapped The Fox smartly on the shoulder.

"There!" said the senior. "It serves you right, Mary c.o.x. You're answered."

"Now, I tell you what it is!" cried the strange girl, sitting up in bed again and looking rather flushed, "if you girls are going to nag me, and bother me about who I am, and where I come from, and what my name is--though Nita's a good enough name for anybody----"

"Anybody but Jib Pottoway," chuckled Heavy.

"Well! and _he_ warn't so bad, if he _was_ half Injun," snapped the runaway. "Well, anyway, if you don't leave me alone I'll get out of bed right now and walk out of here. I guess you haven't any hold on me."

"Better wait till your clothes are dry," suggested Madge.

"Aunt Kate would never let you go," said Heavy.

"I'll go to-morrow morning, then!" cried the runaway.

"Why, we don't mean to nag you," interposed Ruth, soothingly. "But of course we're curious--and interested."

"You're like all the other Eastern folk I've met," declared Nita.

"And I don't like you much. I thought _you_ were different."

"You've been expecting some rich man to adopt you, and dress you in lovely clothes, and all that, eh?" said Mercy Curtis.

"Well! I guess there are not so many millionaires in the East as they said there was," grumbled Nita.

"Or else they've already got girls of their own to look after,"

laughed Ruth. "Why, Helen here, has a father who is very rich. But you couldn't expect him to give up Helen and Tom and take you into his home instead, could you?"

Nita glanced at the dry-goods merchant's daughter with more interest for a moment.

"And Heavy's father is awfully rich, too," said Ruth. "But he's got Heavy to support----"

"And that's some job," broke in Madge, laughing. "Two such daughters as Heavy would make poor dear Papa Stone a pauper!"

"Well," said Nita, again, "I've talked enough. I won't tell you where I come from. And Nita _is_ my name--now!"

"It is getting late," said Ruth, mildly. "Don't you all think it would be a good plan to go to bed? The wind's gone down some. I guess we can sleep."

"Good advice," agreed Madge Steele. "The boys have been abed some time. To-morrow is another day."

Heavy and she and Mary went off to their room. The others made ready for bed, and the runaway did not say another word to them, but turned her face to the wall and appeared, at least, to be soon asleep.

Ruth crept in beside her so as not to disturb their strange guest. She was a new type of girl to Ruth--and to the others. Her independence of speech, her rough and ready ways, and her evident lack of the influence of companions.h.i.+p with refined girls were marked in this Nita's character.

Ruth wondered much what manner of home she could have come from, why she had run away from it, and what Nita really proposed doing so far from home and friends. These queries kept the girl from the Red Mill awake for a long time--added to which was the excitement of the evening, which was not calculated to induce sleep.

She would have dropped off some time after the other girls, however, had she not suddenly heard a door latch somewhere on this upper floor, and then the creep, creep, creeping of a rustling step in the hall. It continued so long that Ruth wondered if one of the girls in the other room was ill, and she softly arose and went to the door, which was ajar.

And what she saw there in the hall startled her.

CHAPTER XII

BUSY IZZY IN A NEW ASPECT