The Motor Girls in the Mountains or The Gypsy Girl's Secret Part 38

What resource then was left? Flight! Once more to become a fugitive-to live under the ban of the law-to fear any moment the touch of an officer's hand upon her shoulder.

The castle of dreams that she had been building in the last few happy days seemed ready to dissolve in mist.

She tried to a.s.sume her usual cheerful manner when she entered the house, but the girls noticed at once that she was pale and anxious.

"What's the matter, Nina?" asked Bess. "You're as white as though you'd seen a ghost?"

"I hope you haven't run across any of the gypsies!" exclaimed Cora, in quick apprehension.

"Nothing like that," Nina a.s.serted.

"Nor Higby?" asked Belle.

Nina faltered, and at this the others jumped to their feet in great excitement.

"Do you mean to say that that cur is lurking around here yet?" demanded Cora.

Nina broke down then, and told them all the details of her meeting with Higby.

The girls were aghast at the plan to rob the house.

"He's getting along fast," remarked Belle bitterly. "He's graduating from the sneak thief to the burglar cla.s.s."

"I wonder what we ought to do," said Bess. "It's too bad the boys are away to-day. I suppose the police ought to be told about it."

"There's nothing yet to tell," said Cora. "He'd simply deny that he ever suggested anything of the kind to Nina. It would be only her word against his, and she has no witnesses. Besides, for revenge, he'd blurt out all about that Roxbury matter."

At this moment the maid announced a visitor, and Nina vanished as Mr.

Baxter entered the room and greeted the girls cordially.

"Sort of an Adamless Eden here, I see," he laughed, as he noted the absence of the boys.

"Yes," smiled Cora, "they're out for a spin to-day by themselves. But I expect that they'll be back before long."

"I'm rather sorry they're not here," said Mr. Baxter, "as I wanted to talk over a matter in which you're all interested. I refer to the young lady who has been staying with you for the last week or two."

For a moment the sickening fear came to Cora that Mr. Baxter might be an emissary from the Roxbury authorities.

"Well, what about her?" she asked warily. "She's a dear friend of mine who is paying me a little visit."

"But not a very old friend," said Mr. Baxter quietly, "since two weeks ago she was telling fortunes in a gypsy camp."

A cry broke from the lips of the girls, and they looked at each other in great trepidation.

"Now, now," said their visitor with a genial smile, "she hasn't the slightest thing to fear from me. In fact, I think I'm going to prove one of the best friends she has."

"Oh," breathed Cora in relief, "I hope you will! The poor girl is sadly in need of all the help she can get."

"I have been looking for her for a long time past," said Mr. Baxter. "At least I feel reasonably sure that she's the girl I'm after. And my only object in finding her is to restore her to the home and relative that she ran away from in a fit of youthful anger. I suspected that I had found her in Nina the gypsy girl. But now that I have seen her dressed in civilized clothes and compared her with the pictures in my possession, I feel practically sure of it. Still, I won't know positively until I bring her and my client face to face."

"O," cried Cora, "is your client--"

"There, there!" Mr. Baxter checked her. "No names, please. If I am right in my identification you'll know all about it before long."

"I think I can name him now," smiled Cora.

"Never jump at conclusions," advised Mr. Baxter. "But what I called for especially to-day was to warn you that your house was to be robbed."

"So we heard only a few minutes ago," replied Cora. "Thank you very much for the warning, though."

"So she told you?" remarked Mr. Baxter with a gratified smile. "That's good. I am glad that she has defied that fellow's threats. I was concealed near by and heard the whole conversation."

"What do you think we ought to do?" asked Cora.

"I think," replied Mr. Baxter, "that the girl had better meet Higby to-morrow and pretend to fall in with his plans. I will be on hand and hear all he says. In the conversation that goes on between them, Higby may say something that reveals her innocence and his guilt in that Roxbury affair.

"She can arrange to let him into the house at night, which is evidently the part he wants her to play in the theft. We'll be waiting for him when he comes, and we'll give Mr. Higby the surprise of his life."

CHAPTER x.x.x BROUGHT TOGETHER

The plan met with the hearty approbation of the girls, and they accepted it, subject to the approval of the boys.

And when the latter reached Kill Kare and learned what was afoot, they agreed to it enthusiastically. They all felt toward Higby as they would toward a particularly noxious reptile. And this latest attempt to make the victim of his falsehoods a criminal brought their feeling of detestation to the highest pitch.

"Oh, won't it do me good to get a whack at him!" gloated Jack.

"He'll be as safe with me as if he were on a battlefield," remarked Walter.

"We'll fix him!" declared Paul.

Nina had been told that Mr. Baxter had overheard the conversation with Higby, but had been given no hint that the detective was looking for her to restore her to her home.

At the appointed time on the following day, she met Higby, whose face lighted up with an evil smile as he saw her appear.

"Thought better of it, did you?" he remarked jeeringly. "I knew mighty well you would."

"It's vile of you to make me do a thing like this," protested Nina.

"You weren't so particular at Roxbury," he taunted.

"Why do you harp on that?" she cried furiously. "You know I didn't steal that purse. I believe you did it yourself."

"Suppose I did?" he grinned mockingly, in a way that was itself a half admission. "I deserve credit for being smart enough to make somebody else the goat. But let's get down to business. I want you to tell me all about the way the rooms are laid out and where the cash and jewelry are kept."

She gave him an idea of the plan of the bungalow, and promised to leave a door open from the back leading into the kitchen. He was to come a little after midnight.