The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gloria at Boarding School, by Lillian Garis This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Gloria at Boarding School Author: Lillian Garis Release Date: May 06, 2021 [eBook #65271] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 Produced by: Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLORIA AT BOARDING SCHOOL *** GLORIA AT BOARDING SCHOOL Cover GLORIA AND TRIXY EXAMINED THE MYSTERIOUS PACKAGE. Gloria at Boarding School. Frontispiece—(Page 38) GLORIA AT BOARDING SCHOOL By LILIAN GARIS Author of “Gloria: A Girl and Her Dad,” etc. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Made in the United States of America Copyright, 1923, by GROSSET & DUNLAP CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Mixed Baggage 1 II Telling Trixy 15 III Meet Maggie 25 IV The Talisman 36 V Jack’s Sudden Departure 48 VI Smoldering Fires 57 VII Broncho Billy 70 VIII Almost a Tragedy 81 IX From Icy Waters 97 X Jack’s Story 109 XI A New Angle 124 XII A Tribute 136 XIII Serious School Work 147 XIV Balked Ambition 159 XV Steppy and the Clue 171 XVI At the Rookery Tea Room 186 XVII The Sacrifice 198 XVIII Say It with Popcorn 210 XIX Gems and Moss Agate 223 XX The Lure of Boarding School 233 GLORIA AT BOARDING SCHOOL CHAPTER I MIXED BAGGAGE The dark haired girl, sitting on the cretonne couch, chuckled. “So this is boarding school!” No one heard her, the little clock on the corner shelf ticked away and never “let on,” for new girls coming to that room were no novelty to the clock. They came and went yearly, sometimes oftener, and what difference did it make that this one chuckled? Those who sighed, or even those who wept, always got over it in time. No doubt the dark haired girl would get over her rather cynical defiance of Miss Alton’s rules for lady-like deportment. Also, she might in time learn to sit on a chair properly. Gloria Doane really felt defiant. Boarding school always represented restrictions to her inexperienced reasoning, and restrictions were never a part of her chosen schedule. A sense of freedom was necessary to her happiness. At her Barbend home she scarcely respected the wildest coast storm, and often thought it a lark to help life guards shoot out their boats or rig up a buoy. But last year Gloria was “due” to go to this exclusive school and she had not done so. In fact, circumstances wove such a net about her that the meshes represented a most unusual story, told in the first volume of this series called, “Gloria: A Girl and Her Dad.” But now the net was flattened out, stretched to dry on regulation lines, and Gloria had emerged like a fairy mermaid, changed back to an earth maiden, and was doing such ordinary things as going to boarding school. All this she pondered as voices roused her and a step near her door threatened invasion. “Trixy!” she called lightly. The step halted. “Did you get your trunk? It’s downstairs and you will want to change your dress before dinner, or maybe it’s supper,” surmised Trixy Travers, the girl from Sandford, who decided to come to Altmount because Gloria begged her to do so. Trixy was quite as fond of freedom as was Gloria, so, ultimately, they both decided “it wouldn’t kill them to try it for a year.” And there they were, ready to put the test to their resolve. “Trunks,” murmured Gloria, indifferently. “I saw one that looked like mine——” “In the first hall? Get that bean pole they call Sam, to lug it up for you before the others come in. Then we can dress in our prettiest and flabbergast the crowd.” A pulled face, quite unlike Trixy’s usual countenance, put a period to this threat. “Brilliant idea. I’ll go straight for the bean pole. Just hook up that gorgeous drapery and our rooms will constitute a suite. So glad we are together. If you were down the hall I’d surely sit on your door mat like a faithful poodle. I just couldn’t risk trying out this exciting life without the protection and guidance of your wisdom. I noticed Miss Alton herself paused in a speech as you towered over her.” “Glo, get your duds; you’ll feel better when you are out of those dusty things,” interrupted Trixy. “I’ll go down to that cute little room where Miss Alton holds court, and see about a telephone to mother. She will want to know we got here safely.” The next item of note was the entrance of the bean pole, Sam, bearing a shiny new trunk. “Just here,” directed Gloria. “I suppose I can keep it in my room——” “With a cover. Miss Alton she always likes pretty covers over trunks.” Sam shifted the little table to give more space. “There, I guess that’ll be all right——” 1 2 3 4 “Oh, yes; thanks.” A half dollar was pressed into his convenient hand, and Gloria did not hide her impatience to be rid of the voluble Sam. He went. Girls were calling for him and there might be more tips. Quickly Gloria fell to her trunk task but it did not readily give in to her key. “Queer, but I suppose it’s stiff, being new,” she reasoned. The rose colored dress, that which Jane insisted was most becoming to Gloria’s dark hair and dark eyes, would be found in the top tray of the new trunk, and this was to be the “irresistible gown” Trixy suggested as a flabbergaster for the first evening’s appearance. “There!” exclaimed Gloria, as a spring of the lock indicated surrender. “Now I’ve got it.” But raising the cover did not disclose the expected rose voile dress. “Of all things!” gasped Gloria. “Whatever is—this?” She was staring at a mass of glittering beads, or spangles, that seemed to fill the trunk tray. Just a hint of some material very green showed beneath the glistening surface, but whatever the article might be, it never had belonged to the girl looking at it. She picked up an end of the material and found it heavy with spangles. Then she noticed an envelope pinned to an edge. Scrutinizing this she found the word “Precious” written across it, also “with care,” was plainly inscribed upon the little square. Realizing now that the trunk was not hers, Gloria attempted to replace the glittering stuff, but as she did so something red and sparkling fell from the envelope into her hand. “Gems!” she exclaimed, gazing spellbound at the deep red glow that seemed to absorb all the light about it. The stone was about the size of a small bean and was cut in facets. Frightened lest she be found in possession of another’s valuables, Gloria quickly dropped the end of the spangled goods back into the trunk tray, then slipped the big, red gem into the envelope through the corner hole it had cut its way out of. She had forgotten all about the rose colored costume, and even that Trixy was due back to dress for the first meeting with the girls of Altmount. “How ever could I have mistaken that trunk?” Gloria worried. “Of course, it’s exactly like mine, but where’s the tag?” With the lid closed and the lock snapped back she looked closer but found no tag to identify the strange piece of baggage. Then, shuffling in the hall and Sam’s characteristic groaning indicated the coming of more baggage, and quickly as the door was opened Gloria welcomed her own special new trunk, which had been purchased amid much discussion, for Jane, the faithful, was insistent that a new trunk be at once beautiful and useful, a combination seemingly realized in the black enamelled article, so easily mistaken for another. The “popular trunk for young ladies” was, apparently, very popular at Altmount. “Made a mistake,” wheezed Sam. “T’other girl had yourn. Jest a mite more work, but that’s all right,” hinted the hopeful handy man. “I’m in such a hurry,” retorted Gloria meaningly. “Oh, yes, of course. But ’t warn’t my fault exactly.” “That’s perfectly all right. See, here’s my name on this trunk. I hadn’t noticed the other.” “They’re all the same to me,” chuckled Sam, shuffling off without further reward. When Trixy returned, Gloria was already aglow in her rose colored gown. “Lovely!” pronounced the admiring Trixy. “If we don’t make an impression to-night it won’t be the fault of clothes. Just look at this. Isn’t it stunning?” “Perfectly. Trix, you have such a modish way about you——” “Oh, I don’t know. You are no dowdy yourself. You always look to me like Molly Dawn, or Betty Bangle, or some other quaint character, bound to smile and look darling.” An affectionate little squeeze illustrated this compliment, and presently both girls were being introduced to their fellow students. Gloria in rose color that heightened her sparkling dark beauty, and Trixy in French blue that beckoned the glints of her eyes. It was a small school and boasted of the fact. Also, that its clientele would stand the “Social test,” whatever that 5 6 7 8 uncertain measure is supposed to be, was conspicuously stated in the prospectus. Gloria was secretly happy to be sponsored by the impressive Trixy. As a matter of fact, no one could doubt the latter’s standing. She was tall, a mellow blonde, the type softened with a tawny brown glow, and her mannerisms! It must have taken generations, thought Gloria humbly, to develop that smooth, irresistible ease and languid indifference toward irritating trifles. But as a type Gloria, herself, was decidedly more pronounced. She was dark, with eyes that seemed to shoot sparks, with one dimple that always apologized for any pout the rather boyish mouth might affect, and withal Gloria had an air of independence sometimes mistaken for defiance. As various as the characters they represented were the forms of greetings offered the new girls by those familiar with Altmount. Some “gushed,” impulsively generous in their squeezing handshakes and ebullient chatter, others were “stand off,” formal and “frozen,” as Gloria secretly classed the most conservative. Pat Halliday explained her name as coming from the same Greek word Harriet was taken from. “Only Patricia is so much nicer and Pat is perfectly jolly,” declared the Grecian descendant. “I should abhor Harriet; though Harry isn’t so bad.” Gloria quickly found interest in Pat. She was almost red headed and almost blue eyed, losing out by a mere shade in each instance. She talked a lot and laughed a lot, but plainly was no poser. Taking a place beside Gloria at table, Pat kept up a running fire of talk that saved the new girl from any possible self consciousness. At another table Trixy was trying to be pleasant with a girl of very different personality. She (the other girl) raised her eyebrows instead of uttering replies, she shrugged her shoulders haughtily and seemed insipidly affected. “The girl without a smile,” Gloria was promptly dubbing the ashen blonde. Trixy, sitting near enough, was flashing secret messages back to Gloria agreeing with the above. She was not having a very good time with the smileless girl, that was obvious. Miss Alton sat at the head of the table, radiating good will. It was so important that her girls all become acquainted auspiciously. Although a small school, Altmount claimed the distinction of “finishing,” so that a sprinkling of high school graduates, and a few who failed to win the honor, were to be found among those present. Both Trixy and Gloria were covertly taking notice of as many girls as politeness afforded glances at. There was, of course, a bevy of “Gabbies” who scarcely paused to swallow, also, like the girl without a smile, there were those who held off, looked important and posed for impressions. This might have been their honest prerogative, but somehow it seemed to natural, naïve Gloria, a bit affected. “I do hope you’ll like it,” bubbled Pat. “We need a few good sports and I’m sure you’re one. There’s room for more fun here if we only have the workers.” “I like fun,” admitted Gloria. “And yes, I guess I am used to it.” Her brown eyes sent out a sparkling guarantee. After tea the girls paired off and strolled about the grounds. Pat “grabbed” Gloria, and both being of the younger set their romping went unscrutinized. Trixy, the imperturbable, seemed determined to provoke something like a smile from the reserved Mary Mears, but her good natured and tactful attempts were far from being successful. Mary Mears was wise, any one could see that. Her experience stood out like a wall, neither to be climbed over nor broken through. She was pretty but her skin betrayed traces of the applied arts, while her really wonderful violet eyes worked like magnetos. All this attracted Trixy. Any one so totally different offered her a working problem, something to find out, to analyze and, mayhap, to conquer. The September evening was quickening into shadows when the students turned back to the broad verandahs and cozy porch corners. “Hear that?” Pat asked Gloria. “That’s Jack Corday. She never stops talking and never says a sensible thing. Flashy,” criticised the jolly one. “Just notice her get up. But she’s a dear.” It was impossible not to notice it. The girl called Jack (Gloria later heard Miss Alton give her Jacquinot) did talk incessantly in a voice that intruded everywhere, and as she promenaded up and down, dragging along a timid new girl called Ethel, the “get up” Pat mentioned was equally intrusive. A glaring, tiger-lily red baronet skirt, a black silk sweater and colorful bobbed hair. Dangling from her neck was a string of varied colored wooden beads with which she toyed constantly. The string of beads reminded Gloria of the mistaken trunk. “Is she a—stranger?” she asked Pat. “Somewhat. That is, she comes and goes. I wonder Miss Alton admits her. Jack never settles down to anything 9 10 11 12 serious. She makes me think of a big butterfly.” “The black and yellow kind.” “Uh-huh!” conceded Pat. A call to the opening chorus within the assembly room was reluctantly obeyed. “Hail, Altmount,” composed by a brilliant but unpopular girl of the graduating class two years back, was murmured, mumbled and otherwise abused. The faculty chimed in with more enthusiasm than voice, and eventually the wail ended. “Oh, let’s sing the regular college songs,” proposed Jack, slamming a yellow book on the piano rack in front of demure Miss Taylor. But the majority of the girls, the great majority, deserted, and left few with Jack and timid Ethel to “try” the regular college songs. No one seemed to have a voice or there was something seriously wrong with the tunes, for one after the other they were “tried,” until the long suffering Miss Taylor proposed a truce. “Jack doesn’t seem to be very popular,” ventured Gloria to the giggling Pat, when the trials were all over. “She isn’t exactly, but somehow she seems to love opposition. I don’t know her well. This is only my second term, I came last Spring, but Jack Corday could climb a flag pole if she wanted to. She’s a wiz at gym, but books! She has about as much use for a book as an Indian has,” declared the accommodating Pat. “Just the same I love her.” “My friend Trixy seems to have struck an iceberg,” further commented Gloria. The “iceberg” being the ashen blonde called Mary Mears. “Oh, I don’t know her, she’s new,” replied Pat. “But even icebergs melt finally. She’s rather pretty, isn’t she?” “Rather,” agreed Gloria just as Trixy joined her group on the corner bench. 13 14 CHAPTER II TELLING TRIXY By the merest chance Gloria did not tell Trixy of the trunk incident. Not that she had any intention of keeping from her friend such an interesting possibility, but because—well, each time she thought of it something intervened, until after days and then more than a week passed, the tale seemed too stale to be revived. Pat proved delightfully amusing, Mary Mears was mysterious and Jacquinot Corday so spectacular that the first month at Altmount went by without a dull day or even a lonely night for Gloria. Trixy Travers was at the finishing school chiefly because Gloria Doane had inveigled her into coming. As the fashionable and popular girl at Sandford, where her father was an important manufacturer, Trixy had enjoyed good times unlimited, but as Gloria was due to attend boarding school and she reasonably decided there would be much more security from either boredom or loneliness with Trixy to lean upon. Few letters and fewer home visits were advised by this, as by most boarding schools, during the students’ first month or two, so that those away from home for the first time might more promptly become inured to their new surroundings; so it happened Gloria had only received and written two letters from and to Jane. Now, Jane, the faithful, had for years stood sponsor for Gloria, whose mother had died when Gloria was but a tiny child. Jane kept house at Barbend, the original home of Gloria and her father, and when the young girl came into Sandford to remain with her Aunt Harriet while her father took a foreign commission from his firm, Jane Morgan went to visit her own sister, she who had so many children that the snapshot pictures frequently sent Jane were apt to be misleading in personalities. They all looked alike and seemed too many for the camera. Mr. Doane, Gloria’s father, had returned from abroad during the previous late winter, only to enter upon a longer trip to the Philippines. His homecoming the Christmas before added the final happy chapter to Gloria’s adventure as a real estate expert, for with Mr. Doane had come the young engineer, Sherry Graves, whose venture in Echo Park proved disastrous, ruined his hopes, and all but sent him adrift in despair. Then, the natural enemy of the pretty little park, an underground river vein, was accidentally discovered by Gloria and promptly turned into a harmless course by Sherry and his friend, Ben Hardy. The result was a boomerang credited to Gloria. These home conditions explain the dearth of letters coming or not coming to her just now, at the new boarding school. There had been one, however, from her father, remailed at San Francisco, and also a characteristic scrawl from Tommy Whitely, her childhood friend at Barbend. Aunt Harriet had written, of course, telling of her daughter Hazel’s wonderful progress in voice culture. Hazel had spent the previous year at Altmount, while Gloria submitted meekly to a confused, if not unjust plan, of giving this preference to the “artistic cousin.” Trixy’s letters were not quite so restricted, as she was in the finishing class. Among the most interesting was one from Sherry, who told of a “perfectly thrilling plan” for the further development of Gloria’s Echo Park. “You’ll be rich, Glo, if Sherry keeps on. He writes of perfectly fairy like castles on your property.” “I don’t want to be rich,” replied Gloria evenly, “but I am glad that the poor mason and his family, the one who at first lost so much in the work there, are finally made happy and comfortable. Of course it was Ben’s genius in engineering that did it all.” “Oh, I don’t know,” drawled Trixy. “It was rather queer the genius couldn’t find that sneaky little river vein, that almost turned the pretty park on end. A mere girl, one Gloria Doane, managed that.” The two chums were spending the evening in their connecting rooms, discussing the home news. A letter to Trixy received on the late mail added zest to the discussion. “Really, how do you like it here, Glo?” asked Trixy. She shot her feet out in front of her with the question, and kicked over a useless little stool in the process. “Much better than I expected,” admitted Gloria. “Pat’s always so jolly, then there’s the haughty Mary Mears and the breezy Jack Corday for variety. Who could complain with all that?” “Isn’t Pat a lark? She just bubbles over everything and, as the boys say, gets away with it,” replied Trixy. “But Mary really seems mysterious. I haven’t been able to pry open the reserve crust. Yet, it doesn’t seem at all natural to me.” 15 16 17 18 19 “How about Jack?” “The human pinwheel?” “Pat says she is just about that.” “How?” “A wiz at gym.” “Oh. Perhaps that accounts for her circus clothes.” “That reminds me, Trixy. I have been wanting to tell you so often——” “Whew! Sounds guilty!” “Not quite. But I really have wanted to tell you,” floundered Gloria. “Go ahead!” “Then please listen.” “All ears.” Gloria tossed her head up defiantly. “One doesn’t peg confidences at another’s head,” she pouted. “Now, Glo, darling,” cooed Trixy. “I does truly want to hear. Be a lamb and tell me.” Settling anew Gloria began: “It’s about trunks——” “The portable, or athletic?” “Now, Trixy!” “But you do offer such bait for little fishes, pet, I just can’t resist. I had trunks on my mind. The basket ball squad is considering something like them to pad out for rough play. But tell me, like a pet, what about your trunks?” Trixy was irresistible. She wore the simple uniform of Altmount, the white shirtwaist and dark blue skirt used by the older girls, and its very simplicity set off more effectively her almost faultless personality. With an arm around the pouting Gloria, and lips in close proximity to a left ear, she again cooed her request for the secret. Gloria’s own lips lost their pout in a real surrendering smile, as she again attempted the tale. “You see, that afternoon we came here there was so much confusion with baggage and so little time to dress——” “And I warned you to fix up your finest.” “Exactly. Well, I tackled, what I took for my own new, shiny, black trunk, and found it too hard to unlock——” “You called in the Bean Pole?” “No. I struggled and conquered.” “Being you, you would.” “But when the lid finally decided to come up I found the belongings within not mine.” “Oh!” Trixy fell back a little and waited. Her exclamation was merely a polite acquiescence. “Yes,” continued Gloria, “the top of that trunk was covered if not filled with the queerest materials——” “Oh! Whoozy-boozy! How mysterious! No skeletons?” “Quite the opposite. A perfect glitter of gems——” “Gloria Doane! And you have never told me we are harboring a pirate’s daughter! Gems!” “At least they looked like gems,” went on the imperturbable Gloria. “Of course, I was all a-flutter and couldn’t possibly inspect,” (this with an air of real importance) “but I did manage to lay hold of an envelope.” 20 21 “Glo! An envelope! With the pirate’s address!” “Are they so careless as to leave addresses lying around loose like that? I thought they always used secret codes, made with pieces of string and rusty nails scattered in a long, long trail.” “Of course. How stupid of me. The envelope was full of rusty spikes.” Gloria twisted herself away with an air of finality until Trixy seized her. “Go ahead,” she implored. “Go right straight ahead. This suspense is killing me. What was the glitter and what did the envelope say about the secret?” “You know, Trix, I really was a bit scared. You were off gallivanting, and there I was all alone, with a strange trunk full of mysteriously glittering stuff. How did I know who might rush in and accuse me.” “Exactly! How did you know?” Trixy’s banter now toned down to real interest. “The envelope, dear, what about that?” “I had begun to realize I was trespassing, you know, and I just glanced at the envelope. On it was written the word ‘Precious.’” “Precious?” “Yes. That and ‘With Care.’ But just as I attempted to put it back, I had taken it in my hands of course, just as I went to put it back, a stone fell out.” “A gem?” “It looked like one. A great red garnet or some sort of stone that seemed bursting with imprisoned glow.” “How perfectly wonderful!” “Yes, honestly, Trix, it made me creepy. I got the fire-drop back in that envelope as quickly as I could, you can believe me. It made me think of an animal’s eye, not a serpent’s eye, they’re green, but the eye of some sneaky little beast——” “Beastie, Glo. You must call the small ones, beasties. But you are so, so graphic, you give me the shivers. Are you sure there are none of the beasties crawling around here now?” “But I haven’t told you about the spangly things,” persisted Gloria, ignoring the frivolity. “They didn’t seem to be on gowns. I couldn’t, in the moment, make out what the article was. All I saw was glitter and sparkle.” “What color was it?” “Many colors, I thought; but red shone through. You see, Sam came back just as I got the trunk shut. I wouldn’t want to have been discovered snooping into another girl’s stuff,” declared Gloria. “But whom could it have belonged to?” “That’s an interesting question, don’t you think so? Just imagine what sort of girl would bring that here?” “Exactly. But you watch little Trixy solve the mystery of the trunk full of gems!” “I’m quite willing to,” agreed Gloria, with a weary little sigh. 22 23 24 CHAPTER III MEET MAGGIE Two days later Maggie, who swept rooms and talked a lot, also counted hairpins, picked from the dust, and bewailed her own constant loss insinuating a present need, this Maggie, with a season’s new broom and last year’s dust pan, a basket of dusters, brushes, and in the bottom such articles as the girls donated on her rounds, well, anyhow, she came in to clear up Gloria’s room. “This bein’ a double,” analyzed Maggie, “I’ll have to have it free.” “Free?” repeated Gloria. “Yes. I could do it whilst you’re in class, but I like to keep these new curtains well shook and that makes considerable flare around. Ain’t they pretty?” “Very.” “Then, jest pick up your precious stuff, I allus calls the little things precious, and whilst you’re out this afternoon—you will be out?” “Yes.” “Whilst you’re both out I clean. I allus thinks this is the prettiest ‘sweet’ in the house. Ain’t it now?” Gloria was hurrying before the wavering broom. Her “precious stuff” would be easily gathered and then she might escape from Maggie’s gossip. “About the hairpins now, where shall I put them?” “Oh, keep them,” smiled Gloria. “You see I never use any.” “That’s so. Ain’t I stupid. Since the bobbs came in it seems to me that hairpins is harder to get. Stores even, don’t allus carry them.” She retrieved a brown lock of hair that was trying to get down her back. “And my hair’s such a nuisance. You don’t wear nets either?” “No.” “What a comfort. I’ll put any baby pins and such right—where should I put them?” “You won’t be apt to find any,” said Gloria, wondering what next Maggie might hint for. “Well, I’m honest as the sun, Miss Alton says, and what’s on the floor goes on the bureau, every time.” The basket and contents were inadvertently tipped over just then, and Maggie dove after the things that flew. “There, ain’t that a pretty waist? Miss Davis, she’s the rich girl that has number ten, she’s been here, land know how long, and I asked her yesterday if this was her last year and she didn’t know. She’s the loveliest girl, and so good- natured. I jest said I loved blue and she gave me the waist. I think it’ll fit me.” It was held aloft midway between chin and waistline, and Gloria said it looked all right. Then she escaped. And Maggie ostensibly swept the room, aired the pillows and shook the curtains. Trixy’s room had an unusually large mirror hung from the wall, between two windows, and whether Maggie posed in borrowed finery or merely spent time in profitable meditation, is not relevant, for it was her own time as well as her own work, and Maggie managed to finish on schedule in spite of all interruptions. When Gloria ventured back, after first peeking in from behind Trixy’s curtains, she found things nicely slicked up. “Good old Maggie!” she thought. “I am sure she is quite as honest as she claims to be.” Addressing the well dusted bureau with a few more appropriate remarks, Gloria’s gaze fell upon a strange object. “What’s this?” she asked aloud, for a small, glittering, bead-like stone instantly recalled the other. That one she had replaced in the torn envelope and put back in the strange trunk. 25 26 27 28 “A gem! A real garnet—or ruby——” There was no question as to where it came from. Maggie had found it upon the floor, perhaps under the edge of the rug, and it must have fallen there from the envelope marked “Precious.” Gloria turned the stone over on her open palm. She knew little of precious stones, but she easily guessed that this was valuable. “What shall I do with it?” The thought that its owner would resent her knowledge of so secret an affair as the opening of a trunk, and the handling of its contents, was disturbing. “Oh, bother!” complained Gloria. “What am I going to do about a thing like this, anyway?” Trixy’s return was welcomed. And the discovered treasure promptly and adequately discussed. “Suppose you keep it for a day or two——” “No indeed,” objected Gloria. “I have no wish to be throttled by the pirate’s daughter.” “But it has been here for days——” “That’s why my head ached. This thing is charmed. Maybe a drop of some one’s blood is sealed within the crystal,” she flippantly suggested, turning the stone over and over, smiling fondly upon it and otherwise showing neither fear nor distaste for the frozen “drop of blood.” “I think it’s a garnet,” suggested Trixy. “Why should a boarding school girl want to lug such stuff around with her?” “Why?” repeated Trixy. “No custom officers to dodge.” “But in that trunk! And not even in a strong little box,” argued Gloria. “Some girls are careless. Also some grown ups. You know how very often real diamonds are hidden in old shoes and retrieved by honest cobblers, who become socialists after receiving the dollar ninety-eight cents reward,” philosophised Trixy. “Still, the girl who dropped them in her trunk must have been in an awful hurry.” “But why hasn’t the owner advertised on the bulletin?” reasoned Gloria further. “It is queer. Do you suppose Maggie knows——” “That’s so. I’ll have to give Maggie something.” “Better thank her for finding your bead and give her ten cents,” suggested the practical Trixy. “Otherwise, you may not be able to make a satisfactory accounting. Don’t let her suspect what you suspect.” “A good idea. Listen! I hear her plaintive voice. Let’s have done with it. Lend me exactly a dime.” “First, put the pirate’s treasure in my jewel box. I’ll be responsible for it and defy its evil eye—until you find the owner,” agreed Trixy affably. Gloria borrowed the dime and thrust it upon the inarticulate Maggie. Money, it seemed, always surprised her into speechlessness. “And now,” decided Gloria, “I’ll take the ‘evil eye’ down to the office——” “Suppose it is a real secret, that the owner has some worthy motive in hiding it.” “Trix, you’re a regular Portia. I do hope you decide to study law. How would you suggest I get rid of the thing?” “Post a notice, asking the loser of a small red stone to call at this room. We might excite less comment if we said ‘trinket’ instead of ‘stone.’” “And have every one who lost a hair net, a hairpin, or a barrette, calling,” objected Gloria. “That’s so. But Maggie may see the notice and recognize her find.” “She won’t have time to read bulletins today.” “No, I suppose not. Then just write a simple, unsuspicious notice, and say small red stone.” 29 30 31 “Peachy!” exclaimed Gloria. “Then we’ll have a chance to learn who really is the Pirate’s Daughter.” Trixy wrapped the vagrant stone in a piece of tissue paper and then in a piece of tin foil from her film package, meanwhile moaning weird incantations. Then, after waving it in the air to break the spell, she very gingerly dropped the paper and tin foil packet into her little jewel case. Gloria wrote the “found notice” with directions for reclaiming the “red stone” and was off instantly to post it upon the bulletin. “Thir-rill-ling!” she chanted. “Suppose it’s Pat’s!” “Or Jack’s?” “Or just a red bead from the ten cent store?” “I’d like to get a couple of dozen,” declared Trixy. “Well, here’s for the bill board. Better watch out. Some one might kidnap me.” With a parting laugh Gloria raced off and it seemed she was back, out of breath, and out of speech, before Trixy could close the drawer on the jewel box. “I feel like a thief!” she gasped. “Isn’t it horrid to find a thing so long after?” “As if you had been waiting for an offered reward?” laughed Trixy. “We aren’t likely to be suspected of anything like that, so don’t worry, lamb. I’m just all a-quiver of anticipation.” But after lunch the little note was missing from its hook on the bulletin and in its place was found a message sealed and addressed to “Finder.” The girls read it in their own room behind closed doors. The note read: “Please drop into old brass vase on teakwood stand in alcove of west sitting room.” That was all. “Oh,” moaned Gloria, in disappointment. “Not even to say drop what.” “How perfectly mean,” growled Trixy. “Suppose we don’t. We might say that it ‘must be called for,’” suggested Gloria. “But then,” mused Trixy, “there may be a real reason.” “Again, noble Portia, I salute thee,” mocked Gloria. “In other words, just as you say. But I’d hate to be fooled again. That old trunk seems destined to add to my misery. Not that there’s much more room for addition,” (another groan and wild, agonizing rolling of eyes) “but I suppose we may as well drop the ‘jool’ in the vaase.” “May as better,” amended Trixy. “You do it and I’ll watch.” “Foxy. Suppose some of the eagles see you. How do we know this isn’t sort of an initiation?” “We don’t. I never thought of that, little Brightness. As you say, we had better follow directions, and not be compelled to wear our waists inside out, or parade two different colored stockings. Here, give me the pesky thing. I’ll hie me to the dump with it and so cast off the spell.” Almost as quickly as she had posted the letter did she “dump the thing and beat it,” in her own inelegant language. She now stood before Trixy making foolish faces. “Ugh!” she exclaimed, brushing her hands to shed the imagined pollution, “now it’s all over. And we’ve lost trace of the Pirate’s Daughter.” “There’s no telling,” presaged Trixy. “She may remember you in her will.” “And again she may not. Well, may all our ill health go with it, as dear old Jane would say. Trixy, when do we go out to see our anxious friends?” (This meant the home folks.) “I dunno. But let’s stick it out for a while and then, when we do take a little trip to Sandford, we won’t feel like a couple of hookey kids. Not that I wouldn’t love to see my mommer right now——” “And my—da-da!” Reflection brought gloom. Forgotten was the frozen blood stone and the old brass vase. Two girls sat glum, with 32 33 34