The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car/Chapter 22
CHAPTER XXII
A SWINDLED FARMER
Surprise at Betty's exclamation held her companions silent for a moment, and then Mollie cried:
"Are you sure, Betty? Are you sure? Caii it be possible that we have found her again?"
"Of course I'm sure!" declared Betty, as she advanced to assist Mr. Blackford in caring for the girl, who lay white and senseless in his arms. "You'll be sure, too, as soon as you take a good look at her. Isn't that hair evidence enough?" and she let some of the girl's luxurious tresses, that had come unbound, slip through her fingers. "And see her face—and there's the scar she got when she fell from the tree. Of course it's the same girl!"
"I believe it is," murmured Grace. "But how came she here?"
"Another one of the mysteries to be explained," said Amy. "But hadn't we better see first if we can revive her?"
"An excellent idea," declared Mrs. Mackson. "If one of you will get some water, I'll use my smelling salts on her. And we must loosen her collar. It seems too tight."
Mr. Blackford had turned over the care of the girl to the others. He hurried to a spring they had discovered in the yard of the old house, and presently handed in a tin of water.
The strange girl opened her eyes, looked about in fear, and then, seeing herself surrounded by the friendly faces of our girls, on her own countenance there came a look of relief.
"What—what happened?" she gasped. "Oh, I remember. I fainted. I heard someone in the house, and I thought it was—I thought he was coming for me. Oh, he isn't here; is he?"
"We don't know who you mean," said Mollie, gently.
"My—the man who calls himself my guardian, but who has used me very cruelly," she said. "I ran away from him, and then I learned that there might be a way to escape him forever. I came back to get certain papers—but I heard noises in the old house, and"
"I guess we made the noises," said Betty, with a smile. "We were looking for a—ghost!"
"A ghost!" cried the strange girl, starting up.
"There! I am sorry I said that!" exclaimed Betty, who thought, too late, of the effect it might have on the overwrought nerves of the stranger. "But really there isn't any ghost, you know."
The girl smiled weakly.
"Take some more water," urged Mrs. Mackson. "And smell these ammonia salts."
"I'll go get some of that cold chocolate in the vacuum bottle," volunteered Grace.
"No, please," said the girl. "I shall be all right presently. I can go on. I didn't find the papers I wanted. I was sure he had hidden them here."
"We hope you won't go until you have told us a little something about yourself," said Betty, with an inviting smile. "We don't want to pry into your private affairs," she went on, "but we would like to help you. And please don't disappear so mysteriously again. You are the girl who fell out of the branches of a tree; aren't you?"
"Yes," and she smiled faintly, "I am Carrie Norton. I knew you as soon as I saw you all again. Oh' please don't think harshly of me, but I have been so worried I did not know what I was doing. I have always regretted repaying your kindness so shabbily, but really"
"Now don't worry a bit about that!" broke in Mollie. "Just rest yourself, and when you feel able, tell us all you wish to, and we'll do all we can for you. Do you feel better?"
"Oh, yes, much. I am not given to fainting. It was just fright that made me call out when I heard the noise you made, and then I went over—all got black before me. Oh, I am feeling stronger every minute."
She proved it by getting up, and the girls helped her arrange her dress, dusting it for her, and aiding her in coiling up her heavy hair.
"What lovely braids you have," observed Grace.
"Do you think: so? They have made trouble enough for me."
"I suppose so much hair must be inconvenient in warm weather, but most of us would be willing to put up with it," spoke Amy.
"I didn't mean it that way. I will tell you soon. But I ought to be going."
"Then come with us," invited Betty. "We have plenty of room in the car, and we can take you to your friends, to a hotel, or anywhere you like to."
"And we can take you to our homes," added Mollie. "We have not far to go, and, as we are only touring for pleasure, we have no schedule to upset. Come with us. We have finished our ghost hunt."
"Then let us get away from here before my guardian happens to come back," suggested the girl. "I will explain all I can to you, though it is rather complicated."
"Would you mind explaining first," asked Betty with a smile, "why you were up that tree? We have all puzzled over that so much."
"I went up there to hide from my guardian, or the man who calls himself such," said the girl. "I suppose it seems strange, but really that was the only thing I could think of. And it was not hard to get up, for the branches were low. You see I had just run away from him, from this very house, when he brought me here, and said that it was to be our home."
"This place your home!" exclaimed Mollie. "Why I thought Mr. Lagg had bought it."
"I don't know Mr. Lagg," said the strange girl, with a shake of her head. "But I'll explain in sections, as it were. My name is Carrie Norton, and my guardian is Samuel Clark. At least, that is his right name. He goes by several, according to the nature of the business he is in."
"He must be a queer sort of man to change his name," suggested Mr. Blackford, who had rejoined the girls.
"He is queer," agreed Carrie Norton, "and not altogether honest, I fear. To be brief, when my parents died, several years ago, he assumed charge of me. He had been associated with my father in business, and he said the will provided that he was to be my guardian. I was too grief-stricken to question that, but I was shocked when, instead of having a comfortable fortune, as I supposed, there was little or nothing, and Mr. Clark said I must go about the country with him, helping him sell goods. He was a sort of commercial traveler, dealing in different things at different times."
"Yes," said the girls.
"Finally we came to this section, and one day he came to this house. He said he owned it, and that we were to live here. I saw that it was deserted, and I made up my mind I would not stay. The very next day, when he was making preparations to remain over night, I ran away. Oh, I was so lonely. I did not care what became of me. Then I thought I saw him coming down the road after me, and I went up in the tree.
"Perhaps I was foolish, but I scarcely knew what I was doing. I guess I must have fallen asleep, for I was in a comfortable position, and I had lost much rest of late. Then I heard an auto horn—I thought all sorts of things—I awoke with a start, and fell out."
"Then our auto did not strike you?" asked Mollie.
"No, I was just stunned by the fall. When I woke up, and found myself in that farm house bedroom, I did not know what to think. One idea possessed me, that I must get away—that I would not go back to him—my guardian. So I slipped away, and I have been wandering about ever since. I managed to get enough office work to help support me, for I am a business college graduate and I had a little money of my own with me. Sometimes I stopped at hotels, and again at boarding houses. My one idea was to keep away from that man."
"And you dropped part of a letter; did you not?" asked Grace. "The day you ran from the farm house."
"Yes," Carrie admitted. "I had written one I intended leaving for—for that man. Then I decided not to and I tore it up just before I got out of the window. I suppose I must have dropped a piece. It was a letter saying I would never come back to Shadow Valley."
"How did you happen to come back here?' asked Mollie. "We were certainly puzzled at your sudden departure."
"A little while ago," resumed Carrie, "I read something in a paper referring to my case. It was a legal notice asking for news of my whereabouts, and saying I would hear of something to my advantage by calling on certain lawyers with papers to prove my identity. At first I feared this was a trap on the part of my guardian, but I inquired and learned that the law firm was a reputable one. There is a Mr. Allen Washburn connected with it."
"In Deepdale?" cried Betty, her cheeks flaming.
"Yes. But how did you know?" asked Carrie.
"Oh, I am—slightly acquainted with Mr. Washburn," said Betty, hesitatingly.
"Slightly—is good," murmured Grace.
"So I decided I would go see those lawyers," went on Carrie. " But first I wanted the papers. My guardian had them, but I recalled that the day we came here he placed them on the mantle in this room. I came back to get them, but they were gone, and then I heard a noise—I fainted—and, well, here I am, and you are here too, I see."
"It is quite a mystery," said Betty. "Now, I have this to propose. You come home, with us, and we will take you to Mr. Washburn, or have him come to see you. Perhaps he can dispense with the papers."
"Oh, I hope so!" Carrie cried. "If only I could have a new guardian, I might be happy."
"Well, let's start on the road to happiness," said Mr. Blackford, with a smile. "We haven't found the ghost, but perhaps it is just as well."
"Did you ever see any queer manifestations while you were here?" asked Mollie of the girl.
"I was here only part of one day," she said "I am glad it was not dark—I should have been afraid. Oh, it must have been terrible for you to have been caught by—by that man!" she said to Mollie. "Who could he have been?"
"I am just wondering if it could have been your guardian," said Mollie, a strange look on her face. "He said something about me having 'come back.' Girls, I'm sure that was it!" she cried. "He took me for Carrie, with my long hair"
"We are coming on!" cried Mr. Blackford. "We will soon have this mystery solved."
"What sort of a looking man was the one who caught you?" asked Carrie.
"I could not see—he had on long white garments."
"Well, let us get under way. The lawyers will be the best ones to settle this affair," resumed Mr. Blackford, as he started for the waiting auto.
They left the strange mansion behind. Whether it was "haunted" or not they had failed to establish. But they had gotten on the trail of another mystery.
It was while autoing toward the town of Franklin, on their way to Deepdale, that the girls saw on the road a farmer standing beside a carnage with a broken axle. The man was ruefully contemplating the damage.
"Can we help you any?" asked Mollie, as she stopped her car. Mollie was always glad to help people.
"Wa'al," said the man slowly, "if you had a new axle it would be a help. But I know you haven't. What riles me most though, is that the rascal will get away from me."
"Are you after some one?" asked Mr. Blackford, catching at the man's words.
"Yes, I am; after as slick a swindler as has been around these parts in a long time. He done me out of a bunch of money not long ago, and only a little while ago I got word that the same man is peddling stuff in Franklin. I hitched up, as soon as I could, intending to go to Franklin and have him arrested. But this pesky axle had to break, and now I can't go on. It's the only rig I have, too. I heard that the fellow intends to go out on the noon train. Then I may never hear of him again."
"Can't you telephone?" asked Mr. Blackford.
"There's no 'phones around here, and if I did it would be hard work to hold him. There'd have to be a warrant, and I'd have to swear to a complaint. My mere word over the wire wouldn't be enough, I'm afraid. And it's near noon now. I don't know what to do."
Ruefully he gazed at his disabled carriage.
"I have it!" cried Mollie. "Come in the auto with us. We have room for one more, with a little crowding. We can get you there before noon, and perhaps you can have the man arrested."
"Good!" cried the swindled farmer. "I'll do it!"