Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

The music carried them far away on golden wings of melody.

(See page 190)

NAN SHERWOOD

PALM BEACH

OR

STRANGE ADVENTURES AMONG
THE ORANGE GROVES

BY

ANNIE ROE CARR

Author of "Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp," "Nan

Sherwood's Winter Holidays," "Nan Sherwood

at Rose Ranch," etc.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

BOOKS FOR GIRLS

BY

ANNIE ROE CARR

NAN SHERWOOD AT PINE CAMP

Or The Old Lumberman's Secret
NAN SHERWOOD AT LAKEVIEW
HALL
Or The Mystery of the Haunted Boat-

house

NAN SHERWOOD'S WINTER HOLI-
DAYS

Or Rescuing the Runaways
NAN SHERWOOD AT ROSE RANCH

Or The Old Mexican's Treasure
NAN SHERWOOD AT PALM BEACH
Or Strange Adventures Among the
Orange Groves

GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY

Nan Skecwfod^itf JPpfyn $each

Printed in the U. S. A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE CRASH ON THE HILL ... I

II. NEARLY A TRAGEDY . ., . . 13

III. THE OLD LADY ....... 20

M

IV. SOLVING A PROBLEM 27

00

V. CALLED TO ACCOUNT 34

5

VI. A GLORIOUS PROSPECT .... 41

VII. IN THE DORMITORY 47

VIII. ON THE ROAD 55

t^ vv

m IX. THE JOY OF GIVING 62

X. A MIDNIGHT FEAST ...... 69

XI. A DANGEROUS PLOT 76

g XII. ALMOST A DISASTER 85

XIII. THE WILY STRANGER .... 94

•>

XIV. GREAT EXPECTATIONS ...... 104

XV. WE'RE OFF! 114

XVI. FUN AND NONSENSE ..... 123

XVII. THE MYSTERIOUS MEN .... 131

XVIII. A STARTLING REVELATION . . , 138

iii

452509

VI

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XIX. AN ATTEMPTED THEFT .... 147

XX. THOSE MEN AGAIN ..... 156

XXI. THE BEGINNING OF ROMANCE . . 165

XXII. PALM BEACH AT LAST .... 173

XXIII. A TROPICAL PARADISE . . . . 181

XXIV. NAN Is FRIGHTENED 188

XXV. MOONLIGHT .. ...... 198

XXVI. WORTH A FORTUNE . . . . . 208

XXVII. WALTER TO THE RESCUE . . . . 217

XXVIII. CAUGHT 228

XXIX. "WHEN THE SPIRIT MOVES" ... . 237

ILLUSTRATIONS

The music carried them far away on the golden

wings of melody. (Page 190) . Frontispiece

FACING
PAGE

The three girls bent eagerly over Mrs. Bragley

as she opened one paper after another . 65

Nan's eyes were following the figures of two

men strolling down the deck . . . 140

He pushed Nan from him with such force that

she stumbled and fell , . „ 216

NAN SHERWOOD
AT PALM BEACH

CHAPTER I

THE CRASH ON THE HILL

"SMOOTH as glass!" ejaculated Nan Sherwood,
as she came in sight of Pendragon Hill and noted
the gleaming stretch of snow and ice that ran down
to the very edge of Lake Huron.

"And you're the girl that said coasting time would
never, never come," laughed her chum, Bess Har-
ley, who was walking beside her with her hand on
a rope attached to a bobsled that four girls were
drawing.

"Never is a long word," admitted Nan. "I didn't
quite mean that ; but the weather's been so mild up
to now that I was getting desperate."

"Nan registering desperation," put in Daura
Polk, she of the red hair and irrepressible spirits.

Laura struck an attitude of mock desperation, but
the effect was marred when her foot slipped and she
went down with a thump.

I

2 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Her laughing mates helped her to her feet and
brushed the snow off her dress.

"The wicked stand on slippery places," quoted
Grace Mason mischievously.

"Yes," Laura came back, as quick as a flash", "I
see that they do, but I can't."

The shout of laughter that followed atoned some-
what for her loss of dignity — although she had not
lost much, for Laura and dignity were hardly on
speaking terms.

Laughing and chattering, all trying to talk at once
and all succeeding, the bevy of light-hearted girls
reached the top of the hill.

Before them stretched Lake Huron, extending
farther than their eyes could see. For a long dis-
tance out from shore the lake seemed frozen solid.
A small island rose above the ice about half a mile
distant, and this was the limit fixed upon for the
coasters. The cove between the foot of the hill and
the island had a glassy coating of ice that had been
swept and scraped and served for skating as well
as coasting.

"I wonder if it's perfectly safe," remarked Grace
Mason, a little timidly. "You know this is the first
time the cove's been frozen this winter, and we
haven't tried it yet."

"Bless your little heart, you'll be as safe as if you
were on a battlefield," was the dubious comfort that
Laura held out.

The Crash on the Hill 3

"Much safer than that," interposed Professor
Krenner, the teacher of mathematics and architec-
tural drawing at the Lakeview Hall school that the
girls were attending. "You can be sure that neither
Dr. Prescott nor I would take any chances on that
score. A heavy logging team went over it yester-
day, and the ice didn't even creak, let alone crack.
And every day that passes of this kind of weather
makes it thicker and stronger."

"My, but that's a comfort," remarked Laura.
"I'd hate to have this young life of mine cut off just
when it's so full of promise."

"How Laura hates herself," put in Bess Harley.

"You're perfectly safe, Laura," Nan assured her.
"Only the good die young, you know."

The professor's kindly eyes twinkled as he looked
from one to the other of the rosy-cheeked, spark-
ling-eyed girls, bubbling over with fun and vitality.
He had just come up from the queer little cabin in
which he lived at the edge of the lake. It was part
of his work to supervise the coasting and, as far
as possible, keep it free from accident.

About his sole diversion was playing on a key
bugle, and the long-drawn-out notes of the instru-
ment, sometimes lively and sometimes in a minor
strain, were familiar sounds to the girls, and often
an occasion of jesting.

Professor Krenner held the bugle in his hand now,
and after glancing at his watch, he raised the in-

4 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

strument to his lips and blew a clear call that had
the effect of hastening the steps of some of the
groups that were coming toward the hill from the
Hall, the roof of which could be seen over the tops
of the trees.

Outdoor sports were made much of at Lakeview
Hall, not only in the catalogue designed for the
perusal of parents, but in actual fact. "A sound
mind in a sound body" was Dr. Beulah Prescott's
aim for her pupils, and exercise was as obligatory
as lessons. None was excused without an adequate
reason, and the group upon the hill grew in numbers
until it seemed as though all the members of the
school were present except the smaller girls, who
had a slide of their own.

"All here except the queen," remarked Laura, as
she looked around her.

"The queen?" repeated Bess Harley, staring at
her.

"Queen Linda of Chicago," explained Laura, with
a wicked twinkle in her eye.

"For goodness' sake, don't ever let Linda Riggs
hear you say anything like that, Laura Polk," ad-
monished Bess. "She's so conceited that she
wouldn't know it was sarcasm. She'd think it was
a tribute drawn from an unwilling admirer."

"I know," laughed Laura. "It doesn't take mucK
to set her up. If she had water on the brain, she'd
think she was the whole ocean."

The Crash on the Hill 5

"Here she comes now," remarked Nan, after the
laughter caused by Laura's sally had subsided.

A tall girl, wearing expensive furs and having a
supercilious air, came along with two or three com-
panions. It was noticeable that she left to them the
work of drawing the bobsled, while she sauntered
along, ostentatiously adjusting her furs as though
she sought to call attention to their quality.

"Hurry up, Linda," called out Laura. "I believe
you'd be late at your own funeral."

"I never get anywhere early," snapped Linda.
"It isn't good form. When I go to the theater I
always get in late. I always have the best seat that
money can buy reserved for me, so what's the use
of hurrying? Of course it's different when one has
to go early and scramble for a seat."

"That may be your habit in Chicago, but it isn't
in favor here, Miss Riggs," said Professor Kren-
ner dryly. "But now that all seem to be here, we'll
start the races. You understand that all sleds are
to keep three minutes apart so as to avoid accident.
The course is straight out on the lake, and the best
two out of three trials win the race. Miss Sher-
wood, since you are nearest the starting line, sup-
pose you get your sled in position to lead off. Not
so fast, Miss Riggs," he went on, as Linda tried to
shove her sled to the crest of the hill. "I said Miss
Sherwood was to go first."

"I don't see why I should have to wait," pouted

6 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Linda, as she reluctantly drew back her sled before
the decided look in the professor's eye. "Hateful
old thing," she remarked in a low voice to her spe-
cial friend and intimate, Cora Courtney. "He fav-
ors Sherwood because she attends his poky old lec-
tures on architectural drawing and pretends she
likes them."

"I shouldn't be surprised if that were just it,"
replied Cora, who made a habit of agreeing with
the rich friend whose friendship often proved profit-
able to Cora. She had no money herself but clung
closely to those who had.

"Who was it," asked Rhoda Hammond in an
amused whisper of Nan, "who wrote an essay once
on the 'gentle art of making enemies' ?"

"I'm not sure," laughed Nan in reply, "but I
think it was Whistler. Why do you ask ?"

"Because," replied Rhoda in the same low voice,
"I think he must have had Linda or somebody just
like her in mind, for she has the art down to per-
fection."

There would have been little dissent from Rhoda's
verdict, for Linda had few real friends among the
girls of Lakeview Hall. She was purse-proud and
vulgar, and, though her money gave her a certain
prestige among the shallow and unthinking, she
lacked the qualities of mind and heart to endear her-
self to any one.

By this time the girls who were going with Nan

The Crash on the Hill 7

had taken their places on the sled. It was a new
one that Nan had received as a present from her
father, and it had not yet been tested. Nan had
named it the Silver Arrow, and she had high hopes
that its speed would justify the name.

Nan sat at the head, with the steering wheel in
her hands. The wind had brought the roses to her
cheeks, and her clear eyes shone like stars. Be-
hind her in order sat Bess Harley, Rhoda Ham-
mond, Grace Mason and Laura Polk, each girl
holding tightly to the belt of the girl in front

"All ready?" asked the professor.

"All ready, Professor," was Nan's reply, as her
hands tightened on the wheel.

Professor Krenner lifted the bugle to his lips and
gave a clear, sonorous blast that served at the same
time as a signal for starting and as a warning to
any one who might be crossing the path at the foot
of the hill.

Then he tipped the sled over the ridge of the hill
and it started on its journey.

For a mere fraction of a second it seemed to
poise itself for flight. Then it moved, slowly at
first, but gathering speed with every second, until it
seemed to be flying like an arrow from the bow.

There were delighted and at the same time some-
what fearful squeals from the girls, as the wind
whistled past their ears while the sled flew on at a
speed that quickly reached a mile a minute. They

8 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

*

held ion to each other for dear life, but Nan had no
eyes or thought for anything except that shining
ribbon of path.

She made the turn at the foot of the hill, the sled
yielding to her slightest touch, and she only breathed
freely when it shot out on the lake and there were
no further obstacles to circumvent or fear.

On, on it went like a thing of life, as though it
would never tire, and Nan's heart beat fast as she
realized that she was going to make a better mark
than she had ever done before.

But gradually the weight on the level surface be-
gan to tell, and the bobsled slowed up as though it
were as reluctant as its passengers to find itself at
its journey's end.

There was a chorus of joyous exclamations from
the girls, as they rose to their feet and noted how
far out they were on the lake.

"What a perfectly lovely sled !" exclaimed Rhoda
Hammond. "I never had such a ride as that in my
life."

"You darling!" said Nan impulsively, as she
patted the wheel of her treasure.

"The other girls will have to go some to come
anywhere near that mark," bubbled Bess.

"Linda will be green with jealousy," laughed
Laura. "She thinks that that Gay Girl of hers is
the fastest thing that ever wore runners."

"She'll take it as a personal affront if she doesn't

The Crash on the Hill 9

win," giggled Grace. "I wish she'd come along
while we're here. I'd like to see just how far we've
beaten her."

"We haven't beaten her yet," observed Nan, "and
perhaps it's just as well not to be too sure. But
now let's get our skates on and pull the sled back.
There are to be three trials, you know."

They took their skates from their shoulders and
adjusted them with nimble fingers. It was the work
of only a few moments. Then they rose, patted
down their dresses and struck out for the shore,
drawing the sled behind them.

They had to keep a wary lookout for the other
sleds. One came rushing along with its laughing
crew, but they could see at a glance that it was not
making the speed that their own had reached. Just
as they reached the edge of the lake, another sled
flew past, and amid the bevy of girls on it they
discerned Linda Riggs.

"There goes the Gay Girl" remarked Rhoda
Hammond.

"And she's going like the wind, too," chimed in
Bess a little anxiously. "Let's wait here a mo-
ment, girls. I want to see how far out she goes."

"I do hope she won't beat our mark," said Grace,
as she snuggled her fur more closely about her
neck.

They watched with straining eyes as Linda's sled
gradually slowed up, and a sigh of relief came from

io Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach!

all when they saw that it stopped about a hundred
feet this side of the spot that they had reached.

"She didn't beat us !" cried Bess exultantly.

"Too close to be comfortable, though," mur-
mured Nan, as her eyes measured the distance.

"Well, a miss is as good as a mile," declared
Rhoda.

"We're all right so far, as the man said as he
was passing the second floor after falling seven-
teen stories," put in Laura.

"Let's get every ounce out of the Silver Arrow
on the next try," adjured Grace, as, after having
taken off their skates, they were trudging up the
hill.

By the time they reached the top, most of the
other sleds had been sent off and they had not long
to wait. They settled themselves firmly in their
seats.

"Let's clinch it now," laughed Nan, as she took
the wheel. "Just put on your wishing caps and
wish as hard as you can, and the Silver Arrow will
do the rest."

"I'm wishing so hard that it hurts," gurgled Bess.

"If wishing will do it, we've won already,"
chimed in Laura. "We're all ready, Professor."

A clear call from the bugle, a helping hand over
the ridge, and the Silver Arrow was off again.

It may have been due to the more slippery con-
dition of the hill caused by the sleds that had al-

The Crash on the Hill n

ready passed over it, but there was no doubt in the
minds of the girls that the bobsled was going even
more swiftly than it had at first. They were al-
most frightened at the speed it developed, and yet
they were delighted, for they had set their minds
on beating their earlier mark.

Halfway down the hill they passed Linda and her
group, who had drawn up at one side to let them
pass. Even at that breakneck rate of speed they
could see the sneer on Linda's lips as she recog-
nized the sled and its crew.

But they were nearing the curve now and Nan's
eyes were fastened on the path ahead while she
tightly gripped the wheel.

"Hold fast, girls!" she warned, as they neared
the bend in the road and the sled swerved at her
touch.

The next instant they rounded the curve, and a
cry of horror burst from their lips.

Directly in their path was an elderly woman who
had just started across the road.

She looked up as she heard them scream. Ter-
ror and bewilderment came into her face. She
started back, then forward. Then, utterly para-
lyzed with fright, she stood helpless in the path of
the bobsled that was rushing toward her with the
speed of an express train.

The girls shouted at her, but her brain, numbed
by fear, refused to act.

fl'2 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Oh, she'll be killed!" wailed Grace.

"Oh, Nan, can't you do something?" cried Bess
frantically.

Nan's brain was working like lightning. She
was white to the lips, but never for an instant did
she lose her presence of mind.

At the left of the road was an almost solid row
of trees. It was certain death to turn that way.
At the right there was an opening that led into a
little glade. She determined to steer into that.

She swerved the sled in that direction. She could
have made it if the woman had remained where she
was. But just then she backed a step to the right.
The sled struck her and hurled her aside, and she
went down with a scream.

CHAPTER II

NEARLY A TRAGEDY

THE collision changed the direction of the bob-
sled, and by the merest fraction it escaped striking
a tree. Nan, however, despite her mental anguish,
kept her head and dexterously guided it into the
glade, where it found soft snow and gradually came
to a stop.

Then the frightened girls rose and rushed as fast
as they could toward the victim of the accident, who
was lying still in a heap of snow at the side of the
road.

Nan dropped on the snow beside her and took
her head in her arms, while Rhoda put her hand on
the woman's heart.

"Oh," sobbed Grace, "we've killed her!"

"No, we haven't," replied Rhoda. "I can feel
that her heart is beating. She's fainted, either
from pain or fright or both, poor thing. We must
help her."

"Here, Bess," directed Nan, "you hold her head
while I see if any bones are broken. And you other
girls take turns in chafing her hands. If she lives

13

14

near here we'll take her home and send for a doc-
tor. If not, we'll take her up to the Hall."

The others followed Nan's directions and worked
with frantic energy. And while the girls are trying
to revive the unconscious stranger, it may be well
for the sake of those who have not yet read the
earlier volumes of this series to tell who Nan Sher-
wood is, and what experiences and adventures she
and her friends have had up to the time at which
the present story opens.

Mr. Sherwood was a foreman in the Atwater
Mills in Tillbury, and "Papa Sherwood" and "Mom-
sey" and Nan were a devoted and happy family in
their pretty little cottage on Amity Street. Then
the mills shut down for an indefinite length of time.
The Sherwoods, with others even less well able to
face the future, were staring poverty and the loss of
their pretty home in the face, when suddenly, in the
case of the Sherwoods, fortune took a hand and sent
relief in the shape of a legacy from a distant rela-
tive of Mrs. Sherwood's.

To settle the business in connection with this
legacy, Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood were called to
Scotland. To the grief of all three, it was neces-
sary that Nan should be left behind, but it was ar-
ranged that she should stay with her Uncle Henry,
her father's brother, in a lumber camp in the Michi-
gan Peninsula. What exciting adventures Nan had
there and what she accomplished for good, can be

Nearly a Tragedy 15

found in the first volume of this series, entitled:
"Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp; or, The Old Lum-
berman's Secret."

[Nan's feest girl friend in Tillbury was Bess Har-
ley. Bess was looking forward to going to school
at Lakeview Hall, and, never having known any
lack of money, could not understand why Nan would
not say that she, too, would go. When the loss of
Mr. Sherwood's position made even Bess see that it
would be out of the question for Nan to go, she
was inconsolable, for she was devoted to her friend,
and rather dependent on her.

Nan Sherwood herself wanted to go to Lakeview
Hall more than she had told either Bess or her
parents, and when the legacy from Scotland made
this possible the two girls were delighted and went
wild with joy.

What they did at the Hall, the plucky spirit Nan
showed on more than one occasion, and the friends
they made are told of in the volume entitled : "Nan
Sherwood at Lakeview Hall; or, The Mystery of
the Haunted Boathouse."

Among the girls Nan and Bess met at Lake-
view Hall was Grace Mason of Chicago. In "Nan
Sherwood's Winter Holidays ; or, Rescuing the Run-
aways" is described the visit that Nan and Bess
made to the Mason home during the midwinter holi-
days. It is a record of parties and girlish fun, but
in the midst of this Nan succeeded in helping two

1 6 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

foolish girls who had run far away from home.

On the opening of Lakeview Hall after those win-
ter holidays a new girl came to the school. She
was from the far West, and she did not at first
understand or enter into the fun of the other girls.
For a while she was without friends there, but
gradually Nan Sherwood's sympathy and tact
worked a change and Rhoda Hammond became one
with the other girls.

She was not only grateful to Nan, but she be-
came very fond of her. By this time Mr. Sher-
wood was well established in a business of his own,
so when Rhoda asked Nan and Bess and Grace
Mason and her brother Walter to go with her to
her home in the West on a ranch, Nan, as well as
the others, was able to accept. What exciting ad-
ventures the young people had at Rose Ranch, how
stanchly they faced peril on one or two occasions,
and what novel pleasures came to them, are all told
of in "Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch; or, The Old
Mexican's Treasure."

And now let us go back to Nan and her chums
and the poor woman who had brought the bobsled
race to such an inglorious termination.

The ministrations of the excited girls to the
poor woman soon produced an effect. The woman
stirred uneasily, groaned, and at length opened her
eyes, to the infinite relief of the girls, who had
feared they had been participants in a tragedy.

I?

Nan's deft fingers had in the meantime established
the fact that no bones were . broken, and she now
spoke gently to the woman, whose eyes wandered
from one face to another in a dazed fashion.

"I hope you are not badly hurt," Nan said kindly.
"Do you feel much pain?"

"What am I doing here?" the woman asked.
"What has happened?"

"Our sled struck you and knocked you down,"
answered Nan. "We did our best to steer out of
the way, but we couldn't. I hope you are not much
hurt."

A spasm of fear came into the face, which they
could see was that of a woman about sixty years
old.

"Oh, yes, I remember now," she said weakly. "I
thought surely I was going to be killed. It all hap-
pened so sudden like."

She struggled into a sitting position, and the girls
supported her head and shoulders.

"Tell us where you live," said Nan, "and we will
take you home and send for a doctor. Or perhaps
we had better take you right up to the school on
top of the hill and take care of you there."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to give you young ladies so
much trouble," answered the woman.

"Trouble, indeed!" protested Nan. "It's you
that have had all the trouble, and there's nothing we
can do for you that will make up for it."

i8

"Do tell us where you live," urged Bess. "You
ought to be in bed just as soon as you can. You'll
catch your death out here in the snow."

"I live down on the Milltown road," the woman
replied, "but I think I can get there without bother-
ing you. Just help me up and you'll find that I'm
able to walk all right."

She strove to rise to her feet as she spoke, the
girls supporting her on each side, but her feet gave
way under her and she would have fallen had they
not sustained her.

"I'm afraid my ankle is broken," she murmured,
as they eased her4 to a sitting position on the sled
that thoughtful Rhoda had run and brought up to
where the group were gathered.

"No," said Nan, "it isn't broken, I think ; but it is
very badly sprained. Now, girls, wrap her up well
and then take hold of the ropes and we'll get her
home just as soon as we possibly can. You live on
the Milltown road, you say?" she went on, turning
to the sufferer. "About how far is your home from
here?"

"About a mile or a little more," was the answer.
"It's just beyond the blacksmith's shop after you
cross the bridge."

"I know where it is," interposed Grace. "I've
often passed the place while out riding with
Walter."

"You can show us the way then," said Nan, set-

Nearly a Tragedy 19

ting the example to the others by taking hold of the
rope. "Come along, girls, and we'll get there as
soon as we can. Bess, hadn't you better go up the
hill and tell the professor all about this, and then
hurry and catch up with us?"

Bess did as her chum suggested, and the other
girls started off at a brisk pace, drawing the sled
with its burden after them.

CHAPTER III

THE OLD LADY

THE road was rather a difficult one, and several
small hills had to be surmounted. The girls took
turns in having one of them walk beside the sled
with her hand steadying their passenger, who at
times protested feebly against all the trouble she
was making. She volunteered the information that
her name was Sarah Bragley, that she was a widow,
and that she had no kith or kin in the world as far
as she knew. These facts redoubled the pity of the
girls, and they mentally resolved that as long as they
were at Lakeview Hall they would do all they could
to make life more bearable for the frail and forlorn
woman who had been brought into their lives in a
way so unexpected and so nearly tragic.

In a little while Bess rejoined them, panting a lit-
tle from the exertions she had made to catch up to
them.

"It's all right," she announced. "I told Profes-
sor Krenner, and he told us to do all that we could,
no matter how long it took, and said that he would
explain the whole thing to Dr. Prescott. And Linda

20

The Old Lady 21

Riggs was there, and what do you think she said?
But I'll tell you about that some other time," she
said, as she saw a spasm of pain come over the in-
jured woman's face. "Here, let me get hold of that
rope and we'll get on faster."

She took hold with a will, and the bobsled moved
along rapidly until a little bridge that spanned the
road over a small stream came into view. The
stream now was a solid mass of ice.

"There's the bridge!" ejaculated Grace. "We
can't be very far from the house now."

"And there's the blacksmith shop and a little
house right beyond it," added Nan. "Is that your
house?" she asked Mrs. Bragley, beside whom she
was walking.

"That's it, dearie," was the answer. "It ain't
much of a place," she added apologetically.

"It's a cunning little darling of a place," protested
Rhoda, not quite truthfully, but so warm-heartedly
that the recording angel probably did not lay it up
against her.

"It's very nice," added Nan.

In a few minutes more they were before the tiny
house, which seemed to consist of several rooms on
one floor and a single room above. Everything
about it suggested straightened means, and yet the
girls noticed that the small windows were clean and
hung with fresh dimity curtains, and that there were
little flower boxes on the sills inside.

22 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

They drew the sled through the gate and up the
path to the door.

"Have you the key?" Nan asked, as she took off
her gloves.

"It isn't locked," Mrs. Bragley replied, with a
faint smile. "There's nothing in there that would
tempt anybody to steal. Just open the door and go
right in."

Nan did as she was told. She found herself in
what evidently served as a living-room and dining-
room and kitchen combined. In a little room open-
ing off to the right, she caught a glimpse of a bed.
There was a wood stove with the embers of a fire
in it, and the room was still fairly warm. Every-
thing was as scrupulously neat as her first impres-
sion from without had led her to expect. But the
scanty and worn furniture showed a desperate strug-
gle with poverty that touched the girl's heart.

Under Nan's directions, the girls lifted Mrs. Brag-
ley from the sled and gently deposited her in the
one rocking chair that the apartment contained, first,
however, placing a cushion in it to make it more
comfortable.

"Now, girls," said Nan, "let's all get busy. In
the first place, we want to get this fire going.
Where do you keep your wood ?" she asked, turning
to the invalid.

"There's plenty of it in the little woodshed at the
back," was the answer. "The neighbors always cut

The Old Lady 23

enough for me to last me through the winter. But
it's a shame that you should have to go for it," she
called after Nan, who had already started for the
woodshed.

Her protests were unheeded, and in a moment
Nan was back, accompanied by Bess, who had gone
with her, their arms full of wood which they laid
beside the stove.

In a few minutes a cheerful fire was roaring in
the stove. Then, following the directions of Mrs.
Bragley, they found some tea and brewed it, and
set out a little lunch which they pressed the woman
to eat. The food and tea refreshed and revived her,
and, as her shyness wore off, she talked with them
freely.

Nan found some arnica with which she bathed the
injured ankle, and then they helped their patient to
undress and get into bed. And having done this,
and seen that she was as comfortable as it was pos-
sible to make her, the girls withdrew into a corner
to hold, as Nan expressed it, a "committee meeting
to discuss ways and means."

"Now, girls, just what are we going to do?" de-
manded Nan, as her friends gathered round her with
anxious looks on their faces.

"Take care of this poor woman until she is able
to be on her feet again," responded Bess promptly.
"We can't do less."

"Of course, that goes without saying," agreed

24 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Nan. "We're the cause of her present trouble, and
it's up to us to get her out of it. The only question
is as to the best way to do it."

"Go ahead and tell us, Nan," urged Grace.
"You've got the best head of any of us when it
comes to an emergency like this."

"The first thing," suggested Nan, "is to get a doc-
tor."

"I'm so glad it isn't an undertaker we have to
call for," put in Grace, with a shudder.

"And the next," continued Nan, "is to find a
nurse. The poor thing is utterly helpless just now
with that hurt ankle. She can't even keep up the
fire, and the weather's so cold she'd freeze to death
if the fire went out."

"If we only had a telephone," murmured Rhoda,
as her eye wandered over the place, though she knew
beforehand that such an instrument would not be
found in that poor cottage.

"Well, we haven't," replied Nan. "So I'll tell
you what we'll do. Bess and I will stay here and
try to make our patient as comfortable as we can.
The rest of you girls had better go right up to the
Hall and tell Dr. Prescott all about it. She'll have
a doctor here in less than no time, and she or Mrs.
Cupp will know of some nurse they can get in the
town. We'll stay here anyway until they come. But
the afternoon's going fast, and you want to hurry
as much as you can. It will probably be dark any-

The Old Lady 25

h'ow when the doctor and the nurse get here, and,
as we don't know the road very well, we don't want
to be too late in getting back to the Hall/'

"You needn't worry about that," said Grace, as
she put on her wraps. "I'll 'phone to Walter as
soon as I get to the Hall and he'll come over and
take you home."

"In that case I'd better go along with you now,"
put in Bess, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
"I'm afraid it will be a case where two is company
and three's a crowd."

"Don't talk such nonsense," said Nan, though a
slight flush had risen to her cheeks at her chum's
raillery. "But, girls, before you go there's one other
thing; and that is, the matter of money. I don't
suppose," she went on, lowering her voice lest the
invalid should hear, "that the poor woman has any-
thing of any account. How much money have you
girls with you?"

What the warm-hearted girls had with them at
the moment was very little, but what it was they
all handed over, and the total amounted to several
dollars.

"Of course we'll all club together and see that
she has all she needs to get through this trouble,"
declared Laura, and there was a unanimous chorus
of assent.

"And now, shoo !" commanded Nan, as she opened
the door to hasten their exit. "And see how quickly

26 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

you can get the nurse and the doctor here. Don't
bother about the sled. We'll bring that along when
we come, or send over after it to-morrow."

The three girls promised to hurry, and made off.
Nan and Bess watched them until they had passed .
out of sight beyond the bridge, and then turned to
look after their patient.

CHAPTER IV

SOLVING A PROBLEM

THE girls tiptoed into the little room at the right
and saw that Mrs. Bragley was not asleep. As they
approached the bed she greeted them with a faint
smile.

"It's too bad that you should have all this
trouble," she said. "Here I've gone and spoiled all
your afternoon's fun just because I was too slow
and stupid to get out of your way."

"It wasn't your fault at all," declared Bess
warmly. "I know I'd have been scared stiff if I'd
seen that sled bearing down upon me. The thing
we're grateful for is that you weren't killed."

"How are you feeling now?" asked Nan gently,
as she adjusted the bedclothes.

"Rather poorly," was the answer. "My ankle's
hurting me a good deal. And then I have a sort of
all-gone feeling. But I suppose that's on account
of the shock. But I'll be all right by to-morrow,"
the woman hurried to say bravely.

"We've sent for a doctor and a nurse," Nan ex-
plained. "They'll be here in a little while."

27

28 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

A worried look came into the woman's pale and
drawn face.

"A doctor? A nurse?" she repeated. "That's
good of you, my dears, but I can get along all right
without them. And besides, besides

She hesitated, and Nan, who guessed what she
was thinking of, hastened to reassure her.

"Don't worry about anything," she urged.
"There won't be any expense. It's our fault that
you are hurt, and the very least we can do is to see
that it doesn't cost you anything to get well. You
just leave it to us, please."

Tears came into the poor woman's eyes.

"How good you are !" she said brokenly. "There
was a time when I had money enough to get along
comfortably, but that was before my husband died.
He thought that he was leaving me enough to take
care of me for the rest of my life. But somehow or
other I guess I've been cheated out of it or lost it
somehow. It's all mixed up in my mind, and I
don't exactly know the rights of it. I never did
have any head for business, anyhow."

"There, there," said Nan soothingly, as she
feared that her patient was getting excited. "You
can tell us all about it some other time. Let me
fix your pillows now and you try to get some sleep
before the doctor comes."

She brought a cooling drink, and then she and
Bess withdrew into the other room and conversed

Solving a Problem 29

in low tones until, just before dark, the doctor made
his appearance.

He was a big, cheery man, who radiated confi-
dence as he bustled into the room after tying his
horse to the fence outside.

"Oh, Dr. Willis, I'm so glad you've come!" ex-
claimed Nan, as the doctor came in and drew off
his gloves.

"Just a bit of luck that I was able to get here so
soon," the doctor responded. "I was just going
out on another call when a girl rang me up from
the school and told me of the accident. She was so
excited that she stuttered, but I managed to make
out what she was driving at and hurried over at
once. Where is the patient?"

They took him into the room, and he made a
quick but thorough examination.

"No bones broken," he announced, and the girls
drew a sigh of relief. "But there's a bad sprain
and she won't be able to get around for a couple
of weeks."

He bandaged the injured ankle and prepared
some medicine, which he left with careful directions
to the girls.

"I'll drop in again to-morrow," he said. "Sorry
that I can't take you girls back and drop you at
the Hall, but she oughtn't to be left alone. I can.
take one of you, though," and he looked inquiringly
from one to the other.

30 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"You had better go, Bess," said Nan promptly.

"What! and leave you alone?" cried Bess. "In-
deed not."

"But we can't both go."

"I am not going to leave you, Nan. We'll both
stay."

"Well, it won't be for so very long anyway," re-
marked Nan. She turned to the physician. "It is
very good of you to ask us."

"It sure is," added Bess, quickly. And then she
added, with a cloud on her face, "You are sure
Mrs. Bragley is going to get over it ?"

"Oh, yes, she'll get over it. But it will take time,"
answered the doctor; and a few minutes later the
medical man took his departure.

"He certainly is a nice man," said Nan, as she
and her chum watched him go.

"A man one is bound to have confidence in,"
added Bess.

He had not been gone five minutes when there
was a sound of sleighbells, and a cutter, drawn by
a spirited horse, dashed up to the gate. The girls
peered through the windows, but in the dark, which
had now fully settled down, could not identify the
newcomer. A moment later there as a knock at the
door, and, on opening it, Walter Mason came in
with a rush, accompanied more sedately by an el-
derly woman with a kindly, capable face.

"Why, Walter!" exclaimed Nan, and a close oft-

Solving a Problem 31

server might have noted her heightened color.
"How splendid it was of you to get here so
quickly."

Bess had it on the tip of her tongue to say that
she could guess why he had hurried, but she wisely
forebore.

Walter Mason was a frank, fine-looking young
man, with whom the girls had become acquainted
through his sister Grace. Nan and he had been
thrown much together, especially during the visit
that Nan had made to Grace at the Mason home in
Chicago, and a mutual liking had developed that
had grown stronger with time. The girls had often
teased Nan about Walter, but she had parried their
thrusts good-naturedly, and stoutly maintained that
Walter was simply a nice boy and good company.
But she was undeniably glad to see him, though she
tried to explain to herself that it was the prospect
of soon getting back to the Hall that pleased her.

After the first greeting, Walter introduced his
companion as a Mrs. Ellis, who had agreed to come
along to nurse the patient until she had fully re-
covered.

Mrs. Ellis, in a quiet, capable way, took charge
at once, and the girls felt the load of responsibility
that they had carried all the afternoon lighten
promptly.

"Oh, I'd nearly forgotten!" Walter exclaimed
suddenly, and ran out to the sleigh, whence he re-

32 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

turned in a moment loaded down with food and
jellies and supplies of various kinds.

"We stopped on our way through the village," he
explained, as he placed the packages on the table,
"and Mrs. Ellis picked out the things that we ought
to bring along. Here they are. And now if you
girls will get your things on, I'll hustle you over to
the Hall. You must be awfully hungry."

They had not thought of that, but now that he
spoke of it they realized that he was right. They
went in and spoke cheerily to Mrs. Bragley, prom-
ising to be over the next day to see how she was
getting along, and then, followed by her tears and
blessings, they put on their wraps and furs and with
a cordial farewell to the nurse they hurried off, not,
however, until Walter had brought in and stacked
up enough firewood to last for several days.

The cold, crisp air was like a tonic, and their
spirits rose as the horse drew the cutter after him
over the snowy road at a rate of speed that prom-
ised to bring them to the Hall all too soon.

"That was a close call you girls had this after-
noon," Walter remarked, as they left the little house
behind them.

"It surely was," agreed Bess, with a little shiver
that was not due to the cold. "It was lucky for us
that Nan kept her head. The rest of us were
screaming, but Nan didn't make a sound. If she'd
steered an inch to the right or to the left from what

Solving a Problem 33

she did, we'd have gone into a tree, and that would
have been the end of us."

"She's a thoroughbred," declared Walter briefly.
"That's just the way she acted the day your boat
upset. Nan certainly has nerve."

"There are the lights of the Hall," interrupted
Nan, glad of an excuse to divert attention from her-
self. "How beautiful they look on a night like
this."

"They'd look a good deal more beautiful to me if
they were further off," grumbled Walter, as he re-
luctantly turned into the drive that led to Lakeview
Hall.

CHAPTER V

CALLED TO ACCOUNT

THE cutter drew up with a flourish and a jingle
of bells at the main door of Lakeview Hall, and
Walter Mason helped the girls out.

"So good of you to bring us over," said Nan, as
Walter's hand held hers for perhaps a second more
than was absolutely necessary.

"Tickled to death to have the chance," replied the
youth. "And say, Nan, count me in on that sub-
scription for Mrs. Bragley."

"Thanks just as much," was Nan's response, as
she and Bess ran up the steps, "but I imagine you've
done more than your share already. Who paid for
all those good things you brought over in your
sleigh? Answer me that."

"Give you three guesses," laughed Walter. "And
now, good night, girls. Tell me when you're going
over again and I'll be here with the cutter."

Another moment and he was off with a farewell
wave of the hand, and Nan and Bess entered the
Hall, where they speedily found themselves the cen-

34

Called to Account 35

ter of a chattering bevy of girls, all trying to talk
at once

"Tell us all about it, Nan," pleaded Rhoda Ham-
mond. "Did the doctor get there?"

"Was Mrs. Bragley badly hurt ?" asked Laura.

"Not seriously," answered Nan. "The doctor and
the nurse both came, and everything is going on all
right. She'll be able to walk again in a couple of
weeks, they think."

"Don't tell them another word, Nan Sherwood,
until we have had something to eat," laughed Bess.
"I'm just dying from hunger, and I suppose we're
late now for supper."

Linda Riggs, who had been standing apart with a
sneer on her lips, turned to Cora Courtney and said
in a voice that was not so low but all could hear:

"So that's why she stayed to nurse the old woman ;
so she could get a ride home with Walter Mason.
She's foxy, all right."

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Linda
Riggs !" Bess1 Harley cried hotly. But Nan laid her
hand soothingly on her arm.

"Never mind her, Bess," she counseled with a
level glance at Linda. "What else can you expect?
Let's go in to supper."

"Linda is peeved because the Gay Girl was beaten
this afternoon," laughed Laura Polk. "You know
she thought she had a mortgage on the race."

"Was she beaten?" asked Bess, with eager inter-

36 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

est. "I declare, my mind's been so full of the acci-
dent that I'd almost forgotten that we had a race."

"Yes," replied Laura gleefully. "She was beaten
by more than a hundred feet."

"And she had three chances where we had only
one," put in Rhoda. "We might have beaten our
own mark if we had had our full number of trips."

"There's not much of the sport about Linda,"
commented Grace. "Any one who beats her makes
her an enemy. She takes it as a personal insult if
any one dares to get ahead of her."

"She can't be any more of an enemy to us than
she always has been," concluded Bess. "But come
along, Nan, and let's eat. My appetite's keener than
ever, now that I know we won." *.

"Was there ever anything the matter with' your
appetite, Bess ?" questioned Nan with a smile.

"Sometimes — not often. But, oh, Nan! neither
of us would have had much appetite if we had seri-
ously injured that poor woman."

"You are right there. Every time I think of the
narrow escape we had I have to shiver."

"Yes, and supposing the sled had gone into a
tree, or one of those sharp rocks ! Oh, it would have
been dreadful!"

"We can count ourselves very lucky."

"And to think we won the race after all ! That's
the best news I've heard in a long time."

"Oh, no, Bess. The best news is our escape, and

Called to Account 37

Mrs. Bragley's, from serious injury. The race
doesn't count alongside of that."

"Well, maybe you are right. Nevertheless, I am
awfully glad we won."

The rest of the girls had already had their sup-
per, but there was plenty left, and Nan and Bess did
full justice to it. They had scarcely finished when
a message came to Nan that Dr. Prescott, the head
of the school, wished to see her.

"I always feel nervous when I hear that Doctor
Beulah wants to see me," remarked Laura, the mad-
cap of the school. "But perhaps Nan has a better
conscience than I usually have. Run along now,
Nan, and take your medicine, and then come back
and tell us all about it."

Nan went at once to the principal's room, and
was graciously received by the serene, handsome
woman who directed the activities of Lakeview Hall.

Dr. Beulah Prescott was a woman of culture and
marked executive ability. For many years she had
been the head of the school, and had won for it an
enviable position among institutions of its kind. She
had a large and valuable clientele, which was con-
stantly expanding.

She was an extremely good-looking woman, and
exquisitely groomed and dressed, although with an
utter absence of ostentation. She knew the value
of appearance, especially before the critical eyes of
her schoolgirls, and never allowed herself to be seen

453609

38 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

at a disadvantage. Her rule was mild, but just and
firm, and all the girls knew that she was not to be
trifled with. Behind her back they often referred
to her as Doctor Beulah, but none permitted herself
any familiarity in her presence. Her poise was per-
fect. No one had ever seen her angry or flustered.
When she did not inspire ardent affection, she al-
ways commanded the genuine respect of her pupils.

She greeted Nan pleasantly as the latter entered,
and asked her to be seated.

"I hear you came near having a serious accident
this afternoon, Nan," she said, "and I have sent for
you to have you tell me all about it."

Nan told in detail the events of the afternoon,
and the doctor listened with keen interest, interrupt-
ing once in a while to make some incident perfectly
clear.

"It was a very narrow escape," she commented,
when Nan had finished. "I am thankful beyond
words that none of the girls was hurt or killed, as
they so easily might have been. And I want to
congratulate you on the way you played your part.
I notice you left that out of your story, but others
have already told me how cool and clear-headed you
were through it all. I'm glad that you happened to
be steering."

Nan flushed at the words of praise, and murmured
rather uncomfortably that she had done only what
any other of the girls would have done in her place.

Called to Account 39

"I differ with you there," replied Dr. Prescott,
with a smile. "But we won't discuss that. What
must be done is to make the coasting safer in the
future. After this, I will have some one stationed
at that crossing to warn passers-by. As for that
poor woman, I will see that all the expenses of her
illness are paid and that she is compensated besides
for the fright and pain she has undergone."

"Pardon me, Dr. Prescott," said Nan with some
diffidence, "but the girls feel that they ought to do
most of the helping. They have already contributed
a little, and they are planning to do more."

"A very commendable feeling," agreed the head
of the school graciously. "But at least you will let
me help. I know Mrs. Bragley. She is a very-
worthy woman."

"She seems to be," remarked Nan. "Her little
house is poor, but everything about it is neat and
clean. I gathered from some things she said that
she used to be in fairly comfortable circumstances."

"That is true," was the response. "Her husband
was a hard-working man and had saved up some
money. But he was inclined to invest his savings
in rather risky enterprises, and I imagine he was
swindled out of most of it. It seems to me that I
have heard something of that kind, though I don't
recall it clearly."

"I would like to go over to the cottage as often
as I can in the next few days to see what I can do

4O Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

to help, if you have no objections," remarked Nan.

"None whatever," rejoined Dr. Prescott. "In
fact, I shall be very glad to have you do so, pro-
vided, of course, that you don't let it interfere with
your school work. You can go now, Nan. You
must be tired after the strain and excitement of this
afternoon, and I would suggest that you go to bed
early."

Nan bade the principal good-night and hurried up
to her room, where she found a group of her special
friends all on the qui vive to learn of her interview.

A GLORIOUS PROSPECT
i

"HAIL, the conquering heroine comes!" cried
Rhoda Hammond, as Nan entered the room.

"I see she didn't eat you up," remarked Bess with
a smile.

"I suppose you are disappointed," laughed Nan,
as she threw herself into a chair. "It would have
been delightfully exciting if she had, wouldn't it?
But talking of eating, let me have some of those
chocolates, you stingy thing."

The last remark was addressed to Laura, who lan-
guidly took up the box of confections and handed
it over to Nan.

"Where's Grace ?" asked Nan, as she helped her-
self and cast her eyes over the group.

The question was answered by Grace herself,
who at that moment burst into the room, waving a
letter excitedly in her hand.

"Oh, girls, what do you think?" she exclaimed
breathlessly.

"We never think," drawled Laura. "At least, my
teachers tell me that I never do."

42 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Has some distant relative died and left you a
fortune ?" hazarded Bess.

"Better than that," cried Grace jubilantly.

"Can anything be better than that?" queried
Laura.

"Tell us, Grace," adjured Nan. "Don't keep us
on the anxious seat."

"I'm going to Palm Beach !" exclaimed Grace joy-
ously. "Do you hear, girls? I'm going to Palm
Beach for the winter holidays !"

The girls sprang up at the news and crowded
around Grace.

"Palm Beach!" gasped Rhoda almost breath-
lessly.

"Why, Gracie Mason!" exclaimed Nan, "you must
be talking in your sleep."

"You don't really and truly mean Palm Beach,
Florida?" cried Laura, nearly choking on the big
chocolate that slipped down her throat at the as-
tounding news.

"I really mean Palm Beach, Florida," reiterated
Grace, thoroughly enjoying the sensation she had
created.

"Oh, you lucky, lucky girl!" breathed Bess, who
until now had seemed too stunned by the news to
utter a word.

"Lucky. Well, I should say," chimed in Laura.
"Some people are born lucky, and Grace Mason is
the luckiest of them all."

A Glorious Prospect 43

"How I wish I could go with you!" mourned
Rhoda enviously.

"You can just guess we all wish that," acquiesced
Nan. "You surely were born with a golden spoon
in your mouth, Grace."

"It has been the dream of my life to go to Palm
Beach," put in Rhoda.

"Now, Grace, just sit down here and tell us all
about it," commanded Nan. "Every syllable. Do
you hear?"

She piloted Grace to the biggest chair in the room
and seated herself on one arm of it, while the others
clustered around as closely as possible.

"Well," began Grace, "mother and dad have been
thinking about it for some time, but they wouldn't
tell us about it until the last minute because they
wanted to surprise us. Just as soon as I got the
news, I flew right over here to tell you girls about
it."

"It's too splendid!" exclaimed Laura. "Where
are you going to stay while you are there? Or
perhaps it's too early to have settled that yet."

"At the Royal Poinciana," replied Grace happily.
"Oh, my!"

"The Royal Poinciana !" exclaimed all the girls in
one breath.

"Why, Grace," marveled Rhoda. "That's the
very swellest hotel even in Palm Beach."

"Well, what of that?" smiled Grace. "Can't we

44 Nan Sherwood at Palm BeacK

go to the swellest hotel if we want to? — and if dad's
cash holds out?"

"No reason in the world, if you're lucky enough
to be able to," was Rhoda's envious reply. "It costs
a small fortune to live there even for a short time,
as I suppose you know."

"I suppose," chaffed Laura, "that you'll be so
stuck up when you get back that you won't speak to
your old friends."

"No danger of that," laughed Grace, as she looked
lovingly about at the eager faces of her friends.
"How long are you going to stay?" queried Nan.
"I don't know yet," answered Grace slowly. "The
holidays last for only two weeks, you know, aricl
mother and dad are so anxious that I shouldn't lose
anything of my school course that they'll probably
send me back at the end of the two weeks, though
they may stay a little longer. I only wish the holi-
days were four weeks long instead of two."

"How are you ever coming back after two weeks
of that sort of life?" asked Laura. "If I were only
lucky enough once to get there I'd never want to
come back."

"Just think of what fun you can have there," re-
marked Bess Harley. "I suppose you'll play tennis.
What joy to be able to play tennis and get your
nose sunburned in the middle of winter. Think of
you playing tennis in Palm Beach sunshine while
we are shivering around fires."

A Glorious Prospect 45

"And golf?" suggested Nan.

"Not that," laughed Grace. "I don't know a
mashie from a cleek."

"Of course there'll be boating," suggested Bess.

"And bathing," added Laura with emphasis.
"Oh, Grace, I'm just dying of envy! Think of
bathing in January with the water as warm as it is
here in August!"

"Take care you don't get drowned, Grade,"
warned Nan, in mock seriousness. "And look out
for sharks. I hear that they're seen occasionally at
Palm Beach."

"For goodness' sake, Nan!" cried Laura reprov-
ingly, "don't even suggest anything unpleasant in
connection with that celestial spot. There's noth-
ing to be found there but pure, unalloyed bliss."

"Only think of the dances at the hotel !" said Bess,
with shining eyes.

"And the fellows," put in Laura mischievously.
"Oh, Grace, Grace, what opportunities for sitting
out dances on those wonderful balconies !"

"And the long strolls in the moonlight," added
Nan, giving Grace a nudge with her elbow.

"Or sitting on the beach with some eligible young
millionaire, listening to the waves beating on the
sand," teased Rhoda.

"Oh, it's all too wonderful!" exclaimed Laura,
suddenly starting up and pulling Grace out of the
chair.

46 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Forgetting the lateness of the hour, she started
in a mad whirl about the room.

"Hush!" cautioned Nan, as a firm footfall was
heard in the corridor.

In a twinkling two motionless forms lay in Nan's
bed. Rhoda had switched off the light, and the
high backs of chairs and sofa hid crouching figures,
while the almost too regular breathing of the sup-
posed sleepers was the only sound to be heard when
the door opened and the severe and angular form
of Mrs. Cupp stood outlined in the dim light from
the corridor.

CHAPTER VII

IN THE DORMITORY

AFTER a survey of several minutes of the dark
and seemingly innocent room, the guardian of school
discipline seemed satisfied, closed the door, and her
footsteps died away at the end of the hall.

If she could have heard the bursts of smothered
laughter as the lights were turned on and Laura
and Bess, almost exhausted by their efforts to keep
up that steady breathing, tumbled from the bed and
the others rose from their hiding places and shook
and stretched themselves to get the cramps out of
their limbs!

"That was a close call," gurgled Nan, breathless
with suppressed laughter, while Grace asked chok-
ingly :

"How did you ever do that sleeping act so per-
fectly and keep it up so long?"

"Just genius," answered Laura complacently. "I
got so in the spirit of it that I came near snoring."

"Is that so?" scoffed Rhoda. "Strange that we
never noticed it before."

"Live and learn," replied Laura, nonchalantly.

47

48 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"The explanation is simple. Just lack of percep-
tion. 'Ye have eyes and ye see not/ '

"For pity's sake, keep still, you two," said Bess.
"We have too many things to talk about to listen to
repartee, even to such brilliant specimens."

"Snubbed !" groaned Laura, as she lifted the last
bonbon from the box.

"Here, greedy," said Rhoda. "I saw that candy
first."

"Well, I ate it first," grinned Laura tantaliz-
ingly.

"Will you girls keep still?" cried Bess despair-
ingly. "I want to find out what Grace is going to
wear."

"Yes, sweetheart," said Rhoda meekly, as she
flopped down into the nearest seat at hand. "That
is really a most interesting and all-important ques-
tion, and we will come to that anon. But first I
want to remark that I feel as though we had been
nearly caught at a regular spread."

"Spread! Where have I heard that word be-
fore?" exclaimed Laura dramatically. "Isn't it time
we had a regular one? I tell you what, girls, let's
celebrate by having a real honest-to-goodness spread.
There's a reason."

"As if you ever needed a reason for having a
spread !" laughed Bess. "But I second the motion."

"I'm expecting a box from home any minute,"
said Rhoda, "and I'll donate it to the cause."

In the Dormitory 49

"I'll furnish the fruit," Grace offered.

"Dandy !" exclaimed Laura. "Put me down for
cocoa and milk and sugar., Will you supply the
sandwiches, Nan?"

"I'm willing to furnish the sandwiches," agreed
Nan, a little doubtfully. "But do you think we'd
better have it just now?"

"Oh, come on, Nan," urged Laura. "Be a sport.
Isn't Grace worth a chance ?"

And Nan, unwilling to spoil the others' sport, as-
sented, though with some inward misgiving.

"Can't we go to town to-morrow after recita-
tions, and get the things?" Bess proposed.

"O. K.," acquiesced Laura contentedly. "And
now to return to the vital question. What, Grace
darling, are you going to wear at Palm Beach ?"

"I'd like to get new gowns and things," Grace re-
plied ; "but it's hard to get summer clothes in win-
ter. Of course, I've got last summer's things."

"I'd feel that I was pretty well fitted out already
if I had your last summer's things," observed Laura.

"I should say as much!" agreed Rhoda. "The
idea of Grace Mason needing a new summer outfit.
What's the objection to that lovely crepe de chine
that made me green with envy when you wore it
last summer?"

"Or that voile with the heliotrope flowers ?" sup-
plemented Nan. "Or the white net with the em-
broidered flounces?"

50 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Or that blue taffeta that you looked so stunning
in at the garden party ?" said Rhoda.

"Or the old rose georgette with the touch of black
velvet, to say nothing of half a dozen others?"
added Bess.

"Since you are resurrecting the old gowns so
vigorously," laughed Grace, "I begin to think I may
get through without so many new things after all,
especially as the old gowns will be new to the peo-
ple I shall meet at Palm Beach. Of course mother
will have a dressmaker, and she'll alter and freshen
up and make a few new things. But she can't do
such a very great deal in the little time from now to
the holidays. If it was any other place than Palm
Beach, I wouldn't even think about dress. But it's
such a very swell place, you know, girls, and I don't
want to feel out of place while I'm there. Of course
you know how I feel."

"Sure we do," Laura assured her. "But I'll
guarantee that with what you have and what you'll
be able to add, you'll feel very much in it, even at
Palm Beach."

"And now, ladies," said Rhoda, "that the all-im-
portant subject of dress is disposed of, I move that
Nan pass around for our refreshment those fine
Florida oranges I see on the table there."

Nan laughingly complied, and Bess suddenly ex-
claimed as she peeled the rind from her orange :
"This reminds me, Grace. How will it seem to

In the Dormitory 51

be walking through lovely orange groves with the
beautiful golden fruit showing between the leaves?"

"And," Nan supplemented, "to be able to pick
and eat the oranges with the warmth of the sun
upon them! I have heard that the flavor is very
different from what we are accustomed to."

"And imagine," Rhoda added longingly, "not only
being able to feast on the delicious oranges but to
have the fragrance of the wonderful blossoms all
around you as you walk through the groves."

"Oh, girls, girls !" cried Grace, "you make me im-
patient to be there at this very minute. There's one
thing," she added quizzically, "if no other orange
blossoms ever come my way, I'll at least have had
those."

"No need for you to worry about that," returned
Laura, "with that young Palm Beach millionaire —
or is it billionaire ? — waiting to greet you and some
day crown that fair brow of thine with fragrant
orange blooms. Methinks I can already smell their
fragrance and hear the strains of the justly cele-
brated wedding march of Mendelssohn."

"What vivid imaginations some people have," re-
turned Grace calmly.

"Oh, dear," sighed Nan musingly, "doesn't it
seem a shame that everybody can't have wonderful
things? If only a very small part of the surplus
wealth could be divided among those who are strug-
gling just to live, what a different world this would

52 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

be. It doesn't seem right that so many people should
have everything and others have little else than work
and worry. Those people at Palm Beach have
wealth, luxury, everything to make life splendid,
while others have so little. Things certainly are un-
even in this world. Take Mrs. Bragley, for in-
stance."

"I tell you what we'll do, girls," said Grace impul-
sively. "We'll make a spread for Mrs. Bragley as
well as for ourselves."

"Fine!" ejaculated Rhoda. "We'll fill a basket
with canned meat and some potatoes and "

"No, no," interrupted Grace impulsively, "not
those things. Let's give her a real spread with some-
thing out of the ordinary."

"Jellies," proposed Bess.

"Glass jars of imported strawberries and cher-
ries," suggested Laura.

"A great bunch of those wonderful California
grapes," contributed Grace.

"And some Florida oranges," added Nan.

"Great!" commented Grace. "When shall we do
it?"

"Let's see," mused Nan. "We have our Latin
class at two. We'll be through by three. Let's make
it three-thirty o'clock to-morrow."

"I'm afraid you'll have to go without me," said
Grace. "I promised mother I'd answer her letter
right away, so I'll have to get that off to-morrow."

In the Dormitory 53

"I can't go either," said Laura. "I have those
French exercises to make up before to-morrow
night. I'd like to go, but I suppose I can't with that
to do."

"Then, Bess," said Nan, "you and Rhoda and I
will be a committee of three to wait on Mrs. Brag-
ley to-morrow."

"Girls, isn't it warm in here ?" questioned Laura.

"Warm? With the heating plant broken down?"
queried Nan.

"It feels warm and I'm going to open a window,"
went on Laura, and, suiting the action to the word,
she shoved up a window that was handy.

"Birr!" came from several of the others.

"My, but that's cold!"

"We'll all get sick!"

"I know a way to fix Laura!" cried Rhoda, and,
as she spoke, the girl from Rose Ranch leaned out
of the window and reached upward.

"What are you going to do?" asked Bess.

"Get an icicle for her," answered Rhoda, and a
moment later brought to view an icicle she had
broken away from a projection above the window.
The icicle was all of a foot and a half long and an
inch or more in thickness.

"No, you don't!" cried Laura, leaping away as
Rhoda came after her with the bit of ice. "Don't
you dare to put that thing down my neck !"

"It will cool you off, Laura," said Rhoda; but

54 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

just then she slipped and went down, shattering the
icicle into fragments.

"No more noise," whispered Bess, closing the
window.

At that moment, Nan's clock, sounding the first
stroke of midnight, startled the girls.

"The hour indeed waxeth late," whispered Laura,
and vanished.

One by one the others noiselessly followed. There
was the almost inaudible sound of softly closing
doors, and quiet reigned over Lakeview Kail.

In Nan's room for the second time that night
there was the sound of measured breathing, but this
time it was genuine.

CHAPTER VIII

ON THE ROAD

"UcH !" shivered Nan the next morning when
she came into the room after her bath. "This isn't
Palm Beach, is it, Bess ? More like the North Pole,
eh?"

"Palm Beach," echoed Bess disgustedly, as she
reluctantly slipped out of her warm bed and reached
for her bathrobe. "It reminds me of it — it's so dif-
ferent. When that horrid old rising gong sounded,
I was dreaming that I was there standing on the
beach ready for a swim. I can feel that warm sand
about my feet now," and she gave her cold little feet
a vicious shove into her far from warm bedroom
slippers.

"I don't believe Grace has slept much," smiled
Nan.

"I know she hasn't," returned Bess, as she hur-
riedly dressed. "I'm sure I wouldn't have slept a
wink if I had been in her place. I believe I'd just
die if I were."

"Then," returned Nan cheerfully, fastening the
last snapper in her belt, "I'm exceedingly glad you're

55

56 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

not in Grace's place, for I prefer to see you alive a
little longer."

They found Grace and Rhoda already in the lower
hall, and knew by their flushed faces that last night's
news was still the fascinating topic of conversation.
All joined in, and were soon so absorbed that Laura's
voice made them start.

"Beginning where you left off last night?" she
was asking. "I don't believe Grace went to bed at
all, but just sat up and anticipated all night long."

"Not quite so bad as that," laughed Grace. "I
went to bed, but I confess that I was too excited to
sleep very much."

"It's perfectly safe to say that all of us dreamed
of Palm Beach, anyway," Bess conjectured.

"I did," replied Laura, chuckling at the remem-
brance. "I dreamed I was standing on one of those
great broad piazzas. The moon was shining so
brightly that the palm trees stood out clearly, and
the gleam of the spray could be plainly seen as the
breakers came rolling up on the beach. The air was
warm and delightful, and I was thinking how happy
I was to be there and of you unlucky girls shivering
here at Lakeview Hall, when a gong clanged, some
one shouted 'fire/ and smoke came pouring out of
the hotel windows. I was so frightened I woke up
and found that old rising gong getting in its work.
I tell you, girls, I was mad enough to bite some-
body."

On the Road 57

"Serves you right for leaving us here to freeze
when you could so easily have taken us with you,"
joked Nan.

Several times while the girls were chatting, Linda
Riggs and Cora Courtney had passed very close to
them in an effort to hear what they were so excitedly
talking about. But the girls had purposely lowered
their voices till, when the two passed, they were
talking in whispers. It was a great satisfaction to
get Linda so keyed up with curiosity.

"Some people are afraid to speak aloud," Linda
remarked to Cora, during one of their walks past
the group, "because they don't dare let people know
what they're talking about."

"They seem to think it's smart to be mysterious,"
sniffed Cora.

But when they reached the end of the corridor,
Linda stopped and said :

"What do you suppose they are talking about
anyway? I bet they are hatching up something. I'd
give my eyes to find out what it is, especially if Nan
Sherwood is in it."

"You love her, don't you?" Cora asked sarcastic-
ally.

"As I love poison ivy," Linda snapped vindic-
tively. "I never could bear her."

"She was ordered to Doctor Beulah's room yes-
terday," said Cora. "I bet she got a calling down
for nearly killing that woman."

58 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"That's something I never did," sneered Linda;
"nearly kill any one. Of course, I'm glad no serious
harm came to the woman. I don't want to see her
hurt. But what fun it would have been, to see Nan
Sherwood up in court for manslaughter."

Just at that moment Bess Harley, who had gone
up to her room for a handkerchief, came down the
stairs and heard the spiteful remark. Shocked and
indignant, she said angrily:

"Of course, Linda Riggs, I know what makes you
say those horrid things about Nan. It's because she
beat you in the race yesterday. And that wasn't the
last time, either. She'll always beat you, because
she's worth a dozen of you."

Bess had unconsciously raised her voice, and Nan,
hearing the angry words, came quickly, and, laying
her hand soothingly on her chum's arm, said :

"Don't mind, dear, come along," and drew her
'gently away.

They passed into the breakfast room, while Linda,
who had found no answer ready, looked after them
vindictively.

She turned to Cora, and, giving her foot a vicious
stamp, said:

"Never mind, I'll see that Nan Sherwood gets all
that's coming to her."

"What do you mean?" asked Cora, her curiosity
aroused.

"I haven't thought it all out," snapped Linda, "but

On the Road 59

I have an idea, a big idea. I'll tell you what it is
later."

Lessons rather dragged that morning. The girls
were impatient to get together and talk. A thou-
sand things they had heard and read of the glories
of Palm Beach came between them and the printed
page, and questions that burned to be asked would
persist in pushing their lessons from their minds.
Everybody was relieved by the ripple of laughter
that went round the class when Laura, a question
of capital cities coming up, slipped and said that the
capital of Florida was the Royal Poinciana.

Her teacher stared.

"I beg your pardon, Laura?" she said frigidly.

Laura reddened.

"I — I — meant Palm Beach," she stammered.
"Er — er — I should say, I meant Tallahassee."

The girls who were in the secret of Grace's forth-
coming trip giggled and looked meaningly at each
other, and the recitation went on. But the slowest
quarter hours will pass at last, and on this day they
merged into hours and finally brought three o'clock
and freedom.

"That's over at last ! Did you ever live through
such a long day?" asked Nan, as she put away her
books and took her coat from the form. "Now for
Mrs. Bragley."

"But first," said Bess, snatching up a small bon-
bon dish from the table, "we've got to have funds.,,

6o Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

and 'the collection will now be taken.' My, but you
girls are generous !" she exclaimed exultantly, after
she had counted up the donations. "Mrs. Bragley
is going to have some spread !"

The committee of three went around by way of
the town in order to purchase materials for the sur-
prise spread for the woman they had run down.
When the basket was filled they fairly reveled in the
attractiveness of its contents. Boxes of crisp deli-
cate crackers, tumblers of jelly, jars of imported
strawberries and cherries, a bunch of California
grapes that Rhoda said she was sure would weigh
three pounds, and some unusually fine Florida
oranges. Piling the basket on the sled that they had
brought with them, they started gaily off, dragging
it behind them.

After they had covered half the distance a voice
hailed them, and Walter came dashing up behind
them in his cutter. Reining in the spirited horse he
was driving, he cried :

"Jump in, girls. It's a dandy day for a spin."

But they laughingly refused.

"Too many of us for that cutter," said Rhoda.
"We'd make an awful load."

"And we don't want any men around anyway, to-
day," laughed Bess.

Walter heard, but he saw only Nan's glowing
face. What he thought about that face was plainly
to be read in his eyes.

On the Road 61

"Isn't there anything that I can do for you?" he
asked. "Don't you want me to run the basket up to
the cottage for you ?"

"No, thanks," replied Nan. "We're getting along
finely. It's awfully good of you, just the same."

Walter chirped to his horse, still with his eyes on
Nan's smiling face, and, lifting his hat, drove on.

CHAPTER IX

THE JOY OF GIVING

AFTER Walter left it did not take the girls with
their sled long to reach Sarah Bragley's modest little
cottage.

Mrs. Ellis opened the door at their knock.

"How is Mrs. Bragley to-day?" Nan asked, as
they went in.

"As well as can be expected," replied the nurse.
"She had a little fever last night, but not enough to
be at all anxious about."

"Has the doctor been here to-day?" queried
Rhoda.

"Yes," was the reply, "about an hour ago."

"What did he say?"

"He says she is doing very well," Mrs. Ellis an-
swered. "The only thing that gives him any con-
cern is her lack of appetite. If he can coax that, he
thinks she will soon be well."

' "Perhaps these things will tempt her," remarked
Nan, as she emptied the contents of the basket upon
the table.

"How splendid !" exclaimed the nurse. "They are
62

The Joy of Giving 63

just the things she needs. I'll go and tell her that
you are here, and you can take them in to her."

Left alone, the girls glanced around them. A
warm fire blazed in the stove. Everything in the
room was spotless.

"Doesn't it look nice?" observed Bess.

"Couldn't be any neater or more comfortable,"
judged Nan with satisfaction. "I'm so glad we
could get Mrs. Ellis."

"She's a jewel, and no mistake," affirmed Rhoda.

At Mrs. Ellis' invitation, the three girls trooped
into Mrs. Bragley's room. They were delighted to
find her propped up in bed and looking very cheerful
and comfortable.

"I'm glad to see you, young ladies," was her
greeting to them. And she looked with pleasure
into the bright faces as the girls clustered about the
bed.

"You are feeling pretty good to-day, Mrs. Ellis
tells us," said Nan brightly.

"Oh, very much better," was the reply. "I ought
to when I have so many kind friends."

Just then the nurse came in, bringing the delica-
cies that the girls had purchased.

"See what these friends have brought you," she
said, as she lifted the things one by one from the
basket and placed them on a table by the side of
the bed.

Mrs. Bragley's eyes grew wet with sudden tears.

64

"You are too good to me, young ladies! What
kind hearts there are in the world!"

The oranges especially seemed to please her, and
•Mrs. Ellis prepared one for her.

"How good that orange tastes," she remarked.
"I've always been very fond of them. At one time
I thought I'd be owning a whole grove of them.
But that was just a dream."

"What do you mean ?" Rhoda asked, with interest.

"Well, dearie," answered the woman, evidently
pleased with Rhoda's interest, "some years ago my
husband thought he saw his way to make a little
fortune for us. He heard of a company in Florida
that was developing orange lands, and it looked
so good to him that he bought a share in it. He
thought he was going to make money enough out
of it to make us safe for life. But nothing ever
came of it."

"Where was this land?" asked Nan.

"Let me see," mused Mrs. Bragley, wrinkling her
brow with the effort to remember. "It was some-
where in Florida, but I can't remember the name.
It was — it was — I can't just think. Not that it mat-
ters much, anyhow, but I hate to forget things that
way. Sun-sun- Sunny Slopes. That's what the name
was."

"What a pretty name !" cried Bess.

"Yes. But that's about all that was pretty about
it," replied Mrs. Bragley, with a weak smile. "My

The Joy of Giving 65

husband invested almost all his savings in it be-
cause he thought it was going to make him rich,"

"When was that ?" asked Nan, who was growing
deeply interested.

"Only a short time before his death," came the
answer sadly.

"But haven't you heard anything about it since ?"
queried Bess wonderingly. "You may really be
rich, for all you know."

Mrs. Bragley smiled wanly.

"Not much chance of that, I fear," she replied.
"I have written again and again, but have never re-
ceived any answer to my letters. I'm afraid it was
all a swindle."

"You must have papers of some kind," observed
Nan.

"Yes," the woman assented. "They're in that bot-
tom drawer there, if you'll trouble to get them for
me."

Nan opened the drawer indicated and took from it
a packet of papers. The documents bore marks of
frequent folding and unfolding.

"May I look at them ?" Nan asked, as she brought
them to the bedside.

"Surely," was the ready answer. "And if one of
you will just hand me my specs, I'll look over them
with you and tell you all about them."

The three girls bent eagerly over Mrs. Bragley as
she opened one paper after the other, prospectuses,

66 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

several of them, highly colored illustrated leaflets
and descriptive circulars. Then came a certificate
for forty shares in the Sunny Slopes Development
Company. The only individual name on any of the
papers seemed to be that of Jacob Pacomb, who, it
appeared, was the manager and the developer of the
tract.

"It's extremely strange that no answer ever came
to any of your letters," remarked Rhoda, as she
scanned the documents. "Did any of the letters
ever come back?"

"Not one," was the reply.

"Perhaps the man did not receive them," con-
jectured Nan.

"In that case," Mrs. Bragley replied, "the letters
would have been returned to me, as I put my name
and address on the outside."

"This man, Pacomb," suggested Bess, "may have
died and all of the letters may have been de-
stroyed."

"That wouldn't be very likely," objected Nan.
"Some one would probably have settled up the busi-
ness or taken it over and kept on with it. In either
case, the letters would almost surely have been an-
swered."

"I have thought of all that," the woman replied ;
"and that is why I think it must have been all a
fraud. If I had been able to spare the money I
would have taken a trip to Florida and looked into

The three girls bent eagerly over Mrs. Bragley as she opened
one paper after another. (See page 65)

The Joy of Giving 67

the matter myself, but I never felt that I could af-
ford it."

"It is too bad you couldn't have gone," said
Rhoda thoughtfully; "for if there was fraud you
would then at least have found it out and could have
had somebody punished. It looks to me that, know-
ing you were a widow and without means to look
into things, they have deliberately held back any
money that might have been coming to you and
cheated you out of your rights."

The girls had been so interested in the papers and
the story that went with them that they had thought
of nothing else. Now Nan, suddenly glancing up,
noticed that the old face looked white and tired.
She rose at once.

"I'm afraid we've stayed too long," she said peni-
tently. "We ought to have remembered that Mrs.
Bragley isn't strong."

She replaced the papers in the drawer, smoothed
the bed covers, and gave the injured woman a com-
forting pat on the shoulders.

"I hope you will be well again very soon," she
said, "and then perhaps some way will be found to
look into this matter."

"Anyway, we're going to try to do something
about it," promised Rhoda as they took their
leave.

The girls found when they got outside that it had
begun to snow.

68 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Looks to me as if we were in for anotfier storm,"
was Rhoda's comment, as they trudged along.

"Who cares?" cried Bess, catching up a handful
of the snow and making a snowball.

"You can't hit anything," scoffed Nan. "Try it."

"All right, here goes for the blacksmith shop,"
answered Bess gaily, for they were almost directly
in front of the little ««nithy.

"Gracious ! Going to try to hit the whole build-
ing?" queried the girl from Rose Ranch.

"A blind man could do that," added Nan.

"I'm going to hit the door — the very middle of
the door," answered Bess.

"Oh, Bess! if the man is inside, what will he
think?" said Nan.

"I don't care what he thinks," was the quick re-
ply. "Here goes!"

Away flew the snowball, and it must be admitted
that Bess's aim was decidedly good, for the snow-
ball sailed directly for the center of the door of the
smithy.

But as the girl launched the snowball the cloor of
the blacksmith shop opened and a man came forth.
Spat! the snowball landed directly in the man's
face!

CHAPTER X

A MIDNIGHT FEAST

"Mv GRACIOUS, Bess, see what you have done!"
cried Nan.

"You certainly hit the bull's eye that time," was
Rhoda's comment.

"Oh!" was the only word Bess could utter, and
she stood there in the roadway, her arm still poised
high in the air as when she had thrown the snow-
ball.

"Hi, you! Wot yer mean by heavin' snowballs
at me?" screamed the man, as he wiped the snow
from his face. "You let me alone! I ain't done
no harm, I ain't."

He waved his hands wildly in the air. The girls
now noticed that he was in tatters and had a very
red nose, doubtless made redder than ever by the
snowball.

"Come, move on now," said a voice from the
smithy, and a tall man wearing a leather apron ap-
peared. "I told you before I'd not have you hang-
ing around here. Git !"

"I ain't gonner be snowballed!" cried the tramp,
69

70 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

for such he was. "Tain't fair. I'm an honest man,
I am. You lemme alone."

"I'll do worse than snowball you if you don't
clear out, and that mighty quick," cried the black-
smith. "I know what you came in this place for —
you came to steal horseshoes and then sell 'em over
to Beavertown."

"I didn't — I came in to git warm," sniveled the
tramp. But then, as the blacksmith reached for a
whip, he fairly ran down the snowy road and out of
sight.

"Wasn't I lucky?" said Bess, when the girls had
explained matters to the blacksmith and moved on
once more in the direction of the hall. "Only a
tramp, and it might have been the blacksmith him-
self!"

"Well, we admit your aim was good," answered
Nan drily.

As they made their way back to the school the
girls talked over the matter of Mrs. Bragley's prop-
erty. They came across Grace in the hall, and,
bearing her off to Nan's room, told her the story of
Sunny Slopes.

"Why!" exclaimed Grace, as a thought suddenly
struck her, "I'll have dad look that up while we're
down at Palm Beach. You know he's a lawyer.
Maybe Sunny Slopes isn't far from where we'll be
staying. I'll get him to see what he can do."

"That will be perfectly darling!" exclaimed Nan

A Midnight Feast 71

enthusiastically, and the others heartily agreed with
her.

The next day, while returning from town where
they had been stocking up for the feast they had
promised themselves, they again met Walter Mason.

"Hello, girls," he called, as he came up to them.

"Hello, Palm Beach," returned Laura.

"So you've heard about it, have you ?" Walter re-
sponded, with a laugh.

"Have we?" replied Nan. "We haven't heard or
talked or thought of anything else since Grace told
us."

"Of course you're going along?" said Bess ques-
tioningly.

"Of course," Walter answered. "But, to tell the
truth, I'm not a bit eager to go. I'd rather stay right
here."

They chatted a few minutes longer, and then
Walter left them and the girls resumed their walk
toward the school.

"Why do you suppose Walter would rather stay
here than go to Palm Beach?" Laura asked inno-
cently of no one in particular.

"That isn't hard to guess," replied Bess, with a
mischievous glance at Nan. "What do you think
about it, Nan?"

"I haven't any opinion," answered Nan demurely.
"What I do know, though, is that we'll have to hurry
if we get back to the school before dark."

72

That night had been set for the "spread," and the
girls went early to their rooms to get their lessons
for the next day out of the way. A most unusual
and unnatural silence reigned in Nan's room for
nearly two hours. It was broken by a book snapping
shut as Bess sprang to her feet, exclaiming with
satisfaction :

"There, that's done ! And it's the last, thank for-
tune."

"Same here," answered Nan happily, as she gath-
ered books and paper together and tossed them into
a far corner of the room.

"Why, Nan!" exclaimed Bess in surprise, glanc-
ing at the clock, "where do you suppose the girls
are? They were to be on hand at ten o'clock, and
it's now five minutes after."

"Lessons," replied Nan laconically. "They'll be
here any second now."

As she spoke the door opened softly, and Laura
slipped in with a bundle of things in her arms.
Placing them on the table, she went back and softly
closed the door.

"Do you know, girls," she said in a low tone, "I
met Linda Riggs as I was coming through the hall,
and her eyes were two big bundles of curiosity when
she saw the things in my arms. I shouldn't be sur-
prised "

Suddenly, without waiting to finish the sentence,
she went back to the door, opened it quickly and

A Midnight Feast 73

stepped out into the hall to see Linda, looking red
and confused, walking hurriedly away.

Laura called after her.

"Was there anything you wanted, Linda?" she
inquired sweetly.

"No, thank you," came the pert rejoinder. "Not
now. Later, perhaps."

Laura returned.

"Of all the mean, sneaking " she began, but

Nan laughingly interrupted. .

"There, there, Laura, what's the use ? Don't give
her a second thought."

"She isn't worth it, that's a fact," Laura con-
tented herself with saying, and the next minute the
entrance of the other girls laden with parcels put
anything else out of her mind.

Rhoda's box, much to the girl's uneasiness, had
been delayed, but had come that night just before
dinner. Now she deposited it unopened on a chair.

"I thought it would be fun to open it here and
see what blessings it had in store for us," she ex-
plained, as she proceeded to open and unpack it.

"Blessings!" echoed Nan. "Well, I should say
they were," she added, as, one after another, a big
layer cake, a small fruit cake, some cakes prettily
iced, bottles of choice olives, salted almonds and
peanuts, jars of jelly and marmalade, fruit, and a
big package of fresh assorted bonbons were drawn
from the box.

74 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Oh, for pity's sake, girls, let's hurry and get at
them," cried Laura. "My mouth's fairly watering
for them."

As she spoke, she drew Nan's spirit lamp from its
shelf and soon had the water for cocoa boiling in a
small saucepan.

"Why in the world," said Grace as she set the
plates and cups and saucers on the table, "did we go
and buy all these things? If we'd only known what
that box was going to hold we wouldn't have needed
half of them."

"No matter, the sandwiches and ice cream will
come in well," said Laura. "That is," she added,
"if there's anything of the ice cream left. I put it
outside the minute we got it here, but it's had a long
time to wait."

"It won't have to wait much longer," exulted Bess,
as the girls gathered around the table and the feast
began.

"Hey! don't let Grace cut that fruit cake yet,"
said Nan, her mouth full of cream cheese sand-
wich. "There won't be a raisin left for the rest of
us."

"If you eat many more sandwiches," laughed
Grace, "you won't have room left for even a raisin."
And she calmly proceeded not only to cut the cake,
but to help herself to a very generous slice.

"Um-um — this is good," she said. "Fruit cake is
my special weakness."

A Midnight Feast 75

"Yes, and it's our duty to help you conquer that
weakness," remarked Laura virtuously, as she drew
the fruit cake over to her side of the table.

"Now where did I put that sugar bowl?" asked
Bess, as she finished pouring her third cup of
cocoa.

"Here it is," replied Rhoda, as she accommodat-
ingly handed over a small glass bowl from which
Bess helped herself to a generous double spoonful.
One swallow of her cocoa, and she began to sputter
and gasp, and finally made a frantic grab for a
tumbler of water.

"What on earth is the matter with the child?"
asked Laura.

"Salt," Bess managed to articulate. "You gave
me the salt, Rhoda, instead of the sugar. Oh, what
a dose!"

The girls wanted to shout with laughter, but cau-
tion made them smother it as much as possible. And
just at this juncture, the door opened part way with-
out even one little warning squeak, and a severe voice
said:

"Young ladies, report to me at my office at noon
to-morrow."

CHAPTER XI

A DANGEROUS PLOT

THE girls, their laughter quenched, gazed at each
other for a few seconds with stupefaction. Then
Nan sprang to the door, opened it, and caught sight
of a silently scurrying figure that could not by any
means be confounded with Mrs. Cupp's angular form
or slow, measured movements.

The other girls, astonished, gazed at Nan open-
mouthed as she re-entered the room with flushed
and indignant face and uttered the one enlightening
word:

"Linda."

"It sure was !"

"Of all the nerve !" began Laura slowly.

"Of all the meanness, I should say," amended
Rhoda indignantly, as she turned the key in the
door.

Then the funny side struck them, and they sat
doubled up with suppressed laughter.

With increased hilarity the feast went on. The
ice cream was brought in and found to be in a very
creditable state of preservation, and the layer cake

A Dangerous Plot 77

and small iced cakes were very soon being gobbled
up.

To illustrate that "variety is the spice of life," so
she said, Laura had just followed some ice cream
with a sour pickle, when a footstep neared the door
and a stern voice commanded them to open it.

"Linda," whispered Grace to Bess, who was near-
est her, while Laura said in a perfectly audible
though subdued voice :

"You can just go about your business, you essence
of meanness."

"You needn't think you can work that trick on
us, twice," added Grace.

"Don't judge our intellects by your own," scoffed
Rhoda. "You must think we were born yesterday."

The girls laughed at the sally, and silence ensued
[for a moment.

"I guess that has disposed of Linda for the rest
of the night," exulted Laura, and she applied her-
self again to the now rapidly melting ice cream.

"Let's finish this cream while the eating's good,"
laughed Nan, when her spoon was arrested on its
way to her mouth by a voice outside the door.

"Nan Sherwood, I command you to open this
door."

In overwhelming consternation the girls rose to
their feet, and Nan unlocked and opened the door.

Quivering with anger and outraged dignity, Mrs.
Cupp swept the room with flashing eyes. . ,-\

78 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"You will go to your rooms, young ladies, and
you will all report at Dr. Prescott's room to-morrow
morning at ten o'clock," she decreed, and, turning,
moved majestically down the corridor, leaving black
consternation behind her.

"Now, we are in for it!" gasped Rhoda, as the
sound of footsteps died away.

Too overwhelmed to say another word, the others
slipped away to their rooms.

The next morning, with many inward quakings,
they entered the principal's room. Dr. Prescott's
voice was severe as she said to the five caught-in-
the-act delinquents:

"You are ready to admit, I presume, that you have
broken one of the rules of the school. That I can
understand. But that you should have been guilty
of disrespect to one of the officers of the school is
quite another and more serious thing. Have you
any explanation to offer?"

After a moment's silence, Nan acted as spokes-
man.

"We did not intend to be disrespectful to Mrs.
Cupp," she declared, and then went on and told the
whole story.

"That puts things in a better light," said Dr.
Prescott, when Nan had finished. "But to make
you more careful in future and to remind you that
the rules of Lakeview Hall are made to be observed,
not ignored, I will forbid you all to go outside the

A Dangerous Plot 79

grounds for three full days. You can go now to
your recitations."

The girls bowed and withdrew, and for the rest
of the morning they were unusually quiet. At noon
they gathered in Laura's room, dropped into the
nearest chairs at hand, and looked at each other lu-
gubriously.

"Three days without poking our noses outside the
gates!" mourned Bess. "How are we ever going
to stand it?"

"I don't care much for that," commented Rhoda.
"But I hate to give that Linda Riggs anything to
gloat over."

"And she will," declared Grace. "She'll make
the very most of it, you can be sure."

"She will."

"Oh, well, let her then," said Laura, recovering
something of her usual spirits. "Say, girls, did you
see the expression on Cupp's face when we opened
the door?"

They burst into a merry laugh at the remem-
brance, and the laugh lessened the tension and did
them good.

"Oh !" gasped Laura, as she wiped the tears from
her eyes, "I shall remember that look when I'm an
old woman."

"I suspect Cupp will remember the occasion, too,
for many days to come," prophesied Nan.

"I wish there had been a glass opposite the door,

8o Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

so that she could have seen her face," remarked Bess,
going off into another gale of laughter.

"Come on," said Rhoda, when they had settled
down. "Let's go for a walk on the campus and get
some fresh air. Thank goodness, we can do that,
anyway."

"Oh, dear," sighed Nan, as they went downstairs.
"No coasting, no skating for three days. What a
fate!"

"No matter," comforted Grace. "The feast was
worth it. The memory lingers."

"It does," agreed Laura. "I can taste that layer
cake yet. But come, girls, I challenge you to a
race around the campus. One, two, three — go !"

"Wait until I make certain my shoe is tight,"
cried Grace.

"And wait until I get my cap fastened on," added
Nan.

"No primping now!" exclaimed Laura. "Every-
body ready?"

"What's the prize?" questioned Bess. "I can't
run well unless I know it's worth it."

"You get the hole out of a doughnut," said Nan.
"All sugared over, too."

"And a glass of frozen ice-water," added Grace.

''This is all the way around the campus," went on
Laura. "No cutting corners, remember. You
must follow the trees and the hedge. One cent fine
if you don't. All ready? One — two — three, go!"

8i

With wild shouts and much laughter the race
around the campus was on.

Nan won "by a nose," as Laura rather slangily
put it, and the girls, glowing and breathless, looked
like anything else than confessed law-breakers do-
ing penance.

The sight of their happy faces was too much -for
Linda, who, with Cora, was passing them, drawing
the Gay Girl and carrying their skates over their
shoulders.

"Some people try mighty hard to show that they're
having a good time," she remarked to her com-
panion.

"Blessings brighten as they take their flight, as
the girl said when she couldn't leave the campus,"
grinned Cora maliciously.

"Well," countered Nan, "at least we're not doing
penance for sneaking in the dark and listening at
doors."

The flush on Linda's face showed that the shot
had reached the mark.

"You think you know a lot, don't you?" she
mocked, as she and Cora went on.

"How I detest that Nan Sherwood," hissed Linda.
"I'll get square with her some day, and that day isn't
so far off either. I know just how I'm going to
fix her."

"Why do you keep on being so mysterious ?" asked
Cora impatiently. "You're always hinting and get-

82 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

ting my curiosity aroused and then stopping short.
Go on and tell me now."

But Linda refused, saying that she wanted to be
sure first that her plans would go through all right.

"When I do spring things," she said, "I'll square
up all accounts."

Cora sulked, but had to submit.

Several days later, as Nan and Bess were study-
ing in their room, Bess wrote the final word in a
French translation with a sigh of relief.

"Didn't you say once, Nan," she queried, "that
you had somewhere a book of model French conver-
sations ?"

"Yes," answered Nan, looking up from her work.
"Do you want it?"

"I'd like it ever so much," Bess answered. "I
think it would help me with these wretched idioms
that puzzle me so. Could you get it for me ?"

"Surely, Bess," assented Nan, with obliging readi-
ness. "It's down in my trunk. I'll go right down
to the basement to-morrow after we finish our Eng-
lish recitation at twelve o'clock and get it for you."

"That's a darling, Nan," returned Bess grate-
fully. "I know it will help me heaps."

During this conversation their door had been
standing open, and Linda Riggs, who was passing
(she made occasion often to pass Nan's door), heard
every word. An exultant look came into her face,
and she hurried off to find Cora. She told her eag-

A Dangerous Plot 83

erly that at last she knew just how and when she
was going to get even with that much-hated Nan
Sherwood.

"What are you going to do ?" asked Cora, excited
and yet a little fearful of any scheme that Linda
might hatch.

"I'm going to give her the scare of her life," re-
plied Linda. "The idea came to me the other day
when I was in the trunk room in the basement. The
steam started to blow off with such a whistle close
to my ears that it made me almost jump out of my
skin. I feel sure that if the steam can only be held
down for a little while and then go off with a rush
it will be ten times louder. If that could be made
to happen just as Sherwood was going past, it would
scare her out of a year's growth. She'd think her
last hour had come. The trouble has been that I
never knew just when she'd be there. But I know
now. I just heard her say. She's in for the biggest
fright of her life. How does it strike you?"

"It sounds all right," answered Cora slowly.
"But how are you going to do it?"

"Easily," said Linda, with a confident ring in her
voice. "After the janitor has fixed up the fires for
the day to-morrow morning he'll not be in the base-
ment. I'll slip down before Sherwood is due to get
there and tie down the valve. That'll keep the steam
confined and make the shriek that much louder when
it's let loose. I'll hide behind the woodpile, and just

84 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

when Sherwood is opposite the furnace, I'll cut the
string and — voila"

"All very fine," remarked Cora half-heartedly.
"But isn't it awfully dangerous ? Have you thought
what might happen if you confine the steam?"

"Of course I've thought of that, stupid," replied
Linda, nettled at Cora's lack of enthusiasm. "But
the steam won't be held back long enough to do any
harm."

"I'm not so sure of that," said Cora, who felt very
uneasy about the possible results of her friend's
malicious scheme.

"Nonsense," retorted Linda. "I'll take all the
risk, if there is any. But there won't be. I've
planned it out too carefully to make any mistake
about it. It's too good a chance to get even with
Nan Sherwood to let it go by."

CHAPTER XII

ALMOST A DISASTER

"I WOULDN'T risk it if I were you, Linda," Cora
persisted.

"Oh, what's the use of talking to you !" exclaimed
Linda angrily. "You haven't got enough sense to
understand. I wish I hadn't told you a word about
it," and she turned her back upon her chum and re-
fused to say another word.

Cora, daring for once to be angry in her turn,
left the room, and Linda soon forgot her in gloating
over the fright she was plotting for Nan.

The next morning after the eleven o'clock recita-
tion had begun, Linda made a pretext for leaving
the room. She slipped down into the basement and
then came back to her seat to await developments.

Meanwhile, the well-ordered routine of Lakeview
Hall was proceeding as usual. The hands of the
great clock in the English recitation room pointed
to a quarter of twelve, and sidelong looks were be-
ing cast at it in pleasurable anticipation of the noon
hour.

Bang!

85

86 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Suddenly the crash of a loud explosion filled
every one with terror. The building trembled to its
foundations. Clouds of steam poured up from the
basement.

A wild cry rent the air.

"What's that?"

"Sounded like an explosion to me."

"Maybe it's an earthquake."

"Oh, see the smoke."

"The school must be on fire !"

"I'm going to get out of here !"

"Oh, yes, let me out; I don't want to be burnt
alive!"

"Fire! Fire! The Hall is on fire !"

In an instant a panic was on. The teachers alone
and some of the older girls kept their heads. The
younger pupils rushed for the doors in a frenzy of
fright.

The English teacher ran to one of the doors of
her recitation room and held it fast. But there was
another door in the room, and toward this the fright-
ened girls poured in a mad stampede. Just outside
was the stairway with several sharp turns, and if
the fugitives jammed up on one of the landings it
might mean maiming or death for some of them.

Quick as a flash, Nan Sherwood acted. She
sprang to the danger door, slammed it shut and put
her back against it. The tide surged up against her.
The younger girls clawed at her, scratched her

Almost a Disaster 87

hands, did all in their power to force her away from
the door. But she held her place with desperation,
though her clothes were torn and her hands were
Jbleeding.

Then through the crowd came Linda Riggs, bowl-
ing the smaller girls out of her way, her face as pale
as death and her eyes almost bulging out of her head
with fright.

"Let me get out, Nan Sherwood !" she screamed,
tearing at her with all her might. "Let me out!
Let me out ! I'll die ! I won't stay here to be burned
to death! Get away from that door! Let me get
out!"

She tore at Nan and struck her in the face. She
was a strong girl, and doubly strong now in her
rage and fright. But Nan braced herself and still
held the door, though her strength was fast ebbing.

Just then help came. Rhoda Hammond and Bess
Harley caught hold of Linda and pulled her away.
They thrust her into a seat and held her down, while
Laura and others of the older girls pacified and
soothed the younger ones.

The worst was over. The steam had thinned out
and drifted away. The pupils slowly went back to
their seats at the command of the teacher and sat
there, sobbing and moaning and weak from excite-
ment. But the panic had been quelled.

Now that the crisis had passed, Nan felt her
strength leaving her, and she had scarcely enough

88 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

left to get back to her seat. She almost fell into it
when at last she reached it.

Just then, Dr. Prescott, who from the moment
of the first alarm had been in other parts of the
building, helping to quell the excitement, entered the
room. She took her stand beside the teacher and
held with her a brief conversation in which she
learned what had occurred in the room. Then she
spoke a few quiet words of assurance, telling the
girls that there had not been, and was not now, any
danger and warmly commending the bravery and
self-control of the teacher and the older girls. She
then dismissed them.

A refreshing half-hour in their rooms did the
girls a world of good, and when the lunch gong
sounded they gathered about the table in something
like their normal spirits. It is true that none ate
very much, but tongues flew fast in comment and
conjecture.

"How could it have happened?" was the many-
times-repeated question. Was it the janitor's fault?
He must have forgotten to turn off the drafts per-
haps, and the accumulated gas had exploded.

"Probably something was wrong with the safety
valve," conjectured Rhoda, building better than she
knew.

"Well," said Nan, as at last they rose from the
table, "I hope they'll find out what did cause it so
that it will never happen again."

Almost a Disaster 89

Naturally, there were no more lessons that after-
noon. The girls gathered in groups in the corri-
dors or in each others' rooms excitedly discussing
the stirring events of the morning.

Nan lay upon the couch in her room, resting after
her exertions, when Grace, who had been telephon-
ing to Walter, came in bursting with news.

"What do you think I heard downstairs!" she
cried before she was fairly in the room. "Doctor
Beulah thinks that it wasn't an accident at all, but
that the whole thing was caused by some one tam-
pering with the boiler."

The girls all spoke at once.

"Oh, that couldn't be!"

"Who'd have any object in doing a thing that
might have cost lives ?"

"Isn't it awful!"

"Anyway," Grace went on as soon as they gave her
a chance to speak, "they say that a heavy cord had
been tied to the valve to keep it down and the broken
ends of the cord were found hanging from it."

The girls were stupefied with astonishment.

Suddenly Laura started up and walked excitedly
about the room.

"There's this much about it !" she exclaimed. "If
some one did do it purposely, Doctor Beulah will
soon find out when it was done, and why it was
done — and who did it, too," she added significantly.

Laura knew by the expression on all the faces

90 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

that the same thought that had been in her mind
when she spoke those last words was in the minds
of the other girls, too.

If two very depressed and frightened girls in an-
other room could have heard them, their spirits
would have sunk still lower.

"What did I tell you!" cried Cora wildly. "I
begged you not to do it. And what did you make
by it? Disgraced yourself and only made Nan Sher-
wood more popular than ever."

For once, Linda was silent. Cora made the most
of her chance to get back at Linda for her high-
handed treatment of her. She went on mercilessly :

"I was so ashamed of you," she said. "You
macle such a show of yourself. I didn't think you
could be such a coward."

"Well," whined Linda, "I had more to live for,
with all my money, than they had."

"That sounds like you," gibed Cora disgustedly.
"Well, I pity you if Doctor Beulah finds out you did
it. And she will, you can just depend on that."

In the meantime Bess, with some other girls, vis-
ited the basement to look at the wreckage. When
she came back she had a queer look on her face.
She called Nan to one side.

"See what I found," she said and held out a small
handkerchief with a daisy worked in one corner.
"It was in the basement, close to the wrecked boiler."

Nan looked at the bit of linen and started. She

Almost a Disaster 91

remembered having seen Linda Riggs with such a
handkerchief more than once.

"But Linda may have dropped it down there since
the explosion," she said, quickly.

"I guess not !" drawled Bess. "This looks like a
bit of real evidence to me."

"Oh, Bess — don't say anything — at least not till
you are sure."

"I won't. But I'll remember it."

At this moment the gong sounded a summons to
the main assembly hall, a summons which the girls
obeyed with alacrity.

Knowing as they did that an examination of the
steam plant had been going on, and their interest
and curiosity quickened by the rumors they had
heard, it was not long before every seat was filled
and all eyes turned expectantly on Dr. Prescott.
She sat there, rather pale, but dignified and well
poised.

"What is she going to say ?" each girl asked her-
self. The tension was at its height, the silence could
almost be felt, when Dr. Prescott began to speak.

"A thorough examination has shown us," she be-
gan, "that the steam plant is very badly damaged,
though we hope that it may be possible to repair it
in a short time. But the investigation," she went
on, "has revealed the almost unbelievable fact that
there was no accident, but a deliberate plan or trick.
Who conceived it or why, is not yet known, but we

92 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

will spare no effort to find the guilty party and bring
him or her to punishment. I am very thankful that
the injury was confined to the steam plant and that
no one' was hurt, as might easily have been the case.

"I am very proud of the presence of mind and
bravery shown by the teachers and many of the
students. Many of the younger girls and all the
older ones, with one shameful exception" — she
paused, and all eyes were turned on Linda, who sat
cowering in her seat — "showed remarkable self-pos-
session, and I take this opportunity to thank them
all. I hesitate to mention any names, but I must
single out Nan Sherwood, who, by her prompt ac-
tion and cool courage, contributed in so large a
measure to avert the dreadful consequences of a
panic."

With these words she dismissed them.

As the girls left the assembly hall they broke out
into a Babel of excited comment. Dr. Prescott,
crossing the hall on the way to her office, placed her
arm over Nan's shoulders and thanked her person-
ally. Nan's heart swelled at the earnest words of
praise, for Dr. Prescott's good opinion was highly
valued.

"Of course," the doctor added with a whimsical
smile, "the three-day sentence is remitted for you
and your friends."

She passed on.

"Isn't she just splendid!" exclaimed Grace.

Almost a Disaster 93,

"And how nicely she seemed to manage the whole
situation," remarked Rhoda.

"She's a peach !" declared Laura, slangily.

"I should say she is ! And so is somebody else I
know," agreed Bess, as she drew Nan's arm through
hers.

CHAPTER XIII

THE WILY STRANGER

"WHAT is this anyway?" asked Bess. "Green-
land or the North Pole?"

"Well, it's Siberia at the very least," laughed
Nan, as, wrapped in outdoor coats and furs, the
girls entered the recitation room the second morn-
ing after the explosion.

School without heat in weather that came close to
the zero mark was not very enticing, and it was
glad news to all the girls when it was announced
that, owing to the injury to the steam plant, which
was greater than was at first thought, the school
term would end nearly a week ahead of time pend-
ing extensive repairs. Those who were going home
were directed to begin to pack at once, and those
who were not would be provided with quarters in
the village.

After hearing this announcement the girls flew
upstairs on winged feet.

"An extra week at home ! What happiness !" ex-
claimed Bess, whirling Nan around until they both
dropped breathless on the window seat.

94

The Wily Stranger 95-

"And think of Grace with another week at Palm
Beach to look forward to !" cried Nan.

"What luck for her!" said Bess enviously, as she
began taking her things from the dresser drawer.

Soon the last trunk was locked and strapped and
they were ready to depart.

"Let's run to town for a last visit to Mrs. Brag-
ley," proposed Nan.

Bess gladly acquiesced, and the two girls were
off. They were delighted to find Mrs. Bragley sit-
ting up and able to get around a little with a cane.
She greeted them gratefully and was profuse in her
thanks for all the care they had shown her. And
she was intensely interested in their story of the
explosion at the school.

"And now," said Nan, after they had chatted for
a while, "how about those papers? We are going
home sooner than we thought, and if you will give
them to me I will show them to Grace Mason's
father. He is a very able lawyer and will get to the
bottom of this orange grove if any one can."

"That will be fine," was the gratified reply. "The
papers are right here. I have been looking them
over. Take them if you wish, dear."

Mrs. Bragley took them from the table and handed
them to Nan, and the latter tucked them safely away
in her bag.

"I may be carrying a fortune away in this bag,"

96 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

she said jokingly, as she snapped the catch and rose
to go.

"I'm afraid they're not worth the paper they're
printed on," said the woman dubiously.

"Hope on, hope ever," quoted Bess gaily, as, with
a last wave of the hand, she followed Nan out of
the door.

They were almost to the school when Bess sud^
denly asked :

"Do you know that man, Nan? He looks as
though he were going to speak to us."

Nan looked up just as a tall thin man approached
them. He lifted his hat and said :

"I beg pardon, young ladies, but could you in-
form me where the Widow Bragley lives?"

Nan pointed out the cottage and the man thanked
her and passed on.

"What a peculiar way he had of talking," said
Bess, as they resumed their walk.

"I noticed that he talked like a Southerner," re-
plied Nan. "I wonder what business he can have
with Mrs. Bragley."

"Hard to tell," said Bess. "I only hope it isn't a
bill collector to bother the poor thing." And then
the schoolgirls passed on their way.

The stranger soon reached the cottage of Mrs.
Bragley. He scanned it carefully and noted its
poverty. A contented smile stole over his face as
he said to himself :

The Wily Stranger 97

"I imagine there won't be any trouble in getting
what I came for. A little money here will go a
long way."

He knocked on the door and Mrs. Ellis opened it.

"Does Mrs. Sarah Bragley live here?" the
stranger inquired with an ingratiating smile, which,
however, sat rather badly on his somewhat sinister
countenance.

"Yes," replied Mrs. Ellis. "But she's not very
well and has gone to lie down. Is it anything I can
do for you?"

"No, thank you," replied the stranger. "My er-
rand with her is a personal one. I've come all the
way from the South to see her on a matter of pri-
vate business."

"If that's the case, I think she'll see you," replied
the nurse, ushering him in and giving him a seat.

She excused herself and went into the bedroom,
and in a few minutes Mrs. Bragley appeared, a
little curious and considerably flustered by the an-
nouncement of a visitor from such a distance.

"My name is Thompson," the visitor said, as he
rose and bowed. "I came from Florida to see you
on a business matter. I'm sorry to learn that you
are not well, and I'd put the matter off, only that
I have arrangements made to get back home as soon
as possible."

"From Florida?" repeated the old woman. "It
can't be that you've come to see me about that orange

98 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

grove property there that my husband put all our
money into before he died?"

"If you refer to the property at Sunny Slopes,"
returned the visitor, "you are right. It is just that
that I came to see you about."

"Laws me !" ejaculated the widow in some excite-
ment "And here it was only a little while ago I
was saying that I never expected to hear from it.
I wrote and wrote and never heard a word from it.
I began to think," she went on a little apologetically,
"that there might be some fraud or something of
that kind about it."

"Oh, nothing like that," the visitor said impres-
sively. "Mr. Pacomb is the soul of honor. I have
never known him to do anything that wasn't straight
and aboveboard."

"I'm very glad to hear that," said the simple-
hearted old woman. "He wrote such beautiful let-
ters to us when he was asking us to put our money
into the property that I thought he must be a nice
man. I'm very sorry that I ever had an unkind
thought about him. I'm so glad to know that things
are all right. I need the money so badly. And my
poor husband always thought there would be a whole
lot of money come from it."

The stranger looked a little embarrassed.

"Quite right, quite right," he said. "There ought
to have been a big profit from it. Everybody
thought so, and nobody felt more sure of it than

The Wily Stranger 99

Mr. Pacomb himself. He thought so well of it that
he put every cent of his own money into it."

"Then he's made a fortune in it, too!" exclaimed
the old woman, beaming on her visitor.

The stranger coughed.

"No," he said, "that's the unfortunate thing about
it. You see, Mrs. Bragley, the thing didn't turn out
as we had hoped and expected. The land was right
in the orange belt, and we had every reason to be-
lieve that it would yield big results. But for some
reason or other it didn't. The ground couldn't have
been adapted to it. You never can tell about orange
groves."

The poor woman's face fell.

"Then," she said quaveringly, "all my money is
gone !"

"Oh, no, not all," the stranger hastened to say.
"There is still a little money for you, if you want to
sell what interest you have in the property. Of
course the property has proved practically worthless.
But the man who has a country estate bordering on
the property is willing to pay the company a small
sum just to round out his estate, and your interest
in it we calculate would be about two hundred dol-
lars. In fact," he went on with a burst of gener-
osity, and at the same time taking a roll of bills from
his pocket, "Mr. Pacomb would be willing to give
you two hundred dollars to settle the matter up at
once."

ioo Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

He began to count out the bills, as if the matter
had been agreed upon. It was a long time since
Mrs. Bragley had seen so much money, and in her
straightened circumstances two hundred dollars
seemed like a fortune. The visitor had counted on
the influence exerted by the sight of the money, and
he was not disappointed.

"Well," said Mrs. Bragley, "I suppose it's the
best thing I can do, since you say that the land isn't
any good for oranges."

"We'll consider it settled then," the man ob-
served, trying to conceal his satisfaction. "Now if
you'll get me the papers I'll hand you the money."

A look of dismay came into the woman's face.

"The — the papers!" she stammered. "Why, I
haven't got them !"

"You haven't got them?" the man snapped in
wonder. "Where are they then?"

"I gave them to a young lady not more than an
hour ago," replied Mrs. Bragley. "She had just
gone a little before you came."

"Why did you give them to her?" the man asked.

"Some friends of hers are going to Florida and
they were going to look up the matter," replied the
old lady. "It seems that the father of one of the
girls is a lawyer and "

"A lawyer!" interrupted the man, a look of fear
coming into his face. Then by a great effort he re-
gained his self-control.

The Wily Stranger 101

"Well, Mrs. Bragley," he said, "it's for you to
do what you choose in this matter. It's too bad for
you to lose this two hundred dollars when you might
just as well have it as not. Suppose I see this young
lady and tell her that you want the papers back."

"I wish you would," replied the old lady. Then
she gave the man Nan's name and told him where
she thought he could find her. He scribbled the
name and address in a notebook, and a little later
hurried away.

"If I don't find that Nan Sherwood and get the
papers away from her my name isn't Jacob Pacomb,"
he muttered to himself.

With all speed he hurried to the Hall, only to
learn that Nan had left for the depot. Then he
rushed to the station.

"Sorry, but the train left quarter of an hour ago,"
declared the station master in reply to his question.
"There won't be another train for three hours."

On gaining this information the face of Jacob
Pacomb became a study. Savagely he bit off the end
of a cigar, lit it, and began to puff away furiously.

"That young woman from the school may be a
sharp one," he murmured as he strode up and down
the little depot platform. "I'll have to use either
force or diplomacy in getting those papers from her.
I mustn't let her think they are valuable. I won-
der what I can do next? It's too bad I promised
to go to Chicago to attend that sale. But I can't

IO2 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

afford to miss that." He mused for a moment.
"Wonder if I couldn't get Davis and Jensen to do
this job for me? They are hanging around doing
nothing and would do almost anything for the price
of a meal. Yes, I'll see Davis and Jensen and set
them on the girl's track."

In the meantime Nan and Bess were being whirled
at the rate of fifty miles an hour toward the home
where love and open arms awaited them.

Their parents had, of course, been apprised of
their coming, and the welcome was the royal one
that always greeted them after their long absences
from home. Nothing was too good for them.

Several days passed quickly, and then came great
news. The first item was a notification from Dr.
Prescott that since the steam plant had required far
more extensive repairs than at first had seemed
necessary, the reopening would be deferred for sev-
eral weeks beyond the usual time. And following
this closely came a letter to each of the girls from
Grace Mason. They must go with her to Palm
Beach. The "must" was underscored. She would
take no denial. They would have such a perfectly
gorgeous time if they could only come along.
Please, please, please. f They simply must, and that
was all there was about it.

Nan and Bess were filled with delight and excite-
ment. But they had to reckon with their parents,
who were reluctant to spare their girls after hav-

The Wily Stranger 103

ing them with them for so short a time. But the
girls coaxed and wheedled, as girls -will, and the
parents finally yielded, as parents will. In the next
few days the matter was settled and hurried prepa-
rations were begun.

More than once they had to pinch themselves to
make sure they were not dreaming. Palm Beach!
Land of summer, land of flowers, land of beauty!
And they — Nan Sherwood and Bess Harley — were
actually going to dwell for a time in that earthly
Paradise !

CHAPTER XIV

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

NAN was really going to Palm Beach ! She could
scarcely realize her good fortune.

Grace had written that some cousins who were to
go had disappointed them, so good accommodations
were assured to Nan and Bess when they reached
Palm Beach.

Nan was up in her bedroom in the evening look-
ing dreamily out of the window and imagining she
was already at the famous winter resort when she
gave a start.

Two men were slinking around, behind some trees
on the opposite side of the street! From time to
time they gazed at the house as if looking for some-
body.

"The same men! What can it mean?"

Nan breathed the words to herself. She had seen
these men before since coming home from school.
They had leered at her when on an errand to the
drugstore, and one of them had acted as if he
wanted to speak to her while she was at the depot
asking for a timetable. But a man friend had come

104

Great Expectations 105

up to greet her and the stranger had slunk away.

Nan's first impulse was to call her father and
mother. But then she hesitated. Why worry her
parents, and especially her mother, when, after all,
it might mean little or nothing?

She looked again. Some men had come up the
street. At sight of them the two slinking ones
shrank back and presently hurried away.

"I hope I never see them again," said the girl to
herself. But this wish was not to be gratified.

Yet the next day Nan gave the strange men
hardly a thought. There were so many things to be
done in preparation for the great trip.

"It's not like going out to Rose Ranch, where any
old thing was good enough to wear," Nan confided
to Bess. "We've got to look our best, on Grace's
account as well as our own."

"And Walter's," added Bess, and then Nan
promptly threw a book at her chum.

A day more, and then came the all-important time
for departure.

"Oh, just to think of it! We are really and
truly going!"

Nan was seated on an overturned suitcase on the
porch of the little "dwelling in amity." Her hands
were clasped tightly in front of her to keep her
from jumping up and running off madly somewhere,
anywhere — just to relieve her tremendous excite-
ment.

io6 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Never in her life had it seemed so hard to keep
still. Her trunk had gone to the station, her bag
was packed, and everything was ready to catch the
ten-o'clock train for New York. From there she
and Bess were to take the boat, which was to carry
them swiftly down the coast to Jacksonville, the
gateway to Florida.

Everything was in readiness that is save Momsey.
All that separated her from that desirable state was
one small and pretty fur hat which Momsey was just
now fitting on in front of the mirror in the little
sitting-room.

But it did take a long time just to put on one
hat, thought Nan with a sigh. Momsey never used
to be so slow. Then, unable to bear it a moment
longer, she jumped to her feet and peeped in at the
door of the little "dwelling in amity."

What she saw made her pause, a smothered excla-
mation on her lips, her eyes dancing. For Papa
Sherwood was there with Momsey and he was look-
ing at her with as much admiration in his eyes as
though they had been married only one year, instead
of — oh, Nan couldn't remember how many !

"That trip overseas was just what you needed to
make a girl of you again, Momsey," Papa Sher-
wood was saying in a tone that matched his look.
"You might be our Nan's older sister. And isn't
that a new hat?"

Momsey had started to make him a demure curt-

Great Expectations 107

sey when Nan's clear laugh interrupted the tete-a-
tete.

''Excuse me/' she said, her eyes dancing. "Far
be it from me to be in the way of anything — and,
Momsey, you do look wonderful in that hat — but
you know that train won't wait all day. Oh, Mom-
sey ! Papa Sherwood !" — she waltzed in upon them
and hugged them gaily — "isn't it perfectly, wonder-
fully gorgeous ?"

"What now, honey?" asked Momsey, as she re-
arranged the pretty hat which Nan had pushed down
unbecomingly over one eye.

"What now?" repeated Nan breathlessly. "What
now? Why, Florida — Jacksonville — Palm Beach!
No, don't look at me as though I had gone crazy.
I'm only raving. Come on, come on, you slow
pokes." She half pushed her laughing parents to-
ward the door. "You can carry the suitcase, Papa
Sherwood, and I'll carry the hat box. There's only
one other bundle, and I'll take that one and Momsey
can bring up the rear with the lunch. I wonder
\vhat Bess will say when she sees the lunch," she
chuckled, as her father carefully locked the door of
the little house and put the key in his pocket.

"Well, I think I know what she will say when
she tastes it," said her father as all three started
down the street toward the more pretentious house
where Bess lived. "For Momsey put up the lunch
with her own hands — and I saw what went into it."

1 08 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Yes, and you might tell her, honey," added Mrs.
Sherwood, with a soft laugh, "what hard work I
had to keep you from eating all the nuts from the
brown bread sandwiches."

"Oh, Momsey, don't," sighed Nan. "You will
make me hungry again, and I have just had break-
fast. See! There's Bess. Goodness, doesn't she
look pretty?"

Both Momsey and Papa Sherwood had to admit
that Bess was very pretty indeed in the bright win-
ter sunlight, but each privately thought that their
Nan, with her sparkling brown eyes and flushed
cheeks, was, in her own way, even prettier than
Bess.

"Hello, you folks!" called Bess as she reached
them, out of breath from exercise and excitement.
"I thought you were never coming. Goodness ! what
are you carrying two grips for ? One is enough for
me." Then, without waiting for a reply, she raced
on to another question. "And that box ! What's in
it, Nan?" She gazed suspiciously at Nan's mis-
chievous face. "It looks like a lunch box. It never
is!"

"Yes, it ever is," mimicked Nan, in exactly Bess's
tone, adding with a laugh: "And Papa Sherwood
very nearly ate all the nuts from the sandwiches."

"Nan " began Mrs. Sherwood reproachfully;

but at that moment Mrs. Harley appeared in the
doorway and the reproaches were forgotten.

Great Expectations 109

Momsey would not go inside, as the minutes to
train time were getting very few, so after a short
disappearance Mrs. Harley joined them and they
started toward the station together. The two girls,
Nan and Bess, lead the way, swinging their bags and
talking excitedly.

"I'm almost scared to death," confided Bess, as
they turned the corner that led down to the station
and the train that was to bear them so soon on their
wonderful journey.

"Scared ?" asked Nan, her eyes big with wonder.
"What are you scared about?"

"Oh, I don't suppose I should call it exactly
scared," retracted Bess. "Just sort of excited and
— and — nervous. Going all alone you know — and
everything."

"This isn't the first time we have traveled alone,"
said Nan practically. "And we have always come
out 'right side up with care.' '

"Oh, Nan, you are so calm," sighed Bess in
exasperation. "Won't anything ever get you ex-
cited?"

"Excited," repeated Nan, gazing in amazement
at her chum. "I'm so excited this very minute that
I'm all thrilly inside."

"If you are," said Bess, eyeing her judicially,
"nobody would ever know it. That's just the trouble
with you," she added plaintively, "you are always
hiding things and having secrets from me when you

no Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

know very well that no one ought ever to have a
secret from her chum."

Nan put an arm about the waist of the girl and
laughed.

"You can't quarrel with me, especially this morn-
ing, Bess," she said, adding soothingly: "Besides,
I haven't had a secret from you in — oh, ever so
long. Not since Beautiful Beulah."

For Bess had been very much put out indeed about
Nan's secret possession of Beautiful Beulah, the
big doll that had formerly helped Nan over many
difficulties.

"I know," said Bess, in answer to Nan's declara-
tion. "But that is just the reason why I expect
you to start something. You have been 'too good to
be true.' "

"Well, you are a silly," said Nan absently, as her
eyes wandered down the double line of shining rails
to the spot where they disappeared in the distance.
"I wonder if that mean old train is going to be late
after all."

"No, there it is ! There it is, Nan !" cried Bess,
suddenly dancing wildly up and down the platform.
"Oh, tell the folks to hurry. Mother has my hat
box. I never, never could go to Palm Beach with-
out that hat." And she ran back toward the older
folks, waving her bag at them frantically while Nan
looked after her laughingly.

"I wonder what Bess would do," she thought,

Great Expectations in

without the slightest trace of conceit, "if she didn't
have me to anchor her down all the time."

The train steamed into the station just as Mom-
sey and Papa Sherwood and Mrs. Harley, with the
excited Elizabeth in the lead, rushed upon the plat-
form.

Nan was very much surprised to find that though
she had become used to rather frequent partings
with Momsey and Papa Sherwood, this one was not
one bit easier than the others had been.

She hugged Papa Sherwood, kissed Momsey a
dozen times, in spite of the fact that Bess was tug-
ging at her elbow, and finally stumbled some way
up the steps and into the car.

"Goodness ! Anybody would think you were go-
ing away to stay forever," gasped Bess, as she tried
to disengage herself from a tangle of bag and hat
box and umbrella. "For goodness* sake, look out,
Nan. We are moving." This, because Nan stuck
her head far out of the window to get a last look at
the dear folks on the platform.

"I know we're moving," sighed Nan, as she turned
from the window and began patiently to separate
Bess from her belongings and stow the articles away
in the wire basket overhead. "I always have a
funny feeling as if I were leaving half of me behind
every time I say good-bye to Momsey and Papa
Sherwood."

"I should think you would be used to it by this

if* Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

time," said Bess, as she removed her hat and fluffed
out her pretty curls. "We certainly can't complain
of having to stay too much in one place."

"I should say not!" exclaimed Nan, as she
thought of how many wonderful things had hap-
pened since that day when she had started out for
the great north woods with Uncle Henry. "But,
oh, Bess," she added, turning happy eyes upon her
chum, "we never went on quite such a wonderful
journey as this — not even when we went to Rose
Ranch."

"It all conies of having such nice friends," re-
plied Bess, taking out a tiny hand mirror and re-
garding the tip of her nose critically. "And friends
with money," she added significantly.

"Bess ! How you talk !" cried the girl from Tin-
bury, turning a shocked gaze upon her friend. For
Nan Sherwood never failed to be shocked at Eliza-
beth's very evident love of money and what it could
buy. "If it were only money we cared for we might
have made friends with Linda Riggs, I suppose. I
heard her say something about going to Europe next
summer, and I shouldn't wonder if she would take
Cora Courtney and one or two more of her satellites
with her. Perhaps if we had been very good, she
might have asked us."

"Well, it would have been fun," said Bess, wick-
edly enjoying the shocked look that deepened on
Nan's face. "Cheer up, Nan," she added with one

Great Expectations 113

of her sudden changes of mood. "You know very
well how I hate Linda. However," she continued,
"I suppose we really ought to be grateful to her
now."

"Grateful?" repeated Nan wonderingly.

"For damaging the heating plant up at school,
silly," explained Bess, "and giving us a chance to
go to Florida."

CHAPTER XV
WE'RE OFF!

NAN could not help laughing at this speech of her
chum's, and she turned her chair about to face Bess.
Nan did not like riding backward in a train very
much herself, but as Bess had declared she "simply
couldn't stand it," it was unselfish Nan, as usual,
who did the unpleasant thing.

But, the chair turned, as she sank down into its
luxurious depth she looked across gravely at her
friend.

"I don't see why you say that Linda did that
awful thing up at school," she said. "We haven't
the slightest proof in the world that she was the
guilty one. That handkerchief you found didn't
really prove anything."

Bess sniffed as she reached over to open her bag
and get out from among its heterogeneous contents
a box of sweets she had thoughtfully remembered
to slip in before she started.

"Of course we don't know that she did it," she
said, opening the box and offering it to Nan. "But

114

We're Off! '115

you know very well there isn't another girl in the
school who is mean enough to think of such a
thing."

"Y-yes," answered Nan doubtfully, as she pushed
the candy over toward its owner. "But on the other
hand, I never thought Linda had nerve enough to
do anything like that. Why, she might have been
dreadfully hurt herself!"

"Of course she didn't know that she was in dan-
ger," retorted Bess, with a scornful little toss of
her head. "She didn't have brains enough."

"Just the same," said Nan decidedly, "I don't
think we ought to accuse her until we have some-
thing definite to go on."

"Isn't that just like Nan Sherwood !" cried Bess,
regarding her chum with a mixture of fondness and
irritation. "Always making excuses for everybody !
I suppose if we had caught Linda in the act, you
would still say it must have been somebody else."

"Hardly as bad as that," said Nan, with a little
laugh, adding, while a cloud passed over her face:
"Goodness knows I have more reason than any of
the rest of the girls for disliking Linda. She never
accused any one but me of stealing. I only hope,"
she added, "that we don't meet her somewhere on
this trip."

"Goodness gracious, Nan!" cried Bess, fairly
jumping from her seat in surprise, "you don't ex-
pect to meet her, do you?"

n6 Nan Sherwood at Palm. Beach

"If I did," said Nan ruefully, "I would get right
off this train and go back to Tillbury, much as I
have counted on this trip. No, honey," she added,
laughing at her own extravagance, "there's no need
of your getting excited, for I have no idea that we
shall meet Linda at Palm Beach. Only she has the
most disconcerting way of popping up in places
where you least expect her."

"Well, all I have to say," returned Bess, biting
fiercely into a fresh chocolate and wishing it were
Linda instead, "is that I wish you wouldn't put such
uncomfortable ideas into my head. Here I was just
about forgetting Linda, and you have to lug her
into the limelight again."

Nan laughed merrily and helped herself to an-
other of Bess's chocolates without even so much as a
"by your leave."

"Cheer up," she said, with a chuckle, "I've done
all the 'lugging' I'm going to for a little while. And
in the meantime," she added, her voice thrilling with
anticipation, "let's think of something really pleas-
ant— Palm Beach, for instance."

"Now you are talking!" cried Bess approvingly.
"I have to pinch myself about every five minutes to
realize that I'm really going there. I wonder if it
is really as gay as people say it is. That's where
all the actresses go, you know. And millionaires
and authors "

"And bald-headed business men and fussy, over-

We're Off! 117

dressed women," added Nan demurely, her eyes
twinkling at the look of horror that Bess turned
upon her.

"Nan, how can you ?" Bess burst out, as Nan had
fully expected her to do. "Bald-headed men, in-
deed! Do you suppose I have come all this way
just to see a lot of old bald-headed men?"

"You haven't come yet," Nan reminded her, her
eyes sparkling. "I didn't say all the men were bald-
headed," she added, in an attempt to soothe her out-
raged companion. "But dad says most of them are
—especially the millionaires."

"Oh, how — how — dreadful!" stuttered Bess.
"Why, all the millionaires I ever saw had beautiful,
leonine heads with shaggy manes of thick white hair
and strong, clearly cut chins "

"That's in the movies," Nan interrupted with a
chuckle. "Papa Sherwood says that if all the men
had hair like the movie heroes they would have to
spend all their energy growing it and wouldn't have
time to attend to their brains. And then where
would their millions be?"

"Well," said Bess, unable to find an answer to
this queer question, yet still indignant, nevertheless,
"you needn't go to work to spoil all my illusions. I
don't believe you have a speck of romance anywhere
about you, Nan Sherwood."

"Maybe I haven't," Nan admitted cheerfully,
without looking the slightest bit worried about it.

u8 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"But I expect to have lots of fun, just the same.
Oh, Bess, look out!"

Bess, who had stood up to pull down the shade,
jumped and looked about at Nan wildly.

"What's the matter?" she gasped. "Train on
fire?"

"No. But you almost sat on a chocolate," said
Nan calmly, as she removed the large and luscious
sweet from Bess's seat. Bess stared at her reproach-
fully and sank back into the chair.

"You might just as well kill me as scare me to
death," she said reproachfully.

For a while after that the happy girls forgot to
talk and sat staring contentedly out at the flying
landscape while the train pounded on heavily over
the rails, singing its everlasting "catch 'em up, catch
'em up, catch 'em up."

Then suddenly Bess spoke, taking up the conver-
sation where they had left it.

"If all we are going to find at Palm Beach is bald
men and fussy women," she said, "I must say I
don't see how we are going to have much fun."

"Oh, don't be such a silly," laughed Nan. "Of
course we are going to find something else. There's
the ocean and the palm trees. They say the scenery
is perfectly gorgeous and the two big hotels won-
derful, and there'll be the crowds and crowds of
people. And then we shall meet Grace and
Walter "

We're Off! 119

"And Walter," repeated Bess teasingly, then
laughed at the other girl's quick blush.

"Now I know you are silly," said Nan crossly.
"You know you are glad Walter is going to be
there."

"Of course I am," admitted Bess with suspicious
promptness. "Walter is jolly good fun, especially
when he has his Bargain Ritsh with him. But lately
the rest of us girls — even Grace — have to hang on to
his coat-tails to keep him from going off alone with
you. He doesn't seem to know there's any one else
around. Oh, you don't need to look so surprised,
Miss Innocence," she added, as Nan regarded her
with wide-open eyes. "You know it just as well as
the rest of us."

"Oh — oh — I never heard of such a thing!" cried
Nan, and her amazement was unfeigned. "I think
you are perfectly horrid. Why, Walter has always
been lovely to all of us. And as to his going off
with me alone — why, that's nonsense, and you know
it, Bess Harley!" Nan's amazement was rapidly
giving way to indignation. "Walter has never gone
off anywhere alone with me, never!"

"I know he hasn't," admitted Bess, with a chuckle.
"And for a very good reason. We wouldn't let
him."

Nan stared for a minute. Then something sur-
prisingly like tears filled her eyes and she turned
quickly to the window.

I2O Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"I don't think you are nice," she said in a low
voice. "If Walter has been any nicer to me than
he has to any one else, I surely haven't noticed it
And now you've gone and spoiled everything. I
won't want to go anywhere with him now just be-
cause I will be afraid you girls are saying silly
things. And Walter's such awfully good fun!"
The last was very much in the nature of a wail, and
Bess's heart, which was never very hard at any time,
softened and she slipped over to Nan's chair and
put an arm about her chum.

"Move over," she commanded. "It's lucky neither
of us is very fat or we couldn't both sit in one
chair. That's right," as Nan obediently "moved
over" but still kept her face to the window. "Now
say you forgive me for being such an old bear.
After all, honey," and she patted Nan's shoulder
soothingly, "I suppose it isn't your fault if Walter
likes you best."

Nan's shoulder moved impatiently.

"But he doesn't," she insisted, staring out of the
window. "It isn't so."

"All right," agreed Bess soothingly. But it was
lucky Nan could not see the twinkle in her eye,
"Have it your own way, Nan. Only stop turning
your back to me. It isn't polite. And, oh!" she
added, with a little sigh, "I'm hungry."

At this sudden and very unromantic change in the
subject Nan laughed. And as laughter and ill-tern-

We're Off! 121

per never go hand in hand, it was not long before
Nan had forgotten all about Walter — almost.

She produced the lunch box, and for once Bess
was too ravenously hungry to protest at the "com-
monness" of it, and they set to at its delicious con-
tents with a will.

It was eight o'clock when they went into the sleep-
ing car, as they had been unable to secure a berth in
Tillbury, and had had to telegraph ahead to have
one reserved on a coach which was attached to the
train further along the line.

"This is more like it," said Nan, as they entered
the sleeping car. "I'll be glad enough to go to bed
just as soon as we can see no more of the scenery
we are passing."

"Who is to take the upper berth, you or I ?" de-
manded her companion.

"Maybe we had better toss up for it," said Nan.

Just then the girls observed a lady on the opposite
side of the aisle telling the colored porter not to fix
the upper berth at all, that she and her daughter
"Would both sleep below.

"Let's do that," suggested Nan.

"By all means," answered Bess; and so it was
settled.

"Lots o' folks don't use dat dar upper berth," ex-
plained the porter as he fixed the lower bed only.
"They leaves it up and dat gives 'em so much more
room to stand up an* dress an' undress."

122 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"It will just suit us," declared Bess.

Soon the berth was ready and a little later the
girls retired.

Being together they had thought to have a good
"talk-fest," as Bess called it. But alas ! both were so
tired out that they fell asleep almost before they
knew it. And neither woke up until morning, when
they were rolling into New York City.

"Gracious ; time to get up !" and Nan lost no time
in dressing and Bess followed her example.

The first part of their momentous journey had
come to an end.

CHAPTER XVI

FUN AND NONSENSE

IN HER impatience Bess Harley thought she had
never known a crowd to move so slowly. Of course
all the people on the train were getting out at New
York, for the simple reason that the train did not
go any farther.

At any other time the girls would have been tre-
mendously pleased about going to New York. But
now, with the even more wonderful prospect of
Florida looming up, New York appealed to them
simply as a means to an end.

"It's that fat man at the end," hissed Bess in
Nan's ear. "He's holding up the whole procession.
What's he talking about, anyway?"

"Sh-h," whispered Nan. "He may hear you. Are
you sure you have everything, honey?" she added,
making a mental count of Bess's belongings to make
certain that her careless chum had left nothing be-
hind.

"For goodness' sake, Nan Sherwood, I wonder
you don't have a record made of that question and
then turn it on every five minutes or so," said Bess,

123

124 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach
i-

whose temper was beginning to be ruffled by the de-
lay. "That's all I hear from morning to night.
'Are you sure you have everything?' I think I'll
try it on you and see how you like it."

"Oh, I'd love it," cried Nan, with such fervor
that Bess looked at her in surprise. "It's this bag,"
explained Nan, looking down at her own handsome
suitcase. "I'm certain it will be stolen or I'll lose it
or something before we can get to Florida."

"Well, it is an expensive suitcase," Bess admitted,
as the fat man at the front of the car finished his
argument with the conductor and the line of pas-
sengers moved slowly on toward the door. "But
you never used to lie awake at night worrying about
it."

It was Nan's turn to look her amazement.

"It isn't the bag I'm worrying about, and you
ought to know that," she said in a low voice. "It's
what is in the bag."

"Oh!" said Bess, suddenly remembering, "you
mean those papers Mrs. Bragley gave you? Well,
I wouldn't worry about them," she added carelessly.
"I don't believe they are really worth anything, any-
way."

"Oh, hush," Nan begged her as they stepped upon
the platform and a man turned to look at them curi-
ously. "Please don't mention any names, Bess. It
might make trouble."

"Why, Nan Sherwood, how you talk !" cried Bess,

Fun and Nonsense I2J?

turning to look curiously at her chum. "You might
really think those old papers were worth something."

"I believe they are," said Nan seriously, as, with
bag clutched tightly in her hand, she started with
Bess down the long blustling platform. "Anyway,
I want to do my best to help the poor woman. I
felt dreadfully sorry for her."

"I feel sorry for everybody who isn't going to
Palm Beach," cried Bess gaily, as she looked about
her with sparkling eyes. "Oh, Nan, isn't this a
lark?"

"You'd better look out," cried Nan sharply, as
Bess stepped directly in front of a heaped-up bag-
gage truck that was being trundled heavily down
the platform, "or it will be a tragedy instead."

The girls had supposed they had become accus-
tomed to the noise and confusion of a big city dur-
ing their visit in Chicago, but as they stepped from
the great Pennsylvania Station on to the crowded
New York street they felt disconcertingly like
startled country girls arriving in the city for the
first time.

"Goodness ! I thought Chicago was awful," whis-
pered Bess in Nan's ear. "But this is worse. What
shall we do?"

"That's easy," said Nan, taking command of the
situation as usual. "Papa Sherwood told me to
take a taxi straight over to the dock and not to
speak to any one on the way."

126 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Well, I think we'll have our choice of taxis,"
remarked Bess, with a chuckle, as several chauffeurs
standing by or sitting in cabs drawn up along the
curb espied the well-dressed girls and immediately
set up a cry of "Taxi, taxi ! Right this way, lady!"

Looking as if she had been used to riding around
in taxicabs in strange and noisy cities all her life,
Nan walked forward, still clutching the precious bag
that held Mrs. Bragley's papers and calmly selected
a brilliant yellow cab whose driver opened the door
to her respectfully.

Bess followed, all eyes and ears for the noise and
confusion of the street. Nan gave instructions to
the chauffeur, who touched his cap, slammed the
door shut on the girls and sprang to his seat in
front.

"I think you are just wonderful, Nan Sherwood,"
said Bess, when they were gliding swiftly off
through the bewildering traffic. "I was frightened
to death when all those men started shouting at us
at once. I wanted to run back into the station and
hide. But you didn't, and of course / didn't, and
here we are !" She gave an excited little bounce on
the seat. "Only," she added reproachfully, "I don't
see why you picked out a yellow taxi. You know I
hate yellow."

"Goodness! I didn't even notice the color," said
Nan, feeling her suitcase with one foot to be sure
it was still there. "If you will just tell me what

Fun and Nonsense 127

color you like best I'll send a note to the governor
and ask him to have them painted that way."

"How sweet of you," mocked Bess, and a moment
later grasped her chum's arm in fright. "Did you
see that ?" she cried, as the driver put on his brakes
and they stopped within about two inches of the
back of a great lumbering truck. "I'm afraid this
driver is going to kill us before ever we can get to
the dock."

"Never mind, honey," said Nan soothingly,
though she herself had been considerably startled
at the close call. "Papa Sherwood says all the driv-
ers are like that in New York, and yet there are very
few accidents. We must be near the dock, anyway."

"Isn't that horrid?" cried Bess with one of her
quick changes of interest. "Just think, we'll have
to go and leave New York before we have really
seen anything of it."

Nan shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

"I thought you weren't enjoying your ride," she
said, "and here you are bemoaning the fact that it
is nearly over. Bess, I give you up."

Bess merely chuckled, and a few minutes later in-
sisted upon stopping the machine while she got out
and bought some oranges from a tempting fruit-
stand.

"Now," she said, proudly exhibiting her purchase
to Nan when the car was once more bumping on-
ward over cobblestones toward the dock, "we sha'n't

starve on our trip, anyway. Oh, look, Nan; we're
there !" she cried, pointing excitedly out of the win-
dow. "See that thing over there that looks like
something between a cave and a barn with a sign
over it? That must be the entrance to one of the
docks. Yes, see the people going in? And there's
another and another. Oh, oh !"

"For goodness' sake, sit still," commanded Nan.
"You're spilling all the oranges."

"My, what a joy killer you are, Nan Sherwood,"
sighed Bess, as she rebelliously stuffed the bag of
oranges into her already over-filled suitcase. "What
are a few oranges more or less at a glorious time
like this?"

Then the taxicab left the rough pavement and
rolled along over the smooth asphalt. On all sides
of them were trucks and autos, with here and there
a horse-drawn vehicle. The noise was something
awful.

"Goodness gracious, how different from the quiet-
ness at the Hall !" remarked Bess.

"And how different even from Tillbury," returned

Nan.

ft

"What a lot of foreigners here, JNan."

"I guess they come from the ships. The docks
are all along here, so I've been told."

"I wouldn't want to come down here after dark
and all alone."

"No, I'd not like that myself, Bess."

Fun and Nonsense 129

"Some of those men look like regular Italian
brigands."

"Yes, and others look like Russian anarchists."

Suddenly the machine came to a standstill and
the man in front looked about at Nan and repeated
the instructions she had given him to make sure he
had them correctly.

"That's right," answered Nan, nodding. "We
must be almost there, aren't we ?"

"Yes, Miss," said the man, as he started the car
again. "See that dock over yonder? That's it."
And he swung the machine about in a semicircle and
headed for one of the openings which Bess had
described as "something between a cave and a
barn."

"Nan, I never felt so funny before," Bess con-
fided to her chum. "I think I am going to faint or
something."

"And I think you had better not," said Nan, in
alarm. "I have all I can do to carry my own lug-
gage without having you piled on top of it."

"You wouldn't have to carry me," giggled Bess
incorrigibly. "I'd ask the good-looking chauffeur
to do it."

"How could you ask him anything if you had
fainted?" asked Nan, beginning systematically to
get her things together. "Hurry up, Bess. I guess
this is where we get off. Are you sure "

"You have everything?" finished the irrepressible

130 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach!

Bess with another giggle. "I was just waiting for
that. Look out, Nan. You stepped on my toe."

"I know it," said Nan calmly. "I did it on pur-
pose."

Nan seized the opportunity to make good her es!-
cape, and Bess, following close upon her heels, whis-
pered dramatically in her ear: "Take care, woman!
You shall not again escape me. Next time I will
spit thee like a goose."

"All right," said Nan, turning calmly to the
driver who was waiting for his fee. "Only wait a
minute, will you ? I have to pay the fare."

CHAPTER XVII

THE MYSTERIOUS MEN

As THE machine drove away several street urchins
came running toward the girls, begging the privi-
lege of carrying their bags. Nan would have re-
fused, the bags being not at all heavy and the walk
to the end of the dock from the entrance not very
far, but Bess nudged her sharply.

"Go ahead," she urged. "I have a quarter to pay
for it. Don't be a silly."

So Nan obeyed and reluctantly handed over to
one of the eager street urchins the handsome bag
which contained, among other things, Mrs. Brag-
ley's papers. Bess had already loaded the small boy
with her own belongings, and it seemed impos-
sible to Nan that the lad could be able to carry
it all.

Yet he sauntered ahead quite cheerfully while the
other boys turned away disappointed to wait for the
next arrival.

As the girls emerged from the long, tunnel-like
entrance into the bright sunshine of the dock they
quickened their steps instinctively. The steamship

132 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Dorian, which was to carry them to Florida, was
already waiting for the passengers.

Nan had never seen a harbor like this before, and
she gazed with fascinated eyes out over the glisten-
ing water, dotted thickly with craft of all sizes and
descriptions.

There were a great many docks like the kind upon
which she and Bess were standing, and they
stretched out into the harbor like so many legs of an
octopus, cleaving the brilliant water with dark ugly
gashes.

Over all the bustling harbor was a sense of fev-
erish activity, of mystery and romance, of adven-
turing in far, fair lands that set Nan's blood atingle
and made her breath come quickly.

"What are you waiting for?" Bess asked impa-
tiently, and Nan roused from her reverie with a
start.

"I wasn't waiting, I was just looking," said Nan
in a soft voice, as they started up the gangplank that
led to the deck of the Dorian. "I never saw any-
thing so wonderful."

"Beg pardon, Miss," said a voice in her ear, and
a small hand was laid upon her arm.

Nan turned quickly and saw that it was their small
luggage carrier. In their preoccupation the girls
had both of them forgotten about their precious
bags.

With quick fingers Nan fished in her purse for

The Mysterious Men 133

the necessary quarter, gave it to the boy and re-
ceived her bag in return.

"Oh, Bess!" she cried as the boy tipped his cap
and started on, "how could I ever have done such
a thing? Why, if I had lost this bag I never would
have dared face Mrs. Bragley again. Never in this
wide world!"

"I wish Mrs. Bragley were in Guinea," said Bess
crossly. "She and her old papers are just about
going to spoil our trip. They are making you as ner-
vous as a cat."

"Sh-h, Bess, not so loud," cautioned Nan, as they
stepped upon the deck of the Dorian and handed
over the tickets which Papa Sherwood had secured
for them.

It was perhaps fortunate for the girls' peace of
mind that they did not notice two men who were
closely behind them. One of the men was fat and
short and had little eyes and a bald head, which he
was now mopping vigorously with a rather soiled
handkerchief.

His companion was his complete opposite. He
was tall and thin, with a severe, straight line for a
mouth and long, nervous hands, and had a habit of
caressing his beardless chin as though a beard had
once grown there.

As the tall thin man, whom his companion called
Jensen, overheard Nan's startled reference to Mrs.
Bragley's papers, he put a hand upon the fat man's

134 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

arm and nodded once with a sort of jerk of satis-
faction.

"What did I say, Davis?" he asked, in a carefully
guarded voice. "I tell you, I am never wrong."
And his eyes followed the girls as they started down
the deck in the direction of their cabin.

As they, in turn, stepped upon the deck, the short
man looked up at his tall companion and said rather
enigmatically: "Sometimes I wonder, Jensen,
whether you are a great man, or a great fool. It's
certainly great to have them on this trip to Florida
with us."

Although the girls knew nothing of this strange
conversation, Nan was extremely careful to stow
her bag away in a corner of their stateroom and
piled several things on it and about it so that it
could not be easily seen by curious eyes.

"Nan, if you don't leave that old thing alone I'm
going to throw it overboard," Bess finally said com-
plainingly. "You act as if it contained diamonds
and rubies instead of "

"Oh, please hush," said Nan, rising quickly from
her knees and coming over to Bess. "I don't know
what has gotten into me lately, Bess dear," she said,
speaking so earnestly that her chum regarded her
in surprise; "but ever since I took charge of those
papers I have had the strangest impression that I
am being watched."

"Nan!" cried Bess, looking uneasily over her

The Mysterious Men 135

shoulder, "what a terrible thing. But, of course, it's
only imagination," she added easily, for it was in-
stinct with Bess to cast aside anything that threat-
ened to worry her or interfere with her fun. "I
told you the old papers were getting on your
nerves."

"You're right," said Nan, with a little sigh as she
rose to take off her coat and hat and straighten her
hair before the tiny mirror. "They certainly are
getting on my nerves."

"Well, for goodness' sake get them off then,"
commanded Bess, bouncing impatiently on a berth.
"I never saw such a girl to take everybody else's
troubles on her own shoulders. I'll be glad when
you turn the papers over to Mr. Mason."

Nan smiled a resigned little smile at her reflection
in the mirror. Then she came over and put an arm
about her pouting chum.

"All right," she promised gaily, "I won't ever do
it again. Only come on and smile, honey. If you
knew how pretty you look when you do, you would
never do anything else."

There are very few girls who can withstand an
appeal like that, and Bess was not one of them. A
smile replaced the frown immediately and the next
minute she was chatting merrily about their crowded
little stateroom and the two narrow berths, one
above the other, wondering with a grimace whether
they would be seasick or not, and so, on and on, till

136 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Nan's momentary depression forsook her and she
felt again the thrill that had quickened her blood as
they had stood on the dock, gazing out over the
harbor.

Yet, almost unknown to Nan herself, there lin-
gered in the back of her mind a strange, uneasy
premonition of trouble to come, and again and
again her eyes sought the spot where the bag with
Mrs. Bagley's papers stowed safely inside lay hid-
den.

"I wonder which one of us is going to take the
upper berth," Bess chattered gaily on. "You had
better, Nan, because you're thinner than I. And
then if the berth should cave in it wouldn't hurt
you so much because there would be something soft
to fall on. It's a snug little place, isn't it ?"

"Snug is right," said Nan, with a giggle. "You
can't turn around without running in to some-
thing."

"That's Linda's fault. She shouldn't have
wrecked the heating system at school in the Palm
Beach season. If it had been in December now, or
March, there wouldn't have been such a crowd and
we could have had a real honest to goodness state-
room, instead of this two-by-one hole in the wall."

"Elizabeth, how shocking," laughed Nan. "You
must have been taking lessons from Walter." And
then, for no apparent reason at all, or perhaps be-
cause of the expression in her chum's eyes as they

The Mysterious Men 137

rested upon her, Nan became suddenly confused and
hurriedly changed the subject.

"Let's go outside," she suggested, rising and
making toward the door of the stateroom, which
opened directly out upon the deck. "It — it's awfully
hot in here."

Bess laughed tantalizingly and stretched lazily as
she prepared to follow her chum.

"Nan, honey," she drawled, irrelevantly, or so it
seemed to Nan, "you are a darling, but, oh, you're
awfully foolish."

CHAPTER XVIII

A STARTLING REVELATION

IT WAS a wonderful journey, that one to Jackson-
ville, and one the girls never forgot. At first the
weather was unpleasant, cold and blowy, but toward
the afternoon of the second day the gentle winds
of the south fanned them with their welcoming
breath, and heavy wraps began to feel burdensome.

At first the girls had been afraid that they would
become seasick and had wondered what they would
do should such a weakness overtake them.

"I know I'll just lie down and die, if I get sick
on this steamer," Bess had declared.

"Oh, no, you won't, Bess," Nan had made reply.
"You'll do as everybody else has to — grin and bear
it."

"But to be sick on a ship that is rolling and pitch-
ing all the time "

"You can keep in your berth, you know."

"There is no fun in that."

"Then go on deck — and make an exhibition of
yourself."

138

A Startling Revelation 139

"Nan Sherwood, I think that, on occasion, you
are utterly heartless."

"So are you."

"Oh, I see. Trying to get square for what I said
about Walter Mason."

"Not at all. I am only "

But there Nan had had to stop, for a sudden lurch
of the steamer had thrown her against the wash-
stand. Bess had gone sprawling on the floor.

"I — I didn't think it would be so rough," Bess
had gasped out, on arising.

"I — I don't think it is going to be so awful bad,"
Nan had declared. And she had been right. By
noon of the second day the sea was quite smooth.
Neither of the girls felt a bit of seasickness and both
were glad to go on deck and enjoy the sunshine.

"What a change since yesterday," said Bess, as
the two girls stood by the rail looking out over the
lazily rolling water. "It seems almost like magic,
doesn't it?"

"It's wonderful," breathed Nan happily. "It
seemed so silly to pack all my summer things when
the wind was blowing like mad and it was ten above
zero in Tillbury. But now I'm mighty glad we did.
Whew, isn't this coat warm !"

"Cheer up," cried Bess gaily. "Maybe by to-night
it will be so warm we can put all our winter things
in storage and blossom out in silk georgette and
white flannels like veritable butterflies from a crys-

140 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

tal — I mean chrysalis. Nan, are you listening to
me?" she demanded severely, for Nan's eyes had
deserted the long line of lazy combers and were fol-
lowing the figures of two men, one long and one
short, who were strolling slowly down the deck.

"Bess, do you see those men?" asked Nan, with
a troubled inflection that caused Bess to look at her
sharply.

"Yes, my dear," she answered. "My eyes are still
in good working condition."

"Does there seem anything strange about them?"
Nan insisted. "Anything like spying?"

Bess jumped and regarded the back of her chum's
head reproachfully.

"For goodness' sake, Nan!" she cried, "you are
never going to start that all over again, are you?
I thought you had got over that silly notion you
had of being followed."

"I wish it were only a notion, Bess," said the girl,
turning such a serious face to her chum that for once
even careless Bess was sobered.

"Why, Nan, what do you mean?" she asked.
"You can't mean that there is really somebody spy-
ing upon you !"

"That's just what I do mean," said Nan soberly.
"I didn't want to worry you, Bess, so I didn't tell

you. But something happened last night " She

stopped suddenly, for the two men were coming
back again, apparently absorbed in conversation.

(See page 140)

A Startling Revelation 141

Presently the tall man and his short companion
passed and as they did so Nan gave each a searching
look. The men did not happen to see the girls, and
soon were out of sight around a turn.

"I am almost sure they are the same," murmured
Nan and her face was a study.

"Nan, you talk in riddles!" cried her chum.
"What does it mean?"

"I'll tell you, Bess, even though I don't want to
frighten you still more."

And thereupon Nan related how she had seen two
strange men near her home and at the local drug-
store and the railroad station, and how one had
stepped up as if to speak to her and then hurried
away.

"I am almost sure they are the same, and, oh,
Bess, one of them has such an awful look in his
eyes ! I am sure they cannot be at all nice."

"Humph ! That is certainly strange," murmured
Bess. "I guess those chaps will bear watching.
What can they be up to, do you think — watching
your house and following you like that?"

"I haven't finished. Last night "

"Oh, yes, you started to tell about last night. Go
ahead — oh, it's so exciting — just like a movies !"

"You remember we went down to the dining-room
together," Nan went on in a low tone, "and I sud-
denly remembered that we had forgotten to lock the
door. I was a little frightened, for I thought of

142 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Mrs. Bragley's papers and our jewelry, and I al-
most ran back.

"Just as I opened the door," Nan's voice quick-
ened with excitement and Bess leaped forward eag-
erly, "I saw a shadow on the glass of the other door
— the one that opens upon the deck."

"Why, Nan! are you sure?" gasped Bess, catch-
ing herself up quickly to add, "Never mind. Don't
bother to answer me. What happened next?"

"Well, for a minute I just stood there," said Nan,
her eyes searching nervously for the reappearance
of the two men on deck. "I guess I was just too
surprised or frightened to speak, for the shadow on
the door was that of a man, and he was trying the
door!"

"Oh, Nan, what did you do ?" demanded her wide-
eyed chum. "I should just have screamed and run
away."

"A lot of good that would have done," said Nan,
a little contemptuously. "I wanted to scream, but
I didn't think of running away."

"Of course you wouldn't," said Bess humbly.
"But go on, Nan. What did you do?"

"I threw a bathrobe over my grip in the first
place," said Nan. "I had left it standing out in
the room. And then I pulled the door open just as
the man started to open it from the outside."

"Oh, Nan!" cried Bess again. "Then he really
meant to come in?"

A Startling Revelation 143

"Of course he did — although he said he didn't,"
said Nan grimly. "When I pulled the door open
suddenly and stood looking at him he acted as if I
was a ghost or something. He did for a minute,
that is. Then he straightened up and sort of put
on a smile — you know, the way you would put on a
coat to cover up a soiled dress or something "

"Why, Nan, I never " Bess began indig-
nantly, then interrupted herself again. "Never mind
me," she begged. "You've got me so excited that I
don't know just what I'm saying. What happened
then, Nan? Didn't you say something?"

"Of course I said something," returned Nan. "I
asked him what he was doing at my stateroom door
and what he wanted."

"What did he say?" whispered Bess, her eyes wide
in wonder.

"He said that he was very sorry. That he thought
this was his stateroom. That he wouldn't have'
startled me for the world. And then he bowed him-
self out and I slammed the door after him."

"But, Nan," Bess had regained her breath again
and felt in the mood for an argument, "how do you
know that the man really hadn't made a mistake?
I suppose it would be easy enough to get mixed up."

"Bess, that man didn't make any mistake," said
Nan Sherwood with such conviction in her voice
that once more Bess was startled.

"How do you know?"

144 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"He was the meanest man I ever saw — his looks"
I mean," said Nan, apparently not noticing her
chum's interruption. "If you could have seen him
as I opened the door, you would feel just the way I
do. He had probably seen us going down to dinner
and thought it was a good chance to get into the
stateroom and steal "

"Steal !" gasped poor Bess, for Nan was getting
her pretty thoroughly frightened. "You mean he
was a thief, Nan ?"

"Of course," Nan returned impatiently. "I don't
suppose honest men are in the habit of sneaking into
empty staterooms."

"But if it was a mistake " Bess interrupted,

grasping at a straw.

"It wasn't any mistake," Nan repeated gravely.
"If he had thought it was his own door, he would
have opened it quickly. He wouldn't have been so
slow and cautious about it."

"But, Nan! what could he have wanted to steal
from us? It isn't as though we had one of those
handsome staterooms down below that cost a for-
tune to hire even for a night. We haven't anything
so very valuable."

"Except Mrs. Bragley's papers," said Nan grimly.
"I wonder you didn't think of them."

"Oh!" said Bess. "The papers! Yes, of course
there were the papers. Why, Nan," she turned
upon her chum excitedly, "do you really suppose

A Startling Revelation 145

they can be as important as that? Why, I never
dreamed "

"I know you didn't. But I did," said Nan de-
cidedly. She then added under her breath as the
two men turned a corner and again headed down
the deck toward them : "Don't say anything. Wait
until these men have passed and then look at them,
the tall, thin one in particular."

Bess was about to exclaim, but Nan silenced her
with a look and they waited quietly while the
strangers once more sauntered past them. Evidently
they were taking a prolonged constitutional about
the deck.

Bess stole a quick glance at them and then turned
back to her chum.

"They are the same men who passed us just a little
while ago," she said with a puzzled frown.

"Yes. And one of them, the tall, thin one with a
slit for a mouth, is the man who tried to enter our
stateroom," said Nan earnestly. "I'm just telling
you this so that you will be more careful to lock
our stateroom door whenever you go in or out."

"Goodness — Gracious — Agnes !" gasped Bess,
mimicking Procrastination Boggs in her agitation.
"You are actually making me nervous, Nan Sher-
wood. Lock the door, indeed ! As if we were afraid
of being murdered in our beds! Why, I sha'n't
sleep a wink to-night. I never heard of such a
thing."

146 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"You needn't look at me as if I were to blame,"
said Nan with spirit. "I didn't ask that horrid thin
thing and his little fat friend to follow us all over
and nearly give me heart failure. I'll be glad when
this trip is over, I'll tell you that."

"So will I," said Bess morosely. "But I'll be
gladder still when you get rid of those old papers
of Mrs. Bragley's — if that is what they are after."

"The one thing that makes me feel good," said
Nan thoughtfully, as if speaking to herself, "is that
the papers must be worth something or these horrid
men wouldn't be so anxious to get them back.
Maybe we shall find that poor Mrs. Bragley is a
rich woman yet."

"Either that, or else that we have made a big
mistake and the men are not after the papers at all."

"But if not after the papers, what?"

"I don't know."

CHAPTER XIX

\

AN ATTEMPTED THEFT

THAT night the girls were very careful to lock
both doors and Bess even went to the length of
suggesting that they pile some furniture against
them.

"It might be a good idea," Nan had replied, laugh-
ing at her, "if there were only some furniture to
pile. What are you doing, Bess ? You aren't stuf-
fing cotton in the keyhole?"

"You needn't laugh, Miss Smarty," Bess had re-
torted, straightening up defiantly with a large wad
of the cotton still in her hand and a telltale tuft of
it protruding from the keyhole. "I'm not going to
have any skinny old man with a funny mouth look-
ing in at me while I sleep, I can tell you! Nan
Sherwood," she added threateningly, as Nan went
off into a gale of uncontrollable mirth, "if you don't
stop laughing, I'll stuff the rest of this cotton down
your throat, and I just hope you'll choke."

"Oh, Bess! Elizabeth Harley!" gasped Nan.
"You look so foolish standing there with that wad

148 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

of cotton in your hand. And the keyholes look as
if they had the earache. Oh, oh!" and she went off
again into half hysterical laughter.

Bess, after staring at her a minute, gave up all
attempt at being dignified and joined in merrily.

"Goodness ! you would make an Egyptian mummy
laugh, Nan Sherwood," said Bess, as she wiped
away the tears of mirth. "Who ever heard of key-
holes having the earache! , Just the same," she added
more soberly, as she started to unfasten her dress,
"you have got me terribly worried about those men.
I know I'll dream of them all night."

"Oh, no, you won't," said Nan serenely, as she set
about the business of undressing. Then she added,
with a chuckle: "I feel perfectly safe now that the
keyholes are stuffed!"

It was not long after this that the two girls laid
down to sleep. But Nan was restless and could
hardly close her eyes.

"Those old papers," she murmured to herself. "I
should have turned them over to Mr. Mason, or put
them in the ship's safe. I don't see why I make my-
self keep them, unless it is that I want to prove to
myself that I have some backbone."

Presently she heard Bess breathing heavily, show-
ing her chum was in the land of slumber, and then
gradually she dozed off.

Nan had been asleep about an hour when she
awoke with a start.

An Attempted Theft 149

She had heard a noise, of that she felt certain —
a noise out of the ordinary and not connected with
the running of the ship.

What was it ? Was somebody trying the door ?

She turned over and, feeling for the push button,
turned on the electric light. This move awakened
Bess.

"What's the matter, are you sick?" asked the
latter.

"No. I — I heard something — it woke me up,"
Nan replied and got to her feet.

"Maybe those men "

"Hush ! If they are outside the aoor they may
hear you, Bess."

With caution the two girls tiptoed to first one door
and then the other and peered out.

In the cabin only a porter sleeping in an arm-
chair was to be seen, while out on the deck not a soul
was in sight.

"You must have been dreaming, Nan," said Bess,
yawning. "Come, let us try to get some more rest
before morning."

Nan was not satisfied and looked all around the
stateroom, thinking a mouse might be wandering
around. But no mouse was found, and at last both
girls retired again. But Nan did not sleep very well
and was glad when the rising sun proclaimed an-
other day at hand.

Nan, swinging one bare foot experimentally over

150

the edge of her berth, felt it caught and held tight
by an invisible hand. She peered over the edge of
the berth at the imminent risk of falling over her-
herself and breaking her neck, and found, as she
had expected, that Bess was her captor. The latter
was holding on to her foot with one hand and rub-
bing her eyes sleepily with the other.

"Say, let go my foot," Nan hailed her inelegantly.
"Haven't you got enough of your own that you have
to steal one of mine?"

"You talk as if we were centipedes," said Bess,
releasing Nan's foot and sitting up grumpily in the
berth. "I told you I wouldn't sleep a wink last night,
and I didn't."

"You aren't the only one," said Nan, as she
swung her other foot over the edge of the berth
and felt gingerly for a footing on the one below.
"I didn't sleep very well myself. But never mind,"
she added, as she slipped safely to the floor, un-
harmed by her perilous descent. "We'll forget all
about such little things as sleepless nights when we
get out on deck. Have you forgotten that we reach
Florida to-day?"

Bess stared at her a minute, then scrambled
quickly out of bed and began pulling on her clothes
hastily, getting them awry in her eagerness to get
dressed in the shortest time possible.

"Gracious, Nan," she cried reproachfully, as she
began to drag the comb impatiently through her

An Attempted Theft 151

tumbled curls, "you scared me so with those men
and Mrs. Bragley's horrible papers that I forgot
everything else. Fancy! A few hours more and
we shall be in Florida!"

Immediately this thought put all other thoughts to
flight in the mind of careless but lovable Bess Har-
ley, and she would have left the door of their state-
room wide open had not Nan reminded her to close
it and turn the key in the lock.

The girls ate breakfast hurriedly, and when they
came out on deck it was after eight o'clock. That
gave them just time to pack their few belongings be-
fore the Dorian steamed up the St. Johns River
into the busy harbor of Jacksonville.

Bess's prediction had come true. Over night the
weather had become so delightfully mild that heavy
clothing was not only unnecessary, but very uncom-
fortable, and the girls had donned white suits and
white hats with stockings and shoes to match. They
were looking distinctly attractive — and knew it. At
least Bess did. And it must be admitted that even
modest Nan had been surprised and not a little
pleased by her radiant reflection in the tiny mirror
in their stateroom.

And now, though they knew that the last minute
packing should be done first, they still lingered by
the rail, gazing over the brilliantly calm water to
where the tropically beautiful Florida coast stood out
boldly against the skyline.

152 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"What wonderful, wonderful weather!" sighed
Nan, as they finally deserted the rail and made their
way through the excited crowd — for nearly every
one on board the Dorian had come out on deck, clad
in white flannels and other summery attire, eager to
get their first glimpse of Florida — and on toward
their stateroom.

Suddenly Nan clutched her friend's arm and
pointed excitedly.

"Look !" she cried in a low voice. "The tall man !
He's there with the fat one in front of our door.
And, Bess, look! He has something in his hand.
It's a key!"

"Oh, Nan!" gasped Bess, "he would never dare.
Not in this crowd !"

"Come on!" ejaculated Nan tensely, as she el-
bowed and pushed her way through the crowd.

The two girls were almost upon the thin man and
his companion before they were discovered. Then
the fat man nudged his friend sharply, and before
the girls could blink the men had slipped around the
corner of the cabin and were lost to view among the
crowd.

"Let's go after them," cried Bess excitedly. "We
mustn't let them get away from us, Nan. Why,
they were trying to get into our room. I saw them."

"Oh, Bess, hush," begged Nan as several people
turned to look at the girls curiously. "Come inside
a minute. I want to talk to you."

An Attempted Theft 153

She opened the door and half pushed, half
dragged the excited Bess inside the stateroom where
the latter sank upon the berth and stared at her
friend indignantly.

"You've gone and let them get away," she ac-
cused her hotly. "And that ugly thin man was try-
ing to get in. We saw him."

"I know all that," said Nan a trifle impatiently.
For several days her nerves had been under a con-
siderable strain and the effort to think and act for
Bess as well as herself was beginning to tell on her.
"It wouldn't have done us the slightest good in the
world to have gone after him. We never could
have found him."

"But we can at least tell the captain," returned
Bess, jumping to her feet impatiently. "I never
saw a girl like you, Nan. I really believe you in-
tend to let him get away."

"Well, what else can I do?" asked Nan quietly.
"If I go to the captain and tell him I found a couple
of men standing in front of my door and that I
want them arrested, he will think that I'm crazy."

"But they had a key! They were trying to get
in ! We saw them !" insisted Bess, pacing excitedly
up and down the small stateroom.

"I know we did," said Nan patiently. "But the
captain could never arrest the men on such evidence.
He would want proof. And you know as well as
I do that we haven't any."

154 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"We-el," said Bess irresolutely, sitting down on
the edge of the berth and staring blackly at the op-
posite wall, "I suppose you are right, Nan Sher-
wood. You usually are. But I do know one thing."
She stirred impatiently and mechanically straight-
ened her pretty white hat. "And that is that I won't
enjoy myself one bit till we make those men stop
following us around and trying to get into our room
with skeleton keys. I suppose that is what he had.
Oh, dear, it does seem as if something were always
happening to take the joy out of life !"

Nan ventured a shaky little laugh at this and be-
gan automatically picking up her things and stuffing
them into her bag.

"You had better get ready, Bess," she advised.
"We shall reach Jacksonville in a little while. We
don't want to be left behind."

"I should say not!" said Bess vehemently. "I
wouldn't stay on this old boat another night after
what happened this morning — not for anything. I
hope," she added, as she slammed her brush into her
suitcase, "that we sha'n't see any more of those hor-
rid men after we once get on shore."

"I hope we sha'n't." Nan echoed the wish fer-
vently, but in her heart she was very sure that they
had not seen the last of the tall, thin man and his
chubby companion.

That they were after the papers that had been
entrusted to her care by poor, confiding Sarah Brag-

An Attempted Theft 155

ley, she had little doubt. And the fact that whoever
these men were, they were desperately anxious to
recover the papers showing the widow's title to the
tract of land in Florida, fostered Nan's belief that
the property must be of considerable value and auto-
matically strengthened her determination to hold
on to the papers at all cost.

She was so engrossed with her own thoughts that
Bess had to speak to her twice before she could
bring her back to a realization of the present.

"Hurry up," she cried, handing Nan her suit-
case and fairly pushing her out on the deck. "From
the noise everybody is making, I guess we're there.
For goodness' sake, Nan!" she exclaimed as her
chum switched her suitcase from one hand to the
other, so that it would be between Bess and herself,
"don't bump that bag into me — especially right be-
hind the knees. You are apt to make me sit down
suddenly."

"You couldn't. There's too much of a crowd,"
laughed Nan, then added in a lower tone, while her
eyes nervously searched the crowd about her:
"Please help me to look out for my bag, honey. I'm
awfully afraid I might lose it."

CHAPTER XX

THOSE MEN AGAIN

THE two girls saw nothing more of the men who
had played such a mysterious part in their trip, and
before they had started, with hundreds of other
gaily dressed people, down the gangplank of the
Dorian they had almost forgotten their strange ad-
venture.

Nor, under the circumstances, could this be won-
dered at. All about them was the bustle and
excitement that is always attendant upon going
ashore.

Every one was in hilarious holiday mood, and
Nan and Bess would have been queer indeed if they
had not entered into the spirit of the day with all
their hearts.

"I just can't keep my feet still," Bess confided to
her chum, as they filed slowly down the gangplank.
"Isn't this the most wonderful day you ever saw in
your life, Nan? Just think, this kind of weather in
February! It does me good," she added, her eyes
sparkling, "to think of all the other girls at home
going around with furs on and thick coats and com-

156

Those Men Again 157

plaining of the cold. Oh, how I wish I could see-
them now."

"Elizabeth! what a mean disposition," said Nan
demurely, adding with a twinkle in her eyes, while
she tried hard to keep her feet from fox-trotting
away with her down the gangplank: "Though I
would like to send a little note to Linda and tell her
to be careful not to go out in the cold. It might
make her nose red. Oh, Bess, look down there!"
She leaned forward suddenly, her eyes shining with
eagerness. "Isn't that Grace? And Walter "

"And Rhoda ! Yes, it is, and they are waving to-
us," cried Bess eagerly. "Of course Grace and
Walter said they would be here to meet us, but I was
afraid they never would find us in all this crowd."

Someway the girls got down to the dock, were
hugged by Grace and Rhoda, greeted hilariously by
Walter, and were hustled, out of breath, through
the crowd that thronged about them.

"How in the world did you get here, Rhoda?"
demanded Nan, when she could get a chance to ask
the question.

"I thought I'd surprise you," declared the girl
from Rose Ranch. "I fixed it all up with Grace and
told her not to say a word."

"It's grand!" declared Nan, beaming.

"The best ever," added Bess. "Oh, what grand
times we girls are going to have !"

"Sure we are going to have a grand time," said

158 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

the girl from Rose Ranch. "I think I deserve it,
after all the trouble I've been through."

"What do you suppose, she was in a railroad
wreck," burst out Grace. "A real, live-to-goodness
wreck, too."

"Oh, Rhoda, were you injured?" cried Nan
quickly.

"Just a few scratches — on my left elbow and my
shins. But it was a close call, I can tell you."

"Where was it?" asked Bess.

"Out in Connecticut. I went there to visit a dis-
tant relative of my dad. It was a little side line and
our train ran into a freight. We knocked open a
car full of chickens and what do you think? Those
chickens scattered far and wide. I'll bet many a
family is having chicken dinner on the sly this
week!"

"Then nobody was hurt?"

"Oh, yes, several were more or less bruised and
one man had an arm broken. But everybody was
thankful, for they said it might have been much
worse. But it certainly was funny to see those
chickens scattering in every direction over the snow-
covered fields," and Rhoda laughed at the recollec-
tion.

"Gee, if a fellow had been there with a gun he
might have had some hunting," cried Walter.

"Oh, Walter, you wouldn't hunt chickens with a
gun, would you ?" asked Nan, reproachfully.

Those Men Again 159

"Don't know as I would," was the quick reply.

"Oh, but now we are together, won't we have
lovely times," cried Bess.

"The very best ever," echoed Nan.

"Going to let me out?" demanded Walter.

"No, indeed, Walter, you are included."

The girls and Walter continued to compare notes
when all of a sudden Rhoda uttered a cry.

"Girls, am I seeing a ghost?" she asked, staring
straight ahead of her toward a group of richly
dressed people who were talking and laughing to-
gether. "Or is that Linda Riggs?"

"Goodness, don't say it, Rhoda!" cried Bess in
dismay. "It can't be Linda!"

But it was! For at that moment the youngest
of the much overdressed women in the group turned
with a laugh to speak to someone behind her, and
the girls found themselves face to face with their
schoolgirl enemy, Linda Riggs.

For all their dislike of the girl, the chums would
have spoken to her. But Linda stared at them coolly
for a second, and then deliberately turned her back
upon them and began to speak to a tall, gray-haired
man at her right, who the girls instinctively felt
must be her father, the railroad president.

"Those young ladies seemed to know you, my
dear," they heard the tall man say to Linda, as,
flushed and indignant, the girls and Walter pressed
on through the crowd.

160 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"They do," they heard Linda answer contemptu-
ously, and with no attempt to lower her voice. "But
I prefer not to know them — especially that Sher-
wood girl."

What the tall man said in answer, the girls could
not hear, for they were once more engulfed in a sea
of chattering humanity whose din swallowed up all
individual sound.

Impulsive Bess wanted to turn back and tell "that
horrible Riggs girl" what she thought of her, but
Nan put an arm about her angry chum and hurried
lier on.

"But, Nan, I don't see how you can stand such
things and never say a word," cried Bess, indig-
nantly. "I do believe you haven't any spirit. I
never could take an insult like that so calmly."

"I'm not a bit calm," replied Nan, gripping her
bag fiercely. "Right this minute, I'd like to get hold
of Linda Riggs and tear her hair out by the
roots."

"Why didn't you do it then?" demanded excited
Bess, and at this query even Walter, who had been
more incensed than any of the girls at the insolent
speech of Linda's, had to laugh.

"Yes, I would look pretty, wouldn't I?" laughed
Nan, all her wrath vanishing on the instant, al-
though her dislike of purse-proud Linda was more
real than ever, "announcing my arrival in Jackson-
ville by a street fight?"

Those Men Again 161

"You would look pretty any way — even pulling
Linda's hair out," laughed Walter in her ear.

"Please don't be foolish, Walter," returned Nan
loftily, at which, for some unaccountable reason,
Walter only chuckled the more.

The speech and the chuckle troubled Nan. It
seemed in some ridiculous fashion to bear out the
silly things Bess had said about her and Walter
earlier in the trip.

She forgot all about her perplexity a few moments
later, however, when Walter helped Nan and Bess
and Grace into the roomy tonneau of his big car, put
Rhoda in the front seat, squeezed himself in behind
the wheel, and started the motor.

"Well, how do you like Jacksonville, girls?" he
called back to them as the machine glided easily
forward. "As good as Tillbury, is it?" he added,
with a glance at Nan and Bess.

"Not nearly," answered Bess loyally, although in
her heart she knew that they could put two or
three Tillburys in Jacksonville and never miss
them.

The girls had known in a rather vague way that
Jacksonville was a big place, but they had never
expected to see anything like the bustling, thriving,
wide-awake city they now drove through.

"Why, it is almost as noisy and crowded as New
York," said Bess, wide-eyed, as Walter skilfully
threaded his way through the heavy traffic. "And

1 62 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

we thought that was simply awful. Walter, please
be careful."

"Don't worry," Walter sang back, grazing the
rear wheel of another machine by the very narrow-
est margin possible. "If we did hit anything, we
wouldn't be the ones to get hurt. This old bus could
stop an express train."

"Maybe it could," retorted Bess. "But please
try it some time when you are alone."

"Don't mind him," said Grace, with her quiet
smile. "You know Walter never does all he says."

"Don't I though " Walter was beginning,

when his sister cut him off by turning eagerly to
Nan and Bess.

"We're stopping at the Hampton," she said, the
Hampton being one of the largest and most import-
ant of all the large and important hotels in Jack-
sonville. "Mother has engaged a perfectly lovely
room for you girls. Rhoda and I room together. It
is just for one night, you know, for we are going
to take the train for Palm Beach to-morrow
morning."

"Then," cried Nan, happily, "we shall have all the
rest of to-day to do as we please in."

"What bliss," breathed Bess. "Walter, you are
going to be a perfect angel, aren't you, and take us
for a lovely long, long ride ?"

"At your service, fair damsel," said Walter gal-
lantly. "We were planning that anyway," he went

Those Men Again 163

on to explain. "Mother and dad thought they would
like to come along, too."

"More bliss," cried Bess, adding, as a cloud sud-
denly darkened her face : "I do hope we don't run
across Linda any more. I declare, if I ever hear
her say another word against you, Nancy Sherwood,
I shall just have to kill her, that's all."

"Well, I must say I do wish she would stay home
where she belongs," said Nan with a troubled frown.
"Wherever we go she seems sure to turn up and
spoil everything — or try to. I wonder if Cora is
with her," she added. "I didn't see her at the dock."

"Humph, you don't think she would be at the
dock, do you?" asked Walter, joining in the con-
versation. "Cora is a regular lady's maid to Linda
now, so Grace says. She must be a funny kind of
girl to stand for that sort of thing."

"Oh, Cora isn't so bad," said Nan. "I imagine
she would like to break away from Linda, but she
doesn't know just how to do it. Is this where we
get out, Walter ?" she asked, as the car slowed down
before a building that looked more like a palace than
a hotel.

"This is where we get out," replied Walter, jump-
ing from his seat and running around to open the
door for the girls. "Right this way, ladies. Fol-
low me and you'll wear diamonds. Here, boy!" he
spoke to a loitering colored boy who stood at the
hotel entrance. "Carry these grips up to three-

164 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

twenty. The hat boxes, too. I suppose you want
the hat boxes," he said, turning to the girls with a
grin.

"Well, I should say!" replied Bess. "Neither
Nan nor I would ever smile again if we should lose
one of those hats. Would we, Nan ?"

But Nan was looking behind her with startled
eyes and never even heard her friend's question.

"Walter!" she cried, grasping the boy's arm and
pointing excitedly down the street, "do you see those
men over there getting out of that taxi? Quick!
They are turning into that hotel."

"The little fat fellow and the long, thin man?"
asked Walter, with a mystified line between his
brows. "What about them? Friends of yours?"

"Take a good look at them," Nan cried, impa-
tiently shaking his arm, while Grace and Rhoda
looked on in amazement. "If you should see them
again, I want you should know them."

CHAPTER XXI

THE BEGINNING OF ROMANCE

WALTER was frankly bewildered by this time.
But he obediently took a long look at the short, fat
man and the long, thin one. Then, as they disap-
peared around a corner, he turned back to Nan and
led her toward the hotel entrance.

"Why, Nan, you are trembling," he said, as they
followed the colored boy through a handsome court-
yard and between rows of beautiful palm trees. "I
never knew you to be like this before. What's the
matter? If either of those men have bothered you,"
he added, glowering fiercely, "I'll wring their necks."

Nan gave a funny little hysterical laugh at this,
and the laugh helped to steady her after the shock
she had had at the unexpected reappearance of the
two men.

"I don't want you to wring anybody's neck," she
said, as they passed through another big door and
stopped before an elevator. "Only please, Walter,"
she looked up at him appealingly, "watch out for
them and let me know if you see them again. They
are following us."

165

1 66 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Walter's bewilderment was beginning to change
to alarm, and he would have demanded to know all
about the strange affair at once, had not the three
girls come up to them at that minute.

On the ride up to the third floor of the hotel,
where the room engaged for Nan and Bess was lo-
cated, Grace reminded Nan of nothing so much as
a human interrogation mark.

She fairly besieged the girl from Tillbury with
questions, which would have been very embarrass-
ing to poor Nan had not Rhoda interposed in her
behalf.

"I don't suppose Nan wants to tell us about it
now, Grace," she said. "Let's wait till we get up-
stairs."

Whereupon Grace was silenced temporarily. As
for Bess, she was nearly as disturbed as her chum,
and the journey up to the third floor seemed in-
terminable.

They reached it, however, and the girls stepped
out into a handsome corridor and were preceded
by the velvet-footed bellboy past interminable closed
doors, to be stopped finally before one particular
door, closed like the rest, but evidently belonging,
for the space of a day and night at least, to Nan
and Bess.

Walter dismissed the boy with a tip, and, drawing
a long key from his pocket, inserted it in the door.
A moment more and they had stepped into a beauti-

The Beginning of Romance 167

ful room, all blue and gold, and with deep, lacily
curtained windows and twin beds set over in one
corner, with a small table and a reading lamp beside
each one.

If the girls had not been used to handsome sur-
roundings, the beauty of the room might have over-
whelmed them a little. As it was, they were merely
delighted.

Walter set the bags and hat boxes inside the door
for them, and then turned to Nan, who was re,-
garding her own particular bag with a disturbed
little frown.

"I don't know what the matter is, Nan," he said
in a low voice. "But if there is anything about those
men you don't like I'll see that they don't worry
you."

"Thank you, Walter. You're a dear," said Nan
gratefully. "I'll tell you all about it just as soon
as I can. And you really can help me, Walter, if
you want to."

"I'll say I do," returned Walter boyishly. "See
you later," and he went out quickly, closing the door
behind him.

As Nan turned back into the room she found Bess
regarding her with a mischievous little smile that
said as plainly as words : "What did I tell you,
Nan Sherwood?"

Nan felt unreasonably angry, but she was not
given very much time to nurse the feeling. Grace

1 68 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

was upon her like a young whirlwind, dragging her
over to one of the beds and demanding in no un-
certain tone what she had to say in explanation of
her queer conduct a few minutes before. Rhoda sat
down on the other side of Nan, her face eagerly
flushed.

"I never was so curious in my life, Nan Sher-
wood," she said. "Hurry up and tell us all about
it."

Nan obediently went over the whole story. She
told where she was carrying Mrs. Bragley's papers,
and of her, Nan's, strange impression of being
watched ever since the papers had come into her
possession.

Then while Grace and Rhoda's eyes became wider
and wider she told of the two men they had met on
the boat and the tall one's evident desire to get into
their cabin, for some reason known only to himself.
And lastly she related how on that very morning
they had found the mysterious men in suspicious
proximity to their stateroom again and how the
two had disappeared upon catching sight of the
girls.

"Why, it's a regular mystery!" Grace cried eag-
erly, and Bess turned away from the mirror where
she .was fixing her hair and looked at her. "A real
mystery !"

"You speak as if you liked it," she said impa-
tiently. "It is lots of fun, I must say, to have Nan

The Beginning of Romance: 169

so worked up and nervous all the time that you can't
say boo to her without making her jump. If those
old men don't get arrested or something pretty
soon," she added, turning back to the mirror, "I'll
have to do something desperate, that's all."

"Please don't," said Nan, with a laugh. "Enough
is happening, goodness knows, without you starting
something, too. Oh, come on, girls," she added,
jumping up and flinging off her hat and coat. "I'll
find out something definite about Mrs. Bragley's
property before long, I hope, and then I'll be able
to get rid of these horrid old papers. In the mean-
time, here we are in Jacksonville, and to-morrow we
start for Palm Beach and everything is wonderful
and lovely. Who's that?" A tap had sounded on
the door and the girls started. "You open it, Bess.
I have my hands full."

"Goodness ! did you see me jump then?" Bess de-
manded grumpily. "I'll be as bad as Nan before
you know it."

The visitor proved to be no one more formidable
than Grace's mother, and as the girls were very fond
of her, they greeted her with literally open arms.

Of course Grace had to recount to her all over
again the story Nan had told her and Rhoda, and
before she finished Mrs. Mason was looking rather
grave.

"It certainly does look as though those papers of
yours were important, Nan," she said. "That is evi-

170 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

dently what the rascals are after. I'll tell Mr.
Mason, if you say so "

"Oh, yes," Nan put in eagerly.

"And between us we ought to solve the mystery —
if there is one."

"If there is one!" Grace exclaimed indignantly.
"Well, I never!"

"Come, dear," Mrs. Mason merely said, "I know
Nan and Bess must be a little tired after their trip,
and they will just have time to rest for an hour and
freshen up before lunch."

She led the reluctant Grace from the room. With
a laughing word Rhoda followed them, and the
chums were left alone.

That afternoon they went out right after lunch to
see Jacksonville. The Mason's car was waiting for
them outside as they stepped out upon the sidewalk
in front of the hotel, but Nan was surprised to find
Mr. Mason instead of the lawyer's son behind the
wheel.

And then she saw Walter! He was in a beauti-
ful, brand new little two-seater, which was shaped
very much like a torpedo and came smartly close to
the ground. .

Nan, who was following her chums into the big
car, stopped short at this strange apparition and
uttered an exclamation of surprise. The others fol-
lowed the direction of her glance, and Bess stood up
excitedly.

The Beginning of Romance 171

"Hey, Walter ! Where did you get the new car ?"
she asked. "Goodness, isn't it a beauty !"

"Do you like it?" asked the boy proudly, as the
nose of the impertinent-looking little runabout
stopped short within about two inches of the back
of the big car. "Dad said he was afraid I would
smash the jumbo, so he bought this little toy for
me. Some class, isn't it?"

The girls were enthusiastic, and, indeed, it was
an unusually handsome little car, and Nan ran
around to get a closer look at it.

"Dad got it for me just in time," Walter said,
patting the glossy side of his new steed.

"Why?" asked Nan innocently.

"Because there are too many in the party to ride
in the big car, and we can have a much better time
in the little fellow, I am sure. Come on, jump
in."

Although she was eager to try the new car, Nan
never wanted anything so little as she did to ride
with Walter at that particular time.

But Mr. Mason had already started his motor,
and there was nothing for Nan to do but to obey
Walter and "jump in."

The little car had a surprisingly deep, wide ton-
neau, and Nan sank back in it luxuriously. She was
conscious of the admiring scrutiny of spectators, and
then Walter did a few skilful things to the machine
and it started purringly forward after the big car,

172 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

both for all the world like a full-grown horse and its
colt.

Nan sighed contentedly. If it had not been for
Bess and the teasing she was sure to get when they
were alone together in their room, she would have
been completely happy.

Bess turned and waved to her, and the action, Nan
knew as well as if her chum had put it into words,
meant : "What did I tell you, Nan Sherwood ?"

CHAPTER XXII

PALM BEACH AT LAST

THE tourists had a beautiful time, and everybody
decided that if Palm Beach went ahead of Jackson-
ville it would have to be very wonderful indeed.

Jacksonville itself seemed to them very much like
any busy, thriving city — except that there were more
hotels. But when they came to the outskirts of the
city they were charmed and wanted to go on for-
ever.

Having lived all their lives in a temperate cli-
mate, the tropical beauty of the Florida country
entranced them and they exclaimed again and again
as beautiful new panoramas opened before them.
The moss-hung live oaks especially drew exclama-
tions of wonder from Nan.

"What a perfect picture they form," she said.
"Oh, how I wish I could make sketches of them!"

"You'll see plenty to sketch when you get to Palm
Beach," said Walter.

They visited the public parks and drove out to
some of the suburbs. Everything interested the
girls very much and they frankly said so.

173

174 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Everything is just about perfect," declared Bess.

"All but the darkeys!" sighed Rhoda. "I think
it is all perfectly lovely but the negroes. There are
so many of them, and they one and all look thor-
oughly shiftless."

"Oh, no, not shiftless," put in Mr. Mason. "They
are just care-free."

"Humph! All right, then. Care-free. Just too
lazy to care for anything at all, if they can get
enough to eat, and I suppose that is not hard down
here."

"They are quite all right when you get used to
them," put in Mrs. Mason.

It was nearing dusk when they at last turned back
toward the city, and it was then that Walter re-
minded Nan of her promise to tell him all about the
mysterious men who had startled her so.

Nan obeyed, but, strangely enough, felt none of
the uneasiness that she had felt on board the boat
and in the hotel. There was something about the
luxurious comfort of the car and Walter's reassur-
ing presence that made her feel quite safe.

But Walter himself was anything but calm. He
glowered fiercely at the road ahead of them and his
hands clenched tightly on the wheel.

"It's a rotten shame!" he burst out, when Nan
had finished her story. "If I once get hold of those
fellows there won't be enough left of them to iden-
tify."

Palm Beach at Last 175

"But you will help me find Mrs. Bragley's prop-
erty for her, won't you?" insisted Nan. "She said
it was at a place called Sunny Slopes."

"Sunny Slopes, Sunny Slopes," Walter repeated
thoughtfully. "The name sounds rather familiar to
me. I tell you what I'll do," he said, turning to
Nan with sudden decision. "Dad knows the names
of nearly all the places through here. And if this
Sunny Slopes is anywhere near Palm Beach we'll
drive over in the car. How does that suit you?"

"Oh, fine," said Nan happily, adding as she gave
him a demure glance : "Only we will drive over in
the big car and take the girls along."

"What's the matter with this car?" asked Walter,
turning to look at her. "I thought you liked it."

"I love it!" said Nan fervently, adding with a
funny little smile that Walter did not understand:
"I think on that particular trip, I would like to go
in the big car."

The morning after their delightful ride about
Jacksonville, they took the train for Palm Beach.
They found to their disgust that Linda and her party
were also on board.

"Goodness ! I think Linda must be following us,
too," Bess grumbled to Nan, looking blackly after
their schoolmate as she walked haughtily down the
car aisle. "To look at her you would think she
owned the world at least. Oh, if I could only prove
that it was she who damaged the heating plant up

176 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

at school, wouldn't it be a wonderful chance to get
even with her?"

"I don't see why you should want to waste time
getting even with her," Nan remarked calmly. "We
have more interesting things to occupy our time."

"That's all very well for you," grumbled Bess,
still feeling cross and injured by the unexpected
appearance of Linda. "But / haven't any Walter."

Nan was just about to say something unpleasant
when Walter himself hailed them. Grace and Rhoda
were with him and all wore smiles to match the
morning.

"Come on back," the boy invited. "Dad's got
chairs for the whole crowd where we can get the
finest view. But he said we had better grab 'em
quick, because there's no knowing how long they will
last in this crowd."

So the girls followed him to the observation car
and would very probably have forgotten all about
Linda, had not the girl herself made that impos-
sible.

It was hot, and there were few people in the car,
but Linda and one of the ladies in her party walked
up and down, looking occasionally out of the win-
dows, as if their energy was inexhaustible.

That would not have been so bad, had not Linda
chosen to ignore the girls so pointedly, brushing past
with her head held in the air and a manner which
said very plainly, "Who are those little specks of

Palm Beach at Last 177

dust over there? Know them? Why, of course
not!" Finally Bess felt as though she could not
stand it a moment longer.

"She's doing it on purpose, the horrid thing,"
Bess fumed to Nan. "If she doesn't stop pretty
soon, I'll give her a push and topple her over. She'll
not look so haughty then, I fancy."

Perhaps it was just as well for all concerned that
Linda stopped her bad-mannered performance
shortly after that, for Bess could not have been re-
strained much longer. With this annoyance re-
moved, they had opportunity to enjoy the ride to
the full.

Mr. Mason proved a very interesting companion,
for he knew the names of the places they passed and
told the girls funny stories about things that had
happened in each one of them until they were tired
out from the laughter.

"I never knew there were so many resorts in the
world," sighed Nan, leaning back lazily in her chair.
"The only place I really ever connected with Florida
was Palm Beach. But it seems that is only one of
about a million."

"Hardly that," laughed Mr. Mason. "It is true
there are a great many resorts in Florida, but the
most beautiful and famous of them is Palm Beach."

"Mr. Mason," spoke up Bess, with a wicked little
look at Nan, "is it true that most of the people who
go to Palm Beach are either bald-headed millionaires

178 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

or fussy women who just go there to show off their
clothes?"

Mr. Mason laughed heartily at this, and the rest
of his family joined in, while Nan shot a reproach-
ful glance at her chum.

"No, my dear," said the gentleman finally, a
humorous twist in the corners of his mouth. "I
can't say that all the guests at Palm Beach are of
the particular varieties you have mentioned. There
are bald-headed millionaires, of course, and plenty
of fussy, over-dressed women, but the people that I
have mostly met in the hotels have struck me as
being nice folks, very much like ourselves "

"Stop handing yourself bouquets, Dad," Walter
broke in, with a chuckle.

"I included the whole family," said Mr. Mason
gravely. "The millionaires," he went on, "don't
come to the hotels as a rule. They build themselves
beautiful bungalows along the shore and take their
recreation mostly in private clubs."

"Oh, dear! I think that's horrid," pouted Bess.
"That's one of the things I came for especially. I
wanted to see a dozen real live millionaires all in
one spot."

"You shall see plenty of millionaires," promised
Mr. Mason. "Although we won't guarantee to have
them all in one spot."

A few hours later the tide of passengers flowed
from the train at Palm Beach and the girls, borne

Palm Beach at Last 179

along with the crowd, looked about them eagerly.

They had heard a great deal about the beauty of
this famous winter resort, but they realized in that
one swift glance that nothing they had ever heard
had half done it justice.

"Is that a hotel over there ?" asked Nan of Grace,
as they allowed themselves to be swept on by the
merry crowd. Bess and Rhoda were coming slowly
along behind them. "That immense yellow building
with the green blinds ?"

"Yes, that's the Royal Poinciana," answered
Grace. "Where we are going to stay, you know."

"Oh, are we?" asked Nan faintly, as she gazed
up at the Royal Poinciana Hotel, which was six
stories in height and seemed to cover several acres
of ground. "Goodness, it seems as if the whole
world ought to be able to get in there. And what's
that?" she went on, pointing to another yellow build-
ing with green blinds. "Its twin ?"

"Yes. They call it The Breakers," returned
Grace, rather enjoying her new role of guide. "It
isn't quite as large as the Royal Poinciana, but dad
says it is just as good."

Before long they reached the hotel and they
waited while Walter, Bess, Rhoda and Mr. and Mrs.
Mason came puffing up to them, warm from the heat
of the afternoon sun.

"Come ahead, folks," said Mr. Mason, engineer-
ing his flock up the steps of the hotel to the porch.

i8o Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Let's get cooled and brushed up a bit, and then we
can come out and see the sights. This is the biggest
crowd I have ever found here," he added, as they
entered the darkened, cool lobby of the hotel with a
conscious sigh of relief, "and that is saying a good
deal."

CHAPTER XXIII

A TROPICAL PARADISE

THE signing of the hotel register was not an easy
task, for there were many other guests waiting to do
the same thing. Mr. Mason finally managed it,
however, and he and his rather large family were
whirled up in a roomy elevator to the fifth floor and
were shown to their rooms by a well-mannered and
friendly bellboy.

Bess and Nan were to room together and Grace
and Rhoda had a room right off theirs, connected
by a door, so that it was really as if the girls were
all in one room.

"Come down on the porch when you are ready,
girls," said Walter, just before he disappeared into
his own room, "and we'll wander around and see the
sights."

Nan and Bess were delighted with their room, for
it was large and airy and commanded a beautiful
view of Lake Worth, upon which the Royal Poin-
ciana Hotel is situated. Grace's and Rhoda's room
also faced the lake.

"Oh, girls, look at all the boats!" squealed Bess,
181

1 82 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

dancing delightedly up and down before one of the
windows. "They are so thick you can hardly see
any water between them."

"The Bargain Rush is down there somewhere,"
said Grace, as she and Nan ran across the room to
peek over Bess's shoulder. "Dad made an awful
fuss about having it shipped all the way, but Walter
said he didn't want to come if he couldn't have it."

"But, Grace, this is the first word you have said
about the Bargain Rush," said Bess reproachfully.
"And you know just how unhappy we'd be if we
did not have a boat down here."

"I've heard about Lake Worth being such a beau-
tiful harbor for the pleasure boats of the Palm Beach
tourists," said Rhoda happily, "but I never imag-
ined it was half so beautiful."

"But where is the ocean?" asked Bess, as they
turned from the window and began a hurried "fresh-
ening process." "I declare, I'm all mixed up."

"The ocean is in back of us, silly," Nan informed
her. "Didn't you notice the beautiful beach down
there as we came along? There were people in
bathing, too. Oh, don't I wish I could go in myself
this very minute. Just think of it — surf bathing in
February !"

"Br-r-r, stop it," commanded Bess with a shiver.
"You make me chilly."

They were ready to see the sights in a surprisingly
short time, and Bess noticed as they stepped out into

A Tropical Paradise 183

the corridor that Nan locked the door very care-
fully and slipped the key into her pocket.

"You aren't worrying about those men yet, are
you?" she asked.

"No-o," said Nan a little doubtfully. "But it is
always just as well to be on the safe side."

Together with other girls and boys and men and
women, all, like themselves, on pleasure bent, the
girls made their way down to the lobby of the great
hotel. Seeing nothing of Walter there, they rather
timidly stepped out upon the veranda.

The size of it made them gasp, and for a n*o-
ment they just stood staring stupidly at the seem-
ingly endless vista of chairs and tables and people
— Nan and the others were sure there were millions
of people.

They might have stood there forever, had not
Nan become suddenly aware of the admiring glances
of several of the crowd that thronged the piazza.
For the four modishly dressed girls formed a very
pretty and striking picture.

"Let's sit down or something — everybody is star-
ing at us," she whispered to Rhoda, but at that mo-
ment Rhoda caught sight of Walter and waved a
commanding hand.

"So here you are," said the boy, his face lighting
up with pleasure at the unexpected sight of the girls.
"Right this way, ladies. Say," he added, as they
started down the steps together, "you're looking

1 84 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

great, girls. It isn't every fellow who has the chance
to escort four pippins at Palm Beach."

"Pippins !" repeated Grace emphatically, while the
others giggled. "You know that's vulgar, Walter."

"Vulgar or not, it's the truth," said Walter cheer-
fully. "Isn't this some garden?" he went on.

The Royal Poinciana Hotel was set in a tropical
paradise of gorgeous flowers and shrubs and trees,
the beauty of which no one who has not seen it can
imagine.

One tree in particular caught Nan's eye and she
pointed it out eagerly.

"Look at that gorgeous thing," she cried. "What
is it, Walter — a shrub or a tree or a flower, or a
mixture of all of them ?"

"That's the Royal Poinciana tree," explained
Walter. "It is a beauty, isn't it? The hotel is
named for the tree, you know."

They wandered on again, exclaiming at every
step, so happy and excited that more than one per-
son in passing turned to look after them with an
indulgent smile.

There were the golf links between the two hotels,
and men who "looked old enough to know better,"
to quote Bess, were wandering over the velvet green
sward with faithful caddies trailing along in the

rear.
tr

I don't see what possible fun they can find in
just batting a foolish little ball about," was Nan's

A Tropical Paradise 185

comment, and Rhoda turned to her with a laugh.

"About the same pleasure that you find in batting
a foolish little tennis ball about," she said, and Nan
caught her up indignantly.

"But that's different !" she said, and they laughed
at her.

"Look !" cried Grace, a moment later, pointing to
some beautiful level tennis courts where several ani-
mated sets of singles were in progress. "You can't
say we don't give you every kind of amusement
here, Nan."

"It's wonderful," sighed Nan happily. "I'm glad
now that I thought to pack my racket before I
started. My, how I would like to be out there now."
For Nan was a tennis enthusiast, and really could
play the game well.

"I'll play you a game to-morrow morning," chal-
lenged Walter, and she took him up eagerly.

"Any time you say," she laughed. "And I'll take
the court with the sun in my eyes !"

They must have wandered on for a long time, for
the sun was getting low when they finally turned to
go back. They had passed "cottages" which must
have cost their owners a small fortune to build and
several small fortunes to maintain.

Walter pointed out to them a club of millionaires
whose membership was something like two hundred,
with three hundred more prospective members on
the waiting list.

1 86 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Goodness !" exclaimed Bess, "I think I shall have
to break in there some time. Think of seeing two
hundred millionaires all in one place, instead of only
a dozen!"

"If you break in, Bess, you may get into trouble,"
said Walter, with a twinkle in his eye. "What if
several of the millionaires proposed to you at once ?
You wouldn't know which one to take, you know
you wouldn't."

"Then I wouldn't take any of them," announced
the girl from Tillbury promptly.

"What, throw a real millionaire overboard ?" and
Walter gave a pretended gasp.

"Of course. A millionaire might be nice to look
at and very hateful to live with," and Bess flung
back her head as if that settled it.

"Oh, let's give the millionaires a rest," put in
Rhoda. "I know what I'd like."

"What?" came from several of the others.

"A horseback ride down there on the beach."

"Nothing easier," said Walter. "When do you
want to go, now? If you do, I'll get you a horse — •
over at the stand yonder."

"Will you go?" questioned the girl from Rose
Ranch, turning to her school chums.

"Hadn't we better wait until we are a little better
acquainted?" questioned Nan.

"All right. I suppose it's a bit hot to-day any-
way," said Rhoda.

A Tropical Paradise 187

"I guess you miss the riding you used to do on
the ranch," said Grace.

"I certainly do. Not but what this is very nice for
a change."

It was late when they reached the hotel at last,
and the girls began to realize for the first time that
they were tired.

"See you to-night," whispered Walter to Nan, as
Grace, Bess and Rhoda disappeared into the lobby.
"And don't forget that tennis engagement for to-
morrow. Ten o'clock sharp."

CHAPTER XXIV

NAN IS FRIGHTENED

NAN played tennis with Walter the next day, and
what is more, she beat him, four out of six. She
declared later that it must have been either pure luck,
or the fact that Walter was so dazed with surprise
at finding that it was possible for a girl to beat him
that he had given her two sets before he had recov-
ered from the shock.

Be that as it may, the fact remained that Nan had
to work her hardest to wrest a set from him after
that, and felt very lucky if she managed to win one
out of three.

On the other hand, Walter had to work his hard-
est to keep Nan from making a "fool" of him and
winning everything. Consequently his admiration
for the girl from Tillbury rose at least ten points.

The other girls were interested in the game also,
although of the three, Grace was by far the best
player. Lazy Bess much preferred reading a maga-
zine on the immense piazza, of the hotel to chasing
a ball around in the hot sun.

Jhere were so many wonderful things to occupy
188

Nan Is Frightened 189

their attention that a week flew by before they knew
it. Almost without sensing it, the girls had drifted
into the routine of gay activities that prevailed at
the resort.

There was usually a brisk walk before breakfast.
That is, there was for Nan, Rhoda, Grace and
Walter. Bess was often too tired after the gaiety
of the day before to get up before breakfast to take
anything so uninteresting as a walk.

Then came breakfast, an event in itself, for the
food was delicious, especially to such ravenous ap-
petites as the girls and Walter brought back to it,
and the beautiful dining-room of the hotel was a
treat to the eye.

After breakfast the majority of the guests sallied
forth to the delights of motoring or sailing or ten-
nis, while the others either lingered on the porch or
sauntered over to the golf links to play a game of
golf, or, if anglers, went out on a fishing excursion.

The golf course was between the two hotels, so
that the players not only furnished amusement for
themselves but for all those who cared to watch
them.

Later in the morning, somewhere between eleven
o'clock and noon, was the hour for bathing. Then
all who cared to go in the water made a dash for the
ocean, and had a cool, invigorating plunge before
luncheon. This was the hour that Nan liked best
of all.

190 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Later in the afternoon, one could either go over
to the cocoanut grove for afternoon tea and a dance
or two or take what was in many cases a much-
needed rest.

At night the girls loved to have dinner in the Gar-
den Grill, for the place itself was a romantic dream
of beauty with its palm trees and boxes of shrubs.
And the music — the music carried them far away
from the present on golden wings of melody and
made them forget that there was anything sordid
or unpleasant in all the world.

Perhaps the evening was the time that most of the
Palm Beach visitors lived for. Then came the
chance to display beautiful gowns and flashing jew-
els of fabulous worth.

There was a glamor about the lights and music
and gowns and jewels that quite went to wealth-
loving Bess's head, and even made steady Rhoda's
heart beat faster and eyes shine brighter.

As for Nan and Grace — they were just in their
element, and showed it.

Of course they met Linda Riggs occasionally. It
would have been impossible for them not to have
done so. But as the disagreeable girl continued con-
sistently to ignore them, the chums just as consist-
ently adopted the same attitude.

They met several other girls of about their own
age, and two of these girls had their brothers with
them, and these youths had two chums along — so

Nan Is Frightened 191

none of the girls wanted for partners when it came
to dancing or playing tennis. In fact, sometimes
they had "more partners than were really needed/'
as Bess put it.

"But you are not going to complain because you
have enough partners, are you ?" queried Grace.

"Oh, no, indeed," cried Bess. "I am glad there
are more boys here. Imagine Walter having to take
care of all of us."

One day all of them went for a horseback ride.
This put Rhoda in her element, and, seated on a
fine, spirited steed, the girl from Rose Ranch gave
as fine an exhibition of horsemanship as had been
seen at Palm Beach for a long time.

"Your chum rides like a regular western girl,"
said one of the boys present, to Nan.

"And that is just what she is," answered Nan.
"And one of the best girls in the world besides."

"I don't doubt it. I wish I could ride half as
well."

"Maybe Rhoda will give you lessons."

"No such luck, I'm afraid," said the boy. "But
I'll ask her anyway," and he did, with the result
that he and Rhoda went out half a dozen times, and
the girl from Rose Ranch taught him many of her
best riding tricks.

"He's a splendid fellow, Will Halliday is," said
Rhoda to Nan. "He likes outdoor life — and that's
the best there is."

192 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"Does he come from out West?"

"The middle West— Iowa."

"You are making a good rider of him, Rhoda."

"Well, I like somebody who takes a real interest
in a horse," answered the girl from Rose Ranch.

One night in the ballroom, Rhoda espied Linda
across the room and with her was a girl who looked
familiar. She called Nan's attention to the fact.

"Why, yes," said Nan with a puzzled frown. "It
looks like — why, Rhoda, it is "

"Cora Courtney !" finished Rhoda in a "what-will-
happen next" tone of voice.

"Let's go over and make sure," said Nan, and
they started to skirt the floor, hugging the wall to
escape the dancers, for the floor was already crowded
with them. But when they reached the spot where
Linda and her companion had been, the latter were
gone, and, try as they would, the girls could not find
them.

"It seems awfully strange," said Nan as they dis-
appointedly found their way back to their seats, "that
if the girl was really Cora we haven't seen her be-
fore."

They told Bess and Grace about it later, and they
agreed that the incident looked queer, to say the
least. However, they had so many things to think
about in the days that followed, that Linda slipped
entirely from their minds.

One morning the girls decided to forego their

Nan Is Frightened 193

usual game of tennis and take an early dip instead.
Nan had complained of an ache in the muscles of
her right arm, and as the trouble almost undoubtedly
came from overstrain, Walter had insisted that she
take "a day off."

The weather had seemed uncomfortably warm at
the hotel, but when they reached the beach the girls
were surprised to find that they felt chilly.

"Goodness!" said Bess with a shiver, "I think I
will let you girls go in and I'll stay here. Experi-
ence has taught me that the beautiful green ocean
about these parts isn't always as balmy and warm
as it's reported to be."

"No, you don't," said Nan decidedly. "You know
very well it spoils all the fun if one of us backs out.
Come on, Rhoda, you take the other arm. One —
two — three — go !" and Bess was hurried, half laugh-
ing and half angry and wholly protesting, down to
the water's edge and promptly ducked under a foam-
tipped, hungry, man-eating wave.

She came out on the other side and struck out
manfully, puffing and steaming like a young whale.

The girls watched her laughingly for a minute,
then plunged in after her.

"My, the water is cold," sputtered Grace, as the
girls struck out abreast with long, beautifully even
strokes. "Poor Bess! I don't know but what she
had the right idea after all."

The hour being so early, the girls had that par-

194 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

ticular portion of Old Man Ocean almost to them-
selves. There were a few early bathers, however,
and among these was a man with a long, thin face
and a mouth that was set in a hard, straight line.

Nan, doing the crawl with her head under water,
came up directly in front of this unpleasant-looking
person and was so startled and surprised in conse-
quence that she almost forgot to keep herself afloat.

Her paralysis remained only a moment, however,
and in a flash of time she was swimming back to-
ward her companions.

As for the man, having given Nan a careful look,
he suddenly made a dash for the shore and one of
the bathhouses.

"I reckon this is my chance," he said, as he got
into his clothing with all speed. "I'll do the trick
while she is in bathing."

Nan was almost out of breath when she reached
her chums.

"Listen to me !" she gasped. "I've got to get up
to the hotel — and at once !"

"Nan Sherwood, is it serious this time, or is this
only another of your attacks?" asked Bess impa-
tiently. "Here you are the one who dragged us into
the water at this early hour, and now you want to
spoil all the fun by breaking up the party. For
goodness' sake, listen to reason," she wailed, as
Nan, with a determined shake of her red-capped
head, started in toward shore.

Nan Is Frightened 195

"Haven't time," she flung back.

"You can at least tell us what the matter is,"
called Grace, as reluctant as Bess to cut short the
fun.

"Haven't time," Nan repeated, half way in to
shore now.

Bess and Grace paddled the water and looked at
each other helplessly.

"Don't you think we had better go, too?" asked
Rhoda uncertainly.

"No, I don't," was Bess's cross answer. "Nan's
acting awfully funny these days, anyway. I think
she has another secret."

As for Nan, she did not wait to see whether the
girls were following her or not, but ran posthaste to
her bathhouse, where she exchanged her bathing
suit for more formal attire. Then she hurried on
to the hotel.

She had not seen this man since his arrival at
Palm Beach, and the sudden appearance of his face
so close to hers in the water had startled her hor-
ribly. Her first thought had been of the documents
in her suitcase and her one desire to get to them as
soon as possible.

"Oh, what a fool I was not to give those papers
to Mr. Mason, or have them placed in the hotel
safe," she scolded to herself. She called herself
several kinds of a goose as she ran down the quiet
corridor to her room. As she stood before the door

196 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

a slight noise within sent her heart suddenly into
her mouth, and she hesitated before turning the
knob.

Then, with desperate courage, she flung the door
wide and stepped into the room. Before her bed
a tall, thin man was standing, and on the bed was a
bag, her bag, partly open, with the contents show-
ing!

In a moment her fear changed to flaming indig-
nation, and she sprang forward, flinging herself be-
fore the bag and pushing the man away from her
with furious, impotent little fists.

"You little imp!" the fellow snarled, catching her
wrists and holding them in an iron grip. "You
just dare make a noise, and I'll show you who's
boss. You little "

"Nan ! Oh, Nan, what's the matter?"

The voice held a frightened note, and its owner
was evidently running along the corridor toward
Nan's open door. The man said something under
his breath, released Nan's wrists, and darted to-
ward the window.

Nan, conscious of a stabbing pain in her wrists,
followed him, but not in time to stop his flight. She
saw him disappear down the fire escape and then,
with a little stifled sob, turned back into the room
and found herself face to face with her startled
chums.

"Nan ! you look like a ghost," cried Bess, flinging

Nan Is Frightened 197

an arm about the girl and drawing her to the bed.

"We thought we heard a man's voice," added
Rhoda, staring with fascinated eyes from Nan to
the half -opened bag on the bed.

Grace was plainly frightened. "Nan! was that
man here?"

"Yes," said Nan faintly. "He was here and he —
oh, girls, it was dreadful! I can't talk about it."
And she broke down with a sob and buried her head
on Bess's shoulder.

CHAPTER XXV

MOONLIGHT

WHEN Nan told her story to the Masons a little
later they were not only indignant but very gen-
uinely worried. Walter declared that he would
"catch that man and. wring his neck before the day
was up," which boast, though extremely extrava-
gant, brought strange comfort to Nan, shocked as
she had been by the events of the morning.

Mr. Mason wanted to shadow the man, but Nan
begged him not to do that until after they had had
a chance to look up Mrs. Bragley's property for
her and see what it was worth.

"If that's the way you feel," Mr. Mason decided
sympathetically, "it seems to me the best thing to do
is to get to Sunny Slopes as soon as possible, take a
look at this land, and employ an attorney, if need be,
to be sure her title is clear. Then if this man is il-
legally trying to wrest the land from its rightful
owner, we will employ a detective and see that the
fellow is brought to justice. I want to lift the load
from these young shoulders," he said, looking down
at Nan with the nice smile that made everybody like

198

Moonlight 199

him. "They are too young to carry the troubles of
other people yet."

Nan smiled up at him gratefully, and perhaps the
interview might have ended there had Walter al-
lowed it to. But Walter was still tremendously
worried about Nan.

"But Dad," he said, turning to his father accus-
ingly, "you certainly can't mean that you are going
to let that man wander around loose so that he can
worry Nan all he wants to. Why, this is four or
five times already that he has nearly frightened her
to death. Why," he continued, waxing more ex-
cited as he thought about it and glaring at the
anxious group of people as though it were in some
way all their fault, "he isn't going to stop when he
so nearly got what he wanted to-day. He may come
back again to-night "

"That is very unlikely," Mr. Mason broke in, in
a cheerful, matter-of-fact tone. "He knows that
we are on our guard now. "For all he can tell, we
may have detectives in every corridor and he will
be very careful how he ventures near Nan's room to-
night. No, he will try some other way since this
one has failed. And in a day or two we will motor
down to Sunny Slopes and relieve Nan's mind about
this woman's property."

In spite of Mr. Mason's very reasonable convic-
tion that the man would not return to Nan's room,
the girls were nervous that night, especially Bess,

2OO Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

and they were all glad when the sun, creeping in
through the window, announced that another beau-
tiful day had begun.

"Goodness!" said Bess, stretching fretfully, "if
this keeps up much longer, Nan Sherwood, I'll just
be a wreck, that's all."

"Get your cold water plunge and you will feel
better," said Nan, at which practical suggestion Bess
merely grunted.

They were to play a tennis match that day, Rhoda
and Walter against Nan and Grace, and naturally
they all had set their hearts upon winning. Bess
had begged off on the ground that it was too warm
to play.

It was a glorious morning for the sport, sunshiny
and clear, yet cool, and the girls forgot their restless
night as they stepped out upon the court.

It was not till they started to "warm up" and Nan
wound up for her usual swift serve that they had
an inkling of the thing that was to spoil the fun for
that morning, at least.

Nan struck weakly at the ball, which landed igno-
miniously in the net and then dropped her racket
with a little cry of pain. The girls and Walter ran
to her anxiously, Walter jumping the net and scoop-
ing up the ball as he came.

"What is the matter, Nan Sherwood?" Bess
wanted to know. "That's the funniest ball I ever
saw you serve."

Moonlight '201

"It's my wrist," said Nan apologetically. "It
turned just at the wrong minute. I don't seem to
liave any power in it."

"Let me see," Walter demanded masterfully, and
as he held her little wrist in his hand Nan noticed
that it was red and swollen.

"Oh-h !" she said impulsively, "that must be where
the man grabbed me so tight yesterday. I'm dread-
fully sorry to spoil your game," she added, thinking,
as always, more of every one else than of herself.

"Hang the old game," said Walter explosively.
"We can play that any time. But if I could get my
hands on that — that "

"Don't say it," begged Nan, with a little laugh.
"You mustn't talk about people behind their backs,
you know."

"But now our game is spoiled, and we have a
whole long morning on our hands," wailed Grace.
"I wish I had slept a couple of hours longer."

"I tell you what we'll do," said Walter, with sud-
'den inspiration. "We'll take some fishing tackle —
Grace and I have enough to go round — and go out
in the little old Bargain Riish to a place I know of
where the fish just come trotting up begging to be
caught. How about it, girls? Are you on?"

It seemed that they were, enthusiastically so, and
half an hour later Grace was declaring that she was
sorry about poor Nan's wrist, of course, but if this
wasn't better than playing a hot game of tennis and

202 Nan Sherwood at Palm BeacK

probably getting beaten, her name wasn't Grace
Mason, that's all.

Walter was right about the fish — they seemed to
enjoy being caught, and when, almost at noon time,
they came back to the hotel with Walter bringing
up the rear with the result of the morning's sport
proudly displayed, strangers followed them with en-
vious eyes and people they knew stopped them to
ask where they had found the fish.

As for Nan, she tried hard to enter into the old
round of gaieties with her usual enthusiasm, for she
knew that to show how worried she was would only
spoil the fun of her friends. But to herself she
acknowledged that she would not really be able to
enjoy anything again until the mystery of those
dangerous papers in her bag was finally cleared up
and she was free from espionage once more.

Walter seemed to be the only one who really un-
derstood her state of mind and when she pleaded a
headache that afternoon and broke an engagement
with the girls to go to the cocoanut grove for tea,
it was Walter who silenced their protests and took
her himself up to her room.

"I'm awfully sorry about this," he said, taking the
wrist, which had been rubbed with liniment and
neatly bandaged by Mrs. Mason, in one of his sun-
burned hands and patting it awkwardly. "Does it
ache very much now?"

"N — no. It doesn't ache at all," said Nan, add-

Moonlight 203

ing quickly to cover her confusion as she drew her
hand away, "I think you had better go down to
the girls now, Walter. They will think you've de-
serted them."

"Oh, all right," said Walter, and perhaps it was
only Nan's imagination that made her think he
looked hurt. "Be sure and save the first two dances
for me to-night."

He went out quietly, and for a long time after
he had gone Nan stood looking at the closed door.
Then her glance dropped to her bandaged wrist and
she smiled a little.

"Boys are so funny," she murmured — to no one
in particular.

There was a big dance that night, and when the
time came to dress Nan still further incensed the
girls by refusing to dress.

"How would I look in an evening dress and — this,
thing?" she asked, holding up her bandaged wrist.

"No one ever would look at your wrist when your
face is along, Nan Sherwood," said Rhoda, at which
Nan laughed but still remained firm.

"Oh, well," said Bess, flouncing over to her closet
and taking out a pretty white net and blue satin
dress, "I suppose you will have your own way, Nan.
But one way or another, that old Mrs. Bragley and
her miserable papers have just spoiled our trip. I
wish she was in Jericho!"

"It was Guinea last time," Nan laughed at her.

2O4 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Since Nan refused to dance that night, Walter
also refused. Try as she might, Nan could not get
him to alter his decision, and finally gave up the at-
tempt in despair.

"Grace and Bess will be furious," she said.

"Let them," he answered recklessly. "There are
plenty of other fellows around. See that moon over
there? Say, Nan, I have a bully idea."

They were standing in one corner of the veranda
of the Royal Poinciana. The veranda looked
strangely deserted that night, the dance being at its
height in the ballroom within, and it being still a
little early for the inevitable drifting of couples
from the heat of the ballroom to the cool breezes of
the porch.

"An idea?" asked Nan, feeling adventurous her-
self. "Tell me."

"Back there somewhere the Bargain Rush is wait-
ing," said Walter, his voice boyishly eager. "Since
we can't dance, we might as well 'putt.' And — it
seems too bad to waste that moon."

Nan thought so, too, and a moment later they
were running hand in hand through the garden to
the spot where the Bargain Rush waited. They
scrambled on board, Walter started the engine, and
they drifted out into the magic stillness of the night.

"Now tell me," said Walter after a while, his eyes
shifting from the moonlit waters of the lake to Nan
where she sat curled up in one of the chairs, gazing

Moonlight 205-

dreamily out over the shadowy water, "isn't this
better than dancing?"

"It's awfully nice," admitted Nan.

"I get so tired of the hot ballroom, and the bright
lights," went on the boy, as he bent over the engine,
to see that it was running properly.

"Well, I get tired of the lights myself, Walter."

"And those flashing jewels! Why will some of
the women load themselves with so much jewelry?'*

"I'm sure I don't know. I think too much jewelry
is horrid."

"I suppose some folks think that is the one way
to let others know that they have money."

Nan drew a deep breath. "Look at the moon,
Walter, isn't it simply wonderful?"

"Sure is. And I think "

Walter came to a sudden stop. Another motor
boat had loomed up, running dangerously close to
the Bargain Rush.

"Hi, keep away from there!" called out the boy.

"They'll run into us !" exclaimed Nan, in sudden
alarm.

"Don't get scared, sonny !" sang out a man in the
other motor boat and then he suddenly veered out
of the way, but with only an inch or two to spare.

"The great big clown !" burst out Walter, in just
anger. "He did that just to give us a scare."

"It was no way to do," said Nan. She was not
a little shaken by the unexpected happening.

206 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"I hope he runs into a tree, or a rock, or some-
thing."

"There he goes, along the other shore of the lake,"
said Nan, a few seconds later. "See, I think he is
trying to scare the folks in that other motor boat."

"He's either crazy or a fool," murmured Walter.

The unknown motorist was evidently amusing
himself at the expense of those less daring than
himself, and he raced up and down the lake several
times. But soon a larger motor boat put out and
bore down upon him.

"We've been laying for you," said a man who
was evidently an official. "You'll not try any more
of those tricks."

"That's right — place him under arrest," said an-
other man, one who had come close to suffering a
collision. "I'll make a charge against him."

"I was only having a little fun," whined the man
who had been racing around.

"You can tell your story at the police station,"
was the answer. And then the fellow was placed
under arrest.

Nan and Walter continued their ride in the moon-
light, and soon the unpleasant incident was for-
gotten. They talked of their good times at Palm
Beach, and then the youth referred to what Nan
proposed to do for Mrs. Bragley.

"Nan, I'm awfully sorry you are so worried about
those old property papers," remarked Walter pres-

Moonlight 207

ently. "Why don't you turn them over to my dad ?"

"I thought you'd say that, Walter," she returned.
"I've been expecting it. Why don't I? Well, to
tell the truth, I don't know. I — I guess I am a
little headstrong about it."

"Headstrong?" he repeated, plainly puzzled.

"Yes. You see Bess and the others think I am so
— so — well, so scared I can't keep them in my pos-
session. Well," Nan drew a deep breath, "I am
scared. But, just the same, I'm not so scared as all
that — and I'm going to prove it to them, so there !"

Walter gazed at her in open admiration for a mo-
ment.

"Nan, you're a brick !" he cried.

CHAPTER XXVI

/

WORTH A FORTUNE

MR. MASON, by inquiry, had found out that the
'district known as Sunny Slopes was about sixty
miles from Palm Beach, and the next morning they
set off by motor for the place, Mrs. Mason having
declared to her husband the night before that "it
was of no use to put the thing off any longer. The
girl's nerves were all on edge over that queer wid-
ow's mysterious papers. He may not have noticed
it, but she had been watching Nan very closely."

So it came about that a big machine, carrying Mr.
and Mrs. Mason, Nan and Bess and Rhoda, and
enough luggage to last them at a hotel for a few
days, and a torpedo-shaped little car bearing Walter
and Grace set out bright and early to make the trip
to Sunny Slopes.

Walter had taken it for granted that Nan would
ride with him, and had seemed inclined to sulk when
she decidedly refused. For Nan had taken herself
very severely to task when she had reached her room
the night before. She had broken her rule never to
.go anywhere with Walter unless the girls were

208

Worth a Fortune 209

along, and she would never, never do it again. She
was particularly hard on herself to-day — and on
poor Walter — because of the fact that she had en-
joyed that dreamlike sail over the moonlight waters
of Lake Worth more than she had ever enjoyed
anything before.

So Walter, coming behind the big machine with
Grace, sulked, and Grace scolded because, in his pre-
occupation, he nearly ran her and himself into a
ditch.

Their route lay over the lake to West Palm Beach
and then along a beautiful highway lined on either
side with gorgeous palms.

"I don't wonder the place is called Palm Beach,"
remarked Rhoda. "I never dreamed of seeing so
many fine palm trees before."

They had made careful inquiries concerning the
route, and once the houses and bungalows were left
behind they "hit it up" to a very respectable rate of
speed. The roads, for the most part, were very
good, and the only spots covered where they had to
be careful were where there had been washouts.

"It is certainly a pretty landscape," remarked
Grace, as they sped past one settlement after an-
other. "I don't wonder that you said you'd like to
make sketches, Nan."

"But I haven't made any yet," was Nan's answer,
with a slight shrug of the shoulders.

They reached Sunny Slopes about noon, and de-

Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

cided — at least their ravenous appetites decided for
them — that they had better have something to eat
before they inquired further into the mystery of
Mrs. Bragley's papers.

Nan was the only one who seemed very much ex-
cited, and the others did not notice that the girl
scarcely touched her lunch. It seemed an age to her
before the meal was finished and Mr. Mason de-
clared that they were ready to make their investi-
gations.

Nan and her friends would have been very much
surprised had they known that they were being
followed on their trip to Sunny Slopes, yet such
Avas a fact. The two men who had tried so hard
to gain possession of Sarah Bragley's documents
were growing desperate.

"We've got to do something and do it quick,"
snapped the tall, thin man. "Do you hear me ?"

"I certainly do," growled the other.

"If we fail we won't get a cent of the cash that
was promised to us."

"I know that, too," answered the short man, and
scowled deeply.

Mr. Mason had once, in his less affluent days, been
a real estate broker himself, and so pooh-poohed his
wife's suggestion that he get some one who knew
the country to direct them.

"My dear," he said, "if this Mrs. Bragley has any
property around here, I'll find it."

Worth a Fortune 211

He had, with Nan's consent, examined the docu-
ments the widow had given her and had seemed, to
Nan's eager eyes, to have been considerably im-
pressed by them.

So now as they crowded out of the restaurant —
it was the first one they had come to, and they had
been too hungry to argue about its elegance or lack
of it — and climbed into the cars again, Nan could
hardly keep still in her eagerness to know the truth
at once.

They passed down a short business street, and
then, making a turn, came out on a broad country
road.

"Sunny Slopes begins about a mile from here,"
said Mr. Mason. "It covers quite a bit of territory,
I am told. While one end is quite barren, the other
end is excellent for orange growing and is covered
with bearing trees."

"Oh, dear, I hope Mrs. Bragley's end is the
orange-growing end !" cried Nan.

"Don't be too much disappointed if it isn't," said
Mrs. Mason kindly.

Suddenly Bess, who had been laughing and talk-
ing with Rhoda about school affairs, gave a little
bounce and cried out excitedly :

"Look there ! Isn't that an orange grove ?"

"It surely is," Mr. Mason called back to her, add-
ing in a voice that showed his rising excitement:
"Your widow's property ought to be somewhere in

212 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

here, Nan. I think I'll stop the car and we can go
forward on foot."

"Oh!" said Nan softly, as, a moment later, she
jumped out into the road. "I never saw an orange
grove before. Isn't it wonderful!"

"Goodness !" said Bess, as Grace and Walter drew
up behind the big car and ran around and joined
them, "it looks as if they had all been drawn after
the same pattern — the trees, I mean. Did you ever
see anything so symmetrical in all your life?"

It was the first time any of them, except the
Masons, had been close to an orange grove, and they
all went forward for a closer look at it. The grove
was set quite a way back from the road and seemed
to cover many acres of ground, stretching symmetri-
cally back as far as the eye could see.

The orange trees were not tall, and were shaped
very much like the little toy trees the children use
to build their landscape gardens — broad at the bot-
tom and tapering up almost to a point at the top.

From his examination of the documents carried
by Nan, Mr. Mason had jotted down a number of
facts and figures. Now the lawyer walked forward
slowly and presently examined a number of stone
markers he found set in the ground. Then he
walked to a side road and read the signs thereon.
A smile of satisfaction crossed his face.

Nan, standing close to Mr. Mason, touched his
arm timidly.

Worth a Fortune

"Is this Mrs. Bragley's property?" she asked in
an awed tone.

"These are most certainly the orange groves men-
tioned in her documents," he said gravely. "How
much of it she owns will have to be determined by
an attorney. But I guess," he added, looking down
at Nan with a kindly smile, "that the property she
holds here is worth a tidy sum, several thousand
dollars at least. Of course the orange grove itself
is worth a fortune."

"I'm so glad!" cried Nan happily. "I just can't
wait to let poor Mrs. Bragley know about it."

"Well, I must say," said Bess, "that this is the
first time I've really thought those old papers were
worth anything, Nan. Perhaps now we can get rid
of them so we won't have any more trouble."

"Then there was a real reason for those men
shadowing Nan," said Walter, adding with an un-
usually fierce scowl: "If they turn up again, I will
kill them, that's all, even if it lands me in jail."

"My, aren't we dangerous," said Nan, laughing
at him.

Nan never afterward knew just how it happened,
but some way or other, among the orange trees, she
managed to get separated from the rest of the party.
She was so engrossed with happy thoughts of the
success of her plan to help Mrs. Bragley and so ab-
sorbed in imagining the woman's surprise and joy
at the news she was about to receive that it was some

214 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

time before she woke up to the fact that she was
alone.

The predicament — if indeed it was one — did not
particularly worry her, for she knew that she could
find her way back to the road easily enough and
that there was no possibility in the world of her
becoming really lost.

As she stood reveling in the tropical beauty of the
scene and smiling happily to herself, a thought sud-
denly flashed through her mind that banished the
smile from her lips and brought an anxious frown to
her brow.

"I've left my bag in the car!" she told herself.
"And with all Mrs. Bragley's papers in it! If I
should lose them now, after bringing them safely
all this way "

Action followed swift upon the thought, and she
started through the grove in the direction she had
come.

"Not so fast! Not so fast!" said a voice beside
her, and the next moment a man darted out from
the shelter of the trees and stepped directly in her
path. He was, as Nan knew the minute she heard
his voice, the tall, thin man with the straight line
for a mouth, with whom she had had so many un-
pleasant meetings before. His face showed a des-
perate expression.

Nan did not scream, although much alarmed.
She glanced over her shoulder with a half-formed

Worth a Fortune 215

thought of escape, but the man sprang forward and
laid a rough hand on her arm.

"None of that, my little lady," said the sneering
voice. "You are not going to get away from us
this time until we get what we want. Just a little
document or two is all we want. Quick now — hand
it over."

"I — I haven't any document!" gasped Nan, add-
ing with a little flare of temper: "If you don't let
go of my arm I — I'll scream."

"Oh, no, you won't! Slicker, that's your job."

Before Nan could move a soft, fat hand was
pressed over her mouth from behind and she twisted
about to find that her second captor was the short,
fat man who had been the companion of her more
dangerous enemy on the boat.

"Come, we're in a hurry," snapped the latter, and
Nan's terrified eyes came back to his. "Will you
give 'em to us or do we have to take them ?"

Nan shook her head, and with a snort of impa-
tience the man laid rough hands upon her and be-
gan to search her clothing for the papers. Then,
finding nothing, he turned upon her in a towering
rage.

"You're a sly one," he growled between his teeth.
"But let me tell you this, you little imp "

"Easy, Jensen, easy," cautioned the fat man,
whose hand still covered Nan's mouth.

"If we don't find those papers within the next

216 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

forty-eight hours," raged the other, not noticing his
companion, "you will be mighty sorry. Something
is going to happen to you! Get me?"

"You — you brute!" gasped Nan, as the fat man
removed his hand from her mouth.

"It won't do you any good to call names, Miss.
You get those papers for us. And don't you dare
to hand 'em to any of your friends either. If you
do — well, you'll be sorry. We are out for those
papers, and we are bound to have 'em."

He pushed Nan from him with such force that she
stumbled and fell full length on the ground, where
she lay, a bewildered heap of indignant girlhood.

For a moment the tall man looked at her with a
cruel smile touching his thin mouth. Then he took
his companion by the arm and disappeared through
the trees.

He pushed Nan from him with such force that she stumbled
and fell. (See page 216)

CHAPTER XXVII

WALTER TO THE RESCUE

A FAMILIAR shout roused Nan, and she sat up,
pushing the hair back from her face, and instinc-
tively straightened her dress. She picked up her
hat, which had fallen off when she fell, and she
pushed this down over her soft hair as she stumbled
to her feet.

She answered the familiar hail, and in another
moment she saw Walter running toward her, look-
ing very anxious and upset. But when the youth
saw her face he stood still, staring at her stupidly.

"Why, Nan!" he cried, "what is it? You — why,
you've been crying!"

"W-with rage," said Nan, a sob rising in her
throat. "It's those men, Walter. They searched
me! Oh, I'll never get over it — never!"

This time she broke down completely and Walter
ran to her, putting a protecting arm about her, glanc-
ing about him at the same time as if he hoped to see
the men who had frightened her and wreak ven-
geance then and there.

"Searched you! Who?" he demanded; then, be-
217

218 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

fore she could speak, he added as though answering
his own question: "It was those men, Nan. You
told me. Where are they? Quick! Which way
did they go?"

But Nan only shook her head and clung to him a
little as though she found comfort in his being
there.

"You couldn't catch them — they have had too
much of a start/* she said. Then, with a shudder
of remembrance, she drew herself from Walter's
grasp and looked at him wildly. "Walter!" she
cried. "There are all our bags in the auto — Mrs.
Bragley's papers — and those — those — beasts around

loose ! Oh — oh " Before she had finished she

had started toward the road on a run with Walter
in close pursuit.

They met the rest of the anxious party on the
way, but nothing less than an earthquake could have
stopped Nan then. She waved to them and Walter
shouted something unintelligible as he raced past,
and they had nothing else to do but to follow
the young lunatics — for that is what they called
them.

When Mr. and Mrs. Mason and the girls arrived
at the spot where they had left their car they found
Walter and Nan sitting on the running board and
Nan holding something in her hand which she waved
wildly at them.

"They're safe! They're safe!" she called, as

Walter to the Rescue 219

Rhoda, Grace and Bess ran up to her and then
stopped short at the disheveled picture she made.

"Why, Nan Sherwood!" began Bess, amazed,
"what "

"Why, Nan, you've been crying!" exclaimed
Rhoda, running forward and putting a protecting
arm about her friend.

"You needn't remind me of it," said Nan with a
hysterical little sob. "I may start again."

"But, Nan dear, something very dreadful must
have happened to make you cry so," said Mrs.
Mason gravely. "We have been worried about
you."

Nan told them all about it, with little catches of
her breath in between, while her listeners grew
more and more agitated and Bess wanted to hire a
dozen detectives immediately and give chase.

"So they gave you forty-eight hours, did they?"
asked Mr. Mason, his mouth tightening in a grim
line. "Well, I'll give them just twenty-four hours
before they land in jail. Come on, let us get back
to the town. I want to set some wheels in motion."

"But let us look for the rascals ourselves first,"
pleaded Walter. "They may not have run off as far
as you think."

"Well, it won't do any harm to take a look
around," said Mr. Mason.

He and his son went back into the orange grove
and there spent the best part of half an hour trying

22O Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

to get some trace of Nan's assailants. They found
some footprints and followed these, but presently
the marks were lost in crossing a brook.

Some men working in the far end of the orange
grove came up and wanted to know what was the
matter.

"You ought to get some bloodhounds on their
trail," said one when they "nad told their story.
"Nothing like them dogs to trail a man."

"We haven't any bloodhounds and we haven't
any time to get them," replied Mr. Mason.

"We might offer a reward for their capture," sug-
gested Walter.

"We'll do that — if the authorities cannot aid us,"
said his father.

"Those rascals ought to be hung, Dad."

"I wouldn't say hung, Walter. But they ought
to be severely punished. I fear they have scared
Nan so she will not enjoy her visit to Florida."

"You had better take those papers, Dad."

"I think so myself. I can't understand why Nan
kept them."

"Oh, some of the other girls thought she'd Be
afraid to keep them, and she wanted to show them
that she wasn't afraid. But now I guess she had
better give them up."

The search was continued for a while longer and
then father and son returned to the others. Then
all set out for town.

Walter to the Rescue 221

The girls plied Nan with questions on the way
back, but she was too worn out with her terrible ex-
perience to answer them. The reaction was upon
her, and all she wanted to do was crawl off in a cor-
ner somewhere and think things out.

They found the only hotel in Sunny Slopes, and,
under Mr. Mason's expert management, were soon
comfortably installed in a suite of rooms on the
second floor.

"You must rest a bit, Nan," said Mrs. Mason
kindly. "If you don't you may get sick."

"Oh, I can't rest," declared the girl.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Mason made her lie down, and
presently Nan dropped off into a troubled doze.
In the meanwhile Mr. Mason, followed by Walter,
had raced off to interview the authorities.

When Nan opened her eyes she found the other
girls impatiently waiting to speak to her.

"Goodness! I thought you were going to sleep
forever," said Bess, as she saw with relief that Nan's
eyes were open. Rhoda, who had been moving
around in the other room, came to the door and
peeped in.

"And here we've been waiting all this time to tell
you the news." said Grace plaintively.

"News! What news?" asked Nan, still heavy
with sleep.

"Who do you suppose is here?" asked Bess, then,
went on eagerly without waiting for an answer.

222 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

"It's Linda, Nan. And she has Cora Courtney with
her. We met them in the hall just now."

"I don't think Linda would have spoken to us,
and I'm sure we weren't going to," Grace took up
the story, "but Cora stopped, and so Linda really
had to. I imagine they are none too friendly from
the way they acted to each other."

"It's strange we haven't seen Cora but once be-
fore if she has been with Linda all the time," Bess
added excitedly, for this new development had evi-
dently quite driven Nan's trouble from her mind.
"We've seen Linda innumerable times."

"Probably Linda has been making more of a lady's
maid of Cora than usual," said Nan, putting a
hand to her forehead, which was beginning to throb
dully. "And lady's maids aren't very often seen
with their mistresses, you know."

"But what I can't understand," said Rhoda
thoughtfully from the doorway, "is why they didn't
stay at Palm Beach. I should like to know what
they are doing here."

"Following me, probably," said Nan, sitting up in
bed with a wry little laugh. "People seem to be get-
ting in the habit !"

Nan dressed a little while after that and went
•downstairs for dinner, although her head was still
aching painfully.

The attack in the orange grove and the rascals'
threat to Nan had now thoroughly aroused Mr.

Walter to the Rescue 223

Mason, and he had been out all afternoon while Nan
slept, making inquiries and setting wheels in mo-
tion.

For the short time he had been at work on the
case he had made really remarkable strides. He had
found out first of all, through an attorney in Sunny
Slopes, that Mrs. Bragley's papers were perfectly
legal and that she owned a sixth interest in the
orange grove, which was worth a little over thirty
thousand dollars. This gave the widow five thou-
sand dollars — a veritable fortune to the poor woman.

"I'll write to her to-night," Nan declared, even-
forgetting the ache in her head in her pleasure at
the good news. "Mr. Mason, I think you are won-
derful!"

"No, I'm not, my dear," Mr. Mason denied
grimly. "If I had been I should have landed those
rascals who attacked you and that crooked Pacomb
who employed them in jail before to-night."

"Pacomb!" repeated Nan breathlessly, while the
others looked interested. "Jacob Pacomb. Why,
he's the man I told you about who sold the property
to Mrs. Bragley."

"You said he was crooked, Dad," said Walter
with interest. "How do you know?"

"I've made inquiries," said Mr. Mason signifi-
cantly. "And I've found out that people out here
don't think very much of Mr. Jacob Pacomb and
his business methods. I haven't the slightest doubt

224

in the world," he added earnestly, "but what Pa-
comb has been behind all these attempts to get the
papers from you, Nan."

"Can't you arrest him?" Grace asked breathlessly.
"Of course you can !"

"I can as soon as I prove that he's a thief," her
father answered.

Bess, Grace and Rhoda slept well that night, for
they were tired out with excitement, but Nan
scarcely closed her eyes. Again and again the in-
cidents of the day came vividly back to her and she
would start up nervously at the slightest sound.

When morning came she was white and big-eyed,
and the girls were shocked when they saw her.

"For goodness' sake, Nan Sherwood," Bess
scolded, all the time hovering anxiously over her,
"I always said that that old woman's horrible pa-
pers would be the death of you, and from the way
you look this morning I guess I'm a good prophet.
Here we come to Florida for a good time, and look
what we get!"

"You do look all worn out, honey," said Rhoda,
putting an arm about her chum. "Come down on
the porch for a little while in the sunshine. It will
do you good."

"I'm all right," protested Nan. "I just have a
little headache, that's all."

"And no wonder, after all those old papers have
made you go through," grumbled Bess, as she fol-

Walter to the Rescue 225

lowed the girls out into the hall. "I'm only sur-
prised that we are not all dead by this time."

"Now all that we need to make us completely
happy," chuckled Nan, recovering a little of her old
spirits, "is to meet dear Linda. She always has
such a pleasant effect upon people."

"Oh, we'll meet her all right, don't worry," said
Bess gloomily. "She always turns up when she is
least wanted."

After breakfast, Walter, shocked and worried as
were all the rest over Nan's appearance, suggested
that he take her and the other girls, if they wanted
to go, for a little ride in the automobile.

Bess refused on the ground that she had to write
some letters, but the other three said they would go.
Mr. Mason had taken charge of Mrs. Bragley's pa-
pers, so that there was that much less for Nan to
worry about. She was thankful for this, as she
rather listlessly climbed into the back seat with
Grace and Rhoda.

"Let's go, Walter," she said, as she sank back
luxuriously into her corner. "And I don't very
much care if we never get back."

Meanwhile, Bess was having an adventure all by
herself. She went up to her room after the girls
left and dutifully wrote two letters, one to her
father and one to her mother.

Then, having had enoughT of duty for the pres-
ent, she yawned and stretched and wondered when

226 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

Walter and the girls were coming back — or whether
they intended to stay all day.

Then an impish sprite of mischief whispered in
her ear and her eyes danced merrily. On that
chance meeting with Cora and Linda in the hall
Cora had told her and Grace that they were staying
in a suite of rooms on the third floor, and had asked
them to come to see her and Linda.

And now, to while away the time till the girls'
return, Bess proposed to take advantage of Cora's
invitation and call upon her — and Linda.

She slipped along the hall, ran up the stairs to
save waiting for the elevator, and finally found the
door, the number of which Cora had given her some
time before.

She heard voices raised in altercation within, and
paused before knocking. Then she heard Nan's
name spoken in Linda's unpleasant tones, and, quite
unintentionally, she stood a moment playing eaves-
dropper.

"I tell you, she is a thief !" Linda was saying, in
a voice that showed she was in one of her frequent
rages. "Nan Sherwood has been acting funny ever
since she came to Palm Beach, and that's why I've
followed her here to see what she is up to."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," Cora shot back,
and Bess was curiously reminded of the turning
worm. "I don't believe Nan Sherwood is any thief.
I think she's a mighty nice girl. And every time I

Walter to the Rescue 227

think of the mean trick you played on her, and
how you nearly wrecked the school as well "

Bess drew in a sharp breath and immediately
came to her senses. She knocked loudly on the
door, but the raised voices of the girls within
drowned the sound.

Linda had turned on Cora in a fury.

"You take that back," she shrilled. "If you dare
tell anybody about my wrecking that steam
plant " "

But Bess, unable to contain herself another mo-
ment, tried the knob, felt the door yield, and burst
in upon the astonished girls.

"Oh !" she cried triumphantly, "I knew I couldn't
be wrong ! It was you, Linda, after all !"

CHAPTER XXVIII

CAUGHT

IT WAS lucky for Bess that Linda's father Hap-
pened in at that moment, for Linda, in her rage at
thus being found out, looked as though she would
like to tear her enemy limb from limb.

As for Cora, she gave one horrified look at Bess,
burst into tears, and fled from the room.

Mr. Riggs, who was not at all the pompous, con-
ceited man that the girls at Lakeview Hall had come
to think him, looked after Cora for a moment in
surprise, then turned smilingly back to the two girls
and asked Linda to introduce him to her friend.

For one electric moment it looked as though
Linda were about to refuse. Then what little com-
mon sense she had coming to her rescue, she sul-
lenly did as she was bid and Mr. Riggs began to
ask a few casual questions of Bess about how she
liked Florida, if she had been there before, and
other questions, which Bess answered mechanically.
Her eyes were upon Linda as she stood at a window
with her back to the room, her fingers beating a
nervous tattoo on the windowsill.

228

Caught 2291

At last Bess managed to break away and was
starting toward the door when she was surprised to
find that Linda was following her.

The girl stopped her at the door, and Bess thought
she had never seen any one as subdued and beaten
as Linda looked at that moment.

"Please, Bess," she begged, lowering her voice
so that her father would not hear, "don't tell on me !
No one at Lakeview Hall knows that I — I did that.
And no one will unless you tell them. Please,
Bess!"

"N-no, I won't tell," said Bess hesitantly. "It
was a horrible thing for you to do, Linda, and Dr.
Beulah ought to know. But I — I'm not a tattle-
tale."

Then she fled down the hall, down the stairs, and
into her room again.

She told the story to the girls and Walter that
night, and they listened in amazement.

"Well!" said Grace. "And to think that Cora
would be the one to give Linda away."

"I don't know about promising not to tell Doctor
Beulah," said Nan thoughtfully. "It seems to me
she ought to know "

"Well, you tell her then," suggested Rhoda.

"Oh, I couldn't!" Nan flashed back indignantly,
and Rhoda laughed at her.

"You see!" she said.

"Well," sighed Grace, "it's of no use to worry

230 Nari Sherwood at Palm Beach

about it now, anyway. We can't do a thing till we
get back to Lakeview Hall."

When Mr. Mason came in that night they ques-
tioned him eagerly, but he had no real news to tell
them. He had been able to prove nothing definite
against Jacob Pacomb, and as yet had found no
trace of the men who had so frightened Nan.

And Nan, away down in her heart, was still
frightened, there could be no doubt of that. The
man had threatened her, had given her forty-eight
hours to turn over the papers, and more than
twenty-four hours of that time had already passed!
If they did not succeed in tracing the scoundrels and
handing them over to justice in the next twenty- four
hours, what might not happen!

Both Rhoda and Grace shared her uneasiness, and
lazy Bess grumbled mightily at the loss of sleep con-
sequent upon it. There is no doubt but what the
girls would have rested a great deal easier that
night had they known that a house detective, well
paid for his services, kept watch outside Nan's door
till dawn crept in at the windows.

"I wish both of the men were in Greenland,"
grumbled Bess.

"Yes, and without anything to eat or drink and
'freezing to death," added Rhoda.

"I can't understand why the authorities can't
catch them," put in Grace. "They have a very good
description of them."

Caught 23 I

"Maybe they have left Florida," said Nan.

"Oh, if only they have," cried Bess. "But I am
afraid there is no such luck."

It was a weary-eyed quartette of girls that made
its way down to the dining-room that morning, and
breakfast was eaten in gloomy silence.

Walter eyed the girls with a mixture of humor
and sympathy, and once he turned to his father with
a grin.

"I say, Dad," he chuckled, "if something isn't
done to-day about this business, I'm afraid the girls
will be dead by night. They look half gone already."

After breakfast they wandered into the lobby of
the hotel to see if there was any mail for them.
Nan had not heard from Papa Sherwood or Mom-
sey for almost a week, and she was beginning to
feel neglected indeed. If only she could have them
with her now, to advise and help her in this predica-
ment!

"Here's a letter for you, Nan," Grace interrupted
her rather unhappy thoughts. "And here's another,
with a Lakeview postmark. Must be from one of
the girls at school. One for you, too, Rhoda. Looks
like Procrastination's handwriting."

Just then Bess made a funny little sound, half
gasp and half exclamation, and they turned to her.
Bess's face was white and her hand shook as she
grasped Nan's arm.

"Look at those men !" she whispered, and though

232 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

it was only a whisper it went through Nan like a
knife. "Over there — crossing the lobby! Nan!
Oh, what are you doing ? Don't, Nan, he may shoot
you ! Nan !"

But Nan was already running across the lobby,
unmindful of staring eyes, all her fear turned to
anger at these men who dared appear in public after
the cowardly attack they had made upon her. She
darted in front of them and blocked their way, her
eyes blazing and her body tense.

The short, fat man started at sight of her and
drew back. But black rage darkened his compan-
ion's face and he made a gesture as though to push
Nan out of the way. He might have done it, too,
and made his escape easily, for the curious people
who had gathered in the lobby seemed paralyzed
with amazement, had not Rhoda suddenly appeared
at her chum's side, a little flame of white-hot in-
dignation.

"Don't dare touch her!" she cried fiercely.
"You've done enough — you — you "

"Here, here, what's this?" asked an authoritative
voice, and a big burly man, an assistant manager of
the hotel, pushed his way through the gathering
crowd.

"These girls are crazy," cried the tall man, turn-
ing furiously upon the newcomer, while his fat
companion took out an immense silk handkerchief
and nervously wiped his forehead. "If you don't

Caught 233

get them out of the way and lock them up, I'll sue
your place "

"Officer, arrest those men !"

Clear and startling, the voice rang out above the
confusion, and the two men, without waiting to see
who their new enemy was, made a dash for the
open door, which was still only defended by Nan
and Rhoda.

But the hotel man was quicker than they. He
sprang before them and pushed them back into the
crowd, which opened to admit them and closed
around them again, making escape utterly impos-
sible.

For a moment, Nan and Rhoda, left outside of
the circle around the men, could see nothing of what
happened. But presently Mr. Mason — it was he
who, coming suddenly upon the scene in the lobby,
had demanded the arrest of the men — pushed his
way through the crowd and beckoned to Nan. She
went with him, and Rhoda followed close behind.
Grace and Bess had already pushed their way into
the crowd.

The house detective, who had been in consultation
with Mr. Mason when the thing happened, had
taken the two men into custody. The tall, thin
scoundrel, who had appeared in Nan's dreams for
many restless nights, stood there sullenly, glowering
around fiercely at the curious faces while his com-
panion used his handkerchief more vehemently and

234 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

seemed to be growing more nervous with every
minute that passed.

"Can you swear that these are the men who at-
tacked you in an orange grove near here yesterday
and demanded of you certain papers which were
not in your possession ?" the detective gravely asked
of Nan.

"Yes, sir," answered the girl eagerly. Walter
had slipped up beside her and was holding her hand
in a comforting grip, but she did not know it.

"Can you also testify that they have attempted to
obtain possession of these papers at various other
occasions during the last two or three weeks?" the
man went on, and this time Nan only nodded.

"Well," said the detective, turning grimly to his
prisoners, while the crowd, not having the slightest
idea what the commotion was about, but with a
keen love of the dramatic, edged closer, "I reckon
the little lady's testimony is sufficient to send you
two up for quite a little vacation."

"Wait a minute, officer," whined the fat man, in
spite of his companion's attempt to stop him. "You
want Jacob Pacomb. He's the man who got us into
this mess."

"So you've turned stool pigeon, too, as well as
crook?" drawled the detective, while Nan and Mr.
Mason exchanged a triumphant look. "Yes, I
reckon we do want Jacob Pacomb, too. We've been
wanting him for a long while. But since this is the

Caught 235

first chance we've had to get the goods on him, we
won't waste any time doing it. Will one of you
gentlemen call up the police station?"

Mr. Mason nodded, and the crowd opened to make
way for him.

But at the mention of the police station, the fat
man broke down completely and, evidently nursing
some false hope that by telling all he knew he might
get off easy himself, he babbled unceasingly until
the police patrol drew up before the door. His com-
panion stood off by himself, with apparently no in-
terest whatever in the proceedings.

"Fine," said the detective, rising and patting the
short man on the back as two policemen made their
way into the lobby and saluted him. "Now you can
tell the rest of your story to the judge. Will you
come with us, sir?" he asked, turning to Mr. Mason
as the policeman took the men in charge. "We may
need your testimony to round up Jacob Pacomb."

Mr. Mason nodded, but paused for a moment on
his way to the door to speak to Nan.

"Everything's fine," he said, beaming down upon
her. "We'll get this Pacomb where we want him,
and then your troubles — and Mrs. Bragley's — will
be over, Nan. Tell you all about it when I get
back."

Nan smiled back at him, and then as the crowd,
its curiosity satisfied, began to disperse, she sank
down into one of the comfortable chairs and looked

236 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

weakly up at her excited chums. Then for the first

time she noticed Walter — and the fact that he was

holding her hand.

"Where did you get it?" she asked.

"What?"

"My hand?"

Walter chuckled and answered slyly:

"I took it when you weren't looking."

She smiled at him weakly — but it was rather a

satisfying smile.

CHAPTER XXIX
"WHEN THE SPIRIT MOVES"

"On. I'M so excited," said Grace, looking from
Walter to Nan. "Just think, Nan ! Everything hap-
pened just like a story."

"Well, I must say," said Bess emphatically, "that
for my part I'm glad it's over. I may be able to
sleep to-night without expecting to be stabbed in the
back."

"Goodness! they weren't after you," said Nan

practical!}'. "I was the — the " she paused for

a word and Walter obligingly supplied it.

"Goat?" he asked.

"Goat," she agreed with a smile.

"Oh, but you were wonderful, Nan," said Grace
worshipfully. "I never would have had the courage
to face those men the way you did."

"But if it hadn't been for Rhoda, they might have
got away even then," said Nan generously, and
Rhoda flushed with pleasure.

"I'm glad if I helped at all," the girl from Rose
Ranch said modestly.

It was not till the girls were alone in their room

237

238 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

that they remembered the unopened morning mail.
Nan had been holding her letters tight in her hand
through all the excitement. They opened them with-
out much interest, for even letters could hardly
hope to compete with the excitement of this
morning.

One of Nan's letters was from Momsey, and she
put it away with a tender smile, for she always saved
the best till the last. Then she opened the other let-
ter, which was from Laura Polk, and immediately
her indifference changed to interest.

In the letter, which Nan read aloud, Laura re-
counted excitedly to Nan how Dr. Prescott had
found that Linda was responsible for the wrecking
of the steam plant and that Linda's father would un-
doubtedly be asked to pay the bill for repairs.;

"Does she say how they found out?" questioned
Bess quickly.

"One of the servants saw Linda down there witK
some rope. She was taken sick and went home for
a while, and did not know anything about the trouble
at the school. But she is well now and ready to go
back to her work, and in talking to Doctor Beulah
the story came out."

"I'm mighty glad Doctor Beulah knows," said
Bess. "I don't suppose any of us could have told
on Linda, but she deserved to be found out — the
horrid thing."

"I don't suppose Linda can help her disposition,"

"When the Spirit Moves" 239

said Grace mildly. "I heard mother say once that
she was her own worst enemy."

"I suppose she is," said Rhoda skeptically. "But
that doesn't make us like her any better !"

Then Nan put down Laura's letter and turned to
Momsey's. It was a long, long letter, and she read
it over twice.

"Dear Momsey!" she murmured to herself.
"How much I will have to tell you when I see you
again !"

A few hours later Mr. Mason came back with the
news that Jacob Pacomb had been arrested for the
crooked swindler that he was.

It seemed that at the time he had sold the property
to Mrs. Bragley's husband, Pacomb had made five
other grants, and, now that the property had proved
more valuable than he had hoped for, he was trying
underhand means to recover it.

The men who had made life miserable for Nan
for the last few weeks and had almost wrecked
Bess's temper and who were now gracing twin cells
in prison, were simply agents of Pacomb's.

"So now everything is settled happily," Mr.
Mason finished. "We can go back to Palm Beach
whenever the spirit moves us."

The spirit did not move them for several days,
however, for Sunny Slopes was a pretty place and
the surrounding country beautiful. Also Nan had
telegraphed the joyful news to Mrs. Bragley and,

240 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

since she had given the address of the hotel where
they were staying, she was eager to receive a letter
in answer from the widow before they went back
to the Royal Poinciana.

"Although I do hope she writes soon," she had
confided to Walter. "For I am really getting home-
sick for Palm Beach again."

The girls went to see Linda the day after Nan
received Laura's letter, but found that she and Cora
had left without leaving word of any kind for any
of them.

"Poor Cora!" Bess said, as they made their way
down to the street. "I guess she hasn't had any
easy time of it since she let the cat out of the bag
to me about Linda."

At last the expected letter came from Mrs. Brag-
ley, and the girls gathered around Nan eagerly as
she read it aloud. One had only to read the first
line to tell that the old woman was overjoyed at her
good fortune. The letter fairly overflowed with
gratitude to Nan for what she had done.

"It has lifted a weight from my shoulders,
my dear, such as you will never know," the let-
ter finished. "At least I hope and pray that you
may not. And if the time ever comes when you
need help, don't be afraid to come to a lonely
old woman, who will be proud and happy to
pay back a little of the debt she owes you."

"When the Spirit Moves" 241

"That's worth every disagreeable thing we went
through, isn't it, girls?" Nan asked, looking up at
them with shining eyes. "Isn't it wonderful to be
able to make somebody just a little bit happier be-
cause they have met you?"

"Maybe that's why we are all so happy," said
Bess gaily, flinging her arms about her chum. "Be-
cause we have you, Nan Sherwood."

"Now with Nan's villains and Linda off our
minds," drawled Rhoda, sinking lazily down into
the depths of a big chair, "we ought to be able to
enjoy ourselves."

"Will we !" cried Grace softly. "Just you watch
us!"

The next morning they started back for Palm
Beach. Walter asked Nan to ride with him, and
she surprised herself as much as him by accepting
the invitation.

She was feeling joyously carefree and venture-
some this morning, and it was wonderful to be be-
side Walter in the car with the sweet wind rushing
by and the country unfolding in tropical luxuriance
at every turn.

"Oh, Walter, aren't you glad you're alive?" she
asked of the youth at her side.

Walter's eyes were happy as he turned to her.

"You said it," he answered fervently.

Just then Bess, in the car ahead, looked back at
them. Was it only Nan's imagination again or did

242 Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach

the look seem to say, more plainly than any words
could have done:

"Nan Sherwood, what did I tell you?" .

But Nan just then did not care what Bess thought.
She was very happy and that being so she meant to
enjoy herself thoroughly during the remainder of
her stay in Florida.

And now,, with many good times still in store for
them at Palm Beach, we will say good-bye to Nan
Sherwood and her chums.

THE END

UNIVERSITY of

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

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ft. APR

1 0 1982

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