The Best of Mary Roberts Rinehart

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  "What sort of trouble?". I asked, in a flutering voice. For if she knew and told I would not recieve the reward, or not solely.

  "I think you know," she rejoined, in a suspicous tone." And that you should assist in such a thing, Miss Bab, is a great Surprize to me. I have considered you flitey, but nothing more."

  She then slapped a cup custard down in front of me and went away, leaving me very nervous. Did she know of the Theif, or was she merely refering to the car, which she might have guest from grease on my clothes, which would get there in spite of being carful, especialy when changing a tire?

  Well, I have now come to the horrable events of that night, at writing which my pen almost refuses. To have dreamed and hoped for a certain thing, and then by my own actions to frustrate it was to be my fate.

  "Oh God! that one might read the book of fate!" Shakspeare.

  As I felt that, when everything was over, the people would come in from the Club and the other country places to see the captured Crimenal, I put on one of the frocks which mother had ordered and charged to me on that Allowence which was by that time NON EST. (Latin for dissapated. I use dissapated in the sense of spent, and not debauchery.) By that time it was nine o'clock, and Tom had not come, nor even telephoned. But I felt this way. If he was going to be jealous it was better to know it now, rather than when to late and perhaps a number of offspring.

  I sat on the Terrace and waited, knowing full well that it was to soon, but nervous anyhow. I had before that locked all the library windows but the one with the X on the sketch, also putting a nail at the top so he could not open them and escape. And I had the key of the library door and my trusty weapon under a cushion, loaded--the weapon, of course, not the key.

  I then sat down to my lonely Vigil.

  At eleven P. M. I saw a sureptitious Figure coming across the lawn, and was for a moment alarmed, as he might be coming while the Familey and the jewels, and so on, were still at the Club.

  But it was only Carter Brooks, who said he had invited himself to stay all night, and the Club was sickning, as all the old people were playing cards and the young ones were paired and he was an odd man.

  He then sat down on the cushion with the revolver under it, and said:

  "Gee whiz! Am I on the Cat? Because if so it is dead. It moves not."

  "It might be a Revolver," I said, in a calm voice. "There was one lying around somwhere."

  So he got up and observed: "I have conscientous scruples against sitting on a poor, unprotected gun, Bab." He then picked it up and it went off, but did no harm except to put a hole in his hat which was on the floor.

  "Now see here, Bab," he observed, looking angry, because it was a new one--the hat. "I know you, and I strongly suspect you put that Gun there. And no blue eyes and white frock will make me think otherwise. And if so, why?"

  "I am alone a good deal, Carter," I said, in a wistfull manner, "as my natural protecters are usualy enjoying the flesh pots of Egypt. So it is natural that I should wish to be at least fortified against trouble."

  HE THEN PUT THE REVOLVER IN HIS POCKET, and remarked that he was all the protecter I needed, and that the flesh pots only seemed desirable because I was not yet out. But that once out I would find them full of indigestion, headaches, and heartburn.

  "This being grown-up is a sort of Promised Land," he said, "and it is always just over the edge of the World. You'll never be as nice again, Bab, as you are just now. And because you are still a little girl, although `plited,' I am going to kiss the tip of your ear, which even the lady who ansers letters in the newspapers could not object to, and send you up to bed."

  So he bent over and kissed the tip of my ear, which I considered not a sentamental spot and therfore not to be fussy about. And I had to pretend to go up to my chamber.

  I was in a state of great trepidation as I entered my Residense, because how was I to capture my prey unless armed to the teeth? Little did Carter Brooks think that he carried in his pocket, not a Revolver or at least not merely, but my entire future.

  However, I am not one to give up, and beyond a few tears of weakness, I did not give way. In a half hour or so I heard Carter Brooks asking George for a whisky and soda and a suit of father's pajamas, and I knew that, ere long, he would be would be

  In pleasing Dreams and slumbers light. Scott.

  Would or would he not bolt his door? On this hung, in the Biblical phraze, all the law and the profits.

  He did not. Crouching in my Chamber I saw the light over his transom become blackness, and soon after, on opening his door and speaking his name softly, there was no response. I therfore went in and took my Revolver from his bureau, but there was somthing wrong with the spring and it went off. It broke nothing, and as for Hannah saying it nearly killed her, this is not true. It went into her mattress and wakened her, but nothing more.

  Carter wakened up and yelled, but I went out into the hall and said:

  "I have taken my Revolver, which belongs to me anyhow. And don't dare to come out, because you are not dressed."

  I then went into my chamber and closed the door firmly, because the servants were coming down screaming and Hannah was yelling that she was shot. I explained through the door that nothing was wrong, and that I would give them a dollar each to go back to bed and not alarm my dear parents. Which they promised.

  It was then midnight, and soon after my Familey returned and went to bed. I then went downstairs and put on a dark coat because of not wishing to be seen, and a cap of father's, wishing to apear as masculine as possable, and went outside, carrying my weapon, and being careful not to shoot it, as the spring seemed very loose. I felt lonely, but not terrafied, as I would have been had I not known the Theif personaly and felt that he was not of a violent tipe.

  It was a dark night, and I sat down on the verandah outside the fatal window, which is a French one to the floor, and waited. But suddenly my heart almost stopped. Some one was moving about INSIDE!

  I had not thought of an acomplice, yet such there must be. For I could hear, on the hill, the noise of my automobile, which is not good on grades and has to climb in a low geer. How terrable, to, to think of us as betrayed by one of our own MENAGE!

  It was indeed a cricis.

  However, by getting in through a pantrey window, which I had done since a child for cake and so on, I entered the hall and was able, without a sound, to close and lock the library door. In this way, owing to nails in the windows, I thus had the Gilty Member of our MENAGE so that only the one window remained, and I now returned to the outside and covered it with a steady aim.

  What was my horror to see a bag thrust out through this window and set down by the unknown within!

  Dear reader, have you ever stood by and seen a home you loved looted, despoiled and deprived of even the egg spoons, silver after-dinner coffee cups, jewels and toilet articals? If not, you cannot comprehand my greif and stern resolve to recover them, at whatever cost.

  I by now cared little for the Reward but everything for honor.

  The second Theif was now aproaching. I sank behind a steamer chair and waited.

  Need I say here that I meant to kill no one? Have I not, in every page, shown that I am one for peace and have no desire for bloodshed? I think I have. Yet, when the Theif apeared on the verandah and turned a pocket flash on the leather bag, which I percieved was one belonging to the Familey, I felt indeed like shooting him, although not in a fatal spot.

  He then entered the room and spoke in a low tone.

  THE REWARD WAS MINE.

  I but slipped to the window and closed it from the outside, at the same time putting in a nail as mentioned before, so that it could not be raised, and then, raising my revolver in the air, I fired the remaining four bullets, forgeting the roof of the verandah which now has four holes in it.

  Can I go on? Have I the strength to finish? Can I tell how the Theif cursed and tried to raise the window, and how every one came downstairs in their night clothes and broke in the library d
oor, while carrying pokers, and knives, et cetera. And how, when they had met with no violence but only sulkey silence, and turned on the lights, there was Leila dressed ready to elope, and the Theif had his arms around her, and she was weeping? Because he was poor, although of good familey, and lived in another city, where he was a broker, my familey had objected to him. Had I but been taken into Leila's confidence, which he considered I had, or at least that I understood, how I would have helped, instead of thwarting! If any parents or older sisters read this, let them see how wrong it is to leave any member of the familey in the dark, especialy in AFFAIRES DE COUER.

  Having seen from the verandah window that I had comitted an enor, and unable to bear any more, I crawled in the pantrey window again and went up stairs to my Chamber. There I undressed and having hid my weapon, pretended to be asleep.

  Some time later I heard my father open the door and look in.

  "Bab!" he said, in a stealthy tone.

  I then pretended to wake up, and he came in and turned on a light.

  "I suppose you've been asleep all night," he said, looking at me with a searching glanse.

  "Not lately," I said. "I--wasn't there a Noise or somthing?"

  "There was," he said. "Quite a racket. You're a sound sleeper. Well, turn over and settle down. I don't want my little girl to lose her Beauty Sleep."

  He then went over to the lamp and said:

  "By the way, Bab, I don't mind you're sleeping in my golf cap, but put it back in the morning because I hate to have to hunt my things all over the place."

  I had forgoten to take off his cap!

  Ah, well, it was all over, although he said nothing more, and went out. But the next morning, after a terrable night, when I realized that Leila had been about to get married and I had ruined everything, I found a note from him under my door.

  DEAR BAB: After thinking things over, I think you and I would better say nothing about last night's mystery. But suppose you bring your car to meet me tonight at the station, and we will take a ride, avoiding milk wagons if possible. You might bring your check book, too, and the revolver, which we had better bury in some quiet spot. FATHER.

  P. S. I have mentioned to your mother that I am thinking of buying you a small car. VERBUM SAP.

  * * * *

  The next day my mother took me calling, because if the Servants were talking it was best to put up a bold front, and pretend that nothing had happened except a Burglar alarm and no Burglar. We went to Gray's and Tom's grandmother was there, WITHOUT HER CRUCHES.

  During the evening I dressed in a pink frock, with roses, and listened for a car, because I knew Tom was now allowed to drive again. I felt very kind and forgiving, because father had said I was to bring the car to our garage and he would buy gasoline and so on, although paying no old bills, because I would have to work out my own Salvation, but buying my revolver at what I paid for it.

  But Tom did not come. This I could not beleive at first, because such conduct is very young and imature, and to much like fighting at dancing school because of not keeping step and so on.

  At last, Dear Reader, I heard a machine coming, and I went to the entrance to our drive, sliding in the shrubery to surprize him. I did not tremble as previously, because I had learned that he was but human, though I had once considered otherwise, but I was willing to forget.

  How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot! The World forgeting, by the World forgot. Pope.

  However, the car did not turn into our drive, but went on. And in it were Tom, and that one who I had considered until that time my best and most intimite friend, Jane Raleigh.

  SANS fiancee, SANS friend, SANS reward and SANS Allowence, I turned and went back to my father, who was on the verandah and was now, with my mother and sister, all that I had left in the World.

  And my father said: "Well, here I am, around as usual. Do you feel to grown-up to sit on my knee?"

  I did not.

  CHAPTER V

  THE G.A.C.

  APRIL 9TH. As I am leaving this School to-morrow for the Easter Holadays, I revert to this Dairy, which has not been written in for some months, owing to being a Senior now and carrying a heavy schedule.

  My trunk has now gone, and I have but just returned from Chapel, where Miss Everett made a Speach, as the Head has quinzy. She raised a large Emblem that we have purchaced at fifty cents each, and said in a thrilling voice that our beloved Country was now at war, and expected each and all to do his duty.

  "I shall not," she said, "point out to any the Fields of their Usefulness. That they must determine for themselves. But I know that the Girls of this school will do what they find to do, and return to the school at the end of two weeks, school opening with evening Chapel as usual and no tardiness permitted, better off for the use they have made of this Precious Period."

  We then sang the Star-Spangled Banner, all standing and facing the piano, but watching to see if Fraulein sang, which she did. Because there are those who consider that she is a German Spy.

  I am now sitting in the Upper House, wondering what I can do. For I am like this and always have been. I am an American through and through, having been told that I look like a tipical American girl. And I do not beleive in allowing Patriotism to be a matter of words--words, emty words.

  No. I am one who beleives in doing things, even though necesarily small. What if I can be but one of the little drops of Water or little grains of Sand? I am ready to rise like a lioness to my country's call and would, if permitted and not considered imodest by my Familey, put on the clothing of the Other Sex and go into the trenches.

  What can I do?

  It is strange to be going home in this manner, thinking of Duty and not of boys and young men. Usualy when about to return to my Familey I think of Clothes and AFFAIRS DE COUER, because at school there is nothing much of either except on Friday evenings. But now all is changed. All my friends of the Other Sex will have roused to the defense of their Country, and will be away.

  And I to must do my part, or bit, as the English say.

  But what? Oh what?

  APRIL 10TH. I am writing this in the Train, which accounts for poor writing, etcetera. But I cannot wait for I now see a way to help my Country.

  The way I thought of it was this:

  I had been sitting in deep thought, and although returning to my Familey was feeling sad at the idea of my Country at war and I not helping. Because what could I do, alone and unarmed? What was my strength against that of the German Army? A trifle light as air!

  It was at this point in my pain and feeling of being utterly useless, that a young man in the next seat asked if he might close the Window, owing to Soot and having no other coller with him. I assented.

  How little did I realize that although resembling any other Male of twenty years, he was realy Providence?

  The way it happened was in this manner. Although not supposed to talk on trains, owing to once getting the wrong suit-case, etcetera, one cannot very well refuse to anser if one is merely asked about a Window. And also I pride myself on knowing Human Nature, being seldom decieved as to whether a gentleman or not. I gave him a steady glance, and saw that he was one.

  I then merely said to him that I hoped he intended to enlist, because I felt that I could at least do this much for my Native Land.

  "I have already done so," he said, and sat down beside me. He was very interesting and I think will make a good soldier, although not handsome. He said he had been to Plattsburg the summer before, drilling, and had not been the same since, feeling now very ernest and only smoking three times a day. And he was two inches smaller in the waste and three inches more in chest. He then said:

  "If some of you girls with nothing to do would only try it you would have a new outlook on Life."

  "Nothing to do!" I retorted, in an angry manner. "I am sick and tired of the way my Sex is always reproached as having nothing to do. If you consider French and music and Algebra and History and English composition nothing, as well a
s keeping house and having children and atending to social duties, I DO not."

  "Sorry," he said, stiffly. "Of course I had no idea--do you mean that you have a Familey of your own?"

  "I was refering to my Sex in general," I replied, in a cold tone.

  He then said that there were Camps for girls, like Plattsburg only more Femanine, and that they were bully. (This was his word. I do not use slang.)

  "You see," he said, "they take a lot of over-indulged society girls and make them over into real People."

  Ye gods! Over-indulged!

  "Why don't you go to one?" he then asked.

  "Evadently," I said, "I am not a real Person."

  "Well, I wouldn't go as far as that. But there isn't much left of the way God made a girl, by the time she's been curled and dressed and governessed for years, is there? They can't even walk, but they talk about helping in the War. It makes me sick!"

  I now saw that I had made a mistake, and began reading a Magazine, so he went back to his seat and we were as strangers again. As I was very angry I again opened my window, and he got a cinder in his eye and had to have the Porter get it out.

  He got out soon after, and he had the impertinance to stop beside me and say:

  "I hate to disapoint you, but I find I have a clean coller in my bag after all." He then smiled at me, although I gave him no encouragment whatever, and said: "You're sitting up much better, you know. And if you would take off those heals I'll venture to say you could WALK with any one."

  I detested him with feirceness at that time. But since then I have pondered over what he said. For it is my Nature to be fair and to consider things from every angel. I therfore said this to myself.

  "If members of the Male Sex can reduce their wastes and increase their usefulness to their Native Land by camping, exercising and drilling, why not get up a camp of my own, since I knew that I would not be alowed to go away to train, owing to my Familey?"

  I am always one to decide quickly. So I have now made a sketch of a Unaform and written out the names of ten girls who will be home when I am. I here write out the Purpose of our organisation: