There were sounds of voices inside the door, which ceased with her knock, and a cold voice bade her come in.
Chin up, she walked arrogantly into the room and faced the hard, cold eyes of her elderly husband. The man with the cruel mouth and the sharp, sharp eyes that always saw too much and searched back into any past in which he cared to interest himself.
The cold eyes were searching her face now, and the cold voice said, “Well, so you decided to come back at last!”
“I came as soon as I got your message,” drawled the girl indifferently. “I understood you ordered me to stay there until I heard from you.”
“Hm! I didn’t notice that it was a very great trial to you to go to the town your former fiancé was soon to come to.”
“I understood that was the reason you sent me there,” said Jessica. “You distinctly asked me to look him up at once when he arrived and get in touch with him.”
“Did you do it?”
“I certainly did my best.”
“Just what did you do? I haven’t had any report yet.”
“There wasn’t anything to report,” said Jessica in a calm tone. “I wasn’t able yet to get in touch with him.”
“Just what did you do? Why couldn’t you get in touch with him? He arrived at his home, didn’t he?”
“Yes, he arrived, and I went at once to the house and entered just as I used to, going right out to the dining room where they were all sitting down at the table, but by the time I got there Rod wasn’t there, and nobody seemed to know where he was.”
“Well? What then?”
“He didn’t come back. And nobody would tell just where he was. If it had been in the old days, of course I would have gone through the house hunting for him, but they didn’t give me any chance to do that.”
“I thought you were a clever girl.”
“Yes, I thought so, too.”
“Why didn’t you go to some of his family?”
“I did. I did everything I knew how, but apparently they are all in league with him. I chased him everywhere I heard of his being, but there was always somebody with him. I even went to an old religious meeting to try and see him, and he just walked out on me before I could get near him. I got close to a stupid old gossip of a cousin of his and she tried to work things for me, and she’s getting news about his movements for me now, but so far I haven’t got any definite news. If you hadn’t sent such an imperative order for me to come back, I should have stayed, for today was going to be a critical time. The stupid cousin seemed to think she was right on the verge of a discovery. She thinks it’s going to be Naval Intelligence. Does that mean anything to you?”
“It certainly does,” said the man with a glint of fire in his stony eyes. “It’s most important. I had begun to think you were a flat tire, but if you can manage to get into an office where that matter is carried on, especially if you can manage an intimate meeting where you would have opportunity to ask a lot of questions, perhaps overlook some papers with important writing, get familiar with the office, arrange to meet him at his place of work. Of course it will likely be well guarded, but you would have to plan a way to get in there. You would probably know how best to get around your man, having known him for years. Then when you get that far there will be a way to get hold of some important papers we want, and you will have to keep your eyes open. I’ll write a list of words and phrases you are to look for. And there is a paper we very much need for evidence that must be destroyed.”
“Destroyed? How could I destroy anything?” asked Jessica with a startled look. “You promised me there would be no danger connected with what I had to do.”
“No, no danger. There are ways, you know. Little time bombs that can be left around near a safe or close to a file of records or wherever you discover they are keeping the kind of papers we need. That, of course, is the most important part of your mission. And the danger will be scarcely appreciable. Of course when you have arranged your blast—it is just a little thing like a pencil, scarcely noticeable—you will have to arrange to get out quickly and get downstairs out of danger, but I’m sure by that time you will be familiar enough with the place to have that all fixed up beforehand.”
“But there must be danger connected with a thing like that!”
“Look here, Jessica. Did you ever see a stone like this?”
Jessica turned frightened eyes toward the velvet case the stern husband was holding out to her. It was white velvet, and in the center shone a great blue diamond, its wonderful lights stabbing her in the face, stirring her heart with envy and longing.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” said Jessica. “It’s a blue diamond, isn’t it? Yes, I saw one once in New York in an exhibit of stones, but I never saw such a lovely one. Oh, Carver, where did you get it? Is it yours?”
The sinister eyes were gloating over the look in the girl’s eager face. Then he pronounced the words for which he had demanded her presence. “It is yours, if you carry out my orders!”
“Oh, Carver! I’d do anything to own that!”
“Even if there were danger connected with its possession?”
The frightened look came back and peered out through the eager light, but it was as if with an impulsive movement of her hands she brushed the fear aside and made her quick decision.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, no matter what the danger. I should worry. I want that stone at all costs.”
“Very well!” said the cold voice, now full of calm satisfaction. “Just do your part and the stone will be yours! Now, you better get back to the job and don’t let any opportunities pass you by. Get intimate with that old-time boyfriend, and I don’t mean maybe.”
There followed instructions, some in code that she had already learned, some given orally.
When Jessica started back to Riverton, she carried in her mind’s eye the gleaming stone of which she had just been given another gorgeous glimpse. She had even been allowed to hold it against her white hand and note the rainbow tints that shot through it, her face full of gloating eagerness. To have that jewel for her own! What more could any girl desire?
All through her return journey, Jessica was thinking about that jewel, though occasionally her conscience, or whatever it was she used for a conscience, told her that she really ought to be planning how she was going to recover her old hold on Rodney Graeme.
But it was the thought of the jewel and how it would look on her slender hand. That sustained her. She could go in triumph back to Riverton. She would show it to Rodney and let him see how she had gained by giving up his little white diamond. Oh, of course his wasn’t really little. It was wonderfully large for a boy in college to be able to get with his own savings, and she had been proud of it then, but of course it was silly to try to stick to it when she had a chance at bigger things, and she was glad she had had the courage to send that ring back. Perhaps she had been foolish. She might have kept it and strung him along. Then she would have had another ring in her collection. Of course there was the emerald she got from the French diplomat that winter she spent in Washington, and the star sapphire the young Russian officer had given her at the beginning of the war, and the ruby from that silly man she met at the mountains that last summer before she was married. Why hadn’t she kept Rodney’s diamond? Just because she hated to tell him she had let him down. She had sent that ring back to break it to him gently. Just because the Graeme family were so frightfully conscientious and would think she was so awful to keep a diamond ring for nothing.
Wild thoughts like these kept flashing through her mind, and then an idea came to her. After all, it was what she was supposed to be doing on this journey back to Riverton, thinking up some way to get back into Rodney’s good graces, and wasn’t that ring a key to it? That was it. A legitimate reason for getting into touch with him. She would ask to have the ring back!
How could she manage it? Well, there would be a way. And that nice little diamond would make a good guard for this lovely big blue jewel!
Chapter 16
As the trip to Washington drew nearer, the little company of young people who met almost daily, at either the Graemes’ or Sandersons’, grew more tense and almost excited. It wasn’t the young man who was to speak on the radio who was tense or excited. For Rodney had been too long in the service to count a little testimony over the radio as anything much. Rodney was excited for entirely another reason. For he knew the time of their companionship was drawing nearer and nearer to a close, and he knew that in a very few short days not his own fate was to be decided, whether he would have to go back overseas or serve in some way in this country, as had been hinted to him more than once by subtle questions.
And it wasn’t that he was so deeply concerned about where he was to be located, on his own account, except that he wanted to be near home if possible. But it had come to him more and more every day that this companionship with the lovely Diana might be almost over. For Kathie had hinted to Jeremy, who had promptly conveyed the news to Rodney, that Diana was more than half committed to a rich handsome officer in the army whom she had known since childhood, one of a noble family, and greatly favored by Diana’s people. So not only Rodney but equally his brother and sister were deeply disturbed over the possibilities of the future.
Now was the time, of course, when Rodney had opportunity to make sure about this, to offer his own love, and hope to win the girl who had come to mean so much to him. But Rodney did not feel that he had a right to commit himself to any girl until he knew what his immediate prospects were to be. He was just as old-fashioned as that. If he only could have asked her out plainly if she were engaged, it would have been so much easier for him. But there was something innately fine about him that forbade him to rush her into a relationship with one whom she scarcely knew yet. And she was too fine herself to show more than lovely comradeship in her association with him. So it was only through their great expressive eyes, by a stray smile now and then, that any preference had been actually shown by either of them. Yet the eyes and a smile now and again can often start the heart beating, and so it was that these two were occupied with thoughts of one another, pleasant dealings with the outer edges of one another’s lives, hovering around great questions each would like to ask, yet dreaded to broach lest the present joy of their fellowship should be in any way spoiled by bald facts.
And the other four young people were equally engaged in watching them. Kathie and her young chaplain were as much interested as Jeremy and Beryl. For little by little, Beryl had spoken of Bates Hibberd, and, with an occasional question now and again, Jeremy was pretty well acquainted with the complications and dreaded lest his beloved brother had another disappointment in store for him. Oh, no, not that, dear Lord, not for Rodney!
As the day of the Washington trip drew near, Jeremy came in the night before looking troubled.
“Say, Rod, that young hysteric of a Jessica didn’t stay away after all. You know I told you I saw her taking the westbound train the other day. Well, she’s back. Yes, I saw her this morning, and I’m almost certain she’ll try to horn in our trip if she finds out and we don’t do something about it.”
“Hm!” said Rodney with perplexed brows. “What would you suggest we do? The railroad trains are free, we can’t stop her, and we can’t likely get gas enough to drive down. Besides, Dad needs the car.”
“No, I don’t need the car today,” said the smiling father, walking in just in time to hear the talk. “Take it and welcome. If that brazen girl once gets the idea that you are going somewhere, she’ll manage somehow to go, too. She’s like a leech when she once gets hold. As for gas, Rod’s broadcasting for the government, isn’t he? He’ll have no trouble getting what gas he needs.”
“Sorry!” said Rodney, looking exceedingly troubled. “Dad, I know you do need your car. It’s all my fault, of course. I should have had better sense than ever to have thought she was worth anything. Somebody ought to teach little kids that a pretty face isn’t everything. But there, probably my mother did, only I didn’t take it. I’m the sinner. I ought to pay the penalty. I might take the midnight train and go down by myself.”
“No you won’t, Rod. I don’t intend to use the car today anyway,” said the father again.
“Okay,” said Jerry. “We’ll start an hour earlier than we had planned and go in the opposite direction. Get Mom to send a jar of honey to Aunt Polly over in Andersonville, and go around by Prattsville. It can’t be more than two or three miles out of the way, and we can get into the highway easily from there. And then when ‘Chatty’ comes over to Mom to find out what has become of us, she can tell her we took some honey to our old cook. See?”
“Good scheme, brother. That ought to relieve the situation,” said Rodney. “I don’t know what I’d do in my little old life without you, Jerry.”
“Okay! Let’s get to work. I’ll call up the girls and tell them to be ready an hour sooner.”
The next morning was bright and clear, and the young people were ready even earlier than necessary.
“Say, this is grand!” said Diana, smiling at Jerry. “When did you think of this?”
“It’s just a scheme to get away without having uninvited guests,” said Jerry, grinning.
“Uninvited guests?” said Diana with a puzzled frown. “Would anybody try that?”
Jerry gave another wry grin.
“There are that would,” he said with a comical wink. “Ever meet Jessica De Groot? Ever know our cousin Louella?”
“Oh! Would they? Both of them?”
“They work in pairs just now. Besides, they know the car holds seven passengers. One too many more or less means nothing to either of them in their young lives.”
“What impossible people!” said Diana. “Of course I don’t know them. I think I was introduced, perhaps at that meeting we attended when you spoke, but I didn’t talk with them even, and I’ve only seen either of them in the distance since.”
“They’re best seen from a distance,” said Jerry grimly. “Avoid them if you can!” And with another grin, Jerry swung himself into his seat behind the wheel, and they were soon on their way.
There was perhaps more joy in that little carload of six young people on their way to Washington than in any place in that land. Oh, there were still possibilities of separations and dread in the future of course, but for that day at least they had sunshine and a blue sky, they had each other, and no jealousies, no bitterness, no animosity in that whole company. Just gladness that God had made them and brought them together and let them have this day with each other. They had escaped from a possible enemy of discord and were having a nice time.
But back in Riverton, the two allied enemies were holding a conference and getting ready to go to work in earnest. For now Jessica had something real to do, and she knew what she wanted to find out. She had spent some of the hours in the train, when she ought to have been sleeping, planning out just how Louella could best help her. She had planned also just how she would open her campaign in order to lead her elderly ally to see what was expected of her and would not be startled into drawing back or hesitating. For at present, Louella was Jessica’s only possible connection with the source of her needed information, and Louella was not only proud but flattered to be her emissary on so important an errand.
They held their conference in the morning, and after a heartening lunch, Jessica went back to her room to take a restful nap, feeling that her morning had been well spent. Louella put herself in battle array and betook herself to the Graeme house to begin her first engagement of the new campaign.
She arrived at the Graemes’ house just as Margaret Graeme had retired to her room to get a much-needed nap while her household moved on smoothl
y without her. The children would not be at home to dinner that night. They would probably all stay over in Washington, to drive home by moonlight if the weather continued favorable. So this was a good time to rest. She and her husband were going to be on hand to listen to the radio, of course, when Rodney was speaking, and then they were going to take the bus over to a friend’s house to dinner. It was almost an unheard-of thing for them to be able to get away together this way, and it made a real holiday for them both. So Margaret had gone to rest with a real feeling of luxury upon her.
Father Graeme was out about the farm, looking over his fences to see if there were any places that needed mending and getting things ready for the evening milking so that he would not be late in starting to the dinner party.
Hetty had gone on her semi-annual visit to a cousin in the country, so there was nobody at home to go to the door when Louella rang persistently, over and over again, and Margaret Graeme slept calmly on, not aware of its ringing nor of the feeble, angry pounding of Louella’s fist on the door. Just for once, perhaps because she was unusually wary, or because she was so fully relieved of the constant pressure from the daily routine, she slept on.
Louella at last was furious. She stepped out into the driveway and looked up at the windows, where the muslin curtains were blowing pleasantly in the afternoon breeze.
“Margaret! Oh Margaret!” she called insistently. “Where on earth are you?”
After several more calls, she gave up and sat down on the steps to consider what she should do next. Then she heard the ring of a scythe against a stone, and listening sharply, she located the sound over behind the barn. She got up immediately and marched around the house till she could look out over the meadow, and there she saw Donald Graeme. Climbing fearsomely up the rails of the fence she called in her refined, angry little voice, “Donald! Oh, Donald: Donald Graeme!”
Most emphatically the words rang out over the meadow, chiming in with the occasional ring of the steady scythe, going on with its rhythmic swinging.
Girl to Come Home To Page 17
