She looked for Maud Stanton and saw her swimming straight out, but still a long way from the person in distress. Then Patsy, always quick-witted in emergencies, made a dash for the shore where a small boat was drawn up on the beach.
“Come, Arthur, quick!” she cried to the young man, who was calmly wading near the beach, and he caught the note of terror in her voice and hastened to help push the little craft into the water.
“Jump in!” she panted, “and row as hard as you ever rowed in all your life.”
Young Weldon was prompt to obey. He asked no useless questions but, realizing that someone was in danger, he pulled a strong, steady oar and let Patsy steer the boat.
The laughter and merry shouts of the bathers, who were all unaware that a tragedy was developing close at hand, rang in the girl’s ears as she peered eagerly ahead for a sign to guide her. Now she espied Maud Stanton, far out beyond the others, circling around and diving into this wave or that as it passed her.
“Whoever it was,” she muttered, half aloud, “is surely done for by this time. Hurry, Arthur! I’m afraid Maud has exhausted all her strength.”
But just then Maud dived again and when she reappeared was holding fast to something dark and inanimate. A moment later the boat swept to her side and she said:
“Get him aboard, if you can. Don’t mind me; I’m all right.”
Arthur reached down and drew a slight, boyish form over the gunwale, while Patsy clasped Maud’s hand and helped the girl over the side. She was still strong, but panted from her exertions to support the boy.
“Who is it?” inquired Patsy, as Arthur headed the boat for the shore.
Maud shook her head, leaning forward to look at the face of the rescued one for the first time.
“I’ve never seen him before,” she said. “Isn’t it too bad that I reached him too late?”
Patsy nodded, gazing at the white, delicate profile of the young fellow as he lay lifeless at her feet. Too late, undoubtedly; and he was a mere boy, with all the interests of life just unfolding for him.
Their adventure had now been noticed by some of the bathers, who crowded forward to meet the boat as it grounded on the beach. Uncle John, always keeping an eye on his beloved nieces, had noted every detail of the rescue and as a dozen strong men pulled the boat across the sands, beyond the reach of the surf, the Merrick automobile rolled up beside it.
“Now, then!” cried the little man energetically, and with the assistance of his chauffeur he lifted the lifeless form into the car.
“The hospital?” said Patsy, nodding approval.
“Yes,” he answered. “No; you girls can’t come in your wet bathing suits.
I’ll do all that can be done.”
Even as he spoke the machine whirled away, and looking after it Maud said, shaking her head mildly: “I fear he’s right. Little can be done for the poor fellow now.”
“Oh, lots can be done,” returned Patsy; “but perhaps it won’t bring him back to life. Anyhow, it’s right to make every attempt, as promptly as possible, and certainly Uncle John didn’t waste any time.”
Beth and Florence now joined them and Louise came running up to ask eager questions.
“Who was it, Patsy?”
“We don’t know. Some poor fellow who got too far out and had a cramp, perhaps. Or his strength may have given out. He didn’t seem very rugged.”
“He was struggling when first I saw him,” said Maud. “It seemed dreadful to watch the poor boy drowning when hundreds of people were laughing and playing in the water within earshot of him.”
“That was the trouble,” declared Arthur Weldon. “All those people were intent on themselves and made so much noise that his cries for help could not be heard.”
The tragedy, now generally known, had the effect of sobering the bathers and most of them left the water and trooped to the bathhouses to dress. Mrs. Montrose advised the girls to get their clothes on, as all were shivering — partly from nervousness — in their wet bathing suits.
They were ready an hour before Mr. Merrick returned, and his long absence surprised them until they saw his smiling face as he drove up in his car. It gave them a thrill of hope as in chorus they cried:
“Well — Uncle John?”
“I think he will live,” returned the little man, with an air of great satisfaction. “Anyway, he’s alive and breathing now, and the doctors say there’s every reason to expect a rapid recovery.”
“Who is he?” they asked, crowding around him.
“A. Jones.”
“A — what?” This from Patsy, in a doubtful tone.
“Jones. A. Jones.”
“Why, he must have given you an assumed name!”
“He didn’t give us any name. As soon as he recovered consciousness he fell asleep, and I left him slumbering as peacefully as a baby. But we went through his clothes, hoping to get a trace of his friends, so they could be notified. His bathing suit is his own, not rented, and the name ‘A. Jones’ is embroidered on tape and sewn to each piece. Also the key to bathhouse number twenty-six was tied to his wrist. The superintendent sent a man for his clothing and we examined that, too. The letters ‘A.J.’ were stamped in gold on his pocketbook, and in his cardcase were a number of cards engraved: ‘A. Jones, Sangoa.’ But there were no letters, or any other papers.”
“Where is Sangoa?” inquired Beth.
“No one seems to know,” confessed Uncle John. “There was plenty of money in his pocket-book and he has a valuable watch, but no other jewelry. His clothes were made by a Los Angeles tailor, but when they called him up by telephone he knew nothing about his customer except that he had ordered his suit and paid for it in advance. He called for it three days ago, and carried it away with him, so we have no clue to the boy’s dwelling place.”
“Isn’t that a little strange — perhaps a little suspicious?” asked
Mrs. Montrose.
“I think not, ma’am,” answered Mr. Merrick. “We made these investigations at the time we still feared he would die, so as to communicate with any friends or relatives he might have. But after he passed the crisis so well and fell asleep, the hospital people stopped worrying about him. He seems like any ordinary, well-to-do young fellow, and a couple of days in the hospital ought to put him upon his feet again.”
“But Sangoa, Uncle; is that a town or a country?”
“Some out-of-the-way village, I suppose. People are here from every crack and corner of America, you know.”
“It sounds a bit Spanish,” commented Arthur. “Maybe he is from Mexico.”
“Maybe,” agreed Uncle John. “Anyhow, Maud has saved his life, and if it’s worth anything to him he ought to be grateful.”
“Never mind that,” said Maud, flushing prettily with embarrassment as all eyes turned upon her, “I’m glad I noticed him in time; but now that he is all right he need never know who it was that rescued him. And, for that matter, sir, Patsy Doyle and Mr. Weldon did as much for him as I. Perhaps they saved us both, while your promptness in getting him to the hospital was the main factor in saving his life.”
“Well, it’s all marked down in the hospital books,” remarked Uncle John. “I had to tell the whole story, you see, as a matter of record, and all our names are there, so none can escape the credit due her — or him.”
“In truth,” said Mrs. Montrose with a smile, “it really required four of you to save one slender boy.”
“Yes, he needed a lot of saving,” laughed Flo. “But,” her pretty face growing more serious, “I believe it was all Fate, and nothing else. Had we not come to the beach this afternoon, the boy might have drowned; so, as I suggested the trip, I’m going to take a little credit myself.”
“Looking at it in that light,” said Patsy, “the moving picture man saved the boy’s life by giving you a half-holiday.”
This caused a laugh, for their spirits were now restored to normal. To celebrate the occasion, Mr. Merrick proposed to take them all into Los Angeles
to dine at a “swell restaurant” before returning to Hollywood.
This little event, in conjunction with the afternoon’s adventure, made them all more intimate, so that when they finally reached home and separated for the night they felt like old friends rather than recent acquaintances.
CHAPTER VI
A. JONES
There was work for the Stanton girls at the “film factory,” as they called it, next morning, so they had left the hotel before Mr. Merrick’s party assembled at the breakfast table.
“I must telephone the Santa Monica hospital and find out how our patient is,” remarked Uncle John, when the meal was over; but presently he returned from the telephone booth with a puzzled expression upon his face. “A. Jones has disappeared!” he announced.
“Disappeared! What do you mean, Uncle?” asked Beth.
“He woke early and declared he was himself again, paid his bill, said ‘good morning’ to the hospital superintendent and walked away. He wouldn’t answer questions, but kept asking them. The nurse showed him the book with the record of how he was saved, but she couldn’t induce him to say who he was, where he came from nor where he was going. Seems a little queer, doesn’t it?”
They all confessed that it did.
“However,” said Patsy Doyle, “I’m glad he recovered, and I’m sure Maud will be when she hears the news. The boy has a perfect right to keep his own counsel, but he might have had the grace to tell us what that initial ‘A.’ stands for, and where on earth Sangoa is.”
“I’ve been inquiring about Sangoa,” announced Arthur, just then joining the group, “and no one seems wiser than we are. There’s no record of such a town or state in Mexico, or in the United States — so far as I can discover. The clerk has sent for a map of Alaska, and perhaps we’ll find Sangoa there.”
“What does it matter?” inquired Louise.
“Why, we don’t like to be stumped,” asserted Patsy, “that’s all. Here is a young man from Sangoa, and — ”
“Really,” interrupted Beth, who was gazing through the window, “I believe here is the young man from Sangoa!”
“Where?” they all cried, crowding forward to look.
“Coming up the walk. See! Isn’t that the same mysterious individual whose life Maud saved?”
“That’s the identical mystery,” declared Uncle John. “I suppose he has come here to look us up and thank us.”
“Then, for heaven’s sake, girls, pump him and find out where Sangoa is,” said Arthur hastily, and the next moment a bell boy approached their party with a card.
They looked at the young fellow curiously as he came toward them. He seemed not more than eighteen years of age and his thin features wore a tired expression that was not the result of his recent experience but proved to be habitual. His manner was not languid, however, but rather composed; at the same time he held himself alert, as if constantly on his guard. His dress was simple but in good taste and he displayed no embarrassment as he greeted the party with a low bow.
“Ah,” said Uncle John, heartily shaking his hand, “I am delighted to find you so perfectly recovered.”
A slight smile, sad and deprecating, flickered for an instant over his lips. It gave the boyish face a patient and rather sweet expression as he slowly replied:
“I am quite myself to-day, sir, and I have come to assure you of my gratitude for your rescue of me yesterday. Perhaps it wasn’t worth all your bother, but since you generously took the trouble to save me, the least I can do is to tender you my thanks.” Here he looked from one to another of the three girls and continued: “Please tell me which young lady swam to my assistance.”
“Oh, it was none of us,” said Patsy. “Miss Stanton — Maud Stanton — swam out to you, when she noticed you were struggling, and kept you afloat until we — until help came.”
“And Miss Stanton is not here?”
“Not at present, although she is staying at this hotel.”
He gravely considered this information for a moment. As he stood there, swaying slightly, he appeared so frail and delicate that Uncle John seized his arm and made him sit down in a big easy chair. The boy sighed, took a memorandum from his pocket and glanced at it.
“Miss Doyle and Mr. Weldon pulled out in a boat and rescued both Miss Stanton and me, just as we were about to sink,” he said. “Tell me, please, if either Miss Doyle or Mr. Weldon is present.”
“I am Arthur Weldon,” said that young gentleman; “but I was merely the boatman, under command of Miss Doyle, whom I beg to present to you.”
A. Jones looked earnestly into Patsy’s face. Holding out his hand he said with his odd smile: “Thank you.” Then he turned to shake Arthur’s hand, after which he continued: “I also am indebted to Mr. Merrick for carrying me to the hospital. The doctor told me that only this prompt action enabled them to resuscitate me at all. And now, I believe it would be courteous for me to tell you who I am and how I came to be in such dire peril.”
He paused to look around him questioningly and the interest on every face was clearly evident. Arthur took this opportunity to introduce Jones to Louise and Beth and then they all sat down again. Said Uncle John to the stranger, in his frank and friendly way:
“Tell us as much or as little as you like, my boy. We are not unduly inquisitive, I assure you.”
“Thank you, sir. I am an American, and my name is Jones. That is, I may claim American parentage, although I was born upon a scarcely known island in the Pacific which my father purchased from the government of Uruguay some thirty years ago.”
“Sangoa?” asked Arthur.
He seemed surprised at the question but readily answered:
“Yes; Sangoa. My father was a grandnephew of John Paul Jones and very proud of the connection; but instead of being a sailor he was a scientist, and he chose to pass his life in retirement from the world.”
“Your father is no longer living, then?” said Mr. Merrick.
“He passed away a year ago, on his beloved island. My mother died several years before him. I began to feel lonely at Sangoa and I was anxious to visit America, of which my mother had so often told me. So some months ago I reached San Francisco, since when I have been traveling over your country — my country, may I call it? — and studying your modern civilization. In New York I remained fully three months. It is only about ten days since I returned to this coast.”
He stopped abruptly, as if he considered he had told enough. The brief recital had interested his auditors, but the ensuing pause was rather embarrassing.
“I suppose you have been visiting relatives of your parents,” remarked
Uncle John, to ease the situation.
“They — had no relatives that I know of,” he returned. “I am quite alone in the world. You must not suppose I am unaccustomed to the water,” he hastened to add, as if to retreat from an unpleasant subject. “At Sangoa I have bathed in the sea ever since I can remember anything; but — I am not in good health. I suffer from indigestion, a chronic condition, which is my incubus. Yesterday my strength suddenly deserted me and I became helpless.”
“How fortunate it was that Maud noticed you!” exclaimed Patsy, with generous sympathy.
Again the half sad smile softened his face as he looked at her.
“I am not sure it was wholly fortunate for me,” he said, “although I admit I have no wish to end my uninteresting life by drowning. I am not a misanthrope, in spite of my bad stomach. The world is more useful to me than I am to the world, but that is not my fault. Pardon me for talking so much about myself.”
“Oh, we are intensely interested, I assure you,” replied Patsy. “If some of us were indeed the instruments that saved you yesterday, it is a pleasure to us to know something of the — the man — we saved.”
She had almost said “boy,” he was such a youthful person, and he knew it as well as she did.
“I would like to meet Miss Stanton and thank her personally,” he presently resumed. “So, if you have no object
ion, I think I shall register at this hotel and take a room. I — I am not very strong yet, but perhaps Miss Stanton will see me when I have rested a little.”
“She won’t return before five o’clock,” explained Mr. Merrick. “Miss Stanton is — er — connected with a motion picture company, you know, and is busy during the day.”
He seemed both surprised and perplexed, at first, but after a moment’s thought he said:
“She is an actress, then?”
“Yes; she and her sister. They have with them an aunt, Mrs. Montrose, for companion.”
“Thank you. Then I will try to meet them this evening.”
As he spoke he rose with some difficulty and bade them adieu. Arthur went with him to the desk and proffered his assistance, but the young man said he needed nothing but rest.
“And just think of it,” said Patsy, when he had gone. “We don’t know yet what that ‘A’ stands for!”
“Arthur,” suggested Louise.
“Albert,” said Beth.
“Or Algernon,” added Uncle John with a chuckle.
“But we haven’t seen the last of him yet,” declared Miss Doyle. “I’ve a romance all plotted, of which A. Jones is to be the hero. He will fall in love with Maud and carry her away to his island!”
“I’m not so sure of that result,” observed Uncle John thoughtfully. “It wouldn’t astonish me to have him fall in love with Maud Stanton; we’ve all done that, you know; but could Maud — could any girl — be attracted by a lean, dismal boy with a weak stomach, such as A. Jones?”
“Even with these drawbacks he is quite interesting,” asserted Beth.
“He is sure to win her sympathy,” said Louise.
“But, above all,” declared Patsy, “he has an island, inherited from his royal daddy. That island would count for a lot, with any girl!”
Complete Works of L. Frank Baum Page 508
