The Phantom Town Mystery

by Carol Norton

  CHAPTER XXVIII A NEW COMPLICATION

  In the lumbering old police ambulance, the four young people returned toTombstone and found Harry Hulbert sitting in a rocker on the hotel porchwaiting for them. He ran toward them waving his cap boyishly. The"Seagull" reposed in the middle of the square surrounded by interestedand curious cowboys who had ridden in from the range for the mail. Manyof them had come from far and had heard nothing of the "Seagull's" partin the recent raid.

  "Where do we go from here?" Harry asked when he had learned of themorning adventure.

  "If you can take Mr. Goode's small car," Mary began, but Harryinterrupted with, "Can't be done! They're both out, one gone to Bisbeeand the other to Nogales."

  "Oh, Big Brother," Mary exclaimed, "couldn't Harry sit in the front sidedoor of your car? We girls used to ride that way at school sometimes."

  "Sure thing!" the cowboy agreed. "All aboard, let's get going."

  Mary smiled up at him happily. "If the calf has been milking the cow allthis time, it--"

  Jerry shook his head. "No such luck--for the calf. Mother can milk in anemergency."

  The ride to Gleeson was a merry one. Harry sat, literally, at Mary'sfeet, looking up at her admiringly and directing his conversation to heralmost entirely. Jerry was very silent. No one but Dora noticed that.When Gleeson was reached, the small car stopped in front of the store andthey all rushed in and astounded the old storekeeper with their exultantshout, "We've found Little Bodil!"

  "'Tain't so!" He stared at them unbelievingly. "Arter all these years!Wall, wall! I'll be dum-blasted! So Little Bodil is one o' themnun-women." While he talked, he went behind his counter, took an oldcigar box from a high shelf, opened it and held out an envelope, yellowedwith age. He handed it to Jerry. "Take it to Little Bodil. I'll be cu'rosto hear what all's in it."

  "So are we, Mr. Harvey," Mary began, then exclaimed contritely, "Oh, howterrible of us. We haven't introduced the hero of the hour. Mr. SilasHarvey, this is the air scout who located the train robbers, HarryHulbert. He seems like an old friend to us, doesn't he, Jerry?"

  "Sure thing!" the cowboy replied, then glancing at the old dust-coveredclock, he quickly added, "Dick, I reckon I must be getting along over to_Bar N_."

  "Goodbye, Mr. Harvey. Glad to have met you." Harry shook hands with theold man.

  When they were outside the post office, the air scout turned to thecowboy. "Jerry, can't I be your letter carrier?" he asked. "While I waswaiting for you in Tombstone I enquired about the stage. I can get backthere in about an hour. Then I must fly to Tucson for a meeting atheadquarters tonight. I can motor out to the convent and be back heretomorrow morning with the letter translated."

  "Sounds all right to me," Jerry said.

  "And during the hour that you have to wait for the stage," Mary turnedbrightly toward Harry, "you may become acquainted with the nicest dad inthe world."

  Forgetting the presence of the others, Harry replied, "Is _that_ why hisdaughter is the nicest girl in the world?"

  Mary flushed bewitchingly, but it was evident that she was embarrassed.

  Jerry drove them up to the Moore house, waited while Dick bounded indoorsto speak to his mother, then they two rode away, promising to return assoon as they could the next day.

  Dora, who had been watching Jerry's face, knew that he had been deeplyhurt, but she was sure he would not say anything to influence Mary. Dorathought, "He wants her to choose the one of them who would make herhappier, I suppose. Believe me, it wouldn't take _me_ long to decide."

  Mr. Moore had heard nothing of the robbery or the raid. Mrs. Farley hadnot wished to cause him a moment's anxiety about the safety of hisidolized daughter. She had told him that the girls were spending thenight with Mrs. Goode in Tombstone, and, since the wife of the DeputySheriff had been a close friend of Mary's mother, he had thought littleof it. Even now that it was all over, they decided to merely introduceHarry as a friend of Patsy and Polly, who had come West to be attached tothe border patrol.

  Mr. Moore welcomed the boy gladly, and, for half an hour, they talkedtogether of the East and the West. Mary and Dora slipped away andreturned with lemonade and a plate of Carmelita's cookie-snaps.

  Then the two girls walked down to the cross road with Harry and waiteduntil he climbed aboard the funny old 'bus and rode away.

  He bent low over Mary at the last moment. Dora had not heard hiswhispered words, but she knew by the sudden flush that they had beencomplimentary.

  Arm in arm they turned and walked back up the gently ascending hill-roadtoward their home.

  "How do you like the newcomer?" Dora tried to make her voice soundindifferent.

  Mary laughingly confessed, "I'd really like him lots better if he didn'tflatter me so much."

  Dora replied, "I know how you feel. I'd heaps rather have a boy be just agood pal. It makes a person feel, oh, as if she were the sort of a girl aboy thought he had to make love to, or she wouldn't be having a goodtime. I've known steens of them, fine fellows really, who came over fromWales Military to our dances. They thought the only way they could put itover big was to flatter their partners. You know _that_ as well as I do.Why, we Quadralettes have compared notes time and again and found thesame boy had said the same complimentary thing to all four of us." Marymade no reply, so Dora continued, "Dick and Jerry are the sort of boyfriends I like. They treat us as if we could be talked to about somethingbesides ourselves. I tell you, the girl who can win the love of JerryNewcomb is going to win one of the finest men who walks on this greenearth."

  Dora's tone was so earnest that Mary laughed. "Goodness!" she teased."Why all this eloquence? There isn't any green earth around here forJerry to walk on. It's all sand."

  Suddenly Dora changed the subject. "Why do you suppose Little Bodil iscalled Sister Theresa?" she asked.

  Mary replied rather absently, "Oh, I think they give up their own andchoose a saint's name. Anyhow, I've heard they do."

  It was evident she was thinking deeply of something else.

  Her thoughtfulness continued until after supper.

  "What a wonderful moonlight night!" Dora said as the two girls seatedthemselves on the top step of the front porch to gaze out across theshimmering desert valley, below the tableland on which they lived. "Iwish Jerry and Dick would come and take us for a ride." Hardly had shesaid the words when they saw a dark object scudding along on the valleyroad.

  "Somebody _is_ coming toward Gleeson from the _Bar N_ ranch way," Marysaid, and Dora noted that her voice was eager, as though she wanted,_very much wanted_, to see her silent cowboy lover.

  For a long time they sat watching the narrow strip of cross road beyondthe post office. If the car turned, it would surely be coming to theMoore place. If it passed, it would be going on to Tombstone probably. Itturned. More slowly it climbed the grade.

  "It's the little 'tin Cayuse,' all right," Dora said. She was watchingthe eager light in Mary's face, lovely in the moonlight. Then, suddenlyits brightness was shadowed, went out. Dora saw the reason. On the frontseat with Jerry was another girl, a glowing-eyed, truly beautiful girl,Etta Dooley. In the rumble with Dick were two freckle-faced boys, thetwins. Their ruddy faces were glowing with grins of delight. "Hurray!"they shouted as the small car stopped near the front porch. "We're outmoonlight riding."

  Dick quieted them, remembering that Mr. Moore might be asleep. Mary,looking pale in the silver light, went down to the car and asked Etta ifshe wouldn't get out. "No, thank you," that maiden replied, "I've leftBaby Bess with Aunt Mollie and we've been gone more than an hour now, Ido believe."

  "It hasn't seemed that long, has it?" Jerry was actually looking at Ettaand not at Mary.

  "Oh, indeed not!" was the happily given reply. "It's a treat for thetwins and me to fly through space. Once upon a time I had a little car ofmy own, but that seems _ages_ ago."

  This did not seem like the same Etta Dooley who had been so reserved whenthe girls had called at h
er cabin home. _What_ had happened to changeher, Dora wondered.

  When the car turned and the small boys, remembering to be quiet, hadnevertheless performed gleeful antics, Mary went up the steps and intothe house.

  "I'm going to bed," she said and her voice sounded tired.

  Dora, wickedly pleased, could not let well enough alone. "I didn't knowthat Etta was so well acquainted as to call Jerry's mother Aunt Mollie."She wisely did not add her next thought, "You'll have to look to yourlaurels, Mary-mine. Etta's a mighty attractive girl and she simply lovesthe _Bar N_ ranch."

  When Dora spoke again, it was on an entirely different subject. "Isn't itwonderful, Mary, to think that we've solved the mystery of Little Bodiland that tomorrow, perhaps, the boys are going to defy that Evil EyeTurquoise."

  "I suppose so," Mary replied indifferently. Dora turned out the light andwith a shrug got into bed with her friend.