Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach Part 34

"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.

The girls plied Nan with questions on the way back, but she was too worn out with her terrible experience to answer them. The reaction was upon her, and all she wanted to do was crawl off in a corner 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. "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 before if she has been with Linda all the time," Bess added excitedly, for this new development had evidently 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 getting 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. Mason, and he had been out all afternoon while Nan slept, making inquiries and setting wheels in motion.

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 thousand 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 wonderful!"

"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 significantly. "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 in the world," he added earnestly, "but what Pacomb 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 incidents 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 papers 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 suns.h.i.+ne. 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 followed the girls out into the hall. "I'm only surprised 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 papers, 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 enough of duty for the present, she yawned and stretched and wondered when 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.