The Mission of Janice Day Part 32

out for them notes he indorsed for Tom Hotchkiss. Tom left him holdin'

the bag, ye know--er--haw! haw! haw!"

"I see. No money to go with, eh?"

"That's it--if nothin' more," agreed Walky.

Frank said nothing to the town expressman about having lent Marty Day the money that the boy had evidently needed to pay his traveling expenses. Marty certainly could not be blamed. He had shown himself wiser regarding Janice and her intentions than the older folk. Marty may have handled the matter in a boyish way; but Frank Bowman did not feel like blaming his young friend.

He went up Hillside Avenue to the Day house that evening and found Nelson Haley there before him. The schoolmaster showed a surface placidity which was really no criterion of his inner feelings.

"Well, what's going to be done about it?" demanded Frank, as soon as he had pulled off his coat.

Uncle Jason pa.s.sed him a yellow sheet of paper--a telegram. It had been brought over on the _Constance Colfax_ that afternoon from the Landing.

It was the night letter Marty had sent soon after leaving Chicago--a short night letter at that:

"I got my eye on Janice. She is all right so far."

"Why, he isn't really with her, after all!" said Frank.

"Oh, but they air together, Mr. Bowman," cried Aunt 'Mira. "My min's much relieved. I didn't know but Marty had run away to kill Indians, or be a pirate, or sich, like they do in books."

"Boys don't do that even in books, nowadays, Mrs. Day," Nelson told her.

"They run away from home to become jitney bus drivers, or movie actors.

Indians and pirates are out of date."

"You can poke fun," smiled the woman; "but if he's with Janice he's all right."

Frank Bowman had read the telegram a second time.

"It's not altogether sure in my mind," he said in a voice too low for Mrs. Day to hear as she bustled about the kitchen, "that Marty is really with Janice. He wasn't when he sent this message at least."

"Ain't that a fac'?" exclaimed Mr. Day. "Seems like he is jest a-watchin' of her."

"For fear she'd try to send him home if he revealed his presence," was Nelson's shrewd observation.

"You're mighty right, Haley," the civil engineer agreed. "That's what he's doing."

"Wal," Mr. Day sighed, "he's near her if anything should happen so's he could be useful. But I ain't easy in my mind. A gal like her dependin'

on a boy like him----"

"I don't suppose you could find it possible to go down there yourself, Mr. Day?" suggested Frank. "Even if we could find out just where they were heading for?"

"I snum! I dunno how I could," groaned Mr. Day. "It'd seem fair impossible. I tell you frankly, boys, Tom Hotchkiss has left me flat.

The elder--bless his hide, for he was never knowed to do sech a thing afore--has offered to take up the fust note I indorsed for Tom, and which is now due. Otherwise I should be holdin' a auction, I guess. I'm in bad shape."

"It's too bad, Mr. Day," sighed Nelson. "Is the bank going to press you for every cent?"

"They ain't feeling so friendly as they did at fust," Uncle Jason admitted. "At fust it was hoped that something might be recovered from the stock in the store and the fixtures. But Tom Hotchkiss was thorough; ye gotter give him credit for that. He'd what they call hypothecated every st.i.tch, and we couldn't even tetch the money in the till--no, sir!"

"Too bad," mused Nelson.

"He _was_ a rascal!" exclaimed Frank.

"He was shrewd," admitted Uncle Jason. "An' as nice spoken an'

palaverin' a cuss as ever I see."

"s.h.!.+ Jason! don't swear that-a-way--an' you a perfessin' member."

"Wal, no use cryin' over the cream the cat licked off'n the top of the pan--it's gone," groaned Uncle Jason. "And _he's_ gone. They tell me the detecatifs the Bankers' a.s.sociation put on his track can't find hide nor hair of him up toward Canady.

"An' then," Uncle Jason went on to say, "the bank people hev l'arned a thing or two that didn't please 'em. Of course, 'tain't none o' their business, but they'd seen Janice scurryin' around Middletown in that little car o' hern and they got it fixed in their heads we Days must be mighty well off."

"Reflected glory, eh?" suggested Nelson.

"Dunno about the glory part," sniffed Uncle Jason. "But I have an idee they thought I had so much money I could put my hand right in my pocket and pay these notes of Tom's in a bunch. They are all call notes, of course. And the bank is tryin' to make the court order me to take 'em up at once."

"That is not a very neighborly thing to do," said Frank.

"They seem to be afraid if I'm given time I'll try to cover up some o'

my a.s.sets. I snum! when a man's in difficulties with one o' these banks his past repertation for honesty don't amount to shucks--no, sir!"

But the main topic of conversation on this evening was the journey of Janice and Marty. What were they doing at this very moment? Where were they on the railroad train? For what point on the Border were they aiming?

Frank figured out, from the date and sending point of the telegram, the probable route of the absent ones to the Mexican line. Yet they could not be sure of even this. Not knowing on what train Janice and Marty traveled, it was impossible to send an answer to Marty's telegram.

"In all probability, however," Frank explained, "El Paso is their ultimate destination, or some town of that string along the Rio Grande touched by the Texas-Pacific. San Cristoval is to be reached more directly from that locality than in any other way, now that the Mexican International is out of commission."

"Oh! don't say they'll really get into Mexico, Mr. Bowman!" cried Aunt 'Mira, who had come into the sitting room now. "They won't be let, will they?"

"Almiry's got the idee," said Mr. Day, "that there's a file of sojers with fixed bayonets standin' all along the aidge of that Rio Grande River, keepin' folks from crossin' over."

"You'd find such a guard at El Paso bridge, all right," Frank said. "But there are plenty of places where the river can be forded, unless raised by infrequent floods. Those who wish to, go back and forth into Mexican territory as they please--no doubt of that."

"But Janice and Marty won't know nothing about _that_!" cried Mrs. Day.

"Trust Marty for finding out anything he needs to know," put in Nelson, yet with a gloomy air.

"You're right there," Frank added. "He isn't tongue-tied."

"Oh, dear!" sighed Aunt 'Mira. "I don't know as shooting Indians or turning pirate would be much worse. They say them Mexicaners _do_ shoot people."

"I snum, yes!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Day. "They shot Broxton, didn't they?"

"Oh! you don't s'pose they've got a grudge against the Days, do ye?"

cried the anxious woman. "Maybe they'll act jest as mean as they kin toward any of our fambly."

"No, I do not believe that, Mrs. Day," Nelson hastened to a.s.sure her.

"Janice and Marty will be in no more danger down there than any other Americans. Only----"