"What is the matter?" asked Patty. "You look as though you had seen a ghost."

Ethel pointed to a chain on Mattie's neck. It was a small silver chain, and suspended from it were two diamond rings. One was the small cl.u.s.ter lost by Ethel, while the other was a solitaire. Patty gasped and caught Ethel by the arm.

"That's your ring."

Ethel nodded.

"And the other belongs to Nora Casey. She lost it a few days ago. She didn't want to make a fuss about it on account of you having lost yours, but I think she suspected this girl and determined to get it before she left camp. Isn't it awful?" and Patty shook her head. "You'd better take the chain off before she comes to."

Ethel made no reply but lifted Mattie's head and put the drinking cup to her lips. After a moment the girl took a swallow, then another, until she had taken it all.

"Don't give her any more now," said Ethel. "'First Aid' says, 'sip slowly in heat prostrations and give stimulants,' but we have none."

"Take them off, Ethel," said Patty, "she might get up and run." But Ethel only looked.

Suddenly Mattie Hastings opened her eyes, gazed at the two girls, and at her shirt waist beside her; then she raised herself and put her hand to her neck. A scarlet flame surged across her face.

"You've had a sort of fainting spell," said Ethel. "You fell, and the heat and all made you unconscious for a while. Why did you run from us when we called?"

With her hands upon her chain the girl looked like a frightened animal.

Something stirred Ethel's pity.

"Don't be frightened," she said, "just tell us all."

Whereupon Mattie Hastings burst into tears.

"First hand me my ring," said Ethel, "and then tell us everything."

The girl tried to unfasten the chain.

"Shall I?" asked Ethel.

Mattie nodded. Then Ethel took the ring.

"To whom does this belong?" she asked.

"Nora," faltered the girl. "Keep it please; I shall never go back. I shall kill myself," she sobbed.

"That's silly," broke in practical Patty.

"Your father--Judge Sands--he will sentence me to prison," she sobbed, "and I did it for Mollie. She's my sister. Her spine is broken and the doctor said she needed food--good nourishing food. She's only eleven, and he told father that with care she might outgrow it, especially if she could get in some Inst.i.tution for Cripples, where she could have good attention," and the girl threw herself on her face and sobbed brokenly.

"Now, see here," said Ethel, sitting down beside her and lefting her up, while Patty and she supported her back.

"You tell us everything; don't keep even a tiny bit back."

"Yes," broke in Patty, "we're Camp Fire Girls and we must 'Give Service.' Perhaps we can help you if you'll confide in us."

"Before G.o.d I will; and I'll tell you all," said Mattie.

CHAPTER XXVIII

MATTIE'S STORY

"My father is a good man. He is kind, hard-working, and gives all of his wages to Mother. Mother has an idea that I am above my a.s.sociates. She is ambitious for me to go with the rich girls--the girls who have position."

Ethel's heart bounded. Was not her own mother the same?

"I worked in McAllister's store. I earned six dollars a week. Three of it I paid Mother for board. The other three, with what Father gave me, bought my clothes; but even with that I could not dress well enough to go with the girls as she wished me to.

"Her idea was for me to go to church and Sunday School and meet them that way. Then poor little Mollie was knocked down by an automobile and she has never left her bed. They were a party of joy riders, and oh! I hate to confess it, but I've promised--my mother was one of them. She had a cousin who was a chauffeur and he asked her to go. No one but I knew that she was of the party, for they were so drunk they never saw that she left them, and to this day no one knows that it was her cousin's auto that knocked Mollie down, for he escaped. Mother came home after Mollie had been taken to the hospital, and at that time we all thought that she had been out spending the evening. When she found that Mollie was injured for life she began to take morphine. I alone know her secret; she never knew that she told it. For G.o.d's sake don't betray me.

Every-penny that Father gave her she spent for that drug, and he thinking that Mollie had the benefit of it.

"At last I couldn't stand it. I couldn't see my little sister die for the want of proper food, nor could I tell Father, and give my own mother away, for outside of her ambition for me she had been a good mother.

Then Father grew ill and was laid up with rheumatism. I refused to give Mother the three dollars for board, but I kept it for expenses. When she demanded, I told her what I knew and threatened to expose her.

"Father grew better and was able to work again, but poor Mollie failed daily. I laid awake night after night. I prayed--for I was a good girl once--for a way to be shown me whereby I could make more than six dollars a week.

"Then in Sunday School I met Miss Hollister. I had heard of these Camp Fire Girls and how many fine things a girl could learn, so that in time she could earn good money. I consulted with Father and he advised me to join; and Mother was delighted, for she saw visions of my being intimate with the 'swell' girls."

Here Mattie put her hands on her breast and Ethel ran to the trough for more water.

"Before we came up here," she continued, "I found a doctor who upon seeing Mollie said that for one hundred and fifty dollars he could put her in a Home where she would have attention and treatment. She could wear braces, and perhaps in time she might grow to be strong and well.

But how was I to get it? Father and I together could hardly pay for our food.

"One afternoon just before the store closed a lady dropped her purse. I put my foot over it and stood until she had gone off in her auto. Then when no one was looking I picked it up, put it in my bosom, and went home. In the purse I found forty dollars.

"That was the beginning. After that it came so easy, and Mollie enjoyed the fruit that I brought her. But thirty-five dollars of the money I put in the bank. I took little things from the store and sold them. I pretended that they had been given to me.

"Then I came up here. Oh! I expected to end in prison. I knew that it couldn't go on forever. But I took a chance. I had now nearly seventy-five dollars. One hundred and fifty, or say two hundred, would save Mollie. I kept on. I took a locket from Edith Overman. She's never missed it. It has a large diamond in the center. She's rich and careless. I took that ring from Nora. I've often thought that Nora suspected me, but she's never given me away. I've taken money from each one of you girls. The only one whom I've not robbed is Miss Kate--G.o.d bless her. I wouldn't take a handkerchief from her, she's been so kind to me. The rest have never liked me. You remember since we came here the time I went home and spent two days. Well, I went in town and deposited my money and saw that Mollie had some comforts in way of food and books.

Then when I came back I began taking the jewelry. I have now over a hundred dollars in the bank. I had come up here today to find a safe place in some tree where until we went back I could put the two rings and locket, as I feared that they might be seen on my neck. When you called and said, 'We've seen you; don't hide,' I thought that you had discovered that I was a thief and I started to run and fell over the tree trunk. I had been pretty warm while walking up the hill and I guess you were correct,--it was the heat. That's all," she moaned wearily.

"You may give me up. I knew the time would come, but I had hoped to have had Mollie in a Home before I was taken," and the girl lay back on the ground shaking with sobs.

Ethel and Patty looked at each other.

"Now see here," said Patty Sands, "Ethel and I are not monsters to eat you up, are we, Ethel?"

"No," replied the girl, "Mattie, I think we may be able to help Mollie."

Mattie sat up.

"What?" she gasped.

"Yes," replied Ethel. "You've done this for her. Now we are not going to betray you, and we are going to help you; but first, you must give back everything that you have taken. Do you remember the name of the lady from whom you took the purse?"