A BOW OF SCARLET RIBBON

In the three days that had pa.s.sed since the disappearance of Tania from the houseboat everything that was possible had been done to discover her whereabouts.

It never occurred to Tom or to Mrs. Curtis to connect Philip Holt's odd behavior with the lost Tania or the vanished treasure box. True, he had not been seen for the past three days, but Mrs. Curtis had received a note from him the day after his disappearance from her house, saying that he had been unexpectedly called away on very important business so early in the morning that he had not wished to awaken her, but he had left word with the servants and he hoped that they had explained matters to her.

Mrs. Curtis's maids and butler insisted that Mr. Holt had given them no message. They had not seen or heard him go. So, as Mrs. Curtis did not regard Philip Holt's withdrawal as of any importance, she gave very little thought to it.

Madge Morton, however, had a different idea. She laid Tania's disappearance at Philip Holt's door. She, therefore, determined to take Tom Curtis into her confidence, but to ask him not to betray their suspicions of Philip Holt to Mrs. Curtis until they had better proof of the young man's guilt. Madge had never told even Tom that she had once overheard Philip Holt reveal his real ident.i.ty, nor how much she had guessed of the young man's true character from Tania's unconscious and frightened reports of him.

Tom at first was indignant with Madge, not because she and the other girls believed that Philip Holt had stolen both their little friend and their new-found wealth, but because she had not sooner shared her suspicion of his mother's guest with him. Tom had never liked Philip, so it was easy for him to think the worst of the goody-goody young man.

Without a word to Mrs. Curtis, Tom and the houseboat girls set to work to trace Philip Holt, believing that once he was overtaken Tania and the stolen treasure would be accounted for.

It was not easy work. Philip Holt had not been a hypocrite all his life without knowing how to play the game of deception. A detective sent to New York City to talk to old Sal had nothing worth while to report. The woman declared positively that Philip was no connection of hers; that she had neither seen nor heard of the young man lately. As for Tania, Sal had truly not set eyes on her from the day that Madge had taken the little one under her protection.

Philip Holt knew well enough that his mother would be questioned about his disappearance. He believed that Tania had told Madge his true history. So old Sal was prepared with her story when the detective interviewed her. Yet it was curious that the Cape May police were unable to find out in what manner the young man had left the town. Inquiries at the railroad stations, livery stables, and garages gave no clue to him.

The houseboat girls were in despair. Madge neither ate nor slept. She felt particularly responsible for Tania, as the child had been her special charge and protege. Madge had been deeply grieved when her friend, David Brewster, had been falsely accused of a crime in their previous houseboat holiday, when they had spent a part of their time with Mr. and Mrs. Preston in Virginia; but that sorrow was as nothing to this, for David was almost a grown boy and able to look after himself, while Tania was little more than a baby. When no news came of either Philip Holt or Tania, Madge began to believe that Philip Holt had accomplished his design. He had managed to shut Tania up in some kind of dreadful inst.i.tution. The little captain did not believe that they would ever find the child, and was so unhappy over the loss of her Fairy G.o.dmother that she lost her usual power to act.

Phyllis Alden, however, was wide awake and on the alert. She knew that it was not possible for Philip Holt to leave Cape May without some one's a.s.sistance. Some one must know how and when he had disappeared. The whole point was to find that person.

Phil thought over the matter for some time. Then she quietly telephoned to Ethel Swann and asked her to arrange something for her. She made an appointment to call on Ethel the same afternoon, and she and Lillian walked over to the Swann cottage together. It seemed strange to Madge that her two friends could have the heart for making calls, but, as there was absolutely nothing for them to do save to wait for news of Tania that did not come, she said nothing save that she did not feel well enough to accompany them.

As Lillian and Phyllis Alden approached the Swann summer cottage they saw that Ethel had with her on the veranda the two young people who had been most unfriendly to them during their stay at Cape May, Roy Dennis and Mabel Farrar.

Roy Dennis got up hurriedly. His face flushed a dull red, and he began backing down the veranda steps, explaining to Ethel that he must be off at once.

Phyllis Alden was always direct. Before Roy Dennis could get away from her she walked directly up to him, and looking him squarely in the eyes said quietly: "Mr. Dennis, please don't go away before I have a chance to speak to you. It seems absurd to me for us to be such enemies, simply because something happened between us in the beginning of the summer that wasn't very agreeable. I wished to ask you a question, so I asked Ethel to arrange this meeting between us this afternoon."

"What do you wish to ask me?" he returned awkwardly.

Phil plunged directly into her subject. "Weren't you and Philip Holt great friends while he was Mrs. Curtis's guest?" she asked.

Roy Dennis looked uncomfortable. "We were fairly good friends, but not pals," he a.s.sured Phil.

"But you, perhaps, know him well enough to have him tell you where he was going when he left Mrs. Curtis's," continued Phil in a calmly a.s.sured tone. "Mrs. Curtis has not received a letter from him since he left here, so she does not know just where he is. We girls on the houseboat would also like very much to know what has become of Mr. Holt."

"Why?" demanded Roy Dennis sharply.

Phyllis determined to be perfectly frank. "I will tell you my reason for asking you that question," she began. "You may not know it, but our little friend, Tania, disappeared from Cape May the very same day that Philip Holt left the Cape. We all knew that Mr. Holt had known Tania for a number of years before we met her. He thought that the child ought to be shut up in some kind of an inst.i.tution, but Miss Morton wished to put the little girl in a school. So it may just be barely possible that Mr.

Holt took Tania away without asking leave of any one." Phil made absolutely no reference to the stolen money and jewels in her talk with Roy Dennis. If they could run down Philip Holt and Tania the treasure-box would be disclosed as a matter of course.

Roy Dennis hesitated for barely a second. Then he remarked to Phil, half-admiringly: "You have been frank with me, Miss Alden, and, to tell you the truth, I think it is about time that I be equally frank with you.

I have no idea where Philip Holt now is, but I do know something about how he got away from Cape May, and I am beginning to have my suspicions that there might have been something 'shady' in his behavior that I did not think of at the time. Three nights ago, it must have been about eleven o'clock, I was just about ready for bed when Mr. Holt rang me up and asked to speak to me alone. He said that he had just had bad news and wished to get out of Cape May as soon as possible. He asked me if I would lend him my car so that he could drive to a nearby railroad station where he could get a train that would take him sooner to the place he wished to go. I thought it was rather a strange request and asked him why he didn't borrow Tom Curtis's car? He said that Mrs. Curtis had gone to bed and that he did not like to disturb her. He and Tom had never been friendly, so he did not wish to ask him a favor. Well, I can't say I felt very cheerful at letting Philip Holt have the use of my car, but he said that he would send it back in a few hours and it would be all right. I got it out for him myself and he drove away in it. It didn't come back until this morning, and you never saw such a sight in your life, covered with mud and the tires almost used up."

Phil nodded sympathetically. "Who brought the car back to you?" she asked. "Was it Mr. Holt?"

Roy Dennis shrugged his heavy shoulders. "No, indeed! He sent it back by a chap who wouldn't say a word about himself, Holt, or from which direction he had come."

"Is the man still in town?" asked Phil, her voice trembling, "and would you mind Tom Curtis's asking him some questions? We are so awfully anxious."

Roy Dennis rose quickly. "I believe the fellow is around yet, and I'll get hold of him and take him to Tom at once. I don't think that Philip Holt has had anything to do with the kidnapping of the little girl, but his whole behavior looks pretty funny. We will make the chauffeur chap tell us where Philip Holt was when he turned over my car to him." Roy was off like a flash.

Phyllis and Lillian were making their apologies to Ethel for being obliged to hurry off at once to the houseboat when Mabel Farrar took hold of Phil's hand. Her usually haughty expression had changed to one of the deepest interest. "I am _so_ sorry about the little lost girl," she said.

"I hope you will soon find her. She is a queer, fascinating little thing.

I have watched her all summer, and she certainly can dance. I can't believe that Philip Holt has actually stolen her, yet I don't know. Roy Dennis just told Ethel Swann and me something awfully queer. He says he found a bright scarlet ribbon, like a bow that a child would wear in her hair, in the bottom of his motor car when the chauffeur brought it back to him to-day."

Phil's black eyes flashed. "If I ever needed anything to convince me that Philip Holt stole Tania away from us that would do it," she returned indignantly. "Little Tania slept every night with her hair tied up with a scarlet ribbon so as to keep it out of her eyes. When we find where Philip Holt is we shall find Tania, and if I have any say in the matter he shall answer to the law for what he has done."

CHAPTER XXI

THE RACE FOR LIFE

It took the united efforts of the Cape May police, Tom Curtis, and Roy Dennis to make the chauffeur who had come back with Roy's car say where he had met Philip Holt, and when Philip had turned over the automobile to him to be brought back to Roy.

The chauffeur was frightened; he finally broke down and told the whole story. Philip Holt had driven from the farmhouse where he left Tania to the nearest village. There he had hired the chauffeur and the man had taken Philip within a few miles of New York. In the course of the ride, Philip had told the automobile driver the same story about Tania that he had told the old man in the tumbled-down farmhouse:

Tania was Philip's sister. He was hiding her from enemies, who wished to steal the child away from him. If anybody inquired about the child or about him the chauffeur was to say nothing. Philip would pay him handsomely for bringing the car back to Cape May.

The reason that Philip Holt had sent back Roy Dennis's automobile was because he knew that Roy would put detectives on his track if he failed to return it. Besides, it would be far easier for Philip Holt to get away with his precious iron safe if he were free of all other entanglements.

It was nearly midnight before the story that the chauffeur told was clear to Tom Curtis. The man believed that he knew the very house in which Tania was probably concealed. There was no other place like it near the town where the chauffeur lived.

Tom got out his own automobile. The chauffeur would ride with him. They would go directly to the old farmhouse. Tania would be there and all would soon be well.

It was about nine o'clock the next morning when Tom's thundering knock at the rickety farmhouse door brought the foolish old man to open it. As soon as Tom mentioned Tania, the old fellow was alarmed. He was stupid and poor, but Philip Holt's behavior had begun to look strange even to him.

The old farmer was glad to tell Tom Curtis everything he knew. It was all right. Tania was safe upstairs. He would take Tom up at once to see her.

He was just on his way up to take Tania her breakfast. Indeed, the old man explained with tears in his eyes, he had not meant to a.s.sist in the kidnapping of a child. He was only a poor, lonely old fellow and he hadn't meant any harm. He had never seen Philip until the moment that the young man appeared at his door in his automobile and asked him to look after his sister for a few days.

The farmer's story was true. Philip Holt had no idea how he could safely dispose of Tania. Quite by accident, as he hurried through the country, he had espied the old house. If Tania could be kept hidden there for a few days he would then be able to decide what he could do with her.

Tom would have liked to bound up the old stairs three steps at a time to Tania's bedroom door. Poor little girl, what she must have suffered in the last three days! But Tom's thought was always for Madge. Before he followed the farmer to Tania's chamber he wrote a telegram which he made the chauffeur take over to the village to send immediately. It read: "All is well with Tania. Come at once." And it was addressed to Madge Morton.

Tom was trembling like a girl with sympathy and compa.s.sion when he finally reached little Tania's bedroom door. He wished Madge or his mother were with him. How could he comfort poor Tania for all she had suffered?

Tania's jailer unlocked the door and knocked at it softly. The child did not answer. He knocked at it again and tried to make his voice friendly.

"Come to the door, little one," he entreated. "I know you will be glad to see who it is that has come to take you back to your home."

Still no answer. Tom could endure the waiting no longer, but flung the door wide open. No Tania was to be seen. There was no place to look for her in the empty room, which held only a bed and a single chair. But a window was open and the arm of the old cedar tree still pressed close against the sill. Tom could see that small twigs had been broken off of some of the branches. He guessed at once what had happened. Tania had climbed down this tree and run away. But Tom felt perfectly sure that he would be able to find her before the houseboat party and his mother could arrive.

The houseboat girls and Miss Jenny Ann were overjoyed at Tom's telegram.

Mrs. Curtis was with them when the message came. She was perhaps the happiest of them all, although she had never been an especial friend of little Tania's. In the last few days her conscience had p.r.i.c.ked her a little and her warm heart had sorrowed over the missing child.