"But I don't," Bess persisted.

"Elizabeth Harley," Nan exclaimed, "if you make that remark again, I'll never speak to you as long as I live." Nan was cross and irritable these days, because nothing seemed to be going right and she felt that if she hadn't said anything about the ring in the first place, everyone would be enjoying themselves.

"But Nan," Bess put her arm around her friend. "I don't mean it all the way you think. I haven't liked the cook ever since that first day when he had a fight with Mrs. O'Malley and she's such a dear too."

"Oh, but Bess, you know how that happened," Nan protested. "Mrs.

O'Malley went into the kitchen that he had run for some twenty years and tried to tell him what to do. He just wouldn't stand for it."

"Even then, I don't like him." Bess persisted. "He's been horrid and mean to all of us ever since we've been here. I think he stole your ring, and if you don't do something about it, I'm going to tell Mr.

MacKenzie myself."

"See here, Bess," Nan was very serious now. "If you don't keep quiet about what you have just been saying to me, I'm going to be very angry.

I don't want suspicions being cast on people who haven't done anything, and I don't think he has, honestly."

Bess paused and thought before she said anything further.

"And Bess," Nan said more softly now, "don't resent the way I've talked to you these days. I feel very troubled."

Bess felt badly too now. It wasn't very often that Nan let her temper get away with her, and since she had, Bess thought, she must be more troubled than any of us realize. So the subject was dropped between the two friends.

But Bess's remarks had done their work. When Nan was alone, the thought of what Bess had said, came back to her again and again. She dismissed it impatiently at first, but then little things about the cook began to come to her attention constantly.

Finally she determined to do something about it all and so, one day when she was alone, she went back to the kitchen.

She was just about to open the door and go through when she heard loud voices.

"I tell you it's not enough," one, an American voice was saying.

"Alle samee, it's all I can get." The voice of the cook came to her in reply.

Nan stopped, startled. This, why, this verified Bess's suspicions. Nan stood back and listened further, but heard nothing. She had come in on the end of the argument. Shortly, she heard a door slam on the other side of the kitchen, and then there were no more sounds at all.

She waited for some time, and then cautiously opened the door and went in.

Over in one corner, the cook, alone, was busy preparing the evening meal. He looked up as the girl entered, and was on the point of reprimanding her for invading his quarters when he stopped, recognizing her. He waited then, resentfully, for her to speak.

Nan was equally wary however, so there was a moment of embarra.s.sed silence, before either said anything. Then, as they stood waiting, a call outside distracted their attention.

The cook answered it, and when he returned, they both felt more at ease.

He brought her a stool to sit on and offered her some of his choice cookies, so before long they were talking to one another. They talked about little things, and Nan went away without mentioning the ring or the conversation she had heard at all.

But she went back the next day. Following this procedure it wasn't long before the cook poured out his whole sorry tale.

Nan later, when she got Walker Jamieson alone, told it and swore him to secrecy.

"Then he took the ring," Walker concluded, when the story had all been told.

"He hasn't said so," Nan was being very careful that the facts were all understood as they were, not as other people might imagine them to be.

"No, not in so many words," Walker agreed, "but then, he did. You and I know that, and it's not necessary to tell anyone at all anything about this yet. It's a bigger story than you realize," he ended, "and it has many, many more angles than this particular one. Let me work on it awhile without any interference."

Nan agreed to this, and so the two conspirators parted.

CHAPTER XXVI

SERENADERS

"What's going on downstairs?" Laura came into Nan's room quietly. "Of course, it's none of my business," she went on, "but everything seems to be in an uproar. Your cousin is ranting around as I've never seen him rant before, and Walker Jamieson is there and he looks as though everything is wrong with the world."

"Why, I don't know," Nan looked up from the diary she was writing, a diary in which she kept a day by day account of her trip. But she looked worried. Had Walker, after all, told the story that they had promised to keep a secret and was her cousin insisting on getting to the bottom of everything right away?

"What were they talking about?" she asked Laura.

"I don't know," Laura answered. "When I came through the room, they stopped, and seemed to be waiting until I got out, before continuing. I got the point and hurried. I was only after a magazine that I had left in the room, anyway. But even for the short time I was in there, the air seemed so heavy with emotion that you could cut it."

"And you didn't hear anything?" Nan repeated the thought of her former question.

"I said, 'no'." Laura insisted. "Why, what did you expect me to hear?"

She looked at her friend intently. As Bess often did in similar circ.u.mstances, Laura now felt that Nan knew much more about what was going on downstairs than she wanted to reveal.

"Oh, nothing," Nan managed to say this airily, as though she truly had had nothing in view when she asked the question. So saying, she screwed the top on her fountain pen, put her diary away, and stamped a letter she had just written home. With these little things done, she turned again to Laura, "Do you know that Grace's brother and his friends are expected here at the hacienda tomorrow?" she asked.

"Are they? Tomorrow?" Laura had been out in the courtyard watching some Mexican youngsters at play when Grace had told Nan. Now, the information was a surprise to her. "What's been planned? How many will there be? How long will they stay?" The questions rolled off her tongue one after the other, until Nan stopped her.

"Oh, Laura," she said, "one at a time, please. We've not planned anything definite yet and we don't know how many nor how long, but we're hoping that they can stay at least a week. Isn't it all going to be fun!"

"Yes," Laura was almost as excited as Nan. "It's going to be grand to have them all here. Now, let's go and get the other girls and plan something."

But before they could get out of the room, the others came bursting in.

"Oh, do you know," Bess got the words out first, "Walter and his friends probably will arrive tonight." Amelia and Grace nodded their heads in unison.

"How do you know?" Nan asked.

"Here's a telegram." Grace waved it in the air. "It says," she read, "'Arriving tonight. Six of us. Anxious to see you. Walter.' I wonder when they'll get here." Saying this, she went over to the windows and looked down into the courtyard as though she expected them at once. Then she turned toward the others again, "How good it's going to be!" she exclaimed. "I've been a little lonesome for someone from home ever since Rhoda's mother became so ill."

"Have you, Gracie?" Nan put her arm affectionately around the more timid girl's shoulder. "I guess we all have been. It will be good to see Walter because he has seen all our parents since we left. Now let's go downstairs and tell cousin Adair."

But the girls lingered a little while longer, talking and planning. "It must have been fate that kept us there," Laura laughed afterwards, for one of the very nicest things of all their trip happened just before they departed.

It was Nan who heard it first, that faint far-away sound of the strumming of a guitar. "Sh! Quiet!" she broke in on the hubbub in the room. "What's that I hear?" They all listened for a second.

"Oh, nothing." Laura waved the question aside, "and do you think we can get Mr. MacKenzie to go with us again on a mule ride over the estate?"

she went on with the planning of entertainment for the boys.

"It is too something," Nan insisted, for she heard again the sound of music. "Listen!"