"Yes, I know," Bess agreed, "but it's such a perfectly entrancing subject. She's a darling and so is he. Why, he's almost as nice as Walter Mason," she added slyly.

Nan ignored this last. "Walker is nice, isn't he?" she said. "And he and Alice do look dear together."

"He's swell," Bess said slangily. "He's tall and handsome and full of fun. Do you know, I think sometimes that Mr. MacKenzie does like him, for all the way he calls him 'lazy' and a 'no-good reporter.'"

"Of course he does," Nan agreed, "and Walker likes him too. I just know it."

Bess looked at Nan questioningly at this latter bit of information. Did Nan know something she didn't know?

"Anyway, we'll just have to wait and see what happens," Nan tried to dismiss the subject.

"I suppose so," Bess sighed, "but it would be such fun to be an attendant at a wedding."

"Oh, Bessie," Nan ruffled her friend's hair, "you're such a romantic soul. I'll bet that you think that if worse came to worse and cousin Adair insisted that Alice marry someone else, Walker would ride up on a charger and carry Alice off the way young Lochinvar did in that poem we learned back in the fifth grade. Remember?"

"You mean the one about Lochinvar coming up out of the West, 'through all the wide world his steed was the best,'" Bess laughed.

"Yes, that's the one," Nan a.s.sented. "Remember how we loved that thing and how we used to say over and over again the stanza that followed the one where he asked the bride to dance with him

'One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear When they reach'd the hall door, and the charger stood near; So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung, So light to the saddle before her he sprung!

She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur; They'll have fleet steeds that follow, quoth young Lochinvar.'"

"And then at the end," Bess went on, "there was this,

'There was racing and chasing, on Cann.o.bie lea, But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.

So daring in love, and so dauntless in war, Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?'"

"Oh, Nan," Bess laughed when she had finished, "when I was a kid I thought there couldn't possibly be anything more romantic than that."

"Nor I neither," Nan admitted, "And I thought of it often when we were in Scotland last summer. But do you know, Bess," she giggled, "that Young Lochinvar of today would have to dash up in a car--"

"Yes, or in Mexico it might be a burro," Bess laughed heartily at the thought.

"Say, what are you two making such a rumpus about," Laura stuck her head in through the door. "First thing you know, they'll be locking you up as a couple of laughing hyenas, because you are making such a racket."

"Come on in, Laura," Nan invited, "We've just got a silly streak, that's all. Bess, here, had a couple of crazy ideas that she aired. She's all right now. You can come in," she finished rea.s.suringly. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," Laura answered in such an unusual tone that Nan knew immediately something was wrong.

"Come, what is it?" she asked again, going over to Laura and closing the door behind her.

CHAPTER VIII

TROUBLE FOR RHODA

"Oh, it's Rhoda," Laura admitted when the door was closed. "Nan, something terrible's happened and Rhoda is in her room crying her eyes out. Won't you come and see if you can't do something for her."

"Of course," Nan started for the door at once. "But what's happened?"

She and Bess asked this last together.

"Rhoda just received a telegram from her father asking her to come home at once."

"Why?"

"Oh, girls," Laura herself was almost in tears, "Rhoda's mother is seriously ill and they don't know whether or not she will live until Rhoda gets there."

"Go downstairs," Nan took command of the situation at once, "and find cousin Adair. Tell him what's happened and ask him what to do. I'll go to Rhoda. Bess, you had better come too," she continued. "Somebody will have to fix her bags so that she can leave at once. Now, don't any of you cry in front of Rhoda, we've got to help her to be as brave as possible. Maybe it isn't as bad as it seems." With this Nan and Bess and Laura set about to help their friend and, for the time, all thoughts of their Mexican journey were forgotten.

Mrs. Hammond, Rhoda's mother, had entertained the girls a couple of years previous to the present story, on the Hammond ranch in the West.

They all remembered her as a beautifully graceful, sweet woman. Blind for many years, she had not let her affliction crush her spirit and was, perhaps, one of the happiest, nicest people they had ever known.

Those who have read "Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch or The Old Mexican's Treasure" will remember Mrs. Hammond too and remember well her first meeting with the girls.

"I'll never forget it," Nan had told her own mother again and again. "As we rode up to the veranda of the low-roofed ranch house Mr. and Mrs.

Hammond stood there on the porch waiting for us. She was a tall lovely person. I liked her the moment I saw her. As I came up the steps behind her friend, Mrs. Janeway, she took hold of me and asked 'Who is this?'

"Before I had a chance to answer she ran her fingers lightly over my face, even feeling my ears and the way my hair fluffed over my forehead and the way my eyebrows were. Then, without any hesitation and before I had said anything at all, she said, 'Why, this is Nan Sherwood that I have heard so much about.'

"When I asked her how she knew, she laughed the prettiest laugh I've ever heard, outside of yours, and said that she knew because Rhoda had written home about me and because she was a witch. She knew the others by touch too. Oh, she was such a nice person and so good to us all the while we were there!

"She never once said a thing about her blindness. She seemed to take it for granted and never excused herself on account of it.

"I only hope that, if ever anything terrible happens to me, I will remember her and be as sweet and uncomplaining about it as she is."

The other girls had felt the same as Nan. All had left Rose Ranch with a very warm feeling for Mrs. Hammond and they were all better girls for having met her.

In the days that followed their return to school that year they sent her a gift along with their bread-and-b.u.t.ter notes. Ever after that, boxes Rhoda received from her Western home always contained some sort of goodies specially marked for Rhoda's Lakeview Hall friends. So Mrs.

Hammond had become a well-beloved friend to them all.

Now, when the telegram came telling of her serious illness, they all felt personally concerned.

"Oh, Nan," Laura came into the room where Nan was helping Rhoda dress and comforting her as much as possible, "I can't find your cousin anyplace. He seems to have gone out on business and he didn't leave word with anyone as to where he was going."

"Well, we've got to find him, that's all." Nan was not one to give up easily in any circ.u.mstances. "Have you tried to locate Walker Jamieson?"

"Yes, and I can't find him or Alice either. You don't know where they were going, do you?"

"No." Already Nan was regretting that she had helped Alice and Walker out. She felt that she needed them now, very much. "I tell you what you do, you call up the railway station and find out what are the best possible train connections that Rhoda can make. Then reserve her a compartment. After that call those offices where we were yesterday and ask whether cousin Adair is there or is expected.

"By the time you finish, Rhoda will be ready and we'll be downstairs at the telegraph desk. We are going to wire her father so that he can have someone at the station to meet her."

At these instructions, Laura flew across the hall to her own room to make the calls, for she wished to keep things as quiet as possible around Rhoda. In the meantime, both Amelia and Grace had heard what had happened and came to help.

The girls were all sticking together in trouble even as they always did in pleasure, and it was a great comfort to completely bewildered Rhoda.