Sutton hung up the receiver.

There was to be no rest for the weary, it seemed. A search party must be called and the country scoured for the missing men.

CHAPTER XXIII

VISITORS AT PRESTON

Dr. Wright was pretty sure that James Hanks would not have been able to travel very far after the knockout blow he had received, so when they could not find him in the woods near by it was decided he must be in hiding in some cabin. The search continued but no trace was found of the missing men.

"Sounds shady to me," declared Lewis Somerville.

"The idea! You can't mean that the count and Mr. Herz deliberately let the men get away!" exclaimed Douglas.

"I believe they are capable of it."

"Lewis! How can you?"

"I tell you I mistrust them both. I don't like their names--I don't like their looks--I don't like their actions."

"Nor do I," declared Billy Sutton, who had dropped in that morning to have a chat after the ball. Everybody was too exhausted to think of going on with any very arduous work.

"Well, I think that after you accepted the count's hospitality you have no right to say things about him," broke in Nan.

"Well, hasn't he accepted the hospitality of this country, and what is he doing? Don't you know it is that fool darky school that got all those poor nigs thinking that Grantly belonged to them? I bet Miss Helen agrees with me."

"I--I--don't know," said Helen faintly. "I am all mixed up about the whole thing. Why should the count want to make trouble?"

The matter was discussed up and down by the young people. The males for the most part sided against the count and his secretary, the females, with the exception of Lucy and Mag, taking up for them. Mrs. Carter was most indignant that anyone should say anything disagreeable about a gentleman of such fine presence and engaging manners as the Count de Lestis, one who knew so well how to entertain and who was so lavish. As for the other man, that Herz, no doubt he was fully capable of any mischief. He could not dance, had no small talk, and held his fork in a very awkward way when at the table.

The count's ankle did not keep him in very long. He was soon around, although he limped quite painfully. His only difficulty was in remembering which foot was injured. He renewed his attentions towards the ladies at Valhalla. His protestations of concern for the Misses Grant were warm and convincing. He offered to come stay with them or let Herz come until they were sure that the county had settled down into its usual state of safety and peace.

Those ladies were not in the least afraid, however, but still declared that n.o.body would ever hurt them. It turned out that on the night of what came so near being such a tragedy they had had in the house exactly three dollars and twenty cents. What an angry crowd it would have been when they began the division!

Now came stirring news in the daily papers.

Diplomatic relations were broken with Germany and the declaration of war imminent! Excitement and unrest were on every hand. Sometimes Nan and Lucy would come home laden with extras with headlines of terror and bloodshed. Mr. Carter occasionally went to town with them.

"I feel as though I must find out what people are saying and thinking,"

he would declare.

The truth of the matter was that Mr. Carter was well,--as well as ever, and the mere chopping of wood and stopping of cracks was not enough to occupy him. It had seemed to him as he went on that mad ride to the rescue of his beloved Helen that he was absolutely himself again. No longer could he let people plan his life for him. He was a man and meant to take the reins into his own hands. Not that his girls had not driven the family coach excellently well. They were wonderful, but he was able to do it for himself now and he intended to start.

He consulted Dr. Wright:

"I tell you, Wright, I am as fit as a fiddle and can get to work now."

"Of course you are! Didn't I give you a year? You have not taken quite a year but the time is almost up. The shock that night of the ball helped you on to a complete recovery a little ahead of time. Sometimes a nervous patient gets a shock that does more than rest. The trouble is, one can't tell whether it will kill or cure."

"Well, this one cured all right. Why, man, I could build a cathedral tomorrow!"

"Good!"

"I never can thank you enough for your kindness to me and my family. If there is ever anything I can do for you----"

"No doubt there will be," was the doctor's cryptic remark.

Herz kept up his walks with Douglas, although the girl did nothing to encourage him. She did everything to discourage him, in fact, except actually ask him to let her alone. She would find him waiting on the road after school. Sometimes he would even come to the school door for her if for any reason she was detained. These walks were usually taken when the count was off on one of his many business trips.

In Virginia, March means spring, although sometimes a very bl.u.s.tering spring. If one wanders in the woods it is quite usual to find hepatica and arbutus making their way up through the leaves. The tender green begins to make its appearance on hedge and tree, and in the old gardens jonquils and daffodils and crocuses pop up their saucy heads, defying possible late snows and frosts.

The roads were still muddy but not quite so bad as in the winter, and now, more than ever, Douglas with her faithful protector, Bobby, could enjoy the walks to and from school. The stilts did not have to be used nearly so often, although Nan and Lucy had become such adepts on their flamingo legs that they often mounted them merely for the pleasure and not because of the mud.

Valhalla was growing lovelier day by day. The gaunt trees had taken on a veil of green. The nations were at war. The United States was being forced into the game in spite of her attempts at neutrality; but Mother Nature's slogan was: "Business as usual!" and she was attending to it exactly as she had from the beginning and as she will until the end of time.

Spring had come in good earnest, and with her the myriads of little creatures who must work so hard for a mere existence. Strange scratchings had begun in the chimneys at Valhalla. The swallows were back and gave the Carters to understand that they had been tenants in that old overseer's house long before those city folks ever thought of such a thing as spending the winter in such a place. The robins were hopping about the lawn, trying to decide where they would build, while the mocking-birds were already busy in the honeysuckle hedge.

One Sat.u.r.day, the Sat.u.r.day before war was actually declared, the Count de Lestis came to call, bringing with him in a lovely wicker cage a carrier pigeon for Douglas.

"You promised that sometimes you would send me a message, remember," he said with the sentimental glance that Douglas refused to respond to.

"Certainly I will. I'll send a note asking you to come to dinner. Would that do?"

"Anything you send will do," he sighed.

The pigeon was a beautiful little creature with glossy plumage and dainty red legs.

"He will come back straight to Weston because he has young in the nest.

He is not like some men who are up and away at the smallest excuse."

"But how cruel to take him away from his young!"

"Ah, but the hausfrau is there! She will see that no harm befalls the babies. And, too, she will remain faithful until her lord returns. As faithful as a pigeon means true unto death."

The pigeon house had continued to be a thorn in the flesh to Mr. Carter.

It was painted white, as that is what the pigeons like, and it was so large and so out of tone with the fine lines of the roof that Mr. Carter declared he could not bear to go to Weston any more.

No trace of the lost negroes was found, although Mr. Sutton had detectives from Richmond to work on the case. They had evidently got away and well away. The farmer who had been so nearly asleep when Helen and Dr. Wright arrived at the ball, the farmer whose wife wore the stiff, green silk, declared he had pa.s.sed that road on the way home that night and he had seen no sign of a red car turned turtle down a ditch.

Of course the neighbors all said he had been driving in his sleep.

Mr. Sutton made a trip into Richmond and had a conference with the governor. He told him that the bloodhounds employed to trace the darkies had never left the scene of the accident, although they had had many things belonging to the escaped men as a clue to tracing them. The governor told Mr. Sutton something that made him open his honest eyes very wide. At the same time he was cautioned to keep his honest mouth shut very tight. He came back to Preston with an air of mystery about him that disconcerted his good wife greatly.

"Margaret, could you accommodate a guest just now?"

"Why, certainly, if it is necessary, but who is the guest?"