CHAPTER XVI

LADY BOUNTIFUL JUNIOR

Hearing that small, fluty voice Nora sighed with relief.

"Come here, little girl," she said gently. "I won't hurt you."

"Please, I can't. I must run----"

"Oh, no; don't run," begged Nora, as the child showed every sign of escaping. "I am all alone. I just want to talk to you."

"But I must not. I have to run," insisted the other.

"Why?"

"Because----" the voice had dropped many tones.

"Will any one hurt you if you don't?" This was merely a chance question of Nora's. She could not think quickly of just the right thing to say and was anxious to detain the child.

"Yes, no, maybe," a shrug of the small shoulders proclaimed foreign mannerisms. Her dark eyes also bespoke the alien.

"Well, I won't let anyone hurt you," declared Nora bravely. "I'm a Girl Scout, do you know what that means?"

"Yes, I know. It means crazy," promptly replied Lucia.

"Crazy?" Nora was somewhat taken back. Then it dawned upon her that foreigners had a way of saying things--perhaps--"crazy" meant something else to the child.

"Why do you say 'crazy'?" Nora asked next.

"Oh, they dress funny, and they run all over and they climb trees like--crazy," said Lucia. Nora saw she was correct in her free translation. Crazy was a comprehensive term to Lucia.

"Don't you like them, the Scouts?" pressed Nora.

"The little one--I like. The big ones chase me one day," came the indifferent answer. "I have to go, I must run sure now," declared Lucia, putting out her small hands to make a hole in the bushes through which to escape.

"Oh, please don't go yet," begged Nora. "I have just found you and I want to--know you."

"I don't dast," replied Lucia. "I have to hide now," she was getting through the break when Nora took hold of the long skirt. At this Lucia looked around sharply, and her dark eyes flashed dangerously.

"Are you hungry?" Nora asked. This was a tactful thing to ask and offered immediate postponement of flight for Lucia.

"Sure," she replied, beaming. "What you got?"

"Nothing--just now," faltered Nora. "But I can bring you lots of good things. You wait here----"

"Oh, no, I get caught," interrupted the woods wraith. "Then I ketch--it."

Nora was sorely puzzled, but being Nora she had no idea of allowing such an interest to escape. She said next: "If you tell me where to leave things for you, I'll bring them and you can get them when no one is around. Would that be all right?"

"Maybe," replied the exasperating Lucia. "But when you get it?"

"Oh, any time, I live near here and I can just run over and be back before you have to go. Where do you go to?"

"I can't tell," answered Lucia with more foreign tone than she had yet a.s.sumed.

"You mean you do not dare tell me where you live?"

"Yes, that's what I mean."

"Why?"

"I don't dast," again came that quaint, childish negative.

"Who would do anything to you?"

"Nick."

If Nora was eager to talk, surely Lucia was determined to be very brief.

What could she mean by "Nick."

Again Lucia held the bush back into an open gate. And again Nora tugged at the skirt.

"If I bring you a lovely sweet pie will you come back and talk to me here?" begged Nora.

"Where will you put the pie?"

"Can't you come and get it?"

"I don't know."

It was aggravating. The child seemed purposely obtuse. Nora had an instinctive feeling that somehow she was the object of abuse. Her cringing manner indicated oppression.

"Now, Lucia," she began again, "if you come here every day I'll come all alone, except for Cap, and I'll bring you lovely things to eat. Wouldn't you like that?"

"Sure."

"Then you will come?"

"What time?"

"In the morning--about this time. Would that be all right for you?"

"If Nick is gone."

"Who is Nick?"