The Carter Girls' Mysterious Neighbors

  CHAPTER XXIII

  VISITORS AT PRESTON

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

  "Sounds shady to me," declared Lewis Somerville.

  "The idea! You can't mean that the count and Mr. Herz deliberately letthe 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 liketheir looks--I don't like their actions."

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

  "Well, I think that after you accepted the count's hospitality you haveno right to say things about him," broke in Nan.

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

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

  The matter was discussed up and down by the young people. The males forthe most part sided against the count and his secretary, the females,with the exception of Lucy and Mag, taking up for them. Mrs. Carter wasmost indignant that anyone should say anything disagreeable about agentleman of such fine presence and engaging manners as the Count deLestis, one who knew so well how to entertain and who was so lavish. Asfor the other man, that Herz, no doubt he was fully capable of anymischief. He could not dance, had no small talk, and held his fork in avery 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 inremembering which foot was injured. He renewed his attentions towardsthe ladies at Valhalla. His protestations of concern for the MissesGrant were warm and convincing. He offered to come stay with them or letHerz come until they were sure that the county had settled down into itsusual state of safety and peace.

  Those ladies were not in the least afraid, however, but still declaredthat nobody would ever hurt them. It turned out that on the night ofwhat came so near being such a tragedy they had had in the house exactlythree dollars and twenty cents. What an angry crowd it would have beenwhen they began the division!

  Now came stirring news in the daily papers.

  Diplomatic relations were broken with Germany and the declaration ofwar imminent! Excitement and unrest were on every hand. Sometimes Nanand Lucy would come home laden with extras with headlines of terror andbloodshed. 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 tooccupy him. It had seemed to him as he went on that mad ride to therescue of his beloved Helen that he was absolutely himself again. Nolonger could he let people plan his life for him. He was a man and meantto take the reins into his own hands. Not that his girls had not driventhe family coach excellently well. They were wonderful, but he was ableto 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 ayear but the time is almost up. The shock that night of the ball helpedyou on to a complete recovery a little ahead of time. Sometimes anervous 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 cathedraltomorrow!"

  "Good!"

  "I never can thank you enough for your kindness to me and my family. Ifthere 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 toencourage him. She did everything to discourage him, in fact, exceptactually ask him to let her alone. She would find him waiting on theroad after school. Sometimes he would even come to the school door forher if for any reason she was detained. These walks were usually takenwhen the count was off on one of his many business trips.

  In Virginia, March means spring, although sometimes a very blusteringspring. If one wanders in the woods it is quite usual to find hepaticaand arbutus making their way up through the leaves. The tender greenbegins to make its appearance on hedge and tree, and in the old gardensjonquils and daffodils and crocuses pop up their saucy heads, defyingpossible late snows and frosts.

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

  Valhalla was growing lovelier day by day. The gaunt trees had taken on aveil of green. The nations were at war. The United States was beingforced into the game in spite of her attempts at neutrality; but MotherNature's slogan was: "Business as usual!" and she was attending to itexactly as she had from the beginning and as she will until the end oftime.

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

  One Saturday, the Saturday before war was actually declared, the Countde Lestis came to call, bringing with him in a lovely wicker cage acarrier pigeon for Douglas.

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

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

  "Anything you send will do," he sighed.

  The pigeon was a beautiful little creature with glossy plumage anddainty 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 thebabies. And, too, she will remain faithful until her lord returns. Asfaithful 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 solarge and so out of tone with the fine lines of the roof that Mr. Carterdeclared he could not bear to go to Weston any more.

  No trace of the lost negroes was found, although Mr. Sutton haddetectives from Richmond to work on the case. They had evidently gotaway and well away. The farmer who had been so nearly asleep when Helenand Dr. Wright arrived at the ball, the farmer whose wife wore thestiff, green silk, declared he had passed that road on the way home thatnight 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 thegovernor. He told him that the bloodhounds employed to trace the darkieshad never left the scene of the accident, although they had had manythings belonging to the escaped men as a clue to tracing them
. Thegovernor told Mr. Sutton something that made him open his honest eyesvery wide. At the same time he was cautioned to keep his honest mouthshut very tight. He came back to Preston with an air of mystery abouthim 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?"

  "A gentleman I have never met, maybe there will be two of them,--but wemust pretend they are our very good friends."

  "Why, William, are you crazy?"

  "No, ma'am!" and then he whispered something to her, although they werealone, and she, too, opened her eyes very wide but promised to keep hermouth shut.

  The visitors came, two quiet gentlemen with good manners and simplehabits. Mr. and Mrs. Sutton decided they should be some long lostcousins from the west who were in the country for their health. Thusthey explained their visitors to Billy and Mag and their neighbors. Theybrought a small Ford runabout which they used a great deal.

  Mr. Sutton had a long conference with Mr. Carter. There was some moreopening of eyes and shutting of mouths.

  "What a fool I have been!" cried that gentleman. "I can see it all now.Lewis Somerville tried to make me see but I was quite hard on the boy.Well! Well! What is to be done?"

  "Nothing! Just bide our time."

  "See here, Sutton, I believe there was method in that man's madness whenhe got two electric light systems. He told me to order one and then saidhis secretary had ordered one, too. Pretended he had not told me to, andthen was tremendously kind and magnanimous about it. I began to thinkmaybe I had not understood,--you see my head hadn't been very clear forbusiness for many months and I mistrusted myself. I'll wager anythingthat that extra battery is running a wireless station at Weston."

  "Geewhilikins!" exclaimed the elder Sutton in very much the same tonehis son might have used. "This business is growing very exciting."

  Sometimes the two quiet gentlemen visitors at Preston would go out foran airing in their little car, and finding a secluded spot in a pinewoods, one of them would cleverly convert himself into an Armenianpedlar with a pack filled with cheap lace and jewelry. Then he wouldmake the rounds of the cabins. He could speak almost no English whendoing this part and seemed not to understand any at all. He visitedevery house in Paradise and from there made his way to Weston. Hisheavy, blue-black beard and long straggling hair so completely disguisedhim that the count never dreamed the man he saw at his kitchen doorhaggling with his colored cook over some coarse pillow shams was thesame smooth-faced gentleman he had met that morning driving with hisneighbor Sutton.

  As a book agent, the clever detective gained access to the count'slibrary and actually sold him a set of Ruskin. As telephone inspector,he got much information desired, and as a government agriculturalexpert, he was favored with a long, intimate talk with the owner ofWeston.

  Old Blitz, the German farmer near Preston, came in for his share ofvisits, too, from pedlars and book agents, etc. The mills of thegovernment were grinding slowly but they were grinding exceeding small.

  The neighborhood was in absolute ignorance of the fact that theirdelightful count was being watched. His comings and goings were known.He had few secrets. It was learned by the detectives that he was not aHungarian at all but his father was Austrian, his mother Prussian. Hehad been sent to this country by his government to make trouble amongthe negroes and to buy up tracts of land for future emigration. When theworld was to be Prussianized, fair Virginia was not to be neglected.

  The raid on Grantly was traced absolutely to his lectures and theteachings of Herz, the so-called secretary. The only thing that had gonewrong was that the negroes had acted sooner than their masters hadplanned. Their object had been to have a general uprising and theywanted it to be timed about when war was declared. Their schemes had notbeen directed against poor old Grantly especially, but against all thewhites, with a view of keeping the darkies out of the army.

  Herz turned out to be a full-blooded Prussian, who had lived inCincinnati for about five years. He was a trusted spy of his governmentand had done wonderful work for them in Mexico. He was really the brainsof the partnership and de Lestis the mixer. When de Lestis went off onhis long business trips to Chicago and New York it developed he had beenacross the water several times, bearing with him maps and informationthat must be personally conducted.

  A wireless station was suspected but it was difficult to locate.

  "Look in the pigeon house," suggested Mr. Carter, still bearing a grudgeagainst the atrocity that had ruined his beloved roof line.

  There it was, as neatly installed an instrument as one could find withthe extra batteries doing the work perfectly. The telephone inspectorfound it quite easily. The pigeon house was a hollow sham. There was areason for making it so large since the wireless was to have an innerchamber.

  The net was drawing more closely around the two men but they, scornfulof the intelligence of the stupid Americans, went unconcernedly on,laying their plans and hatching their deviltries. Many a laugh they hadover the automobile accident.

  "Those darkies before a clever lawyer would have been our undoing," theyadmitted to one another.

  The night school was discontinued for the time being and the poorcolored people got back into their one time rut. Tempy resumed herlabors at Grantly, a sadder and wiser girl. She no longer slept amidstthe unwashed dishes but seemed anxious to become as good a servant asher sister Chloe. Sam, the factotum, returned in time to put in thegarden.