CHAPTER XX
THOSE MEN AGAIN
The two girls saw nothing more of the men who had played such amysterious part in their trip, and before they had started, withhundreds of other gaily dressed people, down the gangplank of the_Dorian_ they had almost forgotten their strange adventure.
Nor, under the circumstances, could this be wondered at. All about themwas the bustle and excitement that is always attendant upon goingashore.
Every one was in hilarious holiday mood, and Nan and Bess would havebeen queer indeed if they had not entered into the spirit of the daywith all their hearts.
"I just can't keep my feet still," Bess confided to her chum, as theyfiled slowly down the gangplank. "Isn't this the most wonderful day youever saw in your life, Nan? Just think, this kind of weather in_February_! It does me good," she added, her eyes sparkling, "to thinkof all the other girls at home going around with furs on and thick coatsand complaining of the cold. Oh, how I wish I could see them now."
"Elizabeth! what a mean disposition," said Nan demurely, adding with atwinkle in her eyes, while she tried hard to keep her feet fromfox-trotting away with her down the gangplank: "Though I would like tosend a little note to Linda and tell her to be careful not to go out inthe cold. It might make her nose red. Oh, Bess, look down there!" Sheleaned forward suddenly, her eyes shining with eagerness. "Isn't thatGrace? And Walter----"
"And Rhoda! Yes, it is, and they are waving to us," cried Bess eagerly."Of course Grace and Walter said they would be here to meet us, but Iwas afraid they never would find us in all this crowd."
Someway the girls got down to the dock, were hugged by Grace and Rhoda,greeted hilariously by Walter, and were hustled, out of breath, throughthe crowd that thronged about them.
"How in the world did you get here, Rhoda?" demanded Nan, when she couldget a chance to ask the question.
"I thought I'd surprise you," declared the girl from Rose Ranch. "Ifixed it all up with Grace and told her not to say a word."
"It's grand!" declared Nan, beaming.
"The best ever," added Bess. "Oh, what grand times we girls are going tohave!"
"Sure we are going to have a grand time," said the girl from RoseRanch. "I think I deserve it, after all the trouble I've been through."
"What do you suppose, she was in a railroad wreck," burst out Grace. "Areal, live-to-goodness wreck, too."
"Oh, Rhoda, were you injured?" cried Nan quickly.
"Just a few scratches--on my left elbow and my shins. But it was a closecall, I can tell you."
"Where was it?" asked Bess.
"Out in Connecticut. I went there to visit a distant relative of my dad.It was a little side line and our train ran into a freight. We knockedopen a car full of chickens and what do you think? Those chickensscattered far and wide. I'll bet many a family is having chicken dinneron the sly this week!"
"Then nobody was hurt?"
"Oh, yes, several were more or less bruised and one man had an armbroken. But everybody was thankful, for they said it might have beenmuch worse. But it certainly was funny to see those chickens scatteringin every direction over the snow-covered fields," and Rhoda laughed atthe recollection.
"Gee, if a fellow had been there with a gun he might have had somehunting," cried Walter.
"Oh, Walter, you wouldn't hunt chickens with a gun, would you?" askedNan, reproachfully.
"Don't know as I would," was the quick reply.
"Oh, but now we are together, won't we have lovely times," cried Bess.
"The very best ever," echoed Nan.
"Going to let me out?" demanded Walter.
"No, indeed, Walter, you are included."
The girls and Walter continued to compare notes, when all of a suddenRhoda uttered a cry.
"Girls, am I seeing a ghost?" she asked, staring straight ahead of hertoward a group of richly dressed people who were talking and laughingtogether. "Or is that Linda Riggs?"
"Goodness, don't say it, Rhoda!" cried Bess in dismay. "It can't beLinda!"
But it was! For at that moment the youngest of the much over-dressedwomen in the group turned with a laugh to speak to someone behind her,and the girls found themselves face to face with their schoolgirl enemy,Linda Riggs.
For all their dislike of the girl, the chums would have spoken to her.But Linda stared at them coolly for a second, and then deliberatelyturned her back upon them and began to speak to a tall, gray-haired manat her right, who the girls instinctively felt must be her father, therailroad president.
"Those young ladies seemed to know you, my dear," they heard the tallman say to Linda, as, flushed and indignant, the girls and Walterpressed on through the crowd.
"They do," they heard Linda answer contemptuously, and with no attemptto lower her voice. "But I prefer not to know them--especially thatSherwood girl."
What the tall man said in answer, the girls could not hear, for theywere once more engulfed in a sea of chattering humanity whose dinswallowed up all individual sound.
Impulsive Bess wanted to turn back and tell "that horrible Riggs girl"what she thought of her, but Nan put an arm about her angry chum andhurried her on.
"But, Nan, I don't see how you can stand such things and never say aword," cried Bess, indignantly. "I do believe you haven't any spirit. Inever could take an insult like that so calmly."
"I'm not a bit calm," replied Nan, gripping her bag fiercely. "Rightthis minute, I'd like to get hold of Linda Riggs and tear her hair outby the roots."
"Why didn't you do it then?" demanded excited Bess, and at this queryeven Walter, who had been more incensed than any of the girls at theinsolent speech of Linda's, had to laugh.
"Yes, I would look pretty, wouldn't I?" laughed Nan, all her wrathvanishing on the instant, although her dislike of purse-proud Linda wasmore real than ever, "announcing my arrival in Jacksonville by a streetfight?"
"You would look pretty any way--even pulling Linda's hair out," laughedWalter in her ear.
"Please don't be foolish, Walter," returned Nan loftily, at which, forsome unaccountable reason, Walter only chuckled the more.
The speech and the chuckle troubled Nan. It seemed in some ridiculousfashion to bear out the silly things Bess had said about her and Walterearlier in the trip.
She forgot all about her perplexity a few moments later, however, whenWalter helped Nan and Bess and Grace into the roomy tonneau of his bigcar, put Rhoda in the front seat, squeezed himself in behind the wheel,and started the motor.
"Well, how do you like Jacksonville, girls?" he called back to them asthe machine glided easily forward. "As good as Tillbury, is it?" headded, with a glance at Nan and Bess.
"Not nearly," answered Bess loyally, although in her heart she knew thatthey could put two or three Tillburys in Jacksonville and never missthem.
The girls had known in a rather vague way that Jacksonville was a bigplace, but they had never expected to see anything like the bustling,thriving, wide-awake city they now drove through.
"Why, it is almost as noisy and crowded as New York," said Bess,wide-eyed, as Walter skilfully threaded his way through the heavytraffic. "And we thought that was simply awful. Walter, please becareful."
"Don't worry," Walter sang back, grazing the rear wheel of anothermachine by the very narrowest margin possible. "If we did hit anything,we wouldn't be the ones to get hurt. This old bus could stop an expresstrain."
"Maybe it could," retorted Bess. "But please try it some time when youare alone."
"Don't mind him," said Grace, with her quiet smile. "You know Walternever does all he says."
"Don't I though----" Walter was beginning, when his sister cut him offby turning eagerly to Nan and Bess.
"We're stopping at the Hampton," she said, the Hampton being one of thelargest and most important of all the large and important hotels inJacksonville. "Mother has engaged a perfectly lovely room for you girls.Rhoda and I room together. It is just for one night, you know, for weare going to take the train for Palm
Beach to-morrow morning."
"Then," cried Nan, happily, "we shall have all the rest of to-day to doas we please in."
"What bliss," breathed Bess. "Walter, you are going to be a perfectangel, aren't you, and take us for a lovely long, long ride?"
"At your service, fair damsel," said Walter gallantly. "We were planningthat anyway," he went on to explain. "Mother and dad thought they wouldlike to come along, too."
"More bliss," cried Bess, adding, as a cloud suddenly darkened her face:"I do hope we don't run across Linda any more. I declare, if I ever hearher say another word against you, Nancy Sherwood, I shall just have tokill her, that's all."
"Well, I must say I do wish she would stay home where she belongs," saidNan with a troubled frown. "Wherever we go she seems sure to turn up andspoil everything--or try to. I wonder if Cora is with her," she added."I didn't see her at the dock."
"Humph, you don't think she would be at the dock, do you?" asked Walter,joining in the conversation. "Cora is a regular lady's maid to Lindanow, so Grace says. She must be a funny kind of girl to stand for thatsort of thing."
"Oh, Cora isn't so bad," said Nan. "I imagine she would like to breakaway from Linda, but she doesn't know just how to do it. Is this wherewe get out, Walter?" she asked, as the car slowed down before a buildingthat looked more like a palace than a hotel.
"This is where we get out," replied Walter, jumping from his seat andrunning around to open the door for the girls. "Right this way, ladies.Follow me and you'll wear diamonds. Here, boy!" he spoke to a loiteringcolored boy who stood at the hotel entrance. "Carry these grips up tothree-twenty. The hat boxes, too. I suppose you want the hat boxes," hesaid, turning to the girls with a grin.
"Well, I should say!" replied Bess. "Neither Nan nor I would ever smileagain if we should lose one of those hats. Would we, Nan?"
But Nan was looking behind her with startled eyes and never even heardher friend's question.
"Walter!" she cried, grasping the boy's arm and pointing excitedly downthe street, "do you see those men over there getting out of that taxi?Quick! They are turning into that hotel."
"The little fat fellow and the long, thin man?" asked Walter, with amystified line between his brows. "What about them? Friends of yours?"
"Take a good look at them," Nan cried, impatiently shaking his arm,while Grace and Rhoda looked on in amazement. "If you should see themagain, I want you should know them."