CHAPTER XXVI
WORTH A FORTUNE
Mr. Mason, by inquiry, had found out that the district known as SunnySlopes was about sixty miles from Palm Beach, and the next morning theyset off by motor for the place, Mrs. Mason having declared to herhusband the night before that "it was of no use to put the thing off anylonger. The girl's nerves were all on edge over that queer widow'smysterious papers. He may not have noticed it, but she had been watchingNan very closely."
So it came about that a big machine, carrying Mr. and Mrs. Mason, Nanand Bess and Rhoda, and enough luggage to last them at a hotel for a fewdays, and a torpedo-shaped little car bearing Walter and Grace set outbright and early to make the trip to Sunny Slopes.
Walter had taken it for granted that Nan would ride with him, and hadseemed inclined to sulk when she decidedly refused. For Nan had takenherself very severely to task when she had reached her room the nightbefore. She had broken her rule never to go anywhere with Walter unlessthe girls were along, and she would never, never do it again. She wasparticularly hard on herself to-day--and on poor Walter--because of thefact that she had enjoyed that dreamlike sail over the moonlight watersof Lake Worth more than she had ever enjoyed anything before.
So Walter, coming behind the big machine with Grace, sulked, and Gracescolded because, in his preoccupation, he nearly ran her and himselfinto a ditch.
Their route lay over the lake to West Palm Beach and then along abeautiful highway lined on either side with gorgeous palms.
"I don't wonder the place is called Palm Beach," remarked Rhoda. "Inever dreamed of seeing so many fine palm trees before."
They had made careful inquiries concerning the route, and once thehouses and bungalows were left behind they "hit it up" to a veryrespectable rate of speed. The roads, for the most part, were very good,and the only spots covered where they had to be careful were where therehad been washouts.
"It is certainly a pretty landscape," remarked Grace, as they sped pastone settlement after another. "I don't wonder that you said you'd liketo make sketches, Nan."
"But I haven't made any yet," was Nan's answer, with a slight shrug ofthe shoulders.
They reached Sunny Slopes about noon, and decided--at least theirravenous appetites decided for them--that they had better have somethingto eat before they inquired further into the mystery of Mrs. Bragley'spapers.
Nan was the only one who seemed very much excited, and the others didnot notice that the girl scarcely touched her lunch. It seemed an age toher before the meal was finished and Mr. Mason declared that they wereready to make their investigations.
Nan and her friends would have been very much surprised had they knownthat they were being followed on their trip to Sunny Slopes, yet suchwas a fact. The two men who had tried so hard to gain possession ofSarah Bragley's documents were growing desperate.
"We've got to do something and do it quick," snapped the tall, thin man."Do you hear me?"
"I certainly do," growled the other.
"If we fail we won't get a cent of the cash that was promised to us."
"I know that, too," answered the short man, and scowled deeply.
Mr. Mason had once, in his less affluent days, been a real estate brokerhimself, and so pooh-poohed his wife's suggestion that he get some onewho knew the country to direct them.
"My dear," he said, "if this Mrs. Bragley has any property around here,I'll find it."
He had, with Nan's consent, examined the documents the widow had givenher and had seemed, to Nan's eager eyes, to have been considerablyimpressed by them.
So now as they crowded out of the restaurant--it was the first one theyhad come to, and they had been too hungry to argue about its elegance orlack of it--and climbed into the cars again, Nan could hardly keep stillin her eagerness to know the truth at once.
They passed down a short business street, and then, making a turn, cameout on a broad country road.
"Sunny Slopes begins about a mile from here," said Mr. Mason. "It coversquite a bit of territory, I am told. While one end is quite barren, theother end is excellent for orange growing and is covered with bearingtrees."
"Oh, dear, I hope Mrs. Bragley's end is the orange-growing end!" criedNan.
"Don't be too much disappointed if it isn't," said Mrs. Mason kindly.
Suddenly Bess, who had been laughing and talking with Rhoda about schoolaffairs, gave a little bounce and cried out excitedly:
"Look there! Isn't that an orange grove?"
"It surely is," Mr. Mason called back to her, adding in a voice thatshowed his rising excitement: "Your widow's property ought to besomewhere in here, Nan. I think I'll stop the car and we can go forwardon foot."
"Oh!" said Nan softly, as, a moment later, she jumped out into the road."I never saw an orange grove before. Isn't it wonderful!"
"Goodness!" said Bess, as Grace and Walter drew up behind the big carand ran around and joined them, "it looks as if they had all been drawnafter the same pattern--the trees, I mean. Did you ever see anything sosymmetrical in all your life?"
It was the first time any of them, except the Masons, had been close toan orange grove, and they all went forward for a closer look at it. Thegrove was set quite a way back from the road and seemed to cover manyacres of ground, stretching symmetrically back as far as the eye couldsee.
The orange trees were not tall, and were shaped very much like thelittle toy trees the children use to build their landscapegardens--broad at the bottom and tapering up almost to a point at thetop.
From his examination of the documents carried by Nan, Mr. Mason hadjotted down a number of facts and figures. Now the lawyer walked forwardslowly and presently examined a number of stone markers he found set inthe ground. Then he walked to a side road and read the signs thereon. Asmile of satisfaction crossed his face.
Nan, standing close to Mr. Mason, touched his arm timidly.
"Is this Mrs. Bragley's property?" she asked in an awed tone.
"These are most certainly the orange groves mentioned in her documents,"he said gravely. "How much of it she owns will have to be determined byan attorney. But I guess," he added, looking down at Nan with a kindlysmile, "that the property she holds here is worth a tidy sum, severalthousand dollars at least. Of course the orange grove itself is worth afortune."
"I'm so glad!" cried Nan happily. "I just can't wait to let poor Mrs.Bragley know about it."
"Well, I must say," said Bess, "that this is the first time I've reallythought those old papers were worth anything, Nan. Perhaps now we canget rid of them so we won't have any more trouble."
"Then there was a real reason for those men shadowing Nan," said Walter,adding with an unusually fierce scowl: "If they turn up again, I willkill them, that's all, even if it lands me in jail."
"My, aren't we dangerous," said Nan, laughing at him.
Nan never afterward knew just how it happened, but some way or other,among the orange trees, she managed to get separated from the rest ofthe party. She was so engrossed with happy thoughts of the success ofher plan to help Mrs. Bragley and so absorbed in imagining the woman'ssurprise and joy at the news she was about to receive that it was sometime before she woke up to the fact that she was alone.
The predicament--if indeed it was one--did not particularly worry her,for she knew that she could find her way back to the road easily enoughand that there was no possibility in the world of her becoming reallylost.
As she stood reveling in the tropical beauty of the scene and smilinghappily to herself, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind thatbanished the smile from her lips and brought an anxious frown to herbrow.
"I've left my bag in the car!" she told herself. "And with all Mrs.Bragley's papers in it! If I should lose them now, after bringing themsafely all this way----"
Action followed swift upon the thought, and she started through thegrove in the direction she had come.
"Not so fast! Not so fast!" said a voice beside her, and the next momenta man darted out
from the shelter of the trees and stepped directly inher path. He was, as Nan knew the minute she heard his voice, the tall,thin man with the straight line for a mouth, with whom she had had somany unpleasant meetings before. His face showed a desperate expression.
Nan did not scream, although much alarmed. She glanced over her shoulderwith a half-formed thought of escape, but the man sprang forward andlaid a rough hand on her arm.
"None of that, my little lady," said the sneering voice. "You are notgoing to get away from us this time until we get what we want. Just alittle document or two is all we want. Quick now--hand it over."
"I--I haven't any document!" gasped Nan, adding with a little flare oftemper: "If you don't let go of my arm I--I'll scream."
"Oh, no, you won't! Slicker, that's your job."
Before Nan could move a soft, fat hand was pressed over her mouth frombehind and she twisted about to find that her second captor was theshort, fat man who had been the companion of her more dangerous enemy onthe boat.
"Come, we're in a hurry," snapped the latter, and Nan's terrified eyescame back to his. "Will you give 'em to us or do we have to take them?"
Nan shook her head, and with a snort of impatience the man laid roughhands upon her and began to search her clothing for the papers. Then,finding nothing, he turned upon her in a towering rage.
"You're a sly one," he growled between his teeth. "But let me tell youthis, you little imp----"
"Easy, Jensen, easy," cautioned the fat man, whose hand still coveredNan's mouth.
"If we don't find those papers within the next forty-eight hours,"raged the other, not noticing his companion, "you will be mighty sorry.Something is going to happen to you! Get me?"
"You--you brute!" gasped Nan, as the fat man removed his hand from hermouth.
"It won't do you any good to call names, Miss. You get those papers forus. And don't you dare to hand 'em to any of your friends either. If youdo--well, you'll be sorry. We are out for those papers, and we are boundto have 'em."
He pushed Nan from him with such force that she stumbled and fell fulllength on the ground, where she lay, a bewildered heap of indignantgirlhood.
For a moment the tall man looked at her with a cruel smile touching histhin mouth. Then he took his companion by the arm and disappearedthrough the trees.
He pushed Nan from him with such force that she stumbledand fell. (_See page 216_)]