CHAPTER VII.--BARNEY M'GEE.
It was almost as much of a shock to Miss Campbell and the others to seeBillie so unstrung as to find the Comet stolen.
The young girl's feeling for her car was of a very real character, andif the Comet had been a favorite animal or a human being even, she couldnot have been more distressed.
"Billie, my darling, you must not give way so," cried her cousin,putting her arms gently around Billie's neck. "We shall find the Comet,I'm sure."
"I never dreamed anyone would take him," sobbed Billie. "I thought hewould be quite safe in this lonely place. It was stupid of me to haveleft him unprotected like that all night long."
Her friends, who had been subdued and silent in the presence of hergrief could hardly refrain from smiling at the notion of Billie'ssitting up all night to protect the automobile from kidnappers. Billie,her normal, cheerful self, was the most sensible person in the world;but Billie, the prey of tears and doubts, was just as unreasonable asany other weeping, unhappy girl.
While she had her cry out on Miss Helen's shoulder with her devotedNancy hanging over her, Mary and Elinor began to look about them.
"The robber must have been a chauffeur, Elinor," said Mary, "and a verygood one, too, because he not only knew how to run the Comet but torepair it."
"What are we going to do?" asked Elinor irrelevantly.
The two girls stood thinking. The robber had not taken their suitcaseswhich they had been obliged to unstrap and open the night before; norhad he touched their camping outfit. Only the motor had been filchedfrom them while they slept.
"I think the first thing to do is to make ourselves comfortable," Maryremarked as her eyes fell on the alcohol stove. "Then we'll getbreakfast and Billie will be more cheerful. Perhaps someone will comealong by then."
As soon as Billie noticed her friends arranging their tumbled hair andwashing their faces from the bottle of drinking water they alwayscarried with them, she stopped crying at once.
"I'm awfully ashamed," she exclaimed, as embarrassed as a boy caught inthe act of shedding tears. "I'm afraid I've been a fearful cry-baby, asif weeping could do any good. Here, let's wash them off and get busy,"she added, trying to smile while she poured some of the water over herpocket handkerchief and bathed her red eyes.
"Don't you care, Billie," cried Nancy. "I was glad to see you a littlehuman like the rest of us. And it was a dreadful blow."
Mary, with her unfailing desire to make everybody comfortable under themost trying circumstances, began presently to prepare coffee over thealcohol stove, and the fragrance of the bean did seem to comfort themsomewhat in their trying position. When the most optimistic person in aparty becomes the prey of wretchedness, the others usually pretend acheerfulness they by no means feel. But now that Billie had regained hercomposure, Miss Campbell's spirits began to sink.
She made a pitiful little toilet with a teacupful of drinking water andher eau de cologne. She arranged her snow white hair in its usualthree-finger puffs, pinned on her lace jabot with great care and thensurveyed the far-stretching country with an uneasy glance.
"If one robber is around another is sure to be," she began. "Oh, dear,oh, dear! if we had only never started on this madman's journey. Yourfather was a foolish fellow ever to have consented, Billie. What are webut five weak helpless women lost in the wilderness?"
"No, we are not," protested Billie. "Indeed we are not any of thosethings, Cousin Helen. I was for a moment when I found we had lost theComet, but I know we shall get the Comet back and everything will be allright, I don't yet know how, but I certainly don't intend to give uphope at this stage of the game."
"First breakfast," said Mary, spreading out the lunch cloth andsupplying each person with an orange, a soft boiled egg and a cup ofcoffee. "First a little nourishment and then see how much more hopefulyou'll all feel."
It was hardly what might be called a cheerful meal and it was quicklydispatched especially by Billie in whose mind a plan was alreadyformulating.
"Nancy," she said to her friend who had followed her to the edge of thegrove and was standing silently beside her, "where are your fieldglasses?"
The glasses were promptly produced from Nancy's suitcase.
"Do you think," Billie continued, "that I could climb one of those pinetrees? I believe if I could get to one of the upper branches, I couldsee for miles around the country. I might even see the Comet."
"You know Miss Campbell would never consent, Billie," Nancy objected,"even if you could shin up that slippery pine tree."
"Just you engage Cousin Helen in conversation for five minutes and I'llengage to do the rest. It's really a matter of costume, anyhow."
So saying, Billie calmly slipped off her corduroy skirt and coat,revealing herself in pongee bloomers and a pongee blouse. Then shekicked off her russet leather pumps and hung the long strap of the fieldglasses over her shoulder.
The tree she had chosen to climb was the tallest one in the group, and,as is the case with pine trees, it had not put forth any substantiallimbs until more than half-way up. But the trunk was scarred andcorrugated with the marks of former limbs that had died, and Billie usedthese as footholds as she shinned up the tree.
Nancy had not attempted to engage Miss Campbell in conversation. Shestood rooted to the spot, fascinated while Billie worked her way up andfinally swung herself into a fork where the big stone pine divided andbecame as two trees. Then, choosing the next largest branch, she climbedon as nimbly as a sailor in the rigging of a ship. Nancy admired herfriend's graceful and agile figure, and occasionally through thefoliage, she caught glimpses of Billie's earnest face. Her gray eyeswere filled with the fire of her resolution, and her mouth, in whichsweetness and determination were blended, was closed tightly. Not a lockof her fine light brown hair had been disturbed by the climb and the twoside rolls were as smooth and glossy as silk.
All this while Miss Campbell and the others had been busy storing awaythe breakfast dishes which could not under any circumstances be washed.It was various degrees between seven and half-past by the severalwatches in the party and the sun had mounted the Eastern heavens and wasshedding its glory over the great plain.
"Someone must surely be coming this way soon----" Miss Campbell wassaying when a jolly voice singing an Irish song broke in on the silence.
"I had a sister Helen, she was younger than I am, She had so many sweethearts, she had to deny 'em; But as for meself, I haven't so many, And the Lord only knows, I'd be thankful for any."
A man on horseback immediately hove into sight around a bend in theroad. He was long and lean and brown with eyes as mildly blue as thesummer sky above them. The thin lips of his large mouth had a nervouslyhumorous twitch at the corners, and his yellow hair, much longer thanmen wear their hair in the East, could be seen underneath his sombrero.He wore a blue flannel shirt with a bright scarlet tie, velveteentrousers and long cowhide boots which extended beyond the knees. He was,in fact, a cowboy. The girls were certain of it although he did not wearthe fantastic sheepskin trousers they had seen in pictures. But he hadevery other mark of the cowboy, the lean Texas horse, the high-builtsaddle, much decorated, and the jingling spurs on his high-heeled boots.
Giving the belated motorists one grand, sweeping, comprehensive glance,he was about to amble on politely, since it was none of his business toshow interest in things that did not concern him, when Miss Campbellrushed dramatically into the road and stretched out her arms withgestures of distress.
"Oh, I beg of you, sir, don't leave us," she cried. Billie in the garbof Peter Pan watching from the tree tops could not restrain her smiles;and Nancy from behind the same tree giggled audibly.
"Excuse me, ma'am, I didn't know you were in any trouble," said thecowboy reining in his horse and lifting off his sombrero. "I'm BarneyMcGee, at your service, ma'am. What can I do for you?"
"I'm Barney McGee, at your service, ma'am."]
"Our motor car broke down here last night and it was too dark to repa
irit. We were obliged to stay here all night. And while we slept, a robberstole it. We are simply stranded on the road. What can we do?"
Barney McGee gave a long, melodious whistle.
"Lifted your motor, ma'am! That was a d----, excuse me, a devilish lowscoundrelly trick. If I could get to a telephone, we would round him upbefore he gets to Wyoming."
"Oh, Mr. McGee, if you would only help us, we would owe you a debt ofgratitude all our lives."
"You say the motor was out of fix, ma'am?" he asked. "Then it may havebroken down, again. I'll just climb up and take a look at thecountryside. What color was the car?"
"Red."
To Nancy's consternation, Barney McGee stood up on his saddle andgrasping a limb, drew himself up into the very tree in which Billie wasnow making herself as scarce as possible.
It was an absurd situation and the two young girls hardly knew whetherto keep silent or to speak. Billie kept saying to herself:
"I'm sure I look just as I do when I wear my gymnasium suit, but, oh,dear, I wish he hadn't chosen this tree."
As the cowboy swung up the next limb, Billie leaned around and lookedstraight down into his face. She was about to say:
"You needn't come any further. I can see the country perfectly," whenwords failed her and she burst out laughing.
Barney McGee smiled gravely back.
"Excuse me, I am afraid I've intruded," he said, observing the silkbloomers with an expression of guarded amusement.
"I suppose he thought I was a Suffragette," Billie laughingly told herfriends afterwards.
"Billie, my dear child, what are you doing?" cried Miss Campbell, whonow for the first time saw the strange bird roosting in the tree abovethem, and the good lady groaned aloud as her eye took in her youngrelative's costume.
"Wilhelmina," she exclaimed in a shocked voice, "what will Mr. McGeethink of you--in--in those things?"
"Don't scold her, ma'am," called down the cowboy, "it's an illigentclimbing costume."
"I have some glasses, Mr. McGee," said Billie calmly. "I haven't beenable to manage them yet and keep my balance. Perhaps you can do betterthan I can."
Barney McGee, as nimble as a mountain goat, as he pulled himself aboveBillie, his spurs jingling musically, now took the glasses and scannedthe surrounding country.
While he looked, Billie scrambled down as fast as she could and in twoseconds had slipped back on her skirt and buckled her patent leatherbelt.
The Motor Maids and Miss Helen felt not unlike a shipwrecked party witha sailor aloft in the lookout searching for a sail in that vast ocean ofprairie.
"Hip, hip, hurray!" cried Barney McGee, so suddenly, that he gave MissHelen a start of surprise. "I've found it, ma'am. I've found the redmotor and it's coming this way. Sure as me name is Barney, it is. It'sdriven by one person and it's goin' fast."
"Coming this way?" they cried in unison.
"It's about three miles to the southwest and at the rate it's goin' itought to be here in no time."
"Is it on this road?" cried Billie.
"It is, Miss, and it'll pass by here unless it shoots out over theprairie, which it won't."
"It is very strange," said Miss Campbell. "I should think the thiefwould take another direction."
"Perhaps he's doubling on his tracks," suggested Mary.
Barney had a long pistol in his belt and this he now took from its case,and examined critically while the girls looked on fearfully.
"You're not going to shoot him, I hope?" asked Billie.
"It may not be necessary, Miss."
"No, no. Don't do that under any circumstances," put in Miss Campbell.
Barney gave a humorous, good-natured grin.
"I'll defend the ladies," he said.
The suspense of waiting was almost more than they could endure. MissCampbell proposed that they pile all the suitcases one on top of theother and take their stand behind them, like an improvised fort.
Billie suggested that they lay them across the road so that the carwould be obliged to stop. As for Barney, he leapt on his Texas horse andtook his stand like a sentinel in the middle of the road, pistol cocked.
But the Comet appeared before the girls could do anything. They saw it along way off like a red speck on the road and as it came nearer, theirwonder grew in proportion. On the chauffeur's seat sat Peter VanVechten.