CHAPTER XV
CAN IT BE POSSIBLE?
"What is this?" Mr. Norwood asked, staring at his eager daughter."Have I heard anything before about a girl being carried away?"
"Why, don't you remember, Daddy, about Henrietta who lives over inDogtown, and her cousin, Bertha, and how Bertha has disappeared,and--and----"
"And Henrietta is the champion snake killer of all this region?"chuckled Mr. Norwood. "I certainly have a vivid remembrance of thesnakes, at any rate."
"Dear me!" cried Momsy. "This is all new to me. Where are the snakes,Jessie?"
"Gone to that bourne where both good and bad snakes go," rejoined herhusband. "Come, Jessie! It is evident I did not get all that youwanted to tell me the other evening. And, it seems to me, if Iremember rightly, you got so excited over your radio business beforeyou were through that you quite forgot the snakes--I mean forgot thegirl you say was run away with."
"Don't joke her any more, Robert," advised Momsy. "I can see she is inearnest."
"You just listen here, Daddy Norwood," Jessie cried. "Perhaps you'llbe glad to hear about Bertha. She is little Henrietta Haney's cousin,and Henrietta expected Bertha to come to see her where she lives withthe Foleys in Dogtown.
"Well, the day that Bertha was expected, she didn't come. That was theday Amy and I first thought of building our radio. And when we werewalking into town we heard a girl screaming in Dogtown Lane. So we ranin, and there was this girl being pulled into an automobile by twowomen."
"What girl was this?" asked Mr. Norwood, quite in earnest now. "A girlyou and Amy knew?"
"We had never seen her before, Daddy. And I am not positive, ofcourse, that she was Bertha, Henrietta's cousin. But Amy and I thoughtit might be. And now you tell about two women who want to keep aservant girl away from you, and it might be the same."
"It might indeed," admitted Mr. Norwood thoughtfully. "Tell me whatthe two women looked like. Describe them as well as you can."
Jessie did so. She managed, even after this length of time, toremember many peculiarities about the woman who drove the big car andthe fleshy one who had treated the girl so roughly. Mr. Norwoodexclaimed at last:
"I should not be at all surprised if that were Martha Poole and Mrs.Bothwell. The descriptions in a general way fit them. And if it is so,the girl Jessie and Amy saw abused in that way is surely the maid whoworked for Mrs. Poole."
"Oh, Robert! can it be possible, do you think?" cried his wife.
"Not alone possible, but probable," declared Robert Norwood. "Jessie,I am glad that you are so observant. I want you to get the little girlfrom Dogtown some day soon and let me talk with her. Perhaps she cantell me something about her cousin's looks that will clinch thematter. At least, she can tell us her cousin's full name, I have nodoubt."
"It's Bertha for a first name," said Jessie, eagerly. "And I supposedit was Haney, like Henrietta's."
"The girl I am looking for is not named Haney, whatever her first namemay be. Anyway, it is a chance, and I mean to get to the bottom ofthis mysterious kidnaping if I can, Jessie. Let me see this littleHenrietta who kills snakes with such admirable vigor," and helaughed.
It was, however, no inconsiderable matter, as Jessie well understood.In the morning she hurried over to the Drew house to tell Amy aboutit. Both had been interested from the very beginning in the mystery ofthe strange girl and her two women captors. There was something wrongwith those women. Amy said this with a serious shake of her head. Youcould tell!
And when, on further discussion, Jessie remembered their names--Pooleand Bothwell--this fact brought out another discovery.
"Bothwell! I never did!" ejaculated Amy Drew. "Why, no wonder Ithought she looked like somebody I knew. And she drives a fastcar--I'll say she does. Jess Norwood! where were our wits? Don't youremember reading about Sadie Bothwell, whose husband was one of thefirst automobile builders, and she has driven in professional races,and won a prize--a cup, or something? And her picture was in thepaper."
"That is the person Daddy refers to," Jessie agreed. "I did not likeher at all."
"Ho! I should say not!" scoffed Amy. "And I wasn't in love with thefat woman. So she is a race track follower, is she?" Then Amy giggled."I guess she wouldn't follow 'em far afoot! She isn't so lively inmoving about."
"But where do you suppose they took Bertha--if it was Henrietta'scousin we saw carried off?"
"Now, dear child, I am neither a seventh daughter of a seventhdaughter nor----"
"Nor one of the Seven Sleepers," laughed Jessie. "So you cannotprophesy, can you? We will go down to Dogtown this afternoon and seeif Mrs. Foley will let us bring Henrietta back to see Daddy."
"The child hasn't been up to see you at all, has she?" asked Amy.
"Why, no."
"Maybe the woman won't want her to come. Afraid somebody may takelittle Hen away from her. Did you see the child's hands? They havebeen well used to hard work. I have an idea she is a regular littleslave."
"Oh, I hope not. It doesn't seem to me as though anybody could treatthat child cruelly. And she doesn't seem to blame Mrs. Foley for hercondition."
"Well, Hen knows how to kill snakes, but maybe she is a poor judge ofcharacter," laughed Amy. "I'll go with you and defend you if the Foleytribe attack in force. But let's go down in the canoe. Then we cansteal the cheeld, if necessary. 'Once aboard the lugger!' you know,'and the gal is mine'."
"To hear you, one would think you were a real pirate," scoffedJessie.
At lunch time Nell Stanley had an errand in the neighborhood, and shedropped in at the Drew house. The three girls, Mrs. Drew being away,had a gay little meal together, waited on by the Drew butler,McTavish, who was a very grave and solemn man.
"Almost ecclesiastic, I'll say," chuckled Nell, when the old servingman was out of the room. "He is a lot more ministerial looking thanthe Reverend. I expect him, almost any time, to say grace before meat.Fred convulsed us all at the table last evening. We take turns, youknow, giving thanks. And at dinner last evening it was the Reverend'sturn.
"'Say, Papa,' Fred asked afterward--he's such a solemn little tike youhave no idea what's coming--'Say, Papa, why is it you say a so-muchlonger prayer than I do?'
"'Because you're not old enough to say a long one,' Reverend toldhim.
"'Oh!' said Master Freddie, 'I thought maybe it was 'cause I wasn'tbig enough to be as wicked as you and I didn't need so long a one.'Now! What can you do with a young one like that?" she added, as thegirls went off into a gale of laughter.
But she had other news of her young brothers besides this. Bob andFred were enamored of the radio. They were ingenious lads. Nell saidshe believed they could rig a radio set with a hair-pin and amouse-trap. But she was going to help them obtain a fairly good set;only, because of the shortage of funds at the parsonage, Bob and Fredwould be obliged themselves to make every part that was possible.
So she drew from Jessie and from Amy all they knew about the newscience, and Jessie ran across to her house and got the books she hadbought dealing with radio and the installation of a set.
Jessie and Amy got into their outing clothes when Nell Stanley hadgone and embarked upon the lake, paddling to the landing at despisedDogtown. It was not a savory place in appearance, even from thewater-side. As the canoe drew near the girls saw a wild mob ofchildren, both boys and girls, racing toward the broken landing.
"Why! What are they ever doing?" asked Jessie, in amazement, backingwith her paddle.
"Chasing that young one ahead," said Amy.
They were all dressed most fantastically, and the child running inadvance, an agile and bedrabbled looking little creature, was more inmasquerade than the others. She wore an old poke bonnet and carried acrooked stick, and there seemed to be a hump upon her back.
"Spotted Snake! Spotted Snake! Miss Spotted Snake!" the girls fromRoselawn heard the children shrieking, and without doubt thisopprobrious epithet referred to the one pursued.
SPOTTED SNAKE, THE WITCH
BROADCAST
ING