CHAPTER XVI
LADY BOUNTIFUL JUNIOR
Hearing that small, fluty voice Nora sighed with relief.
"Come here, little girl," she said gently. "I won't hurt you."
"Please, I can't. I must run----"
"Oh, no; don't run," begged Nora, as the child showed every sign ofescaping. "I am all alone. I just want to talk to you."
"But I must not. I have to run," insisted the other.
"Why?"
"Because----" the voice had dropped many tones.
"Will any one hurt you if you don't?" This was merely a chance questionof Nora's. She could not think quickly of just the right thing to sayand was anxious to detain the child.
"Yes, no, maybe," a shrug of the small shoulders proclaimed foreignmannerisms. Her dark eyes also bespoke the alien.
"Well, I won't let anyone hurt you," declared Nora bravely. "I'm a GirlScout, do you know what that means?"
"Yes, I know. It means crazy," promptly replied Lucia.
"Crazy?" Nora was somewhat taken back. Then it dawned upon her thatforeigners had a way of saying things--perhaps--"crazy" meant somethingelse to the child.
"Why do you say 'crazy'?" Nora asked next.
"Oh, they dress funny, and they run all over and they climb treeslike--crazy," said Lucia. Nora saw she was correct in her freetranslation. Crazy was a comprehensive term to Lucia.
"Don't you like them, the Scouts?" pressed Nora.
"The little one--I like. The big ones chase me one day," came theindifferent answer. "I have to go, I must run sure now," declared Lucia,putting out her small hands to make a hole in the bushes through whichto escape.
"Oh, please don't go yet," begged Nora. "I have just found you and Iwant to--know you."
"I don't dast," replied Lucia. "I have to hide now," she was gettingthrough the break when Nora took hold of the long skirt. At this Lucialooked around sharply, and her dark eyes flashed dangerously.
"Are you hungry?" Nora asked. This was a tactful thing to ask andoffered immediate postponement of flight for Lucia.
"Sure," she replied, beaming. "What you got?"
"Nothing--just now," faltered Nora. "But I can bring you lots of goodthings. You wait here----"
"Oh, no, I get caught," interrupted the woods wraith. "Then Iketch--it."
Nora was sorely puzzled, but being Nora she had no idea of allowing suchan interest to escape. She said next: "If you tell me where to leavethings for you, I'll bring them and you can get them when no one isaround. Would that be all right?"
"Maybe," replied the exasperating Lucia. "But when you get it?"
"Oh, any time, I live near here and I can just run over and be backbefore you have to go. Where do you go to?"
"I can't tell," answered Lucia with more foreign tone than she had yetassumed.
"You mean you do not dare tell me where you live?"
"Yes, that's what I mean."
"Why?"
"I don't dast," again came that quaint, childish negative.
"Who would do anything to you?"
"Nick."
If Nora was eager to talk, surely Lucia was determined to be very brief.What could she mean by "Nick."
Again Lucia held the bush back into an open gate. And again Nora tuggedat the skirt.
"If I bring you a lovely sweet pie will you come back and talk to mehere?" begged Nora.
"Where will you put the pie?"
"Can't you come and get it?"
"I don't know."
It was aggravating. The child seemed purposely obtuse. Nora had aninstinctive feeling that somehow she was the object of abuse. Hercringing manner indicated oppression.
"Now, Lucia," she began again, "if you come here every day I'll come allalone, except for Cap, and I'll bring you lovely things to eat. Wouldn'tyou like that?"
"Sure."
"Then you will come?"
"What time?"
"In the morning--about this time. Would that be all right for you?"
"If Nick is gone."
"Who is Nick?"
"Very bad man. I hate Nick." This last sentence was so purely American,that even Nora guessed the child had come from mixed surroundings.Holding to her shawl Nora could feel, she imagined, a shudder passthrough the slim frame at the very mention of the name Nick.
Lucia dragged her scarf off a bush. "I go now," she said with just atinge of politeness. "You bring pie?"
"Yes, a big pie. Don't forget to come."
"I come--sure."
The queer figure stood for a moment out in the clear sunlight, and Norahad a chance to see her features. She was pretty, strikingly so, inspite of her pinched cheeks and her too lustrous eyes.
"Please--you don't tell anybody?" came the appeal. "I work all day andpull weeds, but like to sleep little bit by the big trees, sometimes."
Then Nora guessed. "You mean you are sick and come here to rest?"
"Please."
"Well, you just come here whenever you want to, Lucia," said Nora withfeeling. "The idea of a tiny tot like you working at pulling weeds! Andwith all those heavy rags on you! It's a shame!" she declaredindignantly.
"You don't tell?" the child persisted anxiously.
"No, Lucia. I'll never tell. I have a lot of secrets, and this one Iwon't even tell Alma."
"Good bye."
Like a frightened animal the waif sped across the field and dodged intothe next clump of shrubbery.
"She is afraid of being seen," reasoned Nora. "Who ever saw such apitiful little thing?"
Then it dawned upon her that Cap had not even sniffed suspiciously.
"Did you like her, Cap?" she asked, patting the patient animal, that allduring the broken conversation had lain at Nora's feet without so muchas a single growl. "Did you feel sorry for her, too, Cap?"
He may have or there may have been some other reason for hisindifference, but now he was willing and anxious to go home. It waslunch time and Cap never needed an announcement.
Nora followed him. She was too astonished to know even what to think.That a little beggar girl should hide in the bushes to rest from hardwork!
"I'll bring her the nicest things Vita can bake," she concluded. Thencame the thought: How would she get Vita to give her the supplieswithout making known the use she was to put them to?
Picnics were common. These would surely supply an excuse for carryingout food, and, after all, wouldn't it be a picnic for Lucia?
Nora's heart was fluttering.
"I never knew what a vacation was before," she told Cap. "Here I amhaving a love of a time and doing things worth remembering."
How different from the fashionable summers she had been accustomed to!Nowadays she hardly had time to look in a glass, and yet she wasenjoying every hour. It was like discovering something new continually,and did Nora but know the secret of the adventure it was simply that shewas discovering her own resources--she was getting acquainted with NoraBlair.
But miracles are not common, and Nora was not yet completely transformedfrom a sensitive, secretive girl, to an honest, frank, fearless GirlScout.
Even the new discovery of Lucia and her sad plight was now locked up inher breast.
But should it have been?