CHAPTER XI
KATHLEEN'S GREAT STORY
The inside of the Overton police station closely resembled that ofOakdale. There was the same style of high desk, the same row of chairsagainst the wall. Grace hoped the chief would be as easy to approach aswas her old friend, Chief Burroughs, at home. There was but one man tobe seen, an officer, who sat writing at a small table in one corner ofthe room.
Kathleen pointed to a half-open door leading into an inner room on whichappeared the word "Private."
Grace nodded: then, confidently approaching the officer, asked if theChief of Police were in. For answer the officer simply motioned with onehand toward the half-open door and went on with his writing.
Chief of Police Ellis glanced up in surprise to see two strange youngwomen standing in the door of his private office.
"Are you the Chief of Police, and may we come into your office for amoment?" questioned Grace politely.
"Come in, by all means," responded the chief heartily. He was a kindly,middle-age man, whose voice and manner invited confidence. "What can Ido for you, young ladies?"
Grace turned to Kathleen, who at once poured forth the story of theappearance of "Larry, the Locksmith" in Overton, of his recognition andof how he had been traced to his hiding place.
At first Chief Ellis had looked incredulous over Kathleen's strangestatement.
"How can you be sure he is the man if you have never seen him?" he askedshrewdly. "We can't afford to arrest the wrong man, you know."
Kathleen looked appealingly at Grace.
"You have a daughter in the freshman class, haven't you, Chief!" askedGrace, coming to the newspaper girl's rescue.
"Yes," smiled the chief. "I thought you were Overton girls."
"I am Miss Harlowe of the senior class. This is Miss West, a sophomore.You would not wish your daughter's name to be used in police court news,would you?"
Chief Ellis made an emphatic gesture of negation. "No!" he answered.
"Then I am sure you will keep secret what I am about to tell you." Gracethen explained the situation, beginning with the theft of the classmoney in Oakdale and ending with her trailing of the thief to his hidingplace.
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed the chief. "This is a most remarkablestory. However, I am willing to proceed on the strength of it. I'll havethree men on the way to capture 'Larry' within the next fifteen minutes.You young ladies had better go home. You can call me on the telephoneevery half hour until the men come in. I'll keep you posted. If they gethim at once, you can get word to your paper to-night," he assuredKathleen. "You must be a pretty smart girl to be going to college andholding a newspaper job at the same time."
Instead of going to Wayne Hall to await word from the chief, the twogirls first made arrangements with the telegraph operator at the depotoffice to wire the story. Kathleen also sent a telegram to her paper.Then they had begun their anxious vigil in the drug store on the cornerabove the station. An hour later their watch ended. The three officersreturned with a snarling, raging prisoner securely handcuffed to one oftheir number.
"They've captured him!" cried Kathleen, "and now my work begins inearnest." While they had been waiting the newspaper girl had employedthe time in writing rapidly in a note book she carried. Grace would haveliked to see what she wrote, but now that the first excitement hadpassed she felt the old constraint rising between them like a wall.
"Do you care if I don't wait for you in the telegraph office?" askedGrace. "I'll go as far as the door with you. Then I think I had bettergo on to the Hall. Anne will be worried about me."
Kathleen assented to her plan with a look of immeasurable relief whichGrace was not slow to observe, but misconstrued entirely. "I suppose shedoesn't wish to be bothered while she sends in her story," was Grace'sthought as they left the drug store.
"Good night. I thank you for helping me," said Kathleen in a perfunctorytone as she turned to go into the office. "It is going to be a greatstory."
"You are very welcome," responded Grace. "Good night, and good luck toyou."
Three anxious-faced girls were waiting for Grace in her room, and as sheopened the door they pounced upon her in a body.
"Grace, Grace, you naughty girl, where have you been?" cried Anne. "I amsure my hair has turned gray watching for you."
"Yes, give an account of yourself," commanded Elfreda. "Have you norespect for our feelings?"
"Did you imagine no one would miss you?" was Miriam's question.
"I will answer your questions in order," laughed Grace. "I've been outon important business, I have the deepest respect for your feelings, andI know that my friends always miss me."
"Spoken like a soldier and a gentleman," commended Elfreda.
"Which is quite remarkable, considering the fact that I am neither,"retorted Grace.
"Grace, what on earth have you been doing?" Anne's face grew sober.There was a subdued excitement in her friend's manner that had notescaped her notice.
"Anne, I cannot tell a lie," returned Grace lightly. "I've been to thepolice station."
The three girls stared at Grace in amazement.
"Let me see," mumbled Elfreda. "Have I transgressed the law lately, orhad any arguments with Grace? This looks suspicious."
"Don't tease me, and promise you will never tell any one what I'm aboutto say. Hold up your right hands, all of you."
Three right hands were promptly raised.
"Now, I'll tell you about it," declared Grace, "and please bear in mind,before I begin, that venerable old saw about truth being stranger thanfiction."
"I knew something startling had happened," declared Anne, when Grace hadconcluded. "I read it in your face."
"Oh, why wasn't I with you?" was Elfreda's regretful cry. "I have alwayslonged to be concerned in a real melodrama."
Miriam, alone, made no comment. She regarded Grace with an intent gazethat made the latter ask quickly: "What is the matter, Miriam? Don't youapprove of my evening's work? I know Father and Mother won't. I mustwrite them to-morrow. Still, I could hardly have done otherwise."
"Of course you couldn't," assured Miriam. "I don't disapprove of whatyou did. You behaved in true Grace Harlowe fashion."
"Then what made you look at me so strangely?" persisted Grace.
"If I looked at you strangely, then I beg your pardon," smiled Miriam."It shall not happen again."
Grace smiled faintly, yet her intuition told her that Miriam hadpurposely turned her question aside.
No account of the recapture of "Larry, the Locksmith" appeared in themorning paper. But in the evening paper a full account was published.Grace had waited apprehensively for the evening edition, which wasusually out by four o 'clock in the afternoon. She purchased a paper ofthe boy who stationed himself daily at the southeast corner of thecampus, but purposely delayed opening it until she reached her room.Then almost fearfully she unfolded it, with her three friends lookingover her shoulder.
The article began with the flaring headline, "A Desperate CriminalRecaptured." Grace glanced rapidly down the column, then gave an audiblemurmur of relief. "We aren't mentioned. I shall always have asuperlatively good opinion of Chief Ellis. He kept his word to meabsolutely. Now I shan't mind writing Father."
"If I had done what you did, I'd insist upon having my name in extralarge type, and a portrait and biographical sketch of myself as well,"was Elfreda's modest declaration.
"No, you wouldn't, and you know it," contradicted Grace.
"Well, I might not go as far as the portrait, but I should certainlyhave the biographical sketch."
"I am going to entertain to-night in honor of Grace," announced Miriam."Shall I invite some of the other girls, or shall we four celebrate insolitary state?"
"Don't invite any outsiders this time," said Elfreda. "Then we'll befree to talk over our visit to Mabel and anything else we choose."
"There is one person who really ought to be invited," broke in Grace,with conviction. "I mean Kathleen West. Then we can delive
r Mabel'sinvitation to her. I have an idea that she won't refuse to go to NewYork with us. I hope she will be different from now on. It would besimply splendid to glide peacefully through the rest of one's senioryear without a single hitch, wouldn't it?"
"Have you seen her since last night?" asked Anne.
Grace shook her head. "I knocked on her door at noon, but neither shenor Patience was in. I saw Patience afterward, and she said Kathleen hadhurried through her luncheon and gone. I don't think Patience knewanything about last night. If she had known, she would have mentionedit. I will try to see Kathleen before dinner."
"You will have to hurry if you do. It is almost time for the dinner bellnow," said Elfreda. "You might ask Patience, too."
"All right, I'll go at once. Wait for me. I'll be back in a minute. Thenwe can go down to dinner together."
Grace knocked lightly upon the door of the end room. It was opened byKathleen herself.
"Good evening. Won't you come in?" Kathleen's voice was as cold andunfriendly as it had formerly been.
"Good evening." Somewhat puzzled at Kathleen's return to her old,cavalier manner, Grace hardly knew how to proceed. "Did you see today'spaper?" she asked, by way of beginning.
"Which paper?" was the brusque inquiry.
"Why, the 'Evening Journal,' of course."
"Oh!" Kathleen's tense expression relaxed a trifle. "Yes, I saw it."
"I am so glad Chief Ellis kept his word. I hope you were on time withyour New York story."
"Thank you. It went through nicely!" Kathleen answered in a low tone.
"I just stopped for a moment to ask you to come to a littlejollification in Miriam's room to-night. We want Patience, too."
"Miss Eliot went to Westbrook this afternoon. She will not return untilto-morrow morning. As for me, I thank you, but it will be impossible forme to come. I have another engagement."
"I am sorry," returned Grace. "Perhaps, under the circumstances, I hadbetter deliver another invitation I have for you at once. I recentlyreceived a letter from Miss Ashe inviting us to spend Thanksgiving ather home in New York. She wished me to extend her invitation to you,also. Mabel does not know----" began Grace. Then her face reddened andshe ceased abruptly.
Kathleen, understanding the flush, said dryly: "Miss Ashe is very kindto think of me. However, it is out of the question for me to accept herinvitation. I will write her to-night. It is strange she did not writeme, too."
"She has been extremely busy," retorted Grace, her face flushing a stilldeeper red at Kathleen's rudeness. "She invited Miriam, Elfreda and Annethe same way."
"That has nothing to do with me," declared Kathleen. "If you will be sokind, you might say in your letter to her that I will write her within afew days." She kept her face half averted, her eyes refusing to meetGrace's.
"Very well." Grace felt her anger rising. She turned from the door,which closed almost in her face, and went back to her room hurt andindignant.
"Refused and trampled upon as well," declared Elfreda after one glanceat Grace's stormy eyes. "Never mind, Grace. I wouldn't let a littlething like that worry me. I wouldn't even think about it."
Grace gave a short laugh. "Of course 'you could see,'" she mimicked.
"I'd be blind if I couldn't," grinned Elfreda. "The look in your eyestells the story."
"You are right, as usual. She has frozen again. She is icier than ever."
"Where's Patience?" asked Anne.
"Gone to Westbrook. Won't be back until to-morrow. If she were here shemight prevail upon Kathleen to behave reasonably."
"We four have been known to enjoy ourselves together without adding toour number," observed Elfreda in a dry tone. "I think I could livewithout her."
Grace brightened. "Oh, wise and superwise Elfreda, in your words lurkthe essence of truth. We four will have one of our own special brand ofgood times to-night. See, I throw all my cares to the winds." Gracewaved her arms as though to cast Care from her. "I have tried to solvethe mystery of the mysterious Kathleen and it is beyond me. I hopedafter last night that she would be different from then on, but to-dayshe is more provoking than ever. I shall say nothing of her in my letterto Mabel, except that I delivered the invitation, but when we go toMabel's for Thanksgiving if she asks for an explanation of certainthings I shall not hesitate to give it."
"That is the way I like to hear you talk," approved Elfreda. "I don'tmean the 'wise and superwise Elfreda' part. I'm not so conceited, Ihope. But it is high time you let that Kathleen West meander along tosuit her own tricky little self. She hasn't an iota of Overton spiritnor a shred of conscience, and instead of appreciating your kind officesshe is far more likely to repay you by dragging you into somethingunpleasant. I could see by Miriam's expression when you told us aboutthe capture of that man that she thought you had trusted Kathleen toofar, too."
"I confess I was thinking that very thing," laughed Miriam, "but howElfreda guessed it is more than I can see."
"But the man has been captured, the story has appeared in the Overtonpaper and Kathleen has kept her word about not mentioning me inconnection with the affair," protested Grace. "Nothing unpleasant canpossibly happen now."
But Grace was destined to realize before many hours passed that she hadbeen over-confident.