XXIII
Mr. Bill, with Joe Cary at his heels, dashed into the Evergreen andthrough the crowd of shoppers to the elevator. A car was just about togo up. Mr. Bill reached in and plucked out one of the passengers.
"Larsen," he said breathlessly to the employment manager, "have youtaken on any new people to-day?"
"Wha--what?" spluttered Larsen, too startled at being plucked from theascending elevator to do more than splutter--"what do you mean?"
"Just what I say!" exclaimed Mr. Bill. "Have you taken on any new peopleto-day? Hurry up the answer! I haven't any time to spare."
His eagerness and his determination impressed Larsen as soon as Larsencould recover from his surprise. "Yes," he said then, "I took on threenew people."
Mr. Bill sent a triumphant glance at Joe Cary. "Any girls?" he demandedeven more eagerly.
Larsen regarded him curiously. Mr. Bill had never showed any interest inthe girls employed in the Evergreen, they had never seemed to be anymore to Mr. Bill than so many bolts of midnight blue serge, or so manyelectric washing-machines, but now Mr. Bill acted as if he knew thatthe girls were human beings, real flesh-and-blood little creatures."There was one girl," Larsen remembered slowly.
Mr. Bill caught his shoulder and gave him a little shake. "What was shelike? Where is she?" The words fairly dashed over each other in theirhaste to be spoken. "What was she like?" he repeated impatiently.
"Nothing!" Larsen described the new salesgirl in one vivid word. "Shewasn't like anything! And she's down in the basement in the hardware.Her name?" in answer to another shake from Mr. Bill. "Her name was MarySmith." And to the best of Larsen's recollection she was nineteen yearsold, a high-school girl, an orphan, and she had wanted to go to work atonce. Mr. Walker was short-handed so he had taken her down at once, andshe would receive the minimum wage of----
But Mr. Bill did not wait to hear about the minimum wage. "Come on,Joe!" he called over his shoulder and hurried away, not to his father'soffice where Joe thought they were bound, but to the basement.
The elevator was full of shoppers and Mr. Bill was separated from Joe bya blue serge suit and a plaid gingham frock, so that Joe could not askMr. Bill what on earth was eating him, but an inkling of Mr. Bill'ssuspicion had crept into his mind. He was as eager as Mr. Bill to learnif there was anything in that suspicion.
When they reached the basement, Mr. Bill made a dash for the hardwareand stood for a moment surveying the department with eager searchingeyes. Half a dozen customers were hesitating over various pans andkettles, and as many clerks were waiting, with more or less patience,for them to make their decisions. Mr. Bill and Joe had never seen thosecustomers before but they had seen the clerks. They recognized each oneof the half dozen. But Larsen had said there was a new girl. Joe turnedto ask Mr. Walker where she was when Mr. Bill pulled his sleeve, andpointed a shaking finger toward the corner where the brooms and mopswere. A girl was standing beside them, the brooms concealing fully halfof her black frock.
"There she is!" hissed Mr. Bill.
Joe swung around and stared. There she was, the Mary Smith Mr. Larsenhad mentioned, the new employee. She was small and dressed in black inaccordance with the rule of the store. Her hair was pulled back from herforehead and twisted in a hard knot on her neck. She wore glasses, andso far as Joe could tell, she did not look like any one he had ever seenbefore.
"Huh!" muttered Mr. Bill in deep disgust. "Larsen was right. She doeslook like nothing, doesn't she? My hunch wasn't worth much, but just tomake sure let's have a word with old Walker."
When they found Mr. Walker in the rear of the department, he agreed thatMary Smith had no style, that she would never be noticed in a crowd, buthe insisted that as a salesgirl she already showed promise.
"Only have to tell her once," he declared. "And brains are of more usethan style in this department. I think she'll make good!" As if Mr. Billcared what she would make. "But since I made such a bad guess aboutlittle Miss Gilfooly I haven't had as much confidence in my psychology.I never in the world would have taken her for a queen, so I won't saytoo much about this Mary Smith. Say," he begged, as Mr. Bill would havedarted off, "have they found Miss Gilfooly yet? There's romance! Can youbelieve it? I declare, I was just about ready to think that there wasn'tany in the world when along came that frizzle-headed black man and bang!we were off! It was a good stunt for the department. You'd never believehow our sales jumped. Too bad about the little queen! I hope she's allright!" Tessie would have been surprised to hear how worried he seemedto be about her.
"I hope she is!" agreed Mr. Bill, his eyes following Mary Smith as shemoved from the brooms to the carpet-sweepers.
Joe nudged him sharply, and asked him if he were going to his father'soffice or should Joe go alone?
"It might be just as well for you to come along," he said significantly."I've several things to say to your father that it might be just as wellfor you to hear."
"Just as you say!" But Mr. Bill showed no interest in a visit to hisfather's office, nor in what Joe was going to say to his father. He wasas flat as a pricked balloon. A moment before, he had been floating highin the sky, a round rosy ball, and now he lay on the dirty pavement,nothing but a bit of dingy red rubber. He took another look at MarySmith, but she had disappeared around the carpet-sweepers, and hefollowed Joe to the elevator and to the office.
Mr. Kingley looked up as they entered. "Huh!" he grunted, and they couldregard themselves as welcome or not as they pleased. Joe walked overuntil he stood in front of the flat desk where Mr. Kingley would have tolook at him if he looked at anything.
"Mr. Kingley," he began, but Mr. Kingley preferred to lead thediscussion.
"Have you found our queen?" he asked, and there really was an interest,an anxiety, in his voice.
"No, we haven't!" exclaimed Mr. Bill before Joe could gather breath torepeat with crushing sarcasm the phrase "our queen" which so irritatedhim. "Just for a moment, when we were at her old home, I had a hunchthat she might be hiding herself from those darned Sunshine Sons andthat she would think there would be no place as safe as her old job inthe Evergreen basement, but she isn't there."
"My soul!" interrupted Mr. Kingley, and his eyes fairly stood on hischeeks. "Are you sure! That would make a striking story. The littlequeen driven back to the Evergreen where she was found!" He smacked hislips as he voiced the headline he quickly composed. "Are you sure,Bill?" He hoped that Mr. Bill would not be sure.
"You don't think of anything but headlines, do you, Mr. Kingley?" Joebroke in rudely. "You never think of Tessie as a young girl, a humanbeing? You only think of her as publicity for the Evergreen!"
"Well, but--but--" spluttered Mr. Kingley, staring at Joe indignantly.Didn't Joe know that the welfare department of the Evergreen was thebest in the Northwest? That didn't look as if he failed to regard hisemployees as human beings. As for publicity, even the Kingleys furnishedpublicity for the Evergreen. Every time Mrs. Kingley went east or Ethelhad a friend in for a cup of tea, there was a notice in the _Gazette_.To be sure, the notice did not always mention the Evergreen, but in theWaloo mind, the name of Kingley meant Evergreen. The two weresynonymous. Joe should remember that. Really Joe was impossible. Heshould remember all that Mr. Kingley had done for Tessie since shebecame a queen, clothed her, introduced her to Waloo and aided her inevery way. He had a perfect right to be indignant at Joe and to glare athim hotly.
"What I want to know is, how much the Evergreen is responsible for thiskidnaping?" went on Joe, as cold as Mr. Kingley was hot. They might havebeen the two extremities of a dinner--hot soup and frozen pudding. Joedid not seem to care a pin if Mr. Kingley did sputter and glare at him.
"Joe!" Both Mr. Kingley and Mr. Bill were on their feet and theirexclamations were full of genuine and righteous indignation.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Bill found his tongue first. "What do you mean,Cary? What has father to do with the Sons of Sunshine?"
"That's what I want him to tell us," Joe said, while Mr. Kingl
eycontinued to imitate a soda-water bottle. "There are things which mustbe cleared up. I don't know much, but I suspect a lot." He turned hisback on the soda-water bottle and spoke directly to Mr. Bill. "Youremember the way your father acted when this darned news came to Tessie,how he framed a big publicity campaign for the Evergreen, the exhibitionof the clothes he sold Tessie, the aluminum sale for the poor childrenof the Sunshine Islands, the moving picture he had made of her, oh, thewhole business? It was all over the front page of the newspapers everyday. And it made the Evergreen famous from New York to San Francisco.People who came to town asked the way to the Evergreen instead of to theArt Museum or the new post office. It put the Evergreen on the worldmap, and made it the most-talked-of store in the country. No matter whatcame up, Mr. Kingley considered the Evergreen before he did Tessie. Andwhat I want to know now is how much of the thing is fake and how much istrue?"
"And what I want to know now," declared Mr. Bill standing shoulder toshoulder with Joe and facing this choking parent, "is where TessieGilfooly is. If half what Joe says is true, then you know where she is,and you've got to tell me!"
Mr. Kingley turned his bulging eyes from one determined young face onlyto see another determined young face. He could not entrench himselfbehind glittering generalities another minute. They would know what heknew, and he might as well tell them at once.
"Boys," he began slowly, "sit down and I'll tell you what I know. Sitdown!" he roared, as they failed to obey his first order but stoodfacing him with a watchfulness which was very annoying. "You make menervous standing there, and looking at me as if I were a criminal. No,Bill," as Mr. Bill impatiently shifted his weight from one brown shoeto the other, "I don't know anything about the kidnaping of MissGilfooly! But Joe is right in his statement that I made use of thestrange things that have happened here to advertise the Evergreen. Ionly did what any red-blooded man would have done. It would have beenblind stupid folly to have refused to use such material. And a storenever had such publicity. Joe is right when he says the Evergreen is themost famous store in the world. People do come from all over thecountry, and our mail-order business is doubled, trebled, because of theromance we found in our basement."
"Get down to brass tacks, Dad," rudely interrupted Mr. Bill. "Never minda speech. Just tell us in a few simple words whether you originated thewhole stunt? Are there any Sunshine Islands? Did Tessie Gilfooly everhave an Uncle Pete? Did----"
"Bill!" exclaimed Mr. Kingley, looking incurably injured. "How can youthink that I would stoop to such unscrupulous methods!"
"But did you?" insisted Mr. Bill. He walked over to stand beside hisfather as if to remind him that there might be more than one way toobtain a direct answer to a simple question.
Before Mr. Kingley could say whether he did or didn't, Norah Lee burstunceremoniously into the room.
"Oh, Mr. Kingley!" she exclaimed quickly. "Ka-kee-ta has come back! Hecame half an hour ago, and he is perfectly furious because the queen andthe Tear of God have disappeared!"
"Ka-kee-ta!" The exclamation was an incredulous trio. The motif was fullof unbelief.
"Where has he been?" demanded Joe, one eye on Mr. Kingley and the otheron pink-cheeked, breathless Norah. "Where was he?"
"He doesn't seem to know," Norah said. She was eager to tell her story."He actually says he doesn't know. He went to get the chocolates forTessie, and when he came back, he had a five-pound box under his arm.But where he was and what he was doing he can't, or won't say! Hemumbles a lot of native gibberish, but of course I can't understandthat. It's maddening! He declares he will find Tessie before night. AndPracht, too. And he mumbles a lot about sharks!"
"He would!" muttered Joe, a puzzled frown cutting his forehead from hisface.
"I hope he does find her!" exclaimed Mr. Bill, staring at his father,who seemed pleased that Ka-kee-ta had returned.
"Of course I'm not worried about Tessie since she telephoned that shewas all right," went on Norah. She could feel that there was a tensionin the office atmosphere, and as she did not understand it she talkednervously. "I know she is all right, but----"
"How do you know she is all right?" burst forth Mr. Bill. "She may havebeen forced to send that message. You don't know that she is all rightat all!" He contradicted Norah flatly and rudely.
Joe looked at him in surprise. "She was all right when she left thecottage," he impatiently reminded Mr. Bill. "She was right enough to eatsome breakfast and change her clothes. Of course she is all right, and,"he turned his eyes on Mr. Kingley, who squirmed uneasily. "I'm inclinedto think that Ka-kee-ta is right, that Tessie will be found before themorning edition of the _Gazette_ goes to press. How about it, Mr.Kingley? Do you agree with me?"
"I hope so. I sincerely hope so," stuttered Mr. Kingley, who found itvery disagreeable to be singled out as Joe had singled him. "I do hopeshe will be found long before then."
"Ka-kee-ta's looking for her now," Norah went on. "He didn't wait asecond, but went off with the candy under one arm and his ax under theother."
"Mr. Douglas wants to see Mr. Kingley," broke in the office boy from thedoorway.
"Douglas?" Mr. Kingley looked as if he had never heard of any Mr.Douglas.
"Bert Douglas from Marvin, Phelps & Stokes," Mr. Bill told him. "Sendhim in," he said to the boy. "Perhaps he can tell us something."
Bert came in with much dignity and importance. He glanced at the littlegroup--Norah and Mr. Bill and Joe--which had formed in front of Mr.Kingley, and he explained at once why he was there.
"Mr. Marvin sent me over to tell you, Mr. Kingley, that the specialrepresentative from the Sunshine Islands, Mr. Pitts, has arrived toconfer with Queen Teresa. As you have taken the queen under yourprotection, he thought you should know at once."
There was not a sound, but the air was heavy with significance. They allfelt it. Joe Cary stepped forward.
"Then there really are Sunshine Islands?" He sounded as if he had neverreally believed that there were any Sunshine Islands.
Bert looked at him in surprise. "Of course!" he said. "The specialrepresentative is a white man--James Pitts. He has had charge of KingPete's business affairs. He was on the islands when King Pete died, andthen, just as he was ready to leave, the radicals, Sons of Sunshine,they call themselves, you know, locked him up. But he had sent Ka-kee-tawith a lot of important papers to a lawyer in Honolulu, and the lawyerbrought him here. Pitts managed to escape and has just arrived. We wereglad to see him, for we had so many contradictory messages from him andabout him, that we scarcely knew what to think. I suppose they weresent by the radicals."
Joe stared at him before he drew a long breath, and turned away. "Mr.Kingley," he said impulsively, "I beg your pardon!"
"I should think you would," Mr. Kingley told him gruffly.
"All we have to do now," went on Bert, still rather overfull ofimportance, "is to find Queen Teresa, and then we can settle everythingup. Mr. Marvin thought perhaps--" He looked suggestively at Mr. Kingley,who hurriedly shook his head and fairly bellowed his reply.
"No, I don't! I don't know where she is! You go right back and tell Mr.Marvin I don't know! This is all very interesting and very romantic, butit doesn't do my work. If there is nothing I can do for you, I wouldsuggest that I have the morning mail to look over. Send in Miss Jenson,"he curtly told the boy who ran in to answer his buzzer.
Joe, stalking out behind the others, could not refrain from a last word.He would have choked if he had not spoken. "You mean Mr. Gray, don'tyou?" He grinned sarcastically. "The _Gazette_ should be told of thearrival of James Pitts, special representative of the Sunshine Islands,whose queen was found in the basement of the Evergreen."
Mr. Kingley regarded him with cold eyes. "Will you kindly shut the doorbehind you?" he said so frostily that any thermometer would haveregistered his temperature as far, far below zero.