Rebecca's Promise

  CHAPTER X

  Almost immediately there were steps in the hall, and a man stood in thedoorway. He did not look unlike an ogre for he was short and fat and hada round red face which was topped with a shock of grizzled hair andbisected by a bristling grizzled mustache. Between the hair and themustache were two piercing blue eyes which seemed to bore right intoGranny and Rebecca Mary and Joan. Behind the short fat man were two tallslim young men, who seemed very much surprised and pleased to find thatguests had arrived so unexpectedly. The short fat man looked angry aswell as surprised, and he showed no pleasure at all.

  "My country!" he growled, still playing very realistically the role ofFather Bear. "Where did you come from? How the dickens did you get in?And what the deuce do you want?"

  Granny did not answer him because she never had been spoken to in quitethat tone and manner. Men always approached Mrs. Peter Simmons of Waloowith courteous deference, and this isolated case of gruff rudeness lefther speechless. Rebecca Mary could not speak because a hot indignationclutched her by the throat and made it impossible for her to utter aword. It was Joan who mastered her tongue. She looked fearlessly up atthe frowning ogre and answered his last question to the best of herknowledge.

  "We want a young heart and a big payment on a memory insurance and mydaddy," she announced clearly and somewhat peremptorily, as if she wereaccustomed to receive what she wanted.

  If Joan had not mentioned her daddy the ogre would have thought theywere all three mad, but he could understand a daddy if he could notcomprehend a young heart or a big memory insurance payment.

  "My country!" He breathed heavily and looked first at the young man athis right shoulder and then at the young man at his left shoulder. Butthey never looked at him at all. They were staring at Rebecca Mary inher crumpled white frock and her pink sweater.

  "How did you get in here?" demanded the ogre, and it was plain to eachone of them that he would have an answer, an intelligent answer, at onceor know the reason why.

  Granny drew herself up and looked at him with cold disdain. She did notlike his manner, and as he wore big round glasses he must have seen thatshe didn't.

  "We don't know," she told him in a very frigid voice.

  "Don't know?" he repeated, almost sure now that they were mad. Surely anold woman and a young woman would know how they had entered a house if achild didn't. He excused Joan on account of her age but he did notexcuse Granny nor Rebecca Mary. "You must know!" he told them with thatunpleasant dictatorial impatient voice, although the man at his righttouched his arm suggestively.

  "Don't say 'must' to me!" Granny rather lost her temper. There is nodoubt that bad manners are contagious. "Where is Mr. Cabot? I will makemy explanation to him, although I think he owes me an apology." The ogremight have been but a speck of dust on the threshold from the way shelooked beyond him.

  "Mr. Cabot isn't here." The ogre's high and mighty manner began to slipfrom him.

  "This is his house," began Granny, as if a man were always to be foundat home.

  "Not now----"

  "He hasn't sold it?" Granny couldn't wait for him to put a period to hissentence. "Joshua Cabot never would sell his great-grandfather's house."She was so sure that he wouldn't that she stopped being indignant orcold and was just frankly curious.

  The ogre looked as if he were not sure that it was any of her businesswhat Joshua Cabot would do before he made a grudging explanation. "No,Mr. Cabot hasn't sold Riverside, but he has turned it over to us. We aremaking a very important experiment for the government and we cannot bedisturbed."

  Granny's manner changed at once. It became quite friendly. "In that caseI shall tell you how we happened to disturb you." And she did tell themthat she and Rebecca Mary and Joan had left Waloo in their automobilethe night before and this morning they had found themselves in a shed atRiverside. But she never said a word of Rebecca Mary's dream.

  "But that's a ridiculous story," objected the ogre. He didn't believe aword she had said, for he had his own reasons for being suspicious ofstrangers at Riverside. "You must know who brought you here. Why shouldany one bring you? How did you pass the guard at the gate?"

  Granny looked at Rebecca Mary questioningly, but as Rebecca Mary onlyseemed bewildered, she shrugged her shoulders. It was not for her toexplain the whys of other people. "I am Mrs. Peter Simmons of Waloo,"she said with great dignity. "And people believe what I tell them."

  "Mrs. Peter Simmons!" The ogre found it hard to believe that was whoGranny was. "My country!" he muttered under his breath. "Mrs. PeterSimmons--of Waloo?" Granny nodded stiffly. "Mrs. Peter Simmons!" Hedidn't seem able to make himself understand that she was Mrs. PeterSimmons, and his voice grew more like the voice of a human being withevery word. "My country! Mrs. Simmons, of course. I don't doubt thetruth of what you say," he stumbled on, "but this is strange, verystrange. I can't understand why----" He stopped abruptly and no one saida word. It was so very plain that he could not understand. "I amsurprised to see you, Mrs. Simmons." He made a fresh start, and no onequestioned the truth of that statement, either.

  "Have you had your breakfast? Ben will make you some fresh----" Hisvoice choked again and he had to swallow hard before he could bring itup from his boots. "I am Major Martingale of the engineer corps of theUnited States Army," he announced explosively. That was the only fact hewas sure of just then, and he made the most of it.

  Granny was not of the type which bears malice and the strawberries hadnot conformed to her old-fashioned idea of what a breakfast should benor satisfied her appetite, so she accepted the white flag which he washolding out so ungraciously.

  "Thank you, we should like some toast and coffee and perhaps a freshegg. I rather think we ate your strawberries. We should have eaten therest of your breakfast if Ben had answered the bell."

  "Ben went over to the farmhouse with a message to Erickson," venturedthe young man at the left of Major Martingale, glad to have a chance tospeak. "You didn't find any one to answer the bell, did you?" He seemedquite grieved that he had not been there to answer it.

  "Not a soul. It was most mysterious. I dare say it was all right but Ishould never approve of leaving unlocked a house with as many valuablethings in it as this house has." Granny glanced around the room with itsmany souvenirs of pioneer days. "The front door stood wide open. I amsorry if we disturbed you, but if you will give us something moresubstantial than strawberries to eat we will go on and leave you to yourexperiment."

  Major Martingale tugged at his mustache and looked at her in surprise."That's the trouble, you know," he rumbled. "You can't go on."

  "Can't go!" Rebecca Mary found her tongue, and the men behind MajorMartingale smiled pleasantly. They liked Rebecca Mary's voice as soon asthey heard it. They thought it harmonized with her eyes. "Why can't wego? Is there anything the matter with the car?" She wouldn't besurprised if there was. She never had driven a car alone by moonlightover a country road before. Perhaps she had done something to it.

  "I don't know anything about your car," fussed Major Martingaleunhappily. "But you should have known, the guard at the gate could havetold you, that no one is allowed to enter Riverside now without apermit, and no one who enters is allowed to leave. No one!" He explodedagain.

  Granny and Rebecca Mary stared at him and then at each other. Theydidn't believe him. It sounded too ridiculous.

  "DO YOU MEAN TO TELL US THAT WE CAN'T GO?"]

  "Do you mean to tell us that we can't go when it isn't our fault we'rehere? We didn't mean to come here. We wanted to go to Seven Pines!"exclaimed Rebecca Mary when she could speak, which wasn't for a fullsecond.

  "I mean just that." Major Martingale's voice sounded as if it were madefrom the best adamant and was warranted to withstand any pressure. Itwould be useless to coax or to cry. "I told you we are making a mostimportant experiment here for the government." Surely they couldunderstand the government. "A most important experiment," he repeated,swelling proudly. "One that will mean a great deal to the whole world.Germany
has heard something about it and has been trying, is stilltrying, to get hold of the inventor and his idea. If she could it wouldgo a long way toward giving her back her place in the commercial world,for it will be a vital necessity for every country. And we don't proposeto let Germany have it. That is why we came down here to work and why wehave a guard at the gate and why we forbid any one who comes here to goaway. German propaganda hasn't stopped. Any one who employs labor willtell you that, and the socialists, the I. W. W. and the other agitatorsare fighting a new war for Germany. We chose a few loyal workmen, menwhom we could absolutely trust, and brought them down here where theycan't be influenced and coaxed away by any agitator or German spy. Youare an American, I suppose, Mrs. Simmons, but your companions, what arethey?"

  Granny was about to exclaim indignantly that they were Americans, too,when she glanced at Joan. Just what was Joan? Joan answered for herself.

  "I must be an American," she said slowly, "for I'm honest and brave andtrue and free and equal. And that's what Americans are. My daddy saidso."

  "And he's dead right," murmured the man behind Major Martingale's rightshoulder.

  Major Martingale only snorted. "We shall try and make you comfortable aslong as you are here," he promised with a groan. "But you can see wearen't going to take any chance of a leak. You'll have to stay until weare through with our work."

  "Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Granny with more force than elegance. "We'llfinish our breakfast, and then I'll telephone to Joshua Cabot and askhim if we can't go to Seven Pines."

  "You can't use the telephone," Major Martingale told her sharply."Evidently you don't understand that Riverside is cut off from the worldat present."

  Granny stopped on her way to the dining room. "Does he actually meanthat? Is he telling us the truth?" She appealed to the two young men,but they only nodded their heads. "Mayn't I even telephone to my maidfor clothes?" Granny asked almost feebly.

  "You may not." Major Martingale was glad that she was beginning tounderstand. "You may give me any message, and if I consider it safe andnecessary I may send it on. While you are not actually prisoners youcan't leave Riverside, and you can't communicate with any one. It isn'tmy fault," he added hurriedly. "I didn't bring you here. I don't wantyou here! Mr. Simmons shouldn't have let you come!"

  "Mr. Simmons doesn't know anything about it."

  "He doesn't!" The major was all suspicion again. "I'll send him word.I'll----"

  Granny caught his sleeve. "No, you shan't send him word!" she exclaimedquickly. "He'd--he'd laugh at us," she explained stumblingly, and a redflush crept into her cheeks. "You see we started for our country place.Mr. Simmons always said women couldn't be trusted and he'd tease us so.Please don't tell him. We'll be model prisoners if you won't, won't we?"She appealed to Rebecca Mary. "If you do tell him you may wish you hadnever been born," she prophesied with a smile, but there was somethingbehind the smile which made Major Martingale mop his brow and lookunhappy.

  "So long as you obey orders I'll keep still," he promised unwillingly."I can't say more than that. Mr. Marshall, will you see that theseladies have breakfast. I can't waste any more time. I shan't wait forbreakfast. I've lost my appetite." And he waddled away before any onecould say a word.

  Granny looked after him all ready to say several words if he would onlystay and listen to them, but as he never looked back, she dropped intothe nearest chair and laughed until the tears stood in her eyes. RebeccaMary was frightened and ran to her.

  "There, there," she said soothingly. She was sure that Granny hadhysterics, and she did not know what to do for hysterics. She wished shehad taken the First Aid last winter when she had a chance. "It's allright," she insisted, although she was not at all sure that it was allright.

  Granny pushed her away. "It's--it's----" she began, and stopped to wipethe tears from her eyes. "Oh, my old heart!" And she put her hand to herside and looked at them helplessly.

  Joan ran to her. "Is your old heart getting younger, Granny?" she askedanxiously.

  Granny patted her cheek. "I expect that is it. My old heart is gettingyounger. No wonder I have a queer feeling in it."

  "Better have some coffee," suggested Mr. Marshall. He was young enoughto regard food as a panacea for every ill. He introduced them to Mr.George Barton, an electrical engineer, and explained that he was anengineer, too, a chemical one, before he persuaded Granny to return tothe dining room, where Ben brought fresh coffee and eggs and toast.

  And while they ate their breakfast Mr. Marshall and Mr. Barton told themthat Major Martingale was quite right, most important things were beingdone at Riverside.

  "We're all here until the experiment is proved a success or a failure,"went on Mr. Marshall. "It may be for a week and it may be for twomonths. No one goes out but the Big Boss. He went away last night."

  "What is this great experiment?" asked Rebecca Mary between two bites ofsoft boiled egg.

  "I'm sorry but we can't breathe a word about it. We scarcely speak of itamong ourselves," regretted Mr. Marshall. He looked as if he would beglad to tell them if he only could. "The Major is right, old Germany ismoving heaven and earth to get it from us."

  Granny sniffed. "H-m," she murmured. "And you think we are going to stayhere indefinitely while this Major Martingale--Major Cross would be abetter name--finds out whether he is a fool or a genius?"

  George Barton laughed joyously. "That isn't exactly the way I'd stateit, but it's the way it is, isn't it, Wallie? You see the thing isfrightfully important. We're scared to death for fear the Germans mayget a hint. We all took an iron clad oath, but the Huns are sodevilishly clever you never can tell how or when they will reach yourworkmen. It isn't so bad here. We don't have such worse times, goodquarters, fine eats, plenty to read, a victrola and a grand piano andtennis. Do you play tennis?" he asked Rebecca Mary, who was staring athim with big round eyes. She couldn't believe yet that it was true, thatshe and Granny and Joan were prisoners in Riverside.

  "You may call yourself prisoners if you wish," it almost seemed as ifWallace Marshall had read her thoughts. "But we shall think of you ashonored guests. And, believe me, I'm glad you came," he said fervently."You've no idea how you will be appreciated."

  Granny pushed back her chair and regarded him with a strange glance.Evidently she did not care for his appreciation.

  "Oh!" Rebecca Mary pushed back her chair, too. She did not know what shefeared Granny might do or say.

  "Rebecca Mary," to her great relief Granny chuckled as she turned toher, "did you ever hear of such a thing? I reckon I've managed to getaway from that question better than I planned. No one can come here toask me what I want for a jubilee present." And she laughed before sheturned to Wallie Marshall and George Barton. "We'll stay for a while,"she went on quite as if she were at the seashore arranging dates withthe manager of a popular hotel instead of in prison talking to anassistant jailer. "But you will have to finish your experiment by thetwentieth. I have an important engagement on the twenty-second. A veryimportant engagement. We can't stay a minute after the twentieth. AndMajor Martingale will have to explain to Mrs. Swenson why we didn't cometo see Otillie's wedding things."