The Automobile Girls Along the Hudson Part 14

"I'd like to be a smuggler," cried Martin. "There would be some excitement in life then. But how did you manage to do it, Jimmie? You are always having things happen to you."

"I don't know," replied Jimmie. "I must have kicked the panel that worked the spring. Let's see if we can move it back again. Here's the place in the floor," and bending over he pressed on a sliding board in the floor. Instantly the wall began slipping back in place. The others leaped back into the first attic, and in a moment the part.i.tion had fitted itself as snugly as if it never had been moved.

"All is as if it never had been," exclaimed Jimmie. "Now let's find the place I kicked."

But try as they would, no one could locate the spot again.

"Well, of all that's curious and mysterious!" said Stephen. "Jimmie, go and turn a few more wheels and see if it happens again."

Jimmie did as he was bade, and kicked the wall vociferously from one end to the other but it never budged an inch.

In the meantime, Martin and the girls were diving into some old trunks and carved chests which were filled with clothes of another date, old-fas.h.i.+oned silks and dimities that had been worn by the major's grandmother and aunts.

"There is a trunkful of men's things, too," called Stephen, leaving the sliding part.i.tion, to join in the rummage.

"I say, girls," cried Jimmie, "wouldn't it be fun to give a fancy dress party some day, and surprise the major and Miss Stuart?"

"How delightful!" exclaimed the girls in one voice.

"Oh, pshaw!" said Martin, disgusted.

"Oh, I say now, Jimmie, what a beastly idea!" exclaimed Alfred, equally disgusted.

"Come on, fellows; don't throw cold water on the scheme if the girls like it," put in Stephen.

And so the party was arranged.

All this time Jose had never left the part.i.tion, but had kept up a continuous thumping to find the sliding panel.

"Everybody take a hand, and we will carry down everything we can find, and then we won't have to make another trip," called Stephen. "Come, Jose, we're going to dress up. You'll have to be a pirate. Here's a red sash and a three cornered hat that will just suit your style."

So saying, the cavalcade departed from the dark old attic, laden with spoils.

"If this is to be a surprise on uncle and Miss Stuart, we had better hide the things, hadn't we?" observed Martin, who was very cautious and always thought ahead, once he had decided to do a thing.

"Very well. We'll let Mary take charge of them and divide them later,"

replied Stephen. "You had better go take your naps now, girls," he added in a whisper, "or we'll have the old lady and gentleman on our necks."

The young people separated, the boys taking a corridor leading to the left wing, the girls following the main hall. Bab left the others and started downstairs.

"I'll be right back," she called. "I left my handkerchief in the library."

She confessed to herself, as she descended the stairs, that she was rather tired. The excitement of the two past days, her uncomfortable bed made of a steamer rug spread on the ground, the night before, and finally the close, dusty air of the attic had combined to give her a headache and a feeling of extreme weariness.

When she reached the cool, darkened library, she sat down for a moment in one of the big chairs and closed her eyes. It was very restful in there. The sun had left that side of the house in the shade and the room with its heavy hangings, its dark leather furniture and rich rugs was full of shadows.

She was almost asleep, a slender little figure in a great armchair of carved black oak. Her head dropped to one side and her eyes closed, when she was awakened with a start by a draught of cold air. One of the curtains next the book shelves bulged out for a moment and Barbara's eyes were fastened on a long, white hand that drew them aside. Then a face she had seen in the wood looked from around the curtain. The eyes met hers, and again that strange, childlike look of sorrow and amazement filled them.

A dizziness came over Barbara. She closed her eyes for a moment, and, when she opened them again, the face, or phantom, or whatever it was, had gone.

Holding her breath to keep from crying out, Barbara ran from the room as fast as her trembling knees could carry her. In the hall she met Jose.

He looked at her curiously.

"Mademoiselle, have you seen a ghost?" he asked as he stood aside to let her pa.s.s.

She was afraid to answer, for fear of bursting into tears.

"I am sorry," he continued. "Has anything really happened?"

But still she refused to speak, and ran up the stairs.

He turned and went into the library, closing the door after him.

There was a queer little smile on his face. Perhaps he, too, had seen the old man and understood her look of terror.

By the time she reached her room, Bab had regained her self-composure, and had again determined to say nothing about the adventure. It would only frighten the girls and take away from the pleasure of the visit.

CHAPTER XI-JOSe HAS AN ENEMY

"I like them all, the pretty girls, I like them all whether dark or fair, But above the rest, I like the best The girl with the golden hair!"

rang out the charming tenor voice of Jose, while he thrummed a delightful accompaniment on the piano.

Dinner was over, and the major, and his guests were sitting in the moonlight on the broad piazza. Windows and doors were stretched as wide as possible; the curtains in the red drawing room were drawn back and Jose was entertaining the company.

"I sing it translated," he called, as he finished the song, "that it may be understood."

Whereupon Jimmie winked at Stephen, and looked at Mollie; the major smiled indulgently, and the others were all more or less conscious that Spaniards always liked blond girls because they were so rare in Spain.

Mollie herself, however, was unconscious that she was being sung about.

She was looking out across the moonlit stretches of lawn and meadows, her little hands folded placidly in her lap.

"Do you dance as well as sing, Mr. Martinez?" she asked in her high, sweet voice.

"I can dance, yes," replied Jose, "but I like best dancing with another.

I do not like to dance alone."

"But there is no one else here who dances Spanish fancy dances, is there?" demanded Miss Sallie.

There was a silence.

"Don't all speak at once," cried Jimmie. "I will play for you, Jose, if you will try dancing alone," he added. "I am afraid we can't help you in any of your Spanish dances."

"Very well," replied Jose. "I will, then, try a dance of the Basque country, if Madamoiselle Mollie will be so kind as to lend me her scarf.