Briarwood Girls Part 7

"I couldn't think what else could have become of it," said Alison, beginning to cry again. Joan began to comfort her, but Kathy checked the words on her lips.

"Listen, Alison. Who was in your room while you were gone?"

"Only Marcia. I left her studying algebra."

"And where is she now?"

"I don't know. She was gone when I came up."

"And your lamp with her," added Joan. "I have an idea. Wait a minute, all of you."

She ran across the hall to Alison's room, returning promptly. "Come, all of you, and see."

The girls followed her, and stood puzzled in the doorway.

"Where are Marcia's things?" demanded Joan.

A glance around the room showed it empty of all that had belonged to Marcia. The girls looked at each other. Kathy was the first to speak.

"We must find Marcia, girls--if she is to be found--and ask her if the lamp was in the room when she left it."

A hasty but thorough search established the certainty that Marcia was not in any of the buildings. Neither, apparently, was the lamp. It was almost supper time when the girls came together again to report failure.

"What do you think?" Alison asked.

Joan, as usual, was the spokeswoman. "It looks to me as if she wanted to go away, and has taken the lamp to sell it in order to get the money for her ticket. She could not sell jewelry, of course, but a handsome lamp might bring a good price. She has looked even more forbidding than usual the last few days, and I know she hated school. She put back the other things she 'borrowed,' and tried to throw the blame on Rosalind by hiding them in her drawer. She knew Rosy was in Kathy's room with us, and she had a clear field. So she carried out her plans, and ran away."

"Well," said Kathy after a pause. "If Joan is right, we ought to report Marcia's disappearance at once. If she has really run away from school, Miss Harland will have to know it."

CHAPTER X

DISCOVERIES

The whole school was thrown into a ferment of excitement over the discovery of Marcia's disappearance. No one exactly told anyone, but the news flew from lip to lip with the speed of that little bird so famous for its gossiping tendency. The school buildings were searched again, with no result. No one had seen Marcia go out; yet she was certainly not in the school. Miss Harland telephoned to all her friends in the town with whom Marcia might be supposed to be staying, but no one had seen her or heard from her.

In great distress Miss Harland called up Marcia's father, Mr. West, who was staying in a hotel in a nearby town, and asked him if his daughter was with him, and to her intense relief, received a quick and rea.s.suring reply. Yes, his little girl had just arrived by the late train. She was so homesick for her Daddy, she could not stay away from him any longer, she told him.

Could she speak to Marcia herself, Miss Harland asked. There was a brief colloquy at the other end of the line, and then Mr. West spoke courteously. Marcia had just gone to bed with a bad cold, and could not talk that night. Tomorrow he would talk with her. And with a pleasant "Goodnight," he hung up.

Relieved from her fears for Marcia's safety, Miss Harland gladly relinquished the search for the night, and the girls were forced to restrain their excitement and go to bed. The next morning Mr. West came in person to talk with Miss Harland. Marcia was still in bed, and too hoa.r.s.e to talk, so she had asked her father to explain to Miss Harland why she had left school without a word to her. She could not bear to be away from him, and hearing that he was about to leave for Chicago to accept a position there, had hurried to join him, and being in haste to catch the afternoon train, had not had time to take leave of her friends and teachers. It was foolish, he said indulgently, but he had spoiled his little girl, and could not be hard on her.

Miss Harland asked him quietly whether Marcia had said anything of having borrowed something of one of the girls. But Mr. West shook his head. He would ask her, and let Miss Harland know; and politely bowed himself out. Later, he telephoned to say that he had talked to Marcia, and she had declared she had borrowed nothing of her friends. She and her father were going to start for Chicago the same night, and she would have no opportunity to say goodbye to the girls and Miss Harland. Her cold was better, and she sent her love, and wished them all a merry Christmas.

Miss Harland returned a similar wish, and smiled as she hung up. She was glad Marcia was safe with her father, and was not sorry to have seen the last of her.

So Marcia left Briarwood, and with her departed something that had spoiled the spirit of concord and happiness which usually prevailed in the school. The girls were happy and at peace again. Joan returned to her old place as Alison's roommate, and their room became as before Marcia's coming, the rendezvous of the "Kindred Spirits."

All would have been well with Alison, but for the grief for the loss of her lamp. No trace of it had been found. There was no certainty that Marcia had had anything to do with its vanis.h.i.+ng, but Joan, always practical and logical, maintained that since Marcia and the lamp had been alone together the whole afternoon, and since the lamp, having no feet, could not have left the room by itself, it was plain that Marcia must have a.s.sisted its departure. Alison said nothing, but she grieved deeply, with no hope of ever seeing her treasure again.

The Christmas holidays were drawing near. The girls were busy with plans for the two weeks' vacation, looking forward eagerly to going home, and the teachers were equally anxious for the coming of the last day of school.

Alison felt as if she could scarcely wait. Her gifts for the family were bought--the book she knew her father had long wanted but had not felt he could afford to buy for himself; the new dress for her mother, who would never get it for herself; the roller skates for Billy, the pretty scarf for Floss, the doll for little Mat, who had not yet outgrown them.

She hovered over them lovingly, fondling each package as she wrapped and tied them with a lavish expenditure of tissue paper and ribbon. How she blessed the memory of Aunt Justina, whose generosity had made her gifts possible! "I _can't_ wait," she said, and laughed at herself for her impatience.

The only flaw in her happiness was the prospect of having to confess at home that she had lost her "Aladdin lamp."

Two days before the 23rd, Joan, looking over her lists, made a discovery. "Alison, I'll have to have some more cards. I forgot a whole bunch of cousins out in Texas, who will be sure to send to me. I must run down and get some more before they are all gone. Come with me. It's snowing a little, but not too much."

"All right. Run and get permission while I put on my hat and coat."

In a few moments Joan came back with the required permission, and the two girls set out, running down the steps of the terrace and out into the snowy street. The snow was coming down more briskly, but they only laughed and enjoyed the frolic as they ran down the steep hillside and reached the level street on which the stores were. The "ten-cent store,"

the shoppers' delight, was packed with late shoppers like themselves.

Joan struggled through the dense crowd at the counter, pushed and jostled by the good-natured crowd, while Alison waited, amused and interested.

It was a lengthy ordeal, but at last Joan had found all she wanted and was ready to go. It was nearly dark by this time, and the snow was thicker, swirling about so as almost to blind them.

"We must run, or we shall be late for supper," Joan said, and they made what speed they could. Suddenly Alison stopped short before the well-lighted window of a little jewelry and antique shop. "Look, Joan!"

"What are you looking at? Do let's hurry," urged Joan.

But Alison stood still. "Do you see? There, in Mr. Delany's window. Is that my lamp, or isn't it?"

Interested now, Joan stopped. "It is yours, or its twin," she decided.

"I didn't think there was but one."

"I believe it _is_ mine. I'm going in to ask about it," said Alison, and turned into the warm bright little shop, followed by Joan.

The proprietor was a friendly little Frenchman, well known to the girls, who frequently purchased their gifts there. He came forward, bowing and rubbing his hands. "You want something for Christmas, is it not? I haf many pretty things," he offered.

"I came to ask about that lamp in the window, Mr. Delany," Alison said, too eager to beat about the bush. "It is exactly like one I lost. Will you tell me where you got it?"

"That?" The old man looked disconcerted. "It was not meant to be in the window at all; but my a.s.sistant, he has not much sense. It is not for sale, Mademoiselle."

"But how did you get it?" Alison persisted, and seeing her earnestness he looked puzzled.

"It was sold to me, Mademoiselle, by a young lady, I think from your school. I haf seen her pa.s.s with the other young demoiselles. She asked me not to sell it again. She needed money, and if I would buy it from her, she would come back and redeem it later. Her father was ill, very ill, and she had no money to go to him. She was coming back to get it later. So I lent her the money on it--but I haf not seen her yet."

The girls looked at each other. So, Alison's generous heart said, perhaps Marcia _did_ mean only to borrow the lamp. Perhaps she really meant to return it; but in the mean time, what if it should be sold by mistake, or even stolen before that time came? Should she risk leaving it in Mr. Delany's shop, even overnight?

"Mr. Delany," she said, "I know all you say is true. I know the young lady who sold you the lamp, or borrowed money on it. She was my roommate at school, and she has gone to her father, as she said. That part is true. But I want my lamp back at once, to take home for Christmas. Can I get it from you now?"

Mr. Delany looked puzzled and doubtful. "I promised the young demoiselle--" he began.

"If she were here, she would give it back to me. If Miss Harland comes to you herself and explains about it, will you let me have it?" Alison asked persuasively. "I will pay you, of course, just what you advanced to the young lady."