Penny of Top Hill Trail Part 28

Hebler's fork fell with a clatter.

"Bobbie Burr!" he exclaimed in amazement.

"Bobbie Burr!" echoed Kingdon.

"Where is she? Let me see her at once. She's the very person I am looking for!"

"I'll go and get her," offered Billy, running from the room.

He returned in a few moments followed by Marta.

"Oh, you aren't Bobbie Burr!" said Hebler, visibly disappointed.

"No, sir," said Marta. "I just took the name because I liked it. My name is really Marta Sills."

"But it won't be that long," reminded Betty. "You're going to have another name soon. Jo Gary told me so."

"Oh, ho!" laughed Kingdon comprehendingly, while Marta fled in confusion.

"Jo's going to take her with him to Westcott's this morning," said Francis. "They're going to drive over in the buckboard. I think they are engaged."

"He hasn't given her a diamond ring," said Betty. "Every girl who is engaged wears a diamond ring. Doris told me so."

"Speaking of diamond rings," said Hebler, as they all rose from the table, "reminds me that I very carelessly left mine on a table yesterday and I forgot to put it away, or to even see if it were there this morning."

"It will be all right," a.s.sured Kingdon. "Every one in the hill country is honest."

"Still you'd better put it away," cautioned Kurt anxiously.

"All right," said Hebler, leaving the room.

"Don't forget we want an early start for town," Kingdon called after him.

"I'll go out and look over my car."

Kurt followed him, but lingered on the veranda to light his pipe. While he stood there, Jo and Marta drove past at a smart pace. A few moments later Hebler came to him in great consternation.

"Walters, that ring I was speaking of is gone! I've made a thorough search for it."

When he had a.s.sured Kurt that there could be no mistake as to having left it on his table before he started for Westcott's, the foreman said earnestly:

"I am quite sure that I can secure your ring for you, Mr. Hebler. I should like to settle this matter quietly, though; so please say nothing about it to anyone until I have investigated."

"Certainly," agreed Hebler. "I'll go on to town with Kingdon now, and you can be looking about for it."

Kurt hastened upstairs and knocked at Pen's door.

"Hebler has missed his ring--a very valuable diamond, he tells me," he said abruptly, as she came out.

"Oh!" she gasped, turning pale and trembling slightly.

"He left it on his table near the door and just thought of looking for it.

I told him not to mention it for the present and I'd deliver the goods.

Marta has gone away with Jo; evidently she intends to skip. She'll not get away with this. I am going after them in the car. I shall turn her over to the authorities. You can pack her things and send them after her."

"Oh, wait!" she cried, as he started to go down stairs. "It wasn't Marta.

It was I."

"What!" he cried incredulously. "You!"

"Yes."

"When did you take it?"

"On my way to bed last night after I left you. His door was open--the ring on a table near by--in easy reach. He shouldn't have left anything like that around loose."

"I never dreamed of your taking it," he said bitterly. "I thought you had reformed."

She laughed, a little reckless laugh that had a sound like silver bells.

"I don't like that ring either. It's gaudy."

He looked at her with a new thought and hope.

"Are you a kleptomaniac?"

"I should think not! I never take anything unless it is of some value or use."

"Didn't it occur to you that you might be suspected and caught with the goods?"

"No; I thought I knew Hebby and that he was too much of a good fellow to report a loss at first blink. Sort of ba.n.a.l, you know. You don't know much of human nature to suppose a thief could undergo such a sudden reformation. There are no modern miracles like that. Marta is the only one I knew who could change. But she isn't a born thief. I really was trying to be good; but I suppose I will slip and fall countless times--like a drunkard."

"This is the first time since you came here?"

"Absolutely; but to be honest, thieves don't always lie--I've not been so strongly tempted before."

"And you could do it then--right after--"

"After you had done me the great and regretted honor? Well, I didn't yield all at once. I walked right past it with the 'Get thee behind me' pose and closed my door and went to the window and--looked up at the hills and then--something stronger than all my resolutions carried me back to look at it once more. It was all off."

Anger and something else battled in his face.

"Why," she asked curiously, "did you suspect Marta instead of me?"

"I don't know," he said spiritlessly.

"You see Marta has an incentive to keep her straight--an incentive that I lack."

He winced.