"It's--it's from that Mr. Pracht!" gulped Tessie. "And he says I can have until night to make up my mind to sell the islands. And he says he forgot to say that sometimes usurpers are sent to live in a leper colony. I don't want to be a leper, Granny!" And she clung to the strong hands which had reached out to clasp her.

"There, there, my lamb!" crooned Granny. "Of course you don't! And you shan't be a leper! You leave it to Granny, and get up and get dressed so you'll be ready for what comes. And that Pracht might as well understand that he's going the wrong way. He can't scare a Gilfooly. Maybe he can surprise 'em, but he can't scare 'em! Look at your Uncle Pete! Died a king! All the rebels in six cannibal islands didn't scare him a mite! If those Sunshine Islands are worth buying, they're worth holding on to until we know more about them. You just write this Pracht man a letter and tell him you aren't selling any islands to-day. Perhaps then he'll offer more," she added shrewdly.

"I don't care what he offers, he can't buy my islands!" exclaimed Tessie, gathering courage from Granny's proud boast that a Gilfooly was not to be frightened. "A queen can't resign her job unless her people ask her to, and Mr. Pracht isn't one of my people. He's a Pennsylvania German. He said so."

"That's it! That's it!" declared Granny, delighted to see that Tessie's white face had turned pink again. "You just put that in the letter! What we got to do, Tessie Gilfooly, is to find out why he wants to buy those islands, and then we'll know more about selling them."

Tessie slipped into her gorgeous negligee of pink georgette and lace, thrust her feet into pink satin mules, and sat at her desk to write to Mr. Pracht that she would never think of selling her islands to anybody, that she hoped he would say no more about it. As for leper colonies and shark's oil, she was not afraid. She was a Gilfooly, of the same blood as King Pete, and the Gilfoolys were not afraid of anything or anybody.

"That's right!" indorsed Granny, who was looking over Tessie's shoulder.

"They aren't!"

"E-ven reb--" Tessie's hurried pen halted, and Tessie looked at Granny.

"One l or two in rebels, Granny?" she asked uncertainly.

"It don't make any difference," exclaimed Granny, "so long as there's plenty of courage in the Gilfoolys."

"Perhaps I'd better let Norah Lee write it on the typewriter." Tessie eyed her letter dubiously.

"Don't you do it, dearie! Just sign your name and put it in this envelope. There are some letters that secretaries shouldn't write. You just finish it as good as you begun it, and I guess Mr. Pracht will understand it, no matter how many l's you put in rebels."

Tessie sighed gently. "I often wish I'd finished high school, Granny,"

she said slowly. "Mr. Bill went to college," she added sadly as she signed her letter "Queen Teresa of the Sunshine Islands." "There!" she slipped the letter into an envelope and ran her pink tongue over the gummed flap. "If you'll give that to Ka-kee-ta and ask him to take it to Mr. Pracht. To Mr. Pracht himself!" she insisted. "When Mr. Pracht sees Ka-kee-ta and his ax, perhaps he won't be so free with his words. And while Ka-kee-ta is out, tell him to buy me some chocolates. He might as well get a five-pound box, and they can put it on the bill," she said with a right royal disregard for payment.

As she went back to her room, she pa.s.sed a long mirror which flashed her a picture of a slim little girl in a lovely pink negligee, with a tousled head and a flushed face. She went back and looked in the mirror again. Suddenly she remembered that a month ago she had no lovely pink negligee, no pink satin mules, and that at this time of the morning she would have been selling aluminum in the Evergreen bas.e.m.e.nt for hours.

How wonderful it was! She smiled radiantly and blew a kiss to the girl in the mirror, who was smiling, too.

"Oh, Granny!" Tessie hugged her Granny. "Can you believe it? Isn't it great to be a queen?"

Granny hugged her. "I wonder," she said absently, "what Mr. Pracht will say when he reads your letter?"

Tessie snapped her fingers. She was a Gilfooly, you know, and the Gilfoolys were a fearless race.

"That for Mr. Pracht!" she exclaimed. "And that for his threats!" She snapped her fingers again. "Isn't there a law, Granny," she asked suddenly, "that protects people from threats? I'm going to ask Mr.

Bill!"

"Ask Joe Cary," advised Granny. "He'll know more about law than Mr.

Bill. I wouldn't be surprised if there was such a law, Tessie, and if there ain't there ought to be. It was like your wise little head to think of it. Mr. Pracht will feel smart if he finds himself in jail, won't he? Now what are you going to have for breakfast? I had some strawberries, some ham and eggs and some hot cakes."

"I'll have some, too," Tessie said, after she had giggled at the attractive picture Granny had painted of the disturbing Mr. Pracht tightly locked in jail. "And don't forget the cream! I like a lot of cream."

XVII

Ka-kee-ta should have made the round trip to Mr. Pracht in the Pioneer Hotel, which was one block from the Waloo, before Tessie was bathed, dressed and breakfasted, but he did not return by the time she had finished the last of the hot cakes. He did not return for lunch. Tessie, who had a thousand-and-one things to do, began to wonder.

"Where do you suppose he is?" she asked Granny. "What do you suppose has happened to him?"

"Maybe he met a friend," suggested Granny, who was wondering herself what had detained the queen's messenger. "I hope you'll give him a good piece of your mind when he does come back, Tessie. He shouldn't loaf when you send him on an errand. Maybe he went to lunch with a friend."

Tessie laughed to think of frizzled Ka-kee-ta and his ax going to lunch with a friend, but her face sobered when she remembered that, so far as she knew Ka-kee-ta had no friends in Waloo.

"I'm worried," she told Granny, and she looked worried. "I suppose I'm responsible for Ka-kee-ta. Do you suppose Mr. Pracht could have done anything to him?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," confessed Granny with grim reluctance. "A man who will threaten a little girl like you would do anything. Why don't you call up Joe Cary and ask him what he thinks?" Granny had called on Joe for so long that it had become a habit to consult him on every occasion.

"I'll call up Mr. Bill! He knows more than Joe Cary. Joe Cary never went to college. He only went to an art school!"

"There are some things you learn without going to college," murmured Granny, as Tessie flew to the telephone.

"Lost Ka-kee-ta!" repeated Mr. Bill over the wire, and he laughed. "I thought that was what you wanted to do."

"I never wanted to lose him!" Tessie declared indignantly. "I just wanted him to leave me alone once in awhile. I'm afraid something has happened to him."

"What could have happened to a big strong native with an ax in his hands?" Mr. Bill laughed again. He sounded anything but sympathetic.

"Have you reported it to the hotel detective? He would know how to trail your bodyguard. Or the police? A man like Ka-kee-ta couldn't disappear without leaving some clue. I'll bring the store detective around if you say so?"

"You needn't bother!" There was a bit of an edge in Tessie's voice, even if it was tremulous. It hurt Tessie to have her call for help regarded as a joke. "I'll speak to the hotel detective. And I'll ask Joe Cary to help me find Ka-kee-ta. But as long as your father is so interested in my islands, I wish you would ask him why the syndicate that wants to buy them stole my bodyguard?"

"Tessie!" exclaimed Mr. Bill. He stopped laughing as soon as he heard the edge in Tessie's voice. Perhaps the edge was sharp enough to cut him. "Tessie!" he said again, but she did not answer him. He hung up the receiver and hurried to get his hat. He would go right over to the Waloo and see what was the matter with Tessie. He met his father at the door.

"Where are you going?" old Mr. Kingley asked young Mr. Kingley.

"To the Waloo!" Mr. Bill answered hurriedly. "Tessie Gilfooly has lost that native bodyguard of hers."

"Lost--" Mr. Kingley caught his son by the sleeve and held him tight--"wait a minute, Bill, and tell Gray. He might as well use the story." He rubbed his hands together in his satisfaction. "My soul! We must have had a million dollars' worth of good publicity out of Queen Teresa already! Tell Gray all about it before you go, Bill. He will just have time to catch the afternoon papers."

"Darn the papers!" cried Mr. Bill, trying to free himself from the paternal clutch on his sleeve. But whether he wanted to or not, he had to wait and tell Mr. Gray what Tessie had told him.

"Perhaps you shouldn't publish it yet," he said doubtfully, when at last he was free to go.

"Not publish it!" His father was shocked at such a thought. "Of course it should be published. Why not? Queen Teresa wants to find her bodyguard, doesn't she? If the story is published, all Waloo will help her. It can't hurt her to have it published. What could happen?" He looked hungrily at his son as if, perhaps, he scented more publicity.

"She could be boiled in oil if the Sons of Sunshine got hold of her,"

muttered Mr. Bill, as he remembered what Tessie told him was sometimes done to monarchs in the Sunshine Islands.

"Bill! Don't be flippant as well as foolish," counseled his disgusted father. "Queens aren't boiled in oil now. That makes a fine story, Gray.

A fine story! I bet the other stores, the Bon Ton and the Mammoth, envy us our queen!" He laughed with good-natured triumph. "You can run along now, Bill, and tell Queen Teresa we want to help her in every way we can. Be sure and put that in your story, Gray, that we are helping the queen in every way we can to find her bodyguard."

But Mr. Bill had delayed too long. By the time he told the story to Mr.

Gray, Joe Cary had taken his hat and gone to the Waloo. Joe found only Granny in the big sunny room, for Tessie had gone over to Marvin, Phelps & Stokes, to ask Mr. Marvin if there wasn't a law which would make Mr.

Pracht stop threatening her, and stop stealing Ka-kee-ta. Tessie knew that Mr. Pracht had stolen Ka-kee-ta.

"I wanted her to wait until you came," Granny said. "But she wouldn't do it. She feels responsible for Ka-kee-ta. She said if it hadn't been for her, he would be in the Sunshine Islands this minute, safe and sound."