"I should think he would be," Joe said dryly, when Norah had told them what Mrs. Kingley had said.

Mr. Bill dropped back in his big chair with a groan, but in a flash, he jumped up and went out. Norah's eyes followed him.

"He's worried," she told Joe.

"We're all worried!"

"I know. I'm so--so sorry for you!" She just touched Joe's sleeve to let him know how sorry she was.

He looked up suddenly. How sympathetic she was! What a good friend she had been to Tessie. There was no one quite like Norah Lee. His heart thumped a bit as he thought how unusual Norah Lee was.

"You go to bed, too!" he insisted huskily. "I'll call you the minute we hear anything. But if you don't get some sleep you won't be much help to-morrow. I'll just stay here beside the telephone. We may hear something. We must hear something!" he insisted, because he so desperately wished to hear something. "But I shan't let you stay up any longer. You're all tired out!"

She hesitated as if she were going to insist on staying with him, and then she said good night softly and went away. Joe's eyes followed her until she was out of sight. What a splendid girl she was, he thought, as he tramped up and down the room before he threw himself into a chair beside the telephone. He had always known she was splendid. And what a good friend she was to Tessie! How different they were! Norah was the kind of a girl a man would have to reach up to. He would always have to be right on his toes, for she would be a little ahead--always. While Tessie--a man would have to put back his hand and pull Tessie up to him.

Tessie was all sweetness and tenderness. She made a man contented and happy while Norah--Norah--

Joe's heart gave a sudden leap which almost choked him. He jumped to his feet and looked about him bewildered. "Gosh!" he exclaimed, puzzled at this emotion which had gripped him so suddenly. He tramped up and down the room again. "Norah!" The name made him tingle. "Norah!" He dropped weakly into a chair and put his hand to his forehead. What on earth was the matter with him? Why should he feel smothered and limp and exhilarated when he thought of Norah Lee? He did not understand why, but he discovered that when he thought of Norah, he forgot Tessie. But he must not forget Tessie--Tessie was lost. It must be because he was so tired. Lord, how tired he was! He slouched down in his chair and relaxed his tired muscles. Tessie--Norah-- The lids dropped over his weary eyes, and he began to dream--strange, sweet, new dreams.

Downstairs, Mr. Bill had settled himself in a chair beside the telephone switchboard and lighted a cigarette.

"Give me any message about Queen Teresa," he told the telephone girl.

"Ain't it awful about her?" she shuddered. "I used to wish I could change places with her, when I'd see her go in and out with that black fellow with his ax, but now-- Say, where do you suppose she is?"

"I wish you would tell me," Mr. Bill said wearily. "Don't forget to give me any message that comes in. Everybody upstairs is asleep, and I don't want them disturbed."

"The old lady ought to get a good night's rest," agreed the telephone girl. "You just shut your own eyes, and I'll call you the first thing."

Mr. Bill could close his eyes, but he could not sleep. He smoked cigarette after cigarette, and listened unconsciously to the uninterrupted chatter of the girl who had envied Tessie until Tessie had been kidnaped. When the telephone operator went off duty, and the switchboard was turned over to the night clerk, Mr. Bill went over to police headquarters, where there was no news at all.

"We have all our men out, Mr. Kingley," the sergeant told him. "Even the chief's working on the case. We're trying to round up that Pracht--Smith, he called himself, didn't he?--and make him confess. But we don't know anything about those Sons of Sunshine. They sound like anarchists or Black Hands to me. But we oughta hear something pretty soon."

The minutes dragged into hours and there was no news. Mr. Bill dropped into a troubled doze and woke to find himself in another day. He went drearily back to the hotel. Joe was furious because he had fallen asleep over his strange new dreams. Granny, with a face that was gray and worried, instead of happy and rosy, was talking to him and to Norah Lee. The Boy Scout was splashing in the bathroom.

"You heard anything?" demanded Granny as Mr. Bill entered.

Before he could answer, the telephone rang sharply. Joe and Mr. Bill dashed to answer it, but Joe caught the receiver. He pushed Mr. Bill away.

"Yes," he said impatiently through the transmitter. He waved his hand to them. "It's Tess!" he cried chokingly. "Yes, Tessie! Where are you?" He listened eagerly. "Where are you?" he demanded fiercely. "Where--" He shook the instrument and turned to them in exasperation. "Isn't that the limit? Central broke the connection before Tessie could tell me where she was."

"What did she say?" demanded Mr. Bill.

"She said she was all right, and that Granny wasn't to worry. She isn't coming back for a while. She's going to hide until Pitts comes and straightens everything out. She said Granny wasn't to worry, n.o.body was to worry." But Joe looked worried. "Do you suppose she did get away?" he asked Mr. Bill. "Is this message a plan to call off the police?"

Mr. Bill had taken the receiver from Joe and was calling Central and ordering her for heaven's sake to get a move on and trace the call she had just given them. Several days later, it seemed to all of them, Central reported that the call had come from a pay station. Hadn't they heard the nickel drop? Central couldn't say which pay station. She would try and find out if they wanted her to, she added obligingly.

"You'd better!" advised Mr. Bill. "And immediately!" He swung around and faced the others. "We know she's alive and well. That's something! Did she talk as if she were frightened?"

"No," remembered Joe. "She said she would have called before but she fell asleep. She said she was awfully tired."

"She wouldn't have fallen asleep if she had been frightened," Norah said with a wise nod of her head.

Granny contradicted her flatly. "I went to sleep and I was frightened,"

she said with a deep, deep sigh. "I never was more frightened in my life. I don't think I can wait until this Pitts comes. I've got to find Tessie right away and see for myself if she's all right."

"We'll find her," promised Joe, as he had promised a hundred times since Tessie had disappeared. "And we know she's all right. She'll call us again soon. Sure she will! She's still a little afraid. She'll call us again," he repeated.

Granny whimpered softly. It was such a relief to hear from Tessie. "I'm not going to wait here!" she said with a sudden determination. "I don't like it here without Tessie. I don't feel I have any right here without her. I'm not the queen. I'm going home with Johnny and wait for Tessie there!" She had a quick dislike to the luxury of the hotel. She wanted her little cottage where there was work for her to do while she waited, and where she had always had Tessie.

"Tessie won't like that," objected Joe.

"I don't care! I shan't stay here without her!"

"Let her go," whispered Norah. "It will be better for her to be where she can be busy. She has nothing to do here but think."

Norah helped Granny pack a bag, and Mr. Bill drove them to the cottage.

They were very quiet, and Mr. Bill remembered the traffic laws and did not dash up the street as he had the night before. They were very quiet when they stopped in front of the shabby little house. Granny murmured a wish that they had never left it as she hurried up the walk and up the steps, but at the door she paused.

"Tessie always had the key," she faltered.

Joe had a key and unlocked the door. When they went in, Granny raised her head. It was as if she sensed a presence. Her nostrils twitched, and her ears strained. She sent a swift glance around the shabby living-room and went on to the kitchen. There was a coffee pot on the stove and an opened package of cereal on the table while in the sink was a cup and saucer and a bowl.

"Tessie's been here!" cried Granny, and she sat down suddenly on a chair. "She's been here! Thank heaven I didn't give away that coffee and breakfast food when we left. Even if we were queens I kept it. Tessie came here when she ran away from that wicked man." She waved her hand to show them her proof.

"Well I'll be darned!" muttered Mr. Bill, and he sat down suddenly on the kitchen table.

"Why the d.i.c.kens didn't I come home last night?" demanded Joe in disgust. "If I had come home I would have found her."

"Perhaps she's upstairs asleep?" suggested Norah. "She said she was tired."

They trooped up the narrow stairs--Granny first. It was Granny who went into the bedroom alone, and at her disappointed exclamation the others ran in, although Granny's disappointed exclamation had told them that Tessie was not there.

"She's gone!" wailed Granny. "She's gone! And look!" She pointed to Tessie's royal raiment on a chair. "She took off her queen clothes!" She pulled the closet door open, and searched among the shabby dresses which had belonged to Tessie Gilfooly. There was something pathetic and ghostlike about the little frocks. Mr. Bill tenderly stroked a sleeve.

"She's taken her old black sateen," announced Granny from the closet.

"The dress she used to wear to the store. She's left her queen clothes and gone off in her old working clothes! Can you believe it? Deary me!"

She sat down on the bed and looked from one to the other. "I'd like to know what it all means?" she said helplessly.

"I bet I know!" Mr. Bill's downcast face had been growing brighter and brighter. If Mr. Bill had been a barometer you would have seen at a glance that he promised fair weather. "I bet I know the hunch that made her change her clothes! You just wait, Granny! I'll find her now!"

"Just a minute!" Joe put a forceful hand on Mr. Bill's arm as he would have dashed away. "Tessie's safe now. We know that if we don't know where she is. But before you follow your hunch you'll take me to your father!"

"Father!" Mr. Bill stared at Joe. Had Joe lost his mind? "Sure," he said soothingly. "That's on my way. Come on!"

XXIII