"Your special representative is here, Miss Gilfooly," exclaimed Bert, eager for a portion of the Queen's attention. "Mr. Marvin sent me to tell you. You can learn all about your kingdom now."

"Good gracious!" exclaimed Tessie. "I've almost decided I don't want a kingdom! I don't know as I even want to be a queen! It's a lot safer to be a salesgirl!" And she drew a long breath.

"That's the stuff, Tess!" indorsed Joe. "There isn't any place in the world to-day for a queen!"

"Miss Gilfooly has no choice," broke in Mr. Kingley, turning his broad back to Joe. "Her good fortune, as such things always are, is just an accident of birth. And one cannot escape the duties to which one is born. That is true of my son and it is true of Miss Gilfooly. Neither of them can shirk the obligations which Providence has given them. I should suggest," he added hastily, as he became aware of an increasing audience, "that Mr. Douglas take Queen Teresa to see Mr. Pitts, so that our business may be resumed. All of these good people," he smiled benevolently on the good people, who were staring at him open-eyed and open-mouthed, "wish to buy something."

"I'll take her!" Mr. Bill exclaimed jealously, and he still clung to Tessie's little hand.

"We'll all go," suggested Joe. "You come too, Mr. Kingley?" he added with unusual courtesy.

"I can't go like this," objected Tessie, looking scornfully at her black frock and touching her hair with her free hand. "I'm a fright!"

"You're an angel!" contradicted Mr. Bill.

Norah slipped behind Tessie, and with magic fingers touched the little knot at the back of Tessie's head. A miracle seemed to be performed before their eyes, for the old Tessie came back to them with the loosening of her yellow hair.

"Bless me!" murmured Mr. Kingley, as interested as he was surprised.

"It's easy for a girl to disguise herself with colored gla.s.ses and a new way of doing her hair," laughed Tessie. Her cheeks were as pink as they had been pale. "But shouldn't I go and put on some of my queen clothes?"

she asked anxiously. She wished to appear at her best before her special representative.

"You look like an angel as you are!" declared Mr. Bill again, and his voice shook. "Come along!"

A way opened through the crowd, and as Mr. Bill led the Queen away, there was a cheer. Another voice, actually Mr. Walker's voice, took up the shout, until the air was filled with, "Hurrah for Queen Teresa!

Hurrah for the Queen!" The sound was music to Mr. Kingley. It was as if the Metropolitan Grand Opera company were there singing in his bas.e.m.e.nt.

He turned to Joe. He could afford to be magnanimous.

"Queens may be out of place in the world, Joe," he said complacently, "but the people still seem to like them!"

"Yes," remarked Joe with a grin, "people will always like a show." And he added, as if he were reading Mr. Kingley's inner thoughts, "This is another great day for the Evergreen, isn't it? You're coming with us, Mr. Kingley? Tessie will want everything cleared up now."

"Of course I'm coming!" Mr. Kingley was a bit testy. "I just want to speak to----"

"Mr. Gray?" suggested Joe with another grin.

"To send a message to Miss Gilfooly's grandmother," Mr. Kingley corrected with great dignity. "I think she should know that the queen has been found."

XXV

Mr. Bill hurried Tessie through the crowd and to his car. They both thought of the day, over a month ago, when Tessie had learned that she was a queen, and Mr. Bill had taken her to Marvin, Phelps & Stokes. And now he was taking her to the lawyers' again. They smiled radiantly at each other. How blue the sky was! How bright the sunshine!

"My word!" exclaimed Mr. Bill from the very depths of his honest heart.

"I'm glad I found you!"

"I'm glad, too," Tessie murmured shyly. "I made up my mind that I'd stay in the Evergreen bas.e.m.e.nt until the special representative came and made the Sons of Sunshine behave themselves. I'm sorry you were worried," she said apologetically. Indeed she was sorry that Mr. Bill had been worried. The thought that Mr. Bill would worry about her sent a lump, that almost choked her, into her throat.

"Worried!" The word was inadequate to express what Mr. Bill had suffered. "Say," he said quickly, "when I heard you had been carried off I--I--Oh, hang it all!" The eager expression slipped from his face, and he drew back. "I wish you weren't a queen," he muttered discontentedly.

"What were you going to say?" asked Tessie eagerly. "Never mind the queen business. I want to hear what you were going to say."

Mr. Bill looked at her flushed little face and into her starry blue eyes, and he did not care a penny if she were a queen. She was the dearest, the sweetest, the loveliest girl in the world. She was Tessie!

Tessie Gilfooly! He did not care a hang if she were also a queen. And he did not care another hang if they were there by the curb with the noon crowd moving up and down the sidewalk. He only remembered that Tessie was there beside him, within reach of his hand, and that all night he had been trying to find her, afraid for her. The words came in a great rush. He could not have kept one of them back to save his life. Tessie did not want him to keep them back--not one of them. Her ears were hungry to hear them all. She colored enchantingly.

"I'm crazy about you!" Mr. Bill said thickly. "And when you were kidnaped yesterday I nearly died! I would have died if you hadn't been found. I know I would! I never felt about a girl as I do about you. I--I don't feel complete unless you are with me. Oh, darn it! I wish you weren't a queen!" He remembered what she was, and looked at her helplessly, almost indignantly.

Tessie laughed softly, and the wild roses deepened in her cheeks. "I don't!" she said firmly. "If I hadn't been a queen, you never, never would have seen me! You never did see me until that day, and all the time I was crazy about you. The first day I went to the Evergreen was the first day you were there, and Mr. Walker took you around and showed you everything. I thought you were the most wonderful man in the world!

But you never looked at me! You never saw me until I was a queen! I should say I was glad that Uncle Pete died and sent Ka-kee-ta to find me!" she finished breathlessly.

"You darling! You honey-girl!" Mr. Bill fought valiantly the impulse to take her in his arms and kiss her and kiss her right in the face of the moving noon throng. "And you really do like me?" He wanted to hear her say again that he was the most wonderful man in the world.

"I'm crazy about you!" Tessie repeated happily.

"My word!" He stared at her. "And I'm crazy about you! Can you believe it? I don't know how this is going to end," he said firmly, "but I know this much--I'm not going to give you up to any Sunshine Islands! You belong to me!" He held fast to what belonged to him and grinned.

"That's the wonderful part!" Tessie sighed with ecstasy, her heart beating so fast that she could scarcely find breath to go on. "That I belong to you, and you belong to me! I--I can't make it seem true! It's far more amazing than that I'm a queen!"

The word reminded them that they were on the way to meet the queen's special representative. They never would meet him if they remained in front of the Evergreen. Mr. Bill reluctantly touched a b.u.t.ton, and they shot forward just as a man, a _Gazette_ reporter, recognized Tessie. He raised a cheer.

"Oh!" Tessie looked back and waved her hand before she turned her glowing face to Mr. Bill. "Can you believe it? Isn't this the most wonderful world?"

Eventually they joined the others in Mr. Marvin's office. Not only were Joe, Norah, Bert and Mr. Kingley seated around Mr. Marvin's desk, but there was another man there, a big broad-shouldered man with a sunburned face, and beside him stood Ka-kee-ta, and clutched tight in Ka-kee-ta's right hand was the sleeve of Frederic Pracht. Mr. Pracht stood leaning against the wall, a cynical smile on his face.

As Tessie came in, all rosy apology, Ka-kee-ta gave a roar and rushed forward dragging Mr. Pracht with him, and whether he wanted to or not, Mr. Pracht had to make obeisance to the queen.

"Hang it all!" he muttered angrily. "Let me go!"

"Yes, Ka-kee-ta, let him go," ordered Mr. Marvin, as Tessie gave a little shriek when she saw who had been forced to bend before her.

But it was not until James Pitts uttered a few curt words in an unknown tongue that Ka-kee-ta released his prisoner. Mr. Pracht stumbled to his feet and withdrew to a corner, where he stood brushing his clothes with a hand that would shake. He knew very well that it would not be wise for him to take another step. He had gone as far as he could.

"Why, Ka-kee-ta!" Tessie patted her bodyguard on the shoulder. "Where were you? I was so worried about you? And how did you find Mr. Pracht?"

"I think I can tell you that better than Ka-kee-ta," said Mr. Pitts, and he came forward to shake Tessie's little hand. "Glad to meet you," he said formally before he began his story. "I was on my way to Mr.

Marvin's office yesterday when I met Ka-kee-ta in front of a candy store. I took him back to the Pioneer to ask him about things and detained him so late that I persuaded him to sleep on the floor of my room instead of returning to disturb you. He never would have left you for a moment if he had known that the Sons of Sunshine had threatened you. As for Pracht, he came to see me this morning to try and make a deal for the islands. He was there when Ka-kee-ta came back to tell me that Miss Gilfooly had disappeared. We suspected that Pracht knew something about the kidnaping, and Ka-kee-ta grabbed him. As long as no harm has been done and you are safe, I would suggest that Pracht be released. He is only the tool of a man who is known in the islands as the Shark. The Shark planned to make a fortune by selling the islands to j.a.pan, and he organized the Sons of Sunshine to cause dissension among the people, and influence them to refuse to accept a white queen. He sent Pracht here to oppose you, and to get the Tear of G.o.d, which means everything to the islanders. No one could expect to influence them unless he had the Tear of G.o.d. But the Sons of Sunshine turned against the Shark. He was killed in the fight which liberated me, and without him, Pracht is harmless. He did not know of the Shark's death until I told him. Let him go," he advised curtly.

"Wait a minute," exclaimed Mr. Kingley. "Before he goes, I want to know why he used my car to kidnap the queen?" And he glared at Mr. Pracht.

"Because Miss Gilfooly knew your car and would get into it when she was told," Mr. Pracht explained in a voice which was very different from the domineering tones he had used to Tessie. "We had expected to go to the hotel and ask her to come to Mrs. Kingley, but when we picked her up in the street, it was easy. We didn't hurt her!" he added hurriedly.

"No, you didn't hurt her. You didn't dare!" Mr. Pitts told him coldly.

"You can go!"

Mr. Pracht did not wait to hear another word. He was glad to go, and he slid out of the door like a brown-and-green snake.