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Page 38
A yacht was chartered to take the picnic party home. The sailboat had
completely disappeared, and Tom was able to tell only a part of their
strange adventure. From whence the youth whom they had taken on board
their boat had come and why he had made off with their boat and left
them to drown were questions which no one seemed able to answer.
It was not until two days later that the fisherman, searching along the
very shore from which they had started, found the sailboat resting
quietly at anchor about two miles from the pier where the picnic party
had landed. The boat was uninjured, and Madge's hat, coat and skirt
lay on the deck, where she had thrown them when she dived into the bay.
But the wild lad who had caused the mischief had vanished completely.
No one near had seen or heard of him. His identity was a mystery. If
any one of the fisher folk knew his name, or where he had gone, they
did not betray that knowledge. Mrs. Curtis wished to offer a reward
for the fellow's capture. Tom would not consent. He intended to find
his enemy himself, and to settle his own score. At night Tom used to
lie awake for hours to plan how he would track the stranger and at last
run him down. But in the day time he was much too fully occupied with
entertaining his mother's young guest to plan revenge.
Madge had been the guest of Mrs. Curtis at the Belleview Hotel for five
days. It had taken but a day for her to recover from the effect of her
narrow escape from drowning. She possessed far too happy a disposition
to dwell long on an uncomfortable memory, and her recent mishap soon
became like a dream to her. But her feeling of affection for Mrs.
Curtis was not in the least like a dream, and grew stronger with every
hour she spent in her new friend's company. It was a red letter time
for Madge.
Mrs. Curtis tried in every possible way to manifest her gratitude. Had
not Madge saved her son's life? She felt that she could make no
adequate return for the heroic service the young girl had rendered her.
She insisted that the most attractive apartment in the hotel should be
Madge's and surrounded her with all sorts of luxuries. The young
girl's suite consisted of a cosy little sitting room and a wonderful
bedroom with white, rose-bordered walls and Circassian walnut
furnishings. There was a little, white bath leading out from the
bedroom and Madge reveled in her new-found treasures.
All day long her apartment was lovely with flowers. Tom Curtis ordered
a box of roses to be delivered to her each day from Baltimore. The
roses were presented to Madge every morning when the maid brought up
her breakfast-tray, and for the first time in her life Miss Madge
enjoyed the luxury of eating her breakfast in bed. Boxes of candy
became so ordinary that she fairly pleaded with her friends when they
came to visit her to take them back to the houseboat.
"Madge will never be happy again on the 'Merry Maid,' will she, girls?"
The four girls were rowing back to their floating home after a visit to
their friend.
"Yes, she will," returned Phil stoutly, though she felt a slight pang
when she remembered how cheerfully Madge had kissed them goodbye.
"I am sure she is well enough to come home now," burst forth Lillian,
"only Mrs. Curtis and Tom won't hear of it. Dear me! I suppose our
little captain is happy at last. She has always dreamed of what it
would feel like to be rich and a heroine, and now she is both. But
nothing seems quite the same on the boat," she added wistfully. "I
think we are all homesick for her."
Miss Jennie Ann laughed at their doleful faces. "She will soon be with
us again," she declared. "I'll tell you a secret. She is coming home
to the houseboat day after to-morrow. She whispered to me to-day that
there was really no reason why she should stay any longer with Mrs.
Curtis, and that she did not wish to presume on her hospitality. Mrs.
Curtis is very fond of her. She does not wish Madge to leave her."
Miss Jones looked so mysterious that the girls regarded her curiously.
"I think it is a good thing for Madge and for Mrs. Curtis to spend a
few days together. Mrs. Curtis is lonely and needs good company,"
added Miss Jones.
"So do we," murmured Phil, with a rueful laugh. "We need Madge as much
as Mrs. Curtis does."
After the girls had left her, Madge lay back luxuriously among her
linen pillows. She was looking very lovely in a pale pink silk tea
gown Mrs. Curtis had insisted on her wearing, for Madge had arrived at
the hotel with no clothes other than the wet garments she had on when
rescued from the waves. Her fine clothes occupied very little of her
thoughts, however. She had something of far greater import on her mind.
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