Читать книгу The Secret of the Red Scarf - Elizabeth Mildred Duffield Ward - Страница 8

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“My sister—drowned! Oh no!”

The cry came from Bro, who had stepped from the car and joined the group behind Kay.

“Your sister?” several in the group repeated.

Vicki Raponi turned questioning eyes on the youth. “Your sister? I didn’t know Helene had a brother,” she said perplexed.

Quickly Kay explained why she and Bro were there, but refrained from telling Vicki they did not know what the youth’s right name was. She merely said he was trying to find his sister. Certain clues seemed to lead to the girl about whom Vicki was now so worried.

“Are you sure that it was Helene in the upset canoe?” Kay asked.

“Well it seems as if it must have been,” Vicki answered.

She explained that a farmer had phoned saying he lived down the road and had seen the accident. A girl and a young man had let their canoe be swept over the falls at the end of the lake. The craft had overturned and that was the last he had seen them. The farmer was sure that they had drowned. He also was sure of having seen them at the cottage the day before.

“How long ago was this?” Kay questioned quickly.

“Oh, half an hour.”

“We were down at that end of the lake just about at that time,” Kay said. “We didn’t see anything unusual.”

“That’s right,” said Betty, who had joined the excited group.

“Then maybe—maybe the report is false,” Bro spoke up hopefully.

Kay asked who the farmer was and was told he had not given his name. The girl thought this was very strange and since Helene seemed to be a mysterious person, the report might indeed be false. But why had it been given? And who was the person who had telephoned? Kay took Vicki aside and repeated what Mr. Raponi had said about Helene and that he thought she had run away to avoid the attentions of a man she did not like.

“That’s true,” Vicki said. “And I don’t like Tad Bacon either. He was in the canoe with her. He’s a sneaky person. And to think he had to show up here when Helene thought she was safely hidden.”

“Why did she bother with him?” Kay asked.

“He seems to hypnotize her,” Vicki replied. “I don’t think Helene knows him well. He showed up at the Art School with a letter of introduction, Helene said.”

Vicki told how he had crashed the house party unexpectedly and had talked Helene into letting him stay.

“What does Tad look like?” Kay asked.

“Average height. But his long, thin face gives me the creeps.”

As Kay made a mental note of this, Vicki continued:

“I tried to warn Helene against being friendly with him, but she paid no attention. This morning they went off in the canoe and that was the last we saw of them. Oh, I hope they didn’t drown!”

“Tell me why you don’t like Tad Bacon,” Kay asked, becoming more suspicious of him by the minute.

“It’s hard to explain,” Vicki said. “He just doesn’t seem like an honest person.”

Kay was very much worried that Tad Bacon, instead of being a friend was an enemy of Helene’s and Bro’s, assuming of course that Helene was the youth’s sister. She had not forgotten that Bro had indicated he had lots of money. Was Bacon trying to steal a family fortune perhaps?

“Oh dear,” Kay thought. “Each clue I track down only seems to make the whole situation worse.”

Feeling that she must not reveal this to Bro, Kay managed a smile as she walked toward him and said:

“I’m sure Helene is alive. Now we must find out where she is and bring her back here.”

At Vicki’s suggestion a couple of the boys set off in a canoe to make a search of the lake. As the girls watched them paddle away, a colored maid came hurrying out of the cottage where the group were standing.

“Miss Vicki Raponi! Miss Vicki!” she called. “Telephone for you.”

“Oh, maybe it’s Helene!” Bro cried eagerly.

He, Kay and the twins followed Vicki to the cottage. They stood by expectantly as she picked up the telephone. A moment later they heard her joyous shout.

“Helene! You’re alive! Thank goodness! We thought you had drowned.”

“Let me speak to her!” Bro pleaded.

But Kay held him back, reminding the youth that this girl might not be his sister after all.

“Better let Vicki find out,” she advised.

There was a long pause as Vicki listened intently to what her friend was saying. While waiting Bro walked up and down the room agitatedly. Twice he started for the phone, then thought better of it and stalked away.

Finally Vicki spoke. “I’m terribly sorry, Helene,” she said. “But please come back here or else to my home in Carmont. Don’t run away again. Please!”

Kay, Bro and the twins looked startled. Helene was not coming back!

“Wait! I want to tell you something important,” Vicki went on. “Helene, listen. There are some people here to see you. One of them says he’s your—Helene, wait! Please!”

Vicki hung up, sagging against the table on which the telephone stood. Turning around, she said:

“Helene wouldn’t wait. She’s gone away again. She wouldn’t tell me where. Oh, I tried my best——”

Tears came to Vicki’s eyes. Kay went forward and patted her arm. “You did all you could. Don’t worry. We’ll find Helene somehow.”

Vicki shook her head. She did not think so. Helene had told her Tad Bacon had revealed some news to her, so that it would be impossible for the girl ever to see her family or friends again. Helene was saying a final good-by, although Tad had advised her not to get in touch with anyone. He had said he would take care of this.

“So he phoned calling himself a farmer!” Kay thought.

As Vicki finished her story, there was complete silence in the room. The young people looked at one another in utter amazement and Bro collapsed on the couch. Kay at once went to sit beside him, trying to bolster up the boy’s spirits.

Wilma asked for a glass of cool water for him. After drinking it, the youth revived a bit, then asked that he be taken home.

“But first tell them about me, Kay,” he suggested. “Maybe somebody here can find out who I am.”

Amazed, the various members of the house party listened attentively to the strange story, ending with the idea that Helene might be using an assumed last name. They were touched by Bro’s pathetic plight and promised to do everything they could to help solve the mystery.

Kay suddenly had an idea. “Do I really look a lot like Helene?” she asked Vicki.

“Yes, you do,” the art student replied. “At a distance you two could easily be mistaken for each other.”

“This may help me find her,” Kay thought.

If she could only locate Tad Bacon, maybe she could fool him into mistaking her for Helene and learn what the influence was which he held over Helene. The scheme might also help Kay find the girl herself.

“What sort of clothes did Helene like to wear?” she next asked.

“Well, when she was dressed up,” Vicki said, “she loved to wear suits and little hats with veils.”

“Perfect,” Kay thought. “A veil would be a good way to disguise myself enough to fool Tad Bacon.”

Taking Vicki aside, Kay told her of the scheme and asked what the girl thought of her chances of making it work.

“Risky,” Vicki said. “But Kay Tracey could get away with it. I’d make a flop of the whole thing.”

Kay asked her many questions about Helene’s mannerisms and way of speaking. Ten minutes later she felt that she had a full description of the missing girl and with a little luck would be able to imitate her perfectly.

“Helene left some clothes here,” Vicki said. “Would you like to try them on and I’ll tell you exactly how much you look like her?”

“Oh yes, I’d love to.”

Kay explained to Bro and the twins what she was going to do and went upstairs with Vicki. While she removed her sweater and skirt, the other girl brought out a dainty white blouse and brown wool gabardine suit which belonged to Helene. Kay slipped them on. They fitted her perfectly!

Vicki now adjusted a smart toast-colored straw hat over Kay’s wavy chestnut hair. She pulled down the half veil over her face and then walked across the room to survey the effect.

“Right now you look enough like Helene to be her sister, but you couldn’t quite pass for Helene herself,” Vicki stated. “Wait a minute! Let me fix you up a bit.”

Taking out a make-up kit, she began to daub Kay’s face. First she tinted her cheekbones with orange color rouge. Next she darkened the girl’s eyebrows a trifle. Finally she put the slightest bit of eye shadow in the crease of Kay’s chin to deepen the line.

Once more the art student walked off to look at her work. She smiled.

“It’s coming! It’s coming!” she cried. “One more thing and you’ll look exactly like Helene.”

From the pocket of her suitcase she took a pair of pearl earrings. After Kay had put them on, Vicki proclaimed that the disguise was perfect.

“I want my friends downstairs to see you,” Vicki said, delighted with the results of her handiwork. “Come on. I’ll bet you can fool them.”

The house party group declared that they certainly would think Kay was Helene Caldwell except for the fact the missing girl could not possibly have reached the cottage in such a short time.

“Wow!” said one of the boys, whistling. “Say, star, what are you playing in now?”

Wilma turned on him. “Shush! This is serious business.”

“I’m serious,” he retorted. “How about a date?” he called to Kay.

“Don’t give him one,” Betty spoke up. “He’d probably order two sodas and drink both of them.”

“Oo, a knockdown blow.” He laughed. “Seriously, Kay, you certainly could pass for Helene.”

“If you’ll just speak a little lower and laugh a little higher, you’ll fool everybody,” Vicki declared.

The only person in the room who did not take kindly to this masquerade was Bro. Rising from the couch, he walked toward Kay, looking very confused. Holding his hand to his head, he cried out:

“Is this a joke on me? Are you my friend Kay or my sister Helene?”

As the others looked at him, startled, the youth suddenly realized that they thought he might have lost more than his memory. Quickly he explained that he had not seen his sister for five years. She might have changed enough to look as Kay did at this very moment.

“You haven’t seen her for five years?” Kay asked, delighted that this added clue had suddenly been revealed. Perhaps Bro was beginning to get his memory back!

“That’s right,” Bro said excitedly. “And I remember something else, too. When I started out to find my sister, I was carrying a lot of important papers.”

“Then they were stolen from you,” Betty declared angrily. “The person who attacked you in the car wanted them himself.”

“Or else wanted to be sure you didn’t deliver them to somebody he didn’t wish to have them,” Kay guessed. “And as soon as I change my clothes we’re going to find out who the man is!”