Chapter D: Appleton and Company (4)

It was just as well for "the shark," whoever or whatever he was, that he was not in the Evergreen tea-room at that moment, for Ka-kee-ta would have made short work of him. He growled and rumbled fiercely.

"I wish I knew what he meant!" murmured Tessie, for she felt that she should know what her bodyguard meant.

But Mr. Bill, wonderful as he was, could not tell her. He could only look at her and say again that she was adorable. Tessie moved impatiently. Joe Cary would have told her what Ka-kee-ta meant. Joe always had an answer when she questioned him. Could it be possible that Mr. Bill was not as clever as Joe Cary? But of course he was! Mr. Bill was quite the most wonderful man in the world. She smiled at him shyly.

XI

Ka-kee-ta with his ax and a proud tilt to his frizzled head became a familiar sight in Waloo. He caused more excitement and roused more interest than the queen.

"Bring your bodyguard with you," begged the president of the Home for Aged Women, when Tessie consented to appear at an entertainment the directors had arranged to increase its revenue.

"And do please have your picturesque guard come, too," coaxed the committee from the Junior League, which had invited Tessie to open the ball which the League gave every year to raise funds for its philanthropic work.

So Ka-kee-ta, in his blue clothes, his hair freshly oiled, his tattooed face oiled also, so that he was redolent of rancid cocoanut, his ax in his hand, stood in the back of the royal box, where Granny, in smart black lace and jet beads, and Johnny, in a new scout uniform, and Tessie, wearing a wonderful dancing frock of blue and silver, were the cynosure of all eyes.

When Tessie was asked by a giggling committee if she wished to follow the royal custom and choose her partners, she had blushed and exclaimed fervently, "Gracious! I should say not! I want to be just like the other girls!"

There was a rush when her wish was made known, for every man in the ballroom wanted to be able to tell his friends that he had danced with a queen. Granny beamed at the pushing throng.

"The Gilfoolys always stood well with their friends," she said to no less a person than Mr. Kingley, who had stopped for a word with his former humble employee, and who remained to listen to Granny as she bragged of the Gilfoolys.

Tessie had never imagined there were so many attractive men in the world as she met at the Junior League ball. She was unable to dance a dozen steps with one before another cut in. It was confusing, if flattering, and she gave a little sigh of relief when Bert Douglas swung her through a doorway into a little ante-room.

"Lucky for me I know this place as well as my hat," grinned Bert, when he and Tessie were seated on a red velvet sofa. "Say," he went on even more radiantly, "is this evening real? Am I actually twosing here with a queen?"

"It doesn't seem real, does it?" murmured Tessie, her eyes shining.

"I hope that special representative never comes," went on Bert. "I'll hate to have you go to the Sunshine Islands!"

"I'll hate to go," confessed Tessie. She could never tell him how she would hate to leave Waloo. "I'm having such a good time here!"

"There was a funny thing happened to-day," Bert said lazily. "Did Mr. Marvin tell you about it? A man came into the office and wanted to buy your kingdom."

"My kingdom!" Tessie was astonished and indignant. The idea of any one wanting to buy her kingdom before she had seen it.

"Yes. The Sunshine Islands. He said you might as well sell them because a white woman would never be allowed to reign over them."

"The idea!" Tessie was on her feet staring at him. "The very idea! I guess if my Uncle Pete could reign over them, Granny and Johnny and I can look after them! What did Mr. Marvin say?"

"He said he would take the matter under advisement and present it to you. That doesn't mean anything," he added hastily--for Tessie frowned and exclaimed again, "The very idea!"--"It's what lawyers always say. They have to say something!"

"I don't like it! I mean I don't like any one wanting to buy my islands. You can tell Mr. Marvin that the very first thing in the morning. The Sunshine Islands aren't for sale!"

"I was a fool to speak of it," mumbled Bert regretfully. He had not thought that she would be so concerned. "And don't think about it again. No one can buy your islands if you won't sell them, you know. That's a peach of a frock!" He changed the subject abruptly and gazed admiringly at Tessie's blue-and-silver dancing frock. "And awfully becoming!" His admiration shifted to her puzzled little face. "You look like a--a--" he stammered as he tried to tell Tessie what she resembled--"a dream!" he finally decided. "Is that the royal jewel?" He bent forward to look at the Tear of God as it hung around Tessie's white neck. "Some pearl, isn't it?"

Tessie shook her head. "I have to wear it, but I don't like it, not a bit. It's beautiful, of course, and different, but it makes me think of all the kings and queens who must have worn it. I don't mind Uncle Pete, but some of those old cannibals before Uncle Pete civilized the islands make me shiver. But if I don't wear it Ka-kee-ta has a fit. H-sh! Some one is looking for me!" For in the hall she heard a voice call, "Tessie! Tessie! Where has the child gone?"

And there in the doorway stood Granny in her black lace and jet, as fine a Gilfooly as ever was.

"Tessie, Tessie," she scolded. "This is no way for a queen to behave. Queens don't go lalligaging with lawyers! They have to stay where folks can see them. Come right back to the ballroom with me. Ka-kee-ta has been in such a way. He missed you at once and made such a fuss I had to look for you."

"I wish Ka-kee-ta was in the Pacific Ocean," murmured Tessie, as she meekly followed Granny, for well she knew that Granny only told the truth when she said that queens did not lalligag with young lawyers.

"You've got a nerve, Bert Douglas!" exclaimed Mr. Bill, who met them at the ballroom door. "What do you mean by running away with Her Majesty? You should be shot at sunrise!"

"Shoot if you please!" Bert looked triumphantly at Mr. Bill. "The queen and I had our little tête-à-two. Didn't we, Miss Gilfooly?"

"You must dance with every one," scolded Granny. "You can't pick and choose." Her fingers straightened the lace shoulder-straps of Tessie's frock.

"What's the good of being a queen," muttered Tessie, but she sounded more rebellious than she acted. She obediently danced with every one.

It was not until the ball was over, and a maid was throwing her wrap of velvet and fur over her shoulders that she missed something. She put her hand to her neck. Where was the Tear of God? The royal jewel no longer hung from her white neck. She turned deathly pale and ran from the coatroom.

"Mr. Bill! Mr. Douglas!" she stammered. "I've been robbed!"

"Robbed!" They gathered about her. It was true. They could see for themselves that the royal jewel was no longer around her neck.

"You never left the room but once," Mr. Bill remembered quickly. "And Bert was with you!"

Bert bristled indignantly. "What do you mean?" he wanted to know at once.

"The pearl was taken while Miss Gilfooly was dancing, or it dropped from her neck. You know where you took her. Suppose you look there," suggested Mr. Bill.

For a moment Bert looked as if he would refuse to follow Mr. Bill's suggestion, but if Mr. Bill meant what he said he meant, and not what Bert might think he meant, there was nothing to resent, and Bert hurried to the ante-room, keeping a sharp lookout in the corridor. He examined the ante-room carefully. He even slipped his hand down back of the seat of the red velvet sofa where he and Tessie had had such a pleasant little chat. He found several hairpins, a button, a nickel, and two dusty lemon drops, but not one pearl. He had to go back to Tessie empty-handed. There were tears in her eyes.

"I don't dare tell Granny," she gulped. "She'll think I've been careless. And Ka-kee-ta!" She was frightened when she remembered Ka-kee-ta and his shining ax. "What do they do to queens who lose the crown jewels?" she wailed.

Mr. Bill put his hand on her arm. "Buck up," he begged earnestly. "It must be somewhere! We'll find it. Don't you worry! Who could have taken it?"

That was the question. Who could have taken it? A sudden thought made Tessie clutch Mr. Bill's sleeve, and stare at him and at Bert with frightened eyes.

"You know," she said, the words treading on each other in their haste to be spoken, "that there is a party in the Sunshine Islands that doesn't want me to be the queen! And you know the natives are awfully superstitious and won't have anybody for their ruler unless he has the Tear of God. Do you suppose one of those rebels could have been here to-night and stolen the jewel so that the natives will refuse to have me for their queen?" Her blue eyes were very, very big and frightened, and her face was very white.

"Well, I'll be darned!" muttered Mr. Bill.

"That's it! That's it!" cried Bert eagerly. "You remember that white-headed, big-nosed chap who stole the record of your father's and mother's marriage from the Mifflin Court House?" he asked Tessie quickly. "Perhaps he was here and stole the jewel."

"He was freckled!" remembered Tessie with a gasp. "The clerk said he was freckled! I remember I thought that was funny, for men don't freckle. It's boys. I danced with a freckled man this very night!" She gasped again. "And he asked a lot of questions about the islands. I never thought about it then. I thought he was just trying to be pleasant. What a fool I was!"

"That's the chap!" declared Mr. Bill.

"Who was he? What was his name?" demanded Bert.

"I don't remember," faltered Tessie. "I met so many men to-night. I don't remember any of their names. Oh, dear! What shall I do?" She looked from Bert to Mr. Bill, and when neither of them could tell her what to do she wished with all her heart that Joe Cary was there. Joe would tell her in a minute what to do.

"Well, Tessie, the party's over. It's time to go home." And Granny, who had been talking to the president of the Junior League, came toward them followed by Ka-kee-ta. Tessie shrank away as she saw the gleam of Ka-kee-ta's ax. "Had a good time, dearie?" Granny asked affectionately. Granny had had a wonderful time herself. She was sure that no Gilfooly had ever had a better time.

"Oh, Granny!" Tessie threw her arms around Granny's neck, and hid her face in the soft lace of Granny's gown.

Granny was startled and a bit frightened. "What is it? What is it?" She looked at Mr. Bill and at Bert. "What has happened to my lamb?"

"It's--it's the Tear of God!" sobbed Tessie. "I've--I've lost i-it!"

"Lost it! Stand up, Tessie Gilfooly, and remember queens don't cry before folks. Lost! Nothing of the sort! Ka-kee-ta!" And when Ka-kee-ta had stepped forward with a salute of his ax, she said imperiously, "The Tear of God!"

Ka-kee-ta held out his left hand and opened it, and there on his yellow brown palm was the Tear of God.

"Well, I'll be darned!" exclaimed Mr. Bill.

"My word!" muttered Bert Douglas.

"Oh!" squealed Tessie, absolutely forgetting Granny's hint that queens must keep their emotions to themselves. "Where did Ka-kee-ta get it?" Her face was as pink now as it had been white a moment before.

"I took it off your neck, my dear, when you were dancing," explained Granny proudly. "The folks here were all strangers to me," she told the astonished officers of the Junior League, "and though I knew of course they would be all right or they wouldn't be here, I thought it was just as well not to take any chances. So when Tessie was dancing I slipped the Tear of God from her neck and gave it to Ka-kee-ta to hold. With his ax in his other hand, I knew he could take care of it. It wasn't lost at all, you see, dearie," she smiled at Tessie. "I took it after you came back to the ballroom with Mr. Douglas."

"Oh!" exclaimed Tessie, feeling rather flat and small because she had made such a fuss over a robbery that was not a robbery at all.

XII

Mr. Kingley decided to give a banquet to the employees of the Evergreen in honor of their former associate, who had been made Queen of the Sunshine Islands by Fate--and her Uncle Pete. Mrs. Kingley looked unutterable words when she heard his plan.

"Bill can run down and ask Miss Gilfooly if it will be all right for Thursday evening," went on Mr. Kingley, much pleased with his idea.

"Bill!" Mrs. Kingley's voice was full of disgust and indignation, about fifty per cent, of each, perhaps. "Do you want Bill to marry Miss Gilfooly?" she asked caustically.

"Marry!" It was Mr. Kingley's turn to stare, and he did it with bulging, questioning eyes. "I don't know as that would be such a bad thing," he muttered after a moment's intensive thought. "I believe it would be a mighty good plan!" he decided emphatically, when he had given it a second moment's thought.

"William Kingley! Your only son--our only son!" Mrs. Kingley angrily claimed a share of Mr. Bill. "And a clerk!" It was quite clear that Mrs. Kingley believed that her only son and the clerks dwelt on vastly different planes, and equally clear that she did not want them on the same plane.

"The Queen of the Sunshine Islands," corrected Mr. Kingley. "A queen is not the same as a clerk, my dear. I believe that such a marriage would be a good thing for the Evergreen. You have no idea," he went on hurriedly as she gave a little snap of scorn, "how the story of Queen Teresa has helped sales. We were feeling the pinch of the business depression, which has been so general, when we found this little queen in our basement. I made the most of the incident, and the papers carried the story all over the country. We have had requests for samples from Chicago and New York and even Denver, Colorado, already. If Bill should marry Miss Gilfooly," he went on thoughtfully, "I actually believe we would have to increase our mail order department. I am sure that it would be an excellent thing for the store."

Mrs. Kingley was so angry at the thought of her only son marrying Miss Gilfooly that she could scarcely speak. Her anger painted her face an unbecoming scarlet, and her eyes flashed furiously. "You think of nothing but the store!" she managed to stammer at last. The words were not at all what she had meant to say. She had meant to wither him with her scorn--and she could only stammer.

Mr. Kingley regarded her with surprise. Of course he thought of the store. "It feeds, clothes and shelters you," he reminded her. "And mighty good food, clothes and shelter," he decided as he looked around the spacious room, so attractively furnished, and at her smart dinner gown, and remembered the excellent dinner he had just eaten. "Mighty good food, clothes and shelter!" he repeated firmly.

"William Kingley!" She towered above him. "You--you--" She stopped and glared at him for a full second. "There is such a thing as a telephone," she finally controlled herself to say majestically. "You could talk to your ex-clerk yourself, instead of sending your only son into danger!" And she sailed from the room to find Ethel and ask her if she ever knew any one as unreasonable and one-idead as her father.

"What's Dad done now?" asked Ethel, who knew of several things her father might have done. "Oh that!" she exclaimed carelessly, when she was told that her father thought it would be a good thing for the Evergreen should her brother and Queen Teresa marry. "I expect he is right. It would be a good thing for the store."

"Ethel! Ethel Kingley!" sputtered Mrs. Kingley. Her voice had seventy-five per cent of disgust in it now. "How can you! Bill and a clerk! an ex-clerk!"

"She seems a nice little thing," went on Ethel, as if she were looking at Tessie and actually saw that she was a nice little thing. "I dare say she would make Bill a good wife, and really, Mother, Bill should be allowed to choose his own wife. I know I mean to choose my own husband!"

"Oh, you!" But Mrs. Kingley was not interested in Ethel's husband. She was still too disturbed over Mr. Bill's wife.

"I dare say Miss Gilfooly will be quite crazy over Dad's banquet," went on Ethel, before she returned to her book, a story of married life which her mother declared no girl should read, but which every girl was reading.

Miss Gilfooly was pleased when she was told of the banquet. She thought it was quite too sweet of Mr. Kingley. She was a bit awed when she was told also that she would have to sit at Mr. Kingley's right hand during the banquet.

"I wish I could sit beside you," she was bold enough to say to Mr. Bill. "I'm scared to death of your father."

"Pooh!" exclaimed Mr. Bill, who could not imagine why any one should be scared of his father. Why, his father was just an old man chockfull of old-fashioned ideas and prejudices. "Dad's probably scared of you. He hasn't met many queens in the course of his straight and upright fifty years. And even if he had, he has never met a queen like you!" he declared with unrestrained admiration.

But still Tessie looked dissatisfied. "In what way," she asked quickly, "am I different from other queens?"

Mr. Bill looked at her. Didn't she know? "Glance at them!" he said scornfully. "Just glance at the old frumps and then look in your own mirror. You won't need any one to tell you the answer. The difference, as you will quickly see, is entirely in your favor!"

"Oh!" murmured Tessie, all dimples and blushes, so that she looked less than ever like Mary of England or Marie of Roumania, or even Victoria of Spain.

In spite of Mr. Bill's declaration that old Mr. Kingley, which was the way Tessie always spoke of her former employer, was afraid of her, Tessie did feel a little timid, and a thrill ran down her spine when Mr. Kingley took her hand to lead her into the big tea-room which had been rearranged and elaborately decorated in honor of the banquet for Queen Teresa. An army of men and women had been at work in the room ever since the last luncheon patron had been hurriedly served.

Tessie had a new frock which she had bought at the Evergreen. It was of cream lace and net with silvery blue ribbons and pink roses. The man who designed it must have thought of a young queen or a young princess when he conceived it. It really was an adorable frock, and Tessie looked adorable in it as she smiled shyly at Mr. Kingley. Her blue eyes sparkled, her cheeks were pink, and her red lips were parted in a tremulous smile. But adorable as she looked, Mr. Kingley shook his head. She did not satisfy him.

"Where's your crown?" he demanded abruptly. "I thought queens wore crowns."

"Not until after their coronation," suggested Mr. Bill, who could find no flaws in Tessie at all. From her head to her heels, she was perfect to his admiring eyes. It was just as well that his mother could not see him as he stood gazing at his father's ex-clerk. Mr. Bill looked very handsome himself in his dinner coat. Tessie was sure he was the handsomest man in the world.

"I don't think they wear crowns at all in the Sunshine Islands," she ventured to say shyly. "I think they wear only this." And she touched the jewel which hung from her neck, the royal jewel of the Sunshine Islands.

Mr. Kingley grunted. The royal jewel was not enough, not when there were to be reporters from all the newspapers at the banquet, and a moving picture man as well. His queen must look like a queen. He turned to the store superintendent.

"Julius, isn't there a crown of some kind down in the jewelry department? I'm sure I saw one the other day. It was high in front and dwindled down to nothing in the back." He showed them with his pudgy hands how the crown he had seen ran from high to low.

"You mean a tiara," suggested Julius with a little superiority in his voice, because he knew a tiara when he saw it and his employer didn't. "Yes, Miss Luckins has a couple of tiaras in stock. They are only imitation--paste--you know." He was apologetic because he did not have a crown of real diamonds to offer Mr. Kingley. "We really have no sale for real crowns in Waloo. But this tiara is a very good imitation. Not one in twenty would know it wasn't real," he boasted.

"It will be better than nothing. Go and get it. We can't go in without a crown." And he delayed the banquet until Mr. Julius could find Miss Luckins, go down to the jewelry department and bring back the most elaborate paste tiara which Miss Luckins herself fastened in Tessie's hair.

"There!" Miss Luckins stepped back to get the effect.

"That's better! A lot better!" grunted Mr. Kingley. "Far more royal, you know. Any one can see now that you are a queen. Tell the orchestra we're coming. Everybody ready?" He looked back at Granny and Mr. Bill, who were to follow him when he led the queen. "Don't let that native with the ax stumble against me," he hissed with a shake of his head at Ka-kee-ta, who stood behind his queen. "Allow me, Your Majesty!" And he smiled proudly as he offered his hand to Tessie.

The doors into the banquet-room were thrown wide open, the store orchestra began to play "Hail, the Conquering Hero Comes." Every one jumped up to look at Queen Teresa as she walked in led by Mr. Kingley. Hands were clapped, and there were many cheers. Several of the department buyers called loudly "_Vive la reine!_" to show that they had been in Paris and knew what was what. The color deepened in Tessie's cheeks, and the tears flew to her eyes. She did hope that she wouldn't cry, but she was woefully afraid she would. It was so sweet of every one to be so kind to her. Never, not if she were crowned a hundred times, would she know as proud a moment as this.

She stood blushing beside Mr. Kingley at the big table on the dais, which ran across the end of the room, and faced them all, trembling with excitement. There they were, her former associates of the Evergreen. The employment manager, who had hired her; Miss Murphy, who had snapped at her when she asked for help in making out a sales-slip; Mr. Walker, who was always nagging at her for something. And there was Joe Cary beside Norah Lee at the table with the advertising staff and--How funny!--He was frowning at her. Every one else was smiling and Joe's frown stood out like a black thundercloud in a clear blue sky. She smiled and waved her hand to him, and he nodded coldly, but he did not wave back. She shrugged her shoulders impatiently. Why did Joe have to have a grouch to-night of all nights? She wouldn't look at him again. He could frown as much as he pleased, but she would only look at the smiling faces. There were plenty of them.

"Well?" She became conscious that Mr. Bill was murmuring in her left ear, and she turned to him. Mr. Bill was not frowning. His face wore a radiant smile. "Well," he repeated, as Ka-kee-ta took his place behind his queen much to the annoyance of the waitresses. "We're all set."

"Oh!" Tessie's heart was thumping so fast it was difficult for her to speak. "How grand to have you beside me!"

If Tessie looked down on her former associates with frank delight, they looked up at her with open or secret envy. Miss Allen of the gowns told her neighbors in a whisper how much the cream lace frock had cost, and Mr. Swenson of the boots and shoes murmured the price of the silver slippers, and Miss Bartle of the hosiery laughed indulgently when she said that the silk stockings the queen wore had cost not less than nine dollars a pair.

"Not a cent less, and cheap at that. Every thread silk!"

No wonder they were pleased with Tessie. She was their queen. They had clothed her. And if there was more envy in their hearts than there was admiration in their eyes, it was not strange. It was only natural for them to wish to be in Tessie's silver slippers with a frizzle-headed native in blue denim to hold a shining ax behind them. It was romance, their share--not Tessie's--that they wanted, and every one has a right to a full portion of romance. A birthright into this big world includes a full portion of romance.

The chef had spent a sleepless night preparing a royal menu. He had ransacked the store encyclopedia for names which would honor Tessie's kingdom, and then had to fall back on the good old French menu. There was _pôtage à la Sunshine_, there was _poisson à la Pacific_, there was _poulet à la reine_, and goodness knows what else. It was all very delicious, although Tessie was so excited to find herself between old Mr. Kingley and young Mr. Kingley, and facing all the Evergreen employees and a moving picture machine, that she could scarcely eat a mouthful. Granny peered at her around Mr. Bill and told her she must eat something, that it would be a shame to waste good food.

"And this is good!" she said, pleased that Mr. Kingley had not skimped the menu for the banquet in honor of her granddaughter.

At last the ice cream and cake had been eaten, the tables cleared, and every glass filled with sparkling ginger ale. The waitresses and the cooks gathered in a corner with glasses of ginger ale in their hands. Mr. Kingley rose to his feet and made a speech, in which he extolled Tessie and the Evergreen and the Sunshine Islands, and the Evergreen--; and when he was all tangled up in the Evergreen, and Mr. Bill reached behind Tessie and pulled his dinner coat, he asked every one to drink the toast to their former associate: "Our little queen, Her Majesty of the Sunshine Islands!"

The band broke into the stirring strains of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." There were cheers and much hand-clapping as the toast was drunk with hearty good will.

"You'll have to respond," Mr. Kingley, flushed and important, told Tessie. "You'll have to say something!"

"A speech! I couldn't!" Tessie shrank back appalled at the mere thought of making a speech before Mr. Kingley and the department managers. She could not do it.

But the clamor on the floor would not subside, and at last she rose up and stood looking at them. How kind they were! How dear! Involuntarily she stretched out her arms as if she would embrace them all.

"You dear, dear folks!" she cried, and her voice quivered with emotion. "I love you every one!"

There was more applause, a perfect fury, and then suddenly the lights went out, and the room was plunged in darkness.

"What--what the devil's this?" spluttered Mr. Kingley. "Where's the electrician? I wouldn't have had this happen for a million dollars! What's the matter?" For there was the sound of a scuffle, a muttered curse behind him. He could not see a thing, but he could feel something brush by him. "Bring a light!" he shouted, pale with fright as he thought of what might happen if Ka-kee-ta should use his ax in the darkness. "Can't some one bring a light?"

It was really only a couple of moments, although it seemed hours, before some one found the buttons and turned on the light. When every one blinked and turned to smile reassuringly at Tessie to let her know that it was all right--just a little vagary of the electricity--there were startled shrieks from several hundred throats, for Tessie had disappeared. The place between old Mr. Kingley and young Mr. Kingley was vacant.

"Why--why--" stammered old Mr. Kingley, who had arranged many banquets, but had never lost his guest of honor before.

"Where's Tessie?" shouted Granny. "Where's my granddaughter, the Queen?"

"Where's Tessie?" demanded Joe Cary, who found himself at the royal table, staring into the purple face of old Mr. Kingley.

"I'm here, Granny!" And there she was, behind her big bodyguard clutching the Tear of God which hung about her neck. "Ka-kee-ta snatched me and made me stand behind him. What was the matter, Mr. Kingley? Did some one really try to choke me?" She rubbed her neck with her fingers as if to feel if some one had tried to choke her.

"Matter!" exclaimed Mr. Bill. He caught her hand and held it tight to assure himself that she was there beside him again. "Look at that!" He pointed to Ka-kee-ta's left hand, from which hung a black string tie. It dangled limply from the yellow-brown fingers. Mr. Bill looked suspiciously around the room. "Has any man lost a tie?" he asked sharply.

There was an uncomfortable pause in which every man raised a hand to make sure that his tie at least was around his neck. One of the maids by the door stepped forward.

"I think the man who lost his tie has gone," she said in much confusion. "At least some one pushed by me and ran out of the door."

"Why didn't you hold him?" demanded Mr. Bill.

"I thought he was the electrician," stammered the maid. "I thought he was going to see about the lights, and anyway I couldn't have held him. It isn't fair to blame me!" She burst into tears.

"Dear, dear!" fussed Mr. Kingley, too confused by the unexpected number on the banquet program to be considerate of weeping maids. "I hope the watchman holds him. I'm sorry," he turned to Tessie. "I wouldn't have had this happen for a million dollars! I should have said you would be perfectly safe here among so many friends, but a man can learn that he doesn't know everything about his own store. I suppose it was that crown--tiara, I mean. Some one thought it was real, and tried to steal it. It looks real!"

"It wasn't the tiara that they tried to steal," guessed Mr. Bill grimly. "It was the Queen!"

"It was the Tear of God!" contradicted Joe Cary, who had moved up until he stood beside Tessie. "Those Sunshine Island rebels don't want Tessie. They want the royal jewel!"

"Bless me!" murmured Mr. Kingley, turning the back of his dinner coat to Joe; for what could Joe Cary, an artist in the advertising department, know? "I'm glad you weren't stolen!" he told Tessie fervently.

"I'm glad, too," ventured Tessie, tearfully tremulous, and she clung tight to Joe's hand. "It might have spoiled the party," she added politely.

"But if the watchman gets the thief what publicity it will make!" gloated Mr. Kingley, true to form. The Evergreen was getting wonderful publicity every day, thanks to Tessie, and the store was thronged as it never had been before a queen was found in its basement. "So long as you are safe, we have nothing to regret. We can leave the rest to the watchman and the store detectives. They will find the thief. I am sure he was not one of our own men. He must have been some miscreant who forced himself in. We will not think of him again. Have you finished your speech?" he asked courteously.

"Long ago!" exclaimed Tessie, taking her fingers from Joe and giving them to Granny to hold.

"Well!" Granny drew a long, long breath. "I'm glad now we have Ka-kee-ta and his ax, even if they do make me nervous. If you had been kidnaped, Tessie Gilfooly, I should never have forgiven myself!"

"I'd have found her!" declared Joe. "No matter where she was hidden, I'd have found her for you, Granny Gilfooly!"

Tessie, listening eagerly to Mr. Bill's plans for catching the miscreant who had dared to interrupt the banquet, never heard him. But Granny heard him, and she smiled at him kindly.

"I believe you would, Joe, I believe you would. You're a good friend to little Tessie."

"You bet I am!" Joe cried eagerly. "And I'm going to look after her! I'm not going to have her fooled by any one!" And he looked indignantly at Mr. Kingley.

XIII

Although Mr. Kingley posted a notice where every one could see it, to the effect that the man who had lost a black string tie at the banquet could obtain the same by calling at the office and explaining how it came to be in Ka-kee-ta's fist, no one appeared to claim the silk. Indeed, it was not long before Mr. Kingley and a majority of the guests thought that Tessie must have imagined that some one had tried to choke her, in an attempt to steal the Tear of God.

"She was excited!" they said indulgently. "And no wonder! But it is ridiculous to think that any one would try to steal the royal jewel, when the queen was surrounded by friends and with her bodyguard and his ax behind her."

"You can't tell friend from foe in the dark, and when you are with friends you are not looking for enemies," Joe Cary told them bluntly. He was perhaps the only one who believed that Tessie was telling the truth, when she said that when the lights went out a strong arm had caught her and pulled her from the table, and then Ka-kee-ta had snatched her and thrust her behind him.

"He can see in the dark!" she insisted with a shiver. "Just like a cat!"

"You dreamed it," young Mr. Bill said with a grin. "When the lights went out you were scared, and screamed, and Ka-kee-ta pulled you behind him. That's the way it was!"

"Was it?" But Tessie was not sure. The clasp of that strong arm had been too real for any dream. She could still feel the pull of the fiber that had held the Tear of God about her neck.

"No, it wasn't!" contradicted Joe. "You are dead right, Tessie. Some one did try to take your jewel from you."

"How do you know? You were at the other end of the room!" Mr. Bill regarded him with scorn, because Joe thought he knew so much when Mr. Bill, who had been sitting right next to Tessie, knew so little.

"I know all right!" There was a confidence in Joe's voice which was convincing. "I knew as soon as the fellow touched you, Tess, and I was coming to you even before you screamed. Ask Norah Lee! I bumped against her when I jumped up. You know when the lights went on I was at your place!"

"That's true!" agreed Granny. "He was just beside me!"

Tessie looked frightened. Her lip quivered. "But why should any one want to kidnap me?" she faltered. "I haven't done anything!" She looked at Mr. Bill, but when he did not tell her, she turned to Joe.

"Yes, you have done something," Joe told her bluntly. "You've become Queen of the Sunshine Islands." Trust Joe to find a reason. Joe always had a reason. That was why Tessie had quarreled with him so often. She usually hated his reason. "You told me yourself that Mr. Marvin said there was a bunch of people, Sons of Sunshine they call themselves, who want a native ruler. They don't want a white queen. I bet this kidnaper was a Sunshine Son who wanted that royal jewel, and if he could get you with it, he would shut you up until you consented to abdicate in favor of a native!" There was a grim, triumphant smile on Joe's lips as he elaborated his reason.

"Such rot!" Mr. Bill was thoroughly disgusted with Joe's reason. It was too melodramatic to happen anywhere but on the moving picture screen.

"Oh, Joe!" Tessie whimpered and caught his arm. "Would any one do that?"

"A Son of Sunshine would!" declared Joe. "I say, Tessie, why do you want to be the queen of those cannibal islands?" He sneered at the islands.

"Why--why I have to be," stammered Tessie, confused by the direct question. "Uncle Pete left me the islands and made me the queen. I can't help it, can I?" She appealed to Mr. Bill.

"Of course you can't!" He glared at Joe. How dared Joe insinuate that Tessie could help it. "You can't throw away a kingdom. No one would!"

"Pooh!" sniffed Joe. "Half a dozen islands overrun with naked cannibals!" It sounded as if Joe had a very small opinion of Tessie's kingdom. "The first thing you know, they'll eat you," he prophesied gloomily before he laughed. It was so ridiculous to think of any one, even a hungry cannibal, eating little Tessie.

Tessie screamed. Mr. Bill promptly put his arm around her. He turned fiercely to Joe.

"Look here, Cary!" he began furiously. "Mind your words when you talk to the queen!"

"Queen!" Joe Cary actually laughed. "Queen!" he repeated.

Tessie pulled herself from Mr. Bill's protecting arm. How splendid Mr. Bill was and how--"Joe Cary!" she gasped, pink with indignation.

"Cary!" exclaimed Mr. Bill, even more indignant than Tessie.

Joe's face sobered as he looked from Tessie to Mr. Bill.

"Pooh!" he said again. "What do kings and queens amount to now? They're being knocked off their thrones pretty fast. Look at Russia and Germany! And at the best, they were never anything but a fairy tale. Keep your eyes on the other countries, on England and Italy and Spain, and some day you'll see things happen there. People are learning that they can pay too much for a figurehead and a pageant. An honest workingman is worth all the kings in the world. You know that, Tess! At least you used to know it. I told you. And just because your Uncle Pete was washed up on the Sunshine Islands, and was able to stop the Sunshine king's toothache the king adopted him and left him the islands. As if any one had the right to will human beings to any man! The natives were fools to accept him. You know they were! And as for your Uncle Pete, you'll be wise if you don't inquire about his life on the islands. Filthy brute!" Joe quite forgot himself as he talked about kings and queens.

"Why, Joe Cary!" Tessie could scarcely speak. But she could look, and her eyes flashed fire at the man who dared to stand before her and call her royal uncle names. What would Granny say? She was glad that Granny hadn't heard him.

"Look here, Cary, you can't slander the dead!" exclaimed Mr. Bill indignantly. "And keep your mouth shut about things you don't know," he advised curtly.

"Know!" Joe repeated the word scornfully. "I bet I know more about the Sunshine Islands than the Queen there!" He nodded at big-eyed Tessie. "I've made it my business to know. Every one else has been so wrapped up in the fact that Tess was a Queen that they haven't cared if her kingdom was only half a dozen little islands inhabited by cannibals."

"They're not cannibals now!" declared Tessie.

"They were! Your Uncle Pete was almost eaten by them!"

"They've been civilized and Christianized!" insisted Tessie. "Uncle Bill built a church. It has a corrugated tin roof, and when the sun shines on it the natives think it's silver. The Home of the Silver God, they call it. Ka-kee-ta told me!" She flashed an indignant glance at the scoffer.

"That shows how civilized and Christianized they are," laughed Joe. He was determined to express his thoughts for at least once. "Your Uncle Pete built a motion picture theater, too, Tess, and it saved him from a revolution. But once a cannibal always a cannibal. It's in their blood, and it will take more than one generation to get it out. I wish you'd give up the job. You don't want those islands. You can't live on them! Give them up!"

"Give them up!" Tessie could not believe her own pink ears.

"Give them up!" Mr. Bill echoed the words incredulously.

"You bet! You won't dare live there. The Sons of Sunshine won't let you, and they're right. You don't belong there. Show your sense of truth and right and give them up. Let the natives elect their own ruler. It's the only fair way," begged Joe.

"I suppose you'd like me to go back to selling aluminum in the Evergreen!" Tessie proved that she could be as scornful as she could be sweet and shy. But her scorn did not make any impression on Joe.

"I would!" he declared. "I'd love to see you back there in your little black dress earning your own way. And I'd love to have you to walk home with again. And I'd love to go in to a dinner of Granny's boiled beef and raisin pie again. I'd like to go back to where we were when you heard you were a queen! Can't you see, Tess," he pleaded, "that there isn't anything in this queen business any more? Come on and give it up!"

"You're a socialist!" stammered Mr. Bill, so amazed at such plain speaking that he could do nothing but stammer. "You're a rank anarchist!"

Joe tore his eyes from indignant Tessie to stammering Mr. Bill. "If you think that a hatred of queens--white girl queens--for cannibal islands is socialism then I am a socialist," he said boldly. "What do you know about Tessie?" he demanded abruptly. "You never saw her until this musical-comedy-queen business began."

This was so true that Mr. Bill and Tessie both blushed.

"Well, I see her now," Mr. Bill managed to say. "And I'll help her be a Queen. The idea of asking any one to give up a kingdom! I never heard of such an absurd thing in my life!" It was so absurd that he laughed.

"If she doesn't give it up I'll bet it will be taken from her," prophesied Joe. "The Sons of Sunshine are after her. And they are after the Tear of God, too. You saw that gink on the porch the night Tess heard she was a queen. I'll bet he was a Son of Sunshine! And if you ever find anything about that man last night you'll find he was a Sunshine Son too, or I'm a goat! The third time he may get to you, and then you'll remember what I said," he told Tessie gloomily.

But Tessie had pulled herself together, and now she laughed at his gloomy prophecies. She did not believe them. How could she when Mr. Bill, who knew so much more of the world than Joe Cary, told her that what Joe said was ridiculous. Just what you might expect from a rank anarchist. But she stopped laughing when Joe looked straight into her blue eyes and said very soberly, far more soberly than he had spoken before: "But even if you are a fool, Tess, I'll stand by you. I'll help you! You can always count on me!"

"Well, upon my word!" gasped Tessie, her eyes following him as he walked away. "The idea of Joe Cary talking to me like that!"

"Yes, the very idea," agreed Mr. Bill. "But don't think of it another minute! The fellow's cracked. I'll bet Dad doesn't know what a socialist he is!"

"You wouldn't tell," begged Tessie in a panic, for if Joe lost his position in the Evergreen what would he do? He hadn't inherited an island kingdom and even if he had-- She shook her head. She couldn't understand Joe.

"No, of course I shan't tell!" Mr. Bill spoke loftily, as if Tessie should have known that he did not tell tales. "Give those fellows rope enough and they hang themselves. He's so green with envy that he isn't a king that he can't do anything but rant."

"I don't think it was that!" frowned honest little Tessie. "I don't think Joe would ever want to be king of any island!"

"Try him!" advised Mr. Bill scornfully. "Just try him. I never knew a socialist to keep on spouting socialistic rot after he had money to buy him decent food and clothes and a bath. But don't let's talk about him! I'm glad you're a queen. It's the most romantic thing I ever heard, and I'm strong for romance. I used to think there wasn't any left in the world." He smiled at Tessie, who looked the very flower of romance. "I'm darned glad you're a queen!" he said fervently.

"I'm glad, too," murmured Tessie, quite ready to forget Joe Cary. "I don't care what Joe Cary said! And I am going to try and be a good queen and do my duty by my people! Be simple and honest, is what Madame Cabot said."

"Of course you are! But what is there in this Sons of Sunshine business?" curiously. "Anything?"

"I'm afraid there is!" A little frown broke the pretty curve of Tessie's eyebrows. "It's true. Joe is right that some of the people want a native ruler. They rebelled against Uncle Pete, but he kept them down. Now that he is gone they don't want a white queen. They aren't the best people, Ka-kee-ta said," she explained apologetically. "They're the--the lower classes. And they haven't seen me! They don't know how I plan to help them!"

"They'll adore you the minute they do see you!" declared Mr. Bill unsteadily.

"Oh, I hope they will!" faltered blushing Tessie.

"Of course they will! Didn't I?" Mr. Bill caught her hand and squeezed it hard.

XIV

Joe Cary's rude and reckless words had an effect, although perhaps not the one he had hoped. But they did make Tessie think of something besides Mr. Bill, her new frocks and her new pleasures. The interruption of the Evergreen banquet did not bother her long, for that was a problem for the store detective to solve. But Joe Cary made her realize that the Sunshine Islands were more than a throne and a bank for their queen. It was odd that, when Tessie returned to the Waloo, she should find Granny reading one of the big books in which there was an entire chapter devoted to "The Pearl of the Pacific--The Sunshine Islands." Granny looked up from a picture of sea and palms when Tessie came in.

"Tessie," she began at once, "are you sure you're going to like being a queen for a lot of naked cannibals?"

"Why, Granny!" Tessie stood still and stared at her. What did Granny mean? Of course Joe Cary had been talking to her, and for a moment Tessie hated him. She didn't care if he had been her only friend when she was a salesgirl at the Evergreen. She quite forgot that he had taken her to a moving-picture show once in two weeks. "What's the matter now?" she asked impatiently. "Have people been complaining about Ka-kee-ta again?" For there were people who had complained of Ka-kee-ta, and it must be confessed that it was disconcerting to a timid woman, or even a brave man, to walk down a dimly lighted corridor and find oneself face to face with a bare-footed colored man, in loosely fitting blue clothes; a man with a tattooed nose and frizzled hair stiffened with cocoanut oil, and carrying a shining ax. Tessie herself would have shrieked if she had come upon such a man in a dimly lighted corridor. As it was, she often felt like screaming when she saw him, and just now, after her talk with Joe, she was impatient. "What is it now, Granny?" she wanted to know. A lot of her nervous impatience was in her voice as she stood in front of Granny, and there was more nervous impatience in her frowning little face.

Granny looked up and sighed as she saw the slim little creature in a very modish frock and a very modish hat. Tessie was very, very different from the shabby little girl in the cheap black cotton dress, but that was no reason why Granny should sigh mournfully as she looked at her. Surely Granny did not want Tessie to be the shabby little girl of those old days!

"I was just wondering," Granny said meekly, "as I read this book if you had learned to eat raw fish yet?"

An angry flush stained Tessie's face, and she stamped her high-heeled shoe.

"No, I don't like raw fish!" she cried stormily. "And I don't ever expect to like raw fish! Why should I? Can't I have somebody cook fish for me?" she demanded haughtily.

"In the Sunshine Islands it's the custom to eat it raw," Granny said very gently, for she could recognize the beginning of a tantrum as well as any one. "And there isn't anything that's harder to change than a custom. When I read about the food and some other things in this book, and looked at a few of these pictures, I got to wondering how we are going to like those islands and the customs the people have there. You know, Tessie," she went on, when Tessie said never a word, but just stood sulkily tapping the rug with the pointed toe of her shoe, "when you came home from the Evergreen that day and told me about your Uncle Pete and how he had died and made you a queen, I couldn't think of anything but how wonderful it was. My boy a king! And my girl a queen! And I pictured those Sunshine Islands like England and Italy, and perhaps a little like the United States, even if the United States ain't got crowned kings and queens. It was so wonderful that I was all puffed up like bread sponge. But since we came to the Waloo, and I got so much time, no washing or cooking to do, I've looked into some of these books and talked to Ka-kee-ta as much as a body can talk to a critter that don't know more than the rudiments of real language, and I can't find that these islands are like any place I ever heard of. I don't know as we're going to like them. The folks don't all wear clothes," she confided to Tessie in a dubious whisper.

"I can teach them to wear clothes," Tessie said coldly. "I've talked to Mr. Kingley, and he's going to send me some clothes from the Evergreen. We're going to begin with bathing suits."

"Mr. Kingley's a real business man, ain't he? Always thinking of the Evergreen!" Granny had to admire Mr. Kingley's ability to think of his business at all times. She went on a bit sarcastically. "And is young Mr. Bill going to take charge and open a branch in the islands? It won't pay in your lifetime, Tessie. You mustn't count on it! It'll take more than Mr. Kingley's say-so to put even bathing suits on folks that don't wear anything but a bit of fringe around their waists. And it ain't only clothes," she added mournfully. "It's white ants and centipedes and snakes and sharks and----"

"For goodness sakes, Granny!" Tessie jumped when Granny spoke of sharks, and she was almost at the end of her patience when there was a loud thump on the door. "I do wish," exclaimed Tessie, glad of a legitimate reason to let Granny see that she had reached the end of her patience, "that Ka-kee-ta would learn to knock. I hate to hear him hit the door with his old ax!"

"That's just what I've been telling you," began Granny. "You ain't going to like the Sunshine Islands' way of doing things."

But Tessie did not listen to her. She walked to the door and threw it wide open. "Ka-kee-ta," she began sternly, but instead of facing Ka-kee-ta she looked at a fat man with a light, oh very light, hair, and a big nose. "Oh," Tessie murmured feebly. "Oh!"