Chapter XXV: Tying All the Threads

The evening following, the _Isobel_ poked her nose into the passage past the fort and ran into the harbor of St. Sergius. It was true that her appearance was not noted by the whole city and the welcome of the lost ones acclaimed by naval broadsides and the city factory whistles. Nevertheless, the cause of their absence had been suspected and the boat of the harbor police ran alongside the _Isobel_ before she reached her usual mooring-buoy.

It seemed that Señor Benno had been to the other side of the island and had returned only that day and made inquiries about his friend, Mr. Howbridge, and his boat. Some inquiries had been addressed to the authorities by people at the hotel, too, and the authorities were very glad indeed to learn of the safe return of the Americanos.

“They needn’t fret,” sighed Agnes. “They are not half as glad to have us back as we are to get back. What say, Ruthie?”

Ruth hugged Tess and Dot and nodded. It had been a very difficult experience for Ruth Kenway. Secretly she was determined that the smaller children should never be out of her sight again as long as they remained at St. Sergius.

Agnes and Neale were welcomed with much hilarity by the young people of their clique at the St. Sergius Arms, and when they had heard of all the wonderful experiences through which the absentees had passed the two were more popular than ever.

Nalbro Hastings was really quite overpowering in her attentions to Agnes, and the latter was not a little proud that the wealthy Back Bay girl should think so much of her. Agnes had begun to realize, however, that Miss Hastings was really worth while and that she was simple in tastes and kindly of intention.

“I guess I like her because she’s her,” Agnes confessed to Neale. “You said she was a good scout, and she is. But it must just be wonderful after all to be so rich.”

“Wealth won’t keep you from getting your teeth knocked out if you fall from a horse,” chuckled Neale O’Neil. “Sure, she’s a good sport. But she’s nowhere near as pretty as you are, Aggie.”

Tess and Dot might have been inclined to brag a little about their adventures on “Plam” Island, as Dot insisted upon calling it. But they found waiting for them a letter from Sammy Pinkney, and that youthful scribe managed to invest his personal achievements with such a glamor of adventure that even the romance of being cast away on an uninhabited island paled into insignificance.

“_Dere Tess and Dot:_

“If mom wil let me alon and not mak me tak and lok into the spelin
bok evry minit or so Ile try to tel you what has ben goin on here at
Milton sins you went down to thos wes innies.

“Yore Belgn hare that you wen off and lef is alright. And Bily Bumps
is alright. And Uncle Ruf is alright. And Tom Jonah is alright. And
Linda is alright. And Scalawag is alright. And Missus Mack is
alright. And Con Murpy’s pig eat his way out of the pen and got in
the Willow Wyte sewer and the street depatmen had to come and get
him out and Con was mad. So evrybody is well.

“We got a dandy slid on Power Street and Shot Pendlton went through
the barb wire fens but I diden and droped off and he was cut up
sumpn ferce and got a black eye fightin a feller that said his
father stole. But it was another feller done it and Shot’s father
went back to work for Kolbeck and Roods.”

Right at this point the Kenway sisters and their boy friends, as well as Mr. Howbridge, became very much excited. It was the first intimation they had had of the result of the inquiry into the Pendleton’s troubles. Sammy Pinkney had nothing further to say about “Shot” Pendleton’s father and his affairs, although his letter to Tess and Dot was both exhaustive and exciting. The next day’s mail, however, brought a considerable communication from Mr. Howbridge’s clerk in whose charge the lawyer had left the Pendleton case.

Ruth in particular had taken so deep an interest in the family that the news of the solving of the mystery about the stolen silks was a matter that held her attention, if it did not that of her sisters.

“I am so delighted to know that the shadow is lifted from that poor man’s reputation,” she said to Mr. Howbridge. “And all the while the man who appeared to befriend him was the guilty one!”

“You possess intuition developed to the nth degree, Ruth,” said Mr. Howbridge, smiling. “I remember that you said that Israel Stumpf seemed to be two-faced. And he was. Scandal in the Kolbeck family, my clerk writes. Kolbeck would not save Stumpf even to please his wife. The young man is out on bail, but he certainly will be punished for stealing.”

“And have they taken Mr. Pendleton back?”

“So I am told here. At a little better salary and in a place of increased responsibility. Kolbeck is a decent man. He means to do what he sees is right, I fancy.”

When Tess and Dot understood more fully the final outcome of the trouble that had for so long disturbed the Pendleton children—Margy and Carrie as well as their brother—they both wanted to write home to the little Pendletons about it.

“We’re so glad that nice Mr. Pendleton isn’t going to be called a thief any more,” Tess remarked to Ruth, “that we want to let ’em know how we feel. Besides, I guess Mrs. Pendleton is happy now, too.”

“And he’s a very interesting man, I think,” added Dot. “I never knew another man who fell out of a tree. Did you, Tess?”

“No,” drawled Tess. “I guess I never did. And it is so nice that he is proved to be honest. How happy Margy and Carrie will be.”

So the little girls sat down that evening to write to the little Pendleton girls. This got Agnes and Neale started. They, too, had been warmly interested in the Pendleton case and in spite of the many and exciting things they had to think of at the St. Sergius Arms, the chums felt that they would like to express their congratulations to Mrs. Pendleton.

“Well, well!” said Mr. Howbridge, laughing, as he saw all the Corner House party preparing to bombard the Pendletons with written communications. “Suppose we get up a round robin of congratulation, all sign it, and send it to the Pendletons? And we will send them something with it that will be more material, if you all agree. What do you say to a case of fruit?”

“Oh!” gasped Dot, suddenly. “And an alligator. One of those baby ones. I guess Margy and Carrie would like one for a pet.”

But Ruth managed to steer the littlest girl off that topic. The alligator went home to Milton later as a present to Sammy Pinkney. It was a memento of the Corner House Girls’ stay at St. Sergius bound to fill young Sammy with delight and his mother with distaste. Still, as Neale pointed out, it was little worse when considered as a house-pet than the Belgian hare.

That single trip of exploration sufficed for all the Kenway party while they remained at St. Sergius. Professor Keeps had scarcely noticed Luke Shepard’s absence, although it had been for almost a week. He was a very absent-minded professor, indeed. But once the young man was at his work again, the botanist kept him busy.

Luke was interested in the work too. He gave himself over to the botanical excursions and the Corner House girls had to find their fun and excitement without his help.

Neale was able to assist Mr. Howbridge in certain business matters as well. He rode often to Señor Benno’s principal estate at the further end of the island, and this took him from Agnes more than that young person liked.

“There’s not much fun without Neale around,” she confessed to Ruth. “He aggravates me, and pokes fun at me, and all. But he leaves a sort of emptiness behind him when he’s gone.”

“Get better acquainted with the other girls,” advised Ruth sympathetically. “There are some nice ones here.”

To this statement Agnes Kenway agreed. One girl especially appealed to her. Nalbro Hastings proved upon further acquaintance to be just as sweet and companionable as she had seemed to be at first.

“And she is coming to see us,” Agnes told Ruth. “She has promised to come to Milton this spring. Just think! The old Corner House will have to put its best foot forward to entertain _the_ Nalbro Hastings. I’m glad we’ve got a car. But don’t you think, Ruthie, we can afford a neat little maid with a cap and apron? Linda is so clumsy.”

“Neale would say you wanted to ‘put on dog,’” ventured Ruth, laughing.

“Now, dear! Consider! This girl is used to _everything_.”

“Then she must be used to flat-footed Finn servant girls,” declared Ruth gaily. “She must take us as we are.” And although she seconded her sister’s invitation very warmly to the Back Bay girl, Ruth made up her mind that she should not be foolishly catered to.

People came to the St. Sergius Arms to rest; but the Kenway party seemed to find little time for that. For the younger set there was something gay doing almost every day and evening. And when it came time for Mr. Howbridge to take his flock back to the north there was a gay masquerade dance engineered in honor particularly of Ruth and Agnes.

It was a very gay occasion, quite the gayest indeed that the sisters had ever entered into. Even the Poole dance early in the winter, where they had so unfortunately caught cold, had not delighted Agnes so much. And Ruth could not fail to be charmed, everything about the masquerade ball was so well done.

Luke would remain some weeks longer with Professor Keeps. But he was on hand for the ball.

Were Tess and Dot forgotten? They most certainly were not! Dot went as a fairy, gauzy wings and all, while Tess was Little Bo-Peep and carried a crook.

“Though you haven’t got any sheep, Tess,” observed Dot critically. “You haven’t even got one of those big turtles to drive! So I don’t see what good that big cane does you.”

“I’d look nice trying to drive Mr. Methuselah, wouldn’t I?” said her sister scornfully.

“I could ride on him,” giggled Dot. “That was funny. I guess Sammy Pinkney would say it was funny. I wish Sammy could see Cristuff Columbo and Julius Cæsar—though that’s the name of Bill Monnegan’s horse.”

“Now, Dot Kenway!” exclaimed Tess, “you are going to take home that alligator to Sammy. You can’t take all the reptiles in the world to him. You couldn’t put one of those turtles in our trunk.”

“Oh, well,” sighed Dot. “But I know Sammy won’t believe it if he doesn’t see those turkles. I say, Tess!”

“Well? What is it?” asked her unruffled sister.

“Do you know, I just believe that after we tell Sammy Pinkney about all we did and saw and about the turkles that the next time he runs away to be a pirate he’ll go to Plam Island. I just know he will,” and she repeated her statement with the utmost confidence.

THE END

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