Chapter XVII: The Cup That Lured

The girls lost no time in getting into Jane’s car, accompanied by Captain Baker, who sat on the front seat with the driver. They drove slowly around the edge of the field, thence out into the street, observed by Jack Herrington with a quizzical smile on his face.

“There is as fine a set of girls as I ever saw,” he reflected. “I shouldn’t be surprised if they were heard from at the nets one of these days. But five weeks’ practice and entering the hottest amateur tournament we’ve ever had on the coast!” he muttered. “I ought to ask them to withdraw their entry, but I couldn’t do it when that Miss Burrell looked at me with that unflinching, searching gaze of hers.” He laughed as he saw Jane and her car enveloped in a cloud of dust. Then the Meadow-Brook car disappeared around the corner.

“That one certainly can drive a car, even if she can’t play tennis,” he added.

In the meantime the automobile was speeding through the town, scattering pedestrians right and left, Jane unheeding the guardian’s urgent demands that she drive more slowly. Jane was in a hurry to learn what it was that Captain George Baker had in store for them. They were eager to know about this latest surprise.

“I hope you are not getting us into more trouble, Captain,” Miss Elting called to him.

“It spells trouble for some one,” answered the captain. “No, this is no other game I am trying to play on you. You have game enough on hand as it is.”

“I should say we have,” answered the guardian, her face taking on a thoughtful expression, little lines of perplexity forming on her forehead. “Indeed we have, and to spare.”

George directed Jane into the main business street of the town.

“Do you wish to get your supplies first?” asked the captain.

“No!” cried the girls with one accord, “we want the surprise.”

“You shall have it. Pull up before that red brick building you see on the left there, Miss Jane. We will get out there.”

They got down hurriedly. They could not imagine what this new surprise might be. George led them to the sidewalk, passers-by glancing inquiringly at the brown-faced girls as well as at their distinctive blue uniforms, which a few persons recognized as belonging to the Meadow-Brook Girls’ organization. The captain stepped across the walk to the window of a jewelry store, where he halted and pointed.

“There is the surprise,” he said, his eyes sparkling, his face flushed.

At first the girls’ eyes wandered over the glittering array of costly articles displayed in the window, their glances finally coming to rest on a centerpiece that stood out and above all the rest. That something was a massive silver cup, standing fully eighteen inches high. The cup stood by itself, on a black velvet mat. There was a massive silver handle on either side. Then they saw that it was a trophy. A tennis net worked out in silver decorated the lower part of the cup; above the net were two crossed racquets and a ball, all in solid silver.

Still further up on the swell, cut deeply into the polished surface were the words, “Atlantic Coast Tennis Association Trophy for Girls Under Eighteen. Doubles. Won by ——”

__“Ohh-h-h!” breathed the girls in a delighted chorus.

“Isn’t it perfectly lov—e—ly?” gasped Buster.

“Why, it must be worth a great deal of money,” cried Hazel.

“Yes, it is very beautiful and very expensive,” agreed the guardian. “That, Meadow-Brook Girls, is the prize for which you are to play. Isn’t it worth going after?”

“Indeed, it is,” agreed Jane McCarthy, really overcome by the magnificence of the trophy cup.

“Won’t that look perfectly stunning on our center tables?” exclaimed Buster.

“Our thenter tableth!” exploded Tommy. “You aren’t in the match at all. Jutht remember that, Buthter.”

“No, but she is one of us and will share all the glory as well as the disappointments of the Meadow-Brook Girls,” answered Harriet reprovingly. “Where shall we put it, girls?”

“My father will want it on hith library table, where he can look at it until hith eyethight failth him,” answered Tommy.

“But we shall all want it in our homes,” declared Jane. “How are we going to arrange that?”

“We might split the cup into five parts and each take a piece home,” suggested Hazel.

“No, that won’t do. I’ll tell you how we shall arrange it, girls,” planned Harriet enthusiastically.

“Yeth, Harriet knowth what to do,” said Tommy, nodding her tow-head rapidly. “Thhe alwayth knowth everything.”

“First, we shall place it on exhibition in that jewelry store on Sycamore Street at home. We shall want everybody to see it, and we shall be very proud.”

“Yeth, and we’ll thtand inthide the thtore and lithten to what they thay about uth, won’t we?” bubbled Tommy.

“Then, after a day or two, we shall draw lots to see who has it in her home first. In the beginning each shall keep it for a day until it goes the rounds of all our homes. On the next round each shall keep it for two days and so on, every round adding a day up to a month. A month will be long enough for any girl to have it in her home at a stretch. I’ll tell you what we will do, we will each put in a little money that we shall earn, and buy one of those black marble pedestals that are used to hold statues. Then we can stand the precious cup in the window so people passing may see it.”

“And, of course, we must write to our friends and announce the good news,” reminded Hazel Holland.

“I know one person, at least, who will be glad to hear of our triumph,” declared Harriet. “Grace Harlowe will be delighted to learn that we’ve qualified as champion tennis players.”

“And so will her friends, Nora O’Malley and Anne Pierson and Jessica Bright,” chimed in Marjory. “We never dreamed, when we met those nice girls on our return from the mountains that we’d all become such friends, did we?”

“I’m fond of them all, but Grace Harlowe is my ideal.” Harriet spoke with deep conviction. She had met Grace Harlowe and her three chums during the preceding summer. When the Meadow-Brook Girls had passed through Oakdale on their way home. They had remained over night with the Wingates, who were relatives of Tommy Thompson’s.

Hippy Wingate, Tommy’s cousin, had risen to the occasion and invited his particular group of friends, known as the Eight Originals, of whom much has been told in the “Grace Harlowe Books,” to meet the Meadow-Brook Girls. These wide-awake young people had spent a most delightful evening together and a firm comradeship had sprung up between the two sets of girls. Harriet and Grace Harlowe had at once established a permanent bond of fellowship, so it was hardly to be wondered at that the former’s first thought was of Grace.

“Of courthe we’ll let the Oakdale girlths know what marvelouth championth we are,” nodded Tommy. “I’ll thend Grathe a telegram mythelf the minute the tournament’th over, thaying we’ve won the cup.”

“Can you beat it?” murmured George, chancing to catch the laughing eyes of the guardian.

“No, George, I confess that I cannot,” answered Miss Elting.

“Maybe you might want to take the cup with you right now?” suggested the captain.

“Could we?” asked Tommy innocently, whereat there was a laugh at her expense.

“No, my dear. There are some little formalities to be gone through with first,” said Harriet. “We first have to win it after battling with some of the best girl players in the State. That done, we shall take the cup and carry out the plans already made. I think we had better attend to our errands now.”

“Oh, don’t go,” begged Tommy. “I could thtand here and look at it all the retht of the day.”

They started back toward the car. At the edge of the sidewalk Tommy turned and ran back to the window. The other girls stepped into the car and there they sat for fully five minutes until Tommy Thompson had impressed every line and curve of the beautiful trophy on her mind.

“You may break it if you look at it so hard,” warned George.

“Come, Tommy. Remember, you must get your rest and be ready for practice this afternoon,” called the guardian.

The little girl turned away reluctantly, and getting into the car settled back in the seat, uttering a deep sigh of happy satisfaction.

“I thhall want to look at it all the time. I know I’ll thit up nighth looking at it,” she murmured.

No one answered her. Each girl was too deeply absorbed in her thoughts to speak at that moment. Then the car moved on and the exquisite trophy for which they were soon to enter the lists was left behind them. But Harriet resolved that the separation should not be for long. Captain George, on his part, took a different view of the matter.

“The disappointment will nearly kill them,” he thought.