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Barnabetta did so. Tess and Dot each brought a hassock, one on either side of the older girl. Barnabetta had a softer side to her nature than the side she had displayed to Agnes Kenway. There were little folk at the circus, who traveled with their parents with the show, who loved Barnabetta Scruggs.
A little later Agnes, pale of face and with traces of tears, came into the room. She and Ruth had hunted high and low for the lost album Neale ONeil had left in his satchel on the side porch.
Even Ruth admitted Neale had not halted there, when he went out so angrily, long enough to take the album away. And both girls had seen him drop the heavy bag in that dark corner when he came in with Tess.
Somebody had removed the album. Nor was it ridiculous to suppose that the somebody who had done this knew very well what the book contained.
Oh, weve been robbed! robbed! Ruth had cried, rocking herself back and forth in her chair in the sitting room. What ever shall we do? What shall I say to Mr. Howbridge?
I dont care a thing about him , declared Agnes, recklessly. But think of all that money if it is money
I tell you it is.
But you dont know for sure, Agnes retorted. Maybe you showed Mr. Crouch the wrong bill.
No. Ive felt all the time, Ruth said despairingly, that we really had a great fortune in our hands. How it came to be hidden in our garret, I dont know. Whom it really belongs to I dont know.
Us! We found it! sobbed Agnes.
No. We cannot claim it. At least, not until we have searched for the rightful owners. But Mr. Howbridge will tell us.
Oh! mercy me, Ruthie Kenway! cried Agnes. Whats the use of talking? Its go-o-one!
I dont know who
You cant blame Neale now! flared up Agnes. Youve made him mad, too. Hell never forgive us.
Well!
might confer regarding the catastrophe.
Agnes wanted to run after Neale and ask his opinion. He might know, or at least suspect, who it was that had taken the album out of the satchel.
But Ruth would not hear of taking Neale into their affairs further. She was quite put out with their boy friend. And Agnes, from past experience, knew that when Ruth was in this present mood it was no use to argue with her.
They spent a very unhappy evening indeed. The two oldest Corner House girls, that is. As for Tess and Dot, they reveled till bedtime in a new and wonderful world the circus world.
They listened to Barnabetta tell of long journeys through the country, when the big animals, like the camels and the elephants, marched by night, and the great cages and pole-wagons and tent-wagons, rumbled over the roads from one stand to another. Of adventures on the way. Of accidents when wagons broke down, or got into sloughs. Sometimes cages burst open when the accidents occurred, and some of the animals got out.
Oh, dear, me! cried Tess, so excited that she could scarcely sit still. To think of lions, and tigers, and panthers running loose!
Whats a panther, sister? queried Dot, puzzled. Are panthers dangerous?
Very, responded Tess, wisely. Of course.
Why why, I didnt spose that was so, murmured Dot.
For pitys sake! Tess exclaimed, exasperated. What do you spose a panther is, anyway, Dot Kenway?
Why why, stammered the smallest Corner House girl, I I thought a panther was a man who made pants.
Oh, goodness to gracious, Miss Barnabetta! Did you ever hear of such a child? demanded Tess, hopelessly. She never will learn the English language!
Ruth came all too quickly to remind the little girls that it was bedtime. Although much troubled, the oldest Corner House girl did not forget their guests comfort.
Mr. Scruggs was settled for the night and Barnabetta was sure he would not need anything before morning. She accepted a cup of hot cocoa and a biscuit herself and took them up stairs with her. Agnes did not appear again, and Barnabetta did not know that she was being watched by a pair of troubled blue eyes from the darker end of the hall.
Agnes had Barnabetta very much in her mind. She and Ruth agreed to say nothing in their own room about the mysterious disappearance of the album. The door was open into the childrens room and it was notorious that little pitchers have big ears.
After they were in bed, Agnes still lay and thought about Barnabetta. Was it possible that the circus girl had obtained possession of the mysterious old album?
It seemed ridiculous to believe such a thing. Surely she had not removed it to her room, for Agnes had been there and had looked for it. Barnabetta had been quietly telling stories to Tess and Dot downstairs all the evening.
Yet, the very fact that the circus girl was downstairs troubled Agnes. Suppose she had come down while Neale and Ruth and she, Agnes, were talking so excitedly about the odd find that had been made in the garret? Suppose Barnabetta had heard most of their talk?
Easy enough for her to have slipped out of the door and grabbed that old book, murmured Agnes. But then what did she do with it? Oh, dear me! How awful of me to suspect her of such wickedness.