Part 26 (1/2)

At eleven o'clock the next morning the major's guests a.s.sembled for a late breakfast. The boys were stiff from their encounters with the tramps, and Jimmie, especially, was an object of pity. The major looked serious. He had a disagreeable duty to perform, and he wished to avoid it as long as possible. Miss Sallie, alone, was animated and talkative.

She had been entrusted with no confidences, and she felt the burden of no secrets. Neither did she guess that something was impending that was bound to surprise and horrify her.

Jose had not made his appearance and the major was relieved. The hour of reckoning was at hand, and he wished it over and done with. His old friend's son! Was it possible that a child of Jose Martinez could have so far forgotten the laws of hospitality as to rob and intrigue, and play tricks on his fellow guests?

”What a quiet, dull lot of people you are,” exclaimed Miss Sallie, who at last began to notice the gloom that had settled on the party. ”What is the matter?”

”I think it must be the weather, Miss Stuart,” replied Stephen, coming to the rescue of the others. ”It's a very oppressively warm day, and the air is so dry it makes me thirsty.”

”It's the sort of weather, I imagine, they must have in plague-stricken southern countries,” observed Ruth, ”where there's no water,” she continued drawing the picture which held her imagination, ”and people are dropping around with cholera or the bubonic plague.”

”Cheerful!” exclaimed Jimmie.

”I wonder where Jose is this morning,” said Stephen, voicing the thought of everybody in the room except the unconscious Miss Sallie.

”Suppose you run up and see,” suggested the major. ”Tell him, Steenie,”

he added, patting his nephew affectionately on the shoulder, ”that I wish to see him in the morning room when he finishes his breakfast. And, Stephen, my boy, don't be rough with him. Remember what an ordeal we'll have to put him through later. Good heavens!” he groaned, ”such a lovely boy! If it only had not happened in my house!”

”Perhaps he can explain, in spite of everything,” replied Stephen.

Presently he returned to the library.

”Jose is not in his room. He didn't sleep there last night. His bed is made up and there's not a wrinkle on it.”

”Why, where can he be?” cried the major. ”He couldn't have run away, could he?”

”Perhaps he is taking a morning walk,” suggested Martin.

”Did he take anything with him!” asked Jimmie. ”I mean are his things in his room?”

”I didn't notice,” replied Stephen. ”We'd better ask some of the servants, first, if they have seen him this morning, and then go back and have a look for ourselves.”

But the servants could give no information. On examining Jose's room they found everything just as he had left it. He had taken nothing in his flight, not even a comb and brush.

”Even his pearl s.h.i.+rt studs are here,” said Jimmie.

”How about his leather motor clothes?” asked Stephen.

”Here they are,” replied his friend.

”How about his motor cycle?” asked the major with a sudden thought.

They ran down stairs and through the open door, followed by ”The Automobile Girls,” who were filled with excitement. At the garage the chauffeur was busy cleaning the motor cars.

”Is Mr. Martinez's motor cycle here, Josef?” demanded the major.

”Yes, sir,” answered the chauffeur looking up from his work, surprised at the visit of so many people at once.

”Have you see him this morning?”