“Now, here’s the exciting part. His partner, the rolling stone, was with him when he went to my father’s rooms in London. And I was there. And when the cowboy introduced the other man to Father, I sat right up and looked at him—he looked like somebody I knew.
“Then Father introduced them both to me—he’s always careful about things like that, you know. And then I spoke right up and said:
“‘Mr. Dickinson, is your first name John? And did you ever have a little girl named Sallie?’ My goodness! You should have seen that little man’s face! All lit up with joy.”
“But,” cried Jean, “you don’t mean our Sallie! You don’t mean that that was Sallie’s father!”
“I do,” assured Henrietta. “Of course it seemed awfully nervy to speak right out like that to a strange man, right before my proper father and Cousin George. I never could have done it, if I hadn’t known myself how horrible it was to be a school orphan. After that, I told him all about Sallie. And he said that after he got out of the hospital he had hunted for her just as long as he had had any money; but the poor old man who had left Sallie at the wrong school couldn’t remember anything at all about it. Without money, and so weak that he could hardly crawl, Mr. Dickinson couldn’t do very much toward hunting Sallie up—and there were so many girls’ schools in this part of the country. And after he had drifted out West, he was always too poor to come back. This is the first bit of luck he’s had. But it’s a big bit. The oil well is all right—he had to stop in New York to attend to some part of the business—telegrams to and from Texas and things like that. That’s why he didn’t come when I did. Sallie’s father and the cowboy, too, will be very rich men. Of course he was going to begin to search for Sallie just as soon as things were settled; but I saved him a lot of time and trouble. But, oh! Such a time as I’ve had keeping this tremendous secret.”
“Where’s Sallie’s father now,” demanded Mabel.
“In the library with Sallie.”
“I’m glad about the money,” said Jean, earnestly, “but Henrietta, is—is he going to be a nice father for our Sallie?”
“Yes, he is,” returned Henrietta. “I watched him all the way over on the boat and there isn’t a single thing the matter with him.”
“That’s great,” breathed Mabel. “But what is he like?”