In the end Marjorie won. All day long they continued to drive eastward at a greater rate of speed, contenting themselves with crackers and fruit for luncheon in order to save time. At nine o’clock that evening they pulled into Rawlins, and went straight to the hotel. In spite of her feeling that Mrs. Hook had been deceiving them, Marjorie invited her and her child to remain there all night at her expense.
Mrs. Hook, however, refused to take advantage of the offer.
“I expect to find some money waiting for me here, thank you,” she replied, stepping up to the desk.
“Money!” gasped Marjorie, scrutinizing the woman in amazement. “Then it was Rawlins where you expected to come to all the time—and not a shack in the desert?”
Mrs. Hook nodded, shame-facedly.
“And you did mean to deceive us?”
Again the woman acquiesced.
Marjorie looked chagrined, and said nothing more; but she remained at her side while she waited for the clerk.
“Any mail for Mrs. Hook?” she asked.
The young man produced an envelope, which, however, bore no stamp or postmark, and she opened it eagerly, yet cautiously, and peered inside. But she was not quick enough, for before she had slipped it into her bag, Marjorie had identified the contents as a one-hundred dollar bill! The girl was never so puzzled in her life.