But Kate did wonder much about Elsie’s errand. “I think,” she mused, “it’s a wild-goose chase Aunt Katherine is on in town, and those detectives, too. Where they might do some good, and find some clues, is right here. Who was that man in the garden? Why all this buying of groceries? If there is a snarl of some sort that needs unravelling, and if Elsie has anything to do with it, the end of the string is right here. But how do I know the snarl ought to be unravelled by detectives—that it’s any of their business? Oh, heavens! I must run to the telegraph office. Mother is terribly needed this very minute.”
At the Western Union Station she did not study long over the wording of her message. Time was too precious, she felt, for even a minute’s delay, if Katherine was to catch the noon train from Middletown.
A mix-up here come first train nobody sick or dead Kate.
She was aware that those ten words would worry her mother unspeakably. But how, in the limits of a telegram (Kate had never conceived of the possibility of a telegram being over ten words in length!), was she to persuade her mother to take the next train if she was not to be worried? No, the only way to make absolutely sure of her coming was to frighten her into it.
The man who took the message looked at Kate curiously. He knew perfectly well who Kate was and wondered very much about the “mix-up.” He thought Kate peculiarly self-contained for a young lady who found herself in a situation that necessitated that message. If he had only known, however, Kate’s calm exterior was entirely assumed. She was more excited, perhaps, than she had ever been in her life before, and full of presentiments of even greater excitement to come. Sending the wire, though, was a great relief. In a few minutes Katherine herself, ’way off in quiet Ashland, would be concerned in the affair. With Katherine once “in it”, Kate was assured things must somehow turn out right.
Now for those puzzling groceries.
When she came out of Holt and Holt’s with her purchases, Jack Denton suddenly appeared at her shoulder. He was without an umbrella, but in a raincoat and felt hat that required none.
“May I walk along with you?” he asked.
Kate was very glad to see him. His high spirits brought relief from the strain and confusion in her mind. Gallantly, and with the air of courtesy that was so delightful in him, he took her bundles from her and then her umbrella. With laughter and exchange of party remembrances they started off together through the rain toward home.
But before they had gone half the distance Jack turned serious.