"I'm a rotten queen," she confessed to Granny in a disgust so deep that it colored her cheeks and brought a black frown to her smooth white forehead. "But I don't have to keep on being a rotten queen." And she flew to the telephone and called for Marvin, Phelps & Stokes and asked eagerly for Mr. Douglas—Mr. Gilbert Douglas.
"This is Qu—I mean this is Tessie Gilfooly," she corrected herself with a shamed little laugh, for in her present humble state of mind she did not feel that she had any right to call herself a queen.
"Hello! Your Majesty!" chuckled Bert. Tessie could hear him laugh over the wire, and the hearty chuckle cheered her. "What can I do for you to-day?"
"You can tell me if you have heard anything about the special representative from the Sunshine Islands." Tessie quickly told him what he could do for her. "It seems to me he should be here by now."
"That's a funny thing!" exclaimed Bert. "I just put on my hat to come over and tell you what we have heard of that very representative. He—" Bert hesitated and then went on reluctantly—"he is still in the islands."
"Still in the islands!" repeated Tessie faintly. "Why—why—I thought he was to come at once!"
"He was captured by a bunch of rebels. Sons of Sunshine they call themselves," explained Bert slowly. He was finding that it was not nearly so pleasant to carry bad news as it had been to carry good news.
"My goodness gracious!" cried Tessie. "My gracious goodness! They won't hurt him, will they? They won't boil him in sh-shark oil?" Her voice shook as she asked the question, but of course Bert would tell her that it was ridiculous to think that any one would be treated in such a savage fashion in these civilized days.
But Bert hesitated. "Well," he said at last, "when you get down to brass tacks your people aren't much more than savages, Queen Teresa, and they do things in a savage way. I don't honestly think that they would boil any one in oil, but you never can tell what cannibals will do. Anyway the party that is in power—that was your uncle's party, you know, the same as our republicans, as I understand it—is doing everything to straighten matters and show the Sons of Sunshine that it will be to the advantage of the islands if King Pete's will is carried out. I expect the rebels will free the special representative at once and he will be along as soon as he can. You're not to worry. You're not on the islands. You're safe here in Waloo. You haven't anything to worry about."
"Haven't I?" quavered Tessie. "Did you hear what happened the other night at the Evergreen banquet? If it hadn't been for Ka-kee-ta, I would have been kidnaped. The store detective hasn't found out a thing, and Mr. Kingley thinks I imagined it. But I didn't. I didn't!" she insisted. "Even if I don't have to worry, I do. I can't help it! Do you know, Bert Douglas, that I don't know anything about those islands! Not a single solitary thing!"