The Mormon produced a package which he had been concealing under his chair. That the souvenirs had been planned long beforehand was evident, for the boxes bore the stamp of Salt Lake City.
The souvenirs were jewels and very beautiful. For each of the Motor Maids was a ring set with a deep yellow topaz, the setting and stone representing the “All-Seeing Eye,” the Mormon symbol carved on the Temple and in many other places in Salt Lake City. This was an especially appropriate choice since it might also stand for the Comet’s all-seeing eye which had guided them safely across two thousand miles.
Miss Campbell’s present was a beautiful topaz brooch and represented nothing except the deep regard of the giver.
They were obliged to accept these gifts, strange as it seemed to them to be receiving presents from one so recently a bitter enemy. But then, like Jim Bowles, Mr. Stone was a reformed character. Love had transformed his whole being.
Only two more incidents remain to be told before this history comes to an end. One of them concerns Peter Van Vechten, who, the girls learned at the hotel, never reached Chicago, although he succeeded in flying past the Rocky Mountains. But no else in the race reached the goal and he proceeded farther than any of the other aeroplanists. The young man was the grandson and only heir of one of the richest men in America.
“And we took him for a thief,” said Billie, sadly.
“I never did,” said Mary.
The other occurrence will show that life is full of coincidences and that if our memories are good and our impulses kind, we can always help someone.
The morning of the wedding Elinor was waiting for her friends at a window at one end of the hotel corridor. Someone else was waiting there also, but the two had not even glanced at each other so engrossed were they in their own thoughts. A door opened and a voice called:
“Elinor.”