Before the Motor Maids and Miss Campbell left Ireland, they received a call one morning from Feargus O’Connor, whose round, good-natured face now beamed with happiness. He and his family had been able to return to their old home, he said; his mother now had a deed to the place and there would never again be any disputes about the title. He himself had been appointed First Officer on a merchant ship. Some day he would be Captain of the ship, but for the present he was well content to sail the high seas as First Officer.
Billie would have liked to clear up some of the mystery about Telemac Kalisch, but she hesitated to question Feargus. That the Duke of Kilkenty had been known as “Tweedledum” in that mysterious association, and that Feargus had been chosen to kidnap the little Lord Arthur and had refused, she was fairly certain. Like as not, he had not learned until later that old Telemac was the grandfather of the boy.
One more incident remains to be told before we close the history of the Motor Maids’ travels in the British Isles. At a grand farewell dinner at Kilkenty Hall, His Grace, the Duke, made an appropriate speech of thanks and presented Billie with a beautiful enamelled brooch in the design of a wreath of roses, shamrocks and thistles intertwined.
So ended the strange drama into which the Motor Maids had been unwittingly drawn. It had, however, enabled them to see many sides of life; to touch the edge of a vast secret movement for universal peace; to see the miracle of hatred turned to love and wrong made right. The most unpleasant memories connected with their trip were softened by the happy ending they had somehow brought about.
When they journey abroad again, they will sail to the faraway land of Japan, and then we may, if we will, join “THE MOTOR MAIDS IN FAIR JAPAN.”
THE END.
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR MAIDS BY ROSE, SHAMROCK AND THISTLE ***