“Oh, I hope so!” echoed Amy fervently. “Miss Weeks has so set her heart on finding him that it will be a terrible blow if he fails to turn up.”
“What I’m afraid of,” said Mollie, with a dark frown while she carefully folded an extra blanket, “is that this old lover of hers is dead. After all these years it would be hardly possible that he’s still alive. Allen said he was several years older than our old lady, and she’s pretty old.”
“Goodness! don’t be so gloomy,” protested the Little Captain. “I’m not going to believe anything like that until I have to.”
The next morning, ably assisted by the boys, the girls got their paraphernalia aboard the Gem. It was a glorious morning, a fact for which they were profoundly grateful. The trip would be hard enough on the little old lady, under the most favorable circumstances, and bad weather would be sure to complicate matters.
However, luck was on their side and they accomplished the journey without the slightest mishap. The engine of the Gem was working beautifully, with the result that they made record time.
Once the little boat was made fast to the dock at Deepdale Betty rushed up to her house, explained to her understanding and sympathetic mother about the old lady, and then, backing her little roadster out of the garage, rushed back to the dock again.
Then she drove off with the old lady, leaving the boys and the other girls to attend to the Gem and the disposal of its cargo. For Betty, like the Little Captain she was, had decided to take the Old Maid of the Mountains to her own home until she and the other girls should have a chance to find the ideal home for the little old lady.
Mrs. Nelson welcomed her guest with her usual warm kindliness and, seeing that Miss Weeks was nearly exhausted from the unusual exertion of the morning, hurried her off to bed, promising to have “something hearty” sent up on a tray.
To Isabella Weeks it was untold luxury to be so fussed over and cared for. She tried several times to express her gratitude, but emotion so choked her that the words would not come.
Once when Betty was starting to leave the room, she caught at the girl’s hand, pressing it for a moment to her withered old cheek.