"An enemy!" fairly hissed the Spanish girl, with something of dramatic intensity. "I tried to keep secret ze fact zat I was working for my father's release. I will not tire you wiz telling you all, but some enemies know I have papairs zat prove ze innocence of Senor Ralcanto. Zis man—Pedro Valdez he call himself—has been trying to get zem from me. He tried in New York, and he said he would give me no rest until he had zem. He must have been following me—no hard task since I have traveled a slow and weary way. Zen, when he saw my valise—he must have thought it his chance."
"How dreadful!" murmured Bess. "To think that such things could happen in Chelton!"
"And perhaps we are not at the end of them yet," said Cora, softly.
"The man got away, didn't he, Belle?"
"So Walter said. Oh, dear! I'm glad we're going to the West
Indies!"
"Oh, zat I were going wiz you!" exclaimed Inez, clasping her thin, brown hands in an appealing gesture. "But if you will take zese papairs, Senorita, and help to free my father—I will never be able to repay your great kindness."
"We shall have to ask papa about it," said Bess, cautiously. "Would you like to have him come and talk to you—he would understand about the political side of it so much better than we would."
"I would gladly welcome ze senor," said Inez, with a graceful dignity. "I shall be honored if he come."
"I think he'll be glad to," spoke Belle. "He loves anything about, politics—he's a reformer, you know."
"And so was my father—he belong to ze reform party—but the others—zey of ze old regime—zey like not reform in Sea Horse Island," chattered Inez. "Zey lose too much money zereby. So my father he is in prison, and I am here!" she finished, softly.
"Well, it's all dreadfully mixed up," sighed Cora, "and I believe it
will take your father, Belle, to straighten out some of the tangle.
Meanwhile, I suppose I'd better put these papers in the safe," for
Inez had thrust them into Cora's rather unwilling hands.