a taxicab."

The cab took them swiftly toward the Mercer house. When they were still
two or three blocks away Jamieson started and pointed out a man on the
sidewalk to Bessie.

"There's Brack now!" he exclaimed. "See, Bessie? That little man, with
the eyeglasses. He's up to some mischief. I wonder what he's doing out
this way?"

When they arrived, Eleanor Mercer, her eyes showing that she was
worried, was waiting for them on the porch.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're here!" she exclaimed.

"I'm so sorry if you were worried about me, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie,
remorsefully.

"I wasn't, though," said Eleanor. "It's Zara! She's upstairs, crying her
eyes out and she won't answer me when I try to get her to tell me what's
wrong. You'd better see her, Bessie."

CHAPTER IV

A NEW DANGER

Alarmed at this news of Zara, Bessie hurried upstairs at once to the
room the two girls shared. She found her chum on the bed, crying as if
her heart would break.

"Why, Zara, what's the matter? Why are you crying?" she asked.

But try as she might, Bessie could get no answer at all from Zara for a
long time.

"Have I done anything to make you feel bad? Has anything gone wrong
here?" urged Bessie. "If you'll only tell us what's the matter, dear,
we'll straighten it out. Can't you trust me?"

"N--nothing's happened--you haven't done anything," Zara managed to say
at last.

"Surely nothing Miss Eleanor has said has hurt you, Zara? I'm certain
she'd feel terrible if she thought you were crying because of anything
she had done!"

Zara shook her head vehemently at that, but her sobs only seemed to come
harder than before.

Bessie was thoroughly puzzled. She knew that Zara, brought up in a
foreign country, did not always understand American ways. Sometimes,
when Bessie had first known her, little jesting remarks, which couldn't
have been taken amiss by any American girl, had reduced her to tears.
And Bessie thought it entirely possible that someone, either Miss
Eleanor, or her mother, or one of the Mercer servants, might have
offended Zara without in the least meaning to do so.

But Zara seemed determined to keep the cause of her woe to herself. Not
all of Bessie's pleading could make her answer the simplest questions.
Finally, seeming to feel a little better, she managed to speak more
coherently.

"Leave me alone for a little while, please, Bessie," she begged. "I'll
be all right then--really I will!"

So Bessie, relu