ouble for you?"
This with a show of anxiety at the rather difficult position the party
now found themselves in.

"No, I am not a bit alarmed. They may think I have got lost, or I
might have fallen in the water. Perhaps she and Janos would be glad if
I never came back. Then they would have granddaddy all to themselves,
and I suppose they would torture him to find out his secret. Oh!
dear!" she sighed, "if it were not for him I believe I would just run
away."

"You must never think of that," Jennie counseled, "unless of course
those foreigners torment you. Cleo, you tell Andy to charge the car to
your uncle, Mr. Dunbar, and be sure to say we are in a hurry."

Arrangements were made so promptly Mary was almost bewildered. Another
wonder had suddenly come into the life of the timid little girl. She
was actually riding in an automobile. How magical is the power of true
friends!

"It's just like my dream," she said naively. "I dreamed last night I
had a ride in an airship, and I haven't been in an automobile since we
came to Bellaire."

"When was that?" asked Madaline, who kept very close to Mary as if
considering the stranger her own especial charge.

"About four months ago--in winter," Mary replied. "First we stopped in
a city, then Janos brought us out here."

Cleo wanted to ask why Mary always gathered flowers and roots, but
conscious that many personal questions were more necessary than these,
she felt those less important must wait for another time.

"Oh, see!" suddenly exclaimed Mary. "There go Janos and Reda looking
for me! Now we can all go in and be talking to granddaddy when they
come back. Isn't that fortunate!"

Everyone thought so, for, in spite of all their scout courage, the
girls were not especially anxious to run headlong into the arms of two
foreigners, who would undoubtedly be angry. The prospect of meeting a
benevolent old grandfather was much more comfortable to speculate upon.

"Turn in here," Mary told the driver, and her friends noticed a certain
dignity in her command, usually found only among those accustomed to
give orders. "There's grandie," she called. "See, he is coming to
meet us. Drive slowly, he is not strong on his limbs."

The man they approached was not old, but very tall, stooped and
distinguished looking. As the car drew up he threw back his shoulders
and stood like some figure posed in defiance. "Granddaddy, here I am!"
called Mary, attempting to climb o