The Mystery at Number Six | Page 6

reckoned I'd go and ask for a fresh supply."
"Did you get it?" demanded Sydney, with more anxiety than the subject called for, apparently. Ike eyed him with some curiosity.
"Sure I got it. It'd be queer sort o' folks that'd refuse a feller a drink o' water! Fat 'cracker' woman come to the door when I knocked. I was sure I'd seen her somewheres else before. While I was pumpin' I asked her didn't she come from down Fort Myers way an' she said yes. Asked her what she was doin' so far from home an' she laughed an' said she's married now an' come up here to live.
"Well, I sort o' gave her all the good wishes of the season an' says might I make so bold as to ask who she married. An' she says she married that Everglades guide that used to be so well known a while back. Jerry Saw-Grass. I says this is a long way from the Glades for Jerry to live and she says yes, and then looks kind o' embarrassed-like and says he ain't so well now an' the Glades don't agree with him no more, so he's settled here. An' all the time keepin' one eye indoors, kind o' anxiously, as if she didn't want some one in there to hear--or something like that. All of a sudden that there young kid come runnin' around the corner of the house an' the cracker woman, when she sees her, she hollers fer her to go fetch some fire-wood an' so the kid disappears again. An' I says to her, 'That your gal?' an' she says no, she's a sort of niece of Jerry's or something like that. Anyhow, I was filled up by that time an' wanted to get back to fish so I says good day. An' that's all I know about 'em except--when I was over to Peace River the other day, I met up with a feller that'd known Jerry in the Glades, an' he said he don't believe that kid's any niece of his; that Jerry is a half-breed Indian anyhow an' he thinks the kid ain't, an' no one knows where she really come from an' when Jerry--"
At this juncture Ike spied a crony just entering the café and shouted across the place, "Hey, Doug! want to see you a minute about that gun we was going to swap!" And to the cousins: "Thank ye all for your company--an' the cream. Mighty good of you! Gotta see that feller right off before he gets away. He's tryin' to duck me--if he can! So long!" He left them precipitately and two minutes later was out of the café.
"Pity he didn't finish that last remark!" exclaimed Sydney. "But anyway we got about what we wanted. What do you think of it, Bernice?"
Bernice sat staring wide-eyed and unseeingly before her for the space of several moments. Finally she spoke:
"What did I tell you, Syd? There's something queer about that girl! I knew it the first minute I laid eyes on her. There's a mystery somewhere! Oh, when can we go out there again?"
"I can't go for a couple of days," replied her cousin. "So you'll just have to possess your soul in patience till then!"
CHAPTER III
JERRY SAW-GRASS ENTERTAINS
BERNICE spent the next two days in excited speculation. Decided zest was added to her wonderful new life in Florida by the introduction of so piquant a matter as they had accidentally stumbled across. When her cousin was at length free to take an afternoon off again, she straightway proposed that they visit Number Six and try to see the curious new inhabitants of the old farm-house.
"Yes, and I want to thank that girl, too, for what she did," agreed Sydney. "What do you think would be nice for us to take her--something she wouldn't be likely to have? How would a book do, or some candy?"
"Don't take a book!" laughed Bernice. "She probably can't even read if she's come from such an uncivilized place as the Everglades. Let's get a big box of the nicest bonbons we can find. I warrant that will be something she's never had before!" Accordingly, armed with a five-pound box of chocolates, they drove to Number Six in the Ford the next afternoon, intent on the payment of their debt of gratitude. As the road around to the grove was very rough and cut by old railroad tracks, they decided to leave the car where it had stood on their first visit and proceed on foot. Much to their surprise, sounds of shouting and laughter and splashing came to them as they drew near the pool, and, curious to learn the cause of it, they crept noiselessly to the edge. The sight that met their gaze took their