Linda Carlton's Island Adventure

"Nowhere else in the world!" exclaimed Linda, giving the girl an extra hug in her joy. "Room 420 – and I'll be there in a minute!"

Chapter X

Susie Disappears

When Linda entered her hotel bed-room after the conversation with her Aunt Emily over the long-distance wire, she found two pleasant surprises awaiting her. The first of these that she saw was her trunk, sent on from Atlanta. The second was a telegram from the Pitcairn Autogiro Company.

Her new roommate, who was bending over her own suit-case, looked up expectantly.

"Good news, Linda?" she inquired.

"Splendid!" replied the other girl. "The parts for my 'Ladybug' have been shipped from Miami, where the company has some autogiros on exhibition. They'll be at the Jacksonville Airport tomorrow."

"Then your Ladybug is damaged?" asked Dot, who had heard nothing of the story as yet, beyond the bare facts that had been in the newspapers. All that she had read was that Linda Carlton, famous aviatrix, who had been lost in the Okefenokee Swamp for several days, had turned up in Jacksonville, Florida.

"Yes, quite a smash-up," answered Linda. "But I wasn't in it. Another girl was flying – " She stopped abruptly. "Wait till Lou and Ted are with us, Dot, so I can tell the story all at once. I'm rather fed up with it myself. I'd loads rather hear what you've been doing at Spring City."

"O.K.," agreed her companion, cheerfully, and proceeded to report to Linda all the news that she could remember.

"What I can't understand," remarked Linda, a few minutes later, as she unpacked her trunk and took a flowered chiffon which she decided to wear, "is how everyone finds me at this hotel. I didn't know where I'd be staying when I sent those telegrams yesterday."

"I can answer that," replied Dot, immediately. "It's your friends at the City Hall. The Chief of Police there directed us. It was Ted's idea to go to him, for I never would have thought of it."

"Ted knows that Lou and I have a failing for police stations and Court Houses," laughed Linda, recalling their experience in Canada the previous winter.

Five minutes later the girls joined the young Mackays on a cool upper porch of the hotel, where they were able to be by themselves. It was then that Linda told her story, first extracting a promise from the group never to mention the kidnapping episode to anyone else, lest the news get back to her Aunt Emily. The other girls listened in amazement, now and then interrupting with exclamations of horror at the outrage of it all. Ted sat grimly silent, more angry than anyone.

"And if you hadn't escaped, we probably shouldn't have gotten there in time," observed Louise. "To rescue you, I mean. Because of course they meant to kill you in the end."

"Did you realize that at the time?" asked Dot.

"Not exactly," replied Linda. "Though I really feared something much worse. I thought they would imprison me on that island in the ocean, and let me die of starvation. And I was horribly afraid of those men. I tried to keep with Susie until they went away."

"It was that bank robbery that saved your life," remarked Louise. "And spelled ruin for them. If they hadn't been so greedy – "

"Exactly!" exclaimed Linda. "That's one reason why I feel it's my solemn duty to try to catch the fourth man, and get that money back. I'm really the only person who could identify him – except Susie."

"Do you honestly think she'll reform?" asked Dot.

"I hope so. If those new parts for the autogiro really come tomorrow, we'll fly over and get her, Dot."

"I'm crazy to see her," returned the latter. "And I'd enjoy going to the jail to see those two prisoners, and gloat over their punishment!"

"Dot's as vindictive as I am!" joked Louise. "Remember all the dark futures I used to wish for Bess Hulbert?"

"Poor Bess!" sighed Linda. "She certainly got hers – "

Thinking that the girls had heard enough of Linda's unpleasant experiences, Ted interrupted them by suggesting that they all go somewhere and have something to eat.

"If it's cool, I'm for it," agreed Louise, jumping up and putting her hand through her husband's arm.

"You're not too tired, are you, Linda?" she inquired.

"Not a bit!" protested the girl. "I feel like a new person since you three arrived… There's a lovely screened tea-garden across the street that looks awfully attractive. Shall we go there?"

Linda was right in her impression; the place was charming. Instead of the customary artificial flowers or tiny bouquets so often seen in restaurants, real rose-bushes showered their profusion of fragrance all about the edges of the screen garden. Surprisingly, every one was hungry; the three visitors because they had eaten only a light picnic supper, Linda because she had been too homesick to eat much alone. The food proved as delightful as the surroundings, and they all enjoyed it immensely.

While Dot was, eating her ice, she noticed some people that she seemed to remember – sitting at a table in back of Linda. But she could not place them.

"Linda," she said softly, "see that young man over there at that table back of you – to the right – with an older woman? Don't turn around now, he's staring at us… He looks sort of familiar to me, and I'm positive I've seen that woman before. Do you know them, or are they people I have met at Palm Beach sometime, one of those winters when we went to Florida?"

Linda waited a moment, and then casually turned her head in the direction which Dot had indicated. The boy was Jackson Carter!

In relating her story of the rescue by the two boys in the canoe, Linda had not even mentioned their names, and had omitted entirely her visit to the Carter home. After her telephone conversation with Jackson this evening, she had decided to forget all about him.

She noticed that Dot was smiling and nodding.

"I remember her now," she explained. "A Mrs. Carter – she chummed a lot with mother at Palm Beach. And that's her son – he wasn't more than fourteen the last time I saw him… I think I'll go over and speak to them." Linda flushed and tried to hide her embarrassment by talking to Louise and Ted about their flight. But Dot came back in a moment.

"I've got an invitation for us, Linda!" she announced. "Finish your lemon ice, and come over and meet the Carters. All of you!"

Linda hesitated. She did not know what to say. Evidently Jackson had not recognized her, or else was deliberately concealing the fact that he knew her.

"All right," agreed Louise, rising and pulling Ted by the hand, for her youthful husband was still shy about meeting the people whom he termed the "four hundred." But his manners were as good as anyone's, and Louise was always proud of him.

They stepped over to the table, Linda reluctantly following them.

"Mrs. Carter, I want you to meet Mrs. Mackay – our chaperon." Dot winked slyly at Louise. "And Miss Linda Carlton, the famous aviatrix! And Mr. Mackay… And this is Mr. Carter."

The young people bowed in recognition of the introduction, but Jackson gave no sign that he had ever seen Linda before.

"Mrs. Carter says that so long as our chaperon is leaving tomorrow, we must come over and stay at her house, Linda," Dot said. "You see, Mrs. Carter," she continued, turning to the older woman, "we're not so strict in the North about chaperons as you are here – but Linda's aunt would like to be. It really worries her to have her niece batting around alone in an airplane."

Horribly embarrassed, her eyelids fluttering so that she could not see anybody distinctly, Linda tried to summon words to decline the invitation. It would be impossible for her to accept.

"We'd love to have you, girls," Mrs. Carter assured them. "For as long as you can stay… How I would enjoy seeing your mother, Dorothy! You must tell me all about her."

"I'm awfully sorry," stammered Linda, still avoiding Jackson's eyes, "but I'm afraid we can't possibly make it. The fact is, I am expecting to get my autogiro tomorrow, and that will take us away from Jacksonville."

"Bring it out to our place!" urged the young man, with the deepest pleading in his tone. It was the first time that he had spoken, and everybody was surprised at his eagerness. That is, everybody except Linda – who had heard the same pleading over the telephone a few hours before.

His mother smiled approvingly. She was glad to see that her son was interested in Dorothy Crowley, for the Crowleys were wealthy people, of unquestionable social position.

But, had she known it, Jackson did not even see Dot. He was lost in admiration of Linda – or Ann, as he thought of her. In her pale chiffon dress she looked absolutely ravishing. How could he ever have doubted that she was of good family?

"No, thank you ever so much, but we can't possibly," Linda repeated. "We – or rather I – have work to do. Of course if Dot wants to go – "

She looked at the other girl fearfully. How she would hate to lose her!