"Well now, that's fine!" declared Jack. "We play golf out Chelton way. Suppose you just take a trolley ride in next Saturday, and we will see what we can do. Here is your car-fare. Be sure not to lose it, for trolley fellows are no respecters of persons." Meanwhile Bess and Belle were racing with Walter and Ed, and the afternoon was to them a time of that sort of enjoyment that comes unbidden, unplanned, and therefor proof against disappointment. Of course Cora was not by any means miserable, for no companion was to her more her chum than was Jack; then little Andy lent his novel personality to her surroundings, but still the thought that two young girls, Rose and Nellie, had deliberately run away, that they were practically accused of having taken a pair of diamond earrings valued at two hundred and fifty dollars, and that the case in which these stones seemed to have formerly reposed was actually found by Cora in the berry crate--was it any wonder that she did not laugh as lightly as did Bess Robinson? Or that she refused Ed Foster's pressing invitation to go into Snow's for an ice cream drink? At the drug store Jack stopped the _Whirlwind_ to allow little Andy to board a trolley car back to Squaton, but, as he left, Cora warned him to be very careful what he said about the runaways. "Oh, don't you never fear, miss," he answered, crowding his negatives to make one good big "no." "Rose and Nellie are my friends, and I know how to stick by 'em." CHAPTER IX COMPLICATIONS "Isn't it strange, Jack," almost whispered Cora to her brother, as, later that evening, the two sat on the veranda of their home, and talked over the day's proceedings, "I cannot believe--they--took them. But it does look very----" "Well, sis," began the young man, "we have had other experiences with things that _looked_ strange, and you will remember that strange looks are not to be depended upon for absolute facts." "Oh, I don't mean to say that those two poor, strange girls could be so dishonest," she hurried to say, "but the trouble is, that Mrs. Ramsy is angry with them for leaving her, and of course she will do all she can to make trouble for them. Then she even threatened me." "She did, eh?" exclaimed Jack. "Well, she had better go slow. I don't call a person ignorant just because they happen to be illiterate, for I always find they know more than I do on some subject, but this woman--she is the--limit." "You see," faltered Cora, hardly knowing just how to tell her brother, "the girls, it seems, had their mother's wedding ring, and she took it from them. To make up for that they took the crate of berries, then finding the earring-box in it----" "I know exactly what you are afraid to surmise, sis," said Jack, "but, as I said before, it may all be wrong. I, of course, have never seen the girls, and cannot confess to so lively an interest in them as you have worked up, but I must say, I would like to see the old lady get what's coming to her."