CHAPTER XIV

A VALUABLE FIND

Doris found herself unable to reach any decision concerning the loan which the Gates twins had asked her to make, and the following morning she was still thinking of the matter. Azalea and Iris tactfully avoided mentioning the subject at the breakfast table but she knew that it was foremost in their minds.

Any day Ronald Trent might return and when he came, he would expect the money. Doris disliked the man and had no desire to help him, but she felt sorry for the Misses Gates and wished that she could aid them in obtaining their inheritance. If only she knew that Ronald was acting honestly and in good faith!

After the morning work had been done, Azalea and Iris joined the girls on the lawn. Conversation was rather labored and it was obvious to Doris that the twins were under a strain.

“I am sorry we told you our troubles,” Iris said after a time. “It has ruined your visit, and you undoubtedly think that our sole reason for inviting you here was to ask for money.”

“Oh, no,” Doris assured her hastily. “I have enjoyed every minute here at Locked Gates. And I truly want to help you. I was thinking—”

She did not continue for just at that moment she caught the faint hum of an airplane engine. Scrambling up from the grass, and shading her eyes with her hand, she gazed eagerly skyward trying to locate the sound.

“I’m sure I heard an airplane, but I can’t see it. The sun is so bright!”

“Must have been your imagination,” Kitty teased. “Dave was here only the other day.”

“It is an airplane!” Doris cried excitedly. “And it’s coming this way! Oh, I hope it’s Dave.”

The Misses Gates laid down their sewing and watched the approaching plane with interest. Doris and Kitty were highly elated when they distinguished the red stars on the wings.

“Wonder if he’s going to drop another note?” Kitty murmured. “Aren’t you the lucky girl to have a flying Romeo?”

For once, Doris was not annoyed by her chum’s teasing. She was far too interested in watching the plane to even listen closely to what Kitty was saying.

They waved frantically as the plane approached. Two young men were in the cockpit, Dave and another pilot, and they both returned the greeting.

The plane circled over the mansion several times and Dave indicated that he intended to drop a message. They saw something white flutter from his hand.

The weighted note struck a nearby rhododendron bush, but, before the girls could reach it, Wags scooted ahead of them, thinking that it was a variation of his favorite game of “fetch the ball.”

“Wags!” Doris cried.

The little brown dog turned to regard her with surprise, and that gave the girls an opportunity to catch up with him. But before they could lay restraining hands upon him, he made another bolt for the rhododendron bush.

As Wags snapped up the bit of paper in his mouth, Doris and Kitty made a flying leap toward him. In the mad scramble the girls lost their balance and at the same moment clutched at the rhododendron branches for support. To their horror, their combined weight uprooted the bush and it suddenly gave way from the soft earth, sending them sprawling backwards.

Still clutching part of the bush they picked themselves up and looked to see what had become of Wags. He was standing not three yards away regarding them with saucy little eyes which seemed to say: “If you want this old paper just try to get it!”

They tried to coax him nearer, but he would not come, and as soon as they started toward him he would dart away, only to pause whenever they showed signs of giving up the chase. At last they managed to drive him into a corner and there, with considerable impatience, extracted the note from between his teeth.

Returning to the Misses Gates they humbly apologized for having broken the rhododendron bush, but the ladies had thoroughly enjoyed the wild chase and assured them that it was of no consequence.

“We had been planning to have that bush dug out,” Azalea laughed, “but you girls saved us the bother.”

“I think it very romantic to have a love letter delivered by airplane,” Iris declared.

Doris blushed.

“Oh, it isn’t a love letter,” she returned as she ripped open the envelope. “Dave isn’t a bit silly.”

Perhaps because she wished to prove her statement, she read the note aloud:

“If you and Kitty are free tomorrow and the Misses Gates have no objection, I shall drop in and take you for an airplane ride. Say about one o’clock, then we can have the entire afternoon. Dave.”

“Oh!” Kitty cried in delight. “I’ve always wanted to ride in a plane.”

“So have I,” Doris agreed enthusiastically. She glanced hopefully at Azalea and Iris. “May we go?”

“Why, certainly,” Azalea declared. “But aren’t you a little afraid?”

“Not with Dave,” Doris returned proudly. “Every one says he is a reliable pilot and I know he wouldn’t offer to take us if he didn’t know it would be safe.”

The girls had been so excited over the note that they had failed to keep track of Wags. Turning, they were amused to see him pawing energetically near the uprooted rhododendron bush. Dirt was flying in every direction.

“What’s that little rascal after now?” Doris laughed.

“Probably a bone.”

“I’ll go see.”

She crossed the garden just as Wags picked up something in his mouth.

“Here, Wags, bring it here!” Doris commanded.

Wags hesitated, debating whether or not to obey, and then came forward, dropping his offering at his mistress’s feet.

“What in the world!” Doris exclaimed.

She picked up the curious object. It was a tiny box, water soaked and badly stained, and bore evidence that it had been buried for some time. Yet, for all its disfigurement, Doris saw that it was a jewel box.

“Kitty!” she cried. “Come here!”

Her chum already was flying toward her.

“Look what the dog dug up!” Doris exclaimed in excitement. “It’s a jewel box!”

“Well, don’t stand there staring at it,” Kitty chided. “Open it quick!”

Doris lifted the lid and gave a little cry of wonder. She scarcely could believe her own eyes.

There, nestled in a cushion of faded blue silk, lay a beautiful ruby ring! Doris saw at a glance that it was a genuine stone, and valuable.

“A ring!” Kitty gasped. “Where did it come from?”

“Under that rhododendron bush. It must have been there for ages. See how old the case is.”

“What a perfectly gorgeous stone!” Kitty said, her eyes shining with admiration. “Some one must have lost it, don’t you think?”

“But it was _buried_,” Doris reminded her. “If we hadn’t uprooted that rhododendron bush, we’d never have discovered it.”

The excited comments of the girls had brought the Misses Gates hurrying across the yard. They too exclaimed in admiration as they saw the ring.

“Where did you get it?” Azalea asked tensely.

“I took it away from Wags,” Doris informed her. “It must have been buried under that bush.”

“But why was it put there?” Iris murmured. “I can’t understand it.”

“I thought perhaps it might have been a family jewel,” Doris suggested.

“Oh, no,” Azalea protested. “I never saw the ring before in my life.”

“Isn’t there any clue as to the identity of the owner?” Kitty questioned.

“There doesn’t seem to be,” Doris responded.

She lifted the ring from the tiny case and as she did so, noticed for the first time a scrap of paper, yellowed with age.

She read the name on it at a glance and a startled expression came into her eyes.

“It says ‘John,’” she said in a strained voice.

“John!”

Echoing the name, Azalea began to tremble. Iris’s face had gone chalk white.

Doris had turned the paper over and was reading something upon the back. The twins scarcely heard her.

“To my beloved sweetheart,” the note said, “the one I have chosen to be my wife. This ring is a sign of my decision. Please wear it always.”

“He _did_ choose,” Doris declared tensely.

Azalea and Iris stood as motionless as statues.

“But which one?” Azalea murmured.

Doris looked again at the message. It was so old and yellow that it was difficult to make out the writing, but unquestionably neither of the twins had been mentioned by name. Her silence communicated this to the others.

“If only we had known—” Iris murmured brokenly. “What a difference it might have made. That fatal night when Father—”

She choked and could not go on.

“It’s the most beautiful ring I ever saw,” Kitty declared.

She restrained her enthusiasm, noting that it seemed to pain the Misses Gates.

“Of course it belongs to you,” Doris said quietly, “even though your names aren’t mentioned.” She extended the ring toward the two ladies.

Iris straightened proudly and Azalea turned coldly away.

“It doesn’t belong to me,” she said tartly.

“I won’t touch it!” Iris declared indignantly.

“But it must belong to one of you,” Doris insisted. “What shall we do with it?”

Azalea was already walking rapidly toward the house. Iris, as pale as a ghost and looking as though she were about to cry, likewise turned away.

“I don’t care what you do with it,” she said. “I’ll never touch it as long as I live!”

Doris and Kitty, left in possession of the ring, stared at it rather blankly.

“Well, of all things!” Kitty exclaimed. “Do you think they’ll change their minds?”

“I’m afraid not. This note and the ring have opened up old wounds. Now they’ll always be tortured by thinking of what might have been.”

Being hampered by no sentimental attachments themselves, the girls each tried on the ring. It was too large for Kitty but it fit Doris’s third finger.

“The setting is certainly old fashioned,” Kitty commented, “but can’t you imagine how gorgeous it would look in a modern one! I think the Misses Gates are foolish not to want it.”

“The question is, what shall we do with it? We can’t very well wear it around in front of them. They’re so sensitive. And the ring doesn’t belong to us.”

“It doesn’t belong to any one,” Kitty declared. “The poor thing is an orphan! Until some one turns in a claim, though, let’s pretend it’s ours. This will probably be the nearest we’ll ever come to owning a ruby ring!”

She pirouetted around the room gaily, like a ballet dancer doing a special number, flashing the ring upon her finger.

“Careful, young lady,” admonished her chum. “Since it doesn’t fit you, you may fling it away in your ballet performance, never more to see the romantic jewel.”

She stopped her twirling and gazed at the sparkling gem upon her finger.

“It must be a perfect stone,” surmised Kitty, as she glanced admiringly at the jewel which caught the lights in its rich, deep tones.

“And more than that, think of the romance and the tragedy hidden away in its very heart,” and Doris glanced thoughtfully in the direction of the Locked Gates that appeared even more forbidding and austere since this new connection with them had been established.

A moment of silence followed, and Doris thought suddenly of her friend Dave, and wondered what he would think of the token and the story it symbolized.