Part 8

Tessie had a new frock which she had bought at the Evergreen. It was of cream lace and net with silvery blue ribbons and pink roses. The man who designed it must have thought of a young queen or a young princess when he conceived it. It really was an adorable frock, and Tessie looked adorable in it as she smiled shyly at Mr. Kingley. Her blue eyes sparkled, her cheeks were pink, and her red lips were parted in a tremulous smile. But adorable as she looked, Mr. Kingley shook his head. She did not satisfy him.

"Where's your crown?" he demanded abruptly. "I thought queens wore crowns."

"Not until after their coronation," suggested Mr. Bill, who could find no flaws in Tessie at all. From her head to her heels, she was perfect to his admiring eyes. It was just as well that his mother could not see him as he stood gazing at his father's ex-clerk. Mr. Bill looked very handsome himself in his dinner coat. Tessie was sure he was the handsomest man in the world.

"I don't think they wear crowns at all in the Sunshine Islands," she ventured to say shyly. "I think they wear only this." And she touched the jewel which hung from her neck, the royal jewel of the Sunshine Islands.

Mr. Kingley grunted. The royal jewel was not enough, not when there were to be reporters from all the newspapers at the banquet, and a moving picture man as well. His queen must look like a queen. He turned to the store superintendent.

"Julius, isn't there a crown of some kind down in the jewelry department? I'm sure I saw one the other day. It was high in front and dwindled down to nothing in the back." He showed them with his pudgy hands how the crown he had seen ran from high to low.

"You mean a tiara," suggested Julius with a little superiority in his voice, because he knew a tiara when he saw it and his employer didn't. "Yes, Miss Luckins has a couple of tiaras in stock. They are only imitation--paste--you know." He was apologetic because he did not have a crown of real diamonds to offer Mr. Kingley. "We really have no sale for real crowns in Waloo. But this tiara is a very good imitation. Not one in twenty would know it wasn't real," he boasted.

"It will be better than nothing. Go and get it. We can't go in without a crown." And he delayed the banquet until Mr. Julius could find Miss Luckins, go down to the jewelry department and bring back the most elaborate paste tiara which Miss Luckins herself fastened in Tessie's hair.

"There!" Miss Luckins stepped back to get the effect.

"That's better! A lot better!" grunted Mr. Kingley. "Far more royal, you know. Any one can see now that you are a queen. Tell the orchestra we're coming. Everybody ready?" He looked back at Granny and Mr. Bill, who were to follow him when he led the queen. "Don't let that native with the ax stumble against me," he hissed with a shake of his head at Ka-kee-ta, who stood behind his queen. "Allow me, Your Majesty!" And he smiled proudly as he offered his hand to Tessie.

The doors into the banquet-room were thrown wide open, the store orchestra began to play "Hail, the Conquering Hero Comes." Every one jumped up to look at Queen Teresa as she walked in led by Mr. Kingley. Hands were clapped, and there were many cheers. Several of the department buyers called loudly "_Vive la reine!_" to show that they had been in Paris and knew what was what. The color deepened in Tessie's cheeks, and the tears flew to her eyes. She did hope that she wouldn't cry, but she was woefully afraid she would. It was so sweet of every one to be so kind to her. Never, not if she were crowned a hundred times, would she know as proud a moment as this.

She stood blushing beside Mr. Kingley at the big table on the dais, which ran across the end of the room, and faced them all, trembling with excitement. There they were, her former associates of the Evergreen. The employment manager, who had hired her; Miss Murphy, who had snapped at her when she asked for help in making out a sales-slip; Mr. Walker, who was always nagging at her for something. And there was Joe Cary beside Norah Lee at the table with the advertising staff and--How funny!--He was frowning at her. Every one else was smiling and Joe's frown stood out like a black thundercloud in a clear blue sky. She smiled and waved her hand to him, and he nodded coldly, but he did not wave back. She shrugged her shoulders impatiently. Why did Joe have to have a grouch to-night of all nights? She wouldn't look at him again. He could frown as much as he pleased, but she would only look at the smiling faces. There were plenty of them.

"Well?" She became conscious that Mr. Bill was murmuring in her left ear, and she turned to him. Mr. Bill was not frowning. His face wore a radiant smile. "Well," he repeated, as Ka-kee-ta took his place behind his queen much to the annoyance of the waitresses. "We're all set."

"Oh!" Tessie's heart was thumping so fast it was difficult for her to speak. "How grand to have you beside me!"

If Tessie looked down on her former associates with frank delight, they looked up at her with open or secret envy. Miss Allen of the gowns told her neighbors in a whisper how much the cream lace frock had cost, and Mr. Swenson of the boots and shoes murmured the price of the silver slippers, and Miss Bartle of the hosiery laughed indulgently when she said that the silk stockings the queen wore had cost not less than nine dollars a pair.

"Not a cent less, and cheap at that. Every thread silk!"

No wonder they were pleased with Tessie. She was their queen. They had clothed her. And if there was more envy in their hearts than there was admiration in their eyes, it was not strange. It was only natural for them to wish to be in Tessie's silver slippers with a frizzle-headed native in blue denim to hold a shining ax behind them. It was romance, their share--not Tessie's--that they wanted, and every one has a right to a full portion of romance. A birthright into this big world includes a full portion of romance.

The chef had spent a sleepless night preparing a royal menu. He had ransacked the store encyclopedia for names which would honor Tessie's kingdom, and then had to fall back on the good old French menu. There was _pôtage à la Sunshine_, there was _poisson à la Pacific_, there was _poulet à la reine_, and goodness knows what else. It was all very delicious, although Tessie was so excited to find herself between old Mr. Kingley and young Mr. Kingley, and facing all the Evergreen employees and a moving picture machine, that she could scarcely eat a mouthful. Granny peered at her around Mr. Bill and told her she must eat something, that it would be a shame to waste good food.

"And this is good!" she said, pleased that Mr. Kingley had not skimped the menu for the banquet in honor of her granddaughter.

At last the ice cream and cake had been eaten, the tables cleared, and every glass filled with sparkling ginger ale. The waitresses and the cooks gathered in a corner with glasses of ginger ale in their hands. Mr. Kingley rose to his feet and made a speech, in which he extolled Tessie and the Evergreen and the Sunshine Islands, and the Evergreen--; and when he was all tangled up in the Evergreen, and Mr. Bill reached behind Tessie and pulled his dinner coat, he asked every one to drink the toast to their former associate: "Our little queen, Her Majesty of the Sunshine Islands!"

The band broke into the stirring strains of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." There were cheers and much hand-clapping as the toast was drunk with hearty good will.

"You'll have to respond," Mr. Kingley, flushed and important, told Tessie. "You'll have to say something!"

"A speech! I couldn't!" Tessie shrank back appalled at the mere thought of making a speech before Mr. Kingley and the department managers. She could not do it.

But the clamor on the floor would not subside, and at last she rose up and stood looking at them. How kind they were! How dear! Involuntarily she stretched out her arms as if she would embrace them all.

"You dear, dear folks!" she cried, and her voice quivered with emotion. "I love you every one!"

There was more applause, a perfect fury, and then suddenly the lights went out, and the room was plunged in darkness.

"What--what the devil's this?" spluttered Mr. Kingley. "Where's the electrician? I wouldn't have had this happen for a million dollars! What's the matter?" For there was the sound of a scuffle, a muttered curse behind him. He could not see a thing, but he could feel something brush by him. "Bring a light!" he shouted, pale with fright as he thought of what might happen if Ka-kee-ta should use his ax in the darkness. "Can't some one bring a light?"

It was really only a couple of moments, although it seemed hours, before some one found the buttons and turned on the light. When every one blinked and turned to smile reassuringly at Tessie to let her know that it was all right--just a little vagary of the electricity--there were startled shrieks from several hundred throats, for Tessie had disappeared. The place between old Mr. Kingley and young Mr. Kingley was vacant.

"Why--why--" stammered old Mr. Kingley, who had arranged many banquets, but had never lost his guest of honor before.

"Where's Tessie?" shouted Granny. "Where's my granddaughter, the Queen?"

"Where's Tessie?" demanded Joe Cary, who found himself at the royal table, staring into the purple face of old Mr. Kingley.

"I'm here, Granny!" And there she was, behind her big bodyguard clutching the Tear of God which hung about her neck. "Ka-kee-ta snatched me and made me stand behind him. What was the matter, Mr. Kingley? Did some one really try to choke me?" She rubbed her neck with her fingers as if to feel if some one had tried to choke her.

"Matter!" exclaimed Mr. Bill. He caught her hand and held it tight to assure himself that she was there beside him again. "Look at that!" He pointed to Ka-kee-ta's left hand, from which hung a black string tie. It dangled limply from the yellow-brown fingers. Mr. Bill looked suspiciously around the room. "Has any man lost a tie?" he asked sharply.

There was an uncomfortable pause in which every man raised a hand to make sure that his tie at least was around his neck. One of the maids by the door stepped forward.

"I think the man who lost his tie has gone," she said in much confusion. "At least some one pushed by me and ran out of the door."

"Why didn't you hold him?" demanded Mr. Bill.

"I thought he was the electrician," stammered the maid. "I thought he was going to see about the lights, and anyway I couldn't have held him. It isn't fair to blame me!" She burst into tears.

"Dear, dear!" fussed Mr. Kingley, too confused by the unexpected number on the banquet program to be considerate of weeping maids. "I hope the watchman holds him. I'm sorry," he turned to Tessie. "I wouldn't have had this happen for a million dollars! I should have said you would be perfectly safe here among so many friends, but a man can learn that he doesn't know everything about his own store. I suppose it was that crown--tiara, I mean. Some one thought it was real, and tried to steal it. It looks real!"

"It wasn't the tiara that they tried to steal," guessed Mr. Bill grimly. "It was the Queen!"

"It was the Tear of God!" contradicted Joe Cary, who had moved up until he stood beside Tessie. "Those Sunshine Island rebels don't want Tessie. They want the royal jewel!"

"Bless me!" murmured Mr. Kingley, turning the back of his dinner coat to Joe; for what could Joe Cary, an artist in the advertising department, know? "I'm glad you weren't stolen!" he told Tessie fervently.

"I'm glad, too," ventured Tessie, tearfully tremulous, and she clung tight to Joe's hand. "It might have spoiled the party," she added politely.

"But if the watchman gets the thief what publicity it will make!" gloated Mr. Kingley, true to form. The Evergreen was getting wonderful publicity every day, thanks to Tessie, and the store was thronged as it never had been before a queen was found in its basement. "So long as you are safe, we have nothing to regret. We can leave the rest to the watchman and the store detectives. They will find the thief. I am sure he was not one of our own men. He must have been some miscreant who forced himself in. We will not think of him again. Have you finished your speech?" he asked courteously.

"Long ago!" exclaimed Tessie, taking her fingers from Joe and giving them to Granny to hold.

"Well!" Granny drew a long, long breath. "I'm glad now we have Ka-kee-ta and his ax, even if they do make me nervous. If you had been kidnaped, Tessie Gilfooly, I should never have forgiven myself!"

"I'd have found her!" declared Joe. "No matter where she was hidden, I'd have found her for you, Granny Gilfooly!"

Tessie, listening eagerly to Mr. Bill's plans for catching the miscreant who had dared to interrupt the banquet, never heard him. But Granny heard him, and she smiled at him kindly.

"I believe you would, Joe, I believe you would. You're a good friend to little Tessie."

"You bet I am!" Joe cried eagerly. "And I'm going to look after her! I'm not going to have her fooled by any one!" And he looked indignantly at Mr. Kingley.

XIII

Although Mr. Kingley posted a notice where every one could see it, to the effect that the man who had lost a black string tie at the banquet could obtain the same by calling at the office and explaining how it came to be in Ka-kee-ta's fist, no one appeared to claim the silk. Indeed, it was not long before Mr. Kingley and a majority of the guests thought that Tessie must have imagined that some one had tried to choke her, in an attempt to steal the Tear of God.

"She was excited!" they said indulgently. "And no wonder! But it is ridiculous to think that any one would try to steal the royal jewel, when the queen was surrounded by friends and with her bodyguard and his ax behind her."

"You can't tell friend from foe in the dark, and when you are with friends you are not looking for enemies," Joe Cary told them bluntly. He was perhaps the only one who believed that Tessie was telling the truth, when she said that when the lights went out a strong arm had caught her and pulled her from the table, and then Ka-kee-ta had snatched her and thrust her behind him.

"He can see in the dark!" she insisted with a shiver. "Just like a cat!"

"You dreamed it," young Mr. Bill said with a grin. "When the lights went out you were scared, and screamed, and Ka-kee-ta pulled you behind him. That's the way it was!"

"Was it?" But Tessie was not sure. The clasp of that strong arm had been too real for any dream. She could still feel the pull of the fiber that had held the Tear of God about her neck.

"No, it wasn't!" contradicted Joe. "You are dead right, Tessie. Some one did try to take your jewel from you."

"How do you know? You were at the other end of the room!" Mr. Bill regarded him with scorn, because Joe thought he knew so much when Mr. Bill, who had been sitting right next to Tessie, knew so little.

"I know all right!" There was a confidence in Joe's voice which was convincing. "I knew as soon as the fellow touched you, Tess, and I was coming to you even before you screamed. Ask Norah Lee! I bumped against her when I jumped up. You know when the lights went on I was at your place!"

"That's true!" agreed Granny. "He was just beside me!"

Tessie looked frightened. Her lip quivered. "But why should any one want to kidnap me?" she faltered. "I haven't done anything!" She looked at Mr. Bill, but when he did not tell her, she turned to Joe.

"Yes, you have done something," Joe told her bluntly. "You've become Queen of the Sunshine Islands." Trust Joe to find a reason. Joe always had a reason. That was why Tessie had quarreled with him so often. She usually hated his reason. "You told me yourself that Mr. Marvin said there was a bunch of people, Sons of Sunshine they call themselves, who want a native ruler. They don't want a white queen. I bet this kidnaper was a Sunshine Son who wanted that royal jewel, and if he could get you with it, he would shut you up until you consented to abdicate in favor of a native!" There was a grim, triumphant smile on Joe's lips as he elaborated his reason.

"Such rot!" Mr. Bill was thoroughly disgusted with Joe's reason. It was too melodramatic to happen anywhere but on the moving picture screen.

"Oh, Joe!" Tessie whimpered and caught his arm. "Would any one do that?"

"A Son of Sunshine would!" declared Joe. "I say, Tessie, why do you want to be the queen of those cannibal islands?" He sneered at the islands.

"Why--why I have to be," stammered Tessie, confused by the direct question. "Uncle Pete left me the islands and made me the queen. I can't help it, can I?" She appealed to Mr. Bill.

"Of course you can't!" He glared at Joe. How dared Joe insinuate that Tessie could help it. "You can't throw away a kingdom. No one would!"

"Pooh!" sniffed Joe. "Half a dozen islands overrun with naked cannibals!" It sounded as if Joe had a very small opinion of Tessie's kingdom. "The first thing you know, they'll eat you," he prophesied gloomily before he laughed. It was so ridiculous to think of any one, even a hungry cannibal, eating little Tessie.

Tessie screamed. Mr. Bill promptly put his arm around her. He turned fiercely to Joe.

"Look here, Cary!" he began furiously. "Mind your words when you talk to the queen!"

"Queen!" Joe Cary actually laughed. "Queen!" he repeated.

Tessie pulled herself from Mr. Bill's protecting arm. How splendid Mr. Bill was and how--"Joe Cary!" she gasped, pink with indignation.

"Cary!" exclaimed Mr. Bill, even more indignant than Tessie.

Joe's face sobered as he looked from Tessie to Mr. Bill.

"Pooh!" he said again. "What do kings and queens amount to now? They're being knocked off their thrones pretty fast. Look at Russia and Germany! And at the best, they were never anything but a fairy tale. Keep your eyes on the other countries, on England and Italy and Spain, and some day you'll see things happen there. People are learning that they can pay too much for a figurehead and a pageant. An honest workingman is worth all the kings in the world. You know that, Tess! At least you used to know it. I told you. And just because your Uncle Pete was washed up on the Sunshine Islands, and was able to stop the Sunshine king's toothache the king adopted him and left him the islands. As if any one had the right to will human beings to any man! The natives were fools to accept him. You know they were! And as for your Uncle Pete, you'll be wise if you don't inquire about his life on the islands. Filthy brute!" Joe quite forgot himself as he talked about kings and queens.

"Why, Joe Cary!" Tessie could scarcely speak. But she could look, and her eyes flashed fire at the man who dared to stand before her and call her royal uncle names. What would Granny say? She was glad that Granny hadn't heard him.

"Look here, Cary, you can't slander the dead!" exclaimed Mr. Bill indignantly. "And keep your mouth shut about things you don't know," he advised curtly.

"Know!" Joe repeated the word scornfully. "I bet I know more about the Sunshine Islands than the Queen there!" He nodded at big-eyed Tessie. "I've made it my business to know. Every one else has been so wrapped up in the fact that Tess was a Queen that they haven't cared if her kingdom was only half a dozen little islands inhabited by cannibals."

"They're not cannibals now!" declared Tessie.

"They were! Your Uncle Pete was almost eaten by them!"

"They've been civilized and Christianized!" insisted Tessie. "Uncle Bill built a church. It has a corrugated tin roof, and when the sun shines on it the natives think it's silver. The Home of the Silver God, they call it. Ka-kee-ta told me!" She flashed an indignant glance at the scoffer.

"That shows how civilized and Christianized they are," laughed Joe. He was determined to express his thoughts for at least once. "Your Uncle Pete built a motion picture theater, too, Tess, and it saved him from a revolution. But once a cannibal always a cannibal. It's in their blood, and it will take more than one generation to get it out. I wish you'd give up the job. You don't want those islands. You can't live on them! Give them up!"

"Give them up!" Tessie could not believe her own pink ears.

"Give them up!" Mr. Bill echoed the words incredulously.

"You bet! You won't dare live there. The Sons of Sunshine won't let you, and they're right. You don't belong there. Show your sense of truth and right and give them up. Let the natives elect their own ruler. It's the only fair way," begged Joe.

"I suppose you'd like me to go back to selling aluminum in the Evergreen!" Tessie proved that she could be as scornful as she could be sweet and shy. But her scorn did not make any impression on Joe.

"I would!" he declared. "I'd love to see you back there in your little black dress earning your own way. And I'd love to have you to walk home with again. And I'd love to go in to a dinner of Granny's boiled beef and raisin pie again. I'd like to go back to where we were when you heard you were a queen! Can't you see, Tess," he pleaded, "that there isn't anything in this queen business any more? Come on and give it up!"

"You're a socialist!" stammered Mr. Bill, so amazed at such plain speaking that he could do nothing but stammer. "You're a rank anarchist!"

Joe tore his eyes from indignant Tessie to stammering Mr. Bill. "If you think that a hatred of queens--white girl queens--for cannibal islands is socialism then I am a socialist," he said boldly. "What do you know about Tessie?" he demanded abruptly. "You never saw her until this musical-comedy-queen business began."

This was so true that Mr. Bill and Tessie both blushed.

"Well, I see her now," Mr. Bill managed to say. "And I'll help her be a Queen. The idea of asking any one to give up a kingdom! I never heard of such an absurd thing in my life!" It was so absurd that he laughed.

"If she doesn't give it up I'll bet it will be taken from her," prophesied Joe. "The Sons of Sunshine are after her. And they are after the Tear of God, too. You saw that gink on the porch the night Tess heard she was a queen. I'll bet he was a Son of Sunshine! And if you ever find anything about that man last night you'll find he was a Sunshine Son too, or I'm a goat! The third time he may get to you, and then you'll remember what I said," he told Tessie gloomily.

But Tessie had pulled herself together, and now she laughed at his gloomy prophecies. She did not believe them. How could she when Mr. Bill, who knew so much more of the world than Joe Cary, told her that what Joe said was ridiculous. Just what you might expect from a rank anarchist. But she stopped laughing when Joe looked straight into her blue eyes and said very soberly, far more soberly than he had spoken before: "But even if you are a fool, Tess, I'll stand by you. I'll help you! You can always count on me!"

"Well, upon my word!" gasped Tessie, her eyes following him as he walked away. "The idea of Joe Cary talking to me like that!"

"Yes, the very idea," agreed Mr. Bill. "But don't think of it another minute! The fellow's cracked. I'll bet Dad doesn't know what a socialist he is!"

"You wouldn't tell," begged Tessie in a panic, for if Joe lost his position in the Evergreen what would he do? He hadn't inherited an island kingdom and even if he had-- She shook her head. She couldn't understand Joe.

"No, of course I shan't tell!" Mr. Bill spoke loftily, as if Tessie should have known that he did not tell tales. "Give those fellows rope enough and they hang themselves. He's so green with envy that he isn't a king that he can't do anything but rant."

"I don't think it was that!" frowned honest little Tessie. "I don't think Joe would ever want to be king of any island!"