CHAPTER XXIII

RAIDING THE ATTIC

No one could tell just how they got there, but realizing that some one was suffering they had all followed Cap to the attic, and there waited again for the sound that was to lead them to the victim.

"There's a cabinet over there," Nora whispered. "A person might hide in that."

She was holding on to Alma and looked odd, indeed, still dressed in that gorgeous velvet costume.

"Here's another light--this will show us the far end there," said Miss Beckwith, snapping on the extra bulb.

"There it is!" gasped Pell. "Oh, it is somewhere--yes, come over here," she cried. "Surely that's a child!"

The faint cry, that was almost like a sob, sounded again. It must be over under the low beams.

Nora forgot her terror now, for she knew the secret place of the long, rumbling attic, and no sooner had she heard the distinct cry than she brushed past all the others, dragged up a big dust curtain, then stopped.

"Here! Here!" she called frantically. "It's a little girl. Bring the candle!"

Thistle was beside her with the extra light. "Oh, mercy!" gasped Nora. "It's Lucia."

"Lucia," repeated the others.

"Yes, my own little darling Lucia. Oh, child," she cried out, "what has happened to you? How ever did you get here?"

"Go away. Please, go away. I can't tell you. Oh, where is Vita? Vita come!" begged a voice, while Nora tried in vain to soothe her.

"Let me there!" ordered Miss Beckwith. "The poor little thing!" she continued. "She evidently has had a fit of hysteria. Just see her gasp! Keep quiet, dear," she said gently. "You are all right now. We will take care of you. There! Stop sobbing. Don't you know the girls?"

"She knows me, don't you, Lucia?" asked Nora, anxiously. "Oh, I am so glad we found her. She might have died."

"Don't let us waste time in talking. Here girls. Use your first aid, now. We must carry her down stairs to the air," ordered Miss Beckwith.

They carried her down carefully and laid her on a couch by the window.

"Where is this?" the girl murmured. Then she looked into Nora's face and something of the terror left her own. "Angel," she said simply, blinking uncertainly.

"You know this little girl, don't you, Lucia?" pressed Becky now, anxious to arouse her.

"Yes," she said.

Nora cast a look of appeal at the director. She wanted to speak to the sick girl. Becky motioned she might do so.

"Lucia," began Nora, very gently, "where did--you--come from?"

"I run away from--Nick," she gasped, and again that look of terror flashed across the little pinched face.

"Don't be frightened; you are here with me, Nora, now," said the girl in the velvet suit. "No one can touch you here."

"Where--is--Vita? She not come back, bring doctor?"

That was it. Vita had gone for a doctor.

"She'll be here soon," soothed Miss Beckwith. The Scouts stood spell bound. How wonderful to have found the poor little waif right in Nora's own attic!

There was a sound below. Vita came stamping up the stairs.

"What is it?" she panted. Then seeing the crowd. "You come--save my poor little Lucia!"

"Yes, Vita, we are here," replied Nora, sensing now the part that Vita had been playing. "We brought her down."

"Poor Lucia. Vita's baby--Vita's bambino," crooned the woman, as she leaned over the couch and chaffed the trembling hands.

It was a pathetic picture. The brilliantly-lighted room was like a stage with this strange drama being enacted upon it. The row of Scouts were unconsciously standing like a patrol at attention, while Nora in Fauntleroy dress, stood at Lucia's head; and the woman in the quaint peasant attire bent over; and then, there on the soft, bright couch, lay the inert figure with the great eyes staring out from under the bandage, evidently put on the hot forehead by Vita.

No questions asked, every one could see the child was kin to Vita, but not her own child, perhaps her granddaughter.

"She will be all right now, I think, Vita," said Miss Beckwith. "She just had a spell of hysteria, didn't she?"

"Oh, she have a fit very bad," whispered the woman. "I run for doctor, quick, but he is no place----" her voice droned off into a low sound of foreign words, lamentation and wailings.

"Why was she shut up there?" asked Nora.

"She beg for dark--she never go in light when fit comes," Vita managed to make them understand. "I always hide her--she runs from Nick like anything. But he no hurt her, never. Just one time he scare her. She always cry so much he t'ink she might get better, and he scare her. Lucia run away and come to Vita, every time."

"He didn't really hurt her," Miss Beckwith was both asking Vita and explaining to the girls. "Hysterical children must have a dread of something, and I suppose she seized on that."

Lucia now sat up and looked about her. All the fear had left her, and her black eyes shone with relief.

"She's all right now, aren't you, Lucia?" Thistle ventured to ask. The other girls were still spellbound.

"Lovely," replied the child, actually rubbing her brown hand on the soft couch cover almost as if she were saying, "Nice! Nice!"

"There come Cousin Jerry and Cousin Ted!" exclaimed Nora. "I'll bring them right up."

"What Mrs. Jerry say?" asked Vita, anxiously.

"Oh, that will be all right, Vita," said Nora, running along. "She'll understand everything."

It is marvelous what sympathy can explain. No need for words to fill out the gaps.

"Well, what a reception!" exclaimed the surprised Ted. "I never expected such a party as this." Her eyes fell upon Lucia. "A refugee?" she asked kindly.

"Vita's little girl, Cousin Ted," said Nora, promptly. "We found her--sick." She did not say where.

"She is in good hands now, I am sure," said Mrs. Manton, glancing around at the patrol. "We were detained with our fractious car--should have been home ages ago. Did you need anything? Have you had a doctor?"

"She seemed merely hysterical," explained Becky. "I don't think she needs a doctor tonight. She will probably sleep well after the excitement--and exhaustion," she added in an undertone.

"Well, of all things," exclaimed Mrs. Manton, suddenly getting a good look at Nora. "Have you been having a masquerade?"

"A little Scout party," Miss Beckwith replied, to save Nora embarrassment. "This has been an eventful evening."

"Must have been," agreed the hostess. "Shall we all go down and leave the child to rest?" she proposed.

"_We_ must go," assured the leader. "It is not ten o'clock, I hope?"

"No, and we'll run you over in our car--if the car will run. Mr. Manton is out tinkering with it. That's how he missed the excitement," Ted explained.

Nora hung back with Lucia. She felt she had found her after so much anxiety, she was almost afraid the child would be spirited away if she should lose sight of her now.

"How nice!" said Vita, and the relief in her own voice proved that the big woman had been suffering no little anxiety, herself.

"I go home now, Vita," said Lucia, humbly. "I'm sorry, Vita."

"Oh, you don't have to go home, Lucia," Nora hurried to interrupt. "You can stay right here. You don't want to go hide in the dark any more, do you Lucia?"

"But I don't want to make the trouble."

"She is so good when the fit is gone," said Vita, affectionately. "Poor Lucia, she can no help it."

"Of course, she can't. I'll tell you, Vita, we'll ask Cousin Ted and I'm sure she'll let us fix Lucia up in that nice attic bed. Would you like that, Lucia?" enthused Nora.

"She love the attic," said Vita. "She come every time, and I must hide her. But I no like to make the bother----"

"And that was why you kept it secret!" said Nora. "Well, Vita, I did think you were--mean," she paused to soften the word, "but now I know why. And I am so glad to find Lucia again. You see, I knew her before."

"You bring her the cakes----"

"And you knew that, too?" Nora's secrets were fast evaporating. "Well, at any rate, Vita, you gave me a nice tin box and all the good things you could make, so I won't blame you. I'll run along and ask Cousin Ted about the attic. Dear me! What a blessing the girls came over with me! We might have been going on this way--for weeks and not have found out," she added. "But the girls have to hurry off; it is getting time to answer the night roll call. I'll be back in a minute, Vita," she was talking fast. "Don't let Lucia move until I tell you," she warned.

"All right, little Nora," replied Vita fondly. "I have two little girls, now; yes, Lucia?"

"The girls have to leave without hearing this whole wonderful story, Nora," said Ted, as they crowded out to the car, "but I have asked them to come over tomorrow. They will die of curiosity in the meantime if Miss Beckwith does not keep them too busy to get into such mischief," added the young woman jocularly.

"Oh, Nora!" called out Wyn, "you come right over about daylight, will you? We'll leave a tent flap loose and you can crawl in. I would have nervous prostration if I had to wait until after inspection to hear the sequel. Good night!"

"Good night! Good night! everybody!" went up the customary shout, and when the reliable little car, so recently called fractious by its owner, rumbled out into the roadway, the Scouts were actually singing their camp song.

How wonderful to be girls! And how wonderful to be Girl Scouts!