AUNT JANE'S NIECES - Complete 10 Book Collection. Edith Van Dyne

      "Tato, my dear coz, is a boy," answered Kenneth; "and he disappeared ages ago."

      "You must be blind," said Beth, scornfully, "not to recognize a girl when you see one. A boy, indeed!"

      "Why, he dressed like a boy," replied Kenneth, hesitatingly.

      "So much the more disgraceful," sniffed Beth. "She belongs to those brigands, I suppose."

      "Looks something like Victor Valdi," said Patsy, thoughtfully.

      "Il Duca? Of course! I see it myself, now. Patricia, it is that wicked duke who has captured Uncle John."

      "I had guessed that," declared Patsy, smiling.

      "He must be a handsome rascal," observed Kenneth, "for the child is pretty as a picture."

      "He isn't handsome at all," replied Beth; "but there is a look about the child's eyes that reminds me of him."

      "That's it, exactly," agreed Patsy.

      Louise now approached them with a white, frightened face.

      "Isn't it dreadful!" she moaned. "They are going to kill Ferralti unless he gives them thirty thousand dollars."

      "And I don't believe he can raise thirty cents," said Patsy, calmly.

      "Oh, yes, he can," answered Louise, beginning to cry. "Hi—his—father is d—dead, and has left him—a—fortune."

      "Don't blubber, Lou," said the boy, chidingly; "in that case your dago friend is as well off as need be. But I suppose you're afraid the no-account Count won't figure his life is worth thirty thousand dollars. It does seem like an awful price to pay for a foreigner."

      "It isn't that," said Louise, striving to control her emotion. "He says he hates to be robbed. He wouldn't pay a penny if he could help it."

      "Good for the Count! I don't blame him a bit," exclaimed Beth. "It is a beastly shame that free born Americans should be enslaved by a crew of thieving Sicilians, and obliged to purchase their freedom!"

      "True for you," said Kenneth, nodding. "But what are we going to do about it?"

      "Pay, of course," decided Patsy, promptly. "Our Uncle John is too precious to be sacrificed for all the money in the world. Come; let's go and find Mr. Watson. We ought not to lose a moment's time."

      The lawyer read Uncle John's letter carefully, as well as the one from Count Ferralti, which Louise confided to him with the request that he keep the young man's identity a secret for a time, until he could reveal it to her cousins in person.

      "The only thing to be done," announced Mr. Watson, "is to carry out these instructions faithfully. We can send the cable messages from here, and in the morning Louise and I will take the train for Messina and remain there until we get the money."

      "It's an outrage!" cried Beth.

      "Of course, my dear. But it can't be helped. And your uncle is wise to take the matter so cheerfully. After all, it is little enough to pay for one's life and liberty, and our friend is so wealthy that he will never feel the loss at all."

      "It isn't that; it's the principle of the thing that I object to," said the girl. "It's downright disgraceful to be robbed so easily."

      "To be sure; but the disgrace is Italy's, not ours. Object all you want to, Beth, dear," continued the old lawyer, smiling at her; "but nevertheless we'll pay as soon as possible, and have done with it. What we want now is your Uncle John, and we want him mighty badly."

      "Really, the pirates didn't charge enough for him," added Patsy.

      So Mr. Watson sent the cables to John Merrick's bankers and Count Ferralti's attorney, and the next morning went with Louise to Messina.

      Frascatti drove all the party down the road to the station at Giardini, and as the train pulled out, Beth, who had remained seated in the victoria with Patricia and Kenneth, suddenly stood up to pull the vetturino's sleeve.

      "Tell me, Frascatti," she whispered, "isn't that Il Duca's child? Look—that little one standing in the corner?"

      "Why, yes; it is really Tato," answered the man, before he thought to deny it.

      "Very well; you may now drive us home," returned Beth, a shade of triumph in her voice.

      CHAPTER XXIII

       BETH BEGINS TO PLOT

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      Once back in their sitting-room behind closed doors, Beth, Patsy and Kenneth got their three heads together and began eagerly to discuss a plot which Beth had hinted of on the way home and now unfolded in detail. And while they still whispered together a knock at the door startled them and made them look rather guilty until the boy answered the call and admitted little Tato.

      The child's beautiful face wore a smile of demure satisfaction as Tato bowed respectfully to the young Americans.

      Kenneth winked at Beth from behind the visitor's back.

      "As you have a guest," he remarked, with a yawn that was somewhat rude, "I shall now go and take my nap."

      "What, do you sleep so early in the day, you lazy-bones?" asked Patsy, brightly.

      "Any time, my dear, is good enough for an overworked artist," he replied. "Au revoir, my cousins. See you at luncheon."

      With this he strolled away, and when he had gone Beth said to Tato:

      "Won't you sit down, signorina?"

      "Do you mean me?" asked the child, as if surprised.

      "Yes; I can see plainly that you are a girl."

      "And a pretty one, too, my dear," added Patsy.

      Tato blushed as if embarrassed, but in a moment smiled upon the American girls.

      "Do you think me immodest, then?" she asked, anxiously.

      "By no means, my dear," Beth assured her. "I suppose you have an excellent reason for wearing boys' clothes."

      "So I have, signorina. I live in the mountains, where dresses catch in the crags, and bother a girl. And my father has always been heart-broken because he had no son, and likes to see me in this attire. He has many errands for me, too, where a boy may go unnoticed, yet a girl would attract too much attention. This is one of the errands, signorini. But now tell me, if you please, how have you decided to answer the letters of Signor Merrick and Signor Ferralti?"

      "Oh, there was but one way to answer them, Tato," replied Beth, composedly. "We have sent Mr. Watson and our cousin Louise Merrick to Messina to get the money. If our friends in America act promptly Mr. Watson and Louise will return by to-morrow afternoon's train, and be prepared to make the payment."

      "That is well, signorina," responded Tato.

      "We are to give the money to you, I suppose?" said Patsy.

      "Yes; I will return for it to-morrow afternoon," answered the child, with business-like gravity. Then she looked earnestly from one to the other of the two girls. "You must act discreetly, in the meantime, you know. You must not talk to anyone, or do anything to imperil your uncle's safety."

      "Of course not, Tato."

      "I beg you not, signorini. The uncle is a good man, and brave. I do not wish him to be injured."

      "Nor do we, Tato."

      "And the young man is not a coward, either. He has been kind to me. But he is sad, and not so pleasant to talk with as the uncle."

      "True enough, Tato," said Beth.

      Patsy had been examining the child with curious intentness. The little one was so lovely and graceful, and her voice sounded so soft and womanly, that Patsy longed to take her in her arms and hug her.

      "How old