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COPYRIGHT 1951 BY THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY
1 Return to Harker’s Cove
HOW DIFFERENT the landscape looks now in early summer. Remember, Jo, how every single thing was completely covered with white snow when we made this trip the first time?” Patty turned her dark curly head away from the train window to regard her twin sitting on the opposite seat.
“Yes, now the bleak whiteness has given way to those cool, green fields and the deeper green of the woods. Oh, Welty, how soon will we be there?”
The Faraday twins both appealed to their guardian who grinned merrily at their eagerness. “Harker’s Cove is the next stop, girls. That’s only an hour’s ride to go.” Welton Duer was inwardly thanking his lucky stars for all the good fortune the past six months had brought him. For, he asked himself, what had he done to deserve his charming wife and two such lovely daughters? A short half-year ago I was a lonely, middle-aged bachelor holding only bitterness against the world, he thought to himself.
He looked across at Mavis whose head was bent over a book, unaware of his scrutiny. Her figure was like that of a girl, small and slim. As a matter of fact, she looked as if she might be the twins’ older sister. Even to the color of her hair she resembled them, although hers was straight while Jo and Patty often mourned over the unruliness of their curly locks.
What a pity, Welton sighed to himself, that we didn’t marry when we were both young. But no, I had to be stubborn, I had to be free in order to make long archeological expeditions which made a normal married life impossible. He pounded his fist softly against the arm of the seat.
Mavis looked up from her book with a questioning glance at her husband. “Did you just think of something we’ve forgotten, dear?”
“What?—N-no,” he said, coming out of his reverie. “I was just telling myself what a fool I’ve been. You know, I see no reason why you can’t come along with me on these research trips I have to make now and then. That is, if you would want to. And, of course, only when there was no danger involved. Oh, I don’t mean right away, you understand.” He hesitated, waiting to see how Mavis would react to such a suggestion.
“Why, I think it’s a splendid idea. Winters when the girls are in school we’d both be at loose ends, not knowing what to do with ourselves.”
“We might even take them along sometime,” Welton went on eagerly. “Now that I think of it, your father used to take you everywhere with him, didn’t he?” He turned to Pat at his side.
“You bet,” she grinned. “Wherever his engineering was needed. In New Mexico, Texas, Panama, even South America once.”
“We liked that best of all,” Jo added, remembering those carefree days when school was secondary to the first-hand lessons of experience they had had. “It was perfectly grim when we first went to Miss Langton’s school. And then later—” Jo preferred not to remember when their father had not returned. He had died of a fever contracted in Central America.
The twins’ mother had died when they were born, but of course they had pictures of her, and their father had talked of her often. Since their father, a construction engineer, had to travel most of the time, he was forced to leave his daughters in the care of their great-aunt Harriett. She was a woman who recognized her duty, but she did not really love children. Her cold, forbidding house was never a home to them although Patty and Jo lived with her until they were eight years old. On one of his brief visits Mr. Faraday realized how unhappy his children were and he abruptly gathered their few belongings and took them wherever his work called him. Next followed two years of carefree, nomadic living that enabled the twins to be close to their father and, at the same time, gave them experience which taught them many things about people and places they would not have learned from books.
Then Mr. Faraday was assigned to a building project in the jungles of Central America and he regretfully decided it was no place to take two little girls. Instead he sent them to Miss Langton’s school and promised to be back in a year. It was during this trip to Central America that tragedy struck and the twins found themselves alone, with only an unseen, mysterious guardian to look after their needs.
Vacation times became ordeals until, as related in Patty and Jo, Detectives, the sixteen-year-old Faraday twins were invited to spend their Christmas vacation at their guardian’s lodge. Looking forward eagerly to a gay two weeks of fun, the girls found, on their arrival at the faraway Michigan village, that Welton Duer had left the previous day on business. Would they never set eyes on the man who governed their welfare? Firmly convinced that Duer’s departure was strange, the twins purposefully set out to find the reasons for his disappearance.
Although the girls were alike in physical appearance, the similarity did not carry over completely into their characters. While Pat possessed an imaginative mind, Jo was clear-thinking and realistic. In this way, the personality of one complemented that of the other.
It was Pat’s imagination which first set the twins on the trail of mystery. She was sure that the Japanese servant, Yamoto, and Mrs. Gruber, the housekeeper, knew more than they were willing to tell. After a series of exciting adventures involving even a skirmish with an escaped convict, the twins solved the mystery of Welton Duer’s disappearance. Together with their newfound friend, Dick Prentiss, they were instrumental in reuniting their guardian with his former sweetheart, Mavis Martin. Mavis and Welton had included the twins in their future and offered the girls their home. All too soon it was time for Patty and Jo to return to school for the final semester, but they were happy in the knowledge that when graduation came in June they would have a real home to go to.
“Well, we’ll have plenty of time to decide these things later,” said Mavis. Then, looking at her watch, she said, “Better get your things together now, girls, we’re nearly there.”
Immediately there followed a flurry of confusion while Patty and Jo retrieved scattered magazines and miscellaneous belongings. Their laughter filled the railroad car when their heads bumped together during a scramble under the seat for one of Jo’s gloves. The rest of the passengers smiled at their gaiety, for the twins unconsciously won friends everywhere by their warm-heartedness and good humor. They finished assembling their luggage just as the conductor announced their stop.
Welton Duer alighted first. He carefully helped Mavis down the steps, then Jo and Patty. Spying a familiar old car parked next to the small station, the girls raced over to greet Yamoto who stood waiting and trying vainly to suppress a wide grin.
“Welcome home, Mliss Patty, Mliss Jo. Welcome, Mlisteh Dueh—and,” he grinned even more broadly, “Mliss Dueh.” Yamoto made a deep bow before them and Mavis colored a little.
“Gee, it’s great to be back,” sighed Jo, looking about happily.
“Smell those pines, Jo,” cried Patty enthusiastically. “Isn’t it heavenly? Doesn’t it provoke memories?”
While the girls continued their babbling, Welton Duer and Yamoto collected their baggage from the stationmaster and stowed it away in the rear of the car. In a few minutes they were ready to start the last lap of their journey home.
“Are you going to stand there all afternoon, or shall we be on our way?” Mavis laughingly interrupted the girls when she saw that Yamoto was anxious to leave.
“Oh, of course were not, Mavis,” Patty said, answering the first question, and she pushed Jo ahead of her into the back seat of the car. Mavis followed after them and Welton settled himself beside Yamoto.
“Not
