Ann Crosses a Secret Trail Read online

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  It was cool enough for a wrap on deck.

  (_Page 212_) (“_Ann Crosses a Secret Trail_”)]

  ANN CROSSES A SECRET TRAIL

  By HARRIET PYNE GROVE

  AUTHOR OF “Ann Sterling,” “The Courage of Ann,” “Ann and the Jolly Six,” “The Greycliff Girls Series,” etc.

 

  A. L. BURT COMPANY

  Publishers New York

  Printed in U. S. A.

  ANN STERLING SERIES

  A SERIES FOR GIRLS 12 TO 18 YEARS OF AGE By HARRIET PYNE GROVE

  ANN STERLING THE COURAGE OF ANN ANN AND THE JOLLY SIX ANN CROSSES A SECRET TRAIL

  Copyright, 1926

  By A. L. BURT COMPANY

  ANN CROSSES A SECRET TRAIL

  Made in “U. S. A.”

  Ann Crosses A Secret Trail

  CHAPTER I

  ON THE SURFACE

  After the members of the Jolly Six had departed from Sterling Ranchfor their respective homes, Ann Sterling suffered the usual reaction.It had been “such a wonderful house party,” she told her mother. Thepresence of her aunt at the ranch depressed Ann, though after talkingmatters over with her father, she decided once more not to worry.Little things, however, irritated her, and she had to force herself tobe polite and kind and not to let it seem that she avoided her aunt.This was the easier to manage because Suzanne was there. She and hercousin enjoyed a few quiet visits with Marjorie and Clifford Hart androde out somewhere every morning, for the good of themselves and theirhorses. Kendall Gordon, Clifford’s college friend, had gone and theother boys were making up for lost time on the summer’s work, thoughHerman Olson once brought his sister Hilda, who had been away allsummer and had not seen Ann at all.

  The beautiful little lodge among the peaks, Ann’s “very own,” wasvisited once more before Suzanne went East with her mother. Mr.Sterling risked his new car, to take Madam LeRoy and Mrs. Tyson there,with Ann, Suzanne and Mrs. Sterling. They drove very slowly, reachingthe lodge without accident; but Madam LeRoy insisted that the slowpace was for the sake of the car, not for her, “though I can enjoy thescenery twice as well because of it,” she said. “I do not wonder, Ann,”she added, “that you love your mountains.”

  Mrs. Tyson frequently asked her mother if the altitude affected her,though the elevation was not particularly great at “Sterling Heights.”But they heard no more from her about “Mother’s mind failing,” and asMadam LeRoy openly expressed her irritation at being warned about herheart, Aunt Sue desisted. On the surface, everything was pleasant andhappy.

  Ann’s grandmother walked about with Ann and Suzanne, admiring thefalls, the rushing river, the emerald lake, the peaks with their snow,and the floating clouds. “I am glad that I decided to come up,” shesaid. “I would not have missed this beautiful picture, to take backEast with me. Then, girls, if you are here some time without me, as youwill be, of course, I shall know how to imagine what you are doing.”

  “And it will be much more delightful, Grandmother, since you have beenhere,” promptly spoke Ann. “We shall have you to associate with allthis. By the way, Grandmother, we want your picture, too.”

  On the porch, with the background of the logs; on the lake shore, witha background of peaks and clouds; in various nooks among the trees, thegirls snapped not only Madam LeRoy, but the rest of the family, aloneor in groups. “These are for my family album,” laughed Ann. “I’m goingto have a special album for Sterling Heights Lodge.”

  “Is that what you are going to call it?” inquired Mr. Sterling.

  “I think so, though I may change my mind again. I wish that I could putthe beauty of the place into a name that would be appropriate.”

  Madam LeRoy thought of several more improvements that she asked theprivilege of helping to make another season, talking with Mrs. Ault,who promised to take care of the rugs and furniture, making things snugfor the winter before she and Mr. Ault left the place. The Sterlingparty stayed over one night only.

  Then, “at last,” Nancy said to Ann privately, as Mrs. Tyson, Suzanne,Felice and the chauffeur rolled away in the Tyson car, intending topick up Maurice Tyson further East, when he should leave the young menwith whom he was camping.

  Everybody, including Grandmother, drew a sigh of relief. There wouldbe no more living on the surface, trying not to express what they felt.There would be no more listening to little poisoned barbs of speechimplying criticism, expressing a feigned anxiety about Madam LeRoy, inthe guise of virtue and devotion.

  Rita came right out one day soon after the departure and asked Ann whatshe thought of her aunt. “Nothing here suited her,” said Rita. “Youcould feel how superior she felt to us all. You would have thought thatyour mother had kidnaped your grandmother by the way she shook herhead to me once and said that they ran a terrible risk by bringing hermother away from the sanitarium where she put her.

  “I spoke right up and said, ‘From what I hear there are others thathave taken worse risks than that in regard to their mother.’ Of courseI meant her, and I went right out of the room with my dust cloth, forfear I might say something else. Nancy told me a lot, you see, and Ithought I’d better ask you if it was true.”

  “What Nancy told you is probably true in the main, though I supposethat there is a lot of gossip among Grandmother’s servants that may notbe true.”

  “She,--I mean Mrs. Tyson--was not going to let you folks have hermother and her mother’s money, I suppose. That is what Nancy said. Butit was a queer performance, in my opinion, to come right here, afterwhat Nancy says she has done to your mother. It put you in a funnyposition, too. You couldn’t turn her out, though I think, myself, thatthat’s what ought to have been done!”

  “We couldn’t do that, Rita,” laughed Ann. “People can’t act like‘fish-wives’ in a fight. Can you imagine Mother’s doing anything of thesort?”

  “Indeed I could not! And to be taken advantage of that way! If anythinghappens, we know what we know out here about the Sterling family!”

  “I hope that it’s good, Rita.”

  “It most certainly is!”

  “Nothing is going to ‘happen,’ Rita. Grandmother knows us by this time.But you see, Rita, Aunt Sue is Grandmother’s daughter and Mother’s ownsister. So it would make Mother feel bad to have any gossip about itout here.”

  “You are right, Ann, and you need not warn me. I’ll not say a wordoutside of the family. And yet, Ann, Mrs. Tyson can’t say and do thethings she does and have it all kept a secret!”

  “I suppose not,” thoughtfully said Ann.

  “We all liked that boy of hers, though, who stopped here on his way toyour place in the mountains. My, but he is a handsome chap, and withsuch pleasant ways! Suzanne, too, is a pretty girl and pleasant for theway she’s been spoiled.”

  Ann supposed that the spoiling of Suzanne had also been revealed byNancy, from whom Rita had had so much information about the LeRoyestablishment in the East.

  It was characteristic of Mrs. Sterling’s reserve that she had not toldAnn what took place when her sister first made her appearance at theranch. “What did you say to her, Daddy?” Ann had asked her father,but her father passed the matter over lightly. “Very politely, Ann,”he replied, “I said to her frankly what your mother could not say, inregard to the openness of future relations and our regret that thingshad been misrepresented in the past, with the hope that such methodswould not be used again. Then I made her welcome at the ranch and gotout as quickly as I could!”

  * * * * *

  Time was all too short for all that had to be done
before Ann startedin on her sophomore year at school. Mrs. Sterling was tired with thestrain which she had been under while her sister was there. “Nevermind, Ann,” she said. “Leave all the traps that need mending behind.Perhaps we’ll have more time another summer. Your frocks are in prettygood condition and we shall have time to buy what is necessary in theEast before school begins.”

  “Am I going with you to Grandmother’s before school begins?” Annjoyously asked.

  “Indeed you are. I would not appear there without you for anything,”her mother replied with a whimsical smile. “I need your courage tosustain me, little daughter, since your father is not going East withus. Just think, Ann, how many years it has been!” Mrs. Sterling lookedaway toward the distant mountains with a sad expression.

  “See here, Mother, you are to be happy, not sad, to think about goingback. Suppose Aunt Sue is there to spoil it a little. She hasn’t a bitmore right there than you. I’m afraid that you have what Katherinesays her father calls an ‘inferiority complex,’ when you think of yourolder sister. Don’t let her browbeat you, little mudder! She thinksthat she is always right, or pretends to think it, and wants to run theuniverse. I believe that you _do_ need your little old Ann to keep upyour spirits!”

  “Indeed I do, ‘Gentle Hands,’ but I am not without some spirit, mylittle daughter. Nobody there shall know what I feel.”

  “Good. And don’t feel that you are ‘company’ there, Mother. Since AuntSue runs it all, I have always felt that way, but now it seems as ifthings ought to be different, don’t you think so?”

  “We shall be Mother’s guests, of course. Yet, Ann, things cannot bechanged all in a minute,--even if my mother were a younger woman, youknow, able to take charge of a big establishment like that. I shallmost certainly not place myself in opposition to my sister in regardto household affairs. They are not of enough importance. Mother isthinking matters over. Unless your Aunt Sue persists in making trouble,and I think that she has had a lesson in that respect, there willbe little change, unless it is as regards financial affairs. Motherintends to look into that, she says. If they are not straight, it maymake a difference.”

  “I see,” said Ann. “Whatever happens, Mother, you can count on menot to embarrass you by making any trouble. I’ll be peaceful unlessattacked!” Ann was laughing now.

  “No aggressive warfare?”

  “Exactly, Mother, and yet I am ready to defend you and Grandmother tothe last gasp!”

  “My Montana heroine!” laughed her mother, falling into Ann’smelodramatic mood. “Very good. I told you that I would not go withoutyou, you see.”