“Do you know what’s the worst wish I’d wish on My Enemy?”

Ruth looked her astonishment and hesitated to reply.  But Mercy did not expect a reply, for she continued quickly: 

“I’d wish My Enemy to have to eat every morning for breakfast two soft fried eggs with his best clothes on—­ that’s what I’d wish!”

And this is every word she would say to the visitor while Ruth remained.  But Mr. Curtis bade Ruth good-bye very kindly when he hurried away to the station, and Mrs. Curtis urged her to come and see them whenever she came to town after getting settled at the Red Mill.

It was a fresh and lovely morning, although to the weather-wise the haze in the West foredoomed the end of the day to disaster.  Ruth felt more cheerful as she crossed the railroad tracks and struck into the same street she had followed with the searching party the evening before.  She could not mistake Doctor Davison’s house when she passed it, and there was a fine big automobile standing before the gate where the two green lanterns were.  But there was nobody in the car, nor did she see anybody about the doctor’s house.

Beyond the doctor’s abode the houses were far apart—­ farther and farther apart as she trudged on.  Nobody noticed or spoke to the girl as she went on with her small bag—­ the bag that grew heavy, despite its smallness, as she progressed.  And so she traveled two miles, or more, along the pleasant road.  Then she heard the purring of an automobile behind her—­ the first vehicle that she had seen since leaving town.

It was the big gray car that had been standing before Doctor Davison’s house when she had passed, and Ruth would have known the girl who sat at the steering wheel and was driving the car alone, even had Reno, the big mastiff, not sat in great dignity on the seat beside her.  For no girl could look so much like Tom Cameron without being Tom Cameron’s sister.

And the girl, the moment she saw Ruth on the road, retarded the speed of the machine.  Reno, too, lost all semblance of dignity and would not wait for the car to completely stop before bounding into the road and coming to caress her hand.

“I know who you are!” cried the girl in the automobile.  “You are Ruth Fielding.”

She was a brilliant, black-eyed, vivacious girl, perhaps a year or more older than Ruth, and really handsome, having her brother’s olive complexion with plenty of color in cheeks and lips.  And that her nature was impulsive and frank there could be no doubt, for she immediately leaped out of the automobile, when it had stopped, and ran to embrace Ruth.

“Thank you! thank you!” she cried.  “Doctor Davison has told us all about you—­ and how brave you are!  And see how fond Reno is of you!  He knows who found his master; don’t you, Reno?”

“Oh, dear me,” said Ruth, breathlessly, “Doctor Davison has been too kind.  I did nothing at all toward finding your brother—­ I suppose he is your brother, Miss?”