The millionaire's daughter was almost certain that the object Hester snatched at in such a hurry was a ruby brooch, or at least an imitation of one. She had distinctly caught a ruddy flash as Hester's hand moved to her throat.
Jimsy, too, had noticed it, it seemed, for he suddenly observed:
"Seems queer for Hester to be wearing jewelry. Her father must be making money fast nowadays."
"Yes," said Jess, but her voice was distant and preoccupied. She was certain that her eyes had not deceived her. It had been a ruby that Hester Gibbons had pulled off and hastened to conceal. Obeying an impulse, she turned and gazed back over the top of the tonneau.
Through the dust cloud behind the car she could see that Hester and Fanning Harding were once more in deep conversation at the gate. She wondered what they could find so engrossing to talk about, and also speculated on several other things. She, however, avoided mentioning her suddenly aroused suspicions to Jimsy. He was so hasty. Inwardly she made a resolve to seek out Peggy the first thing the next day and compare notes with her. She could not help feeling that matters were assuming a very complicated aspect.
One evening, a week later, Peggy and her brother were tightening up some braces on the Golden Butterfly after an afternoon's flight along the coast, when the sharp "honk! honk!" of an automobile from the road attracted their attention. Running to the door, Peggy saw Jimsy and his sister in the "Gee Whizz," as their red auto had been christened.
But that there was something the matter with the Gee Whizz was evident. The motor, ungeared, was coughing and gasping in a painful manner. Jimsy shouted as he saw the two young Prescotts.
"Say, you aviators, come here and see what you can do to doctor a poor creeping earthworm of an auto."
Laughing at his tone and words, Peggy and her brother hastened down the path and through the gate.
"Something's wrong with the transmission," explained Jimsy.
"What a question, you goose?" cried Jess; "if we knew we'd have fixed it long ago."
"It's doubly annoying," said Jimsy, in an impatient voice, "because we got a wire from father to-night, saying that he would take us on a trip to Washington with him if we arrived in New York by eight-thirty."