12 Lost and Found

CHAPTER 12 Lost and Found One day, Sara and Becky were enjoying their secret morning treat when they heard a soft scratching at the window. The monkey's face appeared in the window. The next second, just as he had before, he lifted up the windowpane and climbed down into Sara's room. When Becky shrieked, Sara said, "It's okay. He's just the sweet little monkey from next door. Doesn't he look like a little baby?"

"A very ugly little baby," Becky said, slowly coming closer. "What are you going to do with him?" "Well," Sara said, "I know that Ram Dass and the Indian gentleman will be quite wild with worry when they discover him missing. So I must take him back over immediately." Next door, no one had yet noticed that the monkey was missing because Mr. Carmichael had just returned from Moscow, with bad news to report. He had been unable to find the little Crewe girl. Mr. Carrisford, who had been cheered up for a time by Ram Dass's secret mission next door, all at once turned completely weary and miserable. "Come, come," Carmichael said, in his cheery voice. "We'll find her yet." They were interrupted by an announcement of a visitor. Ram Dass told them that it was the child from next door bringing back the monkey, which had just

broken into her attic room. "I thought it might please you to see and to speak with her," Ram Dass suggested. Mr. Carrisford quickly filled in Mr. Carmichael on the details of his and Ram Dass's magical plan to help the girl next door. The children squealed with delight. Sara then made her entrance with a curtsy. "Your monkey ran away again," she told the Indian gentleman in her pretty voice. "I thought you might be worried. Shall I give him to the lascar?" "How do you know he is a lascar?" Nora asked with wonder. "Oh, I know lascars," Sara said. "I was born in India." The Indian gentleman sat bolt upright so suddenly that, for a moment, Sara was scared. "Question her, Carmichael," he said. "I

cannot." The big, kind father of the Large Family knew how to question little girls. And Sara liked to tell stories. So within a few minutes she had told all of hers. She explained everything: from her papa losing all of his money in the diamond mines because of a friend who let him down and then ran away, to being forced to work as a scullery maid at Miss Minchin's boarding school. Then she came to the final chapter—the magic that may have saved her life. "What was your father's name?" the Indian gentleman said, his voice faint. "Captain Ralph Crewe," Sara said proudly. "Carmichael!" the invalid gasped. "It is the child!" For a moment, the ailing Carrisford seemed to faint dead away. Ram Dass had to rush out of the room for a bottle of smelling salts. He held them under Carrisford's nose to revive him.

"What child am I?" Sara asked timidly. Mr. Carmichael spoke calmly, so as not to scare her. "Mr. Carrisford was your father's friend. But he didn't betray your father or lose your father's money. He only thought he had, because he was so ill from brain fever. By the time he recovered, your poor papa was dead. Mr. Carrisford has been looking for you ever since. He has searched for you all over Europe—in France and Moscow— and here you were, all this time!" "Yes—for two years, just on the other side of the wall," Sara finished. She could not believe how long she had waited. A thought flew into her head. "Wait a minute," she said. "Did Ram Dass bring the things across the roof and into my room?" "Yes!" Janet answered. "Mr. Carrisford was your rich secret friend." Sara threw her thin arms around the Indian

gentleman and hugged him as hard as she could. "This is exactly the medicine my friend needed," Carmichael thought happily. Suddenly, Miss Minchin came rushing into the room, following by a maid begging everyone's pardon. One of the students had seen Sara enter the house next door. Sara rose and became rather pale, but Mr. Carrisford put a steady hand upon her head to calm her. "I am sorry to bother you," Miss Minchin said in a huff. "I am Miss Minchin, the headmistress of the young ladies' boarding school next door. And I am so sorry that this child has given you trouble." She turned to face Sara. "You—go home at once! You will be severely punished." But the Indian gentleman held Sara at his side. "She is not going anywhere. She is home."