CHAPTER I

LLOYD MEETS HERO


It was in Switzerland in the old town of Geneva. The windows of the big
hotel dining-room looked out on the lake, and the Little Colonel,
sitting at breakfast the morning after their arrival, could scarcely eat
for watching the scene outside.

Gay little pleasure boats flashed back and forth on the sparkling water.
The quay and bridge were thronged with people. From open windows down
the street came the tinkle of pianos, and out on the pier, where a
party of tourists were crowding on to one of the excursion steamers, a
band was playing its merriest holiday music.

Far away in the distance she could see the shining snow crown of Mont
Blanc, and it gave her an odd feeling, as if she were living in a
geography lesson, to know that she was bounded on one side by the famous
Alpine mountain, and on the other by the River Rhône, whose source she
had often traced on the map. The sunshine, the music, and the gay crowds
made it seem to Lloyd as if the whole world were out for a holiday, and
she ate her melon and listened to the plans for the day with the
sensation that something very delightful was about to happen.

"We'll go shopping this morning," said Mrs. Sherman. "I want Lloyd to
see some of those wonderful music boxes they make here; the dancing
bears, and the musical hand-mirrors; the chairs that play when you sit
down in them, and the beer-mugs that begin a tune when you lift them