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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc89718 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62489 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62489) diff --git a/old/62489-0.txt b/old/62489-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2051165..0000000 --- a/old/62489-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7587 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery, by -Grace Brooks Hill - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery - What it was, Where it was, and Who found it - -Author: Grace Brooks Hill - -Illustrator: Thelma Gooch - -Release Date: June 26, 2020 [EBook #62489] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE *** - - - - -Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery - - - - -[Illustration: Out of the moonlight shadows he came, a timid and -shrinking figure of a Chinese.] - - - - -THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY - -WHAT IT WAS, WHERE IT WAS, AND WHO FOUND IT - -By - -GRACE BROOKS HILL - -Author of “The Corner House Girls,” “The Corner House -Girls on Palm Island,” Etc. - -ILLUSTRATED BY THELMA GOOCH - -BARSE & HOPKINS - -PUBLISHERS - -NEW YORK, N.Y., NEWARK, N.J. - - - - -Copyright, 1923 by Barse & Hopkins - -The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery - -Printed in the U. S. A. - - - - -CONTENTS - - I A Drop in Eggs - II A Queer Pair - III Disquieting News - IV In a Hurry - V Visitors Arrive - VI Witches and Warlocks - VII Luke Remembers - VIII A Futile Chase - IX Out of Tune - X A Shower - XI A Strange Summons - XII A Queer Note - XIII A Midnight Tryst - XIV Suspicions - XV Tess and Dot Investigate - XVI The Storm - XVII The Midnight Noise - XVIII Struck Down - XIX Dot’s Discovery - XX Hop Wong is Caught - XXI A Queer Story - XXII Another Alarm - XXIII The Capture - XXIV The White Star - XXV The Alligator’s Tail - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - Out of the moonlight shadows he came, a timid and shrinking - figure of a Chinese - - The two men looked up quickly, having been stopped by Ruth’s voice - - There sat Tess on a flat rock in a shallow place in the middle - of the brook - - The younger Corner House girls poked into the dark corners of - the cellar - - - - -THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY - - - - -CHAPTER I: A DROP IN EGGS - - -“Hello!” - -“Goodness sakes! don’t holler like that again, Sammy Pinkney.” - -“He almost made me drop the cake batter!” - -Tess Kenway, who had administered the rebuke to the small boy when he -gave a shout, thrusting his head in through the half-opened kitchen -door, fanned herself with her apron as she closed the oven of the stove. -Her sister Dot, who was pouring something from a brown bowl into a tin -pan, set the former down on the table and shook her finger at Sammy. - -“What are you doin’?” asked Sammy, as he slid farther into the kitchen -and possessed himself of a chair near the table, looking casually over -what it contained. - -“Cakes,” answered Tess. “I guess the oven’s hot enough now, Dot,” she -went on, again opening and closing the door. - -“Cakes!” exclaimed Sammy, smacking his lips. “I should think if you made -_one_ cake it would be——” - -“We’re _each_ making a cake, if you please!” declared Tess, with a -superior air. “And we wish you wouldn’t come around here bothering -us—don’t we, Dot?” - -“Yes, we do,” joined in the other small sister. - -“And if you want any of _my_ cake, Sammy Pinkney—Oh, don’t you dare sit -in that chair!” she shrieked as, dropping a spoon covered with cake -batter and thereby spattering the boy, she made a rush for him just in -time to prevent him from occupying another chair nearer to the scene of -the cake-making. - -“What’s the matter with that chair?” protested Sammy, in a grieved tone, -as he went back to his original place. - -“My—my Alice-doll!” answered Dot faintly. - -“You—_you_ nearly squashed her, Sammy.” And, pulling the chair out from -beneath the table, she disclosed her very choicest child—the loved -“Alice-doll.” - -“Aw, how’d I know she was there?” asked Sammy. - -“You didn’t have to come in,” retorted Tess, who, though older than her -sister, yet shared in the latter’s love for Alice and did not want to -see her “squashed.” - -“Pooh, I don’t have to come in if I don’t want to,” declared Sammy -independently. “But I was goin’ to show you how you could have some -fun.” - -“Some fun?” questioned Tess, alive to the possibilities in that word. - -“What kind of fun?” Dot wanted to know, putting her Alice-doll in a -safer place. - -“Aw, what good would it do me to tell you!” and Sammy affected an air of -injured innocence. “All you care about is bakin’ cakes!” - -“We do not—so there!” cried Tess, with an uptilting of her little nose, -as she had seen Nalbro Hastings affect on occasions. “If you know any -fun, Sammy Pinkney, you ought to tell us, ’cause we’ll soon have to go -back to school.” - -“Oh, dear!” sighed Dot. “When I was on Plam Island I never thought of -school.” - -“’Tisn’t _Plam_ Island,” corrected Sammy. “It’s——” - -“I know what it is! I don’t have to get you to tell me!” snapped Dot, -for she was a bit sensitive about her mispronunciation, having been -corrected so often. “But when my cake’s done you can have some, Sammy,” -she added, more gently, as if ashamed of her little outburst. - -“And I’ll give you some of mine,” offered Tess. “It’s going to be -chocolate.” - -“Good!” cried Sammy, and all his ill-feeling vanished. - -“Mine’s cocoanut,” said Dot. “And I guess we’d better put ’em in the -oven, Tess. Mrs. MacCall said to put ’em in when the oven felt hot to -your hand.” - -“All right.” - -The two little girls, having poured their cake batter into separate -tins, placed their concoctions in the oven and closed the door. - -“There!” announced Tess. “Now you can tell us about the fun, Sammy,” and -she seemed to have shaken from her small shoulders the cares of the -universe. - -“I’m going to be in it, and so is my Alice-doll!” declared Dot, as she -brought the pretend-child from the shelf where she had placed her for -safety. - -“Is Mrs. Mac around?” asked Sammy suspiciously, for he was a bit afraid -of the bluff but kind Scotch housekeeper. - -“No, she’s away upstairs,” answered Tess encouragingly. “She won’t be -down for a long time. She and Ruth and Agnes are talking about doing -over one of the rooms. That girl who had something the matter with her -teeth is coming to stay a while.” - -“We’re going to have a party,” confided Dot. “But these cakes aren’t for -that,” she hastened to say, lest Sammy might think he would have to wait -too long for the promised reward. - -“You mean that that Nally Hastings you’re always talking about is -coming?” asked the boy. - -“Yes!” answered both little girls. They did not want to talk too much -for they desired to hear what fun Sammy had in prospect. - -Miss Nalbro Hastings, from Boston, had become acquainted with the Corner -House girls some time before. At first she had had the reputation of -being affected and “stuck up,” especially in the manner of her talk. - -But later it was learned that she was suffering from the loss of some -teeth, which had been knocked out in a runaway-horse accident, and this -accounted for her speaking of Neale O’Neil as: - -“That charming Mistah O’Neil, who ith tho interethting!” - -“Well, if Mrs. Mac isn’t around,” began Sammy slowly—“But where’s your -Aunt Sarah?” he suddenly demanded, for he had sharp recollections of how -Miss Maltby had more than once sent him “a-kiting,” as she called it, -when he had been up to some of his mischief. - -“Oh, Aunt Sarah has gone for a ride,” chuckled Tess. “You can tell us, -Sammy. But we’ve got to stay in the kitchen until our cakes are done,” -she added, lest Sammy’s plan involve going afield with the cake batter -still in the oven. - -“Oh, we can have some of the fun right here,” replied Sammy. “I guess -this is the best place for it, anyhow. You sure Mrs. Mac won’t come down -and catch me?” he asked, looking about and cocking his head on one side, -to listen more sharply. - -“No, she and Agnes and Ruth just went upstairs,” reported Tess. “They’ll -be there a long time. Mrs. Mac got the things for us to make the cakes -and told us just how to do it. I’ve made a cake before, but Dot hasn’t,” -and Tess assumed her superior air which moved Dot to exclaim: - -“Well, I’ve eaten cakes, anyhow!” - -“So’ve I!” chuckled Sammy. “And I’m ready to do it again. Well, if -nobody’s coming I’ll show you the fun. Got any raw beefsteak?” he asked, -suddenly. - -“Raw beefsteak?” questioned Dot, wonderingly. - -“Sammy Pinkney, have you got a new dog?” demanded Tess, excitedly. “If -you have——” - -“Naw, I haven’t got a new dog,” declared Sammy. “Maybe I’m goin’ to have -one, though, for Robbie Foote, who delivers groceries for Mrs. Kranz, -the delicatessen lady, says he thinks he knows where he can get me a dog -if my mother’ll let me have it. But I don’t guess she will as long as I -have Buster.” - -“I should think not,” said Tess, with an air of motherly wisdom. - -“But a dog is nice,” said Dot. “And if you had one with a very soft and -shaggy back, Sammy, I’d let my Alice-doll ride on him. Buster’s only a -bulldog and not at all nice. He’s really horrid!” and Dot sniffed a -little. - -“Well, I haven’t got the dog—yet,” Sammy said. - -“Then what do you want the raw beefsteak for?” demanded Tess. - -“For the alligator,” whispered Sammy, as if he feared that Mrs. MacCall, -the Scotch housekeeper, would hear him, even on the top floor of the old -and rambling Corner House. - -“The alligator!” cried Tess. - -“The one we brought you from Plam Island?” demanded Dot. - -“’Tisn’t _Plam_ Island, I tell you!” insisted Sammy. “It’s _Palm_, -and——” - -“I call it _Plam_,” remarked Dot sweetly and with an air of finality. -“But where is he, Sammy—the alligator I mean? He was so cute, even if he -was homely.” - -“I have him outside,” Sammy answered. “I didn’t want to bring him in -until I was sure it was all right. That’s the reason I looked in first -and said ‘hello!’” - -“And nearly made me drop my cake,” sighed Dot. - -“But what about the raw beefsteak?” asked Tess. - -“That’s to make the alligator do the trick,” explained Sammy. - -“What trick?” cried both little girls at once. - -“I’ll show you.” - -Sammy went outside again. Tess and Dot were so eager they could scarcely -await his return, but it was not many minutes before Sammy again made -his appearance with a small box which he put on the kitchen table, -shoving to one side spoons, pans and dishes that had been used with -prodigal extravagance in the making of two very small cakes. - -“Get the beefsteak,” Sammy ordered, with an air of one used to being -obeyed. - -“I’ll get it. There’s some in the ice box,” offered Tess. “But don’t do -the trick until I get back,” she commanded. - -“I won’t,” Sammy promised. - -While Tess went to the pantry Dot knelt in a chair as close to the -mysterious box as she could get. - -“Let me just peek at him until Tess comes back,” she pleaded. “You don’t -need do the trick.” - -Sammy obligingly raised the cover of the box slightly. - -“Oh, Sammy Pinkney, what have you done to the lovely alligator?” cried -Dot, starting back. - -“Keep still! It’s part of the trick,” answered Sammy. - -“Oh, you said you wouldn’t do it while I was gone!” cried Tess -accusingly, as she came in with some shreds of meat and heard the last -words. - -“I didn’t,” declared Sammy. “I was just showing him to Dot. I’ll lift -him out now. Put the meat on the table.” - -“I haggled off one end of a steak,” said Tess. “I hope Mrs. Mac doesn’t -notice it.” - -“If she does,” chuckled Sammy, “tell her one of the cats did it.” - -“There’s plenty of them around, but of course Dot and I don’t tell -fibs,” declared Tess. “Now come on. Do the trick, Sammy.” - -Sammy looked matters over before opening the box. The shreds of meat -that Tess had placed on the table caught his eyes. - -“Don’t leave ’em in such big chunks,” he advised. “Snapper will choke on -’em.” - -“Is that what you call your alligator—Snapper?” asked Tess, as she -proceeded to cut up the meat into smaller bits. She and her sisters had -brought the scaly reptile back with them from Palm Island as a souvenir -for Sammy. - -“Snapper is his name, and my mother says snappish is his nature,” -answered the boy. “But he only snaps when he wants things to eat. I -guess those are all right,” he went on, as he looked at the bits of -steak cut smaller by Tess. - -Then he lifted out onto the table a small, tame alligator, at the sight -of which the two girls broke into exclamations of: - -“Oh, isn’t he cute! How did you ever do it! Oh, he looks just like a -circus alligator!” - -“Maybe I’ll put him in a circus,” said Sammy. “But it wasn’t easy to -dress him up.” - -Sammy had, with the expenditure of much time and (for him) labor, made a -sort of clown suit for the alligator, a little red jacket and green -trousers. The two front legs of the small alligator were thrust through -the sleeves of the red jacket, and the two hind legs stuck out of the -green legs of the trousers. - -“Oh, he’s too funny for anything!” declared Dot. - -“Wait! You haven’t seen half yet!” promised the boy. - -Again he reached into the box he had carried over from his home, which -was catercornered from the Corner House, and this time he lifted out a -small wagon, purchased at the five and ten-cent store. To this vehicle -he had fastened a harness so that Snapper could be hitched to the toy. - -“Oh, isn’t that a darling!” cried Tess in ecstasy. - -“You could have a show with that!” declared Dot. - -“Maybe I will,” said Sammy. “But wait, you haven’t seen it all yet. Wait -till he draws the cart. Keep the meat away from him until I hitch him -up,” he went on. “Once he starts to eating raw steak he won’t pull. I -have to bribe him to do it till he gets better trained. Don’t let him -get the meat, Tess.” - -At what, it would seem, was the risk of having her fingers snapped at, -the girl removed the bits of meat from in front of the little alligator. -Sammy then hitched it to the cart and next, taking a shred of meat, held -it a few inches away from Snapper’s nose. - -Slowly the alligator from “Plam Island” began crawling across the table, -anxious to get the dainty, and, as he crawled, he hauled after him the -toy cart. - -“Oh, that’s perfectly wonderful!” cried Tess. - -“Too cute for anything!” added Dot. “Look, Alice-doll,” she went on, -holding her most-loved “child” up to see. - -“Aw, what does _she_ know about it?” jeered Sammy. - -“My Alice-doll knows more’n you do, Sammy Pinkney, so there!” retorted -Dot. - -Just then there was a noise at the outer kitchen door, and the three -children turned apprehensively, thinking it might be their Aunt Sarah or -Mrs. MacCall. - -“It’s only Billy Bumps,” remarked Sammy, as he caught sight of the goat -entering. Billy was a sort of privileged neighborhood character, but had -Mrs. MacCall been present he never would have entered her clean kitchen. -However, Sammy, Dot and Tess were not so particular. Besides, they were -watching the alligator do his trick with the little cart. - -But peace and quiet was not to reign for long. Billy Bumps, discovering -on a small table in a corner a bit of lettuce, began munching this. His -tail was toward the larger table, on which Snapper was performing, and, -as luck would have it, just then the alligator in his wanderings came to -the edge of the table. The goat’s slightly moving tail was within easy -reach of the jaws. - -Perhaps Snapper might have recognized in the goat’s tail a resemblance -to some dainty he was accustomed to feed on while a resident of Palm -Island. Or perhaps Snapper took the goat’s tail for a new form of -beefsteak, of which he was very fond. - -However that may be, this is what happened. - -Snapper reached forward and, aiming to bite out a generous section of -the goat’s tail, took a firm hold. - -“Baa-a-a-a!” bleated the goat. - -He wheeled around suddenly, and with such force that he swung Snapper -from the table to the floor, the alligator loosening its grip. But Billy -Bumps had been frightened. He also thought he had been mistreated. With -another bleat, in which rage and reproach were mingled, he made a dash -for the door by which he had entered. - -Just as he reached it there entered Robbie Foote with some eggs that -Mrs. Kranz, the “delicatessen lady,” had sent up to the Corner House -from her store. - -“Oh!” gasped Robbie. And again: “Oh!” - -Well might he say that, for the plunging goat took him in the stomach -and down went Robbie. - -Down went the eggs also, in a smash of shells, whites and yellows on the -kitchen floor, and Snapper the alligator, wondering what it was all -about, started to crawl through the mess. - -“Oh,” gasped Tess faintly. - -“Oh dear!” cried Dot, more loudly. - -“This—this—this is fierce!” stuttered Sammy, gazing wildly at the scene -of wreck and confusion. - - - - -CHAPTER II: A QUEER PAIR - - -“Agnes, did you hear anything?” - -“I’m not sure, Ruth, but I did think I heard something in the kitchen, -still——” - -“I shouldn’t have left Dot and Tess there alone to finish making their -cakes, I’m afraid,” went on the oldest of the Corner House girls. “But -they begged and teased so to be allowed to bake something by themselves, -that I gave in against my better judgment. I’m always doing that!” - -“Don’t reproach yourself,” murmured Agnes. “Oh, I’m afraid I’ve broken -one of my nails,” she exclaimed, looking at her well-manicured hands. -“Yes, it _is_ broken!” she sighed. “And I was going to——” - -“Something else besides a fingernail is broken, to judge by the racket -down in the kitchen!” exclaimed Ruth, interrupting her “beauty sister,” -as she sometimes called Agnes. - -Ruth had opened the door of the room in which she and her sister, with -the housekeeper, Mrs. MacCall, had been discussing the advisability of -having it repapered in anticipation of the time when Miss Hastings -should come to visit them, the Boston girl having accepted a very -cordial invitation to stay a few weeks at the Corner House. - -“Something _has_ happened!” declared Ruth, with conviction. - -“Oh, the puir bairns!” exclaimed motherly Mrs. MacCall. “Hech! Hech! -Mayhap the dratted stove hae burned them! Oh, woe is me!” - -“They know better than to get burned,” answered Ruth. “But I think we’d -better go down and see what has happened.” - -“You _think_!” gasped Agnes, looking at her fractured nail. “I just -_know_ we had!” - -Followed by Mrs. MacCall, with her ominous “hech! hech!” the while -mumbling incomprehensible Scotch words, the two sisters hastened down -the stairs. When they caught sight of the kitchen with its mixture of -eggs and alligator, Ruth felt like saying what Sammy had said—with added -adjectives. - -“Oh, what _has_ happened?” cried Agnes. - -“Sammy was doing a trick, Aggie, and—” began Dot. Then she caught sight -of her Alice-doll on the floor with a slowly moving trail of egg yellow, -like lava from a volcano, working toward her, and with a cry sprang to -save her. - -“Trick!” spluttered Robbie Foote, as he arose and wiped some white of -egg from his face. “If you call that a trick——” - -“What’s burning?” asked Ruth. - -“Oh, my cake! My cake!” shouted Tess. - -Mrs. MacCall simply raised her hands in the air. She was beyond speech. - -“This,” said Sammy Pinkney again, “is _fierce_!” - -But it was not always thus in the Corner House. Usually the house was as -quiet and orderly as is the normal household inhabited by four healthy, -happy girls and their friends and playmates. However, this confusion -will serve one good purpose. It will enable me to acquaint my new -readers more formally with the characters who are to play their parts in -this story. - -Bloomingsburg was the former home of the Kenway sisters when you first -met them in the opening volume of this series, called “The Corner House -Girls.” There was a reason for that name, since the quartette came to -live in the Corner House at Milton. A distant relative of the Kenways, -Uncle Peter Stower, had died and left the four orphan girls all his -property. This included the Stower homestead, known far and wide in that -section as the old Corner House. - -Mr. Howbridge, who was named the guardian of the girls, managed matters -for them and saw to it that Ruth, Agnes, Dot and Tess were safely -domiciled in the Corner House. With them came Aunt Sarah Maltby, an old -lady who was rather a trial at times, for she was always afraid -something was going to happen. What this “something” was she never could -be sure of, but it was an ever-present fear. - -However, the looking after the girls devolved more upon stanch Mrs. -MacCall and Uncle Rufus, the devoted colored servant of the late Peter -Stower, so Aunt Sarah did not need to be relied upon. - -Thus Ruth, the oldest, and her three sisters, came to live in the Corner -House, the poverty days in Bloomingsburg being a thing of the past. - -“She might have come along and visited us just as we are, and just as -she was,” complained Ruth. “But I suppose she thought she had to run -back to Boston for more dresses.” - -“That reminds me,” said Agnes thoughtfully, carefully filing her broken -nail. “I suppose we shall need new gowns for the party. Oh, can’t we -afford it, Ruth?” - -“I think so.” And Ruth smiled. “We haven’t been very extravagant, Mr. -Howbridge says.” She referred to their man of affairs. “He says we have -some of our summer allowance left.” - -“Good! Then I’m going to have that voile I’ve wanted so long. And it’s -going to be lavender, too.” - -“I suppose that’s Neale’s favorite color,” remarked Ruth. - -“What if it is? Doesn’t Luke like those pale, neutral tints, and——” - -“I like them myself,” interrupted Ruth demurely, “and I saw the -loveliest shade of—Who are those two men coming in?” she broke off to -ask the housekeeper. - -“Wha’ twa min, dearie?” - -“Those queer-looking ones—like two tramps. I just saw them going around -toward the side entrance. Dot and Tess are on the porch. I don’t want -tramps to frighten them or Linda. I’d better go down and see who they -are. I don’t like their looks.” - -“But we haven’t settled about the paper for Nally’s room!” called Agnes. - -“You settle it with Mrs. Mac,” returned Ruth. “I must see about those -two queer men.” - -Dot and Tess had not long lived in their new home before they made the -acquaintance of Sammy Pinkney, who dwelt catercornered from the Corner -House, and Sammy, Dot and Tess had royal good times together. - -Ruth and Agnes, being older—in fact, Ruth now being quite a young -lady—had more mature friends. Among them might especially be mentioned -Luke Shepard. His name was being coupled with Ruth’s in “quite a -matrimonial manner,” Agnes laughingly remarked, at which Ruth retorted: - -“You needn’t talk! What about Neale O’Neil?” - -Whereat Agnes had the grace to blush. - -Luke Shepard was a young collegian who was more or less at the Corner -House—less when at college and more often during vacation times. Luke -lived with his sister Cecile at Grantham, not many miles away. Their -Aunt Lorena kept house for the young folks. They had a very good -neighbor, and this neighbor had aided Luke in going to college. But now -the young man was helping himself, having become an assistant during his -vacations to a certain Professor Keeps. Often Luke came to Milton, -staying with Neale O’Neil when he did so. - -As for Neale, there was a romantic history connected with him. After -running away from the circus he had lived with the Milton cobbler, and -there was a mystery about his father who had gone to Alaska in search of -gold. There were dark days for Neale until his father came back, not -fabulously rich, but in much better circumstances than when he went -away. - -However, the wanderlust called Mr. O’Neil, and he went away again, -first, however, providing well for his son. Had he wished, Neale might -have had a house of his own, but he continued to live with old but -loving Con Murphy, and he continued, too, to look after many details for -the Kenway girls around their place. That this gave him a chance to see -Agnes more often, may have had something to do with it. - -The Kenway girls made the most delightful friends, and what wonderful -adventures they had is told in the volumes of this series succeeding the -first. These happenings included going to school, camping out, giving a -play, making an odd find, touring, and growing up. Once the four were -snowbound and had a most amazing time, and again they spent a summer on -a houseboat, following which they had a rather “hectic time,” as Agnes -called it, among the Gypsies. - -Their latest adventures had been on Palm Island, or, as Dot insisted on -calling it, “Plam Island,” whither the quartette went because a change -to a warmer climate was needed for their health, severe colds having -been contracted when Ruth and Agnes attended a party on a stormy wintry -day. - -In spite of some very exciting and not altogether happy adventures -related in “The Corner House Girls on Palm Island,” which is the title -of the volume immediately preceding the one you are now reading, the -girls enjoyed their summer vacation. They had been home now about two -weeks, when there occurred the happening set down in the first chapter -of this volume. - -Wishing to bring Sammy Pinkney back some souvenir from Palm Island, an -alligator, not too large, had been selected, though Dot said he had -expressed a preference for a “turkle.” However, the turtles, of which -there was an abundance on Palm Island, were far too large to bring north -and the young alligator had been a compromise. - -That Sammy was delighted with his new pet goes without saying. He even -gave Snapper more attention than Buster, his bulldog, received. Then -Sammy got the idea of dressing up the alligator and of hitching it to a -toy cart. - -“Oh, children! what happened?” cried Ruth, despair in her voice. - -“I—didn’t—drop—those eggs!” declared Robbie, speaking in gasps, for some -yellow was now running into his mouth. “The goat—he butted me.” - -“The goat!” cried Agnes, looking around. - -“He’s gone out now,” said Sammy mildly. “The alligator bit his tail!” - -“The alligator—” Ruth stopped for want of words. - -“Our cakes are burning! Oh, our cakes are burning!” wailed Dot. - -There was a decided odor of too-much-baked cake permeating the kitchen. - -“I’ll take ’em out for ye!” offered Mrs. MacCall. “Oh, ye puir bairns! -Sorrow is the day!” - -“Tess, tell me about it!” commanded Ruth, when the cakes had been -rescued, and only just in time. - -While the mess of eggs was being cleaned from the floor by Linda, the -maid, who had been down in the laundry during the excitement, and when -Sammy had ascertained by close examination that his alligator was -unharmed (though one wheel of the cart was broken), peace and quiet once -more reigned in the Corner House. - -“But don’t ever do anything like that again, Sammy!” cautioned Ruth, -shaking a warning finger at the boy. “If you want to show off your -alligator, do it in the garage.” - -“Yes’m,” mumbled Sammy. - -The three younger children were sent out-of-doors, with some of the -newly baked cakes, and the conference upstairs, as to what kind of paper -should be put on the guest room, was resumed. - -“Nally is so—so particular,” murmured Agnes, “though she is a dear girl. -I’d like her to have a nice room.” They all called Nalbro, Nally now. - - - - -CHAPTER III: DISQUIETING NEWS - - -Ruth Kenway reached the rear porch of the house just as the two queer -men—ragged and dirty they were, too—were starting down the outside -cellar steps. Ruth had noticed that Tess, Dot and Sammy had departed, -probably having gone over to Sammy’s house, so there was no fear that -the children would be frightened by the tramps. And tramps they seemed -to be. - -They were really evil-looking men, and for a moment Ruth hesitated. But -she had not acted as mother to her younger sisters all these years for -nothing. Besides, was not the stout Linda within call and was not Neale -in the garage, working over the car? He could be called in a moment. -Therefore it was with a very cool, calm and collected voice that she -asked: - -“What do you want?” - -“Oh—er—you see, lady——” - -The two men looked up quickly, having been stopped by Ruth’s voice on -the topmost cellar step. The two looked up, but the evidently older, and -certainly the uglier, of the pair, did the talking. - -[Illustration: The two men looked up quickly, having been stopped by -Ruth’s voice.] - -“There’s been—there’s been a leak in the street water main, lady, and -we’ve been sent to look over your pipes,” he mumbled. “We’re from the -water department,” he added. “We just want to make sure your pipes are -all right.” - -He mumbled his words and seemed ill at ease, still Ruth, after hearing -that the men were from the water department, did not pay much attention. -Once before there had been a break in their street, and the water had to -be shut off for a whole day. Ruth remembered this and so said: - -“I hope you don’t have to turn the water off. If you do, wait until I -have the maid draw some.” - -“Oh, I don’t think we’ll have to shut it off, lady,” said the uglier -man, his companion having already disappeared into the black depths of -the cellar. “If we do I’ll let you know.” - -“All right,” Ruth assented as she turned away. It was not uncommon for -the gas man, the one who read the electric meter, and the one who kept -tally of the water meter, to enter the cellar by this rear door -unannounced during the summer when the door was kept open. “The water -turns off up in front,” added the girl, thinking the men might not know -where to find the stop. “But don’t shut it off without letting me know.” - -“No’m,” muttered the spokesman, as he followed his companion. - -Ruth walked through the kitchen, which now, under the powerful -ministrations of Linda, was resuming its wonted neat appearance. - -“What was it, Ruthie?” asked Agnes, coming down with Mrs. MacCall. - -“Just some men from the water department to see about a leak.” - -“They must na shoot it off until I gang away an’ draw some,” protested -the housekeeper. “Linda, lass——” - -“No, they won’t turn it off without telling us,” Ruth assured her. “Now -about the paper—did you settle on a pattern? I want to get the room in -shape for Nally.” - -“I think this is the prettiest,” suggested Agnes, holding out a sample, -one of several the decorator had left. - -“Yes, that will do nicely,” agreed Ruth. “And now—Oh, what about eggs?” -she asked quickly. “I suppose those poor Robbie brought were all -smashed.” - -“A regular omelet!” laughed Agnes. - -“I must telephone Mrs. Kranz for more,” said Ruth. - -“The boy, he have gone after some,” announced Linda. “But he say he hope -he no have to pay for them what is braked, ’cause he——” - -“Of course we wouldn’t think of letting poor Robbie pay for them,” -declared Ruth. “It wasn’t his fault. It was Sammy’s—with the girls’ goat -and his alligator.” - -“As much the fault of Dot and Tess as Sammy,” declared Agnes. “They -shouldn’t have let him turn the kitchen table into a circus ring.” - -“Oh, well,” and Ruth smiled, “I’ll just telephone Mrs. Kranz to put the -second dozen on our bill and not to scold Robbie,” and as she went into -the other room to the telephone, Mrs. MacCall softly observed: - -“Your sister, she thinks of everything, Aggie, my dear! She wauld nae -hae Rabbie scoldit the day.” - -“And quite proper, too. But you are right, Mrs. Mac. Ruth is an angel!” - -When Ruth, unaware of the kind words spoken in her absence, had finished -straightening out the egg matter, Agnes telephoned for the paper hanger -to come and see about redecorating the room Miss Hastings was to occupy -during her stay. There were to be other guests at the house party, which -was to last at least a week, but the Boston girl was the one over whom -the most “fuss” was made. - -“We want to give her a good impression of us,” said Agnes. - -“Oh, it isn’t exactly that,” declared Ruth. “She isn’t a bit haughty and -stand-offish, as we at first supposed.” - -“And since she has her new teeth and talks like a human being I adore -her!” declared Agnes. “But that room needed papering anyhow. Now let’s -talk about our dresses. I wish we could get some one besides Ann Titus -to make them.” - -“But she’s the best one in Milton, and she needs the money,” said Ruth, -gently. - -“I know, but she does talk so! If she’s working here and we happen to -have corned beef and cabbage for dinner—as we do sometimes—it’s known -all over Milton next day.” - -“Yes, she does talk a lot. But—well, we’ll see about it. Have you -invited Cecile, Agnes?” - -“Of course. Think I’d forget her? I put her invitation in with Luke’s.” - -“Oh—” Ruth blushed a little. - -“Didn’t you expect to have him come?” demanded the “beauty sister.” - -“Oh, yes, he might drop in——” - -_“Drop_ in, my dear! He’ll _fly_ in at the least opportunity. It’s my -firm belief that he has Linda subsidized!” - -“What do you mean?” - -“I mean he bribes her to keep him posted about goings on here, and -whenever we have the least bit of festivity Luke arranges his college -schedule so he can get time off—make cuts, you know—so as to be here. Of -course he only comes to see Neale,” and Agnes tilted her pretty nose -into the air. - -Ruth laughed, evidently not ill pleased with her sister’s declaration. - -“As for Neale,” went on Agnes, “I’m afraid we’ll keep him pretty busy -acting as chauffeur. Nally is sure to want to drive around a lot, and -there are many pretty places here that we can motor to.” - -“Neale likes to be busy,” said Ruth. “After all, he’s a nice boy, -rather.” - -“I rather like him,” coolly admitted Agnes. “But there’s one thing—he’s -never silly. He never tries to hold your hand——” - -“When you don’t want him to!” finished the other sister, with a laugh. -“Well, all foolishness aside, we must begin to make our plans for the -house party. I do hope everything will go off nicely.” - -“Oh, I’m sure it will,” declared Agnes. “And when——” - -She was interrupted by a crash down in the cellar. - -“That sounds as if something went off the swinging shelf!” she -exclaimed. “Some of Mrs. Mace’s preserves——” - -“Those men!” cried Ruth. - -“What men?” - -“The water men who went down some time ago. I forgot all about them. -Maybe they stumbled over something in the dark. I’ll send Uncle Rufus -down to see about it.” - -Uncle Rufus was summoned from the garage where he had gone to do some -polishing on the car which Neale had left temporarily, to go down town -for some part that needed replacing. - -“Yes’m, Missie Ruth, what is it, please?” asked the faithful old colored -man as he bowed his way in. - -“Uncle Rufus, two men from the water department went down into the -cellar about an hour ago to see about a leak,” explained Ruth. “They -must be there yet, for Agnes and I just heard a noise. I wish you’d see -if they’re all right and haven’t broken anything.” - -“All right, yes’m, missie, I’ll look after ’em.” - -Rufus shuffled away, and the sisters, resuming their talk about the -coming party, soon heard him returning, muttering to himself the while. -In a moment he appeared before the two girls. - -“Did they go, Uncle Rufus?” asked Ruth. - -“Yes’m, they done went all right.” - -“Just now?” - -“No’m, they was leavin’ when I went down.” - -“Did they find the leak?” - -“’Deed an’ I doan know ’bout dat, Miss Ruth. Dey went out in such a -hurry when I walked in dat dey didn’t say what dey done found.” - -“Did they break anything, Uncle Rufus?” demanded Agnes. - -“No’m, Ah couldn’t see dat dey did. De swing shelf—whut yo’ spoke -’bout—dat was all right, an’ de preserves. I couldn’t see whut dey done. -But dey sho’ was a queer couple!” - -“What do you mean—queer couple?” asked Ruth quickly. - -“Well, I means dat dey went off in such a hasty way, an’ dey didn’t say -if dey saw any leak or nuffin’.” - -“I guess they didn’t, or they would have told us to shut off the water,” -commented Ruth. “As for being queer—certainly they looked like tramps, -but I don’t suppose men who have to burrow in trenches and sewers all -day long can be spick and span. I’m glad there’s no leak, however. That -will be all, Uncle Rufus.” - -“Thank-ee, Miss Ruth. I wants to git de automobubble shined up ’fo -Mistah Neale gits back,” and out he shuffled. - -“I hope nothing goes wrong with the water pipes when we have company,” -remarked Agnes. “It would be very inconvenient.” - -“Yes, it would. We’ll have the plumber come over to make sure there -isn’t a leak. Those men didn’t look any too intelligent. I wonder how -they ever got their job.” - -It was later in the afternoon, when Neale O’Neil came to the house to -announce that the car was now in running order again, that Agnes called -to him: - -“Neale, did you hear anything about a break in the street water main -while you were down town?” - -“No, I didn’t,” he answered. “What is it, a joke? If it is I’ll bite. Go -on, what’s the answer?” - -“It isn’t a joke,” said Ruth, and she detailed the visit of the two -strange men. - -“Hum,” mused Neale. “That’s rather odd. There hasn’t been any leak up -this way or the street gang would have been out. I’ll take a look down -cellar myself.” - -He did, with the result that he came up shaking his head. - -“What’s the matter?” inquired Ruth. - -“There isn’t a sign of a leak or a break down there,” the boy replied. -“Those men must have gotten in the wrong house. But I know one of the -water commissioners and I’ll ask him about it this afternoon. I have to -go to the town hall to see about something else.” - -That evening, when Neale dropped in, as he often did, and Luke had -telephoned to say that he and his sister were in town and were going to -call, Ruth remembered to ask him about the two strange men. - -“Were they from the water department, Neale?” she wanted to know. - -“Who, those fakers?” asked the youth. - -“Fakers?” repeated Agnes. “Were they——” - -“They weren’t from the water commissioner’s office at all,” declared -Neale. “He hasn’t had any men out for a week looking for leaks, for -there haven’t been any. They were just plain tramps, in my opinion.” - -“Tramps!” gasped Ruth. “Why should tramps spend so much time in our -cellar? Oh, Neale——” - -“Maybe they’re planning to rob the house!” came in strident tones from -Sammy Pinkney, who was sitting in a corner with Dot and Tess. “Maybe -they’re burglars!” - - - - -CHAPTER IV: IN A HURRY - - -Dot Kenway gave a long-drawn-out cry of “Ohoo-oo-oo!” and clasped her -Alice-doll more closely in her arms. Tess looked over her shoulder and -snuggled farther back into the corner. Agnes glanced up from a low chair -where she was polishing her nails, and Ruth uttered sharply: - -“Don’t talk nonsense, Sammy!” - -“Well,” demanded the boy, ready to defend his opinion, “if they weren’t -burglars, who were they?” - -“Stop it, Sammy Pinkney!” demanded Tess. “Don’t you see you’re scaring -Dot?” - -“Maybe you’re scared, too,” suggested Sammy. - -“I am not!” - -“You are so!” - -“I am not!” - -“Children!” warned Ruth. “Please be quiet. And, Sammy, don’t say such -things.” - -“Well, s’posin’ they was the truth?” - -“They couldn’t be! Those men weren’t burglars at all.” - -“Who were they then?” and Sammy triumphantly waited for the answer. -“Neale says they weren’t from the water department, and I just know they -are burglars and they came in the cellar to look around and see the -easiest way to break in to-night.” - -“Cut it out, young man!” ordered Neale. “They were tramps, very likely, -looking for something to eat, and when they couldn’t find it they -quietly went away. They said they were from the water department because -that was the first thing they thought of. Very likely, at the next -house, they’ll say they’re from the fire department.” - -“That would be funny!” laughed Tess. “Fire and water.” - -And with her laugh the strain they had all been under when Neale gave -the disquieting news, that the strange men were not what they claimed to -be, seemed dispelled. - -The feeling did not wholly disappear, however, for Agnes said later that -she thought there might be a good deal of truth in what Sammy said, and -that the men did have some idea they might rob the house. - -Dot, too, needed more than a laugh to fully dispel her fears, and this -was evidenced a little later when she was observed to be walking around -the room, as if looking for something. - -“What is it, Dot?” inquired Ruth, glancing at the clock to see if it -were time to send Sammy home and put the smaller children to bed, for -Luke and his sister were expected soon. - -“I’m looking for a good place to hide my Alice-doll,” answered Dot. - -“Why don’t you take her to bed with you as you always do?” Agnes wanted -to know. - -“Because those burglars might come in and I don’t want them in my room,” -Dot replied. “And I don’t want them to take my Alice-doll, either.” - -“Oh, don’t be silly!” burst out Agnes. - -“’Tisn’t silly!” declared Dot. “And Tess is going to hide her doll, too; -aren’t you, Tess?” She appealed to her sister who, though not as -passionately devoted to her dolls as was Dot to Alice, still had some -that she cared something about. - -“I was going to hide them,” confessed Tess. - -“Nonsense!” exclaimed Ruth. “Go to sleep and forget all about the men. -They were, as Neale says, just tramps. Uncle Rufus will lock up well, -and nothing will disturb you children, or your dolls either. You must go -to bed soon.” - -“Well, I’m going to hide my Alice-doll,” declared Dot, and she finally -found a place behind the piano that seemed safe. - -“If you want me to,” said Sammy, with an ingratiating voice, “I could -come over and stay all night with you.” - -“Thanks, but why should you?” asked Neale, winking one eye at Agnes. - -“Well, in case burglars did get in,” answered Sammy, “I could shoot off -the gun.” - -“What gun?” - -“My father’s got a shotgun,” went on the boy, “and I could go over home -and get it. I could bring Billy Bumps into the house, too! He’d butt the -rob—tramps!” - -“Don’t!” cried Ruth, with a laugh. “We’ve had enough of the goat in the -house for one day!” - -“Still, a good healthy goat wouldn’t be a bad weapon to turn against a -burglar,” remarked Neale reflectively. “If Billy Bumps would only go at -a midnight visitor in the same manner that he attacked Robbie Foote with -the eggs, there’d be less for the police to do.” - -“Do you want me to get the gun and the goat?” asked Sammy, anxiously. - -“Thank you—no!” laughed Ruth. “And, Sammy, I don’t want to be impolite, -but your mother said to send you home at eight o’clock, and it’s five -minutes past now.” - -“Aw, shucks!” exclaimed Sammy. “That ain’t late!” - -“It is for you,” said Ruth kindly. “Run along, Sammy.” - -“Then you don’t want me to fight the burglars with your old goat and -pa’s gun?” - -“Not to-night, thank you.” - -“And don’t bring the alligator over again, either,” added Agnes. - -Rather reluctantly Sammy prepared to depart, and after Dot and Tess had -hidden their dolls and some other choice possessions, they were sent -upstairs to bed in care of Mrs. MacCall. - -“And don’t tell them any Scotch ghost stories,” cautioned Ruth. “They’re -on edge now, as it is, with what that irrepressible Sammy said about -burglars.” - -“Nae, nae! I’ll nae tell them anything excitin’,” promised the motherly -old soul. - -“Oh, my!” suddenly exclaimed Agnes, as the door bell rang after Ruth had -returned from seeing Sammy off and Dot and Tess upstairs to bed. “Oh!” -and she sprang up so abruptly that her nail buffer bounced half-way -across the room. - -“Well, what’s getting into you?” demanded Neale, with a laugh, as he -picked up the part of the manicure set and restored it to Agnes, making -good an opportunity to hold her hand while Ruth went to see who was at -the door, calling back: - -“It’s probably Luke and Cecile!” - -And it was. Ruth led them back into the living-room in time to hear -Agnes saying to Neale: - -“Stop! Stop it, I say! Aren’t you silly!” - -Agnes had rather a red face, but if Luke noticed that Neale’s hair was a -bit tumbled, the young collegian said nothing about it. - -“Oh, we’ve had such a fright!” exclaimed Agnes, after greeting the -visitors. - -“Fright?” repeated Cecile, questioningly. - -“Yes. Two strange men got in the cellar——” - -“Oh, they didn’t _get_ in at all, in the way you think Agnes means,” -Ruth was quick to explain. “I saw them go in,” and she told the story, -including what Neale had discovered to the effect that the men had told -false stories about themselves. - -“I dare say it doesn’t amount to anything,” suggested Luke easily. “And -it might well be that some assistant in the water department had engaged -two laborers in a hurry and forgot to give them any credentials, or -report their names. I wouldn’t worry.” - -“Oh, we aren’t,” declared Ruth. “We have enough other things to think -about. I do hope you two haven’t made up your minds definitely that you -can’t be here for our house party all through its duration. Nally is -coming. - -“We want you over as often as either of you can make it, at any rate, -for we will give several small and early affairs to entertain Nally,” -she went on, after Cecile and Luke had assured her that neither of them -would be able to spend the whole time of Nally’s visit with the Corner -House girls. - -“Aunt Lorena needs me,” explained Cecile. “But Professor Keeps is not -keeping Luke quite so busy now, and you will have more of him, I think.” - -The young people sat about and talked such talk as only young folks -indulge in without any harmful after effects, and then they played a -game, with more regard to fun than to the strict rules the game called -for. - -“Well, Neale, I suppose you’re getting ready for the grind soon,” -remarked Luke, after the game and while Ruth gave the word for Linda to -bring in some simple refreshments. - -“Meaning high school?” - -“That’s it.” - -“Yes, I’ll be getting back in a few weeks now.” - -“I do hope you won’t be so busy but what you can run our car -occasionally,” suggested Agnes. “I’d feel lost without you at the wheel, -Neale.” - -“Oh, I’ll be there,” he promised. - -“We shall have to give Nally a good time,” said Ruth, “and I was -planning two or three picnics. You’ll come, won’t you, Cecile?” she -asked, but she looked at Luke. - -“Yes, if I can. I don’t know how much time brother can spare from his -work, but——” - -“You leave it to brother!” chuckled Luke, with a meaning look at Neale. -“I haven’t been with Professor Keeps all summer for nothing. I learned -more than he thought I did.” - -The evening passed pleasantly, and when the time came for Neale, Luke -and Cecile to depart, the two young men insisted on going around the -house to make sure all outer doors were securely fastened. - -“Oh, it’s silly to think those men could be anything more than -unfortunate, ignorant tramps,” insisted Ruth. - -“Yes, perhaps,” said Luke in a low voice. “But, my dear—” and how -naturally the words came to him—“we mustn’t take any chances.” - -And Ruth treasured that “we,” for a long time. - -Somewhat to the disappointment of Tess and Dot, and to the expressed -chagrin of Sammy, the Corner House was not robbed that night. Not a -sight or sound of intruders marred the rest of the girls, and even Dot -laughed as she pulled her Alice-doll from behind the piano. - -“Well, Agnes,” remarked Ruth, when the household had settled into its -usual calm routine, “shall we go down town and see Miss Ann Titus?” - -“About our dresses? Oh, I suppose so. But don’t say a word about those -two men!” - -“Oh, of course not! There is no need of its being known all over the -neighborhood, and I know what Ann Titus is as well as you do. Mum is the -word, as Neale would say.” - -The girls found Miss Titus, as usual, with a mouth full of pins, as she -draped a dress on one of the forms in her little house. But even the -pins in her mouth did not prevent the village dressmaker from talking: - -“So glad you came in. I have some of the loveliest new patterns and -ideas, straight from Paris, my dears! You know they’re wearing fuller -and longer skirts now, and——” - -“No extreme styles, if you please, Miss Titus,” said Ruth, firmly. - -“Oh, I know, my _dear_. You were always _so_ preservative, and I quite -apprehend what you mean. At the same time if a dress isn’t the least bit -_chick_ nowadays, it is sort of pass, don’t you think?” - -The girls could hardly keep their faces straight during this -mispronunciation of French words and misapplication of English ones. -Poor Ann Titus had not formerly been this way, but since a new -dressmaker had started a place in Milton, Miss Titus thought it -necessary to adopt for herself what she considered a French style, and -some of what she thought were their mannerisms, while she had the plate -on her door changed from the word “_Dressmaker_,” to the foreign one -_“Modes_.” - -However, she was a good soul, if gossipy, and as long as Ruth and Agnes -knew her failing they were on their guard. - -They were in the midst of a discussion over materials and patterns when -Ruth, happening to look from an open window near the street, saw two men -passing. - -“There they are now!” she cried, before she thought. She sprang from her -chair to go to the door, but her voice carried more plainly than she had -intended, and the men, hearing it, looked at her and then started off -down the street on the run. - -Agnes followed her sister. - -“Do you mean those two men who were in our cellar?” she cried. - -“Hush! Yes,” whispered Ruth. But Miss Titus had heard. - - - - -CHAPTER V: VISITORS ARRIVE - - -The dressmaker literally “pricked up her ears,” for as Agnes told Neale -later, they actually seemed to rise on her head as she heard the girls -mention the mysterious men. - -“What’s that?” exclaimed Miss Titus. “Have those men done something?” - -“Not that we know of,” answered Ruth, making a signal to her sister not -to say anything. - -“But you seemed so startled on beholding them,” went on the dressmaker, -“that I should impend it might mean something.” - -“Oh, nothing at all,” Ruth made haste to say, wanting to laugh, but not -daring to when Miss Titus used “impend” so incorrectly. “I just thought -I had seen them before, but perhaps I was mistaken.” - -This was true enough. She was not absolutely sure that these were the -same men she had seen entering the cellar. But she had a pretty clear -conviction that they were, else why should they have made such haste to -get away when they heard her voice? Agnes, of course, had not viewed the -men—that is, Ruth thought she had not—so she could not be expected to -remember them. - -“Well, of all things—” began Ann Titus, and the girls thought they were -going to be made the victims of her gossiping tongue when she -unexpectedly swung the suspicions into another channel that suited Ruth -and Agnes. For Miss Titus said: “Maybe they’re some of those men from -Palm Island who were after turtles. They may have come here to sell -turtles or their eggs.” - -“Oh, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised!” exclaimed Ruth, adapting her mind -to Ann Titus’ and again signaling to Agnes to fall in with this new turn -of the talk. As a matter of fact, nothing the turtle men could do would -have been a surprise to a mind like Ann Titus’. The story of the Corner -House girls’ stay on Palm Island was well known in Milton by this time, -and the actions of the turtle-fishers had been well spread so that Miss -Titus, among others, knew of the doings of those men. - -“Well, if they pester you to buy their condiments—rather unpleasant I -should think, turtles’ eggs, myself—” said the dressmaker, “why don’t -you tell the police?” - -“I think we shall,” decided Ruth. “It isn’t really anything at all,” and -she tried to make her voice sound casual, for if Miss Titus had the -least suspicion of a secret, or something mysterious, she would never -rest until she fathomed it—or thought she had. And, in either case, she -would have gossiped about it. - -But, fortunately for Ruth and Agnes, she accepted the version of turtle -gatherers—a conclusion she herself had leaped at—and because the new -dresses were to be something out of the ordinary, there was something -else to occupy what little mind Miss Titus had and, in consequence, the -incident passed off rather well. - -“But I was in mortal terror lest she begin asking a lot of questions we -couldn’t very well answer,” said Agnes, when they were on their way -home. - -“So was I,” admitted Ruth. “And it’s just as well to let her suppose -those were turtle gatherers. Everybody in town has been talking about -them, and Ann Titus won’t gain many listeners when she begins speaking -of them.” - -“But they weren’t the turtle men,” said Agnes, laughing. “What do you -suppose put that in Ann’s head? But I wish we knew who these two men -were.” - -“Yes,” agreed Ruth. “I, too, wish I knew who they were.” - -“Does it worry you, Ruth?” her sister asked anxiously. - -“A little—yes,” the older sister was forced to admit. “Oh, of course I -know there’s no danger with Uncle Rufus, Linda and Mrs. MacCall with us; -and yet——” - -“Why don’t you add Neale and Luke?” inquired Agnes, with a laugh. -“They’ll be with us—more or less—principally more I hope—until after -this house party.” - -“Well, since you have named them, I am glad they are going to be -around,” conceded Ruth. “Not that I fear anything will happen, but I -don’t like the way those men acted. Why, they might be lunatics!” - -“They didn’t act at all, according to what Uncle Rufus said,” retorted -Agnes. - -“No, and that’s just the trouble,” went on Ruth. “If they had done -something while down cellar—if they had dug up a place to find a leak, -if they had tightened the pipes, anything to show that they were what -they claimed to be, it wouldn’t be so mysterious. But now it looks as if -they just went in there, as Sammy said, to look for an easy means of -entering the house after dark.” - -“Ruth Kenway, don’t dare say such things!” cried her sister. - -“I know it seems a scary thing to say, and perhaps I am foolish for -mentioning it,” sighed Ruth. “I know I’d shake Sammy if he spoke of it -again, but I can’t help thinking it, Agnes.” - -“Do you suppose we had better tell Mr. Howbridge?” asked her sister, -pausing at the corner of a street that led to the office of their -guardian. - -“Gracious, no!” exclaimed Ruth. “He would only laugh at us.” - -“What are you going to do then?” demanded Agnes. “I hope you aren’t -following those two men you saw from Miss Titus’ window! If you are——” - -She paused and drew back. - -“Of course not!” answered Ruth. “But I’m going to mention it to Neale -and Luke.” - -Upon inquiry they learned that Cecile had been called home by her aunt, -but Luke was still staying with Neale. - -Those two youths, however, did not attach much importance to what Ruth -told them. - -“They might have been the same men,” Neale admitted. “But as long as -they haven’t been back in your cellar it doesn’t mean anything. Very -likely they are tramps, pretending to look for work. I’ll speak to the -policeman whose beat takes in your house.” - -“I wish you would,” said Ruth. - -There were now busy days at the Corner House. But a few weeks remained -of the summer vacation, and the girls wanted to make the most of it, -Tess and Dot especially. Nor were Luke and Neale unaware of the flight -of the glorious summer time. For though Luke was anxious to complete his -college course, and Neale his high-school studies, that he might get in -the honored class with Luke, neither youth was so abnormal as to wish -for the end of vacation. - -“Especially,” remarked Neale to Luke, “when we’re going to have such -good times next week.” - -“Yes, we do have good times at the Corner House,” admitted Luke, looking -off in the distance but seeing nothing. “She certainly is a wonderful -girl!” - -And he sighed. - -“She sure is!” agreed Neale. - -And he sighed. - -But they were not both sighing for the same girl. - -The room which Nalbro Hastings was to occupy had been repapered and -looked “darling,” according to Agnes, who almost wished she had taken it -for herself. “And maybe I will after she goes,” she added. Mrs. Judy -Roach had been at the Corner House nearly every day for a week, helping -Mrs. MacCall and Linda get things spick and span in preparation for the -house party, and there had been almost endless baking, Mrs. MacCall -insisting on making some Scotch scones in honor of the visitors. - -Two days before Miss Hastings was expected, Ruth, with a letter in her -hand, sought out Agnes. - -“Agnes,” began Ruth, “I want to consult you about something.” - -“Don’t tell me Nally isn’t coming!” - -“Oh, no, it isn’t that. But we need another boy to make this a -successful affair.” - -“Another boy?” inquired Agnes. “Well, there’s Sammy Pinkney.” - -“Don’t be silly! You know what I mean—some one for Nally.” - -“I thought Luke was supposed to look after her,” and Agnes pretended to -be busily examining a certain pink nail. - -“Not any more than Neale is,” retorted Ruth pointedly, to which Agnes -added: - -“Just let me catch him at it!” - -“What I was going to say,” went on Ruth, “is that if we had another -young man it would even matters up, and when we went out with Neale in -the car——” - -“Oh, I see!” interrupted Agnes, with a ringing laugh, “six is a half -dozen and five isn’t. If Cecile was coming we’d need two young men. -Well, ask some young man for Nally. You have my permission.” - -“I have asked somebody,” said Ruth calmly. - -“You have? Who?” And Agnes sat up with a jerk, her eyes wide open. - -“He’s a friend of Nally’s,” went on Ruth. “He lives near her in the Back -Bay section and his name is Hal Dent.” - -“Hurray for Hal Dent!” cried Agnes, until Ruth, placing her hand over -her sister’s lips, bade her be silent. “But it’s pretty late to be -asking visitors,” went on Agnes. “He’ll never get here in time to trot -Nally around if you’re only just now writing to him.” - -“Oh, this is his answer saying he’ll come,” said Ruth, passing the -missive to her sister. - -“Well of all things!” drawled Agnes. “Doing all that—inviting a strange -young man and never saying a word to me!” - -“I wasn’t sure he would come,” Ruth said. “After I thought it over and -remembered to have heard Nally mention this Hal Dent, I thought it best -to ask him. I told him Nally was going to spend about two weeks with us, -and suggested that he might like to run over. I said we could put him -up.” - -“Did you say put him up, or put up _with_ him?” mocked Agnes. - -“You know what I mean,” said Ruth. “Anyhow, he’s coming and we’ll have -to get another room ready.” - -“Well, I’m glad he’s coming,” said Agnes. “It will be another defender -for the house when those strange men attempt to break in,” and though -she laughed gayly there was another reason why she was glad Hal was -coming. - -Nalbro Hastings was altogether too fascinating to be turned loose into a -company where there were three young ladies and but two young men. In -other words the “balance of trade,” to use a business term, was now more -even. - -And perhaps Ruth had a thought for herself as well as for Agnes and -Neale, since she had seen Luke, more than once, looking admiringly at -the Boston girl. - -“There, she’s as shiny as a new dishpan from the five and ten-cent -store!” announced Neale, as he put the finishing touches to the Kenway -automobile, two days later. - -“And we’d better start,” suggested Ruth. “We don’t want Nally to have to -come up in a taxicab.” - -“Especially the kind of taxicabs at the Milton station,” laughed Agnes. -“Will Hal be on the same train?” - -“He said he would,” Ruth answered. - -“I wonder what he’s like.” - -A little later Miss Hastings, followed by the devoted Hal, alighted, the -youth burdened with Nally’s bag as well as his own. - -“Oh, Nally! So glad to see you!” - -“It seems an age since we said good-by! How are you?” - -“Oh, perfectly fine!” All traces of Nalbro’s lisping had vanished. - -“You look splendid.” - -“Like a nectarine!” chimed in Neale. - -“Oh, hello, Neale! I didn’t see you!” called Nally. - -“No, I didn’t think you’d recognize me without my mustache!” retorted -the high-school lad, with a chuckle. - -“I knew I’d be glad to see you,” remarked Agnes, “but didn’t know until -you got here how really and awfully glad I’d be. And this is——?” - -“Oh, Hal, pardon me,” said Nally quickly. “Allow me——” - -The presentations were made amid laughter, and then the visitors were -carried off to the Corner House where, though the girls knew it not, a -mystery remained to be solved. - - - - -CHAPTER VI: WITCHES AND WARLOCKS - - -There were whisperings in the “cubby hole” beneath the front stairs. -This was a favorite conspiring place for Tess and Dot, and the two small -Kenway girls were even now in that retreat, lowering their voices so -they would not be heard by Ruth and Agnes. - -But there was small danger of this, for the older Corner House girls -were preparing to entertain their two Boston guests that evening by -inviting in other friends to meet Nally and Hal. - -And, be it known, Tess and Dot were preparing to do some “entertaining” -on their own account. Hence the whispers and the hiding away in the -cubby hole. - -“We’d better tell Sammy about it,” suggested Dot. “He’ll know best what -things to do to s’prise ’em.” - -“Well, maybe,” agreed Tess reluctantly. - -“We could borrow Sammy’s alligator to make everybody remember about Plam -Island,” went on Dot. - -“’Tisn’t _Plam_—” began Tess, but she stopped, for she, as well as the -others, had begun to realize that it was of no use to correct Dot in -this respect. To her it was “Plam Island,” and it always would be so. - -“Yes, we can get Sammy’s alligator,” agreed Tess, falling in with the -scheme of her younger sister. “But all it can do is to walk around the -room drawing the little cart. Sammy’s trained it to do that very well. -But there isn’t anything very _exciting_ about that.” - -Tess, be it known, liked excitement. - -“Well, maybe Sammy can think up some other way to have fun,” said Dot. -“We’ll go ask him, and if they don’t let us come in to their old party -we’ll have one of our own.” - -“I guess they’re not going to let us in,” remarked Tess, as they crawled -from the dark closet beneath the stairs. “I heard Ruth tell Mrs. Mac to -set some places for us up in the playroom. Pooh! It isn’t any fun for us -to eat ice cream and cake up there all alone when they’re having loads -and loads of fun down here.” - -“No, it isn’t,” agreed Dot. “There, Alice-doll, don’t you cry,” she -added, as she soothed the pretend child she carried in her arms. “You’re -going to come to the party all right.” - -“Are you going to take her along over to Sammy’s?” inquired Tess. - -“Take my Alice-doll? Of course!” cried Dot, for they were now out on the -side porch. “You’d cry, wouldn’t you, Alice-doll, if I left you behind?” - -“She’ll only be in the way, and Sammy doesn’t like dolls,” went on Tess. -Sometimes the solicitude of Dot for the Alice-doll rather got on Tess’s -nerves—or she would so have expressed it had she been a little older. - -“Oh, all right,” assented Tess, after a brief pause, “bring her along,” -and she assumed the resigned air she had sometimes noticed in Agnes when -Ruth insisted on something being done in a certain correct way. - -“Did bad sister Tess want me to leave you home, Alice-doll?” crooned -Dot, as they walked across the street, catercornered, to Sammy’s house. -“Well, I just wouldn’t!” - -Tess and Dot found Sammy on his back porch, in the sun, busy feeding -bits of meat to the pet alligator. - -“Look how big he’s getting!” cried the boy proudly. “I guess maybe by -next summer he’ll be big enough to hitch to my regular express wagon and -he can draw me around.” - -“Oh, that would be scrumptious!” cried Dot, clapping her hands. “Could I -ride with you, Sammy?” - -“Sure!” - -“Hum!” murmured Tess, as she smoothed out her dress. “I think it would -look very queer, and maybe you would be arrested.” - -“Arrested for what?” scoffed Sammy. “Not for speedin’, that’s sure. -Snapper can’t go very fast.” - -“Well, maybe you’d be arrested for _something_,” declared Dot, ready now -to agree with Tess. “I don’t know what. But it’s _something_.” - -“Maybe she means cruelty to animals, like that Italian banana peddler -who was arrested once,” suggested Tess. - -“Aw, a alligator isn’t an animal!” declared Sammy. “Anyhow, I wouldn’t -be cruel to him. Why, I keep feedin’ him meat all the while. He has it -easy!” - -And certainly the alligator from Palm Island did seem to fare very well -in Sammy’s care. After he had eaten some of the meat, Snapper was -hitched to the little cart and drew it about the porch. Dot was finally -persuaded to entrust her Alice-doll to the small wagon, and the girls -and Sammy laughed in delight as they saw the alligator pulling her about -the porch. - -“This is what we came over about,” explained Tess, when Snapper was -allowed to eat some meat scraps in peace. “There’s going to be a party -over at our Corner House to-night. There’s going to be ice cream and -cake and lemonade.” - -“Oh, boy!” murmured Sammy, rubbing his stomach. “Am I coming?” he -suddenly demanded, realizing that, so far, he had not been invited. - -“Of course you are,” declared Tess. “And we want you to make some fun. -Can you do something exciting, Sammy, when that girl from Boston is -there, and her fellah?” - -“I love to hear her scream,” said Dot. “To-day she screamed when she saw -a caterpillar on the walk.” - -“What can you do exciting, Sammy?” eagerly asked Tess. - -“He could make a tic-tac and put it on the window,” suggested Dot. - -“That isn’t exciting!” scoffed the boy. “It wouldn’t scare even your -Aunt Sarah.” - -“It used to scare me,” confessed Dot. - -“But we want something new,” stipulated Tess. “Can you think of -something like—like a ghost, Sammy?” - -“Oh, _a ghost_!” shrilly whispered Dot. - -“Not a _real_ ghost, of course,” went on Tess. “There aren’t any. But a -make-believe ghost, Sammy. Could you make one?” - -Sammy thought long and deeply—at least for him. Then he clapped his -hands and cried: - -“I have it! The very thing!” - -“What?” demanded the girls. - -Then they put their heads together and whispered. - -“Where are the children?” asked Ruth of Agnes, a little later, when they -were both down in the kitchen, making arrangements with Mrs. MacCall and -Linda about the serving of refreshments at the little affair that -evening. It was the first of some informal gatherings to entertain -Nalbro Hastings and Hal Dent. - -“The bairns?” repeated the Scotch housekeeper. “I think they have gang -awa’.” - -“Where?” asked Ruth. - -“Sammy’s hame. Hech! Hech! An’ I’m not so sure but what they’ll be up to -mischief foreby.” - -“Oh, well, if they’re with Sammy they’re all right,” said Agnes. - -“You never can tell,” remarked Ruth. - -But when she had taken a look, and made sure that the three youngsters -were on Sammy’s porch, she worried no longer, but devoted herself to the -business on hand. However, if she could have heard the plotting and -planning, Ruth might have not been so easy in her mind. - -Neale stopped the Kenway car on the drive and leaped out, carrying -several packages. - -“There, I think I have everything,” he announced. “Except perhaps rings -for the lady-fingers.” - -“Did you order the ice cream?” asked Ruth. - -“It’ll be here on the dot!” answered Neale. “And I doubt not a portion -of it will be inside our Dot,” he added, with a laugh. - -“A wretched pun,” scoffed Agnes. “If that’s a sample of what you are -going to work off on us this evening——” - -“Oh, I’ve some a lot better than that!” boasted Neale. “Has Luke been -over?” he inquired. - -“No,” answered Ruth. “And that reminds me—we must ask some one for -Cecile.” - -“Only one person you dare ask for her,” laughed Agnes. “Telephone and -tell her loving garage man, Gene Barrows, to come, Neale. Maybe he’ll -bring her over in a car.” - -“I will,” he promised, for the devotion to Cecile of this red-haired, -but most excellent, young man was well known, and they had been engaged -for some time. - -“Well, I guess everything is all ready then,” remarked Ruth. “But we had -better go over some matters again, Agnes, to make sure.” - -“Oh, I can’t!” cried the younger sister. “I’m sure it will be all right. -I’m going riding a little with Neale.” - -She ran down the porch and took her place beside the high-school lad. - -“You don’t mind, do you, Ruthie?” she asked pleadingly. - -“Oh, no, go ahead. I can manage. Everything is practically done, anyhow. -But make sure about the ice cream while you’re down town.” - -“We will,” promised Neale. - -“Ruth takes everything so seriously,” said Agnes, as the car was rolling -down the street. - -“Yes, she does,” admitted Neale. “But maybe it’s a good thing. Luke’s -the same way.” - -“They’re a good match,” assented Agnes, with a mischievous glance at -Neale, but when he slid his hand along the seat toward her rosy palm she -laughed and, extending a finger, asked: - -“Did you see anything of our cow down that way?” - -“No. But I see a pretty, saucy girl, and I don’t have to look very far, -either,” retorted Neale, a bit put out. Thereupon Agnes kindly patted -his hand that was firm on the steering wheel. - -Nally and Hal Dent, who had been strolling afield, came home just before -supper time. - -“Oh, Ruth, you are going to so much trouble on our account!” protested -the Boston girl, when she saw how prettily, if simply, the rooms of the -Corner House were arranged. - -“I love to do it,” Ruth said, and she really did. Giving pleasure to -others was her own chief source of happiness. - -In the evening the little affair was in full swing. Ruth thought it -rather strange that Tess and Dot did not protest more when told that -they must have their refreshments served in their playroom upstairs. But -they had gained a point in having Sammy invited to the party, and Ruth -thought perhaps this accounted for their unnatural submissiveness. - -But mischief was brewing. - -Linda had been sent up to the room of the children with sufficiently -generous portions of ice cream and cake, and downstairs there was merry -talk and laughter. - -Suddenly, as Mrs. MacCall was coming down the hall and into the -living-room with a tray filled with glasses of lemonade, the Scotch -housekeeper was heard to scream. - -“Oh!” gasped Ruth and to her mental vision was presented the faces of -the two ugly men who had entered the cellar. - -Into the room burst Mrs. MacCall, her trembling hands barely able to -hold the tray on which the glasses were clattering and tinkling. - -“What is it?” demanded Ruth. - -“Ghosties! Ghosties!” gasped Mrs. MacCall. “There’s witches an’ warlocks -an’ lang-nebbied things abroad the nicht! Hech! Hech!” - -Luke sprang forward just in time to catch the tray she was about to -drop, and then into the room after the housekeeper came a queer, white -object, rolling over and over in a most erratic fashion. - - - - -CHAPTER VII: LUKE REMEMBERS - - -“Goodness, what is it?” cried Nalbro, and she turned toward Hal, not a -very difficult operation as he had been near her all evening. - -“Where did it come from, Mrs. MacCall?” asked Ruth, as she observed the -object, which looked like an immense white egg, rolling farther and -farther into the living-room. - -“It was in the hall. Hech! Hech! It’s a ghostie, sure! A witch! A -warlock! Lang-nebbied—lang-nebbied!” - -“It hasn’t a long nose at all, if that’s what you mean,” declared Agnes, -for she was sufficiently familiar with the housekeeper’s Scotch dialect -to interpret these words. - -“Aye, lassie, mebby not the noo. But e’er it’ll gang awa’——” - -“Why, it’s a football!” exclaimed Luke. “A football painted white!” - -“So it is,” agreed Neale, for many a blown-up pigskin he had help shove -over the goal line. - -“Who kicked it in here?” demanded Ruth, but, even as she asked, she -began to suspect Sammy, Dot and Tess. - -“’Twas nae kicket,” asserted Mrs. MacCall, who had sunk trembling into a -rocking chair. “’Twas nae kicket. But ’twas rollin’ alang by its -anesel’.” - -And, truly, the white football—ghostly enough alone—was making its way -over the floor in a strange fashion, rolling first to one side and then -to the other. - -“It moves like one of those Mexican beans with a bug inside,” laughed -Neale. - -“Well, a football was made to kick, and here goes!” cried Luke, -advancing toward the pigskin. - -“Don’t kick it! Don’t!” cried a voice outside the living-room door, and -from the hall in sprang Sammy Pinkney, followed by the giggling Tess and -Dot, the latter carrying her Alice-doll. - -“Why shouldn’t I kick it, young man?” demanded Luke. - -“’Cause there’s—now—there’s somethin’ inside,” asserted Sammy. - -“What?” was called at him in a chorus. - -“My alligator!” - -“Alligator!” Again the chorus, but in different-toned voices. - -“Yes, I’ll show you.” - -Sammy knelt over the white-painted football—for it was that—and began -unlacing it to remove the outer cover of pigskin which inclosed the -rubber bladder within, as an automobile tire is made of a casing and -inner tube. - -And from between the blown-up bladder and the outer skin Sammy lifted -his pet Palm Island alligator. - -“Sammy Pinkney!” cried Agnes. - -“Did you do it on purpose?” demanded Ruth, though she sensed the -futility of the question almost as soon as she had propounded it. Sammy -seldom did anything without a purpose—good or bad. - -“I just put Snapper inside the football after I put some whitewash on -it, and——” - -Sammy was about to say that Tess and Dot had teased him to do something -“exciting,” and that this was the outcome of the idea that had come to -him during the conference on his porch. But Sammy was, after all, a -gentleman in his own way, and one of the articles of his creed was: - -“Never tell on another.” - -Therefore he said: - -“Yep! I did it.” - -But Tess and Dot were not proof against this chivalry and -self-sacrifice. Bravely they faced the music. - -“I helped blow up the bladder,” confessed Tess. - -“And I—er—I helped stuff Snapper in, because he was all the time -sticking his tail out, and his tail had to go in,” admitted Dot. - -“Oh, you children!” sighed Ruth, hardly able to refrain from laughing. - -“The puir beastie!” came from Mrs. MacCall. “’Tis a wonder he were nae -smotherit in there.” - -“He had plenty of air—he wasn’t inside the bladder!” explained Sammy. -“He was just in the leather part, and there was air he could breathe, -’cause there’s holes for the lace to go through. And I left it loose -enough so he could wiggle.” - -“Then I wasn’t far out with my guess about the Mexican bean,” said -Neale. - -Doubtless most of you have seen those queer beans, or seeds, which move -so oddly when you place them on the palm of your hand. The movements are -caused by an insect, or worm, that has developed from an egg laid within -the seed. - -“The ’gator wiggled inside the ball, and that caused it to roll over and -over in a manner that only a Rugby football can roll,” chuckled Neale. -“I give you credit, Sammy!” - -“Don’t!” begged Ruth, in a low voice. “He’ll think he’s being praised -and he’ll try something else.” - -“Well, but you’ve got to give him credit,” insisted Neale. “For it was a -clever trick for the kid.” - -“Stop it!” commanded Agnes, and she put her hand over his mouth, whereat -he pretended to bite her and the two skylarked about the room to the no -small annoyance of Ruth. - -“It’s a mercy I didna’ drapit the lemonade,” said Mrs. MacCall, as she -took the tray from the chair where Luke had placed it and began serving -the refreshments. “I’ll hae a settlement wi ye, syne, Sammy, me lad,” -she promised, and there was more to this than appeared on the surface. - -“Well, I didn’t mean any harm,” muttered the boy, as he gathered up the -alligator and football. - -Sammy never did mean harm, and, to tell the truth, his tricks and jokes -seldom really harmed any one. Mrs. MacCall had strong nerves, even when -she thought she saw “witches, warlocks an’ lang-nebbied things,” and so -she soon recovered her wonted spirits. - -Had Sammy, Tess and Dot not already been supplied with their share of -the ice cream and cake they might have been punished by being deprived -of these dainties. But they must have sensed that something of this -order would be put in operation if they played their joke before the -refreshments had been passed. So they were saved, though Ruth insisted -on her younger sisters going to bed, and, of course, this meant that -Sammy would have to go home. - -But he did not go willingly, for when he saw that the older boys and -girls were settling themselves for an evening of talk, music, and the -playing of games, he wistfully inquired: - -“Is there anythin’ you’d like me to do?” - -“Thank you, no, Sammy,” replied Ruth, with sarcastic sweetness. “You -have done full and plenty for one evening.” - -But Agnes, with ever a soft spot in her heart for the children, slipped -Sammy a large piece of chocolate cake, unobserved, as she let him out of -the side door to go to his own home. - -“And don’t let Dot and Tess lead you into mischief again,” warned Agnes, -giggling. - -“No’m, thank you,” answered Sammy. The thanks, be it known, were for the -cake, not for the well-meant warning. - -The Corner House, for some time rather silent and gloomy following the -death of Uncle Peter Stower, now rang with laughter and the singing of -the merry voices of young people. Certainly it was a jolly crowd that -Ruth and Agnes had gathered about them, and Nalbro was very glad she had -accepted the invitation. As for Hal—he was always glad to be where Nally -was, and Luke and Neale were satisfied with their choices. - -Perhaps, just for a moment or two, Ruth and Agnes might have felt some -twinges of jealousy, especially when Nalbro offered to do some -“second-sight” experiments and offered to tell what a person was -thinking of. - -To do this, she declared, it was necessary that she hold the hand of the -person on whom she was experimenting, and as soon as this was announced -three eager young men pressed forward, clamoring to be the first -subject. - -“I think she could just as well have done it some other way, don’t you?” -asked Agnes of Ruth, when they were getting ready for bed later. “She -took a very long time with Luke, I notice, and he asked her to take -_both_ his hands.” - -“Oh—it—it didn’t mean anything,” declared Ruth. “It was all in fun.” - -“Well, I told Neale what I thought of _him_,” said Agnes, the least bit -sharply. - -“Was that wise?” asked Ruth, quietly. - -“I don’t care whether it was or not!” came the quick retort. “She is -pretty and her clothes are a lot better than ours. I’m never going to -Ann Titus again! She has no more style——” - -“I think you are tired, Aggie,” said Ruth, stroking her sister’s head. -“And you must remember that Nally is our guest.” - -“Oh, yes, I know I’m just horrid. But——” - -However, the first little affair passed off most successfully, even with -the mysterious white football, and when Uncle Rufus was locking up, -after Neale and Luke and the others had gone, he chuckled as he said: - -“Dish suah am laik ole times when Massa Stower done hab parties his own -self.” - -“They’re a gay bonnie lot of lads an’ lassies!” said Mrs. MacCall. “Aw, -it’s a gran’ thing to be young!” - -“It suah am!” chuckled Uncle Rufus. “An’ if I was as spry as dey are I -suah would hab tuck after dem cellar men dat day dey wuz heah makin’ -believe mend a pipe.” - -“Ye hae na seen them ag’in, hae ye?” asked the housekeeper, quickly, -with a startled look down the hall. - -“No’m, Miss Mac, I hasn’t,” replied Uncle Rufus. “But if I does——” And -he shook his black fist suggestively as he shuffled off to his own -quarters. - -Hal and Nalbro smiled at each other across the breakfast table the next -morning, and Ruth and Agnes, if they felt any little jealousy against -their pretty girl guest, did not show it. - -“Did you rest well, Nally?” inquired Ruth. - -“Wonderfully!” - -“Like a top!” was Hal’s description. “And what wild round of gayeties do -we indulge in to-day?” he asked, with a grin. - -“Nothing very strenuous, I hope,” said Miss Hastings, with rather a -drawl that she was “affecting,” Agnes declared, since her lisp had gone. -“But of course I’m ready for anything,” she added quickly, lest it be -thought she intended to cast a wet blanket on the festivities. - -“We planned an auto ride to the Glen,” said Ruth. “It’s a beautiful -place, and we can eat lunch there.” - -“Sounds good to me,” declared Hal. “Especially that lunch part. I’m with -you.” - -“It will be delightful,” said the Boston girl. - -“Neale will run the car. He’ll be here about ten o’clock,” announced -Agnes. - -“Oh, I think Neale’s the dearest boy!” declared Nally. - -“What about me?” demanded Hal brazenly. - -“Oh, you don’t count. You’re one of the family!” laughed the Boston -girl. - -And so with merry quip and laughter the breakfast proceeded. - -Luke was to be a member of the auto party that would go to the Glen, and -he and Neale arrived at the Corner House together, for Luke was staying -with Neale at Con Murphy’s. The two lads, with Hal, were about to go out -to the garage to see that the car was in readiness when suddenly Ruth, -who was looking from the window toward the street, cried: - -“There they are again!” - -“Who?” demanded Agnes, impressed by something in her sister’s voice. - -“Those two queer men who were in our cellar! I really believe they are -spying on us. They were sneaking around the side entrance. Quick! -Luke—Neale—see them!” - -“I see them!” exclaimed Neale. - -“Those men!” cried Luke, as Ruth pointed to two ragged, shiftless -figures hastening down the street, for they had changed their intentions -on seeing Ruth at the window. “Why, I remember them!” - -“You remember them!” repeated Ruth. “What do you mean?” - -“Tell you later. Come on, Neale, let’s see if we can’t round them up!” -cried Luke, and, without answering Ruth’s question, he dashed from the -house in pursuit of the mysterious individuals, Neale at his heels. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII: A FUTILE CHASE - - -Hal Dent stood for a moment in the room with Ruth, Agnes and Nalbro, -looking toward the door through which Luke and Neale had started in -pursuit. - -“What’s this all about?” demanded Hal. “Is this part of the daily -morning exercise, or——” - -“Don’t stop to ask questions, Hal, but run!” advised Nally. - -“Run? Why should I run? I don’t need the training, and——” - -“But don’t you understand?” persisted the Back Bay girl. “Ruth knows -something about those men—they’re burglars or something—and she wants -them caught. Go help Luke and Neale!” - -“I don’t know anything about the men—that’s the trouble,” voiced Ruth. -“But I would like to have them caught to find out about them. This is -the third time they have been sneaking around where I was. Once they -were in our cellar!” - -“Say no more! A detective shall have nothing on me!” cried Hal, and he, -too, dashed from the house while the three girls followed more slowly, -though none the less eagerly. - -Dot and Tess, who had been given their breakfast earlier, in charge of -Mrs. MacCall, came out in time to see the start of the pursuit. - -“Oh, it’s a game they’re playing!” cried Dot, hugging her Alice-doll, -who always shared breakfast with her. “May we play, Ruth?” she begged. - -“We want to have some fun!” added Tess. - -“It isn’t a game,” said Agnes. “Don’t ask questions, my dears. There may -be trouble.” - -“Is it some of the men from Plam Island?” Dot inquired. - -“No,” Ruth replied. “You had better take them back into the house,” she -added, in a low voice to Mrs. MacCall, and then she raised her voice to -say to Hal, who was running toward the rear of the house: - -“They didn’t go that way!” - -“I know it, Ruth,” he answered. “But I was going to get out the car. -Those men had a good start, from what little I saw, and we can get after -them better in the car.” - -“That’s a good idea!” complimented Nalbro, and she felt not a little -proud of her Boston cavalier. - -“I think it will be best—if he can get the car to run,” remarked Ruth, a -bit dryly. - -“Isn’t it like other cars?” Nally wanted to know, somewhat suspicious. - -“Not always. Sometimes it takes a notion to start easily, and again -Neale will have to ‘monkey with it,’ as he calls it, five or ten minutes -before it consents to behave.” - -“Oh, I do hope it runs!” murmured the Boston girl. - -Alas! It was a vain hope. Hal did everything called for in the book of -directions, from retarding the spark, turning on the gas and ignition to -stepping on the self-starter button, but all that resulted was a humming -of the starting motor. There were no welcome explosions in the -cylinders. - -“What’s the matter with this boat?” demanded Hal wrathfully, after he -had done several things on his own account in trying to get the machine -in motion. He had even tried to turn it over by hand. - -“I fancy it hasn’t had its bath this morning,” dryly remarked Agnes. “Or -perhaps it wants a dusting with violet talcum powder.” - -“Never mind,” consoled Ruth. “You aren’t the only one it acts that way -with, Hal. Sometimes I’m so provoked at it that I could just cry. Then I -go off without it and it must feel ashamed of itself. For the next time -I step on the button it goes with a hum and a purr like a contented -kitten lapping up cream.” - -“We need a new car—that’s what we need!” declared Agnes. “But Guardy is -so queer. He——” - -“He isn’t exactly _queer_,” broke in Ruth, coming to the defense of the -absent Mr. Howbridge. “But he insists that we must run on a strict -budget system, and we have not yet gotten out of this car the maximum of -what it is supposed to deliver before it is ready to be turned in. When -that time comes we shall have a new car.” - -“I wish you’d take this one out and wreck it then, Hal!” said Agnes, a -bit vindictively. - -“Willingly, my lady, if I could get it out at all,” replied the youth, -rubbing one hand where he had skinned his knuckles trying to crank the -motor. - -“Never mind. Perhaps Luke and Neale will catch the men, and then we -shall find out all about the secret,” suggested Nalbro. - -“I hope they do get them!” cried Agnes. - -“I’m wondering what it was Luke meant when he said he remembered them,” -murmured Ruth. “There was something queer in that.” - -“Come on—let’s go out in the street and see if we can find out -anything,” suggested Agnes, for when Hal had his inspiration about the -car they had followed him to the garage, only to lose time. - -The street, down which the two strange men had run, followed by Luke and -Neale, was apparently deserted. The girls and Hal strained their eyes -for a sight of either the pursuers or their quarry, and then from an -upper window of the Corner House came a shrill voice asking: - -“Are the engines coming?” - -“What engines?” asked Ruth, as she caught sight of Tess and Dot leaning -from the casement at a dangerous angle. “Get right back in there!” she -instantly ordered. - -“The fire engines! Are they coming?” went on Tess. - -“Fire engines? There isn’t any fire!” laughed Agnes. “Though from the -way we’re running around I haven’t a doubt but what the neighbors think -so,” she added, noting that several curious looks were cast in the -direction of the Corner House from residents on either side and across -the street. - -Then along came Robbie Foote, with a basket of things from Mrs. Kranz, -the “delicatessen lady,” as Tess always called her. - -“Anything the matter?” asked Robbie. - -“No, nothing much,” answered Ruth, with a warning look at the others, -telling them not to go into particulars. “And you’d better hurry around -to the kitchen with those eggs,” she added. “Mrs. MacCall is waiting for -them.” - -“And don’t smash them as you did the others,” added Agnes, thinking to -so occupy Robbie’s mind with this remark as to exclude from it any -desire to ask embarrassing questions. In this Agnes succeeded, for the -delivery boy cried: - -“I didn’t bust the eggs! It was the goat, and he wouldn’t ’a’ done it if -the alligator hadn’t nipped his tail!” - -“Yes, I guess that’s right,” admitted Agnes. “But, anyhow, Mrs. MacCall -is waiting for you.” - -“Oh, aw right,” mumbled Robbie, with an air of having been unjustly -treated. - -“There’s no use of our waiting out here,” remarked Ruth. “We’re only -exciting remark.” If there was one thing more than another Ruth did not -like it was to attract attention. “Let’s go in and wait for Luke and -Neale to come back.” - -Meanwhile the two boys were not having much success in their pursuit of -the strange characters. They had a glimpse of the twain as Ruth had -called out about them, and then lost it as they dashed for the street. - -“There they go!” Neale had cried, after he and Luke had turned a corner. - -For a time they had the two mysterious strangers in view and then the -men darted into some side alley, or perhaps into some building, going -out a rear entrance and over the back fence. For when Luke and his -friend reached the place where they thought they could dart in and find -their quarry, there was no trace of the men. - -“Guess they’ve given us the slip,” remarked Neale, after they had -searched about for some time. - -“Looks like it,” agreed Luke. - -“Anything wrong?” asked a man, who had been watching the two youths. - -“Oh, no, not much,” answered Luke, in an indifferent manner. “Just a -couple of fellows we wanted to speak to.” - -“Oh, I thought maybe they had stolen something.” - -“No,” answered Luke, and this was true enough, for nothing had been -missed from the Corner House cellar. - -“It was just as well not to tell that fellow too much,” Luke went on, as -he and Neale started back to join the girls. - -“That’s right.” - -As they walked into the yard of the Corner House, on the porch of which -Ruth, Agnes, Nalbro, and Hal were gathered, the last looked at a patch -of red on Luke’s left hand. - -“Hello,” Hal cried. “Did he bite you?” The hand was bleeding. - -“What? Oh, that! I hit it against a brick wall and rubbed off some of -the skin. It isn’t anything.” - -“I can match you!” chuckled Hal, displaying his bruised knuckles. “Say, -what kind of a car is that, anyhow?” and he nodded in the direction of -the garage. “Must be a new model. She wouldn’t start for me.” - -“Oh, so that’s how it happened!” chuckled Neale. “I guess you forgot to -cross your fingers and say ‘eenie-meenie-miney-mo’ before you stepped on -the starter, didn’t you?” - -“I reckon I did,” admitted Hal, with a grin. - -“Luke, let me see that cut,” demanded Ruth. - -“Oh, it isn’t anything. I’m not going to have any iodine put on it.” - -“Yes you are!” she insisted. “And you, too, Hal. Come up to the bathroom -right away. There’s nothing like treating a cut in time. There’s no -telling what germs may be in it, and iodine will kill them. Come on.” - -“Not for me!” answered Hal. “If you have a bit of sticking plaster——” - -“The worst thing in the world!” cried Ruth. “Come! I insist! And then, -Luke, I want you to tell us what you meant when you said you remembered -those men.” - -“That’s so!” exclaimed Neale. “You didn’t let out a word about that when -we were chasing them.” - -“We needn’t ask if you got them,” commented Agnes. - -“That’s right—they gave us the slip,” remarked Luke, ruefully. - -He and Hal suffered their hands to be treated with the iodine, and Luke -created laughter by pretending to cry when the fluid stung, as it -certainly did, for he had rather a deep cut, caused when his hand came -in contact with a brick wall as he and Neale swung around a corner in -futile pursuit of the strange men. - -“Thanks,” murmured Hal, when his hand had been dressed. “I shall -recommend you to the Red Cross, Ruth.” - -“Oh, Ruth is a dandy little nurse,” added Luke. “I can certify to that. -You ought to have her hold your hand and rub your head when it aches, -Hal.” - -“Oh, such a pain!” cried Hal, clasping his brow with an assumed agonized -look on his face. - -“Silly!” murmured Ruth, blushing as she put away the iodine. “And now, -if your fever isn’t too high,” she went on with gentle sarcasm to Luke, -“you might tell us what you remembered.” - -“It isn’t much,” he said, modestly enough. “However, I’ll tell you all -about it. As soon as you cried out about those men a little while ago, -and I had a glimpse of them—I remember your telling me about the cellar -mystery—it at once flashed into my mind that I had seen the fellows -before.” - -“Not in our cellar!” exclaimed Agnes. - -“No, for I wasn’t here at that time. But it was about two weeks ago, on -the train. I’d been to Hamilton on an errand for Professor Keeps, and I -happened to occupy a seat directly behind those men. I didn’t pay much -attention to them until I heard them mention ten thousand dollars.” - -“Whew!” whistled Hal. “They must be garage men! They’re the only fellows -who ever have that much money nowadays.” - -“But is that the only strange thing about them?” asked Ruth. - -“No. The men kept on talking, and though I couldn’t hear all they said I -caught something about dividing up this ten thousand dollars. Then one -of the men—the taller—said: ‘If we let them know it’s there we’ll get -nothing.’ The other agreed with this, and then I had to leave the train. -But I got a good look at the men, and I’m sure they’re the same fellows -Neale and I just chased.” - -“Ten thousand dollars!” murmured Agnes. - -“I wonder what it means?” murmured Nalbro. - -And then, before they could begin a series of surmises, Uncle Rufus -shuffled out on the porch where this talk was proceeding and announced: - -“De tellyfoam’s been ringin’ its haid off, Miss Ruth, an’ it’s somebody -what wants yo’!” - - - - -CHAPTER IX: OUT OF TUNE - - -With a murmured “excuse me,” Ruth arose from where she had been sitting -near Luke, and started into the house. - -“Maybe it’s the police telephoning they have captured the two men!” -cried Agnes, who was as much given to looking for excitement, on certain -occasions, as was Sammy Pinkney. - -“It couldn’t be,” commented Luke. “The police didn’t know the men were -wanted. And, as a matter of fact, I don’t see that we can make any -charges against them.” - -“Didn’t they break into your cellar?” asked Hal, who had not heard all -the particulars, or else had forgotten some of them. - -“No, they didn’t break in,” remarked Agnes. “In fact, they went there on -invitation, you might say.” - -“Invitation!” cried Nally. “You don’t mean to say you _invited_ them -in?” - -“I believe that’s what it is called in law,” went on Agnes. She had an -idea she was going to study law some day. “Ruth saw the men going into -our cellar and she did not forbid them. In fact, she actually told them -to enter—at least, a lawyer would call it that. It’s a sort of -invitation by inference where you don’t forbid a person to enter.” - -“Well, I never would have let them go in if I hadn’t thought they were -from the water department,” said Ruth, who had come back to the porch in -time to hear the latter part of this talk. - -“Which they weren’t,” remarked Neale. “I found out that much!” - -“Was the telephone message anything about the men?” asked Agnes. - -“No, just Carrie Poole saying she could come to-morrow night.” - -“That’s good.” - -Carrie Poole was one of a number of girl and boy friends invited to -another little gathering in honor of Nalbro and Hal. - -“But, Luke, can you tell us any more about those men and their queer -talk of ten thousand dollars?” asked Neale. - -“Not a thing,” answered the collegian. “I thought it queer at the time, -and for that reason I noticed the men rather more closely than otherwise -I should have done. But, as a matter of fact, I thought perhaps they -were talking of some moving picture plot, and so the thing went out of -my mind.” - -“Moving picture plot! What do you mean?” demanded Agnes. - -“Well, you know, every one is writing for the movies nowadays,” went on -Luke, smiling. “Every fellow in my class has one or more scenarios out, -hoping for an acceptance, and on the campus all you hear is continuity, -close-up, flashback and the like. And more than once, in trains, I’ve -overheard conversations something like this: ‘Well, we could kill off -the man and kidnap the girl.’ ‘It would be easy to have the house -robbed.’ - -“One might think some desperate crime was being planned, but all it is, -really, is a talk on the plot for a moving picture, or what they hope -will turn out to be one. So when I heard these men saying something -about ten thousand dollars and about not letting some one know or they -wouldn’t get anything, for a time I thought they might be writing a -moving picture scenario.” - -“Do you think so now after you’ve had a second look at them?” asked -Neale. - -“I certainly do not—especially after the way they ran,” answered Luke. -“And that makes me suspicious that they were around here for no good -purpose. If they had been, they would not have run when they saw that -Ruth had noticed them.” - -“It’s just what they did before—the time Agnes and I were in to see Miss -Titus,” said Ruth. “I do hope it doesn’t mean anything! I hope they -haven’t any designs on the house.” - -“Nonsense!” laughed Luke, patting her hand which was conveniently near -his as they sat together on the porch. “They’re just a couple of -tramps—that’s all.” - -“But their talk of ten thousand dollars! Really, I don’t know that we -ought to go on this little picnic and leave Dot and Tess at home.” - -“Take them with us,” suggested Neale. - -“There isn’t room in the car.” - -“I’ll come back and get them,” offered the good-natured lad; and so it -was arranged, though Ruth, after all, admitted that there could be no -real danger to her younger sisters with Uncle Rufus, Linda and sturdy -Mrs. MacCall in the house. - -You may imagine with what delight Tess and Dot received the news that -they were to be permitted to go to the picnic. They had been mourning -the fact that they were obliged to stay at home, and they had just -concocted a scheme of sending over for Sammy Pinkney and his alligator -when there was a rift in the dark clouds. - -“I’ll take my Alice-doll!” cried Dot. - -“I’ll take Clarissa,” decided Tess. “She wears a black dress and I can -drop her in the mud and not care.” Tess lately had, for some reason -unfathomable by Ruth and Agnes, taken to playing with her dolls. - -“Alice is going to wear white,” said Dot, with a superior air. “White is -best for picnics.” - -“Um!” murmured Tess, who was not so particular. - -Hal followed Luke and Neale out to the garage while the girls finished -their preparations for the lunch they were taking to the Glen. - -“I’m anxious to see how you start that old boat,” remarked Hal, rubbing, -tenderly, his bruised knuckles. - -“It’s easy. All you do is—this.” Neale turned the ignition key, stepped -on the starter switch, and the steady throb and hum of the motor at once -followed. - -“You must have it charmed,” commented the Boston lad. - -“You have to humor ’em,” chuckled Neale. - -After all, it was not necessary for Neale to make a second trip to take -Tess and Dot to the Glen. A neighbor happened to be going out in that -direction and volunteered to take the younger girls. - -“Coming home we can pile in anyhow,” remarked Agnes, “for there won’t be -so many lunch boxes and baskets.” - -“You verged dangerously near the truth then,” solemnly remarked Luke. “I -shall empty at least half a dozen lunch boxes myself.” - -It was a beautiful day, the Glen was looking its best after a light -shower, and there was a “romantic” waterfall among other natural -wonders. Nalbro called it romantic, and she ought to have known what -that word meant. As for Neale, he said he couldn’t see what there was in -a waterfall, anyhow. - -“As the Irishman said, what’s to prevent it from coming down?” he -demanded. But no one paid much attention to this ancient joke. - -“Now, Tess and Dot,” said Ruth, taking her younger sisters off to one -side when they had been safely delivered, “I don’t want you to give me -any trouble to-day.” - -“We never do,” declared Tess. - -“You don’t mean to, but you do,” said Ruth patiently and with a kind -smile. “Don’t go off by yourselves exploring, and——” - -“Well, you don’t want us tagging around after you and Luke all day, do -you?” asked Tess, though why she should couple the names Ruth said she -could not imagine. - -“I want you to be within call, if not within sight, all the while,” was -the stipulation. “There are many little places where you might wander -off and be lost. You needn’t ‘tag’ us around, as you call it, but don’t -get too far away.” - -“We won’t,” promised Dot. “Oh, I just love it here and so does my -Alice-doll.” - -Indeed they all seemed bent on having a good time, and when the lunch -had been put away until such time as it would be needed they strolled -about the Glen, talking and laughing. - -As might be expected, there was a pairing off into couples. Agnes and -Neale found something to look at down one path, Nalbro and Hal declared -they wanted to get to the top of the waterfall, and Ruth remarked: - -“Well, if they want to tire themselves out by scrambling up there, let -them. I think——” - -“Here’s a quiet place—a regular bosky dell,” laughed Luke, and he led -the way. - -And then, for a time, the murmuring talk of the young people mingled -with the murmur of the water as it slipped over the mossy, green stones. - -It was, as might have been expected, Tess and Dot who put an end to what -seemed an ideal period, for Ruth soon heard the voice of Tess calling: - -“Where are you? Where are you?” - -“Oh, I wonder if anything has happened!” Ruth exclaimed, with a startled -glance at Luke, who sat beside her on a mossy bank. - -“What’s wrong?” he cried, his stronger voice echoing through the forest. - -Back came the unromantic answer: - -“We’re hungry!” - -“Oh, is it noon?” asked Ruth, looking at her wrist watch, and, finding -that it was half-past twelve, she added: “No wonder the poor things are -looking for us. We’ll eat!” - -“It seems a pity to leave this,” remarked Luke, glancing around on their -trysting place. - -“Oh, we can come back,” conceded Ruth. - -“Thanks,” he said softly. - -There was the usual merry ado about setting out the lunch boxes and -baskets, and the usual ants walked, true to form, into the butter and -cloyed themselves with sweetness in the sugar. But this is always -expected at picnics. - -As Neale remarked: - -“No outing is complete without them.” - -But Nalbro rather shuddered when a grasshopper alighted on her slice of -bread and threw it quickly away from her with a muttered: - -“Ugh! The horrid thing!” - -“You don’t give him credit!” laughed Luke. “Like the bees to the -flowers, he was attracted by your magnetic personality.” - -“Thank you!” murmured the Boston girl, flashing a look at Luke, who was -boldly regarding her. And Agnes, by means of her eyes, telegraphed some -message to Ruth. - -After lunch, which, if it did nothing more, rendered Tess and Dot less -active, for it made them sleepy, there was a period of sitting about, -wondering what next to do, for it was too warm for much strenuous -exercise. - -“Come on!” offered Nalbro suddenly, “I’ll tell the boys’ fortunes.” - -“How?” asked Agnes. - -“I’ll read their hands.” - -“I’m first!” - -“No, I!” - -“She came with me!” - -In turn Luke, Neale and Hal thus cried as they crowded around the -fascinating Boston girl—there was no denying that she was -fascinating—and pretty, though Agnes, at least, had no lack of beauty -and Ruth’s sweet face always gave pleasure to a beholder. - -“Oh, I can’t tell your fortunes all at once. And no one must hear the -others’,” declared Nally, with a pretty air of bewilderment, as three -tanned hands were thrust toward her, each one eager to be first. - -“Decide by lot then,” suggested Neale. - -“How?” asked Nalbro. - -“Shut your eyes and take a hand,” he went on, and this was done. - -The Boston girl, with closed eyes, groped among the three palms held -before her, and whether it was accident or design, she took that of -Luke. - -Then the other two lads, after some protesting, were sent out of hearing -while Nalbro proceeded to study and trace the lines in the hand of the -young collegian. - -What she told him is neither here nor there, nor is what she pretended -to prophesy for Neale and Hal. But as she continued to be a center of -attraction for the young men, while Agnes and Ruth tidied up the -luncheon ground, there were uneasy glances cast in the direction of the -fortune-telling section of the Glen. - -“Isn’t it queer how silly boys are about having their hands held?” -remarked Agnes, with a distinct “sniff.” - -“She has a certain way about her,” admitted Ruth. “Perhaps we should be -a little more——” - -“Giddy! Silly! Why don’t you say it?” challenged Agnes. “I didn’t -imagine Nally was like that. But you never know a girl until——” - -“Hush!” suddenly commanded Ruth. “I thought I heard Tess calling! Yes, -she is! Oh, what has happened?” - -Through the woods echoed the sobbing voice of a little girl shouting: - -“She’s fallen in! She’s fallen in!” - - - - -CHAPTER X: A SHOWER - - -The little “out of tune” feeling which had begun to manifest itself in -the hearts of Ruth and Agnes was instantly dispelled as they heard the -voice of Dot crying—for it was Dot they heard. - -“What’s the matter?” demanded Nalbro, for she was so intent on finishing -the telling of Hal’s fortune, holding his hand in her warm one, that she -had not caught the alarm. - -“Something has happened to Tess or Dot—maybe both,” gasped Ruth, as she -sped past. - -“One of them has fallen in the brook, probably,” added Agnes, for the -waterfall was the result of a small brook toppling down an incline. It -was not a wide stream; nor was it deep, except in a few places. - -“Come on, Neale!” cried Luke, springing up from a hummock where he was -lying under a tree, possibly thinking over the “fortune” that Nalbro had -outlined for him. “To the rescue!” - -“I don’t imagine it amounts to much. Those kids are always falling in or -falling out or getting into some sort of trouble,” commented Neale. -Nevertheless, he followed Luke, and now Nalbro and Hal joined in. - -At intervals the cry came from Dot: - -“She’s fallen in! She’s fallen in!” - -It was by this cry that Ruth, with the others following her, was able to -get to the place whence Dot had sounded the alarm. Ruth saw her little -sister through a fringe of bushes on the edge of the brook. - -“Dot, what is it? Where is Tess?” demanded Ruth, not stopping to inquire -whether Tess had fallen in, since it seemed obvious, with Dot there in -plain sight, and not wet. - -“I don’t know!” sobbed Dot. - -“What don’t you know?” demanded Agnes, catching Dot by the arm and -giving her a little shake to quiet the hysterical sobbing that was -rendering Dot unintelligible. - -“I don’t know where Tess is,” Dot sobbed. “She went down there with her -Clarissa-doll——” She pointed toward a part of the stream that the boys -knew to be deep, and went on: “Then I heard her yell and there was a -splash and——Oh, she’s fallen in, I know she has!” - -The boys waited no longer, but dashed away in the direction of the spot -Dot had pointed out. Agnes and Nalbro remained to comfort Dot, who was -now wiping away her tears on the dress of her Alice-doll, and Ruth -followed the boys. - -It was Luke who first shouted back some definite news. - -“I have found her!” he announced. - -“Is she—is she——” Ruth could not form the words. - -“She’s all right!” came the reassuring answer. “But she’s soaking wet. -Tess, come out of that!” he commanded. - -By this time the others had pushed through the underbrush and had come -upon a scene which, after a moment, brought roars of laughter from Neale -and Hal. And Luke, after a glance at Ruth to make sure she was smiling, -joined in. - -They simply could not help it. - -There sat Tess on a flat rock in a shallow place in the middle of the -brook and she was washing her doll’s dress. The water was flowing down -on either side of Tess, as if she might be a rock herself, as she sat -there in the midst of the brook. - -[Illustration: There sat Tess on a flat rock in a shallow place -in the middle of the brook.] - -The stream was up to her waist as she sat down, but she was wetter than -this, for she was splashed up to her shoulders, and as she held up the -black dress of Clarissa, to see if it needed further scrubbing, water -ran from the garment down her freckled face. - -“Tess Kenway! What in the world are you doing?” demanded Ruth. “Come -right out of there this instant!” - -“All right,” said Tess calmly. “I guess Clarissa’s dress is clean, -anyhow.” - -“Why did you do it? Why are you sitting there?” went on Ruth, for Tess -had not yet arisen. - -“Did you fall in?” Agnes wanted to know. - -“Yes, I did,” answered Tess slowly. “And when I was wet I thought I -might as well stay in and be wetter and wash Clarissa’s dress. It was -easier out here, and I found a rock just like a washboard.” - -“Oh, you terrible child!” scolded Agnes. “You have frightened us all! -How did it happen? If it hadn’t been for Dot’s calling that you had -fallen in, we might never have known it.” - -“Pooh! I was going to tell you, anyhow, so there!” said Tess. - -“Yes, but when?” asked Ruth. “Why did you leave Dot?” - -“Oh, she wouldn’t wash her Alice-doll’s dress, and I wanted to wash -mine,” explained Tess. “So I came down here.” - -“And left Dot alone? That wasn’t kind,” commented Ruth. “She heard you -fall in.” - -“She couldn’t have.” - -“Yes, I did, too,” declared Dot, for she had been brought along by -Nalbro and Agnes to the scene of the immersion. “I heard you splash.” - -“Pooh! That wasn’t me; that was a rock,” laughed Tess, shaking her wet -hair out of her eyes while Ruth endeavored to wring some water from her -skirts. “I was leaning over a rock to wash Clarissa’s dress,” she -proceeded, “and the rock splashed in. I guess that’s what you heard,” -she said to Dot, “because I didn’t make any noise—that is, not much—when -I slipped in.” - -“Then you did fall in?” asked Agnes. - -“Yes, I fell in,” admitted Tess. “But that was after the rock splashed, -and Dot couldn’t have heard me. I slipped in and got my feet wet and it -felt so nice—and I was wet anyhow—that I waded out and sat down. You -ought to see that rock! It’s all ribs and crinkles like a regular -washboard. If you could take it home, I’ll show you where it is!” - -She tried to pull away from Ruth as if with the intention of wading out -into the stream again, but her sister held her back. - -“No, none of that any more!” decided Ruth. - -“Oh, but you’re a _sight_!” giggled Agnes. - -“Pooh! Let ’em dry on me,” suggested Tess indifferently. “I’ve been wet -before, lots of times. If you had been here I could have taken -Alice-doll’s dress out and washed it,” she said to Dot. - -“I wouldn’t have her dress washed. It’s clean now. And you can’t tell -whether your doll’s old black dress is clean or not.” - -“Oh, it’s clean,” declared Tess. “I sozzled it in the water a lot of -times and I rubbed it on the washboard rock.” - -“Well, you’ve given us all something of a fright,” sighed Ruth. “Though -I don’t suppose you meant it. Dear me! we haven’t anything dry to put on -you, though I suppose we might go to some house.” - -“I’ll run her back in the car and let Mrs. MacCall look after her,” -offered Neale. “I’ve got to get gasoline, anyhow.” - -“All right,” agreed Ruth, and so Tess had the advantage of getting an -extra ride, and all by herself, in the machine with Neale. - -“Honestly, it was comical,” said Agnes, telling some of her girl friends -about it afterward. “In her wet, bedraggled clothes, Tess sat on the -rear seat, as prim and stiff as some old-fashioned lady, and she seemed -to be pretending that she was some millionaire’s wife out in her auto -taking the air.” - -This was just Tess—a queer little body if ever there was one. - -“Oh, ye puir bairn!” cried Mrs. MacCall, when she saw Tess. “An’ are ye -the only one saved?” - -“Gracious, you don’t think all the rest are drowned, do you?” laughed -Neale. - -“I was fearin’ that,” murmured the housekeeper. “I was fearin’.” - -Tess was soon clothed again in dry garments and she went back to the -picnic ground with Neale after he had stopped at the service station to -have the gas tank filled. - -The day was nearly over—and a glorious one it had been in spite of the -accident to Tess—and soon the jolly little party was on the way home, -all managing to crowd into the one automobile. - -“Oh, I am having such a wonderful time!” sighed Nalbro that evening on -the porch, when the boys had come over for a little talk. “It was -darling of you girls to ask me down.” - -“We are glad you are enjoying it,” said Ruth. “And we hope you can stay -a long time.” - -“If it weren’t for getting ready to go to boarding school—which means -having a lot more frocks made,” murmured the Boston girl—“I could stay -longer.” - -“I wish our dressmaker was up to ‘frocks,’ don’t you, Ruth?” Agnes -asked, with a half envious sigh. “But poor Miss Titus, though she does -have a sign reading ‘Modes,’ has never risen above a gown—and she used -to call everything a dress.” - -“Sickening—that’s what I call it,” grunted Neale. “What say you, -fellows?” - -“Oh, you boys make me tired!” declared Agnes. “You’re fussier over one -necktie than we are over two dresses! Aren’t they, Nally?” - -“I should say so!” - -And so the merry quips were exchanged. - -“Speaking of water,” remarked Luke, as he came out with a glass which -Ruth had requested him to get, “are you girls going to do anything about -those strange men?” - -“What can we do?” demanded Ruth. “We don’t know who they are, and we -aren’t even certain that they did anything more than make a mistake.” - -“It might have been a mistake, getting into your cellar once,” commented -Neale. “But when the same men have been seen hanging around the Corner -House—well, it’s time something was done, in my opinion.” - -“What would you do?” inquired Ruth. “I have thought of speaking to Mr. -Howbridge about it.” - -“Let me mention it to the police,” offered Neale. “I know the chief and -all the officers who have this beat—there are different ones on -different nights. I’ll tell them to keep their eyes open for suspicious -characters.” - -“I wish you would,” said Ruth. “And I’ll also speak to Mr. Howbridge -about it.” - -“If you girls are nervous,” said Luke, speaking particularly for the -benefit of Ruth, “I can leave Neale and come over to stay here -to-night.” - -“What? With me on the job? Boy, you are insulting!” cried Hal, in mock -heroics. “Why, I’ll defy any twain of alleged water inspectors that ever -misread a meter!” - -“Oh, we’re not a bit afraid,” said Ruth. - -“We have Uncle Rufus and Linda, to say nothing of Mrs. MacCall,” added -Agnes. - -“Well, you can always get Neale and me on the telephone,” suggested -Luke, with a laugh. - -“And by the time you got over here we’d be kidnaped!” declared Agnes. -“No, we’ll depend on Uncle Rufus.” - -However, there was no need for any dependence, for nothing untoward -happened that night. - -For the next evening a little affair had been planned, to which some -guests Nalbro Hastings had not yet met were invited. Ruth and Agnes were -busy arranging the details of this, and planning with Mrs. MacCall what -the refreshments should be, when Tess came in looking somewhat warm and -excited. - -“What have you been doing, dear?” asked Ruth, smoothing her hair. - -“Oh, Dot and I just now gave Uncle Rufus a shower,” explained Tess. - -“A shower?” Ruth cried. - -“You mean you have been giving one of your dolls a bridal-engagement -shower, and you let Uncle Rufus in on some of the things?” questioned -Agnes. “It was kind of you, but——” - -“No, we gave him a regular shower. Like a showerbath, you know.” - -“You what?” gasped Ruth. - -“That’s it. Yes, a shower. Dot’s doing it now. I got tired. It’s lots of -fun! Oh, she wet him good that time! Look!” - -She pointed out of the window. - - - - -CHAPTER XI: A STRANGE SUMMONS - - -What Ruth and Agnes saw was this. Stretched over the lawn was a hose -that had been used for sprinkling the grass. Uncle Rufus, having -finished wetting down the dry places, had laid the nozzle end of the -hose down, with the water still running, and had walked back to the -faucet to shut it off. - -But as Ruth and Agnes watched, Dot picked up the nozzle end of the hose, -with the water still spurting from it, and directed it toward the old -colored man, spraying him well. - -“Heah, yo’ li’l missie! Stop that!” cried Uncle Rufus. - -“Ho! Ho!” Dot laughed, as she continued to spray Uncle Rufus. - -Then he made a dash for her, at which sign of danger she dropped the -nozzle and ran away, whereat Uncle Rufus resumed his shuffle toward the -faucet, perhaps a hundred feet away. - -But no sooner was his back turned than Dot again made a rush for the -nozzle, again spraying Uncle Rufus. - -He shouted and shook his finger at her, but Dot only laughed the more -and doused him well. But as soon as he started to run toward her she -dropped the hose and ran in her turn. - -“That’s what I was doing, but I got tired,” explained Tess. “Oh, we gave -Uncle Rufus a fine shower!” - -Ruth and Agnes looked at each other. Then Ruth, shaking Tess rather -severely by one arm, exclaimed: - -“You naughty girls! The idea of wetting poor, old Uncle Rufus! You must -be punished for this, Tess. Agnes, go and get Dot and bring her here.” - -When Dot saw Agnes coming out, the mother of the Alice-doll beat a hasty -retreat, not quite fast enough, though, for she was caught as she ran -across the lawn and stumbled. - -“What’s the matter?” demanded Dot. “I wasn’t doing it all.” - -“Ruth will attend to you,” remarked Agnes, in her sternest voice. “You -and Tess are going to be punished.” - -And punished they were, though Tess protested, with tears, that Uncle -Rufus had on his oldest clothes that he wore when he weeded the garden -in the rain, adding that he did not mind being wet. - -Really, he did not seem to, though, as a matter of fact, he was pretty -well soaked. For when the two little girls had been sent up to bed, to -have the shades pulled down, without a toy to play with, not even the -Alice-doll, and no picture books to look at or stories to read, it was -Uncle Rufus who interceded for them and begged them off. - -“Look heah, Missie Ruth,” he humbly pleaded when he had on dry garments, -“dem young uns didn’t mean no harm, nohow. An’—ha! ha!—I doan mind de -wettin’!” - -“I know, Uncle Rufus,” answered Ruth, with a smile. “It is very good of -you to forgive them and to try to get them off, but they did wrong and -they must be punished. If I don’t do something to them they will act -worse the next time.” - -“Yes’m, Missie Ruth, I knows dat, but I done guess dey has been punished -nuff!” - -He looked so eager and had such a pleading, loving look on his honest, -wrinkled black face, that Ruth could not resist him. She knew how he -loved Tess and Dot. - -“Very well,” Ruth finally said, “I’ll let them stay in bed half an hour -longer, and then you may go up and tell them that you forgive them, -Uncle Rufus, and that they may come down just before supper.” - -That was perhaps the shortest half hour ever registered on the clock of -the Corner House, for it could not have been more than ten minutes after -Ruth had remitted the punishment that Uncle Rufus went up to the girls’ -room and timidly knocked on the door. - -“We can’t come out,” said Tess meekly, in what she doubtless intended to -be a martyr’s voice. “You’d better go away!” - -Uncle Rufus gave one of his inimitable chuckles. - -“Oh!” gasped Dot. - -“Oh!” gasped Tess. - -“Yo’-all kin come down now,” announced Uncle Rufus. - -“Did Ruth say so?” asked Tess. - -“Yes’m, she done say dat!” declared Uncle Rufus. “Miss Ruth say she done -mitigate yo’ punishment, whateber dat means, an’ I wants to say dat I -forgibs yo’. Ha! Ha! I guess I done needed de baff anyhow.” - -“Oh, Uncle Rufus, we’re awfully sorry if we gave you a bath before it -was time,” said Dot. - -“Doan yo’-all worry none ’bout dat!” chuckled the old colored man. “Come -’long down ’fore supper!” - -Tess and Dot, much chastened in spirit, descended. They were grateful -that none of the boys were around to see their humiliation, and for a -time they went about much subdued, trying to make it appear that they -were more sinned against than sinning. - -But Ruth knew them, and so did Agnes, for they had done such pranks -before and always the same thing followed their just punishment. So, -though Nalbro felt sorry for them and was inclined to “mother” them, she -was advised against it by the older Corner House girls. - -The result was that little attention was paid to Tess and Dot, except -that they were treated with exaggerated politeness by their sisters, -perhaps in contrast to their rude but thoughtless showering of Uncle -Rufus. - -In a short time the little girls forgot all about it and were playing -about as before, much to the delight of Uncle Rufus, who would not have -slept well had he kept on his mind any longer the vision of his little -tormentors being punished. - -“I just love it here!” declared Nalbro, as they were sitting on the -porch, waiting for Linda and Mrs. MacCall to announce the evening meal. -“It’s so different from my own home. It’s stupid there, though it’s nice -enough. Something always seems to be happening here.” - -“You’re right there!” laughed Ruth. - -“And sometimes things don’t always happen for the best!” added Agnes. - -“I just wonder where they got that idea of spraying Uncle Rufus?” mused -Ruth. “I do hope they didn’t see it in the movies, for they are sure to -mention it if they did, and Mrs. MacCall will say it’s a sin and a shame -that we ever let them go.” - -“Yes, that would be a bit awkward,” admitted her sister. “But I have a -faint suspicion that they must have made it up out of their own heads.” - -“Perhaps,” agreed Ruth. “I do hope Luke comes to-night,” she went on. - -This was so unexpected, coming from Ruth, who seldom let anything be -known about her liking for the young collegian, that Agnes stared at her -sister in some surprise, and even Nalbro raised her pretty eyebrows. -Luke had been called away from Milton for several days by Professor -Keeps, who had some work for the young man to do. - -“Oh, it’s just a matter of business!” Ruth made haste to say, as she -sensed the underlying meaning her words might have conveyed. “He was -going to make inquiries about those two men,” she went on. “Do you know, -I don’t at all like the fact that they have been seen around here so -frequently,” and there was a worried look on her face. - -“Don’t start any fretting,” advised Agnes. “I don’t believe it will -amount to anything. But what was Luke going to find out?” - -“He was going to see some railroad men he knows—the conductor or -brakeman on the train the time he sat behind the men who talked about -the ten thousand dollars—and he’s going to ask if the railroad men know -anything about the fellows.” - -“Oh, so that’s the only reason you’re wishing Luke to come this -evening—on a matter of _business_! I see! The plot thickens!” mocked -Agnes. - -“Oh, don’t be silly!” advised Ruth, in a small tone of voice. - -“Worse and worse!” laughed Agnes. “See her blushes, Nally?” - -“Nally, if you side with her,” began Ruth, “I’ll never——” - -But the appearance of Mrs. MacCall with the announcement that the meal -was served put an end to what might have proved an embarrassing -situation. - -Toward the end of the meal Tess and Dot were observed carrying on some -secret interchange of ideas. - -“Go on—you ask her,” urged Dot to Tess. - -“You said you would,” retorted Tess. - -“What is it?” Ruth wanted to know. - -The two children looked self-conscious for a moment, and then Dot -blurted out: - -“Couldn’t we stay up for the party a little while to-night?” - -“Why, yes, I intended you should—for a little while,” replied Ruth. -“What made you think you couldn’t? Oh, I see! About Uncle Rufus! Oh, -that’s all forgiven and forgotten.” - -“And could Sammy be over?” Dot was quick to ask, taking advantage of the -unexpected softness on Ruth’s part. - -“Oh, Sammy! Well, I don’t know. I hadn’t intended to ask him.” - -“He’s got a new suit of clothes!” burst out Dot, as if that clinched -matters. And in the laugh that followed, Ruth said: - -“All right. Have him over for a little while. But mind! He must go home -early!” - -Tess and Dot would have rushed away before the pudding was served, so -anxious were they to convey the welcome news to their prankish partner, -but Ruth insisted on the forms of politeness being observed, at any -rate, and not until she had given the signal for all to leave were Tess -and Dot allowed to depart on their joyous errand. - -The young men all came, Luke getting back to Milton just in time to -attend. Cecile, too, motored over from Grantham and arrived with her -intended, Gene Barrows. So that soon the Corner House was echoing to the -merry laughter of happy hearts. - -“Dish yeah shore would ’a’ done Uncle Peter Stower good ef he could ’a’ -heerd dis!” remarked Uncle Rufus, as he helped Mrs. MacCall in the -kitchen. “He got kinder ole an’ crusty towards de las’, but he had lots -ob pain.” - -“’Twould be a marcy were the puir mon able to see a little of the -brightness he’s brought about,” agreed the Scotch housekeeper. “But it’s -nae gi’en ta any mon to see what gaes on when he’s depart!” - -“’Ceptin’ he turns into a ghost,” Uncle Rufus observed. - -“Hech! Hech! Dinna ye start any o’ that talk with the nicht comin’ on!” -warned Mrs. MacCall, with a glance over her shoulder. - -Ruth could scarcely wait for a chance to get Luke off in a corner by -himself to put to him some questions that were troubling her. But when -she did she derived little satisfaction. - -“About those men—” she began. “Were you able to find out anything, -Luke?” - -“Nothing worth mentioning,” he replied. “I talked with the conductor of -the train I was on when I heard the strange talk, and he didn’t even -remember the fellows. Small wonder, when you stop to think how many -tickets he has to take up in the course of the day. Then I tackled the -brakeman, and had a little better luck.” - -“Did he know the men?” - -“He didn’t exactly know them,” Luke replied. “But he remembered them -when I called them to his mind. Luckily, I had noticed them pretty -closely and could give a good description. Perhaps I may turn out to be -a detective—who knows?” - -“You’ll have to work up a few more details on this case before I’ll give -you a certificate and a badge,” said Ruth, with a smile. “But what did -the brakeman say?” - -“That’s right—stick to the main point,” returned Luke. “Well, he said -the men had ridden on the same train a couple of times before, but what -their business was or what they talked about, he didn’t know.” - -“Were they in the moving picture business?” - -“That he couldn’t say. In fact, I didn’t mention it,” was the -collegian’s answer. “The more I stop to think of it the less I like that -moving picture theory.” - -“But there must be some explanation of their remark about ten thousand -dollars,” insisted Ruth. “Ten thousand dollars don’t grow on every bush, -you know.” - -“More’s the pity,” remarked Luke. “If it did I’d be out picking some -now. College is frightfully expensive!” he added, with a sigh. - -“I’m sure it must be. But you haven’t much longer.” - -“I don’t know. When I look ahead to the time when I’ll graduate—if I -don’t flunk out—it seems——” - -There came an interruption. Sammy Pinkney, who had been playing in the -yard in the bright moonlight with Tess and Dot, came up to the corner of -the porch where Ruth and Luke were having this conversation. - -“Excuse me,” said Sammy, with startling politeness for him, “but some -one wants to see you, Ruth.” - -“Some one to see me, Sammy?” - -“Yes’m.” - -“Who is it, and where is he—or she?” - -“It’s a he.” - -“Well, Sammy, why all this mysteriousness?” asked Luke, with a laugh, -for there was a queer air not only about Sammy, but about the two little -girls who stood just behind him. - -“Who wants to see me, Sammy?” asked Ruth, encouragingly. - -“It’s Hop Wong, the Chinaman!” blurted out the boy. “And he wants you to -come down to the end of the garden!” - - - - -CHAPTER XII: A QUEER NOTE - - -Ruth started up from the porch where she had been sitting in some -seclusion with Luke. In other secluded places Agnes and Neale were -talking over matters that concerned them, and Hal and Nalbro were -similarly engaged. - -“Hold on! Where are you going?” asked Luke, as he put a detaining hand -on Ruth’s arm. - -“I’m going to see Hop Wong. Poor man, probably he’s in trouble. He does -work for us sometimes, and at Christmas he brought me the loveliest, -cutest little chest of tea—the best I ever drank. He has a quaint little -laundry at the end of our street, and——” - -“You don’t take this message seriously, do you?” asked Luke, and Ruth -could see by the moonlight that he was smiling. - -“Take it seriously? Of course I do, Luke. Hop Wong isn’t the kind of -Chinese to play jokes; though when he first came here the boys played -enough mean jokes on him. But he was patient. Of course, I take it -seriously. Maybe some new boys have been annoying him—none of those who -know him would bother him,” and Ruth started down the steps. - -“Wait a minute!” counseled Luke, with a laugh. “I think this is one of -Sammy’s tricks,” he whispered to the Corner House girl. “We’ll see if we -can’t turn it on Sammy himself.” - -But Ruth did not take this view of it, and instead of pretending to -believe what Sammy had said, which was Luke’s intention, she at once -“spilled the beans,” as Luke said afterward, by blurting out: - -“Sammy, you’re not joking, are you?” - -“Sure not, Ruth!” - -“Does Hop Wong really want to see me?” - -“Cross my heart he does!” and Sammy quickly performed this childish -rite, than which there is no stronger confirmation. - -“Did he say what he wanted?” demanded Luke. “And how did he come to send -word by you, Sammy? Why didn’t he come to the front door, or even the -back door, himself?” - -“’Cause he was skairt, I guess,” was all Sammy could think of. - -“Frightened by what?” demanded Luke. - -“I dunno. All I know is that Dot and Tess and me was playin’ hide and -coop at the end of the garden an’ Hop Wong comes slidin’ along—you know -how funny he walks.” - -“What did he say?” asked Ruth. - -“Oh, he talked so funnily Dot and I had to laugh!” put in Tess. - -“You shouldn’t laugh at the poor man. Think how silly you would sound -trying to talk Chinese,” chided Ruth. - -“I can almost talk it. Anyhow, I can say words that sound like it,” -declared Sammy. “Want to hear me?” he asked hopefully. - -“Tell us what Hop Wong said,” suggested Luke. - -“Oh, he just gibbered away,” reported Sammy. “And all I could make out -was that he wants to talk to Ruth. He said for me to come and tell her -to come down where he was at the end of the garden.” - -“He said,” giggled Tess, “‘Tell Missie Luth I wanna spleak her muchy -qulick!’” And Tess gave such a good imitation of the funny talk of Hop -Wong that even Luke laughed. - -“Well, I’ll go see what he wants,” said Ruth. “I imagine it must be -something about his laundry business. Once before he came to me. It was -when the man who owns his shop was going to raise the rent to a -prohibitive figure. I went to see Mr. Howbridge about it, and he was -able to arrange matters so poor Hop Wong didn’t have to pay so much. -Ever since then Hop thinks I regulate the universe, I guess.” - -“You do—for some of us,” said Luke, as he reached forward and pressed -Ruth’s hand. - -“Silly!” she whispered. - -“I hope he gives her some lichi nuts,” said Sammy to the two little -girls, as they followed Ruth and Luke to the path that led to the end of -the yard. Nothing was said to the other two young couples. - -The moon shone brightly on the old-fashioned garden of the Corner House, -casting fantastic shadows where the old pavilion stood—the pavilion, -vine-covered, where Uncle Peter had spent his last lonely days. - -“Where is Hop Wong?” asked Ruth, as they neared the place where Sammy -had said the Celestial Kingdom’s citizen was waiting. - -“Oh, I guess he’s around here. He was right under the apple tree when I -saw him first,” the boy reported. - -Then, as they all looked about and saw no slant-eyed figure waiting for -them, Sammy raised his voice and called: - -“Hop! Oh, Hop Wong! Where are you? Here’s Ruthie!” - -There was no answer—just the white, silent moonlight over everything. - -“Hop Wong!” called Sammy again. “Ruth Kenway is here.” - -“Maybe you’d better say ‘Missie Luth’ like he does,” suggested Tess. - -“Hush!” came from her oldest sister. - -They waited in silence. - -“I guess he’s gone,” said Sammy at length. “Got tired of waitin’, -maybe.” - -Luke walked about, peering amid the bushes. Then Dot called: - -“What’s that white thing?” - -“Where?” demanded Tess. “Don’t you go seeing white things now!” - -“It’s on the apple tree,” went on Dot. - -They all looked toward the nearest apple tree. Gently fluttering in the -night breeze was a piece of paper, caught in the crevice of the apple -tree bark. Luke reached for it. - -“Guess Hop Wong left your laundry check here,” he said, as he opened a -bit of folded paper of the typical Chinese kind and saw on it some marks -in very dull black India ink. “It must have been forgotten when the -laundry was left at his shop,” Luke went on. - -“We haven’t sent him any laundry this week,” declared Ruth. “Are you -sure it’s a laundry check?” - -Luke looked at it again. Then he started in surprise. - -“Why, no!” he exclaimed. “It isn’t a laundry check, and it isn’t written -in Chinese characters, as I thought at first! It’s a note to you, Ruth!” - -“A note to me, Luke?” - -“Well, perhaps not to you exactly. It’s to all of you. Wait, I guess I -can read it.” - -He stepped from beneath the shadowy apple tree into the stronger -moonlight and held up the paper with its black characters. Then he read, -and afterward Ruth perused the queer note which said: - - “Korner Hous gals pay Hop Wong 100 dols - Hop Wong mak grat much money gals.” - -For a moment neither Ruth nor Luke spoke. With heads close together they -again read the queer note, while Sammy, Tess and Dot stood idly there, -rather awed by the strangeness of it all. - -“Hum,” murmured Luke, “I wonder if he wrote this himself or got some one -to do it for him.” - -“Hop Wong can write a little English,” said Ruth. “A very little, as -perhaps you have noticed,” she went on to Luke. “He told me once he had -gone to a Mission School.” - -“Then he should have been taught not to play tricks,” and Luke’s tone -was a bit severe. - -“Do you think this is a trick, Luke?” - -“I’m sure of it! Aren’t you?” - -Ruth paused a moment before replying. She again read the note. - -“No,” she answered, “I think it is genuine.” - -“You mean he isn’t trying to play a joke, perhaps put up to it by some -one else?” demanded Luke. - -“I think Hop Wong is in earnest,” said Ruth, simply. - -“Well,” began Luke, “I——Let’s take this up and see what the others -think,” he said, with a change of thought. - -“Perhaps we’d better look about and see if Hop Wong has really gone,” -suggested Ruth. “His courage may have failed him at the last moment. See -if he’s hiding in the bushes. Sammy, please call him again. He seemed to -trust you.” - -But neither hails nor search revealed the Chinese, and after a short -period the party returned to the piazza. - -“We were just coming to look for you!” exclaimed Nalbro. “Where in the -world have you been?” and she and Hal halted on the side path up which -came Luke and Ruth. - -“We have been—picking cherry blossoms,” answered Ruth. - -“Cherry blossoms!” echoed Hal. - -“I think she has confused Japan and China,” remarked Luke, with a laugh. - -“This is worse and more of it!” chimed in Agnes, who had come along with -Neale. “What’s the big idea?” she asked slangily. Ruth disapproved of -slang, but Agnes, backed by Neale, liked to use it. - -“Hop Wong has been trying to stage a mystery,” explained Luke. “Here is -the concrete evidence of it. I claim it’s a joke, but Ruth takes it -seriously.” - -“Let’s see!” demanded Neale, reaching for what Luke had taken for a -laundry check. - -“Suppose we go into the house where the light is better,” suggested -Ruth. “And, Sammy, I don’t want to be impolite, but perhaps your mother -wants you to go to bed.” - -“Oh, no’m, she doesn’t!” quickly declared the boy. “I asked her an’ she -said I could stay up late to-night on account of your party.” - -“Well——” went on Ruth. - -“Suppose we keep Sammy here a little while,” suggested Luke in a low -voice. “It isn’t very late and we might need him. I have an idea,” he -added. - -“All right,” agreed Ruth, after a quick look at her friend. “You may -stay a little longer, Sammy.” - -“Goodie!” cried Tess and Dot. - -The children were not much interested in the odd note—particularly when -they saw Linda come in with cake and ice cream. And while Sammy and the -small girls were enjoying this feast in one corner of the room, the -others gathered under the light to read again the strange message. - -What did it mean? - - - - -CHAPTER XIII: A MIDNIGHT TRYST - - -There could be no question but what the message was from a Chinese. -Everything about it indicated that—the paper, the ink, and the peculiar -manner in which even the English letters were formed with a brush in its -bamboo holder, worked in an upright manner, after the style of Chinese -from time immemorial. - -“Yes, I guess Hop Wong wrote it all right,” agreed Neale. “But wait a -minute. I have one of his laundry checks in my pocket now, and I mustn’t -forget to call for my clean shirts. You’re going to have some more -parties, aren’t you?” he appealed beseechingly to Ruth and Agnes. - -“Oh, I suppose so, silly boy!” laughed Agnes. “But what has that to do -with this?” - -“A lot, maybe,” declared Neale. “I’ll compare a laundry check that Hop -Wong positively gave me with this paper and we’ll see if they are -alike.” - -“I’m pretty sure they will be,” remarked Luke. “Though, after all, it -isn’t much of a test.” - -“Why not?” demanded Neale. - -“Because these Chinese laundrymen get all their paper and other supplies -from the same wholesale house, and the stuff seldom varies. However, it -will do no harm to make the comparison.” - -When the two pieces of paper were placed in conjunction, Neale’s laundry -check and the strange message left in the apple tree, they were -identical, and so was the hue of the ink. - -Again Ruth read the message which seemed particularly hers, since the -Chinese had sent word to her first that he wanted to see her. - - “Korner Hous gals pay Hop Wong 100 dols - Hop Wong mak grat much money gals.” - -“What in the world does it mean?” demanded Nalbro, clinging to Hal with -a pretty air of proprietorship. “It sounds like a comic opera. What’s -that one we went to see in Boston, Hal?” - -“You mean the Mikado?” - -“That was it. Wasn’t it lovely? Dear Little Buttercup—” and she hummed -the air. - -“Only that happened to be Japanese instead of Chinese, and ‘Dear Little -Buttercup’ wasn’t in the Mikado at all! That’s the only difference,” -observed Luke, with a grim chuckle. - -“Oh, well, the idea is the same,” Nalbro asserted. “But what does it -mean, anyhow?” - -“That’s what I’d like to know,” said Ruth. - -“Isn’t it plain?” asked Agnes. “Hop Wong, for all his meekness, wants us -to pay him a hundred dollars so he’ll make a great lot of money.” - -“That isn’t the way I read it,” declared Neale. - -“What do you make of it?” asked Luke. - -“It seems to be a sort of promise,” went on Neale as he again studied -the note. “Translating—ahem—I’ll pretend I’m in high school now, giving -a recitation in Latin. Translating, I should say it ought to read like -this: - -“‘If the Corner House girls will pay Hop Wong one hundred dollars, Hop -Wong, in return, will make a greater amount of money for the Corner -House girls.’ That’s what it means.” - -“Well, perhaps,” admitted Luke. “I hadn’t thought of that.” - -“But how does he propose to make money for us?” asked Ruth. - -“Perhaps by enlarging his laundry,” suggested Agnes. “That’s it, I’ll -wager a cookie!” - -Neale, who had started toward her, turned aside with a disappointed air. - -“I thought you were going to say—kiss!” he sighed. - -“There is a time and place for everything!” Agnes told him. - -“Go on with your theory, Agnes,” begged Luke. “It sounds interesting, to -say the least.” - -“Well, couldn’t it be that Hop Wong wants to do more business?” asked -the girl. “You know how those Chinese are. They come over here, start a -little place, and then get in a partner who does most of the work. I -think Hop Wong wants to expand—to get in a partner—and he needs a -hundred dollars to finance it. If we advance it he’ll give us a share in -his laundry—make us stockholders, perhaps. Fancy being in the Chinese -laundry business, Ruth! Wouldn’t it be grand?” - -“I don’t know,” and Ruth spoke doubtfully. “If I thought he meant that -I’d try to help him get a partner.” - -“It would be just like your unusual kind spirit,” said Luke. “But I am -not sure it does mean that. Read it again, Neale, just as it sounds.” - -Neale read: - -“‘Korner House gals pay Hop Wong 100 dols——’” - -He was stopped by a cry from Dot. - -“Oh, don’t give him my Alice-doll!” she begged. - -“Silly child, what do you mean?” asked Agnes. - -“Well, doesn’t that Chinaman want a hundred dolls?” asked Dot, tears -coming into her eyes. “We haven’t got that many—not even Tess and me -together. And, anyhow, I won’t give that Chinaman my Alice-doll and I -don’t see why they call ’em Chinamen anyhow, ’cause they aren’t made of -china. But he can’t have my Alice-doll!” - -“He doesn’t want her, Dottie!” explained Ruth. “That’s just his way of -saying dollars.” - -“Oh! Are you sure?” - -“Certainly she is,” put in Agnes. “And, Ruth, if you let these children -stay up any later, eating ice cream and cake, they’ll be sick to-morrow -and you’ll have to look after them alone, for Neale and I are going -away.” - -“Oh, are you, indeed?” - -“Yes. But, seriously, Tess and Dot ought to go to bed.” - -Instantly the little ones began begging for a half hour more, but Ruth -decided that Agnes, for once, was right, and off to bed they were sent. - -“I s’pose that means I’ve got to go,” sighed Sammy. - -“Well—” began Ruth, with a look at Luke. - -“Wait a minute, Sammy,” suggested the collegian. “We must get to the -bottom of this,” he went on. “And to do so we must have a talk with this -Chinese laundryman. Now it would seem that he trusts Sammy, though he -may be very fond of you and Agnes, Ruth, for what you have done for him. -Are you and Hop Wong good friends, Sammy?” - -“Sure we are! I always take my pa’s collars there and he gives me those -funny lichi nuts—I mean Hop Wong does.” - -“Then Sammy is the boy to proceed with this,” went on Luke. - -“What do you mean to do?” Ruth wanted to know. - -“I want to send word to Hop Wong to come and explain this note, and I -think if Sammy goes to the laundry alone and asks Hop Wong to come here, -it will do the trick. If one of us goes, or if all of us go, it will -look as though we suspected something. But we can safely send Sammy.” - -“Will he go?” asked Ruth, half doubtfully. - -“Sure I’ll go!” declared Sammy. “I’d like to. Maybe he’ll give me lichi -nuts.” - -“Oh, forget the nuts!” advised Luke. “This may mean business! Skip -along, Sammy, and go in casually. Wait a minute!” - -“What’s cas-casally?” inquired Sammy. - -“I mean as if you just happened in,” explained Luke. “But I have a -better plan. Can’t you send some laundry to be done up?” he appealed to -Ruth. - -“Yes, I could make up a bundle.” - -“Please do so. We’ll make this seem as natural as possible.” - -“Will he be open as late as this?” asked Hal. - -“Oh, sure!” asserted Sammy. “He’s workin’ all night, Hop Wong is.” - -A little later Sammy was dispatched with a bundle of things which needed -the peculiar attention of the Chinese, and then the party of young folks -at the Corner House waited. - -Sammy came back much more quickly than they expected him. He gave the -peculiar check to Ruth and said: - -“He wasn’t there.” - -“How did you leave the laundry then?” asked Luke. - -“Oh, there was another Chink in the place—his partner, I guess. I asked -him when Hop Wong would be back, but I couldn’t make out anything he -said except ‘Tlhusdlay.’ I guess he meant Thursday.” - -“But surely Hop Wong wouldn’t remain away that long!” said Agnes. - -“No, he meant the laundry would be ready then,” suggested Neale. “That’s -the first thing a new Chinese learns to say—the days of the week. So you -didn’t see any sign of Hop Wong, Sammy?” - -“Nope.” - -“Maybe one of us had better go,” suggested Hal. - -“Guess we had,” agreed Luke. “Come on, we three will stroll down there. -Maybe Hop Wong will be back soon.” - -But when the three young men reached the steaming laundry, with its -peculiar acrid smell, Hop Wong was not in sight. A shuffling, slant-eyed -and smiling representative came out from behind the calico curtains, -however, and stretched forth a very clean hand with long nails. - -“You got chleck?” he clicked. - -“No check,” said Luke. - -“No lauldly,” was the sententious reply. - -“We haven’t any laundry,” went on Luke. “But listen here, friend, where -is Hop Wong?” - -“Hop Wong gone.” - -“When Hop Wong come back?” and Luke tried not to listen to the chuckles -of his friends at his vernacular talk. - -“Hop Wong clum black mebby t’mollo.” - -“Not until to-morrow? But maybe he come back to-night?” - -“Maybe. You no glot lauldly?” - -It seemed to worry Hop Wong’s partner (if such he was) that the visitors -had neither laundry to leave nor a check with which to claim shirts and -collars. - -“No laundry,” said Luke again. “I think I’ll leave a note for the jolly -beggar to call at the Corner House,” he said to Neale and Hal. “What do -you say?” - -“Can he read it after you write it?” asked Neale. - -“Oh, I guess so. ‘Friend,’” and he turned to the other laundryman, “Hop -Wong read let-letter—English letter—not Chinese?” His tone was -questioning. - -“Oh, shlure! Hop, he lead Englis’!” - -“All right—here goes,” and Luke printed with the bamboo brush on a piece -of laundry wrapping paper a request in as simple words as he could for -Hop Wong to call at the Corner House as soon as he returned. - -“There! Give it to Hop Wong as soon as he comes in,” said Luke. “Pronto! -Quick, you know!” - -“Pronto is Spanish—not Chinese,” chuckled Neale. - -“Oh, well, what is it you say when you want a Chinese to hurry?” - -“Chop-chop!” declared Hal. - -“All right—chop-chop it is,” said Luke. “You give Hop Wong this -chop-chop,” and he handed the other the message. - -“All lite,” was the bored answer, and they filed out, leaving Hop Wong’s -partner gravely trying to read the note which he held upside down. - -“I only hope he doesn’t think ‘chop-chop’ means that he’s to bring up a -bowl of rice and chop sticks,” said Neale, as they were on their way -back. - -“We’ll have to trust to luck,” replied Luke. - -They found the girls eagerly and anxiously awaiting their return. - -“Well?” asked Ruth. - -They told her what had taken place. - -“Then the only thing to do is to wait,” observed Agnes. - -It seemed a long time, but really it was not more than an hour. Sammy -had been sent home and Luke was about to propose that he and Neale and -Hal should pay another visit to the laundry, when there came a tapping -on the window of the room where they were all sitting. It happened to be -the only window that was not raised, for the night was warm. - -“What’s that?” exclaimed Nalbro, as the tapping on the glass sounded -very loud, coming, as it did, after a period of silence. - -“Look!” exclaimed Ruth. - -She pointed to the casement, and in the light from the room they all saw -the face of a Chinese peering at them. - -“Hop Wong!” exclaimed Neale. “Hey, you!” he shouted, “come in here and -stop playing your tricks!” - -But, even as he spoke, the face of Hop Wong faded away and disappeared -from sight. - -“Well, what do you know about that!” cried Hal. - -“After him!” cried Luke. - -The three young men dashed from the house, scattering to search for the -Chinaman. But he was not to be found anywhere around the house nor in -the adjacent garden. - -“Well, if he isn’t the limit!” exclaimed Luke, in exasperation. “What do -you suppose his game is?” - -“Give it up,” remarked Neale. “Maybe he’s hiding in the bushes under the -window. We didn’t look there.” - -An investigation of the shrubbery, however, failed to disclose any -Chinese. But they did see, on the window sill, another note. It was -written like the first, on laundry paper. - -“Hang the fellow!” chuckled Luke. “He’s as bad at writing notes as -Wilkins Micawber. Let’s see what this one says.” - -They carried it into the house. There they read this: - - “Hop Wong met Korner House gals midlight - under boy-pain tree in glarden.” - -“Whew!” whistled Neale. “More of the same mystery! Wants the girls to -meet him at midnight, does he? Not much!” - - - - -CHAPTER XIV: SUSPICIONS - - -Ruth reached over and gently took from Neale’s hand the latest bit of -correspondence from Hop Wong. She read it slowly. - -“What do you think it means?” she asked, of no one in particular. - -“He wants you and Agnes to meet him at midnight! Just fancy that!” cried -Neale indignantly. “He has nerve! I’ll say that much!” He would have -said a great deal more, evidently, but Luke intervened. - -“I think he must mean ‘meet’ where he says ‘met,’” was the opinion -advanced by the young collegian. “You girls have never met him, have -you—using the word in its past tense?” - -“Never, except perhaps to go occasionally to his laundry,” Agnes -answered. - -“But what’s this riddle about a boy-pain tree in ‘glarden,’ by which, I -suppose, he means ‘garden’?” asked Hal. - -“That _is_ a puzzler—boy-pain tree,” mused Neale. “I guess we’d better -take it for granted that Hop Wong has a gone crazy and let it go at -that.” - -“No!” exclaimed Luke. “I’m beginning to understand it. You have an apple -tree in your garden, haven’t you?” he asked Ruth. - -“You ought to know—you and Ruth have sat under it often enough!” -chuckled Agnes. - -“That will do, Aggie. This may be serious,” said Ruth rebukingly, but in -a quiet voice. “Yes, there is an apple tree,” she went on. - -“Then that’s what Hop Wong means by ‘boy-pain’ tree,” declared Luke. - -“Where’s the connection?” demanded Neale. - -“I see!” exclaimed Hal. “And if you need a dictionary, Neale, to trace -the parallel between boys and pain and an apple tree——” - -“Oh, now I see!” laughed Neale. “Hop Wong didn’t know how to spell apple -tree, but he knew the effects of green apples on boys, and he went from -cause to effect. Pretty good, that!” - -“Do you suppose that’s what it is?” asked Nally. - -“It would seem so,” answered Luke. “Now the question is—do you girls -think it worth while to humor him, to meet him in this midnight tryst? -You needn’t be afraid, if that’s what you’re thinking of,” he went on, -as he saw Ruth about to demur. “We boys will all be within call.” - -“Brave boys!” joked Agnes, and Ruth gave her another warning look. - -“What do you think, Luke?” Ruth appealed to her friend. “Would you if -you were us?—I mean Agnes and myself. Of course we won’t ask Nally to -share the danger.” - -“Oh, I like _that_!” cried the Boston girl. “Here you invite me to the -Corner House, and as soon as a first-class mystery—better than any -moving picture—crops up, you want to shut me out! No, indeed! Let me -help you keep the tryst. Hop Wong won’t know but what I am a regular -Corner House girl.” - -“Yes, I don’t suppose three will make any difference,” replied Luke. -“Hop Wong isn’t likely to be fussy about that. Well, will you go? You -have about an hour to make up your mind,” he went on, as he looked at -his watch, noting that it was nearly eleven o’clock. - -“Let’s consider it a moment,” suggested Ruth, and then they talked it -all over again from the time Sammy had first summoned them to meet Hop -Wong in the garden, through the flight of the Chinese and his response -to Luke’s note. - -“If I only had an inkling of what it’s all about,” observed Ruth, “I -wouldn’t mind going. But I can’t imagine how Hop Wong can put us in the -way of making a great deal of money.” - -“The big point with him, I imagine,” said Neale, “is that he wants a -hundred dollars for himself. Maybe after he gets those he thinks he can -invest it in a Chinese lottery for you and win the capital prize.” - -“No, I hardly think that,” replied Ruth. “Well, we’ll take a chance, -girls,” she decided. “With the boys stationed in the bushes near at hand -there can be no danger. We’ll see what Hop Wong wants—will you?” and she -turned to Nalbro and Agnes. - -“I’m game!” announced the Boston girl. - -“And far be it from me to be a spoil-sport,” declared Agnes. “Come on.” - -“Don’t be in too much of a rush; you have a little time yet,” announced -Luke. “We’ll just scout around the apple tree and seek good places for -us to hide. Come on, boys.” - -He went out with Neale and Hal. Ruth looked at her sister and guest. - -“Nervous?” questioned Nalbro. - -“No.” - -“Neither am I! Isn’t it thrilling?” - -“It may be too much so,” said Ruth grimly. - -They sat and talked in the now silent Corner House until the boys came -back. Mrs. MacCall, Linda, and Uncle Rufus had gone to bed, for Ruth -told them she would lock up after the boys had gone home. - -“I guess we’re all set for the play,” announced Luke as he and the other -two boys returned. “It lacks a little of midnight, but I fancy Hop Wong -will be a little early. We’ll go down first and hide ourselves away. -Don’t worry if you don’t see us, for it wouldn’t do to show ourselves to -the laundryman. But we’ll be close to you.” - -“All right,” said Ruth. “We’ll follow you in about five minutes.” - -And at the end of that time, when the three girls went into the garden -and walked toward the apple tree, bathed as it was in moonlight, there -was not a sign of the boys, not so much as loud breathing. Yet Ruth knew -Luke would not fail her. - -For several minutes the girls waited under the tree. There was no sound -but the night wind. The situation was growing tense, and Agnes said -later that it was all she could do to keep from giggling hysterically. - -Suddenly there was a hiss coming with fierce energy out of the darkness. - -“Oh—a snake!” gasped Nalbro. “I’m going to——” - -Whether she was about to announce that she would faint or run no one -knew, for a moment later the voice of Hop Wong called: - -“Clorner House gals alle lite?” - -“Yes, we’re here all right, Hop Wong,” answered Ruth, in steady tones. -“But what does this mean? Why have you asked us out here to meet you? If -you are playing any tricks——” - -“No, Missie Luth, no tlicks. Hop Wong play no tlicks. I telle you lite -away quick.” - -Out of the moonlight shadows he came, a timid and shrinking figure of a -Chinese. Ruth wondered that she had ever had a sense of fear concerning -him, he seemed so slight and boyish—not much larger, in fact, than Sammy -Pinkney. - -“Well, Hop Wong, we are here and we’ll listen to what you have to say,” -remarked Ruth. - -“Hop Wong glad Missie Luth come,” said the laundryman, drawing nearer -and standing fully revealed in the silvery radiance under the outermost -branches of the tree. “Other Clorner House gals here?” he asked. Hop -Wong did not speak as he wrote, exactly. - -“Yes, we’re all here,” Ruth told him. - -“Alle lite. Now Hop Wong tell. Listen! You give Hop Wong one hund’ed -dollals, Hop Wong show you where much money is. You sabby?” - -“What do you mean?” demanded Ruth. “Where is this much money you will -show us?” - -“Ah, flist you give Hop Wong one hund’ed dollals?” he cunningly -demanded. - -“And if we do give you a hundred dollars will you show us where we can -find more than that?” asked Agnes, thinking it wise to show that Ruth -was not in supreme authority. - -“That what Hop Wong do.” - -“But if you know where there is a lot of money, why don’t you go and get -it for yourself, and not let us take it?” asked Ruth. “Why don’t you get -this big sum yourself, Hop Wong?” - -“No can do,” was all he said. “Only Clorner House gals git much money. -Hop Wong git one hund’ed dollals. No can do.” - -He seemed quite downcast about it, and to the girls he was rather a -pathetic figure. - -“Why don’t you tell us first where this money is, and then let us pay -you the hundred dollars if we find it?” asked Agnes. “Don’t you trust -us, Hop Wong? You have known us long enough to know we are honest and -that we’ll pay you if we find any such large sum as you tell about. -Where is it? Tell us, and if we get it we’ll pay you—maybe two hundred -dollars.” - -“No can do,” was all Hop Wong said. - -Further arguments seemed to be useless, yet Ruth made one more attempt. -But when Hop Wong stubbornly, or perhaps uncomprehendingly, repeated: - -“No can do! Give Hop Wong one hund’ed dollals.” - -Ruth exclaimed: - -“We’ll have to see our guardian about this. We’ll have to talk with Mr. -Howbridge, our guardian, Hop Wong, and we’ll see you later—at your -laundry. That is all for to-night.” - -It was surprising to note the change that came over the Chinese. He -appeared to shrink and grow even smaller and terror was clearly manifest -on his face. - -“No tell! No tell him!” he cried. “No call guard and have Hop Wong -alested. No tell! I not bad! Oh! Oh!” and in a perfect wail of fright he -turned and fled, being soon lost among the moonlighted shadows of the -garden. - -“Oh!” exclaimed Nalbro, in pity. - -In an instant the three boys had leaped from their hiding places and had -joined the girls, so close and ready were they. - -“Shall we take after him?” cried Neale. - -“No, the poor fellow is frightened to death now,” said Ruth. - -“But what happened?” asked Luke. “What did you say to him that made him -yell like that and run as if a dragon were chasing him? We couldn’t hear -all that was said.” - -“I merely announced that we would have to see our guardian about paying -Hop Wong one hundred dollars,” stated Ruth. “Then off he ran.” - -There was silence for a moment and then Luke exclaimed: - -“I see! He thought you said you would call the _guard_. Guess he must -have thought you had a squad of soldiers on hand. Your use of the word -‘guardian’ mixed him up. There is something suspicious in this or he -wouldn’t be so ready to run when he thought you were going to call in -the authorities. That’s it—Hop Wong is afraid of the law.” - -And so it seemed. The more they thought about it and talked it over, the -more Luke’s explanation seemed to fit the conduct of the laundryman. - -“Well, no use staying out here any longer,” said Ruth, with a little -shiver, for the night dew was chilling. “Let’s go in, or Mrs. Mac will -think we’ve been carried off by some ‘lang-nebbied thing.’” - -They went into the house. Neale and Luke offered to remain all night, -but it was not considered necessary with Hal and Uncle Rufus at hand, to -say nothing of the strong-armed Linda. - -They talked matters over a little longer, all the while growing more and -more suspicious of Hop Wong’s conduct, and when Luke and Neale departed -it was with the intention of taking serious steps the next day to get at -the bottom of the mystery. - - - - -CHAPTER XV: TESS AND DOT INVESTIGATE - - -Mr. Howbridge chuckled in silent amusement when Ruth and Agnes paid him -a visit at his office the next day and told what had happened. - -“What do you think of it?” asked Ruth. - -“Not much, my dear. If you want my private and unofficial opinion, I’ll -say I think very little of it.” - -“But, Guardy,” broke in Agnes, “perhaps we’d better have your official -opinion.” - -“Yes,” agreed Ruth, “that’s what we came for.” - -“I can’t give you an official opinion until I look further into the -matter,” he said, growing a bit grave as he saw how much these two -Corner House girls were affected by what had taken place. “Let me have -the documents in the case,” he begged. - -“Meaning these laundry checks, as Luke calls them?” asked Ruth. - -“Yes. You know we lawyer fellows depend a great deal on documentary -evidence. Not that I think I can get much from these, however,” he went -on, as he looked over Hop Wong’s notes. - -“What shall we do?” Ruth wanted to know. - -“Just nothing for the present,” was the lawyer’s advice. “Leave it to -me. I’ll see the official court interpreter whom we always have whenever -there is a Chinese case in court, and I’ll get him to have a talk with -Hop Wong. It is just possible that he may be misunderstood, both in his -writings and talk.” - -“Yes, that’s possible,” admitted Ruth. “I wouldn’t want to do the poor -fellow an injustice.” - -“He seemed to have a guilty conscience,” remarked Agnes, with a giggle, -as she remembered how Hop Wong had run at the mention of the word -guardian. - -“Perhaps he isn’t the only one,” replied Mr. Howbridge, with a smile, -looking at several documents on his desk. “We lawyers run across some -queer cases. Not to raise your hopes too high, however, I think I -wouldn’t anticipate too much from what Hop Wong said,” he went on. “I -mean about a great sum of money coming to you. I handled all of your -Uncle Peter’s affairs and, as far as I know, his estate is all settled -and you have the most of it.” - -“For which we are duly grateful,” said Ruth. - -“And we don’t hope for nor really want any more,” remarked Agnes. -“Though if you could see your way clear to letting us have a new car, of -course we’d——” - -“There you go again!” chuckled the guardian. “Isn’t that a perfectly -good car you have now?” - -“Oh, it’s _good_ enough, if you mean it that way,” sighed Agnes. “But if -you could see the look, sometimes, on Nally Hastings’ face when she gets -in it!” - -“Oh, ho! Sets the wind in that quarter?” exclaimed Mr. Howbridge, using -one of his favorite expressions. “And don’t tell me I should say ‘sit,’ -either!” he hastened to remark, thus forestalling an objection on the -part of Ruth, who held that the old adage should be “sits the wind,” and -not “sets.” However, this time she was too anxious over the matter of -Hop Wong and the mystery with which he was connected to “start -anything,” as Neale would have said. - -“Well, you go home and be good girls—No, I won’t say that for you’re -always good,” joked Mr. Howbridge. “But I’ll see about letting you have -a new car. I’m going over some of your accounts now, and if I find the -balance on the right side——” - -“If you don’t, perhaps we can get Hop Wong’s money,” laughed Agnes. - -“Don’t count your chickens until you hear them coming over the bridge, -as Uncle Rufus would say,” remarked Ruth. “Well, Mr. Howbridge, we’ll -leave it to you,” and she and Agnes went back to the Corner House. - -“Has Hop Wong been around again?” asked Ruth of Mrs. MacCall. - -“Not a glint of him, and small pleasure do I have at a sight of the -yellow-faced heathen!” exclaimed the Scotch housekeeper. - -“Oh, well, don’t be too harsh on him,” laughed Agnes. “He may be the -means of our getting a new car. We certainly need one,” and she looked -toward the old one which Neale was bringing out of the garage, for they -were to take a ride that afternoon. - -After lunch there was a merry party on the cool porch of the Corner -House. Luke was there, bringing word that he had had a telegram and that -his sister and her intended would be unable to get to Milton, as had -been planned, in order to accompany them on the little outing. - -“And what is the opinion of the learned Mr. Howbridge concerning the -collar-cleansing representative of the Celestial Empire?” asked Luke of -Ruth. - -“Meaning Hop Wong?” asked Neale. - -“Yes, my son,” replied Luke, with a patronizing air. - -“He doesn’t attach much importance to it,” Ruth answered. - -“Same here,” voiced Neale. - -“I think he’s a faker!” exclaimed Hal. - -“Well, I don’t know but what I shall have to agree with you,” said Luke -slowly. “I’ve thought it all over, and I can’t see but what it doesn’t -amount to anything. Hop Wong must have been dreaming.” - -“Call it a pipe dream,” suggested Neale, with a laugh. - -“Oh, do you think he smokes opium?” asked Nalbro, shocked. - -“Oh, I guess not. Don’t saddle that on him,” said Luke. “But I didn’t -mean that way. I think Hop Wong has been day-dreaming, perhaps, and he -may have heard some story about fabulous wealth in the Corner House. You -know, before you girls succeeded to Mr. Stower’s estate,” Luke went on, -“there was a rumor, so I’ve heard, that he was a sort of miser.” - -“We never heard that!” declared Ruth. - -“Well, probably it wasn’t spread broadcast,” proceeded Luke. “But I -understand there was some talk of it, and I think this is what Hop Wong -has gotten hold of and he thinks maybe there is a treasure buried -somewhere.” - -“Just like that treasure that was found in the album in the attic—the -fortune that went to Mrs. Eland and Miss Pepperill,” said Agnes. - -“But where, Luke, could this present fortune be buried?” asked Ruth. - -“Just nowhere!” chuckled Luke. “It’s all bosh, of course, and that’s why -I think Hop Wong is a faker.” - -“But what about what was said by those men on the train?” asked Agnes. -“I mean about the ten thousand dollars.” - -“Oh,” murmured Luke. “You mean those men I overheard talking?” - -“Yes.” - -“I don’t believe there’s any connection between them and Hop Wong. It’s -all just bunk, if you will excuse my use of a slang term,” laughed Luke. -“Now let’s forget all about it and go riding. It’s a glorious day.” - -Neale and Hal brought around the automobile, and as Nalbro was getting -in Agnes could not help saying: - -“We were down this morning to see Mr. Howbridge, and he said we could -get a new car. I hope it comes before you go home, Nally.” - -“A new car!” whooped out Neale. “Glory be! Then I won’t have to tease -this one along much more.” - -“Oh, Agnes, Mr. Howbridge didn’t say for sure we could have one,” -expostulated Ruth. - -“No. But he didn’t say we _couldn’t_,” countered Agnes. “And when he -doesn’t do that it almost always happens. Anyhow, I’m going to look at -some of the new models.” - -“There’s certainly no harm in looking,” chuckled Neale. “But I do hope -Mr. Howbridge loosens up. If he doesn’t we may get stalled out in the -country some day and have to be towed in.” - -“Is this machine as risky as that?” asked Nalbro. - -“Nothing of the sort!” declared Luke. “It’s perfectly reliable.” - -With merry quips and laughter the party of young folks started off, -leaving Dot and Tess at home to play with Sammy Pinkney. - -Now, as it happened, Tess and Dot had overheard more of the talk of -their older sisters than Ruth and Agnes were aware of. It was distinctly -a case of “little pitchers with big ears,” and when the automobile party -was well out of the way, Tess with a queer, secretive air about her, led -her sister and Sammy to a secluded place around the corner of the house. - -“Don’t you tell a soul,” whispered Tess. - -“What’s a soul?” asked Sammy. - -“It’s a person,” Tess informed him. “Don’t you dare tell anybody, will -you?” - -“Tell ’em what?” Sammy wanted to know. - -“What I’m going to tell you and Dot now.” - -“All right, I won’t tell,” promised Sammy. - -“Cross your heart!” - -This rite was performed rapidly. - -“You, too, Dot!” - -“Can’t I tell even my Alice-doll?” - -“Oh, her! Yes. But nobody else! Cross your heart!” - -Dot did it for herself and for her doll. - -“Now listen,” went on Tess, and her voice sank to a lower whisper. “It’s -in _our cellar_!” - -She brought out the last two words with such force that Dot dropped her -Alice-doll. - -“What’s in your cellar?” asked Sammy. “My alligator?” - -“No. The ten thousand dollars!” went on Tess, eagerly. - -“What ten thousand dollars?” Sammy questioned excitedly. - -“The money those men told Luke about on the train and——” - -“They didn’t tell him about any money,” objected Sammy. “It was just -that he heard them say it.” - -“It’s the same thing,” declared Tess, with a fine disregard for trifles. -“The men know about ten thousand dollars in our cellar and so does Hop -Wong!” - -“He does?” cried Sammy, with wide-open eyes. - -“Yes!” went on Tess, with a wise shake of her head. “Now you listen to -me, both of you, and don’t you breathe it to a soul!” - -This was more exciting than any imaginary happening Sammy had ever -brought up, not excepting his dramatic one about the Russian wolves. - -“There’s ten thousand dollars in our cellar,” declared Tess. “Those -funny men who came pretending to fix a water pipe were after it, but -Uncle Rufus scared them away. Hop Wong knows where it is, but he’s -scared, too.” - -“Where ’bouts you s’pose it is?” asked Sammy in a whisper. - -“I don’t know exactly,” answered Tess. “But it’s in our cellar and we’re -going to find it. Come on! We’ll go get it now!” - -She started toward the slanting, open cellar door. For a moment Sammy -and Dot watched her and then, fired by the spirit of what they had -heard, the other two children started down into the dark depths, intent -on making some explorations. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI: THE STORM - - -Rather scary it was, this venturing into the seldom-visited regions -beneath Corner House. In fact Tess and Dot never remembered having gone -there before unaccompanied by their older sisters. But they were driven -by a powerful motive—two motives, in fact. - -One was curiosity, than which there is no stronger for a child or -animal. The other was the desire to “show off” before the older -folks—Ruth, Agnes and the boys. - -“Won’t they be surprised when we hand them the ten thousand dollars!” -exclaimed Tess, as she led the way down the outside cellar steps. - -“Oh, won’t they, just!” agreed Dot. - -“Will they give you any of the money?” Sammy asked, somewhat enviously. - -“Of course they will,” declared Tess. - -“How much?” Sammy inquired. - -“Oh, maybe forty dollars,” said Tess, vaguely. - -“I’d rather have sixteen,” declared Dot. - -“Listen to her!” exclaimed Tess. “She thinks sixteen dollars is more -than forty!” - -“Ho! Ho!” chuckled the boy. - -“Well, it is!” declared Dot, indignantly. “Look! When you have sixteen -dollars you have a one and a six,” and on the bottom step, in the dust, -she traced the figures. “You have a one and a six,” she repeated. “But -when you have forty dollars you have only a four and a nothing. So -there!” - -“Well, forty’s more’n sixteen, I know that!” declared Sammy, though he -was a little impressed by Dot’s logic. - -“Come on, let’s find the ten thousand dollars first,” suggested Tess, -foreseeing a long argument if she did not intervene, and the search -started at that part of the cellar nearest the outside door. - -“There’s a lot of places to look,” complained Sammy, when the trio had -ventured in a little way. “I wonder if it’s in a box or a barrel?” - -“It’s buried—that’s where it is,” declared Tess. - -“Buried?” questioned Dot and Sammy. - -“Yes, buried treasure is always buried, else how could they call it -buried treasure?” Tess wanted to know, with an affectation of superior -wisdom. - -“Well, I guess that’s right,” agreed Sammy. “Buried under the cellar -bottom, I s’pose.” - -“Yes,” said Tess. “And we’ll have to get a shovel to dig it up.” - -“Dig up the whole cellar?” cried Sammy. “That’s a heap of work!” - -“Buried treasure always means a lot of digging,” Tess calmly informed -him. “We’ll all help.” - -“Got to have shovels then,” decided Sammy. “Well, I’ll go get ’em.” - -He started up out of the cellar. - -“I—I guess—maybe we’d better come with you,” said Tess, falteringly as -she looked at the black depths stretching far, far into the rear of the -cellar and thinking of the two men who had claimed to be from the water -department. “Maybe you wouldn’t know the right kind of shovels to get, -Sammy.” - -“I’ll go, too,” said Dot. “Maybe I’d better leave my Alice-doll out in -the sun,” she added, as they tramped back up the steps. “She might catch -cold in the damp cellar.” - -“All right,” agreed Tess, though it could be seen she had small -sympathy, at least just now, with Dot’s doll. - -Sammy found a shovel for himself in Uncle Rufus’ tool-house and the -girls got two smaller ones that they at times used to play with. Thus -equipped, they went back down cellar, not attracting the attention of -Uncle Rufus or Linda or Mrs. MacCall. - -“Well, now let’s dig,” suggested Sammy. - -The cellar of the Corner House was not an up-to-date cement one, being, -in fact, very old-fashioned and of dirt. But the dirt was packed hard -with years of use, and it was no easy matter to dig in it. The children -soon found this out. - -“This isn’t any fun!” complained Dot, after a while. - -“We _have_ to do it!” insisted Tess. “All treasure hunting is hard work. -Isn’t it, Sammy?” - -“Sure,” he agreed, though this was his first attempt. - -They dug around a bit more, their hardest efforts, however, not making -much of an impression on the well-packed cellar bottom, and at last Tess -said: - -“I guess we’ll have to go where the dirt’s softer. They just _couldn’t_ -bury any treasure here.” - -“Where’ll we go?” Dot asked. - -“Up there,” and Tess pointed to the farthermost depths of the cellar. - -“It’s dark there—terribly dark,” complained Dot. “We can’t see to dig.” - -Tess pondered on this for a moment. - -“We’ll have to get candles,” she decided. “But if we go into the kitchen -and take away any candles, Linda’ll see us, or Mrs. MacCall, and they’ll -ask us what we’re doing, and——” - -“I’ll go get my cigar-box lantern,” offered Sammy. - -“What’s that, Sammy?” asked Tess. - -“Oh, it’s a cigar box with a candle in it,” said Sammy. “It’s a dandy. -I’ll get it.” - -He hurried out of the cellar, and Tess and Dot waited for him up in the -open, for the little girls did not like to stay in the gloomy place when -they were not busy with their treasure hunting. - -Sammy’s lantern, manufactured as he had said, out of a cigar box, with a -hole cut in the lid and a square of glass set in, was not a half-bad -illuminant. It gave fitful gleams down in the cellar, and, not much to -the amusement of the children, cast fantastic shadows on the whitewashed -walls. - -“Now we’ll go away back where the dirt is soft and get the buried -treasure,” said Tess. - -And into the gloomy depths the children advanced, rather hesitatingly -and with more than one glance back over their shoulders, it is true. - -Meanwhile the older Corner House girls and Nally and their boy friends -were enjoying themselves on the automobile trip. They went to a summer -resort where there was a small lake, and soon were floating about in -idle pleasure, a couple in each of three boats. - -“Beautiful here, isn’t it?” asked Luke of Ruth. The boat was slowly -drifting, beneath an overhanging arch of green branches. - -“Very,” she agreed. “But——” - -“But me no buts,” he quoted, laughingly. And then, as he noticed that -she was rather serious he added: “I’ll double the proverbial penny.” - -“For what?” she asked, hardly comprehending. - -“Your thoughts,” he answered. “What are you thinking of? May I hope that -I am——” - -“I don’t want to spoil your romance,” she broke in laughingly; “but I -was really wondering what Tess and Dot were doing. I hope they’re all -right.” - -“Why shouldn’t they be?” - -“Well, that queer Chinese and——” - -“Oh, Hop Wong won’t bother them. If he comes around I fancy Linda will -send him flying.” - -“It isn’t so much him as those two men——” - -“Don’t give them another thought,” advised Luke. “I’m sure they will -never come near the Corner House again.” - -“I wish I could be sure,” said Ruth. “I don’t want to stay here too -long. Somehow—I can’t explain it—I have a feeling that something is -happening back home!” - -“Just nerves,” declared Luke. “But if you really want to go back——” - -“I’d like to. It is almost time, anyhow, and shortening the outing by an -hour or so, if you don’t mind——” - -“Not at all,” Luke hastened to assure her. “We’ll go back just as soon -as I can round up the others.” - -“You are very good,” murmured Ruth, with a grateful look at him, and she -did not too quickly draw away her hand when Luke stretched his fingers -over hers. - -“Oh, say! What’s the idea? Going back so soon!” expostulated Neale, when -he and Agnes were signaled to, and came rowing up to the boat dock. -“Why, the day isn’t half gone!” - -“Ruth thinks we had better get back, and so do I,” said Luke quietly. -“It looks as though we might have a storm,” he went on, “and you know -the car wasn’t exactly on its best behavior on the way out, old man.” - -“Oh, I worked the crankiness out of her,” declared Neale. But when he -saw that Ruth was really in earnest about going back he made no further -protest. Nor did Hal nor Nalbro. - -Contrary to Luke’s partial prediction, the car behaved beautifully, and -they were soon on their homeward trip. But the other remark of the -collegian—to the effect that a storm was brewing—seemed likely to be -borne out. In the west black clouds were gathering. - -“We’ll be home before it breaks,” declared Neale, and he stepped on the -accelerator. - -“I hope so,” murmured Ruth. “Tess and Dot are so careless, and I ought -to be on hand if there is a heavy storm.” - -They sped along right merrily, perhaps a little more subdued than on the -outgoing trip, for, after all, anticipation is a bit more romantic than -realization in nearly every case. But they had had a pleasant day. - -A few drops of rain were falling as Neale drove the automobile into the -yard of Corner House, and the girls hastened up on the porch as he -continued on to the garage. - -“Where are Tess and Dot?” asked Ruth of Mrs. MacCall, as the Scotch -housekeeper came out on the porch. - -“Oh, the bairns are down in the cellar.” - -“In the cellar!” Ruth exclaimed. “Why——” - -“It is only the noo that I diskivered it,” asserted Mrs. MacCall, -lapsing into some of her Scotch. “I warned them to come oop tha once. -Then ye came spirin’ alang——” - -“But what are they doing down in the cellar?” asked Ruth. “I hope they -haven’t been playing there long. Is Sammy with them?” - -“Yes. They’re playin’ some game, I’ll wager. I’ll call them ag’in, -an’——” - -But at that moment a dreadful crash sounded from the direction of the -cellar. - -“Oh!” cried Ruth. “What has happened?” - -“I’ll see!” offered Luke, making a dash for the inside cellar stairs. - -“I’m with you!” added Hal, for Neale had not come in from the garage. - -Anxious, the three girls waited at the head of the stairs. They could -see a flickering light down in the blackness. - -“Oh, if it should be those men or Hop Wong!” half sobbed Ruth. - -But a moment later Luke’s cheery voice, most reassuring in its tone, -came floating up. - -“It’s all right,” he announced. “They just knocked down a shelf of glass -preserve jars. Nobody hurt! Up you go, children!” - -A moment later Luke reappeared, carrying Tess, covered with dirt and -cobwebs, while Hal followed with Dot in a similar condition. Sammy, with -his cigar-box lantern, trailed behind, a woeful figure. - -“What in the world have you children been doing?” cried Ruth. - -“Digging for buried treasure,” announced Tess, as though that were an -everyday occupation. “We haven’t found any yet. And then the shelf fell -down and——” - -Her words were muffled in a terrific clap of thunder which shook the -house. Agnes and Nalbro screamed and covered their ears with their hands -while Mrs. MacCall murmured: - -“What a terrible storm!” - - - - -CHAPTER XVII: THE MIDNIGHT NOISE - - -Silence followed the terrific clap of thunder—a silence almost as -startling as the noise which had preceded it. And then the rain came -down in torrents. - -It was as if that awful blast had opened the flood-gates of heaven and -let down the waters accumulated there for ages past. A pelting, driving, -overwhelming storm it was, punctuated by intermittent flashes of -lightning and rumbling thunder. - -But, as if that were not enough, the condition of the three -children—woebegone, dirty and on the verge of tears—was enough to cause -a disturbance. - -“What has happened? What is going to happen?” murmured Ruth, for once, -at least, feeling that her nerves were going to give way. - -It was Agnes who saved the situation. Having gained her own equilibrium, -she turned to Nalbro and asked: - -“What do you think of the Corner House now? Isn’t it an ideal place? So -quiet and restful!” - -And as she asked this Dot burst into tears and wails, which made her -inquiry seem all the more contrasting. - -But Nally let out a peal of jolly laughter and exclaimed: - -“I just love it! It’s so different!” - -“Yes, it’s different, all right!” chuckled Neale. - -“Well, now that we’re at least all here, whole and not in pieces,” said -Ruth, “perhaps we can have some explanation of what it is all about—I -mean what you children have been doing,” she explained. “First, though, -is any one hurt?” - -“I ain’t,” declared Sammy Pinkney. - -“You shouldn’t say ‘ain’t,’ Sammy,” remarked Tess primly, intent on -improving her playmate notwithstanding the noise and confusion all about -her. - -“I aren’t hurt, but I is scared,” announced Dot. - -At this Hal and Luke laughed in glee, at which Dot looked a little hurt. -Neale, however, was a great comfort, as usual, for he looked gravely at -her and said: - -“Never mind, Dotums. Almost any one would be scared.” - -“Well, I know something else Sammy shouldn’t do,” said Agnes, after the -laughter subsided. “And that is to have that old smelly lantern in here. -It’s bad enough when the windows are open, but when they’re all closed -it’s terrible. Blow it out, Sammy, do!” - -The candle in the cigar box was making a smudge, and Sammy obligingly -extinguished it. - -“Now let’s have the story,” suggested Ruth. - -While the storm raged outside the children told how they had conceived -the idea of searching in the cellar for buried treasure—the treasure of -Hop Wong and the two men. - -“But what makes you think there is treasure in our cellar?” asked Ruth. - -“Because,” was all Tess or Dot would say. - -As for Sammy, he only pointed to the girls. This was a case of shifting -the blame, it seemed. - -By degrees, however, it was drawn out of the trio how Tess had put this -and that together, and had, in a way, added what she had overheard -concerning the Chinaman and the two tramps. Thus she had arrived at the -decision that there must be a store of gold in the cellar of the Corner -House. She had then taken Dot and Sammy into her confidence. - -“And we dug and dug, but we didn’t find any,” reported Tess. “We were in -the back part of the cellar, where it’s awfully dark, when we heard a -noise. We ran and we knocked down something that fell on the swinging -shelf, and that fell down and——” - -“It’s a mercy you weren’t all cut by the broken glass jars!” exclaimed -Ruth. “I suppose the cellar’s a sight!” she sighed. - -“Oh, it isn’t so bad as if the jars had been filled with fruit,” -chuckled Luke. “There’s a lot of broken glass, it’s true, but glass jars -are cheap. It might have been worse.” - -“Indeed, yes, if the children had been hurt,” agreed Ruth. - -A close inspection showed no damage beyond what soap and water would -remedy. Then, as the household settled down to a more normal state of -existence, preparations were made for getting supper, and more details -of the searching expedition of Tess, Dot and Sammy were drawn out while -the storm raged. - -“What sort of noise was it you heard that made you run? You said you -knocked down something that broke the swinging shelf, didn’t you?” asked -Ruth, when Mrs. MacCall and Linda were preparing the evening meal. - -“Oh, it was just a noise,” replied Tess, vaguely. Ruth’s evident -idea—evident, at least, to the older ones—was to learn if any attempt -had been made by Hop Wong or the two strange men to enter the cellar -under cover of the approaching storm. - -“But can’t you tell me what sort of noise?” persisted Ruth. - -“It was—now, it was a noisy noise!” exclaimed Sammy, with a triumphant -air. - -And he wondered why some of them laughed. - -“Never mind, Sammy,” said Neale consolingly, “most noises are noisy. And -that’s the sort of noise that annoys an oyster, if I remember the joke -aright.” - -“If you get off any more old ones like that,” threatened Hal, “we’ll -sentence you to stand out in the rain and sing a song.” - -“And it’s some rain!” murmured Luke. - -Indeed, though the first fury of the storm was over, culminating, it -seemed, in that one terrific crack, there was now a steady downpour -which seemed likely to last all night. - -“Sammy, you’d better stay here to supper,” said Ruth, when the meal was -nearly ready. “I’ll telephone over to your mother to say you’re all -right.” - -“Oh, I guess she knows I’m all right,” Sammy announced, with cheerful -irresponsibility. - -“I’ll make sure,” Ruth declared. - -It was still thundering and the lightning was flashing when she -approached the instrument. - -“Don’t go near it!” cried Agnes. - -“Why not?” Ruth asked. - -“It’s always dangerous in a thunder storm to go near a telephone! Keep -away!” - -But Ruth was one not easily frightened. Though after she had got her -connection with the Pinkney house and had relieved his mother’s feelings -by saying that Sammy would remain where he was for the present, Ruth -leaped back as a loud clicking from the telephone indicated some sort of -electrical disturbance on the wire. - -“There! What did I tell you?” cried Agnes. - -“No harm done,” Ruth replied. - -It was almost time for the meal to be served when Luke arose, took Neale -by the arm, and started for the hall, saying: - -“Well, we’ll bid you young ladies good-evening.” - -“What?” cried Agnes. - -“You aren’t going—not in all this storm!” objected Ruth. - -“I didn’t hear you invite us to supper,” returned Luke with a simulated -injured air. “And you didn’t offer to telephone to Grantham and say I -was all right.” - -“Or to Con Murphy,” added Neale, with a serious face. - -“Silly!” murmured Ruth. “Of course you boys will stay. Stay all night, -if you like. We have plenty of room.” - -“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” agreed Neale, looking out of the window, -down the panes of which little streams of rain were running. “What say, -Luke?” - -“I’m with you! It looks like a good imitation of the original flood -outside.” - -“You really would have to go around; you couldn’t climb the back fence -in this storm. Yes, you’ll have to stay,” put in Agnes. - -“Then we’ll have a jolly evening of it!” cried Hal. Perhaps he thought -three girls to one youth was all out of proportion. - -Indeed, now that they were all safe within doors there was no need to -worry about the storm. The members of the picnic party congratulated -themselves that they had left the lake and grove in time to escape the -outburst of the elements. - -It was an intermittent sort of storm, and there would be lulls in it -when it seemed about to stop. The rain would almost cease and the -thunder die away, while the flashes of lightning would hardly be -noticeable. - -Then, with a suddenness that was appalling, would come a crash of -thunder which would shake the house, and the lightning preceding it -would crackle and snap on the electric-light wires. - -Sometimes the rain would decrease to a mere drizzle, and again it would -pelt down as if about to bore through the roof. - -But the Corner House was stanch—Uncle Peter Stower had seen to that—and -not a drop entered. - -Supper was a jollier meal with all the company present, than otherwise -would have been the case. - -But to storm and conversation alike Sammy Pinkney was seemingly deaf. He -paid strict attention to the affair in hand, which affair consisted in -getting outside as much food as possible. Neither thunder, lightning nor -rain disturbed Sammy. - -As Neale observed him clean off plate after plate, which Linda filled, -Agnes’ chum could not help remarking: - -“Treasure hunting makes you hungry, doesn’t it, Sammy?” - -“Sure!” Sammy answered, not lifting his eyes from the piece of pie. - -“I only hope he isn’t made ill,” murmured Ruth. - -“Doesn’t thunder or lightning or something have some effect on food or -something?” asked Agnes. - -“You’re thinking of lightning turning milk sour, I guess,” answered -Neale. - -“Perhaps,” agreed Agnes. - -After the meal they went into the sitting room and sat about talking, -the late treasure-hunt, among other topics, being discussed. Ruth had -just gone to the telephone again to tell Mrs. Pinkney that Sammy could -remain all night if the storm did not cease when a series of queer -happenings began. - -The first was a sudden dimming of the electric lights. They had been -glowing brightly when, all at once, they went from a white brightness to -a dull red in their vacuum globes. - -“Oh!” exclaimed Ruth. “I hope we aren’t going to be left in darkness. We -took out most of the gas. I must see if Linda has any candles.” - -“I can light my cigar-box lantern,” offered Sammy. - -“Thank you—no!” protested Agnes. “I’d rather sit in darkness than be -smothered.” - -“It’s only the lightning,” said Neale. “The lights always go down when a -big flash comes.” - -As he spoke the lights went dim again, but they all noted that this -happened when the storm was comparatively quiet. There was no thunder -and no lightning. - -“How do you account for that?” asked Nalbro, nervously. - -“Trouble in the power house,” said Luke promptly. - -“Well, maybe,” Nally conceded. - -The house was comparatively quiet for a while, though the storm kept up, -and Ruth had just returned from putting the children to bed—Sammy, to -his delight being given a room to himself—when Nalbro called: - -“Some one’s at the telephone!” - -“I didn’t hear the bell ring,” said Hal. - -“No. But listen! Hear that clicking?” - -They all heard a peculiar tapping in the receiver, as when one is -connected with a “busy” wire. - -“Maybe it’s off the hook,” suggested Luke. - -He went to look, and when he came back to report that the instrument was -as it should be, they all looked one at the other. - -“There it is again!” exclaimed Agnes. - -Once more the clicking sounded. - -“I’ll ask Central what it is,” volunteered Neale. - -He started toward the instrument, but at that moment there came almost -as terrific a crash of thunder as the one that opened the storm. - -“Neale!” screamed Agnes. “Keep away from that telephone!” - -“There’s no danger,” he asserted, his voice sounding strangely loud in -the quiet that succeeded the booming of the thunder. - -Then, again the lights went dim—so low as almost to go out—and there -came a gasp of fear even from Ruth. - -“Do you suppose the house was struck?” she asked in a whisper of Luke. - -“Nonsense! If it had been we’d all know it. Lightning isn’t that gentle -when it strikes.” - -At that moment a clock somewhere in the Corner House softly gave the -hour of midnight. And almost as if it had been timed for that weird and -spookish hour there came, from the cellar, seemingly, a strange sound—a -sound of a heavy fall, followed by a moan. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII: STRUCK DOWN - - -Nothing more was needed to increase the nervous tension of the young -people in the Corner House, especially of Ruth and Agnes, on whom -responsibility rested. - -The hurried trip home before the storm, the discovery of the plight of -the children, the crash of the broken shelf and the freaks of the -storm—all this had added up and piled on with the result that all were -keyed to the highest pitch. - -And when, on top of this, that weird noise sounded, each and every one -gave a nervous start, though the boys, at least, were ashamed of -themselves a moment later. - -“Did you hear that?” gasped Agnes, the first to recover her startled -breath. - -“Did we _hear_ it?” murmured Nally. “I should say we _did_! What was -it?” - -“And where was it?” asked Ruth, looking around nervously. - -“The Corner House is living strictly up to its reputation of a quiet, -homelike family hotel,” joked Luke. - -“No, but seriously, that was—something!” declared Neale. He had paused -before the last word as if in doubt what name to put to the strange -noise. - -“It was _something_ all right,” asserted Luke. “And we’ve got to find -out what it was.” - -“Locate it first—that would be my suggestion,” came from Ruth. - -“It was in the cellar!” declared Neale. - -“That’s what I’d say,” remarked Nalbro. - -On this point there seemed to be little doubt. - -“If it had been in the upper part of the house we’d have heard Mrs. Mac -or Linda up and about by now,” asserted Ruth. “It was below us here—in -the cellar, I’m sure.” - -“It came right after that clap of thunder,” said Nalbro. “At first I -thought we’d been struck.” - -“The rumble of the thunder might have rattled down something in the -cellar,” suggested Agnes. “I’ve known it to bring down a stack of tins -in the pantry.” - -“Maybe part of the swinging shelf and some of the glass jars that didn’t -fall before, took a tumble now,” suggested Ruth. - -Luke shook his head. - -“If you had seen that shelf, after the children had finished with it, -you wouldn’t say there was anything left to fall,” he remarked. “It was -a wreck.” - -“Then what was this noise?” asked Ruth. - -“That’s what we’ve got to find out,” asserted Luke. “I’ll go down and -find out. Maybe a water pipe burst in real earnest this time,” he -suggested, with a glance at Ruth. - -“Oh, don’t say anything now to make me more nervous!” she begged. - -“Why does that make you nervous?” Nalbro asked. - -“It reminds me of those two horrid men—not that I think they’re around -now, or Hop Wong either, but——” - -“Oh, say! Maybe it _is_ Hop Wong searching for treasure under cover of -the storm!” cried Agnes. - -“Stop!” commanded Ruth. “If you’re going to suggest such things——” - -She made a tragic gesture. Usually Ruth was not nervous. Clearly -something had occurred to upset her usual poise. - -“I only suggested water pipes,” remarked Luke, “because I thought maybe -this terrific rain might have washed away a drain or something, -accounting for the gurgling noise.” - -“Gurgling noise!” exclaimed Neale. “It was a groan that I heard.” - -“So did I!” chorused some of the others. - -“Well, air and water mingling and going through a pipe will make a -groaning noise sometimes,” commented Luke. - -“If any water going through a pipe made a noise such as we heard—then -that pipe and water had better go on the stage and do a vaudeville -turn,” declared Neale. “It would bring down the house!” - -“Well, we’ll soon settle what it is,” remarked Luke. “I’m going down -cellar. You have lights there, haven’t you?” he asked, turning to Ruth. -“Can they be switched on from up here?” - -“Yes. But you mustn’t go down there alone, Luke! Wait until I call Uncle -Rufus!” - -“Nonsense!” expostulated the young collegian. - -Uncle Rufus had gone to bed earlier in the evening before the retirement -of Mrs. MacCall and Linda. - -“We’ll go with him!” offered Neale and Hal. - -“One of you boys has got to stay with me, for I’m not going near that -cellar!” declared Nalbro. - -“Now, wait a minute,” said Luke slowly. “This thing—this -investigation—must be done aright. I’m going to scout around down the -cellar by myself. I can do it better alone. If two of us go, one is sure -to think he sees something. He’ll call out and attract the attention of -the other, perhaps just at a time when a valuable discovery is about to -be made. Whereas one, alone, can devote his whole mind to the business -in hand. So I’ll go down alone and if I find I need help I’ll sing out -and some of you can follow. - -“Neale, you and Hal stay here with the girls. No, Ruth, you are not -going!” he added hastily, seeing determination in her eyes. “Burr-r-r-r! -that was a bad one,” he exclaimed, as a vivid flash of lightning was -followed almost immediately by a terrific crash of thunder. - -“Oh, Luke, I don’t want to have you go down in that cellar alone!” -begged Ruth. - -“Nonsense!” he laughed. “I can do a lot better alone. And if I need help -I’ll sing out. Don’t be afraid.” - -He patted her hand tenderly, and she did not resent this little caress, -given in public as it was. Luke had a masterful way with him. - -Suddenly, while they stood there after Luke’s decision had been -announced, and while they were mentally trying to picture what had taken -place in the cellar of the Corner House, the lights again went dim. - -“What if the current goes off when you’re in the cellar?” suggested -Agnes to Luke. - -“I’d better have a flashlight, I suppose.” - -“Take this one,” and Neale offered his. “I always carry it when I’m in -the car,” he added. “They’re mighty handy.” - -Luke accepted the miniature electric torch and started for the kitchen, -whence entrance was to be had to the cellar. The others followed him, -Ruth pointing out the switch that controlled the cellar lights. It was -thrown on and Luke prepared to descend. - -“We’ll be listening for you,” said Neale, to inspire confidence. “Don’t -let the bogey-man get you!” - -“I won’t,” laughed Luke, starting down the stairs. “I think it will turn -out to be, just as I said, some water gurgling through a drain-pipe. But -if I should be——” - -Before he could complete the sentence the front doorbell suddenly pealed -out its electric warning. - -Luke was already half-way down the cellar stairs. - -“Goodness! Callers at this time of night!” gasped Agnes. - -“Probably some one who wants shelter from the storm,” suggested Luke, -calling the words from the cellar stairway. - -“Agnes, you and Hal go and see who’s at the front door, and Neale and I -will wait in the kitchen to see what Luke finds,” suggested Ruth. - -“I’ll appoint myself a member of the door committee!” remarked Nalbro. -“Unless you want me to stay with you and Neale?” she added, turning to -Ruth. - -“No, go ahead,” Ruth answered. - -A dim glow came up from the cellar, showing that the electric lights -there were working properly. But Luke did not trust them. He held in his -hand, ready, the little electric torch Neale had given him. - -Agnes, Nalbro and Hal went to the front door to answer the bell, while -Ruth and Neale remained in the kitchen. - -“He’s moving around down there,” murmured Neale, for he could see that -Ruth was under a nervous strain, and he thought perhaps that a little -talk might relieve her. - -“Yes,” she answered. “I hope he doesn’t get cut on the broken glass jars -from the swinging shelf. I must tell him. Oh, Luke!” she called down the -cellar stairs. - -“Yes? What is it?” he asked, his voice showing that he had not yet moved -far away from the foot of the flight. - -“Be careful of the broken glass.” - -“I will—thank you.” - -“See anything yet, old man?” asked Neale. - -“No. Not a thing. The outside back cellar door is open, though,” he -said, “and the rain’s coming in there in a regular stream.” - -“Oh, dear!” murmured Ruth. “I suppose those children left it open when -they were treasure-hunting!” - -“I’ll shut it,” volunteered Luke. - -Neale and Ruth could hear him moving about below them. Neale was just -going to say that perhaps, after all, nothing would develop, that they -would have all their fears for nothing, when Agnes, Nalbro and Hal came -back from the front door. - -“Well?” asked Ruth. - -“No one was there!” announced Agnes in a strained voice. - -“No one?” - -“Not a soul!” - -“The street’s deserted—a regular rain-swept desert!” remarked Hal. - -“That _is_ strange,” murmured Ruth. “Someone must have rung the bell. I -wonder——” - -At that moment a cry came from the cellar—a cry that caused them all to -start. - -It was Luke’s voice! - -“What’s the matter, old man?” called Neale, for the cry had in it -something of terror and alarm. - -There was no answer. - -“We must go to him!” declared Ruth. - -Without waiting for any of the others, she darted down the stairs, but -Neale was after her in a trice. They saw a dim light in the cellar as -they almost fell down the narrow stairs. The light came from the front -part of the dark depths, up toward the street. - -“Luke! Luke!” called Neale. - -“Is anything the matter?” Ruth demanded anxiously. - -“Want any help?” asked Hal. “Shall we come down?” - -“No, stay up there and watch the front door!” cried Neale, with sudden -suspicion. “There’s queer work going on here! Watch the front door, -Hal!” - -Neale and Ruth caught a glimpse of a dim form moving about the cellar. - -“There’s Luke!” cried Neale. “Luke! Luke! What’s wrong? Why did you cry -out?” he asked. - -There was no answer. But as Neale and Ruth started forward from the -cellar stairs they saw Luke struck down by a club in the hands of some -one invisible to them. He fell like a log, and the next moment the -cellar was plunged into darkness. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX: DOT’S DISCOVERY - - -Beyond a low moan and a gasp Ruth uttered no sound when she saw her -dearest friend, Luke Shepard, fall in the dimly lighted cellar, struck -down, as he was, by the hand of some one unknown. She and Neale darted -forward at the same time to go to the rescue. - -It was after this first involuntary rush to help Luke that Neale -bethought himself that caution might be needed, so he put out a hand to -hold Ruth back and said: - -“Maybe we’d better wait a moment.” - -“Wait? And with Luke hurt? No, never!” cried Ruth. She would have -proceeded alone to the spot where Luke was stretched out insensible but -that Neale, resolving to fling caution to the winds, hastened ahead of -her. - -There was no sound in the cellar now save the noise made by Ruth and -Neale, and they saw no dim forms flitting about. Luke was lying alone, -strangely and ominously quiet. - -Outside the rain was still pelting down, though the lightning and -thunder was less, but the storm was keeping up. - -“Luke! Luke!” called Neale, as he neared the prostrate body of the young -collegian. “Are you much hurt?” - -There was no answer, but in the kitchen over his head Neale could hear -Agnes, Nalbro and Hal moving about uneasily as they caught the sound of -his voice. - -“Some one struck him with a club,” murmured Ruth. “Did you see it, -Neale?” - -“Yes, I saw. We must try to catch the man who did it. He’ll try to get -out the rear door, I think.” - -“Oh, if he does, we——” - -“Let him go!” broke in Neale. “We’ve got to look after Luke.” - -By this time those waiting in the kitchen had sensed that something was -wrong, for Hal called: - -“What’s going on down there? Want any help? We heard a cry——” - -“Yes, you’d better come down,” answered Neale. “Just you, Hal. Leave the -girls up there. Luke’s been hurt and——” - -“We won’t stay up here!” cried Nalbro. “We’re all coming down.” - -“You’ll only be in the way!” snapped back Neale, speaking more sharply -than he intended to, as he wanted to impress the girls. “We have to -carry Luke up the stairs. Don’t crowd down. Come on, Hal!” - -By this time Neale and Ruth had reached Luke’s side. The flashlight he -carried was still glowing on the cellar floor at his side. By the gleam -of this, and by the glimmer of his own torch, Neale saw that Luke bore -no apparent injury. - -“Luke, old man, do you know us?” called Neale, bending over the form of -his friend and gently shaking him. “We’re here with you—Ruth and Neale.” - -Ruth had taken Luke’s listless head into her lap, and was smoothing back -the hair from the forehead. Then a big bruise was visible. - -“That’s where he was hit,” she whispered. - -“Yes,” assented Neale. - -By this time Hal had reached the scene and he and Neale lifted Luke up, -intending to carry him to the kitchen. But now he opened his eyes and -said weakly: - -“I’m all right. Just a bit stunned—for a—minute. Did -you—get—those—fellows?” - -“What fellows?” asked Hal quickly, looking about the cellar. - -“Some man with a club struck Luke down,” explained Neale. “We just saw -it—that’s all.” - -Luke’s brain, momentarily stunned by the blow, was rapidly clearing. He -was firmer on his feet. - -“See that those fellows don’t get out!” he gasped. “Guard the back door, -boys, and then telephone for the police!” - -“We’re going to take care of you first!” insisted Neale. “We’ll get you -upstairs and then we’ll look after these fellows. I fancy they have -gotten away, anyhow. They wouldn’t stay after striking you.” - -This seemed to be the case, for when Luke had been assisted upstairs and -when Neale and Hal, with Uncle Rufus’ help, had made an investigation in -the cellar no trace of the man who had struck the collegian could be -found. - -“He must have slipped around past us and gotten out of the back door -when Ruth and I were going to Luke,” said Neale. - -Luke was found not to be badly hurt. He had received only a glancing -blow on the side of the head with a wooden club. Had the full force of -the blow fallen, serious consequences might have resulted. But, as it -was, the blow had little more than a temporary stunning effect. - -“Though I expect you’ll have a fierce headache in the morning,” -prophesied Neale. - -“If it isn’t anything worse than that I ought to be thankful,” Luke -remarked. - -“Tell us all about it,” suggested Hal. - -But before this there had been the suggestion on the part of the girls -that the police be sent for, and an effort had been made to communicate -with police headquarters. However, the telephone seemed to be out of -order, only a strange crackling and buzzing sound resulting when the -receiver was taken down. Then Luke had said: - -“Don’t call in the police!” - -“Why not?” asked Hal. - -“Because it will only bring unpleasant notoriety to the Corner House. -Let’s solve this mystery ourselves.” - -“It’s a mystery all right!” declared Neale. - -“Yes,” gravely assented Luke, “it is a mystery. The police couldn’t get -here now in time to do anything, and what evidence is left we can look -at as well as they. Since the telephone doesn’t work don’t bother with -the police.” - -“I could go out and telephone,” offered Neale. - -“No, let it go. In the morning we’ll take a look ourselves,” decided -Ruth. - -And so it was arranged. Then, after some witch-hazel had been rubbed by -Ruth on the bump on Luke’s head, he told his story: - -“You know the first part of it as well as I do,” he said to his friends -gathered around him at this midnight session in the Corner House. “I was -going along carefully, looking for any sign of intruders, when, all at -once, I saw what I thought was a shadow moving. - -“It was near one of the brick pillars that hold the floor beams, and I -know now the shadow must have been caused by a man who was hiding behind -this pillar, though I didn’t realize this at the time. - -“I kept on going. Then I saw another flashlight—I mean another than -yours and mine, Neale—and a moment later I saw a club raised in the air. -Before I could think that it was raised to come down on my head it came -down, and I don’t remember anything more except that it got black all of -a sudden.” - -“Did you think you were struck by lightning?” asked Hal. - -“I don’t know what I did think. But what did you and Ruth see, Neale?” - -“Not much more than you did, old man. We saw the shadow of the club and -a man’s arm raised to strike you. But before we could do a thing—or even -call out a warning—it was all over.” - -“The question—or at least one of them—” said Hal, “is what became of the -man or men who attacked Luke? Where did they go?” - -“They must have slipped past Ruth and me and gotten out the rear outside -cellar door,” suggested Neale. - -“I’m sure no one passed us,” asserted Ruth. - -“Then the only other way they could have gotten out would be to have -come up into the kitchen,” declared Neale. - -“And I know they didn’t do that!” said Agnes. - -“Is there any entrance to your cellar that isn’t much used—a side door -or anything?” asked Luke, turning to Ruth. - -“None that I know of,” she answered. “Perhaps Uncle Rufus might know.” - -“’Deed, missie, I doan know ob any,” declared the colored man. “De back -do’ an’ de one from de kitchen—das all.” - -“Well, we’ll look into it in the morning,” murmured Luke, wearily -passing his hand over his head, which was now aching severely. - -“You must get right to bed,” declared Ruth. “Indeed, I’m not sure but -what I’d better send for Dr. Forsyth.” - -“No, don’t,” begged Luke. “I’ll be all right in the morning.” - -“It seems silly, I suppose, but I’m almost afraid to go to bed,” said -Nalbro, with a little shiver. - -“Nonsense!” exclaimed Ruth. “All danger is over now, even danger from -the storm. And we have the boys here.” - -“We’ll stay up on guard,” offered Hal. - -“There will be no need,” decided Ruth. - -“But with the telephone out of order—” began Nalbro. - -“Perhaps it’s all right now,” suggested Neale. “I’ll try it.” - -Somewhat to the surprise of all of them, Central answered promptly, -asking Neale “what number?” - -“I just wanted to see if the machine would go,” he explained, talking -rather as if it were an automobile instead of a telephone. “It was out -of order a little while ago,” he added. - -“Yes, a number were, on account of the storm,” the operator explained. - -“Well, with the telephone in order we can go to bed, I guess,” Agnes -remarked. “Though I would like to know who rang our front doorbell and -ran away.” - -“Perhaps the lightning did that, too,” said Luke, with a somewhat wan -smile. - -“Maybe,” agreed Ruth. “And now don’t talk any more, Luke; get up to bed. -Uncle Rufus will help you.” - -“Oh, I’m not as much knocked out as all that, Ruth.” - -But he was weaker than he thought and staggered a bit as he started for -the stairs, so he was rather glad of the assisting arm of the old -colored servant. - -Gradually the wonted silence of the night settled over the Corner House -and there was peace and quietness following the outburst of the storm -and the other disturbances. But to Ruth, sleepless for a long time, it -seemed that some strange mystery overshadowed the old mansion which -overlooked the Milton Parade Ground. - -In the morning Luke was almost himself again, and soon after breakfast -he proposed an examination of the cellar. Sammy and the younger girls -were told only as much of the affairs of the night before as would -explain why the others were so interested in searching the basement. - -“Are you looking for the treasure?” asked Dot. - -“No, just for traces of two tramps who got in here during the storm last -night, my dear,” explained Ruth. - -“We’ll help,” offered Tess, and at intervals the younger Corner House -girls poked into the dark corners of the cellar. - -[Illustration: The younger Corner House girls poked into the -dark corners of the cellar.] - -The investigations of any of them amounted to nothing. Beyond a few -places where the dirt cellar bottom appeared to have been dug up—and it -was not certain but what Sammy and the little girls had done this—there -was nothing unusual to be seen. - -“Not even a secret door,” lamented Neale, who rather hoped to find this. - -“I guess the man who struck Luke was just a tramp who came into the -cellar to get out of the rain,” suggested Hal. “And when he thought he -was going to be caught he struck out and ran.” - -It seemed this explanation was the only one that would hold. - -“But there is still Hop Wong to be accounted for,” observed Agnes. - -“He’s a faker, pure and simple,” declared Luke. - -“Maybe—and maybe not,” returned the flyaway sister glibly. - -At this moment Dot, who had persuaded Sammy to let her take the precious -cigar-box lantern, went into a far and dark corner of the cellar to make -further search. Suddenly an excited cry came from her. - -“Oh, I’ve found something! I’ve found it! Come quick! Look!” shrieked -the littlest Corner House girl. - - - - -CHAPTER XX: HOP WONG IS CAUGHT - - -The others, rushing toward her, found Dot standing near a barrel, -flashing upon it the rays from Sammy’s cigar-box lantern. - -“What is it, Dot?” asked Ruth. She and the others had been about to give -up exploration of the cellar, since nothing had developed. “What have -you found and where is it?” - -“I don’t know what it is,” Dot answered, “but it’s in that barrel. It’s -a—Oh, listen! It’s a noise!” she finally told them. - -“A noise!” cried Agnes. “Is that all?” - -“Many things start with a noise,” remarked Ruth. “In fact, this whole -affair started from a noise in the cellar. Stand back, Dot, and let us -see what it is.” - -With a more powerful light than Sammy’s improvised lantern, Luke leaned -over and peered into the upright barrel. Grouped behind him the others -waited anxiously. - -Suddenly Luke laughed, and this relieved the strain under which the -older ones, at least, were laboring. - -“Yes, Dot’s found something all right!” chuckled Luke. - -“Oh, do tell us what it is!” begged Nalbro. - -“A batch of kittens!” laughed Luke. “Sandyface has gone and done it -again. She’s raising another family!” - -And that is what Dot had found—just a batch of Sandyface’s kittens in -the barrel. - -“Mew!” plaintively called the mother cat, as she saw so many faces -peering into her privacy. - -“You poor thing!” said Ruth. “Well, we won’t bother you. Only don’t -bring them all up into the parlor at once, as you did on a former -occasion.” - -“Did she?” asked Nalbro, to whom Sandyface was rather a new -acquaintance. - -“She did,” asserted Agnes, with a laugh, “and just when the minister was -calling. Oh, it was funny, but Ruthie didn’t see the fun.” - -“The minister took it good-naturedly,” said Ruth. “No, children, you -can’t bring the kittens upstairs!” she decided, for Tess and Sammy, -having heard of Dot’s discovery, were eager to carry the kittens into -the light of day. - -“Oh, just for a little while!” pleaded Tess. - -“No, not even for a little while. Wait until they get older.” - -“But they’re so cute!” pleaded Dot. - -“No!” and Ruth was firm about it. - -“I’ll carry ’em up, and I won’t spill ’em!” offered Sammy. - -“Children, go right upstairs!” ordered Ruth, and they thought it best to -obey. - -“And so, after all, we haven’t found out anything,” remarked Agnes, as -they all trailed up after the youngsters. “The mystery is as deep as -ever.” - -“Yes,” agreed Ruth. “And I don’t know what we are going to do about it. -I think we ought at least to tell Mr. Howbridge—that is, if you think we -shouldn’t notify the police?” she said to Luke. - -“Tell your guardian, by all means,” he quickly agreed. “As for the -police, I don’t see what they could do at this time. If they had been -here when that fellow gave me a blow over the head with his club they -might have gotten after him. But as for picking up clews on a cold -trail, I don’t believe they can do it as well as we can.” - -“Not so well,” declared Neale. “And what I propose is that we start now -and make a systematic search of this whole house, including the cellar, -to see if there is any treasure hidden in it.” - -“You seem to side with the children,” observed Hal. - -“Well, I think there is something queer around here,” asserted Neale. -“Those men didn’t come in to inspect water pipes without an object. That -Chinese didn’t write those queer notes for nothing. What it’s all about -we have to find out.” - -“Go down and tell Mr. Howbridge,” suggested Agnes. “I thing he ought to -be told everything.” - -“I agree with you,” assented Ruth. “I’ll telephone down asking what time -we can see him.” - -“And while you girls go there, some of us will take another look around -the cellar,” said Neale. “I think the whole mystery centers there.” - -“Well, we haven’t found much so far—except kittens,” chuckled Luke. - -Mr. Howbridge looked rather grave when Ruth told him the story of the -night of the storm and what had happened in the cellar. Luke went with -her to the lawyer’s office, leaving Neale and Hal to “putter around,” as -Mrs. MacCall called it, in the cellar. - -“Certainly something seems wrong,” admitted the lawyer. “I am afraid, -though, that I can’t agree with you—as I have said before, I -believe—about a fortune being hidden in the cellar. I attended to your -Uncle Peter’s affairs, and I’m sure if he was so foolish as to hide a -fortune away in a cellar I would know something about it. Of course I -may be wrong——” - -“Yes, but remember about our strange find in the attic? That album -filled with all sorts of valuable papers.” - -“Ah, that is true,” and the girls’ guardian nodded slowly. “Lemuel -Aden’s money!” - -“What about Hop Wong?” went on Ruth. “Did you find out anything more -from him? You were going to get an interpreter and——” - -“Yes, my dear, I obtained the services of the court Chinese interpreter, -but I might as well have saved my time. What with the roundabout manner -in which the conversation had to be carried on and the fright of Hop -Wong—well, we didn’t get anywhere at all.” - -“Didn’t he tell you a thing?” asked Ruth. - -“Practically not a thing, my dear girl. He seemed to think he was about -to be executed, or, at any rate, jailed. About all the interpreter -reported that Hop Wong said was: ‘No can tell,’ and he asserted this -over and over again until I wearied of it. No, I think as far as Hop -Wong is concerned, there is no mystery.” - -“I’m not so sure of that, Mr. Howbridge,” said Luke. “Those Chinese are -queer fellows. Once they get frightened they lose their tongues.” - -“Yes, but I did my best to assure Hop Wong that he had nothing to fear,” -said the lawyer. “I declare, it’s beyond me.” - -“But what of the two men—the tramps who struck Luke down?” asked Ruth. - -“That may be a different matter altogether,” her guardian admitted. -“There, I am willing to confess, may lie some danger and there may be a -mystery at the bottom of it. But that it has to do with a fortune—or -even a sum of money—I am not so willing to admit.” - -“What had we better do?” Ruth inquired. “Shall we tell the police?” - -“I say no!” cried Luke, with perhaps more energy than he intended. “I -beg your pardon for my excitement,” he went on. “But I think we can -solve this ourselves, Mr. Howbridge. At least, we or some of us would -like to try it a bit longer. If we call in the police we shall have to -report to them every little trifling thing that happens, and they’ll be -running to the Corner House at all hours of the day and night.” - -“Yes, there is that probability,” admitted Mr. Howbridge. “But have you -any plan, Luke?” - -“Not yet, no, sir. I’d like to think it over a bit longer.” - -“But you mustn’t run into danger!” stipulated Ruth. “You and Agnes and -Neale are all rash.” - -“No, that would be foolish,” said Mr. Howbridge with a quick, discerning -glance at the two young people. He understood how matters were going -between his ward and the young collegian. - -“Oh, we’ll be careful,” promised Luke. - -“Well, of course, being a lawyer, I suppose I ought to advise you to -call in the authorities,” said the girls’ guardian. “But as there is -nothing yet to interest the public, I don’t see why you can’t carry on -your private investigations a bit longer, if you like.” - -“Thank you. We will.” - -“Only, as Ruth says, don’t run into danger,” went on Mr. Howbridge. -“You, Luke, have had one example of how desperate these men are—provided -the one who struck you down is one of the same pair that first was seen -around the Corner House. They will not stop at injuring those who get in -their way. So be careful!” - -“I will, yes, and I’ll warn the others. And now to solve the mystery of -the Corner House!” he cried, more gaily than he felt, for his head was -still painful. - -Returning to the old mansion, Ruth and Luke found there had been no new -developments since they had left to see the lawyer. Neale and Hal and -Agnes had “prospected” around the cellar, as they called it, but had -discovered nothing. - -An investigation of the doorbell wires and battery disclosed, however, -the reason for the erratic behavior of that piece of apparatus. There -was a loose wire, and when the house was jarred, as by a thunderclap, -the wire made a connection and started the bell to ringing. - -“So the men in the cellar had nothing to do with that,” declared Neale, -when he had found and remedied the trouble. - -“I’m glad of that,” said Ruth. “If the bell had been rung by them it -would mean they had a regular band, some of whom were on the outside -while others were on the inside of the house, searching for the -fortune.” - -“Do you really think some one is after money hidden in the house?” -Nalbro asked. - -“I do!” declared Neale. - -“It’s delightfully romantic, I know,” the Boston girl admitted, “but it -doesn’t seem reasonable.” - -“We found a fortune once in the attic for Mrs. Eland and Miss Pepperill. -Why not find one for ourselves in the cellar?” questioned Agnes. - -“Anyhow, we’ll have fun searching for it,” said Luke. - -However, as the vacation days passed and the time approached for the -delightful house party to end, no new discoveries were made. No secret -entrance or egress was found in the cellar, Hop Wong made no further -efforts to communicate and no trace was seen of the two strange men. - -As a matter of fact, Hop Wong had disappeared. He was not at his -laundry, the business being carried on by the bland and strange -Celestial, and to all inquiries he answered: - -“Hop Wong, he mebbe come back bly-an’-bly.” - -It seemed that the mystery of the Corner House would never be solved -when, all unexpectedly, there began a series of events which rapidly -moved to a startling conclusion. - -It began one pleasant afternoon when Luke and Neale were out riding -through a beautiful country district in the automobile with Ruth and -Agnes. Hal and Nalbro had gone to the railroad station to see about -getting chair-car tickets for Boston, for the time for their return was -drawing near. - -Neale drove through a little country village and was preparing to -suggest, since the afternoon was waning, that they turn about, when Luke -uttered an exclamation. - -“What’s the matter?” asked Neale. “Did I run over a chicken?” - -“No. But this has to do with something closely connected with chickens.” - -“What do you mean?” - -“I mean a Chinese—they’re very fond of chicken, you know. There goes one -now—a Chinese, I mean!” - -He pointed toward a small, ramshackle house standing alone in a field -near the highway, just outside the village. And, as the others looked, -they saw a Chinese enter this hut. - -“Hop Wong!” cried Neale. - -“I thought that’s who it was, but I didn’t want to be too certain,” -remarked Luke. “So this is where Hop Wong has been hiding!” - -“Come on! Let’s get hold of him and see if he’ll talk,” suggested Neale. -He ran the car up close to the side of the road near the lonely hut and -started to alight. - -The Chinese—it was Hop Wong beyond doubt—heard the noise of the brakes -and turned. With a yell he fled around the rear of the hut. - -“Come on, Luke!” cried Neale. “Let’s capture him and see if we can get -to the bottom of this!” - - - - -CHAPTER XXI: A QUEER STORY - - -Hop Wong was the very personification of fear. He was a small Chinese at -best, but now he appeared no larger than a child, so much did he shrink -within his garments when he found himself in the grasp of the two young -men. - -“Oh, the poor fellow!” murmured Ruth, with ready sympathy. “Be kind to -him!” - -Hop Wong heard her and held out his queer hands with their rather long -nails—hands abnormally clean from much dabbling in soap, water and -whatever chemicals the Chinese laundrymen use for making clothes white. - -“Missie Luth, Hop Wong—he no did do!” he wailed. “He no did do!” - -“We know you didn’t do anything,” said Ruth kindly. “Oh, don’t hold him -so tightly, Luke.” - -“He’s a slippery beggar, Ruth, and——” - -“Oh, he won’t run away, I’m sure. Will you, Hop Wong?” she asked. - -“No lun! No can do,” he said, with pathetic indifference. “You call -p’liceman—take Hop Wong jail. No can do,” and he sighed wearily. - -“Now look here, Hop Wong,” began Luke, in what he doubtless intended for -businesslike tones. “There’s no use trying to fool us. You know -something about money hidden in Miss Ruth’s house and you’ve got to tell -us! Do you understand? You’ve _got_ to tell us!” - -Turning to his companions Luke said in a low voice: - -“I think Mr. Howbridge made a mistake trying to be kind to him. What Hop -Wong needs is firmness!” - -Luke’s manner seemed to have its effect. For, as if by a shake and a -shudder he had cast from him some garment for which he no longer had -need, the Chinese straightened up somewhat. He appeared to fill his -clothes better, and then he said: - -“All lite! Hop Wong tell!” - -“I thought he would!” chuckled Luke. “Now we’ll get at the bottom of -this puzzling mystery.” - -Hop Wong accompanied the boys and girls into the hut where, it appeared, -he had taken up his abode. It was simply furnished, and looked as though -Hop Wong had been about to start a laundry in this country town, but had -not yet done so. - -“He came here—ran away—so he couldn’t be questioned,” decided Neale. “It -was lucky you saw him, Luke,” he said. - -“It may prove so,” agreed Luke. - -But it was one thing for Hop Wong to promise to tell; the performance -was another matter. He was willing, but his choice, use and command of -the English language left much to be desired. - -Sitting amid his humble possessions in the lonely cottage, while on -empty boxes for seats Ruth, Agnes, Luke and Neale faced him, the -Celestial began his recital. - -He gibbered and slithered about “two men—topside man—number lun man—much -dolls—Clorner House”—and so on until Luke raised his hands in despair. - -“I don’t wonder Mr. Howbridge couldn’t make anything of it,” he groaned. -“It’s worse than I expected.” - -“What can be done?” asked Ruth. “He seems willing to tell, but I can’t -make any sense of it.” - -“Nor I,” sighed Agnes. - -“Tell him to sing it!” chuckled Neale, at the conclusion of a long-drawn -and high-pitched stream of words of which only a few were intelligible -to Hop Wong’s auditors. - -“Wait a minute! We’ll get something out of this yet,” declared Luke. -“You don’t have to be back any certain time, do you?” he asked Ruth and -Agnes. “I mean at home?” - -“No, I suppose not,” admitted Ruth. “Mrs. MacCall and Linda will look -after Dot and Tess. As for Hal and Nalbro, they are going to the movies -in town, after they get their tickets, and they won’t be home till late. -But why do you ask, Luke?” - -“Because I want to take Hop Wong and all of us over to Millville. It -isn’t far and there’s a Chinese student there, spending his vacation, -who, I think, can take Hop Wong in hand and get something out of him.” - -“Well, but if the Chinese court interpreter couldn’t get at anything for -Mr. Howbridge,” began Neale, “how do you expect——” - -“I think Charlie Sing—that’s the chap I know in college—can sling a -little better brand of English than even a court interpreter,” said -Luke. “Anyhow, it’s worth trying.” - -“All right, it’s worth trying,” agreed Neale. - -“Perhaps Hop Wong won’t accompany us,” remarked Ruth. - -“Oh, I guess he will,” asserted Luke, with confidence. “Hop Wong come -for ride in buzz-buzz wagon?” he inquired, pointing to the automobile. - -A cheerful grin spread over the features of the Celestial. He seemed to -have lost all his fears now. - -“Sule!” he cried. “Hop Wong velly much like buzz-buzz wagon.” - -“Hurray!” cried Neale. “So far, so good!” - -“I’ll stop at the nearest telephone and let Mrs. MacCall know we’ll be a -bit late,” said Ruth, as they started for the car again. Hop Wong was -now a willing captive and seemed delighted at the chance of riding in an -automobile. - -“I think this is the best thing to do,” went on Ruth to her sister, when -they were once more under way, having stopped for a moment in the -village to telephone to the Corner House. - -“Yes,” agreed Agnes. “We never could get anything from Hop Wong by -ourselves, and Guardy didn’t seem much more successful.” - -They made a good run to Millville and drove up to the boarding house -where Charlie Sing was spending the long college vacation, his home -being in far-off China. - -“Hello, Charlie! Got a job for you!” called Luke in greeting, as he saw -the Celestial walking in the garden of the boarding house. - -“That’s good!” replied Charlie, with a cheerful grin. “It is fine to see -you again, Luke,” he went on. “It’s been pretty lonesome with all the -boys scattered.” - -“I imagine so. Well, we’ll all soon be back at college again. It won’t -be long now. Charlie, you can talk this man’s language, can’t you?” and -he indicated Hop Wong. - -“Oh, yes, after a fashion, I suppose,” replied Charlie, who spoke a very -good English the girls noticed. He was introduced to them and at once -proved himself a gentleman as well as a scholar. “Of course,” he said, -“he talks a dialect rather than the pure Chinese language,” and he made -this statement after a brief conversation with Hop Wong. “But I think he -can make himself understood to me, and I’ll tell you what he says to the -best of my ability.” - -“All right, let go!” said Neale, with cheerful carelessness. “Maybe -we’ll find out something now.” - -Then began a rapid exchange of strange-sounding syllables and -intonations between Hop Wong and Charlie Sing. There was little use for -the others to listen, for they could not, of course, understand a word -that was said on either side. But there was a strange fascination in -hearing the age-old language. - -Luke had briefly told his college friend what it was they desired to -find out—about the mystery of the cellar—and finally, after a somewhat -lengthy conversation, Charlie Sing held up a hand to signify that Hop -Wong should stop talking, for he was flowing on, as Agnes said, “like -the brook—forever.” - -“This is his story,” said Charlie Sing, “making some allowances for -words that he uses for which, in the proper language, there is no -equivalent. Some time ago, before he was in the laundry business in your -town, Hop Wong worked as a servant in a house where there were two men. -One was a gardener and the other did odd jobs about the place. Handy -man, I believe they call such a worker.” - -“That’s right, Charlie,” said Luke. - -“One of these men was named Rother and the other called himself Meggs,” -went on the Chinese student. “The house was a large, country -establishment of wealth, and among the visitors was an old man who was -not as good as he might have been. I mean he was addicted to the vice of -drink,” said Charlie, with a shudder of disgust. - -“However, I must not get on to that,” went on the Chinese student. “It -always fills me with disgust. But this old man who came to the house -where Rother and Meggs worked with Hop Wong was a drinker. Rother and -Meggs forced Hop Wong to get them some liquor so they could sell it to -this old man, whose name the laundryman does not know. This man, cut off -from his liquor supply because of police activities, was glad to rely on -the scoundrels Rother and Meggs.” - -“But where does the Corner House come in?” asked Neale. - -“I am coming to that,” replied Charlie. “It is a curious story. It -depends on you, yourselves, how much you believe. This man—this old -toper, I think you call it, knew a Mr. Peter Stower——” - -“Why, he was our uncle!” cried Ruth. She was greatly surprised. - -“Well, there is supplied the connection,” remarked the translator, -calmly. “This old man knew Mr. Peter Stower and had often, so he told -Rother and Meggs, visited at the Corner House, as you call it. Once, -while there, he says he helped Mr. Stower hide an iron box of money in -the cellar.” - -“He did?” - -“When?” - -“Where?” - -“How much money was in it?” - -“Why did he do that?” - -These were some of the questions shot at Charlie Sing when he had -translated thus far in the strange story of Hop Wong. The student held -up his hand for patience. - -“I cannot tell you the reasons,” he said. “Hop Wong does not know them -himself. All he knows is that Rother and Meggs were told by this old -toper that Mr. Peter Stower had hidden a big iron box of money in the -cellar.” - -“That tlue! Them say so! Them know whele money is—Hop Wong not know!” -broke in the laundryman. “Two men know—Hop Wong not know!” - -He seemed pitifully eager that they should believe him. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII: ANOTHER ALARM - - -There was a pause. On the part of Charlie Sing and Hop Wong it was for -breath, as they had been talking at a pretty steady rate. On the part of -Luke, Neale, Ruth and Agnes the pause was welcome because so many ideas -had crowded in on them that they wanted time, as Neale said afterward, -to untangle their thoughts. - -The pause gave them all a chance to do a little thinking, which was -absolutely needed at this time. It cannot be said that any of the four -had, up to this time, placed much faith in the suggestion that wealth of -some sort—possibly a fortune—was concealed in the Corner House cellar. -Now, with this unexpected confirmation, came a gasp of surprise. - -“Is this all he knows about it?” asked Ruth. - -“Why didn’t he tell all this to the other interpreter?” Agnes demanded. - -“I can answer that last question first,” replied the Chinese student, -“by saying that Hop Wong could not understand the other interpreter’s -talk very well. They were at cross purposes, neither one comprehending -the other.” - -“Then why didn’t that court interpreter say so?” demanded Ruth. - -“I suppose he thought he wouldn’t be paid his fee if he had to admit -failure,” suggested Luke. “Anyhow, we’re getting the straight of it -now.” - -“It’s only the beginning,” said Neale. “Have him go on. Where in the -cellar is the box of gold?” - -“And why in the world did Uncle Peter hide his money there?” asked Ruth. -“He wasn’t a miser if he was queer. He left us the Corner House in his -will, why should he conceal part of his money in an iron box, like a -miser?” - -“I’ll ask Hop Wong about that,” volunteered Charlie Sing. - -There was another session of talk, and at its conclusion the Chinese -collegian said: - -“Hop Wong really knows only what he overheard. These men, Rother and -Meggs, never took him into their confidence, so of course you must -accept what Hop Wong says with a dash of pepper.” - -“I guess you mean a grain of salt,” suggested Luke, with a smile. - -“Possibly. Oh, yes, it is salt!” chuckled Charlie Sing. “You have almost -as many proverbs as we Chinese. Well, Hop Wong can tell only what he -overheard. As to the motives of Mr. Stower, he knows nothing. But he -heard what these two men said. Later, when Hop Wong left the house where -he worked with them and found the Corner House and saw the young ladies -there, he decided to try to let them know about the fortune and, -independent of the two men, to reap a small reward for himself.” - -“Well, he tried all right!” said Agnes, snappily. - -“But he meant no harm. I’m glad to know that,” put in Ruth, who seemed -to champion the cause of Hop Wong. “But why did he run away?” - -Charlie did some more questioning and replied: - -“Hop Wong left his laundry in Milton after he tried to disclose to you -the secret of the fortune because he was afraid of being arrested. Then, -too, he says he saw Rother and Meggs in the town and he thought they -might do him some harm for telling their secret.” - -“Ah, ha! So those men have been in town, have they?” cried Neale. “Those -must be the two fake water inspectors!” he added. - -“Sure, they are!” exclaimed Agnes. “There is more to this than appears -at first sight, boys. I’m not so sure we did well by not getting the -police in on it. Perhaps we had better——” - -“Oh, we’ve gone this far alone, let’s finish it,” suggested Ruth. “But -we can’t stay here all night. We’d better be getting back to Milton. -What are we going to do with Hop Wong? Have we gotten all the -information from him we need?” - -“He seems to have told all he knows,” answered Charlie Sing. “As for -taking him back to Milton, I don’t believe he’ll go. He seems to be -afraid—probably of those two men. And I don’t see how you can take him -back against his will.” - -“No, probably not—unless we bring in the police,” agreed Ruth. “And I -don’t want to do that. Poor fellow!” - -“If he is going to stay where we found him it will do as well—perhaps -better, as the men won’t know anything about him and we can run over and -see him whenever we need to,” observed Luke. - -“Ask him,” suggested Ruth. - -And when Charlie again talked to the laundryman, the latter promised not -to run away again, but to hold himself in readiness to help the Corner -House girls locate the fortune. He would remain at his new location, -where he hoped to start another laundry, he said. - -“One thing more,” suggested Ruth, after thinking over all that had been -said. “Hop Wong says he doesn’t know this man—this unfortunate old toper -who saw Uncle Peter hide the box of gold. But ask him if he knows any -clew by which we might find it or look for it in our cellar. Those men -were evidently after something hidden there. They must have had some -idea where it was. Ask Hop Wong if he can put us on the track.” - -“I will,” said Charlie Sing. - -Again he talked in those peculiar, slurring inflections that seem part -and parcel of the Chinese language, and when he had finished he slipped -easily into English, saying: - -“Hop Wong says to look for a white star!” - -“A white star!” exclaimed Agnes. “Where?” - -“In your cellar,” replied Charlie. “Hop Wong says the white star is the -mark that shows where the fortune is buried. He heard Rother and Meggs -say this.” - -“Well, now we seem to be getting on the right trail at last,” commented -Luke. “Much obliged, Charlie. We’ll get along back now, and restore Hop -Wong to his hut. We’ll be back again at college with the boys soon.” - -“And I’ll be glad,” said the Chinese student. “It’s been a lonesome -vacation for me.” - -Hop Wong, on the journey back, seemed quite a different Chinese from the -chap who had written queer notes and appointed midnight trysts under the -“boy-pain” tree. He smiled and even tried to perpetrate jokes, it -seemed, in his native tongue—an attempt that was wasted on his auditors, -though they laughed at his efforts, which seemed to please the -laundryman. - -Fortunately, Hop Wong did not begin to joke until they were nearly at -his new home, and it was soon over. - -“Good-night, Hop Wong. See you again soon, maybe,” remarked Luke, as -they parted. - -“Alle same good-by,” he answered blandly. “Hop Wong stay hele alle time -now. Much good place, but no much money yet.” - -“Oh, that reminds me!” exclaimed Ruth. “I want to give him something for -his information, and if we do find any such fortune as he has provided -information about, he’ll be entitled to a share. I’m sure Mr. Howbridge -would say so. I want to give Hop Wong some money, Luke.” - -“Well, I don’t believe he’d object to it. What say, Hop Wong? You like a -little cash?” - -“Sule! Cash alle same much good alle time,” was the smiling response. - -So Ruth, from her purse, provided him with what, to him, must have been -a goodly sum, and there was the promise of more should events warrant -it. - -“Good-by!” called the young people, as they left Hop Wong at his hut and -turned the automobile toward Milton. - -“Good-by!” he echoed. “You velly good me. Alle same you look white stal -get much money. Good-by!” - -For a time the four young people rode on in silence. They were all -thinking over what had happened. It had come about so suddenly—the chase -and capture of Hop Wong, and the strange story he told. Then Luke spoke, -asking Ruth: - -“What do you think of it?” - -“I’m almost afraid to think,” she answered. - -“If you ask me,” put in Neale, “I’ll say it’s a dream.” - -“Dream, nothing, Neale O’Neil! There’s a fortune awaiting us—a buried -treasure right in our cellar,” declared Agnes. - -“Seriously,” went on Neale, “here’s a person—I mean the old man who -drank heavily. We all know what that means—the brain doesn’t act at its -best. And this toper originates a more or less sensational story about a -chest of gold being hidden in the cellar of the Corner House. Do any of -you believe it?” - -“I do, for one!” declared Agnes. - -“It does seem far-fetched, even silly,” admitted Ruth. “But then, those -two men must have believed it, or else they never would have tried to -get into our cellar to hunt for the iron box. And Hop Wong believes it, -too.” - -“That’s easily accounted for,” replied Neale. “The three of them are -persons of limited intelligence and low mentality.” - -“La, la, la!” spluttered Agnes. “I just told you I believe it, Neale -O’Neil!” - -For a while there was more or less idle talk, then there was a return to -the subject of the box of treasure, and Luke said: - -“At first I was not much inclined to put faith in Hop Wong’s story. As -soon as he said the old man drank I began to ‘hae me d’ubts,’ as Mrs. -MacCall would say. But then, have you stopped to think that it might not -have been your Uncle Peter, Ruth, who hid the box?” - -“Not Uncle Peter Stower? Why, Hop Wong said it was!” - -“I know he did—repeating what he overheard Rother and Meggs say. But -they might have been mistaken.” - -“In what way?” asked Neale. - -“Well, Mr. Stower might have concealed the box for his friend, the -drinker.” - -“Oh, that’s a new theory!” cried Agnes. - -“The only plausible one, I think,” went on Luke. “Here is how it sizes -up to me. Mr. Stower and this unknown man might have been good -friends—in fact Mr. Stower may have tried to break him of the dreadful -habit. Perhaps, failing in that and desiring to save for the poor fellow -some of the wealth he would otherwise squander on drink, he might have -hidden the iron box of this man’s gold away in the cellar, marking it, -as Hop Wong says, with a white star.” - -“But if he did hide another man’s wealth for that other man’s good,” -asked Agnes, “why didn’t he leave some word about it so the man’s heirs -could claim it?” - -“Perhaps,” suggested Neale, “he may have intended to leave some sort of -memoranda about this hidden wealth—provided there really is any—and when -his end came there was no time. Also he might have forgotten it.” - -“Here’s another thought!” exclaimed Luke. Ideas were coming thick and -fast now. “Mr. Stower may really have sent word to this man’s relatives -or heirs about the chest of money in the cellar, and these -scoundrels—Rother and Meggs—may have intercepted that message and be -trying for the gold on their own account.” - -“That sounds plausible, except that we’d have heard of the matter before -this, I think,” admitted Neale. “But the first thing to do, I’m -thinking, is to find out if there really is any gold in the cellar. -After we get it, we can settle to whom it belongs.” - -“That’s what I say!” chimed in Agnes. - -“It may not be as far-fetched as I thought at first—Luke’s explanation -is a good one,” observed Ruth thoughtfully. - -“But it is silly to try to settle who owns a lot of gold you don’t even -know there is,” declared Agnes. “Besides, I’m tired and hungry.” - -“That’s well said!” cried Neale. “We’ll get home, have something to eat, -and to-morrow we’ll have another go at this mystery.” - -They found Dot and Tess in bed when they arrived. It had been a -strenuous day Mrs. MacCall reported, for the three children (Sammy -Pinkney being the third member of the trio) had gotten into all sorts of -mischief. - -“What was the worst thing they did?” asked Ruth. - -“Well, they played ‘Plam Island,’ as Dot calls it,” reported the -housekeeper, “and Sammy fastened that beastie of an alligator on the -tail of Sandyface, the cat, to pretend, as he says, that the alligator -was going to eat the cat up.” - -“Oh, the cruel boy!” gasped Ruth. “And Sandyface with a new batch of -kittens!” - -“But Tess never stood for that, did she, Mrs. Mac?” asked Agnes. - -“Oh, she and Dot did their best to stop him, but they couldn’t. So I -boxed his ears well and sent him hame!” declared Mrs. MacCall. “He’ll -not come near me for a day or two, I wager!” - -“Do tell us all that happened to you,” begged Nalbro. “You look so -excited about something!” - -“We are,” whispered Agnes. “It’s—the _fortune_!” - -And later, when Mrs. MacCall and Linda had retired, the story of the -day’s outing was repeated with many exclamations of wonder. - -“This settles it!” declared Hal firmly. “Not a step do I stir in the -direction of Boston until we have a search for the buried treasure! -Crackie! To think that Dot and Tess weren’t so far out after all. Ho, -for the buried gold!” - -“Under the mystic white star!” declaimed Nalbro. - -“Hush!” begged Ruth, with an uneasy glance at the doors and windows. “Do -you want those ruffians breaking in on us?” - -“What ruffians?” demanded Nalbro. - -“Rother and Meggs!” fairly hissed Neale, giving a fair imitation of a -stage villain. - -They laughed at him, but it might be noticed that before Luke and Neale -left that night, Ruth went about looking well to the fastenings of all -doors and casements. - -“We’ll be over early and have a look for the white star as the guiding -mark to the gold,” promised Luke, as he and Neale left. - -Had Tess and Dot a remote suspicion that a treasure-hunt was in progress -that day they never would have gone on the little picnic that Ruth and -Agnes arranged for them with Sammy and Linda. But, as it was, the little -girls departed in blissful ignorance. - -Then a search of the cellar was made, a systematic search by six young -people who carried lanterns and flashlights. - -“We might as well look for the star first of all,” declared Agnes, as -they started in. - -“And where would you suggest it might be found?” asked Neale. - -“Somewhere around the walls,” Agnes answered. - -“The box of gold is probably buried in the cellar floor—it’s mostly of -dirt and could have been easily dug up,” Ruth said. “Then, to make sure -the location would not be lost, a white star was painted on the side -wall—somewhere. We must look for the white star! Otherwise we’ll have to -excavate the entire cellar bottom.” - -Accordingly a search for the white star was made. It was no easy search, -as the cellar was large and rambling. But six pairs of eyes divided the -task and the side walls were thoroughly gone over. - -But there was not a trace of a white star. - -“It must have been washed away when the cellar was flooded last year,” -suggested Ruth. The others agreed with her. - -“Well, then, the other thing to do—lacking the guiding star—is to start -and dig up the whole cellar—foot by foot,” decided Luke. - -“It’s a job,” groaned Neale. - -“But it’s worth it!” declared Agnes. - -“Crickets!” exclaimed Hal. “Think of telling the fellows at home that I -took part in a treasure-hunt—a real treasure-hunt! And right here in the -settled part of the U. S. A.!” - -“The hunt is going to be real, whether the treasure is or not!” laughed -Nalbro, who did not take the matter very seriously. - -“We’ll find it yet!” declared Agnes. “You’ll see!” - -“But I suggest that we wait until to-morrow before digging up the -cellar,” said Ruth. “It’s getting late.” - -This was true. Their preparations, the sending away of Tess and Dot and -the search of the cellar, had taken up most of the day. Evening was now -coming on. - -“All hands on deck bright and early in the morning!” commanded Agnes -gayly. “Wear your old clothes!” - -As Nalbro’s visit was drawing to an end it was planned to have a little -gathering of friends at the Corner House that evening, and soon after -supper the young people began to arrive. - -The jolly little affair passed off successfully. By a mighty effort -only, Agnes restrained herself from telling of the treasure she had -fully persuaded herself was buried in the cellar. - -When all had departed save Luke and Neale and while they were taking -their leave of Ruth and Agnes, Ruth suddenly exclaimed: - -“Hark! I hear something!” - -“Where?” asked her sister. - -“In the cellar! Listen!” - -They all listened amid tense silence. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII: THE CAPTURE - - -There was no mistake about it—a noise was audible in the cellar of the -Corner House. It was not an insistent noise, rather it was a subdued -one, as though the cause of it, whether man or beast, was desirous of -concealing something. - -“Do you suppose it could be them?” whispered Agnes. - -“Who?” asked Neale, though he could guess. - -“Those men Hop Wong told about. Are they coming back to have another -search for the buried gold?” - -“We’ll soon find out!” declared Hal, who stood with Nalbro and the -others in the hall, where the leave-taking had been going on. “Us for -the cellar, boys!” and he looked at Neale and Luke. - -“Wait a minute!” begged Ruth. “Let’s be sure of them this time! Don’t -let them get away—provided it’s those men!” - -“It’s somebody all right,” declared Nalbro, with a little shiver which -brought her closer to Hal. “And they seem to be digging. Listen! Don’t -you hear a thudding sound?” - -In the silence that followed the whispers they were all aware of a -distinct thudding sound as if picks were being wielded on the soft -bottom of the Corner House cellar. - -“I think they have nerve to come and dig under our very noses!” declared -Agnes. “When we’re entertaining company, too!” - -“It’s because of the company that they came, I fancy,” replied Ruth. -“They figured that so much noise would be going on that they wouldn’t be -heard. They probably have been watching their chance to sneak in when -the house was busy.” - -“This is terrible!” complained Agnes. “We are being spied upon the whole -time! Something must be done! Neale, what are you going to do?” - -“Is there a gun or anything like it around the house?” Neale asked, by -way of answer to Agnes’ appeal. - -“Oh, don’t have any shooting!” pleaded Nalbro. - -“It isn’t pleasant, but it may come to that,” said Neale. - -“Oh, Luke—” began Ruth, appealing to him. - -“I think it would be better if we had some sort of weapon,” was Luke’s -reply. “It would be rather foolish, to say nothing else, for us to go up -against these men, who may be desperate, if we have nothing to force -them to surrender in case we corner them. If there is a gun or a -revolver——” - -“I have put Uncle Peter’s old revolver away,” Ruth said. “Come and we’ll -get it.” - -“Better be a bit lively,” suggested Agnes. “They may skip out with the -gold any minute.” - -“If they don’t find it any quicker than we did they’re not likely to,” -chuckled Hal. - -“It might not be a bad scheme for us to lay low and let them locate the -treasure for you, girls, and then take it away from them,” suggested -Neale. - -“Oh, why don’t you?” asked Agnes. “They must know just where to search -for it, white star and all!” - -“The only trouble is,” answered Neale, “that they might skip out with it -before we could stop them. No, on second thought, I’d say let’s tackle -them at once, capture them, and make them tell the secret.” - -Luke and Ruth came back into the hall, Luke carrying the revolver. - -“This is more like it!” declared Hal. “Now we can talk business to them. -They’re still at it down there.” - -Some sort of noise was still audible in the cellar. Whether it was what -the young folks supposed it to be—men digging after treasure—or -something else, who could say? - -“Maybe it’s only Sandyface making a new home for her family,” suggested -Ruth, with a smile. - -“She wouldn’t make all that noise,” declared Neale. “Well, shall we go?” -he asked the other two young men. - -“Better make up a plan of campaign first,” suggested Ruth. “The other -time these fellows got away—the time they struck Luke on the head. We -don’t want that to happen again.” - -“Perhaps you’re right, Ruth,” said Luke. “We’d better divide forces. Two -of us——” - -“We’re only three altogether,” objected Hal. “You can’t divide three -evenly and——” - -“We can call Uncle Rufus,” decided Ruth. “He is old and not very strong, -but he’ll add to our numbers. I’ll get him.” - -“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” agreed Luke. “At least he can be posted at -one vantage point to give an alarm if the men try to escape.” - -“Provided, of course, that it is men and not a cat,” put in Agnes -flippantly. - -“Oh, I think it will prove to be those fellows all right,” was Luke’s -opinion. - -Uncle Rufus was eager and ready for the coming battle, or whatever it -should resolve itself into. It was planned that Luke and Hal should go -down the inside cellar stairs, while Neale and Uncle Rufus stood at the -outside cellar door to capture the men if they came out that way. - -“We haven’t a gun,” objected Neale, when his part was assigned. - -“Bang ’em on de haid wif a club,” suggested Uncle Rufus. “We kin hit ’em -w’en dey comes up de cellar steps.” - -“That’s a good idea, Neale,” said Agnes. - -“A club it shall be, then,” replied Neale. - -He and the colored man thus armed themselves and took their places. - -Meanwhile, Mrs. MacCall and Linda had been roused to remain with the -girls; though Agnes, in order not to miss any of the excitement, -followed Neale and stationed herself not far from him and Uncle Rufus -where she could see all that went on, if, indeed, anything did happen. - -Ruth stood near the telephone to send at once the alarm in to the -police, once the supposed visitors should be captured. It had been -ascertained by a cautious test that the telephone was in working order. - -At last all was in readiness. Luke and Hal, with the former carrying the -revolver ready for quick aim, and Hal with a flashlight, started down -the inner stairway to the cellar. They had drawn on, over their shoes, -at the suggestion of Ruth, old stockings to make their footfalls softer. - -Neale and Uncle Rufus, each armed with a stout stick of wood, went out -the back kitchen door and took their places at the back cellar entrance, -followed by Agnes. It was here that Neale made a discovery that struck -him as being curious. - -“Why,” he whispered, “they didn’t leave this door open after they went -in this way.” - -“Eh? Why should dey leave it open?” asked Uncle Rufus. - -“So they could get out again in a hurry if they had to—and they may have -to. I never heard of such stupid fellows. They close their way of -escape. Hum! That makes me think!” - -“What’s dat?” asked Uncle Rufus, whose hearing was not of the best. - -“I was just thinking,” went on Neale, “that perhaps they didn’t get into -the cellar this way after all. If they didn’t—and if there is some other -way out and in than the inside stairs—it may explain a lot of things. -But never mind that now. We won’t open this door, Uncle Rufus. In fact -we’ll just sit down on it.” - -“Sit down on it?” - -“Yes, that will make it all the harder for the fellows to lift it up and -get out. Come, let’s take it easy.” - -Uncle Rufus laughed and Agnes giggled. This drew Neale’s attention to -the girl. - -“Aggie!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here? Go back into the -house!” - -“I’ll not, so there! I want to see all that’s to be seen. And then you -don’t think for a minute, do you, that I’m going to let you be all -pounded up or something, Neale O’Neil, and not be near to help you?” - -“Oh, come, Agnes. You’re my faithful chum, I know. But please go in now. -Uncle Rufus and I are safer than you would be, for if the fellows saw -us, they would run away from us, probably right in your direction. Then, -for you, it would be good-night.” - -After some further talk, in which Uncle Rufus joined, Agnes consented to -return to the house. Neale and Uncle Rufus took their seats on the -slanting cellar door as soon as Agnes disappeared. - -Meanwhile Luke and Hal were going softly down the inner stairs. Hal held -the flashlight in readiness for instant use, but he and his companion -had no sooner started to descend the stairs than they became aware of a -dim light in the cellar and they knew, since the regular electric lights -were not switched on, that it came from the intruders. - -“We’ll keep ours dim,” whispered Luke. “That will give us an advantage. -It’s always best to be in the dark when you’re hunting a burglar.” - -“Better be careful,” whispered Agnes, who, banished from the outside -door, had taken her place in the kitchen, to be as near the excitement -as possible. - -“We will,” promised Luke. - -Step by step he and Hal descended, their stocking-covered shoes making -no sound. It was nervous work and they were under a strain. But they -wanted to see the outcome of it all. - -They reached the cellar bottom and started away from the foot of the -stairs. The dim light was growing brighter, the light used by some -intruders in their search. - -A few seconds later Luke and Hal caught sight of two men bending over a -hole they had dug in the cellar bottom. They were near one of the walls, -and on the ground beside them was an electric flashlight turned on. The -forms of the men were plainly visible, though their faces were in the -shadow. - -“They’re the same ones!” whispered Luke, meaning the same twain who had -been in the cellar before and the same men Luke had heard talking in the -railroad train. - -Suddenly the silence of the cellar was broken as one of the men -remarked: - -“Nothing here!” - -“No,” agreed the other, “we’ll have to——” - -At that instant one of them either caught sight of Luke and Hal or else -heard some noise made by the lads, for the man who had first spoken -cried: - -“Look out! We’re caught! Come on!” - -In an instant the two intruders leaped up, and one picked the light from -the floor. Then, to the surprise of Luke and Hal, the men, instead of -dashing toward the outer door of the cellar, sprang toward the front, -inner wall. - -“Come on!” cried Luke, for further concealment was useless. “They can’t -get out that way. It’s a solid stone wall! We’ll have them!” - -“Go on!” yelled Hal. - -At the same time he switched on his own flashlight, since it was -necessary to show a gleam on the path he and Luke were to take, and the -men were now using their own little torch. - -It was now an open pursuit, with the intruders speeding toward the front -wall of the cellar and Luke and Hal after them. - -But Luke was mistaken when he cried out that the men could not get out -the way they were going. Piled up in the front of the cellar of the -Corner House were some old boxes. Dodging in around and among these the -two men were lost to sight for a moment. - -Daringly Hal and Luke followed and, to their surprise, they saw where -the boxes had been pulled away from the wall, showing an old door, the -existence of which was unknown, at least to the present owners of the -Corner House. - -It was out of this door that the men fled. Evidently it was by this way -they came in, rather than the back door, and they seemed to be familiar -with the egress. - -Undaunted, Luke and Hal followed. Outside the newly disclosed door was a -short flight of stone steps. They led up beneath what Luke recognized as -the front porch, and the situation was now clear to him. - -In years past there had been a front areaway entrance to the cellar. -This had gone out of use and the porch had been built over it, a lattice -work around the lower part of the porch concealing the door leading into -the cellar. - -Up the steps ran the two men. A quick motion served to throw down part -of the lattice work, which, doubtless, had been previously loosened by -the intruders, and in a few seconds they were out in the open, speeding -away in the moonlight. - -But Luke and Hal were close behind them, for they, too, ran up the steps -and scrambled out beneath the front porch. - -“Hold on there! Stop! We want you!” cried Luke. - -“Neale! Uncle Rufus! Come around to the front!” cried Hal, realizing -that the two on guard would know nothing of this frontal escape. - -“Stop, or I’ll shoot!” ordered Luke. - -For a few seconds more the midnight visitors sped on. Hal was racing -after them, and around the house could be heard coming Neale and Uncle -Rufus. - -Then the three boys and Uncle Rufus sprang upon the midnight intruders -and bore them to the ground. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV: THE WHITE STAR - - -The capture of the two men took place in a cleared spot in the yard -around the Corner House, a place well illuminated by the brilliant -moonlight. So every move of the suspects was plain to be seen. - -Neale gave a gasp as he saw Agnes emerging from the door under the -porch. Hearing the commotion in the cellar when the pursuit of the two -intruders had begun, she had dashed down the stairs and followed as -quickly as possible in their wake. - -From the house now came Ruth and Nalbro, with Mrs. MacCall and Linda. -Ruth caught sight of the man who had first fallen. He was just then -starting to rise. - -“Oh, Luke!” she cried, “don’t shoot him. Please don’t!” - -“I won’t,” answered the boy. “It won’t be necessary.” - -“Do you surrender?” demanded Neale, swinging his club suggestively. - -“I reckon we’ll have to,” growled one of the men sullenly. “I stumbled,” -he went on, as he arose. “But——” - -“But if you think you’re going to pull off anything because the young -lady says not to shoot, get that idea out of your head!” cried Neale -menacingly, as he advanced with his substantial club. - -“Oh, we know when we’re beaten,” growled the other man. “We weren’t -doing anything, anyhow.” - -“No? Not even trespassing in the cellar?” asked Luke, with sarcasm. - -“Oh, well, if we’d found anything we’d have given you folks a share,” -said the second man, who was now on his feet again. - -“I suppose we can believe that or not, as we see fit,” remarked Luke. - -Now the question arose of what to do with the two captured men. Captured -they were, since they must see the futility of trying to escape from -double their number of males, to say nothing of Mrs. MacCall and Linda, -who, in actual strength, were the equal of the tramps. - -“You fellows may as well consider yourselves under arrest,” said Luke. -“You can take it quietly, or you can make a fuss if you please. I’d -advise you to take it quietly and come with us.” - -“I hope they tell us where the iron box of gold is hidden!” exclaimed -Agnes, and they all noticed that the men started in surprise. - -“Do you know about it?” asked the one afterward identified as Max -Rother. - -“We certainly do!” declared Ruth. “Hop Wong has given us all the -particulars.” - -“That Chink!” growled Simon Meggs. “I always was suspicious of him.” - -“Settle one thing first,” suggested Luke. “Are you coming with us -quietly or shall we use force?” - -“Oh, we’ll come along,” snapped out Rother. “But where are you taking -us? We haven’t done anything to be arrested for—except maybe sneak in, -trespass as you call it. You can’t do much to us for that. We haven’t -taken a thing.” - -“Maybe we won’t send for the police after all,” said Ruth. “It all -depends on what you tell us. As you say, you haven’t done anything yet.” - -“Except frighten us all a bit, and bang Luke Shepard over the head,” put -in Agnes. “And if you are willing to tell us where the box of gold is, -maybe we’ll let you go, provided you promise not to come back.” - -“I guess we’ll have to do as you say. There’s no help for it,” grumbled -Meggs. “But I don’t believe you’ll find the money. We couldn’t, and -we’ve had several trials after it.” - -“In the first place—is there any money?” asked Ruth. - -“We think there is, lady,” answered Rother. - -“Whose money is it?” demanded Luke. “Suppose you tell us about it. -Everything you do to save us work will count in your favor.” - -“Well, it was going to be our money if we found it,” said Rother. “But -at the start it belonged to Collis Ingleton.” - -“The heavy drinker?” asked Luke at a venture. - -“How’d you know that?” asked Meggs with a perceptible start. - -“Never mind how. Was he a drinker?” - -“He was a soak, if that’s what you mean, asking the ladies’ pardon for -giving it a plain name,” said Rother. “And when he couldn’t get what he -wanted elsewhere we supplied him. He said we would be rewarded by -finding the box of gold in this cellar and we’ve been trying for it ever -since.” - -“Then the money didn’t belong to Mr. Stower?” asked Ruth. - -“Maybe some of it did. He and this Ingleton were in business together -once on a time,” Meggs answered. “But Ingleton said it was all his, and -Mr. Stower took it from him to save it and buried it.” - -“But Ingleton said we could have it if we found it. That was to pay for -keeping him in liquor,” said Rother. “Oh, I know it’s a terrible bad -thing,” he admitted, as he saw the look of loathing on the faces of the -girls. “We’re bad men—not as bad as some, maybe, but bad enough. This -man suffered a lot. And he couldn’t stop. He just had to have liquor.” - -“We got into it against our will, and we made up our minds to quit and -live straight after we got this money,” added Meggs. - -“Do you think there is any chance of getting it?” asked Agnes. - -“We did at one time,” Rother replied. “But I’m not so sure now. We -looked around and dug whenever we could without letting you folks know -about it. But the white star doesn’t seem to give the location as we -thought it would.” - -“The white star!” cried Ruth. “Is there a white star in the cellar? We -couldn’t find it.” - -“Where did you look?” asked Rother. - -“All around the walls.” - -“You should have looked overhead—on the beams. It’s there all right,” -said the man, with a grin. “Stars are always overhead, lady.” - -“That’s so! We never thought of that!” cried Agnes. “Of course a star -would be as high up as it could be placed!” - -“Do you mean, to say you have located the star in the cellar? The star -that Hop Wong said indicated the location of the iron box of gold?” -asked Neale. - -“Reckon Hop Wong told all he knew,” murmured Meggs. “Yes, we have -located the star.” - -“Come and show us,” ordered Luke. “And no tricks, mind!” - -“Oh, we’re past tricks,” said Rother humbly enough. “We’ll play into -your hands now. Only, if you do locate any money—well, maybe you’ll give -us enough to get a fresh start.” - -“We’ll see,” Ruth replied guardedly. - -The boys carefully guarded the men, surrounding them as they all went -back to the cellar. - -“We never knew that other door was there!” exclaimed Ruth, when they saw -how the men had entered and left the cellar. - -“That’s one of the things Uncle Peter kept to himself,” said Agnes. -“There seems to have been a number of them.” - -The lights were turned on in the cellar, and then, followed by the -Corner House girls and their friends, the men led the way to the corner -where they had been digging when surprised by Luke and Hal. - -“There’s the white star,” remarked Rother, pointing to a beam overhead. - -And there, showing faintly in the half darkness, was a white star -painted on one of the beams. Just beneath it was the beginning of an -excavation in the cellar bottom. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV: THE ALLIGATOR’S TAIL - - -“There’s the white star, surely enough!” exclaimed Agnes, when they had -all seen it. - -“You started to dig just beneath it, is that it?” Luke asked the two -men. - -“Yes, that’s what we understood we were to do,” remarked Rother. - -“But so far—” began Meggs, when Neale with a cry interrupted and -demanded: - -“You fellows haven’t found the gold and hidden it somewhere else, have -you?” - -“Found the gold? Not much! If we had we wouldn’t be coming back at the -risk—well, we wouldn’t have come back and be caught as we are if we had -the coin,” answered Rother. - -“As a matter of fact, we hadn’t finished digging when you saw us,” went -on Meggs. - -“But I don’t think we will find it, not if we dig down to China,” went -on his partner. - -“Why not?” asked Hal, quickly. - -“You haven’t dug far enough to find out. You’ve only scratched the -surface here,” said Neale as he looked where the earth had been turned -up. - -“No matter. I went far enough to make sure this ground hadn’t been -disturbed in a hundred years,” declared Rother. “It was as hard as -flint. If any box had ever been buried there the ground would show some -sign of it, and it doesn’t. I think we’re fooled, if you asked me,” he -concluded. - -“Well, perhaps it was all a fairy story,” assented Luke. “But we’ll have -a try at it.” - -“To-night?” asked Ruth, for she saw Luke take up a spade. - -“To-night—yes. There is no time like the present. And since your -visitors, Ruth, seem to like the work we’ll let them do it,” and Luke -handed the implement to Rother and motioned to him to begin. - -“Maybe this is only fair. I reckon we did give you a lot of trouble,” -said the tramp. “But we won’t find anything—not if we dig all night.” - -And he was right. Though he and his companion turned up the earth in -many parts of the cellar, working at each point of the star as an -indicator, nothing was found. - -It was nearly morning when Ruth gave the word to stop. But no one was -weary, unless it was the tramps who had been made to do most of the -labor. - -“Well, I guess it was all a hoax,” said Agnes, with a sigh that had in -it something of disappointment. “I think your toper friend was -romancing.” - -“I’m sure of it,” declared Rother. “He fooled us all right, as might -have been expected from an old soak. Well, if you’ll let us go, we’ll -clear out and not bother you again. We thought there was gold in the -cellar; but, well, there just isn’t.” - -“What do you say, Ruth, shall we let them go?” asked Luke. - -“Oh, yes. They really have done nothing except trespass, and I don’t -like the idea of appearing in court against them, as we should need to. -Let the poor fellows go.” - -“Thanks, lady,” mumbled Meggs. “I’m sorry there wasn’t any money.” - -“Perhaps it’s just as well,” said Ruth. - -“Oh, and we wanting a new automobile the worst way!” gasped Agnes. “I -like your nerve!” - -But it seemed the best way out, and the men were allowed to depart. This -they did hurriedly, thankful in one respect and doubtless much -disappointed in another. Their dream of wealth was over. - -But when Luke and Neale had gone home for a few hours’ sleep and had -come back again, the young people took another look down in the cellar -by such daylight as entered through the opened rear door and the -long-unsuspected entrance beneath the front porch. - -However, even that search resulted in nothing, and the Corner House -girls and their friends came to the somewhat reluctant conclusion that -the whole story was more or less of a hoax. - -As for Sammy, Tess, and Dot, they were bitterly disappointed at the -outcome of it all when they were told of the night’s adventure. - -“I wish I’d ’a’ been there to help capture the robbers!” cried Sammy. - -“They weren’t robbers,” said Agnes. “They didn’t steal anything.” - -“Well, they would ’a’ been if they could ’a’ found the chest of gold!” -declared Sammy. “Hi, where you goin’ with my alligator, Dot?” he called, -for he had brought his Palm Island pet over to the Corner House with -him, following the giving up of the search on the part of Luke and the -others. - -“I’m not going anywhere with your old alligator,” Dot answered. “But -he’s wiggled himself down cellar and I’m going after him, so there!” - -Sammy was eager to hear all the particulars of the night’s chase, and he -did not go down cellar, even to rescue his beloved saurian. Dot, -however, was not one to give up once she started a mission, and -presently she was heard moving about amid the boxes and barrels, -doubtless after the scaly creature. - -“Well, there’s one thing we won’t have to worry about,” said Ruth, “and -that is the presence of those two mysterious men. When we didn’t know -who they were and what they were after, it was a constant source of -anxiety. Now they have gone for good.” - -At that moment Dot came up out of the cellar and hurried to where all -the others were sitting in chairs beneath the shade of the grape arbor -near the rear door. There was a strange look on her face. - -“What’s the matter?” asked Ruth, sensing that something had happened. - -“Sammy’s alligator! He went down in the cellar, and I went after him -and—and—” began Dot excitedly. - -“Well, is he lost or did you find him?” interrupted Sammy. “If he’s -gone, Dot Kenway——” - -“No, he isn’t zactly gone,” explained Dot, with wounded dignity. “But he -crawled in a crack between two stones and only his tail was sticking out -and I got hold of it and I pulled, and it—it came _right out_!” - -“Mercy! You don’t mean to say you pulled off the poor alligator’s tail, -did you?” cried Agnes. - -“Maybe he’ll grow another as a crab grows a new claw,” Luke said -consolingly, as he saw the look of anguish on Sammy’s face. - -“No, I didn’t pull the alligator’s tail off!” declared Dot. “It was on -too fast, I guess. But I pulled him and he came out of the crack, and -the stone came out with him and there’s a hole there, and there’s an -iron box in the hole, and——” - -Dot did not finish. With whoops on the part of the boys and shrieks on -the part of the girls, the whole party made a rush for the cellar. The -afternoon sun was now shining in it, making the place fairly bright. - -“Show me where you pulled the ’gator out, Dot!” begged Neale. - -“There. You can see the hole and the iron box!” - -And there it was! - -The lost treasure! Curiously, as they discovered later, one of the -points of the white star on the beam overhead pointed directly to the -stone in the wall behind which the iron box had been hidden for so many -years. It was thus the clew should have been interpreted, it seemed. - -It was an old box of thin sheet iron, and not heavy cast iron, and as it -was rusty it was soon opened. Out on the bench in the yard the hidden -wealth, for the first time in many years, was exposed to the light of -the sun. - -“Then those men were right after all!” murmured Ruth. - -“In a way, yes,” admitted Luke. “But it took Dot and Sammy’s alligator -to get at the real secret.” - -“Well, I’m glad it was one of the Corner House girls who actually solved -the mystery,” said Ruth. - -And the mystery was solved. - -The wealth did not amount to as much as perhaps Neale and Agnes in their -wild dreams had dared to hope, but it was a substantial sum. It would -have been a small fortune to the two tramps had they been able to secure -it for themselves. - -“What shall we do with it?” asked Tess, as they saw the piles of gold -and paper money. - -“Buy a new auto the first thing!” cried Agnes. - -“No, we must give it to whoever owns it,” said Ruth. “Put it all back, -Luke. We must take it to Mr. Howbridge.” - -“Yes,” he agreed, “that’s the only thing to do.” - -The girls’ guardian was greatly surprised. - -“I never imagined there was anything to that queer story,” he said. “It -wasn’t at all like Mr. Stower to do something he didn’t tell me. But I -suppose he had his reasons. Well, now to find out whose money it is, and -if there are no heirs—well, it goes to the Corner House girls, of -course.” - -“And boys!” added Ruth. “For they helped us find it.” - -“Hop Wong ought to get some,” said Dot. “I like him, even if he is a -funny man. But he doesn’t seem to be made of china.” - -“Yes, Hop Wong will get his share,” said Mr. Howbridge, amid laughter. - -“And maybe those two tramps ought to have some, too. We’ll see,” added -Ruth. - -Though the finding of the money was kept as quiet as possible, yet it -made a stir in Milton, and many a throng of curious ones came to stare -at the Corner House and the inmates thereof. - -Mr. Howbridge made diligent inquiries and found the story to be -substantially as told by Rother and Meggs. The unfortunate friend of -Uncle Peter, whose failing Mr. Stower had done his best to hide, really -owned the money. It had been hidden to try to save it from going for -liquor. As he died without leaving any relatives, there was none to -claim the wealth. - -After that a diligent search was made through the papers left by Mr. -Stower and finally a document was brought to light in which the former -partner left all his earthly possessions to the owner of the Corner -House. - -Then, as the Corner House girls succeeded to all of Uncle Peter’s -belongings they, naturally, fell heirs to the iron box of money. - -“And now may we have the new car?” asked Agnes, when it was all settled. - -“Yes,” chuckled her guardian, “if only to keep you quiet.” - -So Agnes was made happy, and so, also, was Hop Wong, for he was given a -substantial sum, enough to enable him to clear off the debt on his -laundry and start afresh. And later still, the two tramps were located -and given new outfits of clothing and a little cash. - -“If Agnes has a new car I think we ought to have new playthings,” -declared Dot, “’cause I found the money.” - -“And there ought to be a new basket for Sandyface to keep her kittens -in,” added Tess. - -“That shall be done!” laughed Ruth. - -“And I should think maybe we could give Sammy a little chain for his -alligator so it wouldn’t get lost again,” suggested Dot. - -“I think that’s the least we can do for Sammy, after the part his pet -played in revealing the hidden gold,” agreed Ruth. And so it was done. - -“Well,” remarked Nalbro when she left for Boston with Hal, “I must say I -have had a most delightful vacation at the Corner House. And it was so -romantic!” - -“Glad you liked it,” returned Agnes. - -“Come again next summer,” put in Ruth. “Maybe something else will -happen.” - -And something else did, and what it was will be related in another -volume, to be called “The Corner House Girls Facing the World.” In that -book we shall see what all of the girls were capable of doing under very -trying circumstances. - -From his papers Ruth and Agnes learned much concerning their Uncle -Peter’s work in behalf of the partner who had all but drunk himself to -death. He had done his utmost to reform the man, but without avail. Then -he had done what he could to save the unfortunate one’s money, and this -had occurred just before his own death. - -And so the mystery came to an end and the puzzling noises around the old -Corner House ceased. Sammy got his new chain for the alligator and was -correspondingly happy. - -“He is going to make the alligator learn new tricks,” announced Dot. - -“Mercy! haven’t we had tricks enough?” cried Agnes. - -“What I can’t understand,” went on Dot, frowning, “is about Mr. Hop -Wong.” - -“What can’t you understand?” asked Agnes. - -“I’ve looked and looked and looked,” went on the littlest Corner House -Girl, “and he isn’t a Chinaman! There isn’t the least bit of china about -him, so there!” - - THE END - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery, by -Grace Brooks Hill - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE *** - -***** This file should be named 62489-0.txt or 62489-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/4/8/62489/ - -Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery - What it was, Where it was, and Who found it - -Author: Grace Brooks Hill - -Illustrator: Thelma Gooch - -Release Date: June 26, 2020 [EBook #62489] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE *** - - - - -Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<h1>The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery</h1> - -<div id='ifpc' class='section illus' style='width:70%'> - <img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' /> - <p>Out of the moonlight shadows he came, a timid and shrinking figure of a Chinese.</p> -</div> - -<div class='section'> - <div style='font-size:1.4em;'>THE</div> - <div style='font-size:1.4em;'>CORNER HOUSE GIRLS</div> - <div style='font-size:1.4em;margin-bottom:1em;'>SOLVE A MYSTERY</div> - <div>WHAT IT WAS, WHERE IT WAS, AND</div> - <div style='margin-bottom:1em;'>WHO FOUND IT</div> - <div>BY</div> - <div style='font-size:1.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em;'>GRACE BROOKS HILL</div> - <div style='font-size:0.9em;font-variant:small-caps;'>Author of “The Corner House Girls,”</div> - <div style='font-size:0.9em;margin-bottom:2em;font-variant:small-caps;'>“The Corner House Girls on Palm Island,” Etc.</div> - <div style='font-style:italic;'>ILLUSTRATED BY</div> - <div style='margin-bottom:2em;font-style:italic;'>THELMA GOOCH</div> - <div style='font-size:1.2em;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</div> - <div style='font-size:0.9em;'>PUBLISHERS</div> - <div style='font-size:0.9em;'>NEW YORK, N.Y. NEWARK, N.J.</div> -</div> - -<div class='section' style='font-size:0.8em'> - <div>Copyright, 1923</div> - <div>by</div> - <div style='margin-bottom:1em;'>Barse & Hopkins</div> - <div style='margin-bottom:1em; font-style:italic;'> - The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery - </div> - <div>Printed in the U. S. A.</div> -</div> - -<table class='toc' summary=""> - <thead> - <tr> - <th colspan='2' style='font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:1em;'>CONTENTS</th> - </tr> - </thead> - <tbody> - <tr><td>I</td><td><a href='#chI'>A Drop in Eggs</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>II</td><td><a href='#chII'>A Queer Pair</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>III</td><td><a href='#chIII'>Disquieting News</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>IV</td><td><a href='#chIV'>In a Hurry</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>V</td><td><a href='#chV'>Visitors Arrive</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>VI</td><td><a href='#chVI'>Witches and Warlocks</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>VII</td><td><a href='#chVII'>Luke Remembers</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>VIII</td><td><a href='#chVIII'>A Futile Chase</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>IX</td><td><a href='#chIX'>Out of Tune</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>X</td><td><a href='#chX'>A Shower</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XI</td><td><a href='#chXI'>A Strange Summons</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XII</td><td><a href='#chXII'>A Queer Note</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XIII</td><td><a href='#chXIII'>A Midnight Tryst</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XIV</td><td><a href='#chXIV'>Suspicions</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XV</td><td><a href='#chXV'>Tess and Dot Investigate</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XVI</td><td><a href='#chXVI'>The Storm</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XVII</td><td><a href='#chXVII'>The Midnight Noise</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XVIII</td><td><a href='#chXVIII'>Struck Down</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XIX</td><td><a href='#chXIX'>Dot’s Discovery</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XX</td><td><a href='#chXX'>Hop Wong is Caught</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XXI</td><td><a href='#chXXI'>A Queer Story</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XXII</td><td><a href='#chXXII'>Another Alarm</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XXIII</td><td><a href='#chXXIII'>The Capture</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XXIV</td><td><a href='#chXXIV'>The White Star</a></td></tr> - <tr><td>XXV</td><td><a href='#chXXV'>The Alligator’s Tail</a></td></tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<div class='section'> - <div style='font-size:1.2em;margin-bottom:1em;'>ILLUSTRATIONS</div> - <ul style='list-style-type:none; display:block;'> - <li><a href='#ifpc'>Out of the moonlight shadows he came, a timid and shrinking figure of a Chinese</a></li> - <li><a href='#i001'>The two men looked up quickly, having been stopped by Ruth’s voice</a></li> - <li><a href='#i002'>There sat Tess on a flat rock in a shallow place in the middle of the brook</a></li> - <li><a href='#i003'>The younger Corner House girls poked into the dark corners of the cellar</a></li> - </ul> -</div> - - -<div class='chapter'> - -<p style='font-size:1.2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:2em;'> -THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY -</p> -<h2 id='chI' title='I: A Drop in Eggs'> -<span>CHAPTER I</span><br /><span>A DROP IN EGGS</span> -</h2> - -<p>“Hello!”</p> - -<p>“Goodness sakes! don’t holler like that again, Sammy Pinkney.”</p> - -<p>“He almost made me drop the cake batter!”</p> - -<p>Tess Kenway, who had administered the rebuke to the small boy when he -gave a shout, thrusting his head in through the half-opened kitchen -door, fanned herself with her apron as she closed the oven of the stove. -Her sister Dot, who was pouring something from a brown bowl into a tin -pan, set the former down on the table and shook her finger at Sammy.</p> - -<p>“What are you doin’?” asked Sammy, as he slid farther into the kitchen -and possessed himself of a chair near the table, looking casually over -what it contained.</p> - -<p>“Cakes,” answered Tess. “I guess the oven’s hot enough now, Dot,” she -went on, again opening and closing the door.</p> - -<p>“Cakes!” exclaimed Sammy, smacking his lips. “I should think if -you made <i>one</i> cake it would be——”</p> - -<p>“We’re <i>each</i> making a cake, if you please!” declared Tess, with a -superior air. “And we wish you wouldn’t come around here bothering -us—don’t we, Dot?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, we do,” joined in the other small sister.</p> - -<p>“And if you want any of <i>my</i> cake, Sammy Pinkney—Oh, don’t you dare sit -in that chair!” she shrieked as, dropping a spoon covered with cake -batter and thereby spattering the boy, she made a rush for him just in -time to prevent him from occupying another chair nearer to the scene of -the cake-making.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter with that chair?” protested Sammy, in a grieved tone, -as he went back to his original place.</p> - -<p>“My—my Alice-doll!” answered Dot faintly.</p> - -<p>“You—<i>you</i> nearly squashed her, Sammy.” And, pulling the chair out from -beneath the table, she disclosed her very choicest child—the loved -“Alice-doll.”</p> - -<p>“Aw, how’d I know she was there?” asked Sammy.</p> - -<p>“You didn’t have to come in,” retorted Tess, who, though older than her -sister, yet shared in the latter’s love for Alice and did not want to -see her “squashed.”</p> - -<p>“Pooh, I don’t have to come in if I don’t want to,” declared Sammy -independently. “But I was goin’ to show you how you could have some -fun.”</p> - -<p>“Some fun?” questioned Tess, alive to the possibilities in that word.</p> - -<p>“What kind of fun?” Dot wanted to know, putting her Alice-doll in a -safer place.</p> - -<p>“Aw, what good would it do me to tell you!” and Sammy affected an air of -injured innocence. “All you care about is bakin’ cakes!”</p> - -<p>“We do not—so there!” cried Tess, with an uptilting of her little nose, -as she had seen Nalbro Hastings affect on occasions. “If you know any -fun, Sammy Pinkney, you ought to tell us, ’cause we’ll soon have to go -back to school.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, dear!” sighed Dot. “When I was on Plam Island I never thought of -school.”</p> - -<p>“’Tisn’t <i>Plam</i> Island,” corrected Sammy. “It’s——”</p> - -<p>“I know what it is! I don’t have to get you to tell me!” snapped Dot, -for she was a bit sensitive about her mispronunciation, having been -corrected so often. “But when my cake’s done you can have some, Sammy,” -she added, more gently, as if ashamed of her little outburst.</p> - -<p>“And I’ll give you some of mine,” offered Tess. “It’s going to be -chocolate.”</p> - -<p>“Good!” cried Sammy, and all his ill-feeling vanished.</p> - -<p>“Mine’s cocoanut,” said Dot. “And I guess we’d better put ’em in the -oven, Tess. Mrs. MacCall said to put ’em in when the oven felt hot to -your hand.”</p> - -<p>“All right.”</p> - -<p>The two little girls, having poured their cake batter into separate -tins, placed their concoctions in the oven and closed the door.</p> - -<p>“There!” announced Tess. “Now you can tell us about the fun, Sammy,” and -she seemed to have shaken from her small shoulders the cares of the -universe.</p> - -<p>“I’m going to be in it, and so is my Alice-doll!” declared Dot, as she -brought the pretend-child from the shelf where she had placed her for -safety.</p> - -<p>“Is Mrs. Mac around?” asked Sammy suspiciously, for he was a bit afraid -of the bluff but kind Scotch housekeeper.</p> - -<p>“No, she’s away upstairs,” answered Tess encouragingly. “She won’t be -down for a long time. She and Ruth and Agnes are talking about doing -over one of the rooms. That girl who had something the matter with her -teeth is coming to stay a while.”</p> - -<p>“We’re going to have a party,” confided Dot. “But these cakes aren’t for -that,” she hastened to say, lest Sammy might think he would have to wait -too long for the promised reward.</p> - -<p>“You mean that that Nally Hastings you’re always talking about is -coming?” asked the boy.</p> - -<p>“Yes!” answered both little girls. They did not want to talk too much -for they desired to hear what fun Sammy had in prospect.</p> - -<p>Miss Nalbro Hastings, from Boston, had become acquainted with the Corner -House girls some time before. At first she had had the reputation of -being affected and “stuck up,” especially in the manner of her talk.</p> - -<p>But later it was learned that she was suffering from the loss of some -teeth, which had been knocked out in a runaway-horse accident, and this -accounted for her speaking of Neale O’Neil as:</p> - -<p>“That charming Mistah O’Neil, who ith tho interethting!”</p> - -<p>“Well, if Mrs. Mac isn’t around,” began Sammy slowly—“But where’s your -Aunt Sarah?” he suddenly demanded, for he had sharp recollections of how -Miss Maltby had more than once sent him “a-kiting,” as she called it, -when he had been up to some of his mischief.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Aunt Sarah has gone for a ride,” chuckled Tess. “You can tell us, -Sammy. But we’ve got to stay in the kitchen until our cakes are done,” -she added, lest Sammy’s plan involve going afield with the cake batter -still in the oven.</p> - -<p>“Oh, we can have some of the fun right here,” replied Sammy. “I guess -this is the best place for it, anyhow. You sure Mrs. Mac won’t come down -and catch me?” he asked, looking about and cocking his head on one side, -to listen more sharply.</p> - -<p>“No, she and Agnes and Ruth just went upstairs,” reported Tess. “They’ll -be there a long time. Mrs. Mac got the things for us to make the cakes -and told us just how to do it. I’ve made a cake before, but Dot hasn’t,” -and Tess assumed her superior air which moved Dot to exclaim:</p> - -<p>“Well, I’ve eaten cakes, anyhow!”</p> - -<p>“So’ve I!” chuckled Sammy. “And I’m ready to do it again. Well, if -nobody’s coming I’ll show you the fun. Got any raw beefsteak?” he asked, -suddenly.</p> - -<p>“Raw beefsteak?” questioned Dot, wonderingly.</p> - -<p>“Sammy Pinkney, have you got a new dog?” demanded Tess, excitedly. “If -you have——”</p> - -<p>“Naw, I haven’t got a new dog,” declared Sammy. “Maybe I’m goin’ to have -one, though, for Robbie Foote, who delivers groceries for Mrs. Kranz, -the delicatessen lady, says he thinks he knows where he can get me a dog -if my mother’ll let me have it. But I don’t guess she will as long as I -have Buster.”</p> - -<p>“I should think not,” said Tess, with an air of motherly wisdom.</p> - -<p>“But a dog is nice,” said Dot. “And if you had one with a very soft and -shaggy back, Sammy, I’d let my Alice-doll ride on him. Buster’s only a -bulldog and not at all nice. He’s really horrid!” and Dot sniffed a -little.</p> - -<p>“Well, I haven’t got the dog—yet,” Sammy said.</p> - -<p>“Then what do you want the raw beefsteak for?” demanded Tess.</p> - -<p>“For the alligator,” whispered Sammy, as if he feared that Mrs. MacCall, -the Scotch housekeeper, would hear him, even on the top floor of the old -and rambling Corner House.</p> - -<p>“The alligator!” cried Tess.</p> - -<p>“The one we brought you from Plam Island?” demanded Dot.</p> - -<p>“’Tisn’t <i>Plam</i> Island, I tell you!” insisted Sammy. “It’s <i>Palm</i>, -and——”</p> - -<p>“I call it <i>Plam</i>,” remarked Dot sweetly and with an air of finality. -“But where is he, Sammy—the alligator I mean? He was so cute, even if he -was homely.”</p> - -<p>“I have him outside,” Sammy answered. “I didn’t want to bring him in -until I was sure it was all right. That’s the reason I looked in first -and said ‘hello!’”</p> - -<p>“And nearly made me drop my cake,” sighed Dot.</p> - -<p>“But what about the raw beefsteak?” asked Tess.</p> - -<p>“That’s to make the alligator do the trick,” explained Sammy.</p> - -<p>“What trick?” cried both little girls at once.</p> - -<p>“I’ll show you.”</p> - -<p>Sammy went outside again. Tess and Dot were so eager they could scarcely -await his return, but it was not many minutes before Sammy again made -his appearance with a small box which he put on the kitchen table, -shoving to one side spoons, pans and dishes that had been used with -prodigal extravagance in the making of two very small cakes.</p> - -<p>“Get the beefsteak,” Sammy ordered, with an air of one used to being -obeyed.</p> - -<p>“I’ll get it. There’s some in the ice box,” offered Tess. “But don’t do -the trick until I get back,” she commanded.</p> - -<p>“I won’t,” Sammy promised.</p> - -<p>While Tess went to the pantry Dot knelt in a chair as close to the -mysterious box as she could get.</p> - -<p>“Let me just peek at him until Tess comes back,” she pleaded. “You don’t -need do the trick.”</p> - -<p>Sammy obligingly raised the cover of the box slightly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Sammy Pinkney, what have you done to the lovely alligator?” cried -Dot, starting back.</p> - -<p>“Keep still! It’s part of the trick,” answered Sammy.</p> - -<p>“Oh, you said you wouldn’t do it while I was gone!” cried Tess -accusingly, as she came in with some shreds of meat and heard the last -words.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t,” declared Sammy. “I was just showing him to Dot. I’ll lift -him out now. Put the meat on the table.”</p> - -<p>“I haggled off one end of a steak,” said Tess. “I hope Mrs. Mac doesn’t -notice it.”</p> - -<p>“If she does,” chuckled Sammy, “tell her one of the cats did it.”</p> - -<p>“There’s plenty of them around, but of course Dot and I don’t tell -fibs,” declared Tess. “Now come on. Do the trick, Sammy.”</p> - -<p>Sammy looked matters over before opening the box. The shreds of meat -that Tess had placed on the table caught his eyes.</p> - -<p>“Don’t leave ’em in such big chunks,” he advised. “Snapper will choke on -’em.”</p> - -<p>“Is that what you call your alligator—Snapper?” asked Tess, as she -proceeded to cut up the meat into smaller bits. She and her sisters had -brought the scaly reptile back with them from Palm Island as a souvenir -for Sammy.</p> - -<p>“Snapper is his name, and my mother says snappish is his nature,” -answered the boy. “But he only snaps when he wants things to eat. I -guess those are all right,” he went on, as he looked at the bits of -steak cut smaller by Tess.</p> - -<p>Then he lifted out onto the table a small, tame alligator, at the sight -of which the two girls broke into exclamations of:</p> - -<p>“Oh, isn’t he cute! How did you ever do it! Oh, he looks just like a -circus alligator!”</p> - -<p>“Maybe I’ll put him in a circus,” said Sammy. “But it wasn’t easy to -dress him up.”</p> - -<p>Sammy had, with the expenditure of much time and (for him) labor, made a -sort of clown suit for the alligator, a little red jacket and green -trousers. The two front legs of the small alligator were thrust through -the sleeves of the red jacket, and the two hind legs stuck out of the -green legs of the trousers.</p> - -<p>“Oh, he’s too funny for anything!” declared Dot.</p> - -<p>“Wait! You haven’t seen half yet!” promised the boy.</p> - -<p>Again he reached into the box he had carried over from his home, which -was catercornered from the Corner House, and this time he lifted out a -small wagon, purchased at the five and ten-cent store. To this vehicle -he had fastened a harness so that Snapper could be hitched to the toy.</p> - -<p>“Oh, isn’t that a darling!” cried Tess in ecstasy.</p> - -<p>“You could have a show with that!” declared Dot.</p> - -<p>“Maybe I will,” said Sammy. “But wait, you haven’t seen it all yet. Wait -till he draws the cart. Keep the meat away from him until I hitch him -up,” he went on. “Once he starts to eating raw steak he won’t pull. I -have to bribe him to do it till he gets better trained. Don’t let him -get the meat, Tess.”</p> - -<p>At what, it would seem, was the risk of having her fingers snapped at, -the girl removed the bits of meat from in front of the little alligator. -Sammy then hitched it to the cart and next, taking a shred of meat, held -it a few inches away from Snapper’s nose.</p> - -<p>Slowly the alligator from “Plam Island” began crawling across the table, -anxious to get the dainty, and, as he crawled, he hauled after him the -toy cart.</p> - -<p>“Oh, that’s perfectly wonderful!” cried Tess.</p> - -<p>“Too cute for anything!” added Dot. “Look, Alice-doll,” she went on, -holding her most-loved “child” up to see.</p> - -<p>“Aw, what does <i>she</i> know about it?” jeered Sammy.</p> - -<p>“My Alice-doll knows more’n you do, Sammy Pinkney, so there!” retorted -Dot.</p> - -<p>Just then there was a noise at the outer kitchen door, and the three -children turned apprehensively, thinking it might be their Aunt Sarah or -Mrs. MacCall.</p> - -<p>“It’s only Billy Bumps,” remarked Sammy, as he caught sight of the goat -entering. Billy was a sort of privileged neighborhood character, but had -Mrs. MacCall been present he never would have entered her clean kitchen. -However, Sammy, Dot and Tess were not so particular. Besides, they were -watching the alligator do his trick with the little cart.</p> - -<p>But peace and quiet was not to reign for long. Billy Bumps, discovering -on a small table in a corner a bit of lettuce, began munching this. His -tail was toward the larger table, on which Snapper was performing, and, -as luck would have it, just then the alligator in his wanderings came to -the edge of the table. The goat’s slightly moving tail was within easy -reach of the jaws.</p> - -<p>Perhaps Snapper might have recognized in the goat’s tail a resemblance -to some dainty he was accustomed to feed on while a resident of Palm -Island. Or perhaps Snapper took the goat’s tail for a new form of -beefsteak, of which he was very fond.</p> - -<p>However that may be, this is what happened.</p> - -<p>Snapper reached forward and, aiming to bite out a generous section of -the goat’s tail, took a firm hold.</p> - -<p>“Baa-a-a-a!” bleated the goat.</p> - -<p>He wheeled around suddenly, and with such force that he swung Snapper -from the table to the floor, the alligator loosening its grip. But Billy -Bumps had been frightened. He also thought he had been mistreated. With -another bleat, in which rage and reproach were mingled, he made a dash -for the door by which he had entered.</p> - -<p>Just as he reached it there entered Robbie Foote with some eggs that -Mrs. Kranz, the “delicatessen lady,” had sent up to the Corner House -from her store.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” gasped Robbie. And again: “Oh!”</p> - -<p>Well might he say that, for the plunging goat took him in the stomach -and down went Robbie.</p> - -<p>Down went the eggs also, in a smash of shells, whites and yellows on the -kitchen floor, and Snapper the alligator, wondering what it was all -about, started to crawl through the mess.</p> - -<p>“Oh,” gasped Tess faintly.</p> - -<p>“Oh dear!” cried Dot, more loudly.</p> - -<p>“This—this—this is fierce!” stuttered Sammy, gazing wildly at the scene -of wreck and confusion.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chII' title='II: A Queer Pair'> -<span>CHAPTER II</span><br /><span>A QUEER PAIR</span> -</h2> - -<p>“Agnes, did you hear anything?”</p> - -<p>“I’m not sure, Ruth, but I did think I heard something in the kitchen, -still——”</p> - -<p>“I shouldn’t have left Dot and Tess there alone to finish making their -cakes, I’m afraid,” went on the oldest of the Corner House girls. “But -they begged and teased so to be allowed to bake something by themselves, -that I gave in against my better judgment. I’m always doing that!”</p> - -<p>“Don’t reproach yourself,” murmured Agnes. “Oh, I’m afraid I’ve broken -one of my nails,” she exclaimed, looking at her well-manicured hands. -“Yes, it <i>is</i> broken!” she sighed. “And I was going to——”</p> - -<p>“Something else besides a fingernail is broken, to judge by the racket -down in the kitchen!” exclaimed Ruth, interrupting her “beauty sister,” -as she sometimes called Agnes.</p> - -<p>Ruth had opened the door of the room in which she and her sister, with -the housekeeper, Mrs. MacCall, had been discussing the advisability of -having it repapered in anticipation of the time when Miss Hastings -should come to visit them, the Boston girl having accepted a very -cordial invitation to stay a few weeks at the Corner House.</p> - -<p>“Something <i>has</i> happened!” declared Ruth, with conviction.</p> - -<p>“Oh, the puir bairns!” exclaimed motherly Mrs. MacCall. “Hech! Hech! -Mayhap the dratted stove hae burned them! Oh, woe is me!”</p> - -<p>“They know better than to get burned,” answered Ruth. “But I think we’d -better go down and see what has happened.”</p> - -<p>“You <i>think</i>!” gasped Agnes, looking at her fractured nail. “I just -<i>know</i> we had!”</p> - -<p>Followed by Mrs. MacCall, with her ominous “hech! hech!” the while -mumbling incomprehensible Scotch words, the two sisters hastened down -the stairs. When they caught sight of the kitchen with its mixture of -eggs and alligator, Ruth felt like saying what Sammy had said—with added -adjectives.</p> - -<p>“Oh, what <i>has</i> happened?” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Sammy was doing a trick, Aggie, and—” began Dot. Then she caught sight -of her Alice-doll on the floor with a slowly moving trail of egg yellow, -like lava from a volcano, working toward her, and with a cry sprang to -save her.</p> - -<p>“Trick!” spluttered Robbie Foote, as he arose and wiped some white of -egg from his face. “If you call that a trick——”</p> - -<p>“What’s burning?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Oh, my cake! My cake!” shouted Tess.</p> - -<p>Mrs. MacCall simply raised her hands in the air. She was beyond speech.</p> - -<p>“This,” said Sammy Pinkney again, “is <i>fierce</i>!”</p> - -<p>But it was not always thus in the Corner House. Usually the house was as -quiet and orderly as is the normal household inhabited by four healthy, -happy girls and their friends and playmates. However, this confusion -will serve one good purpose. It will enable me to acquaint my new -readers more formally with the characters who are to play their parts in -this story.</p> - -<p>Bloomingsburg was the former home of the Kenway sisters when you first -met them in the opening volume of this series, called “The Corner House -Girls.” There was a reason for that name, since the quartette came to -live in the Corner House at Milton. A distant relative of the Kenways, -Uncle Peter Stower, had died and left the four orphan girls all his -property. This included the Stower homestead, known far and wide in that -section as the old Corner House.</p> - -<p>Mr. Howbridge, who was named the guardian of the girls, managed matters -for them and saw to it that Ruth, Agnes, Dot and Tess were safely -domiciled in the Corner House. With them came Aunt Sarah Maltby, an old -lady who was rather a trial at times, for she was always afraid -something was going to happen. What this “something” was she never could -be sure of, but it was an ever-present fear.</p> - -<p>However, the looking after the girls devolved more upon stanch Mrs. -MacCall and Uncle Rufus, the devoted colored servant of the late Peter -Stower, so Aunt Sarah did not need to be relied upon.</p> - -<p>Thus Ruth, the oldest, and her three sisters, came to live in the Corner -House, the poverty days in Bloomingsburg being a thing of the past.</p> - -<p>“She might have come along and visited us just as we are, and just as -she was,” complained Ruth. “But I suppose she thought she had to run -back to Boston for more dresses.”</p> - -<p>“That reminds me,” said Agnes thoughtfully, carefully filing her broken -nail. “I suppose we shall need new gowns for the party. Oh, can’t we -afford it, Ruth?”</p> - -<p>“I think so.” And Ruth smiled. “We haven’t been very extravagant, Mr. -Howbridge says.” She referred to their man of affairs. “He says we have -some of our summer allowance left.”</p> - -<p>“Good! Then I’m going to have that voile I’ve wanted so long. And it’s -going to be lavender, too.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose that’s Neale’s favorite color,” remarked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“What if it is? Doesn’t Luke like those pale, neutral tints, and——”</p> - -<p>“I like them myself,” interrupted Ruth demurely, “and I saw the -loveliest shade of—Who are those two men coming in?” she broke off to -ask the housekeeper.</p> - -<p>“Wha’ twa min, dearie?”</p> - -<p>“Those queer-looking ones—like two tramps. I just saw them going around -toward the side entrance. Dot and Tess are on the porch. I don’t want -tramps to frighten them or Linda. I’d better go down and see who they -are. I don’t like their looks.”</p> - -<p>“But we haven’t settled about the paper for Nally’s room!” called Agnes.</p> - -<p>“You settle it with Mrs. Mac,” returned Ruth. “I must see about those -two queer men.”</p> - -<p>Dot and Tess had not long lived in their new home before they made the -acquaintance of Sammy Pinkney, who dwelt catercornered from the Corner -House, and Sammy, Dot and Tess had royal good times together.</p> - -<p>Ruth and Agnes, being older—in fact, Ruth now being quite a young -lady—had more mature friends. Among them might especially be mentioned -Luke Shepard. His name was being coupled with Ruth’s in “quite a -matrimonial manner,” Agnes laughingly remarked, at which Ruth retorted:</p> - -<p>“You needn’t talk! What about Neale O’Neil?”</p> - -<p>Whereat Agnes had the grace to blush.</p> - -<p>Luke Shepard was a young collegian who was more or less at the Corner -House—less when at college and more often during vacation times. Luke -lived with his sister Cecile at Grantham, not many miles away. Their -Aunt Lorena kept house for the young folks. They had a very good -neighbor, and this neighbor had aided Luke in going to college. But now -the young man was helping himself, having become an assistant during his -vacations to a certain Professor Keeps. Often Luke came to Milton, -staying with Neale O’Neil when he did so.</p> - -<p>As for Neale, there was a romantic history connected with him. After -running away from the circus he had lived with the Milton cobbler, and -there was a mystery about his father who had gone to Alaska in search of -gold. There were dark days for Neale until his father came back, not -fabulously rich, but in much better circumstances than when he went -away.</p> - -<p>However, the wanderlust called Mr. O’Neil, and he went away again, -first, however, providing well for his son. Had he wished, Neale might -have had a house of his own, but he continued to live with old but -loving Con Murphy, and he continued, too, to look after many details for -the Kenway girls around their place. That this gave him a chance to see -Agnes more often, may have had something to do with it.</p> - -<p>The Kenway girls made the most delightful friends, and what wonderful -adventures they had is told in the volumes of this series succeeding the -first. These happenings included going to school, camping out, giving a -play, making an odd find, touring, and growing up. Once the four were -snowbound and had a most amazing time, and again they spent a summer on -a houseboat, following which they had a rather “hectic time,” as Agnes -called it, among the Gypsies.</p> - -<p>Their latest adventures had been on Palm Island, or, as Dot insisted on -calling it, “Plam Island,” whither the quartette went because a change -to a warmer climate was needed for their health, severe colds having -been contracted when Ruth and Agnes attended a party on a stormy wintry -day.</p> - -<p>In spite of some very exciting and not altogether happy adventures -related in “The Corner House Girls on Palm Island,” which is the title -of the volume immediately preceding the one you are now reading, the -girls enjoyed their summer vacation. They had been home now about two -weeks, when there occurred the happening set down in the first chapter -of this volume.</p> - -<p>Wishing to bring Sammy Pinkney back some souvenir from Palm Island, an -alligator, not too large, had been selected, though Dot said he had -expressed a preference for a “turkle.” However, the turtles, of which -there was an abundance on Palm Island, were far too large to bring north -and the young alligator had been a compromise.</p> - -<p>That Sammy was delighted with his new pet goes without saying. He even -gave Snapper more attention than Buster, his bulldog, received. Then -Sammy got the idea of dressing up the alligator and of hitching it to a -toy cart.</p> - -<p>“Oh, children! what happened?” cried Ruth, despair in her voice.</p> - -<p>“I—didn’t—drop—those eggs!” declared Robbie, speaking in gasps, for some -yellow was now running into his mouth. “The goat—he butted me.”</p> - -<p>“The goat!” cried Agnes, looking around.</p> - -<p>“He’s gone out now,” said Sammy mildly. “The alligator bit his tail!”</p> - -<p>“The alligator—” Ruth stopped for want of words.</p> - -<p>“Our cakes are burning! Oh, our cakes are burning!” wailed Dot.</p> - -<p>There was a decided odor of too-much-baked cake permeating the kitchen.</p> - -<p>“I’ll take ’em out for ye!” offered Mrs. MacCall. “Oh, ye puir bairns! -Sorrow is the day!”</p> - -<p>“Tess, tell me about it!” commanded Ruth, when the cakes had been -rescued, and only just in time.</p> - -<p>While the mess of eggs was being cleaned from the floor by Linda, the -maid, who had been down in the laundry during the excitement, and when -Sammy had ascertained by close examination that his alligator was -unharmed (though one wheel of the cart was broken), peace and quiet once -more reigned in the Corner House.</p> - -<p>“But don’t ever do anything like that again, Sammy!” cautioned Ruth, -shaking a warning finger at the boy. “If you want to show off your -alligator, do it in the garage.”</p> - -<p>“Yes’m,” mumbled Sammy.</p> - -<p>The three younger children were sent out-of-doors, with some of the -newly baked cakes, and the conference upstairs, as to what kind of paper -should be put on the guest room, was resumed.</p> - -<p>“Nally is so—so particular,” murmured Agnes, “though she is a dear girl. -I’d like her to have a nice room.” They all called Nalbro, Nally now.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chIII' title='III: Disquieting News'> -<span>CHAPTER III</span><br /><span>DISQUIETING NEWS</span> -</h2> - -<p>Ruth Kenway reached the rear porch of the house just as the two queer -men—ragged and dirty they were, too—were starting down the outside -cellar steps. Ruth had noticed that Tess, Dot and Sammy had departed, -probably having gone over to Sammy’s house, so there was no fear that -the children would be frightened by the tramps. And tramps they seemed -to be.</p> - -<p>They were really evil-looking men, and for a moment Ruth hesitated. But -she had not acted as mother to her younger sisters all these years for -nothing. Besides, was not the stout Linda within call and was not Neale -in the garage, working over the car? He could be called in a moment. -Therefore it was with a very cool, calm and collected voice that she -asked:</p> - -<p>“What do you want?”</p> - -<p>“Oh—er—you see, lady——”</p> - -<p>The two men looked up quickly, having been stopped by Ruth’s voice on -the topmost cellar step. The two looked up, but the evidently older, and -certainly the uglier, of the pair, did the talking.</p> - -<div id='i001' class='section illus' style='width:70%'> - <img src='images/illus-001.jpg' alt='' /> - <p>The two men looked up quickly, having been stopped by Ruth’s voice.</p> -</div> - -<p>“There’s been—there’s been a leak in the street water main, lady, and -we’ve been sent to look over your pipes,” he mumbled. “We’re from the -water department,” he added. “We just want to make sure your pipes are -all right.”</p> - -<p>He mumbled his words and seemed ill at ease, still Ruth, after hearing -that the men were from the water department, did not pay much attention. -Once before there had been a break in their street, and the water had to -be shut off for a whole day. Ruth remembered this and so said:</p> - -<p>“I hope you don’t have to turn the water off. If you do, wait until I -have the maid draw some.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t think we’ll have to shut it off, lady,” said the uglier -man, his companion having already disappeared into the black depths of -the cellar. “If we do I’ll let you know.”</p> - -<p>“All right,” Ruth assented as she turned away. It was not uncommon for -the gas man, the one who read the electric meter, and the one who kept -tally of the water meter, to enter the cellar by this rear door -unannounced during the summer when the door was kept open. “The water -turns off up in front,” added the girl, thinking the men might not know -where to find the stop. “But don’t shut it off without letting me know.”</p> - -<p>“No’m,” muttered the spokesman, as he followed his companion.</p> - -<p>Ruth walked through the kitchen, which now, under the powerful -ministrations of Linda, was resuming its wonted neat appearance.</p> - -<p>“What was it, Ruthie?” asked Agnes, coming down with Mrs. MacCall.</p> - -<p>“Just some men from the water department to see about a leak.”</p> - -<p>“They must na shoot it off until I gang away an’ draw some,” protested -the housekeeper. “Linda, lass——”</p> - -<p>“No, they won’t turn it off without telling us,” Ruth assured her. “Now -about the paper—did you settle on a pattern? I want to get the room in -shape for Nally.”</p> - -<p>“I think this is the prettiest,” suggested Agnes, holding out a sample, -one of several the decorator had left.</p> - -<p>“Yes, that will do nicely,” agreed Ruth. “And now—Oh, what about eggs?” -she asked quickly. “I suppose those poor Robbie brought were all -smashed.”</p> - -<p>“A regular omelet!” laughed Agnes.</p> - -<p>“I must telephone Mrs. Kranz for more,” said Ruth.</p> - -<p>“The boy, he have gone after some,” announced Linda. “But he say he hope -he no have to pay for them what is braked, ’cause he——”</p> - -<p>“Of course we wouldn’t think of letting poor Robbie pay for them,” -declared Ruth. “It wasn’t his fault. It was Sammy’s—with the girls’ goat -and his alligator.”</p> - -<p>“As much the fault of Dot and Tess as Sammy,” declared Agnes. “They -shouldn’t have let him turn the kitchen table into a circus ring.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, well,” and Ruth smiled, “I’ll just telephone Mrs. Kranz to put the -second dozen on our bill and not to scold Robbie,” and as she went into -the other room to the telephone, Mrs. MacCall softly observed:</p> - -<p>“Your sister, she thinks of everything, Aggie, my dear! She wauld nae -hae Rabbie scoldit the day.”</p> - -<p>“And quite proper, too. But you are right, Mrs. Mac. Ruth is an angel!”</p> - -<p>When Ruth, unaware of the kind words spoken in her absence, had finished -straightening out the egg matter, Agnes telephoned for the paper hanger -to come and see about redecorating the room Miss Hastings was to occupy -during her stay. There were to be other guests at the house party, which -was to last at least a week, but the Boston girl was the one over whom -the most “fuss” was made.</p> - -<p>“We want to give her a good impression of us,” said Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it isn’t exactly that,” declared Ruth. “She isn’t a bit haughty and -stand-offish, as we at first supposed.”</p> - -<p>“And since she has her new teeth and talks like a human being I adore -her!” declared Agnes. “But that room needed papering anyhow. Now let’s -talk about our dresses. I wish we could get some one besides Ann Titus -to make them.”</p> - -<p>“But she’s the best one in Milton, and she needs the money,” said Ruth, -gently.</p> - -<p>“I know, but she does talk so! If she’s working here and we happen to -have corned beef and cabbage for dinner—as we do sometimes—it’s known -all over Milton next day.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, she does talk a lot. But—well, we’ll see about it. Have you -invited Cecile, Agnes?”</p> - -<p>“Of course. Think I’d forget her? I put her invitation in with Luke’s.”</p> - -<p>“Oh—” Ruth blushed a little.</p> - -<p>“Didn’t you expect to have him come?” demanded the “beauty sister.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, he might drop in——”</p> - -<p><i>“Drop</i> in, my dear! He’ll <i>fly</i> in at the least opportunity. It’s my -firm belief that he has Linda subsidized!”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?”</p> - -<p>“I mean he bribes her to keep him posted about goings on here, and -whenever we have the least bit of festivity Luke arranges his college -schedule so he can get time off—make cuts, you know—so as to be here. Of -course he only comes to see Neale,” and Agnes tilted her pretty nose -into the air.</p> - -<p>Ruth laughed, evidently not ill pleased with her sister’s declaration.</p> - -<p>“As for Neale,” went on Agnes, “I’m afraid we’ll keep him pretty busy -acting as chauffeur. Nally is sure to want to drive around a lot, and -there are many pretty places here that we can motor to.”</p> - -<p>“Neale likes to be busy,” said Ruth. “After all, he’s a nice boy, -rather.”</p> - -<p>“I rather like him,” coolly admitted Agnes. “But there’s one thing—he’s -never silly. He never tries to hold your hand——”</p> - -<p>“When you don’t want him to!” finished the other sister, with a laugh. -“Well, all foolishness aside, we must begin to make our plans for the -house party. I do hope everything will go off nicely.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’m sure it will,” declared Agnes. “And when——”</p> - -<p>She was interrupted by a crash down in the cellar.</p> - -<p>“That sounds as if something went off the swinging shelf!” she -exclaimed. “Some of Mrs. Mace’s preserves——”</p> - -<p>“Those men!” cried Ruth.</p> - -<p>“What men?”</p> - -<p>“The water men who went down some time ago. I forgot all about them. -Maybe they stumbled over something in the dark. I’ll send Uncle Rufus -down to see about it.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Rufus was summoned from the garage where he had gone to do some -polishing on the car which Neale had left temporarily, to go down town -for some part that needed replacing.</p> - -<p>“Yes’m, Missie Ruth, what is it, please?” asked the faithful old colored -man as he bowed his way in.</p> - -<p>“Uncle Rufus, two men from the water department went down into the -cellar about an hour ago to see about a leak,” explained Ruth. “They -must be there yet, for Agnes and I just heard a noise. I wish you’d see -if they’re all right and haven’t broken anything.”</p> - -<p>“All right, yes’m, missie, I’ll look after ’em.”</p> - -<p>Rufus shuffled away, and the sisters, resuming their talk about the -coming party, soon heard him returning, muttering to himself the while. -In a moment he appeared before the two girls.</p> - -<p>“Did they go, Uncle Rufus?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Yes’m, they done went all right.”</p> - -<p>“Just now?”</p> - -<p>“No’m, they was leavin’ when I went down.”</p> - -<p>“Did they find the leak?”</p> - -<p>“’Deed an’ I doan know ’bout dat, Miss Ruth. Dey went out in such a -hurry when I walked in dat dey didn’t say what dey done found.”</p> - -<p>“Did they break anything, Uncle Rufus?” demanded Agnes.</p> - -<p>“No’m, Ah couldn’t see dat dey did. De swing shelf—whut yo’ spoke -’bout—dat was all right, an’ de preserves. I couldn’t see whut dey done. -But dey sho’ was a queer couple!”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean—queer couple?” asked Ruth quickly.</p> - -<p>“Well, I means dat dey went off in such a hasty way, an’ dey didn’t say -if dey saw any leak or nuffin’.”</p> - -<p>“I guess they didn’t, or they would have told us to shut off the water,” -commented Ruth. “As for being queer—certainly they looked like tramps, -but I don’t suppose men who have to burrow in trenches and sewers all -day long can be spick and span. I’m glad there’s no leak, however. That -will be all, Uncle Rufus.”</p> - -<p>“Thank-ee, Miss Ruth. I wants to git de automobubble shined up ’fo -Mistah Neale gits back,” and out he shuffled.</p> - -<p>“I hope nothing goes wrong with the water pipes when we have company,” -remarked Agnes. “It would be very inconvenient.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, it would. We’ll have the plumber come over to make sure there -isn’t a leak. Those men didn’t look any too intelligent. I wonder how -they ever got their job.”</p> - -<p>It was later in the afternoon, when Neale O’Neil came to the house to -announce that the car was now in running order again, that Agnes called -to him:</p> - -<p>“Neale, did you hear anything about a break in the street water main -while you were down town?”</p> - -<p>“No, I didn’t,” he answered. “What is it, a joke? If it is I’ll bite. Go -on, what’s the answer?”</p> - -<p>“It isn’t a joke,” said Ruth, and she detailed the visit of the two -strange men.</p> - -<p>“Hum,” mused Neale. “That’s rather odd. There hasn’t been any leak up -this way or the street gang would have been out. I’ll take a look down -cellar myself.”</p> - -<p>He did, with the result that he came up shaking his head.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter?” inquired Ruth.</p> - -<p>“There isn’t a sign of a leak or a break down there,” the boy replied. -“Those men must have gotten in the wrong house. But I know one of the -water commissioners and I’ll ask him about it this afternoon. I have to -go to the town hall to see about something else.”</p> - -<p>That evening, when Neale dropped in, as he often did, and Luke had -telephoned to say that he and his sister were in town and were going to -call, Ruth remembered to ask him about the two strange men.</p> - -<p>“Were they from the water department, Neale?” she wanted to know.</p> - -<p>“Who, those fakers?” asked the youth.</p> - -<p>“Fakers?” repeated Agnes. “Were they——”</p> - -<p>“They weren’t from the water commissioner’s office at all,” declared -Neale. “He hasn’t had any men out for a week looking for leaks, for -there haven’t been any. They were just plain tramps, in my opinion.”</p> - -<p>“Tramps!” gasped Ruth. “Why should tramps spend so much time in our -cellar? Oh, Neale——”</p> - -<p>“Maybe they’re planning to rob the house!” came in strident tones from -Sammy Pinkney, who was sitting in a corner with Dot and Tess. “Maybe -they’re burglars!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chIV' title='IV: In a Hurry'> -<span>CHAPTER IV</span><br /><span>IN A HURRY</span> -</h2> - -<p>Dot Kenway gave a long-drawn-out cry of “Ohoo-oo-oo!” and clasped her -Alice-doll more closely in her arms. Tess looked over her shoulder and -snuggled farther back into the corner. Agnes glanced up from a low chair -where she was polishing her nails, and Ruth uttered sharply:</p> - -<p>“Don’t talk nonsense, Sammy!”</p> - -<p>“Well,” demanded the boy, ready to defend his opinion, “if they weren’t -burglars, who were they?”</p> - -<p>“Stop it, Sammy Pinkney!” demanded Tess. “Don’t you see you’re scaring -Dot?”</p> - -<p>“Maybe you’re scared, too,” suggested Sammy.</p> - -<p>“I am not!”</p> - -<p>“You are so!”</p> - -<p>“I am not!”</p> - -<p>“Children!” warned Ruth. “Please be quiet. And, Sammy, don’t say such -things.”</p> - -<p>“Well, s’posin’ they was the truth?”</p> - -<p>“They couldn’t be! Those men weren’t burglars at all.”</p> - -<p>“Who were they then?” and Sammy triumphantly waited for the answer. -“Neale says they weren’t from the water department, and I just know they -are burglars and they came in the cellar to look around and see the -easiest way to break in to-night.”</p> - -<p>“Cut it out, young man!” ordered Neale. “They were tramps, very likely, -looking for something to eat, and when they couldn’t find it they -quietly went away. They said they were from the water department because -that was the first thing they thought of. Very likely, at the next -house, they’ll say they’re from the fire department.”</p> - -<p>“That would be funny!” laughed Tess. “Fire and water.”</p> - -<p>And with her laugh the strain they had all been under when Neale gave -the disquieting news, that the strange men were not what they claimed to -be, seemed dispelled.</p> - -<p>The feeling did not wholly disappear, however, for Agnes said later that -she thought there might be a good deal of truth in what Sammy said, and -that the men did have some idea they might rob the house.</p> - -<p>Dot, too, needed more than a laugh to fully dispel her fears, and this -was evidenced a little later when she was observed to be walking around -the room, as if looking for something.</p> - -<p>“What is it, Dot?” inquired Ruth, glancing at the clock to see if it -were time to send Sammy home and put the smaller children to bed, for -Luke and his sister were expected soon.</p> - -<p>“I’m looking for a good place to hide my Alice-doll,” answered Dot.</p> - -<p>“Why don’t you take her to bed with you as you always do?” Agnes wanted -to know.</p> - -<p>“Because those burglars might come in and I don’t want them in my room,” -Dot replied. “And I don’t want them to take my Alice-doll, either.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, don’t be silly!” burst out Agnes.</p> - -<p>“’Tisn’t silly!” declared Dot. “And Tess is going to hide her doll, too; -aren’t you, Tess?” She appealed to her sister who, though not as -passionately devoted to her dolls as was Dot to Alice, still had some -that she cared something about.</p> - -<p>“I was going to hide them,” confessed Tess.</p> - -<p>“Nonsense!” exclaimed Ruth. “Go to sleep and forget all about the men. -They were, as Neale says, just tramps. Uncle Rufus will lock up well, -and nothing will disturb you children, or your dolls either. You must go -to bed soon.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’m going to hide my Alice-doll,” declared Dot, and she finally -found a place behind the piano that seemed safe.</p> - -<p>“If you want me to,” said Sammy, with an ingratiating voice, “I could -come over and stay all night with you.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks, but why should you?” asked Neale, winking one eye at Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Well, in case burglars did get in,” answered Sammy, “I could shoot off -the gun.”</p> - -<p>“What gun?”</p> - -<p>“My father’s got a shotgun,” went on the boy, “and I could go over home -and get it. I could bring Billy Bumps into the house, too! He’d butt the -rob—tramps!”</p> - -<p>“Don’t!” cried Ruth, with a laugh. “We’ve had enough of the goat in the -house for one day!”</p> - -<p>“Still, a good healthy goat wouldn’t be a bad weapon to turn against a -burglar,” remarked Neale reflectively. “If Billy Bumps would only go at -a midnight visitor in the same manner that he attacked Robbie Foote with -the eggs, there’d be less for the police to do.”</p> - -<p>“Do you want me to get the gun and the goat?” asked Sammy, anxiously.</p> - -<p>“Thank you—no!” laughed Ruth. “And, Sammy, I don’t want to be impolite, -but your mother said to send you home at eight o’clock, and it’s five -minutes past now.”</p> - -<p>“Aw, shucks!” exclaimed Sammy. “That ain’t late!”</p> - -<p>“It is for you,” said Ruth kindly. “Run along, Sammy.”</p> - -<p>“Then you don’t want me to fight the burglars with your old goat and -pa’s gun?”</p> - -<p>“Not to-night, thank you.”</p> - -<p>“And don’t bring the alligator over again, either,” added Agnes.</p> - -<p>Rather reluctantly Sammy prepared to depart, and after Dot and Tess had -hidden their dolls and some other choice possessions, they were sent -upstairs to bed in care of Mrs. MacCall.</p> - -<p>“And don’t tell them any Scotch ghost stories,” cautioned Ruth. “They’re -on edge now, as it is, with what that irrepressible Sammy said about -burglars.”</p> - -<p>“Nae, nae! I’ll nae tell them anything excitin’,” promised the motherly -old soul.</p> - -<p>“Oh, my!” suddenly exclaimed Agnes, as the door bell rang after Ruth had -returned from seeing Sammy off and Dot and Tess upstairs to bed. “Oh!” -and she sprang up so abruptly that her nail buffer bounced half-way -across the room.</p> - -<p>“Well, what’s getting into you?” demanded Neale, with a laugh, as he -picked up the part of the manicure set and restored it to Agnes, making -good an opportunity to hold her hand while Ruth went to see who was at -the door, calling back:</p> - -<p>“It’s probably Luke and Cecile!”</p> - -<p>And it was. Ruth led them back into the living-room in time to hear -Agnes saying to Neale:</p> - -<p>“Stop! Stop it, I say! Aren’t you silly!”</p> - -<p>Agnes had rather a red face, but if Luke noticed that Neale’s hair was a -bit tumbled, the young collegian said nothing about it.</p> - -<p>“Oh, we’ve had such a fright!” exclaimed Agnes, after greeting the -visitors.</p> - -<p>“Fright?” repeated Cecile, questioningly.</p> - -<p>“Yes. Two strange men got in the cellar——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, they didn’t <i>get</i> in at all, in the way you think Agnes means,” -Ruth was quick to explain. “I saw them go in,” and she told the story, -including what Neale had discovered to the effect that the men had told -false stories about themselves.</p> - -<p>“I dare say it doesn’t amount to anything,” suggested Luke easily. “And -it might well be that some assistant in the water department had engaged -two laborers in a hurry and forgot to give them any credentials, or -report their names. I wouldn’t worry.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, we aren’t,” declared Ruth. “We have enough other things to think -about. I do hope you two haven’t made up your minds definitely that you -can’t be here for our house party all through its duration. Nally is -coming.</p> - -<p>“We want you over as often as either of you can make it, at any rate, -for we will give several small and early affairs to entertain Nally,” -she went on, after Cecile and Luke had assured her that neither of them -would be able to spend the whole time of Nally’s visit with the Corner -House girls.</p> - -<p>“Aunt Lorena needs me,” explained Cecile. “But Professor Keeps is not -keeping Luke quite so busy now, and you will have more of him, I think.”</p> - -<p>The young people sat about and talked such talk as only young folks -indulge in without any harmful after effects, and then they played a -game, with more regard to fun than to the strict rules the game called -for.</p> - -<p>“Well, Neale, I suppose you’re getting ready for the grind soon,” -remarked Luke, after the game and while Ruth gave the word for Linda to -bring in some simple refreshments.</p> - -<p>“Meaning high school?”</p> - -<p>“That’s it.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I’ll be getting back in a few weeks now.”</p> - -<p>“I do hope you won’t be so busy but what you can run our car -occasionally,” suggested Agnes. “I’d feel lost without you at the wheel, -Neale.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’ll be there,” he promised.</p> - -<p>“We shall have to give Nally a good time,” said Ruth, “and I was -planning two or three picnics. You’ll come, won’t you, Cecile?” she -asked, but she looked at Luke.</p> - -<p>“Yes, if I can. I don’t know how much time brother can spare from his -work, but——”</p> - -<p>“You leave it to brother!” chuckled Luke, with a meaning look at Neale. -“I haven’t been with Professor Keeps all summer for nothing. I learned -more than he thought I did.”</p> - -<p>The evening passed pleasantly, and when the time came for Neale, Luke -and Cecile to depart, the two young men insisted on going around the -house to make sure all outer doors were securely fastened.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s silly to think those men could be anything more than -unfortunate, ignorant tramps,” insisted Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Yes, perhaps,” said Luke in a low voice. “But, my dear—” and how -naturally the words came to him—“we mustn’t take any chances.”</p> - -<p>And Ruth treasured that “we,” for a long time.</p> - -<p>Somewhat to the disappointment of Tess and Dot, and to the expressed -chagrin of Sammy, the Corner House was not robbed that night. Not a -sight or sound of intruders marred the rest of the girls, and even Dot -laughed as she pulled her Alice-doll from behind the piano.</p> - -<p>“Well, Agnes,” remarked Ruth, when the household had settled into its -usual calm routine, “shall we go down town and see Miss Ann Titus?”</p> - -<p>“About our dresses? Oh, I suppose so. But don’t say a word about those -two men!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, of course not! There is no need of its being known all over the -neighborhood, and I know what Ann Titus is as well as you do. Mum is the -word, as Neale would say.”</p> - -<p>The girls found Miss Titus, as usual, with a mouth full of pins, as she -draped a dress on one of the forms in her little house. But even the -pins in her mouth did not prevent the village dressmaker from talking:</p> - -<p>“So glad you came in. I have some of the loveliest new patterns and -ideas, straight from Paris, my dears! You know they’re wearing fuller -and longer skirts now, and——”</p> - -<p>“No extreme styles, if you please, Miss Titus,” said Ruth, firmly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I know, my <i>dear</i>. You were always <i>so</i> preservative, and I quite -apprehend what you mean. At the same time if a dress isn’t the least bit -<i>chick</i> nowadays, it is sort of pass, don’t you think?”</p> - -<p>The girls could hardly keep their faces straight during this -mispronunciation of French words and misapplication of English ones. -Poor Ann Titus had not formerly been this way, but since a new -dressmaker had started a place in Milton, Miss Titus thought it -necessary to adopt for herself what she considered a French style, and -some of what she thought were their mannerisms, while she had the plate -on her door changed from the word “<i>Dressmaker</i>,” to the foreign one -<i>“Modes</i>.”</p> - -<p>However, she was a good soul, if gossipy, and as long as Ruth and Agnes -knew her failing they were on their guard.</p> - -<p>They were in the midst of a discussion over materials and patterns when -Ruth, happening to look from an open window near the street, saw two men -passing.</p> - -<p>“There they are now!” she cried, before she thought. She sprang from her -chair to go to the door, but her voice carried more plainly than she had -intended, and the men, hearing it, looked at her and then started off -down the street on the run.</p> - -<p>Agnes followed her sister.</p> - -<p>“Do you mean those two men who were in our cellar?” she cried.</p> - -<p>“Hush! Yes,” whispered Ruth. But Miss Titus had heard.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chV' title='V: Visitors Arrive'> -<span>CHAPTER V</span><br /><span>VISITORS ARRIVE</span> -</h2> - -<p>The dressmaker literally “pricked up her ears,” for as Agnes told Neale -later, they actually seemed to rise on her head as she heard the girls -mention the mysterious men.</p> - -<p>“What’s that?” exclaimed Miss Titus. “Have those men done something?”</p> - -<p>“Not that we know of,” answered Ruth, making a signal to her sister not -to say anything.</p> - -<p>“But you seemed so startled on beholding them,” went on the dressmaker, -“that I should impend it might mean something.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, nothing at all,” Ruth made haste to say, wanting to laugh, but not -daring to when Miss Titus used “impend” so incorrectly. “I just thought -I had seen them before, but perhaps I was mistaken.”</p> - -<p>This was true enough. She was not absolutely sure that these were the -same men she had seen entering the cellar. But she had a pretty clear -conviction that they were, else why should they have made such haste to -get away when they heard her voice? Agnes, of course, had not viewed the -men—that is, Ruth thought she had not—so she could not be expected to -remember them.</p> - -<p>“Well, of all things—” began Ann Titus, and the girls thought they were -going to be made the victims of her gossiping tongue when she -unexpectedly swung the suspicions into another channel that suited Ruth -and Agnes. For Miss Titus said: “Maybe they’re some of those men from -Palm Island who were after turtles. They may have come here to sell -turtles or their eggs.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised!” exclaimed Ruth, adapting her mind -to Ann Titus’ and again signaling to Agnes to fall in with this new turn -of the talk. As a matter of fact, nothing the turtle men could do would -have been a surprise to a mind like Ann Titus’. The story of the Corner -House girls’ stay on Palm Island was well known in Milton by this time, -and the actions of the turtle-fishers had been well spread so that Miss -Titus, among others, knew of the doings of those men.</p> - -<p>“Well, if they pester you to buy their condiments—rather unpleasant I -should think, turtles’ eggs, myself—” said the dressmaker, “why don’t -you tell the police?”</p> - -<p>“I think we shall,” decided Ruth. “It isn’t really anything at all,” and -she tried to make her voice sound casual, for if Miss Titus had the -least suspicion of a secret, or something mysterious, she would never -rest until she fathomed it—or thought she had. And, in either case, she -would have gossiped about it.</p> - -<p>But, fortunately for Ruth and Agnes, she accepted the version of turtle -gatherers—a conclusion she herself had leaped at—and because the new -dresses were to be something out of the ordinary, there was something -else to occupy what little mind Miss Titus had and, in consequence, the -incident passed off rather well.</p> - -<p>“But I was in mortal terror lest she begin asking a lot of questions we -couldn’t very well answer,” said Agnes, when they were on their way -home.</p> - -<p>“So was I,” admitted Ruth. “And it’s just as well to let her suppose -those were turtle gatherers. Everybody in town has been talking about -them, and Ann Titus won’t gain many listeners when she begins speaking -of them.”</p> - -<p>“But they weren’t the turtle men,” said Agnes, laughing. “What do you -suppose put that in Ann’s head? But I wish we knew who these two men -were.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” agreed Ruth. “I, too, wish I knew who they were.”</p> - -<p>“Does it worry you, Ruth?” her sister asked anxiously.</p> - -<p>“A little—yes,” the older sister was forced to admit. “Oh, of course I -know there’s no danger with Uncle Rufus, Linda and Mrs. MacCall with us; -and yet——”</p> - -<p>“Why don’t you add Neale and Luke?” inquired Agnes, with a laugh. -“They’ll be with us—more or less—principally more I hope—until after -this house party.”</p> - -<p>“Well, since you have named them, I am glad they are going to be -around,” conceded Ruth. “Not that I fear anything will happen, but I -don’t like the way those men acted. Why, they might be lunatics!”</p> - -<p>“They didn’t act at all, according to what Uncle Rufus said,” retorted -Agnes.</p> - -<p>“No, and that’s just the trouble,” went on Ruth. “If they had done -something while down cellar—if they had dug up a place to find a leak, -if they had tightened the pipes, anything to show that they were what -they claimed to be, it wouldn’t be so mysterious. But now it looks as if -they just went in there, as Sammy said, to look for an easy means of -entering the house after dark.”</p> - -<p>“Ruth Kenway, don’t dare say such things!” cried her sister.</p> - -<p>“I know it seems a scary thing to say, and perhaps I am foolish for -mentioning it,” sighed Ruth. “I know I’d shake Sammy if he spoke of it -again, but I can’t help thinking it, Agnes.”</p> - -<p>“Do you suppose we had better tell Mr. Howbridge?” asked her sister, -pausing at the corner of a street that led to the office of their -guardian.</p> - -<p>“Gracious, no!” exclaimed Ruth. “He would only laugh at us.”</p> - -<p>“What are you going to do then?” demanded Agnes. “I hope you aren’t -following those two men you saw from Miss Titus’ window! If you are——”</p> - -<p>She paused and drew back.</p> - -<p>“Of course not!” answered Ruth. “But I’m going to mention it to Neale -and Luke.”</p> - -<p>Upon inquiry they learned that Cecile had been called home by her aunt, -but Luke was still staying with Neale.</p> - -<p>Those two youths, however, did not attach much importance to what Ruth -told them.</p> - -<p>“They might have been the same men,” Neale admitted. “But as long as -they haven’t been back in your cellar it doesn’t mean anything. Very -likely they are tramps, pretending to look for work. I’ll speak to the -policeman whose beat takes in your house.”</p> - -<p>“I wish you would,” said Ruth.</p> - -<p>There were now busy days at the Corner House. But a few weeks remained -of the summer vacation, and the girls wanted to make the most of it, -Tess and Dot especially. Nor were Luke and Neale unaware of the flight -of the glorious summer time. For though Luke was anxious to complete his -college course, and Neale his high-school studies, that he might get in -the honored class with Luke, neither youth was so abnormal as to wish -for the end of vacation.</p> - -<p>“Especially,” remarked Neale to Luke, “when we’re going to have such -good times next week.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, we do have good times at the Corner House,” admitted Luke, looking -off in the distance but seeing nothing. “She certainly is a wonderful -girl!”</p> - -<p>And he sighed.</p> - -<p>“She sure is!” agreed Neale.</p> - -<p>And he sighed.</p> - -<p>But they were not both sighing for the same girl.</p> - -<p>The room which Nalbro Hastings was to occupy had been repapered and -looked “darling,” according to Agnes, who almost wished she had taken it -for herself. “And maybe I will after she goes,” she added. Mrs. Judy -Roach had been at the Corner House nearly every day for a week, helping -Mrs. MacCall and Linda get things spick and span in preparation for the -house party, and there had been almost endless baking, Mrs. MacCall -insisting on making some Scotch scones in honor of the visitors.</p> - -<p>Two days before Miss Hastings was expected, Ruth, with a letter in her -hand, sought out Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Agnes,” began Ruth, “I want to consult you about something.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t tell me Nally isn’t coming!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no, it isn’t that. But we need another boy to make this a -successful affair.”</p> - -<p>“Another boy?” inquired Agnes. “Well, there’s Sammy Pinkney.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t be silly! You know what I mean—some one for Nally.”</p> - -<p>“I thought Luke was supposed to look after her,” and Agnes pretended to -be busily examining a certain pink nail.</p> - -<p>“Not any more than Neale is,” retorted Ruth pointedly, to which Agnes -added:</p> - -<p>“Just let me catch him at it!”</p> - -<p>“What I was going to say,” went on Ruth, “is that if we had another -young man it would even matters up, and when we went out with Neale in -the car——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I see!” interrupted Agnes, with a ringing laugh, “six is a half -dozen and five isn’t. If Cecile was coming we’d need two young men. -Well, ask some young man for Nally. You have my permission.”</p> - -<p>“I have asked somebody,” said Ruth calmly.</p> - -<p>“You have? Who?” And Agnes sat up with a jerk, her eyes wide open.</p> - -<p>“He’s a friend of Nally’s,” went on Ruth. “He lives near her in the Back -Bay section and his name is Hal Dent.”</p> - -<p>“Hurray for Hal Dent!” cried Agnes, until Ruth, placing her hand over -her sister’s lips, bade her be silent. “But it’s pretty late to be -asking visitors,” went on Agnes. “He’ll never get here in time to trot -Nally around if you’re only just now writing to him.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, this is his answer saying he’ll come,” said Ruth, passing the -missive to her sister.</p> - -<p>“Well of all things!” drawled Agnes. “Doing all that—inviting a strange -young man and never saying a word to me!”</p> - -<p>“I wasn’t sure he would come,” Ruth said. “After I thought it over and -remembered to have heard Nally mention this Hal Dent, I thought it best -to ask him. I told him Nally was going to spend about two weeks with us, -and suggested that he might like to run over. I said we could put him -up.”</p> - -<p>“Did you say put him up, or put up <i>with</i> him?” mocked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“You know what I mean,” said Ruth. “Anyhow, he’s coming and we’ll have -to get another room ready.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’m glad he’s coming,” said Agnes. “It will be another defender -for the house when those strange men attempt to break in,” and though -she laughed gayly there was another reason why she was glad Hal was -coming.</p> - -<p>Nalbro Hastings was altogether too fascinating to be turned loose into a -company where there were three young ladies and but two young men. In -other words the “balance of trade,” to use a business term, was now more -even.</p> - -<p>And perhaps Ruth had a thought for herself as well as for Agnes and -Neale, since she had seen Luke, more than once, looking admiringly at -the Boston girl.</p> - -<p>“There, she’s as shiny as a new dishpan from the five and ten-cent -store!” announced Neale, as he put the finishing touches to the Kenway -automobile, two days later.</p> - -<p>“And we’d better start,” suggested Ruth. “We don’t want Nally to have to -come up in a taxicab.”</p> - -<p>“Especially the kind of taxicabs at the Milton station,” laughed Agnes. -“Will Hal be on the same train?”</p> - -<p>“He said he would,” Ruth answered.</p> - -<p>“I wonder what he’s like.”</p> - -<p>A little later Miss Hastings, followed by the devoted Hal, alighted, the -youth burdened with Nally’s bag as well as his own.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Nally! So glad to see you!”</p> - -<p>“It seems an age since we said good-by! How are you?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, perfectly fine!” All traces of Nalbro’s lisping had vanished.</p> - -<p>“You look splendid.”</p> - -<p>“Like a nectarine!” chimed in Neale.</p> - -<p>“Oh, hello, Neale! I didn’t see you!” called Nally.</p> - -<p>“No, I didn’t think you’d recognize me without my mustache!” retorted -the high-school lad, with a chuckle.</p> - -<p>“I knew I’d be glad to see you,” remarked Agnes, “but didn’t know until -you got here how really and awfully glad I’d be. And this is——?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Hal, pardon me,” said Nally quickly. “Allow me——”</p> - -<p>The presentations were made amid laughter, and then the visitors were -carried off to the Corner House where, though the girls knew it not, a -mystery remained to be solved.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chVI' title='VI: Witches and Warlocks'> -<span>CHAPTER VI</span><br /><span>WITCHES AND WARLOCKS</span> -</h2> - -<p>There were whisperings in the “cubby hole” beneath the front stairs. -This was a favorite conspiring place for Tess and Dot, and the two small -Kenway girls were even now in that retreat, lowering their voices so -they would not be heard by Ruth and Agnes.</p> - -<p>But there was small danger of this, for the older Corner House girls -were preparing to entertain their two Boston guests that evening by -inviting in other friends to meet Nally and Hal.</p> - -<p>And, be it known, Tess and Dot were preparing to do some “entertaining” -on their own account. Hence the whispers and the hiding away in the -cubby hole.</p> - -<p>“We’d better tell Sammy about it,” suggested Dot. “He’ll know best what -things to do to s’prise ’em.”</p> - -<p>“Well, maybe,” agreed Tess reluctantly.</p> - -<p>“We could borrow Sammy’s alligator to make everybody remember about Plam -Island,” went on Dot.</p> - -<p>“’Tisn’t <i>Plam</i>—” began Tess, but she stopped, for she, as well as the -others, had begun to realize that it was of no use to correct Dot in -this respect. To her it was “Plam Island,” and it always would be so.</p> - -<p>“Yes, we can get Sammy’s alligator,” agreed Tess, falling in with the -scheme of her younger sister. “But all it can do is to walk around the -room drawing the little cart. Sammy’s trained it to do that very well. -But there isn’t anything very <i>exciting</i> about that.”</p> - -<p>Tess, be it known, liked excitement.</p> - -<p>“Well, maybe Sammy can think up some other way to have fun,” said Dot. -“We’ll go ask him, and if they don’t let us come in to their old party -we’ll have one of our own.”</p> - -<p>“I guess they’re not going to let us in,” remarked Tess, as they crawled -from the dark closet beneath the stairs. “I heard Ruth tell Mrs. Mac to -set some places for us up in the playroom. Pooh! It isn’t any fun for us -to eat ice cream and cake up there all alone when they’re having loads -and loads of fun down here.”</p> - -<p>“No, it isn’t,” agreed Dot. “There, Alice-doll, don’t you cry,” she -added, as she soothed the pretend child she carried in her arms. “You’re -going to come to the party all right.”</p> - -<p>“Are you going to take her along over to Sammy’s?” inquired Tess.</p> - -<p>“Take my Alice-doll? Of course!” cried Dot, for they were now out on the -side porch. “You’d cry, wouldn’t you, Alice-doll, if I left you behind?”</p> - -<p>“She’ll only be in the way, and Sammy doesn’t like dolls,” went on Tess. -Sometimes the solicitude of Dot for the Alice-doll rather got on Tess’s -nerves—or she would so have expressed it had she been a little older.</p> - -<p>“Oh, all right,” assented Tess, after a brief pause, “bring her along,” -and she assumed the resigned air she had sometimes noticed in Agnes when -Ruth insisted on something being done in a certain correct way.</p> - -<p>“Did bad sister Tess want me to leave you home, Alice-doll?” crooned -Dot, as they walked across the street, catercornered, to Sammy’s house. -“Well, I just wouldn’t!”</p> - -<p>Tess and Dot found Sammy on his back porch, in the sun, busy feeding -bits of meat to the pet alligator.</p> - -<p>“Look how big he’s getting!” cried the boy proudly. “I guess maybe by -next summer he’ll be big enough to hitch to my regular express wagon and -he can draw me around.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, that would be scrumptious!” cried Dot, clapping her hands. “Could I -ride with you, Sammy?”</p> - -<p>“Sure!”</p> - -<p>“Hum!” murmured Tess, as she smoothed out her dress. “I think it would -look very queer, and maybe you would be arrested.”</p> - -<p>“Arrested for what?” scoffed Sammy. “Not for speedin’, that’s sure. -Snapper can’t go very fast.”</p> - -<p>“Well, maybe you’d be arrested for <i>something</i>,” declared Dot, ready now -to agree with Tess. “I don’t know what. But it’s <i>something</i>.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe she means cruelty to animals, like that Italian banana peddler -who was arrested once,” suggested Tess.</p> - -<p>“Aw, a alligator isn’t an animal!” declared Sammy. “Anyhow, I wouldn’t -be cruel to him. Why, I keep feedin’ him meat all the while. He has it -easy!”</p> - -<p>And certainly the alligator from Palm Island did seem to fare very well -in Sammy’s care. After he had eaten some of the meat, Snapper was -hitched to the little cart and drew it about the porch. Dot was finally -persuaded to entrust her Alice-doll to the small wagon, and the girls -and Sammy laughed in delight as they saw the alligator pulling her about -the porch.</p> - -<p>“This is what we came over about,” explained Tess, when Snapper was -allowed to eat some meat scraps in peace. “There’s going to be a party -over at our Corner House to-night. There’s going to be ice cream and -cake and lemonade.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, boy!” murmured Sammy, rubbing his stomach. “Am I coming?” he -suddenly demanded, realizing that, so far, he had not been invited.</p> - -<p>“Of course you are,” declared Tess. “And we want you to make some fun. -Can you do something exciting, Sammy, when that girl from Boston is -there, and her fellah?”</p> - -<p>“I love to hear her scream,” said Dot. “To-day she screamed when she saw -a caterpillar on the walk.”</p> - -<p>“What can you do exciting, Sammy?” eagerly asked Tess.</p> - -<p>“He could make a tic-tac and put it on the window,” suggested Dot.</p> - -<p>“That isn’t exciting!” scoffed the boy. “It wouldn’t scare even your -Aunt Sarah.”</p> - -<p>“It used to scare me,” confessed Dot.</p> - -<p>“But we want something new,” stipulated Tess. “Can you think of -something like—like a ghost, Sammy?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, <i>a ghost</i>!” shrilly whispered Dot.</p> - -<p>“Not a <i>real</i> ghost, of course,” went on Tess. “There aren’t any. But a -make-believe ghost, Sammy. Could you make one?”</p> - -<p>Sammy thought long and deeply—at least for him. Then he clapped his -hands and cried:</p> - -<p>“I have it! The very thing!”</p> - -<p>“What?” demanded the girls.</p> - -<p>Then they put their heads together and whispered.</p> - -<p>“Where are the children?” asked Ruth of Agnes, a little later, when they -were both down in the kitchen, making arrangements with Mrs. MacCall and -Linda about the serving of refreshments at the little affair that -evening. It was the first of some informal gatherings to entertain -Nalbro Hastings and Hal Dent.</p> - -<p>“The bairns?” repeated the Scotch housekeeper. “I think they have gang -awa’.”</p> - -<p>“Where?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Sammy’s hame. Hech! Hech! An’ I’m not so sure but what they’ll be up to -mischief foreby.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, if they’re with Sammy they’re all right,” said Agnes.</p> - -<p>“You never can tell,” remarked Ruth.</p> - -<p>But when she had taken a look, and made sure that the three youngsters -were on Sammy’s porch, she worried no longer, but devoted herself to the -business on hand. However, if she could have heard the plotting and -planning, Ruth might have not been so easy in her mind.</p> - -<p>Neale stopped the Kenway car on the drive and leaped out, carrying -several packages.</p> - -<p>“There, I think I have everything,” he announced. “Except perhaps rings -for the lady-fingers.”</p> - -<p>“Did you order the ice cream?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“It’ll be here on the dot!” answered Neale. “And I doubt not a portion -of it will be inside our Dot,” he added, with a laugh.</p> - -<p>“A wretched pun,” scoffed Agnes. “If that’s a sample of what you are -going to work off on us this evening——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’ve some a lot better than that!” boasted Neale. “Has Luke been -over?” he inquired.</p> - -<p>“No,” answered Ruth. “And that reminds me—we must ask some one for -Cecile.”</p> - -<p>“Only one person you dare ask for her,” laughed Agnes. “Telephone and -tell her loving garage man, Gene Barrows, to come, Neale. Maybe he’ll -bring her over in a car.”</p> - -<p>“I will,” he promised, for the devotion to Cecile of this red-haired, -but most excellent, young man was well known, and they had been engaged -for some time.</p> - -<p>“Well, I guess everything is all ready then,” remarked Ruth. “But we had -better go over some matters again, Agnes, to make sure.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I can’t!” cried the younger sister. “I’m sure it will be all right. -I’m going riding a little with Neale.”</p> - -<p>She ran down the porch and took her place beside the high-school lad.</p> - -<p>“You don’t mind, do you, Ruthie?” she asked pleadingly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, no, go ahead. I can manage. Everything is practically done, anyhow. -But make sure about the ice cream while you’re down town.”</p> - -<p>“We will,” promised Neale.</p> - -<p>“Ruth takes everything so seriously,” said Agnes, as the car was rolling -down the street.</p> - -<p>“Yes, she does,” admitted Neale. “But maybe it’s a good thing. Luke’s -the same way.”</p> - -<p>“They’re a good match,” assented Agnes, with a mischievous glance at -Neale, but when he slid his hand along the seat toward her rosy palm she -laughed and, extending a finger, asked:</p> - -<p>“Did you see anything of our cow down that way?”</p> - -<p>“No. But I see a pretty, saucy girl, and I don’t have to look very far, -either,” retorted Neale, a bit put out. Thereupon Agnes kindly patted -his hand that was firm on the steering wheel.</p> - -<p>Nally and Hal Dent, who had been strolling afield, came home just before -supper time.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Ruth, you are going to so much trouble on our account!” protested -the Boston girl, when she saw how prettily, if simply, the rooms of the -Corner House were arranged.</p> - -<p>“I love to do it,” Ruth said, and she really did. Giving pleasure to -others was her own chief source of happiness.</p> - -<p>In the evening the little affair was in full swing. Ruth thought it -rather strange that Tess and Dot did not protest more when told that -they must have their refreshments served in their playroom upstairs. But -they had gained a point in having Sammy invited to the party, and Ruth -thought perhaps this accounted for their unnatural submissiveness.</p> - -<p>But mischief was brewing.</p> - -<p>Linda had been sent up to the room of the children with sufficiently -generous portions of ice cream and cake, and downstairs there was merry -talk and laughter.</p> - -<p>Suddenly, as Mrs. MacCall was coming down the hall and into the -living-room with a tray filled with glasses of lemonade, the Scotch -housekeeper was heard to scream.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” gasped Ruth and to her mental vision was presented the faces of -the two ugly men who had entered the cellar.</p> - -<p>Into the room burst Mrs. MacCall, her trembling hands barely able to -hold the tray on which the glasses were clattering and tinkling.</p> - -<p>“What is it?” demanded Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Ghosties! Ghosties!” gasped Mrs. MacCall. “There’s witches an’ warlocks -an’ lang-nebbied things abroad the nicht! Hech! Hech!”</p> - -<p>Luke sprang forward just in time to catch the tray she was about to -drop, and then into the room after the housekeeper came a queer, white -object, rolling over and over in a most erratic fashion.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chVII' title='VII: Luke Remembers'> -<span>CHAPTER VII</span><br /><span>LUKE REMEMBERS</span> -</h2> - -<p>“Goodness, what is it?” cried Nalbro, and she turned toward Hal, not a -very difficult operation as he had been near her all evening.</p> - -<p>“Where did it come from, Mrs. MacCall?” asked Ruth, as she observed the -object, which looked like an immense white egg, rolling farther and -farther into the living-room.</p> - -<p>“It was in the hall. Hech! Hech! It’s a ghostie, sure! A witch! A -warlock! Lang-nebbied—lang-nebbied!”</p> - -<p>“It hasn’t a long nose at all, if that’s what you mean,” declared Agnes, -for she was sufficiently familiar with the housekeeper’s Scotch dialect -to interpret these words.</p> - -<p>“Aye, lassie, mebby not the noo. But e’er it’ll gang awa’——”</p> - -<p>“Why, it’s a football!” exclaimed Luke. “A football painted white!”</p> - -<p>“So it is,” agreed Neale, for many a blown-up pigskin he had help shove -over the goal line.</p> - -<p>“Who kicked it in here?” demanded Ruth, but, even as she asked, she -began to suspect Sammy, Dot and Tess.</p> - -<p>“’Twas nae kicket,” asserted Mrs. MacCall, who had sunk trembling into a -rocking chair. “’Twas nae kicket. But ’twas rollin’ alang by its -anesel’.”</p> - -<p>And, truly, the white football—ghostly enough alone—was making its way -over the floor in a strange fashion, rolling first to one side and then -to the other.</p> - -<p>“It moves like one of those Mexican beans with a bug inside,” laughed -Neale.</p> - -<p>“Well, a football was made to kick, and here goes!” cried Luke, -advancing toward the pigskin.</p> - -<p>“Don’t kick it! Don’t!” cried a voice outside the living-room door, and -from the hall in sprang Sammy Pinkney, followed by the giggling Tess and -Dot, the latter carrying her Alice-doll.</p> - -<p>“Why shouldn’t I kick it, young man?” demanded Luke.</p> - -<p>“’Cause there’s—now—there’s somethin’ inside,” asserted Sammy.</p> - -<p>“What?” was called at him in a chorus.</p> - -<p>“My alligator!”</p> - -<p>“Alligator!” Again the chorus, but in different-toned voices.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I’ll show you.”</p> - -<p>Sammy knelt over the white-painted football—for it was that—and began -unlacing it to remove the outer cover of pigskin which inclosed the -rubber bladder within, as an automobile tire is made of a casing and -inner tube.</p> - -<p>And from between the blown-up bladder and the outer skin Sammy lifted -his pet Palm Island alligator.</p> - -<p>“Sammy Pinkney!” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Did you do it on purpose?” demanded Ruth, though she sensed the -futility of the question almost as soon as she had propounded it. Sammy -seldom did anything without a purpose—good or bad.</p> - -<p>“I just put Snapper inside the football after I put some whitewash on -it, and——”</p> - -<p>Sammy was about to say that Tess and Dot had teased him to do something -“exciting,” and that this was the outcome of the idea that had come to -him during the conference on his porch. But Sammy was, after all, a -gentleman in his own way, and one of the articles of his creed was:</p> - -<p>“Never tell on another.”</p> - -<p>Therefore he said:</p> - -<p>“Yep! I did it.”</p> - -<p>But Tess and Dot were not proof against this chivalry and -self-sacrifice. Bravely they faced the music.</p> - -<p>“I helped blow up the bladder,” confessed Tess.</p> - -<p>“And I—er—I helped stuff Snapper in, because he was all the time -sticking his tail out, and his tail had to go in,” admitted Dot.</p> - -<p>“Oh, you children!” sighed Ruth, hardly able to refrain from laughing.</p> - -<p>“The puir beastie!” came from Mrs. MacCall. “’Tis a wonder he were nae -smotherit in there.”</p> - -<p>“He had plenty of air—he wasn’t inside the bladder!” explained Sammy. -“He was just in the leather part, and there was air he could breathe, -’cause there’s holes for the lace to go through. And I left it loose -enough so he could wiggle.”</p> - -<p>“Then I wasn’t far out with my guess about the Mexican bean,” said -Neale.</p> - -<p>Doubtless most of you have seen those queer beans, or seeds, which move -so oddly when you place them on the palm of your hand. The movements are -caused by an insect, or worm, that has developed from an egg laid within -the seed.</p> - -<p>“The ’gator wiggled inside the ball, and that caused it to roll over and -over in a manner that only a Rugby football can roll,” chuckled Neale. -“I give you credit, Sammy!”</p> - -<p>“Don’t!” begged Ruth, in a low voice. “He’ll think he’s being praised -and he’ll try something else.”</p> - -<p>“Well, but you’ve got to give him credit,” insisted Neale. “For it was a -clever trick for the kid.”</p> - -<p>“Stop it!” commanded Agnes, and she put her hand over his mouth, whereat -he pretended to bite her and the two skylarked about the room to the no -small annoyance of Ruth.</p> - -<p>“It’s a mercy I didna’ drapit the lemonade,” said Mrs. MacCall, as she -took the tray from the chair where Luke had placed it and began serving -the refreshments. “I’ll hae a settlement wi ye, syne, Sammy, me lad,” -she promised, and there was more to this than appeared on the surface.</p> - -<p>“Well, I didn’t mean any harm,” muttered the boy, as he gathered up the -alligator and football.</p> - -<p>Sammy never did mean harm, and, to tell the truth, his tricks and jokes -seldom really harmed any one. Mrs. MacCall had strong nerves, even when -she thought she saw “witches, warlocks an’ lang-nebbied things,” and so -she soon recovered her wonted spirits.</p> - -<p>Had Sammy, Tess and Dot not already been supplied with their share of -the ice cream and cake they might have been punished by being deprived -of these dainties. But they must have sensed that something of this -order would be put in operation if they played their joke before the -refreshments had been passed. So they were saved, though Ruth insisted -on her younger sisters going to bed, and, of course, this meant that -Sammy would have to go home.</p> - -<p>But he did not go willingly, for when he saw that the older boys and -girls were settling themselves for an evening of talk, music, and the -playing of games, he wistfully inquired:</p> - -<p>“Is there anythin’ you’d like me to do?”</p> - -<p>“Thank you, no, Sammy,” replied Ruth, with sarcastic sweetness. “You -have done full and plenty for one evening.”</p> - -<p>But Agnes, with ever a soft spot in her heart for the children, slipped -Sammy a large piece of chocolate cake, unobserved, as she let him out of -the side door to go to his own home.</p> - -<p>“And don’t let Dot and Tess lead you into mischief again,” warned Agnes, -giggling.</p> - -<p>“No’m, thank you,” answered Sammy. The thanks, be it known, were for the -cake, not for the well-meant warning.</p> - -<p>The Corner House, for some time rather silent and gloomy following the -death of Uncle Peter Stower, now rang with laughter and the singing of -the merry voices of young people. Certainly it was a jolly crowd that -Ruth and Agnes had gathered about them, and Nalbro was very glad she had -accepted the invitation. As for Hal—he was always glad to be where Nally -was, and Luke and Neale were satisfied with their choices.</p> - -<p>Perhaps, just for a moment or two, Ruth and Agnes might have felt some -twinges of jealousy, especially when Nalbro offered to do some -“second-sight” experiments and offered to tell what a person was -thinking of.</p> - -<p>To do this, she declared, it was necessary that she hold the hand of the -person on whom she was experimenting, and as soon as this was announced -three eager young men pressed forward, clamoring to be the first -subject.</p> - -<p>“I think she could just as well have done it some other way, don’t you?” -asked Agnes of Ruth, when they were getting ready for bed later. “She -took a very long time with Luke, I notice, and he asked her to take -<i>both</i> his hands.”</p> - -<p>“Oh—it—it didn’t mean anything,” declared Ruth. “It was all in fun.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I told Neale what I thought of <i>him</i>,” said Agnes, the least bit -sharply.</p> - -<p>“Was that wise?” asked Ruth, quietly.</p> - -<p>“I don’t care whether it was or not!” came the quick retort. “She is -pretty and her clothes are a lot better than ours. I’m never going to -Ann Titus again! She has no more style——”</p> - -<p>“I think you are tired, Aggie,” said Ruth, stroking her sister’s head. -“And you must remember that Nally is our guest.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, I know I’m just horrid. But——”</p> - -<p>However, the first little affair passed off most successfully, even with -the mysterious white football, and when Uncle Rufus was locking up, -after Neale and Luke and the others had gone, he chuckled as he said:</p> - -<p>“Dish suah am laik ole times when Massa Stower done hab parties his own -self.”</p> - -<p>“They’re a gay bonnie lot of lads an’ lassies!” said Mrs. MacCall. “Aw, -it’s a gran’ thing to be young!”</p> - -<p>“It suah am!” chuckled Uncle Rufus. “An’ if I was as spry as dey are I -suah would hab tuck after dem cellar men dat day dey wuz heah makin’ -believe mend a pipe.”</p> - -<p>“Ye hae na seen them ag’in, hae ye?” asked the housekeeper, quickly, -with a startled look down the hall.</p> - -<p>“No’m, Miss Mac, I hasn’t,” replied Uncle Rufus. “But if I does——” And -he shook his black fist suggestively as he shuffled off to his own -quarters.</p> - -<p>Hal and Nalbro smiled at each other across the breakfast table the next -morning, and Ruth and Agnes, if they felt any little jealousy against -their pretty girl guest, did not show it.</p> - -<p>“Did you rest well, Nally?” inquired Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Wonderfully!”</p> - -<p>“Like a top!” was Hal’s description. “And what wild round of gayeties do -we indulge in to-day?” he asked, with a grin.</p> - -<p>“Nothing very strenuous, I hope,” said Miss Hastings, with rather a -drawl that she was “affecting,” Agnes declared, since her lisp had gone. -“But of course I’m ready for anything,” she added quickly, lest it be -thought she intended to cast a wet blanket on the festivities.</p> - -<p>“We planned an auto ride to the Glen,” said Ruth. “It’s a beautiful -place, and we can eat lunch there.”</p> - -<p>“Sounds good to me,” declared Hal. “Especially that lunch part. I’m with -you.”</p> - -<p>“It will be delightful,” said the Boston girl.</p> - -<p>“Neale will run the car. He’ll be here about ten o’clock,” announced -Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I think Neale’s the dearest boy!” declared Nally.</p> - -<p>“What about me?” demanded Hal brazenly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, you don’t count. You’re one of the family!” laughed the Boston -girl.</p> - -<p>And so with merry quip and laughter the breakfast proceeded.</p> - -<p>Luke was to be a member of the auto party that would go to the Glen, and -he and Neale arrived at the Corner House together, for Luke was staying -with Neale at Con Murphy’s. The two lads, with Hal, were about to go out -to the garage to see that the car was in readiness when suddenly Ruth, -who was looking from the window toward the street, cried:</p> - -<p>“There they are again!”</p> - -<p>“Who?” demanded Agnes, impressed by something in her sister’s voice.</p> - -<p>“Those two queer men who were in our cellar! I really believe they are -spying on us. They were sneaking around the side entrance. Quick! -Luke—Neale—see them!”</p> - -<p>“I see them!” exclaimed Neale.</p> - -<p>“Those men!” cried Luke, as Ruth pointed to two ragged, shiftless -figures hastening down the street, for they had changed their intentions -on seeing Ruth at the window. “Why, I remember them!”</p> - -<p>“You remember them!” repeated Ruth. “What do you mean?”</p> - -<p>“Tell you later. Come on, Neale, let’s see if we can’t round them up!” -cried Luke, and, without answering Ruth’s question, he dashed from the -house in pursuit of the mysterious individuals, Neale at his heels.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chVIII' title='VIII: A Futile Chase'> -<span>CHAPTER VIII</span><br /><span>A FUTILE CHASE</span> -</h2> - -<p>Hal Dent stood for a moment in the room with Ruth, Agnes and Nalbro, -looking toward the door through which Luke and Neale had started in -pursuit.</p> - -<p>“What’s this all about?” demanded Hal. “Is this part of the daily -morning exercise, or——”</p> - -<p>“Don’t stop to ask questions, Hal, but run!” advised Nally.</p> - -<p>“Run? Why should I run? I don’t need the training, and——”</p> - -<p>“But don’t you understand?” persisted the Back Bay girl. “Ruth knows -something about those men—they’re burglars or something—and she wants -them caught. Go help Luke and Neale!”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know anything about the men—that’s the trouble,” voiced Ruth. -“But I would like to have them caught to find out about them. This is -the third time they have been sneaking around where I was. Once they -were in our cellar!”</p> - -<p>“Say no more! A detective shall have nothing on me!” cried Hal, and he, -too, dashed from the house while the three girls followed more slowly, -though none the less eagerly.</p> - -<p>Dot and Tess, who had been given their breakfast earlier, in charge of -Mrs. MacCall, came out in time to see the start of the pursuit.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s a game they’re playing!” cried Dot, hugging her Alice-doll, -who always shared breakfast with her. “May we play, Ruth?” she begged.</p> - -<p>“We want to have some fun!” added Tess.</p> - -<p>“It isn’t a game,” said Agnes. “Don’t ask questions, my dears. There may -be trouble.”</p> - -<p>“Is it some of the men from Plam Island?” Dot inquired.</p> - -<p>“No,” Ruth replied. “You had better take them back into the house,” she -added, in a low voice to Mrs. MacCall, and then she raised her voice to -say to Hal, who was running toward the rear of the house:</p> - -<p>“They didn’t go that way!”</p> - -<p>“I know it, Ruth,” he answered. “But I was going to get out the car. -Those men had a good start, from what little I saw, and we can get after -them better in the car.”</p> - -<p>“That’s a good idea!” complimented Nalbro, and she felt not a little -proud of her Boston cavalier.</p> - -<p>“I think it will be best—if he can get the car to run,” remarked Ruth, a -bit dryly.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it like other cars?” Nally wanted to know, somewhat suspicious.</p> - -<p>“Not always. Sometimes it takes a notion to start easily, and again -Neale will have to ‘monkey with it,’ as he calls it, five or ten minutes -before it consents to behave.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I do hope it runs!” murmured the Boston girl.</p> - -<p>Alas! It was a vain hope. Hal did everything called for in the book of -directions, from retarding the spark, turning on the gas and ignition to -stepping on the self-starter button, but all that resulted was a humming -of the starting motor. There were no welcome explosions in the -cylinders.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter with this boat?” demanded Hal wrathfully, after he -had done several things on his own account in trying to get the machine -in motion. He had even tried to turn it over by hand.</p> - -<p>“I fancy it hasn’t had its bath this morning,” dryly remarked Agnes. “Or -perhaps it wants a dusting with violet talcum powder.”</p> - -<p>“Never mind,” consoled Ruth. “You aren’t the only one it acts that way -with, Hal. Sometimes I’m so provoked at it that I could just cry. Then I -go off without it and it must feel ashamed of itself. For the next time -I step on the button it goes with a hum and a purr like a contented -kitten lapping up cream.”</p> - -<p>“We need a new car—that’s what we need!” declared Agnes. “But Guardy is -so queer. He——”</p> - -<p>“He isn’t exactly <i>queer</i>,” broke in Ruth, coming to the defense of the -absent Mr. Howbridge. “But he insists that we must run on a strict -budget system, and we have not yet gotten out of this car the maximum of -what it is supposed to deliver before it is ready to be turned in. When -that time comes we shall have a new car.”</p> - -<p>“I wish you’d take this one out and wreck it then, Hal!” said Agnes, a -bit vindictively.</p> - -<p>“Willingly, my lady, if I could get it out at all,” replied the youth, -rubbing one hand where he had skinned his knuckles trying to crank the -motor.</p> - -<p>“Never mind. Perhaps Luke and Neale will catch the men, and then we -shall find out all about the secret,” suggested Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“I hope they do get them!” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“I’m wondering what it was Luke meant when he said he remembered them,” -murmured Ruth. “There was something queer in that.”</p> - -<p>“Come on—let’s go out in the street and see if we can find out -anything,” suggested Agnes, for when Hal had his inspiration about the -car they had followed him to the garage, only to lose time.</p> - -<p>The street, down which the two strange men had run, followed by Luke and -Neale, was apparently deserted. The girls and Hal strained their eyes -for a sight of either the pursuers or their quarry, and then from an -upper window of the Corner House came a shrill voice asking:</p> - -<p>“Are the engines coming?”</p> - -<p>“What engines?” asked Ruth, as she caught sight of Tess and Dot leaning -from the casement at a dangerous angle. “Get right back in there!” she -instantly ordered.</p> - -<p>“The fire engines! Are they coming?” went on Tess.</p> - -<p>“Fire engines? There isn’t any fire!” laughed Agnes. “Though from the -way we’re running around I haven’t a doubt but what the neighbors think -so,” she added, noting that several curious looks were cast in the -direction of the Corner House from residents on either side and across -the street.</p> - -<p>Then along came Robbie Foote, with a basket of things from Mrs. Kranz, -the “delicatessen lady,” as Tess always called her.</p> - -<p>“Anything the matter?” asked Robbie.</p> - -<p>“No, nothing much,” answered Ruth, with a warning look at the others, -telling them not to go into particulars. “And you’d better hurry around -to the kitchen with those eggs,” she added. “Mrs. MacCall is waiting for -them.”</p> - -<p>“And don’t smash them as you did the others,” added Agnes, thinking to -so occupy Robbie’s mind with this remark as to exclude from it any -desire to ask embarrassing questions. In this Agnes succeeded, for the -delivery boy cried:</p> - -<p>“I didn’t bust the eggs! It was the goat, and he wouldn’t ’a’ done it if -the alligator hadn’t nipped his tail!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I guess that’s right,” admitted Agnes. “But, anyhow, Mrs. MacCall -is waiting for you.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, aw right,” mumbled Robbie, with an air of having been unjustly -treated.</p> - -<p>“There’s no use of our waiting out here,” remarked Ruth. “We’re only -exciting remark.” If there was one thing more than another Ruth did not -like it was to attract attention. “Let’s go in and wait for Luke and -Neale to come back.”</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the two boys were not having much success in their pursuit of -the strange characters. They had a glimpse of the twain as Ruth had -called out about them, and then lost it as they dashed for the street.</p> - -<p>“There they go!” Neale had cried, after he and Luke had turned a corner.</p> - -<p>For a time they had the two mysterious strangers in view and then the -men darted into some side alley, or perhaps into some building, going -out a rear entrance and over the back fence. For when Luke and his -friend reached the place where they thought they could dart in and find -their quarry, there was no trace of the men.</p> - -<p>“Guess they’ve given us the slip,” remarked Neale, after they had -searched about for some time.</p> - -<p>“Looks like it,” agreed Luke.</p> - -<p>“Anything wrong?” asked a man, who had been watching the two youths.</p> - -<p>“Oh, no, not much,” answered Luke, in an indifferent manner. “Just a -couple of fellows we wanted to speak to.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I thought maybe they had stolen something.”</p> - -<p>“No,” answered Luke, and this was true enough, for nothing had been -missed from the Corner House cellar.</p> - -<p>“It was just as well not to tell that fellow too much,” Luke went on, as -he and Neale started back to join the girls.</p> - -<p>“That’s right.”</p> - -<p>As they walked into the yard of the Corner House, on the porch of which -Ruth, Agnes, Nalbro, and Hal were gathered, the last looked at a patch -of red on Luke’s left hand.</p> - -<p>“Hello,” Hal cried. “Did he bite you?” The hand was bleeding.</p> - -<p>“What? Oh, that! I hit it against a brick wall and rubbed off some of -the skin. It isn’t anything.”</p> - -<p>“I can match you!” chuckled Hal, displaying his bruised knuckles. “Say, -what kind of a car is that, anyhow?” and he nodded in the direction of -the garage. “Must be a new model. She wouldn’t start for me.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, so that’s how it happened!” chuckled Neale. “I guess you forgot to -cross your fingers and say ‘eenie-meenie-miney-mo’ before you stepped on -the starter, didn’t you?”</p> - -<p>“I reckon I did,” admitted Hal, with a grin.</p> - -<p>“Luke, let me see that cut,” demanded Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it isn’t anything. I’m not going to have any iodine put on it.”</p> - -<p>“Yes you are!” she insisted. “And you, too, Hal. Come up to the bathroom -right away. There’s nothing like treating a cut in time. There’s no -telling what germs may be in it, and iodine will kill them. Come on.”</p> - -<p>“Not for me!” answered Hal. “If you have a bit of sticking plaster——”</p> - -<p>“The worst thing in the world!” cried Ruth. “Come! I insist! And then, -Luke, I want you to tell us what you meant when you said you remembered -those men.”</p> - -<p>“That’s so!” exclaimed Neale. “You didn’t let out a word about that when -we were chasing them.”</p> - -<p>“We needn’t ask if you got them,” commented Agnes.</p> - -<p>“That’s right—they gave us the slip,” remarked Luke, ruefully.</p> - -<p>He and Hal suffered their hands to be treated with the iodine, and Luke -created laughter by pretending to cry when the fluid stung, as it -certainly did, for he had rather a deep cut, caused when his hand came -in contact with a brick wall as he and Neale swung around a corner in -futile pursuit of the strange men.</p> - -<p>“Thanks,” murmured Hal, when his hand had been dressed. “I shall -recommend you to the Red Cross, Ruth.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Ruth is a dandy little nurse,” added Luke. “I can certify to that. -You ought to have her hold your hand and rub your head when it aches, -Hal.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, such a pain!” cried Hal, clasping his brow with an assumed agonized -look on his face.</p> - -<p>“Silly!” murmured Ruth, blushing as she put away the iodine. “And now, -if your fever isn’t too high,” she went on with gentle sarcasm to Luke, -“you might tell us what you remembered.”</p> - -<p>“It isn’t much,” he said, modestly enough. “However, I’ll tell you all -about it. As soon as you cried out about those men a little while ago, -and I had a glimpse of them—I remember your telling me about the cellar -mystery—it at once flashed into my mind that I had seen the fellows -before.”</p> - -<p>“Not in our cellar!” exclaimed Agnes.</p> - -<p>“No, for I wasn’t here at that time. But it was about two weeks ago, on -the train. I’d been to Hamilton on an errand for Professor Keeps, and I -happened to occupy a seat directly behind those men. I didn’t pay much -attention to them until I heard them mention ten thousand dollars.”</p> - -<p>“Whew!” whistled Hal. “They must be garage men! They’re the only fellows -who ever have that much money nowadays.”</p> - -<p>“But is that the only strange thing about them?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“No. The men kept on talking, and though I couldn’t hear all they said I -caught something about dividing up this ten thousand dollars. Then one -of the men—the taller—said: ‘If we let them know it’s there we’ll get -nothing.’ The other agreed with this, and then I had to leave the train. -But I got a good look at the men, and I’m sure they’re the same fellows -Neale and I just chased.”</p> - -<p>“Ten thousand dollars!” murmured Agnes.</p> - -<p>“I wonder what it means?” murmured Nalbro.</p> - -<p>And then, before they could begin a series of surmises, Uncle Rufus -shuffled out on the porch where this talk was proceeding and announced:</p> - -<p>“De tellyfoam’s been ringin’ its haid off, Miss Ruth, an’ it’s somebody -what wants yo’!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chIX' title='IX: Out of Tune'> -<span>CHAPTER IX</span><br /><span>OUT OF TUNE</span> -</h2> - -<p>With a murmured “excuse me,” Ruth arose from where she had been sitting -near Luke, and started into the house.</p> - -<p>“Maybe it’s the police telephoning they have captured the two men!” -cried Agnes, who was as much given to looking for excitement, on certain -occasions, as was Sammy Pinkney.</p> - -<p>“It couldn’t be,” commented Luke. “The police didn’t know the men were -wanted. And, as a matter of fact, I don’t see that we can make any -charges against them.”</p> - -<p>“Didn’t they break into your cellar?” asked Hal, who had not heard all -the particulars, or else had forgotten some of them.</p> - -<p>“No, they didn’t break in,” remarked Agnes. “In fact, they went there on -invitation, you might say.”</p> - -<p>“Invitation!” cried Nally. “You don’t mean to say you <i>invited</i> them -in?”</p> - -<p>“I believe that’s what it is called in law,” went on Agnes. She had an -idea she was going to study law some day. “Ruth saw the men going into -our cellar and she did not forbid them. In fact, she actually told them -to enter—at least, a lawyer would call it that. It’s a sort of -invitation by inference where you don’t forbid a person to enter.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I never would have let them go in if I hadn’t thought they were -from the water department,” said Ruth, who had come back to the porch in -time to hear the latter part of this talk.</p> - -<p>“Which they weren’t,” remarked Neale. “I found out that much!”</p> - -<p>“Was the telephone message anything about the men?” asked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“No, just Carrie Poole saying she could come to-morrow night.”</p> - -<p>“That’s good.”</p> - -<p>Carrie Poole was one of a number of girl and boy friends invited to -another little gathering in honor of Nalbro and Hal.</p> - -<p>“But, Luke, can you tell us any more about those men and their queer -talk of ten thousand dollars?” asked Neale.</p> - -<p>“Not a thing,” answered the collegian. “I thought it queer at the time, -and for that reason I noticed the men rather more closely than otherwise -I should have done. But, as a matter of fact, I thought perhaps they -were talking of some moving picture plot, and so the thing went out of -my mind.”</p> - -<p>“Moving picture plot! What do you mean?” demanded Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Well, you know, every one is writing for the movies nowadays,” went on -Luke, smiling. “Every fellow in my class has one or more scenarios out, -hoping for an acceptance, and on the campus all you hear is continuity, -close-up, flashback and the like. And more than once, in trains, I’ve -overheard conversations something like this: ‘Well, we could kill off -the man and kidnap the girl.’ ‘It would be easy to have the house -robbed.’</p> - -<p>“One might think some desperate crime was being planned, but all it is, -really, is a talk on the plot for a moving picture, or what they hope -will turn out to be one. So when I heard these men saying something -about ten thousand dollars and about not letting some one know or they -wouldn’t get anything, for a time I thought they might be writing a -moving picture scenario.”</p> - -<p>“Do you think so now after you’ve had a second look at them?” asked -Neale.</p> - -<p>“I certainly do not—especially after the way they ran,” answered Luke. -“And that makes me suspicious that they were around here for no good -purpose. If they had been, they would not have run when they saw that -Ruth had noticed them.”</p> - -<p>“It’s just what they did before—the time Agnes and I were in to see Miss -Titus,” said Ruth. “I do hope it doesn’t mean anything! I hope they -haven’t any designs on the house.”</p> - -<p>“Nonsense!” laughed Luke, patting her hand which was conveniently near -his as they sat together on the porch. “They’re just a couple of -tramps—that’s all.”</p> - -<p>“But their talk of ten thousand dollars! Really, I don’t know that we -ought to go on this little picnic and leave Dot and Tess at home.”</p> - -<p>“Take them with us,” suggested Neale.</p> - -<p>“There isn’t room in the car.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll come back and get them,” offered the good-natured lad; and so it -was arranged, though Ruth, after all, admitted that there could be no -real danger to her younger sisters with Uncle Rufus, Linda and sturdy -Mrs. MacCall in the house.</p> - -<p>You may imagine with what delight Tess and Dot received the news that -they were to be permitted to go to the picnic. They had been mourning -the fact that they were obliged to stay at home, and they had just -concocted a scheme of sending over for Sammy Pinkney and his alligator -when there was a rift in the dark clouds.</p> - -<p>“I’ll take my Alice-doll!” cried Dot.</p> - -<p>“I’ll take Clarissa,” decided Tess. “She wears a black dress and I can -drop her in the mud and not care.” Tess lately had, for some reason -unfathomable by Ruth and Agnes, taken to playing with her dolls.</p> - -<p>“Alice is going to wear white,” said Dot, with a superior air. “White is -best for picnics.”</p> - -<p>“Um!” murmured Tess, who was not so particular.</p> - -<p>Hal followed Luke and Neale out to the garage while the girls finished -their preparations for the lunch they were taking to the Glen.</p> - -<p>“I’m anxious to see how you start that old boat,” remarked Hal, rubbing, -tenderly, his bruised knuckles.</p> - -<p>“It’s easy. All you do is—this.” Neale turned the ignition key, stepped -on the starter switch, and the steady throb and hum of the motor at once -followed.</p> - -<p>“You must have it charmed,” commented the Boston lad.</p> - -<p>“You have to humor ’em,” chuckled Neale.</p> - -<p>After all, it was not necessary for Neale to make a second trip to take -Tess and Dot to the Glen. A neighbor happened to be going out in that -direction and volunteered to take the younger girls.</p> - -<p>“Coming home we can pile in anyhow,” remarked Agnes, “for there won’t be -so many lunch boxes and baskets.”</p> - -<p>“You verged dangerously near the truth then,” solemnly remarked Luke. “I -shall empty at least half a dozen lunch boxes myself.”</p> - -<p>It was a beautiful day, the Glen was looking its best after a light -shower, and there was a “romantic” waterfall among other natural -wonders. Nalbro called it romantic, and she ought to have known what -that word meant. As for Neale, he said he couldn’t see what there was in -a waterfall, anyhow.</p> - -<p>“As the Irishman said, what’s to prevent it from coming down?” he -demanded. But no one paid much attention to this ancient joke.</p> - -<p>“Now, Tess and Dot,” said Ruth, taking her younger sisters off to one -side when they had been safely delivered, “I don’t want you to give me -any trouble to-day.”</p> - -<p>“We never do,” declared Tess.</p> - -<p>“You don’t mean to, but you do,” said Ruth patiently and with a kind -smile. “Don’t go off by yourselves exploring, and——”</p> - -<p>“Well, you don’t want us tagging around after you and Luke all day, do -you?” asked Tess, though why she should couple the names Ruth said she -could not imagine.</p> - -<p>“I want you to be within call, if not within sight, all the while,” was -the stipulation. “There are many little places where you might wander -off and be lost. You needn’t ‘tag’ us around, as you call it, but don’t -get too far away.”</p> - -<p>“We won’t,” promised Dot. “Oh, I just love it here and so does my -Alice-doll.”</p> - -<p>Indeed they all seemed bent on having a good time, and when the lunch -had been put away until such time as it would be needed they strolled -about the Glen, talking and laughing.</p> - -<p>As might be expected, there was a pairing off into couples. Agnes and -Neale found something to look at down one path, Nalbro and Hal declared -they wanted to get to the top of the waterfall, and Ruth remarked:</p> - -<p>“Well, if they want to tire themselves out by scrambling up there, let -them. I think——”</p> - -<p>“Here’s a quiet place—a regular bosky dell,” laughed Luke, and he led -the way.</p> - -<p>And then, for a time, the murmuring talk of the young people mingled -with the murmur of the water as it slipped over the mossy, green stones.</p> - -<p>It was, as might have been expected, Tess and Dot who put an end to what -seemed an ideal period, for Ruth soon heard the voice of Tess calling:</p> - -<p>“Where are you? Where are you?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I wonder if anything has happened!” Ruth exclaimed, with a startled -glance at Luke, who sat beside her on a mossy bank.</p> - -<p>“What’s wrong?” he cried, his stronger voice echoing through the forest.</p> - -<p>Back came the unromantic answer:</p> - -<p>“We’re hungry!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, is it noon?” asked Ruth, looking at her wrist watch, and, finding -that it was half-past twelve, she added: “No wonder the poor things are -looking for us. We’ll eat!”</p> - -<p>“It seems a pity to leave this,” remarked Luke, glancing around on their -trysting place.</p> - -<p>“Oh, we can come back,” conceded Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Thanks,” he said softly.</p> - -<p>There was the usual merry ado about setting out the lunch boxes and -baskets, and the usual ants walked, true to form, into the butter and -cloyed themselves with sweetness in the sugar. But this is always -expected at picnics.</p> - -<p>As Neale remarked:</p> - -<p>“No outing is complete without them.”</p> - -<p>But Nalbro rather shuddered when a grasshopper alighted on her slice of -bread and threw it quickly away from her with a muttered:</p> - -<p>“Ugh! The horrid thing!”</p> - -<p>“You don’t give him credit!” laughed Luke. “Like the bees to the -flowers, he was attracted by your magnetic personality.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you!” murmured the Boston girl, flashing a look at Luke, who was -boldly regarding her. And Agnes, by means of her eyes, telegraphed some -message to Ruth.</p> - -<p>After lunch, which, if it did nothing more, rendered Tess and Dot less -active, for it made them sleepy, there was a period of sitting about, -wondering what next to do, for it was too warm for much strenuous -exercise.</p> - -<p>“Come on!” offered Nalbro suddenly, “I’ll tell the boys’ fortunes.”</p> - -<p>“How?” asked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“I’ll read their hands.”</p> - -<p>“I’m first!”</p> - -<p>“No, I!”</p> - -<p>“She came with me!”</p> - -<p>In turn Luke, Neale and Hal thus cried as they crowded around the -fascinating Boston girl—there was no denying that she was -fascinating—and pretty, though Agnes, at least, had no lack of beauty -and Ruth’s sweet face always gave pleasure to a beholder.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I can’t tell your fortunes all at once. And no one must hear the -others’,” declared Nally, with a pretty air of bewilderment, as three -tanned hands were thrust toward her, each one eager to be first.</p> - -<p>“Decide by lot then,” suggested Neale.</p> - -<p>“How?” asked Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“Shut your eyes and take a hand,” he went on, and this was done.</p> - -<p>The Boston girl, with closed eyes, groped among the three palms held -before her, and whether it was accident or design, she took that of -Luke.</p> - -<p>Then the other two lads, after some protesting, were sent out of hearing -while Nalbro proceeded to study and trace the lines in the hand of the -young collegian.</p> - -<p>What she told him is neither here nor there, nor is what she pretended -to prophesy for Neale and Hal. But as she continued to be a center of -attraction for the young men, while Agnes and Ruth tidied up the -luncheon ground, there were uneasy glances cast in the direction of the -fortune-telling section of the Glen.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it queer how silly boys are about having their hands held?” -remarked Agnes, with a distinct “sniff.”</p> - -<p>“She has a certain way about her,” admitted Ruth. “Perhaps we should be -a little more——”</p> - -<p>“Giddy! Silly! Why don’t you say it?” challenged Agnes. “I didn’t -imagine Nally was like that. But you never know a girl until——”</p> - -<p>“Hush!” suddenly commanded Ruth. “I thought I heard Tess calling! Yes, -she is! Oh, what has happened?”</p> - -<p>Through the woods echoed the sobbing voice of a little girl shouting:</p> - -<p>“She’s fallen in! She’s fallen in!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chX' title='X: A Shower'> -<span>CHAPTER X</span><br /><span>A SHOWER</span> -</h2> - -<p>The little “out of tune” feeling which had begun to manifest itself in -the hearts of Ruth and Agnes was instantly dispelled as they heard the -voice of Dot crying—for it was Dot they heard.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter?” demanded Nalbro, for she was so intent on finishing -the telling of Hal’s fortune, holding his hand in her warm one, that she -had not caught the alarm.</p> - -<p>“Something has happened to Tess or Dot—maybe both,” gasped Ruth, as she -sped past.</p> - -<p>“One of them has fallen in the brook, probably,” added Agnes, for the -waterfall was the result of a small brook toppling down an incline. It -was not a wide stream; nor was it deep, except in a few places.</p> - -<p>“Come on, Neale!” cried Luke, springing up from a hummock where he was -lying under a tree, possibly thinking over the “fortune” that Nalbro had -outlined for him. “To the rescue!”</p> - -<p>“I don’t imagine it amounts to much. Those kids are always falling in or -falling out or getting into some sort of trouble,” commented Neale. -Nevertheless, he followed Luke, and now Nalbro and Hal joined in.</p> - -<p>At intervals the cry came from Dot:</p> - -<p>“She’s fallen in! She’s fallen in!”</p> - -<p>It was by this cry that Ruth, with the others following her, was able to -get to the place whence Dot had sounded the alarm. Ruth saw her little -sister through a fringe of bushes on the edge of the brook.</p> - -<p>“Dot, what is it? Where is Tess?” demanded Ruth, not stopping to inquire -whether Tess had fallen in, since it seemed obvious, with Dot there in -plain sight, and not wet.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know!” sobbed Dot.</p> - -<p>“What don’t you know?” demanded Agnes, catching Dot by the arm and -giving her a little shake to quiet the hysterical sobbing that was -rendering Dot unintelligible.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know where Tess is,” Dot sobbed. “She went down there with her -Clarissa-doll——” She pointed toward a part of the stream that the boys -knew to be deep, and went on: “Then I heard her yell and there was a -splash and——Oh, she’s fallen in, I know she has!”</p> - -<p>The boys waited no longer, but dashed away in the direction of the spot -Dot had pointed out. Agnes and Nalbro remained to comfort Dot, who was -now wiping away her tears on the dress of her Alice-doll, and Ruth -followed the boys.</p> - -<p>It was Luke who first shouted back some definite news.</p> - -<p>“I have found her!” he announced.</p> - -<p>“Is she—is she——” Ruth could not form the words.</p> - -<p>“She’s all right!” came the reassuring answer. “But she’s soaking wet. -Tess, come out of that!” he commanded.</p> - -<p>By this time the others had pushed through the underbrush and had come -upon a scene which, after a moment, brought roars of laughter from Neale -and Hal. And Luke, after a glance at Ruth to make sure she was smiling, -joined in.</p> - -<p>They simply could not help it.</p> - -<p>There sat Tess on a flat rock in a shallow place in the middle of the -brook and she was washing her doll’s dress. The water was flowing down -on either side of Tess, as if she might be a rock herself, as she sat -there in the midst of the brook.</p> - -<div id='i002' class='section illus' style='width:70%'> - <img src='images/illus-002.jpg' alt='' /> - <p>There sat Tess on a flat rock in a shallow place in the middle of the brook.</p> -</div> - -<p>The stream was up to her waist as she sat down, but she was wetter than -this, for she was splashed up to her shoulders, and as she held up the -black dress of Clarissa, to see if it needed further scrubbing, water -ran from the garment down her freckled face.</p> - -<p>“Tess Kenway! What in the world are you doing?” demanded Ruth. “Come -right out of there this instant!”</p> - -<p>“All right,” said Tess calmly. “I guess Clarissa’s dress is clean, -anyhow.”</p> - -<p>“Why did you do it? Why are you sitting there?” went on Ruth, for Tess -had not yet arisen.</p> - -<p>“Did you fall in?” Agnes wanted to know.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I did,” answered Tess slowly. “And when I was wet I thought I -might as well stay in and be wetter and wash Clarissa’s dress. It was -easier out here, and I found a rock just like a washboard.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, you terrible child!” scolded Agnes. “You have frightened us all! -How did it happen? If it hadn’t been for Dot’s calling that you had -fallen in, we might never have known it.”</p> - -<p>“Pooh! I was going to tell you, anyhow, so there!” said Tess.</p> - -<p>“Yes, but when?” asked Ruth. “Why did you leave Dot?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, she wouldn’t wash her Alice-doll’s dress, and I wanted to wash -mine,” explained Tess. “So I came down here.”</p> - -<p>“And left Dot alone? That wasn’t kind,” commented Ruth. “She heard you -fall in.”</p> - -<p>“She couldn’t have.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I did, too,” declared Dot, for she had been brought along by -Nalbro and Agnes to the scene of the immersion. “I heard you splash.”</p> - -<p>“Pooh! That wasn’t me; that was a rock,” laughed Tess, shaking her wet -hair out of her eyes while Ruth endeavored to wring some water from her -skirts. “I was leaning over a rock to wash Clarissa’s dress,” she -proceeded, “and the rock splashed in. I guess that’s what you heard,” -she said to Dot, “because I didn’t make any noise—that is, not much—when -I slipped in.”</p> - -<p>“Then you did fall in?” asked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I fell in,” admitted Tess. “But that was after the rock splashed, -and Dot couldn’t have heard me. I slipped in and got my feet wet and it -felt so nice—and I was wet anyhow—that I waded out and sat down. You -ought to see that rock! It’s all ribs and crinkles like a regular -washboard. If you could take it home, I’ll show you where it is!”</p> - -<p>She tried to pull away from Ruth as if with the intention of wading out -into the stream again, but her sister held her back.</p> - -<p>“No, none of that any more!” decided Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Oh, but you’re a <i>sight</i>!” giggled Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Pooh! Let ’em dry on me,” suggested Tess indifferently. “I’ve been wet -before, lots of times. If you had been here I could have taken -Alice-doll’s dress out and washed it,” she said to Dot.</p> - -<p>“I wouldn’t have her dress washed. It’s clean now. And you can’t tell -whether your doll’s old black dress is clean or not.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s clean,” declared Tess. “I sozzled it in the water a lot of -times and I rubbed it on the washboard rock.”</p> - -<p>“Well, you’ve given us all something of a fright,” sighed Ruth. “Though -I don’t suppose you meant it. Dear me! we haven’t anything dry to put on -you, though I suppose we might go to some house.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll run her back in the car and let Mrs. MacCall look after her,” -offered Neale. “I’ve got to get gasoline, anyhow.”</p> - -<p>“All right,” agreed Ruth, and so Tess had the advantage of getting an -extra ride, and all by herself, in the machine with Neale.</p> - -<p>“Honestly, it was comical,” said Agnes, telling some of her girl friends -about it afterward. “In her wet, bedraggled clothes, Tess sat on the -rear seat, as prim and stiff as some old-fashioned lady, and she seemed -to be pretending that she was some millionaire’s wife out in her auto -taking the air.”</p> - -<p>This was just Tess—a queer little body if ever there was one.</p> - -<p>“Oh, ye puir bairn!” cried Mrs. MacCall, when she saw Tess. “An’ are ye -the only one saved?”</p> - -<p>“Gracious, you don’t think all the rest are drowned, do you?” laughed -Neale.</p> - -<p>“I was fearin’ that,” murmured the housekeeper. “I was fearin’.”</p> - -<p>Tess was soon clothed again in dry garments and she went back to the -picnic ground with Neale after he had stopped at the service station to -have the gas tank filled.</p> - -<p>The day was nearly over—and a glorious one it had been in spite of the -accident to Tess—and soon the jolly little party was on the way home, -all managing to crowd into the one automobile.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I am having such a wonderful time!” sighed Nalbro that evening on -the porch, when the boys had come over for a little talk. “It was -darling of you girls to ask me down.”</p> - -<p>“We are glad you are enjoying it,” said Ruth. “And we hope you can stay -a long time.”</p> - -<p>“If it weren’t for getting ready to go to boarding school—which means -having a lot more frocks made,” murmured the Boston girl—“I could stay -longer.”</p> - -<p>“I wish our dressmaker was up to ‘frocks,’ don’t you, Ruth?” Agnes -asked, with a half envious sigh. “But poor Miss Titus, though she does -have a sign reading ‘Modes,’ has never risen above a gown—and she used -to call everything a dress.”</p> - -<p>“Sickening—that’s what I call it,” grunted Neale. “What say you, -fellows?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, you boys make me tired!” declared Agnes. “You’re fussier over one -necktie than we are over two dresses! Aren’t they, Nally?”</p> - -<p>“I should say so!”</p> - -<p>And so the merry quips were exchanged.</p> - -<p>“Speaking of water,” remarked Luke, as he came out with a glass which -Ruth had requested him to get, “are you girls going to do anything about -those strange men?”</p> - -<p>“What can we do?” demanded Ruth. “We don’t know who they are, and we -aren’t even certain that they did anything more than make a mistake.”</p> - -<p>“It might have been a mistake, getting into your cellar once,” commented -Neale. “But when the same men have been seen hanging around the Corner -House—well, it’s time something was done, in my opinion.”</p> - -<p>“What would you do?” inquired Ruth. “I have thought of speaking to Mr. -Howbridge about it.”</p> - -<p>“Let me mention it to the police,” offered Neale. “I know the chief and -all the officers who have this beat—there are different ones on -different nights. I’ll tell them to keep their eyes open for suspicious -characters.”</p> - -<p>“I wish you would,” said Ruth. “And I’ll also speak to Mr. Howbridge -about it.”</p> - -<p>“If you girls are nervous,” said Luke, speaking particularly for the -benefit of Ruth, “I can leave Neale and come over to stay here -to-night.”</p> - -<p>“What? With me on the job? Boy, you are insulting!” cried Hal, in mock -heroics. “Why, I’ll defy any twain of alleged water inspectors that ever -misread a meter!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, we’re not a bit afraid,” said Ruth.</p> - -<p>“We have Uncle Rufus and Linda, to say nothing of Mrs. MacCall,” added -Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Well, you can always get Neale and me on the telephone,” suggested -Luke, with a laugh.</p> - -<p>“And by the time you got over here we’d be kidnaped!” declared Agnes. -“No, we’ll depend on Uncle Rufus.”</p> - -<p>However, there was no need for any dependence, for nothing untoward -happened that night.</p> - -<p>For the next evening a little affair had been planned, to which some -guests Nalbro Hastings had not yet met were invited. Ruth and Agnes were -busy arranging the details of this, and planning with Mrs. MacCall what -the refreshments should be, when Tess came in looking somewhat warm and -excited.</p> - -<p>“What have you been doing, dear?” asked Ruth, smoothing her hair.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Dot and I just now gave Uncle Rufus a shower,” explained Tess.</p> - -<p>“A shower?” Ruth cried.</p> - -<p>“You mean you have been giving one of your dolls a bridal-engagement -shower, and you let Uncle Rufus in on some of the things?” questioned -Agnes. “It was kind of you, but——”</p> - -<p>“No, we gave him a regular shower. Like a showerbath, you know.”</p> - -<p>“You what?” gasped Ruth.</p> - -<p>“That’s it. Yes, a shower. Dot’s doing it now. I got tired. It’s lots of -fun! Oh, she wet him good that time! Look!”</p> - -<p>She pointed out of the window.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXI' title='XI: A Strange Summons'> -<span>CHAPTER XI</span><br /><span>A STRANGE SUMMONS</span> -</h2> - -<p>What Ruth and Agnes saw was this. Stretched over the lawn was a hose -that had been used for sprinkling the grass. Uncle Rufus, having -finished wetting down the dry places, had laid the nozzle end of the -hose down, with the water still running, and had walked back to the -faucet to shut it off.</p> - -<p>But as Ruth and Agnes watched, Dot picked up the nozzle end of the hose, -with the water still spurting from it, and directed it toward the old -colored man, spraying him well.</p> - -<p>“Heah, yo’ li’l missie! Stop that!” cried Uncle Rufus.</p> - -<p>“Ho! Ho!” Dot laughed, as she continued to spray Uncle Rufus.</p> - -<p>Then he made a dash for her, at which sign of danger she dropped the -nozzle and ran away, whereat Uncle Rufus resumed his shuffle toward the -faucet, perhaps a hundred feet away.</p> - -<p>But no sooner was his back turned than Dot again made a rush for the -nozzle, again spraying Uncle Rufus.</p> - -<p>He shouted and shook his finger at her, but Dot only laughed the more -and doused him well. But as soon as he started to run toward her she -dropped the hose and ran in her turn.</p> - -<p>“That’s what I was doing, but I got tired,” explained Tess. “Oh, we gave -Uncle Rufus a fine shower!”</p> - -<p>Ruth and Agnes looked at each other. Then Ruth, shaking Tess rather -severely by one arm, exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“You naughty girls! The idea of wetting poor, old Uncle Rufus! You must -be punished for this, Tess. Agnes, go and get Dot and bring her here.”</p> - -<p>When Dot saw Agnes coming out, the mother of the Alice-doll beat a hasty -retreat, not quite fast enough, though, for she was caught as she ran -across the lawn and stumbled.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter?” demanded Dot. “I wasn’t doing it all.”</p> - -<p>“Ruth will attend to you,” remarked Agnes, in her sternest voice. “You -and Tess are going to be punished.”</p> - -<p>And punished they were, though Tess protested, with tears, that Uncle -Rufus had on his oldest clothes that he wore when he weeded the garden -in the rain, adding that he did not mind being wet.</p> - -<p>Really, he did not seem to, though, as a matter of fact, he was pretty -well soaked. For when the two little girls had been sent up to bed, to -have the shades pulled down, without a toy to play with, not even the -Alice-doll, and no picture books to look at or stories to read, it was -Uncle Rufus who interceded for them and begged them off.</p> - -<p>“Look heah, Missie Ruth,” he humbly pleaded when he had on dry garments, -“dem young uns didn’t mean no harm, nohow. An’—ha! ha!—I doan mind de -wettin’!”</p> - -<p>“I know, Uncle Rufus,” answered Ruth, with a smile. “It is very good of -you to forgive them and to try to get them off, but they did wrong and -they must be punished. If I don’t do something to them they will act -worse the next time.”</p> - -<p>“Yes’m, Missie Ruth, I knows dat, but I done guess dey has been punished -nuff!”</p> - -<p>He looked so eager and had such a pleading, loving look on his honest, -wrinkled black face, that Ruth could not resist him. She knew how he -loved Tess and Dot.</p> - -<p>“Very well,” Ruth finally said, “I’ll let them stay in bed half an hour -longer, and then you may go up and tell them that you forgive them, -Uncle Rufus, and that they may come down just before supper.”</p> - -<p>That was perhaps the shortest half hour ever registered on the clock of -the Corner House, for it could not have been more than ten minutes after -Ruth had remitted the punishment that Uncle Rufus went up to the girls’ -room and timidly knocked on the door.</p> - -<p>“We can’t come out,” said Tess meekly, in what she doubtless intended to -be a martyr’s voice. “You’d better go away!”</p> - -<p>Uncle Rufus gave one of his inimitable chuckles.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” gasped Dot.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” gasped Tess.</p> - -<p>“Yo’-all kin come down now,” announced Uncle Rufus.</p> - -<p>“Did Ruth say so?” asked Tess.</p> - -<p>“Yes’m, she done say dat!” declared Uncle Rufus. “Miss Ruth say she done -mitigate yo’ punishment, whateber dat means, an’ I wants to say dat I -forgibs yo’. Ha! Ha! I guess I done needed de baff anyhow.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Uncle Rufus, we’re awfully sorry if we gave you a bath before it -was time,” said Dot.</p> - -<p>“Doan yo’-all worry none ’bout dat!” chuckled the old colored man. “Come -’long down ’fore supper!”</p> - -<p>Tess and Dot, much chastened in spirit, descended. They were grateful -that none of the boys were around to see their humiliation, and for a -time they went about much subdued, trying to make it appear that they -were more sinned against than sinning.</p> - -<p>But Ruth knew them, and so did Agnes, for they had done such pranks -before and always the same thing followed their just punishment. So, -though Nalbro felt sorry for them and was inclined to “mother” them, she -was advised against it by the older Corner House girls.</p> - -<p>The result was that little attention was paid to Tess and Dot, except -that they were treated with exaggerated politeness by their sisters, -perhaps in contrast to their rude but thoughtless showering of Uncle -Rufus.</p> - -<p>In a short time the little girls forgot all about it and were playing -about as before, much to the delight of Uncle Rufus, who would not have -slept well had he kept on his mind any longer the vision of his little -tormentors being punished.</p> - -<p>“I just love it here!” declared Nalbro, as they were sitting on the -porch, waiting for Linda and Mrs. MacCall to announce the evening meal. -“It’s so different from my own home. It’s stupid there, though it’s nice -enough. Something always seems to be happening here.”</p> - -<p>“You’re right there!” laughed Ruth.</p> - -<p>“And sometimes things don’t always happen for the best!” added Agnes.</p> - -<p>“I just wonder where they got that idea of spraying Uncle Rufus?” mused -Ruth. “I do hope they didn’t see it in the movies, for they are sure to -mention it if they did, and Mrs. MacCall will say it’s a sin and a shame -that we ever let them go.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, that would be a bit awkward,” admitted her sister. “But I have a -faint suspicion that they must have made it up out of their own heads.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps,” agreed Ruth. “I do hope Luke comes to-night,” she went on.</p> - -<p>This was so unexpected, coming from Ruth, who seldom let anything be -known about her liking for the young collegian, that Agnes stared at her -sister in some surprise, and even Nalbro raised her pretty eyebrows. -Luke had been called away from Milton for several days by Professor -Keeps, who had some work for the young man to do.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s just a matter of business!” Ruth made haste to say, as she -sensed the underlying meaning her words might have conveyed. “He was -going to make inquiries about those two men,” she went on. “Do you know, -I don’t at all like the fact that they have been seen around here so -frequently,” and there was a worried look on her face.</p> - -<p>“Don’t start any fretting,” advised Agnes. “I don’t believe it will -amount to anything. But what was Luke going to find out?”</p> - -<p>“He was going to see some railroad men he knows—the conductor or -brakeman on the train the time he sat behind the men who talked about -the ten thousand dollars—and he’s going to ask if the railroad men know -anything about the fellows.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, so that’s the only reason you’re wishing Luke to come this -evening—on a matter of <i>business</i>! I see! The plot thickens!” mocked -Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Oh, don’t be silly!” advised Ruth, in a small tone of voice.</p> - -<p>“Worse and worse!” laughed Agnes. “See her blushes, Nally?”</p> - -<p>“Nally, if you side with her,” began Ruth, “I’ll never——”</p> - -<p>But the appearance of Mrs. MacCall with the announcement that the meal -was served put an end to what might have proved an embarrassing -situation.</p> - -<p>Toward the end of the meal Tess and Dot were observed carrying on some -secret interchange of ideas.</p> - -<p>“Go on—you ask her,” urged Dot to Tess.</p> - -<p>“You said you would,” retorted Tess.</p> - -<p>“What is it?” Ruth wanted to know.</p> - -<p>The two children looked self-conscious for a moment, and then Dot -blurted out:</p> - -<p>“Couldn’t we stay up for the party a little while to-night?”</p> - -<p>“Why, yes, I intended you should—for a little while,” replied Ruth. -“What made you think you couldn’t? Oh, I see! About Uncle Rufus! Oh, -that’s all forgiven and forgotten.”</p> - -<p>“And could Sammy be over?” Dot was quick to ask, taking advantage of the -unexpected softness on Ruth’s part.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Sammy! Well, I don’t know. I hadn’t intended to ask him.”</p> - -<p>“He’s got a new suit of clothes!” burst out Dot, as if that clinched -matters. And in the laugh that followed, Ruth said:</p> - -<p>“All right. Have him over for a little while. But mind! He must go home -early!”</p> - -<p>Tess and Dot would have rushed away before the pudding was served, so -anxious were they to convey the welcome news to their prankish partner, -but Ruth insisted on the forms of politeness being observed, at any -rate, and not until she had given the signal for all to leave were Tess -and Dot allowed to depart on their joyous errand.</p> - -<p>The young men all came, Luke getting back to Milton just in time to -attend. Cecile, too, motored over from Grantham and arrived with her -intended, Gene Barrows. So that soon the Corner House was echoing to the -merry laughter of happy hearts.</p> - -<p>“Dish yeah shore would ’a’ done Uncle Peter Stower good ef he could ’a’ -heerd dis!” remarked Uncle Rufus, as he helped Mrs. MacCall in the -kitchen. “He got kinder ole an’ crusty towards de las’, but he had lots -ob pain.”</p> - -<p>“’Twould be a marcy were the puir mon able to see a little of the -brightness he’s brought about,” agreed the Scotch housekeeper. “But it’s -nae gi’en ta any mon to see what gaes on when he’s depart!”</p> - -<p>“’Ceptin’ he turns into a ghost,” Uncle Rufus observed.</p> - -<p>“Hech! Hech! Dinna ye start any o’ that talk with the nicht comin’ on!” -warned Mrs. MacCall, with a glance over her shoulder.</p> - -<p>Ruth could scarcely wait for a chance to get Luke off in a corner by -himself to put to him some questions that were troubling her. But when -she did she derived little satisfaction.</p> - -<p>“About those men—” she began. “Were you able to find out anything, -Luke?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing worth mentioning,” he replied. “I talked with the conductor of -the train I was on when I heard the strange talk, and he didn’t even -remember the fellows. Small wonder, when you stop to think how many -tickets he has to take up in the course of the day. Then I tackled the -brakeman, and had a little better luck.”</p> - -<p>“Did he know the men?”</p> - -<p>“He didn’t exactly know them,” Luke replied. “But he remembered them -when I called them to his mind. Luckily, I had noticed them pretty -closely and could give a good description. Perhaps I may turn out to be -a detective—who knows?”</p> - -<p>“You’ll have to work up a few more details on this case before I’ll give -you a certificate and a badge,” said Ruth, with a smile. “But what did -the brakeman say?”</p> - -<p>“That’s right—stick to the main point,” returned Luke. “Well, he said -the men had ridden on the same train a couple of times before, but what -their business was or what they talked about, he didn’t know.”</p> - -<p>“Were they in the moving picture business?”</p> - -<p>“That he couldn’t say. In fact, I didn’t mention it,” was the -collegian’s answer. “The more I stop to think of it the less I like that -moving picture theory.”</p> - -<p>“But there must be some explanation of their remark about ten thousand -dollars,” insisted Ruth. “Ten thousand dollars don’t grow on every bush, -you know.”</p> - -<p>“More’s the pity,” remarked Luke. “If it did I’d be out picking some -now. College is frightfully expensive!” he added, with a sigh.</p> - -<p>“I’m sure it must be. But you haven’t much longer.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know. When I look ahead to the time when I’ll graduate—if I -don’t flunk out—it seems——”</p> - -<p>There came an interruption. Sammy Pinkney, who had been playing in the -yard in the bright moonlight with Tess and Dot, came up to the corner of -the porch where Ruth and Luke were having this conversation.</p> - -<p>“Excuse me,” said Sammy, with startling politeness for him, “but some -one wants to see you, Ruth.”</p> - -<p>“Some one to see me, Sammy?”</p> - -<p>“Yes’m.”</p> - -<p>“Who is it, and where is he—or she?”</p> - -<p>“It’s a he.”</p> - -<p>“Well, Sammy, why all this mysteriousness?” asked Luke, with a laugh, -for there was a queer air not only about Sammy, but about the two little -girls who stood just behind him.</p> - -<p>“Who wants to see me, Sammy?” asked Ruth, encouragingly.</p> - -<p>“It’s Hop Wong, the Chinaman!” blurted out the boy. “And he wants you to -come down to the end of the garden!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXII' title='XII: A Queer Note'> -<span>CHAPTER XII</span><br /><span>A QUEER NOTE</span> -</h2> - -<p>Ruth started up from the porch where she had been sitting in some -seclusion with Luke. In other secluded places Agnes and Neale were -talking over matters that concerned them, and Hal and Nalbro were -similarly engaged.</p> - -<p>“Hold on! Where are you going?” asked Luke, as he put a detaining hand -on Ruth’s arm.</p> - -<p>“I’m going to see Hop Wong. Poor man, probably he’s in trouble. He does -work for us sometimes, and at Christmas he brought me the loveliest, -cutest little chest of tea—the best I ever drank. He has a quaint little -laundry at the end of our street, and——”</p> - -<p>“You don’t take this message seriously, do you?” asked Luke, and Ruth -could see by the moonlight that he was smiling.</p> - -<p>“Take it seriously? Of course I do, Luke. Hop Wong isn’t the kind of -Chinese to play jokes; though when he first came here the boys played -enough mean jokes on him. But he was patient. Of course, I take it -seriously. Maybe some new boys have been annoying him—none of those who -know him would bother him,” and Ruth started down the steps.</p> - -<p>“Wait a minute!” counseled Luke, with a laugh. “I think this is one of -Sammy’s tricks,” he whispered to the Corner House girl. “We’ll see if we -can’t turn it on Sammy himself.”</p> - -<p>But Ruth did not take this view of it, and instead of pretending to -believe what Sammy had said, which was Luke’s intention, she at once -“spilled the beans,” as Luke said afterward, by blurting out:</p> - -<p>“Sammy, you’re not joking, are you?”</p> - -<p>“Sure not, Ruth!”</p> - -<p>“Does Hop Wong really want to see me?”</p> - -<p>“Cross my heart he does!” and Sammy quickly performed this childish -rite, than which there is no stronger confirmation.</p> - -<p>“Did he say what he wanted?” demanded Luke. “And how did he come to send -word by you, Sammy? Why didn’t he come to the front door, or even the -back door, himself?”</p> - -<p>“’Cause he was skairt, I guess,” was all Sammy could think of.</p> - -<p>“Frightened by what?” demanded Luke.</p> - -<p>“I dunno. All I know is that Dot and Tess and me was playin’ hide and -coop at the end of the garden an’ Hop Wong comes slidin’ along—you know -how funny he walks.”</p> - -<p>“What did he say?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Oh, he talked so funnily Dot and I had to laugh!” put in Tess.</p> - -<p>“You shouldn’t laugh at the poor man. Think how silly you would sound -trying to talk Chinese,” chided Ruth.</p> - -<p>“I can almost talk it. Anyhow, I can say words that sound like it,” -declared Sammy. “Want to hear me?” he asked hopefully.</p> - -<p>“Tell us what Hop Wong said,” suggested Luke.</p> - -<p>“Oh, he just gibbered away,” reported Sammy. “And all I could make out -was that he wants to talk to Ruth. He said for me to come and tell her -to come down where he was at the end of the garden.”</p> - -<p>“He said,” giggled Tess, “‘Tell Missie Luth I wanna spleak her muchy -qulick!’” And Tess gave such a good imitation of the funny talk of Hop -Wong that even Luke laughed.</p> - -<p>“Well, I’ll go see what he wants,” said Ruth. “I imagine it must be -something about his laundry business. Once before he came to me. It was -when the man who owns his shop was going to raise the rent to a -prohibitive figure. I went to see Mr. Howbridge about it, and he was -able to arrange matters so poor Hop Wong didn’t have to pay so much. -Ever since then Hop thinks I regulate the universe, I guess.”</p> - -<p>“You do—for some of us,” said Luke, as he reached forward and pressed -Ruth’s hand.</p> - -<p>“Silly!” she whispered.</p> - -<p>“I hope he gives her some lichi nuts,” said Sammy to the two little -girls, as they followed Ruth and Luke to the path that led to the end of -the yard. Nothing was said to the other two young couples.</p> - -<p>The moon shone brightly on the old-fashioned garden of the Corner House, -casting fantastic shadows where the old pavilion stood—the pavilion, -vine-covered, where Uncle Peter had spent his last lonely days.</p> - -<p>“Where is Hop Wong?” asked Ruth, as they neared the place where Sammy -had said the Celestial Kingdom’s citizen was waiting.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I guess he’s around here. He was right under the apple tree when I -saw him first,” the boy reported.</p> - -<p>Then, as they all looked about and saw no slant-eyed figure waiting for -them, Sammy raised his voice and called:</p> - -<p>“Hop! Oh, Hop Wong! Where are you? Here’s Ruthie!”</p> - -<p>There was no answer—just the white, silent moonlight over everything.</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong!” called Sammy again. “Ruth Kenway is here.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe you’d better say ‘Missie Luth’ like he does,” suggested Tess.</p> - -<p>“Hush!” came from her oldest sister.</p> - -<p>They waited in silence.</p> - -<p>“I guess he’s gone,” said Sammy at length. “Got tired of waitin’, -maybe.”</p> - -<p>Luke walked about, peering amid the bushes. Then Dot called:</p> - -<p>“What’s that white thing?”</p> - -<p>“Where?” demanded Tess. “Don’t you go seeing white things now!”</p> - -<p>“It’s on the apple tree,” went on Dot.</p> - -<p>They all looked toward the nearest apple tree. Gently fluttering in the -night breeze was a piece of paper, caught in the crevice of the apple -tree bark. Luke reached for it.</p> - -<p>“Guess Hop Wong left your laundry check here,” he said, as he opened a -bit of folded paper of the typical Chinese kind and saw on it some marks -in very dull black India ink. “It must have been forgotten when the -laundry was left at his shop,” Luke went on.</p> - -<p>“We haven’t sent him any laundry this week,” declared Ruth. “Are you -sure it’s a laundry check?”</p> - -<p>Luke looked at it again. Then he started in surprise.</p> - -<p>“Why, no!” he exclaimed. “It isn’t a laundry check, and it isn’t written -in Chinese characters, as I thought at first! It’s a note to you, Ruth!”</p> - -<p>“A note to me, Luke?”</p> - -<p>“Well, perhaps not to you exactly. It’s to all of you. Wait, I guess I -can read it.”</p> - -<p>He stepped from beneath the shadowy apple tree into the stronger -moonlight and held up the paper with its black characters. Then he read, -and afterward Ruth perused the queer note which said:</p> - -<div class='poetry'> -<p>“Korner Hous gals pay Hop Wong 100 dols<br /> -Hop Wong mak grat much money gals.”</p> -</div> - -<p>For a moment neither Ruth nor Luke spoke. With heads close together they -again read the queer note, while Sammy, Tess and Dot stood idly there, -rather awed by the strangeness of it all.</p> - -<p>“Hum,” murmured Luke, “I wonder if he wrote this himself or got some one -to do it for him.”</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong can write a little English,” said Ruth. “A very little, as -perhaps you have noticed,” she went on to Luke. “He told me once he had -gone to a Mission School.”</p> - -<p>“Then he should have been taught not to play tricks,” and Luke’s tone -was a bit severe.</p> - -<p>“Do you think this is a trick, Luke?”</p> - -<p>“I’m sure of it! Aren’t you?”</p> - -<p>Ruth paused a moment before replying. She again read the note.</p> - -<p>“No,” she answered, “I think it is genuine.”</p> - -<p>“You mean he isn’t trying to play a joke, perhaps put up to it by some -one else?” demanded Luke.</p> - -<p>“I think Hop Wong is in earnest,” said Ruth, simply.</p> - -<p>“Well,” began Luke, “I——Let’s take this up and see what the others -think,” he said, with a change of thought.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps we’d better look about and see if Hop Wong has really gone,” -suggested Ruth. “His courage may have failed him at the last moment. See -if he’s hiding in the bushes. Sammy, please call him again. He seemed to -trust you.”</p> - -<p>But neither hails nor search revealed the Chinese, and after a short -period the party returned to the piazza.</p> - -<p>“We were just coming to look for you!” exclaimed Nalbro. “Where in the -world have you been?” and she and Hal halted on the side path up which -came Luke and Ruth.</p> - -<p>“We have been—picking cherry blossoms,” answered Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Cherry blossoms!” echoed Hal.</p> - -<p>“I think she has confused Japan and China,” remarked Luke, with a laugh.</p> - -<p>“This is worse and more of it!” chimed in Agnes, who had come along with -Neale. “What’s the big idea?” she asked slangily. Ruth disapproved of -slang, but Agnes, backed by Neale, liked to use it.</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong has been trying to stage a mystery,” explained Luke. “Here is -the concrete evidence of it. I claim it’s a joke, but Ruth takes it -seriously.”</p> - -<p>“Let’s see!” demanded Neale, reaching for what Luke had taken for a -laundry check.</p> - -<p>“Suppose we go into the house where the light is better,” suggested -Ruth. “And, Sammy, I don’t want to be impolite, but perhaps your mother -wants you to go to bed.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no’m, she doesn’t!” quickly declared the boy. “I asked her an’ she -said I could stay up late to-night on account of your party.”</p> - -<p>“Well——” went on Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Suppose we keep Sammy here a little while,” suggested Luke in a low -voice. “It isn’t very late and we might need him. I have an idea,” he -added.</p> - -<p>“All right,” agreed Ruth, after a quick look at her friend. “You may -stay a little longer, Sammy.”</p> - -<p>“Goodie!” cried Tess and Dot.</p> - -<p>The children were not much interested in the odd note—particularly when -they saw Linda come in with cake and ice cream. And while Sammy and the -small girls were enjoying this feast in one corner of the room, the -others gathered under the light to read again the strange message.</p> - -<p>What did it mean?</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXIII' title='XIII: A Midnight Tryst'> -<span>CHAPTER XIII</span><br /><span>A MIDNIGHT TRYST</span> -</h2> - -<p>There could be no question but what the message was from a Chinese. -Everything about it indicated that—the paper, the ink, and the peculiar -manner in which even the English letters were formed with a brush in its -bamboo holder, worked in an upright manner, after the style of Chinese -from time immemorial.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I guess Hop Wong wrote it all right,” agreed Neale. “But wait a -minute. I have one of his laundry checks in my pocket now, and I mustn’t -forget to call for my clean shirts. You’re going to have some more -parties, aren’t you?” he appealed beseechingly to Ruth and Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I suppose so, silly boy!” laughed Agnes. “But what has that to do -with this?”</p> - -<p>“A lot, maybe,” declared Neale. “I’ll compare a laundry check that Hop -Wong positively gave me with this paper and we’ll see if they are -alike.”</p> - -<p>“I’m pretty sure they will be,” remarked Luke. “Though, after all, it -isn’t much of a test.”</p> - -<p>“Why not?” demanded Neale.</p> - -<p>“Because these Chinese laundrymen get all their paper and other supplies -from the same wholesale house, and the stuff seldom varies. However, it -will do no harm to make the comparison.”</p> - -<p>When the two pieces of paper were placed in conjunction, Neale’s laundry -check and the strange message left in the apple tree, they were -identical, and so was the hue of the ink.</p> - -<p>Again Ruth read the message which seemed particularly hers, since the -Chinese had sent word to her first that he wanted to see her.</p> - -<div class='poetry'> -<p>“Korner Hous gals pay Hop Wong 100 dols<br /> -Hop Wong mak grat much money gals.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“What in the world does it mean?” demanded Nalbro, clinging to Hal with -a pretty air of proprietorship. “It sounds like a comic opera. What’s -that one we went to see in Boston, Hal?”</p> - -<p>“You mean the Mikado?”</p> - -<p>“That was it. Wasn’t it lovely? Dear Little Buttercup—” and she hummed -the air.</p> - -<p>“Only that happened to be Japanese instead of Chinese, and ‘Dear Little -Buttercup’ wasn’t in the Mikado at all! That’s the only difference,” -observed Luke, with a grim chuckle.</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, the idea is the same,” Nalbro asserted. “But what does it -mean, anyhow?”</p> - -<p>“That’s what I’d like to know,” said Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it plain?” asked Agnes. “Hop Wong, for all his meekness, wants us -to pay him a hundred dollars so he’ll make a great lot of money.”</p> - -<p>“That isn’t the way I read it,” declared Neale.</p> - -<p>“What do you make of it?” asked Luke.</p> - -<p>“It seems to be a sort of promise,” went on Neale as he again studied -the note. “Translating—ahem—I’ll pretend I’m in high school now, giving -a recitation in Latin. Translating, I should say it ought to read like -this:</p> - -<p>“‘If the Corner House girls will pay Hop Wong one hundred dollars, Hop -Wong, in return, will make a greater amount of money for the Corner -House girls.’ That’s what it means.”</p> - -<p>“Well, perhaps,” admitted Luke. “I hadn’t thought of that.”</p> - -<p>“But how does he propose to make money for us?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps by enlarging his laundry,” suggested Agnes. “That’s it, I’ll -wager a cookie!”</p> - -<p>Neale, who had started toward her, turned aside with a disappointed air.</p> - -<p>“I thought you were going to say—kiss!” he sighed.</p> - -<p>“There is a time and place for everything!” Agnes told him.</p> - -<p>“Go on with your theory, Agnes,” begged Luke. “It sounds interesting, to -say the least.”</p> - -<p>“Well, couldn’t it be that Hop Wong wants to do more business?” asked -the girl. “You know how those Chinese are. They come over here, start a -little place, and then get in a partner who does most of the work. I -think Hop Wong wants to expand—to get in a partner—and he needs a -hundred dollars to finance it. If we advance it he’ll give us a share in -his laundry—make us stockholders, perhaps. Fancy being in the Chinese -laundry business, Ruth! Wouldn’t it be grand?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know,” and Ruth spoke doubtfully. “If I thought he meant that -I’d try to help him get a partner.”</p> - -<p>“It would be just like your unusual kind spirit,” said Luke. “But I am -not sure it does mean that. Read it again, Neale, just as it sounds.”</p> - -<p>Neale read:</p> - -<p>“‘Korner House gals pay Hop Wong 100 dols——’”</p> - -<p>He was stopped by a cry from Dot.</p> - -<p>“Oh, don’t give him my Alice-doll!” she begged.</p> - -<p>“Silly child, what do you mean?” asked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Well, doesn’t that Chinaman want a hundred dolls?” asked Dot, tears -coming into her eyes. “We haven’t got that many—not even Tess and me -together. And, anyhow, I won’t give that Chinaman my Alice-doll and I -don’t see why they call ’em Chinamen anyhow, ’cause they aren’t made of -china. But he can’t have my Alice-doll!”</p> - -<p>“He doesn’t want her, Dottie!” explained Ruth. “That’s just his way of -saying dollars.”</p> - -<p>“Oh! Are you sure?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly she is,” put in Agnes. “And, Ruth, if you let these children -stay up any later, eating ice cream and cake, they’ll be sick to-morrow -and you’ll have to look after them alone, for Neale and I are going -away.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, are you, indeed?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. But, seriously, Tess and Dot ought to go to bed.”</p> - -<p>Instantly the little ones began begging for a half hour more, but Ruth -decided that Agnes, for once, was right, and off to bed they were sent.</p> - -<p>“I s’pose that means I’ve got to go,” sighed Sammy.</p> - -<p>“Well—” began Ruth, with a look at Luke.</p> - -<p>“Wait a minute, Sammy,” suggested the collegian. “We must get to the -bottom of this,” he went on. “And to do so we must have a talk with this -Chinese laundryman. Now it would seem that he trusts Sammy, though he -may be very fond of you and Agnes, Ruth, for what you have done for him. -Are you and Hop Wong good friends, Sammy?”</p> - -<p>“Sure we are! I always take my pa’s collars there and he gives me those -funny lichi nuts—I mean Hop Wong does.”</p> - -<p>“Then Sammy is the boy to proceed with this,” went on Luke.</p> - -<p>“What do you mean to do?” Ruth wanted to know.</p> - -<p>“I want to send word to Hop Wong to come and explain this note, and I -think if Sammy goes to the laundry alone and asks Hop Wong to come here, -it will do the trick. If one of us goes, or if all of us go, it will -look as though we suspected something. But we can safely send Sammy.”</p> - -<p>“Will he go?” asked Ruth, half doubtfully.</p> - -<p>“Sure I’ll go!” declared Sammy. “I’d like to. Maybe he’ll give me lichi -nuts.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, forget the nuts!” advised Luke. “This may mean business! Skip -along, Sammy, and go in casually. Wait a minute!”</p> - -<p>“What’s cas-casally?” inquired Sammy.</p> - -<p>“I mean as if you just happened in,” explained Luke. “But I have a -better plan. Can’t you send some laundry to be done up?” he appealed to -Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I could make up a bundle.”</p> - -<p>“Please do so. We’ll make this seem as natural as possible.”</p> - -<p>“Will he be open as late as this?” asked Hal.</p> - -<p>“Oh, sure!” asserted Sammy. “He’s workin’ all night, Hop Wong is.”</p> - -<p>A little later Sammy was dispatched with a bundle of things which needed -the peculiar attention of the Chinese, and then the party of young folks -at the Corner House waited.</p> - -<p>Sammy came back much more quickly than they expected him. He gave the -peculiar check to Ruth and said:</p> - -<p>“He wasn’t there.”</p> - -<p>“How did you leave the laundry then?” asked Luke.</p> - -<p>“Oh, there was another Chink in the place—his partner, I guess. I asked -him when Hop Wong would be back, but I couldn’t make out anything he -said except ‘Tlhusdlay.’ I guess he meant Thursday.”</p> - -<p>“But surely Hop Wong wouldn’t remain away that long!” said Agnes.</p> - -<p>“No, he meant the laundry would be ready then,” suggested Neale. “That’s -the first thing a new Chinese learns to say—the days of the week. So you -didn’t see any sign of Hop Wong, Sammy?”</p> - -<p>“Nope.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe one of us had better go,” suggested Hal.</p> - -<p>“Guess we had,” agreed Luke. “Come on, we three will stroll down there. -Maybe Hop Wong will be back soon.”</p> - -<p>But when the three young men reached the steaming laundry, with its -peculiar acrid smell, Hop Wong was not in sight. A shuffling, slant-eyed -and smiling representative came out from behind the calico curtains, -however, and stretched forth a very clean hand with long nails.</p> - -<p>“You got chleck?” he clicked.</p> - -<p>“No check,” said Luke.</p> - -<p>“No lauldly,” was the sententious reply.</p> - -<p>“We haven’t any laundry,” went on Luke. “But listen here, friend, where -is Hop Wong?”</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong gone.”</p> - -<p>“When Hop Wong come back?” and Luke tried not to listen to the chuckles -of his friends at his vernacular talk.</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong clum black mebby t’mollo.”</p> - -<p>“Not until to-morrow? But maybe he come back to-night?”</p> - -<p>“Maybe. You no glot lauldly?”</p> - -<p>It seemed to worry Hop Wong’s partner (if such he was) that the visitors -had neither laundry to leave nor a check with which to claim shirts and -collars.</p> - -<p>“No laundry,” said Luke again. “I think I’ll leave a note for the jolly -beggar to call at the Corner House,” he said to Neale and Hal. “What do -you say?”</p> - -<p>“Can he read it after you write it?” asked Neale.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I guess so. ‘Friend,’” and he turned to the other laundryman, “Hop -Wong read let-letter—English letter—not Chinese?” His tone was -questioning.</p> - -<p>“Oh, shlure! Hop, he lead Englis’!”</p> - -<p>“All right—here goes,” and Luke printed with the bamboo brush on a piece -of laundry wrapping paper a request in as simple words as he could for -Hop Wong to call at the Corner House as soon as he returned.</p> - -<p>“There! Give it to Hop Wong as soon as he comes in,” said Luke. “Pronto! -Quick, you know!”</p> - -<p>“Pronto is Spanish—not Chinese,” chuckled Neale.</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, what is it you say when you want a Chinese to hurry?”</p> - -<p>“Chop-chop!” declared Hal.</p> - -<p>“All right—chop-chop it is,” said Luke. “You give Hop Wong this -chop-chop,” and he handed the other the message.</p> - -<p>“All lite,” was the bored answer, and they filed out, leaving Hop Wong’s -partner gravely trying to read the note which he held upside down.</p> - -<p>“I only hope he doesn’t think ‘chop-chop’ means that he’s to bring up a -bowl of rice and chop sticks,” said Neale, as they were on their way -back.</p> - -<p>“We’ll have to trust to luck,” replied Luke.</p> - -<p>They found the girls eagerly and anxiously awaiting their return.</p> - -<p>“Well?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>They told her what had taken place.</p> - -<p>“Then the only thing to do is to wait,” observed Agnes.</p> - -<p>It seemed a long time, but really it was not more than an hour. Sammy -had been sent home and Luke was about to propose that he and Neale and -Hal should pay another visit to the laundry, when there came a tapping -on the window of the room where they were all sitting. It happened to be -the only window that was not raised, for the night was warm.</p> - -<p>“What’s that?” exclaimed Nalbro, as the tapping on the glass sounded -very loud, coming, as it did, after a period of silence.</p> - -<p>“Look!” exclaimed Ruth.</p> - -<p>She pointed to the casement, and in the light from the room they all saw -the face of a Chinese peering at them.</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong!” exclaimed Neale. “Hey, you!” he shouted, “come in here and -stop playing your tricks!”</p> - -<p>But, even as he spoke, the face of Hop Wong faded away and disappeared -from sight.</p> - -<p>“Well, what do you know about that!” cried Hal.</p> - -<p>“After him!” cried Luke.</p> - -<p>The three young men dashed from the house, scattering to search for the -Chinaman. But he was not to be found anywhere around the house nor in -the adjacent garden.</p> - -<p>“Well, if he isn’t the limit!” exclaimed Luke, in exasperation. “What do -you suppose his game is?”</p> - -<p>“Give it up,” remarked Neale. “Maybe he’s hiding in the bushes under the -window. We didn’t look there.”</p> - -<p>An investigation of the shrubbery, however, failed to disclose any -Chinese. But they did see, on the window sill, another note. It was -written like the first, on laundry paper.</p> - -<p>“Hang the fellow!” chuckled Luke. “He’s as bad at writing notes as -Wilkins Micawber. Let’s see what this one says.”</p> - -<p>They carried it into the house. There they read this:</p> - -<div class='poetry'> -<p>“Hop Wong met Korner House gals midlight<br /> -under boy-pain tree in glarden.”</p> -</div> - -<p>“Whew!” whistled Neale. “More of the same mystery! Wants the girls to -meet him at midnight, does he? Not much!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXIV' title='XIV: Suspicions'> -<span>CHAPTER XIV</span><br /><span>SUSPICIONS</span> -</h2> - -<p>Ruth reached over and gently took from Neale’s hand the latest bit of -correspondence from Hop Wong. She read it slowly.</p> - -<p>“What do you think it means?” she asked, of no one in particular.</p> - -<p>“He wants you and Agnes to meet him at midnight! Just fancy that!” cried -Neale indignantly. “He has nerve! I’ll say that much!” He would have -said a great deal more, evidently, but Luke intervened.</p> - -<p>“I think he must mean ‘meet’ where he says ‘met,’” was the opinion -advanced by the young collegian. “You girls have never met him, have -you—using the word in its past tense?”</p> - -<p>“Never, except perhaps to go occasionally to his laundry,” Agnes -answered.</p> - -<p>“But what’s this riddle about a boy-pain tree in ‘glarden,’ by which, I -suppose, he means ‘garden’?” asked Hal.</p> - -<p>“That <i>is</i> a puzzler—boy-pain tree,” mused Neale. “I guess we’d better -take it for granted that Hop Wong has a gone crazy and let it go at -that.”</p> - -<p>“No!” exclaimed Luke. “I’m beginning to understand it. You have an apple -tree in your garden, haven’t you?” he asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“You ought to know—you and Ruth have sat under it often enough!” -chuckled Agnes.</p> - -<p>“That will do, Aggie. This may be serious,” said Ruth rebukingly, but in -a quiet voice. “Yes, there is an apple tree,” she went on.</p> - -<p>“Then that’s what Hop Wong means by ‘boy-pain’ tree,” declared Luke.</p> - -<p>“Where’s the connection?” demanded Neale.</p> - -<p>“I see!” exclaimed Hal. “And if you need a dictionary, Neale, to trace -the parallel between boys and pain and an apple tree——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, now I see!” laughed Neale. “Hop Wong didn’t know how to spell apple -tree, but he knew the effects of green apples on boys, and he went from -cause to effect. Pretty good, that!”</p> - -<p>“Do you suppose that’s what it is?” asked Nally.</p> - -<p>“It would seem so,” answered Luke. “Now the question is—do you girls -think it worth while to humor him, to meet him in this midnight tryst? -You needn’t be afraid, if that’s what you’re thinking of,” he went on, -as he saw Ruth about to demur. “We boys will all be within call.”</p> - -<p>“Brave boys!” joked Agnes, and Ruth gave her another warning look.</p> - -<p>“What do you think, Luke?” Ruth appealed to her friend. “Would you if -you were us?—I mean Agnes and myself. Of course we won’t ask Nally to -share the danger.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I like <i>that</i>!” cried the Boston girl. “Here you invite me to the -Corner House, and as soon as a first-class mystery—better than any -moving picture—crops up, you want to shut me out! No, indeed! Let me -help you keep the tryst. Hop Wong won’t know but what I am a regular -Corner House girl.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I don’t suppose three will make any difference,” replied Luke. -“Hop Wong isn’t likely to be fussy about that. Well, will you go? You -have about an hour to make up your mind,” he went on, as he looked at -his watch, noting that it was nearly eleven o’clock.</p> - -<p>“Let’s consider it a moment,” suggested Ruth, and then they talked it -all over again from the time Sammy had first summoned them to meet Hop -Wong in the garden, through the flight of the Chinese and his response -to Luke’s note.</p> - -<p>“If I only had an inkling of what it’s all about,” observed Ruth, “I -wouldn’t mind going. But I can’t imagine how Hop Wong can put us in the -way of making a great deal of money.”</p> - -<p>“The big point with him, I imagine,” said Neale, “is that he wants a -hundred dollars for himself. Maybe after he gets those he thinks he can -invest it in a Chinese lottery for you and win the capital prize.”</p> - -<p>“No, I hardly think that,” replied Ruth. “Well, we’ll take a chance, -girls,” she decided. “With the boys stationed in the bushes near at hand -there can be no danger. We’ll see what Hop Wong wants—will you?” and she -turned to Nalbro and Agnes.</p> - -<p>“I’m game!” announced the Boston girl.</p> - -<p>“And far be it from me to be a spoil-sport,” declared Agnes. “Come on.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t be in too much of a rush; you have a little time yet,” announced -Luke. “We’ll just scout around the apple tree and seek good places for -us to hide. Come on, boys.”</p> - -<p>He went out with Neale and Hal. Ruth looked at her sister and guest.</p> - -<p>“Nervous?” questioned Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“No.”</p> - -<p>“Neither am I! Isn’t it thrilling?”</p> - -<p>“It may be too much so,” said Ruth grimly.</p> - -<p>They sat and talked in the now silent Corner House until the boys came -back. Mrs. MacCall, Linda, and Uncle Rufus had gone to bed, for Ruth -told them she would lock up after the boys had gone home.</p> - -<p>“I guess we’re all set for the play,” announced Luke as he and the other -two boys returned. “It lacks a little of midnight, but I fancy Hop Wong -will be a little early. We’ll go down first and hide ourselves away. -Don’t worry if you don’t see us, for it wouldn’t do to show ourselves to -the laundryman. But we’ll be close to you.”</p> - -<p>“All right,” said Ruth. “We’ll follow you in about five minutes.”</p> - -<p>And at the end of that time, when the three girls went into the garden -and walked toward the apple tree, bathed as it was in moonlight, there -was not a sign of the boys, not so much as loud breathing. Yet Ruth knew -Luke would not fail her.</p> - -<p>For several minutes the girls waited under the tree. There was no sound -but the night wind. The situation was growing tense, and Agnes said -later that it was all she could do to keep from giggling hysterically.</p> - -<p>Suddenly there was a hiss coming with fierce energy out of the darkness.</p> - -<p>“Oh—a snake!” gasped Nalbro. “I’m going to——”</p> - -<p>Whether she was about to announce that she would faint or run no one -knew, for a moment later the voice of Hop Wong called:</p> - -<p>“Clorner House gals alle lite?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, we’re here all right, Hop Wong,” answered Ruth, in steady tones. -“But what does this mean? Why have you asked us out here to meet you? If -you are playing any tricks——”</p> - -<p>“No, Missie Luth, no tlicks. Hop Wong play no tlicks. I telle you lite -away quick.”</p> - -<p>Out of the moonlight shadows he came, a timid and shrinking figure of a -Chinese. Ruth wondered that she had ever had a sense of fear concerning -him, he seemed so slight and boyish—not much larger, in fact, than Sammy -Pinkney.</p> - -<p>“Well, Hop Wong, we are here and we’ll listen to what you have to say,” -remarked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong glad Missie Luth come,” said the laundryman, drawing nearer -and standing fully revealed in the silvery radiance under the outermost -branches of the tree. “Other Clorner House gals here?” he asked. Hop -Wong did not speak as he wrote, exactly.</p> - -<p>“Yes, we’re all here,” Ruth told him.</p> - -<p>“Alle lite. Now Hop Wong tell. Listen! You give Hop Wong one hund’ed -dollals, Hop Wong show you where much money is. You sabby?”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?” demanded Ruth. “Where is this much money you will -show us?”</p> - -<p>“Ah, flist you give Hop Wong one hund’ed dollals?” he cunningly -demanded.</p> - -<p>“And if we do give you a hundred dollars will you show us where we can -find more than that?” asked Agnes, thinking it wise to show that Ruth -was not in supreme authority.</p> - -<p>“That what Hop Wong do.”</p> - -<p>“But if you know where there is a lot of money, why don’t you go and get -it for yourself, and not let us take it?” asked Ruth. “Why don’t you get -this big sum yourself, Hop Wong?”</p> - -<p>“No can do,” was all he said. “Only Clorner House gals git much money. -Hop Wong git one hund’ed dollals. No can do.”</p> - -<p>He seemed quite downcast about it, and to the girls he was rather a -pathetic figure.</p> - -<p>“Why don’t you tell us first where this money is, and then let us pay -you the hundred dollars if we find it?” asked Agnes. “Don’t you trust -us, Hop Wong? You have known us long enough to know we are honest and -that we’ll pay you if we find any such large sum as you tell about. -Where is it? Tell us, and if we get it we’ll pay you—maybe two hundred -dollars.”</p> - -<p>“No can do,” was all Hop Wong said.</p> - -<p>Further arguments seemed to be useless, yet Ruth made one more attempt. -But when Hop Wong stubbornly, or perhaps uncomprehendingly, repeated:</p> - -<p>“No can do! Give Hop Wong one hund’ed dollals.”</p> - -<p>Ruth exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“We’ll have to see our guardian about this. We’ll have to talk with Mr. -Howbridge, our guardian, Hop Wong, and we’ll see you later—at your -laundry. That is all for to-night.”</p> - -<p>It was surprising to note the change that came over the Chinese. He -appeared to shrink and grow even smaller and terror was clearly manifest -on his face.</p> - -<p>“No tell! No tell him!” he cried. “No call guard and have Hop Wong -alested. No tell! I not bad! Oh! Oh!” and in a perfect wail of fright he -turned and fled, being soon lost among the moonlighted shadows of the -garden.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Nalbro, in pity.</p> - -<p>In an instant the three boys had leaped from their hiding places and had -joined the girls, so close and ready were they.</p> - -<p>“Shall we take after him?” cried Neale.</p> - -<p>“No, the poor fellow is frightened to death now,” said Ruth.</p> - -<p>“But what happened?” asked Luke. “What did you say to him that made him -yell like that and run as if a dragon were chasing him? We couldn’t hear -all that was said.”</p> - -<p>“I merely announced that we would have to see our guardian about paying -Hop Wong one hundred dollars,” stated Ruth. “Then off he ran.”</p> - -<p>There was silence for a moment and then Luke exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“I see! He thought you said you would call the <i>guard</i>. Guess he must -have thought you had a squad of soldiers on hand. Your use of the word -‘guardian’ mixed him up. There is something suspicious in this or he -wouldn’t be so ready to run when he thought you were going to call in -the authorities. That’s it—Hop Wong is afraid of the law.”</p> - -<p>And so it seemed. The more they thought about it and talked it over, the -more Luke’s explanation seemed to fit the conduct of the laundryman.</p> - -<p>“Well, no use staying out here any longer,” said Ruth, with a little -shiver, for the night dew was chilling. “Let’s go in, or Mrs. Mac will -think we’ve been carried off by some ‘lang-nebbied thing.’”</p> - -<p>They went into the house. Neale and Luke offered to remain all night, -but it was not considered necessary with Hal and Uncle Rufus at hand, to -say nothing of the strong-armed Linda.</p> - -<p>They talked matters over a little longer, all the while growing more and -more suspicious of Hop Wong’s conduct, and when Luke and Neale departed -it was with the intention of taking serious steps the next day to get at -the bottom of the mystery.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXV' title='XV: Tess and Dot Investigate'> -<span>CHAPTER XV</span><br /><span>TESS AND DOT INVESTIGATE</span> -</h2> - -<p>Mr. Howbridge chuckled in silent amusement when Ruth and Agnes paid him -a visit at his office the next day and told what had happened.</p> - -<p>“What do you think of it?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Not much, my dear. If you want my private and unofficial opinion, I’ll -say I think very little of it.”</p> - -<p>“But, Guardy,” broke in Agnes, “perhaps we’d better have your official -opinion.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” agreed Ruth, “that’s what we came for.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t give you an official opinion until I look further into the -matter,” he said, growing a bit grave as he saw how much these two -Corner House girls were affected by what had taken place. “Let me have -the documents in the case,” he begged.</p> - -<p>“Meaning these laundry checks, as Luke calls them?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Yes. You know we lawyer fellows depend a great deal on documentary -evidence. Not that I think I can get much from these, however,” he went -on, as he looked over Hop Wong’s notes.</p> - -<p>“What shall we do?” Ruth wanted to know.</p> - -<p>“Just nothing for the present,” was the lawyer’s advice. “Leave it to -me. I’ll see the official court interpreter whom we always have whenever -there is a Chinese case in court, and I’ll get him to have a talk with -Hop Wong. It is just possible that he may be misunderstood, both in his -writings and talk.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, that’s possible,” admitted Ruth. “I wouldn’t want to do the poor -fellow an injustice.”</p> - -<p>“He seemed to have a guilty conscience,” remarked Agnes, with a giggle, -as she remembered how Hop Wong had run at the mention of the word -guardian.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps he isn’t the only one,” replied Mr. Howbridge, with a smile, -looking at several documents on his desk. “We lawyers run across some -queer cases. Not to raise your hopes too high, however, I think I -wouldn’t anticipate too much from what Hop Wong said,” he went on. “I -mean about a great sum of money coming to you. I handled all of your -Uncle Peter’s affairs and, as far as I know, his estate is all settled -and you have the most of it.”</p> - -<p>“For which we are duly grateful,” said Ruth.</p> - -<p>“And we don’t hope for nor really want any more,” remarked Agnes. -“Though if you could see your way clear to letting us have a new car, of -course we’d——”</p> - -<p>“There you go again!” chuckled the guardian. “Isn’t that a perfectly -good car you have now?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s <i>good</i> enough, if you mean it that way,” sighed Agnes. “But if -you could see the look, sometimes, on Nally Hastings’ face when she gets -in it!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, ho! Sets the wind in that quarter?” exclaimed Mr. Howbridge, using -one of his favorite expressions. “And don’t tell me I should say ‘sit,’ -either!” he hastened to remark, thus forestalling an objection on the -part of Ruth, who held that the old adage should be “sits the wind,” and -not “sets.” However, this time she was too anxious over the matter of -Hop Wong and the mystery with which he was connected to “start -anything,” as Neale would have said.</p> - -<p>“Well, you go home and be good girls—No, I won’t say that for you’re -always good,” joked Mr. Howbridge. “But I’ll see about letting you have -a new car. I’m going over some of your accounts now, and if I find the -balance on the right side——”</p> - -<p>“If you don’t, perhaps we can get Hop Wong’s money,” laughed Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Don’t count your chickens until you hear them coming over the bridge, -as Uncle Rufus would say,” remarked Ruth. “Well, Mr. Howbridge, we’ll -leave it to you,” and she and Agnes went back to the Corner House.</p> - -<p>“Has Hop Wong been around again?” asked Ruth of Mrs. MacCall.</p> - -<p>“Not a glint of him, and small pleasure do I have at a sight of the -yellow-faced heathen!” exclaimed the Scotch housekeeper.</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, don’t be too harsh on him,” laughed Agnes. “He may be the -means of our getting a new car. We certainly need one,” and she looked -toward the old one which Neale was bringing out of the garage, for they -were to take a ride that afternoon.</p> - -<p>After lunch there was a merry party on the cool porch of the Corner -House. Luke was there, bringing word that he had had a telegram and that -his sister and her intended would be unable to get to Milton, as had -been planned, in order to accompany them on the little outing.</p> - -<p>“And what is the opinion of the learned Mr. Howbridge concerning the -collar-cleansing representative of the Celestial Empire?” asked Luke of -Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Meaning Hop Wong?” asked Neale.</p> - -<p>“Yes, my son,” replied Luke, with a patronizing air.</p> - -<p>“He doesn’t attach much importance to it,” Ruth answered.</p> - -<p>“Same here,” voiced Neale.</p> - -<p>“I think he’s a faker!” exclaimed Hal.</p> - -<p>“Well, I don’t know but what I shall have to agree with you,” said Luke -slowly. “I’ve thought it all over, and I can’t see but what it doesn’t -amount to anything. Hop Wong must have been dreaming.”</p> - -<p>“Call it a pipe dream,” suggested Neale, with a laugh.</p> - -<p>“Oh, do you think he smokes opium?” asked Nalbro, shocked.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I guess not. Don’t saddle that on him,” said Luke. “But I didn’t -mean that way. I think Hop Wong has been day-dreaming, perhaps, and he -may have heard some story about fabulous wealth in the Corner House. You -know, before you girls succeeded to Mr. Stower’s estate,” Luke went on, -“there was a rumor, so I’ve heard, that he was a sort of miser.”</p> - -<p>“We never heard that!” declared Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Well, probably it wasn’t spread broadcast,” proceeded Luke. “But I -understand there was some talk of it, and I think this is what Hop Wong -has gotten hold of and he thinks maybe there is a treasure buried -somewhere.”</p> - -<p>“Just like that treasure that was found in the album in the attic—the -fortune that went to Mrs. Eland and Miss Pepperill,” said Agnes.</p> - -<p>“But where, Luke, could this present fortune be buried?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Just nowhere!” chuckled Luke. “It’s all bosh, of course, and that’s why -I think Hop Wong is a faker.”</p> - -<p>“But what about what was said by those men on the train?” asked Agnes. -“I mean about the ten thousand dollars.”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” murmured Luke. “You mean those men I overheard talking?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t believe there’s any connection between them and Hop Wong. It’s -all just bunk, if you will excuse my use of a slang term,” laughed Luke. -“Now let’s forget all about it and go riding. It’s a glorious day.”</p> - -<p>Neale and Hal brought around the automobile, and as Nalbro was getting -in Agnes could not help saying:</p> - -<p>“We were down this morning to see Mr. Howbridge, and he said we could -get a new car. I hope it comes before you go home, Nally.”</p> - -<p>“A new car!” whooped out Neale. “Glory be! Then I won’t have to tease -this one along much more.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Agnes, Mr. Howbridge didn’t say for sure we could have one,” -expostulated Ruth.</p> - -<p>“No. But he didn’t say we <i>couldn’t</i>,” countered Agnes. “And when he -doesn’t do that it almost always happens. Anyhow, I’m going to look at -some of the new models.”</p> - -<p>“There’s certainly no harm in looking,” chuckled Neale. “But I do hope -Mr. Howbridge loosens up. If he doesn’t we may get stalled out in the -country some day and have to be towed in.”</p> - -<p>“Is this machine as risky as that?” asked Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“Nothing of the sort!” declared Luke. “It’s perfectly reliable.”</p> - -<p>With merry quips and laughter the party of young folks started off, -leaving Dot and Tess at home to play with Sammy Pinkney.</p> - -<p>Now, as it happened, Tess and Dot had overheard more of the talk of -their older sisters than Ruth and Agnes were aware of. It was distinctly -a case of “little pitchers with big ears,” and when the automobile party -was well out of the way, Tess with a queer, secretive air about her, led -her sister and Sammy to a secluded place around the corner of the house.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you tell a soul,” whispered Tess.</p> - -<p>“What’s a soul?” asked Sammy.</p> - -<p>“It’s a person,” Tess informed him. “Don’t you dare tell anybody, will -you?”</p> - -<p>“Tell ’em what?” Sammy wanted to know.</p> - -<p>“What I’m going to tell you and Dot now.”</p> - -<p>“All right, I won’t tell,” promised Sammy.</p> - -<p>“Cross your heart!”</p> - -<p>This rite was performed rapidly.</p> - -<p>“You, too, Dot!”</p> - -<p>“Can’t I tell even my Alice-doll?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, her! Yes. But nobody else! Cross your heart!”</p> - -<p>Dot did it for herself and for her doll.</p> - -<p>“Now listen,” went on Tess, and her voice sank to a lower whisper. “It’s -in <i>our cellar</i>!”</p> - -<p>She brought out the last two words with such force that Dot dropped her -Alice-doll.</p> - -<p>“What’s in your cellar?” asked Sammy. “My alligator?”</p> - -<p>“No. The ten thousand dollars!” went on Tess, eagerly.</p> - -<p>“What ten thousand dollars?” Sammy questioned excitedly.</p> - -<p>“The money those men told Luke about on the train and——”</p> - -<p>“They didn’t tell him about any money,” objected Sammy. “It was just -that he heard them say it.”</p> - -<p>“It’s the same thing,” declared Tess, with a fine disregard for trifles. -“The men know about ten thousand dollars in our cellar and so does Hop -Wong!”</p> - -<p>“He does?” cried Sammy, with wide-open eyes.</p> - -<p>“Yes!” went on Tess, with a wise shake of her head. “Now you listen to -me, both of you, and don’t you breathe it to a soul!”</p> - -<p>This was more exciting than any imaginary happening Sammy had ever -brought up, not excepting his dramatic one about the Russian wolves.</p> - -<p>“There’s ten thousand dollars in our cellar,” declared Tess. “Those -funny men who came pretending to fix a water pipe were after it, but -Uncle Rufus scared them away. Hop Wong knows where it is, but he’s -scared, too.”</p> - -<p>“Where ’bouts you s’pose it is?” asked Sammy in a whisper.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know exactly,” answered Tess. “But it’s in our cellar and we’re -going to find it. Come on! We’ll go get it now!”</p> - -<p>She started toward the slanting, open cellar door. For a moment Sammy -and Dot watched her and then, fired by the spirit of what they had -heard, the other two children started down into the dark depths, intent -on making some explorations.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXVI' title='XVI: The Storm'> -<span>CHAPTER XVI</span><br /><span>THE STORM</span> -</h2> - -<p>Rather scary it was, this venturing into the seldom-visited regions -beneath Corner House. In fact Tess and Dot never remembered having gone -there before unaccompanied by their older sisters. But they were driven -by a powerful motive—two motives, in fact.</p> - -<p>One was curiosity, than which there is no stronger for a child or -animal. The other was the desire to “show off” before the older -folks—Ruth, Agnes and the boys.</p> - -<p>“Won’t they be surprised when we hand them the ten thousand dollars!” -exclaimed Tess, as she led the way down the outside cellar steps.</p> - -<p>“Oh, won’t they, just!” agreed Dot.</p> - -<p>“Will they give you any of the money?” Sammy asked, somewhat enviously.</p> - -<p>“Of course they will,” declared Tess.</p> - -<p>“How much?” Sammy inquired.</p> - -<p>“Oh, maybe forty dollars,” said Tess, vaguely.</p> - -<p>“I’d rather have sixteen,” declared Dot.</p> - -<p>“Listen to her!” exclaimed Tess. “She thinks sixteen dollars is more -than forty!”</p> - -<p>“Ho! Ho!” chuckled the boy.</p> - -<p>“Well, it is!” declared Dot, indignantly. “Look! When you have sixteen -dollars you have a one and a six,” and on the bottom step, in the dust, -she traced the figures. “You have a one and a six,” she repeated. “But -when you have forty dollars you have only a four and a nothing. So -there!”</p> - -<p>“Well, forty’s more’n sixteen, I know that!” declared Sammy, though he -was a little impressed by Dot’s logic.</p> - -<p>“Come on, let’s find the ten thousand dollars first,” suggested Tess, -foreseeing a long argument if she did not intervene, and the search -started at that part of the cellar nearest the outside door.</p> - -<p>“There’s a lot of places to look,” complained Sammy, when the trio had -ventured in a little way. “I wonder if it’s in a box or a barrel?”</p> - -<p>“It’s buried—that’s where it is,” declared Tess.</p> - -<p>“Buried?” questioned Dot and Sammy.</p> - -<p>“Yes, buried treasure is always buried, else how could they call it -buried treasure?” Tess wanted to know, with an affectation of superior -wisdom.</p> - -<p>“Well, I guess that’s right,” agreed Sammy. “Buried under the cellar -bottom, I s’pose.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said Tess. “And we’ll have to get a shovel to dig it up.”</p> - -<p>“Dig up the whole cellar?” cried Sammy. “That’s a heap of work!”</p> - -<p>“Buried treasure always means a lot of digging,” Tess calmly informed -him. “We’ll all help.”</p> - -<p>“Got to have shovels then,” decided Sammy. “Well, I’ll go get ’em.”</p> - -<p>He started up out of the cellar.</p> - -<p>“I—I guess—maybe we’d better come with you,” said Tess, falteringly as -she looked at the black depths stretching far, far into the rear of the -cellar and thinking of the two men who had claimed to be from the water -department. “Maybe you wouldn’t know the right kind of shovels to get, -Sammy.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll go, too,” said Dot. “Maybe I’d better leave my Alice-doll out in -the sun,” she added, as they tramped back up the steps. “She might catch -cold in the damp cellar.”</p> - -<p>“All right,” agreed Tess, though it could be seen she had small -sympathy, at least just now, with Dot’s doll.</p> - -<p>Sammy found a shovel for himself in Uncle Rufus’ tool-house and the -girls got two smaller ones that they at times used to play with. Thus -equipped, they went back down cellar, not attracting the attention of -Uncle Rufus or Linda or Mrs. MacCall.</p> - -<p>“Well, now let’s dig,” suggested Sammy.</p> - -<p>The cellar of the Corner House was not an up-to-date cement one, being, -in fact, very old-fashioned and of dirt. But the dirt was packed hard -with years of use, and it was no easy matter to dig in it. The children -soon found this out.</p> - -<p>“This isn’t any fun!” complained Dot, after a while.</p> - -<p>“We <i>have</i> to do it!” insisted Tess. “All treasure hunting is hard work. -Isn’t it, Sammy?”</p> - -<p>“Sure,” he agreed, though this was his first attempt.</p> - -<p>They dug around a bit more, their hardest efforts, however, not making -much of an impression on the well-packed cellar bottom, and at last Tess -said:</p> - -<p>“I guess we’ll have to go where the dirt’s softer. They just <i>couldn’t</i> -bury any treasure here.”</p> - -<p>“Where’ll we go?” Dot asked.</p> - -<p>“Up there,” and Tess pointed to the farthermost depths of the cellar.</p> - -<p>“It’s dark there—terribly dark,” complained Dot. “We can’t see to dig.”</p> - -<p>Tess pondered on this for a moment.</p> - -<p>“We’ll have to get candles,” she decided. “But if we go into the kitchen -and take away any candles, Linda’ll see us, or Mrs. MacCall, and they’ll -ask us what we’re doing, and——”</p> - -<p>“I’ll go get my cigar-box lantern,” offered Sammy.</p> - -<p>“What’s that, Sammy?” asked Tess.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s a cigar box with a candle in it,” said Sammy. “It’s a dandy. -I’ll get it.”</p> - -<p>He hurried out of the cellar, and Tess and Dot waited for him up in the -open, for the little girls did not like to stay in the gloomy place when -they were not busy with their treasure hunting.</p> - -<p>Sammy’s lantern, manufactured as he had said, out of a cigar box, with a -hole cut in the lid and a square of glass set in, was not a half-bad -illuminant. It gave fitful gleams down in the cellar, and, not much to -the amusement of the children, cast fantastic shadows on the whitewashed -walls.</p> - -<p>“Now we’ll go away back where the dirt is soft and get the buried -treasure,” said Tess.</p> - -<p>And into the gloomy depths the children advanced, rather hesitatingly -and with more than one glance back over their shoulders, it is true.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the older Corner House girls and Nally and their boy friends -were enjoying themselves on the automobile trip. They went to a summer -resort where there was a small lake, and soon were floating about in -idle pleasure, a couple in each of three boats.</p> - -<p>“Beautiful here, isn’t it?” asked Luke of Ruth. The boat was slowly -drifting, beneath an overhanging arch of green branches.</p> - -<p>“Very,” she agreed. “But——”</p> - -<p>“But me no buts,” he quoted, laughingly. And then, as he noticed that -she was rather serious he added: “I’ll double the proverbial penny.”</p> - -<p>“For what?” she asked, hardly comprehending.</p> - -<p>“Your thoughts,” he answered. “What are you thinking of? May I hope that -I am——”</p> - -<p>“I don’t want to spoil your romance,” she broke in laughingly; “but I -was really wondering what Tess and Dot were doing. I hope they’re all -right.”</p> - -<p>“Why shouldn’t they be?”</p> - -<p>“Well, that queer Chinese and——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Hop Wong won’t bother them. If he comes around I fancy Linda will -send him flying.”</p> - -<p>“It isn’t so much him as those two men——”</p> - -<p>“Don’t give them another thought,” advised Luke. “I’m sure they will -never come near the Corner House again.”</p> - -<p>“I wish I could be sure,” said Ruth. “I don’t want to stay here too -long. Somehow—I can’t explain it—I have a feeling that something is -happening back home!”</p> - -<p>“Just nerves,” declared Luke. “But if you really want to go back——”</p> - -<p>“I’d like to. It is almost time, anyhow, and shortening the outing by an -hour or so, if you don’t mind——”</p> - -<p>“Not at all,” Luke hastened to assure her. “We’ll go back just as soon -as I can round up the others.”</p> - -<p>“You are very good,” murmured Ruth, with a grateful look at him, and she -did not too quickly draw away her hand when Luke stretched his fingers -over hers.</p> - -<p>“Oh, say! What’s the idea? Going back so soon!” expostulated Neale, when -he and Agnes were signaled to, and came rowing up to the boat dock. -“Why, the day isn’t half gone!”</p> - -<p>“Ruth thinks we had better get back, and so do I,” said Luke quietly. -“It looks as though we might have a storm,” he went on, “and you know -the car wasn’t exactly on its best behavior on the way out, old man.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I worked the crankiness out of her,” declared Neale. But when he -saw that Ruth was really in earnest about going back he made no further -protest. Nor did Hal nor Nalbro.</p> - -<p>Contrary to Luke’s partial prediction, the car behaved beautifully, and -they were soon on their homeward trip. But the other remark of the -collegian—to the effect that a storm was brewing—seemed likely to be -borne out. In the west black clouds were gathering.</p> - -<p>“We’ll be home before it breaks,” declared Neale, and he stepped on the -accelerator.</p> - -<p>“I hope so,” murmured Ruth. “Tess and Dot are so careless, and I ought -to be on hand if there is a heavy storm.”</p> - -<p>They sped along right merrily, perhaps a little more subdued than on the -outgoing trip, for, after all, anticipation is a bit more romantic than -realization in nearly every case. But they had had a pleasant day.</p> - -<p>A few drops of rain were falling as Neale drove the automobile into the -yard of Corner House, and the girls hastened up on the porch as he -continued on to the garage.</p> - -<p>“Where are Tess and Dot?” asked Ruth of Mrs. MacCall, as the Scotch -housekeeper came out on the porch.</p> - -<p>“Oh, the bairns are down in the cellar.”</p> - -<p>“In the cellar!” Ruth exclaimed. “Why——”</p> - -<p>“It is only the noo that I diskivered it,” asserted Mrs. MacCall, -lapsing into some of her Scotch. “I warned them to come oop tha once. -Then ye came spirin’ alang——”</p> - -<p>“But what are they doing down in the cellar?” asked Ruth. “I hope they -haven’t been playing there long. Is Sammy with them?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. They’re playin’ some game, I’ll wager. I’ll call them ag’in, -an’——”</p> - -<p>But at that moment a dreadful crash sounded from the direction of the -cellar.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” cried Ruth. “What has happened?”</p> - -<p>“I’ll see!” offered Luke, making a dash for the inside cellar stairs.</p> - -<p>“I’m with you!” added Hal, for Neale had not come in from the garage.</p> - -<p>Anxious, the three girls waited at the head of the stairs. They could -see a flickering light down in the blackness.</p> - -<p>“Oh, if it should be those men or Hop Wong!” half sobbed Ruth.</p> - -<p>But a moment later Luke’s cheery voice, most reassuring in its tone, -came floating up.</p> - -<p>“It’s all right,” he announced. “They just knocked down a shelf of glass -preserve jars. Nobody hurt! Up you go, children!”</p> - -<p>A moment later Luke reappeared, carrying Tess, covered with dirt and -cobwebs, while Hal followed with Dot in a similar condition. Sammy, with -his cigar-box lantern, trailed behind, a woeful figure.</p> - -<p>“What in the world have you children been doing?” cried Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Digging for buried treasure,” announced Tess, as though that were an -everyday occupation. “We haven’t found any yet. And then the shelf fell -down and——”</p> - -<p>Her words were muffled in a terrific clap of thunder which shook the -house. Agnes and Nalbro screamed and covered their ears with their hands -while Mrs. MacCall murmured:</p> - -<p>“What a terrible storm!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXVII' title='XVII: The Midnight Noise'> -<span>CHAPTER XVII</span><br /><span>THE MIDNIGHT NOISE</span> -</h2> - -<p>Silence followed the terrific clap of thunder—a silence almost as -startling as the noise which had preceded it. And then the rain came -down in torrents.</p> - -<p>It was as if that awful blast had opened the flood-gates of heaven and -let down the waters accumulated there for ages past. A pelting, driving, -overwhelming storm it was, punctuated by intermittent flashes of -lightning and rumbling thunder.</p> - -<p>But, as if that were not enough, the condition of the three -children—woebegone, dirty and on the verge of tears—was enough to cause -a disturbance.</p> - -<p>“What has happened? What is going to happen?” murmured Ruth, for once, -at least, feeling that her nerves were going to give way.</p> - -<p>It was Agnes who saved the situation. Having gained her own equilibrium, -she turned to Nalbro and asked:</p> - -<p>“What do you think of the Corner House now? Isn’t it an ideal place? So -quiet and restful!”</p> - -<p>And as she asked this Dot burst into tears and wails, which made her -inquiry seem all the more contrasting.</p> - -<p>But Nally let out a peal of jolly laughter and exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“I just love it! It’s so different!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, it’s different, all right!” chuckled Neale.</p> - -<p>“Well, now that we’re at least all here, whole and not in pieces,” said -Ruth, “perhaps we can have some explanation of what it is all about—I -mean what you children have been doing,” she explained. “First, though, -is any one hurt?”</p> - -<p>“I ain’t,” declared Sammy Pinkney.</p> - -<p>“You shouldn’t say ‘ain’t,’ Sammy,” remarked Tess primly, intent on -improving her playmate notwithstanding the noise and confusion all about -her.</p> - -<p>“I aren’t hurt, but I is scared,” announced Dot.</p> - -<p>At this Hal and Luke laughed in glee, at which Dot looked a little hurt. -Neale, however, was a great comfort, as usual, for he looked gravely at -her and said:</p> - -<p>“Never mind, Dotums. Almost any one would be scared.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I know something else Sammy shouldn’t do,” said Agnes, after the -laughter subsided. “And that is to have that old smelly lantern in here. -It’s bad enough when the windows are open, but when they’re all closed -it’s terrible. Blow it out, Sammy, do!”</p> - -<p>The candle in the cigar box was making a smudge, and Sammy obligingly -extinguished it.</p> - -<p>“Now let’s have the story,” suggested Ruth.</p> - -<p>While the storm raged outside the children told how they had conceived -the idea of searching in the cellar for buried treasure—the treasure of -Hop Wong and the two men.</p> - -<p>“But what makes you think there is treasure in our cellar?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Because,” was all Tess or Dot would say.</p> - -<p>As for Sammy, he only pointed to the girls. This was a case of shifting -the blame, it seemed.</p> - -<p>By degrees, however, it was drawn out of the trio how Tess had put this -and that together, and had, in a way, added what she had overheard -concerning the Chinaman and the two tramps. Thus she had arrived at the -decision that there must be a store of gold in the cellar of the Corner -House. She had then taken Dot and Sammy into her confidence.</p> - -<p>“And we dug and dug, but we didn’t find any,” reported Tess. “We were in -the back part of the cellar, where it’s awfully dark, when we heard a -noise. We ran and we knocked down something that fell on the swinging -shelf, and that fell down and——”</p> - -<p>“It’s a mercy you weren’t all cut by the broken glass jars!” exclaimed -Ruth. “I suppose the cellar’s a sight!” she sighed.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it isn’t so bad as if the jars had been filled with fruit,” -chuckled Luke. “There’s a lot of broken glass, it’s true, but glass jars -are cheap. It might have been worse.”</p> - -<p>“Indeed, yes, if the children had been hurt,” agreed Ruth.</p> - -<p>A close inspection showed no damage beyond what soap and water would -remedy. Then, as the household settled down to a more normal state of -existence, preparations were made for getting supper, and more details -of the searching expedition of Tess, Dot and Sammy were drawn out while -the storm raged.</p> - -<p>“What sort of noise was it you heard that made you run? You said you -knocked down something that broke the swinging shelf, didn’t you?” asked -Ruth, when Mrs. MacCall and Linda were preparing the evening meal.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it was just a noise,” replied Tess, vaguely. Ruth’s evident -idea—evident, at least, to the older ones—was to learn if any attempt -had been made by Hop Wong or the two strange men to enter the cellar -under cover of the approaching storm.</p> - -<p>“But can’t you tell me what sort of noise?” persisted Ruth.</p> - -<p>“It was—now, it was a noisy noise!” exclaimed Sammy, with a triumphant -air.</p> - -<p>And he wondered why some of them laughed.</p> - -<p>“Never mind, Sammy,” said Neale consolingly, “most noises are noisy. And -that’s the sort of noise that annoys an oyster, if I remember the joke -aright.”</p> - -<p>“If you get off any more old ones like that,” threatened Hal, “we’ll -sentence you to stand out in the rain and sing a song.”</p> - -<p>“And it’s some rain!” murmured Luke.</p> - -<p>Indeed, though the first fury of the storm was over, culminating, it -seemed, in that one terrific crack, there was now a steady downpour -which seemed likely to last all night.</p> - -<p>“Sammy, you’d better stay here to supper,” said Ruth, when the meal was -nearly ready. “I’ll telephone over to your mother to say you’re all -right.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I guess she knows I’m all right,” Sammy announced, with cheerful -irresponsibility.</p> - -<p>“I’ll make sure,” Ruth declared.</p> - -<p>It was still thundering and the lightning was flashing when she -approached the instrument.</p> - -<p>“Don’t go near it!” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Why not?” Ruth asked.</p> - -<p>“It’s always dangerous in a thunder storm to go near a telephone! Keep -away!”</p> - -<p>But Ruth was one not easily frightened. Though after she had got her -connection with the Pinkney house and had relieved his mother’s feelings -by saying that Sammy would remain where he was for the present, Ruth -leaped back as a loud clicking from the telephone indicated some sort of -electrical disturbance on the wire.</p> - -<p>“There! What did I tell you?” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“No harm done,” Ruth replied.</p> - -<p>It was almost time for the meal to be served when Luke arose, took Neale -by the arm, and started for the hall, saying:</p> - -<p>“Well, we’ll bid you young ladies good-evening.”</p> - -<p>“What?” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“You aren’t going—not in all this storm!” objected Ruth.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t hear you invite us to supper,” returned Luke with a simulated -injured air. “And you didn’t offer to telephone to Grantham and say I -was all right.”</p> - -<p>“Or to Con Murphy,” added Neale, with a serious face.</p> - -<p>“Silly!” murmured Ruth. “Of course you boys will stay. Stay all night, -if you like. We have plenty of room.”</p> - -<p>“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” agreed Neale, looking out of the window, -down the panes of which little streams of rain were running. “What say, -Luke?”</p> - -<p>“I’m with you! It looks like a good imitation of the original flood -outside.”</p> - -<p>“You really would have to go around; you couldn’t climb the back fence -in this storm. Yes, you’ll have to stay,” put in Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Then we’ll have a jolly evening of it!” cried Hal. Perhaps he thought -three girls to one youth was all out of proportion.</p> - -<p>Indeed, now that they were all safe within doors there was no need to -worry about the storm. The members of the picnic party congratulated -themselves that they had left the lake and grove in time to escape the -outburst of the elements.</p> - -<p>It was an intermittent sort of storm, and there would be lulls in it -when it seemed about to stop. The rain would almost cease and the -thunder die away, while the flashes of lightning would hardly be -noticeable.</p> - -<p>Then, with a suddenness that was appalling, would come a crash of -thunder which would shake the house, and the lightning preceding it -would crackle and snap on the electric-light wires.</p> - -<p>Sometimes the rain would decrease to a mere drizzle, and again it would -pelt down as if about to bore through the roof.</p> - -<p>But the Corner House was stanch—Uncle Peter Stower had seen to that—and -not a drop entered.</p> - -<p>Supper was a jollier meal with all the company present, than otherwise -would have been the case.</p> - -<p>But to storm and conversation alike Sammy Pinkney was seemingly deaf. He -paid strict attention to the affair in hand, which affair consisted in -getting outside as much food as possible. Neither thunder, lightning nor -rain disturbed Sammy.</p> - -<p>As Neale observed him clean off plate after plate, which Linda filled, -Agnes’ chum could not help remarking:</p> - -<p>“Treasure hunting makes you hungry, doesn’t it, Sammy?”</p> - -<p>“Sure!” Sammy answered, not lifting his eyes from the piece of pie.</p> - -<p>“I only hope he isn’t made ill,” murmured Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Doesn’t thunder or lightning or something have some effect on food or -something?” asked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“You’re thinking of lightning turning milk sour, I guess,” answered -Neale.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps,” agreed Agnes.</p> - -<p>After the meal they went into the sitting room and sat about talking, -the late treasure-hunt, among other topics, being discussed. Ruth had -just gone to the telephone again to tell Mrs. Pinkney that Sammy could -remain all night if the storm did not cease when a series of queer -happenings began.</p> - -<p>The first was a sudden dimming of the electric lights. They had been -glowing brightly when, all at once, they went from a white brightness to -a dull red in their vacuum globes.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Ruth. “I hope we aren’t going to be left in darkness. We -took out most of the gas. I must see if Linda has any candles.”</p> - -<p>“I can light my cigar-box lantern,” offered Sammy.</p> - -<p>“Thank you—no!” protested Agnes. “I’d rather sit in darkness than be -smothered.”</p> - -<p>“It’s only the lightning,” said Neale. “The lights always go down when a -big flash comes.”</p> - -<p>As he spoke the lights went dim again, but they all noted that this -happened when the storm was comparatively quiet. There was no thunder -and no lightning.</p> - -<p>“How do you account for that?” asked Nalbro, nervously.</p> - -<p>“Trouble in the power house,” said Luke promptly.</p> - -<p>“Well, maybe,” Nally conceded.</p> - -<p>The house was comparatively quiet for a while, though the storm kept up, -and Ruth had just returned from putting the children to bed—Sammy, to -his delight being given a room to himself—when Nalbro called:</p> - -<p>“Some one’s at the telephone!”</p> - -<p>“I didn’t hear the bell ring,” said Hal.</p> - -<p>“No. But listen! Hear that clicking?”</p> - -<p>They all heard a peculiar tapping in the receiver, as when one is -connected with a “busy” wire.</p> - -<p>“Maybe it’s off the hook,” suggested Luke.</p> - -<p>He went to look, and when he came back to report that the instrument was -as it should be, they all looked one at the other.</p> - -<p>“There it is again!” exclaimed Agnes.</p> - -<p>Once more the clicking sounded.</p> - -<p>“I’ll ask Central what it is,” volunteered Neale.</p> - -<p>He started toward the instrument, but at that moment there came almost -as terrific a crash of thunder as the one that opened the storm.</p> - -<p>“Neale!” screamed Agnes. “Keep away from that telephone!”</p> - -<p>“There’s no danger,” he asserted, his voice sounding strangely loud in -the quiet that succeeded the booming of the thunder.</p> - -<p>Then, again the lights went dim—so low as almost to go out—and there -came a gasp of fear even from Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Do you suppose the house was struck?” she asked in a whisper of Luke.</p> - -<p>“Nonsense! If it had been we’d all know it. Lightning isn’t that gentle -when it strikes.”</p> - -<p>At that moment a clock somewhere in the Corner House softly gave the -hour of midnight. And almost as if it had been timed for that weird and -spookish hour there came, from the cellar, seemingly, a strange sound—a -sound of a heavy fall, followed by a moan.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXVIII' title='XVIII: Struck Down'> -<span>CHAPTER XVIII</span><br /><span>STRUCK DOWN</span> -</h2> - -<p>Nothing more was needed to increase the nervous tension of the young -people in the Corner House, especially of Ruth and Agnes, on whom -responsibility rested.</p> - -<p>The hurried trip home before the storm, the discovery of the plight of -the children, the crash of the broken shelf and the freaks of the -storm—all this had added up and piled on with the result that all were -keyed to the highest pitch.</p> - -<p>And when, on top of this, that weird noise sounded, each and every one -gave a nervous start, though the boys, at least, were ashamed of -themselves a moment later.</p> - -<p>“Did you hear that?” gasped Agnes, the first to recover her startled -breath.</p> - -<p>“Did we <i>hear</i> it?” murmured Nally. “I should say we <i>did</i>! What was -it?”</p> - -<p>“And where was it?” asked Ruth, looking around nervously.</p> - -<p>“The Corner House is living strictly up to its reputation of a quiet, -homelike family hotel,” joked Luke.</p> - -<p>“No, but seriously, that was—something!” declared Neale. He had paused -before the last word as if in doubt what name to put to the strange -noise.</p> - -<p>“It was <i>something</i> all right,” asserted Luke. “And we’ve got to find -out what it was.”</p> - -<p>“Locate it first—that would be my suggestion,” came from Ruth.</p> - -<p>“It was in the cellar!” declared Neale.</p> - -<p>“That’s what I’d say,” remarked Nalbro.</p> - -<p>On this point there seemed to be little doubt.</p> - -<p>“If it had been in the upper part of the house we’d have heard Mrs. Mac -or Linda up and about by now,” asserted Ruth. “It was below us here—in -the cellar, I’m sure.”</p> - -<p>“It came right after that clap of thunder,” said Nalbro. “At first I -thought we’d been struck.”</p> - -<p>“The rumble of the thunder might have rattled down something in the -cellar,” suggested Agnes. “I’ve known it to bring down a stack of tins -in the pantry.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe part of the swinging shelf and some of the glass jars that didn’t -fall before, took a tumble now,” suggested Ruth.</p> - -<p>Luke shook his head.</p> - -<p>“If you had seen that shelf, after the children had finished with it, -you wouldn’t say there was anything left to fall,” he remarked. “It was -a wreck.”</p> - -<p>“Then what was this noise?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“That’s what we’ve got to find out,” asserted Luke. “I’ll go down and -find out. Maybe a water pipe burst in real earnest this time,” he -suggested, with a glance at Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Oh, don’t say anything now to make me more nervous!” she begged.</p> - -<p>“Why does that make you nervous?” Nalbro asked.</p> - -<p>“It reminds me of those two horrid men—not that I think they’re around -now, or Hop Wong either, but——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, say! Maybe it <i>is</i> Hop Wong searching for treasure under cover of -the storm!” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Stop!” commanded Ruth. “If you’re going to suggest such things——”</p> - -<p>She made a tragic gesture. Usually Ruth was not nervous. Clearly -something had occurred to upset her usual poise.</p> - -<p>“I only suggested water pipes,” remarked Luke, “because I thought maybe -this terrific rain might have washed away a drain or something, -accounting for the gurgling noise.”</p> - -<p>“Gurgling noise!” exclaimed Neale. “It was a groan that I heard.”</p> - -<p>“So did I!” chorused some of the others.</p> - -<p>“Well, air and water mingling and going through a pipe will make a -groaning noise sometimes,” commented Luke.</p> - -<p>“If any water going through a pipe made a noise such as we heard—then -that pipe and water had better go on the stage and do a vaudeville -turn,” declared Neale. “It would bring down the house!”</p> - -<p>“Well, we’ll soon settle what it is,” remarked Luke. “I’m going down -cellar. You have lights there, haven’t you?” he asked, turning to Ruth. -“Can they be switched on from up here?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. But you mustn’t go down there alone, Luke! Wait until I call Uncle -Rufus!”</p> - -<p>“Nonsense!” expostulated the young collegian.</p> - -<p>Uncle Rufus had gone to bed earlier in the evening before the retirement -of Mrs. MacCall and Linda.</p> - -<p>“We’ll go with him!” offered Neale and Hal.</p> - -<p>“One of you boys has got to stay with me, for I’m not going near that -cellar!” declared Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“Now, wait a minute,” said Luke slowly. “This thing—this -investigation—must be done aright. I’m going to scout around down the -cellar by myself. I can do it better alone. If two of us go, one is sure -to think he sees something. He’ll call out and attract the attention of -the other, perhaps just at a time when a valuable discovery is about to -be made. Whereas one, alone, can devote his whole mind to the business -in hand. So I’ll go down alone and if I find I need help I’ll sing out -and some of you can follow.</p> - -<p>“Neale, you and Hal stay here with the girls. No, Ruth, you are not -going!” he added hastily, seeing determination in her eyes. “Burr-r-r-r! -that was a bad one,” he exclaimed, as a vivid flash of lightning was -followed almost immediately by a terrific crash of thunder.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Luke, I don’t want to have you go down in that cellar alone!” -begged Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Nonsense!” he laughed. “I can do a lot better alone. And if I need help -I’ll sing out. Don’t be afraid.”</p> - -<p>He patted her hand tenderly, and she did not resent this little caress, -given in public as it was. Luke had a masterful way with him.</p> - -<p>Suddenly, while they stood there after Luke’s decision had been -announced, and while they were mentally trying to picture what had taken -place in the cellar of the Corner House, the lights again went dim.</p> - -<p>“What if the current goes off when you’re in the cellar?” suggested -Agnes to Luke.</p> - -<p>“I’d better have a flashlight, I suppose.”</p> - -<p>“Take this one,” and Neale offered his. “I always carry it when I’m in -the car,” he added. “They’re mighty handy.”</p> - -<p>Luke accepted the miniature electric torch and started for the kitchen, -whence entrance was to be had to the cellar. The others followed him, -Ruth pointing out the switch that controlled the cellar lights. It was -thrown on and Luke prepared to descend.</p> - -<p>“We’ll be listening for you,” said Neale, to inspire confidence. “Don’t -let the bogey-man get you!”</p> - -<p>“I won’t,” laughed Luke, starting down the stairs. “I think it will turn -out to be, just as I said, some water gurgling through a drain-pipe. But -if I should be——”</p> - -<p>Before he could complete the sentence the front doorbell suddenly pealed -out its electric warning.</p> - -<p>Luke was already half-way down the cellar stairs.</p> - -<p>“Goodness! Callers at this time of night!” gasped Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Probably some one who wants shelter from the storm,” suggested Luke, -calling the words from the cellar stairway.</p> - -<p>“Agnes, you and Hal go and see who’s at the front door, and Neale and I -will wait in the kitchen to see what Luke finds,” suggested Ruth.</p> - -<p>“I’ll appoint myself a member of the door committee!” remarked Nalbro. -“Unless you want me to stay with you and Neale?” she added, turning to -Ruth.</p> - -<p>“No, go ahead,” Ruth answered.</p> - -<p>A dim glow came up from the cellar, showing that the electric lights -there were working properly. But Luke did not trust them. He held in his -hand, ready, the little electric torch Neale had given him.</p> - -<p>Agnes, Nalbro and Hal went to the front door to answer the bell, while -Ruth and Neale remained in the kitchen.</p> - -<p>“He’s moving around down there,” murmured Neale, for he could see that -Ruth was under a nervous strain, and he thought perhaps that a little -talk might relieve her.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” she answered. “I hope he doesn’t get cut on the broken glass jars -from the swinging shelf. I must tell him. Oh, Luke!” she called down the -cellar stairs.</p> - -<p>“Yes? What is it?” he asked, his voice showing that he had not yet moved -far away from the foot of the flight.</p> - -<p>“Be careful of the broken glass.”</p> - -<p>“I will—thank you.”</p> - -<p>“See anything yet, old man?” asked Neale.</p> - -<p>“No. Not a thing. The outside back cellar door is open, though,” he -said, “and the rain’s coming in there in a regular stream.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, dear!” murmured Ruth. “I suppose those children left it open when -they were treasure-hunting!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll shut it,” volunteered Luke.</p> - -<p>Neale and Ruth could hear him moving about below them. Neale was just -going to say that perhaps, after all, nothing would develop, that they -would have all their fears for nothing, when Agnes, Nalbro and Hal came -back from the front door.</p> - -<p>“Well?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“No one was there!” announced Agnes in a strained voice.</p> - -<p>“No one?”</p> - -<p>“Not a soul!”</p> - -<p>“The street’s deserted—a regular rain-swept desert!” remarked Hal.</p> - -<p>“That <i>is</i> strange,” murmured Ruth. “Someone must have rung the bell. I -wonder——”</p> - -<p>At that moment a cry came from the cellar—a cry that caused them all to -start.</p> - -<p>It was Luke’s voice!</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter, old man?” called Neale, for the cry had in it -something of terror and alarm.</p> - -<p>There was no answer.</p> - -<p>“We must go to him!” declared Ruth.</p> - -<p>Without waiting for any of the others, she darted down the stairs, but -Neale was after her in a trice. They saw a dim light in the cellar as -they almost fell down the narrow stairs. The light came from the front -part of the dark depths, up toward the street.</p> - -<p>“Luke! Luke!” called Neale.</p> - -<p>“Is anything the matter?” Ruth demanded anxiously.</p> - -<p>“Want any help?” asked Hal. “Shall we come down?”</p> - -<p>“No, stay up there and watch the front door!” cried Neale, with sudden -suspicion. “There’s queer work going on here! Watch the front door, -Hal!”</p> - -<p>Neale and Ruth caught a glimpse of a dim form moving about the cellar.</p> - -<p>“There’s Luke!” cried Neale. “Luke! Luke! What’s wrong? Why did you cry -out?” he asked.</p> - -<p>There was no answer. But as Neale and Ruth started forward from the -cellar stairs they saw Luke struck down by a club in the hands of some -one invisible to them. He fell like a log, and the next moment the -cellar was plunged into darkness.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXIX' title='XIX: Dot’s Discovery'> -<span>CHAPTER XIX</span><br /><span>DOT’S DISCOVERY</span> -</h2> - -<p>Beyond a low moan and a gasp Ruth uttered no sound when she saw her -dearest friend, Luke Shepard, fall in the dimly lighted cellar, struck -down, as he was, by the hand of some one unknown. She and Neale darted -forward at the same time to go to the rescue.</p> - -<p>It was after this first involuntary rush to help Luke that Neale -bethought himself that caution might be needed, so he put out a hand to -hold Ruth back and said:</p> - -<p>“Maybe we’d better wait a moment.”</p> - -<p>“Wait? And with Luke hurt? No, never!” cried Ruth. She would have -proceeded alone to the spot where Luke was stretched out insensible but -that Neale, resolving to fling caution to the winds, hastened ahead of -her.</p> - -<p>There was no sound in the cellar now save the noise made by Ruth and -Neale, and they saw no dim forms flitting about. Luke was lying alone, -strangely and ominously quiet.</p> - -<p>Outside the rain was still pelting down, though the lightning and -thunder was less, but the storm was keeping up.</p> - -<p>“Luke! Luke!” called Neale, as he neared the prostrate body of the young -collegian. “Are you much hurt?”</p> - -<p>There was no answer, but in the kitchen over his head Neale could hear -Agnes, Nalbro and Hal moving about uneasily as they caught the sound of -his voice.</p> - -<p>“Some one struck him with a club,” murmured Ruth. “Did you see it, -Neale?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I saw. We must try to catch the man who did it. He’ll try to get -out the rear door, I think.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, if he does, we——”</p> - -<p>“Let him go!” broke in Neale. “We’ve got to look after Luke.”</p> - -<p>By this time those waiting in the kitchen had sensed that something was -wrong, for Hal called:</p> - -<p>“What’s going on down there? Want any help? We heard a cry——”</p> - -<p>“Yes, you’d better come down,” answered Neale. “Just you, Hal. Leave the -girls up there. Luke’s been hurt and——”</p> - -<p>“We won’t stay up here!” cried Nalbro. “We’re all coming down.”</p> - -<p>“You’ll only be in the way!” snapped back Neale, speaking more sharply -than he intended to, as he wanted to impress the girls. “We have to -carry Luke up the stairs. Don’t crowd down. Come on, Hal!”</p> - -<p>By this time Neale and Ruth had reached Luke’s side. The flashlight he -carried was still glowing on the cellar floor at his side. By the gleam -of this, and by the glimmer of his own torch, Neale saw that Luke bore -no apparent injury.</p> - -<p>“Luke, old man, do you know us?” called Neale, bending over the form of -his friend and gently shaking him. “We’re here with you—Ruth and Neale.”</p> - -<p>Ruth had taken Luke’s listless head into her lap, and was smoothing back -the hair from the forehead. Then a big bruise was visible.</p> - -<p>“That’s where he was hit,” she whispered.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” assented Neale.</p> - -<p>By this time Hal had reached the scene and he and Neale lifted Luke up, -intending to carry him to the kitchen. But now he opened his eyes and -said weakly:</p> - -<p>“I’m all right. Just a bit stunned—for a—minute. Did -you—get—those—fellows?”</p> - -<p>“What fellows?” asked Hal quickly, looking about the cellar.</p> - -<p>“Some man with a club struck Luke down,” explained Neale. “We just saw -it—that’s all.”</p> - -<p>Luke’s brain, momentarily stunned by the blow, was rapidly clearing. He -was firmer on his feet.</p> - -<p>“See that those fellows don’t get out!” he gasped. “Guard the back door, -boys, and then telephone for the police!”</p> - -<p>“We’re going to take care of you first!” insisted Neale. “We’ll get you -upstairs and then we’ll look after these fellows. I fancy they have -gotten away, anyhow. They wouldn’t stay after striking you.”</p> - -<p>This seemed to be the case, for when Luke had been assisted upstairs and -when Neale and Hal, with Uncle Rufus’ help, had made an investigation in -the cellar no trace of the man who had struck the collegian could be -found.</p> - -<p>“He must have slipped around past us and gotten out of the back door -when Ruth and I were going to Luke,” said Neale.</p> - -<p>Luke was found not to be badly hurt. He had received only a glancing -blow on the side of the head with a wooden club. Had the full force of -the blow fallen, serious consequences might have resulted. But, as it -was, the blow had little more than a temporary stunning effect.</p> - -<p>“Though I expect you’ll have a fierce headache in the morning,” -prophesied Neale.</p> - -<p>“If it isn’t anything worse than that I ought to be thankful,” Luke -remarked.</p> - -<p>“Tell us all about it,” suggested Hal.</p> - -<p>But before this there had been the suggestion on the part of the girls -that the police be sent for, and an effort had been made to communicate -with police headquarters. However, the telephone seemed to be out of -order, only a strange crackling and buzzing sound resulting when the -receiver was taken down. Then Luke had said:</p> - -<p>“Don’t call in the police!”</p> - -<p>“Why not?” asked Hal.</p> - -<p>“Because it will only bring unpleasant notoriety to the Corner House. -Let’s solve this mystery ourselves.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a mystery all right!” declared Neale.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” gravely assented Luke, “it is a mystery. The police couldn’t get -here now in time to do anything, and what evidence is left we can look -at as well as they. Since the telephone doesn’t work don’t bother with -the police.”</p> - -<p>“I could go out and telephone,” offered Neale.</p> - -<p>“No, let it go. In the morning we’ll take a look ourselves,” decided -Ruth.</p> - -<p>And so it was arranged. Then, after some witch-hazel had been rubbed by -Ruth on the bump on Luke’s head, he told his story:</p> - -<p>“You know the first part of it as well as I do,” he said to his friends -gathered around him at this midnight session in the Corner House. “I was -going along carefully, looking for any sign of intruders, when, all at -once, I saw what I thought was a shadow moving.</p> - -<p>“It was near one of the brick pillars that hold the floor beams, and I -know now the shadow must have been caused by a man who was hiding behind -this pillar, though I didn’t realize this at the time.</p> - -<p>“I kept on going. Then I saw another flashlight—I mean another than -yours and mine, Neale—and a moment later I saw a club raised in the air. -Before I could think that it was raised to come down on my head it came -down, and I don’t remember anything more except that it got black all of -a sudden.”</p> - -<p>“Did you think you were struck by lightning?” asked Hal.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know what I did think. But what did you and Ruth see, Neale?”</p> - -<p>“Not much more than you did, old man. We saw the shadow of the club and -a man’s arm raised to strike you. But before we could do a thing—or even -call out a warning—it was all over.”</p> - -<p>“The question—or at least one of them—” said Hal, “is what became of the -man or men who attacked Luke? Where did they go?”</p> - -<p>“They must have slipped past Ruth and me and gotten out the rear outside -cellar door,” suggested Neale.</p> - -<p>“I’m sure no one passed us,” asserted Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Then the only other way they could have gotten out would be to have -come up into the kitchen,” declared Neale.</p> - -<p>“And I know they didn’t do that!” said Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Is there any entrance to your cellar that isn’t much used—a side door -or anything?” asked Luke, turning to Ruth.</p> - -<p>“None that I know of,” she answered. “Perhaps Uncle Rufus might know.”</p> - -<p>“’Deed, missie, I doan know ob any,” declared the colored man. “De back -do’ an’ de one from de kitchen—das all.”</p> - -<p>“Well, we’ll look into it in the morning,” murmured Luke, wearily -passing his hand over his head, which was now aching severely.</p> - -<p>“You must get right to bed,” declared Ruth. “Indeed, I’m not sure but -what I’d better send for Dr. Forsyth.”</p> - -<p>“No, don’t,” begged Luke. “I’ll be all right in the morning.”</p> - -<p>“It seems silly, I suppose, but I’m almost afraid to go to bed,” said -Nalbro, with a little shiver.</p> - -<p>“Nonsense!” exclaimed Ruth. “All danger is over now, even danger from -the storm. And we have the boys here.”</p> - -<p>“We’ll stay up on guard,” offered Hal.</p> - -<p>“There will be no need,” decided Ruth.</p> - -<p>“But with the telephone out of order—” began Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps it’s all right now,” suggested Neale. “I’ll try it.”</p> - -<p>Somewhat to the surprise of all of them, Central answered promptly, -asking Neale “what number?”</p> - -<p>“I just wanted to see if the machine would go,” he explained, talking -rather as if it were an automobile instead of a telephone. “It was out -of order a little while ago,” he added.</p> - -<p>“Yes, a number were, on account of the storm,” the operator explained.</p> - -<p>“Well, with the telephone in order we can go to bed, I guess,” Agnes -remarked. “Though I would like to know who rang our front doorbell and -ran away.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps the lightning did that, too,” said Luke, with a somewhat wan -smile.</p> - -<p>“Maybe,” agreed Ruth. “And now don’t talk any more, Luke; get up to bed. -Uncle Rufus will help you.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’m not as much knocked out as all that, Ruth.”</p> - -<p>But he was weaker than he thought and staggered a bit as he started for -the stairs, so he was rather glad of the assisting arm of the old -colored servant.</p> - -<p>Gradually the wonted silence of the night settled over the Corner House -and there was peace and quietness following the outburst of the storm -and the other disturbances. But to Ruth, sleepless for a long time, it -seemed that some strange mystery overshadowed the old mansion which -overlooked the Milton Parade Ground.</p> - -<p>In the morning Luke was almost himself again, and soon after breakfast -he proposed an examination of the cellar. Sammy and the younger girls -were told only as much of the affairs of the night before as would -explain why the others were so interested in searching the basement.</p> - -<p>“Are you looking for the treasure?” asked Dot.</p> - -<p>“No, just for traces of two tramps who got in here during the storm last -night, my dear,” explained Ruth.</p> - -<p>“We’ll help,” offered Tess, and at intervals the younger Corner House -girls poked into the dark corners of the cellar.</p> - -<div id='i003' class='section illus' style='width:70%'> - <img src='images/illus-003.jpg' alt='' /> - <p>The younger Corner House girls poked into the dark corners of the cellar.</p> -</div> - -<p>The investigations of any of them amounted to nothing. Beyond a few -places where the dirt cellar bottom appeared to have been dug up—and it -was not certain but what Sammy and the little girls had done this—there -was nothing unusual to be seen.</p> - -<p>“Not even a secret door,” lamented Neale, who rather hoped to find this.</p> - -<p>“I guess the man who struck Luke was just a tramp who came into the -cellar to get out of the rain,” suggested Hal. “And when he thought he -was going to be caught he struck out and ran.”</p> - -<p>It seemed this explanation was the only one that would hold.</p> - -<p>“But there is still Hop Wong to be accounted for,” observed Agnes.</p> - -<p>“He’s a faker, pure and simple,” declared Luke.</p> - -<p>“Maybe—and maybe not,” returned the flyaway sister glibly.</p> - -<p>At this moment Dot, who had persuaded Sammy to let her take the precious -cigar-box lantern, went into a far and dark corner of the cellar to make -further search. Suddenly an excited cry came from her.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’ve found something! I’ve found it! Come quick! Look!” shrieked -the littlest Corner House girl.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXX' title='XX: Hop Wong Is Caught'> -<span>CHAPTER XX</span><br /><span>HOP WONG IS CAUGHT</span> -</h2> - -<p>The others, rushing toward her, found Dot standing near a barrel, -flashing upon it the rays from Sammy’s cigar-box lantern.</p> - -<p>“What is it, Dot?” asked Ruth. She and the others had been about to give -up exploration of the cellar, since nothing had developed. “What have -you found and where is it?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know what it is,” Dot answered, “but it’s in that barrel. It’s -a—Oh, listen! It’s a noise!” she finally told them.</p> - -<p>“A noise!” cried Agnes. “Is that all?”</p> - -<p>“Many things start with a noise,” remarked Ruth. “In fact, this whole -affair started from a noise in the cellar. Stand back, Dot, and let us -see what it is.”</p> - -<p>With a more powerful light than Sammy’s improvised lantern, Luke leaned -over and peered into the upright barrel. Grouped behind him the others -waited anxiously.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Luke laughed, and this relieved the strain under which the -older ones, at least, were laboring.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Dot’s found something all right!” chuckled Luke.</p> - -<p>“Oh, do tell us what it is!” begged Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“A batch of kittens!” laughed Luke. “Sandyface has gone and done it -again. She’s raising another family!”</p> - -<p>And that is what Dot had found—just a batch of Sandyface’s kittens in -the barrel.</p> - -<p>“Mew!” plaintively called the mother cat, as she saw so many faces -peering into her privacy.</p> - -<p>“You poor thing!” said Ruth. “Well, we won’t bother you. Only don’t -bring them all up into the parlor at once, as you did on a former -occasion.”</p> - -<p>“Did she?” asked Nalbro, to whom Sandyface was rather a new -acquaintance.</p> - -<p>“She did,” asserted Agnes, with a laugh, “and just when the minister was -calling. Oh, it was funny, but Ruthie didn’t see the fun.”</p> - -<p>“The minister took it good-naturedly,” said Ruth. “No, children, you -can’t bring the kittens upstairs!” she decided, for Tess and Sammy, -having heard of Dot’s discovery, were eager to carry the kittens into -the light of day.</p> - -<p>“Oh, just for a little while!” pleaded Tess.</p> - -<p>“No, not even for a little while. Wait until they get older.”</p> - -<p>“But they’re so cute!” pleaded Dot.</p> - -<p>“No!” and Ruth was firm about it.</p> - -<p>“I’ll carry ’em up, and I won’t spill ’em!” offered Sammy.</p> - -<p>“Children, go right upstairs!” ordered Ruth, and they thought it best to -obey.</p> - -<p>“And so, after all, we haven’t found out anything,” remarked Agnes, as -they all trailed up after the youngsters. “The mystery is as deep as -ever.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” agreed Ruth. “And I don’t know what we are going to do about it. -I think we ought at least to tell Mr. Howbridge—that is, if you think we -shouldn’t notify the police?” she said to Luke.</p> - -<p>“Tell your guardian, by all means,” he quickly agreed. “As for the -police, I don’t see what they could do at this time. If they had been -here when that fellow gave me a blow over the head with his club they -might have gotten after him. But as for picking up clews on a cold -trail, I don’t believe they can do it as well as we can.”</p> - -<p>“Not so well,” declared Neale. “And what I propose is that we start now -and make a systematic search of this whole house, including the cellar, -to see if there is any treasure hidden in it.”</p> - -<p>“You seem to side with the children,” observed Hal.</p> - -<p>“Well, I think there is something queer around here,” asserted Neale. -“Those men didn’t come in to inspect water pipes without an object. That -Chinese didn’t write those queer notes for nothing. What it’s all about -we have to find out.”</p> - -<p>“Go down and tell Mr. Howbridge,” suggested Agnes. “I thing he ought to -be told everything.”</p> - -<p>“I agree with you,” assented Ruth. “I’ll telephone down asking what time -we can see him.”</p> - -<p>“And while you girls go there, some of us will take another look around -the cellar,” said Neale. “I think the whole mystery centers there.”</p> - -<p>“Well, we haven’t found much so far—except kittens,” chuckled Luke.</p> - -<p>Mr. Howbridge looked rather grave when Ruth told him the story of the -night of the storm and what had happened in the cellar. Luke went with -her to the lawyer’s office, leaving Neale and Hal to “putter around,” as -Mrs. MacCall called it, in the cellar.</p> - -<p>“Certainly something seems wrong,” admitted the lawyer. “I am afraid, -though, that I can’t agree with you—as I have said before, I -believe—about a fortune being hidden in the cellar. I attended to your -Uncle Peter’s affairs, and I’m sure if he was so foolish as to hide a -fortune away in a cellar I would know something about it. Of course I -may be wrong——”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but remember about our strange find in the attic? That album -filled with all sorts of valuable papers.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, that is true,” and the girls’ guardian nodded slowly. “Lemuel -Aden’s money!”</p> - -<p>“What about Hop Wong?” went on Ruth. “Did you find out anything more -from him? You were going to get an interpreter and——”</p> - -<p>“Yes, my dear, I obtained the services of the court Chinese interpreter, -but I might as well have saved my time. What with the roundabout manner -in which the conversation had to be carried on and the fright of Hop -Wong—well, we didn’t get anywhere at all.”</p> - -<p>“Didn’t he tell you a thing?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Practically not a thing, my dear girl. He seemed to think he was about -to be executed, or, at any rate, jailed. About all the interpreter -reported that Hop Wong said was: ‘No can tell,’ and he asserted this -over and over again until I wearied of it. No, I think as far as Hop -Wong is concerned, there is no mystery.”</p> - -<p>“I’m not so sure of that, Mr. Howbridge,” said Luke. “Those Chinese are -queer fellows. Once they get frightened they lose their tongues.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but I did my best to assure Hop Wong that he had nothing to fear,” -said the lawyer. “I declare, it’s beyond me.”</p> - -<p>“But what of the two men—the tramps who struck Luke down?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“That may be a different matter altogether,” her guardian admitted. -“There, I am willing to confess, may lie some danger and there may be a -mystery at the bottom of it. But that it has to do with a fortune—or -even a sum of money—I am not so willing to admit.”</p> - -<p>“What had we better do?” Ruth inquired. “Shall we tell the police?”</p> - -<p>“I say no!” cried Luke, with perhaps more energy than he intended. “I -beg your pardon for my excitement,” he went on. “But I think we can -solve this ourselves, Mr. Howbridge. At least, we or some of us would -like to try it a bit longer. If we call in the police we shall have to -report to them every little trifling thing that happens, and they’ll be -running to the Corner House at all hours of the day and night.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, there is that probability,” admitted Mr. Howbridge. “But have you -any plan, Luke?”</p> - -<p>“Not yet, no, sir. I’d like to think it over a bit longer.”</p> - -<p>“But you mustn’t run into danger!” stipulated Ruth. “You and Agnes and -Neale are all rash.”</p> - -<p>“No, that would be foolish,” said Mr. Howbridge with a quick, discerning -glance at the two young people. He understood how matters were going -between his ward and the young collegian.</p> - -<p>“Oh, we’ll be careful,” promised Luke.</p> - -<p>“Well, of course, being a lawyer, I suppose I ought to advise you to -call in the authorities,” said the girls’ guardian. “But as there is -nothing yet to interest the public, I don’t see why you can’t carry on -your private investigations a bit longer, if you like.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you. We will.”</p> - -<p>“Only, as Ruth says, don’t run into danger,” went on Mr. Howbridge. -“You, Luke, have had one example of how desperate these men are—provided -the one who struck you down is one of the same pair that first was seen -around the Corner House. They will not stop at injuring those who get in -their way. So be careful!”</p> - -<p>“I will, yes, and I’ll warn the others. And now to solve the mystery of -the Corner House!” he cried, more gaily than he felt, for his head was -still painful.</p> - -<p>Returning to the old mansion, Ruth and Luke found there had been no new -developments since they had left to see the lawyer. Neale and Hal and -Agnes had “prospected” around the cellar, as they called it, but had -discovered nothing.</p> - -<p>An investigation of the doorbell wires and battery disclosed, however, -the reason for the erratic behavior of that piece of apparatus. There -was a loose wire, and when the house was jarred, as by a thunderclap, -the wire made a connection and started the bell to ringing.</p> - -<p>“So the men in the cellar had nothing to do with that,” declared Neale, -when he had found and remedied the trouble.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad of that,” said Ruth. “If the bell had been rung by them it -would mean they had a regular band, some of whom were on the outside -while others were on the inside of the house, searching for the -fortune.”</p> - -<p>“Do you really think some one is after money hidden in the house?” -Nalbro asked.</p> - -<p>“I do!” declared Neale.</p> - -<p>“It’s delightfully romantic, I know,” the Boston girl admitted, “but it -doesn’t seem reasonable.”</p> - -<p>“We found a fortune once in the attic for Mrs. Eland and Miss Pepperill. -Why not find one for ourselves in the cellar?” questioned Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Anyhow, we’ll have fun searching for it,” said Luke.</p> - -<p>However, as the vacation days passed and the time approached for the -delightful house party to end, no new discoveries were made. No secret -entrance or egress was found in the cellar, Hop Wong made no further -efforts to communicate and no trace was seen of the two strange men.</p> - -<p>As a matter of fact, Hop Wong had disappeared. He was not at his -laundry, the business being carried on by the bland and strange -Celestial, and to all inquiries he answered:</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong, he mebbe come back bly-an’-bly.”</p> - -<p>It seemed that the mystery of the Corner House would never be solved -when, all unexpectedly, there began a series of events which rapidly -moved to a startling conclusion.</p> - -<p>It began one pleasant afternoon when Luke and Neale were out riding -through a beautiful country district in the automobile with Ruth and -Agnes. Hal and Nalbro had gone to the railroad station to see about -getting chair-car tickets for Boston, for the time for their return was -drawing near.</p> - -<p>Neale drove through a little country village and was preparing to -suggest, since the afternoon was waning, that they turn about, when Luke -uttered an exclamation.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter?” asked Neale. “Did I run over a chicken?”</p> - -<p>“No. But this has to do with something closely connected with chickens.”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?”</p> - -<p>“I mean a Chinese—they’re very fond of chicken, you know. There goes one -now—a Chinese, I mean!”</p> - -<p>He pointed toward a small, ramshackle house standing alone in a field -near the highway, just outside the village. And, as the others looked, -they saw a Chinese enter this hut.</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong!” cried Neale.</p> - -<p>“I thought that’s who it was, but I didn’t want to be too certain,” -remarked Luke. “So this is where Hop Wong has been hiding!”</p> - -<p>“Come on! Let’s get hold of him and see if he’ll talk,” suggested Neale. -He ran the car up close to the side of the road near the lonely hut and -started to alight.</p> - -<p>The Chinese—it was Hop Wong beyond doubt—heard the noise of the brakes -and turned. With a yell he fled around the rear of the hut.</p> - -<p>“Come on, Luke!” cried Neale. “Let’s capture him and see if we can get -to the bottom of this!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXXI' title='XXI: A Queer Story'> -<span>CHAPTER XXI</span><br /><span>A QUEER STORY</span> -</h2> - -<p>Hop Wong was the very personification of fear. He was a small Chinese at -best, but now he appeared no larger than a child, so much did he shrink -within his garments when he found himself in the grasp of the two young -men.</p> - -<p>“Oh, the poor fellow!” murmured Ruth, with ready sympathy. “Be kind to -him!”</p> - -<p>Hop Wong heard her and held out his queer hands with their rather long -nails—hands abnormally clean from much dabbling in soap, water and -whatever chemicals the Chinese laundrymen use for making clothes white.</p> - -<p>“Missie Luth, Hop Wong—he no did do!” he wailed. “He no did do!”</p> - -<p>“We know you didn’t do anything,” said Ruth kindly. “Oh, don’t hold him -so tightly, Luke.”</p> - -<p>“He’s a slippery beggar, Ruth, and——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, he won’t run away, I’m sure. Will you, Hop Wong?” she asked.</p> - -<p>“No lun! No can do,” he said, with pathetic indifference. “You call -p’liceman—take Hop Wong jail. No can do,” and he sighed wearily.</p> - -<p>“Now look here, Hop Wong,” began Luke, in what he doubtless intended for -businesslike tones. “There’s no use trying to fool us. You know -something about money hidden in Miss Ruth’s house and you’ve got to tell -us! Do you understand? You’ve <i>got</i> to tell us!”</p> - -<p>Turning to his companions Luke said in a low voice:</p> - -<p>“I think Mr. Howbridge made a mistake trying to be kind to him. What Hop -Wong needs is firmness!”</p> - -<p>Luke’s manner seemed to have its effect. For, as if by a shake and a -shudder he had cast from him some garment for which he no longer had -need, the Chinese straightened up somewhat. He appeared to fill his -clothes better, and then he said:</p> - -<p>“All lite! Hop Wong tell!”</p> - -<p>“I thought he would!” chuckled Luke. “Now we’ll get at the bottom of -this puzzling mystery.”</p> - -<p>Hop Wong accompanied the boys and girls into the hut where, it appeared, -he had taken up his abode. It was simply furnished, and looked as though -Hop Wong had been about to start a laundry in this country town, but had -not yet done so.</p> - -<p>“He came here—ran away—so he couldn’t be questioned,” decided Neale. “It -was lucky you saw him, Luke,” he said.</p> - -<p>“It may prove so,” agreed Luke.</p> - -<p>But it was one thing for Hop Wong to promise to tell; the performance -was another matter. He was willing, but his choice, use and command of -the English language left much to be desired.</p> - -<p>Sitting amid his humble possessions in the lonely cottage, while on -empty boxes for seats Ruth, Agnes, Luke and Neale faced him, the -Celestial began his recital.</p> - -<p>He gibbered and slithered about “two men—topside man—number lun man—much -dolls—Clorner House”—and so on until Luke raised his hands in despair.</p> - -<p>“I don’t wonder Mr. Howbridge couldn’t make anything of it,” he groaned. -“It’s worse than I expected.”</p> - -<p>“What can be done?” asked Ruth. “He seems willing to tell, but I can’t -make any sense of it.”</p> - -<p>“Nor I,” sighed Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Tell him to sing it!” chuckled Neale, at the conclusion of a long-drawn -and high-pitched stream of words of which only a few were intelligible -to Hop Wong’s auditors.</p> - -<p>“Wait a minute! We’ll get something out of this yet,” declared Luke. -“You don’t have to be back any certain time, do you?” he asked Ruth and -Agnes. “I mean at home?”</p> - -<p>“No, I suppose not,” admitted Ruth. “Mrs. MacCall and Linda will look -after Dot and Tess. As for Hal and Nalbro, they are going to the movies -in town, after they get their tickets, and they won’t be home till late. -But why do you ask, Luke?”</p> - -<p>“Because I want to take Hop Wong and all of us over to Millville. It -isn’t far and there’s a Chinese student there, spending his vacation, -who, I think, can take Hop Wong in hand and get something out of him.”</p> - -<p>“Well, but if the Chinese court interpreter couldn’t get at anything for -Mr. Howbridge,” began Neale, “how do you expect——”</p> - -<p>“I think Charlie Sing—that’s the chap I know in college—can sling a -little better brand of English than even a court interpreter,” said -Luke. “Anyhow, it’s worth trying.”</p> - -<p>“All right, it’s worth trying,” agreed Neale.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps Hop Wong won’t accompany us,” remarked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I guess he will,” asserted Luke, with confidence. “Hop Wong come -for ride in buzz-buzz wagon?” he inquired, pointing to the automobile.</p> - -<p>A cheerful grin spread over the features of the Celestial. He seemed to -have lost all his fears now.</p> - -<p>“Sule!” he cried. “Hop Wong velly much like buzz-buzz wagon.”</p> - -<p>“Hurray!” cried Neale. “So far, so good!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll stop at the nearest telephone and let Mrs. MacCall know we’ll be a -bit late,” said Ruth, as they started for the car again. Hop Wong was -now a willing captive and seemed delighted at the chance of riding in an -automobile.</p> - -<p>“I think this is the best thing to do,” went on Ruth to her sister, when -they were once more under way, having stopped for a moment in the -village to telephone to the Corner House.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” agreed Agnes. “We never could get anything from Hop Wong by -ourselves, and Guardy didn’t seem much more successful.”</p> - -<p>They made a good run to Millville and drove up to the boarding house -where Charlie Sing was spending the long college vacation, his home -being in far-off China.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Charlie! Got a job for you!” called Luke in greeting, as he saw -the Celestial walking in the garden of the boarding house.</p> - -<p>“That’s good!” replied Charlie, with a cheerful grin. “It is fine to see -you again, Luke,” he went on. “It’s been pretty lonesome with all the -boys scattered.”</p> - -<p>“I imagine so. Well, we’ll all soon be back at college again. It won’t -be long now. Charlie, you can talk this man’s language, can’t you?” and -he indicated Hop Wong.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, after a fashion, I suppose,” replied Charlie, who spoke a very -good English the girls noticed. He was introduced to them and at once -proved himself a gentleman as well as a scholar. “Of course,” he said, -“he talks a dialect rather than the pure Chinese language,” and he made -this statement after a brief conversation with Hop Wong. “But I think he -can make himself understood to me, and I’ll tell you what he says to the -best of my ability.”</p> - -<p>“All right, let go!” said Neale, with cheerful carelessness. “Maybe -we’ll find out something now.”</p> - -<p>Then began a rapid exchange of strange-sounding syllables and -intonations between Hop Wong and Charlie Sing. There was little use for -the others to listen, for they could not, of course, understand a word -that was said on either side. But there was a strange fascination in -hearing the age-old language.</p> - -<p>Luke had briefly told his college friend what it was they desired to -find out—about the mystery of the cellar—and finally, after a somewhat -lengthy conversation, Charlie Sing held up a hand to signify that Hop -Wong should stop talking, for he was flowing on, as Agnes said, “like -the brook—forever.”</p> - -<p>“This is his story,” said Charlie Sing, “making some allowances for -words that he uses for which, in the proper language, there is no -equivalent. Some time ago, before he was in the laundry business in your -town, Hop Wong worked as a servant in a house where there were two men. -One was a gardener and the other did odd jobs about the place. Handy -man, I believe they call such a worker.”</p> - -<p>“That’s right, Charlie,” said Luke.</p> - -<p>“One of these men was named Rother and the other called himself Meggs,” -went on the Chinese student. “The house was a large, country -establishment of wealth, and among the visitors was an old man who was -not as good as he might have been. I mean he was addicted to the vice of -drink,” said Charlie, with a shudder of disgust.</p> - -<p>“However, I must not get on to that,” went on the Chinese student. “It -always fills me with disgust. But this old man who came to the house -where Rother and Meggs worked with Hop Wong was a drinker. Rother and -Meggs forced Hop Wong to get them some liquor so they could sell it to -this old man, whose name the laundryman does not know. This man, cut off -from his liquor supply because of police activities, was glad to rely on -the scoundrels Rother and Meggs.”</p> - -<p>“But where does the Corner House come in?” asked Neale.</p> - -<p>“I am coming to that,” replied Charlie. “It is a curious story. It -depends on you, yourselves, how much you believe. This man—this old -toper, I think you call it, knew a Mr. Peter Stower——”</p> - -<p>“Why, he was our uncle!” cried Ruth. She was greatly surprised.</p> - -<p>“Well, there is supplied the connection,” remarked the translator, -calmly. “This old man knew Mr. Peter Stower and had often, so he told -Rother and Meggs, visited at the Corner House, as you call it. Once, -while there, he says he helped Mr. Stower hide an iron box of money in -the cellar.”</p> - -<p>“He did?”</p> - -<p>“When?”</p> - -<p>“Where?”</p> - -<p>“How much money was in it?”</p> - -<p>“Why did he do that?”</p> - -<p>These were some of the questions shot at Charlie Sing when he had -translated thus far in the strange story of Hop Wong. The student held -up his hand for patience.</p> - -<p>“I cannot tell you the reasons,” he said. “Hop Wong does not know them -himself. All he knows is that Rother and Meggs were told by this old -toper that Mr. Peter Stower had hidden a big iron box of money in the -cellar.”</p> - -<p>“That tlue! Them say so! Them know whele money is—Hop Wong not know!” -broke in the laundryman. “Two men know—Hop Wong not know!”</p> - -<p>He seemed pitifully eager that they should believe him.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXXII' title='XXII: Another Alarm'> -<span>CHAPTER XXII</span><br /><span>ANOTHER ALARM</span> -</h2> - -<p>There was a pause. On the part of Charlie Sing and Hop Wong it was for -breath, as they had been talking at a pretty steady rate. On the part of -Luke, Neale, Ruth and Agnes the pause was welcome because so many ideas -had crowded in on them that they wanted time, as Neale said afterward, -to untangle their thoughts.</p> - -<p>The pause gave them all a chance to do a little thinking, which was -absolutely needed at this time. It cannot be said that any of the four -had, up to this time, placed much faith in the suggestion that wealth of -some sort—possibly a fortune—was concealed in the Corner House cellar. -Now, with this unexpected confirmation, came a gasp of surprise.</p> - -<p>“Is this all he knows about it?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Why didn’t he tell all this to the other interpreter?” Agnes demanded.</p> - -<p>“I can answer that last question first,” replied the Chinese student, -“by saying that Hop Wong could not understand the other interpreter’s -talk very well. They were at cross purposes, neither one comprehending -the other.”</p> - -<p>“Then why didn’t that court interpreter say so?” demanded Ruth.</p> - -<p>“I suppose he thought he wouldn’t be paid his fee if he had to admit -failure,” suggested Luke. “Anyhow, we’re getting the straight of it -now.”</p> - -<p>“It’s only the beginning,” said Neale. “Have him go on. Where in the -cellar is the box of gold?”</p> - -<p>“And why in the world did Uncle Peter hide his money there?” asked Ruth. -“He wasn’t a miser if he was queer. He left us the Corner House in his -will, why should he conceal part of his money in an iron box, like a -miser?”</p> - -<p>“I’ll ask Hop Wong about that,” volunteered Charlie Sing.</p> - -<p>There was another session of talk, and at its conclusion the Chinese -collegian said:</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong really knows only what he overheard. These men, Rother and -Meggs, never took him into their confidence, so of course you must -accept what Hop Wong says with a dash of pepper.”</p> - -<p>“I guess you mean a grain of salt,” suggested Luke, with a smile.</p> - -<p>“Possibly. Oh, yes, it is salt!” chuckled Charlie Sing. “You have almost -as many proverbs as we Chinese. Well, Hop Wong can tell only what he -overheard. As to the motives of Mr. Stower, he knows nothing. But he -heard what these two men said. Later, when Hop Wong left the house where -he worked with them and found the Corner House and saw the young ladies -there, he decided to try to let them know about the fortune and, -independent of the two men, to reap a small reward for himself.”</p> - -<p>“Well, he tried all right!” said Agnes, snappily.</p> - -<p>“But he meant no harm. I’m glad to know that,” put in Ruth, who seemed -to champion the cause of Hop Wong. “But why did he run away?”</p> - -<p>Charlie did some more questioning and replied:</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong left his laundry in Milton after he tried to disclose to you -the secret of the fortune because he was afraid of being arrested. Then, -too, he says he saw Rother and Meggs in the town and he thought they -might do him some harm for telling their secret.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, ha! So those men have been in town, have they?” cried Neale. “Those -must be the two fake water inspectors!” he added.</p> - -<p>“Sure, they are!” exclaimed Agnes. “There is more to this than appears -at first sight, boys. I’m not so sure we did well by not getting the -police in on it. Perhaps we had better——”</p> - -<p>“Oh, we’ve gone this far alone, let’s finish it,” suggested Ruth. “But -we can’t stay here all night. We’d better be getting back to Milton. -What are we going to do with Hop Wong? Have we gotten all the -information from him we need?”</p> - -<p>“He seems to have told all he knows,” answered Charlie Sing. “As for -taking him back to Milton, I don’t believe he’ll go. He seems to be -afraid—probably of those two men. And I don’t see how you can take him -back against his will.”</p> - -<p>“No, probably not—unless we bring in the police,” agreed Ruth. “And I -don’t want to do that. Poor fellow!”</p> - -<p>“If he is going to stay where we found him it will do as well—perhaps -better, as the men won’t know anything about him and we can run over and -see him whenever we need to,” observed Luke.</p> - -<p>“Ask him,” suggested Ruth.</p> - -<p>And when Charlie again talked to the laundryman, the latter promised not -to run away again, but to hold himself in readiness to help the Corner -House girls locate the fortune. He would remain at his new location, -where he hoped to start another laundry, he said.</p> - -<p>“One thing more,” suggested Ruth, after thinking over all that had been -said. “Hop Wong says he doesn’t know this man—this unfortunate old toper -who saw Uncle Peter hide the box of gold. But ask him if he knows any -clew by which we might find it or look for it in our cellar. Those men -were evidently after something hidden there. They must have had some -idea where it was. Ask Hop Wong if he can put us on the track.”</p> - -<p>“I will,” said Charlie Sing.</p> - -<p>Again he talked in those peculiar, slurring inflections that seem part -and parcel of the Chinese language, and when he had finished he slipped -easily into English, saying:</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong says to look for a white star!”</p> - -<p>“A white star!” exclaimed Agnes. “Where?”</p> - -<p>“In your cellar,” replied Charlie. “Hop Wong says the white star is the -mark that shows where the fortune is buried. He heard Rother and Meggs -say this.”</p> - -<p>“Well, now we seem to be getting on the right trail at last,” commented -Luke. “Much obliged, Charlie. We’ll get along back now, and restore Hop -Wong to his hut. We’ll be back again at college with the boys soon.”</p> - -<p>“And I’ll be glad,” said the Chinese student. “It’s been a lonesome -vacation for me.”</p> - -<p>Hop Wong, on the journey back, seemed quite a different Chinese from the -chap who had written queer notes and appointed midnight trysts under the -“boy-pain” tree. He smiled and even tried to perpetrate jokes, it -seemed, in his native tongue—an attempt that was wasted on his auditors, -though they laughed at his efforts, which seemed to please the -laundryman.</p> - -<p>Fortunately, Hop Wong did not begin to joke until they were nearly at -his new home, and it was soon over.</p> - -<p>“Good-night, Hop Wong. See you again soon, maybe,” remarked Luke, as -they parted.</p> - -<p>“Alle same good-by,” he answered blandly. “Hop Wong stay hele alle time -now. Much good place, but no much money yet.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, that reminds me!” exclaimed Ruth. “I want to give him something for -his information, and if we do find any such fortune as he has provided -information about, he’ll be entitled to a share. I’m sure Mr. Howbridge -would say so. I want to give Hop Wong some money, Luke.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I don’t believe he’d object to it. What say, Hop Wong? You like a -little cash?”</p> - -<p>“Sule! Cash alle same much good alle time,” was the smiling response.</p> - -<p>So Ruth, from her purse, provided him with what, to him, must have been -a goodly sum, and there was the promise of more should events warrant -it.</p> - -<p>“Good-by!” called the young people, as they left Hop Wong at his hut and -turned the automobile toward Milton.</p> - -<p>“Good-by!” he echoed. “You velly good me. Alle same you look white stal -get much money. Good-by!”</p> - -<p>For a time the four young people rode on in silence. They were all -thinking over what had happened. It had come about so suddenly—the chase -and capture of Hop Wong, and the strange story he told. Then Luke spoke, -asking Ruth:</p> - -<p>“What do you think of it?”</p> - -<p>“I’m almost afraid to think,” she answered.</p> - -<p>“If you ask me,” put in Neale, “I’ll say it’s a dream.”</p> - -<p>“Dream, nothing, Neale O’Neil! There’s a fortune awaiting us—a buried -treasure right in our cellar,” declared Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Seriously,” went on Neale, “here’s a person—I mean the old man who -drank heavily. We all know what that means—the brain doesn’t act at its -best. And this toper originates a more or less sensational story about a -chest of gold being hidden in the cellar of the Corner House. Do any of -you believe it?”</p> - -<p>“I do, for one!” declared Agnes.</p> - -<p>“It does seem far-fetched, even silly,” admitted Ruth. “But then, those -two men must have believed it, or else they never would have tried to -get into our cellar to hunt for the iron box. And Hop Wong believes it, -too.”</p> - -<p>“That’s easily accounted for,” replied Neale. “The three of them are -persons of limited intelligence and low mentality.”</p> - -<p>“La, la, la!” spluttered Agnes. “I just told you I believe it, Neale -O’Neil!”</p> - -<p>For a while there was more or less idle talk, then there was a return to -the subject of the box of treasure, and Luke said:</p> - -<p>“At first I was not much inclined to put faith in Hop Wong’s story. As -soon as he said the old man drank I began to ‘hae me d’ubts,’ as Mrs. -MacCall would say. But then, have you stopped to think that it might not -have been your Uncle Peter, Ruth, who hid the box?”</p> - -<p>“Not Uncle Peter Stower? Why, Hop Wong said it was!”</p> - -<p>“I know he did—repeating what he overheard Rother and Meggs say. But -they might have been mistaken.”</p> - -<p>“In what way?” asked Neale.</p> - -<p>“Well, Mr. Stower might have concealed the box for his friend, the -drinker.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, that’s a new theory!” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“The only plausible one, I think,” went on Luke. “Here is how it sizes -up to me. Mr. Stower and this unknown man might have been good -friends—in fact Mr. Stower may have tried to break him of the dreadful -habit. Perhaps, failing in that and desiring to save for the poor fellow -some of the wealth he would otherwise squander on drink, he might have -hidden the iron box of this man’s gold away in the cellar, marking it, -as Hop Wong says, with a white star.”</p> - -<p>“But if he did hide another man’s wealth for that other man’s good,” -asked Agnes, “why didn’t he leave some word about it so the man’s heirs -could claim it?”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps,” suggested Neale, “he may have intended to leave some sort of -memoranda about this hidden wealth—provided there really is any—and when -his end came there was no time. Also he might have forgotten it.”</p> - -<p>“Here’s another thought!” exclaimed Luke. Ideas were coming thick and -fast now. “Mr. Stower may really have sent word to this man’s relatives -or heirs about the chest of money in the cellar, and these -scoundrels—Rother and Meggs—may have intercepted that message and be -trying for the gold on their own account.”</p> - -<p>“That sounds plausible, except that we’d have heard of the matter before -this, I think,” admitted Neale. “But the first thing to do, I’m -thinking, is to find out if there really is any gold in the cellar. -After we get it, we can settle to whom it belongs.”</p> - -<p>“That’s what I say!” chimed in Agnes.</p> - -<p>“It may not be as far-fetched as I thought at first—Luke’s explanation -is a good one,” observed Ruth thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>“But it is silly to try to settle who owns a lot of gold you don’t even -know there is,” declared Agnes. “Besides, I’m tired and hungry.”</p> - -<p>“That’s well said!” cried Neale. “We’ll get home, have something to eat, -and to-morrow we’ll have another go at this mystery.”</p> - -<p>They found Dot and Tess in bed when they arrived. It had been a -strenuous day Mrs. MacCall reported, for the three children (Sammy -Pinkney being the third member of the trio) had gotten into all sorts of -mischief.</p> - -<p>“What was the worst thing they did?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Well, they played ‘Plam Island,’ as Dot calls it,” reported the -housekeeper, “and Sammy fastened that beastie of an alligator on the -tail of Sandyface, the cat, to pretend, as he says, that the alligator -was going to eat the cat up.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the cruel boy!” gasped Ruth. “And Sandyface with a new batch of -kittens!”</p> - -<p>“But Tess never stood for that, did she, Mrs. Mac?” asked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Oh, she and Dot did their best to stop him, but they couldn’t. So I -boxed his ears well and sent him hame!” declared Mrs. MacCall. “He’ll -not come near me for a day or two, I wager!”</p> - -<p>“Do tell us all that happened to you,” begged Nalbro. “You look so -excited about something!”</p> - -<p>“We are,” whispered Agnes. “It’s—the <i>fortune</i>!”</p> - -<p>And later, when Mrs. MacCall and Linda had retired, the story of the -day’s outing was repeated with many exclamations of wonder.</p> - -<p>“This settles it!” declared Hal firmly. “Not a step do I stir in the -direction of Boston until we have a search for the buried treasure! -Crackie! To think that Dot and Tess weren’t so far out after all. Ho, -for the buried gold!”</p> - -<p>“Under the mystic white star!” declaimed Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“Hush!” begged Ruth, with an uneasy glance at the doors and windows. “Do -you want those ruffians breaking in on us?”</p> - -<p>“What ruffians?” demanded Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“Rother and Meggs!” fairly hissed Neale, giving a fair imitation of a -stage villain.</p> - -<p>They laughed at him, but it might be noticed that before Luke and Neale -left that night, Ruth went about looking well to the fastenings of all -doors and casements.</p> - -<p>“We’ll be over early and have a look for the white star as the guiding -mark to the gold,” promised Luke, as he and Neale left.</p> - -<p>Had Tess and Dot a remote suspicion that a treasure-hunt was in progress -that day they never would have gone on the little picnic that Ruth and -Agnes arranged for them with Sammy and Linda. But, as it was, the little -girls departed in blissful ignorance.</p> - -<p>Then a search of the cellar was made, a systematic search by six young -people who carried lanterns and flashlights.</p> - -<p>“We might as well look for the star first of all,” declared Agnes, as -they started in.</p> - -<p>“And where would you suggest it might be found?” asked Neale.</p> - -<p>“Somewhere around the walls,” Agnes answered.</p> - -<p>“The box of gold is probably buried in the cellar floor—it’s mostly of -dirt and could have been easily dug up,” Ruth said. “Then, to make sure -the location would not be lost, a white star was painted on the side -wall—somewhere. We must look for the white star! Otherwise we’ll have to -excavate the entire cellar bottom.”</p> - -<p>Accordingly a search for the white star was made. It was no easy search, -as the cellar was large and rambling. But six pairs of eyes divided the -task and the side walls were thoroughly gone over.</p> - -<p>But there was not a trace of a white star.</p> - -<p>“It must have been washed away when the cellar was flooded last year,” -suggested Ruth. The others agreed with her.</p> - -<p>“Well, then, the other thing to do—lacking the guiding star—is to start -and dig up the whole cellar—foot by foot,” decided Luke.</p> - -<p>“It’s a job,” groaned Neale.</p> - -<p>“But it’s worth it!” declared Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Crickets!” exclaimed Hal. “Think of telling the fellows at home that I -took part in a treasure-hunt—a real treasure-hunt! And right here in the -settled part of the U. S. A.!”</p> - -<p>“The hunt is going to be real, whether the treasure is or not!” laughed -Nalbro, who did not take the matter very seriously.</p> - -<p>“We’ll find it yet!” declared Agnes. “You’ll see!”</p> - -<p>“But I suggest that we wait until to-morrow before digging up the -cellar,” said Ruth. “It’s getting late.”</p> - -<p>This was true. Their preparations, the sending away of Tess and Dot and -the search of the cellar, had taken up most of the day. Evening was now -coming on.</p> - -<p>“All hands on deck bright and early in the morning!” commanded Agnes -gayly. “Wear your old clothes!”</p> - -<p>As Nalbro’s visit was drawing to an end it was planned to have a little -gathering of friends at the Corner House that evening, and soon after -supper the young people began to arrive.</p> - -<p>The jolly little affair passed off successfully. By a mighty effort -only, Agnes restrained herself from telling of the treasure she had -fully persuaded herself was buried in the cellar.</p> - -<p>When all had departed save Luke and Neale and while they were taking -their leave of Ruth and Agnes, Ruth suddenly exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“Hark! I hear something!”</p> - -<p>“Where?” asked her sister.</p> - -<p>“In the cellar! Listen!”</p> - -<p>They all listened amid tense silence.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXXIII' title='XXIII: The Capture'> -<span>CHAPTER XXIII</span><br /><span>THE CAPTURE</span> -</h2> - -<p>There was no mistake about it—a noise was audible in the cellar of the -Corner House. It was not an insistent noise, rather it was a subdued -one, as though the cause of it, whether man or beast, was desirous of -concealing something.</p> - -<p>“Do you suppose it could be them?” whispered Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Who?” asked Neale, though he could guess.</p> - -<p>“Those men Hop Wong told about. Are they coming back to have another -search for the buried gold?”</p> - -<p>“We’ll soon find out!” declared Hal, who stood with Nalbro and the -others in the hall, where the leave-taking had been going on. “Us for -the cellar, boys!” and he looked at Neale and Luke.</p> - -<p>“Wait a minute!” begged Ruth. “Let’s be sure of them this time! Don’t -let them get away—provided it’s those men!”</p> - -<p>“It’s somebody all right,” declared Nalbro, with a little shiver which -brought her closer to Hal. “And they seem to be digging. Listen! Don’t -you hear a thudding sound?”</p> - -<p>In the silence that followed the whispers they were all aware of a -distinct thudding sound as if picks were being wielded on the soft -bottom of the Corner House cellar.</p> - -<p>“I think they have nerve to come and dig under our very noses!” declared -Agnes. “When we’re entertaining company, too!”</p> - -<p>“It’s because of the company that they came, I fancy,” replied Ruth. -“They figured that so much noise would be going on that they wouldn’t be -heard. They probably have been watching their chance to sneak in when -the house was busy.”</p> - -<p>“This is terrible!” complained Agnes. “We are being spied upon the whole -time! Something must be done! Neale, what are you going to do?”</p> - -<p>“Is there a gun or anything like it around the house?” Neale asked, by -way of answer to Agnes’ appeal.</p> - -<p>“Oh, don’t have any shooting!” pleaded Nalbro.</p> - -<p>“It isn’t pleasant, but it may come to that,” said Neale.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Luke—” began Ruth, appealing to him.</p> - -<p>“I think it would be better if we had some sort of weapon,” was Luke’s -reply. “It would be rather foolish, to say nothing else, for us to go up -against these men, who may be desperate, if we have nothing to force -them to surrender in case we corner them. If there is a gun or a -revolver——”</p> - -<p>“I have put Uncle Peter’s old revolver away,” Ruth said. “Come and we’ll -get it.”</p> - -<p>“Better be a bit lively,” suggested Agnes. “They may skip out with the -gold any minute.”</p> - -<p>“If they don’t find it any quicker than we did they’re not likely to,” -chuckled Hal.</p> - -<p>“It might not be a bad scheme for us to lay low and let them locate the -treasure for you, girls, and then take it away from them,” suggested -Neale.</p> - -<p>“Oh, why don’t you?” asked Agnes. “They must know just where to search -for it, white star and all!”</p> - -<p>“The only trouble is,” answered Neale, “that they might skip out with it -before we could stop them. No, on second thought, I’d say let’s tackle -them at once, capture them, and make them tell the secret.”</p> - -<p>Luke and Ruth came back into the hall, Luke carrying the revolver.</p> - -<p>“This is more like it!” declared Hal. “Now we can talk business to them. -They’re still at it down there.”</p> - -<p>Some sort of noise was still audible in the cellar. Whether it was what -the young folks supposed it to be—men digging after treasure—or -something else, who could say?</p> - -<p>“Maybe it’s only Sandyface making a new home for her family,” suggested -Ruth, with a smile.</p> - -<p>“She wouldn’t make all that noise,” declared Neale. “Well, shall we go?” -he asked the other two young men.</p> - -<p>“Better make up a plan of campaign first,” suggested Ruth. “The other -time these fellows got away—the time they struck Luke on the head. We -don’t want that to happen again.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps you’re right, Ruth,” said Luke. “We’d better divide forces. Two -of us——”</p> - -<p>“We’re only three altogether,” objected Hal. “You can’t divide three -evenly and——”</p> - -<p>“We can call Uncle Rufus,” decided Ruth. “He is old and not very strong, -but he’ll add to our numbers. I’ll get him.”</p> - -<p>“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” agreed Luke. “At least he can be posted at -one vantage point to give an alarm if the men try to escape.”</p> - -<p>“Provided, of course, that it is men and not a cat,” put in Agnes -flippantly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I think it will prove to be those fellows all right,” was Luke’s -opinion.</p> - -<p>Uncle Rufus was eager and ready for the coming battle, or whatever it -should resolve itself into. It was planned that Luke and Hal should go -down the inside cellar stairs, while Neale and Uncle Rufus stood at the -outside cellar door to capture the men if they came out that way.</p> - -<p>“We haven’t a gun,” objected Neale, when his part was assigned.</p> - -<p>“Bang ’em on de haid wif a club,” suggested Uncle Rufus. “We kin hit ’em -w’en dey comes up de cellar steps.”</p> - -<p>“That’s a good idea, Neale,” said Agnes.</p> - -<p>“A club it shall be, then,” replied Neale.</p> - -<p>He and the colored man thus armed themselves and took their places.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, Mrs. MacCall and Linda had been roused to remain with the -girls; though Agnes, in order not to miss any of the excitement, -followed Neale and stationed herself not far from him and Uncle Rufus -where she could see all that went on, if, indeed, anything did happen.</p> - -<p>Ruth stood near the telephone to send at once the alarm in to the -police, once the supposed visitors should be captured. It had been -ascertained by a cautious test that the telephone was in working order.</p> - -<p>At last all was in readiness. Luke and Hal, with the former carrying the -revolver ready for quick aim, and Hal with a flashlight, started down -the inner stairway to the cellar. They had drawn on, over their shoes, -at the suggestion of Ruth, old stockings to make their footfalls softer.</p> - -<p>Neale and Uncle Rufus, each armed with a stout stick of wood, went out -the back kitchen door and took their places at the back cellar entrance, -followed by Agnes. It was here that Neale made a discovery that struck -him as being curious.</p> - -<p>“Why,” he whispered, “they didn’t leave this door open after they went -in this way.”</p> - -<p>“Eh? Why should dey leave it open?” asked Uncle Rufus.</p> - -<p>“So they could get out again in a hurry if they had to—and they may have -to. I never heard of such stupid fellows. They close their way of -escape. Hum! That makes me think!”</p> - -<p>“What’s dat?” asked Uncle Rufus, whose hearing was not of the best.</p> - -<p>“I was just thinking,” went on Neale, “that perhaps they didn’t get into -the cellar this way after all. If they didn’t—and if there is some other -way out and in than the inside stairs—it may explain a lot of things. -But never mind that now. We won’t open this door, Uncle Rufus. In fact -we’ll just sit down on it.”</p> - -<p>“Sit down on it?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, that will make it all the harder for the fellows to lift it up and -get out. Come, let’s take it easy.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Rufus laughed and Agnes giggled. This drew Neale’s attention to -the girl.</p> - -<p>“Aggie!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here? Go back into the -house!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll not, so there! I want to see all that’s to be seen. And then you -don’t think for a minute, do you, that I’m going to let you be all -pounded up or something, Neale O’Neil, and not be near to help you?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, come, Agnes. You’re my faithful chum, I know. But please go in now. -Uncle Rufus and I are safer than you would be, for if the fellows saw -us, they would run away from us, probably right in your direction. Then, -for you, it would be good-night.”</p> - -<p>After some further talk, in which Uncle Rufus joined, Agnes consented to -return to the house. Neale and Uncle Rufus took their seats on the -slanting cellar door as soon as Agnes disappeared.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Luke and Hal were going softly down the inner stairs. Hal held -the flashlight in readiness for instant use, but he and his companion -had no sooner started to descend the stairs than they became aware of a -dim light in the cellar and they knew, since the regular electric lights -were not switched on, that it came from the intruders.</p> - -<p>“We’ll keep ours dim,” whispered Luke. “That will give us an advantage. -It’s always best to be in the dark when you’re hunting a burglar.”</p> - -<p>“Better be careful,” whispered Agnes, who, banished from the outside -door, had taken her place in the kitchen, to be as near the excitement -as possible.</p> - -<p>“We will,” promised Luke.</p> - -<p>Step by step he and Hal descended, their stocking-covered shoes making -no sound. It was nervous work and they were under a strain. But they -wanted to see the outcome of it all.</p> - -<p>They reached the cellar bottom and started away from the foot of the -stairs. The dim light was growing brighter, the light used by some -intruders in their search.</p> - -<p>A few seconds later Luke and Hal caught sight of two men bending over a -hole they had dug in the cellar bottom. They were near one of the walls, -and on the ground beside them was an electric flashlight turned on. The -forms of the men were plainly visible, though their faces were in the -shadow.</p> - -<p>“They’re the same ones!” whispered Luke, meaning the same twain who had -been in the cellar before and the same men Luke had heard talking in the -railroad train.</p> - -<p>Suddenly the silence of the cellar was broken as one of the men -remarked:</p> - -<p>“Nothing here!”</p> - -<p>“No,” agreed the other, “we’ll have to——”</p> - -<p>At that instant one of them either caught sight of Luke and Hal or else -heard some noise made by the lads, for the man who had first spoken -cried:</p> - -<p>“Look out! We’re caught! Come on!”</p> - -<p>In an instant the two intruders leaped up, and one picked the light from -the floor. Then, to the surprise of Luke and Hal, the men, instead of -dashing toward the outer door of the cellar, sprang toward the front, -inner wall.</p> - -<p>“Come on!” cried Luke, for further concealment was useless. “They can’t -get out that way. It’s a solid stone wall! We’ll have them!”</p> - -<p>“Go on!” yelled Hal.</p> - -<p>At the same time he switched on his own flashlight, since it was -necessary to show a gleam on the path he and Luke were to take, and the -men were now using their own little torch.</p> - -<p>It was now an open pursuit, with the intruders speeding toward the front -wall of the cellar and Luke and Hal after them.</p> - -<p>But Luke was mistaken when he cried out that the men could not get out -the way they were going. Piled up in the front of the cellar of the -Corner House were some old boxes. Dodging in around and among these the -two men were lost to sight for a moment.</p> - -<p>Daringly Hal and Luke followed and, to their surprise, they saw where -the boxes had been pulled away from the wall, showing an old door, the -existence of which was unknown, at least to the present owners of the -Corner House.</p> - -<p>It was out of this door that the men fled. Evidently it was by this way -they came in, rather than the back door, and they seemed to be familiar -with the egress.</p> - -<p>Undaunted, Luke and Hal followed. Outside the newly disclosed door was a -short flight of stone steps. They led up beneath what Luke recognized as -the front porch, and the situation was now clear to him.</p> - -<p>In years past there had been a front areaway entrance to the cellar. -This had gone out of use and the porch had been built over it, a lattice -work around the lower part of the porch concealing the door leading into -the cellar.</p> - -<p>Up the steps ran the two men. A quick motion served to throw down part -of the lattice work, which, doubtless, had been previously loosened by -the intruders, and in a few seconds they were out in the open, speeding -away in the moonlight.</p> - -<p>But Luke and Hal were close behind them, for they, too, ran up the steps -and scrambled out beneath the front porch.</p> - -<p>“Hold on there! Stop! We want you!” cried Luke.</p> - -<p>“Neale! Uncle Rufus! Come around to the front!” cried Hal, realizing -that the two on guard would know nothing of this frontal escape.</p> - -<p>“Stop, or I’ll shoot!” ordered Luke.</p> - -<p>For a few seconds more the midnight visitors sped on. Hal was racing -after them, and around the house could be heard coming Neale and Uncle -Rufus.</p> - -<p>Then the three boys and Uncle Rufus sprang upon the midnight intruders -and bore them to the ground.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXXIV' title='XXIV: The White Star'> -<span>CHAPTER XXIV</span><br /><span>THE WHITE STAR</span> -</h2> - -<p>The capture of the two men took place in a cleared spot in the yard -around the Corner House, a place well illuminated by the brilliant -moonlight. So every move of the suspects was plain to be seen.</p> - -<p>Neale gave a gasp as he saw Agnes emerging from the door under the -porch. Hearing the commotion in the cellar when the pursuit of the two -intruders had begun, she had dashed down the stairs and followed as -quickly as possible in their wake.</p> - -<p>From the house now came Ruth and Nalbro, with Mrs. MacCall and Linda. -Ruth caught sight of the man who had first fallen. He was just then -starting to rise.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Luke!” she cried, “don’t shoot him. Please don’t!”</p> - -<p>“I won’t,” answered the boy. “It won’t be necessary.”</p> - -<p>“Do you surrender?” demanded Neale, swinging his club suggestively.</p> - -<p>“I reckon we’ll have to,” growled one of the men sullenly. “I stumbled,” -he went on, as he arose. “But——”</p> - -<p>“But if you think you’re going to pull off anything because the young -lady says not to shoot, get that idea out of your head!” cried Neale -menacingly, as he advanced with his substantial club.</p> - -<p>“Oh, we know when we’re beaten,” growled the other man. “We weren’t -doing anything, anyhow.”</p> - -<p>“No? Not even trespassing in the cellar?” asked Luke, with sarcasm.</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, if we’d found anything we’d have given you folks a share,” -said the second man, who was now on his feet again.</p> - -<p>“I suppose we can believe that or not, as we see fit,” remarked Luke.</p> - -<p>Now the question arose of what to do with the two captured men. Captured -they were, since they must see the futility of trying to escape from -double their number of males, to say nothing of Mrs. MacCall and Linda, -who, in actual strength, were the equal of the tramps.</p> - -<p>“You fellows may as well consider yourselves under arrest,” said Luke. -“You can take it quietly, or you can make a fuss if you please. I’d -advise you to take it quietly and come with us.”</p> - -<p>“I hope they tell us where the iron box of gold is hidden!” exclaimed -Agnes, and they all noticed that the men started in surprise.</p> - -<p>“Do you know about it?” asked the one afterward identified as Max -Rother.</p> - -<p>“We certainly do!” declared Ruth. “Hop Wong has given us all the -particulars.”</p> - -<p>“That Chink!” growled Simon Meggs. “I always was suspicious of him.”</p> - -<p>“Settle one thing first,” suggested Luke. “Are you coming with us -quietly or shall we use force?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, we’ll come along,” snapped out Rother. “But where are you taking -us? We haven’t done anything to be arrested for—except maybe sneak in, -trespass as you call it. You can’t do much to us for that. We haven’t -taken a thing.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe we won’t send for the police after all,” said Ruth. “It all -depends on what you tell us. As you say, you haven’t done anything yet.”</p> - -<p>“Except frighten us all a bit, and bang Luke Shepard over the head,” put -in Agnes. “And if you are willing to tell us where the box of gold is, -maybe we’ll let you go, provided you promise not to come back.”</p> - -<p>“I guess we’ll have to do as you say. There’s no help for it,” grumbled -Meggs. “But I don’t believe you’ll find the money. We couldn’t, and -we’ve had several trials after it.”</p> - -<p>“In the first place—is there any money?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“We think there is, lady,” answered Rother.</p> - -<p>“Whose money is it?” demanded Luke. “Suppose you tell us about it. -Everything you do to save us work will count in your favor.”</p> - -<p>“Well, it was going to be our money if we found it,” said Rother. “But -at the start it belonged to Collis Ingleton.”</p> - -<p>“The heavy drinker?” asked Luke at a venture.</p> - -<p>“How’d you know that?” asked Meggs with a perceptible start.</p> - -<p>“Never mind how. Was he a drinker?”</p> - -<p>“He was a soak, if that’s what you mean, asking the ladies’ pardon for -giving it a plain name,” said Rother. “And when he couldn’t get what he -wanted elsewhere we supplied him. He said we would be rewarded by -finding the box of gold in this cellar and we’ve been trying for it ever -since.”</p> - -<p>“Then the money didn’t belong to Mr. Stower?” asked Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Maybe some of it did. He and this Ingleton were in business together -once on a time,” Meggs answered. “But Ingleton said it was all his, and -Mr. Stower took it from him to save it and buried it.”</p> - -<p>“But Ingleton said we could have it if we found it. That was to pay for -keeping him in liquor,” said Rother. “Oh, I know it’s a terrible bad -thing,” he admitted, as he saw the look of loathing on the faces of the -girls. “We’re bad men—not as bad as some, maybe, but bad enough. This -man suffered a lot. And he couldn’t stop. He just had to have liquor.”</p> - -<p>“We got into it against our will, and we made up our minds to quit and -live straight after we got this money,” added Meggs.</p> - -<p>“Do you think there is any chance of getting it?” asked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“We did at one time,” Rother replied. “But I’m not so sure now. We -looked around and dug whenever we could without letting you folks know -about it. But the white star doesn’t seem to give the location as we -thought it would.”</p> - -<p>“The white star!” cried Ruth. “Is there a white star in the cellar? We -couldn’t find it.”</p> - -<p>“Where did you look?” asked Rother.</p> - -<p>“All around the walls.”</p> - -<p>“You should have looked overhead—on the beams. It’s there all right,” -said the man, with a grin. “Stars are always overhead, lady.”</p> - -<p>“That’s so! We never thought of that!” cried Agnes. “Of course a star -would be as high up as it could be placed!”</p> - -<p>“Do you mean, to say you have located the star in the cellar? The star -that Hop Wong said indicated the location of the iron box of gold?” -asked Neale.</p> - -<p>“Reckon Hop Wong told all he knew,” murmured Meggs. “Yes, we have -located the star.”</p> - -<p>“Come and show us,” ordered Luke. “And no tricks, mind!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, we’re past tricks,” said Rother humbly enough. “We’ll play into -your hands now. Only, if you do locate any money—well, maybe you’ll give -us enough to get a fresh start.”</p> - -<p>“We’ll see,” Ruth replied guardedly.</p> - -<p>The boys carefully guarded the men, surrounding them as they all went -back to the cellar.</p> - -<p>“We never knew that other door was there!” exclaimed Ruth, when they saw -how the men had entered and left the cellar.</p> - -<p>“That’s one of the things Uncle Peter kept to himself,” said Agnes. -“There seems to have been a number of them.”</p> - -<p>The lights were turned on in the cellar, and then, followed by the -Corner House girls and their friends, the men led the way to the corner -where they had been digging when surprised by Luke and Hal.</p> - -<p>“There’s the white star,” remarked Rother, pointing to a beam overhead.</p> - -<p>And there, showing faintly in the half darkness, was a white star -painted on one of the beams. Just beneath it was the beginning of an -excavation in the cellar bottom.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 id='chXXV' title='XXV: The Alligator’s Tail'> -<span>CHAPTER XXV</span><br /><span>THE ALLIGATOR’S TAIL</span> -</h2> - -<p>“There’s the white star, surely enough!” exclaimed Agnes, when they had -all seen it.</p> - -<p>“You started to dig just beneath it, is that it?” Luke asked the two -men.</p> - -<p>“Yes, that’s what we understood we were to do,” remarked Rother.</p> - -<p>“But so far—” began Meggs, when Neale with a cry interrupted and -demanded:</p> - -<p>“You fellows haven’t found the gold and hidden it somewhere else, have -you?”</p> - -<p>“Found the gold? Not much! If we had we wouldn’t be coming back at the -risk—well, we wouldn’t have come back and be caught as we are if we had -the coin,” answered Rother.</p> - -<p>“As a matter of fact, we hadn’t finished digging when you saw us,” went -on Meggs.</p> - -<p>“But I don’t think we will find it, not if we dig down to China,” went -on his partner.</p> - -<p>“Why not?” asked Hal, quickly.</p> - -<p>“You haven’t dug far enough to find out. You’ve only scratched the -surface here,” said Neale as he looked where the earth had been turned -up.</p> - -<p>“No matter. I went far enough to make sure this ground hadn’t been -disturbed in a hundred years,” declared Rother. “It was as hard as -flint. If any box had ever been buried there the ground would show some -sign of it, and it doesn’t. I think we’re fooled, if you asked me,” he -concluded.</p> - -<p>“Well, perhaps it was all a fairy story,” assented Luke. “But we’ll have -a try at it.”</p> - -<p>“To-night?” asked Ruth, for she saw Luke take up a spade.</p> - -<p>“To-night—yes. There is no time like the present. And since your -visitors, Ruth, seem to like the work we’ll let them do it,” and Luke -handed the implement to Rother and motioned to him to begin.</p> - -<p>“Maybe this is only fair. I reckon we did give you a lot of trouble,” -said the tramp. “But we won’t find anything—not if we dig all night.”</p> - -<p>And he was right. Though he and his companion turned up the earth in -many parts of the cellar, working at each point of the star as an -indicator, nothing was found.</p> - -<p>It was nearly morning when Ruth gave the word to stop. But no one was -weary, unless it was the tramps who had been made to do most of the -labor.</p> - -<p>“Well, I guess it was all a hoax,” said Agnes, with a sigh that had in -it something of disappointment. “I think your toper friend was -romancing.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sure of it,” declared Rother. “He fooled us all right, as might -have been expected from an old soak. Well, if you’ll let us go, we’ll -clear out and not bother you again. We thought there was gold in the -cellar; but, well, there just isn’t.”</p> - -<p>“What do you say, Ruth, shall we let them go?” asked Luke.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes. They really have done nothing except trespass, and I don’t -like the idea of appearing in court against them, as we should need to. -Let the poor fellows go.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks, lady,” mumbled Meggs. “I’m sorry there wasn’t any money.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps it’s just as well,” said Ruth.</p> - -<p>“Oh, and we wanting a new automobile the worst way!” gasped Agnes. “I -like your nerve!”</p> - -<p>But it seemed the best way out, and the men were allowed to depart. This -they did hurriedly, thankful in one respect and doubtless much -disappointed in another. Their dream of wealth was over.</p> - -<p>But when Luke and Neale had gone home for a few hours’ sleep and had -come back again, the young people took another look down in the cellar -by such daylight as entered through the opened rear door and the -long-unsuspected entrance beneath the front porch.</p> - -<p>However, even that search resulted in nothing, and the Corner House -girls and their friends came to the somewhat reluctant conclusion that -the whole story was more or less of a hoax.</p> - -<p>As for Sammy, Tess, and Dot, they were bitterly disappointed at the -outcome of it all when they were told of the night’s adventure.</p> - -<p>“I wish I’d ’a’ been there to help capture the robbers!” cried Sammy.</p> - -<p>“They weren’t robbers,” said Agnes. “They didn’t steal anything.”</p> - -<p>“Well, they would ’a’ been if they could ’a’ found the chest of gold!” -declared Sammy. “Hi, where you goin’ with my alligator, Dot?” he called, -for he had brought his Palm Island pet over to the Corner House with -him, following the giving up of the search on the part of Luke and the -others.</p> - -<p>“I’m not going anywhere with your old alligator,” Dot answered. “But -he’s wiggled himself down cellar and I’m going after him, so there!”</p> - -<p>Sammy was eager to hear all the particulars of the night’s chase, and he -did not go down cellar, even to rescue his beloved saurian. Dot, -however, was not one to give up once she started a mission, and -presently she was heard moving about amid the boxes and barrels, -doubtless after the scaly creature.</p> - -<p>“Well, there’s one thing we won’t have to worry about,” said Ruth, “and -that is the presence of those two mysterious men. When we didn’t know -who they were and what they were after, it was a constant source of -anxiety. Now they have gone for good.”</p> - -<p>At that moment Dot came up out of the cellar and hurried to where all -the others were sitting in chairs beneath the shade of the grape arbor -near the rear door. There was a strange look on her face.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter?” asked Ruth, sensing that something had happened.</p> - -<p>“Sammy’s alligator! He went down in the cellar, and I went after him -and—and—” began Dot excitedly.</p> - -<p>“Well, is he lost or did you find him?” interrupted Sammy. “If he’s -gone, Dot Kenway——”</p> - -<p>“No, he isn’t zactly gone,” explained Dot, with wounded dignity. “But he -crawled in a crack between two stones and only his tail was sticking out -and I got hold of it and I pulled, and it—it came <i>right out</i>!”</p> - -<p>“Mercy! You don’t mean to say you pulled off the poor alligator’s tail, -did you?” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Maybe he’ll grow another as a crab grows a new claw,” Luke said -consolingly, as he saw the look of anguish on Sammy’s face.</p> - -<p>“No, I didn’t pull the alligator’s tail off!” declared Dot. “It was on -too fast, I guess. But I pulled him and he came out of the crack, and -the stone came out with him and there’s a hole there, and there’s an -iron box in the hole, and——”</p> - -<p>Dot did not finish. With whoops on the part of the boys and shrieks on -the part of the girls, the whole party made a rush for the cellar. The -afternoon sun was now shining in it, making the place fairly bright.</p> - -<p>“Show me where you pulled the ’gator out, Dot!” begged Neale.</p> - -<p>“There. You can see the hole and the iron box!”</p> - -<p>And there it was!</p> - -<p>The lost treasure! Curiously, as they discovered later, one of the -points of the white star on the beam overhead pointed directly to the -stone in the wall behind which the iron box had been hidden for so many -years. It was thus the clew should have been interpreted, it seemed.</p> - -<p>It was an old box of thin sheet iron, and not heavy cast iron, and as it -was rusty it was soon opened. Out on the bench in the yard the hidden -wealth, for the first time in many years, was exposed to the light of -the sun.</p> - -<p>“Then those men were right after all!” murmured Ruth.</p> - -<p>“In a way, yes,” admitted Luke. “But it took Dot and Sammy’s alligator -to get at the real secret.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’m glad it was one of the Corner House girls who actually solved -the mystery,” said Ruth.</p> - -<p>And the mystery was solved.</p> - -<p>The wealth did not amount to as much as perhaps Neale and Agnes in their -wild dreams had dared to hope, but it was a substantial sum. It would -have been a small fortune to the two tramps had they been able to secure -it for themselves.</p> - -<p>“What shall we do with it?” asked Tess, as they saw the piles of gold -and paper money.</p> - -<p>“Buy a new auto the first thing!” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“No, we must give it to whoever owns it,” said Ruth. “Put it all back, -Luke. We must take it to Mr. Howbridge.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” he agreed, “that’s the only thing to do.”</p> - -<p>The girls’ guardian was greatly surprised.</p> - -<p>“I never imagined there was anything to that queer story,” he said. “It -wasn’t at all like Mr. Stower to do something he didn’t tell me. But I -suppose he had his reasons. Well, now to find out whose money it is, and -if there are no heirs—well, it goes to the Corner House girls, of -course.”</p> - -<p>“And boys!” added Ruth. “For they helped us find it.”</p> - -<p>“Hop Wong ought to get some,” said Dot. “I like him, even if he is a -funny man. But he doesn’t seem to be made of china.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Hop Wong will get his share,” said Mr. Howbridge, amid laughter.</p> - -<p>“And maybe those two tramps ought to have some, too. We’ll see,” added -Ruth.</p> - -<p>Though the finding of the money was kept as quiet as possible, yet it -made a stir in Milton, and many a throng of curious ones came to stare -at the Corner House and the inmates thereof.</p> - -<p>Mr. Howbridge made diligent inquiries and found the story to be -substantially as told by Rother and Meggs. The unfortunate friend of -Uncle Peter, whose failing Mr. Stower had done his best to hide, really -owned the money. It had been hidden to try to save it from going for -liquor. As he died without leaving any relatives, there was none to -claim the wealth.</p> - -<p>After that a diligent search was made through the papers left by Mr. -Stower and finally a document was brought to light in which the former -partner left all his earthly possessions to the owner of the Corner -House.</p> - -<p>Then, as the Corner House girls succeeded to all of Uncle Peter’s -belongings they, naturally, fell heirs to the iron box of money.</p> - -<p>“And now may we have the new car?” asked Agnes, when it was all settled.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” chuckled her guardian, “if only to keep you quiet.”</p> - -<p>So Agnes was made happy, and so, also, was Hop Wong, for he was given a -substantial sum, enough to enable him to clear off the debt on his -laundry and start afresh. And later still, the two tramps were located -and given new outfits of clothing and a little cash.</p> - -<p>“If Agnes has a new car I think we ought to have new playthings,” -declared Dot, “’cause I found the money.”</p> - -<p>“And there ought to be a new basket for Sandyface to keep her kittens -in,” added Tess.</p> - -<p>“That shall be done!” laughed Ruth.</p> - -<p>“And I should think maybe we could give Sammy a little chain for his -alligator so it wouldn’t get lost again,” suggested Dot.</p> - -<p>“I think that’s the least we can do for Sammy, after the part his pet -played in revealing the hidden gold,” agreed Ruth. And so it was done.</p> - -<p>“Well,” remarked Nalbro when she left for Boston with Hal, “I must say I -have had a most delightful vacation at the Corner House. And it was so -romantic!”</p> - -<p>“Glad you liked it,” returned Agnes.</p> - -<p>“Come again next summer,” put in Ruth. “Maybe something else will -happen.”</p> - -<p>And something else did, and what it was will be related in another -volume, to be called “The Corner House Girls Facing the World.” In that -book we shall see what all of the girls were capable of doing under very -trying circumstances.</p> - -<p>From his papers Ruth and Agnes learned much concerning their Uncle -Peter’s work in behalf of the partner who had all but drunk himself to -death. He had done his utmost to reform the man, but without avail. Then -he had done what he could to save the unfortunate one’s money, and this -had occurred just before his own death.</p> - -<p>And so the mystery came to an end and the puzzling noises around the old -Corner House ceased. Sammy got his new chain for the alligator and was -correspondingly happy.</p> - -<p>“He is going to make the alligator learn new tricks,” announced Dot.</p> - -<p>“Mercy! haven’t we had tricks enough?” cried Agnes.</p> - -<p>“What I can’t understand,” went on Dot, frowning, “is about Mr. Hop -Wong.”</p> - -<p>“What can’t you understand?” asked Agnes.</p> - -<p>“I’ve looked and looked and looked,” went on the littlest Corner House -Girl, “and he isn’t a Chinaman! There isn’t the least bit of china about -him, so there!”</p> - -<p style='margin-top:1.618em; text-indent:0'>THE END</p> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Corner House Girls Solve a Mystery, by -Grace Brooks Hill - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE *** - -***** This file should be named 62489-h.htm or 62489-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/4/8/62489/ - -Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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