CHAPTER XXIV
DENNY'S SOLILOQUY
"What shall we do?" asked Cora, in a whisper.
"It _is_ rather a puzzle," admitted Bess.
The motor girls were standing outside Denny Shane's cabin, looking inon him as he sat at his ease, with the red oar over his knees.
"He doesn't seem to be in any danger," went on Cora.
"No, those men either haven't harmed him, or they haven't arrivedyet," returned Belle.
"Oh, but suppose they should come while we are here?" suggestedMarita, shrinking against Cora.
"Don't go to supposing such uncanny things," objected Cora, as she puther arm about the other. "Are you afraid?"
"I don't know," was the hesitating answer. "I suppose one ought to beafraid, coming at night to a cabin where some horrible men areexpected. And yet, somehow, I don't seem to be," replied Marita. "Iknow I would have been a few months ago, but since I have met yougirls, and seen the things you do, why it's queer, but really I--Irather like it!" and she laughed.
"See what your influence has done," whispered Cora.
They had all spoken in low tones, for Denny was sometimes sharp ofhearing, and they did not want to arouse him.
The girls were really puzzled, not only at the peaceful surroundingsat Denny's cabin, but at the absence of the boys. Of course they couldnot know that Jack and the others had been there and gone, not findingDenny at home. Nor did they know anything of the note left pinned tothe door.
"Do you suppose it could all be over?" asked Lottie.
"All over? What do you mean?" asked Cora.
"I mean could the men have been here, and been captured by the boysand taken to jail?"
"Oh, it's possible, but not very probable," returned Cora. "Theysurely would have managed to get some word to us if anything like thathad happened."
"But what are we going to do?" asked Bess. "We ought not to stayhere."
"No, I suppose not," admitted Cora, slowly. "It might be a good thing,though, just to stop and speak to Denny. Then we'd know, soon enough,what had happened. Suppose we do that?"
The others agreed. They had stepped away from the window for a moment,but now Cora walked toward it again. Denny was still holding the oar,but he must have gotten up, for the window was now partly open, and ithad not been so at first.
Denny was talking to himself. He was indulging in a soliloquy,apparently addressing himself to the oar.
"If you could only talk," he said, "if you could only talk, what atale you could tell. Yes, indeed!" and he sighed. "A tale of the seaand the land--of calm and storms."
"He's very poetical; isn't he?" whispered Bess.
"Hush!" cautioned Cora. "Listen to what he says."
Denny was evidently in a talking mood, and was living the past overagain.
"If only Grandfather Lewis were here, what tales he could tell, too,"Denny went on. "And there's one tale I'd be glad to listen to. Hecould tell where the land papers were. If only I could find 'emeverything would be all right, and the factory men--ha! we could laughin our sleeves at 'em. Laugh in our sleeves! Ha! Ha! No, we couldlaugh in their faces, so we could; couldn't we?"
He held up the oar, speaking to it as one might to a favorite dog.
Denny swung it above his head, as though testing its weight as a club.
"'Twas so he swung it the night of the storm--the night he saved mylife!" murmured Denny. "My, what a night that was! What a night!"
He seemed lost in recollection for a moment, and then resumed hisself-communion.
"'Twas so he held it--held it out to me in the smother of foam andspray when I was goin' under. And what was it he said?
"'Grab holt!' says he. 'Grab holt and I'll pull you in. Don't beafraid, the oar is strong!' And so it is--a grand, strong oar. Asstrong as old Len Lewis himself. What a grand old man he was! A fineold man!
"But he's gone, and we all have to go. I'll have to go with the rest,I suppose. But before I do go I wish I could find them land papers.What in the world did Grandfather Lewis do with 'em anyhow?
"They must be around here. He ought to have kept 'em in the bank, orin a strong box; but he was always like that. Hidin' his things awayin curious places. He even did it with his tobaccy. A strange man!
"But I'll wager the papers aren't far from the land. That would be hisway--to keep the papers near the land. 'A place for everything andeverything in its place,' he used to say. What more natural than thathe'd have the papers near the land?
"I wonder, though, did he stick 'em anywhere around me cabin? He comeover here often enough to sit and chat. Ah, many's the good old talkwe used to have--a talk of the old days. Often I'd come in from meboat, and find him here. He might have brought the papers an' hid 'emhere when I was out. I wonder if he did?"
Denny looked around his simple cabin. He laid the oar down gently, asa thing revered. He walked about the room, looking in various places.
"No, the papers wouldn't be here," he mused. "I'd have found thembefore this. And those fellows, who came and upset my place when Iwasn't home--they'd have found 'em if they was here. I wonder whatGrandfather Lewis did with them papers?"
It was a puzzle that others than Denny Shane would have given much tosolve.
Cora and her chums looked at one another in the moonlight outsideDenny's cabin. His talk had revealed something to them, but there wasno clue to the missing papers which could prove the title of Mrs.Lewis to the valuable land.
"Well, there's one thing sure, Denny hasn't been attacked as yet,"whispered Bess. "And the boys haven't been here to warn him, or he'dshow some signs of it."
"I think you're right," agreed Cora. "What had we better do? Tell himourselves?"
"That's what I say--let's warn him," suggested Belle.
The girls started for the cabin door, but paused midway as they heardthe approach of a motor boat near the fisherman's little dock.
"Wait," suggested Cora. "That may be the boys now."
The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay; or, The Secret of the Red Oar Page 24
