Auto Boys' Mystery

by Sophie May

  CHAPTER III

  THE SEARCH IN THE OLD HOUSE

  Paul's adventure in the old house somehow seemed to give importance to hisopinions on all matters pertaining to that subject. So when he suggestedthat the act of throwing something into the water by the tenant of theabandoned building was for the purpose of destroying evidence, all theboys agreed that quite likely such was the truth.

  What evidence this person, be he Grandall or not, wished to destroy andwhy, was the subject of vast discussion. Since the coming of Slider amongthem, particularly, the Auto Boys found the mystery of the stolen twentythousand dollars to possess for them a strong personal interest. Theytalked over and over again, and with the greatest relish, everythingthat had come within their notice in and around the bleak old structuredown there on the Point.

  Finally--it was during the Sunday evening supper of cold hard-boiled eggs,bread and butter, bananas, graham crackers and coffee--that finally, andat last, Phil Way proposed that a really serious visit be made to theclubhouse the following morning. Of any person encountered--Mr. Murkyexcepted, of course--permission to use the vise and other equipment inthe automobile shed would be asked. This would be a reasonable pretextfor going to the clubhouse grounds. And being on those premises, everyoneshould look carefully about for some clue to the stolen money's hidingplace.

  It was not easy for Captain Phil to suggest this plan. He was not sure itwas quite square and honorable--"on the level"--as some would say,--buthe called it a stratagem in a worthy cause and so felt better over it.But really, since the cause was that of helping Chip Slider, as againstsuch villains as Murky and Grandall, no one could blame Phil, or blameany of the lads that they welcomed his proposal heartily.

  The day had been hot and close. Contrary to the usual condition, also,the air grew little if any cooler as night came on. A dive from theprojecting log into the lake to cool off was in order then, as the boysprepared for bed.

  "Just goes to show what a nuisance clothes are, anyway," observed PaulJones, as he dried himself. He was rejoicing exceedingly that he hadonly to jump into his nightshirt to be clothed to all necessary extent,following his swim. "Heap fine idea if we had clothes for day time assimple as for night time!" he added.

  "Yes sir, it's just such fellows as you, Jones, that would sooner orlater drift right back to the stone age if there weren't moreenergetic ones to drag you along forward, making you wear clothes andthings--keeping you civilized," was MacLester's answer. A good-naturedgrin accompanied his remarks.

  "Well, I s'pose it takes clothes to give some folks an appearance of beingcivilized," was Paul's warm rejoinder, yet with utmost good-nature. "Butfor my part--well, I'll go on wearing 'em, David, for your sake."

  "And it would make your appearance more civilized still if you made morecivil use of your tongue," MacLester retorted.

  Then Jones had recourse to his usual, "Tush, tush, Davy! You've tiredyourself all out. You'll feel better tomorrow."

  This sort of language, in a fatherly tone that from Paul's slender size,in contrast with Dave's large frame, was really grotesque, always provokeda mild laugh. Usually, too, it closed the wordy clashes in which the twoboys frequently engaged.

  MacLester made no further response. He was ready for bed now, Billy hadalready crept in and Phil and Chip Slider were following him.

  "Last is best of all the game," chirped Jones in his own blithe,self-complacent way as he saw that he was bringing up the rear, asoften he had done before. But in another moment he likewise was in bed.The boys were feeling now the late hours of the night before. Undoubtedlythey all would "feel better tomorrow."

  The probability that the amiable Mr. Murky would discover Chip Slider'spresence in the woods had been discussed before, but the talk was renewedat breakfast Monday morning. Chip was quite sure the old fellow did notsuspect that he was near. He had been very careful to keep out of Murky'ssight and was more anxious than ever to do so now, being quite sure therewould be serious trouble for himself and his new friends as well, were hediscovered.

  It was so apparent that Slider stood in great dread of the tramp thatPhil had no hesitancy in suggesting that he might better remain at thecamp while the others visited the old house. Chip agreed readily. He saidhe could be of no use elsewhere, and his presence with the Auto Boys wouldbut inflame Murky as much against them as himself if they chanced to meethim.

  With the exception of the upstairs window being closed, the clubhouseand its surroundings looked exactly the same as on their former visitsto the Point, the Auto Boys found. The air of loneliness, melancholy andexcessive quiet impressed them all just as it had done before. The soundof their own footsteps appeared to ring in a hollow and unnatural way.Their voices, though low and subdued, seemed loud and harsh in their earsin the foreboding calm of this haunted atmosphere.

  "I don't see _why_ it should always feel so here--as if a fellow was justgoing to be scared to death," remarked Billy in an undertone.

  "If you figure it out, though, it's all in your mind," replied Philthoughtfully. "Trouble is, to make yourself believe it."

  But notwithstanding his reasoning, sound enough, undoubtedly, despite theawful tragedy the Point was so soon to witness--Captain Phil carried hisphilosophy rather gingerly, as it were, when he stepped up on the porchto knock. In other words, he stepped very lightly. Still his rapping wasright sharp and it should have brought a response had there been anyonewithin hearing, willing to make answer.

  Peering in at the windows, the boys could see nothing in any way differentthan when they had been at the house the first time.

  "I tell you whoever _was_ here has gone," said MacLester for the fourthor fifth time, and he tried the door. It was locked. The door at therear,--that is, the one opening upon the high porch facing the lake,was likewise tightly secured.

  "Now then," said Phil, resolutely, "we're face to face with the questionthat has been in my mind all night. What are we going to do next? And I'lltell you what we _are_ going to do. We have no right to go into thehouse--no right at all, one way you look at it. But that isn't the answer.We are helping Chip Slider with his search for money that was stolenand hidden, and that ought to be found and returned to its owners. Thenit's _necessary_ that we go in this clubhouse and _we're going in_."

  "Paul knows the way up through the cellar! Let him get in at the windowhe got out of and so go up the cellar stairs and open the door for us.There's a key inside, likely," proposed Billy.

  "Say! how'd you like to take a run and jump off the dock?" answered youngMr. Jones with more fervor than elegance. "No, sir! We can find some otherwindow open!"

  And Paul was right. A surprise awaited the boys when they reached the westside of the house. (The path from front to rear passed on the east of thebuilding.) The brush and a couple of tall trees grew very close to thewalls at the westerly side. Phil was foremost as the friends ventured inthat direction.

  "Look!" he cried suddenly. "A window open, and more than that, it'ssmashed to smithereens!"

  Quite true it was. The fragments of glass littered the parched andstunted grass. The sash of the window was raised to its fullest height.A freshly broken branch of a low bush, close by, was evidence thatthe mischief had been done but recently.

  The boys could only guess by whom and for what purpose the window had beenshattered. The thought came to them that Murky might have been doing someinvestigating inside. Possibly he was in the house at this very minute.The idea was not a pleasant one to contemplate.

  "Gee whiz! I'd fade _away_--I'd shrink up to a pale shadow andperish--actually perish, if ever that fellow got hold of _me_!" said youngMr. Jones. His voice indicated that perhaps his exaggerated statementmight not be so overdrawn as it appeared.

  "Come on! Give me a lift, somebody," exclaimed Way impatiently. Then,ignoring Billy's prompt offer of a hand to boost him, up he clamberedand the next moment stood within. Billy, Paul and Dave followed.

  The air in the house was close and oppressive. Outside the sun shonehot. N
ot even a zephyr stirred the leaves. A bluejay shrieked noisily, asif in protest at the visitors' conduct. With something of that "fadingaway" feeling Paul Jones had mentioned, the boys proceeded, however, fromroom to room.

  Downstairs they found everything to be quite as has been describedheretofore. The bucket on the kitchen table beside which, on a formeroccasion, the boys had seen a tiny pool of water, was now empty andturned upside down. Other little things, such as the tin dipper beinginside a cupboard and every drawer and every door closed, suggestedthat whoever had occupied the house had indeed gone away.

  A door opened upon the stairs that led to the second floor. It was closedbut not locked. Up the dusty steps the boys went. They found themselvesin a hall off of which opened six small bed-rooms. In each was a bedsteadof one kind or another, some of iron, some built of pine lumber. Therewere mattresses on all the beds but on only one was there other bedding.This was in the room the window of which the boys had more than once seento be open.

  A couple of blankets and a pillow were thrown loosely over this mattress.The latter was quite out of its proper position as if it had been placedon the bedstead hurriedly. Looking more closely the lads discovered thatthe other mattresses were awry. Dave suggested that someone had pulledthem this way and that to see if anything was hidden in or under them.There was no telling whether he was right.

  Between two of the tiny bed-rooms was a bath-room. It contained a tuband washstand only, but was quite nicely finished in painted pine as,indeed, was all the second floor. There were no towels, soap, brushes orany of the usual paraphernalia of a bath-room in sight but on a littleshelf beneath the mirror were a shaving-mug and brush.

  "See! this has been used just lately! The soap is still wet on the brush,"Phil Way observed, picking up that article. "Mr. Grandall forgot it, Ireckon."

  "Grandall--your grandmother!" exclaimed Worth quickly. "Look at theinitial B, big as life, on the cup!"

  "Just the same, it was Grandall who was here and the only questionsare, what did he come for and where has he went?" said Paul Jones morepositively than grammatically.

  "Anyhow the shaving cup or the initial, either one, is no sure sign ofanything except that someone was here, and we knew that before," said Wayreflectively. "Quite likely the reason the mug was left here was that ithad been here all along and did not belong to Grandall," he reasoned.

  "Now you're shouting," spoke Jones with emphasis.

  At the end of the narrow hall was a small room with a door opening upona balcony. Here the boys stepped out. The view of the lake from this pointwas extremely pretty. Under the glow of the sun the water shone likesilver. The green shores looked cool and delightful--far cooler thanthey really were.

  But they were lovely to the eye. Only one tall, dead pine whose naked topand branches rose gaunt and ghostly above the foliage of its neighborsoffered the slightest omen of the impending danger in a scene so tranquil.

  A high trellis on which the roses or some vines had at some time clamberedto this balcony or porch roof where the boys now stood, offered them anopportunity to climb down to the ground. Only Billy chose this route. Hequickly reached the earth and went out to the decaying remnants of thewharf while the others resumed their search through the house. But if hethought to discover any sign of whatever the strange man threw into thewater the day before, he was disappointed.

  Worth rejoined his friends in the clubhouse living-room. Striking manymatches to find the way, they all descended the steep steps into thecellar. Very little light entered this dark place. One small window onlywas there beside the one whose presence Paul Jones had found so convenient.

  "Here's the place to look carefully," observed Billy. "But I say, we area pack of mutton-heads! What if someone should come into the house thisminute? Tell you what! You fellows dig around here and I'll stand guardupstairs."

  "I did think of such a plan but after seeing that broken window, Iconcluded it wasn't necessary," said Phil. "Whoever there might be todisturb us now, has been through the house ahead of us, I'm thinking. Andit's my opinion that we are too late coming here, anyhow. The man whomost likely found the twenty thousand dollars is the one who cleared outlast night."

  Still Billy Worth insisted on going upstairs to stand guard while thesearch of the dark cellar went forward and the bluejay outside harshlyscreamed its protests while the gaunt, bare top of the old dead pinefrowned ominously across the lake.