Even the old den fireplace had been badly damaged by the crash. The long, heavy mantelpiece lay on the floor, knocked there by the impact of the falling tree. Wind howled. Snow swirled into the living room. A blast of cold air blew in.
“Bert! Harry! Quick!” Mr. Bobbsey said. “We must shut off this room. It seems to be the only part of the lodge that was hit, so if we can close the door, we shouldn’t be too uncomfortable in the rest of the house.”
“I’ll get an axe, Dad,” Bert offered, and raced to the cellar.
When he returned a few minutes later, Harry and Mr. Bobbsey had moved aside some of the smaller branches of the tree. At once Bert began chopping, and before long a large enough piece of the tree trunk had been hacked away to allow the door to be closed.
At last it was latched, but the sagging frame prevented a tight fit. Harry ran to the kitchen for rags and newspapers to stuff around the frame and within a few minutes the demolished room was fairly well sealed off.
Meanwhile the others were busy sweeping up mortar and small pieces of stone which had fallen from the fireplace wall in the living room. When the chore was concluded, Mrs. Bobbsey said everyone should go to bed.
“You’re right,” the twins’ father agreed.
“Boy, what a day of excitement!” Harry exclaimed.
Freddie awoke first next morning, delighted to find sunshine filtering through the snow-framed windows. One toot on his horn and the whole family was aroused ! After a hasty breakfast, everyone went to the den to inspect the damage by daylight.
“What a mess!” Freddie exclaimed, voicing the unanimous opinion.
Mr. Bobbsey organized work crews to start the clean-up of debris from the storm. While he and Bert were sawing off the tree limbs protruding into the den, the other children were to shovel snow, making paths both to the woodpile and the road.
By midmorning, both tasks were accomplished and Nan, Bert, Harry, and Dorothy helped carry the tree limbs outside. Their removal showed that the roof and the den fireplace would need extensive repairs and that some of the furniture would have to be replaced.
“We’d better carry the good furniture and books and knickknacks into the other rooms,” Nan suggested.
Willingly all hands set to work, picking up and carrying the articles away. Nan, busy near the fireplace wall, suddenly peered into a crack of loosened mortar back of where the mantelpiece had been, and gave a startled gasp.
“Oh, come here quick, everybody!” she called. “There’s something green in here. Do you supposed it could be—”
Nan did not need to finish the sentence. Instantly, the other children dashed forward. Bert, Harry, and Dorothy, as well as Nan, tried to reach down into the crack, but their hands were too large.
“You try it, Floss,” Bert suggested and held her up.
Flossie’s small hand slid easily into the crack. She cried out, “I feel something!”
The little girl rummaged about a second more, then pulled out a ragged, dust-covered stack of green papers. When it was brushed off and opened, the children stared in astonishment.
The stack contained several bills, all of large denominations!
Too excited to say a word, the children dashed into the living room where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were rearranging furniture to accommodate the new pieces.
“We’ve found it!” Bert finally managed to cry as Flossie waved the bills before her parents. “The missing money! See, Dave didn’t steal it! And that fellow Will didn’t find it!”
Quickly Mr. Bobbsey counted the money. Then, beaming at the children, he exclaimed, “The exact amount that Mr. Carford said he lost that day from the mantel is here ! It fell down behind and got wedged out of sight, I suppose.”
“And it was there all the time!” Nan exclaimed. “Oh, poor Dave! And poor Mr. Carford!”
For the next hour Snow Lodge was a scene of happy pandemonium.
“Actually,” said Nan excitedly, “the storm and the falling tree were blessings in disguise. In all these years no one found the money, but Old Man Snowstorm fixed that!”
“Didn’t we have luck!” Freddie exclaimed.
Mrs. Bobbsey smiled at the children proudly. “A little luck and some good detecting,” she said. “If you hadn’t been so watchful, Nan, you might never have noticed the money at all. It probably would have stayed right in that crack and been covered over by a new mantel!”
“Dad,” said Bert, “shouldn’t we get word to Dave and Mr. Carford right away?”
“Yes. Dave first.”
As they discussed hiking to Dave’s cabin, a knock came on the back door.
“I’ll get it,” Freddie offered and scampered to the kitchen. Opening the door, he cried out, “It’s Dave!”
Everyone hurried to greet him and all talked at once about the wonderful find. For a moment Dave Burdock was too surprised to utter a word. Choked with emotion, he followed the Bobbseys into the living room.
Finally he managed to say, “I just don’t know how to thank you folks. You can’t imagine how much this means to me to have my name cleared!”
“Don’t you think we should let Mr. Carford know right away that the money has been found, Dad?” Nan suggested.
“I certainly do,” he agreed. “Dave, is there any chance of getting through to Lakeport?”
Dave replied that he had come over to Snow Lodge not only to see if everyone was safe, but also to tell the Bobbseys about the road. The snowplow had managed to clear it, and the electric power would be restored before long.
“I’ll start for Lakeport now,” Mr. Bobbsey said.
Bert spoke up. “Dad, how about bringing Mr. Carford back with you and we can have a party to celebrate?”
His suggestion was greeted with enthusiasm, and the twins’ father started off. Dave remained at the lodge to help cut and bring in wood which was needed.
The afternoon passed quickly and happily. Mrs. Bobbsey and the children tidied the lodge and even made some paper decorations for the dinner table. Shortly before dark, the electric power came back on, and the kerosene lamps were returned to the basement. Mrs. Bobbsey bustled about the kitchen preparing dinner.
Finally Mr. Bobbsey arrived with Mr. Carford. The elderly man strode up to his nephew with hand extended.
“Dave,” he said, his voice trembling, “I hope you can forgive me for my unjust accusation. For some time now I’ve felt you couldn’t have been guilty, but you refused to see me or talk to me. Now that the mystery has been solved, can’t we be friends again?”
Dave flushed in embarrassment as he grasped his uncle’s hand. “It’s what I’ve hoped for, sir,” he said, “but I wanted you to be absolutely sure!”
Everyone beamed as they sat down to dinner. Mr. Carford looked around, a broad smile on his lined face. “This is the nicest way I know of to end an old year. And we owe it all to the Bobbseys!” Then he looked sad as he added, “Perhaps this will be a lesson to you young ones. Never accuse anyone of wrongdoing unless you know it is true!”
The children were thoughtful for a minute, remembering how they had accused Danny wrongly, then promised to take his advice.
As they ate, the twins and their cousins eagerly recounted their various adventures to Mr. Carford. Presently Nan asked him if he knew about the tunnel leading from the kitchen to the old smokehouse.
“Yes, I remember I used to play in it sometimes when I was a child. But to tell the truth, I’d forgotten all about it over the years.”
“Have you any idea how old the tunnel is?” Bert asked. “Or what it was used for?”
Mr. Carford thought for a moment, then replied, “I can’t give you any exact dates, but I should say it’s close to two hundred years old. This house was put up before the American Revolution. The farmer who built it probably used the tunnel to get from the kitchen to the smokehouse during the heavy snows.”
“Is that all it was used for?” Flossie asked, disappointed that the tunnel did not have a more mysterious story.
“How exciting!” Nan cried. “Just think! Perhaps one of the Bobbsey twins’ ancestors hid down there!”
“Could be,” Mr. Carford replied. “The English captured this area early in the war and imprisoned many American soldiers nearby. Folks say some managed to escape from time to time and used the old tunnel as a hideaway for a few weeks.
“Then,” he continued, “when the hue and cry had died down a bit, the soldiers would slip back to their own army to fight again.”
This exciting information led to much speculation about the part the old tunnel might have played in winning the Revolutionary War.
Later, Mrs. Bobbsey smiled at Mr. Carford and said, “Actually, the children have cleared up three mysteries during our stay here at Snow Lodge.”
“That’s right,” Dorothy agreed. “The secret tunnel—”
“And the Black Monster mystery,” Bert said with a wink at Dave.
“And the case of the missing money,” Nan added.
“Wow!” Freddie exclaimed. “We should go into the mystery-solving business ! When we get home let’s hang a sign on our front door:
THE BOBBSEY TWINS’ DETECTIVE AGENCY, UNLIMITED!”
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The Bobbsey Twins and the Mystery at Snow Lodge Page 11
