The Second Girl Detective Megapack: 23 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls

by Julia K. Duncan

  “No one seems to know,” Kitty told her. “There’s to be an investigation.”

  The discussion was brought to a sudden end as Doris sprang up from her chair, pointing excitedly out of the window at a dilapidated car which had stopped at the curb near the hotel.

  “Marsh and Dave!” she cried.

  The three hurried from the restaurant, joyfully greeting the two travelers.

  “So this is The Mayfair!” Marshmallow drawled, as he surveyed the ruins.

  “We heard about the fire and were terribly worried,” Dave told Doris with a relieved smile. “Thought you folks might have been hurt.”

  “I’m about starved,” Marshmallow broke in upon them. “Let’s get something to eat at this restaurant. We can talk things over inside while we are eating.”

  They all went into the eating place, but Mrs. Mallow and the girls did not order again. While the two young men ate breakfast, the girls gave a graphic account of the fire. In turn, Dave told of their own experiences since leaving Chilton. They had been forced to change four flat tires, and in addition they had had trouble with the clutch, necessitating a half day’s wait at a small-town garage.

  “Where to now?” Marshmallow asked, after he had finished his second plate of pancakes.

  Doris told him of the plan to stay at Mr. Baker’s summer camp. As she had anticipated, both Marshmallow and Dave were enthusiastic over the idea and announced their eagerness to start for the cove at once.

  “I’ll be glad to go some place where I can clean up and properly dress myself,” Mrs. Mallow sighed, as she climbed into the old car. “I feel like a scarecrow.”

  In a few minutes the party arrived at the camp, and even Mrs. Mallow became enthusiastic as she examined the cottages, declaring that she liked the place better than the hotel.

  “It was really a lucky break for us that the hotel burned,” Doris laughed. “We’ll have a regular lark here!”

  “It’s certainly nice,” Dave commented.

  The party found Mr. Baker at one of the cabins, as he had chanced to drive out from Cloudy Cove early that morning. He was delighted to have Mrs. Mallow and the girls join his little colony and promised them a cabin next door to that already assigned to the boys. As soon as the bags were unpacked, Mrs. Mallow stretched herself out on the bed, announcing that she intended to get a little rest before luncheon. Doris and Kitty were jolly, notwithstanding all that they had gone through. Leaving Mrs. Mallow, they escorted Marshmallow and Dave about the camp.

  “Gee, this is great,” said Marshmallow enthusiastically. “Who wants hotel life, anyway?”

  Kitty giggled. “Ask Doris if she doesn’t prefer it, though. Dancing, you know—”

  Doris shot her a dark look. Dave glanced up inquiringly at the two girls, but neither of them offered an explanation. As a matter of fact, Doris was eager to change the subject, so she said: “Come on down to the water. It’s lovely, and we were told there were lots of fish just waiting to be caught.”

  “Hurrah!” exulted Marshmallow, who loved this sport.

  “The people here seem to be pleasant,” Doris went on, “although there is one odd-looking man.”

  They pointed out the cabin occupied by Mr. Jay and repeated all that they had learned concerning the miser.

  “We’ll have to get acquainted with him,” Dave declared.

  When the young people returned from the beach, Mrs. Mallow insisted that she was sufficiently rested to consider the matter of stocking up the kitchen shelves.

  “We must go to town and purchase supplies,” she declared. “It will seem good to have a home-cooked meal again.”

  Marshmallow and Dave volunteered to buy the groceries, but Mrs. Mallow, not entirely trusting their judgment on such matters, decided to go with them. Since the car did not carry five passengers comfortably, Doris and Kitty remained at the cabin.

  After the others had left, they busied themselves rearranging furniture and unpacking their, bags. Many of their frocks had been badly mussed, but they consoled themselves with the thought that camp life would not require preciseness of dress.

  “They should be getting back pretty soon,”

  Doris remarked, going to the window to look out. “Fm beginning to get hungry—”

  The words trailed off.

  “Kitty!” she cried. “Now we are in for it! Look who’s here!”

  Kitty moved over to the window and glanced out. Ollie Weiser was walking rapidly toward their cabin!

  CHAPTER XII

  Ollie Weiser Again

  As the girls beheld the magician coming from the direction of the woods, they turned quickly away, but not before he had caught sight of them at the window. His face lighted up and he quickened his step.

  “Now we are in for it!” Doris repeated in disgust. “Just our luck!”

  “Let’s not open the door,” Kitty suggested.

  “He saw us,” Doris returned with a sigh, “so I’m afraid we’ll have to.”

  Reluctantly she went to the door as the magician knocked, but did not look overjoyed at seeing him.

  “Didn’t expect to find you girls here,” he declared, boldly walking in without waiting for an invitation. “Cosy little place you have.”

  “We like it,” Kitty replied shortly.

  “Came out here to see Mr. Baker about taking a cottage myself.”

  “He rented one to you?” Doris questioned almost fearfully.

  Ollie Weiser shook his head gloomily.

  “The old cod didn’t seem to take much of a fancy to me. Neither did that seedy fellow who lives over there in the woods.”

  “You mean Mr. Jay?” Doris inquired with interest.

  “Don’t know his name, but I do know he has a mighty vicious dog. The hound tried to take a chunk out of my leg, when I went to the spring for a drink of water! I complained to Mr. Baker and he had the nerve to tell me the dog was trained to run off undesirables!”

  “Perhaps Mr. Baker doesn’t want your snakes around the place,” Doris suggested, smiling. “They might frighten the guests.”

  “It wasn’t on account of the snakes that he wouldn’t rent me a cabin,” the magician said. “You see, I sold the lot of ’em this morning.”

  “You sold your snakes?” Doris echoed. “Why, what do you intend to do now?”

  The magician shrugged his shoulders indifferently and grinned.

  “Oh, I’ll find something. I’d like to have kept my snakes but I needed new suitcases for ’em and right now I’m rather low in funds. Guess I’ll think up a new graft.”

  As he spoke, Ollie Weiser eyed Doris meditatively. When she did not respond, he went on more enthusiastically:

  “You know, you put on a pretty keen act last night. You’ve got a voice!”

  “I am glad you like it,” Doris returned politely. “I’ve been thinking we ought to team up together. You know, develop a first-class act—singing and dancing. Inside of a year we should make big money.”

  “You want me to go on the stage with you?” Doris demanded, scarcely believing her ears.

  “Sure. ’Course you haven’t had much experience, but I think you could make a go of it. You sing and I’ll dance.”

  For her further enlightenment the magician executed a few steps of tap dancing, humming his own accompaniment. Doris scarcely knew whether to be amused or offended. Such conceit] Ollie Weiser actually believed he was conferring an honor upon her by requesting her to become his stage partner!

  “Don’t you think you could use me, too?” Kitty broke in, before Doris could frame an answer, “Perhaps I could be nurse-maid to the snakes.”

  “Oh, the snakes are out of the picture now,” the magician assured her, failing to recognize the sarcasm. “Maybe we could work you in somewhere, though. What do you do? Dance?”

  “Really, it seems to me you are most presumptuous,” Doris said, speaking a trifle coldly. “Neither Kitty nor I would think of joining your act.”

  “Then you don’t know a re
al opportunity when it’s offered you. Come on, say you’ll do it.”

  He moved over to Doris and laid his hand on her arm. She backed away.

  “I’ll have nothing whatever to do with your performance,” she announced coldly. “Kitty and I have some work to do now, so if you’ll please leave—”

  “Come, now, don’t get on your high horse,” Ollie pleaded, edging nearer. “You’re turning down a good offer. What do you say?”

  “I say ‘no’!” Doris snapped, becoming angry at the man’s persistence. “Will you go now?”

  “Oh, I think I may as well stick around for dinner,” the magician said easily, grinning in an irritating fashion. “Haven’t had anything to eat today.”

  For an instant Doris was smitten with remorse, but the sympathy passed as quickly as it came, for she saw that the man was deliberately endeavoring to play upon her feelings.

  “Lost part of my baggage in the fire, too,” he went on sadly.

  “We’re sorry about that, of course,” Doris returned gravely, “but there’s nothing we can do. We can’t even give you anything to eat, for there won’t be a scrap of food until Mrs. Mallow gets back from the store.”

  “I’m nearly broke,” the magician confessed in a melodramatic voice, which failed to impress his listeners. “I don’t know what I’ll do, Miss Force, if you don’t go in with me on the act. Oh, say you’ll do it!”

  “You could get work here in Cloudy Cove!” Doris suggested tartly.

  “Would it mean anything to you, if I did find a good job?”

  Doris gazed helplessly at Kitty. What could one do with such a man?

  She was not forced to reply to the bold question, for just at that moment she heard the sound of an automobile coming down the private road to the camp.

  “It must be Dave and Marshmallow!” she cried hopefully, hurrying to the window.

  As the car came into sight and halted not far away, she saw to her disappointment that it was not the familiar car. Two men alighted. Doris recognized the owner of The Mayfair hotel and Mr. McDermott, the lawyer whom Mr. Baker had apologetically presented to her on the train.

  “Why, they’re coming this way!” she observed in surprise.

  Ollie Weiser nervously picked up his hat and went toward the door.

  “I think I’d better be moving along.”

  Doris and Kitty were so delighted to have him go, that they failed to observe his haste.

  However, if the, magician had hoped to depart before the arrival of the two newcomers, he was doomed to disappointment. He swung open the door to face the hotel-keeper and his companion. Slightly taken aback, he mumbled something and made a move as though to pass them.

  The hotel-keeper caught him firmly by the arm. “Not so fast there!” he said gruffly. “We’ll have a word with you.”

  “Sorry, but I’m in a hurry to get back to town. What is it you want?”

  “You know well enough what we want,” the hotel-keeper returned grimly. “Before you leave here you’ll answer a few questions!”

  CHAPTER XIII

  An Embarrassing Situation

  “Well, what do you want to know?” Ollie Weiser demanded uncomfortably.

  “We have a few questions to ask you regarding the fire last night,” Edgar Morehouse told him. “Perhaps we had better speak privately.”

  “I don’t know anything about the fire,” the magician mumbled, but Doris and Kitty observed that he was ill-at-ease.

  “We’ll soon find out about that,” said McDermott.

  “Somebody’s going to pay for the damage, and you were right there in—”

  “Better let me handle this, Morehouse,” the lawyer interrupted. “You really better not talk.” The two girls felt very uncomfortable and wished Mrs. Mallow or the boys would come. Ollie Weiser seemed to sense this, and said: “Gentlemen, these two young ladies should be considered. They had nothing to do with the fire, any more than I did, and I can’t see why they should be included in this unpleasant conversation.” Doris and Kitty in their relief almost forgave Ollie Weiser for all the annoyance he had caused them. At once, though, they both realized that it was on his account, and not on theirs, that these unpleasant men had come to the cottage.

  The hotel-keeper seemed inclined to ignore the snake-man’s remarks, but the lawyer raised his hand to warn his companion not to speak, and turned to Ollie Weiser.

  “Kindly step outside!” Frank McDermott said in a tone that made it a command. “Your friends will excuse you, I am sure.”

  The three men left the cabin, closing the door behind them. Kitty and Doris looked at each other in chagrin. It was a relief to be rid of the magician, but at the same time they felt that if he were in trouble their apparent association with him would not be in their favor’.

  “Did you hear what the hotel-keeper said?” Kitty questioned when they were alone. “He intimated that Ollie knows something about the fire.” Doris nodded!

  “I imagine they’re trying to find out what caused it.”

  “But why should they question Ollie Weiser?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know, unless it was because he had a room over the kitchen.”

  “You don’t suppose he set the place on fire?”

  “Not on purpose, certainly. He did act strangely when those men came to the door.” The girls had no intention of trying to overhear the conversation which was in progress just outside the cabin, but as the three men unthinkingly paused near the window, it was impossible not to hear what they were saying.

  “Look here!” the lawyer began in a blustering voice, “you know something about this affair and you’d better tell! Morehouse has given me the case and I intend to sift it to the bottom.”

  “How should I know what caused the fire?” the magician muttered.

  “You were sleeping directly over the kitchen and it was in that wing that the fire started.”

  “Yes, and it was a lucky thing I wasn’t roasted alive!” Weiser retorted. “If you’re trying to insinuate I started that fire, you’re crazy!”

  “You’d better come clean!” McDermott warned in an unpleasant tone. “As it happens, we have some pretty conclusive evidence.”

  “Evidence?”

  “A light was seen in your room about three o’clock in the morning,” the hotel-keeper informed him severely. “Tell us what you were doing abroad at that hour.”

  “I was looking for one of my pet snakes,” Weiser admitted unwillingly. “He got out of the box.”

  “Ah,” McDermott caught him up triumphantly, “where did you find your snake?”

  “In the closet.”

  Doris and Kitty looked at each other.

  “So! And did you use a flashlight in your search of the nooks and crannies?”

  “Well, I—that is—” the magician stammered. “The truth of the matter is that you used matches!” the lawyer announced.

  “Well, I admit I didn’t have a flashlight,” Weiser said reluctantly. “I was careful, though, and stamped out every match I used.”

  “Oh, yes,” the hotel-keeper broke in angrily, “that’s your story. The fact remains that the fire broke out shortly before four o’clock and that it started in the vicinity of your room! Through your carelessness I have lost at least twenty-five thousand dollars.”

  “I tell you the fire didn’t start in my room!” the magician protested vehemently. “I think perhaps it started in the kitchen. When I woke up my room was filled with smoke. I looked out the window and saw the blaze coming up from below.”

  “You can’t expect us to believe such a flimsy story,” McDermott told him. “You’ll have to go back to town with us.”

  The magician continued to protest his innocence, but Doris and Kitty saw the hotel-keeper march him off to the car. McDermott remained behind, rapping sharply on the door. After a slight hesitation, Doris opened it.

  “I want to talk to you two girls,” the lawyer announced bluntly.

  Neither Doris nor Kitty repl
ied, and after a searching look directed at them, McDermott continued:

  “What do you know about this fellow Weiser?” The girls would have been willing to have answered questions, but they could not help resenting the lawyer’s blunt and surly manner. They recalled his polite ways when they had met him on the train and judged that he adapted his personality to suit the occasion. Even now, with a crimson carnation in the lapel of his coat, he appeared quite dapper, yet his smile was sinister and his eyes cruelly penetrating.

  There was a long moment of silence before Doris answered the question.

  “We know very little about the man.”

  “So!” McDermott looked at her sharply and smiled in a maddening way. “No particular friend of yours, eh?”

  “Certainly not. We met him quite by chance.” Again the lawyer smiled. Doris resisted an impulse to push him out of the door and slam it shut in his face. He goaded her beyond endurance!

  “When did you last see Weiser on the night of the fire?”

  “Why, right after the entertainment. Kitty and I went to our room early.”

  Kitty nodded in affirmation.

  “When did you discover that the hotel was on fire?”

  “Really, I can’t say. It must have been about four o’clock, or perhaps a little later.”

  “Where would you say that the fire started?” Doris hesitated. She had no liking for Ollie Weiser, but she realized that suspicion was already directed against him. If she told the lawyer that the blaze had started in the east wing, apparently near the magician’s room, the case against him would be that much stronger. Doris had no wish to protect the man, particularly if he were guilty, but from the snatch of conversation she had overheard there was a reasonable doubt in her mind that Weiser was responsible for the fire. She knew well enough that McDermott would suffer no pangs of conscience at convicting a man on circumstantial evidence.

  “How should I know where it started?” she evaded. “My main interest was to get out of the building.”

  “Why drag us into this affair, anyway?” Kitty broke in impatiently.

  “I think you know more than you intend to tell,” the lawyer returned, his lips curling in a slight sneer. “Did that fellow confess to you that he accidentally started the fire?”