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

by Julia K. Duncan

  “I’m afraid it’s a hopeless task,” Doris sighed, “but as long as there is any chance of our finding him, we must keep searching.”

  There was a further delay, while gasoline was put into the car. As they drove on down the street, Dave said:

  “Let’s stop in front of this restaurant. I’ll go inside and look around. It’s possible he stopped here.”

  Marshmallow halted the car at the curb and Dave vanished inside the eating place. Through the plate-glass window the others could see him talking to the cashier.

  “If we don’t find Mr. Jay here, there’s one thing we can do,” Doris said thoughtfully, “and that is to camp by the dock. We can catch him when he comes to take the next boat.”

  “Yes, but he may be afraid someone will follow him and take a train or a bus out of the city,” Marshmallow returned gloomily.

  “We might separate,” suggested Kitty, “and look at these different places.”

  Dave came out just then to report that no one answering Mr. Jay’s description had been seen there. He climbed into the car and they drove on again, stopping at the next restaurant a block farther down the street.

  “I’m afraid we’re just wasting time,” Doris commented, while they were waiting for Dave. “I think it’s useless to—” She broke off suddenly.

  Her attention had been attracted to a well-dressed, smooth-shaven man who had just at that moment stepped out of a barber shop which adjoined the restaurant. Doris was certain she had never seen him before, yet there was something strangely familiar about his appearance. It was not until he started down the street that she noted the peculiar walk and stoop to the shoulders.

  “Look!” she cried tensely. “Isn’t that Mr. Jay?”

  “It is!” Kitty exclaimed. “He looks like a different person!”

  Doris did not hesitate. Springing from the car, she ran after the man, indifferent to the stares of passersby.

  “Wait!” she called.

  The man turned his head, and as Doris looked squarely into his face she was certain that she was not mistaken. It was indeed Mr. Jay!

  For an instant she thought that the old man intended to run away, for an expression of alarm and panic passed over his face. As he hesitated uncertainly, she rushed up to him.

  “Oh, you mustn’t run away!” she cried, catching him impulsively by the arm. “Come back to the car. I must talk with you, and we can’t here, for people are staring.”

  “I—I’m in a hurry,” the old miser protested. “I’m going away.”

  “I can’t let you go. Not until I have explained everything. Then, if you insist upon leaving, I won’t try to keep you.”

  By this time Doris’s friends had gathered about the two, and Dave, returning from the restaurant, joined the group on the street. Mr. Jay looked from one to the other, as shamefaced as a culprit caught in a dishonorable act. As a matter of fact, he had been attempting to get away from Cloudy Cove without having his identity discovered. He had hoped that by changing his appearance, he could avoid detection.

  Doris, seeing that the old man was not to be persuaded, determined upon a bold stroke.

  “It’s useless to pretend,” she said gently. “I know that you are my Uncle John Trent!”

  A frightened look came into the eyes of the miser. His wrinkled hands shook.

  “You can’t know,” he murmured brokenly. “You can’t know.”

  “But I do! I have positive proof.” Doris brought out the photograph and pointed to the miser’s signature on the back. “Here is my uncle’s handwriting, and if you compare it with the writing on this old envelope, you will see that they are in the same hand!”

  Mr. Jay stared hard at the photograph, and all at once his pose fell away. His shoulders drooped, his head sank low against his chest; he became, in effect, a tired, beaten old man, long buffeted about by an unkind world.

  For just a moment Doris thought that perhaps she had made a dreadful mistake—that probably she was doing an injustice to this man.

  Almost at once, however, she reassured herself.

  “Aren’t you my uncle?” she pleaded.

  “Yes, it’s no use to pretend,” he murmured in a voice scarcely audible, “I am John Trent!”

  CHAPTER XXV

  A Satisfactory Solution

  “Oh, I knew it! I knew it!” Doris cried. “After you ran away this afternoon I was just sure that you were my own uncle. Come with us to the car.”

  The old man shook his head and hung back. Doris saw a tear trickle down his cheek.

  “No, I must go away. You don’t understand—there are things I can’t explain.”

  “You need not explain anything,” Doris told him gently. “I understand everything. You must come with me back to Chilton and perhaps later to Locked Gates.”

  “Locked Gates,” her uncle echoed hollowly.

  Doris bit her lip at her own thoughtlessness, just when she was trying to be particularly tactful. How inconsiderate of her, she thought, to remind him of the very thing which had driven him away. Undoubtedly, John Trent knew as well as she, that the Misses Gates had locked the front entrance of their property following the unfortunate affair. In reality, the Locked Gates were a symbol—a reminder that the Gates twins had locked their hearts against their former lover.

  “I can’t go back—there,” the old man murmured. “It is best that I fade completely out of sight. No one cares for me any more—”

  “Why, Uncle John, we all love you and want you back,” Doris assured him.

  “But Azalea and Iris—”

  “I feel sure they have forgiven you everything, although I can’t believe it was your fault that things went wrong. You should never have gone away, Uncle John. You should have faced the situation.”

  The old man avoided Doris’s eyes.

  “I realize it now, but it’s too late to rectify my mistake.”

  “But it isn’t,” Doris assured him firmly. “Please come with us.”

  John Trent made no response, yet when his niece took him gently by the arm, he went with her to the car. On the way back to the camp Doris and her friends wisely refrained from discussing the topic which was so painful to Doris’s newly found relative. However, once he was comfortably established in Mrs. Mallow’s sitting room he reverted of his own accord to the previous conversation.

  “I’ve come to the conclusion that you are right, Doris,” he said, speaking her name rather shyly. “I have been foolish all these years to hide away from the world.”

  “Then you will go back with us to Chilton?” his niece questioned eagerly.

  Mr. Trent hesitated.

  “I’ll do anything you ask, Doris, but I’d rather wait about going back. I don’t feel as though I could face things just yet.”

  “I understand,” Doris said quietly, “and I won’t urge you to, although we do so want you with us at Chilton. Whenever you are ready to come, you know we shall be waiting.”

  She had thought it best not to show her uncle the ruby ring “which the Misses Gates had given her, for she was not certain how the sight of it would affect him. She longed to ask him whether the engagement ring had been intended for Azalea or Iris, but she hesitated to put the thought into the form of a question.

  “There are a great many things I must explain,” Mr. Trent said, appearing to read a part of what was in her mind. “It doesn’t seem to me I can tell the story now, but perhaps later I can make you [understand my side of the affair.”

  “Don’t try to tell us anything now,” Doris said, smiling kindly. “There will be plenty of time after you have joined us at Chilton.”

  She felt confident that her uncle would not run away again, and in this belief she was correct. As the reader will learn in the next volume of the series, John Trent was to keep his promise and rejoin his friends. Further adventures were to unite him with the Gates sisters, Azalea and Iris.

  “What was it you were saying to me this afternoon about an inheritance?” Mr. Trent ask
ed his niece, a twinkle in his eye.

  “It’s true I had designs on your fortune,” Doris laughed, “but I’d much rather have an uncle than an inheritance.”

  “From what you told me I judge you need money,” Mr. Trent persisted.

  “Oh, I always need money. My music lessons take such a lot, and then of course I have to go to school. How fortunate it was I didn’t give McDermott the amount he wanted.”

  “McDermott?” her uncle questioned.

  “Yes, the lawyer who drew up your will. When I appealed to him for aid in settling up the Estate, he said it would be necessary to advance a fee.”

  “Why, the old scalawag! He must have been trying to cheat you!”

  “Who is a scalawag?” a genial voice demanded at the door.

  Everyone turned to see Mr. Baker beaming in upon them. He drew up a chair, for by this time he felt very well acquainted with his tenants. Doris explained that they were speaking of the lawyer.

  “McDermott has a reputation for shady deals,”

  Mr. Baker informed them, “but this is the first time anyone ever caught him in anything.”

  “We haven’t really caught him yet,” Doris observed.

  “Perhaps not, but you know enough to make it very unpleasant for him. If I were you, I’d let on you know more about him than you do.”

  “What would you advise?”

  “Why not call him on the telephone? Pretend that you have proof he has handled your uncle’s affairs dishonestly. Let me see, didn’t you tell me that crook, Joe Jeffery, was in league with someone here in Cloudy Cove?”

  “Your memory is unusually good tonight,” Doris smiled.

  “I guess I can still remember a few things. Well, I have it! Tell McDermott you have proof that he and Joe Jeffery were scheming to get your uncle’s property.”

  “It would only be a bluff.”

  “Of course. But you never can tell how McDermott will take it. Why not try?”

  “All right, I will,” Doris announced with sudden determination. “I’ll telephone his house this minute.”

  She went to the telephone and after a brief wait was connected with the lawyer. She had not dared hope that her accusations would be considered seriously, yet more to humor Mr. Baker than for any other reason, she linked Joe Jeffery’s name with that of McDermott. There was a long silence at the other end of the wire and then a cold voice hissed:

  “It’s a lie! I never saw Joe Jeffery in my life, let alone having had anything to do with him!” Before Doris could respond, the click of a receiver told her that McDermott had hung up.

  “Oh, well, it was only a random shot,” Mr. Baker said, when she repeated the conversation.

  “He did seem dreadfully disturbed, especially when I mentioned Jeffery.”

  “Why not drop around and confront him in his office tomorrow morning?” Dave asked.

  The others agreed that the suggestion was an excellent one, so it was decided that they would all go together to McDermott’s office early the following day. John Trent declared that he, too, would accompany Doris, for he wished to have a private talk with the lawyer.

  As the hour was late, Mr. Baker said goodnight and left for Cloudy Cove, accompanied by Ollie Weiser. A little later John Trent took his departure, after promising to come back to the cabin for breakfast.

  “You don’t thinlc there’s any danger he’ll try to run away again?” Kitty asked anxiously, after the old man had left.

  “I’m sure he’ll keep his promise,” Doris said.

  “You know, I thought tonight he seemed happier than he has since we came here.”

  “Yes, he did, Doris. And what a difference clothes make! Why, he’s quite handsome!”

  “I hope I’m not going to have a rival,” Marshmallow, who had heard the last remark, broke in. “We don’t want to have another Weiser-Chamberlin affair to deal with.”

  “Say, lay off, will you?” Dave growled. “That fellow was a real help tonight, so I’m willing to let bygones be bygones.”

  The young men went to their own cabin next door, still bantering good-naturedly. Doris and Kitty retired at once, but, instead of sleeping, they lay awake discussing all that had happened.

  “Such a night!” Doris sighed blissfully. “And to think I’ve acquired another uncle!”

  “He’s crazy about you, Dory. You can tell by the way he looks at you.”

  “I like him a lot, too, Kitty. He’s had such an unhappy life. I hope I can make it up to him in some way. You know, I didn’t dare tell him about the ruby ring, because I was afraid he’d feel hurt if he knew the twins had given it away.”

  “There will be plenty of time later on,” Kitty assured her. “Aren’t you just dying to learn why he hid the ring under the rose bush, and which one of the twins he really loved?”

  “That’s only the start of what I want to know,”

  Doris confessed just before she fell asleep. “If we’re only patient, I think we shall find out, for Uncle John has promised he will tell the entire story.”

  Early the next morning Doris and her friends, including Mr. Baker and John Trent, hurried to Frank McDermott’s office, there to demand an explanation of his actions. To their surprise they found the place in disarray and the stenographer was just putting on her wraps to leave.

  “The office is closed,” she announced in response to Doris’s inquiry. “Mr. McDermott left town late last night and said he wouldn’t be back.”

  “Skipped out!” Dave exclaimed.

  “He didn’t pay two weeks’ wages that he owed me,” the stenographer informed them. “I’ll probably never get my money now.”

  She went out, leaving Doris and the others staring blankly after her.

  “Let’s take a look at the inside office,” Mr. Baker suggested.

  A casual glance disclosed that the room had been hurriedly vacated. The desk had been cleaned out and papers were scattered over the floor.

  “It looks to me as though that bluff of ours was pretty effective,” Mr. Baker commented dryly. “Like as not he was trying to get Mr. Trent’s property.”

  In this guess Mr. Baker was correct. Frank McDermott had been involved in many unscrupulous dealings, and it had seemed an easy matter to him to steal the contents of John Trent’s safe deposit box. With Joe Jeffery he had concocted the plot against the Misses Gates, revealed in the first volume of the series, but the news of Jeffery’s imprisonment made him uneasy. When Doris accused him of having had a part in the affair, lie jumped to the conclusion that his former pal had confessed everything. He had hastily gathered his possessions together and fled.

  “I wonder if the rascal got away with my money?” John Trent asked with a troubled frown. “If he did, I’ll track him down, if it’s the last thing I do!”

  A visit to the bank disclosed that the safe deposit box had not been touched. In his haste to depart, McDermott had not dared to wait until the bank opened in the mornings Doris’s vacation at Cloudy Cove was nearly ended, but the few days which remained were most pleasantly spent. The young people swam, played tennis, golfed and fished. Doris spent a great deal of time in the company of her uncle and the two became close friends. John Trent lost his self-conscious manner and became almost jovial. He spent money freely, taking his niece and her friends to many shows and entertainments.

  “Imagine calling him a miser!” Kitty laughed.

  “Why, he’s the most generous man I ever knew.”

  At last the day of their departure arrived. Doris and Kitty packed their things, said goodbye to their Cloudy Cove acquaintances, and prepared to entrain for Chilton. Mrs. Mallow was to accompany them, while Dave and Marshmallow planned to spend one more day in Cloudy Cove before starting for home.

  Together with John Trent they went to the station to bid Mrs. Mallow and the girls goodbye.

  “It certainly has been an exciting vacation,” Kitty declared, as they stood waiting for the train. “I’ll remember it all my life.”

  “S
o shall I,” Mr. Trent smiled, looking at Doris.

  Quietly he slipped something into her hand. She gazed down in surprise, as she saw that it was a hundred-dollar bill.

  “For your music,” her uncle said. “Just a little token of my appreciation.”

  Doris tried to protest, but Mr. Trent refused to listen. As the train rumbled into the station, she thanked him for the gift and kissed him goodbye.

  “Do I get one, too?” Dave demanded impudently.

  “Please drive carefully going back to Chilton,” Mrs. Mallow warned her son.

  Marshmallow was squeezing Kitty’s hand, and did not hear her.

  Little did these adventurous young people know what exciting times awaited them as they were obliged to go West soon after their arrival home, as related in the next volume entitled, Doris Force at Raven Rock; Or, Uncovering the Secret Oil Well.

  As soon as the girls had taken seats in the train, they raised a window.

  “You’re certainly a real detective, Doris,” Marshmallow grinned as the train began to move slowly. “There’s another job waiting for you when you get back to Chilton.”

  “What’s that?” Doris called.

  “Finding the man who sold me that stolen car!”

  DORIS FORCE AT RAVEN ROCK, by Julia K. Duncan

  CHAPTER I

  An Arrival and a Robbery

  Doris Force was hastening down the shaded street toward her home. With bronze curls tossing and deep blue eyes flashing, she was a picture as she waved toward a car which had just pulled up to the curb in front of her home.

  “Kitty! Kitty, you dear old thing!”

  Doris’s rich soprano voice, raised in excited greeting, was heard by her arriving chum, Kitty Norris.

  Turning from the solicitous attentions of a stout youth who was helping her from an automobile, in itself something to look at twice by virtue of its obvious age and gaudy hue, Kitty Norris dashed down the street to meet her friend. The two girls embraced, Doris dropping her precious music roll, the better, as she put it, “to get a good grip on you again, Kitty!”

  “I would have been at the station to meet you,” Doris explained, “but my singing teacher did not have a free hour to substitute for mine—and there is no way of telling how long we shall be away in the wild and woolly West. Are you all prepared for our journey? Oh, what a lovely dress, Kitty!” she added admiringly, holding her chum at arm’s length in order to get a better look at her.