CHAPTER X
SUSPICIONS
"Hello!" cried Jack, springing forward to his sister's aid. "Inever knew Cora to do that before. Is she hurt, Walt?"
"No; only shocked, I guess."
"Help her into the car and put her on the rear seat," directedBelle.
"No; keep her head up," advised Bess.
"Somebody get water!" exclaimed Diddick, turning around in a circleto look for a spring.
Jack was rubbing his sister's hands, while Walter held her in areclining position.
"There's a spring over by that tree," spoke Walter. "One of you getsome water."
"I will--in my hat!" answered Parks, starting off on a run.
"Here's a cup," called Elizabeth, producing a collapsible one from apocket in the tonneau of the touring car.
The lad took it, and came hurrying back with it half full of liquid,having spilled the rest on his hasty trip. Jack managed to get alittle between Cora's lips, and it revived her. She opened her eyes,noted that Walter was holding her, and her face flushed slightly.
"I'm--I'm all right now," she declared as she tried to standupright.
"Better get in the car and sit down," advised Jack.
She assented, and rather limply got into the tonneau of her machine.She drank some more water, and presently was herself again.
"How silly of me to nearly faint," she said with a wan smile. "Butwhen I saw the pocketbook--empty--it was enough--"
"I should say so," interrupted Belle. "Who would ever have thoughtof finding it in your toolbox, Cora?"
The words seemed fraught with strange import.
"Was it really in the tool-box, Walter?" Cora asked.
"On top of the tire pump and the lifting-jack," replied Walter.
"And empty--that's the queer part of it," commented Belle. "I guessthat's what shocked you as much as anything, Cora. Now, if it hadhad the twenty thousand dollars in it--"
"It's strange that the wallet should have been there--in mytool-box--at all," murmured Cora.
"It certainly is," added Jack. "What can it mean--to find it inCora's car?"
"Is this the one Ed Foster lost?" asked Diddick. "We heardsomething about it."
"The same one," answered Walter as he picked the wallet from theroad where it had fallen. "See, it has his name on it."
"I feel creepy--almost as if something supernatural had put it intomy tool-box," said Cora in a curiously quiet voice.
"More likely some unnatural person did it," spoke Jack quickly. "Yetwho in the world would do it? If I had seen--"
He stopped suddenly, leaving the sentence unfinished.
"And it was on top of the pump and jack," mused Cora, after a quicklook at her brother. "I haven't used the pump since--let me see--"
"Since the day of the collision--the day when the pocketbook waslost," interrupted jack. "You pumped up a tire just before the race,so that the pocketbook must have been placed there right after therobbery."
"Or loss," added Walter. "Some one may have found the wallet, takenout the money and bonds, and then thrown the empty pocketbook away."
"That some one threw it in a curious place," remarked Elizabethdryly.
"Indeed, they did," observed Cora. "It looks--"
She hesitated.
"Oh, you might as well say it--before some one else does," put inJack. "It looks mighty suspicious, Cora."
There was a vindictive air about him. He seemed to challenge anaccusation against his sister.
"I'm sure there was no need to say that," spoke Walter. "It may bea mere--er--"
"Coincidence," finished Cora.
"A queer coincidence," quoth Jack. "Incidentally, some one got themoney, all right. We must hurry home and tell Ed."
"I wonder what he'll think?" asked Cora.
"What can he think?" demanded her brother. "Only that some onefound or stole his wallet and threw the empty pocketbook into yourtool-box."
"And I found it," added Walter. "Which might mean--"
He, too, hesitated.
"Well, what?" asked Jack.
"That I put it there, and only pretended to find it," finishedWalter with a laugh.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Cora. "But come, let's hurry back to Chelton.I want to be the first to tell Ed."
"Do you feel all right?" asked Jack anxiously.
"Oh, yes. Very well. I never fainted before, that I remember."
"Yes, you did. Once when you burned your hand on the stove,"corrected Jack.
"Oh, that was a good while ago."
There was a period of silence.
"Well, as long as I started to pump up the tire I suppose I may aswell finish," remarked Walter, as he took out the jack and raisedthe wheel.
It was rather a quiet company of young people who made their wayback to Chelton in the two autos a little later. The gay members ofthe mandolin club had little to say, and when they did attempt apleasantry the laughter was soon over. Every once in a while someone would refer to the discovery of the empty wallet.
"The next thing to find," remarked jack, with a trace of bitternessin his tones, "is the person with the cash and the bonds."
"Maybe they're in--the tool--box of your car," said Diddickjestingly. "It may run in the family--"
Then he was conscious that he had made rather a bad "break," and hesubsided, while every one tried to talk at once to cover it up. Jacklaughed uneasily, and Cora seemed annoyed.
One thought was running through the mind of both Cora and herbrother. Who could it have been who tried to injure her in this wayby throwing suspicion on her, and what could have been their motive?
She tried to reason certain things out. She went over in detail,while Walter was driving her car for her, every incident that shecould remember in connection with the collision and the subsequentloss of the money.
She speculated on the actions of every one. Mary's desire to leavethe car at the post-office and not go back to her shop was odd, Corathought, though her employer had given Mary permission to go for aride with such well-paying customers as the Kimballs and theRobinson twins. Next Cora tried to analyze Sid's actions, also thoseof Ida, and she even found herself wondering at Sid's seemingintimacy with Lem Gildy. But it all came to nothing. There was stillthat unanswered question: "Who took the money from the wallet?"
That the same person did so who had placed the empty pocketbook inthe tool-box seemed evident.
Jack and Cora went together to tell Ed. Walter wanted to accompanythem, but Cora insisted that she be allowed to tell the story first.
"Later Ed may want to question you," she declared.
The three members of the mandolin club were left at the Kimball homeuntil Cora and Jack returned.
Ed at first was much startled by the news. Then he opened thewallet.
"They didn't leave anything," he said slowly.
"Is that all you want to remark?" asked Jack.
"All? Why, of course. What else can I say?"
"Well, don't you think--not to put too fine a point upon it--thatit looks suspicious?"
"For whom?"
"Us--Cora," said Jack bluntly.
"Look here," began Ed fiercely; "if it wasn't you who saidthat--say--look here--Oh, what nonsense! I hope, Cora, that youhaven't for one moment thought that I would have the least suspicionagainst you."
"I--er--I--of course I didn't," she finished quickly. "Only Jackthought it looked queer."
"How foolish!" exclaimed Ed. "Why, it would be the easiest thing inthe world for the thief to throw the empty pocketbook into yourtool-box as the car was passing him in the street. The box isn'tkept locked, is it?"
"No; not always."
"Then that's how it happened. The thief is around Chelton--that'sevident. In order to divert suspicion he--"
"Or she," interrupted Jack with a smile.
"Yes, or she, if you like--he or she opened the box when your carwas halted momentarily in the street, and dropped the wallet in.It's as simple as can
be."
"But not so simple to find the thief," retorted Jack.
"Indeed not," agreed Ed with a rueful smile. "But I'll give thepolice this clue. It's a good one, I should think."
"And if they want to arrest me--why, I'll be at home," declared Corawith a laugh. "Would you like to see Walter?"
"No; you have told me all that is necessary."
Cora and Jack made a quick run back home, while Ed, went tocommunicate to the police the latest clue.
That evening, when Jack, Cora and the three college lads went downto the post-office, Cora happened to look in the window of themillinery shop where Mary Downs was employed. She was surprised tosee on the big plate glass a sign: "Apprentice Wanted."
"That's odd," she mused. "I didn't suppose that Madam Julia coulduse two apprentices. I wonder if Mary has been discharged--fortaking that ride with me. I must inquire."
The mail was late, and as the young people waited for it to besorted they heard in the crowd talk indicating that the news of thefinding of the empty wallet was known. Ed had told the police, andseveral reporters had also heard of the matter.
"Well, it's a very strange and romantic affair," remarked AngelinaBott, a sentimental sort of girl, to her chum, Alice Haven. "Itwould make quite a story."
"For the detectives--yes," assented Alice. Then, speaking so loudlythat Cora could not help but hear, she added: "I guess hiders makethe best finders, after all."
Cora's face turned red. Jack, with an angry retort on his lips,stepped forward, but his sister laid a detaining hand on his arm.
"Don't, Jack," she begged.
"But it's as good as saying you took it."
"I know; but--but, Jack, there will be more or less of--suspicion."
Jack swallowed a lump in his throat. He glared at Alice Haven, wholooked coldly at him and then turned away.
Just then the windows were opened, indicating that the mail wassorted, and there was a rush on the part of the waiting crowd. Aliceand Angelina were swallowed up in it.
Cora, with bitterness in her heart, turned aside. There were tearsin her eyes, and she did not want Jack to see them.
As she looked down a corridor of the post-office, she saw a stoopingfigure hurrying along. It was that of Sid Wilcox. And from anothercorridor, crossing the main one, came a girl, who joined him.
The girl was Ida Giles, and as Cora watched them she saw Sid handIda something that showed white in the gleam of an incandescentlamp. It was evidently a letter.
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