The Phantom Town Mystery

by Carol Norton

  CHAPTER IX A VAGABOND FAMILY

  Jerry assisted Mary up onto the front seat without question, then slippedin under the wheel. Dora climbed nimbly to her customary place in therumble. Dick leaped in beside her. His frank, friendly smile told hispleasure in her companionship.

  Dora's happy smile, equally frank and friendly, preceded her eagerquestion, "Where are we going, Dick? I'm bursting with curiosity. Ofcourse I know it's some sort of a picnic." She nodded toward the coveredhamper at their feet. "But, surely there's more to it than just a lark.You boys wouldn't have worked all night, if you really did, that youmight just play today, would you?"

  Dick leaned toward his companion and said in a low voice, "Shh! It's adire secret! We are on a mysterious mission bent."

  Dora laughed at his caution. "This car of Jerry's makes so many rattlingnoises, we could shout and not be heard. But do stop 'nonsensing,' as mygrandfather used to say, and reveal all."

  Dick sobered at once. "Well," he began, "it's this way. Last night, afterwe left you girls, Jerry was telling me about a family of poor squatters,as we'd call them back East. Some months ago they came from no one knowswhere, in an old rattletrap wagon drawn by a bony white horse. Jerry wasriding fences near the highway when they passed. He said he never hadseen such a forlorn looking outfit. The wagon was hung all over with potsand pans, a washtub, and, oh, you know, the absolute necessities of life.In the wagon, on the front seat, was a woman so thin and pale Jerry knewshe must be almost dead with the white plague. She had a baby girl in herlap. The father, Jerry said, had a look in his eyes that would haunt thehardest-hearted criminal. It was a gentle-desperate expression, if youget what I mean. Two boys about ten sat in the back of the wagon,hollow-eyed skeletons, covered with sickly yellow skin, while seated on alow chair in the wagon was an older girl staring straight ahead of her ina wild sort of a way."

  "The poor things!" Dora exclaimed when Dick paused. "What became ofthem?"

  "Well, the outfit stopped near where Jerry was riding and the man hailedhim. 'Friend,' he called, 'is there anywhere we could get water for ourhorse? It's most petered out.'

  "Jerry told them that about a mile, straight ahead, they would find aside road leading toward the mountains. If they would turn there, theywould come to a rushing stream. They could have all the water theywished. And then, Jerry said, feeling so terribly sorry for them, headded on an impulse, 'There's a herder's shack close by. Stay all nightin it if you want. It's my father's land and you're welcome.'"

  Dora turned an eager face toward the speaker. "Dick," she said, "Ibelieve I can tell you what happened next. That poor family stayed allnight in that herder's shack and they _never left_."

  Dick nodded. "Are you a mind reader?" he asked, his big, dark eyessmiling at her through the shell-rimmed glasses.

  "No-o. I don't believe that I am." Then eagerly, "But _do_ tell me what_possible_ connection that poor family can have with this expedition ofours."

  "Isn't that like a girl?" Dick teased. "You want to hear the lastchapter, before you know what happened to lead up to it. I'll return tothe morning after. Jerry said he had thought of the family all theafternoon, and that night when he got home, he told his mother, who, asyou know, has a heart of gold."

  "Oh, Dick!" Dora interrupted. "Gold may be precious, but it isn't astender and kind, always, as the heart of Jerry's mother."

  "Be that as it may," the boy continued, "Mrs. Newcomb packed ahamper--this very one now reposing at our feet, I suppose--with allmanner of good things and she had Jerry harness up as soon as he'd eatenand take her to call on their unexpected guests. They found the womanlying on the one mattress, coughing pitifully, and the others gazing ather, the little ones frightened, and huddled, the older girl on her kneesrubbing her mother's hands. The father stood looking down with suchdespair in his eyes, Mrs. Newcomb said, as she had never before seen.

  "'There'd ought to be a doctor here,' she said at once, but the woman onthe mattress smiled up at her feebly and shook her head. 'I'm going onnow,' she said in a low voice, 'and I'd go on gladly,--I'm _so_ tired--ifI knew my children had a roof over their heads and--and--,' then a fit ofcoughing came. When it passed, the woman lay looking up at Jerry'smother, her dim eyes pleading, and Mrs. Newcomb knelt beside her and tookher almost lifeless hand and said, 'Do not worry, dear friend, yourchildren shall have a roof over their heads and food.' Then the mothersmiled at her loved ones, closed her eyes and went on."

  There were tears in Dora's eyes, and she frankly wiped them away with herhandkerchief. Unashamed, Dick said, "That's just how I felt when Jerrytold me about the Dooleys. That's their name. Of course, Mrs. Newcombkept her word. That little shack is in a lovely spot near the stream withbig cottonwood trees around it. After the funeral, Mr. Newcomb told thefather that he and the boys could cut down some of the small cottonwoodsupstream, leaving every third one, and build another room, so they put upa lean-to. Then he gave them a cow to milk and the boys started avegetable garden. Mr. Dooley does odd jobs on the ranch, though he isn'tstrong enough for hard riding, and the girl Etta mothers the baby and thelittle boys."

  "Have we reached that last chapter?" Dora asked. "The one I was trying tohear before we got to it? In other words, may I now know how thisterribly tragic story links up with our today's adventuring?"

  "You sure may," Dick said. "It's this way. The Newcombs, generous as theyhave been, can't afford to keep those children clothed and fed. Moreoverthey ought to go to school next fall and between now and then, some money_must_ be found and so--"

  "Oh! Oh! I see!" Dora glowed at him. "Jerry thinks that it is a cruelshame to have this poor family in desperate need when Mr. Lucky Loon hasa tomb full of gold helping no one."

  Dick smiled. "Now I'm _sure_ you're a mind reader. Although," hecorrected, "Jerry didn't just put it that way. But what he _did_ say wasthat if we could find out definitely that Bodil Pedersen is dead and thatthere is no one else to claim that buried treasure, perhaps the oldstorekeeper, Mr. Silas Harvey, _might_ give us the letter he has, tellingwhere it is hidden."

  "Did Jerry think the money might be used for that poor family?" Doraasked.

  Dick nodded. "He did, if Mr. Harvey consented. Jerry feels, and so do I,that if Bodil Pedersen hasn't turned up in thirty years, she probablynever will. Of course it would be by the merest chance that she woulddrift into this isolated mountain town, anyway, even if she _is_ alive,which Jerry thinks is very doubtful."

  Dora was thoughtful for a moment. "Did Mr. Pedersen advertise in thepapers for his lost sister?"

  "We wondered about that and this morning we asked Mr. Newcomb. He said hedistinctly remembered the story in the Douglas paper, and that afterwardsit was copied all over the state."

  "Goodness!" Dora suddenly ejaculated as she glanced about her. "I've beenso terribly interested in that poor family, I hardly noticed where wewere going. We've crossed the desert road and here we are right at themountains."

  "How bleak and grim this range is," Dick said, then, turning to look backacross the desert valley to a low wooded range in the purple distance, headded, "_Those_ mountains across there, where the Newcomb ranch is, arelots more friendly and likeable, aren't they? They seem to have pleasantthings to tell about their past, but these mountains--" the boy paused.

  "Oh, I know." Dora actually shuddered. "These seem cruel as though they_wanted_ people who tried to cross over them to die of thirst, or to behurled over their precipices, or--" suddenly her tone became one ofalarm. "Dick, did _you_ know we were going up into these _awful_mountains?"

  Her companion nodded, his expression serious. "Yes, I knew it," heconfessed, "but I also know that Jerry wouldn't take us up here if heweren't sure that we'd be safe."

  "Of course," Dora agreed, "but wow! isn't the road narrow and rutty, and_are_ we going straight up?"

  Dick laughed, for the girl, unconsciously, had clutched his khaki-coveredarm. "If those are questions needing answers," he replied,
"I'll say,_Believe me_, yes. Ha, here's a place wide enough for a car to pass.Jerry's stopping."

  When the rattling of the little old car was stilled, Jerry and Maryturned and smiled back at the other two. "Don't be scared, Dora," Marycalled. "Jerry says that no one ever crosses this old road now. It's beenabandoned since the valley highway was built."

  "That's right!" The cowboy's cheerful voice assured the two in back thathe was in no way alarmed. "I reckoned we'd let our 'tin Cayuse' rest abit and get his breath before we do the cliff-climbing stunt that'swaitin' us just around this curve."

  Dora thought, "Mary's just as scared as I am. I _know_ she is. She'swhite as a ghost, but she doesn't want Jerry to think she doesn't trusthim to take care of her."

  Dick broke in with, "Say, when does this outfit eat?"

  "Fine idea!" Jerry agreed heartily. "Dora, open up the grub box and handit around, will you? I reckon we'll need fortifyin' for what's going tohappen next."