Kitabı oku: «The Mystery of the Fires», sayfa 10

CHAPTER XIX
Conclusion

Mary Louise was putting the last dabs of powder on her nose when she heard a car stop at the porch steps. Peering through the screened window of her bedroom she immediately decided that it must be the detectives. Yes – and, oh, joy of joys! – they had Tom Adams with them!

In another moment the men were out of the car and up on the porch, where her father joined them.

“Congratulations!” exclaimed Mr. Gay. “I see that you got Tom Adams. I remember him now.”

“Yes,” answered one of the men. “But he won’t admit a thing about your daughter. He says he never saw Mary Louise after she went back to the tennis court that afternoon.”

“On what grounds could you arrest him, then?” demanded Mr. Gay.

“He stole a car on his way to the West.”

Mary Louise repressed a giggle and turned away from the window. Her father evidently meant to find out what he could before he announced his daughter’s return.

“You have a sister Rebecca, haven’t you, Adams?” he inquired.

The young man nodded. “Yes. She’s feeble-minded. Why?”

“We know that Mary Louise saw her the afternoon she disappeared. Rebecca told us so, and she also said that you came home that afternoon just as my daughter started to leave the farm.”

“Rebecca’s mind wanders a lot,” muttered Tom. “She don’t know what she’s talkin’ about half the time.” He shifted his feet uneasily.

“You – have been thinking of putting Rebecca into an asylum?” persisted Mr. Gay.

“Yeah. We considered it. Why?”

“Because she’s in one now,” announced Mr. Gay calmly. “Of her own free will. An asylum about twenty miles from here. A Dr. Fetter, I believe, is the head of the institution.”

He paused and gazed intently at Tom. The young man’s jaw dropped, his face grew white, and his hands trembled.

Mr. Gay burst out laughing, and Mary Louise came to the screen door.

“Hello, Tom,” she said quietly.

The young man started as if he had seen a ghost. But he managed to stammer a reply. “Hello, Miss Gay,” he said.

All three of the plainclothes men stepped forward in amazement. “You found her, Gay?” they demanded of Mary Louise’s father.

“No,” answered Mr. Gay. “To be frank, I didn’t. Two of her young friends from Riverside did. She was confined in an insane asylum about twenty miles from Shady Nook, under the name of Rebecca Adams!”

All of Tom’s pretence fell away from him at this announcement. He knew his game was up. His limbs grew weak; he groveled at the men’s feet.

“Don’t send me to the chair!” he cried. “I didn’t harm her. She’s all right, ain’t she?”

“We’ll let the judge and the jury decide that,” replied Mr. Gay. “Now, suppose you sit down there and tell us the truth, Adams. You might as well, for we know most of it already!”

The young man crawled into a seat, but he made no attempt to tell his story.

“We know that you burned three houses here at Shady Nook,” said Mr. Gay. “We know, too, that you did it because you were bribed by Frazier. Didn’t he pay you a certain sum of money to start those fires?”

“Yes, he did,” acknowledged Tom. “He gave me five hundred dollars.”

“Why did he want them burned down?” asked one of the plainclothes men.

“He figured that he’d get five hundred at least from the Hunters during the summer, entertaining their friends and all. Then Flicks’ fire turned out to be better business yet. All the folks from Shady Nook, except the Ditmars, begun eatin’ at the hotel, once the inn was gone. And Smiths’ burnin’ down brought all them children and servants and even the Ma and Pa over to the Royal.”

“Did Frazier expect to burn any more cottages?” was the next question.

“No, he wasn’t plannin’ on it. Only, when Mrs. Ditmar started up a boardin’ house and took his business away from him, that made him sore. But I wasn’t goin’ a do no more dirty work. I figured I’d just get my money and clear out. I never did expect to burn Ditmars’ – only threaten ’em.”

“But what made you do that dreadful thing to Mary Louise?” demanded Mr. Gay.

“I wanted to get rid of her till I made my get-away. Frazier and me was scared she was onto somethin’ and would send for you, and you’d figure it all out, Mr. Gay. Frazier thought, if I was gone, he’d be safe. He’d just deny everything. The idea of callin’ Mary Louise ‘Rebecca’ just popped into my head when she told us she was goin’ over to the farm to see Hattie that afternoon. I knew Hattie and Dad was off to the fair. So I jumped in my car and run over to the asylum and made the arrangements. We just got back in time to nab her.”

One of the men stood up.

“Detective Gay,” he Said, “I think you and I had better go over and arrest Frazier now. These other two men can take charge of Adams.” He turned to Mary Louise, who was still standing in the doorway. “Is there any question you want to ask this criminal, Miss Gay, before we take him away?”

“Yes,” answered Mary Louise, stepping through the doorway. “I would like to know how that pack of cards came to be dropped at the Smiths’ the night of their fire – how Tom happened to have them in his possession.”

The young man flushed.

“One day I was watchin’ Hunter do a trick on the hotel porch. I noticed he put the cards in his coat pocket. Later on, he hung the coat over the back of a chair while he went off to play tennis. So I sneaked up and took ’em out of his pocket, to use to show the trick to the boys. I thought they was marked, but they wasn’t. Hunter sure is clever at tricks.

“Then when I heard people was suspectin’ him of burnin’ his own cottage down for the insurance, I thought I might as well help that suspicion along. So I dropped his pack of cards into that can of water at the Smiths’. And sure enough, it worked!”

Mary Louise’s eyes were filled with contempt, but she did not put her feeling into words. Instead, she nodded to the detectives, and the men all left the porch. Fifteen minutes later Frazier’s arrest was accomplished, and the three plainclothes men started for Albany with both criminals in their custody.

Mary Louise and her parents watched them go with a sigh of relief.

“That’s that,” said her father, with a smile.

“Now, if only Jane and Freckles would come,” added her mother, “we could be perfectly happy. It’s time to go to dinner.”

In a couple of minutes Mrs. Gay’s wish was granted. Down the road half a dozen young people came running, for they had just heard the wonderful news that Mary Louise was back. Silky reached his mistress first, then Freckles arrived, with Jane and four of the boys close behind.

Never, if she lived to be a hundred, would Mary Louise forget that wonderful dinner at the Ditmars’. The joy of being back home again, the happiness of her friends, the companionship of her father – oh, everything seemed perfect that night to the lovely brown-eyed girl. And not least of it all was the satisfaction of knowing that the mystery of the fires was solved at last! Shady Nook was safe again for everybody – to enjoy for many, many summers to come!