Kitabı oku: «The Mystery of the Fires», sayfa 6

CHAPTER XI
Adelaide Ditmar’s Plan

“There are four new young men at the Royal,” announced Jane as she set the table for lunch after their swim that morning.

“Who? How do you know?” demanded Mary Louise.

“Sue Reed told me. She says they used to come to Flicks’ every summer for two weeks’ vacation. So instead they are staying one week at the Royal Hotel. I don’t know their names.”

Her chum nodded.

“I know now. I can’t think of their names either, but they’ll probably come to me. They’re Harrisburg people… But, Jane, how can you take an interest in men when your own boy-friend is in such trouble? Last night you seemed so sad!”

“You can’t be sad all the time,” replied the other girl. “It doesn’t help Cliff any. Besides, I wasn’t engaged to him, so I can get a kick out of meeting new men. Can’t you, Mary Lou?”

“I don’t believe I can at the present moment. I’ve too much else to think about. But what do you want me to do about them, Jane? Have a party and invite them over?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. Sue asked me to come to her cottage this afternoon to meet them. She said to tell you to come along, in case she didn’t see you to invite you herself.”

“You go by yourself.”

Mary Louise set a plate of chicken salad on the table. “It does look good, doesn’t it?” she remarked – “if I do say it myself!”

“Yum! Yum!” agreed Jane. “But what makes you think you don’t want to go over to the Reeds’ with me?”

“Because – I have other plans for this afternoon.”

“The mystery of the fires!” cried Jane, rolling her eyes. “Oh, Mary Lou, forget it for a while and have some fun!”

“No, I can’t. I’ve got to have a talk with the Ditmars.”

“You better stay away from them!” warned Jane. “You never can tell what that man might do if he got desperate!”

Nevertheless, Mary Louise was firm in her resolution not to join the young people, and she was thankful that she had stayed home, for no sooner had Jane gone to the Reeds’ and her mother to the Partridges’ than Mrs. Ditmar herself came to the Gays’ bungalow!

“Oh, Mary Louise, I’m so glad to find you alone!” exclaimed the young woman. “Have you any engagement, or can I talk to you for a while?”

“I haven’t a thing to do but knit,” replied Mary Louise, smiling to herself. “Jane has gone over to the Reeds’ to dance, but I was sort of tired, so I thought I’d just take it easy. And I’ll be delighted to have you, Adelaide.” She addressed Mrs. Ditmar by her first name, for though she had a prefix of “Mrs.,” she was, after all, hardly more than a girl. And Mary Louise wanted to make her feel at home.

“Oh, thank you!” replied the visitor, sinking into a chair with a sigh of content.

“You see, I haven’t any friends up here at Shady Nook,” she explained. “Nothing’s turned out right. I thought Horace and I would have a lovely time with the young people – belong to the crowd and have lots of fun. But everybody avoids us. It’s all Horace’s fault, of course, for people were friendly at first. But when you repeatedly turn down invitations and are grouchy when you do go anywhere, naturally nobody invites you again.”

“It’s a wicked shame – for you, I mean!” exclaimed Mary Louise.

“And yet I can’t blame Horace entirely. It’s circumstances. Nothing turned out right,” she repeated.

“Tell me how you happened to come here, Adelaide,” urged Mary Louise. She wanted to hear the story from the girl’s own lips, to see whether it coincided with Cliff Hunter’s.

“Well, Horace is an architect, you know,” began Adelaide. “And he did some work for Mr. Hunter last fall, just before we were married and before Mr. Hunter died. Mr. Hunter was so pleased with it that he gave Horace a little piece of land up here as an extra bonus, to build a cottage for ourselves, and he got Mr. Robinson to let him design his too.

“We got married, and everything went finely until Mr. Hunter died. Then Horace didn’t have much work. But Mr. Hunter had indicated that it would be good business for us to live up here during the summer and meet wealthy people.”

“Some of us are far from wealthy!” put in Mary Louise.

“We didn’t know that. We judged everybody to be like the Hunters. Besides, Mr. Hunter said that he owned a lot more land around Shady Nook, and as he sold it off in lots, he’d see that Horace got the contracts to design the new cottages.

“We came up early in the spring, and Horace enjoyed designing our bungalow and the Robinsons’. We had enough money left to see us through the summer, but no prospects for the fall, unless something unexpected turned up… Then Horace began to worry…

“Naturally, we thought Mrs. Hunter would be nice to us, but she was horrible. Just icy. I really think she believes Horace started that fire just to get the contract to build her a new cottage!”

Mary Louise flushed. It was amazing to have Adelaide Ditmar calmly state the suspicion which was being whispered behind her back. It almost proved her husband’s innocence, she thought. Evidently Adelaide did not notice Mary Louise’s embarrassment, for she continued her recital in the same tone of voice.

“I hate to tell you so much of my troubles, Mary Louise,” she said, “but there’s a reason for it. I have a plan, and I thought maybe you’d help me carry it out. You’re so popular that anything you took a hand in would be sure to be a success.”

“Popular?” repeated Mary Louise in amazement. Even if she were, she wondered how popularity could help solve Adelaide Ditmar’s worries.

“I want to make some money to help Horace, and I think I see a way. Before I was married, I took a course in home economics, and I was assistant director of a Y.W.C.A. dining room. So you see I really do know something about food.”

Still Mary Louise did not see what on earth she was driving at.

“So I’d like to start a dining room here at Shady Nook, now that the inn has been destroyed. No boarders, like Flicks’, but just lunch and dinner service. I believe we could do it by using our living room and dining room and porch. That young Adams man – Tom, I believe his name is – could knock together some benches and tables for us, and we could gather up enough dishes, I think. Would you – go into it with me, Mary Louise?”

Mary Louise was startled by the suggestion. What an idea! Yet she could not help admiring Adelaide’s courage.

“You really are serious?” she asked. “It would mean an awful lot of work.”

“Oh, I know that! But I don’t have enough to do now… Yes, I’ve thought it all out. We could hire Hattie Adams to wash dishes, and I could cook, and you and Jane could wait on the tables… Would you, Mary Louise?”

“I don’t know,” replied the other hesitatingly. “Maybe – if Mother is willing… Does your husband approve, Adelaide?”

“Oh, yes, he’s keen about it! He has promised to do anything he can to help me. Buy all our supplies for us, and keep accounts, and even take turn in washing dishes, if we need him… Oh, Mary Louise, please!”

Adelaide seized her hand excitedly, and Mary Louise could not bear to refuse point-blank.

“Mr. Frazier won’t like it,” she said.

“Who cares about that old stiff?” returned the other girl. “He has no business to charge such terrible prices. I’ll bet the people of Shady Nook will be glad to get out of paying them!”

Still Mary Louise hesitated. Was this plan just another proof of the Ditmars’ guilt in the burning of the cottages? No; that didn’t seem possible. Whatever crime Horace Ditmar might commit, Mary Louise felt sure that his charming wife could have no part in it. And she longed dreadfully to help her out.

“I’ll talk it over with Mother and Jane,” she finally agreed, “and let you know tonight after supper. Will you be home then?”

“Yes, indeed! Horace and I will be waiting for you on the porch of our bungalow… And now I must go, Mary Louise, and talk over the plans with him. I’m really thrilled about it – it’ll give us a new interest in life. Oh, I do hope you’ll decide to help me!”

And, pressing Mary Louise’s hand affectionately, she darted off down the steps.

For a long time Mary Louise sat still, her knitting lying forgotten in her lap, while she thought over Adelaide’s startling proposition. Maybe it was the best thing in the world that could have happened; perhaps fate was playing right into her hands. The opportunity to know and to watch Horace Ditmar would be perfect; if he really were guilty, she surely ought to be able to find it out upon such close association.

But, on the other hand, the work would take a great deal of time. Time from recreation, time from following up other clues that might transpire concerning other suspects. Her mother would probably disapprove, and no doubt Jane would object. Well, she wouldn’t insist upon Jane’s helping her; no doubt Mabel Reed would jump at the chance of making some extra money, for she expected to earn her own way through college.

She’d give it a try, she finally decided as she folded up her knitting and put it back into her bag. Now she must turn her attention to other matters. She wanted to drive over to Four Corners and ask the storekeeper some questions about Tom Adams. And possibly have a talk with the young man himself.

She wished she had kept Freckles with her, even though she didn’t need him to trail Rebecca Adams. With Jane over at the Reeds’, she would have to drive to Four Corners alone. But, after all, it wasn’t much of a trip – only four or five miles at the most.

She found a list of needed groceries on a pad in the kitchen which her mother kept for that very purpose, and took her own pocketbook.

Twenty minutes later she drew up at the entrance to the store. As Jane had remarked, Eberhardt’s looked like anything but a grocery store. It was an old-fashioned country house with a wide front porch, and although Mary Louise had never noticed it before, there was a screened-in porch around at the side, partially hidden by a huge elm tree.

As she locked her car she heard voices from this porch: men’s voices; and the remark which one of them made caused her to listen in astonishment.

“I’m sick of your card tricks, Tom Adams!” he sneered. “Think you’ll make me fergit them hundred berries you owe me? Well, I ain’t a-goin’ a fergit it! You pay me by tonight, or I’ll – ”

“You’ll what?” drawled Tom Adams in a voice which Mary Louise instantly recognized from having heard it that morning. “Beat me up?” His laugh was contemptuous. Evidently the other fellow was a little man, Mary Louise decided.

“I’ll see that nobody ever plays another game with you, Tom Adams, that’s what I’ll do! A liar and a cheat – ”

“Hold on there!” interrupted the other. “I’m a-goin’ a pay you, Bill! Don’t I always square up my debts?”

“You always win,” returned his accuser. “This is my first streak of luck in a year!”

“I’m payin’ you tomorrow, after I collect a little bill a guy owes me!”

“A little bill? Who around here could owe you a hundred smackers?”

“None of your business – ”

A voice from the store interrupted this argument. “Boys, boys! Not so much noise!” called the storekeeper.

Mary Louise, realizing that she had been sitting in her car for several minutes, got out and went into the store.

“Quite a card party you have out there, Mr. Eberhardt,” she remarked.

The man’s face flushed.

“Yeah. Those boys are gettin’ too old fer that sort of thing. I let ’em play games there when they was nuthin’ but kids, but now they’re growed up, and it gives my store a bad look. Harmless, of course, but I reckon I better put a stop to it.”

“Not so harmless if they gamble to the extent of owing each other a hundred dollars,” remarked Mary Louise shrewdly.

“Oh, you must be mistaken about that, Miss Gay. That was only their little joke. Nobody round here has a hundred dollars to throw away.”

Mary Louise smiled and pretended not to have any further interest in the matter. Nor did she ask Mr. Eberhardt any questions about Tom Adams – for it wasn’t necessary. She had learned plenty about the young man for herself! So she merely handed the storekeeper her list, paid her bill, and departed.

“So Tom Adams does card tricks!” she muttered to herself as she started the car. “With Cliff Hunter’s cards, no doubt!” She smiled with satisfaction: she’d write that fact to Cliff tonight… “But who,” she asked herself, “could be paying Tom Adams a hundred dollars – and for what? Surely not for the odd jobs he did for the people of Shady Nook, or for Frazier at the Royal Hotel!”

At last, she believed, she was on the right trail in solving the mystery of the fires!

CHAPTER XII
Getting Business

No one was at home when Mary Louise returned from her visit to the store at Four Corners. What a splendid chance it was to write to Clifford Hunter to tell him about Tom Adams’ card tricks! With this piece of evidence, a clever lawyer ought to be able to clear Cliff of all suspicion.

“Tom Adams probably left that pack of cards at the Smiths’ deliberately,” she wrote. “I feel almost positive now that he is the person who is starting the fires. He had the opportunity; each time one occurred, he was nowhere to be found. I think he is doing it at somebody else’s orders – for a sum of money. But I can’t find out who is paying him, and I feel rather certain it isn’t his father.

“I intend to watch Tom Adams like a hawk for the next twenty-four hours, and as soon as I can find out who is responsible, I’ll wire the police. But in the meantime, Cliff, I think you ought to be freed, and I wish you and your lawyer would come back to Shady Nook.”

She signed and sealed the letter and took it immediately to the box at the entrance to Shady Nook, where the rural postman collected mail each day. Then, feeling that a fine piece of work had been accomplished, she put away the groceries and started the evening meal.

But Mary Louise made no mention of her suspicions to the family that evening, nor did she say anything about her letter to Cliff. She’d tell Jane later, when they were alone, for there was no need of bringing up the subject of the fires again in front of her mother. If Cliff did return, it would be a pleasant surprise for Mrs. Gay – and the other inhabitants of Shady Nook. Mary Louise’s only regret would be David McCall’s absence: she would love to have the pleasure of saying, “I told you so!” to that cocksure youth.

There was plenty to talk about at the supper table that evening, without bringing up the mystery of the fires. Jane had to tell all about the new young men she had met and the fun they had had over at the Reeds’. She thought it was a crime for Mary Louise to have missed it all.

“But I had a caller,” announced her chum. “In a different way, my afternoon was just as thrilling as yours!”

“You don’t mean David McCall, do you?” snapped Jane.

“Oh no. He’s gone home. No – not a man. A girl. Adelaide Ditmar.”

“Adelaide Ditmar! What in the world did she want?”

“I’ll tell you,” replied Mary Louise. “And you must listen, too, Mother, for I want your advice.” And she proceeded to outline the proposition which the young woman had made to her.

“I want to go into it,” she concluded. “I think it means everything to Adelaide. Lots of people have been poorer than the Ditmars at one time or another, but I don’t believe anybody has ever been much more desperate.”

Jane frowned.

“I don’t see why we have to give up our vacation and work hard just because a married couple can’t get on!” she objected.

“You don’t have to,” replied Mary Louise. “But it happens I want to. And I think Mabel Reed will be keen to help – if you don’t want the job, Jane. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll run right over there after supper.”

“Of course I don’t mind,” laughed Jane. “Anybody that’s ambitious has a right to work! But you better wait a while, Mary Lou. The Reeds may be over at the hotel, eating their dinner.”

“No, they’re not,” put in Mrs. Gay. “Mrs. Reed told me herself that they couldn’t afford to go over there oftener than once a week – with all that family.”

“You don’t mind my doing it, Mother?” inquired Mary Louise.

“No, dear – provided you don’t get too tired. But if you do, you can easily stop. Will you promise me that?”

“Of course I will, Mother,” agreed the girl as she started to gather up the dishes.

“Stop that!” protested Jane. “I may not be ambitious, but I’m not going to let you get the supper and wash the dishes both. Freckles and I are clearing up tonight. You run along, Mary Lou!”

“Suits me!” agreed her chum as she hurried off to the Reeds’ cottage.

Mabel Reed listened to the proposition with delight and immediately consented to help.

“Let’s go right around Shady Nook now,” she suggested, “and get the people to sign up for the meals. Then we’ll have something definite to take to Adelaide.”

“You are a business woman, Mabel!” exclaimed Mary Louise admiringly. “But we’d have to quote prices, wouldn’t we?”

“Make it the same as Flicks’ used to be – forty cents for lunch and sixty for dinner. The Royal charges a dollar for lunch and a dollar and a half for dinner. So everybody would save a dollar and a half a day by eating with us!”

“Frazier is going to hate us,” remarked Mary Louise.

“Of course he is. But who cares?”

“He’ll huff and he’ll puff – ” muttered Mary Louise, half to herself. “Well, come on – let’s go. I’ve got a pencil and paper.”

“You always have a pencil and paper with you,” observed Mabel. “Is that because you expect to become a writer?”

“No, I don’t believe I’ll ever be a writer, Mabel. I’d rather do things than write about them.” She wished she might tell the other girl what she had accomplished earlier in the summer at Dark Cedars with the help of her notebook and pencil, but that would seem too much like bragging. Besides, the only way to succeed in life is to forget about the past and keep looking forward.

“Write down seven Reeds and four Gays,” said Mabel. “And two Ditmars. That makes thirteen already.”

“But four of those won’t eat till the others are served, so we’ll need only nine chairs so far… Now, let’s see. Where shall we go first?”

“Let’s go right up the line of the cottages. Hunters’ is gone, of course, so we’ll try the Partridges. They have four in their family.”

“Mrs. Partridge is a great friend of mother’s,” observed Mary Louise. “I think they will sign up.”

The two girls walked a quarter of a mile up the private road that wound along beside the river, past the Hunters’ grounds, on to the pleasant five-room cottage that belonged to the Partridges. As there were no young people in this family, Mary Louise did not know them so well, but she felt sure that they would like the idea of having their meals on this side of the river.

Mr. and Mrs. Partridge, and the two sisters who spent the summer with them, were just coming across the river in Mr. Frazier’s launch when the girls reached the scene. The hotelkeeper himself was running the motorboat.

Mary Louise smiled at them and waited until the launch had puffed off before she explained her plan.

Mrs. Partridge was delighted.

“Of course we’ll come – for our dinners,” she agreed immediately. “My husband is going back to the city, except for week-ends, and we three women would just as soon have a bite of lunch at home. But I hate this bothering with a boat every night for dinner, although Mr. Frazier has been most kind.”

“Then we can count on you three?” asked Mary Louise in delight.

“Yes – and Mr. Partridge too on Saturdays and Sundays,” added the woman.

Mary Louise marked down the names, and the two girls continued on their way, pleased with their success.

“That’s three more paying guests,” she said, “totaling twelve!”

“It’s thrilling!” exclaimed Mabel.

It was even more thrilling to find the Robinsons just as enthusiastic about the plan, adding four more names to their list.

“That’s all!” sighed Mabel. “Unless we go over to the Royal and try to get the Smiths.”

“They wouldn’t come,” returned Mary Louise, “because they’d have nowhere to sleep. And besides, they don’t care about economy. They have piles of money.”

“True. But I’ll tell you whom we can get, Mary Lou: those four Harrisburg boys. They can put up tents in the woods and eat at Ditmars’. They’ll love it, and besides, it will make it possible for them to stay at Shady Nook a lot longer. Their money will go so much farther than it would at the Royal.”

“That is an idea, Mabel!” cried Mary Louise. “And maybe they’d be willing to eat at a second table, so we shouldn’t have to get extra chairs.”

“The very thing. Sixteen chairs isn’t so bad. I guess the Ditmars have four, and we each have a card-table set. I suppose the Robinson boys can knock together a bench and some chairs for a porch table.”

“Adelaide Ditmar suggested getting Tom Adams to do it.”

“Then we’d have to pay him! No, I think we better ask the Robinson boys or Horace Ditmar.”

The girls reached the bungalow and found the young couple waiting for them on the porch. Horace Ditmar was a good-looking man of perhaps twenty-five – not much older than David McCall, Mary Louise thought – and Adelaide was scarcely twenty. They were a handsome pair: it was too bad if they weren’t happy.

Adelaide’s eager blue eyes were gazing into Mary Louise’s as if she could not wait for her answer.

“Mabel and I have decided to help you, Adelaide,” announced Mary Louise immediately. “We just stopped at all the bungalows to find out how many people we can get to promise to come to the meals. We have sixteen for dinners and thirteen for lunches – besides all of us who will be working.”

“Sixteen!” repeated the young woman in delight. “Oh, Mary Lou, I knew everybody adored you! If I’d asked them myself they would all have refused.”

“Now, dear!” remonstrated her husband, with such an affectionate look at his wife that Mary Louise was surprised. Maybe Horace Ditmar was all right after all!

The girls sat down on the porch and plunged right into the discussion of all the details of carrying out the plan. The young man was surprisingly helpful and resourceful. As Adelaide had said, he was keenly interested. He not only promised to provide the needed tables and chairs, but he drew plans for placing them and for arranging the kitchen to utilize every bit of its space. He knew how to make home-made ice cream, he said, and he would drive over for all the supplies twice a week. In fact, he took so much of the work upon his own shoulders that the girls felt as if there was little for them to do in advance. They were to open for business the day after tomorrow.

“And all we have to do is borrow some silverware and dishes,” remarked Mabel as the girls rose to go.

“And engage Hattie Adams to wash them,” added Adelaide. “But I wish you wouldn’t go home yet, girls. I was hoping we might play a little bridge.” Her tone was wistful. Mary Louise knew how eager she was to make friends.

“We’ll be over tomorrow,” replied Mabel, “but I think we ought to go now, because those Harrisburg boys are over at our bungalow, and I want to see whether I can’t get them to camp over here in the woods and take their meals with us. There are four of them.”

“Good girl!” approved Horace. “Go right after the business!”

So the girls said good-night and hurried off, full of excitement over their new adventure. All the young people who had gathered at the Reeds’ were enthusiastic too: they were tired of dressing up and going to the Royal Hotel, and enjoyed the informal intimacy of a small boarding house like Flicks’. The four young men from Harrisburg were only too glad to adopt Mabel’s suggestion, and planned to borrow the tents and start camping out the same day that the dining room was to open.

During the entire evening the mystery of the fires was not mentioned. Indeed, nobody thought of them until Jane and Mary Louise were alone again, getting ready for bed. Then the former referred to them casually.

“I guess you won’t have time for solving any more mysteries now, Mary Lou,” she remarked, “with this dining room on your hands.”

“On the contrary,” returned her companion, “that is just one reason why I wanted to go into the thing. I was anxious to get to know Horace Ditmar better. And I’m practically convinced that he had nothing to do with the fires!”

“Then who?” inquired Jane. “Rebecca Adams?”

“No, not Rebecca. But I did get a new clue this afternoon, Jane. I learned something that made me suspicious about her brother Tom!”

“Tom Adams? Why, Mary Lou, I thought you dismissed him long ago. When we learned that the Adams family are losing jobs by these fires.”

“Yes, I know. But there’s something we don’t understand yet. Anyhow, Tom Adams does card tricks.”

“Card tricks?”

“Yes. He probably learned them from Cliff, and maybe swiped his cards to do them!”

Jane’s eyes opened wide with understanding. “That pack of cards at the Smith fire!” she cried.

Mary Louise nodded. “Exactly! That’s just what I’ve been thinking. So I wrote to Cliff this afternoon and told him about it.”

Jane threw her arms around her friend and hugged her.

“You are a wonder, Mary Lou!.. But – but – can you prove anything?”

“Not yet. But I mean to watch Tom Adams and see whether I can’t learn some more.”

“If he really is guilty and finds out that you suspect him,” observed Jane, “he’ll take out his spite by setting fire to this bungalow. You better be careful, Mary Lou!”

“I expect to be,” was the reply. “I’m looking for trouble!”

But she hardly expected it in the form in which it came the following day.