The Girls of Hillcrest Farm; Or, The Secret of the Rocks

by Amy Bell Marlowe

  CHAPTER XXVI

  A BLOW-UP

  'Phemie's heart beat quickly; but she was no more afraid than she hadbeen the moment before, when she found the green door unlocked. There wassomebody--the person who had found the lost key--still in the officesof the east wing.

  The wand of white light playing about her was from an electric torch. Shestooped, and literally crawled on all fours out of the range of the lightfrom the rear doorway.

  Before she knew it she was right beside the case containing the skeleton.Indeed, she hid in its shadow.

  And her interest in that moving light--and the person behind it--made herforget her original terror of what was in the box.

  She heard a rustle--then a step on the boards. It was a heavy personapproaching. The door opened farther between the workshop and the roomin which she was hidden.

  Then she recognized the tall figure entering. It was as she had expected.It was Professor Spink.

  The breakfast food magnate came directly toward the high, locked deskbelonging to the dead and gone physician, who had been a kind friend andpatron of this quack medicine man when he was a boy.

  'Phemie had heard all the particulars of Spink's connection with Dr. PollyPhelps. The good old doctor had been called to attend the boy in somechildish disease while he was an inmate of the county poorhouse. Hisparents--who were gypsies, or like wanderers--had deserted the boy and hehad "gone on the town," as the saying was.

  Dr. Polly had taken a fancy to the little fellow. He was then twelve yearsold--or thereabout--smart and sharp. The old doctor brought him home toHillcrest, sent him to school, made him useful to him in a dozen ways,and began even to train him as a doctor.

  For five years Jud Spink had remained with the old physician. Then he hadrun away with a medicine show. It was said, too, that he stole money fromDr. Polly when he went; but the physician had never said so, nor takenany means to punish the wayward boy if he returned.

  And Jud Spink had never re-appeared in Bridleburg, or the vicinity, whilethe old doctor was alive.

  Then his visits had been few and far between until, at last, comingback a few months before, a self-confessed rich man, he had declaredhis intention of settling down in the community.

  But 'Phemie Bray believed that the false professor had come here toHillcrest for a special object. He was money-mad--his avariciousness hadbeen already well displayed.

  She believed that there was something on Hillcrest that Jud Spinkwanted--something he could make money out of.

  She was not surprised, then, to see a short iron bar in the professor'shand. It was flattened and sharpened at one end.

  By the light of the hand-lamp the man went to work on the locked desk.It was of heavy wood--no flimsy thing like that one which he had burstopen so easily the day of the Widow Harrison's vendue.

  The man inserted the sharp end of the jimmy between the lid and the uppershelf of the desk. 'Phemie heard the woodwork crack, and this time shedid _not_ suppress a gasp.

  Why! this fellow was actually breaking open the old doctor's desk. AuntJane had not even sent _them_ the keys of the desk and bookcases in thissuite of rooms.

  Then 'Phemie had a sudden thought. She was really afraid of the big man.She did not know what he might do to her if he found her here spying onhis actions. And--she didn't want the lock of the old desk smashed.

  She reached up softly and turned with shaking fingers the old-fashionedwooden button that held shut the door of the case beside which shecrouched.

  She remembered very clearly that it had snapped open before when she wasinvestigating--and with a little click. The door of this case acted almostas though the hinges had springs coiled in them.

  At once, when she released the door, it swung open--and in yawning it_did_ make a suspicious sound.

  Professor Spink started--he had been about to bear down on the bar again.He flashed a look back over his shoulder. But the corner was shrouded indarkness.

  'Phemie sighed--this time with intent. She remembered how she had beenfrightened so herself at her former visit to this office--and she believedthe marauder now before her had been partially the cause of her fright.

  The jimmy dropped from Spink's hand and clattered on the floor. He wheeledand shot the white spot of his lamp into the corner.

  By great good fortune the ray of the lantern missed the girl; but itstruck into the yawning case and intensified the horrid appearance ofthe skeleton.

  For half a minute Spink stood as if frozen in his tracks. If he had knownthe old doctor had such a possession as the skeleton, he had forgottenit. Nor did he see any part of the case that held it, but just thedangling, grinning Thing itself, revealed by the brilliance of hisspotlight, but with a mass of deep shadow surrounding it.

  Professor Spink had perhaps had many perilous experiences in his variedlife; but never anything just like _this_.

  He might not have been afraid of a man--or a dozen men; noemergency--which he could talk out of--would have feazed him; but aman doesn't feel like trying to talk down a skeleton!

  He didn't even stop to pick up the jimmy. He shut off the spotlight; andhe stumbled over his own feet in getting to the door.

  _He was running away!_

  'Phemie was up immediately and after him. She did not propose for him toget away with that key.

  "Stop! stop!" she shouted.

  Perhaps Professor Spink verily believed that the skeleton in the boxcalled after him--that it was, indeed, in actual pursuit.

  He didn't stop. He didn't reply. He went across the small anteroom and outof the open green door.

  But he had made a lot of noise. A big man with the fear of thesupernatural chilling his very soul does not tread lightly.

  A frightened ox in the place could have made no more noise. He tumbledover two chairs and finally went full length over an old hassock. Hebrought up with an awful crash against the big davenport in the corridor,where 'Phemie had tried to keep watch.

  And there, when he tried to scramble up, he got entangled in 'Phemie'squilt and went to the floor again just as a great light flashed into thecorridor.

  The Colesworths' door stood open. Out dashed Harris in his pajamas anda robe. He fell upon the big body of Spink as though he were making a"tackle" in a football game.

  "Hold him! hold him!" gasped 'Phemie.

  "I've got him," declared Harris. "What's the matter, Miss 'Phemie?"

  "He's got the key," explained 'Phemie. "Make him give it up."

  "Sure!" said Harris, and dexterously twitched the entangled Spink overon his back.

  "By jove!" gasped the young man, standing up. "It's the professor!"

  "But he's got the key!" the girl reiterated.

  "What key?"

  "The one to the green door."

  "The door of the east wing?" demanded Harris, turning to stare at the opendoor, on the threshold of which 'Phemie stood.

  "Yes. I lost it. He found it. He's got it somewhere. I found him trying tobreak into grandfather's desk."

  "Bad, bad," muttered Harris, stepping back and allowing the professor roomto sit up. "Your interest in old desks seems to be phenomenal, Professor.Did you expect to find Confederate notes in _this_ one?"

  "Confound you--both!" snarled Spink, slowly rising.

  "I don't mind it," said Harris, quietly. "But don't include Miss Bray inyour emphatic remarks. _Give me that key._"