The Corner House Girls Snowbound

by Grace Brooks Hill

  CHAPTER XVIII

  FIGURING IT OUT

  Of course Ike M'Graw could see for himself very easily that Tom Jonahhad a nose. It was pointed just then at the fox pelt in the oldwoodsman's hands, and was wrinkled as the dog sniffed at the skin.

  So Neale O'Neil knew that the man meant something a little differentfrom what he said. He, in fact, wanted to know if Tom Jonah was keenon the scent, and Neale answered him to that end.

  "We think he's got a pretty good nose, Mr. M'Graw, for a Newfoundland.Of course, Tom Jonah is not a hunting dog. If he runs a rabbit he runshim by sight, not by scent. But give him something that one of thechildren wears, and he'll hunt that child out, as sure as sure! Theyplay hide and seek with him just as though he were one ofthemselves--only Tom Jonah is always 'it.'"

  "Uh-huh?" grunted the old man. Then he said: "Don't seem as though anystranger could have come down from the attic and got through that hallyonder without this dog making some sort of racket."

  "I never thought of Tom Jonah," admitted Neale.

  "He was in here all night, they tell me," went on Ike.

  "Yes. But didn't the kitchen man, John, let him out when he first camedownstairs this morning?"

  "No. I asked him. He said the dog didn't seem to want to go out. Heopened that door yonder into this back kitchen and called the dog.This here dog come to the door, but he did not want to go out andturned away. So John shut the door again."

  "Crackey!" exclaimed Neale. "Then there was somebody in here, anddon't you forget it, Mr. M'Graw!"

  "Uh-huh? But why didn't the dog give tongue? Was it somebody the dogknowed? You see, son, there's been food stole from that pantry yonderdurin' the night. Could it be the feller that shot the fox from theattic winder was right in here when John called the dog, loadin' uphis knapsack with grub?"

  "Why--why--"

  "This dog must ha' knowed him--eh?"

  "I--I suppose so. But who could it be?" demanded Neale with wonderingemphasis. "Surely it was none of our servants. And Luke Shepard andSammy and I were in bed in one room. The girls--Mr. Howbridge--Mrs.MacCall--"

  "I guess," said the old man, grinning, "that the lady and that lawyerman can be counted out of it. None of you brought a twenty-two riflewith you, anyway."

  "No."

  "That's what the fox was shot with. Here's the pellet," and Ikebrought the little flattened lead bullet out of his vest pocket. "Ifit hadn't been a good shot--spang through the brain--'twould neverhave killed the fox. He had his head on one side, yappin', and thatbullet took him right.

  "Now, better keep still about this. No use frightening the ladies.Girls an' women is easy frightened, I expect. I'll speak again to Mr.Howbridge about it. But this here dog--"

  He shook his head over Tom Jonah's shortcomings, while Neale ran awayto wash his hands and face before appearing at the lunch table.

  The children around the table were in something of an uproar. Mrs.MacCall and Ruth were obliged to be firm in order to quiet Sammy, andTess, and Dot.

  For Agnes, unable to keep anything to herself, had blurted out allabout the lovely sled-ride the older ones had enjoyed. Immediately thethree younger children decided that they had been cheated.

  "We wanted to go tobogganing, too," Tess declared.

  "I just _love_ sliding downhill," wailed Dot.

  "Huh!" sniffed Sammy Pinkney. "A feller can't have no fun wherethere's big fellers and big girls. They always put you down, and leaveyou out of the best things."

  "You shall go sliding tomorrow if the snow holds off," Ruth promised.

  "Why not this afternoon, Ruthie?" begged Tess.

  "Sister's got something else to do this afternoon. Wait untiltomorrow," the oldest Kenway replied.

  "It's snowing already," muttered Sammy disconsolately.

  There were a few flakes in the air. But it did not look as though anyheavy fall had begun.

  "I don't see why we need to have you go with us to slide," Tess said,pouting. "We go sliding without you in Milton."

  "This is different, Tess," Ruth said firmly. "Now, let us hear no moreabout it! You will annoy Mr. Howbridge."

  Sammy winked slyly at the two little girls. "Just you wait!" hemouthed so that only Tess and Dot heard him.

  "Oh, Sammy!" murmured Dot. "What'll you do?"

  "Just you wait!" repeated the boy, and that mysterious statementcomforted Dot a good deal, if it did not Tess Kenway. Dot believedthat Sammy was fertile in expedient. She had run away with him once"to be pirates."

  Before the meal was over, Hedden came in and bent beside Mr. Howbridgeto whisper into his ear.

  "Oh! Has he come back again? I wondered where he went so suddenly,"said the lawyer. "Yes. Tell him I'll come out to see him as soon as Iam through."

  Neale knew that he referred to M'Graw. Bright-eyed and interested, hebent forward to say to Mr. Howbridge:

  "I just told Mr. M'Graw something that I guess you'd wish to know,too, Mr. Howbridge. May I go with you when you speak to him?"

  "Certainly, my boy. There's nothing secret about it--not really. Weare only puzzled about a suspicion that we have--"

  "That there was somebody in the house that ought not to be here,"whispered the boy.

  "That's it. How did you know?"

  "I'll tell you later," returned Neale O'Neil.

  Agnes was glaring at him in a most indignant fashion. It alwaysangered the second Corner House girl if Neale seemed to have anysecret that she did not share.

  "What's the matter with you?" she hissed, when Neale turned away fromtheir host. "Don't you know it isn't polite to whisper at table, NealeO'Neil?"

  "What are you doing it for, then?" he asked her, grinning, and wouldvouchsafe no further explanation of the secret between Mr. Howbridgeand himself.

  As soon as the lawyer arose from the table to go out to the kitchen tointerview Ike, Neale jumped up to go with him. Agnes saw him departwith sparkling eyes and a very red face. She was really angry withNeale O'Neil.

  The boy was too much interested in the mystery of the shooter of thefox and how he had got in and out of Red Deer Lodge to be muchbothered by Agnes' vexation. He and the lawyer found the old woodsmansitting in the servants' dining-room where he had been eating.

  "Well, sir," he began, when Mr. Howbridge and the boy entered, "'twixtus all, I reckon we're gettin' to the bottom of this here mystery. DidI tell you I couldn't find no place where the feller stood out therein the snow last evening to shoot that fox from?"

  "No."

  "But it's a fac'. Now you tell him, sonny, what you told me about whatyou found in the attic. I've been up and made sure 'twas so."

  Neale told the surprised Mr. Howbridge of the proved fact that the foxwas shot from one of the attic windows.

  "And 'twas a play-toy rifle that done it--a twenty-two," said thewoodsman, as though to clinch some fact that had risen in his ownmind, if not in the minds of the others.

  "Now, let's figger it out. We got enough fac's now to point purtyconclusive to who done it. Yes, sir."

  "Why, Ike, I don't see that," observed Mr. Howbridge.

  "But you will, Mister, in a minute or so," declared the old man,nodding with confidence. "Now, look you: Whoever was in this herehouse and made that fire in Miz' Birdsall's sittin'-room, was herewhen your people came day before yesterday."

  "No!" ejaculated Mr. Howbridge.

  "Yes!" repeated M'Graw with decision.

  "But you found that key in your cabin, did you not?"

  "Yes. But I tell you I've figgered that out. Whoever 'twas come here,got the key, come in here, opened the back door, and then locked thefront door on the outside same as always."

  "Wait! No buts about it," interrupted the woodsman. "I got it figgeredto a fare-you-well, I tell you. Now! The feller locked the front door,went back to my shanty and hung up the key, and then came back in bythe rear door. See? He--ahem!--was in here when that man, Hedden, ofyours, and the others, come."

  "But there were no footprints of human beings
about the house in thesnow."

  "That's all right. The feller that built the fire upstairs had doneall his walking around before the snow fell the day after I went toEbettsville. Don't you see? He didn't leave here because hisfootprints would be seen, and he couldn't lock the house up behind himif he did leave and make it look as though it had never been opened."

  "You are guessing at a lot of this!" exclaimed the lawyer, not at allconvinced.

  "No. I'm jest figgerin'. Now, this Neale boy here heard that shotfired upstairs that killed the fox. He went up this mornin' and sawwhere the shot was fired from. I seen it, too. So the feller thatopened the Lodge and that lit the fire was up there at ten or halfpast last evening, for sure."

  "Well?" murmured the lawyer.

  "He didn't go out during the night, or his footprints would have beenseen by John this morning in the new-fallen snow."

  "That sounds right."

  "It is right!" said the old man vigorously. "Now we come to this heredog you brought."

  "Oh, yes!" cried Mr. Howbridge. "How about Tom Jonah? Surely if therehad been a stranger about--one who stole food from the pantry--hewould have interfered."

  "Mebbe he would. And mebbe again he wouldn't. He's a mighty friendlydog."

  "But he is a splendid watchdog," interposed Neale O'Neil.

  "That may be, too," Ike said, quite unshaken in his opinion. "Ifanybody had come in from outside and undertaken to disturb anything,that old dog would probably have been right on the job."

  "I see your point," Mr. Howbridge admitted. "But this person who camedown from the garret must have been a stranger."

  "Now we're gittin' to it. Let's figger some more," said M'Graw, with achuckle. "If you think hard, an' figger close enough, I guess 'mostany puzzle can be solved."