Campfire Girls in the Allegheny Mountains
Page 13
CHAPTER XIII.
"FIND HER, OR I'LL FIND HER MYSELF."
Mr. Stanlock came home from a meeting of mining stockholders about thetime when consternation over the disappearance of Helen was at itsheight. After the particulars of the affair, so far as they wereknown, had been explained to him, he asked:
"Where are the detectives?"
The question fell with something of a shock on the ears of theassembled searchers who had just completed a second fruitless huntthrough the house. Why had they not thought of the trio of "mysterymasters" before?
"We ought to have called them in at once," Mrs. Stanlock said. "Isuppose they've gone by this time, but I'll see."
She pushed the buzzer button in the hall and soon the new chauffeurappeared at the side entrance. Yes, the detectives had gone, but heknew where they could be found--at the High Peak Athletic Club.
Mr. Stanlock at once called up the club and soon had one of thedetectives on the wire.
"Can you men come over at once?" he inquired. "One of the girls hasdisappeared and we are afraid that something serious has happened."
"Yes, we'll be there right away," was the answer.
Twenty minutes later there was a ring at the door and the threedetectives, a tall thin man, a short heavy man, and a squarely builtangular man, were ushered in.
The short heavy man, named Meyers, was the most talkative of thethree. He put forth a string of questions as to when and where Helenwas last seen and what she was doing. Had anybody seen her go out ofthe house? Nobody had. Was there anything peculiar in her manner inthe course of the day? Nothing peculiar. What kind of a girl was she?What were her most noticeable characteristics? Had she any pronouncedlikes and dislikes? Was she in the habit of doing things just to becontrary? Was she a girl of good judgment, or flighty andlight-headed?
These questions brought out nothing of tangible advantage, and No. 1rested apparently well satisfied with the keenness of his record thusfar made. No. 2 now took up the inquiry. He was the squarely builtangular fellow with deep-set eyes, quiet demeanor and few words. Hisfirst question was:
"Has Miss Nash any other friends living in Hollyhill?"
"No, I think not," Marion replied; "no particular friends."
"None that she ever corresponds with?" persisted the man with thedeep-set eyes.
Marion started visibly. Sudden recollection of the letter received byHelen the day before came to her.
"She got a letter postmarked Hollyhill yesterday," the young hostessreplied.
"Who was it from?"
"I don't know. I didn't know that she was corresponding with anybodyin the town. But the address on the envelope looked as if it waswritten by a man."
"Do you suppose you could find that letter?"
"I'll go upstairs and look," Marion said, suiting the action to theword.
In a few minutes she returned with a waste paper basket in her hands.
"Helen was sharing my room with me," she said. "A letter has been tornup and thrown in the basket. As I didn't do it, it must be Helen's."
"This begins to look like something," the tall man said with a nod ofapproval, picking up several bits of paper from the basket. "She'storn it up in pretty small pieces, but if we all get busy we ought tobe able to put them together in a short time."
"Let's go out to the dining room table," Mrs. Stanlock proposed,leading the way as she spoke.
In a few moments all were seated around the large fumed oak table fromwhich the spread had been removed as the hard wood surface was muchbetter for the task of piecing the letter together.
It was, indeed, a tedious task, but with so many working togetherprogress was fairly rapid. Within fifteen minutes half a dozensentence sections of several words each had been joined in theirphrase order. These were soon followed by three or four more andpresently one of the girls found a connecting link between twosections thus forming a complete sentence. Imagine the thrill thatwent through everyone as Mr. Stanlock read the following:
"Get your friends out of Hollyhill as soon as possible."
"I bet this letter was written by the same person who wrote theskull-and-cross-bones letter to me," Marion ventured confidently.
"That's the very idea that just occurred to me," Miss Ladd declared asshe fitted "no" and "difference" together and then tried to find aconnecting edge on the pieces held by her neighbor to the left.
Fortunately the letter had been written on only one side of a largesheet of paper, so that they could be pasted in correlative positionson another sheet provided for the purpose.
Finally the patchwork was completed, in so far as the material at handmade completeness possible. A few of the bits of torn paper weremissing, so that a word was wanting here and there in the text, butapparently the idea and purpose of the writer did not suffer fromthese vacancies. The letter as read at last by Mr. Stanlock was asfollows:
"Dear ...r
"You have failed to do what I ... you to do. I told you that it was... dangerous to bring the girls here. The letter of warning to MissStan ... did no good.... I want to warn you again and ... ... last time.Get your friends out of Hollyhill as soon as possible. I won't beresponsible for what occurs. It makes no difference if you have givenup your original purpose. Some of the men are so worked up that theyare liable to do almost anything. If you can't get the rest out oftown go yourself, or you may get hurt.
"D...."
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the short, heavy and loquacious detective, "Thatexplains the whole thing. Miss Nash has gone out of town."
"She hasn't done any such thing," Marion exclaimed indignantly,springing to her feet. "Helen isn't that kind of a girl. I know she ispeculiar, but she isn't a coward. It's evident now that she knewsomething about affairs here that resulted in the sending of thatthreatening letter to me, and she kept her information secret for somereason. Whatever her reason was, she meant all right."
"Did she at any time urge or suggest that it would not be well for thegirls to come here in the holidays?" Mr. Stanlock inquired.
"Never a word," Marion replied, positively. "I admit that once ortwice I noticed that there was something peculiar in her manner, andit may have had something to do with her condition back of thesedevelopments, but that is all."
"How do you account for her disappearance?" asked Detective Meyer,with puzzled humility.
"I don't pretend to account for it," Marion replied, quickly. "That'sa problem for you men to solve. All I know is that Helen did notintentionally desert us. She's gone, and she went for some reason, andI believe that reason is connected with the letter. Now, it's up toyou men to find her, and, if you don't find her pretty quick, I'll goand find her myself."
A murmur of applause swept the room.
"We'll do it," declared the tall, thin detective.
"If it's within human power," conditioned the square-built, deep-eyedman.
The talkative gentleman of genius said nothing. All three of them leftthe house a few minutes later.
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