CHAPTER XVII Some Real Investigating
Moselle called from the telephone in the back hall:
"Oh, Miss Sim! It's the gentleman again--Mr. Pangborn!"
Sim hurried to the instrument while the other girls looked at oneanother, laughter in their eyes and with hearts beating faster.
"Our old friend of the orchard masquerade," said Arden.
"Do you suppose he's going to vanish again--take another name and getinto some other mystery?" asked Terry.
"I hope he's coming here to spend Christmas!" Dot was very frank in herdesires. "It would be a change from ghosts and musty old houses."
"Hush!" warned Arden. "The phone is open--he'll hear us."
They were chattering loudly near where Sim was speaking and listeningover the telephone. They heard her say:
"Oh, but how nice! Of course!--Come right over. We'll have dinner in alittle while, and there'll be a place for you.--Oh, yes, we have beenvery busy.--What?--I'll tell you when you come over. But what are youdoing in this part of the country?--We thought you were enjoying yourmillions.--Oh, getting even with me, I see--you'll tell us when you gethere.--Yes, this place is easy to find. All the taxi men know it. See youlater!"
Sim danced back through the hall to where her friends waited with anxietyto hear the other half of the conversation.
"Was it really Harry Pangborn?" demanded Arden.
"Of course it was and is! He's coming over!" Sim laughed merrily.
"But why?"
"How?"
"What for?"
"Wait! Wait!" begged Sim, holding her hands up to ward off herimportunate chums. "He's going to explain it all when he comes over. Itseems he just arrived in Pentville this afternoon. He was nice enough tosay he remembered that we all lived here, and he's lonesome, so he's beenkeeping our line busy. He almost gave up finding us in."
"But what's he out here for?" asked Terry.
"Came especially to see you, my dear," laughed Sim.
"Oh, be serious!" begged Arden.
"Well, I can safely wager he didn't come to see me," Dot put in. "Ireally hardly met him. You three monopolized him at Cedar Ridge and thengot his thousand dollars' reward."
"_We_ didn't get the thousand dollars," Sim said. "It was really thecollege swimming pool."
"And Arden solved that mystery," added Terry, referring to one told of in_The Orchard Secret_.
"If I can only solve this one of Jockey Hollow I'll go in for mysterysolving as a profession," Arden laughed. "I might major in it at CedarRidge."
"Perhaps," suggested Dot, "now that Harry Pangborn is here, he can helpyou."
Arden looked at the visitor. Was there anything sarcastic in the remark?Hardly, for Dot smiled brightly.
"I still can't guess why he has come here," said Terry.
"You shall know very soon, child," mocked Sim. "Now we must get busy andwash our faces. And, oh, I wonder what sort of a dinner Moselle can giveus? I must have a talk with her. Run along, girls, get painted andpowdered, and I'll follow as soon as I can."
Shortly after this, Harry Pangborn drove up to the Westover home in a"small but expensive car," as Dot remarked, catching a glimpse of itsgleaming lamps out on the drive. The young man came in, bronzed as tocomplexion, smiling charmingly, and showing his white even teeth, andgreeted the girls with the comradeship of a co-ed.
"So glad to see you again," he told them. "And now, as I heard Sim sayshe wondered why I was here, I'll tell you. I'm here in this particularplace because I am lonesome for such company as yours." (That was beinggallant.) "And I'm in Pentville because I have a mission to perform inJockey Hollow."
"Jockey Hollow!" cried the four girls together.
"Do you mean you are going to try to rid Sycamore Hall of its ghosts?"asked Arden a moment later.
"Ghosts!" exclaimed young Mr. Pangborn. "I don't know anything aboutghosts and less about Sycamore Hall. What's the joke?"
"Ever since they got me here," supplied Dot, who seemed rather "taken" bythe young fellow, "these girls have done nothing but discoverghosts--ghostly noises, dead women on a bed, a man mysteriously missingand found in a cellar--and it all happened at Sycamore Hall, an oldRevolutionary mansion in Jockey Hollow that is going to be torn down tomake room for a new road."
"This is news to me," said Harry Pangborn. "I didn't count on this when Iwas asked to come to Jockey Hollow. But it's--grand!"
"Just why were you asked?" Sim wanted to know.
"Well, you are familiar with the fact that I fell heir to mygrandfather's estate on Long Island," was the answer. "On it is a bigwooded park, and as I happen to be a nature lover, and a wild birdenthusiast in a small way, I carried out some ideas started by my lategrandfather and have built up quite a bird sanctuary, as they arecalled--a place for the conservation of all wild life; you know, ofcourse. I put some new ideas into my experiments. Word of it got around,and I was asked by Dr. Max Thandu, the State Park Commissioner here inyour part of the country, to make a sort of survey of Jockey Hollow andlay out a bird sanctuary there. I agreed, for I thoroughly believe inthis sort of thing."
"You mean you are going to work around here?" Dorothy asked.
"Work," echoed Arden. "What Harry does is never just--work." She hadcalled him "Harry," and a self-conscious flush made her look evenprettier.
"I understand Jockey Hollow, with its Revolutionary associations, is tobe made a state or national park," Harry went on, smiling kindly atArden. "The bird sanctuary will only be incidental to its historic value.But I am glad to do my little part there. So, having some leisure time,and the Christmas season being rather a hectic time down our way, andbeing fond of the woods in winter and solitude--in a way--I decided touse my Christmas vacation by coming to Jockey Hollow and getting somefirst-hand information."
"What could be nicer for us?" Sim complimented.
"Are you going to stay until after Christmas?" Arden inquired.
"I hope to. I understand Jockey Hollow is rather a big place, and it willtake me several days to survey it, locate proper places for feedingstations, and arrange for a water supply for the birds. When I told Dr.Thandu I would come here, I suddenly happened to remember that you CedarRidge girls lived out this way, and so I'm afraid I kept the operatorrather busy this afternoon giving her your number, Sim."
"Oh, that, too, would have been kind of you. Central isn't ever very busyhere. I'm sure she rather enjoyed it. The girls listen in, you know."
"She hasn't anything on me!" he laughed. "Well, now you know why I'mhere." They had all settled down comfortably, and it seemed, with Harrythere, their party was complete.
"But I thought you said," remarked Dot, "that you wanted solitude forChristmas," her eyes were mischievous.
"Oh, well, there is solitude--and _solitude_!" he countered, his gazesweeping them all in turn, but lingering upon Arden. "But tell me aboutthe ghosts. Are they just too--too divine?"
They told him at dinner, which was a success in every way, Moselle andher daughter doing themselves proud in the viands and the servingthereof. Moselle simply loved company, especially young men company.
"Now, what do you think of it all?" Arden asked when the various phasesof the happenings at the Hall had been recounted.
Harry Pangborn was silent for a moment as he crushed the ashes of hiscigarette on the plate.
The girls waited, not a little anxiously, for his opinion. It was good tohave a man around--especially such a delightful young man as HarryPangborn--one whom they knew and could trust.
"Well?" asked Sim, at length.
"Well," he blew out a cloud of smoke, "it sounds to me like either one oftwo things," came the answer, slowly given. "It's either a trick of somemischievous person or persons, as you have hinted, perhaps engineered bya rival contractor. Or--" again a pause--"there may be something in it."
"Do you really mean--ghosts?" gasped Terry.
"Well, perhaps what some persons call ghosts," the youn
g man answered."Let us say natural manifestations that take on a weird meaning orsignificance because they are not understood. I now have a double dutyhere. I'm going to lay out the Jockey Hollow bird sanctuary and----"
He lighted a fresh cigarette.
"If you'll leave this to me," he continued as he inhaled the aromaticsmoke, "I'll do some real investigating, if you want me to."
"It really ought to be done," said Arden gladly. "We want to help GrannyHowe if we can, to put her in a position where she can claim thisproperty; though it seems hopeless after all these years. And we alsowant to help this Jim Danton. We'll be so grateful for your help, Harry,and we are so relieved to have you here--just now."
"Such as it is, you shall have it!" promised Mr. Pangborn.
The Mystery of Jockey Hollow Page 17