“When he comes down, make him register,” suggested Mary Ann. “If ye don’t, we won’t know what ter call him.”
“I’ll call him an easy mark, whatever his name is,” said the landlord, grinning at his own attempt at wit.
The stranger kept his room until five o’clock. Then he came down, spick and span, his cane under his arm, upon his hands a pair of bright yellow kid gloves.
“I will now indulge in my walk,” said he, addressing the family group in the office. “My nerves are better, but still vibrant. I shall be further restored on my return.”
“Jest sign the register,” proposed Hopper, pointing to a worn and soiled book spread upon the counter. “Hate to trouble ye, but it’s one o’ the rules o’ my hotel.”
“No trouble, thank you; no trouble at all,” responded the stranger, and drawing a fountain-pen from his pocket he approached the register and wrote upon the blank page. “I hope there is, nothing to see in your town,” he remarked, turning away. “I don’t wish to see anything. I merely desire to walk.”
“Yer wish’ll come true, I guess,” said Hopper. “I’ve lived here over twenty year an’ I hain’t seen noth’n’ yet. But the walkin’ is as good as it is anywhere.”
“Thank you. I shall return at six o’clock — for the omelet,” and he walked away with short, mincing steps that seemed to them all very comical.
Three heads at once bent over the register, on which the stranger had I written in clear, delicate characters: “Lysander Antonius Sinclair, B. N., Boston, Mass.”
“I wonder what the ‘B. N.’ stands for,” said Mary Ann Hopper, curiously.
“Bum Nerves, o’ course,” replied the landlord. “He’s got ‘em, sure enough.”
CHAPTER XXII
INGUA’S MOTHER
“And how do you like your grandfather? Is he good to you?” asked Mrs. Scammel on Sunday forenoon, as she sat on the porch beside her small daughter. Old Swallowtail did not usually go to his office on Sundays, but kept his room at the cottage and wrote letters. To-day, however, he had wandered down the path and disappeared, and Nan and Ingua were both glad to see him go.
“No,” answered the child to both questions.
“You don’t like him?”
“How can I, when he jes’ sets an’ glares at me ev’ry time he comes into the house — ’cept when he complains I ain’t doin’ my work proper? It were a sort o’ mean trick o’ yours, Marm, leavin’ me here to slave fer that ol’ man while you was off in the cities, havin’ a good time.”
“Yes,” said Nan, “I was frolicking with starvation until I got a job, and it was the sort of job that wouldn’t allow having a child around. But since I’ve been making money I’ve sent Dad five dollars every week, for your clothes and board.”
“You have?”
“Every week.”
“Ten cents a week would pay for all the grub he gives me, an’ there ain’t a beggar in the county that sports the rags an’ tatters I does. That new dress I had on las’ night was the first thing in clothes he’s bought me for a year, and I guess I wouldn’t have had that if Mary Louise hadn’t told him he orter dress me more decent.”
Nan’s brow grew dark.
“I’ll have it out with him for that,” she promised. “What does he do with his money, Ingua?”
“Salts it, I guess. I never see him have any. It’s one o’ the mysteries, Marm. Mysteries is thick aroun’ Gran’dad, an’ folks suspicion ‘most anything about him. All I know is that he ain’t no spendthrift. Once, when Ned Joselyn used to come here, there was lots of money passed between ‘em. I saw it myself. I helped pick it up, once, when they quarreled an’ upset the table an’ spilled things. But since Ned run ayray. Gran’dad’s be’n more savin’ than ever.”
“Ingua,” said Nan, thoughtfully, “I want you to tell me all you know about Ned Joselyn, from the time he first came here.”
Ingua regarded her mother with serious eyes.
“All?” she inquired.
“Everything, little or big, that you can recollect.”
“You’ll stick to Gran’dad, won’t ye?”
“That’s what I’m here for. There are enemies on his trail and I mean to save him.”
“What’s he done?”
“I’ve got to find that out. When I was here before, I knew he had some secret interest to which he was devoted, but I was too indifferent to find out what it was. Now I want to know. If I’m going to save him from the penalties of his crime I must know what the crime is. I think this man Joselyn is mixed up with it in some way, so go ahead and tell me all you know about him.”
Ingua obeyed. For more than an hour she earnestly related the story of Ned Joselyn, only pausing to answer an occasional question from her mother. When she came to that final meeting at Christmas week and Joselyn’s mysterious disappearance, Nan asked:
“Do you think he killed him?”
“I was pretty sure of it till yest’day, when Josie told me a friend of hers had seen him alive an’ well.”
“Josie O’Gorman?”
“No, Josie Jessup. She’s the sewin’-girl over to Mary Louise’s.”
“I know; but that girl has more names than one. Do you know her very well, Ingua?”
“She’s my best chum,” declared the child. “Josie’s a dandy girl, an’ I like her.”
“Have you told her anything about your gran’dad?”
“A little,” Ingua admitted, hesitating.
“See here,” said Nan, scowling, “I’ll put you wise. This red-headed Josie O’Gorman is a detective. She’s the daughter of the man I work for in Washington — the assistant chief of the Department — and she is here to try to land your gran’dad in jail. What’s more, Ingua, she’s likely to do it, unless you and I find a way to head her off.”
Ingua’s face depicted astonishment, grief, disappointment. Finally she said:
“Gran’dad didn’t murder Ned, for Josie herself told me so; so I can’t see what he’s done to go to jail for.”
“He has counterfeited money,” said Nan in a low voice.
“Gran’dad has?”
“So they say, and I believe it may be true. Josie has wired her father that she’s got the goods on Old Swallowtail and has asked that somebody be sent to arrest him. I saw the telegram and made up my mind I’d get the start of the O’Gormans. Dad won’t run away. I’ve warned him they are on his trail and he didn’t make any reply. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s gone, this very day, to cover up his traces. He’s bright enough to know that if he destroys all evidence they can’t prove anything against him.”
She spoke musingly, more to herself than the child beside her, but Ingua drew a deep sigh and remarked:
“Then it’s all right. Gran’dad is slick. They’ll hev to get up early in the mornin’ to beat him at his own game. But I wonder what he does with the counterfeit money, or the real money he trades it for.”
“I think I know,” said her mother. “He’s chucked a fortune into one crazy idea, in which his life has been bound up ever since I can remember, and I suppose he tried counterfeiting to get more money to chuck away in the same foolish manner.”
“What crazy idea is that?” inquired Ingua.
“I’ll tell you, sometime. Just now I see your friend Josie coming, and that’s a bit of good luck. I’m anxious to meet her, but if she sees me first she won’t come on.” As she spoke she rose swiftly and disappeared into the house. “Stay where you are, Ingua,” she called from within in a low voice; “I don’t want her to escape.”
Josie was even now making her way across the stepping-stones. Presently she ran up the bank, smiling, and plumped down beside Ingua.
“Top o’ the morning to you,” said she. “How did you enjoy your first evening in society?”
“They were all very good to me,” replied Ingua slowly, looking at her friend with troubled eyes. “I had a nice time, but — ”
“You were a little shy,” said Josie, “but
that was only natural. When you get better acquainted with Mary Louise and the dear old Colonel, you’ll — ”
She stopped abruptly, for looking up she saw standing in the doorway Nan Shelley — by which name she knew her — who was calmly regarding her. The shock of surprise, for shock it surely was, seemed brief, for almost instantly Josie completed her broken speech:
“When you know them better you’ll feel quite at home in their society. Hello, Nan.”
“What! Josie O’Gorman? You here?” with well-affected surprise.
“You know it. But how came you here, Nan? Has Daddy sent you to help me?”
“Help you! In what way?”
“Help me enjoy country life,” said Josie, coloring at her slip.
“Why, I’m on a vacation. You don’t seem to understand. I’m — Ingua’s mother.”
Josie’s self-control wasn’t proof against this second shock. Her blue eyes stared amazed. With a low exclamation she stood up and faced the woman.
“Ingua’s mother! You, Nan?”
“Just so,” with a quiet smile.
“Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself,” declared Josie with righteous indignation. “You’re one of the best paid women in the Department, and you’ve left your poor child here to starve and slave for a wretched old — ,” she paused.
“Well, what is he?” asked Nan with tantalizing gentleness.
“An old skinflint, at the least. Shame on you, Nan! Ingua is a dear little girl, and you — you’re an unnatural mother. Why, I never suspected you were even married.”
“I’m a widow, Josie.”
“And Old Swallowtail is your father? How strange. But — why did you come here just now?” with sudden suspicion.
“I’ve just finished the Hillyard case and they gave me a vacation. So I came here to see my little girl. I didn’t know she was being neglected, Josie. I shall take better care of her after this. My visit to Cragg’s Crossing is perfectly natural, for I was born here. But you? What are you up to, Josie?”
“I’m visiting Mary Louise Burrows.”
“With what object?”
A detective must be quick-witted. Josie’s brain was working with lightning-like rapidity. In a few brief seconds she comprehended that if Nan was Old Swallowtail’s daughter, home on a vacation, she must not be allowed to know that Josie was conducting a case against her father. Otherwise she might interfere and spoil everything. She knew Nan of old and respected her keen intelligence. Once, when they had been pitted against each other, Josie had won; but she was not sure she could defeat Nan a second time. Therefore it was imperative that old Cragg’s daughter remain in ignorance of the fact that Josie was awaiting reinforcements from Washington in order to arrest Nan’s father as a counterfeiter. Also Josie realized instantly that Ingua was likely to tell her mother all she knew about Joselyn, including the story she had told Josie; so, without hesitation she answered Nan’s question with apparent frankness:
“Really, Nan, I came here on a wild-goose chase. A man named Ned Joselyn had mysteriously disappeared and his wife feared he had met with foul play. I traced him to this place and as Colonel Hathaway and Mary Louise were living here — in Mrs. Joselyn’s own house, by the way — I had myself invited as their guest. Well, the long and short of it is that Joselyn isn’t murdered, after all. He simply skipped, and since I came here to worry my poor brain over the fellow he has been discovered, still in hiding but very much alive.”
“You suspected my father of killing him?”
“I did; and so did others; but it seems he didn’t. But, even with that precious bubble burst, Mary Louise insists on my staying for a visit; so here I am, and your little girl has become my friend.”
Ingua knew this story to be quite correct, as far as it regarded her grandfather and Ned Joselyn. Its straightforward relation renewed her confidence in Josie. But Nan knew more than Josie thought she did, having intercepted the girl’s telegram to her father; so she said with a slight sneer which she took no pains to conceal:
“You’re a clever girl, Josie O’Gorman; a mighty clever girl. You’re so clever that I wouldn’t be surprised if it tripped you, some day, and landed you on your pug nose.”
Which proved that Nan was not clever, for Josie’s indulgent smile masked the thought: “She knows all and is here to defend her father. I must look out for Nan, for she has a notion I’m still on the track of Hezekiah Cragg.”
CHAPTER XXIII
PECULIAR PEOPLE
Old Swallowtail came home at about four o’clock in the afternoon. The day was hot, yet the old man seemed neither heated nor wearied. Without a word to his daughter or Ingua he drew a chair to the little shady porch and sat down in their company. Nan was mending her child’s old frock; Ingua sat thinking.
For half an hour, perhaps, silence was maintained by all. Then Nan turned and asked:
“Have you covered your tracks?”
He turned his glassy, expressionless eyes toward her.
“My tracks, as you call them,” said he, “have been laid for forty years or more. They are now ruts. I cannot obliterate them in a day.”
The woman studied his face thoughtfully.
“You are not worrying over your probable arrest?”
“No.”
“Then it’s all right,” said she, relieved. “You’re a foxy old rascal, Dad, and you’ve held your own for a good many years. I guess you don’t need more than a word of warning.”
He made no reply, his eyes wandering along the path to the bridge. Mary Louise was coming their way, walking briskly. Her steps slowed a bit as she drew nearer, but she said in an eager voice:
“Oh, Mrs. Scammel, Josie has told me you are here and who you are. Isn’t it queer how lives get tangled up? But I remember you with gratitude and kindliest thoughts, because you were so considerate of my dear Gran’pa Jim. And to think that you are really Ingua’s mother!”
Nan rose and took the girl’s hands in her own.
“I fear I’ve been a bad mother to my kid,” she replied, “but I thought she was all right with her grandfather and happy here. I shall look after her better in the future.”
Mary Louise bowed to Mr. Cragg, who nodded his head in acknowledgment. Then she sat down beside Ingua.
“Are you plannin’ to take me away from here, Mama?” asked the child.
“Wouldn’t you rather be with me than with your grandfather?” returned Nan with a smile.
“I dunno,” said Ingua seriously. “You’re a detective, an’ I don’t like detections. You ain’t much like a mother to me, neither, ner I don’t know much about you. I dunno yet whether I’m goin’ to like you or not.”
A wave of color swept over Nan’s face; Mary Louise was shocked; the old man turned his inscrutable gaze down the path once more.
“I like it here,” continued the child, musingly: “Gran’dad makes me work, but he don’t bother me none ‘cept when the devils get, hold o’ him. I ‘member that you git the devils, too, once in awhile, Marm, an’ they’re about as fierce as Gran’dad’s is. An’ I gets ‘em ‘cause I’m a Cragg like the rest o’ you, an’ devils seem to be in the Cragg blood. I’ve a notion it’s easier to stand the devils in the country here, than in the city where you live.”
Nan didn’t know whether to be amused or angry.
“Yet you tried to run away once,” she reminded Ingua, “and it was Mary Louise who stopped you. You told me of this only an hour ago.
“Didn’t I say the devils pick on me sometimes?” demanded the girl. “An’ Mary Louise was right. She fought the devils for me, and I’m glad she did, ‘cause I’ve had a good time with her ever since,” and she pressed Mary Louise’s hand gratefully.
Her child’s frankness was indeed humiliating to Nan Scammel, who was by no means a bad woman at heart and longed to win the love and respect of her little girl. Ingua’s frank speech had also disturbed Mary Louise, and made her sorry for both the child and her mother. Old Swallowtail’s eyes lingered
a moment on Ingua’s ingenuous countenance but he exhibited no emotion whatever.
“You’re a simple little innocent,” remarked Nan to Ingua, after a strained pause. “You know so little of the world that your judgment is wholly unformed. I’ve a notion to take you to Washington and buy you a nice outfit of clothes — like those of Mary Louise, you know — and put you into a first-class girls’ boarding-school. Then you’ll get civilized, and perhaps amount to something.”
“I’d like that,” said Ingua, with a first display of enthusiasm; “but who’d look after Gran’dad?”
“Why, we must provide for Dad in some way, of course,” admitted Nan after another pause. “I can afford to hire a woman to keep house for him, if I hold my present job. I suppose he has a hoard of money hidden somewhere, but that’s no reason he wouldn’t neglect himself and starve if left alone. And, if he’s really poor, I’m the one to help him. How does that arrangement strike you, Ingua?”
“It sounds fine,” replied the girl, “but any woman that’d come here to work, an’ would stan’ Gran’dad’s devils, wouldn’t amount to much, nohow. If we’re goin’ to move to the city,” she added with a sigh, “let’s take Gran’dad with us.”
This conversation was becoming too personal for Mary Louise to endure longer. They talked of Mr. Cragg just as if he were not present, ignoring him as he ignored them. With an embarrassed air Mary Louise rose.
“I must go now,” said she. “I just ran over to welcome you, Mrs. Scammel, and to ask you and Ingua to dine with us to-morrow night. Will you come? Josie O’Gorman is with us, you know, and I believe you are old friends.”
Nan hesitated a moment.
“Thank you,” she replied, “we’ll be glad to come. You’ve been mighty good to my little girl and I am grateful. Please give my regards to Colonel Hathaway.”
When Mary Louise had gone the three lapsed into silence again. Ingua was considering, in her childish but practical way, the proposed changes in her life. The mother was trying to conquer her annoyance at the child’s lack of filial affection, tacitly admitting that the blame was not Ingua’s. The old man stared at the path. Whatever his thoughts might be he displayed no hint of their nature.
Complete Works of L. Frank Baum Page 594