The Second Girl Detective Megapack: 23 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls

by Julia K. Duncan

  “Here, don’t tear that bed to pieces,” Doris scolded. “Let me find the ring.”

  She ran her hand under the mattress and to Kitty’s intense relief, brought forth the tiny box.

  “I wish the Misses Gates had taken their ring,” she sighed. “I’ve lost five pounds since we started looking after it.”

  “The ring is the least of my troubles just now,” Doris told her. “I’m convinced that Henry and Cora are involved in a plot against the Misses Gates, but just what it is I haven’t been able to fathom.”

  “Hadn’t we better tell the ladies everything?”

  “We’re in rather a delicate position, Kit. The Sullys are trusted servants and Azalea and Iris might believe them before they would us.”

  “Then what are we going to do?”

  “Let’s keep close watch of Cora and Henry and wait for them to show their hand. If they try to get away, we can expose them, and then if they’re caught red-handed, the Gates sisters will have to believe us.”

  “That’s probably the best way,” Kitty agreed. Replacing the ring under the mattress, they went downstairs. They were just in time to see Ronald Trent driving away from the mansion after depositing the old ladies at their door.

  Entering the living room, Azalea and Iris sank down into the nearest chairs without bothering to remove their hats. They appeared agitated and exhausted but offered no explanation for their condition. Doris and Kitty guessed that Ronald had wheedled money from them and perhaps had abused them for not giving him more.

  “Ronald is coming back tomorrow,” Iris said presently, speaking to Doris. “You are quite sure your messenger will be here with the money?”

  “Why, yes, I feel sure Jake will come. I sent word several days ago.”

  “I am so glad,” Iris murmured in relief. “Ronald is leaving tomorrow and we must have the money ready for him or lose the inheritance.”

  “I see,” murmured Doris thoughtfully.

  “We probably won’t have his company much longer, then,” surmised Kitty, winking coyly at Doris.

  Azalea stroked her forehead as if perplexed and perhaps a bit worried.

  “I never dreamed that money need cause us such concern. We cannot afford to lose this inheritance now. I have so much faith in the son of John Trent. I want him to go away happy and satisfied that we have not failed him.”

  Doris pricked up her ears at this bit of information. So Ronald was leaving, too! It seemed that affairs certainly were destined to come to a climax on the following day. How glad she was that she had asked Jake to come. If only he did not fail her!

  CHAPTER XXIII

  An Accusation

  On the following morning Doris and Kitty arose earlier than usual. They wandered about the grounds until time for breakfast, but when they were called to the dining room by Cora, the Misses Gates had not put in their appearance.

  “You may as well sit down,” the housekeeper told them. “Things are getting cold and I’m in a hurry to get around this morning.”

  “Really, we’d prefer to wait,” Doris told her. “It’s so unusual for the Misses Gates to be late. We’re usually the guilty ones.”

  They were about to go outside again when they heard some one coming down the stairs. It was Azalea and the girls saw at once that she was dreadfully agitated. Iris came after her and she, too, was excited.

  “Some one has been tampering with our things!” Azalea cried. “We have separate desks in our rooms. A few minutes ago when I went to get a check book from the pigeon hole, I found that everything had been rifled!”

  “My desk is the same way,” Iris declared angrily.

  “Was anything taken?” Doris questioned quietly.

  “Yes, several important papers.”

  Doris and Kitty, not greatly surprised at this news, glanced significantly at each other. The twins, observing them, regarded the girls rather sharply.

  “Was any one here yesterday while we were gone?” Azalea questioned Cora who had remained in the room.

  “No, ma’am. There wasn’t any one in that wing all day—except of course the young ladies.”

  “What do you mean?” Doris demanded. “We never set foot in that part of the house.”

  The housekeeper merely stared at them in feigned astonishment and shrugged her shoulders.

  “I can’t understand who would want the papers,” Iris said quietly, but she looked queerly at Doris and Kitty. “Of course, the bonds may be more valuable than we thought.”

  “In all the time I’ve been at the mansion nothing like this ever happened,” Cora murmured.

  Kitty and Doris cast irritated glances at the housekeeper. They realized all too well that she was trying to build up an alibi for herself by calling attention to her past service.

  “Perhaps it would clear up matters if you girls would tell the housekeeper what you were doing yesterday,” Azalea suggested in her gentle voice.

  “Why—we weren’t doing much—of anything,” Kitty stammered.

  The question embarrassed her. She could not very well tell the Misses Gates that she and Doris had taken it into their heads to explore every nook and cranny of the old mansion. It would appear to the ladies that they had abused their hospitality.

  “We were in our room part of the time,” Doris said.

  “And where were you the rest of it?” Cora demanded harshly.

  “We weren’t in the left wing at any rate!” Doris retorted, with growing indignation.

  Azalea and Iris, greatly disturbed, looked uncertainly from one to the other. They did not know what to say or how to handle the difficult situation.

  “I’ll call Henry in,” Cora announced. “He can tell you where these girls were yesterday!”

  She stepped to the door and called to her husband who was in the garden. He came readily and, as the girls had expected, corroborated Cora’s story.

  “Right after you ladies went to the bank they said they were going for a walk,” he told the twins. “They started out but as soon as they thought they had thrown us off the track they stole back into the house. My wife and I heard them go into the left wing and knowin’ they had no business there we sort of listened. They went into your room, Miss Azalea, and closed the door. Later we heard ’em in the room adjoining.”

  “Can this be true?” Azalea asked the girls, her voice trembling with suppressed emotion.

  “No, of course it isn’t,” Doris returned.

  “What isn’t true?” a loud voice demanded, and they all turned to see Ronald Trent standing in the doorway.

  To the embarrassment of the girls he was quickly told of the accusation against them. They knew they could expect no help from him.

  “There, there,” he said, masterfully throwing an arm around the shoulders of each of the ladies. “Don’t take on so about it. I’ll straighten this matter out in a minute for you. Just leave everything to me.”

  “Oh, Ronald,” Iris murmured gratefully.

  “We’re in such a muddle,” Azalea added, “and we don’t want to falsely accuse any one.”

  “Of course not. Just let me handle this in my own way. Now, Cora and Henry are old servants, aren’t they?”

  “Cora is the daughter of our former dressmaker,” Azalea explained. “She and her husband have been with us several years now.”

  “Years! And how long have you known Doris Force and her friend?”

  “Why, we never met them until a few days ago,” Iris answered reluctantly.

  Ronald nodded in grim satisfaction.

  “There you are!”

  “You accuse your own cousin—” Iris began, but Ronald interrupted her.

  “Yes, my first duty is to you and to Miss Azalea. I will not protect my own relatives at your expense!”

  Goaded beyond endurance, Doris faced Ronald Trent defiantly.

  “Call me no cousin of yours!” she cried. “I believe you’re nothing but a bluff!”

  The man’s face went white with anger and for an
instant Doris thought he meant to strike her. Instead he laughed harshly.

  “Don’t say such things!” Azalea commanded sternly. “Ronald is the son of our dear friend, John Trent.”

  “Let him prove it,” Doris cried.

  “Young lady,” Ronald told her angrily. “The burden of proof is upon you. Prove that you didn’t take those papers!”

  “All right, I will!” Doris announced with sudden decision. “I’ll tell you where the papers are!” At her words, Cora and Henry Sully recoiled a step, but the Misses Gates did not observe their guilty action.

  “Tell us!” Azalea commanded.

  “Yes,” Ronald echoed, but with less force. “Spin your fairy tale.”

  Doris faced the three conspirators defiantly. She pointed an accusing finger at Henry.

  “The papers are in his suitcase!”

  “You lie!” Henry snarled.

  “It’s the truth and you know it,” Kitty confirmed. “We can prove it!”

  “How do you know the papers are in Henry’s suitcase?” Iris questioned doubtfully.

  “Because we saw them there yesterday,” Doris declared.

  “Ah, then you admit you were snooping around?” Ronald demanded triumphantly.

  “We weren’t snooping,” Doris retorted indignantly. “We had a very good reason for going to the Sullys’ suite, and as it turns out, it was fortunate for the Misses Gates that we did.”

  “You went to the Sully suite yesterday?” Azalea, gasped.

  “Yes, we heard Etta crying and sobbing. We didn’t know what was wrong—”

  “You saw Etta?” Iris asked.

  She dropped weakly into a chair and for a moment looked as though she might faint.

  “We thought no one in the world knew about her,” she said very low. “For her sake we have kept Cora and Henry here during all these years. What will the neighbors think if they learn it?”

  “They shall never hear it from us,” Doris replied, “but we are unwilling to permit the Sullys to desert her.”

  “You’re crazy!” Henry shouted. “We wouldn’t think of leaving her!”

  “Then why are your suitcases packed?” Doris demanded.

  Henry could not answer, and Ronald, seeing that the man was throwing suspicion upon himself, stepped again into the breach.

  “All this talk is getting us nowhere,” he said. “Obviously, the girls took the papers from the desks and are only trying to save themselves.” He turned to the Misses Gates and a false note came into his voice. “Of course, I realize that you ladies regret this exceedingly and no doubt feel sorry for them. Under the circumstances I suggest that the matter be dropped without placing charges against them.”

  “The matter will not be dropped!” Doris cried. “We’ll sift it to the bottom right now.”

  “And the easiest way is to look in Henry’s suitcase,” Kitty added. “You’ll find the papers there!”

  A less clever man than Ronald Trent would have lost his temper, for well he knew that he was treading upon dangerous ground. Realizing that the Misses Gates would judge him as much by his manner as by his words, he faced the girls with the calm and dignity of a judge.

  “You are only trying to shield yourselves,” he told them sternly. “Your entire story has been a series of lies!”

  “Stop!” cried Doris, throwing back her lovely head and looking her accuser straight in the eye. Kitty thought never had she seen her chum quite so beautiful, so courageously poised for one so inexperienced.

  “I speak the truth!”

  CHAPTER XXIV

  Face to Face

  “I speak the truth,” Doris insisted indignantly, “and furthermore, Ronald Trent, I am convinced that you are nothing but an impostor. You are plotting with Henry and Cora Sully to swindle these people—out of everything!”

  “Doris!” Iris remonstrated.

  “She’s lost her mind!” Cora exclaimed.

  Thoroughly aroused at the false accusations made against herself and her chum, Doris could not have remained quiet had she wished. However, she forced herself to speak calmly.

  “You shall not have a cent of my money when Jake arrives with it,” she told Ronald.

  “We shall see,” he returned, glaring back at her. “You have already lent the money to the Misses Gates and they have promised it to me. Haven’t you?”

  Azalea and Iris, pale with excitement, nodded their heads miserably.

  “We’ve given you nearly every cent we have of our own,” Iris admitted, “and we did promise you Doris’s money. We trusted you—and now these dreadful accusations.”

  “What can you expect when you bring strangers into the house?”

  “But we needed Doris’s help so much, Ronald,” Azalea protested, “and she isn’t the same as a stranger.”

  “You are willing to accept her word against mine?”

  “Oh, Ronald, please don’t take that attitude,” Iris pleaded. “We want to believe you both, but surely something is wrong.”

  Ronald laughed shortly.

  “I told you once I’d straighten out everything. Just send these intruders on their way.”

  Azalea and Iris exchanged uneasy glances. They did not know what to do. For the sake of John Trent, the man they loved, they felt they could not be disloyal to his son, and yet they were reluctant to ask Doris and Kitty to leave, particularly as they had been given a special invitation to visit their home. The girls had told a very straightforward story, but on the other hand Cora and Henry were old servants.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Iris murmured.

  “There’s only one thing to do and that’s to send these girls packing,” Ronald told her firmly. “Let me handle this for you.”

  “But we want those important papers back,” Azalea protested. “Tell us where they are.”

  “How should I know?” Ronald demanded harshly. “These girls have probably hid them somewhere!”

  “You know that isn’t true!” Doris snapped. “We’ve told you where you’ll find the papers, but apparently you’re afraid to look!”

  Ronald scowled. He had been trying to induce the Misses Gates to send Doris and Kitty away before they thought of bringing up again the subject of the lost property. He realized that the girls had it in their power to place him in an extremely awkward position. He hoped to bluff his way through by appealing to the sympathies of the two ladies.

  Cora and Henry paled as Doris reminded Azalea and Iris of the suitcase. The housekeeper trembled and clung to her husband for support.

  “Just look at them,” Ronald declared. “They’re crushed at the accusation against their good names. Here they have served long and faithfully and now these girls try to brand them as thieves!”

  “Oh, Ronald, we aren’t branding any one,” Iris said at the point of tears. “We only want to get at the truth.”

  Doris and Kitty were at their wits’ end. In every manner possible they had tried to convince the Misses Gates of their innocence, but they realized that no matter how strong was the case against Ronald Trent, the ladies would give him the benefit of the doubt. Only positive proof would shake their faith in him, for in their minds they had built up a dream man. It was difficult for them to see Ronald in his true colors.

  Realizing this, it seemed to Doris that the best thing the girls could do would be to leave the mansion at once. Perhaps later, the Misses Gates would realize their error.

  “We have caused you enough worry and pain,” she said quietly. “Kitty and I will pack our things and leave at once.”

  “But our lost papers!” Iris half sobbed.

  “We can only tell you what we’ve said before,” Doris declared. “You’ll find them in Henry’s suitcase!”

  “I don’t see why we shouldn’t look, at any rate,” Azalea murmured. “Ronald, don’t you think it would be the best way to clear up this frightful muddle?”

  “I wouldn’t give that much credit to the trumped-up story,” he returned condescendingly. “My
dear ladies, don’t take this matter so seriously.”

  Azalea eyed him with the first glimmer of distrust.

  “After all, it happens to be our papers that are missing,” she told him tartly. “I think we shall have a look inside that suitcase!”

  Cora and Henry, now thoroughly frightened, began to back toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Azalea asked sharply.

  “We are leaving,” Cora told her sullenly. “We won’t remain in this house to be insulted!”

  “You’ll not leave until we have examined your suitcase,” Azalea retorted, displaying more spirit than the girls had known she possessed.

  “You’ll not find any papers there!” Henry cried. “Not unless these girls framed us!”

  “That’s probably just what they did do!” Cora chimed in, catching at the straw. “I’ll bet they put them in our suitcase, so as to throw suspicion on us.”

  “We’ll soon know if the papers are there or not,” Azalea declared.

  Realizing that they could no longer bluff, Henry and Cora of one accord started for the door, hoping to escape. They were abruptly halted by a steel-like voice.

  “Stand where you are!”

  Doris and Kitty wheeled, to see Jake barring the door. And directly behind him stood Marshmallow and Dave!

  CHAPTER XXV

  Vindication

  Doris had never seen Jake look as he did at this moment, when he faced the group in the room. Ignoring Cora and Henry after his first command to them, he walked directly over to Ronald Trent.

  “Your game’s up, Joe Jeffery,” he said in a hard, metallic voice. “We’ve got you cold. I’ve been waiting a long time to get even!”

  Ronald stared at him a full instant and then, with a dazed expression, sank limply down into the nearest chair.

  “You win,” he muttered weakly.

  Doris ran quickly to Jake and caught him by the arm.

  “Who is this man?” she cried eagerly.

  “The police know him well enough,” Jake grunted. “There’s a reward of five thousand out for him!”

  “Five thousand!” Iris gasped. “But what has he done?”

  “Swindled folks out of their hard earned money. He’s been workin’ his little game for years!”

  “And to think he might have robbed us, if it hadn’t been for Doris!” Azalea murmured. “Oh, what silly fools we’ve been!”