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

by Julia K. Duncan

  Her uncle, Wardell Force, with whom she had made her home since the death of her own parents, was frequently called away from Chilton to manage charity campaigns, and this summer, being more busy than usual, he had found it impossible to accompany Doris. However, he had realized the importance of the trip and so had arranged that Mrs. Mallow take the two girls. They planned to spend two weeks at “Mayfair,” one of the summer hotels. There had been some delay in making reservations, and it had been necessary to write to Kitty’s parents. They had promptly agreed that she might make the trip with her chum. When the affair took on the aspect of a vacation jaunt, Marshmallow and Dave Chamberlin, another friend, announced that they, too, wished to be included in the plans.

  At first it had appeared that they must remain at home, for neither of the boys felt he could spare the money necessary for carfare. Undaunted, they determined to make the trip in Dave’s roadster.

  As luck would have it, a few days before the time set for the start it suddenly developed a case of engine trouble. Since Marshmallow’s car had long been known as the junkiest one in Chilton, prospects of reaching Cloudy Cove were very gloomy indeed.

  Then Mrs. Mallow, taking pity on her son, had promised him, that if he could make a good trade for a new car, she would advance the necessary money. Highly elated, Marshmallow and Dave were searching the town for a “bargain.”

  “I do hope they find something today,” Doris sighed, “and I think perhaps they will. Mrs. Mallow told me this morning that they had heard of a man who is willing to sell a sedan at a giveaway price.”

  “There must be something the matter with the car,” Kitty said suspiciously.

  “Dave and Marshmallow will find that out before they buy it. Trust them not to get cheated. They’re both marvels when it comes to automobile engines!”

  “I hope Marshall does buy the sedan,” Kitty declared. “It will be so much more fun, if we can all drive to Cloudy Cove together.”

  After a time, as the conversation languished, the girls returned to their reading. The tiny clock on the mantel chimed five. Suddenly the girls were startled to hear the loud honking of an automobile horn at the front of the house. Together they rushed to the window.

  “It’s Dave and Marshmallow!” Doris exclaimed.

  “And just look at that car!” Kitty squealed in delight. “Isn’t it a beauty? Marshmallow must have bought it!”

  Dropping their books, they rushed downstairs and out of the front door. Dave and Marshmallow were just stepping from the sedan as the girls hurried up.

  “Well, how do you like it?” Marshmallow demanded proudly.

  “Oh, it’s wonderful!” Kitty exclaimed, casting an admiring eye over the upholstery. “You haven’t really bought it, have you?”

  “Of course I have,” the plump lad affirmed.

  “It looks so—so expensive,” Doris ventured doubtfully.

  “Believe me, it’s a real bargain,” Marshmallow informed her. “He will take my old car and I gave him only one hundred dollars to boot. The man wouldn’t have given it to us at that price except for cash.”

  “Aren’t you afraid there may be something the matter with it?” Doris suggested.

  Marshmallow smiled, a trifle condescendingly.

  “Isn’t that just like a girl? There isn’t a thing the matter with this car. She’s perfect. Dave and I have gone over her with a fine-tooth comb.”

  Doris and Kitty stepped into the sedan and eased themselves into the soft cushions. They tried the gears and examined the various instruments on the dashboard.

  “I don’t know much about automobiles,” Doris admitted, “but this looks too good for that price.”

  “It was a fair enough bargain,” Marshmallow chuckled.

  “Did your mother see the car?”

  “No, but she gave me the money and told me to go ahead. She trusts my judgment when it comes to cars.”

  Doris could not help but smile as Marshmallow took out his handkerchief and brushed an imaginary speck of dust from tjie windshield.

  “There isn’t much room behind the wheel,” she said mischievously. “Are you sure you’ll be able to squeeze in, Marsh?”

  Marshmallow ignored the gibe and turned toward his friend.

  “Come on in the house, Dave. I want you to help me make out those papers the owner gave me.”

  “Oh, don’t go in,” Doris pleaded. “Take us for a little ride.”

  “Haven’t time now,” Marshmallow muttered, though he saw that Dave was expecting him to accept.

  “Oh, you’re trying to punish me for intimating you were fat,” Doris wailed. “I’ll take it all back —every word! Please take us for a ride—just a teeny, weeny one.”

  “Maybe tomorrow,” Marshmallow promised grandly. “Come on, Dave.”

  With a regretful glance over his shoulder, Dave followed his friend into the house, leaving the girls in possession of the sedan.

  “Now isn’t that just too mean!” Doris exclaimed in disappointment.

  “I don’t think he meant to be mean,” Kitty ventured, for she was rather partial to the plump lad.

  “I guess I deserved it, but just the same I don’t like to be cheated out of our ride. I know! Let’s take the car out ourselves!”

  “Oh, we wouldn’t dare. I can’t run a car!”

  “Well, I can, though not so very skillfully, I’ll admit. We won’t go far. Just around the park a few times. Won’t Marshmallow just burn up? It will serve him right. He’s so excited about the grand buy he made.”

  “All right,” Kitty agreed, warming to the adventure. “See if you can start the engine.”

  After a little search Doris located the various switches and, after two unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in starting the engine. She thrust in the clutch and switched into low gear.

  “Toot the horn!” she directed.

  As Kitty played a staccato tune upon the horn button, she let out the clutch so quickly that the car leaped forward like a playful panther. The girls waved goodbye, as Marshmallow and Dave rushed out on the porch.

  “Next time Marshmallow won’t be so uppish about his car,” Doris laughed.

  She drove slowly, for she was not familiar with the car and she intended to run no risk of damaging it. Thinking that there would be less traffic on the open road, she selected a street which led to the outskirts of the city. The engine ran so smoothly and quietly that before she realized it the speedometer registered thirty miles an hour.

  “Not too fast,” Kitty warned. “If anything should go wrong, Marshmallow never would forgive us.”

  The girls had been so engrossed in the road ahead that they did not notice a high-powered car which was rapidly approaching from the rear. They did not realize that they were being followed, until a shrill, long-drawn-out whistle pierced their ears.

  “The State Police!” Kitty gasped.

  “They can’t want us! We’re not speeding!”

  Even as she spoke the police car flashed ahead of them and blocked the road.

  “Halt!” came the sharp command.

  Doris slammed on the brakes and brought the sedan to a standstill alongside the police car.

  “Surely there must be some mistake,” she murmured, uneasily noticing that one of the officers held a revolver in his hand.

  “There’s no mistake, young lady,” she was informed coldly. “We’ve been looking for this stolen car for the last week!”

  CHAPTER II

  The Theft

  “Stolen car!” Kitty and Doris gasped.

  “Yes,” the officer returned, opening the door of the sedan. “It won’t do you any good to pretend you don’t know what it’s all about, because we’ve got the goods on you. Tumble out before we have to use force!”

  Kitty hastily stepped from the car, but Doris, who had begun to grasp the seriousness of the situation, did not move. She was determined not to abandon Marshmallow’s new automobile without a struggle.

  “Really,” she said earnes
tly to the officer, “you’re making a dreadful mistake in trying to arrest us. This car belongs to a friend of ours. He bought it only this afternoon and my chum and I thought we would go for a little ride.”

  “What’s your name?” the officer demanded bluntly.

  “Doris Force.”

  “Force, eh? Not the niece of Wardell Force?”

  “Yes, he’s my uncle,” Doris declared eagerly. “And who do you claim owns this car?”

  “Marshall Mallow.”

  Doris told a straightforward story and spoke in such an earnest manner that the officers were impressed. After a brief conference, the spokesman turned again to the frightened girls.

  “If what you say is true, we’ll get this fellow Mallow and let you off. If your story doesn’t prove up, you’ll get a chance to talk to the judge. Now lead the way to where this Mallow lives!”

  “Marshall didn’t steal the car,” Doris insisted indignantly. “He owns it.”

  The officer laughed shortly.

  “This sedan was stolen last week from a wealthy lawyer who lives in Bainbridge.”

  He seated himself beside Doris and ordered Kitty to get into the back. He then told Doris to start the car. Nervously she obeyed, but as she let in the clutch the sedan leaped forward with a jerk. The officer looked sharply at her and said sternly:

  “None of your tricks, young lady!”

  “I tell you I never had my hand on this wheel until this afternoon!” Doris insisted somewhat impatiently, for she was driving as well as she possibly could.

  As she guided the sedan down the side streets of Chilton, she was painfully conscious that the police car was following close behind. What would her friends think if they saw her with such an escort? How could she bear to face Marshmallow? She blamed herself for taking the car in the first place. She had only herself to thank for the unpleasant situation.

  Doris was supersensitive to public opinion, for though Chilton was a city of average size, she had lived there many years and was known by nearly everybody. Since the death of her parents she had made her home with Wardell Force, her uncle, who occupied a pleasant suite of rooms in the Mallow residence. Mr. Force, retired from active business, was absorbed in charity work and at the present time was engaged in a gigantic campaign to raise money for a fresh-air fund. Doris realized only too well that if her name crept into the newspapers in connection with the stolen car, the resulting publicity would make her uncle’s work more difficult.

  She could not believe that Marshmallow or Dave knew they had purchased a stolen automobile, for both young men enjoyed excellent reputations in the community. Dave, an ardent admirer of Doris, was serious-minded and studious. At the aviation school where he was enrolled he was considered one of the most promising young aviators. Marshmallow, the only son of his widowed mother, Mrs. Mallow, was easygoing and full of fun. His greatest interest in life was his appetite.

  Marshmallow and Doris had grown up together and were inclined to engage in good-natured arguments now and then. However, they were the best of friends, and Marshmallow had been as pleased as anyone, when Doris learned that a visit to Locked Gates offered the prospect of a fortune.

  As is recounted in the first volume of this series, “Doris Force at Locked Gates,” she had gone to the mysterious mansion of the Misses Gates to claim her fortune. Instead of receiving an inheritance, she found herself involved in an intricate plot. With the aid of Jake, a man employed by her uncle, Doris uncovered the fact that a notorious criminal, Joe Jeffery, was attempting to swindle the Misses Gates. Not only did she expose this plan, but she learned that her long-lost uncle, John Trent, had actually left a sum of money in a bank at Cloudy Cove. At the request of the Misses Gates she had promised to settle up the estate, and, if possible, solve the mystery which surrounded her Uncle John Trent’s strange disappearance from home many years before.

  As she stopped the sedan in front of the Mallow residence, Doris was thinking that the unfortunate accusation of the police might postpone her trip to Cloudy Cove. She was relieved to see Marshmallow and Dave in the front yard. The two young men hurried over to the curb, but stopped short as they saw the police.

  “Ha! Pinched for speeding!” Marshmallow jested.

  The grin faded from his face as he saw the sober countenances of the girls and the stern expressions of the officers.

  “Are you Mallow?” he was questioned.

  Rather uneasily, Marshmallow admitted that he was.

  “You own this sedan?”

  “I do,” Marshmallow returned proudly. “Bought her today.”

  “Where is your bill-of-sale?”

  Dave and Marshmallow exchanged quick glances. “Why, we haven’t any,” Marshmallow admitted sheepishly. “We thought the fellow gave it to us, but when we went to look in the envelope, it wasn’t there.”

  “So! Well, young fellow, if you haven’t a bill-of-sale, I guess you’ll just have to march along to jail with us!”

  “What for? I haven’t done anything.”

  “You’re in the possession of stolen property!”

  “Look here!” Marshmallow protested heatedly. “There’s something wrong. I bought this car fair and square from a fellow by the name of Dunn—K. R. were his initials.”

  “That’s true,” Dave added. “He’s a tall, dark fellow. A stranger in town. Marshmallow planned to trade in his old car.”

  “Why, that must have been the man who came here and asked for Marshmallow early this afternoon!” Doris exclaimed.

  “Sure,” Marshall agreed. “He said he stopped at the house. Say, if that bird sold me a stolen car! Just wait till I get hold of him!”

  “He’s probably skipped town by this time,” one of the officers said. “Your story sounds straight enough, so I guess you were just taken in.”

  “Then we won’t have to go to jail?” Kitty demanded.

  “No, not unless we catch this fellow Dunn and need you to identify him.”

  “What about my car?” Marshmallow asked miserably.

  “I’m afraid you’re out of luck there. We’ll have to return it to its rightful owner. Next time be more wary of a slick salesman!”

  Kitty and Doris reluctantly stepped out of the sedan and watched as one of the officers drove it away. Marshmallow leaned dejectedly on the gate.

  “Oh, Marsh, it was all my fault,” Doris murmured contritely. “I didn’t mean—”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Dory. The police would have been after me sooner or later. I might have known that car was too good a bargain!”

  There was little that the others could say to comfort him, for they, too, were discouraged by the turn events had taken. The loss of the sedan undoubtedly meant that the boys would be unable to make the trip to Cloudy Cove.

  “I haven’t the nerve to ask Mother for more money,” Marshmallow declared, as he sank down on the porch steps and gazed gloomily out toward the street. “Do you think there’s any chance they’ll catch that fellow?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Dave told him. “He’s probably in another state by this time.”

  “If only I’d given him a check instead of cash,” Marshmallow moaned. “Then I could have stopped payment.”

  “I guess this ends our trip,” Dave said thoughtfully. “My car won’t be in shape for weeks.”

  “Why not take your car?” Doris suggested halfheartedly to Marshmallow.

  “You know Mother wouldn’t set foot in it,” the stout lad protested. “It’s so rough looking I’m almost ashamed of it myself.”

  “Perhaps Kitty and I could go with Mrs. Mallow on the train, as we originally planned. You and Dave could start ahead. Why not paint your car up? That would improve its appearance a lot.”

  Marshmallow brightened instantly.

  “Say, that’s an idea! What do you say, Dave?”

  “It’s our only chance of getting to Cloudy Cove. Maybe if we tinker with the engine a bit and splash on a couple of coats of paint, we can make something out of tha
t old bus!”

  Inspired by Doris’s suggestion, the two young men hurried to the nearest store to purchase paint. Returning, they backed Marshmallow’s car out into the yard and set to work.

  Doris and Kitty, who in the meantime had decided that by washing out a number of frocks they would speed up preparations for their trip, had come out on the back porch. By the time they had wrung out the garments and hung them upon the line, Marshmallow and Dave had washed the car and were ready to start painting.

  “Want us to help?” Kitty asked.

  “Too many artists might ruin the job,” Marshmallow laughed.

  The girls were not offended that their services were not in demand, for they preferred to watch from the porch steps and to offer suggestions and criticisms. Wags, a small brown dog which Doris had found along the roadside several weeks before, frisked about the automobile and annoyed the boys by biting at their heels. Twice Dave saved the paint bucket from being upset.

  “I wish you’d take that little scamp in the house and lock him up!” Marshmallow declared impatiently. “He gets his paws all paint and then he tries to put them on me!”

  Wags was reluctant to leave the scene, but the girls dragged him inside by force. Doris went to the piano to practice her singing lesson and Kitty settled herself in a big chair to finish her book.

  The dog was completely forgotten. Unnoticed, he went out into the kitchen, and gently pushing open the screen door with his nose, slipped outside.

  Fifteen minutes later Doris noticed that he was missing and arose from the piano bench to see what had become of him. At that very moment a loud shout came from the back yard, to be followed by a series of delighted canine yelps. Doris rushed to the window.

  “Kitty!” she cried in dismay. “Just see what Wags has done now! Oh, he’s ruined everything!”

  CHAPTER III

  Off for Cloudy Cove