The Girl Detective Megapack: 25 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls

by Mildred A. Wirt

  Luncheon was indeed a happy meal in the Gay household that day. Although Freckles and Jane did not return, the two boys and Mary Louise kept up a constant banter of laughter and merriment. Mr. and Mrs. Gay were quieter, but a light of rapture shone in their eyes.

  Just at the conclusion of the meal Mrs. Hunter and Cliff arrived. Prepared to enter a house of misery and fear, they could not believe their ears as they heard the gayety from within.

  “Mary Lou!” cried Cliff incredulously.

  “Cliff!” exclaimed the girl, jumping up and running to the screen door. “You’re free!”

  “And you’re home!” returned the young man, seizing both of her hands.

  In spite of his arrest, Clifford Hunter was the same care-free young person. In a few minutes he was showing his card tricks to Max and Norman, delighted to find a new audience.

  When the whole story had been retold to the Hunters, with the caution that they say nothing of it to Mr. Frazier, Mary Louise and the three boys walked around the little resort to tell everybody there the glad news. Then she and her father and Max took the car and drove to the Adams farm. Mr. Gay thought it would be wise to take old Mr. Adams with them to visit the asylum, and Mary Louise thought it would be interesting to bring Rebecca—just to let Miss Stone and the other attendants meet the real Rebecca Adams!

  With Max at the wheel they had no difficulty in finding the asylum. What fun it was, Mary Louise thought, to pass through those iron gates now—knowing that she was safe! Yet instinctively she reached for her father’s hand and held it securely as the car proceeded up the long driveway.

  The same doctor and the same head nurse came out to receive them as upon Mary Louise’s first visit. Mr. Gay displayed his badge at once and explained his errand. The woman nodded and hurried into the office for the paper.

  While she was gone, Rebecca Adams, growing restless, stepped out of the car, lugging her heavy water pitcher in her arms. At the same moment Miss Stone, Mary Louise’s special nurse, came out of the building.

  “Miss Stone, I want you to meet the real Rebecca Adams,” said Mary Louise, with a twinkle in her eye.

  Rebecca turned eagerly to the nurse.

  “Can you show me where there is a well of clear water?” she asked immediately.

  “Yes,” replied Miss Stone gravely. “Back of the building. We have a fine well.”

  “Oh!” cried the woman in ecstasy. “At last!” She looked over at her father, and there were tears of earnestness in her eyes. “Let me stay here, Father! This is my home, where I want to live!” Her voice grew more wistful. “A well of clear water!” she repeated. “Please take me to it, kind lady!”

  “Perhaps it is for the best,” agreed old Mr. Adams. “There’s nobody to take good care of Rebecca at home now that her mother’s dead and I’m crippled up with rheumatism. She can stay if she wants to.”

  And so, at her own request, Rebecca Adams took up her life at the quiet institution, and the rest of the party, with the paper which was to be used as evidence against Frazier in their hands, drove back to Shady Nook.

  Mary Louise went into her bedroom and put on her prettiest dress, awaiting the arrival of Jane and Freckles and her friends. What a glorious evening it was going to be for them all!

  CHAPTER XIX

  Conclusion

  Mary Louise was putting the last dabs of powder on her nose when she heard a car stop at the porch steps. Peering through the screened window of her bedroom she immediately decided that it must be the detectives. Yes—and, oh, joy of joys!—they had Tom Adams with them!

  In another moment the men were out of the car and up on the porch, where her father joined them.

  “Congratulations!” exclaimed Mr. Gay. “I see that you got Tom Adams. I remember him now.”

  “Yes,” answered one of the men. “But he won’t admit a thing about your daughter. He says he never saw Mary Louise after she went back to the tennis court that afternoon.”

  “On what grounds could you arrest him, then?” demanded Mr. Gay.

  “He stole a car on his way to the West.”

  Mary Louise repressed a giggle and turned away from the window. Her father evidently meant to find out what he could before he announced his daughter’s return.

  “You have a sister Rebecca, haven’t you, Adams?” he inquired.

  The young man nodded. “Yes. She’s feeble-minded. Why?”

  “We know that Mary Louise saw her the afternoon she disappeared. Rebecca told us so, and she also said that you came home that afternoon just as my daughter started to leave the farm.”

  “Rebecca’s mind wanders a lot,” muttered Tom. “She don’t know what she’s talkin’ about half the time.” He shifted his feet uneasily.

  “You—have been thinking of putting Rebecca into an asylum?” persisted Mr. Gay.

  “Yeah. We considered it. Why?”

  “Because she’s in one now,” announced Mr. Gay calmly. “Of her own free will. An asylum about twenty miles from here. A Dr. Fetter, I believe, is the head of the institution.”

  He paused and gazed intently at Tom. The young man’s jaw dropped, his face grew white, and his hands trembled.

  Mr. Gay burst out laughing, and Mary Louise came to the screen door.

  “Hello, Tom,” she said quietly.

  The young man started as if he had seen a ghost. But he managed to stammer a reply. “Hello, Miss Gay,” he said.

  All three of the plainclothes men stepped forward in amazement. “You found her, Gay?” they demanded of Mary Louise’s father.

  “No,” answered Mr. Gay. “To be frank, I didn’t. Two of her young friends from Riverside did. She was confined in an insane asylum about twenty miles from Shady Nook, under the name of Rebecca Adams!”

  All of Tom’s pretence fell away from him at this announcement. He knew his game was up. His limbs grew weak; he groveled at the men’s feet.

  “Don’t send me to the chair!” he cried. “I didn’t harm her. She’s all right, ain’t she?”

  “We’ll let the judge and the jury decide that,” replied Mr. Gay. “Now, suppose you sit down there and tell us the truth, Adams. You might as well, for we know most of it already!”

  The young man crawled into a seat, but he made no attempt to tell his story.

  “We know that you burned three houses here at Shady Nook,” said Mr. Gay. “We know, too, that you did it because you were bribed by Frazier. Didn’t he pay you a certain sum of money to start those fires?”

  “Yes, he did,” acknowledged Tom. “He gave me five hundred dollars.”

  “Why did he want them burned down?” asked one of the plainclothes men.

  “He figured that he’d get five hundred at least from the Hunters during the summer, entertaining their friends and all. Then Flicks’ fire turned out to be better business yet. All the folks from Shady Nook, except the Ditmars, begun eatin’ at the hotel, once the inn was gone. And Smiths’ burnin’ down brought all them children and servants and even the Ma and Pa over to the Royal.”

  “Did Frazier expect to burn any more cottages?” was the next question.

  “No, he wasn’t plannin’ on it. Only, when Mrs. Ditmar started up a boardin’ house and took his business away from him, that made him sore. But I wasn’t goin’ a do no more dirty work. I figured I’d just get my money and clear out. I never did expect to burn Ditmars’—only threaten ’em.”

  “But what made you do that dreadful thing to Mary Louise?” demanded Mr. Gay.

  “I wanted to get rid of her till I made my get-away. Frazier and me was scared she was onto somethin’ and would send for you, and you’d figure it all out, Mr. Gay. Frazier thought, if I was gone, he’d be safe. He’d just deny everything. The idea of callin’ Mary Louise ‘Rebecca’ just popped into my head when she told us she was goin’ over to the farm to see Hattie that afternoon. I knew Hattie and Dad was off to the fair. So I jumped in my car and run over to the asylum and made the arrangements. We just got back in time t
o nab her.”

  One of the men stood up.

  “Detective Gay,” he Said, “I think you and I had better go over and arrest Frazier now. These other two men can take charge of Adams.” He turned to Mary Louise, who was still standing in the doorway. “Is there any question you want to ask this criminal, Miss Gay, before we take him away?”

  “Yes,” answered Mary Louise, stepping through the doorway. “I would like to know how that pack of cards came to be dropped at the Smiths’ the night of their fire—how Tom happened to have them in his possession.”

  The young man flushed.

  “One day I was watchin’ Hunter do a trick on the hotel porch. I noticed he put the cards in his coat pocket. Later on, he hung the coat over the back of a chair while he went off to play tennis. So I sneaked up and took ’em out of his pocket, to use to show the trick to the boys. I thought they was marked, but they wasn’t. Hunter sure is clever at tricks.

  “Then when I heard people was suspectin’ him of burnin’ his own cottage down for the insurance, I thought I might as well help that suspicion along. So I dropped his pack of cards into that can of water at the Smiths’. And sure enough, it worked!”

  Mary Louise’s eyes were filled with contempt, but she did not put her feeling into words. Instead, she nodded to the detectives, and the men all left the porch. Fifteen minutes later Frazier’s arrest was accomplished, and the three plainclothes men started for Albany with both criminals in their custody.

  Mary Louise and her parents watched them go with a sigh of relief.

  “That’s that,” said her father, with a smile.

  “Now, if only Jane and Freckles would come,” added her mother, “we could be perfectly happy. It’s time to go to dinner.”

  In a couple of minutes Mrs. Gay’s wish was granted. Down the road half a dozen young people came running, for they had just heard the wonderful news that Mary Louise was back. Silky reached his mistress first, then Freckles arrived, with Jane and four of the boys close behind.

  Never, if she lived to be a hundred, would Mary Louise forget that wonderful dinner at the Ditmars’. The joy of being back home again, the happiness of her friends, the companionship of her father—oh, everything seemed perfect that night to the lovely brown-eyed girl. And not least of it all was the satisfaction of knowing that the mystery of the fires was solved at last! Shady Nook was safe again for everybody—to enjoy for many, many summers to come!

  THE MYSTERY OF THE SECRET BAND, by Edith Lavell

  CHAPTER I

  A Real Detective

  Mary Louise stamped the snow from her feet and removed her galoshes on the porch. Whistling the Christmas carol her class had just sung at school, she opened the door of her house and stepped inside.

  Her mother was sitting in an armchair in the living room, sewing. She looked up with a smile at her daughter.

  “How did your entertainment go?” she inquired.

  “Swell!” replied Mary Louise enthusiastically. “The seniors were great. You should have seen Max!”

  “I’d like to have seen Mary Louise Gay,” mused her mother. “But this snow—and your father had the car—”

  “Oh, I wasn’t so hot,” laughed Mary Louise modestly. “I’ll tell you who was the star of the afternoon—little Rosemary Dotts. She was so funny. She forgot all of her piece except the second line—‘I’m going to have plum pudding!’ Well, she said that once, and then she stared around at the audience and repeated it. And still she couldn’t think of any more, so she said it again, and rubbed her fat little tummy as she repeated it. Well, she kept that up until I thought we’d just pass out laughing at her. Honestly, the tears were rolling down my cheeks. Her teacher had to come up to the platform and take her away.”

  “That must have been funny,” agreed Mrs. Gay. “Well, I guess you’re thankful that it’s all over. How do you like this weather for your vacation?”

  Mary Louise’s brown eyes sparkled with pleasure.

  “It’s keen!” she exclaimed. She executed a little dance step in her joy. “Two whole weeks with nothing to do but coast and skate and dance!”

  “And eat and sleep once in a while.”

  “Oh yes, of course. Especially eat. What would Christmas be without eating?”

  “What are you going to do now?” inquired her mother.

  “Go coasting. Max and Norman are bringing the bobsled over in ten minutes, and Jane and I are supposed to be ready.”

  “You better hurry, then. Get something to eat first. And—I forgot to tell you—your father wants to see you at half-past five this afternoon. Be sure to be home in time. He said he wanted to ‘consult’ you.”

  “About somebody’s Christmas present? I thought all our Christmas shopping was finished last week.”

  “It was. This hasn’t anything to do with presents, but it concerns your Christmas vacation, I believe,” replied Mrs. Gay.

  “Oh, that sounds exciting!” exclaimed Mary Louise. Mr. Gay was a detective on the police force, and, knowing his daughter’s keen interest in the solution of crimes, he sometimes discussed his cases with her. Already she had shown marked ability in the same line herself by unraveling two baffling mysteries the preceding summer.

  She ran out into the kitchen and poured out a glass of milk for herself and cut a piece of chocolate cake. This brisk weather certainly made her feel hungry, and the refreshments tasted good. Then she dashed upstairs to change into her “snow suit,” a long-trousered costume that happened to be popular with the older girls at the moment. When she was all ready she opened her side window and whistled to her chum, Jane Patterson, who lived across the snow-covered lawn in the house next door.

  “Yo, Jane!” she called.

  Immediately a corresponding window flew up, and a youthful face appeared at the enclosure.

  “Ready!” was the reply. “The boys there yet?”

  “I think I hear them,” returned Mary Louise. “Come on over.”

  The windows were slammed down simultaneously, and the two girls dashed downstairs to their porches. Before they had finished putting on their galoshes, the boys were at the Gays’ house.

  “Left the sled at the gate,” announced Max Miller, Mary Louise’s especial boy-friend in Riverside.

  “Do you think the snow’s packed hard enough?” demanded Jane.

  “Hope so,” returned Max, with a grin. “The kids were sledding last night over near Cooper’s woods, so they ought to have made a track. Anyhow, we can have some fun. You’ve just got to be outdoors, weather like this.”

  They made their way across the yard, chatting about the school entertainment, their dates for the next two weeks, and the fun which Christmas always brought them. When they reached the hill where the coasting was the best, near Riverside, they found many of their other high-school friends, and for two hours they alternately rode down the steep incline at a breathtaking speed and then trudged slowly back to the top. The sun was setting, and the afternoon was gone before they knew it.

  “Oh, I must go home!” exclaimed Mary Louise, glancing at her wrist-watch in amazement.

  “It’s only five o’clock,” returned Max complacently. “You don’t eat at your house before six-thirty, do you?”

  “Come on, Mary Lou!” called Jane. “All aboard!”

  Her chum shook her head.

  “I can’t, Jane. I’ve got to be home by five-thirty.”

  “Why the rush?” demanded Max.

  “I have to see my father. He left word with Mother for me to be there.”

  “Oh, you can see him at supper,” observed Jane lightly. “You don’t want to break up the party, do you?”

  “No, of course not. No need for that at all. I’ll just run along by myself. You people take some more rides.”

  “Nix,” answered Max loyally. “You’re not going home alone past these woods. If you have to go, Mary Lou, I’ll go too.”

  “Oh, we might as well all go,” said Jane. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to be o
n time for a meal once in a while. Still, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”

  Max looked straight into Mary Louise’s eyes, a serious expression on his face.

  “Mary Lou,” he asked, “you’re not doing any more detective stuff, are you? Surely last summer was enough!”

  The girl laughed.

  “Yes, it was plenty. Haven’t I been pretty good all fall? Never tried to listen in on any of Dad’s cases or hunt for clues!”

  “I should think you’d be cured,” remarked Jane. “The whole town could burn down before I’d go through an experience like yours last summer, to discover a criminal. And if it hadn’t been for Max and Norman—”

  “I owe them my life!” said Mary Louise, half seriously and half smilingly. But in her heart she felt a deep sense of gratitude to her two youthful rescuers.

  “Max could use it,” remarked Norman slyly.

  “I’ll say I could,” muttered the other young man fervently. “But you really don’t think you’ll do dangerous things again, do you, Mary Lou?” he asked eagerly. “You’ll leave the solving of mysteries and crimes to your father hereafter, won’t you?”

  Mary Louise’s eyes twinkled.

  “I’m not making any rash promises. It sort of gets into the blood, Max. There’s no other thrill like it. I’d rather solve a mystery than eat.… But I really don’t think there is anything for me to solve now. So you can put your mind at rest.”

  “I’ll feel safer after this talk with your father is over,” returned the young man.

  They came to a hill, and the subject was forgotten as they all piled on the sled and rode down together.

  It was only a little past five-thirty when Mary Louise opened the door of her house. Her father was already there, beside the roaring logs in the fireplace, comfortably smoking.

  Mr. Gay was a tall, impressive-looking man, with a determined jaw which announced to the world that he usually accomplished whatever he set out to do. He was proud of his daughter’s detective work that summer, and delighted to have her follow in his footsteps, though he wished he might keep her always from the more gruesome features in the pursuit of crimes and criminals.