ALEXANDER TAKES HOLD
Two afternoons later all the girls were gathered in the parlor promptly
at three, but Alexander had not yet put in an appearance. He attended
the public school, which did not dismiss as early as high school, and
he would probably be at least three quarters of an hour late, as he
was usually kept in for misbehavior. During his absence, the girls
discussed him eagerly.
"Do you know," vouchsafed Corinne, "I think he is the _cleverest_
little rascal, and so comical that I want to laugh whenever I look at
him! How is it I've never seen him before?"
"Why, the explanation is," answered Bess, "that he never stays in the
house afternoons if he can possibly help it. He's always out running
the streets or playing baseball in the vacant lots. But the other
day it was cold and damp, and Sarah discovered that he had a bad sore
throat and insisted that he stay indoors. He's rather afraid of Sarah,
though he does tease her frightfully. That's why he was around trying
hard to annoy us—he hadn't anything else to do!"
"Well, he's a little trump, anyway!" insisted Corinne. "And did you
ever hear such a glorious collection of slang!"
"Isn't it _awful_!" sighed Margaret. "Mother is terribly worried about
him and the way he talks. And yet she can't help laughing, herself,
sometimes, at the funny things he says. Really, he often seems to be
speaking in some foreign language that I can't understand a word of!"
"What does he mean by 'dope,' anyway?" mused Corinne. "I can't imagine,
unless it's 'news' or 'information.' You just have to _construe_ his
remarks, as you do the Latin! I think we'll have to get a dictionary of
slang if he keeps on like this!"
"But, oh, what _do_ you suppose he is finding out!" exclaimed
Margaret. "What can he possibly know that can have anything to do with
our secret?"
"You never can tell!" said Bess. "He goes snooping around this
neighborhood in all sorts of places, and talks with all sorts of
people. Perhaps he _has_ stumbled on something, though I have my
doubts. But here he comes now!"
Alexander entered the house, slamming the basement door and singing at
the top of his high sweet voice:
"On Richmond Hill there lived a lass,
More bright than May-day morn!"
After a preliminary scuffle and dispute with Sarah in the kitchen,
probably over the question of cake, he came galloping upstairs, and
burst in upon them with a military salute and:
"Hullo, pals! Do I have to give the high sign and the grand salaam?"
"Never mind that!" laughed Corinne. "Hurry up and tell us about this
wonderful thing you know. We're crazy to hear!"
Alexander was visibly flattered, and drew a chair to the group by the
fire, with an air of great importance.
"Well, it's this way," he began. "It hit me all of a sudden the other
day, that I had the dope on something that might be right in your line
o' goods. But I wasn't sure, and I wanted to nail it. Now I _have_
nailed it—and it's O.K.!"
"Tell us, quick! Quick!" cried Margaret.
"Hey! put on the brakes a minute, kid!" he commented. "If you go so fast,
you'll bust your speedometer! Do you know where McCorkle's stable is?"
All but Corinne nodded. For her enlightenment, he explained: "It's
around on Varick Street between Charlton and Van Dam, on this side of
the way."
"It's a funny old place, isn't it!" interrupted Margaret. "Sarah
sometimes wheels me past it. The building looks awfully ramshackly. But
what about it? Surely it can't have anything to do with _our_ affair!"
"Just you douse your sparker and save gasoline!" chuckled Alexander.
"Shows how much _you_ know about things! You _needed_ a man on this
job! As I was going to say, I know Tim Garrity pretty well—he has
charge of the horses. We're pretty good pals, and he gives me a whole
lot of interesting dope, off and on. Last summer he told me something
that stuck in my crop, but I didn't think of it again till the other
day. Then I thought I'd go and nail it for certain, before I told you
kids, and I got him to reel it off again yesterday. It's the dope, all
right! I saw it myself!"
"For gracious sake, Alexander, don't keep us in suspense another
minute!" implored Corinne. "Tell us quick!"
"All right! Now I'm going to shoot! You remember telling me about the
theater that old house was turned into? Well, Tim once told me that the
stable was built right over where an old theater had stood,—on the
very foundations,—and in the back, where the stalls are, you could see
a part of the old stage, the paintings on the beams, and frescoes—he
called 'em! He was quite proud of it!"
The listening four were now sitting up straight and tense. He went on:
"I didn't pay much 'tention to it at the time. Didn't interest me!
Rather be talking about baseball! But the other day, after all you told
me, I fell for it again. Yesterday I went round and made him tell me
all over again and show it to me, too. I guess we've hit the trail,
kids! It was there, all right! Funny old gilt do-dabs, and you could
just make out the shape of the stage, curved, the way they have 'em in
the theaters now."
He stopped, and every one drew a long breath.
"Alexander, you are certainly a trump!" sighed Corinne. "This is the
best discovery yet. But I'm surprised that the site of the house should
be on Varick Street. Most books said it faced on Charlton."
And Bess added her say:
"This is certainly awfully interesting, but I'm blest if I can see how
it's going to be of the slightest _help_!"
"Say, you're what us baseball fans call a bonehead," and Alexander
chuckled derisively. "I'll bet Corinne's fallen for it already, without
being told!"
"I confess, I don't see _just_ how it helps," admitted Corinne,
"unless—unless—there's some part of the old, original house left."
"That's the line o' talk!" shouted the boy, triumphantly. "I knew you'd
hit the bull's-eye if any one did! There sure _is_ something of the old
house left, and that is—the _beams_ that supported the cellar ceiling!
They make the foundation of the stage!"
This time Alexander certainly scored a sensation.
"The beams—_the beams_!" cried Margaret.
"Then there must be the one that had the secret hiding-place in it!"
"Now you're talking!" remarked Alexander.
"But did you _see_ it? Can you get _at_ it?" demanded Corinne.
"There's where Central cuts you off! I examined the thing carefully,
and got Tim to tell me all he knew. But we found that the stable only
went part of the way through the old cellar of the house; the two ends
are cut off and underground—or at least they're behind the side walls
of the stable. Can you beat it?"
"Then we can't get at it after all!" wailed Margaret, disappointed all
the more keenly for the high hope that had been raised.
"Nope! We just can't get at it—as things stand now!"
"Isn't there _any_ way you can think of, Alexander?" demanded Corinne.
"Think what we might find in that secret nook—gold, jewels, papers of
great value,—oh! this is exasperating! Can't you think of _some_ way?"
Alexander, however, only appeared to lapse into deep reverie.
"I haven't showed you my whole line o' goods yet!" he confessed, after
submitting them to an interval of soul-satisfying suspense.
"You haven't—what?" echoed Corinne uncertainly.
"Told you—all—I know!" he translated obligingly.
"Well, for goodness' sake, go on! How you do tease!"
"Here it is: in a few weeks they're goin' to begin to widen Varick
Street and put a subway through."
They only gazed at him, after this statement, in uncomprehending
bewilderment.
"You don't get me yet?" he went on. "Well, that means they're going to
do a good deal of altering."
Still they appeared unenlightened.
"Gee! but you four are _thick_!" he cried at last. "The only way they
can widen it is by tearing down all the houses on one side. And that's
just what they're going to do on _this_ side! McCorkle's stable has got
to go. Now are you on?"
"Then—then—" stuttered Corinne.
"_Then_ we can get at the secret beam!" announced Alexander in triumph.