ALEXANDER SPRINGS A SURPRISE
It was with impatience indescribable that the members of the
Antiquarian Club awaited the demolition of McCorkle's stable. Now that
Alexander had enlightened them as to the approaching changes in Varick
Street, the girls watched with absorbing interest the slow, gradual
approach of the house-wrecking throng which had sometime before invaded
the upper portion of the street. For weeks they had been passing
unheeded the frenzied scene of tearing down, digging up, and general
destruction that had suddenly changed peaceful Varick Street into an
unsightly heap of ruin and scaffolding. It had meant nothing to them,
so absorbed were they in their own affairs. And now they found, quite
to their amazement, that it was going to have a very direct bearing on
these same affairs!
House by house, block by block, it drew nearer. Every day that was
pleasant enough for Margaret to be out she commanded Sarah to wheel her
past the work of demolition, much to Sarah's disgust, who infinitely
preferred the quiet, sunny, unobstructed walks of peaceful Charlton
Street. Then, before turning the corner homeward, Margaret would beg
to be wheeled past McCorkle's stable, at which she would gaze hard and
rapturously as long as it was in sight. This also deeply annoyed and
bewildered Sarah.
"Bedad!" she would exclaim impatiently, "it does beat me what ye see
in that dur-rty owld rookery! 'Tis fit only fur th' scrap-heap, and
ye look at it as if it was hung wid diamonds! What's got into ye
these days, Margie macushla! 'Tis that quare Corinne gur-rl that has
bewitched ye!"
Margaret could easily see that Sarah was very, very jealous of her new
friend, so she would say nothing, but only smile her slow, mysterious
little smile. "That queer Corinne girl" had indeed bewitched her, and
had brought into her pain-ridden, colorless existence something worth
living for! But this, of course, she could not admit to Sarah.
At last, one cold, blustery afternoon, the twins burst in with the
exciting information that the house-wrecking had actually commenced on
their own block, up at the King Street corner. After that the interest
became concentrated and intense. And by the time the little old
dormer-windowed shanty on their own corner was leveled to the ground,
they had reached the tiptoe of excitement.
Fully two weeks before this McCorkle's stable had been vacated and left
ready for its destruction. And since then Alexander had spent much time
crawling around its foundations and examining it in every nook and
cranny.
When the little building next to it came down, and the day before the
stable was to have its turn, the Antiquarian Club held an important
meeting, called at the request of Alexander.
"This is going to be ticklish business!" he announced; "getting at
that beam, I mean. And I ain't so sure it's going to pan out all right,
either. Good thing to-morrow's Saturday, so I can be on the job all
day. But I've been laying my pipes pretty slick! I've got on the soft
side of a lot of those workmen, and the night-watchman loves me as if
I was his little nephew Willie! It's the night-watchman I'm depending
on most. He's agreed to let me in there to grub around any night I
want—so long as I don't do any damage. But, see here, you kids! Don't
be setting your hopes on me getting at anything to-morrow, 'cause
more'n likely they won't touch the foundation before next week!"
The next day saw the demolition of McCorkle's stable. It being
Saturday, the Antiquarian Club was able to be present in full force (on
the opposite side of the street) to see it go. Margaret's chair was
wheeled by the twins and Corinne in turn. But Alexander, across the
street in the danger-zone, gyrated, imp-like, up and down the sidewalk
and was twenty times ousted from imminent peril by the half-indignant,
half-laughing workmen.
Piece by piece the boards and bricks fell, story by story the old
building came down, till at last it was level with the very sidewalk,
and carts began to remove the debris. Then was visible the strange
thing that Alexander had long before told them about.
"See! see!" he cried, running across to them and pointing back
excitedly. "There it is! Didn't I tell you so?" And looking toward the
back, they could plainly discern the queer, curved outline of the old
stage, with a few cracked and tarnished bits of gilt cornice still
clinging to it.
"But when are they going to reach the beams underneath?" demanded
Margaret, in an excited whisper.
"Not before Monday! At least, they can't get to uncovering the ones
_we_ want before then. The rest are almost bare now."
"Oh! _how_ can we wait till Monday!" wailed Margaret.
"I gave you the tip we might have to!" admonished Alexander. "You're
entirely too light and speedy! You ought to go into the house-wrecking
business yourself—then you'd see!"
The interval between Saturday and Monday seemed simply interminable to
every one of the five. On Sunday, Alexander spent much time haunting
the ruins, Corinne was obliged to be in her own home, Mrs. Bronson
was visiting a sick friend, and Margaret and the twins, left alone,
whispered together most of the day about the impending event.
"What _do_ you suppose we'll find in that beam?" Margaret would inquire
for the hundredth time.
"Probably nothing!" Bess would reply, for she was always inclined to
look on the dark side of things.
"Oh, that's not _possible_!" Margaret would retort. "_I_ think it may
be some important papers. I don't expect there'll be gold, or jewels,
or anything of that kind. But just suppose it was the _sapphire
signet_!"
"Do you know, dear," said Jess, once, "I'd be pretty well satisfied if
we even found just the _hole_! That would show, at least, that Alison's
account was correct, and we had worked things out right, so far."
"Yes, but it wouldn't help us out any with solving the mystery,"
objected Margaret. "When do you suppose it will be get-at-able, anyway?"
"Alexander says he's going to be there before school in the morning,
and again at noon, and in the afternoon too. He says he's almost
tempted to play hookey and be there all day! But I told him Sarah and
Mother would have a fit if he did! The club is to be all together here
in the afternoon, and he'll come right in and tell us the minute he
discovers anything."
"Wouldn't it be simply awful," moaned Margaret, "if any one got in
ahead of us and looted the place in the beam!"
"Alexander doesn't think that likely," declared Jess. "I asked him
about that, too, but he says it's probably so well concealed that
nobody would think of such a thing—unless the beam were to be chopped
up, and that won't happen for a good while yet."
So they were all forced to possess their souls in patience till Monday
afternoon. Then, with fast-beating hearts, the girls gathered in the
Charlton Street parlor. Alexander, of course, was not with them, and
they did not expect him for some time. But, to their utter amazement,
he strolled in about three-thirty, hands in his pockets, whistling "The
Lass of Richmond Hill" as unconcernedly as though this were not the day
of days for the Antiquarian Club!
"Good gracious, Alexander, what's wrong?" demanded Corinne.
"Wrong? Nothing at all! Everything O. K., A., number one!" he replied
airily.
"But why aren't you over at the stable as you said you'd be?"
"Oh, I didn't think it worth while!" he answered indifferently, ambling
over to gaze out of the window.
[Illustration: "I poked around it, top, bottom, and sides"]
"But, Alec!" cried Margaret. "Have you gone back on us like this? And
after all you said! And you seemed so interested, too! I just can't
believe it of you!" Her great, beautiful gray eyes filled with sudden
tears, and Alexander, turning from the window, observed it.
"Aw! turn off the weeps!" he exclaimed gruffly, but contritely. "Can't
you all take a bit of kidding? It _ain't_ worth while for me to be over
there any more—because I've found the beam already—and explored it!"
At this astonishing revelation they sprang upon him literally in a
body—all but Margaret.
"Oh, Alec! You _didn't_! When? Tell us all about it? What did you find?
How did you do it?" The questions rained thick and fast.
"Well, just unhand me, and sit down, and I'll tell you all about it!
Saturday night I was crawling round a bit after the work was all over,
and only the night-watchman there. I found that the two beams on this
north end were really pretty well uncovered, in spots, and what was
left over them could be easily scraped off. It was mostly dirt and
loose mortar. I didn't have time to do anything that night, but I gave
the watchman the tip that I'd be back the next night and poke around
a bit. He likes me, and he thinks I'm collecting wood to build an
Indian wigwam in that vacant lot on Hudson Street. And us fellows _are_
building one, too, so it's no lie!" Alexander, to do him justice, was
scrupulously truthful.
"So I beat it out, last night, after borrowing the twins' door-key, so
I wouldn't have to wake up that lallypaloozer, Sarah, when I came in.
Of course I took a chance of not striking the right beam,—it might
be the one at the south end, for all I knew. However, I doped out the
one I thought it was, shoveled off the bricks and mortar softly, so's
not to attract attention, and measured off ten feet from the _west_
end with a tape-line. You know the kid, Alison, said the steward stood
about ten feet from the wall of the house, along the beam.
"Then I opened my big-bladed pocket-knife and poked and poked and poked
around it, top, bottom, and sides. But never a sign of an opening did
I find. After I'd been at the job about an hour, I gave it up and
scooted for the _east_ end of the beam, and began the same thing all
over. Nothing doing for about half an hour! Then all at once, my blade
slipped into a crack! I gave a hard pull, and—jumping Jupiter!—there
I was! The thing came open like a door on a rusty hinge, and there was
a hole about a foot and a half long!
"You bet I didn't do a thing but shove my hand in and feel all around
in the hole! I didn't dare even to light a match, for fear a cop might
see me. Just then, all of a sudden, the watchman called out softly that
the roundsman was coming and I'd better beat it while the going was
good! I just had time to duck off that beam, crawl along the darkest
side of the wall, and sneak out as the roundsman came along and stood
talking to the watchman, as he always does, for about fifteen minutes.
I got into the house all hunky,—and that's why it ain't any use for
me to be there this afternoon!" he ended abruptly.
"But, Alec, what did you _find_? Did you find _anything_?" demanded the
four in one breath.
Alexander nodded impressively. "Yep! I found something all right!" Then
he suddenly took an object from under his coat and laid it carefully in
Margaret's lap.
"I found _this_!"