In Quest of the Money
It was a strange and wonderful experience to Helen Tower to fly at
night—for on that other occasion she had been only semi-conscious—and
she was more thrilled than she had ever been in her life. No longer did
the darkness frighten her; the immensity of the heavens, the brightness
of the stars, the exhilaration of the swift motion through the air all
held her entranced. She did not try to say a word to Dot who was sitting
so close to her; she only watched the sky with wide-open eyes.
It was cold, up there in the skies, in the night, but all the girls were
dressed warmly, for even Helen wore the flyer’s suit which she had put
on Saturday morning for the treasure hunt. How many things had happened
in the meanwhile; yet here she was riding back to Green Falls in the
autogiro, just as she had expected to do!
The night was calm and pleasant, and Linda felt sure of her way. She
made the journey in record time, crossing Lake Michigan, and arriving at
the airport long before midnight. Before summoning a taxicab, she
hastened to telephone to her aunt.
“Hello, Aunt Emily,” she said. “I’m so sorry we had to be late——”
“Are you speaking from long distance, Linda?” asked the older woman,
immediately. “Where are you? And are you all right—you and Dot both?”
Linda laughed. It was exactly what Miss Carlton always asked, every time
her niece took the autogiro up in the air.
“Of course we are!” she replied. “And we’re right here at Green Falls
airport.”
“Oh, that’s a relief, dear! I was so worried. Ralph is here with me,
waiting for news. I’ll send him right over in his car.”
“That’s fine, Aunt Emily. And by the way, we have Helen—Amy, you
know—with us.”
“That’s good news! And tell her that I have some news to tell her, too.
I hope that she will find it good this time—not like Mrs. Fishberry’s
surprise visit.”
“What is it?”
“Better wait and see,” replied Miss Carlton. “Ralph’s leaving now—see
you in ten minutes—good-by dear.”
Linda turned to Dot, who had just finished calling her mother.
“Ralph’s coming for us,” she told her. “So he can take you home first——”
Dot giggled.
“Jim’s on the way, too,” she explained to Linda. “Isn’t it funny,
though, the way our boy friends go and sit with our families when we are
out on our adventures?”
“They really didn’t know what an adventure this was,” said Linda. “How
much shall we tell them?”
“Oh, everything, of course. It’ll be all in the papers to-morrow—trust
Mike O’Malley for that! But it can’t worry our folks now, because it’s
all over.”
Ralph and Jim arrived at the same time, and almost fell over each other
in their wild rush to the girls.
“Where have you been, Linda?” Ralph demanded, as if he were a father
speaking to a disobedient child. “Bert Keen’s and Tom Hulbert’s planes
both came back ages ago. What made the ‘Ladybug’ so slow?”
“We were rescuing Helen,” she replied, with a nod towards the girl
beside her. “And being rescued ourselves!”
“Rescued! Linda, why don’t you let me go with you when you’re planning
something dangerous, instead of always taking another girl?”
“I didn’t know it was going to be dangerous, Ralph,” she apologized.
“But I’ll tell you all about it when we get home, because Aunt Emily
will want to hear it, too.”
And recount it she did to every last detail, even including the
improvised ghost in the tower, to the consternation of Ralph and her
Aunt Emily, when, fifteen minutes later, they were seated on the porch
of the Carltons’ summer home.
“It’s a miracle that you came out alive!” exclaimed Miss Carlton,
incredulously, when Linda had finished the story. “If Mike O’Malley and
that brother of his hadn’t just happened along——”
“They didn’t _happen_ along, Aunt Emily,” Linda insisted. “Mike had
promised to help us!”
“Why is it that some outsider like O’Malley or Ted Mackay always has to
be the one to protect you,” muttered Ralph, “when I’d be only too
glad——”
“Well, you can next time,” agreed Linda, smiling. “Now, Aunt Emily, how
about something to eat?”
“Certainly, dear,” agreed the latter. “And we ought not to sit out here
on the porch, for you girls must be cold. Come into the dining room, and
I’ll make some hot cocoa.”
It was while they were drinking this, and eating their cookies, that
Linda suddenly remembered the surprise which her aunt had mentioned.
“What is the news you have for Helen?” she inquired.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” exclaimed Miss Carlton. Then, turning to the
girl, she asked, “You say that you have recovered your memory, dear? Can
you recall a woman named Mrs. Smalley?”
Helen’s eyes lighted up with affection and joy.
“Indeed I can! She’s the very dearest memory I have!” she replied,
eagerly.
“Well, dear, she’s here. Up in bed. She arrived yesterday, while we were
away—absolutely worn out. It seems that she had trudged miles and miles
in search of you. So Anna very wisely put her to bed. She was somewhat
rested to-day, but decided not to get up.”
“Can I see her?” demanded Helen.
“I think that she’s asleep.”
“Oh, I won’t awaken her! I just want to look at her.”
“All right, dear,” agreed Miss Carlton, and, as soon as Ralph had left,
she led the girls up to the old lady’s room.
Helen tiptoed over to the bedside and, kneeling down, looked eagerly at
the worn face on the pillow. Her voice choked with emotion, as she
sobbed in thanksgiving.
“Nana darling!” she whispered.
The old lady opened her eyes, and put out her wrinkled arms to embrace
the girl.
“My precious child!” she cried. “You do remember me, Helen?” she asked
hastily, for Miss Carlton had told her of the girl’s loss of memory.
“Yes, yes! I am all right, Nana dearest! And so happy!”
The reunion of the two devoted friends—the child and the nurse—was
touching to see. Linda and her aunt crept noiselessly away, and Helen
slept that night with her dear old nurse.
The morning newspapers carried the story of the fire, as Linda had
expected. But she was surprised to see no mention of her own name, or of
the terrifying rescue. Mike O’Malley had actually sacrificed that
thrilling piece of news because he was too modest to mention his own
part in the affair!
But a question which had not occurred to Linda before had been played up
in the headlines. “Who,” the newspaper demanded, “was responsible for
setting this house on fire?”—A man in disguise was suspected, it said,
because a gray wig and beard had been found near the road. And these
must have been left there recently, for otherwise they would have been
wet from Saturday’s storm!
“Clever Mike!” thought Linda, as she read this deduction. “Now why
didn’t we think of that before?”
She and Helen and Mrs. Smalley discussed the question from every angle
that morning and decided that the criminal who ran Helen down on purpose
was the same man that had set fire to the house. And both Helen and Mrs.
Smalley agreed that this must be Ed Tower.
“But do you remember a Mrs. Fishberry, who claims that she took care of
Helen, ever since her grandfather died?” Linda asked Mrs. Smalley.
The old lady shook her head.
“It is a lie,” she answered, quietly. “I have always taken care of
Helen. And I never heard of any person by that name.”
“She claims to be Mrs. Edward Tower now,” added Linda, telling about the
threatened law suit.
But none of these things worried Helen now; she was too much excited
over the joy of finding her old nurse and of discovering her
grandfather’s will in her favor, to worry much about her uncle, or this
new aunt. She wanted to talk about the happiness the future held for her
and Mrs. Smalley.
“We’ll get the money,” she said, “and then we’ll buy a house in Spring
City, shan’t we, Nana—to be near to the Carltons!”
“Near to Aunt Emily—yes,” agreed Linda. “But I shan’t be in Spring City
next winter. I am going to take a job as soon as we get back.”
“A job?” demanded Helen. “Where? What?”
“Flying, of course. Relief work with a lumber company perhaps. I may go
to Alaska. But don’t tell Aunt Emily yet, for it isn’t settled.”
“Oh, poor Miss Carlton!” sighed Mrs. Smalley, and added, turning to her
charge, “Helen dear, I hope that you don’t ever decide to go in for
flying!”
“I only want to go to school,” returned the girl, simply. “With girls of
my own age.”
“And thank Heaven that you can now!” exclaimed Mrs. Smalley, happily.
“Which reminds me,” put in Linda, “that we must go to Chicago to collect
that money, Helen. Suppose we rest to-day, while I give the ‘Ladybug’ an
inspection, and fly to-morrow? Does that suit you?”
It suited the girl perfectly, and accordingly, the following day, Linda
and Helen flew across Lake Michigan to Chicago, the aviatrix as usual
promising her aunt that she would return before dark. But once again
that promise was not to be fulfilled.
Leaving the “Ladybug” at the Chicago airport, the girls took a taxi to
the Trust Company which had been mentioned in Henry Adolph Tower’s will.
When Linda sent in her card, the Vice-president, a Mr. Hudson, came out
himself to meet her.
“How do you do, Miss Carlton?” he said, cordially. “I have read a great
deal about you in the newspapers. I am very much honored to meet you.”
Linda blushed; she was always embarrassed when older people showed her
such deference. So she hastily told the part of the story that concerned
the finding of the will, and produced that document to prove it.
The man examined it gravely.
“You are too late, I am afraid, Miss Carlton,” he said. “We waited all
these years, and refused to give Mr. Edward Tower the money because we
believed that his father must have left a will. But when we learned that
the old house had burned to the ground, we felt sure that there was no
longer any hope of finding one. Yesterday morning we handed over all the
bonds and money to Mr. Tower.”
“Oh!” gasped Linda in dismay. What a dreadful thing to happen to Helen,
after she had built such high hopes! Was she really penniless after all?
“But when Mr. Tower hears of this, perhaps he will give it all back,”
said Mr. Hudson, soothingly.
“No, no—he won’t!” cried Helen, miserably. “You don’t know my uncle, Mr.
Hudson, or you couldn’t suggest such a thing! He never gave us anything
in our lives!”
The bank officer looked surprised.
“But he was supposed to be taking care of you out of the income from the
estate,” he protested. “That was the understanding we had, when we gave
him the interest every six months.”
“Well, he wasn’t! We almost starved—my nurse and I! If it hadn’t been
for a little garden we had—and now and then selling some of
grandfather’s books, I don’t know how we should have lived!— Oh, he was
cruel—my uncle, I mean! It was he who set fire to the house!” She was
speaking rapidly, in jerks, so that it was difficult to understand her.
“You mean you think he actually burned that house down on purpose, so
that this will would be destroyed?” inquired Mr. Hudson.
“Yes. Disguised as an old man! Didn’t you see that in the papers?”
“Yes, I do recall it, now that you mention it. If you really think that
is the case, you girls must take out a warrant for his arrest, and try
to catch him—before he sails for England.”
“England?” repeated Linda. “He is going abroad?”
“Of course,” put in Helen. “He’s running away with the money as fast as
he can.”
Mr. Hudson nodded.
“Yes, you may be right, Miss Tower,” he said. “For when I asked him his
address—whether it was still the same one we have on our records—he said
he couldn’t give me any, because he was going to England, and probably
going into air service there.”
Linda stood up.
“There isn’t a moment to be lost!” she cried. “Mr. Hudson, do you happen
to know how he was traveling to New York, or wherever it is he is
sailing from?”
“Yes, I do. He mentioned the fact that he was flying—going by the first
scheduled plane this morning. He said he never used trains.”
“So he’s air minded,” muttered Linda, thinking how much harder that
would make things for them.
“I’m afraid you can’t catch him,” said Mr. Hudson. “If I only knew what
boat he was taking we could wire——”
“We’re going to catch him!” announced Linda, with that firmness which
she so often displayed in a crisis. “We’re flying, too! In my own
autogiro! And though Mr. Tower has a start on us, we shan’t have to stop
for stations, and passengers!”
“Wait a minute,” urged the officer, seeing that she was determined to
carry out her plan. “Let me help you! While you girls get some lunch,
I’ll see about obtaining a warrant for Tower’s arrest. And you can
telephone your folks at the same time.”
Linda nodded, and pressed the elderly man’s hand gratefully. People were
always so good to her—so kind! And, handing him the will for
safekeeping, she and Helen rushed off to follow his instructions.