UNCLE PIETER AS AN ALLY
Promptly at ten o'clock the next morning, Jannet was waiting in the
library for her uncle. She had timidly said at breakfast, "I will be in
the library at ten, Uncle Pieter," and he had replied, "Very well,
Jannet."
She had brought with her the little slip of paper which she had found
in the book. If she had opportunity, she was going to sound him about
it, or show it to him, provided she could screw her courage to the
point. Just why she should be afraid of her Uncle Pieter, Jannet did
not know, but he did not invite confidences. She was sure that he had
not the least sentiment about him. But she was not ready to accept any
gossip about him. She would find out for herself what sort of a man her
uncle was.
As she sat there, thinking, in the midst of the books that lined the
walls or stood out in their cases, she remembered what Miss Hilliard
had once said in warning the girls: "Most of us are talked about from
the cradle to the grave. Some of what 'they' say is true and a good
part of it is not."
It was a quarter past ten when her uncle hurried into the library and
hung his hat on a small rack. He was in riding costume and looked very
nice, Jannet thought, a little like Andy. "I'm late, Jannet. Do not
follow my example. I was detained, on an errand to the next farm. Now,
let me see, what were we going to talk about?"
"I have ever so many things to talk to you about," soberly said Jannet,
"but you had something, you said, about plans and things."
"Then we'll talk about 'plans and things' first," said her uncle
smiling a little. He sat down by his desk, leaning back comfortably in
a large chair there and motioning Jannet to a seat near him. For a
moment he drummed on the desk with the fingers of his right hand,
looking down thoughtfully.
"You may have wondered why I have not talked to you before," he said at
last, "but it takes some time to gather up the history of fifteen years
or so, and I have hoped that you might find out some things gradually
and form the rest. I am not much of a talker.
"The particular thing that I want to ask you is whether you like it
here enough to make it your home, whether you will consent to give up
your school to be tutored, with some travel, and a few advantages that
I think I can give you, or whether you would prefer to go back to the
other mode of life. It may be too soon to ask you this. If so, we can
put it off." Jannet was surprised, and more at her own feeling.
"No, Uncle Pieter, it is not too soon. I felt as soon as I reached my
mother's room that here was home. But you would not mean to cut me off
from the people that have been so good to me, would you?"
"No, but I'd like to get you away from the eternal atmosphere of a
school. I feel a responsibility, now that I know you are on earth."
"Why, do you?" Jannet's face lit up. Perhaps Uncle Pieter really liked
her a little, too. "That is nice, but I had vacations, you know,--only
I have never really belonged anywhere."
Her uncle nodded. "I thought as much," he said. "Understand that I find
no fault with a school. But when I found that you had practically lived
in one all your life, I thought it was time for something else."
Mr. Van Meter frowned and rubbed his hands together in a nervous way
which he sometimes had. "How you came to be lost to us I can not
understand at all. Why your grandmother did not notify us of your
father's death is another strange thing. Surely her undoubted jealousy
of your poor mother would not go that far."
"Oh, it didn't, Uncle Pieter! I have a little note that says she had
written."
"And there was the matter of your grandfather's legacy. Have you had
that?"
"No, sir. I have Grandmother Eldon's little fortune, enough to keep me
in school. Then I thought perhaps I'd be a missionary."
Mr. Van Meter's frown changed into a smile. "I've no doubt you'd make a
good one, Jannet, but suppose you try your missionary efforts here for
a while."
Jannet met her uncle's eye. Actually there was a twinkle in it!
"At least it would be as well to stay with us until you are grown,
Jannet, and we have a chance to clear everything up. Now your
grandfather died before your mother did. That much is sure. We have a
letter, or did have it, written by your mother the day we telegraphed
about your grandfather's passing. Then we received sad telegrams and
orders for flowers, for she could not come, though we told her that it
might be possible to wait for the funeral till she arrived. Your father
wrote, also. Then there was silence, Jannet, a silence so long that we
did not know what to make of it.
"It was not so strange that Jannet would not write often to me, for I
was so much older and your mother, too, thought that I was interfering
and dictatorial and I admit that I thought her impulsive and foolish.
She thought that I did Andy a great injustice by my second marriage and
matters were on an uneasy footing between us when she was married."
This was the first mention of the second marriage that Jannet had
heard, but she kept herself from showing any surprise.
"But that there should be no communication," continued Mr. Van Meter,
"was strange, particularly as I had written her that when she came home
in the summer, we could arrange about anything she wanted and her own
furniture. Father did an unusual thing, you see. He knew that he could
not live a great while and while we had no inkling of that, for he was
as active as ever, he divided the property, giving me the home place,
giving Jannet another farm and certain bonds and securities which were
sent her and which she received. Indeed, I sold the farm for her, with
Father's permission, after he finally overcame all our objections and
said that he preferred to see how we would 'carry on.' Yet both of us
reserved certain funds for Father. Such was the arrangement, and a very
poor one from a parent's standpoint, though Father was safe enough in
trusting us.
"I had made a quick trip to Europe on business. My wife reported no
letters from your mother on my return. I wrote, and received word that
they had moved. I found the new address after considerable trouble. No
one was there. A new family had moved in. The word was that all had
died of the 'flu' or something of the sort. I heard several conflicting
stories. The one nearest the truth, according to what I found out about
you, was that your father, half ill, started East with you and that
your mother died at the hospital, either before or after that time."
"He told Grandmother that my mother had died," Jannet supplied.
"I see. There is only one thing, Jannet, that has made me feel strange
about it all, and that is a telegram that I found after a long time.
Date and address were torn off. Some one in the household had made a
mistake. It blew at my feet from some pile of rubbish back where it is
burned."
Mr. Van Meter pulled out a drawer in his desk and took from it a piece
of yellow paper, such as is used in telegrams. He handed it to Jannet.
"If you feel so I can never again set foot in your house." This was the
message that the surprised Jannet read. She looked up into her uncle's
face in inquiry.
"Why, that reminds me of a slip of paper that I found in a book.
Perhaps just your not replying to something may have made her send the
telegram."
"I did not think of that. I was away,--what was the slip of paper?"
Jannet handed to her uncle the slip which she had found. He frowned
over it, reading it more than once and looking off into space as if
trying to recall something. "I never saw that before, Jannet," said he,
handing it back to her. "This looks pretty serious, Jannet. It looks as
if you owe to some unfriendly hand the fact that your mother was so
separated from us and that you have been among strangers since your
grandmother's death."
"Do you think that my mother could possibly be alive somewhere?"
"Of course I do not know the date of this telegram, but the word of her
death seemed so clear that I never tried to trace the telegram after
finding it. I would not cherish such a possibility, Jannet. Wherever
she is, in that other world that she believed in, she will be glad that
you are here, and I am glad to have an opportunity to make up to you
what I seemed in her eyes to lack." Mr. Van Meter spoke kindly, but a
little bitterly at the last.
"Oh, I _believe_ you, Uncle Pieter!" cried Jannet, stretching out a
slender hand to him. He took it, patted it and let her draw it back as
gently as she had given it. Then Jannet drew her chair closer and said,
"Now may I take time to tell you what has been happening?"
"Yes, child. What is it?"
One entering the library would have seen an interesting picture for the
next half hour. The eager Jannet leaned on the desk with both elbows,
and a bright face rested between her two hands as she related to her
uncle every detail of her ghostly experiences and told him all about
the pearls. She was utterly forgetful of herself and her fear of her
uncle. Indeed, that had left her for all time.
Mr. Van Meter, thoughtful, as always, listened, smiling a little from
time to time, for Jannet told it all in her own vivid way, amused
herself, at different times, especially when she told of how she and
Nell listened at the boys' door and of how funny Paulina looked in her
night-cap.
At the close of the recital, Mr. Van Meter questioned her further about
the pearls, as that seemed to be the most serious feature of the
matter. "I feel sure that you will find Jan at the bottom of the ghost
affair," he said. "Of course, you could scarcely offend Paulina more
than to express your disbelief in the family ghost. But if you and Nell
want to investigate, you have my full permission, so far as you keep
within safe bounds. I gather that the ghost has not offered to harm you
in any way?"
"No, sir, even if it did want my comforters."
"I fancy that there will not be any more ghostly visitations till the
next time Jan is home, but let me know if there is one. I should like
to enjoy it with you."
Mr. Van Meter spoke so seriously that Jannet looked at him doubtfully.
It was hard to tell what Uncle Pieter meant sometimes. But he wasn't
such a riddle as "Old P'lina," anyhow.
"Well, don't you think it possible, Uncle Pieter, that there is a
secret passageway of some sort?"
"It is entirely possible, Jannet. I had no work done by the carpenters
about the old chimney, though it was pointed up and had bricks renewed
at its top. I am too busy now to do anything, but later I may be of
some assistance. By the way, Jannet, did you know that Andy mounted a
horse and rode with me quite a little? All at once his back seems to be
better. The doctors said it might be so. Do you like Andy?"
"Oh, yes, Uncle Pieter! No one could help loving Cousin Andy."
It was not until Jannet had left the library and her uncle that she
recalled one thing which she had forgotten. She had not asked him how
he had discovered her. But her doubts about her uncle were at rest. He
was a peculiar man in some respects. Jannet felt that he was ashamed to
show the least emotion, but she was sure that he had some feelings for
all that. She might never love him as she could love her cousin Andy,
but she respected him. More than ever Jannet felt herself a part of her
mother's family.
Hurrah for Jannet and Nell, the famous "deteckatives," she thought, and
before dinner she telephoned Nell to see how soon she could come over.
"I've got lots of things to tell you, Nell," she urged.
"I'd love to come to-day, Jannet," Nell replied, "but we have company.
I was just going to call you to see if you could ride over this
afternoon. Can't you?"
"Why, yes, I can, so far as I know now. I'll call you later."
Thus it happened that attic investigations were postponed; but the
detective-in-chief sought an interview with one of the main "suspects"
as soon as she could.