THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED
Harry told her story later to Roy and Chub, who laughed immoderately
and, as Harry thought at first, somewhat unkindly. But after a while
she joined her laughter with theirs.
“Oh, he’s a peach!” declared Chub. “He’s too much for us!”
“Nothing of the sort!” said Harry. “He got the better of me to-day,
but--”
“A time will come!” suggested Chub.
“And I’ll catch him yet; you see if I don’t! He’s not so awfully smart.”
“Well, he seems to be a heap smarter than any of us,” said Roy. “I vote
we leave him alone. When he gets good and ready he will probably tell
us what he’s up to.”
“Leave him alone nothing!” said Chub. “Even if we can’t find out what
he’s doing, we can make his life a burden to him. And I, for one,
propose to do it. Look at the way he treated us in Silver Cove the
other day! Let him alone? I guess not!”
“No, indeed,” agreed Harry. “It’s war to the death!”
“‘Revenge!’” suggested Roy laughingly.
“You bet,” answered Chub.
The next day Dick, for some reason, refused to disappear or even
attempt to. And that was a great disappointment to Harry, who had
made all preparations to follow him and discover his secret--although
without the aid of a disguise. When they met, as they did several times
in the course of the day, Harry passed him with her small nose held at
a disdainful angle. Dick only grinned.
There was hockey practice that afternoon and Dick went down to the rink
to look on. Of course Harry and Chub followed at a discreet distance,
doing their best to appear unaware of his presence in the world.
During practice Dick stood across the rink and smiled amusedly at them
whenever they glanced across, a proceeding which drove Harry to heights
of exasperation. Once in a lull of practice Roy skated up to them.
“Do you see him over there?” he asked softly.
“Of course we do,” answered Harry disgustedly. “Do you think we’re
blind? He’s been grinning and grinning at us for half an hour.”
Roy shook his head gravely.
“Ah,” he muttered, “little he recks--”
Then he dashed away out of Chub’s reach.
But the next day brought triumph to Sherlock Holmes, Vidocq and
Estrella De Vere, proving the truth of the old adage which declares
that he laughs best who laughs last. For at noon Roy and Chub, tumbling
out of School Hall after a recitation, found Harry awaiting them. Her
eyes were dancing and she was all excitement.
“Revenge!” she whispered dramatically.
“Good! What’s up?” asked Chub.
“I have tracked him to his lair!” whispered Harry. “All is discovered!
The miscreant is in our power! Estrella De Vere has--”
“What do you mean, Harry? Have you found out about Dick?”
“I have discovered all! Listen!”
And Estrella De Vere, the Female Detective, with Sherlock Holmes on one
side and Vidocq on the other, passed down the path.
Ten minutes later Dick came out of School Hall and stood for a minute
on the porch, looking idly about him. The snow which had covered the
campus a foot deep a fortnight before was almost gone, and in places
the sere brown turf showed through the worn and tattered coverlid of
white. It was quite warm to-day, with a muggy atmosphere and a leaden
sky, almost too warm for snow, and yet feeling very much like it. There
was a steady _drip_, _drip_ from the eaves and ledges, and the walks
were showing borders of trickling water. Dick frowned and looked
anxiously into the sky. What he saw there seemed to please him but
little, for the frown deepened.
“Two or three days of this sort of weather,” he muttered half aloud,
“and the ice won’t be worth a cent.”
Then, looking carefully about him again, he went down the steps and
turned to the right toward Burgess. There were several boys in sight,
but, and this was suspicious, neither Chub, Roy, nor Harry was to be
seen. He took his books into the study room and deposited them on the
big table. Then, the room being deserted, he crossed to one of the end
windows and looked stealthily out. Apparently the coast was clear. But
he was taking no chances, and so he stole around to a front window
and viewed the prospect carefully from there. He seemed puzzled, for
he thrust his hands into his pockets, stared steadily for a whole
minute at the engraving of “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” which
adorned the wall above the fireplace, and whistled softly to himself.
Then, having apparently decided upon a course of action, he left the
study room, crossed the corridor and opened a door which gave on to
a descending stairway leading to the cellar. Down this he went very
quietly, reached the furnace room and from there gained the outer air
by way of a flight of stone steps. He was in a small stone-paved court
behind the building, with the hedge marking inner bounds but a few
paces away. There was a gate here, and making his way between a double
row of ash barrels he passed through it and plunged into the Grove.
Then he turned to the right and wound between the trees, crossing the
path to the boat-house and river at right angles, and keeping well out
of sight of the windows of the halls. Five minutes of this brought him
to the corner of the hedge. Here the trees ceased abruptly and gave way
to snow-covered fields. Crouching behind the hedge so that his head
was below the top of it, he followed it at right angles to his first
course until opposite the barn and stables. Here he raised his head and
reconnoitered. There was no one in sight and presently he was wriggling
his way through a hole in the hedge. From there he passed around the
back of the small stable and fetched up before a small door leading to
the basement of the barn. That door required careful handling, for it
hung only by one leather hinge. But Dick managed to get through it,
displaying a certain degree of familiarity with its idiosyncrasies, and
closed it behind him.
He found himself in total darkness, but without hesitation he crossed
the earthen floor and climbed a narrow flight of steps. As he went
upward the darkness gave way to gray twilight and when he reached the
main floor of the barn behind the cow stalls it was light enough to
allow him to see distinctly about him. So far he had made scarcely a
sound since entering the building, and now he crept very quietly along
until he could see the closed door. The barn was deserted save for
the inmates of the boxes across the bare floor, and even they were so
quiet that no one would have suspected their presence. Dick gave a sigh
of relief and walked less stealthily to the back of the barn where a
ladder led straight upward to the edge of the loft. He sprang nimbly
onto it and ascended until he could crawl over the edge of the upper
flooring.
In front of him was a space some thirty feet broad by twenty deep. On
one side it was used as a storage place for a couple of old sleighs,
the remnants of a windmill and similar discarded truck. On the other
side the remains of last summer’s hay was stowed in a mow which ran
along over the cow stalls. In the center of the loft, under the small
window, was a large packing-box and beside it was a small one. On
the larger one were spread several sheets of brown paper, pencils, a
square, a rule, a pair of dividers and other tools of the draftsman.
There was a good light from the window, in spite of the fact that its
four small panes were obscured with dust and spider webs.
Dick went to his improvised table, took up a piece of kneaded rubber
which lay there, and played with it while he studied the top sheet of
paper. It was pretty well covered with lines and figures, but only the
designer knew what they stood for. After a moment he drew the small box
up and sat down on it, discarded the eraser for pencil and rule and set
to work.
It was very quiet in the barn. Now and then Methuselah moved in his
cage and muttered unintelligibly or a bat squeaked somewhere overhead
in the darkness. Soon Dick was quite oblivious to everything save
the work before him. He drew lines with his pencil, used ruler and
dividers, set down figures on a smaller sheet of paper and multiplied
or added or subtracted, erased lines already drawn, and through it all
wore a deep frown which told how wholly absorbed he was in the task.
And so he didn’t hear the soft rustlings which came from the top of the
haymow a few feet away when three heads were thrust into view. Heard
nothing, in fact, until the silence was suddenly shattered by a sudden
“AH, THERE!”
[Illustration: “Ah, there!”]
He heard then; oh, yes, quite plainly!
Down dropped his pencil, over went the smaller box with a slam and Dick
was staggering away in an effort to find his feet, his face very white
and his mouth wide open for the exclamation of alarm which he was too
frightened to give. There followed a brief moment of silence during
which Dick stared at the three laughing, triumphant faces topping the
haymow. Then the color crept back into his cheeks and he slowly closed
his mouth.
“Humph!” he said at last.
“Move hand or foot,” cried Chub dramatically, “and you are a dead man!”
“We have you in our power at last!” added Harry. And--
“Little you recked,” said Roy.
Dick picked up the box and began to grin.
“Well, you caught me at last, didn’t you?” he asked. “But I don’t see
why Harry left off that lovely disguise of hers.”
“If you hadn’t seen my hair--” began Harry vehemently.
“Be careful what you say,” interrupted Chub, sliding down from the top
of the mow, “for it will be used against you.”
The others followed and Roy playfully dug Dick in the ribs.
“Old Smarty was caught at last, wasn’t he?” he cried.
“Took you long enough, though,” said Dick. “And gave you some good
exercise, too, eh?”
“We don’t deny, my boy, that you fooled us very nicely several times,”
answered Chub, “but the expression on your handsome countenance a
moment ago made up for everything.”
“I dare say,” laughed Dick. “I was scared stiff. How did you find out
about this drawing-room of mine?”
“That was Harry,” said Roy. “She came in here this morning before
school and let ’Thuselah out of his cage and he climbed up here and
wouldn’t come down. And as she had to hurry to school she came up and
got him and saw the things here. Then she told us about it and after
school we hurried over here and hid in the hay.”
“Well,” said Dick regretfully, “I wish I’d stuck to my first plan and
gone to the Cove instead of coming up here. Then you’d all have had a
nice quiet afternoon in the hay.”
“But you didn’t!” said Harry triumphantly. “And it was the female
detective that discovered you. Sherlock Holmes and Vidocq were
out-detected by Estrella De Vere!”
“Eh?” asked Dick.
Then they told him all about their impersonations and he thought it was
a huge joke, and mollified Harry completely by congratulating her on
her triumph over the others. Then they compared notes for the past week.
“Where did you go the day we followed you to the stationery store?”
asked Roy.
“I went out the back door and came around to the street and watched
from the next corner until you crossed and went into the store. Then I
went--about my business.”
“And that reminds me,” said Roy, “that we don’t know yet what you’re up
to. Are you going to ’fess up now?”
“Sure. I’d have told you all about it long ago if you hadn’t begun this
detective work. When I found what you were up to I thought I’d just
give you a run for your money.”
“Is it anything about the F. H. S. I. S.?” asked Harry. Dick shook his
head.
“No,” he replied. “The fact is that’s at a standstill, I guess. I’ve
had it in mind right along, but I can’t think of any way to go ahead.
How about you?”
“I haven’t thought of anything,” Harry confessed. And Roy and Chub
answered the same way.
“Well, it’ll come in time,” said Dick. “How about the funds, Harry? Got
them safe?”
“Yes, they’re--but maybe I oughtn’t to tell where I keep them.”
“Just as well not to, I guess,” Dick laughed. “Chub might get hard up
and borrow them.”
“Look here, Dick, what’s all this mean?” asked Roy, who was staring
perplexedly at the drawing on top of the packing-case. “Are you
inventing something?”
“Pshaw,” said Chub, “that’s just a problem in trig., isn’t it, Dick?”
“Well, you know all about it, so what’s the use of asking me?”
“No, go ahead and tell us, like a good fellow,” said Roy.
“Well, then, it’s the plan of an ice-boat.”
“Ice-boat!” exclaimed the others in chorus.
“Yes, why not?”
“But--but what’s it for?” asked Chub.
“To sail.”
“You mean you are going to make one?”
“Yes, it’s being made now.”
“Well, I’ll be jiggered!” Chub exclaimed. “Whatever put that into your
crazy head?”
“Oh, I’ve wanted it ever since I saw that one of Thurston’s the day
that Roy took a cold bath. So I found out all I could about the things;
read everything I could find, you know. That was what I was doing that
night in the library when you thought I was reading about fly-casting
or something.”
“Didn’t think anything of the kind,” Roy disclaimed. “I saw you turn
the pages as we came up.”
“Did you? All right. Well, I finally got some idea about the things and
had a talk with a fellow at the Cove. He builds boats, but has never
tried his hand at ice-boats before. He didn’t want to have anything to
do with it at first, but I finally got him interested. He said I’d
better go to some fellow at Poughkeepsie or somewhere who knew all
about them, but I told him I wanted it made where I could have a finger
in the pie. So he got busy. I made the drawings and he’s building
accordingly.”
“Is this it?” asked Roy interestedly, pointing to the plan before him.
“No, that’s only the sail-plan. The other’s at the Cove; Johnson has
it.”
“That’s what you bought the lumber for!” exclaimed Chub. Dick nodded.
“Yes. And I’ve bought a lot more since then. It’s costing like
anything, but it’s lots of fun. I want you all to go over with me
Saturday and have a look at it.”
“How big is it, Dick?” asked Roy.
“It’s just a smallish one,” was the answer. “Twenty-nine feet long by
eighteen wide.”
“Phew!” cried Roy. “It doesn’t sound small! When will it be done?”
“I don’t know; about a week, I guess. The worst thing is figuring
about the sails. You see, I don’t know very much about sailing; never
sailed anything in my life but a kite. So it’s puzzling, and I’m more
than half guessing. Maybe the fool thing won’t go when it is done.”
“Course it’ll go,” said Chub. “A sail’s a sail.”
“I think it’s perfectly grand!” said Harry with awe. “Will you take me
out in it, Dick, when it’s finished?”
“Of course; and if it does manage to go I’m going to send a challenge
to that Thurston chap.”
“Say, that’ll be bully!” cried Chub. “And I’m just dying to see the
thing. Can’t we go over before Saturday?”
“Maybe, but it won’t be very far along before that time. A lot of
the bolts and braces had to be made, and that takes time, you know.
Besides, that’s only three days from now.”
“What color are you going to paint it?” asked Harry.
“Well, I’d like to have her red,” answered Dick, “but I suppose it
wouldn’t do, for that’s Hammond’s color, and, besides, Thurston’s is
red.”
“Paint her blue,” suggested Roy.
“Pink,” said Chub.
“I guess I’ll have her green,” Dick said. “That shows up pretty well at
a distance.”
“And call her the _Shamrock_ or the _Erin Go Bragh_,” laughed Roy.
“What _are_ you going to call her, by the way?”
“Haven’t thought much about that yet. Usually they call ’em _Icicles_
or _Jack Frosts_ or _Blizzards_, but I’d rather have something a little
newer.”
“Well, you can name her after me if you want to,” observed Chub
modestly.
“Yes, call her the _Chump_,” said Roy.
“Let’s all think of names for it,” cried Harry. “We’ll write them down
so as not to forget them and then we’ll give them to Dick and he can
select one.”
“And the one whose name is selected,” suggested Chub, “gets a prize,
like--like not having to ride on the boat.”
“You’ll be glad enough to ride on her when you see her,” said Dick.
“Who? Me?” queried Chub. “Well, maybe so; I’m naturally of a brave and
reckless disposition. In fact, as far as I’m personally concerned I’d
like it, but there is the community to think of. Of course, I owe it to
the community to be careful of myself and not--”
“You’re talking a great deal of nonsense, Thomas H. Eaton,” said Harry.
“If Dick asks me to go with him I’ll go mighty quick!”
“If it’s any sort of a boat that’s just the way you will go,” observed
Roy dryly. “So quick you won’t know what’s happening to you.”
“It must be lovely!” cried Harry, clasping her hands and looking
enraptured.
“Has any one seen Thurston’s boat lately?” asked Chub.
“Yes,” Roy answered, “I see it pretty nearly every afternoon. It’s a
hummer, too. I think he goes over to school on it in the mornings and
back to the Cove in the afternoon, because I’ve seen him heading that
way several times about the time we get through hockey practice.”
“The only thing I’m afraid of,” said Dick, with an uneasy glance
through the grimy window, “is that we’ll have a thaw before I get her
ready.”
“That’s so,” Chub agreed, “it looks like that now. But you can’t tell;
it may be frozen tight again by morning. Where are you going to get
your sails, Dick?”
“At the Cove. There’s a fellow there makes them. And, say, you fellows,
I’ve got to finish this plan this afternoon so as to take it over
to-morrow. I don’t want to seem inhospitable, but if you’ll just let me
alone for about an hour I can do it.”
“Of course we will,” Harry declared. “We’ll go right away. Come on,
Vidocq, and Sherlock Holmes!”
“You’re sure you don’t want me to stay and help you?” asked Chub. “I’m
a terror at planning; once I planned a dog-house.”
“I’ll bet it was a peach!” jeered Roy.
“It was. I put a door at each end so Caesar could get in and out
easily, but the fool dog thought it was a tunnel and used to run
through it full-tilt like an express train.”
“Get out!” said Dick.
“Fact, really! He’d get a good start and go through like sixty; and he
used to whistle as he went in.”
“Chub Eaton!” cried Harry. “You come on home after that!”
“All right,” laughed Chub. “This is no place for genius, anyway. After
you, Miss Estrella De Vere.”