A WITNESS
The gaunt looking man in the belfry seemed unaware of the Cubs’ presence
on the iron stairway.
Wrapped in heavy blankets, he sat with his back to the rim of the big
bell. His feet rested comfortably on a stone ledge of the tower. He gazed
lazily into space, absorbed by his own reverie.
As Dan and Brad huddled together, watching, the man presently shifted his
position. His shoulder brushed against the bell, causing the clapper to
swing.
“Drat it!” the man exclaimed impatiently. He seized the striker to
prevent it from sounding. Having steadied the bell, he again settled down
into his blankets.
The mystery surrounding the old church now had been partially solved. Dan
and Brad could not guess the stranger’s identity, but they were fairly
certain he had been living in the belfry for days, perhaps weeks.
No imagination was required to explain the previous strange tapping of
the bell and Pat’s terror on Halloween night. The Bay Shore boys likely
had seen this man in the belfry and had mistaken him for a ghost!
Dan’s lips cracked into a grin at recollection of how Pat and his cronies
had fled from the building. It really had been funny!
A bat came whirring down the well of the stairway, swooping close to the
boys. Dan nearly lost his grasp on the spiral railing.
Involuntarily, he uttered a choked cry as he cringed back. Slight as was
the sound, it reached the ears of the man in the belfry above.
Throwing off his blankets, he leaped to his feet.
“Who’s there?” he demanded, peering down.
The daylight above seemed to have blinded him, for he did not immediately
see the two boys crouching in the semi-darkness. But they could not
escape detection.
“Come up out of there!” he ordered, as he made out their shadowy forms.
“A couple of kids, eh?”
Brad and Dan were nervous as they faced the stranger. The wind had blown
his dark hair and he was unshaven. His eyes, however, had a friendly
twinkle which slightly reassured them. They were relieved too, to note
that he did not appear to be armed.
“Well, well! A couple of curious Cubs,” the man said cheerfully. “So
you’ve finally caught me?”
Already Dan and Brad had lost their fear of the stranger. He was a man of
early middle age, well-built and deeply tanned from having lived an
outdoor life. Why, they wondered, had he chosen the church belfry for his
home?
“You’ve been living here a long while, haven’t you?” Dan asked.
“I’ve been sleeping here off and on about three weeks,” the stranger
shrugged. “This place, I’m telling you, isn’t very cozy now that the
nights are so cold.”
“Couldn’t you have slept in the church, instead of in this bird roost?”
Brad asked.
“Oh, some nights I do.” The stranger had gathered up his army blankets
and was folding them neatly. “I stay up here because I like the cool,
clean air. I can sleep anywhere. Learned it in the army. Up here I don’t
have to keep an eye out all the time for that pest, Terry the Terrible.”
“The church caretaker?” Dan asked, smiling at the nickname.
“Sure, he’s always checking up, but never did tumble to the fact that he
had a non-paying renter in his building.”
“Who are you anyhow?” Dan asked bluntly. “Didn’t we see you the other
night at the basketball game?”
“I was there, son.”
“You didn’t tell us your name,” Dan reminded him.
“Didn’t I?” The man smiled as he ran a hand over his stubbly two-day-old
beard. “Would you take me for a tramp?”
“Not exactly.” Dan scarcely knew how to classify the stranger. He spoke
excellent English and had certain refinements that one usually did not
associate with a tramp. Yet obviously, the fellow was without funds or he
wouldn’t be living in the belfry.
“You must excuse my appearance,” the man said. “I haven’t had a chance to
get to my barber yet today.”
Picking up a knapsack from the stone floor, he began to take out toilet
articles—a razor, a mirror and shaving cream.
“You know you have no right to be living here,” Brad burst out. “How did
you get in, anyhow? Through the coal chute?”
“I did the first time. After that, I used the door.”
“But this church was supposed to be locked. Terry checks on the place, or
at least he’s supposed to.”
“The caretaker’s a nice old codger, but not very alert. If he had been,
he’d never have left a key lying around.”
“You found it?” Brad questioned.
“It may not have been his,” the stranger admitted. “I came upon it the
day I holed in here. Found it lying on a window sill, and discovered it
unlocked one of the doors. So I’ve used it ever since. Convenient.”
“Terry probably was afraid to admit to the trustees that he had lost one
of his keys!” Dan exclaimed. “Say, he could have cleared up a lot of
things for our Den, if he’d acted right!”
No longer uneasy in the stranger’s presence, the two boys now plied him
with eager questions. Did he live in the belfry because he had no money?
How long had he been in Webster City?
“Don’t fire ’em at me so fast,” the man chuckled. “I haven’t been out of
the army very long. I have a little money, but I’m trying to make it last
until I get a certain job I’m after. Besides, I have another little
matter here in Webster City—”
“Mr. Hatfield probably could help you find work,” Brad offered. “He’s our
Cub leader.”
“I’ll find work all right, son. Fact is, I don’t plan on staying in this
town very long. Not unless—”
“Unless what?” Brad caught him up.
“Well, it depends on a certain matter. My own private affairs.”
Deliberately, the man changed the subject. “Tell me about the Cubs,” he
requested. “Do you like the organization.”
“It’s the best in the world,” Dan said proudly.
“Don’t you have a boy in your den by the name of Chub?”
“Sure,” Dan agreed. “He’s new. You must know him. I saw you talking to
him the other night at the basketball game.”
“He’s a lot like my own son. I had a boy once.”
“I see,” Dan murmured. He remained silent, reflecting that in appearance
Chub might have been related to this stranger. Although the color of
their hair and eyes was different, the contour of their faces was much
the same. A coincidence, of course. But why was this man so interested in
Chub?
“I don’t mind telling you about myself,” the man said after a long
hesitation. “First of all, I have no criminal record. I’ve stolen nothing
and broken no law, except that I’ve trespassed on this property.”
“You could be arrested for that,” Brad reminded him.
“I know,” the man admitted. “I figured that sooner or later I’d be caught
here. I’ll move out today. I’d hoped to stay a little longer—but never
mind.”
“You should tell us your name.”
“I should,” the man agreed. “Just call me Mr. Smith. When the right time
comes, you’ll learn my true name.”
Brad and Dan were becoming more confused each moment. They liked the
friendly stranger, but could not understand why he acted so mysteriously.
If he had no criminal record, why should he hesitate to reveal his name?
“What happened Halloween night?” Dan asked curiously. “You must have
played ghost.”
Mr. Smith laughed aloud at the recollection. “I heard those boys speaking
up the stairway,” he revealed. “I waited until they were nearly in the
belfry. Then I popped out with a blanket over my face. I made moaning
sounds and wild gestures. Those kids bolted out of here like a streak of
lightning.”
“From time to time, we’ve heard the bell tap,” Dan went on. “Were you
responsible?”
“Afraid I’ll have to plead guilty. Once when the kids were here, I hit
the bell by accident. The other times I tapped it on purpose. I didn’t
want to scare the kids too much—only wanted to keep them from playing
around here.”
Brad had been gazing thoughtfully at the stranger, thinking hard. If the
man had lived in the belfry for three weeks, he must have observed a
great many persons come and go. No wonder he seemed personally acquainted
with the members of Den 2!
“Dan and I came here for a purpose today,” he suddenly disclosed. “You
may have heard the talk in Webster City about the Cubs causing trouble.”
“I did pick up a few rumors.”
“We’ve been accused of doing a lot of damage here,” Brad went on. “It’s
not true.”
“I know that to be a fact.”
“You do?” Brad, in his eagerness, grasped the stranger’s arm. “Could you
help us? That is, what I’m trying to ask—did you see anything that would
help us? Do you know who really did the damage?”
“I do,” the man returned. “I saw the Cubs come here that first day with
their basketball. You kids smashed a window.”
“That was all the damage we did though,” Dan declared. “We were accused
of doing a great deal more.”
“The Cub honor is at stake,” Brad added. “We’ll do anything to prove our
innocence! We think we know who did the damage, but we have no proof.”
The stranger gazed down into the tense, worried faces of the Cubs. His
smile was reassuring.
“I have a soft spot in my heart for the Cubs,” he said. “I want to help
the organization.”
“Can you?” pleaded Dan. “Do you know the boys who damaged this place?”
“A gang showed up here about a half hour after the Cubs broke that
window. They went through the place and really wrecked it. I saw their
faces quite clearly. The ring leader, in particular, I could identify.”
“Pat Oswald?”
“I don’t know his name. He’s captain of the Purple Five basketball team.”
“That’s Pat!” Dan cried. He was so excited he no longer could control his
voice. “Oh, Mr. Smith, you must come with us right away to see the church
trustees! If only we can make them believe the truth, the Cubs’ name will
be cleared!”