WHAT WASHINGTON BONES HAD TO TELL
Dave was the first of the four chums to awaken in the morning. He
glanced toward the window, to find it covered with frost and snow,
thus leaving the room almost dark. The wind was still blowing
furiously, and the room was quite cold. Without disturbing Ben our
hero looked at his watch and found that it was almost eight o'clock.
He leaped up and commenced to dress.
"Hello! getting up already?" came sleepily from his roommate, as Ben
stretched himself and rubbed his eyes. "It must be pretty early."
"That's where you're mistaken, Ben," was Dave's answer. "In a few
minutes more it will be eight o'clock."
"You don't say so! How dark it is! But I suppose it's the frost on the
window makes that," went on the real estate dealer's son, as he, too,
got up. "Phew! but it's some cold, isn't it?" and he started to dress
without delay.
The noise the two boys made in moving around the room aroused the
others, and soon they too were getting up.
"Wow! Talk about Greenland's Icy Mountains!" commented Phil, with a
shiver. "How'd you like to go outside, Roger, just as you are, and
have a snowball fight?"
"Nothing doing!" retorted the senator's son, who was getting into his
clothing just as rapidly as possible. "Say, fellows, but this surely
is some snowstorm!" he continued, as he walked to the window and
scraped some frost from a pane of glass so that he could catch a
glimpse of what was outside. "It's still snowing to beat the band!" he
announced.
"And listen to the wind!" broke in Ben. "Why, sometimes it fairly
rocks the building!"
"Doesn't look much as if we were going to get back to-day," said Dave.
"I suppose the roads are practically impassable."
"They must be if it snowed all night," answered Ben. "Let us go down
and take a look around."
"I wonder if the girls are up yet?" questioned Roger.
"It won't make much difference whether they are or not," returned
Dave. "If we can't get away from here they may as well sleep as long
as they please. There certainly isn't much to do in this small
hotel."
The youths were soon washed and dressed, and then all trooped below.
They passed the rooms occupied by the girls and by Dr. Renwick and
his wife, but heard no sounds coming from within.
"They are taking advantage of the storm to have a good rest,"
commented Phil. He gave a yawn. "I almost wish I had remained in bed
myself. We won't have a thing to do here."
"I noticed a bowling alley next door, Phil," announced Roger. "If we
can't do anything else to-day we can bowl a few games. That will be
fine exercise."
"Do the girls know about bowling?" questioned Ben.
"Not very much," answered Dave. "Laura has bowled a few games, I
believe. But it will be fun to teach them, if we don't find anything
better to do."
The boys walked through the small lobby of the hotel and into the
smoking room. Here several men were congregated, all talking about the
storm and the prospects of getting away.
"The snow is nearly two feet deep on the level," said one man; "but
the wind has carried it in all directions so that while the road is
almost bare in some spots there are drifts six and eight feet high in
others."
"Looks as if we were snowed in good and proper," returned another man.
"I wanted to get to one of those stores across the way, and I had
about all I could do to make it. In one place I got into snow up to my
waist, and it was all I could do to get out of it."
"Doesn't look like much of a chance to get away from here," observed
Roger.
"We are booked to stay right where we are," declared Phil; "so we
might as well make the best of it."
"Let us go out to the barn and see what Wash Bones has to say,"
suggested Dave. "He has probably been watching the storm and knows
just how things are on the road."
"All right," returned Ben. "But I am going to put on my cap and
overcoat before I go. It must be pretty cold out there even though
they do keep the doors shut."
"Yes, I'll get my cap and overcoat, too," said Dave. Phil and Roger
had taken their things up to the third floor the night before, and now
had their overcoats over their arms.
The large rack in the hallway of the hotel was well filled with
garments of various kinds, so that Ben had to make quite a search
before he found his own things. In the meantime, Dave was also
hunting, but without success.
"That's mighty queer," remarked the latter. "I don't seem to see my
cap or my overcoat anywhere."
"Oh, it must be there, Dave," cried his chum. "Just take another look.
Maybe the overcoat has gotten folded under another."
Both youths made a thorough search, which lasted so long that Phil and
Roger came into the hallway to ascertain what was keeping them.
"Dave can't find his overcoat or his cap," explained Ben. "We've
hunted everywhere for them."
"Didn't you take them up-stairs last night?" questioned Phil.
"No, I left them on this rack. And Ben left his things here, too,"
replied Dave. "I can't understand it at all;" and he looked worried.
"Maybe Laura saw them and took them upstairs, thinking they wouldn't
be safe here," suggested Roger.
"I hardly think that, Roger. However, as the coat and cap are not
here, maybe I'd better ask her."
Another search for the missing things followed, Dave looking through
the parlor and the other rooms on the ground floor of the hotel, and
even peeping into the restaurant, where a number of folks were at
breakfast. Then he went upstairs and knocked softly on the door of the
room which Laura and Jessie were occupying.
"Who is it?" asked his sister, in a somewhat sleepy tone of voice.
"It's I, Laura," answered her brother. "I want to know if you brought
my cap and overcoat upstairs last night."
"Why, no, Dave, I didn't touch them. What is the matter--can't you
find them?"
"No, and I've hunted high and low," he returned. "I don't suppose any
of the other girls or the doctor touched them?"
"I am quite sure they did not." Laura came to the door and peeped out
at him. "Are you boys all up already?"
"Yes, we went down-stairs a little while ago. We were going out to the
barn, and that's why I wanted my overcoat and cap. They seem to be
gone, and I don't know what to make of it;" and now Dave's face showed
increased anxiety.
"What's the trouble?" came from Jessie, and then Laura closed the door
again. Dave heard some conversation between all of the girls, and then
between Laura and Mrs. Renwick. Then his sister came to the door once
more.
"None of us touched your cap or overcoat, Dave," she said. "Isn't it
queer? Do you suppose they have been stolen?"
"I hope not, Laura. I'm going down and see the hotel proprietor about
it."
The proprietor of the hostelry was not on hand, but his son, a young
fellow of about Dave's age, was behind the desk, and he listened with
interest to what our hero had to say. Then he, too, instituted a
search for the missing things.
"I can't understand this any more than you can," he announced, after
this additional search had proved a failure. "I didn't know we had any
thieves around here. Are you sure you left the coat and cap on this
rack?"
"Yes, I am positive," announced Dave.
"I saw him do it, when I placed my own things on the same rack,"
declared Ben.
"But you found your coat and cap all right?"
"Yes."
"It's mighty queer," declared the young clerk, shaking his head. "I
guess I'd better tell my father about this."
The hotel proprietor was called, and he at once instituted a number of
inquiries concerning the missing things. But all these proved of no
avail. No one had taken Dave's wearing apparel, and none of the hired
help had seen any one else take the things or wear them.
"You should have taken your things up to your room last night,"
declared the hotel proprietor, during the course of the search. "It's
a bad idea to leave things on a rack like this, with so many strangers
coming and going all the time."
He agreed to lend Dave a coat and a hat, and, donning these, the youth
walked through the little shelter leading to the stables, accompanied
by his chums.
"If those things are not recovered I think you can hold the hotel man
responsible," remarked Roger.
"Just what I think," put in Ben. "That overcoat was a pretty nice one,
Dave; and the cap was a peach."
"I'll see what can be done, in case the things don't turn up,"
returned our hero.
They found Washington Bones down among the stablemen, taking care of
his horses.
"Well, Wash, what are the prospects for getting away this morning?"
questioned Roger.
"Ain't no prospects, so far as I kin see," declared the colored
driver. "This suah am one terrible sto'm. I neber seen the like befo'
aroun' heah."
"Then you don't think we're going to get back to Crumville to-day?"
questioned Ben.
"No-sir. Why, if we was to try it we'd suah git stuck befo' we got out
ob dis town. Some ob de drifts is right to de top of de fust story ob
de houses." Washington Bones looked questioningly at Dave. "How did
you like your trip outside las' night?" he queried. "Must ha' been
some walkin', t'rough sech deep snow."
"My trip outside?" questioned Dave, with a puzzled look. "What do you
mean, Wash? I didn't go out last night."
"You didn't!" exclaimed the colored driver in wonder. "Didn't I see
you leavin' de hotel las' night 'bout half pas' 'levin or a little
later?"
"You certainly did not. I was in bed and sound asleep by half past
eleven," answered Dave.
"Well now, don't dat beat all!" cried the colored man, his eyes
rolling in wonder. "I went outside jest to take a las' look aroun'
befo' turning in, and I seen a young fellow and a man leavin' de
hotel. Dey come right pas' where a lantern was hung up on the porch,
and when dat light struck on de young fellow's face I thought suah as
you're bo'n it was you. Why, he looked like you, and he had on de same
kind of cap and overcoat dat you was a-wearin' yeste'day. I see you've
got on something different to-day."
"A fellow who looked like me and who had on my cap and my overcoat!"
ejaculated Dave. He turned to his chums. "What do you make of that?"
"Maybe it was Ward Porton!" cried Roger.
"If it was, he must have run away and taken Dave's cap and overcoat
with him," added Ben.