WHERE THERE’S A WILL
Jiminies, up to that time I never knew how near Temple Camp had come to
getting that land. Because Mr. Saul Bagley sure was strong for the
Scouts. He was mighty nice the way he spoke about Mr. Temple and all the
councilors and trustees. And oh boy, didn’t he roast the people that
owned the land! They were his cousins, but anyway, he didn’t have much
use for them.
Pee-wee said, “Maybe those cousins knew about that will where he left
everything to you and maybe they waited for him when he was on his way
home and maybe they--maybe they did something to him, hey? So you
wouldn’t get all the property and everything; hey? Maybe they got the
will.”
Mr. Bagley said to Pee-wee, “I see you are a Boy Scout with brains. But
you are mistaken. My cousins who came into my father’s property were all
at home that night. I investigated everything myself. They were having a
barn dance in their home. They are not murderers. There was no murder or
foul play of any kind as far as I have been able to find out. _And
that’s the mystery._”
He said he would take us and show us just where his father’s body was
found and that was when we forgot all about the wind dying down and our
solemn pledge and everything. So you see our following-the-wind hike
didn’t last long. And that’s why I’ll never trust the wind
again--because it’s a quitter. Even a tempest I wouldn’t trust. Just
like I told you in the beginning this hike goes every which way, and
anyway, it isn’t a hike at all. But if you want to follow us you’ll see
some fun.
On the way to Beaver Chasm, Mr. Bagley told us that he used to live with
his father on the farm in Bagley Center. His cousins lived on another
farm. After his father lost his life, Mr. Bagley went to live on the
other farm with his cousins. Those were the people that got all of old
man Bagley’s property. He said the reason why his father had left
everything to those cousins was because he was good and mad on account
of him running away from home. He said he ran away when he was fifteen
years old and never came back till he was thirty--jiminies, I bet he had
a lot of fun.
Dub said, “I bet you were a wild boy all right.”
Mr. Bagley said, “I sailed before the mast, twice around the Cape of
Good Hope and once to Africa. I can show you boys an elephant’s tusk
from an elephant I shot; I suppose that piece of ivory is worth a
hundred dollars.” All the while he was walking along, he talked to us;
_oh boy_, he was interesting.
Dub asked him how he happened to come home and he said he came home when
his mother died. But even still his father kept on being mad at him,
because he didn’t like to work around the farm--gee whiz, I didn’t blame
him, I wouldn’t either, not after being in Africa and all places like
that. But anyway, after a while old Ephraim Bagley decided he was sorry
he had left him out of his will and he made a new one and took it to
Catskill and got witnesses to it and everything. And that was where the
cousins got left out entirely, in that will. But anyway, it didn’t do
poor Mr. Saul Bagley any good.
Sandy, he’s very sober like when he’s not laughing at Pee-wee and me.
He’s kind of sensible like Westy Martin, only different. He asked Mr.
Bagley why he didn’t think that maybe those cousins did have something
to do with the way old Mr. Bagley died and something to do with the way
the will disappeared, too. Mr. Bagley said because nobody except him and
his father knew about the will, so why should any one want to kill him?
“That’s a dandy argument,” Pee-wee said. “And it’s a dandy mystery too,
because what became of the will?”
“That’s the question,” Mr. Bagley said.
“A will is no good just if you steal it or happen to find it,” Sandy
said. “I can’t see why any one would want to get hold of it--except
maybe those cousins.”
All of a sudden, Mr. Bagley stopped right short where we were in the
woods and he looked straight at Pee-wee and said very slow and scary
like, “That--will--is--still--in--Beaver Chasm.”
“Good night!” I said.
“Do you want us to find it?” Pee-wee piped up. “Those are just the kinds
of things we’re supposed to do, because we’re scouts and we even find
lost people sometimes--you look in the newspapers and see. And I bet if
that will is down there we can find it, because anyway, I know a feller
that lost a licorice jaw-breaker through a cellar grating in front of a
grocery store in Bridgeboro where I live and because I told him to buy
an ice cream cone instead and he wouldn’t so I said I’d get it from him
because Scouts have to be out for service.”
“Sometimes they’re out for jaw-breakers,” Dub said.
Pee-wee went right on and he said, “I went in the store and so I could
get on the right side of the grocery man I bought three bananas----”
“Talk about service!” Sandy said.
“Yes, continue,” I said, “and be sure to stop when you get to the end.
We now have two bananas and the problem is which was the other one----”
“Are you going to let me tell Mr. Bagley or not?” the kid yelled at me.
I said, “Mr. Bagley, you must excuse our young hero, he was born during
the famine in Hiawatha and that’s why he’s always eating Indian meal.
His favorite fairy tale is Beauty and the Feast. When it comes to
stalking a licorice jaw-breaker----”
Just then Mr. Bagley stopped and laid his hand on my shoulder and he
said, “If you boys want a _real_ hunt; if you want to make _names_ for
yourselves, now is your chance. And it’s no matter for joking.”
Jiminies, that made us all sober. Even I was sorry that I started
kidding Pee-wee. I said, “Believe me, if there’s anything we can do to
help you we’ll be only too glad to do it.”
“Sure, that’s our middle name,” Pee-wee said.
Mr. Bagley said, “And you’ll be helping yourselves too; you’ll be
helping Temple Camp.”
“That’s us,” I said.