EXPLANATIONS
Sandy found Squire Blasdell having an interview with the strange
prisoner.
"I'm putting him on the grill, and trying to find out something about
him, but it's hard work," the Squire said to the young farmer.
"Yes, you might as well save your time," spoke the man. "I'll tell
you nothing!"
"I've got news for you, Squire," said Sandy, a little later when the
constable had been called in to take the stranger back to his cell.
"Looks like good news, by your face, Sandy," the lawyer replied. "You
haven't been finding money for the mortgage; have you?"
"That's just what I have, Squire!" Sandy cried. "We just found Uncle
Isaac's money box!"
"You did! 'Gosh all Hemlock' as the boys used to say. How was it?"
"We found the money box--with a lot of cash and papers in a secret
room in the old barn we're goin' to burn for movin' pictures. We
found the money box, all right."
There was a sound from the room where the prisoner sat. He started to
his feet, and stepped to the grating which separated the cell from
the apartment in which Sandy and the Squire were.
"You say you found Isaac Apgar's hidden wealth?" he asked.
"Yes--but what is that to you?" inquired the Squire.
"A lot to me. The game is up now, and I'll confess everything. I've
been keeping still, hoping I could get out and find that box myself.
That's what my object has been in hanging around your farm," he went
on. "I was looking for that box myself. I--I thought maybe I might
get a reward if I located it."
This statement might be doubtful, but there was no way of disproving
it. The man might have been hoping only for a reward; but, on the
other hand, if he had found the wealth he might have kept it all for
himself.
"How did you come to know about this?" asked Squire Blasdell,
curiously. "Did you ever know Isaac Apgar?"
"Well, I don't know as you could exactly call it 'knowing' him," was
the slow answer, "seeing that he didn't know anybody himself, of
late years. I may as well tell you the whole story. My name is Monk
Freck, and I used to be a keeper in the state lunatic asylum where
Isaac Apgar was confined. That's how I knew him. I was his keeper!"
This was strange and startling news, but it explained many things.
"Go on," urged the Squire. "What about looking for his money?"
"That's it," added Sandy.
"I'll come to that. Though few folks knew it, Mr. Apgar had some
lucid moments during his insanity. He was as right as anyone at
times, but maybe only for a half hour or so at a stretch. And it was
in those times that he'd talk about the wealth he had hidden.
"I tried to get him to tell me just where it was, for I had heard
rumors that he had hidden quite a pile before he went crazy. But he
was either too cunning to tell me, or his mind failed him at the
critical moment. All I could learn was that it was hidden somewhere
about the corner of the old barn on the Apgar place.
"Well, he kept on getting worse until he died, and I made up my mind
to have a try for the money box. I gave up my job in the asylum, and
came here. And since then I've been looking around, trying to make
the discovery, and claim a reward.
"I spent a good deal of time in the barn, but I never thought there
could be a secret room. I thought it might be buried somewhere around
the place. I didn't have much chance to hunt, though, after the
moving picture people got here," he added.
"And was it you who made the queer noises in the barn, and scared the
girls?" asked Sandy.
"It was. I didn't mean to scare 'em, though. I was trying to crawl up
between two beams one day, when I slipped and fell. I rattled some
loose boards where I had lifted some up to have a place to hide. I
hurt myself, too, and I guess I groaned. The fall made me lame for a
while."
"That accounts for your limp," said Sandy. "How did you come to go to
the cabin?"
"Oh, I wanted some place to stay near your barn, and as no one used
the cabin, I took up my quarters there. Before that I often used to
sleep in a secret place in your old barn. But I didn't mean any harm.
Of course I didn't want it known who I was, for if it was learned
that I had been Mr. Apgar's keeper in the asylum everybody would have
guessed my object. So I ran whenever I saw anybody from Oak Farm. But
you finally caught me. I'm not sorry, for I was getting tired of the
game. And so you found the hidden box? Well, I wish it could have
been me."
"Did you steal that dog, too?' asked Sandy.
"No, I did not. I found him wandering about and took a notion to him.
I guess maybe he had been stolen, but I didn't do it. If I had known
who he belonged to I might have got a reward from them."
"The owner is known," Sandy said, "and she may reward you. I feel so
happy that I don't wish anybody bad luck. Now Squire, I suppose the
foreclosure is off; ain't it? I've got more than the four thousand
dollars."
"The old farm is safe, Sandy," the Squire answered, "and I'm glad of
it, for your sake. You may have thought me hard and grasping, but I
had to do the business for my clients. Now we'll have to decide what
to do with this man. I reckon we can let him go, seeing that he
didn't really do anything except take the auto, and I guess the
doctor won't press that charge."
This proved to be the case, and that day Monk Freck was released.
Mrs. Delamont was to over-joyed to get her dog back that she gave
Freck a substantial reward, for the former asylum keeper had been
kind to Rex III, and insisted that he had found him after the dog had
gotten away from the real thief.