“That’s just the dickens of it—I did! Too much so—enough at least to
fool the police!”
“You don’t mean they took you for that villain—not actually?” cried
Hattie May incredulously.
“They sure did!”
“But what did they want him for?” I asked. “Was it the hair tonic?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. It seems he picked up a car somewhere in
Millport Saturday afternoon, drove it out here last night and hid it in
the woods up the road. Then he came here to the house to pass the
night.”
“You mean he stole a car—Oh, Michael, how terrible!” cried Eve.
“Well, it was bad luck for me, at any rate!”
“But surely you can prove that you didn’t take it,” I put in. “Surely
it will be easy enough to clear yourself!”
“Well, I haven’t convinced ’em yet,” returned Michael sombrely. “You
see it was this way. Seems somebody saw Bangs take the car around five
o’clock that afternoon and turned in a report to the police. Said the
thief had thick bushy hair and wore horn-rimmed glasses. The cops
traced the car out this way somehow—they didn’t inform me how—and
found it hidden in the woods. Then they came on to the house, broke in,
and found me hiding in the hall closet, wearing a wig and spectacles.
That’s all there is to it.”
“But didn’t you tell them?” I protested.
“Why, naturally! But it didn’t get me anywhere. They just laughed at
me. Wanted to know what I was doing in the house and so forth. I told
them about Bangs and that he was in the house too because I’d heard him
come in just before. That was when I got into the closet. They
pretended to make a search of the house but they didn’t find him. They
didn’t expect to—they thought I was spoofing them.”
“Yeah and where was he—that’s what I’d like to know?” Hamish spoke for
the first time since Michael had begun his story.
“I haven’t any idea—I suppose he was hiding somewhere.”
Hattie May gave a startled glance toward the open kitchen door as if
she half expected the form of Mr. Bangs to emerge at any moment.
“Of course he’s had plenty of time to make a getaway now,” Michael went
on. “He’s had all night.”
“But when they found you, did they—did you——?” I began hesitatingly.
“Yeah they took me over to the Millport jail,” returned Michael
stoically. “I phoned Al, my cousin, and he came over about midnight and
got me out. But I’ve got to go to court on Thursday when the case comes
up.”
“To c-court?” Eve’s eyes were harrowed. “But can’t anything be
done—your folks at home——?”
Michael shook his head, his lips were set. “I’m not going to tell
them,” he stated. “I’ll take what’s coming to me.”
“But they can’t convict you of something you never did,” I broke in.
“Why, it’s all too absurd!”
“Well, I don’t know. You see it’s going to be sort of hard to explain
what I was doing in an empty house in the middle of the night. And if
Bangs has left the country——” he shrugged.
“Wouldn’t it do some good if we were all to go over to Millport and
tell the—the judge or whoever it is, that you were with us Saturday
afternoon on the beach?” Eve asked.
Michael shook his head positively. “I wouldn’t have you get mixed up in
it for anything,” he said. “Besides they would simply think you were my
friends trying to help me out of a tight hole. They’d only have your
word that I was with you, you see.”
Eve digested this. It was rather a new idea, I suppose, that her word
might not be good for much in a court of law.
Michael got up. “Well I’ve got to be getting back to work,” he said.
“How do you feel, Hamish? All right?”
“I’m awful hungry!” said Hamish.
“Poor Hamish!” Eve cried. “Here we’ve been sitting talking while you
were starving to death! And after that awful night!”
“Well it was kind of messy down there,” Hamish said. “It was lucky the
bally old well was half filled up or I might have been a goner. You see
I landed on a lot of leaves and old junk that had been thrown down
there to get rid of it, I s’pose. So I just made myself as comfortable
as I could and waited for daylight. I figured that somebody’d be along
lookin’ for me soon as it got light. But it was kind of tiresome
waitin’.”
“Tiresome! I think you had pretty good nerve!” I said. We all got up.
“Hope my car’s all right,” Hamish said, “I guess I’ll get me one of
those Turkish baths up at the hotel after I’ve had dinner.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------