I HAD looked forward to a swim that afternoon but Hamish’s request that
we keep an eye on the house next door forced us reluctantly to abandon
the plan. Hamish might be a bit theatrical at times but there was no
denying the fact that the Captain had a strange visitor and that, for
whatever reason, he had appeared most unwilling to make us acquainted
with the gentleman. So there did seem some sense in the idea that we
keep our eyes peeled for what went on in our neighbor’s domain.
But as the long afternoon wore away, it seemed evident that nothing at
all was going on. The smoke had long since died away from the chimney
and, though the back door still remained fast closed, there was no sign
of activity within.
I had been, I will confess, a little surprised that Eve had given
Hamish her promise to say nothing to Aunt Cal about the mysterious
guest next door. For Eve, though she could never be called in the least
goody goody, has nevertheless rather strict ideas about honor and all
that. She knew that the police were searching for Bangs and yet she was
keeping silent.
“Eve,” I said at last. She had given up the pretense of sewing and was
lying in the fragrant shadow of the syringa bush, her eyes on the
drifting foamy clouds. “Eve, why did you agree not to tell Aunt Cal?”
“Why,” she frowned a little, “I only agreed to keep it dark till
tomorrow.”
“But why did you agree at all?” I insisted. “It wasn’t because of that
buried treasure stuff—because he might lead us to that?”
“No, it wasn’t that.”
“Then what was it?” I demanded caught by something evasive in her tone.
“What was the reason?”
“Oh, well, I suppose I might as well tell you! You heard what Hamish
said, didn’t you, about Bangs—that his real name might be something
else?”
“Of course, but what of it? Suppose his name is Jones or Brown, what’s
that got to do with it?”
“Hasn’t it ever occurred to you, Sandy,” she said slowly, “that it’s
rather strange that this man has the key to Craven House and—well,
that he knows his way about inside it so well that he was able to hide
from the police the night they searched for him? Doesn’t that strike
you as rather peculiar?”
“Eve, what are you driving at?” I cried.
“Well, suppose—just suppose—that Bangs, instead of being someone who
could give Aunt Cal news of Carter Craven, suppose he was—was Carter
himself!”
“Carter Craven! Oh, Eve, it couldn’t be! Why, he’s supposed to be dead,
isn’t he? And—oh, besides—why this man is just a little sawed-off,
bald headed rascal!”
“Well, you’ve got to remember that Carter was nothing more than a
good-for-nothing—Aunt Cal practically said so.”
“He might be a good-for-nothing,” I retorted, “but that doesn’t make
him a common thief. Besides,” I added firmly, “I don’t believe Aunt Cal
could ever have been fond of a man with bowlegs!”
“What have his legs got to do with it, I’d like to know?”
“Well you know what I mean—he just isn’t the type to be Carter
Craven!” And yet as I uttered the words a horrible doubt had begun to
assail me. Suppose Eve was right, suppose this skulking vendor of fake
hair lotions should turn out to be the long missing son of Craven
House, well where did that put us? So far as we were concerned, of
course, it didn’t really matter except that it made everything seem
rather sordid. But Aunt Cal, how would she feel to find her own cousin
facing a charge for petty thievery? Was that why Eve had promised to
keep still?
“You want him to escape then?” I demanded. “On account of Aunt Cal?”
“Well wouldn’t it be the best thing that could happen?” she returned.
“It isn’t of course as if they hadn’t recovered the car.”
“But the treasure—that letter—those measurements? If he goes—we’ll
never know.”
She shrugged. “What does that matter compared with Aunt Cal’s pride? As
things are she can think of Carter as having died peacefully in some
foreign country. Of course there’s the little matter of the will—still
nothing ever has been proved. Whereas this crime of stealing—everyone
would know if Carter was charged with that!”
I sighed. I felt terribly disillusioned. “I don’t believe he is
Carter!” I repeated stubbornly. “Carter was an adventurer—wild,
restless, perhaps—but big in his way like the old Captain, his father.”
“In short a kind of romantic, story book hero!” retorted Eve cruelly,
“wavy raven locks and fiery piercing eye and all that!”
“And straight legs!” I added. “Well, we’ll wait and see!”
After supper Miss Rose Blossom appeared to discuss Civic Betterment
plans with Aunt Cal and the two were closeted in the front parlor for
the rest of the evening. Things could not have turned out better for
us. Just as dusk was beginning to fall we heard a low whistle from the
bushes by the front fence and going out, found Hamish crouched behind
them. “Where is she?” he whispered.
“In the parlor with the windows shut so you don’t need to whisper,” I
said. “And by the way, if it’s not too much to ask, I’d like to know
what you expect to do in case this—this creature next door does try to
escape?”
“I’ll follow him of course,” he said still speaking in a guarded
undertone as if he imagined there was some hidden listener behind the
next bush. “If he’s who I think he won’t be leaving these parts till
he’s got hold of what he’s after!”
“You mean you’d follow him if he went out to Craven House tonight?” I
demanded. “Does Hattie May know?”
“Never mind Hattie May,” he retorted shortly. “I’ve got to see this
thing through and I’m not going to have any interference from girls,
d’you hear?”
Eve giggled. “Well do try to keep away from wells and things, won’t
you? And I do hope you won’t catch your death of cold out here in the
damp yard.”
“I’ve got my raincoat,” he said. “Now all you’ve got to do is to
scram—see—and keep your mouths shut!”
“Absolutely,” Eve said. “Good luck—see you in the morning!”
It did seem funny going to bed with Hamish hiding out there in the
bushes. Would he really stick it out, I wondered? Sometimes there
seemed more to Hamish than appeared on the surface. Eve poked back the
curtains after she had blown out the light. “See anything of him?” I
asked.
“Not even a shadow! Wonder what Aunt Cal would think if she knew that
the house was guarded!”
Darkness and quiet descended then. Soon Eve’s even breathing told me
that she was asleep. For awhile I lay wondering some more about Captain
Trout’s visitor, coming finally to the common-sense view that he was
just what the Captain himself had stated—a ship’s cook, perhaps
temporarily out of a job. Having reached this conclusion, I fell
comfortably asleep.
The next thing I was conscious of was a footstep in the hall outside
the bedroom door. My first startled thought was of the cook. Then I
heard the steps descending the stairs, soft but firm. Aunt Cal, of
course. But the dark square of the window told me that it couldn’t be
morning yet—why was she going downstairs in the middle of the night?
What prompted her?
I was wide awake at once. What had happened? Had I missed something? I
slipped out of bed and to the open bedroom door. The reflection of a
light was on the wall, coming from the hall below. I stole to the top
of the stairs. I could hear the key turning in the front
door—something very special must be up, I thought. I couldn’t just
stand there and listen, I’d got to know.
I flew back to the bedroom, got into my dressing gown and slippers. Eve
had not stirred. A minute later I was following Aunt Cal out onto the
narrow front stoop. She had set the lamp down on the little stand in
the hall and the light from it streamed out. She turned and saw me as I
started down the steps. “What is the matter?” I whispered.
Instead of the rebuke I had looked for, she said indignantly, “There’s
a tramp asleep behind the hedge! I don’t know what this town is coming
to!”
“B-but how do you know?” I stammered. “I mean maybe you just imagined
it—the shadows, you know—and—and all——”
“Sandra, you’d better go back to bed,” she returned severely. “I do not
require any advice or assistance.”
“No, of course not,” I returned hastily. “I just meant that things are
deceptive at night. And even if it is a tramp,” I went on desperately,
“wouldn’t it be better to wait till morning? At least it would be
safer.”
She was not listening to me. She had now advanced firmly halfway across
the little front yard toward the hedge. “Why on earth couldn’t Hamish
have stayed out of sight?” I thought, “and what had moved my aunt to
look out of the window in the middle of the night anyway!”
Aunt Cal reached the hedge and peered over it. “Come out of there,” she
ordered loudly, “or I shall have you arrested for trespassing.”
There was no answer. She advanced along the hedge, she was approaching
the clump of bushes where we had last seen Hamish. I held my breath. If
only I could do something to prevent the revelation that was impending!
I wished Eve were there, she might have had an inspiration.
Aunt Cal had reached the bushes. She had picked up a stick and now
began poking at them fiercely. “Come out of there!” she repeated. “Or I
shall call the police!”
All of a sudden my eyes, which had been vainly trying to pierce the
shadows, were attracted upward. In the house beyond the hedge a light
had winked on. It was in the little upper window facing our way. Aunt
Cal saw it too for she paused momentarily in her poking.
And while our attention was thus distracted, a figure hurtled from
between the bushes and the hedge and plunged headlong through the
latter and on across Captain Trout’s back yard, a rubber coat flapping
about its ankles as it ran. “There! What’d I tell you!” Aunt Cal
exclaimed. “The miserable loafer!”
We watched the figure disappear into the darkness. “Tomorrow,” said my
aunt, “I shall make a complaint. Come, you must go back to bed at once,
you’ll catch your death on this wet grass.”
“Yes, Aunt Cal,” I said meekly, and followed her back into the house.
And without further ado I presently found myself back in my own room
again with the door, by special admonition of Aunt Cal, locked on the
inside.
But the light in Captain Trout’s upstairs window still winked across
the grass and now and then, I could see it blink as if a figure stepped
between it and the window. Perhaps the cook had had another chill, I
thought with an inward chuckle, and had demanded still more blankets!
Well anyway Hamish had got safely away. Then, suddenly as it had come,
the light winked out.
“What’re you looking at?” Eve stirred sleepily.
“Nothing,” I began and stopped. Someone was coming out of the house
next door—a short figure in white duck trousers, dark coat and visored
cap. The Captain? Where on earth could he be going at this ungodly hour?
Eve was beside me, I could hear her catch her breath. “It’s him!” she
said.
“You mean the Captain?” I asked, puzzled at her intensity.
“Of course not. Can’t you see the way he walks and—and his legs!”
“You mean it’s the cook all togged up like that?”
“Disguised of course. We might have expected something like this. I
suppose Hamish is asleep by now.”
“No,” I said, “I don’t think so. The last I saw him he was hoofing it
across Captain Trout’s back yard in the general direction of the sea.”
And I told her what had happened.
“Why on earth didn’t you wake me?” she said when I had finished. “To
think I should have missed it all! Do you think Aunt Cal suspects
anything?”
“I don’t think so. Where d’you suppose he’s going, Eve—the cook, I
mean?”
“Back to sea, very likely.”
“Then that’ll be the end—of everything. And we’ll never know who he
was or what he wanted!”
Eve yawned. “Well that’s apt to be the way things peter out in real
life, you know,” she said. “The villains just walk out of the picture.”
“And the noble man hunter takes to his heels!” I sighed.
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