LESLIE MAKES SOME DEDUCTIONS
"Well, of all things!" ejaculated the astonished Phyllis. "And you never
said a word! What was it?"
"I didn't say anything," explained Leslie, "because there was hardly a
chance. It was just before we came out. And--"
"But what was it? Never mind how it happened!" cried Phyllis impatiently.
"Well, this is part of it. In that southwest bedroom (the one facing our
house), I saw a tiny string of beads lying under the bureau, just by the
front leg of it. The string was just a thread about three inches long,
with some little green beads on it. A few of the beads had come off it
and rolled farther away. I picked one of them up, and here it is." She
held out a little bead to Phyllis.
"But what on earth is there to _this_?" exclaimed Phyllis, staring at it
disappointedly. "I don't see what an insignificant little object like
this proves. It was probably left by the Danforths, anyway."
"No, I don't think it was," returned Leslie, quietly, "because the
Danforths seem to have cleaned the place very thoroughly. The rest of the
floor was spick and span as could be. I think the string of beads was
part of a fringe, such as they wear so much nowadays to trim nice
dresses. It probably caught in the leg of that bureau and was pulled off
without its owner realizing it. Now did any of the Danforths, as far as
you know, have any bead-trimmed dresses that they wore down here?"
Phyllis shook her head. "I begin to see what you're driving at, Leslie.
No, there's only Mrs. Danforth to wear dresses--the rest of the family
consists of her husband and the boys. I'm perfectly certain I never saw
her in a beaded dress. And even if she had one, I'm sure she wouldn't
think of wearing it down here, not even to travel home in. People don't
bring elaborate clothes to this place, and she's never been known to. I
believe you're right. If the beads had been there when the place was
cleaned, they would have disappeared. They must have come there since.
The mysterious 'she' of the footprint must have left them! But what else
was there?"
"Then I noticed another thing that was curious and very puzzling. I
confess, I can't make much out of it, and yet it may mean a great deal.
It was out by the fireplace in the living-room. Did you happen to notice
that one of the bricks in the floor of it looked as if an attempt had
been made to pry it loose, or something? The cement all along one side
had been loosened and then packed down into place again. And 'way in the
corner, I picked up _this_!" She held up the blade of a penknife, broken
off halfway.
"No, I hadn't noticed it at all!" exclaimed Phyllis, ruefully. "The truth
is, Leslie, I went into that place expecting to see it all torn up or
upheaved or something of the kind--something very definite, anyway. And
when I didn't find anything of the sort, I was awfully disappointed and
hardly stopped to notice any of these small things. But I believe what
you've found may be very important, and I think you're awfully clever to
have noticed them, too. Why, it actually sounds like a regular detective
story! And now that you've found these things, what do you make out of
them? Have you any ideas?"
Leslie wrinkled her brows for an interval in silent thought. At last she
said, "Yes, I have a good many ideas, but I haven't had time to get them
into any order yet. They're all sort of--chaotic!"
"Oh, never mind!" cried the ever-impatient Phyllis. "Tell me them,
anyway. I don't care how chaotic they are!"
"Well, to begin with,--has this occurred to you?--whoever comes here
selects only a stormy, rainy night for a visit. Now _why_, unless they
think it the best kind of time to escape observation. They just calculate
on few people going out or even _looking_ out of their houses on that
kind of a night. Isn't that so?"
"It certainly seems to be," agreed Phyllis, "but what do you prove by
that?"
"I don't _prove_ anything, but I've drawn a conclusion from it that I'll
tell you later. Then, there's the matter of this little bead. I know you
rather scorned it when I first showed it to you, but do you realize one
thing? We may be able to identify the owner by means of it."
Phyllis stared at her incredulously, but Leslie continued: "Yes, I really
think so, and I'll tell you why. This isn't an ordinary bead. In the
first place, it's a rather peculiar shade of green--one you don't
ordinarily see. Then, though it's so small, it's cut in a different way,
too, sort of melon-shaped, only with about six sides. Do you see?"
On closer examination, Phyllis did see. And she had to acknowledge that
Leslie was right.
"Then there's the broken penknife and the brick with one side pried out,"
went on Leslie. "It's pretty plain that the person was trying to pry up
that brick with the penknife and found it hard work because the mortar or
cement is solid. Then the blade of the knife broke and the attempt was
probably given up. Now why did they want to pry up that brick?"
"I know!--I know!" cried Phyllis, triumphantly. "They wanted to bury 'The
Dragon's Secret' under it!"
"Maybe they did and maybe they didn't," replied Leslie, more cautiously.
"They certainly tried to pry up the brick, but perhaps it was to _look_
for something under it, rather than to hide anything. However, I rather
think it was to hide it. And because they didn't succeed, they went out
and buried it in the sand, instead. How about _that_?"
Phyllis sprang up and hugged her impetuously. "You have a brain like a
regulation sleuth-hound's!" she laughed. "What else?"
"Well, this is what I can't understand. Suppose this person (we're sure
now it must be a woman) came down here that first stormy night with 'The
Dragon's Secret,' and tried to hide it somewhere, and finally buried it
in the sand outside. The question is, what did she come for the _second_
time?"
"To get it again?" suggested Phyllis.
"I'm almost absolutely certain not, because, if so, all she would have
had to do was to go outside and dig. (Of course, she wouldn't have found
it because we had it!) But she never went outside at all. I know that
positively. I passed right by the place where Rags dug the hole, on my
way up from your bungalow, and it was quite untouched, just as we left it
after we filled it up again that day. And when we came back again, I
looked a second time, and still it was the same. And I watched half the
night and would certainly have seen if any one had gone there. No, I'm
sure it wasn't for that. But what was it for?"
"Give it up," advised Phyllis, "at least for the present. Anything else?"
"No, except the conclusion I drew about the person's coming on a stormy
night. Do you realize this?--there's quite a big chance that they--or
rather, _she_!--will come again on the _next_ stormy night--perhaps!"
"Well, if that's the case," exclaimed Phyllis, "I've drawn a little
conclusion of my own. The next stormy night I'm going to spend at your
bungalow--and we're going to keep awake all night!"