On the Water Trail
Mrs. Landry told Ida to invite the visitor to sit on the front porch
while the dessert was being eaten.
“If I asked her into the front room she would probably hear what you
girls talk about,” said Terry’s mother, “and you are sure to talk, I
know.”
“You can’t blame us in these circumstances,” said Sim.
“No, I can’t.” Mrs. Landry smiled understandingly. “But why should a
policewoman come here for this child?”
“We’re going to find out very soon,” declared Arden.
The dessert was eaten in record time, and then, after a whispered
conference, it was decided that Mrs. Landry should first interview the
caller alone and, if necessary, call in the girls.
“Though, if she wants us to help her catch poor Melissa, what shall we
do?” whispered Terry.
“We won’t tell her a thing,” decided Sim. “Why should we make more
trouble for the poor child?”
“Even if she took Dimitri’s pin?” suggested Arden.
“We don’t know that she took it—we don’t even know, for sure, that it is
his pin,” said Terry while her mother went out on the porch. “We couldn’t
prove it in court.”
“I suppose not,” agreed Arden. “Though I, myself, believe it is his. Now,
be careful,” she warned. “Don’t let on that we know anything about
Melissa, or have just seen her, unless we have to.”
The others agreed to this. They could hear the murmuring talk between
Mrs. Landry and the caller. Presently Terry’s mother came into the dining
room, where the girls were still sitting, to say:
“It isn’t anything to worry about. Good news, rather than bad.”
“About Dimitri?” asked Arden eagerly.
“No. It’s all Melissa. You had better hear this woman’s story. She
doesn’t want to arrest the poor child, so you can talk freely to her. And
she isn’t a policewoman. She is from a private detective agency, though.”
“It’s almost as bad,” said Terry. “Why is a detective agency interested
in Melissa?”
“You had better hear the whole story,” suggested Mrs. Landry. “Come, and
I will introduce you.”
The three girls trailed after her out to the porch. The woman was as Ida
had described her. She looked determined and efficient but not unkind,
nor like one who would, as Arden remarked later, “hound a poor girl to
death.”
“This is my daughter,” said Mrs. Landry, presenting Terry, “and her two
college chums who are spending the summer with her. Miss Blake and Miss
Westover.”
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Emma Tash, and I’m from the Torrance Private
Detective Agency in New York. I was sent down here by my chief to find
out something about a girl named Melissa Clayton. As we always do in
these cases, we make some inquiries of friends and neighbors before going
directly to the parties themselves.
“I stopped in the village, and I found out that you people are friendly
with this girl. Do you mind telling me something about her?”
“With the understanding,” put in Mrs. Landry, “that there is no harm
intended to Melissa.”
“Oh, now,” Emma Tash was quick to say, “I told you that at the start.”
“Perhaps you wouldn’t mind repeating it for the benefit of my daughter
and her friends,” suggested Terry’s mother.
“Not at all. I’ll put my cards on the table, so to speak, and you can
judge how much you want to tell me. This Melissa Clayton, according to
the case as it comes to me, has an elderly aunt, her mother’s sister, who
is quite wealthy. This aunt, a widow named Mrs. Lulu Benlon, has for a
long time wanted to befriend this girl, but Melissa’s father refuses to
let anything be done for her.”
“Just like him!” murmured Arden.
“I heard something like that in the village,” went on Emma Tash. “But
we’ll come to him later. Anyhow, the firm I am with has been hired to see
if something can’t be done now. It seems that several times, in years
past, Mrs. Benlon tried to do something for Melissa but was prevented.
After being turned down more than once, she gave up. Now Mrs. Benlon is
ailing. She’s afraid she is going to die soon, but before that she wants
to make another effort to help Melissa.”
“Couldn’t she leave her money in a will?” asked Sim.
“Yes, that was talked of, but Mrs. Benlon is queer,” said Emma Tash. “She
wants to be sure Melissa will get the benefit of her help, and if she
left her money there is no telling that Melissa would ever get it. Mrs.
Benlon, it seems, wants the satisfaction of knowing, herself, that what
she does will really benefit the girl.”
“She’s probably wise there,” said Mrs. Landry.
“Yes, I guess so,” the detective investigator admitted. “So that’s why
I’m here. Mrs. Benlon has offered to take Melissa out of what, from all
accounts, is a poor sort of a home and give her a good one—even send her
to school to be educated. But Mrs. Benlon doesn’t want George Clayton to
have anything of her bounty. It seems that he wasn’t kind to his wife,
who was Mrs. Benlon’s younger sister.
“As I get the story, it was a sort of runaway match; marry in haste and
repent all the rest of your life. Anyhow, Melissa’s mother died soon
after the girl’s birth, and she had been brought up in a hand-to-mouth
sort of way ever since, according to Mrs. Benlon. But if it can be
brought about there is a happier time ahead for Melissa. Now that you
know what I want, will you help me?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Arden, and her chums nodded in agreement.
“What do you want us to do?” asked Terry.
“Tell me all you can about this girl and her father and, if you can,
suggest how I can best get in communication with them,” said Emma Tash.
“That last part isn’t going to be easy,” said Terry. “George Clayton is a
queer man; ugly too, I’m afraid.”
“That bears out what I have heard,” said the investigator. “But there
must be some way. Perhaps you can help me. But first tell me all you
can—that is, all you want me to know.”
This last clause was a saving one for the girls. They felt, under it,
that they need not mention the pin nor any possible connection Melissa
might have with the houseboat. Dimitri Uzlov need not be brought in, nor
the fact that he was not to be found. The girls could still keep to
themselves, as far as Emma Tash was concerned, the secret of the man
missing at Marshlands.
With this in mind, Terry, Arden, and Sim, by turns, assisted with a word
from Mrs. Landry now and then, told about Melissa Clayton and her father.
“They live in a sort of shack on the edge of the bay, not far from the
marsh,” said Terry. “You can get to it by a long winding road out of the
village, but the best way is to go by boat.”
“Then I’ll go that way,” said the woman detective determinedly.
“I don’t believe you’ll get very close to the Clayton shack if you
approach openly by boat,” said Terry. “George Clayton is a suspicious
man, and if he’s home he’ll probably order you off his premises.”
“He may not be home,” said Emma Tash. “If he isn’t, so much the better. I
can talk to Melissa alone. She ought to be old enough to make up her mind
to leave her poverty for a better home with her aunt.”
“That’s just it,” said Arden. “I think Melissa is rather simple-minded,
to state it gently. Do you think you would be justified in inducing that
sort of a person to do something her father would oppose?”
“Oh, no, I wouldn’t do that for anything,” was the quick answer. “If I
find her that kind of a girl I will report back to my office and we’ll
get legal advice. But Mrs. Benlon thinks she owes a duty to her niece,
and she wants to carry it out as soon as she can.”
“Here’s an idea,” said Sim suddenly. “What about going crabbing?”
“Going crabbing!” exclaimed Arden, not seeing the relevancy of the
remark. “What in the world for?”
“We have to take the water trail to the Clayton shack,” went on Sim.
“Now, if we pretend to be crabbing we can gradually work our way toward
it without exciting suspicion. Melissa may be outside or even out in a
boat herself, crabbing or fishing. Her father may be out lifting his
lobster pots. In that case Miss Tash can see the girl and talk with her.
Melissa won’t be afraid if she sees us.”
“Say, that’s a good idea!” declared Terry.
“But you know,” said Arden, “we have to wait here for——”
She did not finish, though her chums knew whom she meant.
“Oh, I don’t want to take you away,” Emma Tash hastened to assure the
girls. “I could go by myself.”
“I think it would be better if some of the girls went with you,”
suggested Mrs. Landry. “Melissa would feel much more confidence.”
“I suppose she would, as I’m a stranger to her. But I hate to be a
bother.”
“No bother at all,” said Terry. “One of us can go with you, and the rest
of us can stay here to receive our expected visitor. He may not come
after all,” she added.
“Oh, I think he will,” said Arden.
“Then you two stay here,” suggested Terry quickly. “I will go in our boat
with this lady. We’ll do some crabbing. It will be the best way.”
“And if our friend comes,” said Sim, “we’ll hold him until you get back,
Terry.”
“Yes, do that.”