CLOSED FOR REPAIRS
Josie was closeted with Chief Lonsdale for a long time. He had much
interesting news to impart to her. She was all attention as he read a
long communication from New York. She whipped out a little blank book
and began taking notes in the cryptic characters taught her by her
father.
“I want to be sure not to forget a word,” she apologized to the chief.
“I tell you there is going to be something doing before so very long,
here in old Dorfield. It isn’t such a sleepy spot after all, in spite
of its name.”
“No, not with the Higgledy Piggledies to keep things lively,” laughed
the chief. “How about Jim Hathaway’s fortune? Anything turned up there
yet?”
“Nothing! Mary Louise, at last, has a tenant for the big house and I
am going there as soon as you finish divulging things to me and make
another examination of the premises. I might have overlooked some spot.
Even girl detectives make mistakes you know, Chief.”
“Sure they might, but I know one who doesn’t make many,” he said, and
Josie blushed in spite of herself. Praise from the chief was pleasant
to hear.
“I’ll have to confess that I have had the place gone over myself by two
trusted and highly efficient detectives,” he added, “and, after combing
it with a fine-tooth comb, they report there is no sign of treasure
or papers or anything to indicate Hathaway has hidden anything there.
Conant and I decided we had better do it, not that we didn’t trust you,
my dear, but sometimes even the most careful can overlook what is right
under their noses. You know that.”
“Of course, I know it and so you won’t mind if I go after your men and
make another search?”
“Go as far as you like and good luck to you. Who is the tenant?”
“A blind gentleman from the west. I don’t know his name.”
“Well, I hope he will pay his rent and not break up her things. Goodby,
my dear, and keep your eyes open on this subject we have had under
discussion, eyes open and mouth closed.”
“Yes, sir,” she said respectfully, although such remarks did make her a
bit weary.
“Mouth closed, indeed!” she said to herself as she hurried off. “I bet
he doesn’t send out his male detectives with any such admonitions and I
bet they do more talking than the women.”
She stopped for supper at a small, cheap restaurant where she hastily
swallowed a sandwich and a cup of coffee. She then stopped at a drug
store and bought new batteries for the two large flashlights she had
in the pockets of her jacket. Fortified by the sandwich and coffee and
armed with the flashlights as well as the small revolver she carried on
dangerous missions, she made her way to the Hathaway house.
“It is a good thing I kept my latch-key,” she said as she fitted it
into the lock on the front door. “Father used to say it was a good
thing to keep all the keys of all the places one could.”
Once in the building she turned on one of her flashlights.
“Humph! Somebody been in ahead of me,” she said to herself, examining
the floor of the hall. “Somebody and that body with small feet!” She
turned on both flashlights to examine more thoroughly the footprints in
the dust.
“I bet Slater doesn’t know it, but I fancy he has let up lately or will
let up now that there is a tenant coming in tomorrow.” She followed
the foot prints along the hall and into the dining room. They led
straight to where Mary Louise lay in the little heap on the floor, the
telephone, with the receiver out, fallen beside her.
“God bless my soul!” exclaimed Josie. “She was faint and tried to call
some one. Poor child! She shouldn’t have come here alone. The place has
proved too much for her.”
Tenderly she stretched out the slender figure, placing a cushion from
the den under her body, thereby giving the heart a chance to function.
Then she grasped the telephone and, putting back the receiver, she
waited a moment and then called up Dr. Coles, told him of Mary Louise’s
being in a faint, and received his assurance that he would be there in
a moment.
He was as good as his word and, almost before Josie could count ten, he
was at the door in his car.
Mary Louise opened her eyes as he came in and smiled wanly. She tried
to say something.
“Never mind talking just yet, Mrs. Dexter,” he said, his eyes full of
compassion.
“Let’s get her home first,” suggested Josie. “Home to the Higgledy
Piggledy.”
“Can she be quiet enough there?” he asked.
“Yes, indeed, we can shut up shop until she is herself again. She is
better off right there.”
Dr. Coles carried her from his car up the stairs and laid her on her
little bed in her pigeon-hole of a room.
“You are very good to me, Dr. Coles. You remember how Grandpa Jim
called the wireless I got from Danny a message from the spirit
world--well I have had another--it was strange, very strange. You see,
the telephone service had been discontinued at the big house but, just
as I entered the front door, the telephone bell rang. It was strange
that I was there, but something had been driving me all day to go
home--it is rented now, tenants coming in to-morrow. I was glad when
Josie telephoned she was not coming back to the shop for supper. It
gave me a chance to go home and go alone. I felt I must see it once
more. I wanted to be alone--alone with those who have gone. It seemed
to me as though their voices were calling me--”
“Yes.”
“When the telephone rang, I ran to it as fast as I could. The house was
almost dark but I had my flashlight--I could hardly hear what was said,
but knew some one wanted me--I thought it was a long distance message--”
“Was it?”
“Yes, a very long distance! Dr. Coles, it seemed to be Danny. It
wasn’t quite like him because he sounded so far away. I couldn’t
really say for sure that it was a voice at all. It might have been my
imagination--it might have been--I don’t know what--but oh, Dr. Coles,
it said--it said--‘Are you well, my beloved?’ faintly but distinctly,
and I tried to answer but everything got black before me and I didn’t
know anything more until you came into the room. Josie seemed to have
some kind of intuition that I had gone home because she found me,
didn’t she?”
Josie was controlling her sobs with difficulty while Mary Louise was
telling the doctor what had happened. Josie never cried and it was
a novel experience to the girl to be overcome with tears just when
her dear Mary Louise needed her most. But it was so pathetic to see
her little friend more or less out of her mind. She was sure that was
the case. The ghostly old house, so full of memories, had got on her
nerves and the memory of her grandfather’s having thought the wireless
from Danny was from the spirit world had come back to her and she had
fancied a message over the telephone.
Dr. Coles mixed up two doses of aromatic ammonia and made Josie swallow
one and the patient the other. He then called Josie to the front of the
shop and told her Mary Louise must be kept quiet for a day or so even
if it meant closing the shop.
Josie responded promptly:
“That will be all right. We’ll just put up a sign. ‘Closed for
repairs,’ and nobody will be the wiser whether it is repairs on the
place itself or one of the inmates. I fancy we had better not mention
this to anyone, don’t you, Dr. Coles?”
“Perhaps it would be just as well. When Mrs. Dexter gets stronger, she
can talk about it if she chooses. That is her affair. In the meantime,
I’ll be around in the morning. I am giving her a sleeping powder to
insure a good night’s rest. Who are the tenants she says are going in
the old Hathaway house?”
“A blind gentleman and his young son. They have a Chinese cook and hail
from the far west, so I hear.”
“Well, I hope they won’t give our poor little friend any trouble. She
has had enough. Fortunately she is blessed with a robust constitution.
Her pulse is strong and I am not looking for any trouble from
this--this--whatever this supposed telephone call might be called. She
is a very sensible young person and not at all emotional. It was a
thing that might have happened to anyone who had gone through so much
in the last few months. The dark, mysterious looking house and all
the memories that had crowded around her and then the thought of the
wireless message she got from her husband the night her grandfather had
that stroke--all of these things might easily combine so that she might
fancy anything. Keep her quiet and cheerful and let me know if you need
me. I am glad Mrs. Dexter has such a level-headed friend.”
“Even though I gave way and cried?”
“Oh, that was good for you. I was glad to see you do it. Now I can
trust you not to go to pieces after I leave.”
Mary Louise slept through the night, thanks not only to the powder the
doctor gave her but to a kind of peace that had fallen on her. She
felt tired and had a sense of sweet restfulness and protection. She
no longer worried, no longer sorrowed. The color returned to her pale
cheeks and the breath came softly and regularly. Josie watched her
anxiously until she realized that all was well with her dear little
friend and then she went to sleep herself and dreamed wonderful dreams
about catching and jailing evil-doers and finding Colonel Hathaway’s
lost fortune all by herself without the aid of Captain Charley Lonsdale
and his bungling assistants.