SLATER MAKES AN ARREST
Danny’s first thought was that he would go to Mr. Peter Conant’s next
door and find out where his little wife was and what was the matter
with things in general, but he felt it would be an imposition on the
kind neighbors to rouse them at such a late hour. He himself was weary
with a fatigue that was staggering. He had had a long and tiresome
journey from the Pacific coast with but little sleep owing to the
excitement of getting back to the United States and the possibility
of once more seeing his darling Mary Louise. He might go dig out Bob
Dulaney and spend the rest of the night with him. There was Billy
McGraw--always glad to see him! There were many friends who would
surely welcome him back with enthusiasm, but Danny felt he had better
snatch a nap before trying to tackle anything more. He had the terrible
let-down feeling natural after the strain he had been on for months.
He remembered the room in the garage where he had lived when he first
came to work for Colonel Hathaway. Why not go there until daylight? The
door of the garage was locked, but Danny knew of old how easy it was to
draw the hasp without disturbing the padlock. He accordingly did it and
entered the garage from the rear. The arc light in the alley made the
place quite light as the doors swung open.
“Golly Moses! Where’s the big car? Nothing but the Colonel’s old
time-honored rattle-trap left! Jacked up as though they meant to keep
it forever, too!”
He mounted the stairs to the tower room. The place was bereft of
furniture and swept clean. Mary Louise had given Aunt Sally and Uncle
Eben all of the things that had been there.
“Humph! I guess I’ll have to curl up in the ‘old reliable’,” he grinned.
Danny Dexter had a passion for any kind of an automobile. Even Colonel
Hathaway’s old relic had its appeal for him. He gave it an affectionate
pat.
“I wonder if the old fellow has come to his senses,” he said to
himself. “I sure do hope so, but there is something mighty mysterious
going on around here. Who in the dickens was that woman who spoke to
me from the upstairs window? The Colonel’s window at that! Why did
the chink say there was no lady in the house? I wish I wasn’t so dead
tired. I feel as I used to in the trenches when I’d drop asleep under
fire. It would take a big explosion to rouse me now. I wonder why the
cushions have been all busted up. I bet the old gentleman raised some
Cain about that. Are the tires any good yet? They haven’t been used for
an awful long time I fancy. Mary Louise never was much on running this
old car except to please her grandfather.”
He caught hold of the front wheel and gave it a shake. “Gee it rattles!
Flabby on top--and Jumping Jupiter! What’s that?”
There was a strange rattle and then a kind of crash and something began
to pour from the tire over Danny’s feet. He jumped back and, thanks to
the light from the alley, he could see what was happening. From the
tire, which had broken at the bottom, there came a stream of gold,
twenty-dollar gold pieces.
“This is something awful!” he cried. “I’ve the delirium tremens
without ever having a drop to drink. I’ll have to let somebody know
about this, though, because it might be so and maybe I haven’t ’em
after all. If that chink knew, he’d be out here raking it in. I wonder
what the lady with the rich voice would do if she knew! I’ll be bound
she wouldn’t be quite so indifferent about a poor wanderer’s comfort
nor so snappy about calling the police. Jimminy crickets! I know whose
voice it was--Hortense Markle’s! It has just come to me! The plot
thickens and deepens. No more thought of sleep for you, Danny Dexter!
You’ve got to get a move on you.”
He found a gunny sack hanging on a nail behind the door and he
carefully shoveled up the gold pieces into this. He did not stop to
count them nor will I endeavor to say how many there were, but it was
a bag full and so heavy that he could swing the load to his back only
with difficulty.
Gently Danny lowered it to the floor.
“I’m not man enough to carry it,” he groaned, “not until I get some
eats, at least. If I leave it here, the chink and the woman will come
and get it and, if I try to carry it off, I’ll faint by the wayside. I
wonder if the other tires are gold mines too.”
Cautiously he felt of the others, but fortunately the rubber had held
better in those and, although they too were full of something, it did
not come rolling out on the feet of the young man. He found a slot had
been cut in each tire just large enough for a twenty-dollar gold piece
to be slipped in.
“I wish I could get hold of Josie O’Gorman. She’s got sense to burn.
I’ll run there as fast as I can but, before I go, I’ll hide the
treasure.” He carefully lifted the bag into the car and covered it with
the old cushions and horse hair that had been pulled from them.
Closing the door carefully and sticking the hasp back into the holes
from which he had drawn it, he began to run down the alley.
“Stop!” called out a voice from the shadows of the opposite fence.
“Stop or I fire!”
“Well, I’ve stopped, now what do you want? Can’t a gentleman run down
an alley without getting shot?”
The man stepped from the shadow and, turning back the lapel of his
coat, disclosed a star. It was Slater, who still had his eye on the
Hathaway house, for his week was not quite finished. Slater was a
creature of habit and did not like to break in on a week.
“A cop! Bless me if I’m not glad to see you!”
“See here, none of your gaff, young man! What would you be glad to see
me about? Why would a man who was evidently running away from somebody
be after being glad to see a policeman? You come along here and report
to headquarters.”
“Gee, Captain, don’t stop me now, for the love of Mike! There is going
to be something doing at the Hathaway house before so very long and
you stay here and guard the premises. Don’t let anybody get out of the
house back or front and don’t let anybody go in the garage. I tell you
it is mighty important.”
“No doubt, but you come and tell your tale to the chief. He knows
what’s important and what’s not. March!”
Danny had a feeling he had best obey the man when he felt something
poking in his ribs. He was furious at the occurrence, but deemed it
wiser to keep quiet as to his real reason for wanting the garage
watched. The man was so stolid one could not tell whether he was to be
trusted or not.
“Well, hurry up! I’ve got a lot of things to do to-night besides call
on Chief Lonsdale. I’ll be glad to see the old boy, however.”
“You won’t see him until morning. The chief doesn’t spend the night in
his office.”
“Thunderation! Then let me telephone Miss Josie O’Gorman! Morning may
be too late.”
“Well, since Miss O’Gorman is on the case as it were, I’ll take you by
and let you have a look in on her.”
“On what case?”
“The Hathaway case! You don’t know so much after all if you don’t know
about that.”
“No, I don’t know a thing. I just got here about an hour ago.”
“Humph! You seemed to know how to get in and out of a strange garage
pretty well for some one just got to town,” sneered Slater.
“Tell me what the Hathaway case is.”
“Never! What you don’t know won’t hurt you. What do you want with Miss
O’Gorman?”
“What you don’t know won’t hurt you either,” retorted Danny.
“It’s a bit irregular for me to be taking you around to little
O’Gorman’s before reporting at the police station. I’ve changed my
mind. Just turn in here, young man, and you can call on the ladies
tomorrow. I’ve got a sure thing against you. I saw you come out of the
garage and carefully put the hasp back in the door and then turn and
run down the alley.”
“Well, one thing, Mr. Policeman, if you don’t get a move on you and put
me in communication with either Miss O’Gorman or the chief of police, I
bet you lose your job.”
They entered the police station. Contrary to his usual habits, Chief
Lonsdale was in his office, although it was after one o’clock. Danny
was taken in to him immediately, much to the relief of that young man.
“Hello, Chief Charley!” he cried.
“And who are you, young man? By golly if it ain’t a ghost! Danny
Dexter, what in the name of heaven! Why boy, we have been mourning you
for drowned. What’s your charge against this man, Slater!” he asked,
his eye twinkling.
“House breaking, your honor! I found him sneaking out of the Hathaway
garage and then running down the alley like he’d done something he
hadn’t oughter.”
“Umhum! Well, you can leave him with me, Slater. You did quite right
according to your lights. The Hathaway garage happened to belong in
his family, but you didn’t know that. This is Colonel Hathaway’s
grandson-in-law.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Slater asked Danny sullenly.
“Because what you didn’t know wouldn’t hurt you,” retorted Danny. “But
see here, Chief,” he said turning to Lonsdale, “the Hathaway garage
ought to be watched and the house has some very doubtful inmates that
should not be allowed to escape. I’m hunting my wife and I’m so tired
and hungry I’m ready to fall down.”
“Well, well! Slater, get two more men and run back double quick to the
Hathaway house and do what this young man says is necessary. Don’t let
anybody in or anybody out without keeping track of them. Guard the
garage carefully. Go!”
Slater, a bit bewildered, left in a hurry to execute his chief’s
orders.
“And now, Danny, tell me all about it,” asked Lonsdale, his hand
resting affectionately on the young man’s shoulder.
“First, tell me about my wife, about Mary Louise.”
The story was quickly told. Danny was deeply moved at the news of
Colonel Hathaway’s death. He was relieved to hear that Mary Louise was
with Josie, of whose heart and sense he thought highly.
“And she is well?” he asked eagerly.
“She has been until the last few days, but I heard she was a little
under the weather lately,” confessed Mary Louise’s old friend.
Danny then told the chief of the shower of gold that had greeted him
when he shook the automobile tire.
“Well, by golly, all of us missed it!” exclaimed Lonsdale. “Little
O’Gorman made a thorough search and some treasure hunters went through
the garage and I sent two of my best men to go over the whole place
again and here you come hastening back from a watery grave and the
stuff knocks you down. I’ll send immediately and have it gathered up.
You must go along too, Danny.”
“Not until I see my wife!” rebelled Danny.
“Well, you’d hardly wake her up this time of night when she’s been
ailing, besides.”
“Of course not!” Danny agreed ruefully.
“By the way, our old friend Markle has broken jail and is at large
again,” said the chief. “That’s one reason why I am down here to-night.
There is reason to believe he is headed this way. We are on the lookout
for him.”
“Well, I bet you I know where he is,” cried Danny.
“I bet you don’t,” the chief retorted incredulously.
“He is in the Hathaway house, at least his wife is.”
“No! A blind man and his son and a Chinese cook are the only inmates of
the old house.”
“Well, if I didn’t hear Hortense Markle’s voice this night from an
upstairs window, I’m a Dutchman. That is one reason I wanted your
excellent Slater to let me come by myself to report things and have
him stay and watch the premises but he was so pig-headed he would come
along.”
“Slater was doing his duty as he saw it,” rumbled the chief. “But now
we’d best get busy. I tell you it would be a big feather in the cap of
the police force of Dorfield if they got the Markles, man and woman,
and also unearthed the Hathaway fortune the same night.”
Danny laughed. “Well, Chief, you can catch the Markles, but I must
say that the treasure wasn’t buried and it simply gave itself away. I
don’t think we can give anybody credit for it. I certainly don’t want
to claim credit. I simply was going to bunk in the old car for the rest
of the night and the twenty-dollar gold pieces just rolled out over my
feet. We’d better go carry them off, however, or the Markles will do it
for us, since you won’t let me go wake up my wife yet. You haven’t got
a bit of hot dog about you, have you? I’m starving.”