HELEN TALKS TO RENFRO.
Renfro awoke early the next morning. The room of the cave in which
he was confined was dark and the air seemed colder, more mouldy than
on the night before. He wished that they had left the foul smelling
lantern in his room, though the evening before he had hoped it would be
removed.
His wrists and ankles felt numb. Last night they had ached for quite
a long time. He decided while he lay alone in the dark that when Bart
or Maggie came in he would ask them to ease the cords a bit. But when,
after more than an hour, the old man, still wearing the low brimmed cap
and surly air of the night before, came into the room Renfro decided
not to even mention the tightness of the cords.
It was the same smoking, ill smelling lantern of the night before that
he swung in his hand. He set it down near the bed, looked at Renfro,
and then felt of the cord around his wrist. “Not so bad as that--not
that bad, though it was a long time,” he muttered to himself.
He rose heavily and fumbled his way through the door back into the
other room. This time as he had done every time before he closed the
door after him. “No use doing that,” Renfro thought, “I’ve already
heard Helen’s voice.”
The old woman came back with him. She carried a bowl of steaming stew
in which onions were one of the principal ingredients. That was evident
from the odor. And with it were several slices of toasted bread.
“Do you want some coffee?”
Renfro decided that her voice was not gruff through a habitual
bad disposition but exposure and poor food and it might have been
suffering. He forced a smile when he assured her that he would rather
have some milk if she could give him some.
“After a while,” she promised, “presently when I go up to the grocery.”
When it was evident that he was going to eat the stew, the old man
helped him raise himself to a sitting posture. Then he cut the cords on
his wrists. “Now eat,” he said and spoke without any surliness. “And
when the door is fixed a little more you won’t be tied any more.”
A grim smile came onto his face. “You are too smart a boy to have loose
for a time,” he said.
Renfro was interested in the way he spoke. At least it was evident from
what he said that he was to be kept in captivity quite a time. While he
ate the stew which was not a disagreeable mess, he wondered what sort
of confusion was raging back in Lindendale. Would the detectives decide
that it was a kidnaping plot? Would they set out on another trip to a
far off city for more evidence?
He was sure they would not do that. There was Mary, who had shared with
him conjectures concerning the identity of the owner of the missing
eyebrows. She would tell them about the trips to Captain Pete’s, to the
big house, and from there he was sure it would be easy for detectives
to work their way to the old barn.
He smiled contentedly and ate on until the bowl was almost empty. If he
had known that Mary thought him safe at the home of one of his friends,
that his mother believed the same, that full charge of the secret
investigation had been given over to the detectives he would have been
discouraged to the despair point.
After he was through eating, old Bart fastened new bandages, much wider
but stronger than the others on his wrists. But they were a distinct
advantage, for they did not hurt half as badly as had the others. And
when he had changed the narrow ones around his ankles to the wide
variety, Renfro, though far from being in a pleasant posture, was not
uncomfortable.
As soon as they made the discovery that he was going to be agreeable
and not cry or abuse them over his imprisonment, the old couple became
much less hostile. Renfro knew from their attitude that they did not
want to hurt or punish him--but merely to keep him shut up until they
had made some plans concerning Helen Wier.
“Well if it’s money they’re after, they’ll sure ask dad for some
too, as soon as they discover who I am,” he began to think and then
remembering Mary, decided that they wouldn’t get far with their plans
before they were discovered.
After promising to bring him something to read the old man took up
the dilapidated lantern and followed his wife, who had gone back into
the other room several minutes before. Renfro heard him lock the door
between the two rooms of the cave; and later give some commands to his
wife and Lang Tammy, who was once more in the cave.
Though the lantern was gone the cave was not so dark as it had been.
Renfro moved until he discovered the source of the light. It came from
over the top of an old door--the one, he felt sure--that the old man
had spoken about nailing more firmly before he should be turned loose.
He twisted at his thongs. They were tied too tight to ever be torn
loose. He tried them with his teeth but they were too tough for him
to make more than an impression on them. And making impressions would
only harm him, for once discovered they would be responsible for closer
watch than ever being put over him.
Quietly he lay back on his pallet and waited. In the other room they
were talking in muffled tones. A long conversation followed, a bustling
noise, and then silence.
And finally out of it came a voice which Renfro knew. “Who is in
there?” it demanded. “Is it any one who knows me? I’m Helen Wier.”
Renfro could have shouted for joy. “I’m Renfro Horn,” he answered.
“Where are they gone?”
“Up town,” Helen was just outside the locked door. “I’m not tied like
they say you are, but I’m locked in. Tell me everything you know--about
mother and father and everything. And why don’t they find me?”
Renfro had to pitch his voice loud and make it peculiarly piercing to
reach her through the heavy door and the big room of the cave. He told
her of everything he knew, how her letters had reassured her mother and
kept her well.
“Yes, they let me write them,” Helen’s voice seemed changed, more
piercing, more strident. Renfro decided that it was from her life in
the cave. “They’re not mean to me--and they don’t want money. They’re
keeping me, to get even with father.”
Quietly and without any emotion she told her story. Bart had been
sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary by her father years
ago. He had served most of those fifteen long years which had meant
separation from his family. While there he brooded over the loneliness
of himself and became almost a maniac, with one purpose in mind--namely
to get even with the judge who had sentenced him.
At first he had decided to kidnap the judge himself. He had kept that
thought in mind for years. When his old cellmate had gone free one day
and they had given him another he had been given a chance to plan for
the future, Captain Pete’s brother had been put in his cell and he, in
time, told of his home, of his crime, and the hidden cave in which he
and his confederates had at first made the counterfeit money.
Getting bolder the counterfeiters had moved into the cellar of the big
house and been discovered. But only the part of the story which was
concerned with the cave had interested Bart. From that time on he made
his plans. As soon as he was free he would come back to Lindendale,
kidnap Judge Wier and imprison him for months in this hidden cave.
Separation from his family for that time would give him just a hint of
what Bart had served on account of his sentence.
“Maggie told me all this,” Helen put her lips close to the key hole for
her throat was getting tired through talking so loud. “She wants me to
know all of it so that when they let me back to father I can tell him
all of it and understand exactly how and why Bart got even with him.”
“But isn’t Captain Pete in it?” Renfro persisted in asking a question
though Helen was still talking.
“No, neither he nor his brother. They just happened to discover the
cave and then they knew where I had been hidden. They’re afraid of
Bart. They won’t ever tell until I’m safe back home and Bart and Maggie
are away and safe in another part of the country, and happy because
they’ve had revenge.”
She talked a little while longer about the life in the cave. She
and Renfro conjectured together on the probable time they would be
imprisoned. And Renfro didn’t tell her of Mary Dugan’s knowledge of all
his clues and his hope of rescue from her. A surprise he decided would
be a good thing for Helen Wier.
After a time they, following Helen’s fear that the old woman would
return, lapsed into silence. Renfro sat and studied the door around
which came in small shafts of light. Now if he could only manage to get
loose before that door was made more secure he felt that he could work
his way through the door. But if--
And in the other room there came confusing sounds. Bart and Maggie had
returned, and a scuffling and barking and cavorting around told him
that they had brought with them Lang Tammy.