_Conclusion_
Mary Louise was putting the last dabs of powder on her nose when she
heard a car stop at the porch steps. Peering through the screened window
of her bedroom she immediately decided that it must be the detectives.
Yes--and, oh, joy of joys!--they had Tom Adams with them!
In another moment the men were out of the car and up on the porch, where
her father joined them.
"Congratulations!" exclaimed Mr. Gay. "I see that you got Tom Adams. I
remember him now."
"Yes," answered one of the men. "But he won't admit a thing about your
daughter. He says he never saw Mary Louise after she went back to the
tennis court that afternoon."
"On what grounds could you arrest him, then?" demanded Mr. Gay.
"He stole a car on his way to the West."
Mary Louise repressed a giggle and turned away from the window. Her
father evidently meant to find out what he could before he announced his
daughter's return.
"You have a sister Rebecca, haven't you, Adams?" he inquired.
The young man nodded. "Yes. She's feeble-minded. Why?"
"We know that Mary Louise saw her the afternoon she disappeared. Rebecca
told us so, and she also said that you came home that afternoon just as
my daughter started to leave the farm."
"Rebecca's mind wanders a lot," muttered Tom. "She don't know what she's
talkin' about half the time." He shifted his feet uneasily.
"You--have been thinking of putting Rebecca into an asylum?" persisted
Mr. Gay.
"Yeah. We considered it. Why?"
"Because she's in one now," announced Mr. Gay calmly. "Of her own free
will. An asylum about twenty miles from here. A Dr. Fetter, I believe, is
the head of the institution."
He paused and gazed intently at Tom. The young man's jaw dropped, his
face grew white, and his hands trembled.
Mr. Gay burst out laughing, and Mary Louise came to the screen door.
"Hello, Tom," she said quietly.
The young man started as if he had seen a ghost. But he managed to
stammer a reply. "Hello, Miss Gay," he said.
All three of the plainclothes men stepped forward in amazement. "You
found her, Gay?" they demanded of Mary Louise's father.
"No," answered Mr. Gay. "To be frank, I didn't. Two of her young friends
from Riverside did. She was confined in an insane asylum about twenty
miles from Shady Nook, under the name of Rebecca Adams!"
All of Tom's pretence fell away from him at this announcement. He knew
his game was up. His limbs grew weak; he groveled at the men's feet.
"Don't send me to the chair!" he cried. "I didn't harm her. She's all
right, ain't she?"
"We'll let the judge and the jury decide that," replied Mr. Gay. "Now,
suppose you sit down there and tell us the truth, Adams. You might as
well, for we know most of it already!"
The young man crawled into a seat, but he made no attempt to tell his
story.
"We know that you burned three houses here at Shady Nook," said Mr. Gay.
"We know, too, that you did it because you were bribed by Frazier. Didn't
he pay you a certain sum of money to start those fires?"
"Yes, he did," acknowledged Tom. "He gave me five hundred dollars."
"Why did he want them burned down?" asked one of the plainclothes men.
"He figured that he'd get five hundred at least from the Hunters during
the summer, entertaining their friends and all. Then Flicks' fire turned
out to be better business yet. All the folks from Shady Nook, except the
Ditmars, begun eatin' at the hotel, once the inn was gone. And Smiths'
burnin' down brought all them children and servants and even the Ma and
Pa over to the Royal."
"Did Frazier expect to burn any more cottages?" was the next question.
"No, he wasn't plannin' on it. Only, when Mrs. Ditmar started up a
boardin' house and took his business away from him, that made him sore.
But I wasn't goin' a do no more dirty work. I figured I'd just get my
money and clear out. I never did expect to burn Ditmars'--only threaten
'em."
"But what made you do that dreadful thing to Mary Louise?" demanded Mr.
Gay.
"I wanted to get rid of her till I made my get-away. Frazier and me was
scared she was onto somethin' and would send for you, and you'd figure it
all out, Mr. Gay. Frazier thought, if I was gone, he'd be safe. He'd just
deny everything. The idea of callin' Mary Louise 'Rebecca' just popped
into my head when she told us she was goin' over to the farm to see
Hattie that afternoon. I knew Hattie and Dad was off to the fair. So I
jumped in my car and run over to the asylum and made the arrangements. We
just got back in time to nab her."
One of the men stood up.
"Detective Gay," he Said, "I think you and I had better go over and
arrest Frazier now. These other two men can take charge of Adams." He
turned to Mary Louise, who was still standing in the doorway. "Is there
any question you want to ask this criminal, Miss Gay, before we take him
away?"
"Yes," answered Mary Louise, stepping through the doorway. "I would like
to know how that pack of cards came to be dropped at the Smiths' the
night of their fire--how Tom happened to have them in his possession."
The young man flushed.
"One day I was watchin' Hunter do a trick on the hotel porch. I noticed
he put the cards in his coat pocket. Later on, he hung the coat over the
back of a chair while he went off to play tennis. So I sneaked up and
took 'em out of his pocket, to use to show the trick to the boys. I
thought they was marked, but they wasn't. Hunter sure is clever at
tricks.
"Then when I heard people was suspectin' him of burnin' his own cottage
down for the insurance, I thought I might as well help that suspicion
along. So I dropped his pack of cards into that can of water at the
Smiths'. And sure enough, it worked!"
Mary Louise's eyes were filled with contempt, but she did not put her
feeling into words. Instead, she nodded to the detectives, and the men
all left the porch. Fifteen minutes later Frazier's arrest was
accomplished, and the three plainclothes men started for Albany with both
criminals in their custody.
Mary Louise and her parents watched them go with a sigh of relief.
"That's that," said her father, with a smile.
"Now, if only Jane and Freckles would come," added her mother, "we could
be perfectly happy. It's time to go to dinner."
In a couple of minutes Mrs. Gay's wish was granted. Down the road half a
dozen young people came running, for they had just heard the wonderful
news that Mary Louise was back. Silky reached his mistress first, then
Freckles arrived, with Jane and four of the boys close behind.
Never, if she lived to be a hundred, would Mary Louise forget that
wonderful dinner at the Ditmars'. The joy of being back home again, the
happiness of her friends, the companionship of her father--oh, everything
seemed perfect that night to the lovely brown-eyed girl. And not least of
it all was the satisfaction of knowing that the mystery of the fires was
solved at last! Shady Nook was safe again for everybody--to enjoy for
many, many summers to come!
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
--Retained publication and copyright information from the printed
exemplar (this book is public-domain in the U.S.).
--Obvious typographical errors were corrected without comment.
Possibly intentional spelling variations were not changed.