A Warning
The air was brisk now, and the countryside had taken on that hushed
feeling that comes just before a snowstorm. At the moment the roads
seemed quite deserted, and their little roadster hummed along with all
its prideful speed and importance.
Suddenly Arden spoke. “Let me off near the library, Sim, will you?” she
asked. “I’ll get a cab back. I’m going to see if I can’t find a book with
something about Jockey Hollow. I’ve heard so much, I’m greedy for more.”
“We can wait for you, Arden,” Sim answered. “It’s not so very late, and
it’s only beginning to snow. You might not get a cab handy.”
“No, I’d rather you didn’t,” Arden objected. “I want to take my time.
Besides, you’ve got the top down, and Moselle will be worried. You go
along and I’ll come later,” she insisted, pulling her collar up closer
around her neck.
Sim finally agreed and turned toward the village, where she dropped Arden
at the corner nearest the library, so she wouldn’t have to turn around.
Sim was not yet an expert driver and often went blocks out of her way to
avoid turning. Arden stood at the corner and waved goodbye as her friends
continued on their way. The corner drugstore was brilliantly lighted, and
the usual group of men was hanging about the entrance, leaning up against
the window, talking and laughing. They were the least desirable element
in the town, lazy and shiftless and, somehow, they always gathered
together.
Titus Ellery was in this group, Arden noticed, as she hurried along. A
thin man, unshaven and carelessly dressed, Arden gave him a glance out of
the corner of her eye. His booming voice rang out on the night air, for
he made no effort to control it, and Arden could not help hearing him
say:
“Swears he don’t know a thing about it. But there’s a chance to pick up
some easy money. If we can do it. Thing is to find the stuff. It’s around
there some place, I’ll bet. That old Mrs. Howe ain’t as dumb as she
looks. You got the job all right, Nick?”
Arden started. Could she stop and learn some more, or would they become
suspicious and stop talking? She thought suddenly of a plan and, entering
the store, bought some powder she did not need, emerging just in time to
hear the man called “Nick” laugh rancorously and say: “That Callahan’s
got his job cut out for him. Every darky in Pentville’s scared to death.
I didn’t have no trouble gettin’ him to hire me.”
“Good!” exclaimed Ellery. “Then tomorrow——”
But Arden could linger no longer and so continued reluctantly down the
street to the library, although she was now anxious to get back and tell
the others what she had heard. She reasoned nothing could be done that
night, so she would try again to locate the books in which she hoped to
find important details.
It was almost closing time when she reached the library, and the place
was deserted except for a young girl putting books back on the shelves.
Arden approached her. “Are you Betty Howe?” she asked impulsively.
The girl looked at her coldly. “No, she’s not here this afternoon. May I
help you?” She flashed a brief professional library smile.
Arden felt rebuffed and explained that she had come for a book on the
history of Jockey Hollow.
“We haven’t very much on the subject. Most of the papers and maps telling
about it were destroyed in a fire years ago. There is this book, though,”
she said, and going to a shelf took a thin red book from it. “They say
Richard Howe, the old one, that is, refused to trust his papers to anyone
but himself and they were lost when a fire broke out in Sycamore Hall
while he was still living. Betty says the deeds to the old place were
lost then also.”
Arden took the book eagerly. It was pitifully small, she thought
regretfully, but thanked the librarian and, after having it stamped, left
to get one of the rickety village cabs and tell the girls all about it.
It was odd though that Betty Howe was not there, and she had not appeared
at tea, either. “Oh, well,” thought Arden, “perhaps she’s gone into New
York or some place.” And holding the precious book close to her, she
climbed into old Pop Warner’s car and told him to take her to Sim’s
house. He was a talkative old man, and he knew Arden and her friends
quite well. He seemed to know a lot about them, in fact, and asked her
question after question as he drove her to Sim’s. She squirmed with
impatience and then sat bolt upright as he asked in his squeaky voice:
“Heard you was chased by a ghost in Sycamore Hall! What would your dad
say if he knew you was galavantin’ around there? No place for young
ladies, I’ll say! Stay on your own side of the railroad tracks.” Then he
lapsed into silence as he turned into the driveway.
“What do you mean, Mr. Warner?” Arden asked quickly. “Who told you we
were there?”
“I hear things in this business. People always talk when they’re riding
along. There’s bound to be fire where there’s smoke,” he chuckled. “If I
was you, I’d let well enough alone. Hannah Howe is a smart woman,” he
managed to say as the car stopped with a jerk. “That’ll be fifty cents.”
He took the money and started away after a curt, “G’afternoon.”
Arden felt rather suffused with the day’s adventures. There had been
Granny’s story; then the overheard remarks from those men at the
drugstore, and last but not least, the insinuations of the old cab
driver.
At any rate, she had news for the girls, and she hurried up the drive and
into the house to give it to them. This historical study was fast
becoming a deep-dyed mystery, decided Arden.