Betty and the Books
Arden Blake, for a moment, did not know which to attend to first, the
strange old woman or the nervous and excited Betty Howe with her gasping
declaration of a dead man in the cellar.
Then, in a flash, Arden decided if there was a dead man there he must be
the missing Jim. And if he were dead he would remain there. Also Arden
knew Betty, but she did not know this strange woman who had so suddenly,
and seemingly mysteriously, appeared on the scene.
“Don’t be afraid, Betty!” Arden told the trembling girl. “We are here
with you—the other girls are around in front, and so is the contractor
and his men. But who is this—lady?”
The strange woman was regarding Arden with malevolent eyes, and her mouth
seemed to be muttering words. Betty, who, up to this moment, did not
appear to have been aware of the other’s presence, now turned and looked.
She showed no surprise.
“Oh,” she said in a low voice to Arden, “that is Granny’s cousin, Viney
Tucker. She lives with us. I guess Granny didn’t mention her before,
because, well—she is a little——”
Betty did not need to add the word “queer,” Arden could see that for
herself. But there was nothing abnormal about Viney Tucker. She had once
been a handsome woman, Arden reasoned, perhaps even more so than Granny
Howe.
“Cousin Viney helps Granny with the work, as she used to do when we all
lived in the Hall,” Betty hurried to say. “But don’t bother about her.
She goes and comes as and when she pleases. But the man in the cellar—the
dead man. Oh, I was so frightened! What shall we do?”
“This probably explains the whole mystery,” said Arden.
“What mystery?”
“About the missing workman, Jim Danton. Didn’t you hear all the
excitement about him, Betty?”
“No, I only just got here a few minutes ago. What do you mean about a
missing man?”
“First tell me,” suggested Arden, “what you were doing in the cellar.”
“I was there looking for some old books that were stored down there when
we moved out and over to the cottage. I happened to mention them to our
librarian the other day, and he suggested that I bring some in for him to
examine. He said there might be some valuable volumes among them. So I
took a little time off from my work, and I came directly here—with a
flashlight.” This was all said in breathless haste.
“Yes,” said Arden, “I see you have a flashlight.”
“It’s the only way to find things in the cellar—it’s so dark down there
with all the lights off now. And if it hadn’t been for my light I
wouldn’t have seen the dead man.” She actually leaned against Arden and
was trembling still.
“Let’s hope he isn’t dead,” suggested Arden. “Come! We must tell the
others quickly.”
Up to this time Viney Tucker had neither moved nor spoken since her
arrival on the scene. She stood at the corner of the house and fairly
glared at the girls. Now she exclaimed:
“Ha! So there’s a dead man, is there? I knew murder would be done before
they finished tearing down our house! I knew it!”
“It isn’t murder, Cousin Viney,” said Betty.
“Well, there will be murder before this business is finished,” sniffed
the old woman. “And I don’t like murder being done in our old house.”
“And it isn’t our house any more, Cousin Viney,” said Betty. “That’s just
the trouble—we can’t prove it is ours.”
“If we could only find the papers! If we could only find the papers!”
muttered Viney Tucker as she hurried away in the direction of the
cottage. Evidently the excited woman was suffering from the wrongs she,
as well as her family, felt had been done them about the Hall.
“Now we must hurry!” cried Arden. “This man you think is dead—I’m sure
he’s the missing Jim, and he may not be dead at all; he must be looked
after. If he’s injured, he’ll need a doctor. Come and tell the others all
about it! They’re right out here.”
“But I don’t _know_ anything about him,” Betty objected as Arden fairly
dragged her around to the front of the house.
“You found him—that’s enough!”
The conference between the contractor and his men was still on, but Sim
and the others seemed on the point of leaving. They had just become aware
of the fact that Arden was not in sight when she came into view with
Betty.
“We’ve found the missing man. Or, rather, Betty did when she went in the
cellar after books!” cried Arden all in a breath. Quickly she introduced
Betty to her chums.
“You mean Jim?” shouted Mr. Callahan.
“I think so,” Arden answered.
“Come on, men!” cried the contractor leading a rush around to the side
cellar door. “But it’ll be dark down there. We’ll need some lanterns. Get
one, some of you.”
“Take my flashlight,” offered Betty.
Mr. Callahan did, fairly snatching it away but begging her pardon a
moment later.
“You can’t know how upset I am,” he explained. “So many things have
happened today and other days. Poor Jim! How in the world did he get down
in the cellar? Is he badly hurt, do you think?”
“He seemed to be unconscious,” Betty answered. “But I didn’t give more
than a look, and I thought he was dead, so I screamed and rushed out.”
“And I met her as I was wandering around that way trying to think up some
reason for all this,” Arden explained.
“Well, we must get help to him quickly if he’s alive!” decided the
contractor, and he led his hurrying men while the girls followed.
“How long were you in the cellar, Betty?” asked Arden.
“Only a few minutes. I couldn’t find the box of books at first. It must
have been moved. And then I saw—him!”
“And you didn’t hear anything of the search we have been conducting for
the last half hour?” asked Sim.
“Not the least sound. But then I was away down cellar, and the floors are
very heavy.”
“And we were searching the upper floors,” said Terry. “Of course you
couldn’t hear, Betty.”
Up out of the cellar, sliding and slipping on the crumbling stone steps,
came the men carrying an apparently lifeless form. They had found it by
means of Betty’s electric torch.
“Is it the missing man?” called Arden.
“Yes, it’s Jim Danton,” someone answered.
“Is he—dead?”
“We don’t know yet,” said Mr. Callahan. “We’ve got to get him to a doctor
pretty quick.”
“Well, at any rate,” said Dorothy, “the mystery of the poor man’s
disappearance is solved, and I hope he isn’t seriously injured.”
One of the men who was standing near the girls turned to answer Dorothy.
“That doesn’t explain it,” he said. “Jim was working on the third floor,
but _how_ did he get down in that cellar?”