ROBBERS LEAVE A TRAIL
The Overland Riders looked at Grace, then at the colonel, not
understanding. Colonel Scott first introduced Grace to his companions.
“This young woman with an assistant was transporting wounded men from a
base hospital to Paris,” said the colonel. “Their train was wrecked and
the men were suffering in a cold railroad station to which Mrs. Gray had
had them removed. They were without food, and the line was blocked for
fifty miles ahead. She wired me for relief for the wounded men. Of
course I couldn’t give it and so wired her. Then I got a sizzling
message from her, saying that she was about to complain to the
commanding officer of the American forces.”
“And she did, eh?” chuckled one of the colonel’s companions.
“I’ll say she did. That was not all. Less than half an hour later I
received another message, this time from the commanding general,
assuring me that if I could not handle the transportation of the
Northern he would appoint a man who could.” The colonel laughed
heartily, and his friends regarded Grace’s flushed face with new
interest.
“I apologize,” said Grace. “It was not a graceful thing to do, but I
think you will admit that my action on that occasion was justified.”
“You got results, didn’t you?” demanded Colonel Scott with some
brusqueness.
“Oh, yes, sir.”
“And I got a calling-down—two of them, first by wire, then by letter
from headquarters, and I said to myself, ‘I hope I meet that young woman
one day, and when I do I shall have something to say to her.’”
“Now is your opportunity,” reminded Grace. “What is it that you wish to
say?”
“Just this, Mrs. Gray—that, were you a man, I should make you a division
superintendent on my railroad whether or not you had ever seen a
railroad,” answered the colonel amid laughter.
“Suppose we go in and have dinner,” suggested Grace. “Miss Briggs was my
assistant on the occasion to which you refer. I suppose the criticism
applies equally to her.”
“I had nothing to do with it,” protested J. Elfreda. “Mrs. Gray has a
habit of going ahead and doing things, asking advice afterwards,”
retorted Elfreda, as the party started for the hotel dining room.
The Overlanders were the center of attraction and many an amused smile
from the diners was directed at Stacy Brown, but Stacy did not appear to
observe their glances. He was pleased, however, that the diners were
impressed with him despite the strip of black court plaster that now
decorated the bridge of his nose. Hence the excuse for the fat boy to
throw back his shoulders and tilt the damaged nose up a few degrees.
Stacy ate his dinner gravely, controlling his appetite very well. In
fact, his table manners were something of a pleasant surprise to his
companions, who had feared that the lad’s appetite might outdistance his
breeding, as was not infrequently the case in camp.
After dinner the Overland party returned to the veranda where they were
joined by Colonel Scott, and reminiscences of the great war were
indulged in, to which there were many listeners.
After they had chatted for a time, Hippy excused himself to go back to
the camp to repair his saddle. When he reached there the campfire was
burning low and Jim Badger was nowhere to be seen. Hippy did not give
the guide’s absence any special thought at the moment, though Badger
should have remained there, instead of leaving the camp unprotected at
night.
After replenishing the fire, Lieutenant Wingate began working on his
saddle, the lining of which had that day been torn loose. He had been at
his task for about an hour when Badger came in.
“Hey there, Jim! Why did you leave the camp unprotected?” demanded Hippy
sharply.
The guide’s face flushed.
“I was chasin’ some bears that had been nosin’ ’bout the place.”
“From the camp?”
“Yes. They was tryin’ to git at our chuck.”
“Oh, all right. It’s a pity that we can’t take a shot at those fellows,”
declared Hippy.
“Mebby you’ll git a chance when we git in the northeastern end-of the
Park,” suggested the guide with a sly wink.
“Not a single little thing doing in that direction, Buddy. Don’t you
make any such proposal to this outfit unless you want to get your
walking papers,” warned Lieutenant Wingate.
“This outfit is mighty particular, ain’t it, eh?”
“It is.”
“Well, I reckon that’s right. I was only jokin’ anyway.”
Hippy made no reply, but continued with his work, observed appraisingly
by the guide, who seemed much interested.
In the meantime another and more exciting scene was being enacted at the
hotel, where the rest of the Overland party had been enjoying a
delightful evening with Colonel Scott and his friends. Tom Gray had just
been telling the colonel of the mysterious loss of the Overland ponies,
and how the railroad president had promised to put forth efforts looking
to the recovery of the missing horses, when an interruption came. The
wife of one of Colonel Scott’s friends came running to the front of the
house in search of her husband.
“I’ve been robbed!” she cried, in answer to a volley of questions.
[Illustration: “I’ve Been Robbed!”]
“Robbed?” demanded a chorus of voices.
“Yes. When I came down to dinner I left my jewels on the bureau in my
room. My purse, with a sum of money in it, was there also. That, too, is
gone.”
“Where is your room?” asked Tom Gray.
“At the rear of the house on the second floor, sir. Please, won’t
someone do something?”
“I should advise you to notify the hotel proprietor and leave the matter
in his charge,” suggested Grace. “Pardon me, but please give me the
exact location of your room.”
The woman did so in a few words. Colonel Scott said Grace’s advice was
good and suggested that the woman and her husband go at once to their
room.
“I will send the proprietor to you,” he continued. “You know we do not
wish to create a sensation here.”
“I know. But, Colonel, that is not getting my jewels back,” protested
the woman.
Colonel Scott motioned to the woman’s husband to take her away, after
which the colonel went into the hotel to look for the proprietor. Stacy
Brown strolled in after the couple. The fat boy went on upstairs keeping
at a discreet distance behind the woman and her husband, and saw them
enter their room. Adjoining it was a short hall leading off from the
main corridor, and as Chunky reached it he leaned out of one of the open
windows inhaling a long breath of the cool mountain air. Below him he
saw the red roof of the rear veranda, but that was all.
By the time he had finished his inspection and turned away, the
proprietor was hurrying to the scene of the robbery. He bumped into
Stacy at the junction of the corridor and the short hall.
“Who are you?” demanded the proprietor suspiciously.
“Name’s Brown. What’s yours?” returned the boy.
“I am the proprietor of this house.”
“And I am one of the unfortunate fellows who have had to stand for a few
of its meals,” answered the Overlander, thrusting both hands in his
pockets and strolling towards the stairway.
“Where were you? We have been waiting for you,” questioned Tom Gray as
Stacy returned.
“Just looking over the premises for clews, that’s all,” was the reply.
“Well, did you discover anything?” demanded Colonel Scott.
“Yes, sir.”
“You did?” asked Tom Gray sharply.
“Yes.”
“Come! Out with it. What did you discover?”
“I discovered the proprietor on the second floor, and he discovered me
at about the same time,” replied Stacy soberly, thrusting his hands
deeper into his pockets and strolling away.
“Is there no way of suppressing that impossible young man?” complained
Emma.
“It is my opinion that you would miss him,” chuckled the colonel. “Shall
we see you in the morning?”
Tom said yes, and, after good-nights were said, the Overlanders started
for their camp. Grace halted as they reached the rear of the hotel and
pointed to the rear veranda.
“Suppose we have a look at the roof of the veranda to-morrow morning,
Tom,” she suggested. “My intuition tells me that the thieves made their
entry by the way of the veranda roof.”
“Leave that to others,” answered Tom.
“If they don’t think it worthwhile to take a look at the roof of the
veranda, what then?” laughed Grace.
“Have your own way, my dear. You will, anyway. If you must, however, ask
Hippy to accompany you. He is a better sleuth than I am, and, besides, I
have work to do in the morning.”
“Oh, thank you, Tom. You are always such a dear, but you know I am a
dutiful wife and never oppose my husband,” added Grace demurely. A short
time after that the girls were pouring the tale of the robbery into
Lieutenant Wingate’s ear. Hippy put down his saddle and gave close
attention to the story.
“I am sorry about that,” he said. “The colonel’s friends appear to be
very fine people. How do they think the robbery was committed?”
“Someone said it was believed that one of the servants did the job,”
Elfreda Briggs informed Hippy.
After the party had broken up into groups, Tom told Lieutenant Wingate
that Grace had the crazy idea that she knew where the robbers had
entered the hotel.
“She wants me to go down there with her ir the morning and sleuth it for
clews. I told her to take you, and that you are a much better sleuth
than I,” said Tom laughingly.
“Thomas, you never spoke a truer word in your life. Leave it to the
brilliant brains of Grace Harlowe Gray and Theophilus Wingate to solve
this dark mystery. By the way, how much did the thieves get?”
Tom said he did not know. Later on, Tom, Grace and Hippy arranged that
she and Lieutenant Wingate were to go down to the hotel early in the
morning, reaching there by daylight for their own private inquiry into
the robbery.
“As I have said before, it’s a crazy idea, and is none of our business,”
declared Tom.
“Ordinarily I should agree with that, but I have an idea in the back of
my head that this affair may prove to be our business,” answered Grace
reflectively.
“Go to it,” was Tom’s smiling reply.
Daybreak of the following morning found Lieutenant Wingate and Grace
strolling down towards the hotel. At that early hour there were no signs
of activity about the place until both got a sudden scare when a garbage
barrel in the rear of the hotel tipped over with a bang and a black bear
ambled away. The bear, however, was more frightened than were the two
Overlanders.
“That is what a guilty conscience does,” laughed Grace, referring to the
start the bear had given them and to bruin’s hurried departure.
Both stepped back and surveyed the rear veranda roof and the window
through which entrance might be gained to the small hallway. They saw
that it would be easy for a person to gain the veranda roof, and that no
obstacle would then intervene for entrance into the building. Hippy and
Grace now examined the ground all along the rear of the house, working
towards each other from opposite ends.
“Come here!” called Hippy just loudly enough to reach the ears of his
companion.
“What is it, Hippy?”
“Here is where some person jumped down from the porch roof,” he said.
“See! The heel marks of a pair of boots are plain and recently made.”
“Yes, that is all very well, Hippy, but did they first climb to the
roof?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” muttered Hippy. Lieutenant
Wingate stood on the porch rail and peered up over the sloping roof. He
was clinging to the edge of the roof with one hand while the other hand
grasped a vine that grew up over the veranda roof.
“I can’t see anything that looks like a clew,” declared Hippy.
“Then you aren’t nearly so observant as I thought,” replied Grace.
“Eh? What’s that?”
“The vine has been quite recently torn at the edge almost under your
hand, just as if someone had used it to assist him in climbing to the
roof, and there are the marks of someone’s boots on the rail where you
are standing. Hippy, what is the matter with your eyes?” laughed Grace.
“I never could see in the morning,” complained Hippy. “You’re right,
Brown Eyes.” Getting down, he examined the heel marks on the ground.
Lieutenant Wingate then picked up the trail in earnest and followed the
footprints a little way back of the hotel. He soon discovered that
another pair of boots had joined the first, and together had gone away
in the direction of the Overland camp.
Hippy followed these bootprints, Grace trailing along behind him for
some distance, then they lost the trail entirely on hard ground, and
were unable to find it again.
“Well, what is your conclusion?” questioned Grace as her companion stood
thoughtfully gazing up towards their camp.
“My conclusion is that the hotel was entered from the rear, that two men
were in the game, and that they headed towards our camp after committing
the robbery, and that is all I know about it. I must have been mending
my saddle when they passed the camp. Grace, what have you a mind that
you are so eager to find the thieves? Why don’t you drop it?”
“Why don’t you?” retorted Grace.
“Because I saw last night that you had some idea in the back of your
head that you didn’t care to talk about. What is it? Now is as good a
time as any for a full confession.”
Grace shook her head.
“No. Not yet. Even the bears have ears. But, Hippy, should I be right in
my intuition, you and the rest of our party are certain to meet with a
great surprise before we have done with our journey through the
Yellowstone National Park,” replied Grace soberly.