THE ABANDONED WELL
Ann Mary was the first to speak. “Well, I never,” she gasped. “Who
could have written such an evil thing, Pat?”
Pat shook his head. “A crank, of course.”
“That’s what I think,” Phil agreed. “Someone who read the newspaper
stories about Adra Prentice’s kidnaping. Anonymous letters from people
who aren’t quite right mentally generally follow any kind of publicity.”
“But,” Marjorie objected, “all of that happened last year.”
“It makes no difference,” Jimmy told her. “People use newspapers for
lots of things besides keeping up with the news. They wrap china in
newspapers, line shelves and drawers with ’em, for instance. Whoever
wrote that dopey letter may have come across an account of Adra’s
kidnaping just the other day.”
Penny nodded. “Let’s tear the ugly thing up and throw it away. Whoever
wrote it probably won’t ever bother us again.”
“Right.” Jimmy tore the dirty sheet of paper to shreds and tossed them
into the fireplace. Phil set a match to them and they all watched the
scraps burn away to ashes.
“Well, that’s that,” Penny said. “As if anyone could scare us Allens
away from the Lodge!”
Then the meeting did break up, and four very tired, but not at all
frightened Allens, went upstairs to bed.
* * * * *
The next morning Jimmy’s first job was to overhaul the old bus and the
Bronc. The Bronc was an old station wagon that had seen better days.
It had served the Allens well, but right now it sputtered and rattled
and wheezed. The Bus was a small truck and was used for a multitude
of things. It hauled wood from the woods to the woodbin, it carted
supplies from the town to the Lodge and Philip planned to use it for
taking people on camping trips during the summer. Jimmy’s favorite
pastime was tinkering with cars, and he seemed to know the intricate
mechanics of the two old vehicles better than any trained mechanic.
While Jimmy was tinkering with the motors, Phil and Mal combed the
nearby woods for timber. Some of it would be cut up into logs which
would blaze merrily in the huge fireplaces on cool evenings. The rest
of it, Phil planned to give Jimmy for his shack. Jimmy had picked a
spot on the lake shore where he and the other boys could build a fire
if they wanted. He also planned to build a little dock and rent a few
rowboats. This was to be the bachelor’s retreat. The site was in a bit
of a bay with some large rocks along the shore line that would make the
dock construction simpler. Among the trees a little way back, there was
a fairly open place where the shack could stand. When Phil and Mal had
gathered quite a pile of wood, they called Jimmy down to view the spot.
“Now, all you have to do, Jimmy, is to go to it,” said Philip.
“I can’t wait until the other boys arrive to get started,” he answered.
“I’m going to start preparing the logs and lay the floor. Won’t this be
ideal?”
In the meantime, Marjorie began her secretarial duties by sorting mail
and answering as many of the letters as she could, while Penny went
into the village to shop in order to stock up on staples and to make
arrangements for her weekly orders.
One afternoon Jimmy, Phil and Mal decided to have a look at the long
old shed in the back yard which they thought might be fixed up to house
the cars of their summer guests. The old shed had been there all the
time, of course, but somehow they had kept putting off the time when
they would examine it. There had been so many things to do when they
first came, they had not even opened all the rooms in the house until
they had decided to turn it into a summer hotel.
Now the guest rooms must be cleaned and aired. Penny and Marjorie were
busy from morning to night helping Theresa and Ann Mary dust and make
beds.
“This is so boring,” Marjorie complained. “The only room I’m interested
in is the old storage room, Penny. When are we ever going to go through
those old trunks?”
“We’ve had a look at the contents of one of them,” Penny pointed
out patiently. “And we found that it contained nothing but some very
old-fashioned clothes and a few worthless, though pretty trinkets. Wait
till we have more time, honey. Then you may rummage around in there to
your heart’s content.”
“I can’t understand your lack of curiosity,” Marjorie moaned. “I can’t
sleep nights thinking about what might be in the trunk we didn’t open.”
Penny laughed. “I guess we’ve had too much indoor work for one day.
Let’s join the boys down at the shed.”
“Goody, goody,” Marjorie cried, flinging down her dust cloth. “There’s
bound to be something more exciting than cobwebs out there.”
At last they were hurrying down the concrete walk, past the Donahues’
small cabin behind the Lodge. They caught up with Mal and the boys on
the old graveled drive, overgrown with weeds. This drive led among
bushes and trees and looked like an old horse trail, but it was wide
enough for a car to travel over it with care.
Jimmy took one good look at all the weeds and said, “I don’t think
this is such a good idea, especially since I know I’ll be elected a
committee of one to cut down all these weeds.”
“Why, how did you guess it, young man! You are getting keen,” laughed
Penny. “But this really does look like a big job, and I’m sure Phil and
Mal will lend a hand, too.” Jimmy looked relieved at this suggestion
and here they were at the shed.
“Pat says that even your Uncle John never made use of this shed for
anything, and that it must have been a sort of stable back in the old
days,” explained Mal. “See, one of the side walls is pretty badly
broken up, but the roof has been patched and the framework seems
strong. There are a pile of boards and some poles behind this shed.
Looks as though somebody once had the idea of repairing it. That wood
back there is well seasoned and with the help of the repair man from
the village we could get it fixed up this week.”
Penny took hold of one of the supports, to which a few boards were
clinging loosely.
“Be careful how you lean against that,” Philip cautioned her. “That’s
the broken wall and we don’t want you to fall through it.”
But just as he finished saying it Penny gasped and slipped out of
sight. For a minute the others stood there with their mouths open, then
Phil and Jimmy quickly went into action. Mal poked his hand through
the wall where Penny seemed to have disappeared and Marjorie called,
“Penny, Penny, answer--are you hurt?”
Phil and Jimmy ran to the outside of the broken wall but there was
nothing there but the old pile of lumber Mal had mentioned. They called
Penny, and then there was a muffled sound that seemed to come from the
very wall itself.
Phil climbed right up on top of the pile of lumber and reached over as
far as he could toward the wall when he noticed a sunken place between
the wall and the lumber. It looked like an old well and it was partly
covered. He called to Penny and this time he heard her answer. As
quickly as they could, they all started to move enough of the lumber so
that they could get closer to the old well. Now they were sure Penny
had fallen into it, and Marjorie ran back to the house as fast as her
feet could carry her to get a strong rope and more help.
It seemed like hours, but it was only a few minutes before Phil and
Jimmy were able to lean over the well and start calling down to Penny.
She answered them this time and they heard her say quite clearly: “What
happened?”
“Whew!” Jimmy gasped, clutching his forehead with relief. “You fell
down an old well.”
“Are you all right, Penny?” Philip asked anxiously.
“I guess so,” Penny called back. “But it’s so dark I can’t see
anything.”
“Don’t worry,” Phil said in a reassuring voice. “We’ll have you out in
no time.”
Marjorie arrived then with Pat who had brought along a long rope.
Marjorie was very near to tears.
“Don’t let Penny know you’re frightened,” Phil cautioned her. “Keep
calling down to her in a cheerful voice to keep her courage up.”
Pat tied a big loop on the end of the rope, then Mal lowered it into
the well, and Phil called down instructions to Penny. Finally the rope
reached her, and she put the looped end around her waist and held on to
it as tightly as she could with both hands, while the men pulled her
up. When, after what seemed an interminably long time, Penny’s head
appeared, Marjorie burst into tears.
Tenderly they lifted Penny out, and she immediately assured everyone
that aside from being bruised and shaky, she didn’t think she had any
broken bones or other injuries. Ann Mary and Theresa and Kathleen had
arrived on the scene with water and bandages, all of which were scorned
by Penny who said,
“I did a foolish thing and I deserved what I got, but now that I know
I’m all right you can all just forget about me. If you keep on making
such a fuss I’ll feel like an idiot.”
Of course they all ignored her pleadings and made her sit right down
for a few minutes while Ann Mary wiped her face with a cloth dipped in
cold water. Then she examined Penny carefully to make sure that she
could move her arms and legs without pain. The only real damage seemed
to be to her appearance which was quite ludicrous. Now that they knew
she was safe they had a good laugh about it. Penny’s face and hands and
hair were covered with cobwebs, her dress was ripped and her shoes were
sopping wet. When Phil asked her if there was any water in the well
she said she thought she had stood in water and, of course, her wet
shoes showed that she had. Then everybody went back to the house, and
Penny took a hot bath which Ann Mary said would serve to relieve some
of the aches and pains she was bound to develop later from such a fall.
Phil and Jimmy were all set to go back and examine the well to see if
it was still in good working condition, and if they could find the
water source and perhaps get the well into good order. When they saw
Penny looking her fresh, well-groomed self again, they went back,
accompanied by Pat and Mal.
“It beats me,” Pat said. “I never knew there was a well of any kind on
this property.”
“I’ve heard rumors,” Mal said. “There’s always been a lot of talk in
the village about buried treasure in the bottom of an old dried-up well
around here.”
“I know,” Pat said, “and from time to time when the house was empty,
people who had no business trespassing, came here and tried to find
that well. Had a lot of trouble with prowlers,” he told Phil. “Your
Uncle John did. But nobody ever found a well.” He stopped and stared
at the hole. “Well, now, here it is. And now I wouldn’t be surprised
at anything. I’ve lived around here all my life and never believed
there was a well here. I think we should caution everybody to try and
keep this a secret so we won’t have any prowlers coming around, and we
should get busy and try to dig up that old well to see if there really
is any treasure there.”
“My gosh!” said Jimmy. “Do you really think there’s treasure there?
What kind of treasure is it supposed to be, Pat? Were there ever
pirates around here? Won’t Alf and Brook nearly die with excitement
when they hear about this!”
Phil smiled. “I’m afraid we can’t let you say anything to them, or
anybody else, until we investigate this thoroughly and see if there
is any foundation to the rumor. I agree with Pat, since we don’t need
the well for water, I think we should dig it up at once and solve this
mystery of buried treasure.”
Jimmy was all for going right back for picks and shovels, so Phil let
him go. Phil’s curiosity was aroused and he could understand Jimmy’s
enthusiasm. But Phil felt quite sure that they were not on the trail of
buried treasure.
“The Lodge was supposed to be haunted,” he said to Mal, “and we proved
it wasn’t. Now we’re about to prove that there’s nothing of any value
at the bottom of this old well.”
Jimmy came running back then with both hands full of an assortment of
picks, shovels and garden spades. They found that it was exceedingly
slow work since they first had to move the pile of old lumber and
debris that surrounded the old well. When they finally started digging
they found the stones that formed the well were impossible to move. Pat
guessed that the old well had been there a hundred years or longer.
Jimmy suggested that they use dynamite.
After two hours of concentrated labor Phil commented, “I don’t think
even buried treasure is worth all this effort.”
But Jimmy, who was obviously in high spirits over this adventure,
contradicted Phil with, “Of course it’s worth it, Phil, you wait and
see what we find.”
Pat shrugged. “I’m not thinking you should set your heart on finding
anything, my lad, because there probably won’t be any treasure here,
any more than the house was haunted last year.”
“Don’t say that, Pat,” countered Jimmy, “I’m not used to working like
this without any compensation.”
“Not much,” said Phil. “But all kidding aside, Jimmy, I think Pat is
right. However, we’re going to finish this job, if for no other reason
than to keep anybody else from falling into it. The rope we lowered to
Penny went down about thirty feet and I would guess that we have dug
around the outside of this old well about ten feet deep. Is that right,
Pat?”
Pat nodded. “Yes, that’s about right, and I think if we get out here
bright and early tomorrow morning, maybe we can finish the job before
night.”
Very reluctantly, Jimmy joined the rest as they returned to the house
to tell Penny and Marjorie of their progress.