RANSACKING THE OLD RUIN
It was midmorning when the girls, busy about their simple household
tasks, heard a hallooing out on the beach. Nann took off her apron,
smiling brightly at her friend. “Good, there are the boys!” she
exclaimed, hurrying out to the front porch to meet them. Dories followed
with their tams and sweater-coats.
“We’ve put up a lunch,” Nann told the newcomers. “Miss Moore said that we
might stay over the noon hour. We have told her all about the mystery we
are trying to fathom and she was just ever so interested.” They were
walking toward the point of rocks while they talked.
Gib leaned forward to look at the speaker. “Say, Miss Dori,” he
exclaimed, “Miss Moore’s been here sech a long time, like’s not she knew
ol’ Colonel Wadbury, didn’t she now?”
“No, she didn’t know him,” Dories replied. “He was such an old hermit he
didn’t want neighbors, but she did hear the story about his daughter’s
return and how cruel he had been to her. Aunt Jane wasn’t here the year
of the storm. She and her maid were in Europe about that time, so she
really doesn’t know any more than we do.”
“We didn’t start coming here until after it had all happened,” Dick put
in.
“I’m so excited.” Nann gave a little eager skip. “I almost hope the pilot
of the seaplane has not found the deed and that we may find it and give
it to him.”
“So do I!” Dick seconded. Over the rugged point they went, each time
becoming more agile, and into the punt they climbed when Gib, barefooted
as usual, had waded out and rowed close to a flat-rock platform. The tide
was in and with its aid they floated rapidly up the channel in the marsh.
“Shall we enter by the front or the back?” Nann asked of Dick.
“The front is nearer our landing place,” was the reply. “Let’s give the
old salon a thorough ransacking. I feel in my bones that we are going to
make some interesting discovery today, don’t you, Gib?”
“Dunno,” was that lad’s laconic reply. “Mabbe so.”
A few moments later they were standing under the twisted chandelier
listening to the faint rattle of its many crystal pendants. Nann made a
suggestion: “Let’s each take a turn in selecting some place to look for
the deed, shall we?”
“Oh, yes, let’s,” Dories seconded. “That will make sort of a game of it
all.”
Dick held the flashlight out to the older girl. “You make the first
selection,” he said.
Nann took the light and, standing still with the others under the
chandelier, she flashed the bright beam around the room. “There’s a
broken door almost crushed under the sagging roof.” She indicated the
front corner opposite the one by which they had entered. “There must have
been a room beyond that. I suggest that we try to get through there.”
But Dick demurred. “I’m not sure that it would be wise,” he told her.
“The roof might sag more if that door were pulled away.” They heard a
noise back of them and turned to see Gib making for the entrance. “I’ll
be back,” was all that he told them. When, a moment later, he did return,
he beckoned. “Come along out,” he said. “There’s a way into that thar
room from the outside.”
He led them to a window, the pane of which had been broken, leaving only
the frame. They peered in and beheld what had been a large bedroom. A
heavy oak bed and other pieces of furniture to match were pitched at all
angles as the rotting floor had given way. Dick stepped back and looked
critically at the sagging roof, then he beckoned Gib and together they
talked in low tones. Seeming satisfied with their decision, they returned
to the spot where the girls were waiting. “We don’t want you to run any
risk of being hurt while you are with us,” Dick explained. “We want to
take just as good care of you as if you were our sisters.” Then he
assured them: “We think it is safe. Gib showed me how stout the
cross-beam is which has kept the roof from sagging farther.”
And so they entered the room through the window. For an hour they
ransacked. There was no evidence that anyone had been in that room since
the storm so long ago. “Queer, sort of, ain’t it?” Gib speculated,
scratching his ear. “Yo’d think that pilot fellar’d a been all over the
place, wouldn’t yo’ now?”
“Let’s go back to the front room again and let Dori choose next for a
place to search,” the ever chivalrous Dick suggested.
A few seconds later they again were under the chandelier. Dories, as
interested and excited now as any of them, took the light and flashed it
about the room, letting the round glow rest at last on the huge
fireplace. “That’s where I’ll look,” she told the others. “Let’s see if
there is a loose rock that will come out and behind which we may find a
box with the deed in it.”
Nann laughed. “Like the story we read when we were twelve or thirteen
years old,” she told the boys. But though they all rapped on the stones
and even tried to pry them out, so well had the masonry been made, each
rock remained firmly in place and not one of them was movable.
“Now, Dick, you have a turn.” Dories held the flashlight toward him, but
he shook his head. “No, Gib first.”
The red-headed boy grinned gleefully. “I’ll choose a hard place. I reckon
ol’ Colonel Wadbury hid that thar deed somewhar’s up in the attic under
the roof.” Dories looked dismayed. “O, Gib, don’t choose there, for we
girls couldn’t climb up among the rafters.” But Nann put in: “Of course,
dear, Gib may choose the loft if he wishes. But how would you get there?”
Gib had been flashing the light along the cracked, tipped ceiling of the
room. Suddenly his freckled face brightened. “Come on out agin.” He
sprang for the low opening as he spoke. Then, when they were outside, he
pointed to the spot where the roof was lowest. “Yo’ gals stay here whar
the punt is,” he advised, “while me ’n’ Dick shinny up to whar the
chimney’s broke off. Bet yo’ we kin git into the garrit from thar. Bet
yo’ we kin.”
Dick was gazing at the roof appraisingly. “O, I guess it’s safe enough,”
he answered the anxious expression he saw in the face of the older girl.
“If our weight is too much, the roof will sag more and close up our
entrance perhaps, but we can slide down without being hurt, I am sure of
that.”
The girls sat in the punt to await the return of the boys, who, after a
few moments’ scrambling up the sloping roof, actually disappeared into
what must have once been an attic.
“I never was so interested or excited in all my life,” Nann told her
friend. “I do hope we will find that deed today, for tomorrow will be
Sunday, and I feel that we ought to remain with your Aunt Jane and put
things in readiness for our departure on Monday.”
“Yes, so do I.” Dories glanced up at the roof, but as the boys were not
to be seen, she continued: “I am interested in finding the deed, of
course, but I just can’t keep my thoughts from wandering. I am so glad
that Mother will not have to keep on sewing. She has been so wonderful
taking care of Peter and me the way she has ever since that long ago day
when father died.” Then she sighed. “Of course I wish she hadn’t been too
proud to accept help from Aunt Jane.” But almost at once she contradicted
with, “In one way, though, I don’t, for if I had lived in Boston all
these years, I would never have known you. But now that you are going to
live in Boston, how I do wish that Mother and Peter and I were to live
there also.”
“Maybe you will,” Nann began, but Dories shook her head. “I don’t believe
Mother would want to leave her old home. It isn’t much of a place, but
she and Father went there when they were married, and we children were
born there.” Then, excitedly pointing to the roof, Dories exclaimed:
“Here come the boys, and they have a packet of papers, haven’t they?”
Nann stepped out of the punt to the mound as she called, “O, boys, have
you found the deed?”
“We don’t know yet,” Dick replied, but the girls could see by his glowing
expression that he believed that they had.
They all sat in the punt, which had been drawn partly up on the mound and
which afforded the only available seats. Dick and Nann occupied the wide
stern seat, while Dories and Gib in the middle faced them. Dick
unfastened the leather thong which bound the papers and, closing his
eyes, just for the lark of it, he passed a folded document to each of his
companions. Then he opened them as he said laughingly:
“Just four. How kind of old Colonel Wadbury to help us with our game!
Now, Nann, report about yours first. Is it the Wetherby deed?”
After a moment’s eager scrutiny, Nann shook her head. “Alas, no! It’s
something telling about shares in some corporation,” she told them.
“Well, we’ll keep it anyway to give to our pilot friend,” Dick commented.
“Mine,” Dories said, “is a deed, but it seems to be for this Siquaw Point
property.”
Dick reported that his was a marriage license, and Gib dolefully added
that his was some government paper, the meaning of which he could not
understand. He handed it to Dick, who, after scrutinizing it, said:
“Well, at least one thing is certain, it isn’t the deed for which we are
searching.” Then, rising, he exclaimed: “Now it’s my turn. I want to go
back to the salon. I had a sort of inspiration awhile ago. I thought I
wouldn’t mention it until my turn came.”
They left the punt and followed the speaker to their low entrance in the
wall. Although they were curious to know Dick’s plan, no one spoke until
again they stood beneath the rattling chandelier. At once the boy flashed
the round light toward the corner where the piercing eyes under shaggy
brows seemed to be watching them. Then he went in that direction. Dories
shuddered as she always did when she saw that stern, unrelenting old
face. “Why, Dick,” Nann exclaimed, “do you suspect that the picture of
the old Colonel can reveal the deed’s hiding-place?”
The boy was on his knees in front of the painting. “Yes, I do,” he said.
“At least I happened all of a sudden to remember of having heard of
valuable papers that were hidden in a frame back of a painting. That is
why I wanted to look here.” He had actually lifted the large painting in
the broken frame. Dories cried out in terror: “O, Dick, how dare you
touch that terrible thing? He looks so real and so scarey.” The boy
addressed evidently did not hear her. Handing the flashlight to Nann, he
asked her to hold it close while he tore off the boards at the back.
For a tense moment the four young people watched, almost holding their
breath.
“Wall, it ain’t thar, I reckon.” Gib was the first to break the silence.
“You’re right!” Dick placed the painting from which the frame had been
removed against the wall and was about to step back when the rotting
boards beneath him caved in and he fell, disappearing entirely. Dories
screamed and Gib, taking the light from Nann, flashed the glow from it
down into the dark hole. “Dick! Dick! Are you hurt?” Nann was calling
anxiously.
After what seemed like a very long time, Dick’s voice was heard: “I’m all
right. Don’t worry about me. Gib, see if there isn’t a trap-door or
something. I seem to have fallen into a vault of some kind.” Then after
another silence, “I guess I’ve stumbled onto steps leading up.” A second
later a low door in the dark corner opened and Dick, smiling gleefully,
emerged, covered with dust and cobwebs. “Give me the light and let’s see
what this door is.” Then, after a moment’s scrutiny, “Aha! That vault was
meant to be a secret. The door looks, from this side, like part of the
paneling.”
“Oh, Dick!” Nann cried exultingly. “_That’s_ where the Wetherby deed is.
Down in that old vault.”
“I bet yo’ she’s right.” Gib stooped to peer into the dark hole.
“Can’t we all go down and investigate?” Nann asked eagerly.
Dick hesitated. “I’d heaps rather you girls stayed out in the punt,” he
began, but when he saw the crestfallen expression of the adventurous
older girl he ended with, “Well, come, if you want to. I don’t suppose
anything will hurt us.”
Although Dories was afraid to go down, she was even more fearful of
remaining alone with those pictured sharp grey eyes glaring at her, and
so, clinging to Nann, she descended the rather rickety short flight of
steps. The flashlight revealed casks which evidently had contained
liquor, and a small iron box. “That box,” Dick said with conviction,
“contains the Wetherby deed.” He was about to try to lift it when Nann
grasped his arm. “Hark,” she whispered. “I heard someone walking. It
sounds as though it might be someone in that library or den where the
desk was.”
They all listened and were convinced that Nann had been right. “It’s that
pilot chap, I reckon,” Gib said. But Dick was not so sure. “Please,
Nann,” he pleaded, “you and Dories go out to the punt and wait, while Gib
and I discover who is prowling around. I didn’t hear an airplane pass
overhead, but then, of course, he might have come in from the sea as he
did before.”
The girls were glad to get out in the sunlight. They stood near the punt
with hands tightly clasped while the boys went around to the back to
enter the opening in the wall of the den. It seemed a very long while
before Nann and Dories heard voices.
Then three boys approached them. A tall, slender lad, dressed after the
fashion of aviators, with a dark handsome face lighted with interest, was
listening intently to what Dick was telling him.
The girls heard him say, “Of course, I knew someone else was visiting my
grandfather’s home, especially after I found the painting of my mother——”
He paused when he saw the girls, and Nann was sure that the boys had
neglected to tell him that they were not alone. Dick, in his usual manly
way, introduced Carl Ovieda. Dories thought the newcomer the nicest
looking boy she had ever seen. At once Dick made a confession. “I know
that we ought not to have done it, Mr. Ovieda. We read the note book that
we found, hoping that it would throw some light on the mystery.”
“I’m glad you did!” was the frank reply. “The truth is, I was getting
rather desperate. You see, Mother and Sister are to arrive tomorrow from
overseas, and I did so want to have the deed of Grandma Wetherby’s old
home to give to Mother. The place has been vacant for years, but the
taxes have been paid. Of course no one would dispute our right to live
there, but there couldn’t be a clear title without having the deed
recorded.”
Gib asked a question in his usual indifferent manner, but Nann knew how
eager he really was to hear the answer, “Air they comin’ in that thar
Phantom Yacht, yer mother and sister?”
The newcomer looked at the questioner as though he did not understand his
meaning; then turning toward Nann and Dories he asked, “What is the
Phantom Yacht?”
Nann told him. Then the lad, with a friendly smile, answered Gib: “No,
indeed. That yacht was sold, Mother told me, when we returned to
Honolulu. That is where we have lived nearly all of our lives, but ever
since my father died, Mother has longed to return to her own home
country.”
Nann, glancing at Dick, realized that he was very eager to speak, but was
courteously waiting until the others were finished, and so she said: “Mr.
Ovieda, I believe Dick wishes to tell you of an iron box in which he is
almost sure the lost deed will be found.”
The dark, handsome face lightened. Turning to the boy at his side, he
inquired: “Have you really unearthed an iron box? Lead me to it, I beg.”
“We’ll wait in the punt,” Nann told the three boys. Dories knew how hard
it was for her friend to say that, since she so loved adventure.
However, it was not long before a joyful shouting was heard and the three
boys appeared creeping through the low opening. Carl Ovieda waved a
folded document toward them. “It is found!” Never before had three words
caused those young people so much rejoicing. After they had each examined
the paper, yellowed with age, and Carl had assured them that he and his
mother and sister would never be able to thank them enough for the
service they had rendered, Nann exclaimed: “I don’t know how the rest of
you feel, but I am just ever so hungry.”
“I have a suggestion to make,” Dories put in. “Let’s all go back to the
point of rocks and have a picnic.” Then, as the newcomer demurred, the
pretty young girl hastened to say, “Oh, indeed we want you, Mr. Ovieda.”
The tall, handsome youth went to the place where he had left his small
portable canoe and paddled it around.
“Miss Dories,” he called, “this craft rides better if there are two in
it. May I have the pleasure of your company?”
Blushing prettily, Dories took Carl’s proffered hand and stepped in the
canoe. Nann, Dick and Gib, in the punt, led the way.
Half an hour later, high on the rocks, the five young people ate the good
lunch the girls had prepared and told one another the outstanding events
of their lives. “I’m wild to meet your sister, Mr. Ovieda,” Dories told
him. “Does she still look like a lily, all gold and white. That was the
way Gib’s father described her.”
The tall lad nodded. “Yes, Sister is a very pretty blonde. She has iris
blue eyes and hair like spun gold, as fairy books say. I want you all to
come to our home in Boston just as soon as we are settled.” His
invitation, Nann was pleased to see, included Gib as well as the others.
That embarrassed lad replied, with a hunch of his right shoulder, “Dunno
as I’ll ever be up to the big town. Dunno’s I ever will.”
“You’re wrong there, Gib!” Dick exclaimed in the tone of one who could no
longer keep a most interesting secret. “You know how you have wished and
wished that you could have a chance to go to a real school. Well, Dad has
been trying to work it so that you might have that chance, and, just
before I came away, he told me that he had managed to get a scholarship
for you in a boys’ school just out of Boston. Why, what’s the matter,
Gib? It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
It was hard to understand the country boy’s expression. “Yeah!” he
confessed. “That thar’s what I’ve been hankerin’ fer. It sure is.” Then,
as a slow grin lit his freckled face, he exclaimed: “It’s hit me so
sudden, sort of, but I reckon I kinder feel the way yo’re feelin’,” he
nodded toward the grandson of old Colonel Wadbury, “as though I’d found a
deed to suthin, when I’d never expected to have nuthin’ not as long as
I’d live.”
The girls were deeply touched by Gib’s sincere joy and they told him how
glad they were for his good fortune. Then Carl Ovieda sprang to his feet,
saying that he was sorry to break up the party, but that he must be
winging on his way. He held out his hand to each of the group as he bade
them good-bye, turning, last of all, to Dories, to whom he said: “I shall
let you know as soon as we are settled. I want you and my sister to be
good friends.”