The Mystery at Dark Cedars

“Still have the money?” whispered Jane, as they ran the short distance to their gates.

“Yes, I can feel the wad here. I was so afraid somebody in the bus would notice it. But having Silky in my lap helped.”

“It seems we have company,” remarked Jane, recognizing a familiar roadster parked in front of their houses.

“Now what can Max want at this time of night?” demanded Mary Louise impatiently. She longed so terribly to get into her room by herself and count the money.

“Here they are, Mrs. Gay!” called a masculine voice from the porch. “They’re all right, apparently.”

The two mothers appeared on Mary Louise’s porch.

“What in the world happened?” demanded Mrs. Patterson. “Mrs. Gay and I have been worried to death.”

“Not to mention us,” added Norman Wilder from the doorstep. “We phoned all your friends, and nobody had seen a thing of you.”

“I wish we could tell you all about it,” answered Mary Louise slowly. “But we aren’t allowed to. All I can say is, it’s something in connection with Elsie Grant – the orphan, you know, Mother, whom we told you about.”

Mrs. Gay looked relieved but not entirely satisfied.

“I can’t have you two girls going up that lonely road at night, dear,” she said. “To the Grants’ place, I mean. It isn’t safe.”

“Oh, we weren’t there tonight,” Jane assured her, not going on to explain that they had gone somewhere far more dangerous.

“Well, if you do have to go there, let Max or Norman drive you,” suggested Mrs. Patterson. “The boys are willing, aren’t you?”

“Sure thing!” they both replied.

“Let’s all come inside and have some chocolate cake,” said Mrs. Gay, delighted that everything had turned out all right. “You girls must be hungry.”

They were, of course; but Mary Louise was more anxious to be alone to count her treasure than to eat. However, she could not refuse, and the party lasted until after eleven.

Her mother followed her upstairs after the company had gone home.

“You must be tired, dear,” she said tenderly. “Just step out of your clothes, and I’ll hang them up for you.”

“Oh, no, thanks, Mother. I’m not so tired. We rode home in the bus… Please don’t bother. I’m all right.”

“Just as you say, dear,” agreed Mrs. Gay, kissing her daughter good-night. “But don’t get up for breakfast. Try to get some sleep!”

Mary Louise smiled.

(“Not if I know it,” she thought to herself. “I’m going after the rest of that treasure! The gold! Maybe if I get that back for Miss Grant, she’ll consent to let Elsie go to high school in the fall.”)

Very carefully she drew off her sweater and laid the bills under the pillow on her bed. Then, while she ran the shower in the bathroom, behind a locked door, she counted the money and checked the numbers engraved on the paper.

The attendant was right! There were eight hundred dollars in all, in fifty-dollar notes. And the best part about it was the fact that the numbers proved that the money belonged to Miss Mattie Grant!

CHAPTER VIII

A Confession

It was a little after nine o’clock the following morning that Mary Louise and Jane set off for Dark Cedars. The money was safely hidden in Mary Louise’s blouse, and Silky was told to come along for protection.

“I’ll never leave him home again,” said Mary Louise. “Miss Grant will have to get used to him. But when we tell her about last night I guess she’ll think he’s a pretty wonderful dog.”

“I dreamed about bandits and robbers,” remarked Jane, with a shudder. “No more night adventures for me!”

“Well, it was worth it, wasn’t it? Think of the pleasure of clearing Elsie of suspicion!”

“It won’t, though. Her aunt will insist that she took that gold.”

“We’re going to get that back too,” asserted Mary Louise confidently.

“By the way,” observed Jane, “Norman tried to make me promise we’d drive over to the Park with them this afternoon and have our supper there, after a swim. I said I’d let him know.”

Mary Louise shook her head.

“We can’t make dates, Jane. It’s out of the question, for we don’t know what may turn up. I want to investigate the Pearsons today. That disagreeable Corinne may have had a part in the theft… I’m sorry now that we promised the boys we’d go on that picnic.”

“That picnic’s going to be fun! You know what marvelous swimming there is down by Cooper’s woods. And don’t forget the gypsies! I love to have my fortune told.”

“Yes, that’s fun, I admit. But a whole day – ”

“Oh, well, maybe we’ll solve the whole crime today! And maybe Miss Grant will let us take Elsie with us, now that she has some nice dresses.”

Mary Louise’s eyes brightened.

“That is an idea, Jane. I’ll ask Miss Grant today – as our reward for returning her money.”

The increasing heat of the day and the steepness of the climb to Dark Cedars made the girls long for that swimming pool in the amusement park, and Jane at least wished that they were going with the boys. But one glance at her chum’s determined face made her realize that such a hope was not to be fulfilled.

Both girls felt hot and sticky when they finally mounted the porch steps at Dark Cedars and pulled the old-fashioned knocker on the wooden door. It was opened almost immediately by Hannah, who evidently had been working right there in the front of the house.

The woman looked hot and disturbed, as if she had been working fast, under pressure.

“Good-morning,” said Mary Louise brightly. “May we see Miss Grant, Hannah?”

“I don’t know,” replied the servant. “She’s all of a fluster. We’re at sixes and sevens here this mornin’. The ghosts walked last night.”

“What ghosts?” asked Mary Louise, trying to repress a smile.

“You know. Elsie’s told you about ’em. The spirits that wanders through this house at night, mussin’ up things. They had a party all over the downstairs last night.”

“Hannah!” exclaimed Jane. “You know that isn’t possible. If there was a disturbance, it was caused by human beings. Burglars.”

The woman shook her head.

“You don’t know nuthin’ about it! If it was burglars, why wasn’t somethin’ stolen?”