The Mystery of the Secret Band

The sound of her own voice in the silent, dark house was strange; Mary Louise found herself trembling. But only for a moment: courage and common sense came to her rescue. Hastily she gathered all the silver together and put it in a pile on the dining-room table.

“I may have to go out through the window again,” she figured, “so I’ll leave my stuff here. But first I’ll try the doors from the inside.”

There, however, she met disappointment. There were no dead latches on the doors; they were both locked securely, and the keys had been removed.

Now that she had familiarized herself with the plan of the house, she decided to make a systematic search, beginning with the upstairs and working her way down. Cautiously she ascended the wide stairway in the hall to the second floor.

There were four bedrooms, she saw by the aid of her flashlight, and a bathroom. A narrow staircase led to an attic above.

“I might as well begin with the attic,” she thought, “and do the thing thoroughly. That would be a natural place to hide things – especially if there’s a closet.”

There was a huge closet, she soon discovered, besides two trunks, and all sorts of odds and ends of furniture piled about the room. Naturally, Mary Louise began her search with the trunks: to her delight she found them unlocked.

“If I only have the same luck that I had in the dining room!” she wished as she began to examine the trays.

Things had apparently been stuffed in hit-or-miss fashion: ribbons, scarves, odd bits of costumes were all entangled together. Off in a corner of the tray she found a heavy box which looked especially inviting. Opening it excitedly she let out a wild whoop of joy. There was jewelry inside!

But when she examined the articles one by one she experienced only disappointment. There was nothing valuable in the whole collection; it was merely “five-and-ten-store” stuff, which nobody would wear except to a costume party.

“I might have expected that,” she mused as she put the box back into the tray. “If this trunk had had anything valuable in it, it would have been locked.”

Nevertheless, she resolved to make her search thorough and went through both trunks, without any success. Then she directed her attention to the closet.

This occupied a large space – almost as big as a small room – so that Mary Louise found that she could easily enter it herself. It was horribly chilly and damp; she shivered, and drew her coat more tightly around her as she continued her task.

She was peering into a hat box when she suddenly heard a pounding on a wall. She stopped what she was doing and listened intently. Where was the noise coming from? Had someone come in? Was “Margaret” here, or had the police come to arrest Mary Louise for housebreaking? Her hands shook and she turned off her flashlight, waiting tensely in the darkness, while the pounding continued. But she did not hear any footsteps.

The noise finally ceased, and, reassured at last, Mary Louise turned on her flashlight and resumed her search. But the attic revealed nothing of any importance, not even any loose boards in the walls or floor underneath which the treasure might have been stored.

With a sigh of disappointment, Mary Louise descended the attic steps.

Entering the bedrooms one after the other and searching them carefully, she encountered no better results. The bureaus were practically empty; the beds contained only a blanket spread over each mattress, and though Mary Louise felt around them with her hands for hard objects which might be concealed, she found nothing.

Looking at her watch, she saw to her surprise that it was almost eight o’clock. Supper hour was long past; because of her excitement, and on account of her refreshments in the Philadelphia tea shop, she had not felt hungry. But she was thirsty and was delighted to find running water in the bathroom.

“I’m glad I don’t have to climb out of that window to get a drink at the pump!” she congratulated herself. And while she was there she methodically searched the bathroom, again without any success.

“Why, here’s an electric light button!” she exclaimed in surprise. “These people must be rich – they have all the modern improvements. And I’ve been using up my battery!”

But the light did not turn on; no doubt the current was cut off while the people were away, and Mary Louise had to resort to her flashlight again.

“Because I started in the attic, the treasure will probably be in the cellar,” she concluded. “I hope my battery doesn’t give out before I get to it.”

Nevertheless, she meant to proceed with the downstairs first, just as she had planned. She would rather be there if “Margaret” arrived. Oh, how she wished the girl would come! Especially if she proved to be Margaret Detweiler.

The kitchen consumed a great deal of time, for she had to look in every possible can and dish in the various closets. As she examined everything, she was conscious of increasing hunger; she sincerely hoped that she would find something she could eat. But her search revealed nothing except some dry groceries: tea, sugar, salt, and spices. Moreover, the stove was an electric one, useless without current. She could not even heat water to make herself a cup of tea!

She was debating whether she should crawl out of the window and go to a store for something to eat, or whether she should wait until she had completed her task. It was just nine o’clock now; if she left the house she might miss seeing Margaret and lose all chance of finding either the girl or the treasure. But as she passed through the dining room from the kitchen she saw immediately that her decision had been made for her. The window through which she had crawled into the house had been boarded up tightly! She was a helpless prisoner in this dark, lonely house!

So that was the explanation of the pounding which she had heard from the attic closet! Oh, why hadn’t she rushed down to see who was doing it? Now what in the world could she do? If Margaret didn’t come, she would have to spend the night here – alone! And tomorrow was Christmas!

But suppose nobody came tomorrow – or the next day – or the next week! Starvation, death from pneumonia, loneliness that would drive her insane – all these grim horrors stared Mary Louise in the face.

Shivering with cold, she stood motionless in the dining room and tried to think of some way out. It would be impossible for her to break down those heavy wooden doors, and she knew nothing about picking locks. There wasn’t an unboarded window on the whole first floor, and even the windows over the porch on the second floor were tightly nailed shut. Oh, what on earth could she do?

“If only Max and Norman would come along now and give that familiar signal!” she wished. But no sound disturbed the silence of the night; even the wind had died, leaving a stillness like death all about her. She felt buried alive in a doorless tomb.

“Nobody knows I’m here,” she moaned. “Not even Mrs. Hilliard.

“I’ll have to think of something,” she decided, with a supreme effort to keep herself in control. “In the meanwhile, I might as well finish my search.”

But even that satisfaction was denied to Mary Louise. In the doorway between the dining room and the living room her flashlight went out. At the most critical moment, when her courage was at the lowest ebb, the battery had died!

A groan of agonized dismay escaped from her lips. In utter despair she groped for a chair and sank down in it, miserable and defeated.

The impenetrable blackness of the room was overpowering, for she was used to the lights of the streets in Philadelphia and in Riverside. A strange, physical fear took possession of her, paralyzing her limbs; for several minutes she sat still in the darkness, not even attempting to move.

A shiver ran through her; she was becoming colder and colder in this damp, icy house. Her need for warmth stirred her to action. She rose cautiously to her feet and groped her way to the hall, where she remembered the stairway to be located, and without encountering any serious knocks, she slowly ascended to one of the bedrooms.

Here the inky blackness still confronted her, but it was not so deep as that of the first floor, for there was an unboarded window in the room. Gradually, as she made her way towards it, Mary Louise could perceive its outline. Most of the window was covered by the tree branches, but here and there through the limbs she could distinguish patches of sky. Yes – far off, and dim, but real, nevertheless – was one shining star!

“The Christmas star,” she murmured. “Or at least – my Christmas star. For it’s the only one I’ll see tonight.”

There was something immensely comforting in its presence. The star reassured her, it reminded her that God was still in His heaven, and she was not forsaken. Tomorrow, Christmas morning, rescue would surely come!

So, after collecting all the blankets in the house on one bed, she took off her coat and her hat and her shoes and lay down, drawing the squirrel coat over her on top of the blankets. Cold and hunger and her dark prison were forgotten in a blissful maze of unconsciousness. Mary Louise slept until the sun of the strangest Christmas of her experience awakened her.

CHAPTER XIV

The Secret Band

Mr. Gay settled back in his seat in the train with a sense of comfort. He liked traveling; no matter how hard he was working or how difficult the case he was trying to solve, he could always rest on a journey.

“I might have brought Mary Lou with me,” he thought. “She would have liked the experience.” But perhaps, he decided, she had wanted to remain on the spot at Stoddard House in case anything new developed. Little did he think as he was speeding along towards Baltimore that his daughter was driving as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Into a new danger which he had not dreamed of!

Mary Louise, in her systematic way, had given her father a list of all the valuables to be recovered. Now, at his leisure, he took the paper from his pocket and went over it carefully.

“Set of silverware, ivy-leaf pattern, initials S.H.

Chinese vase.

5 watches, including one set with diamonds and my own.

$550 in cash.

Painting by Whistler.

Pair of diamond earrings.”