It was almost like having come suddenly into the possession again of her own mother. Having read all those letters of hers, she knew pretty well what would be her advice, her decision about a great many questions of the day.
And now as she got up from her chair and went and looked out the window at the beauty of the day, she was glad in her heart that Caspar had not come immediately as he had at first suggested, for now she would come to meet him with the wisdom of her dear mother's judgment upon her.
For she had to own to herself that the little talk she had had with her old friend had not reassured her about him.
Could it be that it was just because she had been close to death, and a thought of the other world had made her more critical? She could not be sure. Of course, her heart was sore, and Caspar had revealed a great lack of respect for the father she loved. She had supposed he loved him also, and that failure to show any love had gone far toward opening her eyes to what he might have become. Certainly she could never be very friendly with one who, having once known what her father was and benefited by much kindness from him, could speak disrespectfully of him, even though he did not know of his recent death. With a sigh she turned away from the window and went back to putting her letters into safekeeping, where no prying eyes could ever bring them out and go through them. She did not yet know that someone in the night had tried to do that very thing to the other drawers in her father's desk.
So she got out a lovely capacious writing desk of quaint old-fashioned design, made of exquisite polished wood, that had been Mother's, and she carefully packed her letters within, locking it and stowing it away on a wide shelf in her own personal clothespress, safely hidden behind a row of hatboxes.
And just then she heard the doorbell. Could it be possible that Caspar had come so early? But, no, he had said he had to see that soldier friend of his off on a train. Well, perhaps he went on an earlier train than was first planned. Eden's heart began to give anxious little uncertain flutters. Would she know just what to say? How to act? Had her mother's letters made her self-conscious? That was not good. She must have perfect poise and dignity if she were to use right judgment, and she must, of course, be friendly and kind as an old schoolmate would naturally be. She must be back exactly where they left off when he went away if she were to judge if he had changed, and if for better or for worse.
And then suddenly Janet broke in upon her thoughts with a gentle knock.
"Miss Eden," she said in a low voice, "Mr. McGregor is doon the stair. He says there are some important questions he must ask ye and would ye kindly coom doon the stair an' let him have a few words wi' ye?"
"McGregor?" said Eden. "Oh, you mean Mike. About the intruder, I suppose. Why, of course, I'll go right down."
So Eden went down to meet the big friendly policeman and the man he had brought along with him. They were sitting stiffly in the little reception room next to the front door, and just in front of the library, as Eden entered wondering, a bit startled by the stranger whom she had never seen before.
Chapter 4
Eden looked with shy surprise at the stranger who had come with Mike. He didn't look like a policeman. He was dressed in an ordinary business suit. He was young and good looking, a gentleman; that was entirely obvious even before Mike said:
"This is Mr. Lorrimer, Miss Thurston. He's interested in this case of the young man who entered your house last night. He wants to ask you some questions. He's got a right to ask 'em. He's a federal agent as well as the lawyer representing your bank, and he's here at your Mr. Worden's request checking things over for us."
Eden gave the young man another startled glance. It sounded rather frightening. Federal agent! Lawyer! Surely she didn't know anything that a federal agent would want to question her about. But another good look at the clean-cut face, the steady, dependable, trustworthy eyes, reassured her.
"Yes?" she answered, watching his eyes keenly, trying to still the frightened beating of her heart. He didn't look dangerous.
Then the young man smiled.
"Thank you. I'm sorry to have disturbed you, but it is necessary for me to learn some facts from the head of this house, and I understand you are the head of this house."
He gave her a quick glance that sized up her youth quite accurately.
Eden answered with a grave smile and a nod of assent. She hoped her lips were not trembling, so she held to the smile rather determinedly, to keep them steady.
"Very well, then can you tell me just who this person is that calls himself Ellery Fane? Is he related to you?"
"No, he is not," she said quickly. "He was the son of my uncle's second wife by her first husband. I know my uncle, my father's brother, never knew of the boy when he married Mrs. Fane. But he was too kindhearted to turn the boy out, and so soon after my uncle died. Then my father tried to be kind to Ellery, but he was rather awful. He forged some checks in my father's bank when Father tried to give him a good job. He was a torment as long as he stayed here, and finally he ran away. Soon after that his mother disappeared. This is the first time I have seen him since Ellery was sixteen. Father took me away with him on a long business trip. When we came back, they were gone. I think that is about all I know."
"Thank you," said the young man, looking up from the quick shorthand notes he was taking. "And now, what about last night?"
"I was sitting in the library going over some letters of my mother's that Father had left for me to read, and I looked up and saw Ellery standing by the door. I don't know how he got in, or when, he just stood there and called me 'cousin' and began to talk to me. He thought I was going over business papers and offered to help me. I told him I didn't want any help from him. He said he and his mother were coming to live with me and take care of me, and that he was going to teach me how to change Father's investments and make me a rich girl. He was very insulting to my wonderful father. Then the servants appeared, and when the butler said he had sent for the police, Ellery slid out into the hall, got his hat and coat, and vanished. I think that is about all I know."
"Thank you," said the man. "And now, Mr. McGregor, where is the butler, and the serving woman, that you said had more to tell?"
"Right here, sir," responded Tabor, entering immediately, with Janet like a shadow just behind him. Janet slid quietly in, and Tabor stood at attention near the door.
Tabor told of the night's invasion and his calling for the police. He told why Ellery had been at once suspected and how his fingerprints, taken after he was caught, had corresponded with those on the library window that had been jimmied open.
Eden listened in wonder as the story unfolded, and then as Janet arose stiffly in response to her name and went on to tell of Mrs. Fane's arrival, and Mike's carrying her away protesting in his police car, she leaned forward and listened amazed.
Oh, what had been going on about her while she was asleep! How wonderfully her guardians had protected her. Bright tears flashed into her eyes.
But suddenly the stranger turned to her again and asked several direct questions. Just what had been the actions of Mrs. Fane during her first stay in town that had made Eden dislike her, and how had the matter terminated? Eden told briefly of her unpleasant and insistent attempts to get a foothold in the house. Then he asked if she knew whether her father had a financial agreement with Mrs. Fane that made her leave.
"Oh, no, I think not!" she said, very sure of her facts now. "Father didn't believe in bribes. That would have been bribing, wouldn't it? No, he simply made me pack up in a hurry one night and we went off to Europe, leaving no word behind except with Mr. Worden at the bank, Father's friend, you know, who has my affairs in charge. And, of course, Tabor and Janet knew how to get in touch with us. But they would never have told. They were our own family, you know." And she cast a grateful little flash of a smile at the two old retainers that was not lost on the lawyer.
"Yes, of course," agreed Mr. Lorrimer, with a quick glance taking in the looks that passed between Eden and her serva
nts, and appreciating the beauty of the sentiment between them all, realizing that on the surface, at least, there was nothing suspicious here.
"And now," said Lorrimer, settling back, his pencil and notebook in hand ready for any item that needed jotting down, "Miss Thurston, I wonder if you can tell me about business matters? Was there anything valuable in that desk besides what we know about? Have you a list of what it contained?"
Eden was thoughtful for an instant and then sprang up.
"Why, yes, I think perhaps there was a list. I'll get it. It's up in my room in my desk. Father gave it to me after he was first hurt, but I was so worried about him that I'm afraid I didn't give much heed to it at the time."
"Of course," said Lorrimer sympathetically.
"Couldna I get it for ye, Miss Eden?" asked Janet, as Eden turned to hurry away.
"No, thank you, Janet. You wouldn't know where to find it. I won't be long." And Eden hurried upstairs, while Mike and Tabor conversed in low tones about the way the room had been found that morning, and Janet stood with folded hands and waited. The young lawyer poised his pencil over the notes he had already taken and seemed to be summing them up and pondering.
But Eden was back in a moment with her hands full of neatly folded papers, which she handed over to the lawyer, small groupings of them strapped with rubber bands.
"These are some properties owned by the estate. He kept most of his important papers in the bank, of course. But these are a few securities he was going to explain to me about selling, and so on."
The lawyer took them bunch by bunch, looked over the headings, glanced at them all, and jotted down something about each one.
"I'll just have these checked over with the list we have at the bank," he explained to Eden. "That way we can tell if anything has been tampered with, or if there is anything missing."
"Oh, yes," said Eden, "but I don't think my father left anything down here that would matter. He usually put valuables in the bank."
The lawyer looked at her thoughtfully and then said: "It won't do any harm to make sure, of course. Your father wasn't able to get down to the library and make any changes in the contents of his desk after the accident, was he? Might not something have been forgotten?"
It came to Eden as she listened that this young man was keen and didn't take anything for granted. But she answered still thoughtfully: "Of course, it is possible, but I don't think it likely. Dad sent me downstairs twice to get special papers for him and had me seal them in envelopes and send them to Mr. Worden at the bank at once."
"Yes? Well, now I wonder if I could look at the desk and examine the room that was broken into?"
So they went in a solemn little procession into the library, a room latterly lined with books.
"I wonder," said the lawyer after he had gone through the drawers and written down the contents carefully, "whether there is any possibility that there might be a secret compartment in this desk. Do you know, Miss Thurston? Such a place does not usually manifest its presence for a casual glance like this."
"Oh, yes, it seems to me I remember Father saying something long ago about a secret compartment, but he wouldn't likely have left anything valuable there, would he? Or I should think he would have spoken of it. Tabor, did you ever hear about that? Did you know of a secret drawer?"
"Yes, Miss Eden, I'm sure there was. I remember he spoke to me about it once when he put some papers away in it. I'm not just sure where it was, but I think it is behind some drawer."
"It's worth looking for, anyway," said Lorrimer. "Could it be possible that if there is one, that that Fane boy knew of it?"
"Oh, no, sir. I don't think he would be likely to," said Tabor. "He was not allowed in this room. I had my orders when he was about."
Then Janet spoke up.
"Don't ye be too sure!" she said heatedly. "Thet lad was a little rat, and there was no room too locked up tae keep him oot. I foond him in here once meself, and he was always fussin' aroond wi' locks an' ketches. If there was a secret drawer, he'd find it!"
The lawyer looked at her sharply and then walked over to the desk, tapping expertly in different parts of the desk, listening for hollow sounds.
"Here!" he said. "Let's try this side, behind this first drawer. Pull it, would you, Tabor? Look! That drawer is not long enough for the whole depth of the desk. That's where it would be. Behind the end of the drawer perhaps. These compartments are very cleverly hidden. Have you a flashlight, Mike?"
"Yes, sir, here!" And a fine clear light pierced the dark recess behind the drawer.
"Yes! Here!" said the lawyer. "Pull out the next drawer. The compartment must be behind both of them, or perhaps even three."
They pulled out the next two drawers, and at last they came to the hidden spring that released the little high narrow door and showed a generous space, with just a few scattering papers, none of special value but all of them mussed and looking as if they had been hastily stuffed back for a hurried departure.
"Yes," said the lawyer thoughtfully. "And here is a thought, perhaps. This place is not in the careful order that seems to have been maintained throughout the rest of the desk, or room. If we only could be sure what was originally kept in this compartment, we might be able to check up. Perhaps Mr. Worden may be able to give us some light on this when he gets back. I'm looking for him to be home tonight or perhaps sooner. I'll ask him at once. By the way, let me feel back into that compartment. I have a hunch that there is still something more in there. You didn't reach all the way to the bottom, did you, Tabor?"
"Why, yes, sir, I thought I did. But there didn't seem to be anything down there. It was all smooth. It almost seemed like it had been varnished."
The lawyer was down on his knees again beside the desk, turning on the flashlight and examining every inch of the way most carefully. Then his hand went down into the compartment again and searched around. He seemed to be lingering longer than was necessary just to make sure that there was nothing further there. It almost seemed as if he was struggling with something, and then he reached out one hand.
"Get me a screwdriver," he said from under the desk.
Tabor gravely produced one and laid it in the reaching hand, and the rest of them stood watching, wondering if he had found anything.
A moment more the lawyer worked away out of sight, and then he drew back and brought forth a white box, just the length of the lower part of the compartment.
Then he rose, dusted off his hands and knees, and sat down in front of the desk, the white box still in his hands.
"There!" he said triumphantly. "The box is covered with satin paper and feels like a smooth varnished surface. That's what fooled us. Could there possibly have been other such boxes in there?" He looked speculatively at Eden, but her eyes were full of wonder.
"I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "I don't remember Daddy ever saying anything to me about it. Isn't there some writing on that box? It looks like it. Yes! See!"
The lawyer handed her the box, and she turned it over and read, " 'For Eden. Your grandmother's pearls.' "
"Oh," she said. "And that is my mother's handwriting! She must have put this here a long time ago, and then perhaps it was forgotten."
"I remember," said Janet. "I remember weel when she writ thet an' stowed it awa' in the wee bit drawer. But I'd thought it was tuk to the bank this lang agone! Is the pearls in the bit box yet?"
"Open it, will you, Miss Thurston? This is something we must understand if we're to go searching for a possible thief."
Eden took the box in trembling hands, untied the white ribbon with which it was bound, and opened the box cautiously. The little audience watched her and the box breathlessly.
There was tissue paper folded neatly on the top, and then soft pink cotton, and more tissue paper. And at last she brought to light a double string of fine lovely pearls with a delicate clasp set with tiny diamonds.
"Oh!" said Eden with great awe upon her, and then suddenly the tears rolled dow
n her face, and she could scarcely hold the box for trembling.
The young man leaned over and lifting her hands set them down on the desk, box and all, and Janet stepped up with a delicate handkerchief for Eden. In a moment more the young girl was smiling, in spite of her shaken emotions.
"I'm sorry I had to be such a baby," she said, half giggling, "but I'd just been reading some of my mother's letters, in this same handwriting, and it sort of broke me up. It was as if she had suddenly stepped into this room and given me these pearls, which must have been her mother's."
"They were, that," said Janet in an undertone. "She'd often spoken tae me of thim, an' once she showed thim tae me. They is rare pearls."
"It's quite understandable that you should be broken up at finding them, Miss Thurston," said the lawyer. "I'm sorry I had to be the cause, but I'm glad for your sake that we found them. And now I don't want to bother you any longer than is necessary. If you'll just answer a few more questions, we'll be done. Do you have any idea whether there were other things, more jewelry perhaps, in this drawer, and what they were? Would there be a list anywhere?"
"No," said Eden. "I wouldn't know. Perhaps Janet would, and of course the rest might be in the bank if there were other things."
"Yes," said Janet decidedly. "There was ither bits. A diamond bracelet, a lovely pin wi' rubies, an' some rings my leddy couldna wear ony mair since she got so thin they kept slipping off."
"You're sure of that?" asked the lawyer and wrote down carefully every little item Janet could remember.
"Of course, these may be in the bank. I'll check that over when Mr. Worden gets back. These things may have been the booty the young man was after. Do you know whether he knew about them? Could he have known of the secret drawer?"
"I couldna answer thet," said Janet, "boot I dontna he mightov foond it. He was thet nosey. Leave him in a room, he'd get tae the bootum ov it in no time, an' things would be missin' and naeboody to account fer thim."