XXV
Gopher
I DON'T know what I expected when I heard that key turn in the lock andknew that Hamish had at last succeeded in opening the door of thehidden cupboard. I felt as I had ever since entering the room,breathless and strangely excited. Of course Miss Rose's remark aboutthe family skeleton had been just a joke. I did not expect to hear therattle of bones as the door swung outward and see a cadaverous figuretumble onto the floor. But still I did expect something.
The door squeaked protestingly on its hinges as Hamish pulled it wide.The room was utterly silent as we all gazed blankly on three widevacant shelves. Empty!
The silence was broken by a scream. It was Hattie May again. "Look!"she cried. "It's m-moving--the bottom--look!"
She was right. Slowly before our fascinated eyes, the board whichformed the base of the cupboard was lifting like the lid of a box.Slowly from under it there was emerging--not a bony grinning skull--buta face of flesh and blood. A head, nearly bald and a lined, leatheryface in which little beady eyes gleamed with mingled astonishment andfury.
Hamish seemed to be the only one of us sufficiently in possession ofhis senses to speak. "Well," he said triumphantly, "got you at last,didn't I--you double-crossin' rat!"
Then came Aunt Cal's voice. "Gopher!" she cried, her tone odd anduncontrolled.
The man did not answer. He was engaged in raising himself stiffly outof the hole. He was dressed in sailor trousers and a sleeveless shirt.As the bottom of the cupboard fell back into place he turned and glaredat Hamish. "So you're the guy that's been playin' them smart tricks!"he snarled.
"If you mean locking you in the cellar," Hamish returned, "I figuredyou'd be some annoyed. But the next time you peddle fake hair tonic----"
"It's a good tonic," snapped the little man. "I made it myself inBrazil from a native receipt."
"Yeah, but you had to get yourself a supply of wigs to make folks fallfor it!"
This exchange of repartee was interrupted by Michael. "Look here," hedemanded, "what are you hiding in this house for? What are you after?"
The man turned on him sourly. "What business is that of yourn?"
"It's my business!" Aunt Cal's voice had regained its customaryauthority. She had dropped onto one of the straight horsehair coveredchairs and was regarding the man with a strange tense look. "Where,"she demanded, "is Carter Craven?"
Mr. Bangs--for of course it was he--seemed to notice her for the firsttime. And there was recognition in his glance as he answered morerespectfully than he had yet spoken.
"Craven's gone. Died in the Argentine last winter."
There was a moment's silence and then Aunt Cal asked tremulously, "Youwere with him when he died?"
The other nodded. "And that reminds me," he said, "he sent you amessage, said I was to come back and give it to you myself. Or if youwasn't here to get your address and mail it to you." He began feelingin the pocket of his trousers, presently bringing out a dog-eared billfolder from which he extracted a dirty envelope.
"And why have you not given me this before?" Aunt Cal inquired as shetook the letter from the man's hand.
He shrugged. "All in good time. I says to myself I'll just take a lookround first and get the lay of the land like."
Hamish eyed him fiercely. "So you opened the letter," he accused "andtook out the part you thought interesting--the sheet that had thosemeasurements on it!"
Mr. Bangs shook his head. "Naw, Mr. Detective, you got me wrong. Inever opened the letter. I found that there paper--since you're sointerested--with Carter Craven's things after he died."
"And that's where you got the key to the house too, I suppose," Michaelput in.
"Right, Buddy."
"Anyway," Hamish persisted, "you thought you were going to dig up aneat little fortune out there in the garden, didn't you? Well, youjolly well got fooled!" He turned to the cupboard and drew out the key."If you'd dug in the right place--which you didn't 'cause you were toostupid--that was all you'd have found."
Mechanically the man's clawlike fingers reached out and took the key.His glance strayed from it to Michael's honest gray eyes. "Say," heasked wonderingly, "is this on the level?"
"That's right," Michael told him. "That's all we found."
"I suppose," Hattie May spoke up pertly, "you expected to dig up theblue emerald didn't you?"
"What's that?" He turned and looked at her. "No, sister," he saidslowly, "I had all I wanted of the Blue Emerald!"
"What, you found it? You----"
The man nodded grimly. "Yeah, sister, we found the Blue Emerald--me andCarter together. It was there just where the map said."
"What map?" demanded Hamish.
Mr. Bangs shrugged. "Say, what is this?" he demanded truculently. "Athird degree or sunthin'?"
Aunt Cal, still clutching the unopened envelope close to her side,spoke again unexpectedly. "The Blue Emerald was the gold mine Isuppose, the one Carter went to find after his father died?"
Mr. Bangs nodded. "Yeah, he found the map among the old man's papers.He put all he had or could borrow into her but"--he shrugged again--"hemight as well have thrown the money over the ship's rail and it wouldhave saved us both a good sight of sufferin'."
"A mine!" Hattie May said wonderingly. "The Blue Emerald was the nameof a gold mine! But--then--what _were_ you after? Why were you diggingup the garden?"
For a minute it seemed as if he were not going to answer. But Eve spokeup quietly, "You were measuring the ground the very first day we camehere."
"Well what if I was?" he snapped. "I figured a man don't set downmeasurements on paper unless they mean somethin'."
"Carter's mind was always running on buried treasure," Miss Blossom,seated comfortably on the old sofa behind him, put in. "It was kind ofan obsession as you might say. I calculate he buried that key hoping tofool somebody the way he'd been fooled so often."
"But that doesn't explain about the cupboard," I cried. "If it was justa--a joke, why did he have the cupboard covered up?"
Mr. Bangs honored me with a glance. Then turning to the spot from whichhe had so recently emerged, he lifted up the false bottom again andbegan fumbling about below. At last he drew out a long dusty brownenvelope, tied with red cord. "Reckon that's the answer," he saidtossing it across to Aunt Cal. "Guess Carter didn't want that will tobe found till he was good and ready. He figured on comin' back a richman!" He laughed hoarsely.
"If that wasn't just like him!" Miss Blossom exclaimed. "I always saidhe never destroyed that will!"
Aunt Cal was untying the envelope with unsteady fingers. Inside was asealed one. "Yes," she said, "it is Uncle Judd's will!"
"And Craven House is yours at last," Miss Blossom gave a vast sigh ofsatisfaction. "I always knew you'd get it some day but I was afraid itmight come too late for you to enjoy it. Dear me, if these childrenhadn't found that key and all----"
Hattie May, too excited to remember her manners, burst in here. "But Idon't understand yet! I mean how Mr. Bangs--or whatever his nameis--how he happened to come popping out just at the moment Hamishopened the door? Why, it was exactly like a jack-in-the-box!"
This characterization of his appearance in our midst seemed to tickleMr. Bangs for he grinned for the first time. "Yeah," he agreed, "reckonit did give you kind of a surprise. I'd been a-poundin' on that trapdoor for quite a spell after this smart detective guy locked the cellardoor on me."
"Hamish dotes on locking doors on people," his sister remarked. "It'sone of his pet tricks!"
"The cupboard must open into that underground passage that Uncle Juddhad walled up years ago," Aunt Cal remarked thoughtfully.
The man nodded. "Yeah, I remembered hearin' talk of it. I poked aroundand found the entrance to it under the cellar stairs, and this hereladder between the floors. But it was dark as a ship's hold down thereand I couldn't get the trap door open. Then you opened the cupboard andlet in some light through the crack and I see wher
e she was hookeddown. I reckoned I could manage this smart guy here without muchtrouble--I didn't figure on runnin' into a whole tea party!" hefinished with a cackle.
"I suppose that was the passage you were hiding in the night the copssearched the house for you?" Michael remarked.
The man shot him a sardonic glance but did not answer.
Aunt Cal got up. "I really think, Rose," she said, "we should bestarting for home. It's growing dark and we've had quite enoughexcitement for one day." She turned to the sailor and fixed him with astern glance. "I sincerely trust, Gopher," she said, "that you will notleave the neighborhood until I've had a further talk with you. I--Inaturally wish to hear more details of my cousin's last days."
The man did not answer for a moment. But there was an insistence inAunt Cal's tone that was not to be disregarded. Perhaps he thoughtthat, since the game was up in any case, his best chance lay incompliance. "Okay," he said with another lift of his bony shoulders."I'll hang round for a spell."
As Miss Blossom's little car rolled away down the hill, no one spokefor a time. Eve and I were in the rear seat. Hattie May had gone withHamish in his car. It was with some difficulty that we had succeeded inprying the latter loose from the man whom he considered his lawfulprisoner. What was the use, he insisted, of pulling off a capture ifyou had to turn the fellow loose again?
But Aunt Cal's wishes of course had prevailed and Hamish, stillgrumbling, had been obliged to depart and leave the villain, as hedubbed him, to his own devices.
As we turned into the main highway at The Corners, Miss Rose settledback. "Well, it does beat all," she said, "the mysterious waysProvidence does work. To think of that rascal Carter sealing up thatold cupboard with the will in it and going off to the ends of theearth!"
"No, Rose, not a rascal," Aunt Cal returned, "you mustn't think of himlike that. It was just a--a kind of prank. He never meant to keep thehouse from me for long, he says so in this note. You see I--I was awayout West at the time he left. I think it was just as Gopher said, hewanted to come back a rich man----"
"And make you sorry you'd married Tom Poole instead of him," put inMiss Rose calmly. "That was just like him, always believing that moneywas all that counted even in a love affair."
"He says," said Aunt Cal softly, "that he hopes I will forgive himeverything. I believe he realized--at the end--the mistakes he'd made."
Miss Rose nodded. "Yes, Carter wasn't a bad fellow at heart," she said.
"And Mr. Bangs?" Eve asked hesitantly, "you knew him before, Aunt Cal?"
"Oh, yes. His real name is Gopher--Harry Gopher. He shipped as cookwith Uncle Judd for years and used often to be around town betweenvoyages. Uncle always said he was a rascal but he had a fondness forhim too. I shall have to see what can be done for him."
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XXVI
The Unveiling
A MONTH had gone by. August was already drifting into September. Schoolloomed ahead but we hardly gave it a thought. Each day as it came alongwas too absorbing, for Eve and I agreed that the business of making anold house come to life again was about the most thrilling experience inthe world.
Yes, Aunt Cal had really moved into Craven House. After muchdeliberation and lengthy conferences with her lawyer, she had at lastyielded to the combined persuasion of Miss Blossom, Mrs. Viner, Eve andmyself and decided to give up the little cottage in Fishers Haven andmake the old place she had loved as a child her permanent home. So thefirst of August had seen us established. Painters, plumbers and paperhangers had overrun the place. Miss Blossom had closed her own house inthe village for the time being in order to help get things going. Andfrom the day when she and Aunt Cal had gone to work with broom andscrub brush, all the latter's doubts and misgivings seemed magically todisappear. It was as if, with the vanquishing of dust and cobwebs,something equally oppressive had vanished from Aunt Cal's mind. Herfigure seemed actually to grow more erect and her eyes to grow brighter.
Today we were waiting for Michael to come. He'd formed the habit ofstopping on his way down from the farm. Sometimes it was his adviceAunt Cal wanted about grading the lawn or the laying out of paths orflowerbeds. Sometimes he was needed to bolster up the flagging energiesof our man of all work. For Gopher, though freed of the charge hangingover him through the intervention of Mr. Templeton and Captain Trout,did not take kindly to the job with which Aunt Cal had provided him."Tillin' the soil" he stated was out of his line as, I stronglysuspected, was labor of any sort. But with Aunt Cal's sharp eyes neverlong withdrawn and the knowledge that but for her he would now besojourning in a far less pleasant place, he kept grimly at it. I usedto feel sorry for him sometimes as I saw him stop to wipe his seamed,weatherbeaten face and gaze sadly down the road. And some fine morning,I felt sure, when the wind blew from the sea, Aunt Cal would come outto give directions for the day's work and he just wouldn't be there.
"Well, here's your letter at last!" Eve came up the newly graveledpath. She'd been to town with Miss Rose to do some errands and get themail. My heart gave the little leap that it always does at the sight ofthe thin paper envelope, bearing the Chinese stamp. Aunt Cal came outto listen as I read it aloud:
"My dear daughter:
Your account of your adventures at Craven House gave us quite as much of a thrill as they must have given you. I am immensely pleased that Calliope has decided to move into the old place. I remember it well. Your mother and I stopped there with you when you were three years old, and your curious recollection of the cupboard by the fireplace undoubtedly dates from that visit.
Your mother had come down for a last visit with your grandmother Poole before we sailed for the East. It was just after your Aunt Cal had married and gone West to live. We stopped for a call on Captain Judd Craven, a fine old man of the best seafaring traditions. We were grieved to get the news of his death the following year.
I recall the big front parlor and the jar of some sort of incense on the cabinet. Very likely you got a good whiff of it, one that your sensitive nerves of smell have never forgotten. The associative power of odors is well known, and so the cupboard and particularly the china duck which you say it contained became associated in your mind with the strange new smell. Thus when you smelled it again, even after the lapse of thirteen years, the particular brain cells into which the memory had been packed away released the recollection. I have heard of many similar instances, but few which have led to so dramatic a development as in your case."
"Well, well, that does beat all!" exclaimed Aunt Cal. "And to think ofyour being only three at the time!"
"I think it's perfectly weird!" said Eve.
"Not weird at all," I said. "Just perfectly normal and scientific asDad explains. And I must say I'm glad to have it established that I'mnot subject to trances or--what was it--cataleptic fits as Hamish sodarkly hinted!"
"There's Michael, and in a clean shirt too, if my eyes do not deceiveme! Let's go tell him about it, he'll be frightfully interested."
Hurriedly skimming through the rest of my letter--leaving the realreading of it till bedtime--I followed Eve across the yard. Aunt Calwent inside again to superintend the cutting of the cake, leaving thebig front door wide open as it stood most of the time nowadays. Thiswas against all the conventions of Old Beecham, but Aunt Cal was toobusy just now to give much thought to the conventions.
Today we had been working from early dawn, getting ready for our firstsocial event. It was to be--somewhat to Aunt Cal's dismay--a gardenparty.
We found Michael standing in the middle of the garden, surveying thearrangements. "Well," inquired Eve, "is your Majesty pleased?"
He grinned at her. "Say," he said, "am I going to be the only man atthis party?"
"No, don't worry. Captain Trout's coming and perhaps Mr. Templeton andHattie May wrote that she and Hamish would drive down if she couldpossibly manage it. But listen t
o the explanation Sandy's just had ofher vision the day we discovered the cupboard!"
"I object to having it called a vision!" I said. "It was just amemory--coming out."
When I had finished reading him what Father had written, Michael said,"That's mighty interesting! And what a piece of luck that you happenedto make that visit here when you were a kid."
"I suppose it wouldn't have mattered really," I said. "Aunt Cal hasnever told us just what Carter Craven said in that note he sent her butI think he must have told her where the will was, at least he gave hera clue."
"Yes," put in Eve, "but how do we know that Gopher would ever havegiven her the note at all if we hadn't cornered him like a rat in ahole. Just like it to slip his mind--he's got about the slipperiestmind I ever had the pleasure to deal with."
"He hasn't done so badly with this garden though," Michael observed.
"Would you ever have believed it could look so lovely!" Eve asked.
"Yes. You can do most anything with land if you put enough time andpatience into it, providing of course the soil's fairly good. Nextyear, I hope it will look even better."
"In the spring!" Eve said, her eyes shining a little. "Oh, I do hope Ishall see it in the spring when the daffodils and tulips first come up!"
"And I'll probably be grubbing for exams about that time!" Michaelsaid. "But maybe I can get away for a week-end. I'd like to see howthose bulbs come up."
"And us and Circe?" Eve asked teasingly. "Shan't you want to see us?"
"I hope the frost next winter doesn't crack that new arm I made forher," he answered, ignoring the question and looking across to where,above the clean bowl of the fountain, the restored statue stood, veiledtoday in white cheesecloth.
Miss Rose drove up just then with Mrs. Viner and we hurried out togreet our first guest. "My, how pretty everything looks!" she murmuredas we escorted her to a seat. "Seems 'sif that golden glow there by thewall sort of lights up the whole place! And how that larkspur by thefountain has come on! What pride Emily Craven used to take in herlarkspur."
"Next year," remarked Aunt Cal, coming up, "I shall have asters andmignonette in that bed too."
"There comes a car up the hill," I cried. "Maybe it's Hattie May andHamish!"
"No," Michael shook his head. "It's Captain Trout in Fishers Haven'sone and only taxicab."
Just behind came a string of other cars, bearing the members of theLadies Civic Betterment Society.
Miss Rose in a large flowered muslin, which made her look for all theworld like a mammoth piece of upholstery, moved among the guests,banishing all vestige of stiffness with her good natured small talk andbanter.
"Bless my boots, what a transformation!" exclaimed Captain Trout. "Howdelighted the old Cap'n would be if he could see it!" he added, turningto Aunt Cal.
"Yes," she agreed simply, "I think he would approve of what we havedone."
"How is Daisy June getting along?" I asked. "Do you think she misses usany?"
"Well, now I can't say that I've noticed her a-pinin'," he chuckled."She's still able to take a running jump at my back when I ain'tlooking."
"Adam loves it here," I said. "You ought to see him walk down the hall,waving his tail, as if he were the lost heir restored to his patrimony."
"Yeah, that's like him--Caliph always did put on airs!" The Captainchuckled at his own wit.
Gopher dressed in his borrowed white trousers appeared awkwardlycarrying a tray. "Hi, Biscuits, what you got here?" Captain Troutdemanded.
The sailor set down the cups of raspberry sherbet with an apologeticgrin. "Say, Skipper," he whispered hoarsely, "like to have me stir youup a batch of flapjacks 'fore you go?"
"No, no, certainly not!" Captain Trout took one of the pink filledglasses and passed it to Mrs. Viner. He helped himself to another.
At last came the moment when the sun touched the top of thefountain--the moment I had been waiting for. At a nod from Aunt Cal,Michael disappeared into the house. A moment later I got his signalfrom the cellar window. Everybody stopped talking as I advanced to thefountain and, reaching up, pulled the cord which held the veil aboutthe statue.
At the same instant, Michael turned the tap in the cellar and the watergushed forth in a myriad sparkling rainbow streams. Everybody clapped!It was exactly as if the delicate figure of the Enchantress poisedthere had really waved her wand and performed a miracle!
A belated car came puffing up the hill, a green roadster covered withdust. From the seat Hattie May waved frantically. Eve flew down thepath, I after her. Hamish peered out at the group about the fountain."Say," he demanded, "we ain't too late for the refreshments are we?"
"No, indeed, there's lots left," I told him laughing.
"We had a blow-out of course," Hattie May said as she climbed out. "Myhow pretty everything looks!"
As we came up the path Hamish caught sight of Gopher collecting plates."My aunt!" he exclaimed, "Mean to say you let that fellow go roundloose?"
"Oh," giggled Eve. "he's quite tame now really--just like the garden.You'd be surprised!"
Eve came out with a heaping tray. "Hasn't anything more queer beenhappenin', I suppose?" Hamish inquired hopefully between mouthfuls.
"No, I'm afraid not," I answered. "No more mysteries--except of coursewhat became of the china duck. And I'm afraid that'll never be solved."
Hamish set down his empty plate regretfully. "By the way," he remarked,"I brought along a few little souvenirs I picked up on the way. They'reout in the car."
"More gifts! Oh, Hamish!"
After the other guests had departed Hamish distributed his presents.There was a vanity case for Aunt Cal whose countenance to date has beeninnocent of make-up; shell-covered workboxes for Eve and me; acombination pocket knife and can opener for Michael and a hugeheart-shaped box of chocolates for Miss Rose.
"Oh, you cruel boy," Miss Rose cried, "to tempt me so!" She selected aplump one before passing the box.
As Aunt Cal turned to walk with Mr. Templeton to his car Hattie Maywhispered quite loudly, "I must say, Sandy, that your aunt has changed.Why she's like a different person almost."
"Hush!" I warned, "It's all Circe's doing! Magic, you know!"
"I guess more likely it's two living Circes that have done the trick,"said Miss Rose slyly, selecting another chocolate.
"Oh, you mean you and--and Gopher?" Eve inquired mischievously.
Miss Rose giggled. "Fancy me on a fountain! No, it's a fact, Cal toldme so herself, that she'd never have had the gumption to go ahead witheverything if it hadn't been for you girls. She said she wanted Sandrato have a place to come to that she'd feel was a real home."
"Oh, Miss Rose," I cried, "did she really say that?"
Aunt Cal came back down the path, Adam at her heels. "Well now thatthat's over," she said, "we'll be able to settle down to normal livingagain! Michael thinks I should put that south pasture into potatoesnext year. What do you think, Rose?"
"Farmer Gilpatrick advises!" Eve twinkled at him.
"Well?" he inquired challengingly, "what's the matter with that?Suppose I should turn into a farmer, what then?"
"Why, then," she returned, "you'll buy a farm next to ours--next toCraven House I mean--and make it the very finest, most scientific,up-to-date farm in the whole countryside."
"Well, you might do worse," Hamish remarked solemnly. "I read the otherday where a fellow was out plowin' up a field and what d'you s'pose heturned up? An old gold piece, yes sir! And come to find out when he dugdown there was a whole lot of 'em buried where some early settlerfellow had hid 'em when the Indians was comin'. What d'you think ofthat!"
"That settles it!" laughed Michael. "I shall become a farmer."
THE END
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Transcriber's Note
Italicized words and phrases are indicated by _surrounding underscores_.
Some presumed printers' err
ors have been corrected, includingnormalizing punctuation.
The following specific corrections have been made:
XII. OVER THE BANNISTER => XII. OVER THE BANISTER {Table of Contents}
also carred a cargo of hair tonic => also carried a cargo of hair tonic{P. 129}
"We won't half to, silly," => "We won't have to, silly," {P. 172}
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