CHAPTER III
A STARTLING OCCURRENCE
Mr. Wagstaff, on receiving word at the Town Hall from the janitor whobrought the message of the terrified servant to him, forgot, in hisexcitement, to tell his wife of the fearful news, and rushedout-of-doors without a word.
Mrs. Wagstaff knew it must be something awful that had called him awayin that style, and she lost no time in following, while the childrenscrambled after them at varying distances.
The husband entered the door through which several of the neighborshad timidly passed, only a few paces ahead of his wife, who wasupstairs almost as soon as he.
"Oh! my dear Tommy," she wailed, as she caught sight of the silentfigure fastened at the foot of the bed; "have they killed you?"
The sight was enough to startle any parent. The father had just jerkedthe handkerchief loose and flung it to the floor, and the lad's headwas drooping over on one shoulder, his eyes half-closed, and histongue protruding. The parent caught up a pitcher of water and dashedit in his face, while the mother frantically strove to unfasten thecruel thongs at the wrists and ankles.
The unexpected shock of the water startled Tommy into gasping andopening his eyes, but his look was dazed and aimless. His fatherwhipped out his pocket-knife and quickly cut the thongs. The releasedboy would have fallen had not both parents seized and laid him on thebed, where he moaned as if suffering greatly.
"Send for the doctor at once," said the mother.
"And call in the police," added the father; "a dastardly outrage hasbeen committed; it may prove murder."
By this time the room was filled with horrified and sympathizingneighbors. The solicitude of the parents for their child caused themto pay no heed to the visitors until the father, seeing a friend athis elbow, begged him to clear the house of intruders, and to admit noone except the physician or an officer of the law.
It took but a few minutes to comply with this request, and the parentswere left to give undivided attention to their suffering child, whocontinued to moan and roll his eyes as if he were at his last gasp.
The father was anxious, silent, and watchful; the mother demonstrativeand weeping. She rubbed her boy's hands, chafed his limbs, gazinglovingly the meanwhile in his face, and begging him to speak to her.Maggie, the servant, had regained her senses, now that she was sureshe was alive and the precious heir had not been killed. She took uponherself to fasten the doors and keep out intruders, finding time tomake a search up-stairs, which needed to be extended only a fewminutes to learn that an extensive robbery had been committed.
"Of course," remarked Mr. Wagstaff, when the amount of his loss, aswell as that of his wife, was reported to him, "I knew what had beendone the moment I saw my poor boy."
"Don't tell me," said the mother, waving the servant away, "I don'tcare if they have taken everything in the house, so long as my darlingTommy lives."
Her heart was kept in a state of torture by the alarming symptoms ofher heir. At times he seemed about to revive, a look of intelligencecoming into his eyes, but, after several gasping efforts to speak, hesank back on his pillow and gave it up as a failure.
By and by, in the midst of the trying scene, the physician arrived andtook charge of the patient. He was a wise old gentleman of wideexperience, and his cheerful words did much to awaken hope in theparents, who hung on his words and watched his manner.
It required but a few minutes for him to make known that their childwas not seriously hurt. During his examination he gleaned theparticulars of the outrage, and succeeded in getting Tommy into asitting posture. Then he expressed the belief that if the boy's sensesdid not come to him very soon he would have to bore a hole through hiscrown with a large auger.
This astounding declaration was meant for the benefit of Tommy alone,a sly wink at the parents preventing them from taking alarm. It wasnoteworthy that the boy began to pick up at once, and in the course ofa few minutes was entirely himself.
When the chief of police arrived the urchin was able to talk withsomething of his usual facility, and imparted to his awed listenershis account of the daring outrage and crime.
He said he did not feel very well after his folks left for theconcert, and he went up-stairs to lie down on his parents' bed. Hethought it strange that the gas was lit, though it was turned down,but he supposed it had been done by Maggie.
Just as he lay down he fancied he heard a man moving softly about theroom. He rose from the bed and was about to call out, when he becamesure that there were two persons near him. Before he could give thealarm he was seized and told that if he made any noise he would beinstantly killed.
Still the brave boy tried to shout, when he was gagged, bound, andtied to the bed-post, where he remained while the robbery went onaround him.
The doctor having pronounced Tommy out of danger, his parents becamemore composed, and listened quietly to the questioning of the chief ofpolice, who was one of the shrewdest members of his profession.
He listened gravely until the questions of the others were finished,when he asked Tommy to describe the appearance of the criminals so faras he could. The lad did so quite glibly. Both of the intruders weremasked, wore soft, slouch hats, long dark coats buttoned to theirchins, had gruff voices, and one of them took a dreadful-lookingrevolver from his side pocket, and seemed to be on the point ofdischarging several of the chambers at the captive.
Chief Hungerford asked the latter about the shots that had broken theglass down-stairs, and given the servant such a fright. At first Tommydeclared he did not hear them, but upon being questioned further,recalled that he did hear something of the kind just after he wasbound.
"Is this the handkerchief with which he was gagged?" asked theofficer, picking up the article from the floor.
"Yes, that's it," replied the father, who had snatched it from thehead of his son the instant he reached the room.
The chief continued talking without looking further at the linen, butwhen the attention of the couple was diverted he slipped it into hispocket. Then he asked liberty to make an examination of the house.Permission was cheerfully accorded, and he spent a half-hour in goingthrough the lower story in his own peculiar but thorough manner.
At the end of that period he came back to the room where the parents,brothers, and sisters were coddling poor Tommy, who was muffled up ina rocking-chair, sipping lemonade, sucking oranges, and nibbling thechoicest candy. Now and then he would start convulsively and beg themto take away those bad men, and not let them hurt him. Then, when hewas reassured by the kind words of the loving ones around him, hecomplained of his throat, and found it helpful to swallow morelemonade and take an additional suck or two at one of the orangespressed upon him.
Chief Hungerford stood in the door of the room, hat in hand, andlooked fixedly at the lad for a minute or two before speaking. Eventhen it was only in answer to the question of Mr. Wagstaff.
"What have you found?"
"Nothing special, sir; there have been so many people in the housetramping back and forth, that they have destroyed what clews we mighthave discovered. Then, too, the job was so easy that there was no needof leaving any traces."
"How was that?"
"Why the doors were unlocked, so that they had only to open and enterwithout forcing a window or fastening anywhere. After they got insidethey found you were kind enough to leave keys wherever they wereneeded, and consequently no violence was required up-stairs."
"But why did they fire those shots through the window down-stairs?"
"That was to frighten away the servant."
"It seems a strange proceeding when the reports were sure to be heardand bring people here, while the servant herself was certain to raisethe alarm. They might have bound and scared her into quiescence."
The chief of police had thought of all this before, and looked upon itas one of the peculiar features of the business; but he smiled, andsaid, in his off-hand fashion:
"It may strike us both as a little odd, but the best proof of thewisdom of w
hat the scamps did is the fact that they got off with theplunder and have not left the first clew behind. Well, good-eveningall; I will report as soon as I pick up anything worth telling."
And courteously saluting the family he descended the stairs and passedout of the door. Before doing so he questioned the servant on whatseemed unimportant points. Finally he entered the street and wasobliged to answer the innumerable questions that were asked him atevery turn. He had found it necessary to station a couple of his menon the premises to keep away the curious people, who persisted incrowding forward through the grounds and even into the house itself.
The rumors on the streets did not astonish him, even though they wereto the effect that Tommy (everybody called him "Tommy" since hismishap) had been strangled to death, his last breath leaving him justas he was caught in his mother's arms, and that Maggie the servant hadbeen attacked and badly wounded, but escaped by leaping from thesecond story window and running to the Town Hall, where the familywere attending a concert.
When the chief entered his private room he drew the handkerchief fromhis pocket, spread it out on his desk under a strong gaslight andcarefully examined it.
He had little hope of finding anything worth knowing, but he was toowise to neglect the least step. He carefully went over the somewhatsoiled piece of linen and smiled to himself when he observed that aname was written in the corner in indelible ink.
"Burglars aint apt to carry handkerchiefs around even with theirinitials written on them, but one of these gentry has been kind enoughto give us his whole name. It is written so legibly, too, that I canread it without my glasses. Ah, '_William Waylett_!' there it isas plain as print.
"It strikes me," continued the chief, following the train of thought,"that I've heard that name before. Jim Waylett was my classmate incollege, and he has three daughters and one boy. The name of theyoungster is William, generally called Billy. That chap is the ownerof this handkerchief as sure as a gun."
By this time, as the reader will perceive, the sagacious officer wasnot only on the right trail, but advancing rapidly to the correctconclusion. He had not heard all of Tommy Wagstaff's story before hebegan to grow suspicious. His experience enabled him to detect morethan one inconsistency despite the skill of the tremendous falsifierwho built up the structure.
Investigation and further questioning confirmed this suspicion until,when he left the house, all doubt was gone. He knew that no man hadvisited the Wagstaff home that night or taken any part in theindignities to which Master Tommy was subjected.
But it was equally clear that the young rogue had had partners in hisshameless trick, and the chief meant to learn who they were.
He was confident that he could find them out from Tommy himself, whomhe could handle in such a way as to force a confession, but while theparents, especially the mother, were in such a state of excitement,they would be indignant at the first hint of the boy's trickery, andwould defeat what advantage he might gain if left alone with him.
"They will come to it in the course of a few days," reflected theofficer, who had seen similar scenes before, "and it won't do any harmto wait until then. I will get a chance at the boy before long, and,if I don't force it out of him, then I'll resign my office and take tothe woods."
The chief was desirous also of sparing the feelings of the parents ofthe boy, whom he liked. They would feel much worse if compelled toadmit the truth after first refusing to listen to his suggestion.Then, too, he had another boy to work upon. Billy Waylett must knowsomething of the affair. At any rate, he could tell how it was hishandkerchief came to be used to gag one of his playmates, and_that_ little piece of information was likely to give him justthe clew that was needed.
"I'll wait until things get cool," concluded the chief, who happenedto have other matters pressing upon his attention just then.
Accordingly he gave his whole energies to the business which took himout of Ashton for a part of two days. When he returned it was with theresolve to take hold of the matter in earnest, but to his dismay, whenhe came to make inquiry, he was told that Tommy Wagstaff, JimmyMcGovern, and Billy Waylett had disappeared.