CHAPTER XIV
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
But being converted to scouting could not at once cure Nora of her dreamhabits. Being so long alone in school, and having a brain insatiable forcreative material, she usually went to bed to think and she went tosleep to dream.
"I never felt so deliciously tired," she murmured. "But I do wonder whatailed Vita."
Presently blue eyes cuddled in their white satin blankets with brownfringe borders (a way Nora had of describing eye lids and lashes), andthen the panorama began.
First it was the Scout memory. She, as the bravest Scout that had everjoined a troup, dramatically saved someone from drowning. Next, Nora asthe actress in the picture shown at Lenox, performed the daring feat ofswinging from the great rock with strikingly better effect than had shewhose name graced the program. The third dream installment had to dowith something very indistinct but horribly terrifying. It revealed acrawling thing that first crossed the path, then climbed the morningglory vine right up to Nora's window, and now--yes now--it was chokingher!
Had she screamed?
She found herself sitting up straight in bed and she felt as if her verycurls had straightened out in fright.
There--was a noise! She listened, put her hand out and switched on thelight. It was nothing in her room, but seemed somewhere--Yes, there itwas again and it surely was up in the attic!
Was that someone moaning?
Dream dizzy still, Nora could form no definite resolve, either to callor to remain quiet. She simply lay fascinated with fright. The noiseceased. Still she lay--listening. Then other sounds penetrated thenight. That was feet--shuffling of feet and they seemed just above herhead! Quickly Nora reached out again and touched the button thatswitched off the light. She would rather lay hidden deeply in the bedclothing than be exposed to whatever was prowling in the attic, shouldit come down the stairs.
Then she thought she heard whispering, but that might have been herexcited imagination. She drew the covers closer and with her head buriedfrom sound she could no longer listen, and not possibly hear.
But after, what seemed to the frightened girl, a very long time sheventured to poke her head out again, just as she heard a stealthful stepon the stairs.
"Oh!" she gasped aloud. Then "Vita!" she called faintly.
"Yes, I come. Sh-s-!"
Nora had not expected to hear that voice. She merely called Vita becauseshe did not want to call Cousin Ted, and she felt the intruder wasdangerously near. But there was Vita!
"What is it? You have bad dream?" asked the maid in a whisper, standingnow beside the bed.
"No, it was no dream." Nora's voice was not very low, in fact she wasangry. "I did hear things and there's no use telling me it was the wind.It wasn't," she snapped.
"Sh-s-!" again Vita warned. "It is no good to wake cousins. I was up thestairs for that old window. It slam--you hear it?"
"What could slam a window tonight?"
"I do-no!" in the way foreigners have of not understanding whenignorance is more convenient. "I must go to bed now. You all right?"
"Say Vita!" charged Nora. "If you don't tell me the truthI'll--I'll--just shout!"
"No, not too much noise," coaxed the big woman, who in her night robelooked like a masquerade figure. "What do you want I should get you?"
"Nothing. I don't want anything but for you to tell me who is up in thatattic!" demanded Nora sharply.
"Me--Vittoria, is up attic."
"Who was with you?"
"Cap."
"Where is he now?"
"He go down--back way."
"Now Vita--" Nora stopped. She was baffled. This woman could confuse herso and then walk off demurely, just as she had done that other night.Finally Nora began again:
"All right, Vita, but you just listen." She was shaking a small fingertoward the face with the black flashing eyes. "If you don't tell me allabout your secret I shall tell Uncle Jerry. Now do you understand?"
"Secret? What is 'secret'?"
"The thing up in the attic is a secret," persisted Nora, although shefeared her voice might disturb the others now.
"That thing big Cap. He always at night sniff so much," said Vita. "Now,I go to bed," she spoke this very emphatically. "I go to bed and you goto sleep."
"All right, go," ordered Nora. "And don't you dare go up in that atticagain tonight. I was just having the most----"
But her audience had vanished and the house was empty, so to speak, sowhy orate or harangue?
All sleep and its delightful attributes had flown. Nora was so wideawake she felt she would never sleep again, and worse still, she wasangry. What did that old Vita mean by her attic tricks? If it were shewho was up there why did she moan? And if it were something else why didthe woman try to conceal it?
"Now, I have a Scout duty," Nora promised herself. "I must fathom thatmystery and protect Cousin Theodora and Cousin Gerald from thatunscrupulous woman." Visions of crimes hidden in the attic, memory ofher own incarceration there when the trap door, as she now regarded thedoor with the spring lock snapped shut, filtered through her excitedbrain, and when she remembered how she had almost died up there, and howit might have been years before her skeleton would have been discovered,just as so many others had fared on secret attic trips, it did seem toNora that she should arise at once and immediately start herinvestigations. Humor and tragedy hopelessly mixed.
"But it's so late," she figured out, "and would it be fair to wakeCousin Ted when she is so tired and after her taking me to thatbeautiful picture?"
Convincing herself that this was why she did not immediately begin herbrave Scout work, she once more attempted to quiet her nerves bythinking of all the sheep Miss Baily had recommended to skip over fencesand lull one to sleep.
But sleep was far out of the reach of frisky sheep, and Nora lay therethinking of so many things, her head threatened to ache and a miserableday promised to dawn upon her if she did not soon succumb.
"Perhaps I wronged poor Vita. There may not have been anything wicked inthe attic after all," she soothed herself. "Why couldn't she go up thereif she wanted to? And maybe she stubbed her toe."
It was not very consoling but the best Nora could work up in the way ofconsolation. One thing certain, Vita was honorable. She was a trustedservant, and in the short time Nora had been at the Nest, many smallfavors, peculiar to good cooks, had come Nora's way through Vita'sintervention.
Such happy thoughts finally dispelled the other unfriendly mentalvisitors, and when Vita stole past the door again and looked in throughthe darkness, all she heard was the even breathing of little Nora Blair,who might or might not have been dreaming of horrible attic noises.
The day brings wisdom, and when Nora again dressed in the borrowed khakisuit (she had suddenly taken a dislike to her own fancy dresses), theglorious sunshine of the bright summer morning mocked the terrors of thenight.
A step in the hall. "I bring your fruit," said Vita kindly through theopen door; and there she stood with a small dish of such deliciousberries to be eaten off stems by hand--surely Nora had wronged thiskind, tender-hearted foreigner.
Nora was somewhat conscience stricken as she accepted the peaceoffering. "Oh, thank you, Vita," she exclaimed. "I was just comingdown."
"But the Jerries are out early and you no need hurry," explained Vita."I make nice breakfast when you come."
"Cousin Ted gone out?" asked Nora.
"Yes, she say you stay home, not go after them, they must 'bob swamp.'"
"Bob swamp? Oh, you mean use the plumb-bob in the swamp. I understand,Vita." It was really remarkable how well both understood today and howdense both had been last night. "Very well, I'll eat my fruit here bythe window, and later try your lovely biscuits," said Nora, with a smilerarely used outside the family.
The housemaid shuffled off. Looking after her, Nora wondered.
"I do believe she is trying to keep on good terms with me forsomething--something queer," she decided. "Certainly she is
afraid Iwill tell Cousin Ted about the attic business." She paused with a bigred strawberry half way to her lips. "Well, I have a secret, anyhow,"she decided, "and I like Alma, she makes me think of myself--she is sortof shy and sensitive. Perhaps I shall make her my confidante."
Of all the Scouts Alma seemed most congenial, and having a real secretwas the first definite step in Nora's summer career. But are secretswise and are they safe to carry around in so big and open a place asRocky Ledge?