CHAPTER XIV How Did It Happen?
Having carried the unconscious man out of the cellar, the men stood atthe top of the steps leading down into the darkness, awkwardly holdingtheir burden. The girls had a momentary glimpse of Jim Danton's face.There was blood on it. With a little shudder and murmur of horror Dorothyturned away.
"Poor fellow!" murmured Sim.
"Can't we do something to help?" asked Terry.
"You ought to put him down--lay him down flat!" commanded Arden. "Theremay be broken bones! It isn't doing him any good to hold him all crumpledthat way."
"He ought to have a doctor!" declared the contractor. "I wonder if it'sbest to try to get him home and have the doctor there or get a doctorhere? Where's a telephone?"
"There isn't one anywhere near here," Betty volunteered.
"Then we'd best take him home," decided Mr. Callahan. "But how to do it?I let my partner take my car after he dropped me off here, and I don'tknow when he'll be back."
"I have a car!" Sim quickly interposed. "If one of you men will sit inthe rumble seat and hold this man, I'll drive him home--if it isn't toofar."
"Oh, he lives right here in Jockey Hollow," said the tall thin worker."About two miles from here, down by Primrose Brook."
"I'll take him in my car, then," decided Sim. "One of you girls hadbetter ride with me," she added in a lower voice.
"I will," Arden offered. "And I know a little about first aid, so maybewe can be of some help when we get this man home--before the doctorcomes." The unfortunate man hadn't moved, nor did he seem even tobreathe.
"That's right," agreed Sim. "But about a doctor?" she asked, turning tothe contractor and the men gathered about him. "How are you going to geta doctor?"
"I'll run to the nearest telephone, miss, as soon as you start with Jim,"the tall thin man offered. "I know the location of Jim's house. I candirect the doctor there."
"All right," Sim assented. "Take him to my car. Come on, Arden. Wecertainly have run into something all right--whether or not it's amystery will develop later. But about you girls?" she asked, looking atDot and Terry and, incidentally, at Betty.
"We'll wait here until you two come back," Terry suggested.
"Please come with me and have some tea at our cottage," invited Betty."You can wait there."
"That will be better," Arden accepted. As the men started to carry Jim toSim's car, she inquired, of no one in particular: "Where did you findhim, and is there any explanation of how he got into the cellar?"
"He was at the bottom of an old ash-chute," said Mr. Callahan. "It opensinto the cellar and connects with that big fireplace on the third floor,in the room next to the one with the closet in--the closet they say Jimdisappeared from, only he couldn't. It's a very big ash-chute--big enoughfor a man to slide down. They must have burned whole trees in the olddays, in that fireplace. And when the fire was out, instead of cartingthe ashes downstairs in a hod, they just opened a sort of trapdoor on thebottom of the hearth and dumped the ashes down. Only the trapdoor isrusted away now, and, somehow, Jim must have got into the ash-chute andhe slid down to the cellar, bumping his head, cutting himself andknocking himself out on the way. That's all there is to the mystery. AndI'm glad of it."
His men looked relieved. One of them said:
"Then I guess Jim couldn't have gone into that closet like Nate thoughthe did. Though he may have gone in there, and have come out without Nateseeing him. Next he went into the fireplace room and, somehow or other,he slipped down the ash-chute."
"That's the way of it," said Mr. Callahan. "It explains everything, boys,and tomorrow we'll get on this job and clean it up. The mystery is allsolved."
"In my eye!" someone muttered.
"What makes you say that, Nate Waldon?" asked the contractor.
"Because Jim did disappear right out of the closet. I know it. I didn'tsee him disappear, of course, but he didn't come out and go in thefireplace room."
"This is worse and more of it!" sighed the contractor. He looked at themen carefully getting Jim into the rumble seat of Sim's car and asked:"Well, what do _you_ say happened, Nate?"
"All I know is I saw Jim go in that closet. I heard a noise. I heard himyell, and when I ran to the closet he wasn't to be seen. He didn't slipout into the other room. I was close enough to have seen him if he'd donethat. And we didn't find any holes in the closet. The next we know wefind Jim in the cellar. Talk about mysteries being cleared up--this oneisn't; not at all!"
"Oh, well, don't let's talk about it!" begged Mr. Callahan. "All of youreport for work tomorrow. We'll knock off now. And I'm a thousand timesobliged to you young ladies for all you've done--and are doing," he addedas he saw Arden and Sim getting into the car, while in the rumble seat aman was carefully holding the still unconscious Jim, supporting his headvery gently as the car started.
"We'll be back as soon as we can," Sim called to Terry and Dot as theywalked, with Betty, toward the little cottage.
"Don't hurry," was the answer. "We'll be all right. And do all you canfor the poor man."
"This will be a surprise for Granny," said Betty as she led the way tothe cottage.
"It must have been a surprise for you," suggested Terry, "coming uponwhat you thought was a dead man in the cellar."
"Oh, I was scared stiff!" admitted Betty. "And I was so glad when I ranup and saw Arden. I suppose it seems presuming on such a shortacquaintance to call you girls by your first names," she added with alittle smile, "but, somehow, I feel as if I had known you a long time."
"Of course," Terry agreed, "we feel that way about you, too."
"Excitement makes time pass rapidly," declaimed Dot. "And there certainlyhas been a lot of excitement since I arrived here."
"Indeed there has been," Terry agreed.
At the cottage Granny welcomed them with her usual happy smile but askedat once:
"What has happened?"
"How did you know anything had happened?" asked Betty.
"I can tell by your faces."
"Well, I believe we do show something of it," her granddaughter admitted."But nothing a cup of your nice tea will not help to straighten out,Granny. You know Terry and Dot?"
"Oh, yes. And we shall have tea at once. Now tell me."
They told her. Granny listened with an enigmatic look on her face, nowand then her eyes showing flecks of pity as the wounded man was spokenof.
"Very strange!" she said at the end. "I can't understand it. There mustbe secrets about the Hall I never dreamed of. Perhaps when it is all torndown some of the secrets will come to light."
"There is some as will never see the light!" suddenly exclaimed a sharpvoice from somewhere back of the hall. A woman, hard featured as to faceand with straggling gray hair, suddenly poked her head out. She quitestartled the girls, but Betty smiled reassuringly.
"Oh, Cousin Viney!" murmured Betty, "why do you say such things?" as ifdismissing this woman.
"Did you want anything, my dear?" asked Granny kindly.
"I only want to tell you that you're having too many visitors, HannahHowe!" was the answer. "Too many altogether! You know tea costs money,and so does cream and sugar, though I never use either."
"Won't you sit down with my company, Viney, and have a cup of tea--clear,as you always like it?" invited Granny sincerely.
"No. I've got other things to do. There's lots of work in this cottage.Not as much as there was in the Hall--but enough!"
At that she flounced herself out, slamming the door.
Granny and Betty exchanged glances. So did Dot and Terry: it was theirintroduction to Viney Tucker. Arden had already met her, as Bettyannounced. She added:
"Don't mind her. She's Granny's cousin--just a little odd--though I don'tneed to tell you that. But she's kind and good," she explained as Mrs.Howe went out to get more hot water. "She thinks the world and all ofGranny and of Dick and me. But there is no use denying she is a bittrying at times, and she often em
barrasses us when we have company--whichisn't as often as I'd like," and Betty smiled at her two new friends tomake them sure of their welcome.
"I believe," she continued, "that Cousin Viney feels and resents, as onehas a right in the circumstances, our loss of Sycamore Hall, more thaneven Granny does. She is a creature always given to solitude and--well,you know how lonely women can be," she finished.
"It does seem too bad to have such a wonderful and historic piece ofproperty pass out of the family," Terry said. "One can hardly blame MissViney."
"And just to make a national park," added Dot. "Doesn't seem altogetherright."
"Oh, we're all glad to have Jockey Hollow Park here in Pentville," Bettywas quick to say. "It will put us on the map," and she laughed prettily."And of course, if they decide to take in this cottage, which isn't quitesure, Granny will get something from the state for that. But she wouldget a lot more money, and so would Cousin Viney and Dick and I, if wecould find the papers that prove we are the rightful heirs to the oldHall. As it is, it has reverted to the state. But I believe there issomething about holding the estimated value of the place in court for acertain number of years to give us a chance to prove ownership. Only I'mafraid we never can."
"No," chimed in Granny entering the room just then with fresh tea, "I'mafraid we never can. There was a time when I had hope, and I did all Icould to hold this man Callahan--who isn't a bad sort--from proceedingwith the demolishing of the Hall. But now I have about given up. Only Idon't dare tell Cousin Viney that," she added with a little laugh. "Sheis a die-hard and last-ditcher."
The girls enjoyed their visit, though they were a little anxious aboutthe return of Sim and Arden. After a while they decided they would walkaround and wait rather than stay indoors, for the air outside wasbracing.
"Are you going back to look for those books, Betty?" asked Terry as sheand Dot took their leave.
"Not alone!" was the answer, given with a little shrug of her shoulders.Then, pleasantly thanking her, they left.
Dot and Terry walked on, back toward the Hall. The afternoon was waning.It would soon be dusk. They hoped Arden and Sim would not be too late.
"What do you think of it all, Dot?" Terry asked.
"You mean about the queer old lady? Potty, if you ask me."
"Oh, yes, a bit eccentric. But I mean about things that have happenedhere in Jockey Hollow."
Dot did not answer for several seconds. Then she said:
"Terry, I believe there is something mysterious here, but it isn'tghosts, though that's what you can call them."
Terry wondered what Dot meant.