CHAPTER XVIII
UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES
Uncle Pieter and Cousin Andy were no less interested than Janet in thenotes which she had found in the secret room, now no longer a secretfrom the family. But Mr. Van Meter had given direction that allentrances should be closed and that the affair should not be made thematter of gossip.
Having before deciphered the often blurred writing on the old paper,Jannet was commissioned to read the messages to her uncle and cousin inthe library. She did so, and they lost none of their point by beingread by the still excited Jannet. She had often been told at schoolthat she read with expression, but she did not see the approving,smiling glance with which her uncle looked at her cousin, as she read.
When she had finished, her uncle said, "It all fits in nicely with thegenealogy so far as we have it. This house, the old one, I mean, wasfinished about the time of the Revolution and this room may have beenan afterthought, very convenient for the owner, as it happened. I knowthat it was often headquarters for our troops, and probably it harboredthe necessary spies. I will commission you, Jannet, to look carefullythrough all the trunks for old letters or messages of any sort that maytell us more of the history than we already know. From some source yourmother knew much about the old stories, but I can not think that sheknew of this secret way."
"She would have told you," said Jannet.
"I am not so sure," said Mr. Van Meter, soberly. "She would have toldmy father, perhaps."
A rap on the door interrupted the conversation at this point. It wasOld P'lina who entered at Mr. Van Meter's invitation of "Come in."
Paulina stood unbendingly just inside the door. "I saw the woman Hepsysent me to and she says that Vittoria was not there last night. Then Iwent to see Herman at the shop and he acted as though it was none of mybusiness where Vittoria was. That was all."
Without waiting for comment or question, Paulina turned and went away.Andy, looking at Jannet, smiled at her. "You can scarcely get used toour gentle P'lina, can you, Jannet?'
"She is certainly the most sudden person I ever saw!"
Mr. Van Meter did not smile. He sat in thought for a moment, thenarose. "I shall see the young man himself. I want to talk to Vittoriaand I do not propose to wait until she may have gone away. If she isgoing to marry Herman, he certainly will have some news of her soon."
With this explanation, Mr. Van Meter left the room. Jannet remained,talking to her cousin till she heard Jan's rapid footsteps in the hall."He's looking for me, I suspect, Cousin Andy," she said, hurrying out."Here I am, Jan, if you want to see me."
"You are the very little Dutchwoman I'm looking for. Come on. I want toshow you how I got into your room. I didn't go that round-about waythrough the attic, nor up a ladder through a tool house! Our ancestorhad one more way of getting in and out."
"But it was so funny, Jan, that you should have come to that particularroom on that particular night!"
"Not so very. I intended to stay all night with Chick and then changedmy mind. But we fooled around, and I didn't want to wake anybody up. SoI opened the back door with a key I have and went to bed. Then I wastoo cold and I got up to prowl around after a blanket or something.There wasn't a thing in the closet where Paulina keeps all the extrathings, and I could get into your room, I knew, though it was alwayskept locked. I didn't even try the door, but went in, without a light,fumbled around and finally drew off a comforter that was over the foot.I knew, you see, that you were expected, but I didn't have the leastidea that you were there. If I had happened to touch your face,--wow!"
"Was the bed kept made up, that you knew you would find something?"
"No, but I took a chance that it was made up for you. See?"
"Why didn't you tell me all this before?"
"I didn't know how you would take it till I got acquainted with you.Then, to tell the truth, I rather hated to do it."
"You need not have hesitated. You needed that comforter and I hadenough without it anyhow. But I surely did wonder about it, and withall the ghost stories and all, well, I haven't known what to make ofeverything."
The next few minutes were most engaging, for Jan showed his cousin howone portion of a panel apparently dropped down into the floor and madea low opening large enough for one person to enter from the hall intothe room. "Mercy, Jan, I'll never sleep in peace now, if there are twoways of getting in beside the door!"
"Put bolts on 'em, Jannet. I'll fix it."
"Ask Uncle Pieter first, Jan. Then I'll be glad to have you do it. ButI want it kept possible to open in this way. It's so thrilling, youknow."
"Yes, isn't it? But it is hard to forgive you, Jannet, for finding thisout about the secret room first."
"I only followed the ghost, Jan. But you don't know how I wondered whatthe secret was that you had with Paulina, and oh, did you send a littlemessage to your mother by Paulina that you were home?"
"Yes, how did you know that?"
"Oh, I just remember that your mother read something and looked ascross as she ever looks and she was a little embarrassed, I thought,when she excused herself. And then you came just as if you had justarrived, and told me a whopper about coming from Chick's!"
"That was no whopper. I _had_ come. I rode over there early, but ofcourse it wasn't the _first_ time I had come from there."
The matter of his early appearance at this time had also to beexplained, but Jan related how school was closing early and how he andChick decided not to wait a minute after examinations if they could getpermission to leave, from parents and school authorities. "Think of allthat was going on at the farm and I missing it! Mother expected me thistime, but I wrote her to let me surprise you."
It occurred to Jannet that she had not had anything to eat, and shefelt a little faint, to her own surprise. "What's the matter, Jannet?"asked Jan, suddenly noticing how she looked.
"Why, I'm hungry, I believe. We had some cookies and fudge and lemonadelast night but that isn't very staying."
"Haven't you had any _breakfast_? Believe _me_, I never forget mymeals. Come with me, child. If Daphne doesn't fill you up withgriddle-cakes, then my name is Mike!"
Laughing, but not so sorry for the stout young arm that led her along,Jannet willingly made the descent to the kitchen, where kind old Daphnefussed over her and stirred up a fresh supply of batter for her cakes.Jan, quite at home with the cook, made some cocoa, which might havebeen better had he followed Daphne's directions; but the result was hotand stimulating at least. "Now you go and lie down somewhere, honey,and git some sleep," said Daphne, who had heard what she was notsupposed to hear from Hepsy, who at last understood the visit to herroom in the "dead of night."
Jannet needed no coaxing to take the advice thus offered. Wellfortified and comfortable after her hot cakes, cocoa and real maplesyrup, she was escorted to the library by Jan and tucked on thedavenport there with a light cover suitable to the warm day. Janthought that she would sleep better there than in her own room, allthings considered, but Jannet knew that she could sleep anywhere. Jandrew the curtain with its fringes before the alcove in which thedavenport stood. From little windows the soft breeze came in gently.Jannet never knew when Jan went away, so quickly did she sink intoslumber.
It must have been in the late afternoon when she wakened. She had notknown when Cousin Di and Jan came and looked at her, and debatedwhether to waken her for dinner or not, nor when Uncle Pieter came andlooked down upon her with a smile. "Poor little Jannetje Jan," he said,pulling the curtains together and going back to his desk to wait forsome one.
It was when conversation was going on between her uncle and some oneelse that she wakened. "You can wait outside, Herman," she heard heruncle say. "It will be better for Vittoria to talk to me alone, and Ican assure you that she will receive every courtesy."
Jannet felt very uncomfortable, though at first still drowsy. But afterall, she was the one who made the first discovery. It was noteavesdropping, she hoped, an
d she could not help it, anyway. She almostdrowsed off to sleep again in the first few minutes, while Vittoria wasanswering Mr. Van Meter's questions about where she had been. Vittoriawas decidedly sulky and did not want to answer any questions. FinallyMr. Van Meter told her that perfect frankness was her only course. "Sofar as I know, you have done no real harm in playing the ghost, but wewant to know why you did it, and of course we want no more of it. Itwas most dangerous for the girls to be locked in and frightened."
"You don't intend to send me away, then, till I get married?"
"Not as long as you make no trouble for us. And we want no gossip aboutthis, either, for our own sakes and that of you and Herman."
This seemed to relieve Vittoria, who began to talk. "I did it first toget even with Paulina who scared me once. I told her that I did notbelieve in the family ghosts. She did, but since nothing happened, shemade something happen and I caught her at it, hiding in the attic whereI had my box with my savings in it. She was more scared than I was, forshe really believes in ghosts.
"Then,--well, Mrs. Van Meter told me to make all the trouble I couldfor you, and she was the one that found that secret room and playedghost sometimes. She sent me back here."
Vittoria paused, perhaps half afraid to go on, but her listener made nocomment. "I did it once in a while, half for fun, too, to scare Hepsyand Paulina, but you never heard any of it, so why would your wife wantme to do it? Then, when the girls were here, I didn't want themsnooping around where I had my box, so I concluded that I'd give them agood scare. I did, too, but Jannet almost caught me last night. Andwhen Hepsy told me that she asked about what perfume I used, I knewthat she knew. I went to a show with Herman first and I had some ofHepsy's new perfume on my handkerchief and on my dress. I did not thinkof it when I slipped on the things I wore to scare them.
"I whipped around, ahead of Jannet, and went around through the atticagain to get my things; and then I was going to stay all night in Jan'sroom, but I heard them coming and went the other way, sticking thethings under Jan's bed. They found them, Paulina said. I went to stayall night with a girl I knew, not where I usually stay. That was all."
"Paulina said that you went into the trunks to get your costume."
"Perhaps she thought so; but I never opened a trunk. These things Ifound in a box that was tied up in paper and in the back part of theattic."
"Very well, Vittoria. Have your box taken out of the attic and do notgo there again, please. I would put my savings in the bank, or if youcare to give them to me, I will put them in my safe. Now I want to askyou if you remember some incidents connected with my sister, Jannet'smother."
Jannet, behind the curtains, was thoroughly awake by this time and withhalf a mind to go out now, for perhaps she should not hear what was tofollow. She sat up, but decided not to go out. Vittoria was in the moodto tell now. Her uncle's voice was not unkind and she knew thatVittoria must be relieved to think that she need not lose her place andthe money which she wanted to make.
"I have kept it in mind," her uncle continued, "that you served myformer wife very faithfully, even if mistakenly at times. She hadtrained you and had given you some education. It was to be expectedthat you should have a regard for her." Then Jannet heard her uncletell Vittoria the incident of the telegram and what Paulina had said.
Vittoria remembered the occasion. "Yes, I'll tell you more, Mr. VanMeter," she said excitedly. "I did not care very much for your wifewhen she stood over me and threatened me with all sorts of things if Idid not tear up a letter that had come to you. 'It is from his precioussister,' she said, 'and I shall say to my husband, if he asks, that Ihave not destroyed any of his mail.' And the telegram was from her,too, and she begged you to help her find her husband and baby."
There was silence for a little. Jannet heard her uncle's slow tappingon his desk. Finally he said, "Do you remember anything else, Vittoria?Were there any other letters?"
"One little letter that I had to tear up for her. There may have beenother telegrams, but I did not know about them if there were. She waswatching for the mail in those days, or had me do it."
"I see. Well, Vittoria, this is very valuable information to me. I cannot feel very happy over what you did, Vittoria, but it would do nogood now to punish you in any way, even if I could. You had part inwhat was a very dreadful thing."
"Oh, yes, sir!" To Jannet's surprise, she heard Vittoria sobbing alittle. "I was only sixteen, but I knew better; but I thought sincethey all died, it did not make so much difference,--until she came."
"It may have made the difference that we could have saved my sister,Vittoria, and that Jannet need not have been in a boarding school foryears. But you are not so much to blame as the one who ordered you todo it. It must have been a shock to you when we discovered Jannet.Well, Vittoria, we can not help the past. We have all made mistakes.Try to be a good girl and a good wife to Herman. I will have some workfor him when I build the new barn."
"Oh, thank you, sir, I'll--," but Vittoria's voice was tearful, andJannet heard her uncle open and close the door. Vittoria had gone, tooupset to say another word. She had come in sullen and hard, and leftall touched and softened by Mr. Van Meter's treatment of her.
Jannet was proud of her uncle, and when he immediately crossed the roomand parted the curtains to see if she were awake, she looked lovinglyup into his rather troubled eyes to tell him so. "O uncle, you were sogood to Vittoria! I was afraid that I ought not to be here, but I wasmore afraid to come out."
"I knew that you were there, my child, but I'd like to be alone now fora little while."
Jannet clung to his arm a minute, then ran out and to her room to getsome more of the attic dust off in her tub and make herself quite freshfor supper. Her previous toilet had been made quite hastily andsuperficially, she knew.
Hepsy waited upon them at supper, but Jannet knew that a chastened andmore considerate Vittoria would be helping to-morrow. Cousin Diana andJan had their turn at the portfolio and its messages after supper, whenthey all gathered for a while in the living room. Then a sober UnclePieter took them, to put them away in his desk, and they saw no more ofhim that evening.