CHAPTER VII
A NEW DEVELOPMENT
But the weather remained quite clear for several nights after this. Andmeantime other things happened that gave a new twist to the girls'conjectures.
Two mornings after the events of the last chapter, Phyllis appeared atRest Haven with a mysterious wrapped parcel in her hand. AnsweringLeslie's curious glance, she whispered:
"I want you to take this thing and keep it here and hide it. It's 'TheDragon's Secret.' I don't feel safe a minute with it around our placesince Ted's performance the other day. You know, he boasted he'd find outour secret, and he will certainly make every effort to, or I don't knowhim. Whether he'll succeed or not depends upon how clever _we_ are inspoiling his plans. If he found this, though, we might as well not try tokeep the rest from him. I discovered him snooping around my room rathersuspiciously yesterday. This was locked up in my trunk, and he _said_ hewas only hunting for fudge! But anyhow, you'd better keep it now, if youcan think of some safe place to hide it."
"I'm sure I don't know where to put it!" sighed Leslie, rather worried bythe responsibility. "Aunt Marcia and I shared one big trunk because itdidn't seem worth while to bring two, when one needs so few things here.So of course I couldn't put it in there, and the lock of my suitcase isbroken. There isn't a bureau-drawer with a key in the whole bungalow--sowhat am I going to do?"
For a time, Phyllis was equally puzzled. Then suddenly she had a brightidea. "I'll tell you! That top shelf in your pantry where therefrigerator is! You said you'd put quite a few kitchen things that youdidn't use there, and it's dark and unhandy and neither your aunt nor anyone else would think of disturbing it. Wouldn't that be the best place,really?"
"I guess you're right," admitted Leslie, considerably relieved. "Waittill Aunt Marcia has gone to sit on the front veranda, and we can put itthere."
The Dragon's Secret had probably known some strange resting-places in itstime, but doubtless none stranger than the one in which it now founditself--a dark, rather dusty top shelf in a pantry, hobnobbing with a fewworn-out pots and pans and discarded kitchen-ware! But the girls tuckedit far into a corner, and, wrapped in its burlap bag, it was assuccessfully concealed as it would have been in a strong-box.
"And now, there's something I've been wanting to ask you," said Leslie,as the two girls strolled down to the beach. "Do you happen to knowanything about the people who hired Curlew's Nest the latter part of thissummer?"
"Oh, yes!" answered Phyllis, "though I didn't happen to see them myself.Mrs. Danforth told me that in July the Remsons had it, as they always do.But in August and September she rented it to an elderly gentleman,--Ican't think of his name, just this minute,--who stayed there all byhimself, with only his man or valet to do all the work. He wasn't verywell,--was recovering from some kind of a fever, I think,--and wanted tobe alone in some quiet place. You know, Mrs. Danforth herself spent allsummer in your bungalow, and she said she saw very little of the man inCurlew's Nest, though they were such near neighbors. He sat on his porchor in the house a great deal, or took long walks by himself on the beach.He used to pass the time of day with her, and make some other formalremarks, but that was about all. She was really rather curious about him,he seemed so anxious not to mix with other people or be talked to. But heleft about the middle of September, and she closed up that bungalow forthe winter. That's about all I know."
"It's too bad you can't think of his name!" exclaimed Leslie.
"Why?" demanded Phyllis, suddenly curious. "You surely don't think thathas anything to do with _this_ affair, do you?"
But Leslie countered that question by asking another: "Has it everoccurred to you as strange, Phyllis, that whoever got into that bungalowlately, knew the little secret about the side door and worked it socleverly?"
Phyllis's eyes grew wide and she seized Leslie's arm in so muscular agrip that Leslie winced. "No, it didn't, you little pocket-edition_Sherlock Holmes_! But I see what you're driving at. To know about thatside door, one must have been pretty well acquainted with thatbungalow--_lived_ in it for a while! Aha! No wonder you're curious aboutthe last occupant. We'll have to count that old gentleman in on this!"
"Yes, but here's the mystery," reminded Leslie. "You said he lived herealone except for his man-servant. Remember, please, that the footprint wesaw--was a _woman's_!"
Phyllis tore at her hair in mock despair. "Worse and more of it!" shegroaned. "But the deeper it gets, the more determined I grow to get tothe bottom of it!"
They strolled on a while in silence. Suddenly Phyllis asked, "Where'sRags this morning?"
"He doesn't seem to feel very well to-day. Something seems to havedisagreed with him--perhaps too many hermit-crabs! Anyway, he's lyingaround on the veranda and seems to want to stay near Aunt Marcia andsleep. She said she'd keep him there."
"Best news I've heard in an age!" exclaimed Phyllis, delightedly. "Thatdog is a most faithful article, Leslie, but he's a decided nuisancesometimes! And now, I have a gorgeous idea that I've been wanting to tryfor two days. Father and Ted have gone off for the day up the inlet, andRags is out of commission. Here's our chance. Do you realize that there'sone bedroom in Curlew's Nest we didn't have a chance to explore the otherday? Let's go and do it right now. I'll run down to our house for theelectric torch and meet you at the side door. There's not a soul aroundto interfere with us!"
"Oh, no, Phyllis! I really don't think we ought--" objected Leslie,recalling all too vividly the unpleasantness of their former experience.But Phyllis was off and far away while she was still expostulating, andin the end, Leslie found herself awaiting her companion in the vicinityof the side door of Curlew's Nest.
They entered the dark bungalow with beating hearts, more aware this timethan ever that mystery lurked in the depth of it. Straight to theunexplored bedroom they proceeded, for, as Leslie reminded them, they hadno time to waste; Rags might have an untimely recovery and come seekingthem as before! Ted also might be prompted by his evil genius to descendon them; or even Aunt Marcia might be minded to hunt them up.
The bedroom in question, as Phyllis now recalled, was the southwest one,and the one Mrs. Danforth said that the last tenant had chosen for hisown. "Therefore it ought to be more than ordinarily interesting," went onPhyllis. "I remember now that Mrs. Danforth said he had asked permissionto leave there, as a little contribution to the bungalow, a few booksthat he had finished with and did not wish to carry away. She left themright where they were on a shelf in his room, instead of putting them inthe bookcase in the living-room. I'm sort of remembering these things shetold me, piecemeal, because Mrs. Danforth is a great talker and is alwaysgiving you a lot of details about things you're not particularlyinterested in, and you try to listen politely, but often find it an awfulbore. Then you try to forget it all as soon as possible!"
They found the bedroom in question somewhat more spacious and betterfurnished than the others. But though they examined every nook and crannywith care, they discovered nothing thrilling, or even enlightening,within its walls till they came to the shelf of books. These, with theexception of two books of recent fiction, were all of travel and politicsin foreign countries.
"My, but he must have been interested in India and China and Tibet andthose countries!" exclaimed Leslie, reading the titles. "I wonder why?"
She took one of them down and turned the pages idly. As she did so,something fluttered out and fell to the floor. "Oh!" she cried, pickingit up and examining it. "Phyllis, this may prove very valuable! Do yousee what it is?" It was an envelop of thin, foreign-looking paper--anempty envelop, forgotten and useless, unless perhaps it had been employedas a bookmark. But on it was a name--the name no doubt of the recipientof the letter it had once contained, and also a foreign address.
"Do you see what it says?" went on Leslie, excitedly. "'_Honorable ArthurRamsay_, _Hotel des Wagons-Lits_, _Peking_'. Why, Phyllis, that's hisname (which you couldn't remember!) and he was evidently at some time
inPeking!"
But Phyllis was puckering her brows in an effort of memory. "There's somemistake here, I guess," she remarked at length, "for now I recall thatMrs. Danforth said his name was Mr. Horatio Gaines!"
Leslie dropped the envelop back in the book, the picture of disappointment."It doesn't seem likely he'd have someone else's envelops in his books,"she remarked. "And I think Honorable Arthur Ramsay of Peking sounds farmore thrilling than plain 'Horatio Gaines'! Let's look through the rest ofthe books and see if we can discover anything else."
They examined them all, but found nothing more of interest and Lesliesuggested uneasily that they had better go.
"But there's one thing I must see first,--" decided Phyllis; "the beadsand broken penknife you found. I've been wild to look at them for myself.Come along! We'll have time for that."
They made their way cautiously into the next bedroom, bent down, andturned the torch toward the floor under the bureau where Leslie had madethe discovery. Then both girls simultaneously gasped. There was not asign of the beads anywhere to be seen!
"Phyllis!" breathed Leslie, in frightened wonder. "It's gone--the wholestring! What can be the meaning of it?"
"Come!" cried Phyllis, dragging Leslie after her. "Let's go and see ifthe broken penknife blade is there yet. If that's gone, too, somethingnew has happened here!"
They hurried to the living-room and bent over the fireplace. Thehalf-loosened brick was there as Leslie had described it, but of thebroken penknife blade in the corner, there was not a vestige to be seen!