Dig Here!

  XI

  Hamish on the Job

  THE morning mail brought a letter from Hattie May. Eve was busyspreading carpet rags on the tin roof of the porch outside our bedroomwindow. We had forgotten and left them in the side yard and, as it hadrained practically the entire night, the results can be imagined. Ouronly hope now was that the warm sun would dry them before Aunt Caldiscovered what had happened.

  "Eve," I called, "here's a letter from Hattie May. What do you think itsays!"

  Eve poked her head in at the window. "I think the colors are reallygoing to be improved," she said. "The fading has made them softer, sortof artistic looking."

  "Maybe," I agreed, "though I doubt if Aunt Cal will appreciate theeffect! But don't you want to know what Hattie May says? Aren't you atall curious?"

  "Nothing sensible, I'll be bound. What's she up to now?"

  "She's coming here!"

  "What! Not to Fishers Haven?"

  "Yup. She wants to help us solve the mystery, she says."

  Eve climbed into the room. "Sandy," she demanded sternly, "what haveyou been writing her?"

  "Why, nothing. I thought she ought to know that our vacation wasn'tpromising to be as dull as she had prophesied, so I just mentioned athing or two--guardedly, of course."

  "Too guardedly, I guess," Eve retorted. "She probably thinks there's alot more to it than there is!"

  "But isn't there?" I asked. "I mean to say, we don't know yet whatthere is to it!"

  "Sandy, you know perfectly well that Hattie May can't keep even thetiniest secret five minutes."

  "Well, she's coming anyway and it's too late to head her off. And thatisn't all," I giggled. "She's bringing Hamish with her--or rather he'sbringing her. Seems he's got a car."

  "Not--not that boy with the sticky-out ears! Not actually!" Eve droppedonto the sea chest, consternation in every line of her face.

  "Yup, they're driving up from Mason's Cove, wherever that is. Itappears their family is spending the summer there. They're going tostay at a hotel or inn or whatever there is, Hattie May says. She saysher parents consented because she told them my father was a missionary,so they're sure we're respectable." I gave another giggle.

  Eve groaned. "No doubt their parents are only too pleased to lose sightof Hamish for a while," she remarked.

  "Oh," I returned lightly, "I can imagine worse boys than Hamish."

  "Well, I haven't your imagination," Eve returned feelingly. "When didyou say they were coming?"

  "Well, the letter says tomorrow. But as it isn't dated and the postmarkis blurred, it might be they'll be here today."

  "Today! Well you'd better go down and break the news to your aunt!"

  "But I don't see why that's necessary--they won't bother her."

  "Don't be too sure," returned Eve darkly.

  Aunt Cal departed soon after dinner that day to attend the weeklymeeting of the Ladies' Civic Betterment Society. The carpet rags wereall dry and Eve and I determined to get a lot of sewing done on them tomake up for our carelessness in leaving them out in the rain. Evethought that, once they were sewed and wound into balls, Aunt Cal mightnot notice the change in color which many of the pieces had undergone.

  We established ourselves in the shade of the side yard. Adam came andstretched himself in the sun nearby. He had shown no desire to leavethe premises since Daisy June had taken up her residence next door andhad manifested considerable irritation that morning when the kitten hadpounced at his tail from underneath the hedge.

  We were discussing what we now termed The Craven House Mystery as wedid much of the time when we were alone. We could not decide what weought to do with the old letter which Michael had returned to us."Well, whatever you do, don't show it to Hamish or Hattie May," Eve wassaying. And it was just at that moment that I looked up and saw a greenroadster drawing up at the gate. I knew at once by the frantic wavingof the girl beside the driver that it was Hattie May. "There they are!"I cried, jumping to my feet. "Come on, Eve!"

  "Oh, Sandy, darling, it seems perfect months since I saw you!" HattieMay threw herself upon me in her usual effusive manner. Her brother,climbing out of the other side of the car, was peering around withsmall bright eyes behind thick glasses, as if he fairly expected somemysterious phenomenon to develop right there before his eyes!

  "I say," he demanded without the formality of greeting, "have you seenthe fellow who wears a wig again?"

  "Oh, yes, do tell us all the latest developments!" Hattie May cried. "Ican hardly wait to hear."

  "Mr. Bangs has left town," replied Eve coldly. "And nothing more hashappened. I'm really afraid you're going to be disappointed, HattieMay, if you think anything is going to. I'm afraid Sandy has given youa wrong impression--this isn't like a mystery thriller, you know!"

  "But my dear," my roommate exclaimed, "surely there is some treasureburied in that old garden. What else _could_ that cryptic message mean?Tell me, haven't you found a thing?"

  Well, I guess we both saw that there was nothing for it but to tellthem everything. If we didn't, Hattie May would begin to imagine allsorts of startling things that weren't so, and might even end inblurting out something and getting us in bad with Aunt Cal.

  So we all repaired to the side yard and sat down on the grass. Andwhile Eve went inside for cold tea and cookies, I told Hattie May andher brother briefly just how far we had got--or hadn't got, rather--inunravelling the mystery and how we had gone about it.

  Hattie May, as was to be expected, kept interrupting and asking allsorts of foolish questions. Hamish said nothing at all but his eyeswere very bright and eager as he listened. When I had finished, he gotup. "Well," he said, "I guess I'd better go right out there and have alook round."

  I suppressed a giggle. The pride of Scotland Yard, called in as a lastresort, to solve a baffling crime, couldn't have spoken with moreimportance! "But gracious, Hamish," I exclaimed, "there's nothing tosee!"

  "Just let me have a look at that letter," he continued, "so's I'll getthe measurements straight."

  Eve came out with the refreshments. "Hamish," I said, with I fear, atrace of sarcasm, "is going right out to dig up the treasure!"

  "He'll have to wait for me," declared his sister. "I'm going to havesome tea first."

  Hamish's eyes lighted on the cookies. "Oh, well," he said and sat down.

  It ended finally in our producing the letter and then all piling intothe car and driving out to Craven House. Neither Eve nor I was willingto let Hattie May and, her brother go without us. But I did wish thatMichael were along, somehow it seemed his affair as much as ours.

  Hattie May went into ecstasies over the house and, most of all, overthe garden. "My _dear_," she cried, "I think it is absolutely the mostromantic place. Can't you just see that old miser bringing his gold andjewels out here on a dark night----"

  "But he wasn't a miser," I protested. "And he didn't have any gold."

  "Nonsense, you needn't tell me," she retorted. "He buried something,didn't he?"

  "Well, we don't actually know----" I began, but Hattie May haddisappeared after Hamish into a thick growth of underbrush.

  For my own part, the old garden had never appeared so thoroughlyunattractive as it did today. It was very hot in the mid-afternoon sunand heavy with the scent of overgrown vegetation. I sat down on theedge of the fountain and tried to imagine what it had been like in theold days, the days when Captain Judd had taken such pride in it andfolks had driven from all around in their buggies to see the funnystatues he had brought from over the sea. I tried to see it with thepaths and flower beds that were now almost entirely lost to view. Iwondered what the Captain's wife had been like, the woman called Emily,who hated the sea. Had she loved the flowers and tended them as AuntCal would have done?

  Then I fell to thinking of Aunt Cal and wondering what she would havedone to the place had it fallen to her. I could fancy how she wouldhave enjoyed scrubbing and painting the house and putting it
in orderagain. And the garden--I smiled to myself when I thought of myindomitable relative coming to grips with that garden.

  Meanwhile the others were wandering about, poking into every niche andcorner for some trace of the missing statue. I believe Hattie May hadexpected to discover it almost at once and I could see that she wasconsiderably crestfallen when she at last returned to join me at thefountain. "It's very baffling!" she sighed, wiping her burning face."If we could only find the pedestal where the thing stood, that wouldbe enough."

  Hamish did not give up easily. But at last we persuaded him to abandonhis efforts for the time being, for as Eve pointed out there was reallyno fear that Mr. Bangs would get ahead of us so long as the Circe wasmissing.

  "Unless," said Hamish astutely, "he has taken it away on purpose!"

  "You don't mean you think he has stolen the statue?" cried his sister."Why should he do that?"

  "To keep anyone else from finding the treasure of course, stupid. Itlooks to me as if we were up against a very clever crook!"

  I giggled. "Oh, don't be absurd," I said. "Mr. Bangs doesn't know we'reinterested in his search--why should he? And if he knew where Circewas, he'd go ahead and dig and find out what there was to find."

  Hamish however clung to his theory. It was the only explanation, hesaid, for the absence of the statue. As we were packing ourselves intothe car for the return trip the rattle of a wagon sounded up the roadand Michael drove into view. Eve called to him and at the mention ofhis name, Hattie May was out of the car with a bounce.

  "Oh," she cried, "I've been wanting so much to meet you! Ever since Iheard how you chased that desperate villain the other night! I thinkyou were absolutely the bravest thing!"

  Michael's face assumed its stoniest aspect. I feared that he and HattieMay were not going to get along. "We've been looking about the gardenagain," Eve said hurriedly to fill up the awkward pause. "But we didn'tfind anything."

  Michael nodded. "Guess there's nothing to find," he remarkednoncommittally. With that he gathered up the reins and drove on.

  "Well, I must say he's a queer acting boy!" Hattie May exploded.

  "You shouldn't have gushed over him," Eve said. "He doesn't like thatsort of thing."

  The car was bumping down the road now. We passed Michael on the way,but he didn't look around. Hattie May and her brother engaged rooms atWildwood Lodge, a quiet little inn on the shore road. That and the bigSeaside Hotel farther down the beach were the only accommodationsFishers Haven offered to summer guests.

  Eve and I were late for supper. Aunt Cal was pouring her second cup oftea when we came in. We told her about the arrivals and added casuallythat we'd been for a drive in Hamish's car.

  "A boy of that age has no business with a car," Aunt Cal statedseverely. "First thing you know you'll be in one of those accidents thepapers are full of. In my day young folks didn't go careering aroundthe country!"

  As if he realized that his reputation was at stake, Hamish himselfreappeared directly after supper. We heard the already familiar honk ofhis horn as we were finishing the dishes and a moment later, hisbespectacled face appeared at the screen door. "Is your aunt in?" hedemanded. "I've brought her a little present."

  "She's in the garden," I answered. "Just a minute and I'll take youout."

  But he did not wait for me to take off my apron. "I'll find her," hecalled and was striding down the path. Eve giggled. "I warned you," shesaid, "how things would be if that boy came to town."

  I wasn't present at the meeting of my relative and Hamish. By the timewe reached the spot where Aunt Cal and Adam were sitting, the momentfor introductions had passed. Hamish had just pulled a queer lookingpackage out of his side pocket and was proffering it to my aunt."Here's a little gadget I picked up on my way down today," he remarked."I said to myself as soon as I saw it that it was a thing any goodhouse-keeper'd like to own."

  Aunt Cal, apparently stunned by the quick movement of events, took theparcel without a word and began unwrapping it. "It's a combinationmousetrap and insect sprayer," Hamish explained. "A new invention, juston the market."

  "Dear me," said Aunt Cal, turning it over. "You don't say. Muchobliged, I'm sure."

  "Glad you like it," returned Hamish complacently. "Thought you would.What a handsome cat!" He stooped to give Adam's back a rub.

  But Adam--perhaps resenting the mousetrap--got up and with a backwardswish of his tail, started up the path.

  "Here, kitty, kitty!" Hamish pulled a length of twine from his pocketand began dangling it before the cat's nose. As he did so a piece ofpaper fluttered to the ground, unseen by him as he walked away.

  I recognized it instantly and stooped to grab it. But Aunt Cal wasnearest and reached it first. Papers scattered about her garden werenot to be endured even for a second. She was about to crumple it in herhand when her eyes fell on the handwriting. In an instant I saw herface change. She was staring hard at the paper and the hand which heldit was shaking. "Wh-what is this?" she demanded in a hard strainedvoice.

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