CHAPTER XXV
JUST IN TIME
It seemed as though if there really was anybody left in charge of theGandy house and premises, such a caretaker would have appeared beforethis to demand of the party of young folks from Roselawn what theywanted. As Jessie Norwood walked up the lane, with little Henrietta bythe hand and followed by Darrington Drew, she saw no person at anywindow or door.
The tower might have been abandoned years before, as far as appearancewent. But Mark Stratford's discovery seemed to make it plain that thetower was sometimes in use.
Jessie noted that the tower stood on a knoll behind the house fromwhich vantage the race track some quarter of a mile away might beseen. With good field glasses one might stand in the second story ofthe tower and see the horses running on the track. Then, if there wasa sending radio set in the tower, the reports of races could bebroadcasted in secret code to sets tuned to the one in the tower.
Of course, if the radio instrument was so illegally used, it was onlyso used while the races were being held at the Harrimay Track. Thenthe folding aerials were raised and made use of. The cry for help thathad been broadcasted and which Jessie and Amy had heard might havebeen sent out from this station some night when Martha Poole or herfriends had neglected to shut off the aerial by dropping it flat uponthe roof of the tower.
The question now was, had Bertha stolen her way into the tower at thattime, or was she held prisoner there? Evidently Martha Poole and SadieBothwell were determined to hold the girl until after the court hadsettled in their favor the Ellison will case.
Jessie and those with her came to the foot of the tower. All the lowerwindows were boarded up and the door was tightly closed. There wereshades at the upper windows, and they fitted tightly.
"You call Bertha, honey," said Jessie. "Tell her we've come to let herout. Did you try that door, Darry?"
"Not much! We don't want to be arrested for trying to commitburglary."
"Shout for Bertha, Henrietta," commanded Jessie.
Immediately the little girl set up a yell that, as Burd declared,could have scarcely been equaled by a steam calliope.
"Bertha! Bertha Haney! Come out and see my new dress!"
That invitation certainly delighted Amy and Burd. They sat in the carand clung to each other while they laughed. Little Henrietta's facegot rosy red while she shouted, and she was very much in earnest.
"Bertha! Bertha Haney! Don't you hear me? I got a new dress! And we'vecome to take you home. Bertha!"
Suddenly the lower door of the tower opened a crack. An old, oldwoman, and not at all a pleasant looking woman, appeared at thecrack.
"What you want?" she demanded. "Go 'way! Martha Poole didn't send youhere."
Jessie spoke up briskly. "We've come to see Bertha. This is her littlecousin. You won't refuse to let her see Bertha, will you?"
"There ain't nobody here but a sick girl. She ain't to be let out. Sheain't right in her head."
"I guess that is what is the matter with you," said Darry Drew,sternly. He had come nearer, and now, before the woman could shut thedoor, he thrust his foot between it and the jamb. "We're going to seeBertha Blair. Out of the way!"
He thrust back the door and the old woman with it. They heard amuffled voice calling from upstairs. Little Henrietta flashed by theguardian of the tower and darted upstairs.
"Bertha! Bertha! I'm coming, Bertha! I got a new dress!"
"You better go up and see what's doing, Jess," said Darry. "I'll holdthis woman down here."
Jessie was giggling, although it was from nervousness.
"And I thought you did not want to be considered a burglar?" she saidas she passed hastily in at the door.
"Oh, well, we're in for it now," Darry called after her. "Be as quickas you can."
Jessie found a door open at the top of the flight. Henrietta waschattering at top speed somewhere ahead. The rooms were dark, but whenJessie found the room in which Henrietta was, she likewise found agirl bound to a chair in which she sat, with a towel tied across hermouth which muffled her speech.
"Here's Bertha! Here's Bertha!" cried Henrietta eagerly.
Jessie had the girl free and the towel off in half a minute. She sawthen that the prisoner was the girl she and Amy had seen carried awayby Martha Poole and Sadie Bothwell, out of Dogtown Lane.
"Oh, Miss! is this little Hennie? And have you come to take me away?"gasped Bertha.
"Surely. Are you Bertha Blair?"
"Yes, ma'am. Hennie calls me Bertha Haney. For I lived with her momafter my mother died. But my name's Blair."
"My father is Robert Norwood, the lawyer," said Jessie swiftly. "Hewants you to testify in court about what you heard when that old manmade his will at Mrs. Poole's house."
"Oh! You mean Mr. Abel Ellison? A gentleman came and asked me aboutthat once, and then Mrs. Poole said I'd got to keep my mouth shutabout it or she'd put me away somewhere so that I'd never get away."
"So I ran away from her," said Bertha, "and tried to go to Dogtown andsee Hennie and the Foleys. Why! wasn't you one of the girls, Miss,that saw Mrs. Poole putting me into that car?"
"Yes," sighed Jessie. "I saw it, but couldn't stop it."
"Well, they brought me right out here, and I've been here ever since.When Mrs. Poole isn't here that old woman comes and keeps me fromrunning away."
"But once," Jessie suggested, "you had a chance to try to send out acry for help?"
"There's a radio here. They used it one night. Then I tried to callfor help over it. But they heard me and stopped it at once."
"Just the same, that attempt of yours is what has brought us hereto-day. I will tell you all about it later. Come, Bertha! We will getyou away from here before Mrs. Poole comes. And we must take you tothe city to see my father at once."
As they left the tower and the ugly old woman, they heard the lattercalling a number into the telephone receiver. She was probably tryingto report the outrage to Mrs. Poole.
"But the woman will never dare call the police," Darry assured Jessie."You tell your father all about it, and he'll know what to do."
"And we must see Daddy Norwood as soon as possible," the girl said. "Imust take Bertha to him. The case is already in court."
"I'll fix that for you, Miss Jessie," Mark Stratford said. "I can getyou to town just as quickly as the traffic cops will let me--and theyare all my friends."
Darry considered that he should go, too. So they dropped Amy andlittle Henrietta, with Burd Alling, at Roselawn, and after a word toMomsy, started like the flight of an arrow in Mark's powerful car forNew York.
Jessie and Bertha Blair had never ridden so fast before. MarkStratford knew his car well, and coaxed it along over the well-oiledroads of Westchester at a speed to make anybody gasp.
But haste was necessary. They knew where the court was, and theyarrived there just after the noon recess. Mrs. Norwood had reached herhusband's chief clerk by telephone, and he had communicated the newsto the lawyer. Mr. Norwood had dragged along the prosecution until themissing witness arrived. Then he introduced Bertha Blair into thewitness chair most unexpectedly to McCracken and his clients.
If Mr. Norwood's side of the argument needed any bolstering, this wassupplied when Bertha was allowed to tell her story. The judge evenadvised the girl, or her guardians if she had any, that she had aperfectly good civil case against Martha Poole for imprisoning her inthe tower on the Gandy farm.
These matters, however, did not interest Jessie Norwood and herfriends much. They had been able to assist Mr. Norwood in an importantlegal case, and naturally everybody, both old and young, wasinterested in Bertha Blair, the girl who had been imprisoned. Momsysaid she would put on her thinking cap about Bertha's future.
Meanwhile Bertha and little Henrietta went back to the Foleys for awhile. Henrietta was bound to be the most important person of her agein all of Dogtown. No other little girl there was the possessor ofsuch finery as she had.
What Mark Stratford had said to Jessie about Superin
tendent Blair keptrecurring to the Roselawn girl, and she felt that she should tell theman who had charge of the Stratford Electric Corporation radio programabout the girl who had been rescued from the horsewoman. As we meetJessie and Amy and Bertha and all their friends in another volume,called "The Radio Girls on the Program; Or, Singing and Reciting atthe Sending Station," in all probability Jessie Norwood will do justthat.
"You girls," Darry Drew said to Jessie and Amy, "have got more radiostuff in your heads than most fellows I know. Why, you are as good asboys at it."
"I like that!" exclaimed his sister. "Is there anything, I'd like toknow, that girls can't beat boys at?"
"One thing," put in Burd Alling solemnly.
"What's that?"
"Killing snakes," said Burd.
"Wrong! Wrong!" cried Jessie, laughing. "You ought to see littleHenrietta attack a flock of snakes. She takes the palm."
"Think of it, a little girl like that going after snakes!" murmuredBurd. "She must have nerve!"
"She has," declared Jessie. "And she is as clever as can be, too, inspite of her odd way of expressing herself."
"I wonder what they'll do about Bertha Blair," came from Darry.
"She certainly had an adventure," observed Burd. "Maybe the moviepeople will want her--or the vaudeville managers. They often pick uppeople like that, who have been in the limelight."
"I don't think Momsy will allow anything of that sort," returnedJessie. "I'm sure she and Daddy will think up something better."
Suddenly Amy, who was resting comfortably in the porch hammock, leapedto her feet.
"I declare! I forgot!" she cried.
"Forgot what?" came in a chorus from the others.
"Forgot that special concert to-day--that one to be given over theradio by that noted French soprano. You know who I mean--the one withthe unpronounceable name."
"Oh, yes!" ejaculated Jessie. "Let me see--what time was it?" Sheconsulted her wrist watch. "I declare! it starts in five minutes."
"Then come on and tune in. I've been thinking of that concert eversince it was advertised. Miss Gress, the music teacher, heard her singin Paris and she says she's wonderful. Come on. Will you boys comealong?"
"Might as well," answered Darry. "We haven't anything else to do."
"And I like a good singer," added Burd.
In another moment all were trooping up to Jessie's pretty room whereshe had her receiving set. The necessary tuning in was soonaccomplished and in a minute more all were listening to a song fromone of the favorite operas, rendered as only a great singer can renderit. And here, for the time being we will say good-bye to the RadioGirls of Roselawn.
THE END