john had no sooner disappeared from view than a slight figure emerged from the stable and came timidly towards them. it was a woman; and as she approached through the gray light of the early morning, marjorie thought it might be one of the scouts.
it was anna!
she seemed not to notice the others, but making straight for marjorie, threw herself upon her knees at the girl’s feet and clutched at her skirt.
“please let him go! oh, please let him go, miss marjorie!”
marjorie stiffened instantly.
“let him go? of course not! why should we let him go?”
“oh, please! please!” begged the frantic girl.
“but what does he have to do with you? who is he?”
“he’s my father!”
“your father!” cried the astonished captors.
“yes,” sobbed anna. “now won’t you let him go?”
marjorie commenced to waver.
“but if he is your father,” thundered jack, “what’s he doing down there?”
“i’ll tell you—i’ll tell you all. only let him go!”
“well, get up! you’ll catch cold on the damp ground.”
“you tell us first!” said jack; “then we’ll decide whether we’ll let him go or not.”
anna stood there nervously clasping and unclasping her hands.
“and you’ll have to be quick about it,” he added. “one of us has already gone to telephone the police.”
this piece of information added to the look of fear in the girl’s face.
“i’ll tell!” she said. “my father used to be caretaker for mr. scott before he died. when the son closed up the house, he told father he would not need him any longer; but he wanted him to keep an eye on the place, and he would pay him for doing it. so he let father keep the set of keys he had always had.
“so father was out of work. my mother is dead, and we’re pretty poor. i have an older brother, but he was never able to keep a job long. until prohibition—then he started boot-legging and made lots of money. he worked on father to let him make the stuff back there in the scott’s stable. father held out for a while; he didn’t want to do it, but he needed the money; so he finally gave in. he could work around the place, and nobody in the neighborhood would suspect anything, because they thought he was still caretaker here.
“my brother made a good business of it; the people he sold it to would come in the middle of the night and stop their machines there in the road; and tom—that’s my brother—tom would give them the stuff he made. he fixed it up with the policemen on this beat, who were friends of his.
“everything went fine for awhile, and we made lots of money. then you came and opened a tea-house. my brother was back in the stable the first day you came in. when he saw you there the second time, he was sure you was going to rent the house; so that night he moved all the things he had there—”
“then nothing really did happen to you—the way you said—the night you stayed here with your aunt?” interrupted jack.
“no. that was all made up. it was tom’s idea for me to have the party, and he thought it was a pretty smart plan; because it gave me an excuse for staying here all night—with aunt mary, too, who really didn’t know what was going on.”
“anna, you’re a selfish, unfeeling girl!” cried marjorie. “aren’t you ashamed of yourself for scaring your aunt and all of us that way?”
“but we had to do it, miss marjorie!” argued anna. “tom didn’t have any place to carry on his business, and he was losing all his trade while you stayed here. and instead of frightening you away that first time, it only brought you more business....”
“so you tried it again,” said jack.
“yes. we knew that you had heard about the place being haunted, and tom had an idea that if we kept it up long enough, and some of you girls heard the ghost in the house, we’d scare you away. so every time any girls stayed at night, he tried to frighten them—”
“but never when any of the boys were here,” interrupted jack, again.
“yes, once. tom saw a light in here one night, and thought it was the girls; but it happened to be the boys. he didn’t think he could frighten the boys.”
“was that the night of the storm?” asked jack.
anna thought a minute, and then said:
“yes, i guess it was. tom did start to go down the cellar; but he changed his mind. he was afraid of the boys.”
jack smiled to himself as he thought of that night. he and john had been standing a good deal of kidding from the other fellows; now they could tell them a thing or two.
“who was down there the night we girls had a party?” questioned marjorie.
“tom was. i overheard alice say you were going to have one of them spirit—what d’you call ’em—persons there, and i told him. so he was on the job in the cellar until you girls started to look around. he could hear all you said; so he left in a hurry. he said he didn’t want to wait for that girl with a pistol—meanin’ you. but he thought sure you’d leave the place after that! now will you let pa go, if we promise not to do it any more?”
“you say it’s your father down there?” said jack, pointing to the cellar. “where’s your brother?”
“he had to be away last night, but he was down by them bushes earlier in the evening, and saw you come in; and thought two girls was going to be here all alone; so he got pa to take his place. but he never would have risked it if he had known that one of you was a boy. i got so anxious about pa myself that i came here to bring him away—but just as i got here i heard the three whistles. won’t you please let him go?”
“what could we tell the police?” asked jack, looking at marjorie. “they will be here any minute now.”
“oh, tell them anything! tell them it was me, startin’ to work extra early,” said anna, her fear of the law sharpening her wits.
“he ought to be in jail!” muttered jack. “however, let him come up, anyhow. we’ll see what john says when he comes back. go pull the door open, will you, dick?”
as a precautionary measure, jack stepped clear of the others, with his revolver ready. anna ran to the door before dick could reach it, had it open, and called down:
“come out, pa! it’s all right.”
an elderly man, with a half-eaten apple in one hand, came blinking into the daylight.
as soon as marjorie saw him, she started violently.
“why, he’s the old man who warned us, that first day!” she exclaimed in an undertone to jack. “the tea-room’s first guest!”
when he espied marjorie, he nodded his head.
“good morning, miss! i hope you’ll excuse the liberty—i just had to have one of those apples. i’m anna’s father. she told me what prime apples you had down there.” and he waved his hand towards the cellar. then, catching sight of jack with a revolver, a twinkle appeared in his eyes.
“expecting an attack, sir?” he asked, respectfully.
jack bit his lips, and glared.
“well, of all the cheek, you take the cake!” he murmured, to himself. “i’ve a good mind to settle your hash!”
aloud he said:
“suppose you come over here and sit down on the porch and have a talk—until the police come!”
for he knew they must come; and while he had not yet made up his mind what he would say to them, he had decided that he would not let this man get away before john returned.
“the police?” said the man with a surprised air. “what are the police coming for, may i ask?”
“you know as well as i do! don’t try to pull off that kind of stuff!” exploded the boy. “anna’s told us all about it.”
the man cast a reproachful look at his daughter.
“i had to, pa! they were going to turn you over to the police,” she explained.
“but you say the police are coming,” said the father, turning to jack.
the boy nodded.
“yes, mr. benton,” answered marjorie. “and we’re sorry we didn’t catch your son, instead of you. he seems to be the principal offender; but we sent for the police before we knew who it was, and—”
she stopped, and listened. a motor had stopped at the entrance.
“and they are probably here now!” said jack, finishing the sentence for her.
“what about me?” asked the man, starting to rise.
“just sit still and keep quiet!” ordered jack, sharply; “and you’ll see! show the cops around here, will you, dick?”
“i wonder what has happened to john?” said marjorie, nervously. “i thought he’d be back long before the police arrived.”
“so did i,” said jack. “maybe he waited for them.”
a man in plain clothes appeared with dick around the side of the house. when he beheld jack in a skirt and middy-blouse, twirling a girl’s wig on one of his fingers, he had difficulty in repressing a laugh.
“what’s the trouble?” he asked, gazing from one to another. “who telephoned? i am a special officer.”
for a moment no one spoke. then jack said:
“i’m afraid it’s all a mistake!” and he looked up at the officer with far more calmness than he felt inwardly.
“a mistake?” inquired the other, suspiciously, elevating his eyebrows.
“yes,” answered jack. “you see, it was like this: we thought we heard something....”
“oh ... i see ... the ghost again!”
“exactly! at least, if it wasn’t a ghost—”
“well, what then?”
but jack never completed the sentence. an exclamation from marjorie and his own staring eyes caused them all to turn in the direction toward which he was gazing so intently.
a man was doing his best to climb over the back fence, and to hold both his hands above his head at the same time; and he was having some difficulty; for in one of his hands he held an oblong package wrapped in paper. immediately behind him stood john, and with him a strange man.
“now walk up to those people, and stop!” they could hear john command. “and don’t move too fast! keep your hands up!”
the man did as he was ordered. as the strange procession came towards them they had ample time to look it over. first there came the one with upraised hands. he had a black moustache, and wore a felt hat pulled down over his eyes, and a light check suit. next came john, with a revolver in his hand, a look of grim determination on his face. at his side walked a well-dressed, good-looking man of middle-age, obviously a gentleman.
when john’s prisoner saw anna’s father, he came to a stand and greeted him.
“hello, pop! i thought i’d stop and see how you were getting along!” he blustered, with a grin.
“hello, yourself, tim kelley!” called the officer in plain clothes. “what’s that you have in your hand?”
the other turned pale, and looked hard at his questioner.
“just a few personal belongin’s,” he muttered. “what’s that to you?”
“i’ll have a look at your ‘personal belongin’s,’ if you please!” answered the officer, turning the lapel of his coat and displaying a shining badge. “come on tim, hand it over! i know you—and a good deal more about you than you think!”
and he walked up to him and took the package from his hand.
“now you can put your hands up again!” he added. “you’ll be well taken care of.”
the sound of a powerful machine stopping in the road came to their ears. the officer stepped out into the middle of the yard and made a megaphone of his hand.
“come on back here, men!” he shouted.
four burly policemen walked up the drive.
“just keep an eye on that fellow while i have a look at this, will you?” said the plain clothes man; and he proceeded to break the string of the package, opened one end, and sniffed at the contents. then, he closed the paper and nodded his head at the prisoner.
“just as i thought!” he said. “i’ve caught you with the goods this time. the wagon’s outside, so you come along with us. put the cuffs on him, morgan!”
then, turning to anna’s father, he added:
“and you’d better come along, too, mr. kelley. now, don’t explain; anything you say will be used against you! you can do the explaining later on. i know all about you, as it happens, anyhow. you young people will hear from us later on. i congratulate you upon your capture. i am a detective on the force. i have been working on this case for some time. you may have thought we were asleep; but we didn’t have sufficient evidence to act sooner. the fact that a couple of the men on the force were in cahoots with these boot-leggers only complicated matters. well, there was no harm done; and you’ve covered yourselves with glory! but let me say this to you, young man: don’t ever try to shield the guilty; it doesn’t pay!”
and with this parting shot at jack, and a hearty laugh at the boy’s make-up, he departed.
so many amazing things had happened in such a short space of time, that those who remained could only stand and gaze after the departing figure and then at each other in stupefaction. jack was the first to come to.
“gosh!” he exclaimed, with a gulp. “just like that!”
the stranger standing at john’s side laughed.
“i beg your pardon!” said john, suddenly remembering his presence. “marjorie, i have the honor of presenting mr. emerson, who lives next door, and whose telephone i used. mr. emerson was good enough to insist on coming back with me. and it’s a good thing he did. he happened to be awake and heard jack whistle three times; so he guessed that something was going to happen. when he looked out the window while i was telephoning he saw that fellow tim kelley skulking across the fields towards the tea-house, and became suspicious. so instead of coming back by the road, as i would naturally have come if i had been alone, we cut across the field together and followed the fellow. we found him hiding behind the stable, spying on you; so we thought that was enough evidence to take him prisoner on. and you know the rest. that’s how it was, wasn’t it, mr. emerson?”
“exactly.”
“oh, how can we ever thank you for helping us?” exclaimed marjorie.
“don’t try! it was nothing. this young man did it all!” he said, placing his hand upon john’s arm. “but let me congratulate you, miss wilkinson. you have done a fine thing; and i know it took courage to stay in this house all night!”
john introduced the other boys to mr. emerson, calling jack “ethel” when his turn came.
“by the way, jack,” he suddenly asked. “do you know who my prisoner was?”
“sure!” replied jack. “anna’s brother!”
“anna’s brother!” exclaimed john. “i didn’t know that!”
“who did you think he was?”
“why, the man who was looking for bill smith!”
“no! really?” cried jack. “well, he’s anna’s brother, anyhow—and the old man was her father!”
and he looked over to the corner of the porch where anna sat silently looking on. going over to her, jack put his hand rather wistfully upon her shoulder.
“i’m sorry, anna! you saw it couldn’t be helped. i never meant to tell on your father. then, when they brought your brother up, he gave everything away himself. but the detective knew all about it, anyhow.”
anna answered him quite calmly.
“i don’t blame you, mr. jack. it couldn’t be helped, as you say.”
“there’s one thing i don’t understand,” continued jack. “your name is anna benton. those two men answered the name of kelley. how is that?”
“mr. kelley was only my step-father,” replied anna. “tom was my half-brother.”
“oh!” said jack. “i see.”
