CHAPTER XII
STOPPED BY THE HAND OF FATE
Though such an idea had been finding a home in the brain of Frank Allen, it was a distinct shock to him when he saw the contents of that chest.
Lanky gasped in the utmost surprise, and looked at the many pieces with wide eyes.
There were knives and forks, and many spoons of all sizes and kinds; there were plates and salad pieces, small pitchers and shells, some gold lined and others plain sterling silver; literally hundreds and hundreds of pieces, enough for a dozen families.
Lanky Wallace looked at Frank, and Frank looked at his chum. Across the face of each stole a smile, just a wee smile of one who knew his honor could now be vindicated.
No sound of warning had come from below, yet Frank quietly closed the lid, strewed the hay over the box as carefully as it had been done when they found it, and led the way toward the ladder leading to the floor below. Down he went first, followed very closely by Lanky.
In a few minutes more they were on the trail leading up from the river, beckoning to Buster, Paul and Ralph to join them. Not a word thus far had been spoken by either.
Not knowing what had been found, completely at a loss to understand why Frank and Lanky said nothing, Paul and Ralph and Buster followed meekly behind, picking their way along the trail, until they had reached theRocket’slanding place.
“Let’s get it out into the stream as quietly as possible,” whispered Frank as they climbed aboard, and Lanky, whose particular business it appeared to have become, waited to push theRocketwell into the river.
Away it shoved off, Lanky grabbed an oar from its convenient place to pole the boat out against the fouling of the propeller blades, and Frank headed theRockettoward midstream, trying to get far enough to drift with the river’s current before starting the engine.
Still not a word came from either of the two boys as to the happenings within that barn on Jed Marmette’s place.
Having gotten a full eighth of a mile below the landing, Frank gave Lanky the signal to start the motor, and the muffled exhaust set up its song.
“Well?” Paul could hold himself no longer. “Please tell what you saw up in the barn! Youmust have seen something of interest or you wouldn’t be so quiet.”
“All right, fellows,” replied Frank graciously (for he surely could afford to be in a gracious mood right now) “gather close up and we’ll tell you what we saw.”
As the sun was sinking farther and farther into the west, as the long, last, struggling rays which it threw out upon the world were cast across the rippling current of the Harrapin River, Frank and Lanky, piece by piece, told what they had seen at the arbor and what they had seen in the loft of the old barn.
The three listeners sat with mouths open, their eyes bulging, listening to this tale as children do to the wonders of princes and princesses and giants and kings in fairy tales.
“And all the Parsons’ stuff is in that chest?” Paul asked the question.
“I don’t think it is. I think all the silverware and such heavy pieces as they stole downstairs in the dining room are in that chest, but I believe the jewels which they got upstairs in her safe are in that metal box which is buried.”
“Why do you suppose he buried it?” again Paul queried.
“Hump——”
“Do you think he was putting it there so that noone would find it in case they were discovered?”
“I certainly do not!” spoke up Lanky Wallace.
“And I’ll bet Frank agrees with me, too! I believe that fellow was double-crossing his partners—that’s what I think! I believe he put that box of jewels, which is the easiest of all things to get off with, away in a safe place so that he could come back himself some of these days and get it—after his pals are in jail or away from this part of the country.”
“But, suppose Jed goes to jail?” asked Paul.
“Listen, Paul Bird! You’d better start using your head pretty soon. This detective agency has no place for weak sisters. We run a first-class, efficient detective agency, we do! Don’t we, Frank?” teased Lanky.
“Why kid me?” Paul stuck to his questioning.
“Oh, listen to him! Say, Mr. President, we’ll have to call this operative. He’s a mess!”
This had the effect of quieting Paul, who wondered what could be wrong with his question. Suppose Jed Marmette went to jail, what would become of the jewels?
“Youthful aide-de-camp to the world’s leading detectives, will you kindly notice that when Jed Marmette starts to jail we’ll have the little box of jewels safely back in Mrs. Parsons’ hands?”
Paul said nothing more, yet they had not answeredhis question for him. For his question must not, of course, include the knowledge which Jed Marmette did not have—that he had been seen burying the jewel box.
Quietly theRocketdrifted along for a while, the motor running slowly and smoothly, Frank making no effort to get back to Columbia in a hurry. He was trying to lay out a plan in his own mind, and held the boat to the center of the stream while he thought it all out.
“You know,” said Frank, speaking to Lanky more than to the other two boys, “those two fellows in the boat that night were the same two who were with Cunningham that same day when he tried to run us down.”
“Sure,” agreed Wallace instantly.
“Next, you remember they dropped a large box of some kind off theSpeedawaywhen I swerved and struck them aft.”
“Yes,” again agreed Lanky. “And it’s my impression the box they dropped off theSpeedawaythat day and the box we saw on the rowboat that night and the box we saw in the loft to-day are all the same box.”
“I’ve just been wondering if that is true.”
Again silence reigned on theRocket.
Frank called for the lights, which Lanky attended to without further ado. The sun’s rays had passedout below the horizon, the day was coming to an end, and the boys were getting toward home in the beautiful hour of twilight.
The whole scene was different. Things which had appeared plain and definite during the sun’s hours were now blots and blurbs on the dancing surface of the river. Paul and Ralph and Buster saw things which were new to them.
What was the proper move to make? Frank asked himself the question time after time. Should he go back and recover the trunk or chest of silverware and also the metal box of jewels and restore them to the widow from whom they had been stolen?
Frank knew that he and his four friends in this boat, without any help, could very easily return to the Marmette place an hour or two later, quietly recover both the large chest and the smaller box, and he believed they could get away without being discovered.
But, if this was done, what would be the result?
Simply that he and Lanky, already accused of knowing something of the robbery, would still stand accused by those whose minds had become poisoned. True, the goods would be returned, but the attitude of the poisoned minds would be that the boys had become fearful and had restored the stolen goods in fear of being caught with them in their possession.
On the other hand, if some plan were worked out by which the actual thieves could be caught removingthe stolen goods or dividing their booty among themselves, two very necessary ends would be achieved: First, their own skirts would be shown to be clean of the robbery; second, the thieves would be removed from further contaminating contact with society.
Certainly, the locating of the thieves was the way to proceed. But how do it?
Could they expect help from the police department?
Were they to carry their news to Chief Berry would that dignitary of the law send out his officers in an effort to find the men, or would they merely uncover and bring in the booty without locating the thieves, thus leaving Frank and Lanky in a rather anomalous position?
The distant lights of the town were coming into sight as theRocketmade the last bend in the river when Lanky finally broke the silence which had fallen upon the lads.
“What shall we do, Frank? Shall we go to the chief or shall we follow this thing out ourselves?”
Frank was not surprised at the question, realizing that Lanky had probably spent the many minutes of silence in going over the same questions which had kept his own mind busy.
“It seems the only thing we can do, Lanky. If we keep this knowledge to ourselves we are apt, insome unforeseen manner, to find ourselves in a tight box.”
“I had thought of that, too,” replied the long lad. “If some one else discovers anything, or if something slips, we’ll be in for trouble.”
“Absolutely!” Frank rehearsed the chance for trouble. “For instance, it is plain as can be that since we know where that silver is, it is our duty to see that, so soon as possible, it is returned to the rightful owner. If, through any fear on our part that we may not get right and just treatment, we permit the thieves to get away with it, we are accessories after the fact, aren’t we?”
The other boys nodded their assent to this statement.
“This very evening we could have retrieved every piece of the silver, and I haven’t the slightest doubt we could also have gotten that box of jewels. Why didn’t we?”
No one replied; they waited for Frank to reply to his own question.
“Simply because we were selfish, thoughtful only of our own reputations. That’s rough, but it’s true, isn’t it?”
“But if we don’t think of our own reputations when our motives are impugned, who is going to help us?” Lanky came fighting back to the aid of themselves and their first ideas.
“Quite so, Lanky,” Frank replied slowly, as they drew nearer and nearer to Columbia. “But the facts are just as I have stated. Now, if they be true, what is our best move? Isn’t it to report to the chief of Police?”
The boys felt that there was nothing but to admit it was the straightforward thing to do—leaving their reputations in the hands of the chief or of the public when the story should be told.
It being agreed among them, no other course suggesting itself to any of them, they fell silent while theRocketheaded straight for its boat-house on the Harrapin.
“Well,” said Paul, “I’ve enjoyed the day immensely, and we’ve learned more than we expected to when we started. Now, as to the outcome.”
“I feel that things will come out all right in the end,” Frank replied serenely. “There is a path that we must follow—the rules of right living demand that—and we shall merely follow that path. It runs straight, to say the least.”
TheRocketran slowly, easily, quietly into the boat-house, and everything was made ready for the night. It was already well past dark, and along the river front all was still.
The door at the river side was closed and locked, the ignition locked, and the key placed where the boys could find it, the battery switch thrown safelyoff, and the day was done in so far as the motor boat was concerned.
“Now, it’s up to the chief’s office for us, and if he isn’t there we’ll have to find him.”
They stopped at the first drug store to quench their thirst with soda-water, and from there proceeded in the direction of the police headquarters.
Stopping along the street to pass remarks with other boys of their acquaintance, answering questions about the speed of theRocket, they found themselves a few blocks nearer to the large brick structure without having attracted any undue attention.
This, though unplanned, was the best way to proceed.
Buster Billings met his father on the way and was asked to look after a family matter of extreme importance. Buster could not have refused, even if he had wished to, so after promises on the part of the other boys to tell him everything that passed in police headquarters and with assurances that his name would be given to the chief as knowing something of the matter, he said good-bye and went on his way.
Finally, when the others reached the police department, Frank led the way in. He saw Chief Berry sitting in his office, his feet comfortably cocked up on his desk.
Just then one of the attendants at the hospitalcame rushing up, touched Frank on the shoulder and whispered:
“Come to the hospital quickly. The doctor wants you.”
Before Frank could ask questions, before he could get any information, the attendant was gone.
Frank turned and dashed for the hospital at full speed, all of the other boys right behind him.
Not waiting to reach the gate, Frank vaulted the fence and raced for the building. Just inside stood the doctor.
“Frank!” he cried, “They just told me you were here. You’ve got to act quickly. Your father’s weaker, suddenly, and there’s only one thing I know to be done. The drug we need for his heart is not in town nor at Bellport, and we’ve only one chance to get it—a druggist at Coville has it. I’ve just telephoned. Can you make it there in your boat—is it fast enough—can it be trusted to come back at once? It’s life or death. You’ve got to get to Coville and back with the utmost speed!”
Frank stood dazed for a moment.
“Tell the druggist I’m coming!” he cried, turning to the door.