CHAPTER XXIVA RADIO TRICK
Jessie was of course delighted to see Darry and Burd in Amy’s company when her chum appeared on the Norwood premises after breakfast. Jessie had dressed Henrietta, and the child was preening herself in the sun like a peacock. The boys scarcely recognized her.
At once Burd Alling called her the Enchanted Princess. That disturbed little Henrietta but slightly.
“I expect I am a ‘chanted princess,’” she admitted gravely. “I expect I am like Cinderella. I know all about her. And the pumpkin and rats and mice was charmed, too. I hope I won’t get charmed back again into my old clothes.”
“You could not very well help Mrs. Foley in that dress, Henrietta,” Jessie suggested.
“No. I suppose not. But if I could just find my cousin Bertha maybe I would not have to help Mrs. Foley any more. Maybe Bertha is rich, and we could hire somebody to take care of Billy Foley and to clean out the kitchen stove.”
She was more than eager to ride along with theothers to look for Bertha Blair. As it chanced, Jessie did not have to call for Chapman and the Norwood car when the time to go came. For who should drive up to the house but Mark Stratford, who had come home with Darry and Burd from the yacht cruise and had driven over from Stratfordtown in his powerful car?
It was a tight fit for the six in the racing car, but they squeezed in and drove out through the Parkville road while it was still early morning. Meanwhile Darry had explained his idea to the others, and they were all eager to view the surroundings of the Gandy stock farm.
“If Bertha is there she’ll know me if I holler; of course, she will,” agreed little Henrietta. “But she never will know me by looking at me. Never!”
“So she’ll have to shut her eyes if she wants to know you, will she, kid?” chuckled Burd.
There really did not seem to be any need for the child to call when the party stopped before the closed gate, for there was not any sign of occupancy of either the house or surrounding buildings. The shingled old house offered blank windows to the road, like so many sightless eyes. There were no horses in the stables, for the windows over the box-stalls were all closed. And the tower the girls had marked before seemed deserted as well.
“Just the same, the voice spoke of the red barnand that silo and those two fallen trees there. Chapman says the trees must have fallen lately. And yet there isn’t an aerial in sight, as we told you,” said Jessie.
“Let’s look around,” Darry said, jumping out, and Burd and Amy went with him. Mark turned around in the driver’s seat to talk with Jessie.
“You know, it’s a funny thing that the girl’s name should be Bertha Blair,” the young man said. “I heard you folks talking about her before, and I said something about it to our Mr. Blair at the factory. He’s had a lot of trouble in his family. Never had any children, he and his wife, but always wanted ’em.”
“His younger brother married a girl of whom the Blair family did not approve. Guess she was all right, but came from poor kind of folks. And when the younger Blair died they lost trace of his wife and a baby girl they had. Funny thing,” added Mark. “That baby’s name was Bertha—Bertha Blair. When I told the superintendent something about your looking for such a girl because of a law case, he was much interested. If you go over there again to the sending station, tell the superintendent all about her, Miss Jessie.”
“I certainly will,” promised the Roselawn girl. “But we haven’t even found Bertha yet, and we are not sure she is here.”
Darry and the others had entered the groundssurrounding the stock farm buildings and they were gone some time. When they came back even Amy seemed despondent.
“I guess we were fooled, Jess,” she said. “There is nobody here—not even a caretaker. I guess what we heard over the radio that time was a hoax.”
“I don’t believe it!” declared Jessie. “I justfeelthat Bertha Blair, little Henrietta’s cousin, is somewhere here.”
“And maybe she can’t get away,” said Henrietta. “I’d like to help Bertha run away from that fat woman.”
“Let’s take the kid in and let her call,” suggested Burd.
“Sure you didn’t see any aerial, Darry?” Mark asked, showing increased interest in the matter.
“Not a sign,” said Drew, shaking his head.
“That tower——”
“Yes. It would make an ideal station. But I went all around it. I can’t see the roof, for it is practically flat. And if what I suggested was there, we will have to get above the level of the roof to see it.”
Mark suddenly got out and opened his tool-box. He brought forth a pair of lineman’s climbers.
“Thought I had ’em here. I’ll go up that telegraphpole and see what I can see,” and he began to strap them on.
“Good as gold!” cried Burd admiringly. “You have a head on you, young fellow.”
“Yes,” said Mark dryly. “I was born with it.”
He proceeded to the tall telegraph pole and swarmed quickly up it. The others waited, watching him as he surveyed the apparently deserted place from the cross-piece of the pole. By and by he came down.
“It’s there, Darry,” he said confidently. “Your big idea was all to the good. That folding wireless staff you use on theMarigoldis repeated right on the top of that tower. When they use the sending set they raise the staff with the antenna and—there you have it.”
“Oh! Then she’s in the tower!” cried Amy.
“At least, she was in the tower if she sent her message from this station,” agreed Darry.
“How shall we find out—how shall we?” cried Amy, excitedly.
“If Mr. Stratford is quite sure that he sees the aerials upon that roof, then I am going to get the tower door open somehow,” declared Jessie, with her usual determination.
“It is there, Miss Jessie,” Mark assured her.
“Come on, Henrietta,” said Jessie, helping the little girl to jump down from the car. “We are going to find your Cousin Bertha if she is here.”
“You are real nice to be so int’rusted in Bertha,” said Henrietta.
“I am interested in her particularly because Daddy Norwood needs her,” admitted the older girl. “Come on now, honey. We’ll go up to that tower building and you shout for Bertha just as hard as you can shout. She will know your voice if she doesn’t know you in your new dress,” and she smiled down at the little girl clinging to her hand.