The Mystery of the Fires Read online

  CHAPTER XVIII _Return_

  Both Mr. and Mrs. Gay looked up disconsolately as the green carapproached. Suddenly their expressions of listlessness changed toincredulity--then to rapture. Mary Louise was home!

  In another second the girl had flown up the steps and was hugging bothparents at once. Mrs. Gay could only gasp in her happiness. It was Mr.Gay who asked his daughter whether she was unhurt and unharmed.

  "I'm fine!" returned Mary Louise joyfully. "And, oh, so happy!"

  "Darling!" murmured her mother, her voice choked with emotion.

  "Now praise these wonderful boys," insisted the girl. "My rescuers."

  Max and Norman tried to look modest and to wave aside theiraccomplishment with a gesture. But Mr. Gay seized their hands in a fervorof gratitude.

  "I can't find words to tell you what it means to us!" he said. "You twoboys have succeeded where four professional detectives failed. It's--it'smarvelous."

  "Oh, it wasn't anything at all, except persistence on our part,"explained Max. "The real credit goes to Mary Lou. It was a swell idea shehad."

  "What idea?" demanded Mr. Gay.

  "Signaling for help. With semaphore flags--just as we all used to do inthe Scouts."

  "But where were you, Mary Lou?" asked her father. "Sit down and tell usall about it."

  "First tell me whether you're hungry," put in her mother.

  "No, not specially," replied Mary Louise. "They fed us pretty well at theinsane asylum."

  It was fun to watch her parents' startled expressions at thisannouncement--fun now that the experience was all over.

  "Insane asylum!" they both repeated in horror. And then for the firsttime they noticed her blue calico dress.

  Mary Louise nodded and proceeded to tell her story. Briefly and quickly,for she remembered that she wanted to catch the two criminals.

  "Has Mr. Frazier run away too?" she inquired, when she had finished.

  "No, he's over at his hotel," replied Mr. Gay. "I saw him this morning."

  "You must arrest him, Daddy!" cried the girl. "He was the cause of thethree fires at Shady Nook. I know it!"

  "But how do you know, Mary Lou?" asked her father. "What proof have you?"

  "I overheard him and Tom Adams talking in the hotel garage. They didn'tactually mention fires, but I'm sure they meant them. I have theirconversation down in my notebook. I left it in my desk. It's probablystill there."

  "Suppose," suggested Mr. Gay, "that you tell us the story of yoursuspicions--and clues--from the beginning."

  "While I'm getting lunch," added Mrs. Gay.

  Mary Louise ran into her bedroom and found the little notebook. "I'lljust change my dress," she called laughingly, "and be with you in aminute.... But tell me where Jane and Freckles are."

  "Out hunting for you. With Silky!" was the reply.

  A couple of minutes later she returned to the porch, looking more likeherself in her own modern clothing. She sat down on the swing and openedher notebook.

  "I first suspected Tom Adams the day after Flicks' Inn burned down," shebegan. "All of the people of Shady Nook were over on the little islandthat night on a picnic, and Hattie Adams told me she expected to have Tomtake her. But he wasn't anywhere to be found. And the boys saw a bigfellow in the woods who answered his description.

  "But I sort of gave up the idea of his being guilty when I heard he hadlost some work by Flicks' Inn burning down. It threw me off the track fora while; I really suspected his feeble-minded sister Rebecca.

  "Then the Smiths' house caught fire, and Rebecca gave us a warning--so Isuspected her all the more. Finding that pack of Cliff's cards in the canof water didn't prove a thing to me. I never believed he was guilty."

  "It was absurd to arrest him," commented Mr. Gay. "The blundering idiotwho caused it----"

  Mary Louise's laugh ran out merrily.

  "You and Jane will have to get together, Dad," she said. "You agree soperfectly about David McCall!"

  "Never did care for the fellow," her father muttered. "Give me men withbrains--and sense!" He looked admiringly at Max and Norman. "But get onwith the story, Mary Lou."

  "It was the day after the Smiths' fire that I really seriously suspectedTom Adams," she continued. "I trailed him to the store at Four Cornersand found him gambling. He told a man that he'd pay him a hundreddollars, which he expected to collect immediately. And that set methinking."

  "Why?" inquired Max.

  "Because a farmhand doesn't earn a hundred dollars so easily, especiallyfrom tightwads like Frazier. Everybody knows that man pays miserablewages.... Then, besides that, I overheard Tom Adams explaining a cardtrick, and that fact made me guess that he had gotten hold of one ofCliff's decks of cards and either accidentally or purposely dropped themat the Smiths'."

  Mr. Gay nodded approvingly. He loved to watch the logical working of hisdaughter's mind.

  "So I began to put two and two together," she went on. "Somebody waspaying Tom a lot of money--lots more than a hundred dollars, Ilearned--for doing something. What, I asked myself, could the job beexcept setting those houses on fire? And who wanted them burned downexcept Frazier, or possibly Horace Ditmar, who, as you know, is anarchitect?"

  "So you narrowed your suspects down to two people--besides Tom Adams?"inquired Mr. Gay admiringly.

  "Yes. And when Adelaide Ditmar got that threat I was positive Frazier wasresponsible. He wanted the business, and he was doing everything he couldto get it. But even then I had no proof."

  "So what did you do?" asked Max. "And why did Tom Adams suspect that youknew anything?"

  "It was all because of this conversation," answered Mary Louise, openingher notebook. "I overheard it near Frazier's garage, and then I wasstupid enough to let them see me. I even told them I was going over tothe farm to talk to Hattie."

  "That was a mistake," remarked Mr. Gay.

  "A mistake I paid for pretty dearly," agreed the girl. "But it's allright now, so it really doesn't matter.... Now let me read you theconversation between Frazier and Tom Adams on the afternoon I was takenaway."

  Quickly, in the words of the two men, she read to her listeners of Tom'sdemand for money and Mr. Frazier's reluctant compliance with his claims.When she had finished she looked eagerly at her father.

  "Isn't Frazier guilty?" she asked.

  "Of course he's guilty," agreed the detective. "But he won't ever admitit. He'll squirm out of it, because we haven't got proof in so manywords. He'll say he was talking about something entirely different to TomAdams."

  "But can't he be arrested?" persisted Mary Louise, a note ofdisappointment creeping into her voice.

  "I don't see how--until we find Tom Adams. He'll establish Frazier'sguilt, all right. I can't see Adams shouldering the blame alone."

  Mary Louise frowned; she hated the idea of the hotelkeeper's freedom,even though it might be only temporary. But suddenly her face lighted upwith inspiration.

  "I have it!" she cried. "He can be arrested for signing that paperconfining me to the insane asylum, can't he, Dad?"

  Mr. Gay looked startled.

  "What paper?" he demanded.

  Mary Louise explained that, since the commitment had to be signed by tworelatives of the patient, Mr. Frazier had posed as her cousin. That wasenough, Mr. Gay said immediately: all that they needed as evidence wasthe paper itself. They would drive over to the institution that afternoonand secure it.

  Luncheon was indeed a happy meal in the Gay household that day. AlthoughFreckles and Jane did not return, the two boys and Mary Louise kept up aconstant banter of laughter and merriment. Mr. and Mrs. Gay were quieter,but a light of rapture shone in their eyes.

  Just at the conclusion of the meal Mrs. Hunter and Cliff arrived.Prepared to enter a house of misery and fear, they could not believetheir ears as they heard the gayety from within.

  "Mary Lou!" cried Cliff incredulously.

  "Cliff!" exclaimed the girl, jumping up and runni
ng to the screen door."You're free!"

  "And you're home!" returned the young man, seizing both of her hands.

  In spite of his arrest, Clifford Hunter was the same care-free youngperson. In a few minutes he was showing his card tricks to Max andNorman, delighted to find a new audience.

  When the whole story had been retold to the Hunters, with the cautionthat they say nothing of it to Mr. Frazier, Mary Louise and the threeboys walked around the little resort to tell everybody there the gladnews. Then she and her father and Max took the car and drove to the Adamsfarm. Mr. Gay thought it would be wise to take old Mr. Adams with them tovisit the asylum, and Mary Louise thought it would be interesting tobring Rebecca--just to let Miss Stone and the other attendants meet thereal Rebecca Adams!

  With Max at the wheel they had no difficulty in finding the asylum. Whatfun it was, Mary Louise thought, to pass through those iron gatesnow--knowing that she was safe! Yet instinctively she reached for herfather's hand and held it securely as the car proceeded up the longdriveway.

  The same doctor and the same head nurse came out to receive them as uponMary Louise's first visit. Mr. Gay displayed his badge at once andexplained his errand. The woman nodded and hurried into the office forthe paper.

  While she was gone, Rebecca Adams, growing restless, stepped out of thecar, lugging her heavy water pitcher in her arms. At the same moment MissStone, Mary Louise's special nurse, came out of the building.

  "Miss Stone, I want you to meet the real Rebecca Adams," said MaryLouise, with a twinkle in her eye.

  Rebecca turned eagerly to the nurse.

  "Can you show me where there is a well of clear water?" she askedimmediately.

  "Yes," replied Miss Stone gravely. "Back of the building. We have a finewell."

  "Oh!" cried the woman in ecstasy. "At last!" She looked over at herfather, and there were tears of earnestness in her eyes. "Let me stayhere, Father! This is my home, where I want to live!" Her voice grew morewistful. "A well of clear water!" she repeated. "Please take me to it,kind lady!"

  "Perhaps it is for the best," agreed old Mr. Adams. "There's nobody totake good care of Rebecca at home now that her mother's dead and I'mcrippled up with rheumatism. She can stay if she wants to."

  And so, at her own request, Rebecca Adams took up her life at the quietinstitution, and the rest of the party, with the paper which was to beused as evidence against Frazier in their hands, drove back to ShadyNook.

  Mary Louise went into her bedroom and put on her prettiest dress,awaiting the arrival of Jane and Freckles and her friends. What aglorious evening it was going to be for them all!