The Mystery of the Fires Page 3

  CHAPTER III _The Ditmars_

  "Freckles!" exclaimed Mary Louise as she entered the kitchenette of thebungalow the following morning. "Where are you going?"

  The boy grinned mysteriously.

  "Can't tell you that, Sis," he replied. "It's a secret."

  "But I wanted to talk to you. And it's only a little after eighto'clock."

  "I know, but I'm a busy guy. Important affairs!"

  "With whom?"

  Freckles hesitated; then he decided to tell part of his secret.

  "The fellows up here have a secret band. It's called the 'Wild Guys ofthe Road.' I was initiated last night."

  Mary Louise burst out laughing. She couldn't help it. "The 'Wild Guys ofthe Road'!" she repeated. "Regular hold-up men?"

  "Well, not exactly," replied her brother. "But we've got some excitingadventures on."

  "Who is the leader?"

  "Robby Smith. He's got some swell ideas."

  Mary Louise's eyes narrowed.

  "Does burning people's houses come into his plan?"

  "Gosh, no! We're not really bad, Sis. We wouldn't do anything like that."

  "Do you make fires at all?"

  "Sure we make fires. We've got to cook our camp meals, haven't we? Andhave our ceremonies."

  "I see." She was thinking. "And sometimes those fires spread farther thanyou want them to?"

  "No, course not! Now, don't you go blaming us guys for Hunters' bungalowburning down!"

  "I'm not blaming _you_, Freckles--you weren't even here. But I'm not sosure about those Smith boys. They are pretty wild, once they get started.Remember the time they locked that little boy in the boathouse and almostleft him there all night?"

  "Gee whiz, Sis! They wouldn't have left him there. They just wanted toscare him."

  "I'm not so sure. They're spoiled kids. I wish you wouldn't play withthem."

  "Now, Sis, don't be silly! Everybody's in the gang together. I've got toplay with the Smith boys or else stay home by myself."

  With a yell of good-bye for his mother, the boy was off.

  Mary Louise and Jane sat down to their breakfast. Mrs. Gay, who had eatenhers with Freckles, came in to talk to them.

  "What have you on the program for today?" she inquired.

  "Oh, the usual things," answered her daughter. "Tennis with the bunchthis morning, and I suppose everybody will go in swimming about eleveno'clock. David is coming over to talk about fixing up our canoe for thecontest tomorrow night."

  Jane coughed nervously.

  "I--uh--sort of promised Cliff I'd go in his motorboat, Mary Lou," shesaid. "Would that be all right?"

  "Sure it's all right," agreed her chum. "It'll be even better, becausethe less weight we have in our canoe, the more decoration we can put on.And there's a prize for each type of boat, you know."

  "Then I shan't be competing against you if I go in Cliff's launch?"

  "Oh no, we are in separate classes."

  After the girls had finished washing the dishes for Mrs. Gay, theystarted off for a little walk, with Silky at their heels.

  "Why not stop for the Reed girls?" suggested Jane, mentioning the twinswho lived in the cottage on the far side of the Gays. "I'm crazy to meetthem."

  "You'll meet them when we go swimming later on," replied Mary Louise."But just now I want to go in the other direction. To call on theDitmars."

  "The Ditmars?" For the moment Jane had forgotten who these people were,for she had heard so many new names the night before.

  "Yes. Don't you remember? The young architect that Cliff told us about.The man Mrs. Hunter thinks set her bungalow on fire."

  "Oh, yes, of course! In other words--a suspect."

  "That's right," agreed Mary Louise.

  "But how can we call on him if we don't know him?" asked Jane.

  "We'll find a way!"

  "Oh, sure we will!" teased Jane. "Trust the girl detective for that!"

  "Sh! Please don't call me that in front of anybody, Jane. If people thinkI am snooping, they'll shut up like clams and won't tell me anything."

  Although there were only eight cottages at Shady Nook, the distance fromthe Reeds' on one end to the Ditmars' on the other was over a mile.Cliff's father, Mr. Hunter, who had planned the little resort, knew thateven in a small friendly community like this, people still liked privacy,so he had left a small strip of woods between every two cottages.

  The girls walked along slowly, Mary Louise pointing out the bungalows asthey passed by.

  "That's where the Hunters' was, of course," she said to her chum. "Andnow we're coming to the Partridges'. Next is Flicks' Inn."

  "Yes, I remember this much from last night," nodded Jane. "But that's asfar as we got. Are there many cottages on the other side of Flicks'?"

  "Only the Smiths' and the two new ones. The Smiths don't actually live onthe river road, and you can't call their place a cottage. It's really thegrandest house around here. Much bigger than the Hunters' was. They havethree children and a lot of servants. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are usually offtraveling somewhere, and even when they're here, they don't eat atFlicks'."

  "So we can't count on them for any fun?"

  "No. Freckles plays with the boys, but except for that, we never seethem."

  A little farther on, the girls came to the two new bungalows, set rightin the heart of the woods. They were both perfectly charming; it wasevident that young Mr. Ditmar was an architect with both taste and ideas.

  "Don't you love it?" whispered Jane, as the two girls approached theDitmars' rose-trellised bungalow. "It looks like 'Honeymoon Cottage' in ajig-saw puzzle!"

  "I understand the Ditmars are practically a bride and groom," returnedMary Louise.... "Oh, there she is, in the garden! Pretty, isn't she?"

  An attractive young woman in a pink dress looked up as the girls camenearer. She smiled pleasantly.

  "Good-morning," said Mary Louise. "You are Mrs. Ditmar, aren't you?Everybody knows everybody else here at Shady Nook, so we'll introduceourselves. This is my chum, Jane Patterson, and I'm Mary Louise Gay."

  The young woman nodded cordially.

  "I'm awfully glad to meet you both," she said. "This is a friendlyplace--I like it a lot. If only my husband did----"

  "Doesn't Mr. Ditmar like Shady Nook?" asked Mary Louise in surprise.

  "No, he doesn't. But I guess it's just because he hasn't enough to do.You know how men are when they haven't any work: full of gloom."

  "Well, things will be better this fall," remarked Jane optimistically.

  "I don't know," replied Mrs. Ditmar. "At least--for architects. Theirwork comes slowly. It was fine all spring, while Horace had this bungalowto build, and the Robinsons' next door. But now he can't get a thing."

  "Maybe the Hunters will rebuild," suggested Jane openly.

  Mrs. Ditmar shook her head.

  "We did hope so. We went over to see them at the Royal Hotel soon aftertheir house burned down, but Mrs. Hunter wasn't very nice to us. Shealmost acted as if it were our fault!"

  Jane suppressed a giggle and muttered under her breath, "The plotthickens."

  "Oh, I guess she was just all upset," remarked Mary Louise nervously."She'll get over that." She smiled. "Anyway, you don't have to be gloomy,Mrs. Ditmar. Can't you get your tennis things on and play with us thismorning?"

  "Thanks awfully, but I don't think I had better leave Horace here alone."

  "Bring him along!"

  "He wouldn't come. No, I better not. But perhaps I'll see you in swimminglater on in the morning. It's awfully nice of you girls to be sofriendly."

  "We'll look for you in the water, then.... And, by the way, you'll cometo the party on the island tomorrow night, won't you?"

  Again the young woman refused.

  "No, we really can't afford that. It's two dollars for the supper, youknow, and besides that; we'd have to hire one of Mr. Frazier's canoes."

  "Couldn't you borrow one?" suggested Jane
.

  "No--I'm sorry--Horace refused to go."

  Mary Louise sighed, as if to say how thankful she was that she wasn'tmarried to a grouch like that. So the girls said good-bye and walkedslowly back to their cottage.

  "She can't be over twenty, if she's that," surmised Mary Louise. "Icertainly feel sorry for her."

  "So do I," agreed Jane. "Do you really think her husband is guilty, MaryLou?"

  "I don't know. He sounds queer." She lowered her voice: there did notappear to be anybody around, but you never could tell, with all thosethick trees to conceal possible eavesdroppers. "And if he believes it'shis right to have work, he may try burning other cottages. That's whatworries me."

  "Well, he surely wouldn't pick on yours, Mary Lou," was Jane's comfortingassurance. "He'd select somebody's who was rich--like the Smiths', orsome place that was absolutely necessary, like the Flicks'."

  The girls were passing the inn at this moment, and as they looked up theysaw David McCall in his tennis clothes coming out of the door.

  "I was over at the bungalow looking for you girls," he said. "The Reedgirls are on the court, but they wouldn't let me play until I found apartner. So please hurry up!"

  "O.K.," agreed Mary Louise. "Walk back with us, Dave. I want you to tellme why you think Cliff Hunter set his own bungalow on fire--at such aninconvenient time. When they had company, I mean."

  David smiled knowingly.

  "That's his alibi, of course. What did he care about those four fellows?It didn't hurt them. You see, Mary Lou, I'm an insurance agent, and I'mup to all these tricks. The Hunters' place was insured for ten thousanddollars, and if it had been offered for sale, Cliff couldn't have gottenmore than a couple thousand at a time like this."

  "But the Hunters are rich," objected Mary Louise. "They don't need themoney."

  "Everybody needs money. And I happen to know that Cliff wants to goaround the world this fall."

  "He wouldn't give up college?"

  "No. There's a college course in the bargain. They study and travel atthe same time. It costs a small fortune."

  "I don't believe he set that bungalow on fire," announced Jane. "He's toohonest. He just couldn't do a thing like that!"

  "Besides," added Mary Louise, "we have another suspect." And she toldDavid what she had just learned about Horace Ditmar.

  "I'm just as sure that Ditmar didn't do it as you are that Cliff Hunterdidn't," replied David when she had finished.

  "Probably nobody set it on fire," concluded Jane. "Just an accident.Let's forget it. Come on in, Mary Lou, and we'll put on our sneaks. We'llbe ready in a minute, Dave."

  True to their promise, the girls returned a moment later, with Silky attheir heels, and all three young people made their way to the tenniscourt. There was only one court at Shady Nook--which the boys themselveshad made--but there was another across the river on the hotel grounds.However, nobody ever seemed to mind waiting or taking turns, so the crowdusually stayed together.

  Jane was introduced to the Reed twins, who looked and dressed so exactlyalike that she had not the faintest idea which was Mabel and which wasSue after a couple of minutes had elapsed. Then there were three otheryoung people who were staying at the inn for a short time, besides DavidMcCall and themselves. To her dismay, Cliff Hunter did not come acrossthe river to join the party.

  The whole crowd went in swimming about eleven o'clock, and here theirelders joined them, with some of the younger children. Not Freckles,however, or the Reed boys or the Smiths: they had gone off hiking for theday. Again Jane did not see Cliff Hunter, and she was giving all herattention to a young man named Stuart Robinson, who lived in the newbungalow next to the Ditmars', when she heard her name shouted from theshore.

  "Jane! Oh, Jane!"

  Raising her head from her swimming position and treading water, shepeered towards the shore. It was Cliff Hunter--but not attired in abathing suit.

  "Come on out!" he called.

  Jane swung into the crawl, and reached the young man in a couple ofminutes. He was grinning broadly.

  "Take a card," he said.

  Jane burst out laughing. "How can I?" she asked. "I'm soaked."

  "Oh, that's all right. I've got plenty of packs. This is a swell trick.I've been studying it all morning."

  Jane dropped down on the grass and listened to his trick. The young manwas enchanted. She stayed with him until Mary Louise literally draggedher back into the water.

  "How anybody could believe Cliff Hunter guilty of a despicable crime,"she said later to her chum, "is beyond me. He's as innocent as a child."

  "I hope so," returned Mary Louise. "Time will tell."