The Corner House Girls Part 35

"Mrs. Bean," pursued Mr. Howbridge, "declares that she knew Mr.

Treble's mother very well, as a girl. She says that the said mother of John Augustus Treble went west when she was a young woman-before she married. She left behind a brother-Peter Stower. Mrs. Bean has always lived just outside of Milton and has not, I believe, lived a very active life, or been much in touch with the town's affairs. To her mind, Milton is still a village.

"She claims," said Mr. Howbridge, "to have heard frequently of this Peter Stower, and when she heard he had died, she wrote to the daughter-in-law of her former friend. That is her entire connection with the matter. She said one very odd thing. That is, she clearly remembers of having hired Peter Stower once to clean up her yard and make her garden. She says he was in the habit of doing such work at one time, and she talked with him about this sister who had gone west."

"Oh!" gasped Ruth.

"It does not seem reasonable," said Mr. Howbridge. "There is a mixup of ident.i.ties somewhere. I am pretty sure that, as much as Mr. Peter Stower loved money, he did not have to earn any of it in such a humble way. It's a puzzle. But the solving of the problem would be very easy, if we could find that lost will."

Ruth told him how she and Agnes had thoroughly examined the garret and the contents of the boxes and furniture stowed away there.

"Well," sighed the lawyer. "We may have to go into chancery to have the matter settled. That would be a costly procedure, and I dislike to take that way."

Directly after luncheon Tess and Dot started off for Meadow Street with the convalescent Alice-doll pushed before them in Dot's doll-carriage. Mrs. Treble, who had begun to eat down stairs again, although Lillie was not allowed out of her room as yet, marched straight up stairs, and, after seeing that Lillie was in order, tiptoed along the hall, and proceeded up the other two flights to the garret door.

When she opened this door and peered into the dimly lit garret, she could not repress a shudder.

"It is a spooky place," she muttered.

But her curiosity had been aroused, and if Mrs. Treble had one phrenological b.u.mp well developed, it was that of curiosity! In she stepped, closed the door behind her, and advanced toward the middle of the huge, littered room.

A lost will! Undoubtedly hidden somewhere in these old chests of drawers-or in that tall old desk yonder. Either the Kenway girls have been very stupid, or Ruth has not told that lawyer the truth! These were Mrs. Treble's unspoken thoughts.

What was that noise? A rat? Mrs. Treble half turned to flee. She was afraid of rats.

There was another scramble. One of the rows of old coats and the like, hanging from nails in the rafters overhead, moved more than a little.

A rat could not have done that.

The ghost? Mrs. Treble was not at all afraid of such silly things as ghosts!

"I see you there!" she cried, and strode straight for the corner.

There was another scramble, one of the Revolutionary uniform coats was pulled off the hook on which it had hung, and seemed, of its own volition, to pitch toward her.

Mrs. Treble screamed, but she advanced. The coat seemed to m.u.f.fle a small figure which tried to dodge her.

"I have you!" cried Mrs. Treble, and clutched at the coat.

She secured the coat itself, but a small, ragged, red haired, and much frightened boy slid out of its smothering folds and plunged toward the door of the garret. In trying to seize this astonishing apparition, Mrs. Treble missed her footing and came down upon her knees.

The boy, with a stifled shout, reached the door. He wrenched it open and dove down the stairway. His bare feet made little sound upon the bare steps, or upon the carpeted halls below. He seemed to know his way about the house very well indeed.

When Mrs. Treble reached the stairs and came down, heavily, shrieking the alarm, n.o.body in the house saw the mysterious red haired boy. But Uncle Rufus, called from his work in the garden, was amazed to see a small figure squeezing through a cellar window into the side-yard. In a minute the said figure flew across to the street fence, scrambled over it, and disappeared up Willow Street, running almost as fast as a dog.

"Glo-ree!" declared the black man, breathlessly. "If dat boy keeps on runnin' like he's done started, he'll go clean 'round de worl' an' be back fo' supper!"

CHAPTER XXIII

NOT ENTIRELY EXPLAINED

Joe Maroni smiled at Tess and Dot broadly, and the little gold rings in his ears twinkled, when the girls approached his fruit stand.

"De litla ladies mak' Joe ver' hap'-come to see-a he's Maria. Maria, she got da craz' in da head to wait for to see you."

"Oh, I hope not, Mr. Maroni," said Tess, in her most grown-up way. "I guess Maria isn't crazy, only glad."

"Glad a-si, si! Here she come."

Maria, who always was clean and neat of dress now, appeared from the cellar. She was helping her mother draw out the new baby carriage that Joe had bought-a grand piece of furniture, with glistening wheels, varnished body, and a basket top that tipped any way, so as to keep the sun out of the baby's eyes.

The baby was fat again and very well. He crowed, and put his arms out to Tess and Dot, and the latter was so delighted with him that she almost neglected the Alice-doll in _her_ carriage.

The little Maronis thought that big doll and its carriage were, indeed, very wonderful possessions. Two of the smaller Maronis were going walking with the visitors, and Maria and the baby.

Joe filled the front of the baby carriage with fruit, so that the children would not be hungry while away from the house. Off the procession started, for they had agreed to go several blocks to the narrow little park that skirted the ca.n.a.l.

It was a shady park, and the Kenway girls and the clean, pretty Maroni children had a very nice time. Maria was very kind and patient with her sisters and with the baby, and nothing happened to mar the afternoon's enjoyment until just as the children were about to wheel the baby-and the doll-back to Meadow Street.

What happened was really no fault of any of this little party in whom we are interested. They had set off along the ca.n.a.l path, when there suddenly darted out of some bushes a breathless, hatless boy, whose tangled hair was fiery red!

Tess shrieked aloud. "Why! Tommy Rooney! Whatever are you doing here?"

The boy whirled and stared at Tess and Dot, with frightened countenance. Their appearance in this place evidently amazed him. He stumbled backward, and appeared to intend running away; but his foot tripped and he went down the ca.n.a.l bank head-first!

Splash he went into the murky water, and disappeared. The girls all screamed then; there were no grown folk near-no men at all in sight.

When Tommy Rooney came to the surface he was choking and coughing, and paddled for only a moment, feebly, before going under again. It was plain that he could not swim.

"Oh, oh!" cried Dot. "He'll be drowned. Tommy Rooney will be drowned!

And what will his mother say to _that_?"

Tess wrung her hands and screamed for help. But there _was_ no help.

That is, there would have been none for poor Tommy, if it had not been for quick-witted Maria Maroni. Quickly she s.n.a.t.c.hed the baby from the carriage and put him into Tess' arms. Then she flung out the pillows and wrappings, and ran the carriage to the brow of the ca.n.a.l-bank.

Up came Tommy again, his eyes open, gurgling a cry, and fighting to keep above the surface.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Up came Tommy again, his eyes open, gurgling a cry, and fighting to keep above the surface.]

"Look out, boy!" cried Maria, and she ran the baby carriage right down the bank, letting it go free.

The carriage wheeled into the water and floated, as Maria knew it would. It was within the reach of Tommy's still st.u.r.dy hands. He grabbed it, and although it dipped some, it bore up his weight so that he did not sink again.

By that time men had heard their cries, and came running from the lock. They soon fished out Master Tommy and the baby carriage, too.

"You're a smart little kid," said one of the men, to Maria, and he gave her a silver dollar. Meanwhile the other man turned Tommy across his knee to empty the water out of his lungs. Tommy thought he was going to get a spanking, and he began to struggle and plead with the man.