The Secret of the Sundial Part 9

Cara looked aghast at the news.

"And did they send him to prison?"

"No, Miss Swenster offered to pay the amount of the forged check, and the person whose name had been used, agreed not to prosecute. Her son left town and soon after that Miss Swenster closed up the old mansion."

"I suppose it broke her heart to have him turn out so badly," Cara mused.

"And when she was having financial troubles of her own it must have been hard for her to raise the money."

"Yes, it was unfortunate all around," Madge agreed, getting up from the steps. "I must dash home now or I'll be late for supper. See you tomorrow."

The girls did not go to the Swenster mansion the following day or the next. Their evenings were spent cramming for month-end examinations which always were a trial, even to Madge who stood high in her cla.s.ses.

Then one day, the girls noticed a brief advertis.e.m.e.nt in the daily paper, announcing that on the tenth of October, the Swenster mansion and all its furniture would be sold at public auction. It reminded them that if they intended to make another search for the missing pearls, they must be about it.

Sat.u.r.day morning found them on their way to the mansion. It was a crisp, fall day, the first really cold one of the season. Madge's eyes were very bright and she was so gay that she fairly skipped along the street.

"What ails you?" Cara demanded. Then as she noticed a white envelope protruding from her friend's sweater pocket: "Ha! I'll bet a cent it's from that ranger of yours up at Loon Lake! He writes you twice a week, doesn't he?"

"He does not!" Madge denied, blushing furiously. "Jack has more important things to do than write letters."

"Oh, you needn't pretend, Madge Sterling. You know you like him. That's why you'll not even look at any of the boys here in Claymore."

"Certainly I like Jack. Why shouldn't I? He's a good friend and-"

She looked somewhat nettled as Cara burst forth in a gale of exaggerated laughter.

"All right, laugh! But unless I'm most horribly mistaken I saw you in Rexall's Drug Store last night lapping up a soda and listening moon-eyed while Fred King gave a running report of last week's football game.

You-who can't be dragged near the stadium!"

"I only try to be a polite listener," Cara said cheerfully. "Let's call it quits."

They smiled, and linking arms, hurried on to the mansion. Miss Swenster was delighted to see them again for she had begun to fear that she had offended them during their last visit.

"I'm so glad you came," she greeted them. "After today, everything will be turned topsy-turvy since the furniture must be arranged for the sale."

Miss Swenster spoke cheerfully of the approaching auction, but the girls realized that she was hiding her real feelings. In little ways, more by look and gesture than by words, she had disclosed that she disliked to see her old home sold.

There really was no immediate work to be done save dusting, which Miss Swenster declared unnecessary. However, the girls armed themselves with dust cloths and roamed about over the house.

"We'll do more looking than dusting," Madge a.s.sured Miss Swenster. "This may be our last chance to search for the pearls. Wouldn't it be grand if we found them?"

"It would be marvelous! But I really have no faith that you'll locate them. As I said before, I fear you're searching for something that never existed."

"There's one place we haven't looked," Madge said, "and that's the attic.

May we go up there?"

"Of course. I was cleaning out some of the rubbish today, but the old furniture is still there. The pieces are really worthless and I doubt if I'll even put them up at the sale."

The girls were moving up the stairway, when Miss Swenster called them back.

"Oh, one thing more. Your prowler has returned. Last night I heard a noise in the garden. I went to the window just in time to see a man hurrying out the back gate."

"Weren't you afraid?" Cara asked.

Miss Swenster shook her head. "No, only curious. I can't imagine what he can be after. If I see him again, I shall call the police."

After asking a few questions, the girls went on upstairs to the attic. It was a large, roomy affair with only one small window high above their heads.

"Ug!" Cara emitted as she brushed against a cobweb. "I don't care for this place."

She became more enthusiastic as she noted an interesting array of boxes, old chests, and discarded furniture. It was fun to dig into things. Madge discovered a Paisley shawl which she insisted was a treasure and Cara found a beautiful woven coverlet stored away with old clothing. But there was not so much as a clue to the whereabouts of the Swenster pearls.

At last, grimy and tired, the girls returned to the living room, bearing their plunder.

"I had even forgotten I owned such things," Miss Swenster declared when they showed her the shawl and the coverlet. "My grandmother wove that spread herself. And the shawl was brought over to this country so many years back that I've forgotten the exact date. Dear me, how I shall hate to dispose of them."

"Must you?" Madge asked.

"I can't very well keep them. I have saved out so many treasures now that I'll not have places to store them. I know! You girls must accept them as gifts! I'll give Madge the shawl and Cara the coverlet."

Miss Swenster refused to listen to their protests. In the end they thanked her profusely for the generous gifts, promising they would take good care of them. Both were proud to own such treasures. They were eager to return home to display their prizes, but first they insisted upon doing the dusting which they had started hours before.

Miss Swenster again a.s.sured them it was unnecessary. Nevertheless, they went about it in business-like fashion, working vigorously. Soon only the study remained.

"Shall we dust in there?" Madge inquired, not wishing to repeat the mistake previously made.

"Why, yes, if you like," Miss Swenster returned with only the slightest hesitation.

Entering the study, the girls looked with one accord toward the place where John Swenster's picture had hung. A bright square of wallpaper marked the former spot. Miss Swenster had not replaced the picture.

"I wonder what she did with it?" Cara whispered.

Madge shook her head, raising a finger to her lips in mute warning that Miss Swenster could easily hear from the next room.

They silently went about the dusting, bent upon getting it done as quickly as possible. Cara directed her attention to the bookcases while Madge made an attack upon the paneled mahogany desk. She dusted the top and polished off the curved legs. Then her cloth swept across one of the panels.

Madge heard a sharp click. To her amazement, the panel dropped down, revealing a small opening!

CHAPTER X The Secret Compartment

"Well, blow me down!" Madge exclaimed, relapsing into comic-strip slang as she always did when greatly excited. "A spring panel!"

Cara had rushed to her side and was staring wide-eyed at the secret compartment revealed in the desk.

"There's something inside!" she cried. "Oh, I hope it's the pearls!"