Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet Part 8

"But she had no business to leave the house until she had given her testimony," I exclaimed. "I wonder why Madame gave her permission."

"I don't think Milly asked it," Adelaide replied; "and I fancy Milly was not at all anxious to have this interview with the detective and merely caught at Madame Celeste as a way of escape. She is not often in such a twitter of promptness in settling her accounts; besides, now I think of it, all her money was taken. How could she pay Celeste?"

Winnie looked up from the table on which her elbows were resting, her head grasped firmly between her hands as though it ached. She took no part in the conversation until I remarked:

"Well, if Milly thinks to escape Mr. Mudge by running away to Madame Celeste's she is badly taken in, for he is going right over there."

"What?" Winnie almost shrieked. "Does he suspect that she has anything to do with this miserable business?"

"Madame Celeste? No, but he wants to find why Cynthia had her dress charged to Milly's account."

"O Tib, Tib, why did you ever mention that?" Winnie groaned; "you don't know what mischief you have made."

"How did you know it, anyway?" Adelaide asked. "This is the first I have heard of the matter."

"I did not know it," I replied. "Mr. Mudge was looking over the papers he took from Milly's drawer and he came across this bill for Cynthia's dark green cloth dress, charged up against Milly, and I--I just happened to say that was Cynthia's dress----"

"If you could only have just happened to hold your tongue," Winnie exclaimed, springing from her seat and pacing the floor. "Adelaide,"

she added, "won't you go to Mr. Mudge and keep him busy hearing your testimony until Milly has time to get away from Madame Celeste's. That woman is a match for a lawyer even, but if he happens to meet Milly there she will be frightened into anything. I knew there would be trouble when Mr. Mudge took that bill."

"Of course I will go, if you would like to have me do so," Adelaide replied, rising, "but really, Winnie, I can't say that I at all comprehend the situation."

Winnie gave each of us a look of despair. "I didn't intend you should,"

she said, "but since ignorance bungles in this way I will explain. Milly has very weakly been getting things for Cynthia and allowing them to be charged on her bills. I have remonstrated with her and she has promised to do so no more. I told her how wicked it would be to send these accounts in to her father as her own, and she has not done that. She has kept them separate, intending to settle them whenever Cynthia paid up."

"I don't see why Cynthia could not have taken her debts on her own shoulders instead of entangling Milly," Adelaide remarked.

"Simply because Cynthia has no credit. Madame Celeste would not trust her for a penny, while she would let Milly run up any amount. Well, either Cynthia has paid or Milly has obtained the money in some other way. One thing is certain, she has it and she has gone down to pay Madame Celeste; anxious, as you may well imagine, to get her feet out of the quicksand and not by any mischance to have that bill sent home to her father. Now, don't you see that if Mr. Mudge ascertains that Milly has a secret of this kind, that the next thing he will do will be to suspect that Milly stole the money in order to extricate herself from this trouble."

"Impossible," Adelaide exclaimed. "Milly has only to tell where the money came from."

"And I have asked her and she will not tell. It is all right, she a.s.sures me, but she can not or will not tell how."

"Silly goose! I will get it out of her," said Adelaide. "And meantime there is no need whatever that she should be even suspected. She did not do it--and suspicion might as well start out from the first on the right track. I will go at once to Mr. Mudge, and enlighten his benighted mind."

"What is your theory, Adelaide?" I cried, but not before the door had closed behind her.

"Don't stop her," Winnie pleaded. "Time is precious; Mr. Mudge may have tired waiting for Milly and have gone. No matter what her theory is, so long as it takes suspicion from Milly. I had great hopes that Cynthia would succeed in making him think I had done it."

"He did have you in his mind at one time," I said. "He said, 'If neither Miss Winnie nor Miss Cynthia took it, the robbery must have been committed during the fifteen minutes between their visits to the safe!'"

"He said that?" Winnie inquired, with interest.

"Yes, and Winnie, the thing is plain to me--I believe Cynthia took that money." Winnie shook her head.

"Now just listen to my reasoning. Milly has been insisting that Cynthia shall pay up. We know that Cynthia has received no money lately. She stole it and gave it to Milly, and made her promise not to tell who gave it to her. It's as plain as the nose on my face. And then," I continued triumphantly, warming to my conclusion, "she artfully throws the suspicions of the robbery on you, as a revenge for the straightforward talk you gave her. Haven't I ferretted it all out well? Isn't it the most likely way in the world that it could have happened? Are you not perfectly convinced?"

"It is the most likely story," Winnie replied, "and so very feasible does it seem that even I am almost convinced, although I know positively that it did not happen that way, even Cynthia must not be unjustly suspected."

"How do you know it?"

"Because Cynthia told the truth when she said that the money was stolen when she looked into the safe. It was gone when I looked in."

"Winifred! But you told Mr. Mudge that it was there."

"I told Mr. Mudge that I found _my_ money just as I left it. It was not touched at all, you know; but yours, Milly's, and a part of Adelaide's, all that was stolen, was already taken."

"But Mr. Mudge did not understand you so."

"That is his own fault."

"Did you want him to misunderstand the situation?"

"Apparently, Tib; but don't ask so many questions. Let him proceed on the a.s.sumption that the robbery was committed in that fifteen minutes.

If any innocent person is apparently implicated, I will confess.

Meantime, you are shocked to find that I am delaying the course of justice in order to keep suspicion from myself."

"A thousand times no; you could never act a lie unless it was to shield some one else. Was it to shield Milly, and how?"

"Tib, it breaks my heart--I can't tell you--I love her so--I love her--"

A great fear came over me; Milly had taken the money and Winnie knew it.

But Milly had lost all her money, and yet that was a very transparent subterfuge. What more natural than that the thief would pretend to be an innocent sufferer and steal from herself? And Milly knew before she looked that there was nothing in her purse. I asked relentlessly, "Was Milly at the safe during the night at some time earlier than you and Cynthia?"

"Milly will not admit that she was," Winnie replied, her manner hardening as she realized that she had not quite disclosed her secret, and her determination to guard it returning with redoubled force.

"Then why do you suspect it?"

"I do not suspect it."

The fixed despair in her eyes added the words, "I know it," as plainly as if she had spoken them.

"Did you see Milly take the money?" I insisted. "Was that what wakened you? And is that the reason why you wish it to appear that the safe was intact at the time you examined it?"

Winnie covered her face with her hands and did not reply. I felt that I had divined the truth. A solemn silence fell upon us both for a few minutes, then Winnie straightened herself with the old resolute look in her face.

"Tib," she said, "I have told you nothing. You know nothing from your own personal observation. Whatever you may _think_ is purely guess-work, and you have no right to imagine evil against Milly. She is the sweetest and dearest girl in our set. She is innocent and unsuspicious, and so kind-hearted that she is easily led. She has gone wrong in some things, terribly wrong; but she is the youngest of us all and it is Cynthia's fault, and I believe she is trying desperately to get straight again. As for this terrible thing, you must not suspect her of it. It is your duty, on the contrary, to try to turn the attention of Mr. Mudge in some other direction."

As she spoke, Cynthia opened the door and Winnie relapsed into silence.

I felt a strange, dizzy sensation, as if the foundations were being removed. The more I tried to puzzle out the affair the more bewildered I became. There was Cynthia, who believed that Winnie was the culprit, or at all events was striving to make Mr. Mudge believe so; and when I weighed the evidence the case was strongly against her. Here again was Winnie, who seemed to believe that it was Milly, and I knew that the evidence which could shake her faith in Milly must be overwhelming. I had made it seem entirely clear to myself that Cynthia had done it, and in a blind, unreasoning way, although Winnie's testimony had showed that this could not possibly be, the suspicion, once started, grew and strengthened. I watched her as she sat working out algebra problems with a disagreeable smile on her face--and I said to myself over and over again, "You did it, and the truth will come out at last."

CHAPTER VI.

HALLOWEEN TRICKS AND WHAT CAME OF THEM.