Part 21 (2/2)
”Of course Billy hadn't any hand in that robbery,” Chet declared. ”But I wish he hadn't run away. Father and Mr. Hargrew say they'd both go his bail. I wish I knew where he was.”
”Didn't you think he was hiding somewhere on Cavern Island?” asked Dora, shrewdly.
”Yes, I did. I found his knife Sat.u.r.day when we were in that cave,”
admitted Chet, frankly. ”Don't you girls tell anybody. But Lance and I were through all the caverns with a man who knows them like a book--that was after the police searched. He couldn't be found.
”Oh, and I say! did you hear about Tony and his monkey?”
”We read that Tony had been fighting and was arrested,” Dorothy said.
”Yep. And it was a near thing he didn't get sent to jail. The judge only fined him. The other man the police drove out of Centerport altogether.
They thought he was the worse of the two. And Tony had paid for his concession at the park, and promised to be good.
”But the joke of it is,” continued Chet, laughing, ”the police don't want Tony to tell all he knows. You see, they shut him into the calaboose at the park and when they went to take him across on the boat to court, Tony wasn't there.”
”He had escaped?” interrupted Dorothy.
”That's what,” said Chet. ”And how do you suppose he'd done it?”
”We couldn't guess,” cried the girls.
”Why, the monkey unlocked the door of the cage and let his master out.
The jailer had left the key in the lock while he went to breakfast, and the monkey did the rest. You know, that was one of the tricks we saw him do,” continued Chet.
”Tony didn't think he had to stay in jail if the door was unlocked, so he walked down to his booth and got his own breakfast. And the police found him there and took him along to court. But they were easy on Tony for fear he would make the park police the laughing stock of the city.
Lance and I happened to be over there early--it was when we searched for Billy in the caves--and we saw Tony rearrested.”
”That Italian must be a bad one,” Dora said. ”How did he get off?”
”Tony said the man he was fighting with cheated him out of his share of some money,” replied Chet. ”And that man is gone, so who is to know the truth?”
The stretch of placid Lake Luna between the boat landing of Central High and the easterly end of Cavern Island was dotted with craft of various kinds and sizes, several afternoons later, when the twins slipped away from Aunt Dora and--with a word to their father in a whisper as to their goal--ran down to the dock and got their canoe into the lake.
Aunt Dora was suffering from what she called a ”grumbly head”--which meant that she had a mild attack of neuralgia.
”But mercy, sirs!” Mrs. Betsey said, in a tone of exasperation rather strange for that dear old lady, ”she has a 'grumbly' tongue all the time. I don't know what I shall do about keeping Mary if she stays much longer, girls.”
”For the good of the family I may have to admit my ident.i.ty and go home with her,” groaned Dora.
”No, you sha'n't!” cried her twin. ”You shall not be sacrificed. If Mary goes, we'll divide the work between us, and hire a laundress once a week to relieve Mrs. Betsey.”
”My! what a bright girl you are, Dory,” laughed Dora. ”You've got it all fixed, haven't you? But what about after-hour athletics? No canoeing, and other fun. We'd have all our time out of school taken up with the housework.”
”I don't care, Dora!” said Dorothy, firmly. ”You could never live with Auntie. Why, she'd nag you to death.”
<script>