Part 28 (1/2)

Granny caught his arm. ”No, you can't go, Johnny Gilfooly! You got to stay here with me! I've got to have something left!” And then she changed her mind and went thudding down the corridor, Johnny's hot little hand clasped tight. She was in the car before Mr. Bill, Johnny close beside her.

”You can't go, Granny!” frowned Joe.

”I shall go!” Granny's voice was quite as determined as Joe's. They seemed to be made from the same piece of adamant. ”I guess Tessie is my own granddaughter! I have a right to go. And Johnny's Tessie own brother! I guess he has a right to go, too. Tessie'll want to see us!”

Joe did not waste any time debating the question, but jumped in beside Mr. Bill. Norah Lee had run to them, and was sitting beside Granny, holding Granny's hand. Charlie Deakin squeezed in between Mr. Bill and Joe and told Mr. Bill where to go. Mr. Bill forgot there were any speed laws or any traffic laws in Waloo as he sent his car forward. Granny gasped for breath. She declared they were in Northeast Waloo before they left the hotel.

”Stop at the corner, Bill,” suggested Joe, as they drew near the red brick house, before which a curious policeman was sauntering, and Neddie Black was still playing ball. ”We don't want them to know we're coming.”

”I was going to!” muttered Mr. Bill indignantly. Joe should credit him with a little sense.

”You'll stay here, Granny!” hissed Joe, as he jumped from the car. ”And Johnny, you mind your grandmother and don't make any more trouble for us. Come on, Bill!”

”I'll go with you,” offered Charlie Deakin, his teeth chattering in his excitement.

”I--” began Johnny, but Joe turned to him fiercely.

”You shut up!” he said so sharply that Johnny did not dare to say another word.

”There's a policeman!” Granny told them in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, and her gnarled finger pointed tremblingly to the officer. ”I suppose you'll let him go with you,” she added with much scorn. She was s.h.i.+vering with excitement and fear.

Accompanied by the officer, Joe and Mr. Bill went up the steps. Mr. Bill rang the bell, and when no one answered it, Joe tried to open the door.

Mr. Bill kept his finger on the bell. Granny s.h.i.+vered at its shrill peal. But there was no response to it. Joe and Mr. Bill and the officer tried to break in the door, but its fibers and hinges were stronger than their muscles. Mr. Bill tried a window, and when he could not open it he shattered the gla.s.s with one blow of his hand. Granny and Norah and Johnny heard the clatter. They caught each other's hands. And still there was not a sound in the house.

”She can't be here!” Joe said hopelessly. ”There isn't any one here!”

”We must make sure!” exclaimed Mr. Bill between his teeth, and he climbed through the window.

In a moment he had the door open, and Joe and the officer were clattering in. It was not worth while now to be quiet. The officer's flashlight showed them only empty rooms. Joe lighted matches and threw them aside as they flared out. He led the way through the lower floor.

”Some one has been here!” He pointed to a heap of cigar ashes beside a big chair.

”And here for some time if he smoked cigars enough to make that much ash,” added the officer wisely.

”Come upstairs,” begged Mr. Bill. ”Never mind the ashes now!”

At last they reached the room in which Tessie had been locked. They were able to break in the door and the flashlight, the flaring matches showed them the bed, the old wardrobe and the bureau, which had been pulled from the wall. Mr. Bill ran to look behind it.

”Great Scott!” he exclaimed when he saw the open window. ”Great Scott!”

he cried again when he saw a piece of blue crepe caught on a nail in the sill. It was from a woman's frock, and Mr. Bill stared at it. Tessie had been wearing a blue crepe when she disappeared. ”She's been here!” he shouted to Joe, although he had no way of proving that the bit of blue crepe had ever been a part of Tessie's frock.

”And she got away!” Joe read the story of the open window, as he looked out and saw the roof of the porch below it. ”She got out this way!” He dropped from the window, as Tessie had dropped, struck the porch roof, and slid down the post to look carefully over the yard. ”Tess!” he called softly. ”Tess! It's Joe Cary! She isn't here,” he looked back to tell Mr. Bill. ”But she must have got away all right!” He went around to join the others at the front door.

Another man joined them also, the irate owner of the red brick house, who wanted to know what the d.i.c.kens they were doing breaking into his place and making such a commotion?

”Who lived here?” demanded Mr. Bill before he answered one of the questions.

”I rented it day before yesterday to a man by the name of Smith,”

returned the owner, who never would have answered Mr. Bill if he had not been accompanied by a policeman. ”A fat, white-headed fellow who wanted a quiet place for his sister. She had been at a sanitarium,” and the owner touched his head significantly. He was the most surprised landlord in Waloo when he was told that the Queen of the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands must have been a prisoner in his house, and he exclaimed quickly that he knew nothing about any Frederic Pracht. He had rented the house to a man who had said his name was Smith--John Smith. He had taken it for an indefinite period and paid a month's rent. The house was furnished, so the new tenant had only to bring his personal baggage.

John Smith had seemed like a pleasant, honest man, and had talked in a nice way about his sister.

”And all the time he must have meant the Queen,” he said, as if he could not believe the story Joe and Mr. Bill told him. ”Sure, I read about her in the papers! She used to work in the Evergreen. My niece, Susie Blakeley, works there, too. She was all excited when they found a queen in the store. I wonder what she will say to this!” He took the money Mr.