CHAPTER XV
An Alibi
The wooden shack where the Jones family lived was picturesque in its setting among the cedar trees behind Miss Grant’s home. In summer time Mary Louise could understand living very comfortably in such a place. But, isolated as it was, and probably poorly heated, it must be terribly cold in winter.
She ran down the hill gayly, humming a tune to herself and smiling, for she did not want the colored family to think that her visit was anything but a friendly one. As she came to a clearing among the cedar trees she saw two nicely dressed children playing outside the shack and singing at the top of their lungs. They beamed at Mary Louise genially and went on with their song.
“Do you children know Miss Elsie Grant?” she shouted.
They both nodded immediately.
“Sure we know her! You a friend o’ hers?”
“Yes,” answered Mary Louise. “I’ve been visiting her, up at her aunt’s place. But she didn’t come home for dinner, so I thought maybe she was here.”
“No, ma’am, she ain’t,” replied the older child. “You-all want to see Ma?”
“Yes, I should like to. If she isn’t busy.”
“Ma!” yelled both children at once, and a pleasant-faced colored woman appeared at the door of the shack. “Here’s a frien’ of Miz Elsie’s!”
The woman smiled. “Come in, Honey,” she invited.
“I just wanted to ask you whether you had seen Miss Elsie this morning,” said Mary Louise.
Mrs. Jones opened the bright-blue screen door and motioned her caller into her house. There were only two rooms in the shack, but Mary Louise could see immediately how beautifully neat they were, although the color combinations made her want to laugh out loud. A purple door curtain separated the one room from the other, and some of the chairs were red plush, some brown leather, and one a bright green. But there was mosquito netting tacked up at the windows, and the linoleum-covered floor was spotless.
“Set down, Honey,” urged the woman, and Mary Louise selected a red-plush chair. She repeated her question about Elsie.
“Yes and no,” replied Mrs. Jones indefinitely.
“What do you mean by ‘yes and no,’ Mrs. Jones?” inquired Mary Louise.
“I saw her but didn’t have no talk wid her,” explained the other. “She was all dressed up in a fine dress and had a bundle unde’ her arm. I reckoned she was comin’ down to visit us, but she done go off through de woods. Why you ask, Honey? She ain’t lost, am she?”
“She didn’t come back for dinner,” answered Mary Louise. “So Hannah and I were worried.”
Mrs. Jones rolled her eyes.
“Runned away, I reckon. Miz Grant didn’t treat her good.”
“But Miss Grant isn’t there – she’s in the hospital.”
“You don’t say!”
“Yes, and I wanted to take Elsie home with me while she was away. So you wouldn’t think she’d want to run away now.”
“No, you wouldn’t. Not when she’s got a nice friend like you, Honey. Mebbe she was kidnaped.”
“Nobody would want to kidnap Elsie Grant. She’s too poor – and her aunt would never pay ransom money.”
Mrs. Jones chuckled.
“You right ’bout dat, Honey, fo’ sure. Miz Grant’s de stingiest white woman eve’ lived. Wouldn’t give away a bone to a dog if she could help he’self. Served her right ’bout dem chickens!”
Mary Louise turned sharply. “Chickens?” she repeated, trying to keep her voice calm.
“Yes. Her chickens is bein’ stolen all de time. Half a dozen to oncet – and me and Abraham won’t lift a finger to put a stop to it!”
“You know who has been taking them?” asked Mary Louise incredulously.
“We knows fo’ sure, Honey. But we ain’t tellin’ no tales to Miz Grant.”
“Suppose she accuses your husband?” suggested Mary Louise.
“Dat’s sumpin’ diff’rent. Den we’d tell. But it’d be safe enough by dat time. De gypsies has wandered off by now.”
“Gypsies!” exclaimed Mary Louise. “Did they steal the chickens?”
“Dey sure did. We could see ’em, sneakin’ up at night, by de light of de moon. If Miz Grant eve’ catched ’em, it’d sure go right bad wid ’em. She hates ’em like pison.”
“But you think the gypsies have gone away, Mrs. Jones?” questioned Mary Louise.
“I reckon so, or dey’d be stealin’ mo’ chickens. But we ain’t seen nor heard ’em fo’ several nights. Guess dey done cleaned out of de neighborhood.”
Mary Louise cleared her throat. She wanted to ask this woman what she knew about the robbery at Dark Cedars, but she did not like to seem abrupt or suspicious. So she tried to speak casually.
“Since you know about the chickens being stolen, Mrs. Jones, did you happen to hear anything unusual last night at Dark Cedars?”
“Lem’me see… Las’ night was Sattiday, wasn’t it? Abraham done gone to lodge meetin’ and got home bout ten o’clock, he said. No, I was in bed asleep, and we neve’ wakened up at all… Why? Did anything happen up there? Mo’ chickens took?”
“Not chickens – but something a great deal more valuable. A piece of jewelry belonging to Miss Grant.”
“You don’t say! Was dere real stones in it – genu-ine?”
“Yes.”
The colored woman shook her head solemnly.
“Abraham always say de old lady’d come to trouble sure as night follows day. De mean life she’s done lived – neve’ goin’ to church or helpin’ de poor. She neve’ sent us so much as a bucket of coal fo’ Christmas. But we don’t judge her – dat’s de Lord’s business.”
“Did you know she kept money and jewels in her house?” inquired Mary Louise.
“No. It warn’t none of our business. Abraham ain’t interested in folks’ money – only in der souls. He’s a deacon in Rive’side Colored Church, you know!”
“Yes, I’ve heard him very highly spoken of, Mrs. Jones,” concluded Mary Louise, rising from her chair. “If you see Elsie, will you tell her to come to our house? Anybody can direct her where to find the Gays’ home, in Riverside.”
“I sure will, Miz Gay. Dat’s a perty name… And you a perty gal!”
“Thanks,” stammered Mary Louise in embarrassment… “And good-bye, Mrs. Jones.”
She stepped out of the shack and waved to the children as she passed them again on her way back to Dark Cedars. Glancing at her watch as she climbed the hill, she observed that it was only half-past three. What in the world would she do to pass the time until her father came for her at five o’clock?
It occurred to her as she approached Miss Grant’s house that she might try to interview Hannah concerning her whereabouts the preceding night, and she was thankful to catch sight of the woman in the back yard, talking to William, her husband. It was evident from both the old servants’ attitudes that they were having an argument, and Mary Louise approached slowly, not wishing to interrupt.
William Groben looked much older than his wife, although Hannah was by no means a young woman. Hadn’t she claimed that she had done the house-cleaning for forty years at Dark Cedars? Even if she had begun to work there in her teens, Mary Louise figured that she must be fast approaching sixty. But William looked well over seventy. He was thin and shriveled and bent; what little hair he had left was absolutely white. There could be no doubt about William’s innocence in the whole affair at Dark Cedars: a frail old man like that could not have managed to handle a healthy girl like Mary Louise in the manner in which the criminal had treated her.
“There ain’t no use sayin’ another word, Hannah,” Mary Louise heard William announce stubbornly. “I ain’t a-goin’ a-change me mind. Duty is duty, and I always say if a man can’t be faithful to his employer – ”
“I’ve heard that before, never mind repeatin’ it!” snapped his wife. “And nobody can say I ain’t been faithful to Miss Mattie, fer all her crankiness. But we’ve got a little bit saved up, and we can manage to live on it, with my sister Jennie, without you workin’ here. In a place that’s haunted by spirits!”
The man looked up sharply.
“How long do you think four hundred dollars would keep us?” he demanded. “Besides, it’s invested for us – to bury us. You can’t touch that, Hannah. No, I want me regular wages. I like good victuals!”
“So do I. But what’s the use of good victuals if you’re half scared of your life all the time? I’ll never step inside that there house again!”
William shrugged his shoulders.
“Do as you’re a mind to, Hannah – you always have. And I’ll go on livin’ over to Jennie’s with you. But I’m still workin’ here in the daytime. I couldn’t let them chickens starve and the garden go to seed. And what would become of the cow?”
“You could sell her and turn the money over to Miss Mattie.”
William smiled sarcastically.
“And have her half kill me for doin’ it? Not me! Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to the poor old lady in the hospital. Dependin’ on me as she is. No, siree! Duty is duty, and I always say – ”
“Shut up!” yelled Hannah in exasperation. And then, all of a sudden, she spied Mary Louise.
“Don’t you never get married, Miss Mary Louise,” she advised. “I never seen a man that wasn’t too stubborn to reason with. Did you find Elsie?”
Mary Louise shook her head.
“No. Mrs. Jones saw her cutting across the woods this morning. But she didn’t stop there.”
“I guess she must have them gold pieces of her aunt Mattie’s after all, and took her chance to clear out when the clearin’ was good. Can’t say as I blame her!”
Mary Louise sighed: that was the logical conclusion for everybody to come to.
“So I think I’ll go home now, Hannah,” she said. “I won’t wait for my father to come for me. And shall I take the key, or will William want to keep it?”
“You take it,” urged the old man. “I don’t want to feel responsible for it. My duty’s outside the house.”
Hannah handed it over with a sigh of relief.
“I’m that glad to get rid of it! And you tell Miss Mattie that I’m livin’ at my sister Jennie’s. I’ll write the address down for you, if you’ve got your little book handy.”
Mary Louise gladly produced it from her pocket: this was easy – getting Hannah’s address without even asking for it.
“Is this where you were last night?” she inquired casually, as the woman wrote down the street and number.
“Yes. At least, except while we was at the movies. My sister Jennie made William go with us – he never thought he cared about them before. But you ought to see him laugh at Laurel and Hardy. I thought I’d die, right there in the Globe Theater.”
William grinned at the recollection.
“They was funny,” he agreed. “When the show was over, I just set there, still laughin’!”
“They almost closed the theater on us,” remarked Hannah. “It was half-past eleven when we got home, and that’s late for us, even of a Saturday night.”
Mary Louise chuckled. She couldn’t have gotten any information more easily if she had been a real detective. Yet here was a perfect alibi for Hannah; if she had been at the movies until half-past eleven, she couldn’t have stolen that necklace from Dark Cedars. Maybe that bit of detective work wouldn’t make an impression upon her father!
“Of course, I can check up on it at the Globe Theater,” she decided in her most professional manner.
She held out her hand to Hannah.
“It’s good-bye, then, Hannah – and thank you for all the nice things you cooked for me.”
“You’re welcome, Miss Mary Louise. And if you come over to see me at my sister Jennie’s, I’ll make some doughnuts for you.”
“I’ll be there!” promised the girl, and with a nod to William, she went around to the porch to get her suitcase.
Thankful that it was not heavy, she walked slowly down to the road and on to Riverside. She had plenty of chance to think as she went along, but her thoughts were not pleasant. Hannah’s alibi only made Elsie’s guilt seem more assured. And how she hated to have to tell her father and Jane of the girl’s disappearance! There was bound to be publicity now, for the newspapers’ help would have to be enlisted in the search for the missing orphan. Miss Grant would have to know the whole story, including the theft of the necklace…
Mary Louise shuddered, hoping that she would not be the bearer of the evil tidings to the sick old lady.
Chapter XVI
Spreading the Net
Mary Louise spied Norman Wilder’s car in front of Jane Patterson’s house as she turned into her own street in Riverside; a moment later she recognized both Norman and Max on her chum’s porch. As soon as they, in their turn, saw her, they rushed down to the gate to meet her, and Max seized her suitcase.
“If you wouldn’t be so doggone independent,” he exclaimed, “and just let a fellow know when you needed a lift, Mary Lou, I’d have driven over for you!”
“That’s all right, Max,” returned Mary Louise. “As a matter of fact, Dad was coming for me at five o’clock, but I didn’t want to wait that long. There was nothing to do at Dark Cedars.”
“Nothing to do?” echoed Jane. “Are you going to stay home now and leave Elsie all alone?”
“Dad wants me home,” was all the explanation Mary Louise would make before the boys. Later, she would tell her chum about the girl’s disappearance. “I’ve got to go right in now,” she added. “After I have a bath and my supper, I’ll join you people.”
“After supper!” repeated Max in disgust. “We were just considering a little picnic in the woods. It’s a marvelous day for a swim.”
“Picnic? Why, we had one yesterday!”
“And it was such fun that we thought we’d have an encore.”
“I’m afraid I have too much to do to be in on any picnic,” answered Mary Louise. “But I’ll go for a walk or a drive with you all after supper – maybe.”
Seeing that she was firm in her resolve, the young people released her, and she hurried into her own house. Mr. Gay was standing in the living room, holding the keys to his car in his hand and trying to persuade his wife to drive over to Dark Cedars with him.
“Why, Mary Lou!” he exclaimed in surprise. “We were just getting ready to go for you. Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“And where is Elsie?” inquired Mrs. Gay. Mary Louise dropped despondently into a chair.
“She – went away,” she replied briefly.
Mr. Gay turned sharply. “Where?” he demanded.
Mary Louise shook her head.
“I don’t know. Hannah said she went out soon after Jane and I left for Sunday school this morning, and the colored woman who lives in back of Dark Cedars saw her go through the woods. But she didn’t come back in time for dinner – or at all, before I left.”
“The poor child is lost!” exclaimed Mrs. Gay sympathetically. “If she wandered into Cooper’s woods, it’s no wonder.” She turned to her husband. “Hadn’t we better get out a searching party, dear, immediately? The Boy and the Girl Scouts, anyhow.”
Mr. Gay frowned.
“No, my dear,” he replied slowly. “I don’t think Elsie Grant is lost. Neither does Mary Lou. I’m afraid she’s headed straight for Harrisburg – and may have arrived by this time.”
“Harrisburg?” repeated Mrs. Gay. “Why, that’s sixty miles away! She couldn’t walk that far.”
“No, I don’t expect her to walk. I think she took the train – not from Riverside, but from the next station.”
“How could she take a train? She couldn’t buy a ticket, for she hasn’t any money.”
“We are afraid, my dear, that Elsie Grant has plenty of money, though she may encounter a little difficulty in spending it, since the new law was passed. We believe that she stole those gold pieces from her aunt – and last night a necklace was taken, so it looks as if she had that too.”
“How terrible!” exclaimed Mrs. Gay, looking at Mary Louise as if she expected her to protest, or at least explain, her father’s accusation. But the girl was sitting disconsolately with her head bowed, as if she believed that every word was true.
“What shall we do, Daddy?” Mary Louise asked finally, in a hopeless tone.
“Notify the railroad stations to be on watch for a girl of Elsie’s description, who probably tried to buy a ticket with a gold piece. Of course, it’s possible she may have stolen some change from her aunt’s pocketbook and used that for carfare… Do you happen to know what kind of dress she was wearing, Mary Lou?”
“My green silk – with little flowers in it. I gave it to her.” The reply was almost a sob.
“I’ll attend to that part, then,” announced Mr. Gay. “And you will have to go over to see Mr. John Grant, Mary Lou, and tell him that Elsie has gone. It will be up to him to take charge of the affair.”
“Suppose he doesn’t want the police notified that Elsie is missing?” asked his daughter.
“It isn’t his place to decide that question. If a person is missing, it’s the law’s duty to step in and try to find him or her. The loss of the necklace is a different matter, which concerns the Grant family alone.”
Mary Louise nodded and picked up her suitcase. She wanted to be alone in her own room; she felt too miserable to talk to anybody – even her father. What would be the use of telling him about her interview with Mrs. Jones, or the establishment of Hannah Groben’s alibi? He no longer entertained any suspicions about these people: the finger of accusation pointed too surely at Elsie Grant.
Taking off her hat and her dress, Mary Louise threw herself down upon the bed. How tired she was! And how discouraged! How dreadful it was to believe in somebody and to have that trust betrayed! Elsie Grant had appeared to be such a sweet, innocent person, so worthy of sympathy. It didn’t seem possible that while she was accepting the girls’ friendship and their gifts she could be plotting this wicked thing.
The laughter of Mary Louise’s young friends rose from the porch next door and came through the open window, but the weary girl on the bed had no desire to join them. For once in her life she felt as if she wanted to avoid Jane. She couldn’t bear to tell her that her suspicions about Elsie had been as good as proved.
Tired and unhappy, Mary Louise closed her eyes, and before she realized it she was fast asleep. The experience of the previous night and the strain of this day had overpowered her, and for an hour she forgot all her troubles in a dreamless rest. Her mother wakened her by announcing that supper was on the table.
Mary Louise sat up and rubbed her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Mother,” she said. “I meant to help you. I haven’t been much use to you for the last few days.”
“That’s all right, dear,” replied Mrs. Gay. “You needed the sleep, and Freckles has been fine… Now, come to supper.”
Mary Louise was delighted to find that she felt much better after her nap. And much more cheerful. She no longer dreaded the coming necessary interview with John Grant, which she meant to seek after supper.
However, she was saved the trouble of going to his house, for scarcely had the Gays finished eating when John Grant arrived. Mary Louise and her father received him in the living room.
“I have a message for you, Miss Gay,” he announced, “from my aunt.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Mary Louise. “You were able to see her, then?”
“Late this afternoon. She seemed much better and asked the nurse to send for me. So I went over to the hospital about five o’clock.”
“Did you tell her about the necklace?” asked Mary Louise eagerly.
“Yes, I did. I thought it would be best to get it over with. She asked me whether it was safe, and I couldn’t lie. So I told her what happened last night.”
Mary Louise gasped.
“Wasn’t the shock too much for her? And wasn’t she just furious at me?”
“No, she stood it quite well. She said she knew something had happened because of a dream she had last night. And she said, ‘Tell Mary Louise not to worry, because I don’t blame her. And I want to see her myself tomorrow morning.’”
“Why, that’s wonderful!” exclaimed the girl, with a sigh of relief. “I had no idea she would take it so well.”
“Neither did I,” admitted John. “There’s something queer about it – but maybe she’ll explain tomorrow. I wasn’t allowed to stay with her long today, and she was too weak to talk much.”
It was Mr. Gay who put the question that was trembling on Mary Louise’s lips:
“Does she think her niece – Elsie Grant, I mean – stole the necklace?”
“She didn’t say,” answered John. “But I don’t believe so, because she asked whether Elsie had confessed yet about the gold pieces. That wouldn’t indicate that she believed her guilty of another theft.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” agreed Mr. Gay. “But everything points that way. We have bad news for you, Mr. Grant: Elsie has disappeared.”
“Humph!”
John Grant’s grunt and his nod were significant. “I was afraid of that,” he said.
“I have already notified the police,” announced Mr. Gay. “They are watching for her at the railroad stations, and I have wired the pawnshops and jewelers in Harrisburg and other cities nearby. We’ll probably catch her by tonight.”
“I hope so,” sighed John. “It’s too bad. I feel sort of guilty about the whole thing. If we had taken the child into our home, instead of letting her go with Aunt Mattie, it would never have happened. But we were feeling the depression and didn’t see how we could assume any more expense. My brother isn’t earning anything, and Mother lost most of her inheritance. While Aunt Mattie, of course, had plenty… But it was a mistake.”
Mary Louise looked gratefully at the man: John Grant was the only person besides herself who felt any pity for Elsie. How she wished he had been able to bring her up!.. But it was too late now for regrets.
“What will be done with her when they do find her?” she inquired tremulously. “Will she be sent to prison if she is proved guilty?”
John shrugged his shoulders.
“That will be for Aunt Mattie to decide. But you know she has talked nothing but reform school since the child came to her.”
“Maybe I can persuade her to give Elsie another chance,” murmured Mary Louise hopefully.
“Maybe,” agreed John as he shook hands with Mr. Gay and departed.
Mary Louise turned to her father after the man left.
“I have some things to tell you, Daddy,” she said. “Some clues I followed up this afternoon. Do you want to hear them?”
“By all means,” returned Mr. Gay.
“One thing I learned is that the gypsies stole those chickens. At least – the wife of the colored man who lives in back of Dark Cedars claims that they did.”
Mr. Gay smiled.
“You don’t think that’s important?” asked Mary Louise in disappointment, for she could read his thought. “It occurred to me that, if they stole the chickens, maybe it was they who stole the necklace.”
“I’m afraid not, daughter. If we have only a colored woman’s word for it, that’s no proof. She’s probably shielding herself or her husband… Besides, while gypsies might steal something on the outside, they very seldom have been known to break into people’s houses.”
“Yes, I was afraid you would say that.”
“It might be worth following up as a clue if we had nothing else to go on. But now we feel pretty sure that Elsie Grant is guilty… But did this colored woman hear them last night – the gypsies, I mean?”
“No, she didn’t. It was several nights ago, and about the same time that William, the hired man, reported that the chickens were gone.”
“What else did you learn this afternoon?” inquired her father.
“I sounded this Mrs. Jones out about the necklace, and she had never heard of any jewels at Dark Cedars. I believe her – I don’t think she could have stolen that necklace – or her husband, either.”
“I never thought they did, for a minute. If the thief had been a colored person, you would have known it, I’m sure. The hands alone are different. Didn’t you say that the hand that touched you was thin?”
“Yes. Almost bony. That’s one reason why I didn’t suspect Elsie.”
“And how about Hannah? Did you learn her whereabouts last night?”
“Yes,” answered Mary Louise, and she told of the woman’s visit, with her husband and sister, to the moving-picture house – an alibi which the girl could easily check up on tomorrow.
“I hear Jane’s whistle!” exclaimed Mr. Gay. “The young people want you, dear. You better go out with them and forget all this sad business for the rest of the evening. I think you need a little diversion.”
Mary Louise thought so too, and dashed off joyously to join her friends.