Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet Part 26

"I had already ascertained that he was out late that night," he said.

"Miss Milly told me that young Fitz Simmons on the night of the drill threatened to attend your party. What a.s.surance have we that he did not attend it with Terwilliger as his companion? A lark on the young gentleman's part, and a clever opportunity to steal on the part of the trainer. My a.s.sistant has discovered that Terwilliger has had no dealings with his old a.s.sociate Nimble Tim since his release from prison. Having to discard the idea that Tim was his companion, I have been looking about to find another possible one. I thank you for your a.s.sistance."

Milly was very angry. With true womanly inconsistency she scouted the idea that Stacey could have had any part in the proceedings, although she was the very one who had at first suggested it.

"And here," she said, "is something which ought to be perfectly convincing to any sane man. Polo told me last night that her brother heard Ricos and b.u.t.tertub boasting that they had fooled us all so nicely, and had seen our play. They made fun of Winnie, and said she had a little squeaky voice for so manly a part, and that it was 'nuts' to see us try to manage our togas. Oh! I'd just like to choke them."

Mr. Mudge smiled. "It is very natural," he said, "that Terwilliger should attempt to throw suspicion on some one else."

"But you know that b.u.t.tertub and Ricos were out late that night," I suggested.

"Ricos obtained permission from Colonel Grey to hear Professor Ware's lecture on Architecture, at Columbia College."

"And did they say they attended it?" Adelaide asked.

"Ricos so reported at the Barracks."

"Well, I happen to know that Professor Ware delivers those lectures on Tuesday evenings," Adelaide replied triumphantly; "and this was Wednesday night."

"Are you sure of this?"

"I am sure because I attend the lectures, and neither of those boys were there."

Mr. Mudge rubbed his brow with his pencil. "Terwilliger's previous bad record counts against him," he said persistently.

"Mr. Mudge," I entreated, "will you do me the favor to call on a friend of ours, Mr. Van Silver, who knows all about that previous record of Terwilliger's."

"How is that?" Mr. Mudge asked, and I related my conversation with Mr.

Van Silver on our return from the games.

"I will interview this gentleman," said Mr. Mudge, "for though appearances are strongly against Terwilliger, I do not wish to act on appearances alone. And meantime, if you could find some other witness than young Fitz Simmons who could prove that he and the trainer were really boating on the Harlem the night of your party, and some other witness than Terwilliger to the admission of Ricos and his friend of the dairy nickname, the cause of Lawn Tennis and her brother would be materially strengthened."

"I agree to produce such witnesses," said Winnie rashly. "I have called it my mystery and I intend to fathom it, if it takes all summer."

Mr. Mudge bowed and withdrew. His boots creaked down the hall a little way and then we heard a knock and the opening of a door.

"Girls, he's calling on Miss Noakes," Winnie cried, in high glee. "Now, what's to hinder my running out on the balcony and showing her that two can play at the game of peek-a-boo."

"Nothing but the honour of the Amen Corner," Adelaide remarked. The words threw a wet blanket on Winnie's proposal, but there was a flickering smile about Adelaide's lips which showed that she was bent upon mischief, a rare thing for Adelaide.

"I will wait until Mr. Mudge is gone," she said,--"I would not interrupt two young lovers for the world,--and then I think I'll call on Miss Noakes. I want her to help me translate the visit of aeneas to Queen Dido."

"That's just like Winnie," Milly exclaimed; "but you would never do such a thing."

"Won't I? You don't half know me, Milly, dear," and Adelaide actually fulfilled her threat.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"She expected him," Adelaide exclaimed, when she returned. "I found her all gotten up regardless--that low-necked black net of hers! She did look too absurd for anything, but happy is no name for it. There was a blush on her withered old cheeks, and I actually believe a real tear in her eye. When I told her what I wanted her to translate, she glared at me haughtily, but I looked as demure as I could, and she went through it without flinching. 'Men are deceivers ever, aren't they, Miss Noakes?' I said. 'Just think of Pious aeneas behaving so cruelly to his dear Dido.' 'How should I know, child?' she replied rather curtly."

While we were laughing, Cerberus knocked to inform us that Mrs.

Roseveldt's carriage waited and had sent him to inquire for Miss Armstrong.

Adelaide found that Stacey had waited for her return. He woke to animation over the photographs. "This decides me," he said. "I shall try for the prize. I didn't imagine there was anything in Greek civilization that I cared a rap for; but that quoit player is fine. Just look at his muscles. I always thought that Discobolus was the fellow's name. It never dawned upon me that it meant a quoit player. And this Mercury hardly needs wings on his heels, his legs are built for a runner. And isn't that Fighting Gladiator superb? And that Hercules and Vulcan?

Well, now, here is something curious. I do believe that Baker got his 'set' from that statue; the left arm is extended in the very same way, and the boys all thought it was original with him."

So he ran on, his eyes kindling once more with enthusiasm. "Well, I must go now and 'bone' on my geometry--beastly bore; but b.u.t.tertub has been having very good marks lately, and I am not going to let him rank me."

He had hardly gone before it was time for Adelaide's Romance, and after that Mr. Van Silver came up to express his compliments.

"I was sorry Stacey could not stay to hear you play," he said, "but he seems to have a virtuous fit on, and said he must hurry to the barracks and spend the evening in study. Perhaps, however, it was only an excuse for mischief."

"Do you think so?" Adelaide asked. "It has seemed to me of late that Stacey has had little heart for anything, even for mischief."

"That's a fact. I haven't seen him on the river since the games, and he used to be very fond of rowing."

Adelaide gave a little gesture of despair. "There," she said, "I forgot to ask him whether any one knew of his going out boating, the night of our party, with Terwilliger, and Winnie was so particular about it. How provoked she will be with me."

"Why is it that you young ladies have developed an overweening interest in Terwilliger?" asked Mr. Van Silver. They were sitting on the staircase apart from the others, and Adelaide replied:

"It is because he is suspected of a robbery which has occurred at our school. We have been cautioned not to mention it, but I think I may say as much to you, for Mr. Mudge, the detective who has been engaged to investigate the affair, told me this afternoon that he intended to interview you in regard to Terwilliger's part in the crime for which he was sent to prison."

A cloud pa.s.sed over Mr. Van Silver's face. "I hoped that thing was dead and buried," he said. "It only proves that nothing is really ever settled unless it is settled right. If it will do Terwilliger any good, I will testify openly, as I ought to have done in the first place."

Adelaide looked at Mr. Van Silver wonderingly. He understood and said quickly, "I cannot bear to lose your respect, Miss Armstrong; perhaps I had better tell you just how it all happened."

"Not to gratify any curiosity on my part," Adelaide replied; "you might be sorry afterward. And if it is something that the world has no business to know----"

"The _World_! Heaven forbid that an account of the affair should get into the _World_, the _Herald_, or any of our newspapers. I would rather no one knew anything about it; but when I have told you the entire story you will be able to judge how much of it I ought to confide to your friend Mudge, in order to aid Terwilliger. You see, young Cairngorm is a regular cub. His father sent him across on his yacht to us. He wanted mother to comb him out, introduce him in New York circles, and get him married, if she could, to some American heiress. If you girls only knew what scamps some of those slips of n.o.bility are you would not be so crazy for t.i.tles."

Adelaide's eyes snapped. "I do not care a fig for a t.i.tle," she said indignantly. "I think a great deal more of an enterprising, hard-working, true-hearted American, than of a mere name. I think that the American pride of having accomplished some worthy work in life is much more allowable than the English pride of belonging to a leisure cla.s.s."

"I beg pardon. I did not intend to be personal. When my mother saw what sort of a specimen had been confided to her hands, she made no efforts in the matrimonial direction, but simply tried to keep the chap out of harm's way for a season, using me as her aide-de-camp. He had a pa.s.sion for betting and gaming, and I was at my wits end sometimes to head him off. Terwilliger came over with him, you know; but he left the yacht on its arrival for he wanted to establish himself permanently in America.

Cairngorm liked Terwilliger, tipped him handsomely on parting, and asked me to take an interest in him. I promised to look out for him and immediately forgot his existence. Terwilliger drifted about, waiting for something to turn up, and Satan, who is the only employer who is on the lookout for poor fellows who are out of work, appeared to Terwilliger, in the person of a new acquaintance, Limber Tim. Tim told him that he was connected with a sort of club devoted to athletics. It was really a gambling saloon. Tim knew of Terwilliger's acquaintance with Cairngorm, and he promised Terwilliger a five dollar bill if he would persuade Cairngorm to patronize his establishment. 'Tell him,' he said, 'that we are to have a very select game of poker to-night, only gentlemen present, and get him to come down.'

"Now, how Terwilliger happened to be such a lamb, I can't say; but he had never heard of poker, and he asked Tim if it was anything like single stick. This amused Tim and he did not undeceive Terwilliger, who appeared at our house in search of Cairngorm, and, not finding him, left a labored epistle inviting him to come to No. -- Bowery, and see some fun in the way of a sleight of hand performance with a 'poker.'

Cairngorm saw through it, though Terwilliger did not, and went out after dinner without explaining where he was going. He took the note with him for fear he might forget the number of the house, and thought that he replaced it in his pocket, after consulting it under a corner gaslight; but, as his luck would have it, he dropped the note there, and a policeman, who had seen him read it, picked it up. The policeman knew that the house was a gambling saloon, and immediately surmised the truth, that this finely dressed young swell had been decoyed to his ruin. Terwilliger had begun his letter simply, 'n.o.bble Sur,' and our address was not on the letter, so that there was no clue to Cairngorm's ident.i.ty; but he had signed his own name in full, and the astute policeman had this bit of convincing evidence of Terwilliger's complicity in the confidence game.

"We knew nothing of this at the time, but it was late at night before Cairngorm returned to our house, and we had all been very anxious about him. His statements were to the point, for he had been thoroughly frightened. He had lost heavily, and in the midst of the game the police had raided the place, and he had escaped by springing into a dumb-waiter, which had landed him in a kitchen, where he had remained secreted until all was quiet.

"'It is very fortunate for you,' my father said sternly, 'that the police did not secure you, for in that case the reporters would have had a sensation for the morning papers, and your n.o.ble father would have learned of your lodgment in the Tombs. As it is, you had better leave New York at once. Your yacht is at Newport. I advise you to report at home as soon as possible. It is your own fault that your American visit has had so sudden and so disgraceful an ending.'

"I saw Cairngorm off, much relieved to get him off my hands, for we had very little in common, and he was so lacking in principle that my feeling for him was only one of contemptuous pity. On our way to Newport Cairngorm told me that Terwilliger was perfectly innocent of any connivance with the gamblers, and that as soon as he saw that they were playing for money had attempted to induce him to leave the place, using every persuasion possible, and making the gamblers very angry with him.

They had tried to put him out of the room, but he had insisted on remaining, and when the police appeared it was Terwilliger who had shown Cairngorm into the dumb-waiter. Immediately after Cairngorm's departure to Scotland, I sailed for a long trip around the world, so that it was over a year before I returned to New York.

"What was my chagrin to find that Terwilliger had been arrested and sent to prison with the gamblers. My father had succeeded in keeping Cairngorm's name out of the papers, but as he believed that Terwilliger had knowingly acted as a decoy he had made no attempt to save him.

Terwilliger would not disclose Cairngorm's name at the trial when confronted with the letter which he acknowledged having written. Nor did he write him asking his a.s.sistance, so determined was he not to implicate his patron in the affair. I looked up Terwilliger, and finding that he had only a few weeks more to serve, set myself to work in earnest to secure him a good position. I told the entire story to Colonel Grey, who met him with me, on his release, and feeling confident that he had not been contaminated by his prison a.s.sociations, gave him the position of trainer at his gymnasium. He has had a good record there ever since, and I have been very unhappy that he has suffered so much on my graceless friend's account. If I had known that an innocent person was to be sent to prison I would never have helped him away after his sc.r.a.pe, but would have insisted on his disclosing the entire truth, and braving the consequences like a man. As it is I am going to make Cairngorm do something for Terwilliger this summer. One of my grooms does not care to go to Europe with me, and if Terwilliger has nothing better to do while the cadets are on vacation, I will take him across. I shall bring him back in the fall in time for the opening of the school."

Adelaide was intensely interested in this story. "You will tell it all to Mr. Mudge, will you not?" she asked, "and convince him that Terwilliger was unjustly imprisoned."