Thankful's Inheritance Part 69

It's--it's a stovepipe hole, that's what 'tis. There was a stove here one time or 'nother and the pipe hole was papered over."

"But--but what of it?" whispered Thankful. "I don't care about stovepipe holes. It's that dreadful noise I want to locate. I hear it now, just as plain as ever."

"Where could a stovepipe go to from here?" mused the captain. "Not into the kitchen; the kitchen chimney's way over t'other side. Maybe there was a chimney here afore the house was moved."

"But the snoring?" faltered Emily. "Don't you hear it?"

Captain Obed put his ear against the covered stovepipe hole. He listened and as he listened his face took on a new expression, an expression of sudden suspicion, then of growing certainty, and, a moment later, of huge amus.e.m.e.nt.

He stepped down from the chair.

"Stay right where you are," he ordered. "Don't move and don't make any noise. I'll be right back."

He hurried out. They waited. The snoring kept on and on. Suddenly it ceased. Then, in that very room, or so it seemed, sounded a grunt and a frightened squeal. And then a voice, a hollow voice which cried:

"Ahoy, all hands! I'm the ghost of Nebuchadnezzar's first wife and I want to know what you folks mean by wakin' me up."

The three in the back bedroom looked at each other.

"It's Captain Bangs!" cried Emily.

"It's Obed!" exclaimed Thankful.

"He's found it," shouted Kendrick. "Come on."

The captain was not in the kitchen when they got there. He had gone out of doors, so Imogene said. Unmindful of the rain they rushed out and around the corner, behind and below the washshed. Patrick Henry was running about his pen, apparently much disturbed, but Captain Obed was not in sight.

"Where is he?" demanded Thankful. "Where's he gone to?"

"h.e.l.lo there, John!" cried a voice from the darkness at the rear of the pigsty under the kitchen. "Come in here. Never mind your clothes. Come in."

John vaulted over the rail of the pen and disappeared. A few moments later he came out again in company with the captain. Both were laughing heartily.

"We've got the answer," puffed Captain Obed, who was out of breath.

"We've laid the ghost. You remember I told you that day when we first explored this place that old Laban Eldredge had this pigpen built. Afore that 'twas all potato cellar, and at one time afore the house was made over there must have been a stove in that back bedroom. There's no chimney, but there's cracks between the boards at the back of that pigpen and any noise down here goes straight up between the walls and out of that stovepipe hole like a speakin' tube. You heard me when I spoke to you just now, didn't you?"

"Yes--yes," answered Emily. "We heard you, but--but what was it that snored? What was the ghost?"

Captain Obed burst into a shout of laughter. "There he is," he said, pointing.

Thankful and Emily looked.

"What?" cried the latter.

"The PIG?" exclaimed Thankful.

"That's what. Georgie gave me a hint when he and I was out here just now. Old Pat was asleep way in back there and snorin' like a steam engine. And Georgie said he never slept there unless 'twas a storm, rainin' same as 'tis now. And every time you heard the--ho! ho!--the ghost, 'twas on a stormy night. It stormed the night you got here, and when Becky Timpson had her warnin', and last night when Sol Cobb got his. Ho! ho! ho! Patrick Henry's the ghost. Well, he's a healthy old spirit."

Emily laughed until the tears came into her eyes.

"The pig!" she cried. "Oh, Aunt Thankful! You and I were frightened almost to death last night--and of that creature there. Oh, dear me!"

Thankful laughed, too, but she was not fully convinced.

"Maybe 'twas the pig that snored," she admitted. "And of course whatever we heard came up that pipe hole. But there was no pig there on that first night; I didn't buy the pig until long afterwards. And, besides, what I heard THAT night talked; it said, 'Oh, Lord!' Patrick Henry may be a smart pig, but he can't talk."

This was something of a staggerer, but the captain was still certain he was on the right track.

"Then somethin' else was there," he declared. "Somebody was down under the house here, that's sartin. Who could it have been? Never mind; I'll find out. We'll clear up the whole of this ghost business, now we've got started. Maybe we can find some hint in there now. John, go up and fetch a lantern, there's a good fellow, and we'll have a look."

John brought the lantern and by its light the two men explored the recesses of Patrick Henry's bed chamber. When they emerged, covered with dust and cobwebs, the captain held something in his hand.

"I don't know what 'tis," he said. "Maybe nothin' of any account, but 'twas trod down in the corner close to the wall. Humph? Eh? Why, it's a mitten, ain't it?"

It was a mitten, a much worn one, and on the inside of the wrist-hand were worked three letters.

"K. I. P." read Captain Obed. "What's 'K. I. P.' stand for?"

Imogene, who had joined the group, clapped her hands.

"I know," she cried. "Kenelm Issachar Parker."

Thankful nodded. "That's it," she agreed. "And--and--why, now I come to think of it, I remember hearin' Hannah pitchin' into Kenelm that first mornin' after our night at her house, for losin' his umbrella and a mitten."

"Right you are!" Captain Obed slapped his knee. "And Kenelm was out somewheres that night afore he and I came over here. He found his umbrella and he brought it home whole a week or so later. But it wa'n't whole all that time, because Seth Ellis told me Kenelm brought an umbrella in for him to fix. All turned inside out it was. Eh? Yes, sir!

We're gettin' nigher port all the time. Kenelm came by this house that night, because 'twas him that saw your light in the window. I'll bet you he smashed his new umbrella on the way down from the club and crawled in here out of the wet to fix it. He couldn't fix it, so he left it here and came back after it the next day. And 'twas then he dropped this mitten."

Emily offered a suggestion.

"You said you saw someone hiding behind the henhouse that next morning, Captain," she said.

"So I did. And I thought 'twas one of Solon Taylor's boys. I'll bet 'twas Kenelm; he'd sneaked over to get the umbrella. It was him that said, 'Oh, Lord' that night; I'll bet high on it. When he thought of what Hannah'd say to his smas.h.i.+n' the umbrella she gave him it's a wonder he didn't say more than that. That's the answer--the whole answer--and I'll prove it next time I see Kenelm."

Which, by the way, he did.

Later in the afternoon John and Emily walked up to the village together.

They asked Thankful and Captain Obed to accompany them, but the invitation was declined. However, as John had suddenly remembered that he had left his office door unlocked, he felt that he should go and Emily went with him.

"I presume likely," observed the captain, as he looked after them, "that I ought to feel conscience-struck for not sayin' yes when they asked me to come along, but somehow I don't. I have a sneakin' feelin' that they'll get on first-rate without our company, Thankful."

Thankful was silent. She was sitting by the window. The pair were alone together in the living-room now. Imogene and Jedediah and Georgie were in the kitchen making mola.s.ses candy.

"Well," observed Captain Obed, "that's so, ain't it? Don't you agree with me?"

Still there was no answer and, turning, the captain was surprised to see his companion wiping her eyes with her handkerchief.

"For thunder sakes!" he exclaimed, in dismay. "What's happened now? Are you cryin'?"

Thankful tried to smile. "No," she said. "I'm not cryin'. At least, I hadn't ought to cry. I ought to be awful happy and I am. Seein' those two go off together that way made me think that pretty soon they'd be goin' away for good. And I--I was a little lonesome, I guess."