The Corner House Girls Snowbound Part 21

"How'd they know?"

"The fire had scarcely died out in one of the grates upstairs."

"Hum! Fire, eh? And I hadn't been inside this Lodge since b'fore Thanksgiving. Kinder funny, heh?"

"Yes."

"Anything stole?"

"Not a thing touched as far as we know. No other traces but the embers in that grate--"

"Hold on, Mister!" exclaimed M'Graw, but in a low voice. "What grate are you referrin' to? Which room was this fire in?"

Mr. Howbridge told him. The old man's face was curious to look upon.

His brows drew down into a frown. His sharp eyes lost their humorous cast. Of a sudden he was very serious indeed.

"That thar room," he said slowly, and at length, "was Miz'

Birdsall's."

"So I believed from the way it was furnished and from what Frank had told me of the house."

"Yes, Mister. That was her room. She thought a heap of sittin' in that room; 'specially in stormy weather. And the little shavers used to play there with her, too."

"Yes?"

"Them little shavers thought a sight of their mom," pursued M'Graw.

"I gathered as much from what Frank told me," Mr. Howbridge said seriously.

"By the way, Mr. Howbridge," said M'Graw in a different tone, "where are the little shavers?"

"You mean the twins, of course? Ralph and Rowena?"

"Yes, sir."

The guardian of the Birdsall twins rather hesitatingly told the old man just why he had not brought Ralph and Rowena to Red Deer Lodge at this time.

"Ran away? Now listen to that!" murmured the old man. "That don't sound right. Wasn't they with folks able to take keer of 'em?"

"I thought they were," said Mr. Howbridge. "Rodgers, the butler, and his wife."

"Whoof!" exclaimed the backwoodsman, expelling his breath in a great snort of disgust. "That butler! Wal, what for a man wants to b.u.t.tle for, I don't know. I never could make it out that it was a real man's job, anyway. And that Rodgers was one useless critter. I don't blame them little shavers for runnin' away from Rodgers an' that sour-apple wife of his. I know 'em both."

"If that is the case," said the lawyer sadly, "I wish I had known them as well as you appear to. Then I should have made other provision for the twins right at the start."

"But shucks!" said M'Graw, suddenly grinning. "Them two little shavers will turn up all right. Ralph and Roweny are right smart kids."

"That may be. But we don't know where they have gone to. Of course, Ike, they couldn't have got up here to Red Deer Lodge, could they?"

"I don't know 'bout that," said the old man. "I reckon they could have got here if they'd wanted to. But I know well 'nough they didn't--not before I went away to Ebettsville a week ago."

"Of course not! Somebody would have seen them at c.o.xford. And then, if they had come here, where are they now?"

"That's right, Mister," agreed Ike M'Graw. "But--but who started that fire in the grate?"

"If it had been the children wouldn't they have been found here?"

"Mebbe. Tell you the truth"--and the old man's weather-beaten face reddened a little. "Well, to tell you the truth, when you spoke of the fire in the grate, I was some took aback. Miz' Birdsall bein' killed here. And she likin' that room so. And she finally dyin' in it--well, I don't know--"

"Ike! you are superst.i.tious, I do believe," said the lawyer.

"Mebbe. But that never killed n.o.body," said the man. "And funny things do happen. Howsomever--Say!" he exclaimed suddenly, "how'd these folks that made the fire get into the house and out again?"

"Hedden, my man, says he found nothing broken or burst open. It must have been by the use of a key. And the only key I knew of up here was yours, Ike."

"That's right," said the backwoodsman, nodding. "Mine's the only key up here."

"But the intruders couldn't have used that."

"Yes, they could, too! I didn't take it with me when I went away from here."

"Who would know where it was?"

"Anybody might have seen it that looked into my shack," admitted the old man. "I ain't in the habit of hidin' things. We don't have burglars up here, Mister. That key, and others, hung right on a nail beside my chimley-place. Yes, sir!"

"Then any person pa.s.sing by could have found the key and entered the Lodge?" asked Mr. Howbridge.

"Only we don't have many folks pa.s.sin' by," returned Ike thoughtfully.

"I can't understand it."

"It is a puzzle," admitted M'Graw. "Hi gorry! I ain't been to my shack yet since comin' back from Ebettsville. Mebbe the key ain't thar no more."

"To what door was it?" asked the lawyer.

"This here," replied M'Graw, jerking a thumb toward the main entrance.

"Padlock on the outside of the door. All the other doors was barred on the inside. Oh, she was locked up hard and fast!"

"I don't understand it," said the lawyer. "You look when you go home and see if the key is hanging where you left it."

"Hi gorry! I will," promised the backwoodsman. "I'd better bring the key over here tomorrow, anyway. And I reckon you want them figgers on the timber Neven wants to cut?"

"Yes. Of course, Ike, you have made no mistake in cruising the timberland?"

"I never make mistakes, Mister," said the old man. "That wouldn't do in the woods. The man that's brought up, as I was, with wildcats an'

bears an' sech, can't afford to make mistakes. This was a lots wilder country when I was a boy from what 'tis now."

"I find that Neven's figures are very different from yours."