CHAPTER IV.
A FRIEND IN TROUBLE.
The next morning Eleanor Mercer, summoned from the group of girls with whom she was discussing some details of the coming contest with the Boy Scouts by the appearance of a man who had rowed up to the little landing stage, accompanied by one of the guides, old Andrew, called Bessie King and Dolly Ransom to her with a grave face.
"This is Deputy Sheriff Rogers, from Hamilton," she explained. "He says that you must go there today to testify against those gypsies."
"Sorry, ma"am, if it"s awkward jest now," said the officer. "But law"s law, and orders is orders."
"Oh, we understand that perfectly, Mr. Rogers," said Eleanor. "You have to do your duty, and of course we are anxious to see that the law is properly enforced. Don"t think we"re complaining. But I will admit I am nervous."
"Nervous, ma"am? Why, there ain"t nothin" to be nervous about!"
"I hope you"re right, Mr. Rogers. But there are things back of this attempt to kidnap my two girls here that haven"t come out at all yet. I don"t suppose you"ve heard of them. And it"s been suggested to me that it might not be quite safe for them at Hamilton."
The deputy sheriff laughed heartily at that.
"Safe?" he said. "Well, I should some guess they"ll be safe down there! Sheriff Blaine--he"s my boss, ma"am, you see--would jest about rip the hide off of anyone who tried to tech them young ladies while they was there obeyin" the orders of the court. Don"t you worry none. We"ll look after them all right enough."
"As long as you know that there may be some danger, I shall be relieved, and feel that everything is all right," said Eleanor, pleasantly. "It"s when we"re not expecting their blows that the people we are afraid of have been able to strike at us successfully. There is a Mr. Holmes--"
"I know him well, if it"s Mr. Holmes, the big storekeeper from the city you mean, ma"am," interrupted Rogers. "Say, if he"s a friend of yours, you can be sure you"ll be looked after all right down to Hamilton. We think a sight of him down there. He"s a fine man, m"am; yes, indeed, a fine man!"
Eleanor looked startled, and only Bessie"s quick pinch of her arm prevented Dolly from crying out in surprise and disgust. Knowing what they did of the treachery and meanness of Holmes, this praise of him was disturbing to a degree. But Eleanor never changed countenance. She understood, as if by some instinct, that this was a time for keeping her own counsel.
"I shall go to Hamilton with you," said Eleanor, decidedly. "Will you be able to wait a little while, Mr. Rogers, while we get ready?"
"Surely, ma"am," said Rogers. "We want to get the train that goes down from the station here at noon, and that gives us lots of time. If we start two hours from now we"ll catch it, with time to spare."
"Then if you"ll sit down and make yourself comfortable," she said, "we"ll be ready when it"s time to start."
As soon as Rogers had taken himself off, Eleanor called the girls together in her own tent.
"I feel that it is my duty to be with Bessie and Dolly at Hamilton," she explained. "And, because I rather foresaw this, I have arranged for a friend of mine to come over here and take my place as Guardian at short notice. She is Miss Drew--Miss Anna Drew--and some of you must have met her in the city. She has had plenty of experience as a Camp Fire Guardian, and you"ll all like her, I know.
"Please make it as easy for her as possible. Do just as she tells you, even if she doesn"t have the same way of doing everything that I have. I"ll get back as soon as I can, and I want you to have a good time while we"re gone."
"We"ll see that she doesn"t have any trouble, Wanaka," said Margery Burton loyally. "She"ll find that this Camp Fire can behave itself, all right!"
"Thanks! I knew I could count on all of you," said Eleanor. "Now I"m going to send her a note by Andrew. Her people own some of this land, and she happens to be in their camp at one of the other lakes, so that she"ll be able to get here before we go if she starts at once."
Andrew was quite ready to carry the note, and went off while Eleanor and the two girls made the simple preparations that were necessary for their trip.
"I"m so glad you didn"t say anything when the deputy sheriff spoke that way of Mr. Holmes," she said to Bessie and Dolly. "I was afraid one of you would cry out and I really couldn"t have blamed you if you had."
"I would have--I was just going to," said Dolly honestly, "but Bessie pinched me, so I shut up, though I couldn"t see why. I still think he ought to know that this man he seems to think so much of is the very one they ought to watch most carefully if they really want to make sure that we don"t get into any trouble while we"re going down there."
"The trouble is that he wouldn"t believe it, Dolly, and it would simply discredit us with him and all the other authorities at Hamilton, so that they wouldn"t believe us when we had something to tell them that we were sure was true."
"But we"re sure that Mr. Holmes was behind this gypsy. We"ve got the letter he wrote to him to prove it!"
"Yes, but Mr. Jamieson doesn"t want anyone to know we have that letter until the proper time comes. He wants to catch Mr. Holmes in a trap if he possibly can, so that he"ll be harmless after this. You can see what a good thing that would be."
"Oh, yes. I never thought of that! He doesn"t want to put him on his guard, you mean?"
"Just exactly that, Dolly. You see, if Mr. Holmes thinks we don"t suspect him, it"s possible that he may betray himself in some fashion. He"ll feel sure that this man John hasn"t betrayed him, and if he thinks we don"t know anything about the part he had in this kidnapping plan, he may try to do something, else that will get him into serious trouble.
"And we"ve got to move very slowly and very carefully, because it"s quite plain that he has a lot of friends at Hamilton and that they won"t believe anything against him, no matter how serious it may be, unless they get absolute proof."
"Oh, I do hope Mr. Jamieson will be able to catch him this time! I"d feel ever so much better about Bessie and Zara if I knew that they didn"t need to be afraid of him any longer."
"So would I, Dolly, and so would Mr. Jamieson. It"s this man who is worrying us more than all the other enemies Bessie and Zara have, put together."
"Because he"s so rich?"
"Partly that, and because he"s so clever, too. And if all I hear about him is true, the more he is beaten, the more dangerous he becomes. He doesn"t like to be beaten, and it makes him so angry that he takes all sorts of chances, and does the wildest, most desperate things to get even. They say he was very unfair to a lot of small shopkeepers in the city when he was building up his big store."
"How do you mean, Miss Eleanor?"
"Why, he did everything he could to make them sell out to him for a small price, and, if they wouldn"t do it, he did his best to ruin their business. He would circulate false stories about them, and he used his influence with the police and the city authorities to make all sorts of trouble for them.
"Then he would open a store next door to them, sometimes, and sell everything they did cheaper, at a loss, so that people would stop buying from them. You see, he could afford to lose money doing that, because he knew that if he once got them out of the way, he could put prices up again, and get his money back."
"You didn"t know all that the day after Zara was taken away, did you, Miss Eleanor?" asked Bessie. "Don"t you remember how you laughed at me then for saying I didn"t like him, and that I thought he might be mixed up in Zara"s disappearance?"
"Yes, I do remember it very well, Bessie. I"ve often thought what a good thing it was that your eyes were so sharp, and that you suspected him even when all the rest of us thought he was all right. If it hadn"t been for that, Mr. Jamieson would never have looked up the records that gave him the clue to where Mr. Holmes had hidden Zara."
"I think Bessie would make a pretty good detective," said Dolly. "They do have women detectives now, don"t they? And she seems to be able to tell from looking at people whether they can be trusted or not."
Bessie laughed heartily at that suggestion.
"I can"t do anything of the sort," she said. "And, even if I could, I wouldn"t be a detective, Dolly. The trouble with you is that you read too many novels. You think people behave in real life just the way the people in the books you read do, and they don"t."
The return of old Andrew, the guide, who had rowed across the lake on his return from carrying Eleanor"s note to Miss Drew, was the signal to complete the preparations for departure.
"I caught her, all right, Miss Eleanor," said Andrew. "Says she won"t be able to come over here till after lunch, but she"ll be right over then with a bundle of sticks to keep the young ladies in order till you get back yourself."
"Good!" laughed Eleanor. "That"s all right, then, and I can leave here with a clear conscience. Andrew, you"ll sort of keep an eye on things till I get back, won"t you?"
"Leave it to me, ma"am," said Andrew. "Say, me and some of the boys was thinking maybe you"d like to have some of us turn up, sort of casual like, down at Hamilton?"
"Why, it"s very good of you, Andrew, but I don"t believe we"ll need any help from you, thanks."
"You can"t always sometimes tell," said Andrew, sagely. "Now, this here Rogers is a good fellow enough, but obstinate as a mule, and the sheriff might be his twin brother for that. They"re birds of a feather, see? And onct they get it into their heads that a thing"s so, there ain"t nothin" I know of, short of a stick of dynamite, will make them change their minds. So we thought that mebbe it wouldn"t be a bad idea to have some of us within call."
"I"ll let you know if we need any help, Andrew," promised Eleanor. "And it"s very good of you to offer to come. But Mr. Jamieson will be there--you know him, don"t you?"
"Mister Charlie? Indeed I do, ma"am, and a fine young chap he is, too. I"ve often hunted with him through these woods up here. If he"s goin" to look after the law part of this for you, you"ll have a good chance to beat them sharks down there. Some pretty smart lawyers there at Hamilton, they tell me, ma"am. I ain"t never been to law myself. Any time I get into a fight I can"t settle with my tongue, I use my hands. Cheaper, and better, too, in the long run."
"It"s the old-fashioned way, Andrew. Most people can"t settle their troubles so easily. Well, you"ll row us to the end of the lake, I suppose?"
"Get right in, ma"am! Might as well start, so"s you can take it easy on the trail. Not a bit of use hurryin" when there ain"t no need of it, I say. There"s lots of times when it can"t be helped, without lookin" for a chance."
So, with the strains of the Wo-he-lo cheer rising from the girls who were left behind, they started in the boat for the first stage of the short journey to Hamilton.
Andrew insisted on going with them as far as the station, and as the train pulled out, they heard his cheery voice.
"Now, remember if you need me or any of the boys, all you"ve got to do is to send us word, and we"ll find a way to get there a bit quicker than we"re expected," he cried. "Ain"t nothin" we wouldn"t do for you and the young ladies, Miss Eleanor!"
"You leave them to us, old timer," Rogers called back from the car window. "We"ll guarantee to return them, safe and sound. And it won"t take any long time, neither. There"s a good case against that sneaking gypsy, and we"ll have him on his way to the penitentiary in two shakes of a lamb"s tail."
"If you don"t, I"ll vote for another sheriff next election," vowed Andrew, "if I have to vote a Demmycratic ticket to do it, and that"s somethin" I ain"t done--not since I was old enough to vote."
Rogers was rea.s.suring enough in his speech and manner, but Eleanor had a presentiment of evil; a foreboding that something was wrong.
The railroad trip to Hamilton was not a long one, and within two hours of the time they had left Long Lake the brakeman called out the name of the county seat. Eleanor and the two girls, with Rogers carrying their bags, moved to the door, and, as they reached the ground, looked about eagerly for Jamieson.
He was nowhere to be seen. But Holmes was there, avoiding their eyes, but with a grin of malicious triumph that worried Eleanor. And Rogers, a moment after he had left them to speak to a friend, returned, his face grave.
"I hear your friend Mr. Jamieson is arrested," he said.
CHAPTER V.
A TANGLED NET.
"Arrested?" cried Eleanor, startled. "Why, what do you mean? How can that be?"
"That"s all I know, ma"am," said Rogers, soberly. "Even if I did know anything more, I guess maybe I oughtn"t to be saying anything about it. I"m an officer, you see. But here"s the district attorney. Maybe he"ll be able to tell you what you want."
He pointed to a tall, thin man who was talking earnestly to Holmes, and who came over when Rogers beckoned to him.
"This is Mr. Niles, Miss Mercer," said Rogers. "I"ll leave you with him."
"Glad to meet you, Miss Mercer," said Niles, heartily, "though I"m sorry to have dragged you away from your good times at Long Lake. These, I suppose, are the young ladies who were kidnapped?"
"Yes, though of course they weren"t really kidnapped, because they got away before any real harm was done," Eleanor replied. "But, Mr. Niles, what is this absurd story about my cousin, Mr. Jamieson? Mr. Rogers said something about his having been arrested."
Niles grew grave.
"I hope you"re right--I hope it is absurd, my dear young lady," he said. "Your cousin, you say? Dear me, that"s most distressing--most distressing, upon my word! However, you will understand I had nothing to do with the matter.
"I have to take cognizance, in my official capacity, of any charges that are made, but I am allowed to have my own opinion as to the guilt or innocence of those accused--yes, indeed! And I am quite sure that Mr. Jamieson had nothing to do with this attempted kidnapping!"
"What?" gasped Eleanor. "Do you mean to say that it is on such a charge as that that he has been arrested?"
She laughed, in sheer relief. The absurdity of such an accusation, she was sure, would carry proof in itself that Charlie was innocent. No matter who was trying to spoil his reputation, they could not possibly succeed with such a flimsy and silly charge.
"I"m glad it seems so funny to you, Miss Mercer," said Niles, stiffly. "I"ll confess that it looked serious to me, although, as I say, I do not believe in Mr. Jamieson"s guilt. However, he will have to clear himself, of course, just as anyone else accused of a crime must do. Where I have jurisdiction, no favors are shown.
"The poor are on a basis of equality with the rich; I would send a guilty millionaire to prison with a light heart, and on the same day I would move heaven and earth to secure the freedom of an innocent beggar, though men of wealth were trying to railroad him to jail!"
He finished that peroration with a sweeping and dignified bow. And then he stopped, thunder-struck, as a clear, girlish laugh rose on the air. It was Dolly who laughed.
"I couldn"t help it," she said, afterward. "He was so funny, and he didn"t know it! As if anyone would take a man who talked such rot as that seriously!"
But the trouble was that, vain and pompous as Niles plainly was, his official position made it necessary to take him seriously. Though at first she was disposed to agree with Dolly, and had, indeed, had difficulty in keeping a straight face herself while he was boasting of his own incorruptibility, Eleanor discovered that fact as soon as she had a chance to talk with Charlie Jamieson.
"I shall be glad to arrange for you to have an interview with your cousin, Miss Mercer," Niles informed her. "Theoretically, he is a prisoner, although of course he will be able to arrange for his own release on bail as soon as he finds some friend who owns property in this county. But I have given orders that he is not to be confined in a cell. I trust he is making himself very much at home in the parlor of Sheriff Blaine. If you will honor me, I will take you there."
"I should like to see him at once," said Eleanor. "Come, girls! Mr. Niles, I am sure, will find a place where you can wait for me while I talk with Mr. Jamieson."
Charlie greeted her with a sour grin when she was taken to the room where, a prisoner, he was sitting near a window and smoking some of the sheriff"s excellent tobacco.
"h.e.l.lo, Nell!" he said. "First blood for our friend Holmes on this sc.r.a.p, all right. First time I"ve ever been in jail. It"s intended as a little object lesson of what he can do when he once starts out to be unpleasant, I fancy. He must know that he hasn"t any sort of chance of keeping me here."
"Why, Charlie, I never heard anything so absurd!" said Eleanor, hotly. "As if you, who have done everything possible for those girls, would do such an insane thing as hire that gypsy to kidnap them. And especially when we know who did do it!"
"That"s just the rub! We know, but can we prove it? You see, it"s my idea that Holmes is starting this as a sort of backfire. He thinks we"re going to accuse him, and he wants to strike the first blow. He"s clever, all right."
"I don"t see what good it can do him, Charlie."
"A lot of good, and this is why. He puts me on the defensive, right away. He wants time as much as anything else. And if he can keep me busy proving my own innocence, he figures that I"ll have less time to get after him. It"s a good move. The more chance he has to work on those gypsies, the less likely they are to say anything that will make trouble for him. He can show them his power and scare them, even if he can"t buy them.
"And I think the chances are that he won"t find it very hard to buy them. They pinched me as soon as I got off the train this morning. I"ve sent out a lot of telegrams, asking fellows to come up here and bail me out, but of course I can"t really expect to get an answer today--an answer in person, at least."
"Mr. Niles seems friendly. He said that he doesn"t believe you"re guilty, Charlie."
"That"s kind of him, I"m sure. Niles is an a.s.s--a pompous, self-satisfied a.s.s! Holmes is using him just as he likes, and Niles hasn"t got sense enough to see it. He"s honest enough, I think, but he hasn"t got the brains of a well-developed jellyfish."
Eleanor laughed at the comparison.
"Well, if he"s honest, you don"t have anything to fear, I suppose," she said. "I"m glad of that, Charlie. I was afraid at first that he might be just a tool of Mr. Holmes, and that he would do what Mr. Holmes told him."
"I"d feel easier in my mind if he were a regular out-and-out crook, Nell. That sort always has a weakness. Your crook is afraid of his own skin, and when he knows he"s doing things for pay, he"ll always stop just short of a certain danger point. He won"t risk more than so much for anyone. But with this chap it"s different. He"s probably let Holmes, or Holmes"s gang, fill him up with a lot of false ideas, and they"re clever enough to get him to wanting to do just what they want him to do."
"And you mean that he"ll think he"s doing the right thing?"
"Yes, and not only that, but he"ll persuade himself that he figured the whole thing out, thought it out for himself, when really he"ll just be carrying out their own suggestions. We"ve got to find some way to spike his guns, or else Holmes will work things so that his gypsy will get off, and there"ll be no sort of chance to pin the guilt down to him, where it belongs."
"Then the first thing to do is to get you out, isn"t it?"