all this and more that followed on the same lines raised mr. murphy to a great height in miss katherine’s estimation. through strict vigilance he succeeded in maintaining this exalted position.
though other matters might temporarily thrust aside her central subject of interest, miss katherine invariably returned to it. the morning after [31] mr. murphy’s second visit she set to work in earnest to obtain a clew to the hiding place of captain shannon’s treasure. where was she to begin? she was well informed on the subject of secret drawers and closets and she knew that one was apt to stumble upon them unawares. an inadvertent touch upon a panel, the slightest pressure on some bit of carving might expose the most cleverly concealed hiding place.
for this reason miss katherine experienced more or less uneasiness when mrs. white was not directly under her eye. she found excuses to follow her about constantly, until that honest woman, being of ordinary penetration, concluded that she was not thought strictly trustworthy. as she was a very sensible being she decided that it was not unreasonable for miss boulby, an entire stranger, to keep an eye on her. she had heard of such substantials as butter, meat and flour disappearing through the back door, through the agency of the domestic, so she offered to get a testimonial from the minister. miss katherine saw her mistake at once and lied glibly but not well. she explained that since coming to that house she had been strangely timid and didn’t like to be alone, and if mrs. white had noticed her following her about it was for that reason and no other. to give weight to her assertion, she threw in a ghost or two that she had suspected [32] the house of harboring. miss katherine would not have congratulated herself upon the success of her explanation had she known that mrs. white was saying to herself that perhaps all that was true and perhaps it wasn’t, but it would be wise for her to keep an eye on miss boulby.
miss katherine had not yet made a sufficiently exhaustive study of poe’s prose tales and was thus employed in the library the next morning, when, happening to glance up from her book, her eyes fell upon the great fireplace that occupied almost the entire end of the room. miss katherine received an inspiration. she sat up, straight and alert.
“it is a most likely place,” she said aloud.
she went over to the fireplace, looked at it carefully and began a careful examination of the old-fashioned iron ornamentations. in the centre of the mantle was a dog’s head in gilded iron. she pinched and pushed him, trying to find a spring in his eyes, nose, ears or tail. he remained immovable, however, as did everything else pertaining to the mantle. but there was still hope. she lightly tapped the brick walls for she had been reading poe’s frightful tale of the black cat, and she had learned that an unusual space in a wall could be detected by a light rap upon it. miss katherine’s ear was not trained to this sort of divination, but she [33] persevered, testing first a wall she was certain was solid and then working on a suspected area.
mrs. white had not forgotten her suspicions of the previous day and was on the alert. she knew miss boulby was in the library and when she caught the sound of a gently repeated, mysterious rapping in that room, she tiptoed to the door and applied her eye to the keyhole. what she saw would have made anyone inquire whether miss boulby were in possession of her senses or if she never had had any. she was down upon her knees before the hearth, gently tapping the bricks and listening intently to the sound she produced.
“my stars alive!” whispered mrs. white to herself as she rose on trembling limbs, “what’s she after or is she crazy? it’s my belief she’s stark crazy.”
unable to satisfactorily answer her own query she crept back to the kitchen, where she sat down and faced the situation. was she not in danger by remaining there with a lunatic? she shivered when she thought that she very likely had been within an inch of death when miss boulby had taken to following her around. thank goodness, she had taken to tearing the house to bits and not her! mrs. white resolved to have a bad attack of sciatica that very night and to leave the next morning. meanwhile she would be constantly on guard.
[34] all unsuspecting this attitude on mrs. white’s part, miss katherine was preparing for bed that night and thinking about the unfortunate impression she had made upon mrs. white.
“she is a good and sensible woman,” said miss katherine to herself. “i should be very sorry to hurt her feelings or awaken any suspicions in her, but—i declare to goodness i’ve never searched the cellar and that’s one of the likeliest places. i can’t possibly do it in the daytime for she goes there so frequently. i’d just better slip down now and have a look.”
so saying, miss katherine slipped a heavy wrapper over her night dress, drew on her stockings and slippers, and with the extreme caution that makes every board in a floor creak and every joint in one’s body crack, she proceeded down the stairs.
now this stealthy tread was just what mrs. white’s ears was expecting.
“she’s prowling round the house,” whispered that lady to herself. “it’s a mercy i didn’t fall asleep.”
having located the enemy, mrs. white slipped out in cautious pursuit. she heard miss katherine enter into the kitchen and open the cellar door and start down the stairs. she stole out the front way and went round the house to a cellar window. when she arrived at that vantage point she beheld miss katherine standing in the centre [35] of the cellar, holding a lamp above her head that she might first get a good general view before beginning particular investigations.
“this is a difficult task,” she said aloud, “the cellar is so large that it would take me all night to sound all the walls. now, would there be an old iron-bound sea-chest, the kind sailors hide things in, in a corner here?”
holding her lamp well above her head, she slowly turned herself about that she might see every corner.
now it happened that old tabby had just presented the thankless household with a family of kittens. she had thought that some straw that lay in a corner of the cellar would be a soft, safe bed for her babies, and as a broken window provided ingress and egress for herself, she had taken possession of the corner. old tabby’s guard over her family was most vigilant, but she had not been disturbed until this strange figure made its appearance in the centre of the cellar.
as miss katherine brought her light to bear upon tabby’s corner, the watcher at the window, who knew nothing of the family in the cellar, beheld the lamp dashed to the ground and heard a terrified but half-suppressed shriek and then flying footsteps. she did not wait to see or hear more but stole upstairs as fast as she could in a [36] panic, not knowing but that she might meet the maniac on the stairs.
“i’ll be crazy, too, if i stay here any longer,” she said to herself. “if i’m spared till morning i’ll get out of this.”
she put all the movable furniture in her room against the door, sent up a fervent prayer for protection and got into bed, but not with the intention of sleeping.
the next morning she informed miss boulby that she was far from well, was all crippled with sciatica and would have to leave. her pale face corroborated her words and reluctantly miss katherine let her go.
i should like now to turn the reader’s attention to our friend, mr. murphy. that gentleman had found comfortable lodgings and seemed to be getting much attached to ocean view. by watching rather closely one might suspect that he wished to avoid the adults of ocean view, excepting mr. and miss boulby. he called upon them pretty frequently. the boys of the neighborhood found his society very entertaining and followed in a pack at his heels. he did not always welcome this following, however, for he often put a book in his pocket and rambled along the shore until he found just the right spot where he could sit and read undisturbed. he had taken to doing this [37] immediately after his second call at the boulbys’. the books he carried at first bore the mark of ocean view public library. but one afternoon when he had found his favored spot, he drew from his pocket a glistening new volume.
“gosh darn it!” muttered mr. murphy, as he regarded the book, “if i’d ever thought i’d come to this i suppose i’d ’ve drowned myself.”
he leafed over the book and looked at the illustrations.
“it ain’t dull reading anyway. it might be worse. they say cooper was a clever man so i guess it won’t spoil my intellect to read ’em. but it does beat all how tenants use things. to think of those brand new books looking like that!”
mr. murphy turned to the first chapter and began “the pilot.” he became very much interested therein and read on till the greyness of the page told him that it was growing late. he closed the book, put it in his pocket, stretched out his legs and gazed across the water.
“i’ll be damned if it isn’t the best of any of ’em, and i’ve read upwards of two dozen now. well, i’d never have believed it. you’ll come to almost anything in this world, that’s my belief. but it does take a woman to give you the push that starts you down.”
he meditated silently for sometime, but began again to hold audible commune with himself. “i [38] wonder if i’ve got the correct picture in my head of that knight of the waves hanging up in that library? it would be a good pattern to model myself after if the elements of all those high qualities ain’t in me already. by darn, that’s it! they are in me all the time, too, and i don’t realize it. they just need bringin’ to the surface, excavating ’em so to speak. ‘daring’ was one of ’em—well, i never was called a coward. ‘picturesque’—that’s a hard one to come at. now an indian dressed up in his war togs, or a mexican or even a cowboy would have some claim on that quality, but i’ll be darned what a plain, sober, god-fearing man can do to be it and keep the respect of his mates. i’m doubtful of making that one. if i remember right she claimed he was ‘romantic.’” mr. murphy kicked the pebbles about and then resumed his monologue. “it wouldn’t be as hard to make that one as the other one. i’ve got half a dozen to steer by in any one of the books i’ve been pouring down me. let me see, though, she mentioned two or three: captain kidd was among ’em, i remember. i’d hate to have to carry on my conscience all he must have had on his, if that’s necessary to qualify. but i’ve heard he wore stunning whiskers and that’s probably what took her eye. i can’t call the others to mind but i’m bound to hit on them soon if my eyes don’t give out.”
the lengthening shadows warned mr. murphy [39] that it was past supper time, so he rose, stretched himself and started homeward.
all this time we have been ignoring joseph, who had again fallen into the even tenor of his way. the vision of gold that had for a time disturbed his tranquility had vanished almost as suddenly as it had arisen. such flights of imagination were not for him and he was leading a life of perfect content when a malicious sprite stumbled upon him and marked him for her own.
joseph and willie brown, a neighbor’s boy, were spading up the ground where he had decided to replant his currant bushes. mr. murphy had been sauntering about and had pulled a book out of his pocket and departed when joseph’s unlucky spade threw up something which, in hitting against a stone, had given forth such a clear, ringing sound that he stooped down and felt about in the fresh earth. his fingers closed upon something cold, flat and round. he rubbed it against his overalls until a piece of gold milled like a coin came to view. in a moment his mind had made the connection between his sister’s theories and his discovery. he stood gazing at the piece of gold. “holy moses!” he softly ejaculated.
suddenly he remembered willie. he had found but a clew to the treasure. where was the bulk of it? willie suspected something already. [40] joseph looked at the boy, then at the gold piece, and then at the place where he had found it. i have remarked before that there was no strategy in joseph’s nature. he seized willie by the arm and marched him towards the house.
“that ground’s too hard for currant bushes,” he said to the astonished boy. “we won’t work any more to-day.”
however, willie felt he had no cause for complaint, as joseph gave him a whole day’s pay and miss katherine filled his pockets with cookies.
brother and sister now held a consultation and decided that they must be up and doing. miss katherine believed that they were in imminent danger of having their treasure looted.
“i know boys,” she said, “they’re all eyes and ears. he saw what you found before you did and he’ll tell all the rest of the boys and they’ll come in the night and carry the whole thing away. i think we’d better not go out to that spot again to-day for you can depend upon it, he’s watching. he’ll forget about it by night and then we can go out with the lantern.”
now, willie brown was like all other boys. after being dismissed by mr. boulby he sat down in the corner of a fence and thought. a light broke in upon him after a few moments of silent meditation.
[41] “i’ll bet yuh anything!” he almost yelled, slapping his leg, “that’s it!”
true to the terrible oath he had sworn, he was off like a shot to rally the faithful band. it happened that he met mr. murphy before any of the band.
“i thought you were helping mr. boulby,” said mr. murphy.
“so i was but—but—.” willie’s pride in his secret and mystery was his downfall. from that moment he was an empty vessel in mr. murphy’s sight.
that night found the brother and sister plying their spades in the garden. their lantern was burning dimly, but it gave sufficient light to show the boys all they wished to see.
“what did i tell yuh?” whispered willie to his comrades of the faithful band. “don’t that beat everything? and here it was all the time and we didn’t know it.”
“i’ll bet the old captain was a pirate,” whispered ned larkins.
“i’ll bet so, too,” whispered another.
there is always somebody to throw cold water on our most cherished theories, as willie brown was soon to learn.
“if you didn’t take that thing in your own hands and examine it, you don’t know what it was, willie,” remarked tom parker. “there is a [42] mystery here alright enough, but i wouldn’t say you’re right, willie.”
when they were a safe distance away they besought tom to give them the benefit of his theory, but he absolutely refused. there was no good, he said, in his getting mixed up with it, for if he wasn’t mistaken there’d be trouble about this thing yet. considerably sobered, the band dispersed.
the next day, though dejected and cast down, willie brown again circulated the fiery cross among his faithful followers, and did not even except the skeptic. he was fated to again fall in with mr. murphy, who had been doing some midnight scouting himself and was therefore in both glee and perplexity. by a few skillful questions and tentative remarks, mr. murphy obtained all the information he could desire.
the next day joseph and his sister were feeling pretty stiff and sore after the unaccustomed exposure to the dew and cold. they decided not to work that night.
“you had better drag that big packing box over the hole, joseph,” said miss katherine. “somebody might fall in and break a leg.”
the faithful band appeared later than the previous night. mr. murphy had dropped a hint about the folly of undertaking certain kinds of expeditions at any other time than midnight. they [43] saw the faint outlines of the box but nothing else. at first they were discomfited and then elated. ned larkins said that they must climb over the fence into the garden and dig in the exact spot where the box then was.
tom parker, the dissenter, being the oldest and biggest, was appointed leader.
“no, sir!” declared he emphatically. “i know better than that. i’ve got too much sense to meddle with that. the biggest detective in new york wouldn’t dare go and leave his tracks around there. oh, no! they’re too cute for that.”
tom, of course, meant to imply that he also was “too cute for that.”
willie had taken one snub from tom and he was determined that should be the last.
