Chapter XVI

Jimmy was dropped off at the Higginbotham camp; the other two men went ahead to their own camp.

A wild, distracted young woman met them. Norah was standing near the edge of the water gesticulating wildly. Jack, in instant concern ran through the last few feet of shallow water. "Jack," she panted, "Tommy is gone." He stared at her stupidly. She continued wildly: "Jack," she panted, "Tommy is gone! he's gone!"

He reached her side and took her shoulders. "Get hold of yourself, sis. Tell me--"

"When he didn't get up, his usual time this morning, I didn't think anything of it. I didn't want to go up to disturb him. At eight o'clock I went up to his room, he wasn't there. Martha said she heard him outside about six o'clock, or perhaps a little earlier.

"She didn't think anything of it; he often did that. We felt he was safe, the water is too shallow to drown between here and the float. But--"

Her arms went about him convulsively and she broke into violent sobbing. She calmed herself in a moment and continued:

"I tried to reach you in New York, but you had gone. Mr. McCall advised against notifying the police. He thinks that is perhaps the worst thing we can do. He went down to the other camp and to Lentone to see what he can do. Oh, Jack--"

Professor Brierly stood wide-eyed as he heard the news. This was more than the mere solution of a problem. His little friend had become very dear to him. He looked at the expanse of water rippling and glinting in the mid-day sunlight. Then he looked up and down the shore line. The irregularity of it at this point was such that one could not see a great distance in either direction.

He stared at the growth on each side of the house. Impossible that Tommy could have penetrated more than a few yards in either direction. And Professor Brierly too, remembered that the little boy had shown a disinclination for going into the woods alone. Back of the house stretched the trail leading through the woods and fields, plowed and un-plowed, to the main road. Norah and McCall had been over that.

Professor Brierly went into the house. Norah was going about distractedly from room to room, looking in impossible places for the missing boy. Matthews had gone up the road. The young man returned shortly and they all went down to the water. Jack, his usually smiling features set in lines of care, got into the canoe and paddled slowly toward the float, his eyes fixed on the water.

Here, as was the case for some distance out, the water was so clear that the pebbly bottom was distinctly visible, with its tiny fish darting in flashing schools, from shadow to shadow.

Jack waved his hand and went roaring toward Lentone in the sea sled. This blow, he felt, coming to his sister so soon after the late tragic loss of her husband was more than one person should be called upon to bear. He went to the post office and barely glanced at the mail and newspapers the clerk handed him. He met Jimmy as he left the post office. With set face and dead tones he apprised his friend of the calamity that had visited their camp. Jimmy, in silence, too grief stricken to think of it in terms of a story, accompanied his friend to their camp.

McCall had returned without news. The group met in stony silence. Professor Brierly was absently fingering an enclosure addressed to him when he uttered an exclamation. He read it and handed it to the person nearest him, McCall. The latter read the communication aloud, all crowding in their eagerness to see it over his shoulder. There was no signature.

_The boy is safe. You will hear from us. Do not communicate with the police._

The communication was on an oblong sheet of cheap notepaper, evidently torn from a scratch pad. The message was inscribed in hand printed characters. The features of the group were compounded of relief, deadly anger, hope, fear. Norah was of a sanguine disposition. She thought of other kidnappings, but she chose to dwell rather on those that ended happily. This note spelled hope. She sobbed in an access of relief, being held close in her brother's arms. Jack was clumsily and tenderly patting her shoulder, making endearing and comforting sounds.

She looked up and dried her eyes, glancing from one to the other of the four capable men in the group. A glow of confidence in their combined ability gave her new hope.

"What shall we do," she asked piteously. "Shall we do what they say or--"

The men exchanged glances. Professor Brierly finished her sentence: "Or notify the authorities?" She nodded mutely.

After a long pause, Matthews answered slowly. "Everything I can do, dear, everything I have is at your disposal and will be used to help find Tommy. But it is for you to say what we do about it."

Professor Brierly said gently:

"John voices my sentiments, Mrs. Van Orden. All I can do, all I have is at your disposal toward finding your boy. The Canadian Police are a very efficient organization. But we take a certain risk in calling in the authorities on this quest. The same, of course, applies to publicity. Mr. Hale, I am sure, will respect that. I realize that it is hard to wait because whatever traces there are may be obscured by the passage of time. On the other hand, calling in the police, with its resultant publicity, may force the kidnappers to the very step we all fear. Therefore, I am afraid that the responsibility for decision must lie with you, my dear."

The men looked in unhappy silence at the struggle the young woman was undergoing. Her features betrayed her hopes and fears. Finally twirling the plain gold band on her finger she said:

"It can do no particular harm to wait a day or two, can it? We must not do anything to--to--anger them must we? Oh, I don't know what to say!"

She turned swiftly and hurried out. The men turned toward one another in mute inquiry. Three of them were startled at what they saw in the features of Professor Brierly. Even Matthews had never seen such profound, unutterable, implacable rage as now possessed the old scientist. They were all accustomed to outbursts of wrath and impatience at stupidity or stubbornness when he was crossed; these passed quickly. Never had even Matthews, of the three who knew him best, seen the deadly anger that now blazed in the deeply sunken eyes. Professor Brierly was about to speak, but his emotion was too deep for utterance. He stammered, stopped and left the room.

When he returned shortly he said with repressed emotion:

"I can condone all kinds of property crime; they may be caused by need or greed; they may be the result of bad home influence. I can condone crimes of passion; even the laws differentiate between these and deliberate murder. But there is no mitigation or excuse for this kind of deed, a crime that takes an infant from its home and makes others suffer. I shall see to it," his words were carefully spaced and came slowly, "that-the-men-responsible-for-this-are punished." He shook his head violently as if to shake off an unpleasant picture. He held up the envelope and enclosure once more. He looked up when Norah came in dry-eyed. She stood leaning wearily against the table running her hand through her disheveled hair.

"Have you decided?" asked Professor Brierly.

"Yes, Professor, we will wait a day or two. I--I--am afraid."

A day and night spent in an agony of apprehension came to an end the following morning with the receipt of the following message:

_Professor Herman Brierly:_

_Go home to New York, you will hear from us there._

It was printed on the same cheap notepaper. Again, as the first message, it bore the postmark of Magog. It had no signature. McCall pointed to the address on the envelope:

"Is this the way you have all your mail addressed, to the post office at Lentone or--"

"Some of the mail is addressed this way; some of it is addressed directly to me and is left in the mail box nailed up to a tree at the entrance to this trail."

"What will you do about this, Professor?"

"I ought to go, of course, but--"

"To New York?" wondered Jimmy. "You would think the kidnappers, would rather deal with you here. They run much more chance of being caught in New York than up here. It seems--"

He stopped and looked curiously at Matthews. The latter was staring intently out upon the water. Without taking his eyes from the object that engaged his rapt attention, he said tensely:

"Someone give me the binoculars, quick!"

Norah handed him the glasses. He carefully focused them and looked long and earnestly out upon the water. The three men and the young woman followed his gaze and saw only the usual scattered craft on the surface of the lake.

Matthews with a muttered exclamation, put down the glasses, snatched an automatic from a drawer in a table and raced toward the little wharf, throwing over his shoulder:

"Be back soon."

The others followed him to the lake slowly. They saw him get into the sea sled to which the outboard motor was attached, start it and go roaring off in the direction toward which he had had his glasses focused. The anxious groups watched intently.

They saw one of the bobbing craft turn and go racing toward the opposite shore in a north-westerly direction, with Matthews in pursuit.

The watchers stood there with bated breath, being quite certain that this impromptu pursuit had something to do with Tommy's disappearance. Their sea sled was fast and Matthews was adept at handling it. To their dismay they saw the distance between Matthews and the other boat widening. The pace of Matthews' boat slowed; it stopped altogether. They saw Matthews tinkering with the motor. Then they saw him take up the oar and begin paddling back laboriously.

He hailed a passing launch which towed him back to their wharf. Matthews' face was grim drawn as he reached his friends. They looked their mute inquiry.

Matthews unscrewed the motor from its place and carried it up above the water line. Then he turned to face them.

"Somebody was watching us from that boat with a pair of glasses. I caught the flash of the sun on his lenses. There was one man in the boat. I couldn't get a good look at him, he wore a floppy, big-brimmed straw hat well over his face.

"My gas gave out when I went after him. This wasn't an accident or carelessness on my part either. I filled the tank yesterday afternoon. Someone punctured the tank during the night. The puppy barked during the night but he barks a lot at nothing. See!"

He turned the motor over and pointed to a place near the bottom of the tank, where they saw a small hole with the ragged edge of the metal glinting with a freshness that the rest of the metal did not have. He continued:

"It's not a sure thing I could have caught him, if I had gas; that was a pretty fast boat, faster than this I think."

"Will you recognize the boat if you see it again?" asked Jimmy.

Matthews shook his head slowly.

"I'm not sure. There's any number of sea sleds on this lake just like it. That's not the important thing though. I should have taken the glasses along. When my gas gave out I could have had a good look at their motor. There may be a lot of boats like that but not many motors that can develop that speed. It will be a simple thing to attach that motor to another boat."

He went on with grim irony: "That's simple enough. If we had ten thousand men we could comb the thirty-odd miles of lake and examine every motor on it, thus narrowing the search down to motors capable of a speed--why are they watching, why--"

"Yes," went on McCall, "why this, and why do they want Professor Brierly to go back to New York? Why in the name of common sense New York? Is it--is it--" his features lit up. "Is it because someone is interested in seeing that Professor Brierly does not interfere in the affairs of Camp Higginbotham in the next few days?"

There was no answer. Professor Brierly's bushy eyebrows were bristling. He was staring at the faces of the group unseeingly.

Jimmy burst out:

"This is more than a mere kidnapping. With the eyes of two countries focused on this section the kidnapping can be predicated on one of two hypotheses. The kidnappers are crazy or they want Professor Brierly in New York. Mac's guess seems a good one. They want Professor Brierly away from here; that's a cinch. They--"

"Jimmy," interrupted Matthews, "are you influenced in what you say by your hope that Professor Brierly will help solve the riddle of the Tontine groups and help your story?"

He obviously was still in the grim mood that was so apparent on his return from the futile chase. Jimmy did not answer the charge. He was looking at Matthews gravely. Jack reddened under the stare.

"I'm sorry, Jim. That was rotten! But thinking of Tommy--" Jimmy nodded:

"All right, old man, forget it, you didn't say anything. But I am wondering about this request to go to New York. I can't help thinking there is something in this request that doesn't appear on the face of it." He turned to Professor Brierly: "What are you going to do, sir?" Professor Brierly looked mutely at Norah. She shook her head helplessly.

For the next twenty-four hours the group suffered that, which is hardest to bear under the circumstances, inactivity. Twenty-four hours after the receipt of the second note there came a third, on the familiar cheap notepaper. This time it was postmarked Lentone, Vermont. It read:

_"Professor Brierly was told to go to New York. We will not stand any fooling. Enclosed is a sample of what we will do. If he does not start at once more will follow."_

This time the note was addressed to Norah. Wrapped securely there was a small object in the strong envelope. Professor Brierly took the small object from her hand. It was a human tooth, a tooth with dried blood on it. It had the ragged roots characteristic of a baby tooth, when it comes out.

At this moment McCall stepped into the room. Norah turned to him impulsively and told him of the letter and the accompanying tooth.

"How horrible!" exclaimed McCall. "Professor, we must--"

"Yes, pretty bad," commented Professor Brierly, "something must be done, quickly. But, there is, as our friend Hale would say, something wrong with this picture. This tooth did not come from Thomas's mouth. It--"

"Not from Tommy's mouth?" repeated Norah.

"No, Mrs. Van Orden, you may be certain of that. The roots of a child's teeth undergo a certain amount of disintegration before it is ready to give place to the permanent teeth. We will not go into the mechanical and biological reasons for this destruction; it is not important. While this is a deciduous tooth, I mean a baby tooth, it is not Thomas's tooth. How old is Thomas, Mrs. Van Orden?"

"He was just four and half years old yesterday."

Professor Brierly nodded his snow white head.

"Exactly, I thought so. No baby's tooth at that age shows the amount of disintegration that this tooth shows. Depend on it Mrs. Van Orden, this tooth comes from the mouth of a child of not less than nine years of age."

The group was staring in wide-eyed astonishment. Norah asked tremulously.

"You are certain of what you say, Professor, that this is not Tommy's tooth."

"Depend on it, sis," interrupted Matthews. "Professor Brierly could not be mistaken in a thing like that. What I want to know is why--why this?"

There was an air of relief in the old scientist's demeanor. He still looked grim but he had the appearance of a man who has had a load lifted from him.

"I believe I know why. At any rate this solves one thing for us. My advice is that we notify the police of the kidnapping. I do not think we can gain anything now by keeping quiet. I am also reasonably convinced that no harm can come to Thomas unless something unforeseen happens.

"Furthermore, it is safe to say that in a short time we will solve the murders of the Tontine group. You were right, Mr. McCall and you Hale. This kidnapping is intimately bound up with those murders. I am beginning to see light. Let us notify the police," he concluded decisively.