Chapter 14: Forgotten Treasure

Pat swiftly untied Taggart’s feet. “Get up,” he ordered. “Your pals are waiting for you in a nice shiny prowl car in front of the Lodge.”

“The police,” Phil gasped. “But how--?”

Pat grinned. “The whole hold-up was a washout. Oh, some of the ladies got a little scared when we all suddenly found ourselves facing those cowboys and their guns. And I was pretty worried about you myself when I saw the door close and guessed you were trapped down here with the ringleader.” He chuckled. “Penny saved the day. Just before the hold-up was to take place, she happened to notice that two of the cowboys, who were loitering out in the hall, were carrying real guns. She raced upstairs and called the police.” He laughed at the chagrined expression on Taggart’s face. “The police arrived shortly after our friend’s pals had collected their loot. In fact, they walked out of the door and right into the arms of two of the biggest cops I’ve ever seen.”

“Those fools,” Taggart snarled. “I told Jerry and Rick not to let anyone out of their sight once the secret door was open.”

Pat, as he deftly emptied Taggart’s pockets, told him, “They didn’t exactly _let_ her dash upstairs to the phone in her room. She went so quickly and so quietly they didn’t even know she wasn’t among those present downstairs. When it finally dawned on them that none of their victims was dressed as a bride, I imagine they guessed that the game was up and decided to scram without waiting to see what had happened to their boss.” He gave Taggart a push. “Get going,” he said gruffly. “There’s a nice shiny pair of bracelets waiting for you.”

It was after one when the men returned from the precinct station after preferring charges against the three men. The girls were waiting excitedly for them on the porch.

“Oh, Phil,” Marjorie yelled, running down the steps. “To think that Graybeard was Mr. Taggart our laundryman, and none of us saw through his disguise.”

“Well,” Phil said, “it was a good disguise for one thing, and he was careful to spend most of his time with Adra who had never seen him.”

Adra smiled rather shamefacedly. “I’m such a lazybones! He usually came in the morning before I was up. When he did come later in the day I guess I was always off somewhere having a good time while you Allens worked.”

“That’s what you were supposed to be doing,” Penny said, smiling. “You’re our guest, remember?”

“Never mind about that,” Marjorie interrupted impatiently. “What I want to know is whether or not Mr. Taggart was Mr. X.” She tugged Phil’s arm, leading him to a seat beside her on the porch glider. “Did he plant the clues we found and write us the threatening letters?”

Phil nodded. “The other men were merely hired by him for the evening to keep the guests out of his hair while he looked for a secret drawer in the safe. He made a complete confession before we left the police station.”

“Oh, oh,” Marjorie cried jumping up. “Then the mystery is solved. Tell us everything, Phil, right now.”

He patted her hand affectionately. “Not now, honey. First we must think of our guests. Family affairs can come later.”

Once everybody was in the dining room, its light and decorations made a gay setting for the return to normal feelings. As Philip followed the last guest into the room, Penny said, “Adra and I were just sick with worry over you, Phil. I want to know every single thing that happened as soon as possible! Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m fine,” Phil assured her.

Jimmy, too, caught Philip and said. “Good work, Phil. When do I get to hear the whole story?”

“As soon as the guests have all gone home or to bed in the Lodge,” Philip said. “It’s a long story.” He turned to Penny, “And it was your quickwittedness that made it have a happy ending.”

“I didn’t do anything but dash up to my room and call the police,” Penny said. “You’re a hero, Phil.”

By now, of course, everyone had removed his mask and all the faces were familiar ones.

Philip moved on to a space at the central table where he and Adra were going to sit together. He held her hand in a firm clasp and her fingers twined in response. Peter smiled at him and clapped his hands together for order.

“Speech! Speech!”

Philip smiled at everybody and didn’t seem at all nervous or upset after his experience of the evening.

“I’m very sorry,” he began, “that robbers chose us for their victims tonight, and that I could not prevent your disagreeable experience.”

“It was fun,” Judy interrupted impulsively. “For the longest time I thought it was just an act Jimmy and Alf were putting on. What I’ll have to tell the girls when I get back to Cincinnati!”

Philip smiled at her and continued: “I hope that you all can forget the unpleasant part of the evening and that you will enjoy the feast Ann Mary prepared. I have here the jewelry and wallets and handbags the armed cowboys took from you. As I hold up each item will the owner please come and get his or her property?”

While the food was being served, Philip distributed the stolen articles to their owners.

“I was much too surprised to be frightened at first,” said Mrs. Curtis, calmly pouring cream into her coffee. “Indeed, like Judy, I thought for quite a while that it was some stunt the boys had thought up. The young people today are always doing some crazy thing.”

“I was nearly speechless at those guns,” said Mrs. Powell. “I don’t know what the country is coming to! But it was all over so quickly I don’t suppose I was much more frightened than I would have been trying to get across a busy street.”

“That, my dear, is slightly underestimating it--at least for me,” said Mr. Powell. “I was just plain worried one of those guns would go off.”

“I certainly hated to see my jewelry gathered in,” remarked Mrs. Sanders.

The prizes were awarded, and there was music afterwards. Some of the older people retired soon, but as this was the last general celebration, the younger set preferred to linger.

Philip, whose duties as host had been accomplished, wasted no time, but took Adra to a moonlit walk and pretty nook on the shore where they sat on the sand and talked.

Philip told Adra of his feeling of responsibility for his brother and sisters. “Now Penny is engaged to Peter as I suppose she told you. This summer’s venture will see Jimmy and Marjorie through school.” He hesitated. “And, er, college. At last, Adra, I feel I have a right to say, well, that the only treasure I ever wanted is you!”

Adra’s blush was most becoming and gave Philip courage to go on. “Could you possibly care for me, Adra? You know your father has invited me into his office and I want to go on with my college education evenings, but somehow, whatever I decide to do depends on you. If you care, I think we can--”

“Manage the rest,” finished Adra calmly, though her heart was beating fast. “Yes, Phil, I care enough.”

Two happy young people walked back to the Lodge about half an hour later. As Phil and Adra entered they found most of the guests gone and Marjorie and Jimmy curled up in big chairs on the porch, sound asleep.

“Those two wouldn’t dare go to bed for fear they’d miss something.” Adra and Philip laughed and went back to find Peter and Penny raiding the pantry for a snack.

“Ha!” cried Phil. “More burglars!”

“Yes; come join us,” replied Penny, unwrapping some brick ice cream.

“Delighted,” returned her brother. “We need to celebrate. Adra and I have just reached a momentous decision and this Lodge can hardly contain me, big as it is.”

“Honest? Oh, Adra, you perfect dear!” and Penny dropped the ice cream to hug Adra with enthusiasm. And Peter, who had caught the ice cream on his plate, shook hands with Philip after carefully setting down his burden.

“You know,” said Peter slyly, “Philip was going to tell us what Mr. Taggart said when he confessed, but I guess Adra has made him completely forget it.”

“That she has,” answered Philip. “Anything else that happened tonight is very unimportant by comparison with this. After all, that’s over. Exciting enough while it lasted, but not nearly as interesting as plans for my future life with Adra.”

“Listen to the hero make little out of his great adventure,” cried Penny. “Phil, I can’t stand it another minute. Begin at the beginning and tell us every word Mr. Taggart said when he confessed. How did he know there was a secret drawer in the safe, and what was in the drawer?”

For answer, Peter led the way to the porch. “Wake up, Sleepy Heads,” he said, nudging Marjorie and Jimmy. “Wake up and hear a bedtime story about hidden treasure!”

“Hidden treasure,” Marjorie repeated, instantly wide awake. “Phil! You’ve been keeping something important from us.”

“I told you it was a family matter,” Phil said, putting his arm around Adra. “And before I told the tale I wanted to be sure that Adra as well as Peter will soon be members of our family.”

“I knew it,” Marjorie cried, giving Adra a hug. “I told you so, Jimmy.”

“Congratulations, you two,” Jimmy said. “I mean, you four. Now, can we hear what went on in the secret room tonight, Phil?”

“The story,” Phil began, “goes back to about twenty years ago when Uncle John was a very rich man and living in New York City. At that time he invested $20,000 in a small company belonging to one of his friends who told him that the stock was sure to go up. But the stock didn’t go up. It went down and finally its name disappeared from the Stock Exchange boards and from the newspaper stock lists. Naturally, Uncle John thought his certificates were worthless, but, lucky for us, he didn’t destroy them.”

“Golly, Phil,” Jimmy cried enthusiastically. “When you say ‘lucky for us’ do you mean the old stock is worth something? Can I have a sailboat after all?”

Phil grinned. “Let me finish, puh-leeze. About five years ago, the company started paying dividends, but it couldn’t locate a great many of its stockholders, among them, Uncle John. He had changed his address several times before he settled down here. So the company officials turned the matter over to a special detective agency which specializes in tracking down owners of forgotten stocks. Notices also appeared in newspapers throughout the country, and Mr. Taggart saw one of the notices.

“With forged credentials, he got a job with the detective agency and was assigned the duty of finding Uncle John. Guessing that Uncle John was dead, he planned to get hold of the stock certificates, and, with more forged credentials, prove that he was his sole heir.”

Phil turned to Penny who was holding hands with Peter. “If it hadn’t been for you, Taggart might well have succeeded. A girl not quite so level-headed might have screamed when she saw those ‘cowboys’ drawing real guns from their holsters.”

Peter squeezed her hand more tightly. “I can’t bear to think about what might have happened if those gunmen had seen you darting up the stairs.”

“Stop it, both of you,” Penny protested, blushing. “Get on with the story, Phil!”

“Okay,” Phil said, smiling. “Taggart finally traced Uncle John to the Lodge only to find that he was dead and that we had started our business venture here. He had hoped to find the Lodge deserted so he could search undisturbed for the certificates. He knew that people leave old stocks and bonds in all sorts of places. Sometimes they slip them under the paper lining of bureau drawers or cupboards, or between the pages of books. False-bottom trunks and secret drawers in old safes, and so forth, and so forth. Taggart realized that one of us, while we were getting the Lodge ready for guests, might come across the certificates. So the first thing he did was to try to frighten us away.”

“That was silly of him,” Marjorie said with a sniff. “He might have known that the Allens don’t frighten easily.”

“Be quiet, imp,” Jimmy said. “He didn’t know anything about us then.” He added to Philip: “So it was Taggart who wrote the two threatening letters? And left his footprint on the ground under the shed floor?”

“That’s right,” Phil told him. “He confessed that he wrote the one to Penny _after_ she fell down the well. And he also confessed that he was our night prowler. Actually he did a lot of prowling we didn’t know about, trying to find out if his anonymous letters had any effect. The first night he came snooping around he listened outside the living room window and heard us joking about digging in the well for buried treasure. That gave him the idea of keeping us busy digging outside, instead of searching around inside.”

“I can guess what he did next,” Marjorie said with a rueful laugh. “He wrote that note on an old piece of paper, put one half in the bottle Judy and I found down on the beach, and the other half in the pocket of the old suit Brook found when the boys were out camping.” She stopped suddenly, her blue eyes wide with amazement. “But how and when did he manage to put that map in the lid of the costume jewelry box?”

“I can answer that one,” Penny said with a sigh. “The day our first guests arrived, I heard someone rummaging around in the storage room. I thought it was you, Marjorie, and thought you were fibbing later when you insisted you were out in the Donahues’ cabin helping Ann Mary count their laundry.” She laughed. “I owe you an apology, honey. While you and Ann Mary were busy, and Phil and I were upstairs hanging curtains, Taggart must have sneaked into the storage room and pasted that map behind the rotten lining of the old jewelry box.”

“You’re both two jumps ahead of me,” Philip said, laughing. “Taggart did put the map where you found it, but first he had to have some excuse for coming out here. He heard in the village that we were looking for someone who would take the soiled linen in to the laundry-mat and applied to Penny for the job.”

Penny moaned, covering her pretty face with both hands. “Oh, why did I fall into his trap so easily? I should have guessed when he offered to do it so cheaply, that something was wrong.”

“Not at all,” Peter said protectively. “Taggart did handle the laundry situation in a very satisfactory manner, so I don’t think anyone can blame you for not suspecting him of an ulterior motive.”

Phil nodded. “That’s right, Penny, nobody blames you. The trouble was that no one paid much attention to him when he came out here. I imagine Ann Mary didn’t always have the bundle ready, or his pay when he brought out the clean wash. Once when she left him alone in the kitchen he slipped down to the beach and stuck the bottle containing half the note under a rock.”

“We made everything so easy for him,” Marjorie groaned. “He was there in the kitchen, I remember, the day Ann Mary suggested that Judy and I search for rare shells. He was also there the time I asked her if it would be all right for us to spend the first rainy day rummaging through the old trunks in the storage room.”

“And,” Penny added, “he knew exactly when the boys left on their camping trip. Remember? Ann Mary told him he had to bring back their clean shirts before they left. I imagine it was simple for him to find out from her where they were going.”

“Uh huh,” Phil said. “_Very_ simple. Ann Mary had no reason to suspect him. He followed them to Uncle John’s fishing camp only to find that they had moved deeper into the woods. He saw the Bronc’s tire tracks and followed them to the lake. Early in the morning before Brook’s adventure, he rigged up the coat with the other half of the note in the pocket. He could count on the fact that one of the boys, while out canoeing, would be sure to notice what looked like the torso of a human body.” Phil smiled. “Taggart also knew that Jimmy, like Marjorie, was sure treasure was buried around here and was looking for clues.”

“And,” Peter added, “the man knew that no boy could resist going through the pockets of an old coat he found.”

Jimmy’s tanned cheeks were very red. “Well,” he said, “that clears up all the mysterious clues and letters. And we certainly all played right into his hands when we issued invitations to the masquerade.”

“And,” Penny added, “when I dropped hints all over the village that we were going to show our guests the secret room that night.” She sighed. “What I don’t understand is how Taggart knew there was a secret drawer in the safe.”

“Because,” Philip explained, staring at Marjorie, “one day when he was out here he caught a glimpse of the safe. Not only is he a notorious forger, but, in between sessions in jail, he’s made an exhaustive study of safes. He knew that the particular style and make of the one in the secret room had a hidden drawer in the top. Since we obviously hadn’t found the certificates while we were cleaning up the Lodge, he guessed that they might be in the secret compartment of the safe.”

“But,” Jimmy interrupted. “When on earth did he get a glimpse of the safe? Up until tonight--I mean last night--nobody but you and Pat ever went into the secret room. And I’m sure neither of you was careless enough to open the door unless you were sure no one was lurking around.”

It was now Marjorie’s turn to cover her red cheeks with both hands. “I can answer that one,” she confessed miserably. “One day when Mr. Taggart was here, I showed Judy how the door opened. He must have been hiding in the alcove when the bookshelves moved back. I heard someone moving down the hall just before we left, and thought it was Ann Mary with a bundle of soiled laundry. But I guess there’s no doubt that it was Mr. Taggart.” She raised her face, on the verge of tears. “Thinking back, I remember now that he was in the kitchen, and Judy and I had just left there when she begged me to show her how the secret door worked. Oh,” she finished, “how can I be so dumb?”

“’Tain’t easy,” Jimmy said, grinning. “You’ve got to have a lot of practice before you can be as hopeless as you are!”

“Never mind, honey,” Penny said to Marjorie in a comforting voice. “After all, in a way you helped to set the trap that caught Mr. X.” She turned to Philip. “We’re all trying to tell your story for you, and I, for one, am getting confused. Once Taggart got a glimpse of the safe and knew how to get into the secret room, why did he wait until the masquerade to go in there?”

Phil chuckled. “Because he didn’t know the combination of the safe. He could, of course, have sneaked out here at night after we’d all gone to bed and used dynamite to open the safe, but that would have been pretty risky. Soon after he saw the safe and the room, we issued blanket invitations to the masquerade and you slyly hinted that part of the evening’s entertainment would be a visit to the secret room. Taggart promptly decided that the safest way of getting what he wanted was to let us lead him right to it.”

“In other words,” Peter added, “while we were setting our little trap, Mr. X was setting one of his own. While his gangster friends were holding up the rest of the party, he planned to force one of you Allens to accompany him into the secret room and open the safe.”

“That’s right,” Philip said. “And I made things easy for him when I asked him to lend atmosphere by posing by the safe; and then, to cap the climax, I stayed behind after everyone else had left. The only thing I can say for myself,” he finished, “is that I did have the presence of mind to close the door as soon as I realized I’d walked into the trap we had set for him. And even that,” he admitted, “was sort of a reflex action.”

“Call it what you like,” Jimmy said, “but it was important. Otherwise, Taggart would have heard the outraged cries of his gunmen when they walked into the arms of the police. During that commotion he might have escaped--with the real loot.” He leaned forward to tap Phil’s knee. “Now that we’ve all, with the exception of the inlaws-to-be, confessed to being dimwits in one way or another, let’s hear more about those stock certificates, Phil. Answer me, yes, or no, are they worth enough so I can get a sailboat?”