<h3>CHAPTER XXIV</h3>
<h4>THE INITIALS</h4>
<p>There was no sound that Tom Cameron or the girls could hear from the shrubbery;
but Reno evidently knew that somebody was lurking there. And by the dog's
actions Tom thought it must be somebody whom Reno disliked.
</p>
<p>"Oh, don't leave us, Tom!" begged Helen, running behind her brother and the
mastiff.
</p>
<p>"Come on—both of you!" muttered Tom. "We'll see what this means. Stick close
to me."
</p>
<p>He had picked up a stout club; but it was in the huge and intelligent mastiff
that they all put their confidence. The dog, although he snuffed now and
then as though the scent that had first disturbed him still came down the
wind, had ceased to growl.
</p>
<p>They came to a path in the thicket and followed it for a few yards only,
when Reno stopped and stiffened again.
</p>
<p>"Hush!" whispered Tom, and parted the bushes with one hand, his other still
clinging to the mastic's collar.
</p>
<p>There was a tiny opening in the shrubbery. It surrounded the foot of a huge
beech tree. In some past day a careless hunter had built a fire close to
the trunk of this tree. It was now hollow at the base, but vines and creepers
growing up the tall tree had hidden the opening.
</p>
<p>A man was on his knees at the foot of the tree and had drawn the matted curtain
of creepers aside with one hand while with the other he reached in to the
full length of his arm. He had no suspicion of the presence of the young
people and Reno.
</p>
<p>Out of the hollow in the tree trunk he drew something wrapped in an old pair
of overalls. He unwrapped it, still with his back to the spot where the dog
and his master and the girls stood. But the three friends could see over
his shoulder as he knelt on the ground, and saw plainly that the object he
had withdrawn from the tree trunk was a flat black box, evidently japanned,
and there was a fair-sized brass padlock which fastened it.
</p>
<p>"Ha, ha, ha!" chuckled the man to himself, as he wrapped the box up again
in the old clothes, and then thrust it hastily into the hollow tree. "Safe
yet! safe yet!"
</p>
<p>He rose up then and without even looking about him, started directly away
from the glen. He plainly had no suspicion of the presence of the dog and
the trio of young folks. When he was quite out of sight and sound, Tom whispered,
patting Reno:
</p>
<p>"I declare, girls! That was Jasper Parloe!"
</p>
<p>"That mean thing!" returned his sister. "I guess he's a miser as well as
a hermit; isn't he?"
</p>
<p>"Looks like it. I've a good mind to take that thing he put in there and hide
it somewhere else. He wouldn't be so sure about it's being safe then; would
he?"
</p>
<p>"No! Don't you touch his nasty things, Tom," advised Helen, turning away.
</p>
<p>But Ruth still stared at the hidden hollow in the tree and suddenly she darted
forward and knelt where Parloe had knelt.
</p>
<p>"What are you going to do, Ruth?" demanded her chum.
</p>
<p>"I want to see that box—I must see it!" cried the girl from the Red Mill.
</p>
<p>"Hold on!" said Tom. "I'll get it for you. You'll get your dress dirty."
</p>
<p>"I wouldn't touch it," cried Helen, warningly.
</p>
<p>"I must!" gasped Ruth, greatly excited.
</p>
<p>"It don't belong to you," quoth Helen.
</p>
<p>"And I'm very sure it doesn't belong to Jasper Parloe," declared Ruth, earnestly.
</p>
<p>Tom glanced at the girl from the Red Mill suddenly, and with close attention.
He seemed to understand her excitement.
</p>
<p>"Let me in there," said the youth. "I can reach it, Ruthie."
</p>
<p>He pushed her gently, and while Ruth and Helen held aside the mass of vines
the boy crawled in and reached the bundle of rags. He carefully hauled it
all forth and the japanned box tumbled out of its loose wrappings.
</p>
<p>"There it is!" grunted Tom, getting up and wiping his hands on a tuft of
grass. "What do you make of it?"
</p>
<p>Ruth had the box in her hands. Helen, looking over her shoulder, pointed
to two faded letters painted on the cover of the box.
</p>
<p>"That belongs to Jasper Parloe. His initials are on the box," she said.
</p>
<p>"'J. P.'—that's right, I guess," muttered Tom.
</p>
<p>It could not be gainsaid that Parloe's initials were there. Ruth stared at
them for some moments in silence.
</p>
<p>"Better put it back. I don't know what he can possibly have to hide in this
way," Tom said. "But we wouldn't want to get into trouble with him. He's
a mean customer."
</p>
<p>"It isn't his box!" said Ruth, quietly.
</p>
<p>"Why isn't it?" cried Helen, in amazement.
</p>
<p>"I never noticed the letters on the box before. The box has been cleaned
since I saw it—"
</p>
<p>"You don't mean that it is your uncle's cash-box, Ruth?" interrupted Tom,
in excitement.
</p>
<p>"Why, you ridiculous boy!" declared Helen. "You know that was lost in the
flood."
</p>
<p>"I don't know. Do you?" Tom demanded, shortly.
</p>
<p>"But, Ruth!" gasped Helen.
</p>
<p>"It looks like Uncle Jabez's box," Ruth whispered.
</p>
<p>"But the letters! Jasper Parloe's initials," cried the hard-to-be-convinced
Helen Cameron.
</p>
<p>"They're uncle's initials, too," explained Ruth, quietly.
</p>
<p>"Whew!" ejaculated Tom. "So they are. 'J. P.—Jabez Potter.' Can't get around
that."
</p>
<p>"Well, I never!" gasped Helen.
</p>
<p>"Do you suppose all old Jabe's money is in this?" muttered Tom, weighing
the cash-box in his hands. "It can't be in coin."
</p>
<p>"I do not know that he had much money in coin," said Ruth. "I think he used
to change the gold and silver for notes, quite frequently. At least, Aunt
Alvirah says so."
</p>
<p>"But suppose it should be Parloe's after all?" objected Helen.
</p>
<p>"Let's find that out," said Tom, vigorously. "Come on, girls. We'll finish
eating, pack up, and start back. We'll drive right up to Parloe's and show
him this box, and ask him if it is his. If he says yes, we'll make him come
along to the mill and face Mr. Potter, and then if there is any doubt of
it, let them go before a magistrate and fight it out!"
</p>
<p>The girls were impressed with the wisdom of this declaration, and all went
back to rescue the remains of their luncheon from the birds and from a saucy
gray squirrel that had already dropped down to the lowest limb of the tree
under which they had spread their cloth, and who sat there and chattered
angrily while they remained thereafter, as though he considered that he had
been personally cheated out of a banquet.
</p>
<p>The girls and Tom were so excited that they could not enjoy the remainder
of the nice things that Babette had packed in their lunch basket They were
soon in the carriage, and Tubby was startled out of a pleasant dream and
urged up the hilly road that led through the woods to the squatter's cabin,
where Jasper Parloe had taken up his quarters after he had been discharged
from employment at the Red Mill.</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.