<h2 id="c22">CHAPTER XXII <br/><span class="small">CAPTURED BY TWO GIRLS</span></h2>
<p>Dorothy pored over the blue print for a long
time. She was growing so nervous that all the
little white lines on the paper began dancing about
and grinning at her, and Mr. Akerson’s voice and
Tavia’s in the other room became louder and louder.
Every footstep as the clerks returned, one by
one, from lunch, set her heart palpitating, and she
clenched her hands nervously. She feared that
Mr. Akerson would in some way evade them, disappear
before Ned and the boys could arrive!</p>
<p>Tavia seemed so calm and self-possessed and examined
the books so critically that Dorothy marveled
at her! Surely Tavia could not understand
so complicated a thing as a ledger! Off in the distance,
at the end of the suite, Dorothy suddenly
saw a familiar brown head, and behind a shaggy
white head, and then a pair of great, braid shoulders,
and in back of them a modish bonnet framing
the dignified face of Aunt Winnie!</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_205">[205]</div>
<p>“Dorothy,” she called, running forward.
“Here they are!”</p>
<p>Dorothy’s interest in the prints ceased instantly,
and she sprang after Tavia.</p>
<p>Mr. Akerson’s face blanched and he withdrew
to his private office.</p>
<p>All the clerks returned discreetly to their
work, typewriters clicking merrily, as the family
filed down through the offices and into Mr. Akerson’s
private room. He faced them all until he
met the clear eyes of Mrs. White, then he shifted
uneasily and requested Bob, who came in last, to
close the door.</p>
<p>“What’s it all about, Dorothy?” asked Bob
in clear, cool tones, as he looked with rather a contemptuous
glance at the agent. “Has someone
been annoying you?” and he seemed to swell up
his splendid muscles under his coat-sleeves—muscles
that had been hardened by a healthy, active
out-of-door life in camp.</p>
<p>“If there has,” continued Bob, as he looked for
a place in the paper-littered office to place his hat,
“if there has, I’d just like to have a little talk with
them—outside,” and the lad nodded significantly
toward the hall.</p>
<p>“Oh, Bob!” began Dorothy. “You mustn’t—that
is—Oh, I’m sure it’s all a mistake,” she said,
hastily.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_206">[206]</div>
<p>“That’s more like it,” said Mr. Akerson, and
he seemed to smile in relief. Somehow he looked
rather apprehensively at Bob, Tavia thought. She,
herself, was admiring the lad’s manliness.</p>
<p>“But you telephoned,” Bob continued. “We
were quite alarmed over it. You said——”</p>
<p>“Young ladies aren’t always responsible for
what they say over the ’phone,” put in Mr. Akerson,
with what he meant to be a genial smile at
Bob. “I fancy—er—we men of the world realize
that. If Miss Dale has any complaint to make——”
he paused suggestively.</p>
<p>“Oh, I don’t know what to do!” cried Dorothy.
“There certainly seems to be some need of a complaint,
and yet——”</p>
<p>“Doro, dear, have you been trying to straighten
out my business for me?” demanded Mrs. White,
with a gracious smile.</p>
<p>“Aunt Winne—I don’t exactly know. Tavia
here, she——”</p>
<p>“We’re trying the straightening-out process,”
put in Tavia. “We had just started after being
locked——”</p>
<p>“Careful!” warned the agent. “I cautioned
you about libel, you remember, and that snapping
shut of the lock on the door was an error, I tell
you.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_207">[207]</div>
<p>“Never mind about that part,” broke in Tavia.
“Tell us about the business end of it. About the
rents, why they have fallen off, and all the rest.”</p>
<p>“Have you really been going over the books
with him, Dorothy?” asked Mrs. White, in wonder.</p>
<p>“Allow me to tell about matters,” interrupted
Akerson. “I think I understand it better.”</p>
<p>“You ought to,” murmured Tavia.</p>
<p>“I will listen to you, Mr. Akerson,” said Mrs.
White, gravely. “You may proceed.”</p>
<p>“As I have just been saying to Miss Dale,” he
went on, pointing to the ledgers on his desks, “this
matter can be explained in two minutes, if you will
just glance over these entries.”</p>
<p>He pushed the books toward Aunt Winnie.</p>
<p>“Don’t look at them, Aunt Winnie,” cried
Dorothy. “The entries are false! We have his
own words to prove his wrong-doing! His statements
to Tavia and Miss Mingle’s word to us are
different.”</p>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/fig3.jpg" alt="“DON’T LOOK AT THEM, AUNT WINNIE,” CRIED DOROTHY. “THE ENTRIES ARE FALSE!”" width-obs="500" height-obs="779" /> <p class="center"><span class="small">“DON’T LOOK AT THEM, AUNT WINNIE,” CRIED DOROTHY. “THE ENTRIES ARE FALSE!”</span></p> </div>
<p>And by a peculiar net of circumstances, which
invariably occur when one thread tightens about a
guilty man, Miss Mingle at that moment walked
into the room! She had come to demand justice
from the man who had served removal notice upon
herself and her sister, Mrs. Bergham. She held
the notice in her hand. Major Dale took it, and
tearing it in small pieces, placed it in a waste paper
basket.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_208">[208]</div>
<p>“He admitted to me, quite freely,” protested
Tavia, “that every tenant in the house paid eighty
or one hundred dollars for his or her apartment!”</p>
<p>Miss Mingle at first could not grasp the meaning
of it, but as Dorothy quickly explained that
her aunt was the owner of the apartment, it
dawned on Miss Mingle just how, after all, the
guilty are punished, even though the road to justice
be a long and crooked one.</p>
<p>“You never spent a penny on that place,”
growled Mr. Akerson, “I spent a good pile of
my own money, just to fix it up after my own ideas
of a studio apartment.”</p>
<p>“I spent more than half of my income of thirty-five
dollars per month from each apartment, for
constant repairs, and when I discussed with you,
as you well know, the advisability of advancing
the rents a few dollars to cover the outlay, you
discouraged it, said it was impossible in that section
of the city to ask more than thirty-five dollars,”
said Mrs. White sternly.</p>
<p>“What these books really show,” said Dorothy,
“is the enormous amount that is due Aunt
Winnie from Mr. Akerson!”</p>
<p>“The tenants are so dissatisfied,” explained
Miss Mingle, “the constant increases in the rent
were so unreasonable! The porter in the house,
so we have found, was in league with Mr. Akerson,
and kept him informed of everything that
happened.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_209">[209]</div>
<p>“That’s how,” said Tavia, with a hysterical
laugh, “he knew whom it was we called on at the
Court Apartments!”</p>
<p>“Easy there,” said Bob to Tavia, “don’t start
laughing that way, or you’ll break down, and I’ll
have to take care of you.”</p>
<p>“It’s been so awful, Bob,” said Tavia, his name
slipping naturally from her lips. “We tried to
carry it through all alone!”</p>
<p>“Just as soon as you’re left to yourselves,” he
said with a smile, “you begin to get into all sorts
of trouble!”</p>
<p>“There is only one thing to say,” declared Major
Dale, advancing toward Mr. Akerson. “Nat
will figure up what you owe to Mrs. White, you
will sit down and write out a check for the amount,
and that will close further transactions with you!”</p>
<p>Mr. Akerson fingered his check book, and made
one last effort to explain:</p>
<p>“Miss Mingle is influenced by her sister, who
has hallucinations,” but he could say no more, for
Major Dale and Bob came toward him threateningly.</p>
<p>“Miss Mingle teaches my daughter in school,
and we will hear nothing from you about her family,”
said Major Dale, decidedly.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_210">[210]</div>
<p>“I demand justice!” cried Mr. Akerson, jumping
from his seat.</p>
<p>“I call this justice,” calmly answered the major.</p>
<p>“I shall not be coerced into signing a check and
handing it to Mrs. White. I’ll take this matter
to the proper authorities,” the agent fumed, as he
walked rapidly to and fro. “It’s an injustice.
I tell you I’m innocent.”</p>
<p>“Then prove your innocence!” answered Major
Dale.</p>
<p>The ladies were beginning to show signs of the
nervous strain. Miss Mingle and Tavia were almost
in hysterics, while Dorothy clung to Mrs.
White’s arm.</p>
<p>“You do not understand the laws in this State,”
declared Mr. Akerson. “There is no charge
against me. I defy you to prove one!”</p>
<p>“Very well, we will summon one who understands
the laws, and decide the matter at once,”
said Major Dale; “meanwhile, you ladies leave
these disagreeable surroundings.”</p>
<p>“After all,” said Miss Mingle, as they left the
office building, “we won’t have the awful bother
of moving; will we, dear Mrs. White?” Her
voice was full of pleading.</p>
<p>“No, indeed, and as soon as everything is settled,
we must try to find an honest agent to care
for the place. I am convinced that Mr. Akerson
is not honest, in spite of all he said,” said Mrs.
White.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_211">[211]</div>
<p>“My poor sister!” sighed Miss Mingle. “She
almost collapsed at the mere thought of having to
leave that apartment.”</p>
<p>“Never mind,” consoled Mrs. White, “everything
will be all right now. And you dear girls,
how you ever had the courage to face that situation
all alone, I cannot understand!”</p>
<p>“Oh, it was nothing!” said Tavia, really believing,
since the worst part of it was over, that it
had been nothing at all.</p>
<p>“I almost imagine we enjoyed it!” Dorothy exclaimed.</p>
<p>“Oh, nonsense,” said Mrs. White, “you are
both so nervous, you look as though another week’s
rest would be needed. You are pale, both of you.”</p>
<p>“Well, I don’t feel one bit pale,” said Tavia,
“Still I think I’ll lie down, when we get home.”</p>
<p>“So will I, but I’m not tired,” declared Dorothy.</p>
<p>“They are too young; too high spirited,” said
Mrs. White to Miss Mingle, as they parted; “they
won’t admit the awful strain they have been under
all day.”</p>
<p>An hour later, when the boys and Major Dale
returned to the apartment, all was quiet, and they
tiptoed about for fear of awakening the girls.
Aunt Winnie was waiting for them.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_212">[212]</div>
<p>“It’s all settled,” whispered Major Dale. “We
have Akerson under bonds to appear in three days
to pay back all money due you.”</p>
<p>“And to think that Dorothy and Tavia unraveled
the mystery!” sighed Aunt Winnie.</p>
<p>“Hurrah!” said the boys, in a whisper. “Hurrah
for the girls!”</p>
<p>Which brought the girls into the room.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_213">[213]</div>
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