Aunt Jane's Nieces on the Ranch Part 17

"Won't you go away, Arthur? Beth and I will watch."

He shook his head.

"You can do no good by staying in this awful place," pleaded the girl, speaking in a whisper.

"If she-if baby-should be heard again, I-I'd like to be here," he said pathetically.

Patsy knew he was suffering and the fact aroused her to action.

"Father isn't a coward," she remarked, "and either he heard the cry, or he dreamed it. In the latter case it amounts to nothing; but if Jane really cried out, that fact ought to give us an important clue."

He started at this suggestion, which the girl had uttered without thought, merely to rea.s.sure him. Yet now she started herself, struck by the peculiar significance of her random words.

"In what way, Patsy?" asked Beth, calmly.

That was the spur she needed. She glanced around the room a moment and then asked:

"Who built this wing, Arthur?"

"Cristoval, I suppose. I've heard it was the original dwelling," he replied. "The rest of the house was built at a much later date. Perhaps two generations labored in constructing the place. I do not know; but it is not important."

"Oh, yes it is!" cried Patsy with increasing ardor. "The rest of the house is like many other houses, but-these walls are six or eight feet in thickness."

"Adobe," said Arthur carelessly. "They built strongly in the mission days."

"Yet these can't be solid blocks," persisted the girl, rising to walk nervously back and forth before the walls. "There must be a s.p.a.ce left inside. And see! the major's bed stands close to the outer wall, which is the thickest of all."

He stared at her in amazement and then, realizing the meaning of her words, sprang to his feet. Beth was equally amazed and looked at her cousin in wonder.

"Oh, Patsy!" she exclaimed, "the baby hasn't been lost at all."

"Of course not," declared Patsy, her great eyes brilliant with inspiration. "_She's imprisoned!_"

CHAPTER XII-ANOTHER DISAPPEARANCE

For a time the three stood regarding one another with startled eyes.

Then Arthur gasped: "Great heaven! what fools we've been."

"Come!" cried Patsy. "The nursery."

They rushed down the corridors to the staircase and thence into the court. The door of the nursery stood ajar and Arthur first entered and lighted a lamp.

The light fell full upon the face of a man seated in a low rocking chair and holding a half smoked cigarette in his mouth. He was fast asleep. It was old Miguel, the ranchero.

Arthur shook his shoulder, savagely, and the man wakened and rubbed his eyes. Then, seeing who had disturbed him, he quickly rose and made his characteristic low, sweeping bow.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Weldon, angry and suspicious.

"I am look for Mees Jane," returned the old man calmly.

"In your sleep? Come, get out of here."

"Wait a minute, Arthur," said Beth, reading Miguel's face. "He knows something."

Arthur looked at the man critically, reflecting that there must be a reason for his presence in the nursery. Miguel had been fond of baby Jane. Was he merely disconsolate over her loss, or-did he really "know something"?

"Miguel once told me," said Patsy, speaking slowly, "that he used to live in this house, in Cristoval's time, and knows it thoroughly."

The old man bowed.

"I theenk," said he, "perhaps we find Mees Jane here-not somewhere else."

"Why do you think that, Miguel?"

It was Patsy who questioned him. He mused a bit before replying.

"The old senor-the father of my Senor Cristoval-was strange mans," said he. "He make thees house a funny way. Come; I show you."

He led the way to the little room adjoining, the one Inez had occupied.

In one corner of the floor was a square hole, with steps leading down to a sort of blind pocket. Holding a lamp in one hand Miguel descended the steps and pushed against a block of adobe that formed part of the outer wall. It swung inward, disclosing a cavity about four feet in width and fully six feet high. The interior could be plainly seen from the room, by stooping close to the floor. There were shelves in the cavity and upon one of them stood a jar of milk.

"Oh," cried Patsy, clasping her hands together. "I told you the wall was hollow!"

Arthur followed Miguel down the steps. He took the lamp and examined the little room. All the walls that formed it seemed solid.

Miguel was holding the block that served as a door. He released his hold, when Arthur had again ascended, and the block swung back into place.

As they returned to the nursery, Weldon asked:

"Do you know of any other rooms in the wall, Miguel?"

The man shook his head, uncertainly.

"I know there be other rooms in thees wall," said he, "for Senor Cristoval have told me so. Hees father make the places to keep things safe from robbers-perhaps to hide from others, too. But where such places are ees the secret of the Cristovals. The room I show you ees all I know about. I thought that was secret, too; but no; the New York nurse tell Inez of that room, an' Inez she keep Mees Jane's milk there, to be cool."

"Mildred told of the room!" exclaimed Arthur in astonishment.

"Yes," said Beth, "she used to visit this house as a girl, when Cristoval lived here, and she must have known some of the secret rooms."

"Ah, that ees what I theenk," agreed old Miguel. "There ees more room in thees wall; that I know. If thees Mildreed know one room, she may know more. So I theenk she and Inez have go into some room of the wall an'

take Mees Jane with them. Some way, they cannot get out again."

"Exactly!" cried Patsy triumphantly. "They are somewhere in that wall, imprisoned, and the major really heard the baby cry."