The Corner House Girls Snowbound Part 18

The party had come a long way, and the steaming horses were now weary.

As evening approached the cold increased in intensity, while the mournfully sounding wind promised stern weather. The members of the party from Milton began to congratulate each other that they were arriving at the Lodge before a big storm should sweep over this northern country.

"And suppose we get snowed in and aren't able to get out of the woods till spring?" suggested Cecile, not without some small fear that such might be a possibility.

"There goes little Miss Fidget!" cried her brother. "Always worrying over the worst that may happen."

"But I suppose we could be s...o...b..und up here?" suggested Ruth, although scarcely with anxiety.

"Yes!" agreed Luke, laughing. "And pigs might fly. But they tell me they are awful uncertain birds."

"Don't listen to him, Ruthie," said Cecile. "We may have to stay here all winter long."

"Then I only hope Mr. Howbridge sent up grub enough to see us through till spring," put in the collegian gayly. "For I can foresee right now that this keen air is going to give me the appet.i.te of an Eskimo."

It was a long climb to the top of the ridge on which the Birdsalls had built their rustic home. When the party came in sight of it the lamps were already lighted and these beckoned cheerfully to the arrivals while they were still a long way off.

The private road which had branched off from the regular tote-road at the foot of the ridge was easy to ascend beside some of the hills they had climbed. The teams, however, were not to be urged out of a walk.

There was a sudden flare of sulphurous light over the wooded caps of the mountains to the west of the ridge; but this lasted only a few minutes. The sun was then smothered in the mists as it sank to rest.

Dusk almost at once filled the aisles of the forest.

On the summit of the ridge about the big, sprawling, rustic house only shade trees had been allowed to stand. The land was cleared and tilled to some extent. At least, there was plenty of open s.p.a.ce around the Lodge and the log barns and the outbuildings.

Somebody was on watch, for the big entrance door opened before the sleds reached the steps, and yellow lamplight shone out across the porch. Hedden stood in the doorway, while another man ran down to a.s.sist with the bags and bundles.

"Oh, what a homelike looking place!" Ruth cried, quite as amazed as the other visitors by the appearance of the Lodge.

Aside from the fact that the house was built of round logs with the bark peeled off, it did not seem to be at all rough or of crude construction. There were two floors and a garret. The entrance hall seemed as big as a barn.

It was cozy and warm, however, despite its size. There was a gallery all around this hall at the level of the second floor, and a stairway went up on either side. At the rear was a huge fireplace, and this was heaped with logs which gave off both light and heat. There was a chandelier dropped from the ceiling, however, and acetylene gas flared from the burners of this fixture.

The whole party crowded to the hearth where benches and chairs were drawn up in a wide circle before the flames. The maids relieved Mrs.

MacCall and the girls of their outer wraps and overshoes. The boys had been shown where they were to leave their caps and coats.

Such a hilarious crowd as they were! Jokes and cheerful gossip were the order of this hour of rest. With all but one member of the party!

There was one very serious face, and this was the countenance of the youngest of the four Kenway sisters.

"Dorothy Kenway! what is the matter with you?" demanded Tess, at last seeing the expression on the face of her little sister.

Dot had been gazing all about the room with amazed eyes until this question came. Then with gravity she asked:

"Tessie! didn't Mr. Howbridge say this was a lodge?"

"Why, yes; this is Red Deer Lodge, child," rejoined Tess.

"But--but, Tess! you know it isn't a lodge, nor a room where they have lodges! Now, is it?!"

"Why--why--"

"It can't be!" went on the smaller girl with great insistence. "You know that was a lodge where we went night before last to have our Christmas tree on Meadow Street."

"A _lodge_?" gasped Tess.

"Yes. You know it was. And there was a pulpit and chairs on a platform at both ends of the lodge. And lodges are held there. I know, 'cause Becky Goronofsky's father belongs to one that meets there. She said so. And he wears a little white ap.r.o.n with a blue border and a sash over his shoulder.

"Now," said the earnest Dot, "there's nothing like that here, so it's not a lodge at all. I don't see why they call it a red lodge for deers."

Tess would have been tempted to call on Mr. Howbridge himself for an explanation of this seeming mystery had the lawyer not been just then in conference with Hedden in a corner of the room. The butler had beckoned his employer away from the others.

"What is it, Hedden?" asked the lawyer. "Has something gone wrong?"

"Not with the arrangements for the comfort of your party, Mr.

Howbridge," the man a.s.sured him. "But when we came in here yesterday (and I unlocked the door myself with the key you gave me) I found that somebody had recently occupied the Lodge."

"You don't mean it! Somebody broken in! Some thief?"

"No, sir. I went around to all the windows and doors. n.o.body had broken in. Whoever it was must have had a key, too."

"But who was it? What did the intruder do?"

"I find nothing disturbed, sir. Nothing of importance. But one room, at least, had been used recently. It is a sitting-room upstairs--right near this main hall. There had been a fire in the grate up there. When we came in yesterday the embers were still glowing. But I could find no intruder anywhere about the Lodge, sir."

CHAPTER XII

MYSTERY AND FUN

Mr. Howbridge was evidently somewhat impressed by Hedden's report. He stared gravely for a minute at his grizzled butler. Then he nodded.

"Take me upstairs and show me which room you mean, Hedden," he said.

"Yes, sir. This way, sir."

He led the lawyer toward the nearest stairway. They mounted to the gallery. Then the man led his employer down a pa.s.sage and turned short into a doorway. The room they entered was really on the other side of the chimney from the big entrance hall.

It was a small, cozy den. Mr. Howbridge looked the place over keenly, scrutinizing the furnis.h.i.+ngs before he glanced at the open coal grate to which Hedden sought to draw his attention first of all.

"Ah. Yes," said the lawyer, thoughtfully. "A work-basket. Low rocker.

A dressing table. Couch. This, Hedden, was Mrs. Birdsall's private sitting-room when she was alive. I never saw the house before, but I have heard Birdsall describe it."

"Yes, sir?"

"Mrs. Birdsall spent a good deal of her time indoors in this room, and the children with her. So he said. And you found live embers in the grate there?"

"Yes, sir," said the butler, his own eyes big with wonder.