Penny Nichols and the Mystery of the Lost Key Part 33

"I am Jacob Winters!"

Mrs. Leeds gasped in astonishment and even Max Laponi looked dazed. Of the entire group only Rosanna appeared pleased. Yet she too recalled that at times she had spoken with embarra.s.sing frankness to the old man.

"I don't believe it!" Mrs. Leeds snapped when she had recovered from the first shock. "It's another one of your trumped up stories."

"He has no proof," Max Laponi added.

"If he hasn't, I have," Penny interposed. She took the small package from her dress pocket, giving it to Rosanna to unwrap for her.

"Why, it's a photograph!" the girl exclaimed. "It's of you, Mr. Eckert, taken many years ago."

"Look on the back," Penny directed.

Rosanna turned the picture over and read the bold scrawl:

"Jacob Winters--on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday."

"That's all the proof I need," Rosanna cried, her eyes s.h.i.+ning. "You are my uncle, aren't you, Mr. Eckert? This isn't another of your jokes?"

"No, it isn't a joke this time, Rosanna, although for a time it looked as if the joke would be on me. And if it hadn't been for Penny Nichols this scoundrel certainly would have made off with my ivory collection."

"I didn't mean to pry into your private affairs," Penny apologized. "I shouldn't have taken the photograph only I suspected the truth and needed proof of it."

"It's just as well that you did take matters into your own hands. I guess I botched things up."

The little package of evidence which Penny had produced contained not only the photograph but the letter and key which she had found in Max Laponi's room.

Penny now directed attention to the signature appearing at the bottom of the letter.

"Compare it with the writing on the back of the photograph."

"They're identical," Rosanna declared.

"Then Caleb Eckert wrote those letters himself!" Mrs. Leeds cried furiously.

"Guilty," Caleb acknowledged with a grin.

"You ought to be arrested!" Mrs. Leeds fairly screamed. "It was a cruel joke to play. You led us all to believe that we had inherited a fortune."

"Tell me, why did you write the letters?" Penny inquired. "That's one thing I've not been able to figure out although I think I might make an excellent guess."

Caleb sank down in the nearest chair.

"I may as well tell the entire story," he said. "Since my wife died some years ago I have been a very lonely man. I longed for an agreeable companion in my old age, someone who would enjoy traveling with me. My friends were few for I had spent most of my time abroad. My only living relatives were unknown to me. I felt ashamed because I had never looked them up."

"So you decided to become better acquainted," Penny prompted as Caleb hesitated.

"Yes, but I wanted to be liked for myself and not my fortune. I conceived the plan of sending out letters inviting my relatives here. I thought I would subject them to a series of tests and all the while I could be studying their characters."

"An insane plan!" Mrs. Leeds interposed.

"The idea didn't work the way I expected," Caleb continued ruefully. "I sent out four letters but two of them were returned unopened as the individuals to whom they were addressed were no longer living. However, as you know, three persons came to Raven Ridge claiming to have received one of the communications."

"Max Laponi must have found the letter and key which Rosanna lost," Penny declared. "He was the impostor."

"You have it all figured out very nicely," the crook sneered.

"I suspected right off that he was the one," Caleb went on with his story. "I knew I had no relative answering to his name."

"Why didn't you send him away at once?" Rosanna questioned.

"I couldn't very well do that without exposing my hand. If I admitted my ident.i.ty then my little plan would be ruined."

"You were caught in an awkward position," Penny smiled.

"It kept getting worse all the time. I soon suspected that Laponi was nothing less than a crook. When I discovered that he knew the ivory collection was in the house I decided to remove it from the safe."

"That was the day I came upon you when you were trying to open it," Penny recalled.

"Yes, but Laponi was prowling about the house and it was my bad luck that he happened in upon me at exactly the wrong time. Of course he guessed instantly that the ivories were locked in the safe.

"After that, I decided to get rid of him at any cost. I had a talk with him but even threats did no good."

"Why didn't you call in the police?" Penny asked. "Surely they would have provided you with protection."

"I thought I would make one more effort to get the ivories from the safe.

Then if I failed I intended to admit my ident.i.ty and send for help. I might have done it sooner only the police commissioner and I once had a little trouble--nothing serious. It was an argument over a tract of land.

Still, I knew he'd enjoy making me look ridiculous if ever he learned what I had done."

"Your pride very nearly cost you a fortune," Penny commented. She directed her gaze upon Max Laponi as she questioned: "How did you learn that Mr. Winters kept the ivory collection in this house?"

"That's for you to find out," the man jeered. "You'll have a hard time proving anything against me."

"This letter will be evidence enough," Penny retorted. "It's a plain case of forgery with intent to defraud. And then there's the matter of the will."

"The will wasn't forged," Mrs. Leeds cut in although Penny had not made such a claim.

"There never was a will," Caleb informed.

Mrs. Leeds stared at him. "What of the doc.u.ment I found in the drawer of the desk?" she demanded.

"You mean the one you discovered in the _locked_ drawer," Caleb corrected with a chuckle. "The one that was made out in Rosanna's favor. That was just another of my little jokes. If you had examined the will closely you would have noticed that the signature was never witnessed. It was a fake."

"That was the doc.u.ment which I saw you burn in the fireplace," Penny accused.

Mrs. Leeds flushed angrily. She realized that she had trapped herself.

"By the way, how do you explain the will made out in your favor?" Penny probed maliciously.