Mystery Of The Tolling Bell Part 18

"Monsieur is a stout man with plump apple-red cheeks. He wore a velvet jacket with braid. His voice sounded husky as if he had a sore throat."

"My father may know the man. The description fits a certain Harry Tyrox, wanted in New York for a similar sale of Mon Coeur stock."

"You think he is a fraud?"

"I am afraid he is, Mother Mathilda. Did anyone else in the neighborhood buy stock?"

"Oh, my yes!Maude Pullet, who lives a couple miles down the road. And Sara Belle Flossenger, the seamstress, took forty shares. Also the tailor, Sam Metts. They all bought stock the same day I did."

"What a day for Monsieur Pappier!" Nancy commented grimly. "I'm sorry to tell you that the stock he sold has no value."

"Oh, it can't be true! There must be some mistake! Almost all my life savings were given to that man!" The woman sank into a chair.

As Mother Mathilda wept softly, Nancy attempted to comfort her by saying Mr. Drew was trying to trace the swindlers.

"Nancy is working on the case, too," Bess spoke up. "I'm sure those awful men will be caught."

After some time the girls succeeded in cheering the woman a little. They bought several dozen candles, and changed the subject of conversation.

"Who used to live in the cottage on the top of Bald Head Cliff?" Nancy asked the candlemaker.

"I guess you mean the Maguire place."

"Did they leave suddenly for some reason?" Nancy pursued the subject.

The question seemed to surprise Mother Mathilda. "Why, not unless you'd call going to their heavenly reward suddenlike," she commented. "Grandpa Maguire and his wife died. But so far as I know, the son and his wife are still there."

"The place is deserted."

"Then the report they moved away must be true," Mother Mathilda remarked.

"Did you know the Maguires well?"

"Very well. Grandpa was quite a character!" The elderly woman chuckled. "He had a flowing white beard that reached to his chest. And how he did like to spin yarns! He was a lookout years ago."

"Lookout?" Nancy questioned.

"Grandpa Maguire had a powerful telescope," Mother Mathilda explained, "and he'd sit on his porch, watching the sea for returning fishermen. Whenever he'd spy one, he'd scramble across those rocks nimble as a goat, and drive his horse to town to tell the women. Then they'd come down to the sea to meet their menfolks."

"What became of the telescope?" Nancy asked, recalling the man who had gazed at them through one the first time she and her friends had gone to the cave.

"I don't know," the candlemaker replied.

Nancy was wondering whether the man on the cliff might have been using the Maguire telescope. She had not noticed it lying anywhere in the cottage.

As they rode home, Nancy discussed her idea with the girls. George thought the man with the telescope might have been Amos Hendrick.

"A. H. is a strange fellow," Bess declared. "I'll bet he knows the secret of that cottage."

"I agree," said George. "When he saw Nancy and me climb the cliff and head toward the deserted cottage he went away in the boat. Perhaps he thought that would distract us from our investigation. He might have been afraid we'd discover something he didn't want known."

"But he may have an enemy, too," Bess stated. "Who else would have stolen the paper he dropped in the tearoom?"

Nancy had to admit there was something to her friends' theories. She was determined to question Amos Hendrick about why he had abandoned the girls at the cave.

The elderly man, however, seemed to have vanished from Candleton. For the next hour the girls made exhaustive inquiries. No one had seen him. Finally the three friends gave up and went to the Salsandee Shop for lunch. Mrs. Chantrey, learning they were there, asked if the girls would go on an errand for her.

"I've just had a phone call from Maplecrest Farm," she said. "They were to bring me a crate of berries, but their truck has broken down. Will you pick it up for me?"

Nancy said they would be glad to drive there. She and her friends headed for Maplecrest Farm, about two miles out of town on the sh.o.r.e opposite the cliffs. As she sped along Nancy pa.s.sed a parked car. No one was in it, but down by the water, a hundred yards away, two men stood talking. They were looking toward the water. Nancy recognized A. H. and told the other girls.

"Whom was he talking to?" Nancy wondered.

The man's companion looked familiar. It was not until Nancy drove into the farm lane a few minutes later that she suddenly thought she recognized the second man.

"He's the one I saw talking to Madame!" she declared.

"Really?" George exclaimed.

"I'm going to find out!" Nancy declared.

"How about the berries?" Bess asked.

"I'll get them first.

Nancy quickly accomplished the errand, then turned the car and raced out the lane to the highway.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Runaway

WHEN Nancy reached the spot where she had seen the two men talking, no one was there and the car was gone.

"Look, Nancy!" exclaimed George, pointing toward a boat chugging slowly away from sh.o.r.e. "There's A. H.! He's going toward Candleton!"

"Let's try to catch him!" said Nancy. She accelerated and they sped along the road to the Salsandee Shop. The girls left the crate of berries at the kitchen door and hurried off again.

"Now where are we going?" Bess asked.

"I've a hunch that A. H. may have rented that boat from one of the fishermen," Nancy replied. "Let's go over to the wharves and find out."

Nancy made inquiries and learned that her hunch had been right. Mr. Hendrick had rented a dory only an hour before.

"What a surprise he's going to get when he sees us!" George laughed.

When A. H. reached the wharf, the girls expected him to try avoiding them, but the elderly man greeted them with a smile and said: