Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet Part 24

"My house is always open to you, Stacey," Mrs. Roseveldt replied kindly, and Stacey thanked her and a.s.sisted Rosario to climb up beside her.

"Aren't you going to compete for the high jump?" asked Mr. Van Silver.

Stacey shook his head.

"That accident took all the starch out of you, didn't it?" Mr. Van Silver continued. "Well, I don't wonder; a nervous shock like that makes a fellow as weak as a rag. Never mind, Stacey, we'll hear from you next year at Harvard. I shouldn't wonder if you got on the 'Varsity crew."

On our way home, Mrs. Roseveldt condoled with Rosario. "I am sorry for your brother's disappointment," she said; "though we were all interested in Adelaide's brother. It is the great pity in these contests that every one cannot win."

"It was not him to lose the race what troubled me," said Rosario. "It was that he to hurt little Jim Armstrong, and some so bad boys near by to me did say he to do it upon purpose. They called him one 'chump' and 'mucker.' I know not what these words to mean, but I think that they are not of compliment."

We a.s.sured her that we did not believe it possible that her brother had intentionally hurt Jim, and she was somewhat comforted.

"Fabrique is one little wild," she said, "and his temper is not of the angels, but he could not be so bad."

"Who was that old gentleman who came and spoke to you during the games?"

Mr. Van Silver asked of me.

"He is Madame's lawyer," I replied. "We see him sometimes at the school."

"Didn't I hear him mention the Earl of Cairngorm?"

"Did he? Oh, yes! I remember, he said that the Earl of Cairngorm brought Polo's brother to this country on his yacht."

"He must mean Terwilliger, the ex-jockey and cabin-boy, now trainer at the Cadet School."

"Exactly. Do you know him?"

"Rather. I got him his present position. If it had not been for me I don't think Colonel Grey would have engaged him."

"I'm so glad," I cried, "if you can vouch for his character. You see----" and then I hesitated, bound by Madame's orders not to mention our trouble.

"What interests you particularly in Terwilliger?" asked Mr. Van Silver.

"He is Polo's brother, for one thing."

"And Polo is the young lady that Miss Milly was lunching so sumptuously on turtle-soup and ice-cream the afternoon I saw you at Sherry's? I wanted to inquire whether that large family of starving children were still subsisting on macaroons."

"Mr. Van Silver, you are just as mean as you can be," Milly pouted.

"Oh, no! you have yet to learn my capabilities in that direction. I am glad to know that your _protege_ is a sister of my favorite, for I like Terwilliger, and I think he has had a harder time than he deserves.

There is one portion of his history that I could have testified to if I had been in the city and possibly have saved his being sent unjustly to prison, so I feel that I owe it to him to do him any kindness that I can."

"What was it, Mr. Van Silver?" I asked eagerly.

"Oh! it's my secret; and as it is too late to help Terwilliger now, I shan't confess."

"Perhaps it is not too late to help him," I exclaimed. "Mr. Van Silver, I can't tell you now, but Mr. Mudge will explain everything, and when I send him to you will you please tell him all you can in Terwilliger's favor. Indeed, he never needed your friends.h.i.+p more."

"I'm there," Mr. Van Silver replied; "and in return what will you do for me?"

"Winnie is writing a composition on the life of Raphael. I will copy it and send it to you," said Milly.

Mr. Van Silver made a wry face; he had not a very favorable opinion of school-girl compositions. "I would rather see the young lady herself,"

he replied; "but I don't believe there is any Witch Winnie. She is a Will-o'-the-Wisp, Margery Daw sort of girl."

"She is thoroughly real, I do a.s.sure you."

"What does she look like? How does she dress?"

"Well, out of doors she likes to wear a boy's jockey cap of white cloth and a jaunty little jacket, and I regret to say that she is not unfrequently seen with her hands in its pockets, and her elbows making aggressive angles."

"And, I presume, she also wears stiffly-laundried s.h.i.+rt waists, with men's ties, and divided skirts, and her hair is short and parted on the side, and she rides a bicycle. I know the type--the young lady who affects the masculine in her attire."

"She has just the loveliest long hair in the world, and her skirts are not divided, and she doesn't ride a bicycle, nor wear s.h.i.+rt waists, at least not horrid, starched, manny ones. She likes the soft, washable silk kind; and she is a great deal more lady-like than you are, and lovely, and just splendid; so there!"

Mr. Van Silver chuckled; he liked to tease Milly.

Adelaide remained at Mrs. Roseveldt's for two weeks. Jim did not gain as fast as the physician had expected. The nervous shock and the great strain of the race after the accident had been more than the boy's slight physique could well endure.

Adelaide read to him, and played endless games of halma and backgammon, and discussed plans for the summer, or told him of the people in her tenement, in whom Jim was even more interested, if that were possible, than Adelaide herself. Polo called and brought a bouquet, for which she had paid seven cents on Fourteenth Street. Jim was glad to meet Polo when he knew that she was Terwilliger's sister, for the trainer had been especially proud of Jim, and had given him many points on bicycling.

One day when Polo was present, Jim suddenly asked Adelaide, "Say, sister, did the boys really go to your cat-combing party?"

"I don't know," Adelaide replied. "There were two suspicious characters there, but we never found out who they were."

"They was boys," Polo insisted; "and one of 'em was fat, and trod on my toe, and one of 'em was little, and smelled of cigarettes."

"If I was only back at school," Jim replied, a little fretfully, "I'd find out for you, fast enough, whether it was b.u.t.tertub and Ricos. But what can a fellow do penned up here?"

"Never mind, Jim," Adelaide replied soothingly. "The truth will all come out at last."

Polo's great eyes snapped. "Albert Edward could find out," she said.

"The boys tell him lots of things."

Adelaide did not tell Polo that her brother's testimony would count for little, as he was himself suspected, and the girl went away determined to a.s.sist in unravelling the mystery.

Stacey called frequently and Adelaide could but admire his patience with the whims of the sick boy. Jim asked him to try to find out whether b.u.t.tertub and Ricos were the intruders on our Catacomb party, and this was one of the very few requests which Jim made that Stacey refused.

"I don't want to have anything to do with those fellows," he said, "and you know I never could act the spy."

"I have been thinking," Stacey said, after Adelaide had told him Polo's history and the needs of the Home, "that we boys might get up some sort of an athletic entertainment in behalf of the Home of the Elder Brother.

The cadets all like Terwilliger, and if they knew that his little brother and sister were supported by the Home, they would all chip in willingly."

"Terwilliger has such a good salary," Adelaide replied, "that Polo tells me they intend, as soon as their mother is able to leave the hospital, to take the children from the Home, rent an apartment in my tenement, and set up housekeeping for themselves. But, if the Terwilligers do not need it, you may be sure there will always be poor children enough who do. And something might happen, Terwilliger might lose his place at your gymnasium, and not be able to support his brother and sister, after all."

Adelaide was thinking uneasily as she spoke of the cloud which shadowed Polo and her brother. What if it should be proved that the ex-convict had committed the two robberies in the Amen Corner with the a.s.sistance of his sister.

"Oh, Terwilliger won't lose his situation," Stacey remarked confidently.

"Colonel Grey likes him, and so do all the fellows. He's up on every kind of athletics; knows all the English ways of doing things, for he has been a jockey at the Ascot races and a coach to the Cambridge crew.