Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet Part 6

"And you dared prejudice this Mr. Mudge against our own precious Winnie," Milly continued. "You are just the meanest girl, Cynthia Vaughn, that ever lived! But you never can make any one believe anything against her. If, as Tib says, it lies between you two, we all know who is the more likely to have done it."

Cynthia turned green. "Do you dare to accuse me?" she hissed.

"No, Milly; don't do that," I cried warningly, and the overwrought girl burst into a flood of tears and threw herself into my arms. "We accuse no one," I said to Cynthia. "I trust that you have been equally cautious with Mr. Mudge."

"What I may have said or may not have said is no business of yours,"

Cynthia replied. "You have both of you insulted me beyond endurance, and from this time forth I shall never speak to any of you. I except Adelaide," she added, after a moment's consideration. "Adelaide is the only member of the Amen Corner who has treated me like a lady."

"I think it would be pleasanter for you and for us if you would ask Madame to let you room somewhere else," Milly suggested.

"I shall not go simply because you wish it," Cynthia replied. "I shall stay to watch developments."

"And, meantime, I believe you said we were to be deprived of the pleasure of any conversation with you," I remarked, rather flippantly.

Cynthia turned her back upon me and from that time kept her word, maintaining a sullen silence with every one but Adelaide.

The bell rang for luncheon. The forenoon had seemed very long, and the afternoon was simply interminable. Milly left the room with me. Cynthia did not stir.

"Do you think she took it?" Milly asked, nodding back at the parlor.

"No," I replied, "she is altogether too gay. She evidently enjoys the investigation. If she were the culprit she would be constrained, nervous, averse to having the affair examined." I stopped suddenly, realizing how exactly this description fitted Winnie.

"Adelaide believes," Milly said slowly, "that it was some sneak thief from outside the house. Have you looked about in the studio for any suspicious circ.u.mstances?"

I replied that I would do so after dinner, and then, as we pa.s.sed into the dining-room together, the subject was dropped.

Winnie came to the table late and pa.s.sed me a note, which I read beneath my napkin.

"Mr. Mudge wants to question you next. You are to meet him in Madame's parlor immediately after luncheon. Hurry and finish, so that I can have a minute with you before you see him."

I bolted my dinner, and Winnie sat silently staring before her, eating nothing. We left the dining-room five minutes before the conclusion of the meal, bowing as we pa.s.sed Madame's table, as was our custom when we wished to be excused before the others. Madame's attention was absorbed by the teacher with whom she was conversing, and we pa.s.sed out unhindered.

"What did you find out from Cynthia?" Winnie asked, as we walked toward the Amen Corner. "Does she suspect any one?"

"Yes," I replied. "She is perfectly absurd. It is just as you said; she insists on fastening the crime on a perfectly innocent person."

Winnie drew in her breath. "One of us, I presume?"

"Yes, Winnie dear. But," I hastened to add, for she grew suddenly deadly pale, "she can do no harm; her suspicions are too manifestly impossible."

"I don't know," Winnie chattered; "the reputation of many an innocent person has been blasted by mere circ.u.mstantial evidence. What does Cynthia know? What has she told?"

"That she saw you go to the safe in the night."

"Me? Then I am the one whom she suspects, and not--you are sure she saw no one else?" Winnie laughed a long, joyous laugh. "I can stand it, Tib," she said, "I can stand it. It's too good a joke."

"Of course," I said, "no one can prove anything against you. But did you go to the safe? I didn't see you do so."

Winnie's face clouded. "Yes, I looked in to see if everything was right. Mr. Mudge asked me if I had opened the safe during the night.

He said that some one of us had been seen to do it, but he led me to suppose that he suspected some one else. I knew that he had his information from Cynthia, and I was afraid she had seen some one else.

I mean--" and here Winnie corrected herself with some confusion--"I was afraid that she might have taken me for some other person, and I was very glad to acknowledge that I was the one who had opened the safe. I don't think that Mr. Mudge believes that I am the culprit, for he smiled at me in a very friendly way."

"How could he believe such a thing?" I asked. "It is perfectly nonsensical."

"But if he does not suspect me, his suspicions will probably fasten on some one else. On you, for instance, or Adelaide,--and I would rather be the scapegoat than have any annoyance come to the rest of you."

We had reached the Amen Corner, and had just opened the study-parlor door. Winnie gave a little cry of surprise. The door into the studio was open and a strange man stood looking at the broken lock.

CHAPTER V.

L. MUDGE, DETECTIVE.

"The look o' the thing, the chance of mistake, All were against me. That I knew the first; But knowing also what my duty was, I did it."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Why, Mr. Mudge!" Winnie exclaimed, recovering herself, "excuse me for crying out, but really I did not expect to see you here."

"I presume not," the gentleman replied dryly. "Under other circ.u.mstances such intrusion would be unwarrantable, but I presume you understand that in a case like this we must question not only human witnesses but the place itself, and often our most valuable testimony is of a circ.u.mstantial character. This broken lock, for instance, would seem to prove that the thief entered through the studio."

"Oh! that," I cried, "proves nothing; it has been broken this long while--since the very beginning of the term."

Winnie clasped my hand tightly, and I understood that she did not wish her escapade with the sliding trunk explained.

"Are you sure of that?" Mr. Mudge asked, looking slightly disappointed.

"Even if the lock was not broken on the night of the robbery, the fact still remains that an entrance was practicable here at that time."

"Why, of course!" I exclaimed. "It must have been the man who looked in at the transom."

"What man?" asked Mr. Mudge; and I told the story of the appearance the night before. Winnie came forward impulsively, as though she wished to interrupt me, then seemed to change her mind and walked to the window, standing with her back to us.

"And why is it," asked Mr. Mudge, "that neither Miss Cynthia nor Miss Winnie have mentioned this very suspicious circ.u.mstance?"

"I was not in the room when it happened, I did not see the man," Winnie replied, without turning her head.

"This thief may have made an earlier attempt which was foiled," Mr.

Mudge continued. "It seems to me a little careless that you did not report the fact of the broken lock when you first discovered it, and have the fastening mended."

Winnie's eyes shone with suppressed amus.e.m.e.nt. "You think, then, Mr.

Mudge, that some one from the outside committed the burglary? I am very glad that you have renounced the idea that any member of this school could have been guilty of such a thing."

"My dear young lady," replied Mr. Mudge, "I never indulge in preconceived ideas, but I give every possibility a hearing. I have nearly completed my examination of the _locale_, but must ask one trifling favor. Will you kindly lend me all your keys?"

"You don't mean to say that you are going through all our things?" I exclaimed, aghast at the thought that the secret of the commissary must now be disclosed.