CHAPTER XVIII
A FORTUNE AND A LADY DISAPPEAR
"And that's all I know about it, Dick."
It was Dora who was speaking. She was seated on the sofa with Dick beside her. She had been telling her story and weeping copiously at the same time. He had listened with great interest, and had comforted her all he could. Tom and Sam had gone off with Mr. Rover, to the Laning place, to interview Mr. Laning and his wife and see if they could throw any additional light on the mystery.
What Dora had to tell was not much, and it simply supplemented the story Mr. Rover had already related to his sons.
One day a strange messenger had appeared at the Stanhope house with a letter for Mrs. Stanhope. The communication was very brief and asked the lady to get the fortune from the trust company that was holding it and take it to Ithaca and there meet Mr. Rover. She was to do this in secret, for, as the letter said, Mr. Rover "wanted to make an investment of great importance, but one which must be kept from the general public, or the chance to buy stock at a low price would be lost." The communication had been signed in the name of the Rover boys' father.
Rather ignorant of business affairs, Mrs. Stanhope had taken the first boat she could get for Ithaca and gone to the trust company and gotten from her private box the whole fortune—her own share and also that of the Lanings. There she had gone to the office of the Adrell Lumber Com pany, where, so the letter stated, Mr. Rover was to meet her.
The Adrell company's office proved to be a smaH affair on a side street, and on entering Mrs. Stanhope had met the messenger who had delivered the letter to her the day before. He had said that Mr. Rover was expected every minute and had requested her to sit down.
While the lady was waiting, with the fortune in her valise, a telephone had rung and the man in the office had gone to answer the call. He said Mr. Rover wished to speak to her. She had answered the telephone, and someone had spoken to her in a voice she believed to be Anderson Rover's. The party at the other end of the wire had said he was then dickering for some valuable mining shares owned by a rich old man, and said the shares would surely go up to double value in side of a month.
"I can't leave the old man," came over the wire. "Is Mr. Barker there?"
The man in the office had said he was Mr. Barker, and then the man on the wire had vouchsafed the additional information to Mrs. Stanhope that he was an old friend and perfectly trustworthy. Then Mrs. Stanhope had been requested to turn the fortune over to Mr. Barker, who would deliver it to Mr. Rover without delay.
Thinking that all was fair and square, Mrs. Stanhope had delivered the valise to the man, who had gone off with it immediately. He had told her to go home and Mr. Rover would send her word before night about what he had done.
She had returned to Cedarville and to her home and there she had waited patiently to hear from Anderson Rover. No message coming for her, she had at last grown suspicious and sent word to the hotel at which the Rover boys' father was supposed to be stopping. On receiving a reply that he was not there, and had not been there, she grew more alarmed than ever, and then sent the message to Oak Run which so mystified all of the Rovers.
"We have learned that the Adrell Lumber Company went out of business several months ago," explained Dora. "The old signs were left up and the office was rented temporarily to a man who said he wanted to use it for storage purposes."
"And it was rented that way just to fool your mother," returned Dick.
On learning the truth Mrs. Stanhope had been all but overcome. She had sent word to Mr. Laning, but he could not come, having hurt his ankle as already mentioned.
Then, while Dora and her mother were in the house alone, another message had come. It was signed Tad Sobber, and stated that Sobber had the fortune and would return the greater portion of it provided Mrs. Stanhope would allow him to keep ten thousand dollars and promise not to prosecute him. If she agreed to this, she was to meet a certain man in Cedarville, who would take her across the lake, where she could meet Sobber and get back her valise with her precious belongings. She was particularly cautioned to come alone—otherwise the fortune would not be returned.
"And she went across the lake, and that is the last seen or heard of her," said Dora, and then she burst into fresh tears.
"Have you seen anything lately of Josiah Crabtree." questioned Dick.
"No, but mamma got a long letter from him, in which he said he loved her more than ever and that she had better make up her mind to marry him. The letter was so sickening mamma tore it up and put it in the stove."
"Dora, I hate to alarm you more, but I think Crabtree had something to do with getting your mother to cross the lake."
"What makes you say that, Dick?" she de manded, with a new fear coming into her face.
"I'll tell you," he answered, and then related the particulars of the meeting with Dan Baxter. When he concluded her face was very pale and her hands icy cold.
"Oh, Dick, would that—that monster carry her off and—and force mamma to marry him!" she moaned.
"I can't answer that, Dora. But you'll remember what a strange influence Crabtree used to exercise over her."
"Yes! yes! But mamma was sickly then and her mind was weak. Now she is much stronger."
"I think Crabtree is something of a hypnotist and mesmerist, and there is no telling what such a rascal will do when he sets out for it. He wants that fortune just as much as Sobber wants it. I think they are working this game between them."
"But why would they take mamma away after they had the fortune?"
"Because the fortune is not all in gold. There is some very rare jewelry and precious stones. The thieves would have trouble in disposing of those things unless they had some semblance of a legal right to do so. If Mr. Crabtree was your mother's husband he could take the jewelry and precious stones and sell them, and nobody would prosecute him."
"Oh, Dick, what shall I do?"
"I don't know that you can do anything, Dora. My advice is, that you go over and stay with the Lanings, and let us try to solve this mystery. We'll do all we can, and we'll make the authorities do all they can, too."
"The Cedarville police are of no account—in a matter of such importance."
"I know that. Father sent to New York for a couple of first-class detectives. Perhaps they'll be able to get on the trail quicker than any of us realize." But though Dick spoke thus it was more to allay Dora's anxiety than through any faith in what the sleuths of the law might be able to accomplish.
The matter was talked over a little longer, and then Dora dressed and packed her suit-case and announced herself ready to go to the Laning farm, located some distance away. Dick drove her over. They found the whole household in excitement over what had occurred.
"I declare, that fortune has brought nothing but trouble from the start," said Mrs. Laning, with a deep sigh. "Sometimes I wish we had never heard of it!"
"I shouldn't care so much for the fortune, if only I knew mamma was safe!" answered Dora.
"I am going down to Cedarville and see if I can't get on the trail of the party who took your mother across the lake," said Dick.
"And I'll go along," came from Tom.
"So will I," added Sam.
"I am going to Ithaca, to look into that lumber office business," said Mr. Rover. "I want to get a good description of the fellow who got that valise with the fortune." In his excitement he did not think of his injured knee.
All drove to Cedarville, and there Mr. Rover took the boat down Lake Cayuga. The boys walked along the docks, looking for a man named Belcher, who rented out small boats. They found the fellow at a boathouse, putting a new seat in a rowboat.
"Do you know anything of this affair?" asked Dick, after he had learned how the news of Mrs. Stanhope's disappearance, and the disappearance of the fortune, had spread.
"I was just thinking I might know something," answered Caleb Belcher, slowly. He was known to be a man who never hurried.
"What?" asked the three Rovers, eagerly.
"Well" The boatman slowly shifted his quid of tobacco from one side of his mouth to the other. "I was thinking I might know a little."
"But what? Tell us, man!" cried Dick. "Don't keep us waiting."
"It ain't much," was the slow reply. "I was out rowing, you understand—coming from the Point to Harden's dock, when I see a boat I didn't know, moving across the lake."
"Yes," said Sam, impatiently.
"She put across the lake, and she had two men and a woman in her. The woman wore a dark dress and a dark veil."
"It must have been Mrs. Stanhope!" cried Dick. "When was this?"
"About the same time they say the lady disappeared."
"Where did the boat go to?" asked Tom.
"Well, I was kind of curious to know whose boat it was, so I watched pretty closely, and she went in over there," and the old boatman pointed with his hand to a spot on the opposite shore where there was a tall rock and a fair-sized cove.
"Take us over there at once and I'll pay you well," said Dick. "Get out two pairs of oars, and we'll help you to row."
Slow though he was, Caleb Belcher was always anxious to earn money, and soon a rowboat was gotten ready and the three Rover boys sprang in. The old boatman followed, and the craft was headed across the lake.
"Who lives near that spot?" questioned Dick, as they swept over the calm bosom of the lake.
"Tony Carew's farm isn't far off," answered the old boatman.
"Anybody else?"
"Not that I know of."
"Do you know this Tony Carew."
"Guess I do—we went to school together, and licked each other more'n a dozen times," and Caleb Belcher chuckled over the recollection.
"All right, show us to his place," said Dick.
As soon as the shore was reached all sprang out of the boat, which was tied to a bush growing nearby. Then Caleb Belcher led the way along a trail that was rather rough. Presently they came to a road and on it an old farmhouse.
"There is Tony Carew now," said Belcher, and pointed to an old man who sat on a bench, smoking.
"I didn't have nuthin' to do with it—you can't mix me up in it!" cried Tony Carew, as soon as Dick stated the object of his visit. "I didn't tech the lady!" And he bobbed his head vigorously. Evidently he was a man easily scared.
"I want to learn if you know anything about it," returned Dick, sternly. "If you do, tell me."
"I didn't tech the lady! I wouldn't tech nobuddy!" howled Tony Carew.
"Did you see her and the men?"
"Yes—but I didn't tech nobuddy, I tell you. I stayed in the barn."
"But you saw her!" cried Dick. "Where did she go? Or where did those men take her?"
"The hull crowd got in a carriage wot was waitin' down the road."
"Whose carriage?"
"I dunno. They had a white hoss an' a black boss, an' the carriage had the top kinder torn."
"Who was driving?"
"A man with a linen duster, an' a cap pulled away down over his face."
"Which way did they go?"
"That way," answered Tony Carew, and pointed to a side road leading eastward.