Tabitha\'s Vacation

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"Take it to the bank. I thought it might be part of the money the
robbers got."

He glanced at her quickly, keenly; then answered, "That's the thing to
do, all right, and I don't believe your surmise is far off, either.
But see here, children, don't you dare lisp a word to a single soul
about this money until we know for certain whose it is."

"We won't," hastily promised the wondering, round-eyed flock, for they
stood much in awe of the silent, almost taciturn man who worked wonders
with the rock which the miners brought him; and the little company set
out for home, leaving Tabitha and the assayer to carry the precious
find over to the bank.

"Do you know," said Gloriana, as the black-eyed girl finished relating
the afternoon's happenings to her, "I half believe that man snooping
around the pesthouse is the robber."

"What man?" demanded the startled Tabitha.

"Well, I don't know who he is, but it is someone I've never seen here
in town. He was there this morning, but I didn't think much about it
then. We were so excited over the robbery. But this afternoon while
the assayer was dragging you out of the prospect hole, and I was
watching through your field glasses, I happened to turn them in the
direction of the pesthouse, and there he was again, humped up on the
doorsill, watching through glasses of his own. When you started off
toward town, he hustled into the house and shut the door. Now, it
seems to me no one would stay in a _pesthouse_ unless he was hiding
from someone."

"No one ever had smallpox there."

"Then why does everyone avoid it so?"

"I don't know. The name, I reckon. It was built for a pesthouse, but
the doctors decided the patient didn't have smallpox after all, so the
building has never been used."

"Then perhaps he knows there is nothing to be afraid of in the house."

"That may be, of course. Is he there yet?"

"Yes, I think he is. I've kept a close lookout ever since I discovered
him, and I haven't seen him leave."

Tabitha seemed lost in thought a moment, then turned an eager face
toward her companion. "Gloriana, the reward!"

"Could we?"

"Can't tell till we try!"

"But how----"

"There are only two small windows in the house,--funny, isn't it, when
air is so necessary in case of sickness,--he can't get out of them. So
all we have to do is guard the door."

"But how shall we get him to the--police?"

"Sheriff? I hadn't thought of that part. We couldn't tie him up and
march him to jail,--we aren't strong enough, just us girls. We'll have
to make sure he is there, lock him in, and then while one of us guards
the door, the other must go for help."

Gloriana shuddered. She hoped it would not fall to her lot to guard
the door, and yet she could not bear to think of Tabitha's staying
there alone with only a flimsy structure between her and a desperate
character.

"I--we--had we better try it alone?" she asked timidly. "Wouldn't it
be wiser to tell the assayer and get him to help?"

"The more people there are connected with his capture, the smaller our
share of the reward will be. We can do it all right."

Tabitha's daring swept away her objections. "That's so," she answered.
"Well, we better not wait any longer then, or perhaps he will get away
yet."

"I'm ready," Tabitha replied promptly, and with quaking hearts but
determined steps the two set out, armed with a stout stick and the
rusty old pistol which Gloriana had used the night the boys had played
burglar.

"What is that broom handle for?" questioned the red-haired girl,
wondering if she would be expected to crack the desperado over the head
with it.

"To lock the door with."

"_Lock the door_?" Could Tabitha have gone suddenly crazy?

"Yes. It's the only way we can fasten him in. The door has an iron
handle on the outside, instead of a knob, you see."

"Oh!"

"Is that the man?" The door of the pesthouse had opened abruptly and a
short, portly man roughly dressed, unshaved and florid of complexion,
appeared on the threshold a moment, eyed the approaching girls
indifferently, glanced searchingly toward town, and again vanished
within, closing the door behind him. Gloriana's heart seemed to stop
beating, then pounded so loudly that it sounded to her like the pulsing
of the engines in the Silver Legion Mine. "Yes," she gasped.

"Then we've got him!" Scared but exultant, Tabitha leaped to the door,
thrust her stick through the handle, and cocked her revolver, just as
the man, hearing the noise outside, grasped the knob and tried to open
the door.

"What the deuce!" they heard him exclaim, and then he wrenched again.
"Who's out there, and what do you want?" he bellowed in rage, when the
door refused to budge.

"You're our prisoner," Tabitha answered boldly, though trembling like a
leaf with nervous dread; "and you might just as well keep quiet as to
make a fuss. Glory, hurry for the sheriff, the assayer--anyone! He's
desperate!"

And indeed he sounded desperate as he kicked and banged the door,
shouted and swore, tearing about his small prison like a madman, and
breathing threats of vengeance against his jailer, who stood pale but
undaunted in front of the door, with a cocked revolver clinched tightly
in both hands, waiting anxiously for the return of Gloriana with help
from town, and thanking her lucky stars that neither of the small
windows was on the door side of the house.

Then suddenly the tumult ceased within, and terrified Tabitha began to
take courage again. "He has decided to behave himself at last," she
thought. "It's the only sensible thing to do, for he can't get away
from here now without being caught. There comes Glory at last, but oh,
gracious! look at the crowd following her. Half the town is out."

Just then a subdued grunt from around the corner of the house caught
her attention, and beckoning wildly to the approaching throng, she
crept cautiously forward to investigate, but paused again, paralyzed at
the sight which met her eyes. The portly prisoner had attempted to
escape by means of one of the small windows, and now hung suspended by
the middle over the sill, his hands clawing the air helplessly inside,
and his heels waving frantically without. At another time, Tabitha,
would have shouted with laughter at the ridiculous figure he cut, but
now her only thought was to prevent his escaping, and flinging aside
her pistol, she plunged toward the body seesawing through the air, and
clutched the feet with a determined grip, while the helpless victim
protested in emphatic language.

Thus the crowd found them and went wild with delight at the spectacle,
much to the discomfiture of both captor and captive, and when at length
the florid prisoner was freed from his uncomfortable position, his face
was purple with rage and exertion. "What is the meaning of this
outrage?" he exploded as soon as he could find sufficient breath to
voice his indignation. "Who put you up to such a trick as that, you
young minx? Do you know who I am?"

"Why, Jerry Weller!" exclaimed an astonished voice from the interested
throng of onlookers. "What are you doing here?"

"I bought this old shack and was to have had it moved onto my claims
to-day, if the movers had showed up," exclaimed the irate man, his
voice thick with anger. "But along come these jades and fasten me
in----"

"We thought he was the bank robber," Tabitha murmured faintly, sick at
heart over the mistake. "He was acting so--so suspiciously."

"Bank robber!" echoed the speaker from the crowd. "Why, Jeremiah
Weller is owner of the biggest placer mines in the country. He made a
fortune in Alaska. He's a millionaire! Bank robber! Ha--ha! That's
rich!"

The crowd roared appreciatively, but the victim of the mistake quite
unexpectedly lost his glowering look, and gruffly declared, "Well, you
needn't laugh at her. She's pluck to the backbone. Show me another
girl who would have undertook to corral a bank robber as she did. I
don't wonder she thought that was my occupation. I certainly look
rough enough--" Suddenly his roving eyes fell upon the timid,
shrinking Gloriana, so depressed at the way matters had turned out that
she could scarcely keep back the scalding tears. If it had not been
for her, Tabitha would never have gone on such a wild-goose chase. Why
hadn't she kept her suspicions to herself?

"What's your name?" demanded the stranger so abruptly that he seemed
positively rude.

"Gloriana Holliday," she managed to articulate.

"Did you ever have an Uncle Jerry?"

"If I did, he never came near us that I can remember," she candidly
replied.

The purple of his face deepened. "That's right, too," he muttered.
"But your mother ran away to get married."

"And her folks told her never to let them see her face again,"
supplemented Gloriana bitterly.

"Was her name Weller at one time? But of course it was. There
couldn't be two people on earth look as much alike as she and you
unless they were mother and daughter; and besides, she married a
Holliday,--Jack Holliday."

Gloriana nodded.

"Then, my girl, I'm your Uncle Jerry, and if you didn't catch
your bank robber, you made a pretty good haul anyway. Your
mother--she--she's--dead, isn't she? And your father? You're an
orphan----"

"She's not any longer!" Tabitha broke in savagely. "We've adopted her
and she's my sister."

"Oh! Well, that simplifies matters, too, for I'm a bachelor and have
no _home_ to offer, but-- Say, I want to talk with you. Where's your
adopted father? Not in town now? Well, isn't there some place we can
go where we won't be gawked at by all these hoodlums? Bring your
black-haired sister,--my jailer. I certainly do admire pluck."

At this broad hint, the curious crowd reluctantly withdrew, and left
the trio alone at the pesthouse threshold. Standing there bare-headed
with the waning sunlight glinting through the heavy, red locks,
Gloriana told what she could remember of the pitiful struggle of her
parents, their deaths, and her unhappy lot until the scholarship at Ivy
Hall had opened the way to better things.

So affected was the bluff stranger by the sad tale that he made no
effort to check the tears which filled his eyes and rolled down his
cheeks. "Well, the past is passed," he said when the story was done,
"and we can't do anything now to change it. I've been downright sorry
at the way we treated your mother, but she effaced herself pretty well.
We never got a trace of her whereabouts, though years afterwards we
heard that she was dead. We never knew there was a child, but never
mind, you shall not want again as long as I live. Being a rover and
unmarried, I have no home to offer, as I said before; so I am glad to
find you settled with such good friends. But I've got all kinds of
money, and insist upon paying for your education from now on. Here's a
check for pin money."

Drawing a check-book from his pocket, he rapidly scribbled a few lines,
tore out the slip and handed it to Gloriana. Mechanically she took it,
and her gray eyes grew round with wonder as she read. "One hundred
dollars! Oh, you must have made a mistake, Mr.----"

"Uncle Jerry," he corrected her.

"Uncle Jerry," she dutifully repeated.

"Not a bit of it! And what's more, there will be one of those ready
for you every quarter."

"Oh, that's too much!" she protested. "Whatever would a girl do with
four hundred dollars a year spending money?" The sum appalled her, and
well it might, for never before had she possessed more than five
dollars at one time.

He laughed at her dismay. "Why, I often spend that much in a day. You
can lay in a stock of jimcracks like the other girls have. You'll find
plenty of ways to dispose of every cent, I know."

"Maybe," she half whispered. "You see, I never had so much as a dollar
all my own that I can remember until I came to live with Tabitha, but
perhaps when I get used to knowing it's really mine and--genuine, I'll
find ways to spend it. I--I thank you. It's nice to have an Uncle
Jerry."

"It's nice to have a Niece Gloriana, too," he answered gruffly,
clearing his throat with much gusto; and as there seemed to be nothing
further to say, the trio turned from the lonely pesthouse, and silently
climbed the hill toward town.

CHAPTER XIII

THE ROBBERS AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE

"Billiard, did you ever see a ghost?"

It was almost a week since the bank robbery had occurred, and still no
clue as to the identity of the robbers had been found, although posses
were still searching the country, determined to catch them if such a
thing were possible. But the excitement of the event had already died
down in the youthful minds of Silver Bow, and other topics of
conversation absorbed their attention.

"Naw," answered Billiard contemptuously, without looking up from the
stick he was whittling. "What's eating you, Toady? There ain't any
ghosts, and you know it."

"What about that haunted house in the east end of town?"

"'Tain't haunted."

"Susie says it is."

"And Tabitha has lived alone near it for six or seven years and she has
never seen anything stirring there."

"But ghosts walk only at midnight. She's never been there at night."

"Aw, you softy----"

"Susie says the Gates boy declares he saw a ghost in the graveyard one
night."

"Well, that's different. I don't blame a ghost for walking there."

"Why, Billiard McKittrick, what do you mean?"

"Did you ever see a lonesomer place on earth than the Silver Bow
graveyard?" demanded Billiard. "Why, it's the worst looking cemetery
in the country, I believe,--just heaps of rocks and wooden sticks to
show where folks are buried. Tabitha says they _blast_ out the graves
with dynamite, six at a time, and fill them up with people as fast as
they die. Would you rest easy if you were planted in that style?
Wouldn't your ghost want to get out and walk?"

"_Billiard McKittrick_!" Toady looked positively shocked. Then after
a moment, as the older boy made no reply, the younger one continued
thoughtfully, "Maybe that's what is the matter with the ghost in the
haunted house."

"Oh, pshaw, Toady, I tell you there ain't such a thing as a ghost!"

"I'll stump you to go down to the haunted house some time and find out."

"All right, come along!"

"Not during daylight. It must be after dark. Midnight is the best
time, Susie says."

"Bother Susie! Why don't you get her to go with you?"

"You are afraid to go!" jeered Toady.

"Am not!" retorted Billiard angrily.

"Then why don't you take my dare?"

"It's all tommy-rot," insisted Billiard, with a fine show of scorn.

"'Fraid cat!"

"Oh, I'll take you up," cried the other, stung into recklessness by
Toady's taunts. "We'll go to-night."

"To-night?" stammered Toady, much abashed at his brother's sudden
acceptance of the dare.

"Yes, to-night!"

"What's your hurry?"

"Who's the 'fraid cat now?" taunted Billiard.

"Not me! To-night's the time. We'll set the alarm-clock for half-past
ten."

"Suppose it wakes the rest of the bunch?"

"They'll think it's a mistake, and in a few minutes will be asleep
again, and we can steal outside without their hearing us at all."

So it was decided, and though each boy, deep down in his heart, hoped
that the other would back out before the hour set, both resolved not to
show the white feather, and as the alarm-clock pealed forth its summons
in the silence of the night, two sleepy lads crept stealthily out of
bed, drew on their clothes, and without exchanging a word, started for
the haunted house at the other end of town.

Never, it seemed to the quaking boys, had the desert night seemed so
black. The stars were shining, to be sure, but the very heavens seemed
further away, and the silence was appalling. Nervous, excited,
dreading the ordeal, each boy waited for the other to propose that they
give up their wild-goose chase; but neither was willing to acknowledge
his cowardice first, so they stumbled fearfully on, clutching each
other's hands to keep from falling, they told themselves, but really to
feel the nearness of another human being.

At length, however, they reached the old, abandoned shack, where they
were to keep their ghostly vigil, and with bated breath they opened the
sagging door and crept trembling over the threshold into the black
shadows of the interior. Fear held them tongue-tied, and they crouched
upon the dusty floor as close to the door as they could get. The
silence was intense, terrifying.

Then the stillness was sharply broken by a hoarse whisper, "What was
that, Bill?"

Billiard, thinking Toady had spoken to him, was about to reply when a
second voice answered, "Only the wind, I reckon. Shut up."

"But it sounded like someone opened the door."

"You're as bad as an old woman with the fidgets," said the second voice
crossly. "Go to sleep, can't you? At least, let me sleep. I tell you
we're safe enough. The fools will never think of looking for us here.
This is a _haunted_ house and no one ever comes here. When they get
tired of scouring the desert and give up hunting for us, we'll light
out, but until then we've _got_ to lie low; and we might as well spend
our time snoozing as to be worrying all the while."

"The bank robbers!" thought each boy to himself. What should they do?
It would be impossible for two small boys to capture such desperadoes
in the dead of night, especially as neither lad was armed, they argued.
Their only course was to steal noiselessly away, rouse the sheriff,
bring back a posse and surprise the men in hiding.

With one impulse, the terrified boys clasped hands, slipped cautiously
out of the house, hardly daring to breathe for fear of being heard, and
raced off along the road toward the sleeping town with all the speed
they could muster. Once they fancied they heard a voice call to them,
but this only increased their head-long flight. Their feet seemed
fairly to skim over the ground, and when they reached the main street
of the town they were breathless, exhausted and frightened almost past
speaking.

"Where--does--the sheriff--live?" panted Billiard, as they tore down
the last steep slope.

"Dunno," gasped Toady.

"Then how'll we find him?"

"Drug-store."

"It's shut."

"Ring the night bell."

And ring they did, sending peal after peal echoing through the silent
building until the sleepy proprietor, dishevelled and wrathy, stumbled
through the doorway, and demanded fiercely, "What the deuce is wanted?"

"The robbers--" half sobbed the boys.

"Well, they ain't here," snarled the angry druggist, not catching the
meaning of their words. "Now you hike for home and the next time you
want to play a practical joke----"

"Oh, this isn't a joke!" cried Toady imploringly. "We've found the
sure 'nough robbers, but----"

"We aren't big enough to capture them," finished Billiard.

"Aw, come off!" said the man, beginning to see from the boys' demeanor
that something was really wrong. "You are having a bad dream. How do
you happen to be wandering around town this time of night?"

"We dared each other to visit the haunted house to see if there was a
really ghost, like Susie said."

"And you found one, did you?" the druggist laughed sarcastically.

"Oh, this ain't a ghost. It's burglars, truly! They talked and we
heard what they said," cried Toady with convincing earnestness.

"And what _did_ they say?" persisted the druggist, though in a
different tone of voice.

Briefly they recounted their adventure in the vacant house, and as the
man listened he took down the telephone, said a few words which the
boys could not hear, and hung up the receiver again. Almost
immediately there was a sound of footsteps without, and an armed
citizen of Silver Bow appeared in the doorway, then another, and
another, until a score or more had gathered just outside the building.
There was a hasty consultation one with another, then the boys were
bidden to repeat the story they had told the druggist, and after the
men had heard the meagre details, the posse separated, vanishing one by
one in the blackness. But instinctively the boys knew that they would
attempt to surround the haunted house, and taking its occupants by
surprise, would compel them to surrender.

They wanted to remain at the drug-store until the capture was effected,
but the keeper ordered them home to bed, and they reluctantly obeyed,
listening every step of the way for the sound of shots. But nothing
occurred to mar the stillness of the night, and they wondered if the
desperadoes had after all escaped. So anxious were they, and so
nervous over their unusual experience that it seemed as if sleep would
never come to close their eyes, as they lay once more in their bed at
the Eagles' Nest; and they were astonished to find themselves waking up
the next morning at the sound of someone knocking at their door.

"Who is it?" called Billiard, vaguely wondering if he could have
dreamed all that had transpired during the past twelve hours.

"Susie," answered a voice from the hall. "The sheriff wants to see
you."

"The sheriff?"

"Yes. Hurry up! The bank robbers have been caught and you have to go
to the justice of the peace's office."

"Then it's really so," sighed Billiard in relief.

"Course it is!" retorted Toady, now thoroughly awake. "But what do you
s'pose the _sheriff_ wants us for?"

"Dunno. Quickest way to find out is to go down and see."

Susie and the twins were waiting for them when they emerged from their
room, and ecstatically announced, "We're all going, too. They want you
to be _witnesses_, and Tabitha to take notes. No one else in town
writes shorthand."

"But what is it all about?" demanded Billiard. "Ain't the robbers in
jail?"

"We have no real jail here," explained Tabitha, who chanced to overhear
his question. "When a man does anything that he has to go to prison
for, they take him to the county seat. This court only tries to prove
whether or not there is evidence enough to hold him for trial by the
county. Hurry up, they are waiting for us. And children, remember,
you must come straight back here after you take a look at the
prisoners. Queer how youngsters want to see such things, isn't it?
Perhaps it will be quite a while before I can get back, but I know I
can trust you to keep out of mischief and mind Mercedes. Oh, Glory,
I've got nervous chills already about taking that dictation. The
lawyer who is to defend the robbers can talk like lightning."

"Fudge!" replied Gloriana reassuringly. "You won't have any trouble at
all, I know. They will take into consideration the fact that you have
no experience outside of school. Is this the place? What a funny
looking court! Does he live here, too? The justice of peace, I mean."

"Why, Tabitha!" interrupted Irene, clutching the older girl by the arm.
"Look there! That's our candy man,--the tallest one--and they've got
him hand-cuffed. Does-- Is _he_ the man they say robbed the bank? I
don't believe he ever did it!"

"Hush!" warned Inez, giving her twin a vicious dig in the ribs. But
the damage was already done.

"What do you mean?" demanded Tabitha, pausing on the threshold of the
tiny, dirty room that served as courthouse for the town of Silver Bow.

"Yes, what do you mean?" asked one of the lawyers, who had chanced to
overhear the remark.

"He made candy for us the day you went to the river and left us at
home," explained Irene, ignoring the frowns of her partners in guilt.

"Tell us all about it."

Bit by bit the story came out, and to Irene's great grief it forged
another link in the chain of evidence already so strong against the
cheery stranger. "I don't want him to go to jail," she sobbed. "He's
an awfully nice man."

"But, dear, he is a thief," Tabitha told her. "He ought to go to jail."

"If they'd only let him loose this time, I'm sure he would never steal
again," the child staunchly maintained. But in spite of her faith in
him, the "candy man," as the children continued to call him, was sent
to the county seat for trial, convicted, and sentenced to a long term
in prison.

"He shouldn't have stolen if he didn't want to go to prison," asserted
Billiard virtuously. "If he hadn't robbed the bank, he never would
have had to hide in the haunted house and we wouldn't have found them
there."

"But as 'tis," added Toady, "they paid Billiard and me each fifty
dollars for finding them. I mean the town paid us."

"Though you didn't discover whether there are any ghosts or not," said
Susie much disappointed.

"Who cares?" retorted the boys, drawing out their little hoard of gold
pieces and gloating over them. "I wish there were more haunted houses
if they'd all pay us as well as this one did. Now, what shall we do
with our money?"

CHAPTER XIV

THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS

"Only two weeks more of vacation," sighed Tabitha, sinking wearily into
the hammock one August afternoon, and looking longingly away to the
west where the train was just puffing into view. "I never dreamed we
should be here all summer when I offered to take care of the kidlets
for Mrs. McKittrick."

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