Bob Dexter and the Storm Mountain Mystery or, The Secret of the Log Cabin

“Trouble? There wasn’t any trouble!” laughed Ned.

“We’ve had a lot of fun out of it,” added Harry. “But maybe, after all, there won’t be any treasure.”

“No treasure! What do you mean?” cried Hiram.

“Well, that fellow Rod, or whatever his name was – going off in such a hurry with that hook-armed man – they may have found out where the stuff was buried and have dug it up ahead of you. Their going off in such a hurry and secretly in the night looks bad.”

“No, I don’t believe so,” spoke Bob. “Rod had an idea where the treasure was, I’ll say that, though how he got the hint is more than I can figure out. He just must have reasoned that Hank would bury it somewhere on his own premises, and the bramble patch looked like a good place to hide gold.”

“He made up a good story about it – wanting to plant monkey nuts!” laughed Harry.

“He sure did,” agreed Bob. “He had me fooled for a time. And when I saw Jolly Bill digging for worms, I thought he was on the right track. Though it didn’t seem reasonable to suppose that Hank would bury the stuff on Mr. Beegle’s land.”

Thus talking and speculating on the mystery, they reached the pasture lot spoken of as the buttercup pasture. But the field was now sear and brown, the buttercups of summer long since having died.

They had brought with them spades and shovels, and also a tape line. This was necessary to measure off the distance from the red gate post.

“But is there a red post?” asked Harry, as they approached the lot. “I don’t seem to remember one.”

“There’s a gate, anyhow,” observed Ned, “or what’s left of one. And maybe the posts were painted red, once upon a time.”

This they found to be the case, though there was but a faint trace of red left on the weather-beaten wood now. But there was only one post which had any vestige of color on it, and this made their task simpler. The other post had long since rotted away.

With tape line and compass, the latter being one that Hiram Beegle always carried with him, a distance ten feet due east was measured off from the red gate post. Then the same distance was measured off due south. When this had been done, and stakes driven in at each of these points, Ned suddenly uttered an exclamation of disgust.

“What’s the matter?” asked Bob.

“Why, we’re as badly off as we were before,” declared Ned. “Look, we’ve got two places to dig. Which one contains the treasure?” and he indicated the south mark and the east.

“Maybe there’s treasure under each one,” suggested Harry.

“That’s it!” cried Bob. “I was waiting for one of you to suggest that, for it occurred to me as soon as I saw that the cipher gave us two points. It’s either that – treasure at both places, divided to make it less easily found, or else we’ve got to draw a line from the two points, making a triangle and then dig at the middle point of the longest line. But we’ll try the two points first.”

With beating hearts they began digging at the south point first. The ground was soft, the early frosts not yet having penetrated deeply, and as the brown soil was tossed out, shovelful after shovelful, each one was eagerly looked at.

They took turns, making an excavation large enough to stand in, and going deeper gradually. They had gone down five feet, and there was, as yet no indication of hidden wealth. Ned climbed out of the hole and dubiously shook his head.

“Looks like a hoax to me,” he said.

But Bob, whose turn was next, had not taken out more than three shovelsful of earth than he uttered a cry of delight.

“I’ve struck something!” he shouted.

Quickly he began tossing out the soil, and, a moment later, there was revealed the rusted top of an iron box. It did not take long to uncover the chest – a veritable strong box – and haul it up on top of the ground. The chest was closed with a heavy padlock, but it was so rusted that a few blows from a spade shattered it.

The lid was pried back, on squeaking hinges and there, revealed in the light of the sun, was, what seemed to the boys, millions of dollars in gold – old gold coins of a bygone age.

“We’ve found it!” shouted Harry, capering about. “We have it!”

“That’s the treasure all right!” added Ned. “You’re a millionaire, Mr. Beegle!”

“Not so loud!” cautioned Bob. “You don’t want all Cliffside rushing out here. Go easy!”

His chums calmed down and then an examination of the gold was made. Bob’s keen eyes soon estimated that there wasn’t anything like a million dollars – only a few thousands at most, but it was a fortune to the old sailor.

“But we’ve got another hole to dig!” said Ned, somewhat disappointed at finding the gold to total less than had been hoped for. “Maybe that’ll run higher.”

They soon uncovered a second iron chest, which contained about the same amount of old gold, and some ornaments which, Bob said, might be sold for a large sum as antiques. So, take it all in all, it was a very tidy little fortune that was dug up that day.

While Bob and Harry remained on guard, Ned and Hiram went to the village to get a horse and wagon to haul the stuff to the local bank. For Hiram did not share Hank’s distrust of these institutions and declared that he wasn’t going to run any more chances.

That there was a sensation in Cliffside, when it became known that the long-buried pirate treasure had been dug up, and that Bob Dexter had been instrumental in locating it, you can well believe.

“That boy’s got stuff in him! I always said it!” declared Chief Duncan who was not at all peeved because he had not solved the mystery. “Mark my words, the police of the big cities will yet hear of Bob Dexter.”

“But he can’t tell how that key got back in the locked room,” sneered Caleb Tarton, who was a little miffed that he had had no part in unraveling the tangle of the case.

“Maybe he will,” said the chief. “Give him time. They only just got the treasure.”

And when the gold had been safely put in the bank vaults, after Judge Weston had confirmed Hiram’s right to it, Bob and his chums paid another visit to the log cabin. They found Chief Drayton there talking to the old sailor.

“I could ’a’ figgered all this out if they’d give me time,” declared Mr. Drayton. “Gosh, but when I got to act as postmaster, pound keeper and be my own constable I ain’t got any too much time t’ be chief of police. I’m goin’ t’ talk t’ th’ selectmen ’bout it at next meetin’. I want a helper, that’s what I want.”

“Yes, you need one!” chuckled Hiram.

“But, anyhow, I know one thing!” declared Mr. Drayton. “You locked that door yourself, Hiram. That key was never put back in from the outside.”

“Oh, yes, it was,” said Bob, quietly.

“It was? How?” cried Ned and Harry.

“It couldn’t be!” insisted Chief Drayton. “Chuckin’ it down the chimbley wouldn’t do it.”

“Not exactly chucking it,” said Bob, still quietly. “But the chimney was used. I’ll show you how it was done. Mr. Beegle, do you mind going in your strong room, and lying on the floor just in the position you were in when you recovered consciousness after you were robbed?”

“Sure I’ll do that,” agreed Hiram.

The others watched him take his place. Then they went outside on Bob’s request and watched him solve the key trick. The lad climbed up in the tree that grew beside the log cabin, and in a minute he was on the roof, beside the chimney.

“I’m dropping down the flue a piece of fish line with a piece of lead on the end to carry it,” he said, suiting the action to the word. “Now go inside again.”

They entered the room, where Hiram was lying on the floor, waiting for what was to happen next. Dangling in the fireplace was the weighted string.

The fish line extended up the chimney flue, coming out at the top, where Bob fastened it temporarily.

The young detective then removed the lead weight and pulled the slack of the cord across the floor, until the end was close to the hand of Mr. Beegle as the sailor lay on the floor. With a small nail, passed through a knot he tied in the end of the cord, Bob fastened the line lightly to the floor.

“We now have,” he said, “a cord extending from this point up through the flue and out of the chimney at the top. Now if you will all remain here you’ll see the conclusion of the experiment.”