The Mystery of the Sycamore

“Why, I saw her last about two hours ago. Then when Mrs. Wheeler wanted her she wasn’t to be found.”

“And hasn’t sence ben sane?”

“Just so. And as you are part and parcel of that detective layout that’s infestin’ the house an’ grounds, I wish you’d find the hussy.”

“Why, why, what langwitch! Why call her names?”

“She’s a caution! Get along now, and if you can’t find her, at least you can quit botherin’ me.”

“All right. But tell me this, before we part. Did she confide to your willin’ ears anything about the murder?”

“Uncanny you are, lad! How’d you guess it?”

“I’m a limb of Satan. What did she tell you? and when?”

“Only this morning; early, before she flew off.”

“Couldn’t very well have told you after she started.”

“No impidence now. Well, she told me that the night of the murder, as she ran from here to the garage, she saw on the south veranda a man with a bugle pipe!”

“A pipe dream!”

“I dunno. But she told it like gospel truth.”

“Just what did she say?”

“Said she saw a man – a live man, no phantom foolishness, on the south veranda, and he carried a bugle.”

“Did he play on it?”

“No; just carried it like. But she says he musta been the murderer, and by the same token it’s the man I saw!”

“Oho, you saw him, too?”

“As I told your master, I saw him, but not plain, as I ran along to the fire. Rachel, now, she saw him plain, so he musta been there. Well, belike, he was the murderer and that sets my people free.”

“Important if true, but are you both sure? And why, oh, why does the valuable Rachel choose this time to vanish? Won’t she come back?”

“Who knows? She didn’t take any luggage – ”

“How did she go?”

“Nobody knows. She walked, of course – ”

“Then she couldn’t have gone far.”

“Oh, well, she could walk to the railway station. It’s only a fairish tramp. But why did she go?”

“I ask you why.”

“And I don’t know. But I suppose it was because she didn’t want to be questioned about the man who shot.”

“What! You didn’t say she saw him shoot!”

“Yes, I did. Or I meant to. Anyway that’s what Rachel said. The man with the bugle shot through the window and that’s what killed Mr. Appleby.”

“Oh, come now, this is too big a yarn to be true, especially when the yarner lights out at once after telling it!”

“Well, Rachel has her faults, but I never knew her to lie. And if it was the man I saw – why, that proves, at least, there was a man there.”

“But you didn’t see him clearly.”

“But I saw him.”

“Then he must be reckoned with. Now, Cookie, dear, we must find Rachel. We must! Do you hear? You help me and I bet we’ll get her.”

“But I’ve no idea where she went – ”

“Of course you haven’t. But think; has she any friends or relatives nearby?”

“Not one.”

“Are there any trains about the time she left?”

“I don’t know what time she left, but there’s been no train since nine-thirty, and I doubt she was in time for that.”

“She took no luggage?”

“No, I’ll vouch for that.”

“Then she’s likely in the neighborhood. Is there any inn or place she could get a room and board?”

“Oh, land, she hasn’t gone away to stay. She’s scart at something most likely, and she’ll be back by nightfall.”

“She may and she may not. She must be found. Wait, has she a lover?”

“Well, they do say Fulton, the chauffeur, is sweet on her, but I never noticed it much.”

“Who said he was?”

“Mostly she said it herself.”

“She ought to know! Me for Fulton. Good-bye, Cookie, for the nonce,” and waving a smiling farewell, Fibsy went off toward the garage.

CHAPTER XIV

RACHEL’S STORY