CHAPTER XXI

A MYSTERY SOLVED

Returning five minutes later, Peaches thrust his head in at Barry’s

door, with strange results. An agitated youth rushed upon him, waving

a large sheet of paper. Peaches retreated. Barry pursued. Barry was

somewhat inarticulate, but Peaches finally gathered that he was being

entreated to look at the paper. He did so obligingly. Then he looked at

Barry.

“Well, what is it?” he demanded. “Where’d you get it? Who gave――”

“I didn’t!” gasped Barry. “Nobody did! I found it! In the desk!”

“You found it!” Peaches laughed mirthlessly. “Go on,” he said. “Have

your little joke.”

“But I tell you――”

“Yes, I know,” said Peaches, soothingly. “Let’s find a couple in the

bureau, eh? Quit your kidding, Barry. What’s the big idea?”

“Gee! I’m telling you!” shouted Barry, exasperated. “Look at it! Is it

any good?”

“Any good?” Peaches acted somewhat dazed himself now. “Of course it’s

any good. At least――why, sure it is! What do you think? ‘Northern

Counties Light and Power,’ eh? One thousand dollars. Six per cent.

Maturing nineteen-forty-three. Why wouldn’t it be good?”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t! I only wanted to be sure!”

“Well, you’d better take it to the bank, then. It looks all right to

me, but there may be a catch to it. Where’d you get it?”

“Great Scott! I’ve told you twenty times!” Barry dragged him to the

desk and pointed to the open drawer. “In there! It was lying there,

right on top. Folded. I went to look for a patch-scrad――”

“A _what_?” Peaches viewed his friend in dawning suspicion. Last night

Barry had complained of not feeling well. Could it be possible that――

“Say, you got much fever?” he asked, trying to put a hand on Barry’s

forehead.

“Shut up, can’t you? I said I was looking for a scratch-pad, and it was

the wrong door――drawer, I mean――and there was this thing staring at me!

How’d it get there, Peaches?”

“Gosh! you don’t suspect me, do you? Listen, Barry, I’m not feeling

strong to-day. Put that blamed thing down a minute and tell it to me in

words of one sillabub.”

Barry did so. Peaches whistled. They stared at each other. Then, with

lowered voice:

“Do you suppose that’s the bond that Davy――that was lost that time?”

asked Peaches.

“Of course it is! Don’t you see? He wanted to get rid of it and came up

here some time when I was out and put it in that drawer!”

“Gosh!” muttered Peaches. Then, after an instant: “But hold on! What

would be the idea? Why put it in there? If he had it that long, why

should he want to get rid of it?”

“How do I know? But here it is, isn’t it?”

“Yes, if it is! I mean if that’s the same bond. After all, Barry,

that’s just a theory.”

“Well――hang it!――who else would do it? And――and why pick on me? Gee!

every one’s trying to put something over on me lately! First there

was that letter, and now there’s this! Why, I might be arrested for

stealing it!”

“Not likely, since you weren’t around at the time. Hold yourself and

let’s look at this thing calmly. When did you look in that drawer

last?” he asked.

“Last?” Barry considered. “I don’t know. I’m not certain. I don’t think

I’ve had it open for a couple of days; not since we had the drawers

out, the night Toby was in here.”

“You put them back after the Major left,” said Peaches. “Remember?

Well, it wasn’t there then, I suppose, or you’d have seen it.”

Barry nodded, but doubtfully.

“I guess so,” he said. “Still, I mightn’t. I――I was sort of

flabbergasted just then. I must have been, because I got the second

drawer where the third drawer goes and the third drawer――”

“Hold on!” exclaimed Peaches, excitedly. “Remember when Toby was

rummaging through the desk? Remember his saying something about

something being stuck in a splinter inside the desk?”

Barry shook his head.

“No, I don’t remember that.”

“Well,” said Peaches, triumphantly, “I do! Where’s Toby?”

“In his room, I guess. Want me to――”

“_Toby! Toby Nott!_” shouted Peaches, loudly. There was a protesting

answer from beyond the pink wall. “_Come here! On the run!_”

Peaches seized the document and refolded it, returning it to the top

of the desk just as Toby, a book in one hand, arrived at the door and

viewed them aggrievedly through his big spectacles.

“What you want?” he asked.

“Come in,” Peaches directed. “Say, Toby: you remember the night you

brought that moth in here?”

“Yes, I do,” replied Toby, moving his gaze accusingly to Barry. “He

went and threw it out the window!”

“Never mind that. When you were hunting inside the desk, after the

drawers were out, did you find anything?”

“No, he wasn’t there. Barry found him afterward――”

“Leave that plaguey moth out of it a minute, can’t you? Did you find

a――a paper or anything, I mean?”

Toby blinked, thought hard an instant, and then nodded.

“Yeah, there was a letter――no, not a letter――well, something up in the

corner. It was stuck up against the top with a splinter. I told you

about it and I put it in one of those drawers, and you needn’t try to

make out that I swiped it!”

“Is this it?”

Toby moved forward, glanced at the indicated article, and nodded.

“Sure it is! What’s all the row about, then? If you’ve got it――”

“You’re certain this is what you found?”

“’Course I’m certain! It had printing on it just like that. Say, what’s

it all about, anyway?” Toby viewed the document again. “Bond? Lookut,

Barry: if it don’t belong to you, I claim it! Yes, sir, I found it!

Lookut――”

“Much obliged,” said Peaches. “That’s all, Toby.”

“No, it ain’t, either! If that’s worth anything, I’ve got a right to

share in it. Now, see here, you fellows――”

“Toby!” said Peaches, quietly emphatic.

Toby became silent and moved toward the door, his gaze, however, still

lingering on the bond. Finally the mutinous spirit prevailed.

“That’s all right,” he ejaculated bitterly as he held the door between

him and Peaches, “but all I’ve got to say is you guys have got a gall

to throw my moth away and then try to do me out of my bond!”

As, however, neither of the others was longer aware of his existence,

he went off, muttering, and presently the slam of his door sounded a

final indignant protest.

Some three minutes later Barry and Peaches left the house hurriedly

and made toward the village. Somewhere at the rear of Mr. Hannabury’s

shop a bell tinkled, and the dealer in antiques answered the summons.

“About that desk I bought from you a while ago, Mr. Hannabury――” began

Barry.

“Yes, a very good desk,” said the dealer, smiling. “A real bargain,

too, young man.”

“Yes. Well, sir, I was wondering where it came from. I mean, would you

mind telling me where you got it?”

Mr. Hannabury was silently suspicious a moment. Then he answered:

“Well, now, it ain’t customary to tell where things come from, but I

guess there ain’t any harm in telling you that. That desk belonged to

Mr. Watkins, Mr. Benton Watkins, of Watkins and Boyle. He used it in

his office for more than twenty years, he told me. You don’t find desks

nowadays made like that one’s made. They used to――”

“Funny he sold it,” interrupted Peaches, carelessly. “It’s such a nice

desk you’d think he’d have wanted to keep it.”

“Well,” said Mr. Hannabury, “they got a notion to put in a lot of this

here oak furniture last year. Mr. Watkins said they were gettin’ fitted

out all new and up to date. Guess there wasn’t room for the old desk.

I bought that and a chair and one or two little things. Didn’t make

much on ’em, either. Mr. Watkins drives a hard bargain. I’d like you to

look at that swivel chair before you go. It rightly belongs with the

desk and you’d ought to have it.”

But Barry thought otherwise, and a moment later they were again in the

street and striding briskly homeward. For a moment neither said a word.

Then Peaches chuckled, and:

“I guess that settles it, Barry,” he said. “Somehow or other that bond

got into Watkins’s desk; probably he put it there himself. Being wedged

in the way it was, it stayed right there when the desk was cleaned

out.” He chuckled again. “Gosh! old Huckabuckle, or whatever his name

is, missed a rare find, didn’t he?”

“What are we going to do now?” asked Barry, excitedly.

Peaches considered.

“Well, there’s no one at home except Mrs. Lyle――and Davy. By Jove!

that’s the idea! We’ll spill it to Davy! After all, he’s the most

interested, I suppose. Maybe he will remember how the thing got into

the desk.”

Reaching the house, Barry went upstairs and Peaches sought Davy. Barry

rescued the bond from where he had concealed it before departing for

the village, and laid it, blank side up on the blotter. A moment later

Peaches and David Lyle came in.

Davy was much like his father, with Mr. Benjy’s small features and

friendly, gentle eyes. But Davy was taller and spoke with a firmness

and initiative that Mr. Benjy lacked. A good-looking boy, Barry

thought, and one likely to make more of a success in life than his

father had. Having smilingly shaken hands, Davy took the chair that

Peaches offered and looked inquiringly from one to another.

“Davy,” began Peaches, “I want to ask a couple of questions, and I

don’t want you to think I’m cheeky. I’ve got a reason for them.”

“All right,” said Davy, quietly.

“What sort of bond was it that was lost last winter at Watkins and

Boyle’s?”

“N. C. Light and Power,” answered Davy. “One thousand dollars, six per

cent, nineteen-forty-three, coupons attached.”

Peaches grinned and Barry took a long breath. Davy watched Peaches

unwaveringly.

“Ever see that desk before?” asked Peaches, nodding.

Davy looked at the article, frowned slightly, and hesitated.

“I think so, but it wasn’t in this room last year, was it?”

“No,” said Peaches.

“Seems to me I remember it,” puzzled Davy, “but I think it was

somewhere else. Why?”

“Did they have anything like it where you worked? At the factory, I

mean.”

“By gum! Why, that’s―― Of course it isn’t, but it’s a ringer for the

desk Mr. Watkins had in the outer office!”

“Right! One more question, Davy. Ever see that before?” He pointed to

the oblong fold of paper lying conspicuously on the blue blotter. Davy

arose, reached for it, and drew back. His face looked almost as white

as the parchment.

[Illustration: “EVER SEE THAT BEFORE?”]

“Jones, if this is a joke it’s――it’s a rotten one,” he said hoarsely.

“Have a look,” answered Peaches, cheerfully. “It won’t bite you.”

Davy raised the bond, turned it over, and stood staring at it a long

moment. Then he laughed uncertainly, laid the document down again, and

walked to the window. After a little moment he asked, still looking

out, “Where did you get it, Peaches?”

“Barry found it in that desk. He bought the desk from a second-hand man

in the village. Is it the one?”

“Yes.” Davy turned and came back. He laid a finger on the upper left

corner of the bond. “There’s Mr. Boyle’s mark. He examined the bond and

wrote his initials in pencil in the corner, as he always did.” Barry

and Peaches leaned over and looked. The letters “T. J. B.” were dimly

discernible. They had been written with a hard pencil, evidently, and

neither Barry nor Peaches had noticed them before.

“I don’t understand, though,” Davy continued, frowning, “how it got

there. I put it in the safe!”

“Are you certain?” asked Peaches. “This was found by Toby one night

when he had the drawers out, looking for a moth that got away from

him. He says it was lodged under a splinter against the top there. You

wouldn’t have put it there, would you?”

“Wait a minute.” Davy was staring hard at the old carpet. “Let me

think, fellows.” There was a moment of silence. Then Davy’s head came

up sharply and he said with a rush:

“I remember now! I _didn’t_ put it in the safe! Mr. Boyle handed it to

me and said, ‘Put that in Box B., David,’ and I went into the outer

office, and Mr. Watkins looked up and asked if that was the Light and

Power bond and I said it was and he said, ‘Let me see it a minute’! I

gave it to him, and just then Haggard called me and I went back to the

outer office. Haggard――he was office manager――kept me busy until noon

hour and I forgot about the bond, I suppose. When they asked me later,

I was certain I’d put it in the safe. I thought I remembered pulling

out the box and laying the bond inside!”

“What happened,” said Peaches, “is that Watkins probably stuffed the

thing into that top drawer and it somehow got lodged under the splinter

when the drawer was closed.”

“That’s exactly it!” agreed Davy. “That drawer was always stuffed full.

He was like that. He was forever losing things and having to search

all through that desk. Funny my forgetting, though! Why, I remember

all about it now!” He dropped into his chair and grinned joyfully at

Peaches and Barry. “Say, this is bully luck for me, fellows!” he added.

“I’ll say so!” said Peaches. He jumped up and thumped Davy on the back.

“Gosh, I’m glad! And I’d like to be around when you hand that over to

Watkins and Boyle. I’d like to see their faces!”

“You will,” said Davy. “I won’t touch it, fellows. You must take it to

them and tell them all about it. If I did it they’d say I had it all

the time and was making the story up!”

“Well,” said Peaches, doubtfully. Then: “Or how about letting Mr. Benjy

do it? Gosh! it would tickle him to death, Davy! What do you think?”

Davy laughed.

“All right, but you chaps must be on hand as witnesses. Why, say, I can

go right out now and sit on the front porch! Or walk downtown! By gum,

it’s great to have this thing cleared up! Look here: if we telephone to

Dad now we could meet him downtown and go to the factory, I guess.”

“I couldn’t go,” said Barry. “I’ve got a recitation in just twelve

minutes.”

“Nor I,” said Peaches. “And we’d need Toby, too. Let’s leave it until

after dinner. You telephone Mr. Benjy, Davy, and I’ll round up the

bunch for one o’clock. You’d better look after this thing until then, I

guess.”

“No, thanks,” answered Davy, grimly. “I’m not even going to touch it

again. You fellows keep it. I’m going down to tell Mother. Say, honest,

fellows, I can’t ever tell you how grateful I am. Gosh, it’s like――like

finding a million dollars; only better!”

“Don’t thank me,” laughed Peaches. “Thank Barry.”

“Don’t thank me, either,” said Barry. “Toby’s your man, for if he

hadn’t come in with his old moth――”

“Thank the moth!” exclaimed Peaches. “If you can find him!”