AUNT JANE'S NIECES AT MILLVILLE
BY
EDITH VAN DYNE (one of L. Frank Baum's pen names)
1908
Continued....
CHAPTER XIII.
BOB WEST, HARDWARE DEALER.
A few steps down the little street brought the girls
to the hardware
store, quite the most imposing building in town.
They crossed the broad
platform on which stood samples of heavy farm
machinery and entered a
well-stocked room where many articles of hardware
and house furnishings
were neatly and systematically arranged.
The place seemed deserted, for at that time of day
no country people
were at Millville; but on passing down the aisle the
visitor approached
a little office built at the rear of the store.
Behind the desk Bob West
sat upon his high stool, gravely regarding his
unusual customers over
the rims of his spectacles.
"Good morning," said Louise, taking the lead. "Have
you a stew pan?"
The merchant left the office and silently walked
behind the counter.
"Large or small, miss?" he then asked.
The girls became interested in stew pans, which they
were scarcely able
to recognize by their official name. Mr. West
offered no comment as they
made their selection.
"Can you send this to the Wegg farm?" asked Louise,
opening her purse to
make payment.
West smiled.
"I have no means of delivering goods," said he; "but
if you can wait a
day or two I may catch some farmer going that way
who will consent
to take it."
"Oh. Didn't Captain Wegg purchase his supplies in
the village?" asked
the girl.
"Some of them. But it is our custom here to take
goods that we purchase
home with us. As yet Millville is scarcely large
enough to require a
delivery wagon."
The nieces laughed pleasantly, and Beth said:
"Are you an old inhabitant, Mr. West?"
"I have been here thirty-five years."
"Then you knew Captain Wegg?" Louise ventured.
"Very well."
The answer was so frank and free from embarrassment
that his questioner
hesitated. Here was a man distinctly superior to the
others they had
interviewed, a man of keen intellect and worldly
knowledge, who would be
instantly on his guard if he suspected they were
cross-examining him. So
Louise, with her usual tact, decided to speak
plainly.
"We have been much interested in the history of the
Wegg family," she
remarked, easily; "and perhaps it is natural for us
to speculate
concerning the characters of our predecessors. It
was so odd that
Captain Wegg should build so good a house on such a
poor farm."
"Yes."
"And he was a sea captain, who retired far from the
sea, which he must
have loved."
"To be sure."
"It made him dissatisfied, they say, as well as
surly and unsociable;
but he stuck it out even after his poor wife died,
and until the day of
the murder."
"Murder?" in a tone of mild surprise.
"Was it not murder?" she asked, quickly.
He gave his shoulders a quiet shrug.
"The physician pronounced it heart disease, I
believe."
"What physician?"
"Eh? Why, one who was fishing in the neighborhood
for trout, and staying
at the hotel. Old Dr. Jackson was in Huntington at
the time, I
remember."
The girls exchanged significant glances, and West
noted them and smiled
again.
"That murder theory is a new one to me," he said;
"but I see now why it
originated. The employment of a strolling physician
would give color to
the suspicion."
"What do you think, sir?" asked Patsy, who had been
watching the man's
expression closely.
"I? What do I think? Why, that Captain Wegg died
from heart disease, as
he had often told me he was sure to do in time."
"Then what made old Mr. Thompson go mad?" inquired
Beth.
"The shock of his friend's sudden death. He had been
mentally unbalanced
for some time previous--not quite mad, you
understand, but showing by
his actions at times that his brain was affected."
"Can you explain what became of their money?" asked
Louise, abruptly.
West gave a start, but collected himself in an
instant and covered the
action with another shrug.
"I cannot say what become of their money," he
answered.
It struck both Beth and Louise that his tone
indicated he would not,
rather than that he could not say. Before they had
time to ask another
questioned he continued:
"Will you take the saucepan with you, then, or shall
I try to send it in
a day or so?"
"We will take it, if you please," answered Louise.
But as he wrapped it
into a neat parcel she made one more effort.
"What sort of a young man was Joseph Wegg?"
"Joe? A mere boy, untried and unsettled. A bright
boy, in his way, and
ambitious to have a part in the big world. He's
there now, I believe."
He spoke with an air of relief, and handed Louise
the parcel.
"Thank you, young ladies. Pray call again if I can
be of service to
you," he added, in a brisker tone.
They had no recourse but to walk out, which they did
without further
words. Indeed, they were all three silent until they
had left the
village far behind and were half way to the farm.
Then Patsy said, inquiringly:
"Well, girls?"
"We have progressed," announced Louise, seriously.
"In what way?"
"Several things are impressed upon my mind," replied
the girl. "One is
McNutt's absurd indignation when he thought we
hinted that he was the
murderer."
"What do you make of that?" queried Patsy.
"It suggests that he knows something of the murder,
even if he is
himself wholly innocent. His alibi is another
absurdity."
"Then that exonerated Old Hucks," said Patsy,
relieved.
"Oh, not at all. Hucks may have committed the deed
and McNutt knows
about it. Or they might have been partners in the
crime."
"What else have you learned, Louise?" asked Beth.
"That the man West knows what became of the money."
"He seems like a very respectable man," asserted
Patsy.
"Outwardly, yes; but I don't like the cold,
calculating expression in
his eyes. He is the rich man of this neighborhood.
Do you suppose he
acquired a fortune honestly in this forsaken
district, where everyone
else is poor as a church mouse?"
"Seems to me," said Patsy, discontentedly, "that the
plot thickens, as
they say in novels. If we interview many more people
we shall find
ourselves suspecting an army."
"Not at all, my dear," replied Louise, coldly. "From
our present
knowledge the murder lies between the unknown
avenger and Hucks, with
the possibility that McNutt is implicated. This
avenger may be the
stranger who posed as a physician and said Captain
Wegg died of heart
disease, in order to prevent the simple people from
suspecting a murder.
His fishing was all a blind. Perhaps McNutt was his
accomplice. That
staring scarecrow would do anything for money. And
then we come to the
robbery. If Hucks did the murder he took the money,
and perhaps West,
the hardware dealer, knows this. Or West may have
arrived at the house
after the mysterious stranger committed the deed,
and robbed the two
men himself."
"And perhaps he didn't," said Patsy, skeptically.
"Do you know, girls,
I'd like to find Joe Wegg. He could put us right,
I'm sure."
"Joe!"
"Yes. Why don't we suspect him of something? Or
Ethel; or old Nora?"
"Do be sensible, Patsy," said Beth, impatiently.
But Louise walked on a way in silence. Presently she
remarked:
"I'm glad you mentioned Joe Wegg. The boy gives me
an idea that may
reconcile many conflicting suspicions."
"In what way, Louise?"
"I'll tell you when I've thought it out," she
replied.
AUNT JANE'S NIECES AT MILLVILLE
Continued....
 
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