CHAPTER XX—THE MESSAGE DECIPHERED.
It was indeed an old fashioned attic into which the two girls emerged. It was high in the middle and the sloping roof formed the sides.
“Where is your inspiration leading you?” Margaret inquired as she bent to follow Virginia into a dark cobwebby corner.
“It’s my old play trunk,” the western girl replied, “where I put all of my old castaway toys as I outgrew them, and so, what is more natural than that I should also have placed there the key to the code when I had outgrown it.” As she spoke Virginia was dragging a small dust-covered trunk, over near the window, which was the only opening through which light was coming.
The cover was lifted, revealing all sorts of play-things, dolls, books and mechanical toys.
“Oh, good!” Virginia exclaimed, joyfully. “Even if we don’t find the key to the code in here, how glad I am that I happened to remember this old trunk. What pleasure it will give to the Mahoy children. I will have someone carry it down and let them play with these things to their hearts’ content.” As she spoke she took from the trunk first one toy and then another. She did this eagerly, for time was flying and she well knew that she must find the code, but she seemed doomed to disappointment, for everything had been taken from the trunk and not a scrap of paper had been revealed. “How provoking!” she declared as she arose.
Margaret had picked up a queer old doll dressed in the costume of an early pioneer, when, from the folds of its print gingham dress, a yellow paper fluttered to the floor. With a cry of joy, Virginia pounced upon it. “Oh! Oh!” she exclaimed, “that dear old doll, Patience Putney has been keeping it for me all this time. Now we will begin to decipher my brother’s message. Goodness, I do hope it isn’t too late. Give me the doll, Megsy, I’ll take her downstairs and enthrone her in a place of honor to reward her for her faithful vigilance through all these years.”
Down the ladder the girls scrambled and into the living-room they hurried. Then on the desk the message from Malcolm was spread and also the key to the code.
Both heads bent over the latter as Virginia said eagerly: “First of all look for a Q with two tails and see what it means. Malcolm has written that all alone at the top so I think we would better decipher it first.”
“Here it is,” Margaret said, pouncing her finger on the character in question. “It means ‘Very important. Great haste required.’”
“Oh, Megsy,” moaned Virginia, and just then the clock chimed twelve. “It is three hours since we first received the message.
“Now look for a T with a cross on the bottom as well as on the top.” Virginia began as they both searched the key, then she added, “Here it is! I’m beginning to recall now how I used the key in earlier days. I believe I will take it by myself, Megsy. I think that I will soon be able to decipher the message.”
“All right and while you are doing it I will make your bed. Perhaps if I leave you all alone, you will make better headway,” the other girl said, suiting her actions to the words.
Fifteen minutes passed before Virginia sprang up and hurried to her friend’s open door. Margaret sat by the sun-flooded window sewing. She glanced up eagerly. “What is it, Virg? You look troubled.”
Virginia sank on the bed truly the picture of despair. “Oh, Megsy, what shall I do?” she said, “but first I’ll read you the message. ‘Dear sister. I find the ore to be of excellent quality; the best I do believe that has been found in these parts for many years. Pat Mahoy and I must go at once to Douglas and record the location papers. Send one of the cow-boys to stay in the hut on Second Peak until we return. Tell him that he is to report to me if he sees anyone lurking about the property.
“‘Hastily, MALCOLM.’”
Virginia looked up woefully. “If only I had been able to read the message before I told Slim to join Rusty in the north! That is fully two hours ago and by this time he is far out of reach. However, he might have gone by the way of the Dartly Ranch, and, if he did, I am sure that Mrs. Dartly would have insisted upon his remaining there for the noon meal. I’ll call up and inquire.”
Skipping to the telephone in the living-room, Virginia was soon talking with her nearest neighbor four miles away. “Slim isn’t here now,” that good woman replied. “He did stop some time ago and I asked him to stay to lunch but he said he had some business to talk over with old Mr. Dodd up at Double Cross Ranch and that he would get some frijoles there. If it’s very important Virginia, I could send my boy over to the Dodds, but it would be several hours before he could make the round trip. It’s a pity now that they haven’t a ’phone.”
“No, indeed, don’t send Jack. I’ll just have to manage some way without Slim. Thank you, Mrs. Dartly.”
Margaret was standing near, eagerly waiting for Virginia to finish the telephone conversation.
The western girl rose with a determined expression in her eyes as she said: “Megsy, there is only one thing left to do, and I’m going to do it.”
“What is it?” the eastern girl asked.
“It is that I must go myself and stay in the log cabin on Second Peak until my brother returns from recording the location papers in Douglas. He will have started already, believing that I will at once obey his instructions and send one of the cow-boys to watch the property, and since it is as much to my interest as his to have it protected, I must go.”
Margaret’s eyes were wide with amazement. “Why, Virginia,” she exclaimed, “do you mean that you, a mere girl, would go and stay alone all night in an old log hut on that desolate mountain?”
Virginia nodded. “Well, then, I’m going with you.” Margaret’s tone sounded as determined as her friend’s.
“But I couldn’t allow you to go, dear,” Virginia protested. “You aren’t used to the loneliness of the mountains as I am. I love it. Then night noises do not frighten me in the least and there is very seldom a wild animal prowling about that is not more afraid of me than I am of it.”
“If you go, I’m going also,” Margaret repeated with emphasis, then putting her arms about her friend, she declared gaily: “It will be something exciting about which to write to dear old Babs.” Then she added with sweet seriousness. “I’d be heaps more worried and unhappy all alone here on the ranch, not knowing what might be happening to you than I would be were I with you. If you are to be eaten by a grizzly, then I wish to be devoured also.”
Virginia laughed as she began to don her khaki riding habit. “What if the fierce outlaw that is supposed to be hiding somewhere in the Seven Peak Range should happen to visit the hut in the night?” she asked merrily. Not that she had any faith in the existence of the rumored outlaw, but she wished to persuade Margaret to remain at home.
“Let him come if he wishes,” the eastern girl said. “If you aren’t skeered of him, neither am I.” This sounded very brave, but in her heart Margaret was hoping that they would meet neither a bear nor an outlaw.