“Let’s hope he isn’t dead,” suggested Arden. “Come! We must tell the others quickly.”
Up to this time Viney Tucker had neither moved nor spoken since her arrival on the scene. She stood at the corner of the house and fairly glared at the girls. Now she exclaimed:
“Ha! So there’s a dead man, is there? I knew murder would be done before they finished tearing down our house! I knew it!”
“It isn’t murder, Cousin Viney,” said Betty.
“Well, there will be murder before this business is finished,” sniffed the old woman. “And I don’t like murder being done in our old house.”
“And it isn’t our house any more, Cousin Viney,” said Betty. “That’s just the trouble—we can’t prove it is ours.”
“If we could only find the papers! If we could only find the papers!” muttered Viney Tucker as she hurried away in the direction of the cottage. Evidently the excited woman was suffering from the wrongs she, as well as her family, felt had been done them about the Hall.
“Now we must hurry!” cried Arden. “This man you think is dead—I’m sure he’s the missing Jim, and he may not be dead at all; he must be looked after. If he’s injured, he’ll need a doctor. Come and tell the others all about it! They’re right out here.”
“But I don’t know anything about him,” Betty objected as Arden fairly dragged her around to the front of the house.
“You found him—that’s enough!”