“One day I was watchin’ Hunter do a trick on the hotel porch. I noticed he put the cards in his coat pocket. Later on, he hung the coat over the back of a chair while he went off to play tennis. So I sneaked up and took ’em out of his pocket, to use to show the trick to the boys. I thought they was marked, but they wasn’t. Hunter sure is clever at tricks.
“Then when I heard people was suspectin’ him of burnin’ his own cottage down for the insurance, I thought I might as well help that suspicion along. So I dropped his pack of cards into that can of water at the Smiths’. And sure enough, it worked!”
Mary Louise’s eyes were filled with contempt, but she did not put her feeling into words. Instead, she nodded to the detectives, and the men all left the porch. Fifteen minutes later Frazier’s arrest was accomplished, and the three plainclothes men started for Albany with both criminals in their custody.
Mary Louise and her parents watched them go with a sigh of relief.
“That’s that,” said her father, with a smile.
“Now, if only Jane and Freckles would come,” added her mother, “we could be perfectly happy. It’s time to go to dinner.”
In a couple of minutes Mrs. Gay’s wish was granted. Down the road half a dozen young people came running, for they had just heard the wonderful news that Mary Louise was back. Silky reached his mistress first, then Freckles arrived, with Jane and four of the boys close behind.
Never, if she lived to be a hundred, would Mary Louise forget that wonderful dinner at the Ditmars’. The joy of being back home again, the happiness of her friends, the companionship of her father—oh, everything seemed perfect that night to the lovely brown-eyed girl. And not least of it all was the satisfaction of knowing that the mystery of the fires was solved at last! Shady Nook was safe again for everybody—to enjoy for many, many summers to come!