“Well, I had just seen my uncle to the midnight train and was getting into the buggy to come back when I heard a low boom! coming from the direction of Sparr’s hotel. The station-master and I were the only people around, and I asked him what the noise meant, but he said he didn’t know. Then he jumped into the buggy with me to find out. We drove to the hotel, and 162 there was excitement enough, I can tell you. The girls and women folks were screaming wildly and Mr. Sparr and some men were running around, not knowing what to do. Soon a crowd began to collect, and then we found out that a wing of the building—where the dining-room is—had been blown up. Some men from the railroad said it had been done by dynamite—the kind used for blowing up that old bridge.”
“Was anybody hurt?” asked Dave.
“Nobody but an old man who was sleeping in the house next to the addition. He got so scared he jumped from an upper window and sprained his ankle. Oh, that dining-room is a sight, I can tell you! One end is completely gone—the wall away from the main house—and all the tables and chairs and ornaments smashed! And the roof is full of holes!”
“How was it done?” questioned Gus.
“The dynamite was placed at the side of the dining-room foundation, according to the railroad men, and it was set off by some sort of clockwork,” answered Polly.
“And who did it?” asked Shadow.
“They don’t know, yet. But Sparr suspects Phil. That is why I woke him up as soon as I came in,” continued the girlish student.
“Suspects me!” exclaimed the shipowner’s son.
“Yes. He says you are the only one who 163 would do such a thing—you and the crowd who have been backing you up.”
“Well, I never!”