He remembered the room in the garage where he had lived when he first came to work for Colonel Hathaway. Why not go there until daylight? The door of the garage was locked, but Danny knew of old how easy it was to draw the hasp without disturbing the padlock. He accordingly did it and entered the garage from the rear. The arc light in the alley made the place quite light as the doors swung open.
“Golly Moses! Where’s the big car? Nothing but the Colonel’s old time-honored rattle-trap left! Jacked up as though they meant to keep it forever, too!”
He mounted the stairs to the tower room. The place was bereft of furniture and swept clean. Mary Louise had given Aunt Sally and Uncle Eben all of the things that had been there.
“Humph! I guess I’ll have to curl up in the ‘old reliable’,” he grinned.
Danny Dexter had a passion for any kind of an automobile. Even Colonel Hathaway’s old relic had its appeal for him. He gave it an affectionate pat.
“I wonder if the old fellow has come to his senses,” he said to himself. “I sure do hope so, but there is something mighty mysterious going on around here. Who in the dickens was that woman who spoke to me from the upstairs window? The Colonel’s window at that! Why did the chink say there was no lady in the house? I wish I wasn’t so dead tired. I feel as I used to in the trenches when I’d drop asleep under fire. It would take a big explosion to rouse me now. I wonder why the cushions have been all busted up. I bet the old gentleman raised some Cain about that. Are the tires any good yet? They haven’t been used for an awful long time I fancy. Mary Louise never was much on running this old car except to please her grandfather.”
He caught hold of the front wheel and gave it a shake. “Gee it rattles! Flabby on top—and Jumping Jupiter! What’s that?”
There was a strange rattle and then a kind of crash and something began to pour from the tire over Danny’s feet. He jumped back and, thanks to the light from the alley, he could see what was happening. From the tire, which had broken at the bottom, there came a stream of gold, twenty-dollar gold pieces.
“This is something awful!” he cried. “I’ve the delirium tremens without ever having a drop to drink. I’ll have to let somebody know about this, though, because it might be so and maybe I haven’t ’em after all. If that chink knew, he’d be out here raking it in. I wonder what the lady with the rich voice would do if she knew! I’ll be bound she wouldn’t be quite so indifferent about a poor wanderer’s comfort nor so snappy about calling the police. Jimminy crickets! I know whose voice it was—Hortense Markle’s! It has just come to me! The plot thickens and deepens. No more thought of sleep for you, Danny Dexter! You’ve got to get a move on you.”
He found a gunny sack hanging on a nail behind the door and he carefully shoveled up the gold pieces into this. He did not stop to count them nor will I endeavor to say how many there were, but it was a bag full and so heavy that he could swing the load to his back only with difficulty.