“But it doesn’t belong there,” said Gladys. “There’s no chisel among the tools. You’re joking, you found it somewhere else.”
“No, really,” said Sahwah, “I found it in the car this afternoon.”
“Mother,” called Migwan, “were there any tools left in the barn by Mr. Mitchell?”
“Nothing but the garden tools,” answered her mother. Tom also denied any knowledge of the chisel.
“Girls,” said Nyoda, seriously, “there is something going on here that I do not understand. First Migwan thought she heard footsteps in the attic; then a ghost appeared to me in the tepee; one night we saw a man running out of the barn, and later on that night Migwan claims to have run into a man in the garden. Soon afterward Hinpoha was sure she heard footsteps in the attic, and when we went up we found the window broken. Just a few nights ago a basket of potatoes was mysteriously knocked over in the cellar in the middle of the night, and now we find a chisel in the automobile which does not belong to us. It looks for all the world as if somebody were trying to break into this house, in fact, has broken in on a number of occasions.”
Migwan shrieked and covered up her ears. “A mystery!” said Sahwah, theatrically. “How thrilling!” The interest in the Thieves’ Market died out before this new and alarming idea.
“It may be only a remarkable series of co-incidences,” said Nyoda, seeing the fright of the girls, “but it certainly looks suspicious. That window may possibly have been broken by the wind during the storm, and the footsteps may have been rats or Mrs. Waterhouse’s ghost, and the ghost in the tepee may have been a practical joker, but baskets of potatoes do not fall over of their own accord in the middle of the night and cold chisels don’t grow in automobiles. There’s something wrong and we ought to find out what it is.”
“Oh, I’ll never go up-stairs alone again,” shuddered Migwan. “Sahwah, how did you ever dare go down cellar in the dark after you heard that noise?” And she shivered violently at the very thought.
“Tom, can you handle a gun?” asked Nyoda.
“Yes,” answered Tom.