“Of course I didn’t.”
“Then how did you find out where I was?”
Peter explained this question to Irene. He told her about the radio broadcast, the police activities and how earnestly all of them had searched. It seemed that the tables had turned and they, not Irene, were doing the explaining. But what could have happened to Irene’s letter? She said she had written three.
“I gave them to Uncle Jasper to mail——”
Judy interrupted with a little cry. “There’s your explanation. He must have destroyed them. The miserable old cheat! Was he mean to you, Irene?”
She sighed. “This is the part I hardly dare tell. He made me think it was an—an hallucination. You know, like crazy people get. But I was in the tower lying on my bed. I’d been up all night and he told me to rest. It was right after Grandma died. Well, he moved the bed across the room—way across and I felt a little queer as if it weren’t quite safe. I knew the tower was only propped up. Then he got ugly. He told me I was going insane. He said if I didn’t lie in the bed he’d tie me there. So I lay down. In a little while I heard some one rapping on the door and I ran to the window. I saw you, Judy, but you didn’t hear me call. You were almost out of sight. Then I looked down, and, as sure as I’m alive, there was Uncle Jasper taking the props out from under the tower. One of them fell and struck him across the chest. I think,” she added, turning to Peter, “that there must be marks on his chest to prove that what I say is true.”
“It’s a serious charge, Irene. He could do twenty years for that. But he deserves it if what you say is true.”
“It’s true. And, oh, I was so frightened. I ran downstairs and I guess I was screaming—or crying—or both. Anyway, he quit hammering at the props. He had a sledge hammer and a long beam to work with. That was so the tower wouldn’t fall on him.”
“You remember that long beam we used to break down the door?” Dale interrupted her to ask.
Both Judy and Peter nodded. Their faces were grave. Blackberry, who possessed a cat’s inborn capacity for sympathy, came forth from his corner and looked up at Irene. She patted him as she went on talking.