Chapter XVIII: The Accusation

Frank Langdon watched the two men hurrying toward the beach with an uneasy feeling in the region of his heart. He could easily see that Aaron Dennison looked angry, and from this it was not difficult to surmise that fresh trouble hung over the heads of the Outdoor Chums.

"Whew! what's in the wind now, I wonder?" he heard Bluff asking himself; and so far as that went both Jerry and Will were also plainly disturbed.

The two men quickly reached the spot where the boys were grouped. Jerry mutely held up the two finest bass he and Bluff had taken. It was as though he meant to show that they were engaged in legitimate sport, such as boys in a summer camp were supposed to follow.

"Here they are, the young rascals, Mr. Jeems. Now do your duty!" exclaimed Aaron Dennison, harshly.

Bluff managed to catch the eye of the constable whose acquaintance he and Jerry had made when in the lake village. Perhaps he gave him a humorous wink. At any rate, the tall lanky man shrugged his shoulders and immediately remarked:

"I guess that you'd better tell the boys what you be suspectin' them of, Squire. I don't know nothing about the same, and I'm only here to do what I believes to be my bounden duty as an officer of the law."

"But I explained to you," expostulated the old man, "that my treasured cup disappeared mysteriously, and also that yesterday I came upon these four boys acting in a suspicious manner close to my enclosed grounds."

"_Outside_ your grounds, you said, Mr. Dennison," urged the constable.

"That is very true, Constable. But I chance to know that on two different occasions some of their number actually had the brazen audacity to push their way through a gap in the fence."

"You don't tell me!" exclaimed the other, trying to look very fierce; but when he saw that whimsical grin on the features of Bluff the attempt was not much of a success.

"Worse than that even," continued Mr. Dennison, whipping himself into higher rage. "That boy with the angel face had the nerve to take a picture of my house. I caught him in the very act. Think of that, Mr. Jeems, will you?"

Frank could have laughed if the situation had not been so very serious. It seemed as though Mr. Dennison looked on such a thing as any one's taking a picture of his hidden home as a capital offence; hanging would about fit such a terrible crime, according to his opinion. And Will's "angel face" vastly amused them all.

Desirous of finding out what all the trouble was about, Frank now turned his attention to the irate old gentleman. When he spoke his voice was as soothing and respectful as he could make it; for Frank believed in pouring oil on troubled waters.

"Mr. Dennison, you surely are very much mistaken if you think for a minute that either I or any of my chums would ever steal anything. We are proud of the reputations we have in our home town of Centerville. None of us can understand what you are accusing us of doing, just because we happened to be up in the neighborhood of your place yesterday."

"Where you had no business to be," snapped the other.

"Perhaps not, sir," continued Frank, "but I explained to you just how it happened. And I assure you positively that none of us so much as put a finger inside your grounds yesterday."

"You give us your solemn affidavy on that, do you, young feller?" asked the village constable, eagerly, as though seizing on the first pretext to make peace.

"No matter what he says!" cried the owner of Cabin Point. "I tell you their being in that vicinity just when my treasure was taken so mysteriously looks suspicious. I firmly believe they know something about the gold cup, and I shall not leave this spot until I make certain of their guilt or innocence."

"Gold cup!" muttered Jerry; "now, what do you think of that? Since when have the honorable Outdoor Chums taken to cracksmen's ways, I'd like to know? Wow!"

"Please let me understand this thing better," pleaded Frank, determined to win the angry old man over if he could do so. "You say something you think very highly of has disappeared, Mr. Dennison?"

"I told you it was a gold cup!" snapped the other. "My nephew, who is one of the most famous amateur golf players in the country, won it as a prize in a great competition last summer. He is very proud of it, and I have cherished that magnificent cup as the apple of my eye. To have it mysteriously disappear, and feel that in all probability it may be melted down just for the gold there is in it, almost breaks my heart."

"I can easily understand your feelings, Mr. Dennison," said Frank, quietly. "We happened to meet your nephew while on the way here, though it never struck any of us before that Gilbert was a Dennison, for we didn't wholly catch his last name. And, sir, if we can do anything to help you find the lost cup we'd be only too glad to lend a hand in the search."

"Now that's what I calls reasonable, Mr. Dennison," spoke up the friendly constable, who evidently did not mean to be urged into extreme measures, if diplomacy and soft words could avoid such a thing.

The old man eyed Frank keenly. He looked just as suspicious as ever, and as though he were trying to understand what the boy might have secreted back of his words.

For years Mr. Dennison had been hiding something from the world, and during that time it was only natural he should be growing more and more suspicious of every one about him.

"Your words sound all right, boy," he finally remarked coldly, "but I am not so easily deceived. You want time to cover up your tracks. Perhaps you even hope I may invite you and your rowdy companions to my house, and that the occasion will allow you to satisfy your vulgar curiosity to the bent."

These cruel words struck the boys severely. Bluff was heard to mutter half under his breath, while Jerry frowned and bit his lip as though he found it very hard to keep from telling Aaron Dennison what he thought of him.

Frank himself had to hold back the angry words that tried to escape his lips; the insult was so uncalled for, so unjust, he thought.

"Of course, sir, if you have that sort of opinion of all boys," he went on to say, deliberately, and with considerable dignity for a mere lad, "you wouldn't want us bothering around. I only meant to show you how ready we are to lend a hand. I am sure that if the cup you speak of wasn't simply mislaid it must have been taken by some one belonging to your own household, and may be returned again."

The angry man chose to see some hidden meaning back of Frank's words, which were after all only natural, considering the circumstances.

"There, straws show which way the wind blows!" he exclaimed, turning toward the constable; "and you can see, Mr. Jeems, how these boys have been talking over my private affairs among themselves. They are really consumed by a curiosity to know about matters that do not concern them; and in prowling around my place have perhaps been tempted to take things that did not belong to them."

"But Mr. Dennison, if this prize gold cup was so precious why did you leave it around so that it could be easily taken?" asked Will, suddenly, as though this idea had struck him as strange.

"Because in the first place," replied the old man, "I was fool enough to believe my people were as honest as the day was long; and the thought that any outsider would ever try to enter my house never came to me until lately. In fact, it was after meeting you boys in my grounds that I began to feel uneasy, since I saw it would be possible for a robbery to occur, once desperate men conceived the plan to break in."

"And even then you did not put the golden cup away in some place of security--you continued to leave it out where servants and others could reach it, did you, sir?" Frank continued, with something of a lawyer's skill at cross questioning.

"It was beginning to worry me," confessed the old man, frowning. "I found myself wishing my nephew would hasten his return, and take possession of his prized cup. Then last night I had a bad dream in which it seemed to me that thieves entered my house, and among other things took away Gilbert's loving cup."

"Last night, you say, sir, this happened?" questioned Frank.

"Yes, and it gave me such a shock that when I awoke and remembered the dream, the first thing I did was to hurry to the closet where two days previously I had placed the gold cup. It was gone!"

"Of course you questioned your servants, sir, to learn if any one had misplaced it?" asked Frank, bent on understanding everything.

"They were filled with consternation," continued Mr. Dennison. "I have a housekeeper, a nurse, and two men employed on the place, no more. One of them suggested that I send to the village and have Mr. Jeems come to the house. While waiting for the constable I suddenly remembered about meeting you boys yesterday, and like a flash it struck me that you were guilty."

"That is a hard thing to say about us, Mr. Dennison," urged Will. "What object could we have in taking your gold cup? We have plenty of money, as you can discover by telegraphing to Centerville; and our neighbors will vouch for our honesty."

"I do not know," said the old man, rubbing his forehead as though puzzled. "Boys have always been a deep mystery to me. I never had one to raise, for as a baby he was taken away from me; and I have always felt it was that loss which unsettled--but it does not matter. I believe you might have carried off the gold prize cup won by Gilbert in the golf tournament last year, perhaps thinking it a lark. So I am prepared to say to you here and now, if such was the case, and you will immediately restore my property to me, I will say nothing about it. If you refuse, it will go hard with you."

"But Mr. Dennison!" expostulated Frank, "we have never so much as set eyes on any sort of a gold loving cup, so you can see how impossible it would be for us to hand it over to you."

"And what is more," burst from the indignant Bluff, unable to hold back any longer, "we insist on your searching all our duffle to see whether we've got that cup hidden away."

"Yes," added Jerry, "I'm sure none of us would feel right if you didn't examine every bit of our possessions. We're in just the same position as Joseph's brethren when they were leaving Egypt, and overtaken by a messenger who said a cup or something had been stolen while they were getting corn at the capital."

"Hey! what's that you're saying, Jerry?" exclaimed Bluff, startled by the comparison, "don't you remember they did find the lost thing, and in Benjamin's pack, too?"

"But it was put there at the orders of Joseph, wasn't it?" demanded the one who had told the old-time story; "and for a purpose too. But make your mind easy for they can't play that game on us. The lost cup isn't at Cabin Point."

"Then you will offer no objections to our making a search, do I understand?" asked Mr. Dennison, eagerly.

"Rather, we insist on your doing that, sir!" said Will, promptly, for it galled his proud soul to be under suspicion, especially when such a thing as the taking of a valuable piece of property was concerned.

Frank immediately led the way to the log cabin. Mr. Dennison paid not the least attention to the fact that the boys had done so much to make the forlorn place habitable since taking possession. All he seemed to be thinking of just then was that missing golden cup, and the possibility of discovering it somewhere among the possessions of these young boys, to whom he had taken such a violent antipathy.

They passed inside the old building, which, if the guess of the boys was correct, had long years before been the home of Mr. Dennison at a time before he possessed much of this world's goods.

"I call on you to help me in the search, Constable!" said the owner of the cabin.

"And we will only too gladly do all we can to assist, sir!" declared Will, who secretly meant to keep hold of his camera, for fear lest it be knocked to the floor and injured beyond repair.

Upon that every one began the search. Mr. Dennison did not do so much himself, but he kept those keen eyes of his constantly on the watch, as though to let nothing escape him.

The constable apparently did not fancy his job. He went about it in what appeared to be a half-hearted fashion. In fact, when he and Bluff came together, as the boy emptied his clothes bag, and shook each individual extra garment, the wearer of the nickel badge muttered something half under his breath that sounded in the nature of an apology.

Evidently Mr. Jeems was a believer in boys, if the old hermit was not. And when Frank afterwards learned that he had seven youngsters of his own at home, he knew the reason of the constable's sympathy.

By degrees the search included every nook and cranny about the old cabin where it seemed possible an article like the missing golden cup could be secreted. Still nothing rewarded the efforts of the constable.

"It shore ain't here, Mr. Dennison!" remarked the perspiring officer, as he dropped the empty clothes bag belonging to Jerry; "and I guess we'll have to give the hunt up, sir."

"Wait!" snapped Mr. Dennison, his eyes sparkling afresh, as though a sudden and brilliant thought had flashed across his mind. "It stands to reason that a thief would be apt to hide his plunder in some place where he believed it could not be easily found. Of course it was not among their clothes. But perhaps there may be other secret hiding places."

He seemed to glance around at the bare walls. Then Frank saw him drop his gaze toward the floor.

"That's a loose board there, Mr. Jeems," the hermit said excitedly; "see if you can raise it. I should think a cavity under that board would offer a safe hiding place for anything that had been stolen. Lift it up, Mr. Jeems, and let us see."

"I will help him do it!" exclaimed Bluff, eagerly, and leaning forward he inserted his fingers in the crack, and secured a good hold of the loose plank.

The constable, also, had by this time taken a firm grip on the board.

"All together, son; there she be!" Mr. Jeems called out, as he strained himself at his task; and in another second the plank was placed to one side.

Mr. Dennison leaned eagerly over. Then, uttering a cry of mingled delight and savage satisfaction, he snatched an object from the gaping hole, and hurriedly held it up so that every one could see plainly what it was.

Frank and his three chums held their breath in astonishment, for they found themselves looking on a loving cup made of gold, upon which were fashioned various beautifully executed designs especially interesting to those who were devoted to play upon the golf links.