Part 18 (1/2)
”Monsieur is a stout man with plump apple-red cheeks. He wore a velvet jacket with braid. His voice sounded husky as if he had a sore throat.”
”My father may know the man. The description fits a certain Harry Tyrox, wanted in New York for a similar sale of Mon Coeur stock.”
”You think he is a fraud?”
”I am afraid he is, Mother Mathilda. Did anyone else in the neighborhood buy stock?”
”Oh, my yes!Maude Pullet, who lives a couple miles down the road. And Sara Belle Flossenger, the seamstress, took forty shares. Also the tailor, Sam Metts. They all bought stock the same day I did.”
”What a day for Monsieur Pappier!” Nancy commented grimly. ”I'm sorry to tell you that the stock he sold has no value.”
”Oh, it can't be true! There must be some mistake! Almost all my life savings were given to that man!” The woman sank into a chair.
As Mother Mathilda wept softly, Nancy attempted to comfort her by saying Mr. Drew was trying to trace the swindlers.
”Nancy is working on the case, too,” Bess spoke up. ”I'm sure those awful men will be caught.”
After some time the girls succeeded in cheering the woman a little. They bought several dozen candles, and changed the subject of conversation.
”Who used to live in the cottage on the top of Bald Head Cliff?” Nancy asked the candlemaker.
”I guess you mean the Maguire place.”
”Did they leave suddenly for some reason?” Nancy pursued the subject.
The question seemed to surprise Mother Mathilda. ”Why, not unless you'd call going to their heavenly reward suddenlike,” she commented. ”Grandpa Maguire and his wife died. But so far as I know, the son and his wife are still there.”
”The place is deserted.”
”Then the report they moved away must be true,” Mother Mathilda remarked.
”Did you know the Maguires well?”
”Very well. Grandpa was quite a character!” The elderly woman chuckled. ”He had a flowing white beard that reached to his chest. And how he did like to spin yarns! He was a lookout years ago.”
”Lookout?” Nancy questioned.
”Grandpa Maguire had a powerful telescope,” Mother Mathilda explained, ”and he'd sit on his porch, watching the sea for returning fishermen. Whenever he'd spy one, he'd scramble across those rocks nimble as a goat, and drive his horse to town to tell the women. Then they'd come down to the sea to meet their menfolks.”
”What became of the telescope?” Nancy asked, recalling the man who had gazed at them through one the first time she and her friends had gone to the cave.
”I don't know,” the candlemaker replied.
Nancy was wondering whether the man on the cliff might have been using the Maguire telescope. She had not noticed it lying anywhere in the cottage.
As they rode home, Nancy discussed her idea with the girls. George thought the man with the telescope might have been Amos Hendrick.
”A. H. is a strange fellow,” Bess declared. ”I'll bet he knows the secret of that cottage.”