Arden backed the car from the garage, Sim shut the doors after her, and the three were ready for the drive to the village.

"Let's go!" called Terry hopping into the moving car. "Hurry, Arden! It's beginning to rain again."

CHAPTER XVIII Reilly on the Case

The rain was coming down in torrents by the time the village was reached, and, going at once to Reilly's garage, the girls found him seated in his narrow little office reading a newspaper.

He smiled jovially as she saw them, his little blue eyes almost hidden behind many wrinkles.

"Afternoon, ladies!" he exclaimed. "How's this for weather? A cat can look at a king."

But Arden had no time for polite preliminaries.

"Mr. Reilly," she began, "we have something very important to tell you."

"Have you, now? What's happened? Rain leakin' through into your dinin'

room table? It never pours but the salt gets damp."

"Please, I'm serious," Arden said firmly, and taking a deep breath she announced:

"Dimitri Uzlov has disappeared!"

"Disappeared! What do you mean?"

"He's been gone from the houseboat for days, and n.o.body has heard from him. You said, yourself, you hadn't seen him lately. Remember?"

"Yes, I remember," agreed the chief. "But what makes you think he's disappeared?"

"His dog came over to our house, starving, with a piece of frayed rope on her collar," Terry burst out.

"The door of the houseboat was open, and the rain was pouring in,"

volunteered Sim.

"Both his car and rowboat are there, and there's a cupboard broken open on the houseboat," Arden added excitedly.

"But perhaps he's just gone for a day or two," suggested the chief, obviously not wanting to start on a "case" in the riotous weather.

"Oh, you must believe us!" Arden exclaimed. "It takes more than a day or two to starve a big dog. And we inquired all around the village. No one has seen Mr. Uzlov."

"Have you told anyone else about this?" Reilly asked professionally. "How many people know he's gone?"

"Just us and my mother and that woman who came to see him," Terry answered.

"Oh, Terry!" Arden exclaimed. "And we don't even know her last name or her license number. We let her go away without asking."

"How stupid! That's just what we did, and I'm sure she knew more than she let on," Sim said in dismay.

"Mr. Reilly," Arden pleaded, "won't you come with us to the _Merry Jane_?

We'll feel better if you take a look around, because we'd never forgive ourselves if anything was wrong."

"Why-" Reilly rubbed his chin thoughtfully-"yes, I'll come. Might as well go right now. Just in case--"

"Good! You follow us in your car, as we won't be coming back this way again," Arden decided as Chief Reilly slipped into his warm uniform coat whereon a large shiny badge was prominently displayed.

He followed them back along the road in his ancient flivver, his fat cheeks shaking as he bounced over the ruts and puddles.

He slung one plump leg over the door without opening it and slid, rather than climbed, out. The girls waited impatiently as he stood surveying the lonely stretch of Marshlands from all angles.

Terry fidgeted. "What does he think he's going to see, looking around like this? White pebbles as in the fairy tale?" she hissed.

"Shsh-h! he'll hear you," Arden cautioned.

Chief Reilly, having had his look around, mounted the wooden steps at the rear side of the houseboat and asked, in his most businesslike manner:

"Everything just as you found it last?"

"Everything; except for the closed window," Arden replied.

Tania, delighted at seeing her friends again, "woofed" happily, and apparently Chief Reilly was her friend, too, for she allowed him to rub her silky ears.

"We came over here the day Tania ran to us, begging for food. And we found the place deserted and this cupboard broken open," said Arden.

"Huhm-um," Reilly grunted, peering into the small compartment with its shattered door.

"These paint brushes," Sim said, showing him one, "were never left by Mr.

Dimitri to harden up like this. They were scattered about when we first came over."

"That so?" the chief asked. "I wouldn't know about that. I'm no painter."

"There's something else that's very odd," Arden stated. "Dimitri Uzlov had in his possession a very valuable gold box. Besides ourselves, we don't know just how many people knew about it, but we think the woman Olga did. Anyway, it's gone, too."

Reilly raised his eyebrows. The case was beginning to be interesting.

What he had imagined to be the silly idea of excitable "summer folks"

seemed now to have something to it after all.

"Did this artist have many visitors?" he asked.

"Two that we know about," replied Terry.

"The woman Olga, and a man who rowed over here in our boat a few nights ago. He came back toward morning," said Sim.

"The woman came first and asked the way over here. Terry rowed her over.

Dimitri and she seemed to be very angry about something. We rowed her back again, and she took Melissa Clayton for a ride in her car, a green sport roadster," supplied Arden.