"And maybe she can't get away," said Henrietta. "I'd like to help Bertha run away from that fat woman."

"Let's take the kid in and let her call," suggested Burd.

"Sure you didn't see any aerial, Darry?" Mark asked, showing increased interest in the matter.

"Not a sign," said Drew, shaking his head.

"That tower----"

"Yes. It would make an ideal station. But I went all around it. I can't see the roof, for it is practically flat. And if what I suggested was there, we will have to get above the level of the roof to see it."

Mark suddenly got out and opened his toolbox. He brought forth a pair of lineman's climbers.

"Thought I had 'em here. I'll go up that telegraph pole and see what I can see," and he began to strap them on.

"Good as gold!" cried Burd admiringly. "You have a head on you, young fellow."

"Yes," said Mark dryly. "I was born with it."

He proceeded to the tall telegraph pole and swarmed quickly up it. The others waited, watching him as he surveyed the apparently deserted place from the cross-piece of the pole. By and by he came down.

"It's there, Darry," he said confidently. "Your big idea was all to the good. That folding wireless staff you use on the _Marigold_ is repeated right on the top of that tower. When they use the sending set they raise the staff with the antenna and--there you have it."

"Oh! Then she's in the tower!" cried Amy.

"At least, she was in the tower if she sent her message from this station," agreed Darry.

"How shall we find out--how shall we?" cried Amy, excitedly.

"If Mr. Stratford is quite sure that he sees the aerials upon that roof, then I am going to get the tower door open somehow," declared Jessie, with her usual determination.

"It is there, Miss Jessie," Mark a.s.sured her.

"Come on, Henrietta," said Jessie, helping the little girl to jump down from the car. "We are going to find your Cousin Bertha if she is here."

"You are real nice to be so int'rusted in Bertha," said Henrietta.

"I am interested in her particularly because Daddy Norwood needs her,"

admitted the older girl. "Come on now, honey. We'll go up to that tower building and you shout for Bertha just as hard as you can shout.

She will know your voice if she doesn't know you in your new dress,"

and she smiled down at the little girl clinging to her hand.

JUST IN TIME

CHAPTER XXV

JUST IN TIME

It seemed as though if there really was anybody left in charge of the Gandy house and premises, such a caretaker would have appeared before this to demand of the party of young folks from Roselawn what they wanted. As Jessie Norwood walked up the lane, with little Henrietta by the hand and followed by Darrington Drew, she saw no person at any window or door.

The tower might have been abandoned years before, as far as appearance went. But Mark Stratford's discovery seemed to make it plain that the tower was sometimes in use.

Jessie noted that the tower stood on a knoll behind the house from which vantage the race track some quarter of a mile away might be seen. With good field gla.s.ses one might stand in the second story of the tower and see the horses running on the track. Then, if there was a sending radio set in the tower, the reports of races could be broadcasted in secret code to sets tuned to the one in the tower.

Of course, if the radio instrument was so illegally used, it was only so used while the races were being held at the Harrimay Track. Then the folding aerials were raised and made use of. The cry for help that had been broadcasted and which Jessie and Amy had heard might have been sent out from this station some night when Martha Poole or her friends had neglected to shut off the aerial by dropping it flat upon the roof of the tower.

The question now was, had Bertha stolen her way into the tower at that time, or was she held prisoner there? Evidently Martha Poole and Sadie Bothwell were determined to hold the girl until after the court had settled in their favor the Ellison will case.

Jessie and those with her came to the foot of the tower. All the lower windows were boarded up and the door was tightly closed. There were shades at the upper windows, and they fitted tightly.

"You call Bertha, honey," said Jessie. "Tell her we've come to let her out. Did you try that door, Darry?"

"Not much! We don't want to be arrested for trying to commit burglary."

"Shout for Bertha, Henrietta," commanded Jessie.

Immediately the little girl set up a yell that, as Burd declared, could have scarcely been equaled by a steam calliope.

"Bertha! Bertha Haney! Come out and see my new dress!"

That invitation certainly delighted Amy and Burd. They sat in the car and clung to each other while they laughed. Little Henrietta's face got rosy red while she shouted, and she was very much in earnest.

"Bertha! Bertha Haney! Don't you hear me? I got a new dress! And we've come to take you home. Bertha!"

Suddenly the lower door of the tower opened a crack. An old, old woman, and not at all a pleasant looking woman, appeared at the crack.

"What you want?" she demanded. "Go 'way! Martha Poole didn't send you here."

Jessie spoke up briskly. "We've come to see Bertha. This is her little cousin. You won't refuse to let her see Bertha, will you?"

"There ain't n.o.body here but a sick girl. She ain't to be let out. She ain't right in her head."

"I guess that is what is the matter with you," said Darry Drew, sternly. He had come nearer, and now, before the woman could shut the door, he thrust his foot between it and the jamb. "We're going to see Bertha Blair. Out of the way!"

He thrust back the door and the old woman with it. They heard a m.u.f.fled voice calling from upstairs. Little Henrietta flashed by the guardian of the tower and darted upstairs.

"Bertha! Bertha! I'm coming, Bertha! I got a new dress!"

"You better go up and see what's doing, Jess," said Darry. "I'll hold this woman down here."

Jessie was giggling, although it was from nervousness.