Detectives

That afternoon, William went to the Stanhope Free Public Library to return a book. Walking in back of the room in search of a good novel, he came upon Paul hunched over a stack of newspapers. “What are you up to now, Paul?” he asked in a whisper.

“Tell you later.”

“A mystery, huh?” William joked.

Paul smiled and waved his friend away. “Leave me alone now,” he said, “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

“Very well.”

William walked away and Paul returned to his stack of newspapers. He spent almost three hours going through the papers of the past two months. Tired, he decided to stop there. Besides, he was quite satisfied with the information he had obtained. He left the library and walked home. On the way he stopped to call for Ken but did not find him in. Crossing the street to his own home he found Jack, Ken and William on the porch waiting for him. “Well, what is the secret?” cried William. “Tell us.”

Paul motioned to the boys to follow him and he led them to the garage where they would be assured of privacy. The boys found boxes on which to sit and they gathered around Paul. “Well, what is it?” asked Jack.

“I have spent about three hours in the library this afternoon,” Paul informed them “and—”

“William told us that already,” interrupted Ken.

“I have been going through the newspapers for the past weeks,” continued Paul.

“What for?” asked Jack.

“I was looking up the fire reports. In the past two months there have been four fires, one each two weeks or so.”

“What about it?” Jack wanted to know.

“Can’t you fellows see for yourselves?” asked Paul, irritated by their indifference. “Don’t you think that in a small town such as this, a fire every two weeks is very much above the average?”

“Say,” cried Ken, “you have hit upon something. Come to think of it, that is a pretty high average.”

“But what has that to do with the story?” asked Jack.

“Simply this,” answered Paul. “Under normal conditions, there would not be such frequent fires. In other words, all the fires of the past two months may or may not have been caused accidentally.”

“You don’t think yesterday’s fire was an accident?” questioned William.

“No,” was Paul’s categorical answer.

William raised his eyebrows in surprise. He was not acquainted with the facts of the case as the other boys were. “What therefore is the conclusion?” asked Jack.

“It is evident,” returned Paul. “For the past two months at least one fire, or more has been started by a maniac.”

“This thing is becoming worse and worse,” commented Ken.

“Yes,” Paul said gravely, “the situation is very serious and it is up to us to do something.”

“Why is it up to us?” asked William. But just as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew the answer.

“Because,” was Paul’s answer, “we are the only ones who seem to be acquainted with the situation and our suspicions are quite definite.”

“Don’t you think it might be wise to acquaint the police with our suspicions?” inquired Ken.

“I am against doing anything of the sort,” stated Jack. “If we do that, there will be a public scandal. It will be in every newspaper in town and the culprit, whoever he is, will become wary. As it is, we may come upon him by surprise.”

“I agree absolutely,” commented Paul.

“What is our job going to be?” asked William, eager to do something as soon as possible.

“For the present there is only one thing we can do,” said Paul. “We will talk the whole matter over with the boys of the patrol. We are all pretty close friends and we can act as a group. The thing we have to insist upon is secrecy on the part of all the boys and to be always on guard.”

“That alone is not enough,” added William. “I suggest that we also have the boys patrolling the streets, so that in case of anything, they will be Johnny-on-the-spot.”

“That is something we will have to discuss with the rest of the boys,” asserted Paul. “In the meanwhile, suppose we notify the fellows to come to a meeting tonight after supper. Do you think it is all right?”

“Yes, I think that is a very good idea,” commented William. The other boys agreed and it was decided to meet in Ken’s garage.

That evening at about seven, the boys began to congregate in Ken’s garage. They came by one’s and two’s. Fifteen minutes later they were all there except Jack. The boys were curious as to the reason for the meeting and they wanted to start without waiting for the missing member but Paul refused. He suggested that someone run over to call Jack. Bluff volunteered. They waited about five minutes and the messenger returned saying that Jack was not home. Paul remarked, “I wonder where he could have gone?”

Nuthin’ said, “He will most likely be here any minute. In the meanwhile let’s get going.”

“Yes, let’s do that,” echoed Wallace.

Urged on by the other boys, Paul finally consented and the meeting was called to order. Paul then outlined the situation for them, told them the pros and cons of the problem and in conclusion said, “There is one more thing I want to tell you. In going through the newspaper files for information on the fire reports, I noticed that there seemed to be about two weeks difference between fires. In other words, since the last fire was yesterday, we have about two weeks in which to act. The thing for us to do now is not to talk about it to anyone outside of this group and to be always on guard. If we don’t track this maniac down, God knows what damage he is liable to do.”

For a short while there was silence. Nuthin’ grinned and remarked, “What you want us to do, Paul, is for us to become detectives.”

Nuthin’ meant it as a joke but Paul took it seriously. “That is just what I want you to do,” he asserted gravely. “We must all become detectives and find this man.”

“But the information we have is so slight. We really have no clues to work on,” protested Bobolink.

“That is very true,” replied Paul, “but we must do the best we can.”

A little later, the meeting was officially adjourned, but no boy ventured to leave. Their curiosity was aroused by Jack’s not coming to the meeting and they waited around. Paul felt anxious, though he had no reason to be. To Ken, who was sitting beside him, he whispered, “I wonder what happened to Jack!”

Ken shrugged his shoulders. “I can’t imagine. He promised to be here. And he is not home either.”

“That’s just it,” countered Paul. “The fact that he is not home implied that he was on the way over here. But something must have happened on the way to keep him from coming to the meeting.”

“We can go over and see if he is home now.”

“That is a good idea. Let’s go.”

Ken and Paul rose and the other boys did likewise. In a group they walked over to Jack’s house. Ken went in while all the others remained outside. A minute later he emerged and motioned that the missing boy was not home. The boys were disappointed and a few of them became worried. Bobolink commented, “This is becoming serious. We ought to look for him.”

Paul turned the idea down. “You fellows better go home,” he said, “and don’t worry. Jack has a right to go wherever he pleases and if he did not show up at the meeting, there must be a good reason for it.”

“But where could he have gone,” Nuthin’ asked anxiously. “After all, something may have happened to him.”

Paul, though he was anxious himself, made believe that there was nothing to worry about and laughed at the suggestion that something might have happened to Jack. “Most likely he went to see someone or something like that,” he remarked casually. “Nothing serious could have happened to him.”

“Besides, he is the sort of fellow who can take care of himself,” added Ken.

“And what’s more,” argued Paul again, “we don’t know where to look for him. And if we spread an alarm, his folks will become worried and that is something we certainly don’t want.”

“No, I guess you are right, Paul,” agreed Nuthin’.

Several of the other boys nodded and showed willingness to agree with Paul’s idea that they all go home. They walked along as a group until one by one the boys fell out to go home. Finally only Paul and Ken were left. The two boys walked side by side and Paul seemed exceedingly quiet and preoccupied with his thoughts. Ken hesitated to break in upon his friend, but finally he asked, “What are you so quiet and thoughtful about?”

“I wasn’t really thinking of anything,” the other replied.

“We may as well go home, like the others,” suggested Ken.

“No, let’s not do that. Suppose we walk down Main Street a bit. To tell you the truth, I am a bit worried about Jack.”

“Worrying won’t help any,” Ken wisely remarked.

The boys walked down Main Street and then retraced their steps. At Paul’s house, they silently sat down on the steps of the porch and remained like that, neither one uttering a sound.