We were silent for a long time after she had finished speaking. If the truth be told I was feeling rather small. Also I was experiencing a new understanding of Aunt Cal. For the first time I had had a glimpse of the real person behind the mask of severity she habitually wore. It was Eve who finally ventured to put one more question. "And Carter Craven," she asked, "when he went away the last time, was it for something like that?"
"I believe so," Aunt Cal returned shortly. "I was told it was a gold mine, though I was not here at the time."
She nodded. "I went into Millport yesterday to see the lawyer who has charge of the estate, to tell him about this man Bangs. I feel that if we could get hold of him, he might be able to tell us something. But now that he is wanted by the police, no doubt he will have left the neighborhood for good." She sighed.
I sighed too. "I do wish they could find him before Wednesday," I said. "Then perhaps the police would believe Michael's story. If they don't----" I broke off, conscious that Aunt Cal was not listening. She seemed utterly absorbed in her own thoughts.
Didn't she care, I thought, that the good name of a perfectly innocent boy was about to be dragged in the dust! As the minutes went by and still she said nothing, all my newly aroused sympathy vanished. If she was so indifferent to the troubles of others, she didn't deserve anybody's sympathy. I grew so indignant, sitting there in the darkness, that I finally could stand it no longer and said I guessed I'd go to bed.
"All she cares about," I sputtered five minutes, later as I pulled off my shoes and flung them into the corner, "is that stuffy old house with its messy old garden and its defunct fountain and--and all of its moldly old memories!"
"You're wrong, Sandy," Eve said. "I think the thing she cares most about is Carter--his memory, I mean. I don't think she'll ever be happy till that is cleared."
I stopped with one stocking half off and looked at Eve. "What in the world makes you think that?" I inquired.
"Don't you remember what Captain Trout hinted to us, that some people thought Carter had destroyed his father's will?"
"Oh," I said, light beginning to dawn, "you think that is what's eating Aunt Cal?"