“Yes, but it looks as if he was only an employee of the Joe Mott syndicate. We’ll pick him up for questioning when he comes to work tomorrow.”
“But Peter, that’s what you said about Aldin Launt, and you never picked him up.”
“We will,” he predicted. “We were hoping he would help us trap the others, but now that house with the boarded-up windows is all the trap we need.”
“Does that mean we can’t go back there and look for Blackberry? Oh dear! I couldn’t go anyway with all these babies in the house,” Judy remembered. And suddenly, partly because she was overtired and partly because she felt she hadn’t been much of a help after all, she began to cry.
“Don’t worry, Angel, Blackberry will turn up.” Peter was trying to comfort her and only making matters worse with his sympathy.
Blackberry wasn’t the only reason for her tears, Judy insisted. And yet, somehow, her cat’s latest disappearance and the responsibility of three children all at once made her feel as if the sky had fallen on her shoulders.
Twice, during what was left of the night, the babies cried and Judy had to get up and attend to their needs. She was sound asleep, and the whole house was quiet and peaceful, when Holly arrived in the morning.
“I’m here!” she announced, ringing the doorbell and shattering the quiet. Still half asleep, Judy put on a housecoat and went downstairs to let her in.
“Ruth says you found my typewriter. I’m so grateful to you, Judy!” Holly exclaimed as she bounced into the living room. “I’m here to baby sit for those orphans when you drive over to get it. I may as well get in practice. Some day I intend to get married and raise a whole houseful of children.”
“You do? That’s a switch,” declared Judy, blinking in the sudden sunshine that streamed through the open door. “What’s happened to you? I thought you were going to be a grief-stricken old maid without even a cat for company. You said it was unlucky to love—”
“Oh, but that was before I met Roger! We had a fabulous time last night,” Holly declared. “I hardly knew the girl who gave the party. Ruth made me go, and am I ever thankful! Lois was there with some boy I’ve never seen before, and Donna Truitt had this handsome stranger off in a corner. They talked and talked.”
“So I heard.” Judy didn’t say the stranger was an FBI agent. She just listened as Holly went on and on about Roger.
“His family just moved here, and he’s going to high school in Roulsville. I can’t wait for school to begin. I told him all about the library exhibit, and he wants to see it. Naturally, I have to go with him to explain everything. Oh, by the way, you won’t forget to stop for those old Christmas cards the Jewell sisters promised us, will you?”
“The Jewell sisters!” Judy exclaimed. “Why didn’t I think of it before? Maybe Blackberry went over to call on the Jewell sisters! Violetta is fond of him. We’ll drive over and—”
She stopped there. The doorbell was ringing again.
“You answer it,” Judy told Holly, almost pushing her toward the door. “I’m still in my housecoat. If it’s Horace, tell him I’ll be ready in a minute.”
“Is it morning already?” Peter called drowsily from upstairs. “I thought I heard the doorbell. Who are all those people talking?”
“All those people,” Judy said, laughing, as she ran up the stairs, “are Horace and Honey. They just came. Holly is here, too. She’s going to baby sit for me so Horace can drive me over to the Jewell sisters’ place. Blackberry may be there. I just thought, if I were a cat—”
“That’s what I call really putting yourself in somebody else’s place.” Peter laughed. “Blackberry is as good as found. You’ll see Danny, of course. You might tell him his father is innocent.”
“I will,” Judy said eagerly.
“I won’t have time for breakfast,” Peter continued. “I may grab a bite with Hank Lawson later. We’re due at the Anderson house in less than an hour. We’ll be there all day if you need us. George Anderson may be visiting his son later on. I’m depending on you to prepare Danny for the visit.”
“I’ll prepare him. How much can I tell Horace?” asked Judy. She was afraid she had already told her brother too much, but Peter didn’t think so.
“We’ll need his help when all this stolen stuff is hauled to the police station or wherever we decide to hold it until the owners come to claim it. We’re only waiting to nab Earle Haley—”
“Who’s he?” Judy interrupted to ask.
“The man in the ghost picture. You photographed the unknown gang leader who took Joe Mott’s place. We think Earle Haley is his real name. He may be Arnold Earle. Whatever he calls himself, he’s known to the Joe Mott syndicate as the Earl, and I’m afraid he won’t be an easy man to catch.”
“But you have the trap all set for him?”
“That’s right. You see, Judy, why it’s so important that you don’t come near that house with the boarded-up windows. We’ll take the boards down as soon as it’s safe. Tell Horace not to take the woods road when he drives you over to the Jewell place. Go the old way. Horace can leave his car across the creek. Is Honey going with you?”
“I haven’t asked her, but it is Saturday. She isn’t working so I guess she could—”
“Won’t that make your friend downstairs a little jealous?”
“Holly? Oh, Peter! She’s met a high school boy named Roger, and she’s crazy about him. She’s acting like herself for the first time since her uncle died. She’s no longer brooding over the way her sister treats her. It was Ruth who suggested the party. I almost wish I’d been there myself,” Judy finished.
“Donna wouldn’t have talked if you’d been there.”
“I know. I was too tired to enjoy a party, anyway. When this is all over we’ll have one of our own. I think I’ll invite Donna,” Judy decided. “She’s going to need friends. Poor girl! I wouldn’t be in her place for a million dollars.”
Peter laughed. “I guess her father made a million. But I wouldn’t be in his place, either. We’re picking him up with all the rest of Joe Mott’s boys. It’s going to be a busy day.”
Judy felt rested and ready for it. When she went downstairs again Holly was telling Honey all about Roger, and Horace was standing there, ignored by both of them and obviously enjoying it.
“Well, Honey,” he said finally, “can you tear yourself away, or don’t you want to go calling on the Jewell sisters?”
“Not today. I think I’ll stay here and help Holly with the babies. I hear one of them crying now!” And Honey flew upstairs.
“Will wonders never cease! Well, come on, Sis,” Horace said to Judy.
“I’m ready,” Judy declared. She gave Peter a quick kiss, and he was off. Hank Lawson had just driven up in the official car. Horace followed in his coffee-colored convertible with Judy beside him.
“What about breakfast?” he asked as they passed through Farringdon.
“Have you had yours?”
Horace said he had eaten a bite at home. “Mother was too busy with the babies to fix much—”
“No matter,” Judy told him. “The Jewell sisters will spread out a feast for us the moment we enter the house. I know them. We’ll probably have home-made biscuits or doughnuts.”
She was right. She and Horace were invited to the table minutes after they arrived. Danny and his friends were already eating and apparently enjoying their breakfast. They had emptied the heaping platter of scrambled eggs, but there was corn bread and fresh apple sauce.
And there was Blackberry under the table eating the crumbs as the children let them fall!
“Shall I scramble some more eggs for you? The hens are laying plenty,” Violetta began.
But the corn bread, fresh from the oven, looked so good that Judy told her not to bother. “I’m so glad you found Blackberry,” she added, picking up her cat and hugging him. “I guess he didn’t even know he was lost.”
“He came up to the door and yowled to come in just like the gentleman he is,” Dorcas informed her. “I thought you’d sent him to us when you took those babies home. Meta called up and told us. She’s coming over this afternoon.”
“She said she was afraid she’d been a little hard on Danny’s father,” Violetta added. “It seems it was all a mistake. I’ll be glad to see her. She hasn’t been here since that thief borrowed her car. It wasn’t Danny’s father. The poor boy was so upset thinking it was—”
“Oh, we know it wasn’t. We’re not sure who it was,” Judy admitted, “but we’re certain who itwasn’t. Danny, your poor father was as surprised as we were to find your house full of stolen furniture. Here’s a picture of the man you were following. His name is Earle Haley—”
“The Earl? Gosh, he’s dangerous!” one of the other boys interrupted, looking at Danny with admiration. “I’d never dare follow him. He’s wanted by the FBI. His picture’s in the Post Office—”
“It is? Maybe he was the one who stole Ma’s car and then brought it back,” Danny suggested.
Horace shook his head. “It was a boy about sixteen. I saw him.”
“So did Holly. He stole her typewriter. She wants me to bring it back,” Judy remembered, “but I’m afraid I can’t do it yet. Peter wants everybody to stay away from your house, Danny, until the boards are off the windows. He’s hoping the thieves will be trapped there.”
“With my father in the house? They can’t do that!” Danny cried, jumping up from the table. “I’m going over there this minute and tell him I’m sorry for the way I treated him.”
“Wait, Danny, you can’t go over there until the boards are off the windows!”
Judy found herself talking to the air. Danny was already gone.
“You boys stay here and don’t let Judy’s cat out. We’ll be back for him,” Horace called over his shoulder as he started after Danny. Judy was already running along the woods road, a half-eaten piece of corn bread in her hand.
“Don’t go there, Danny! Please don’t go there!” she called. “You’ll only get your father into more trouble. Wait and he’ll come for you.”
“I’ll wait,” Danny called back. “I’ll be right where I always am—at the beaver dam.”
“We’ll be there, too, won’t we, Horace?” asked Judy. “We’ll find out what this is all about or die trying.”
“We may die all right,” agreed her brother. “It was never as safe as we thought it was with the Earl and his boys hanging around. He’s armed and dangerous.”
“So is Peter,” Judy said, glad for once of the gun she had often wished he didn’t have to carry. He wouldn’t use it, she knew, unless the criminals made it necessary. Was that one of them now, in the woods just ahead?
Danny stopped short. He had seen a boy running toward them at the same time Judy called Horace’s attention to him with a quick, terrified gesture. All three of them stood frozen. The boy was wearing a striped T-shirt, and in his hand was something that looked amazingly like the missing leg from the lady table.
“It is!” Judy whispered, seeing the quiet face turn toward her almost as if it were alive. “What’s he going to do?”
She hadn’t long to wonder. They had reached the beaver dam. There were the familiar ripples that told Judy the beavers were on the way to their dome-shaped lodge of brush and sticks. The entrance, for safety’s sake, was under water.
“Watch!” Horace whispered, his hand in front of Judy to hold her back.
The boy stood near the beaver lodge for a moment as if undecided. Then he raised the table leg and hurled it into the pond.
There was no holding Judy back after that. She seized the boy by the tail of his T-shirt while Danny turned on him.
“I know you, Buck Lester,” he announced. “You ran away from the orphanage two years ago. What’d you come back for and where’d you find that lady stick?”
The boy seemed frightened by the question.
“What’s it to you, Danny?” he asked, not looking at Judy or Horace. “I’ve got a job, and I have to do what my boss tells me.”
“Did your boss tell you to throw that thing in the water?” Judy asked. “It’s a valuable table leg. Don’t you know the whole table’s over there in that house?” Judy waved her hand toward the house with the boarded-up windows.
“That’s my house. My father’s there,” Danny began, but a voice stopped him.
“No, son, I’m right here,” Mr. Anderson said, coming through the trees. “I can’t take you home until the police have hauled all that stolen stuff back to Roulsville where the owners can claim it. But we can go and see Ma, as you call her in your letters. How would you like it if she became your real mother and we were a family again?”
Danny hesitated a moment. Then he said, without emotion, “I’d like it fine.”
They looked at each other then, and the years they had been separated seemed to evaporate like the morning mist over the pond. With his arm around his son, George Anderson turned to Judy.
“I guess I owe you an apology,” he began, but she interrupted.
“No, Mr. Anderson. I owe you one. I should have known those thieves had taken over your house without your permission. Did they come back?”
“They certainly did. I was warned to keep out of the way, but there wasn’t any shooting. Your husband and the other FBI agent got there just in time to relieve the Earl, as he calls himself, of his gun. Without it he was nothing.”
“He’s my boss,” the runaway boy spoke up defiantly.
“Was,” Horace said. “He won’t be any more. Why don’t you give me the whole story? How did you get mixed up in this racket? You’re the boy who took that green car the other day and came back with a typewriter, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, the boss wanted one in a hurry. He had some letters to write.”
“And so he told you to go out and steal one?”
“Yeah, that was my job. If he told me to get anything I went out and got it. I didn’t ask questions. He’d cased that house and spotted some other stuff he wanted, too, but I didn’t have time to pick it up. The boss understood. He ain’t a bad guy.”
“Boy, you have a lot to learn,” Horace commented, shaking his head.
It was Danny who retrieved the lady stick, as he called it. He went into the pond after it before anyone could stop him and came out dripping wet.
“See, it isn’t hurt much,” he announced, presenting it to Judy. “The lady’s got a couple of tooth marks in her cheek, and the end where the leg screws into the table is chewed a little, but we can fix that, can’t we, Dad?”
“I’m not much good at fixing damaged furniture,” his father confessed. “The business I had in mind was raising chickens. As soon as we get you dried out we’ll start making plans. How about it, son? Would you like to go into partnership with me?”
“I’ll have to ask Ma,” Danny protested. “Let’s go and find her.”
“She won’t be hard to find. The Jewell sisters are expecting her for tea. I think raising chickens is a wonderful idea,” declared Judy. “Oh! Here comes Peter.”
Peter had seen Judy from the house where the boards had already been removed from one window. “It’s safe to come in now,” he told her, “but I’m glad you weren’t here an hour ago when the Earl drove up. He saw us and started to run, but we nabbed him and disarmed him. Meantime the boy in the car with him ran off—”
“But not very far,” Horace interrupted, emerging from the woods with Buck Lester in tow. “We caught him throwing this in the beaver pond.”
Peter stared at the object they were carrying between them as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. Then he turned to the boy. “The FBI can use all the information you can give us,” he began.
“You’re too late, G-man. I already gave it to this newspaper guy,” Buck informed him. “He’s going to put my picture in the paper—”
“You’re wrong there,” Horace stopped him. “When you grow up a bit you won’t want that kind of publicity. How old are you?”
“Fifteen,” he replied, “not that it’s any of your business.”
Peter looked him over appraisingly. “That’s good. I think we can still make something of this boy.”
Danny and his father walked on ahead, going home at last. The others came more slowly, taking turns carrying the lady table leg. It was badly in need of refinishing and yet, somehow, when it was placed beside the other three table legs, Judy liked it best.
“I think I’ll leave that tooth mark in the lady’s face,” she decided. “It gives her more character. The other three faces are too quiet and patient, but this one looks as if she’dlived. Do you think Dad will mind?”
“Mind!” exclaimed Horace. “He’ll be delighted.”
Before another week had passed, a great many pieces that belonged to Dr. Bolton were found. Among them was his fruitwood bench, but that was located in one of the exclusive shops in Mr. Truitt’s chain. The shop was over the state line in Wellsville.
Donna Truitt and Hank Lawson, the FBI agent she had dated, were both invited to Judy’s party. The house was still filled with babies as Judy and Peter had agreed to keep them until Mr. and Mrs. George Anderson returned from their honeymoon.
It would be a strange honeymoon, the crowd at the party agreed, as they had taken Danny with them on a cruise to some romantic island and would return to turn their house into another orphans’ home, complete with chicken farm.
“Danny will find plenty of wild things to watch, but I don’t think he’ll see any beavers on a tropical island,” Peter commented as he handed around Judy’s beaver pictures. Some of them had appeared in theFarringdon Daily Heraldto illustrate Horace’s news stories. The picture of the man with the lady’s face had caused a real sensation.
“The mistakes you make are better than the things some people do on purpose,” declared Holly, whose interest in writing had waned only to flare up again when her typewriter was returned. Now she was writing notes to Roger and tearing them up before he saw them.
Judy met Roger for the first time that evening. She could see why Holly was attracted to him. He had brought his banjo to the party and knew all the song hits.
“Come on, everybody,” he said. “Sing along with Roger. Have you got the beat?”
Judy thought of the honeymooners, then back to her own wedding day as they sang:
“Love’s not a sudden romanceOr the kiss that follows a dance.Love is forever, an everlasting thing.Love is a golden ring.”
“Love’s not a sudden romance
Or the kiss that follows a dance.
Love is forever, an everlasting thing.
Love is a golden ring.”
After the first chorus, the song went on and on, verse after verse. But Judy was no longer thinking back. She was thinking ahead to her next mystery, although she had not yet found THE HIDDEN CLUE among the few things that had been saved from the orphanage fire. Tonight she was glad to forget the fire and enjoy her party, but something was wrong.
“I haven’t set enough places,” she observed as her friends gathered around the party table. “There are five places for Donna and Lois and the others on that side. Horace and Honey are to sit here, Holly and Roger here, but where is my place?”
“Right beside mine,” declared Peter, coming up behind her with an extra place setting. “Move over, everybody! Judy was so busy setting places for everyone else that she forgot her own.”
“Just another little mistake,” Judy explained cheerfully as she began to cut the cake.