The Mandie Collection (8 page)

Mandie and Polly were doubled up in giggles at Snowball's action, when Mandie suddenly bent closer to the floor. “Hey, look! The key! Here's the key to the tunnel!” She picked it up from the carpet.

“The key to the tunnel!” exclaimed Polly. “You mean it was in the powder jar?”

“It must have been, it's right here in this pile of powder,” Mandie told her. “I wonder where Liza got this jar, anyway.”

And at that precise moment, Liza came through the doorway, carrying an armful of Mandie's belongings.

“Say, Liza, where did you get this jar of powder?” Mandie questioned, holding up the jar.

“Land sakes! You done went and spilled powder all over this here rug just after I cleaned it! Now why you want to do that?” Liza scolded her as she dropped the things onto the bed and stood there staring at the powder on the carpet.

“Sorry, Liza, it was an accident,” Mandie told her, “but look what was in this jar—the key we've been looking for! Where did you get the jar, Liza?”

“Now let me see,” she pondered. “I think it was on the bureau in the room that Mr. Locke is staying in. Yes, that's where it was,” Liza went on. “I didn't think he needed that good-smelling powder, so I took it for you.”

“Liza!” Mandie laughed. Then she turned to Polly. “Then Bayne Locke must have taken it from my room—the key, that is.”

“I didn't think we could trust that man,” Polly added.

“Hey, come on. Let's find Mr. Jason and take him to the tunnel,” Mandie excitedly brushed the white powder off her skirt. “Let's go!”

They found Mr. Bond on the front porch.

“The key! We found the key! Let's go to the tunnel!” Mandie called as she and Polly ran on down the steps. Mr. Bond scratched his head and followed.

Breathlessly, the two girls pushed aside the bushes in front of the door. Mr. Bond reached for the door to unlock it, but it was already unlocked and standing wide open.

“Well, how do you like that?” Mr. Bond said, as he stepped inside.

“Now, we go for miles and miles before we come to the door into the main part of the house,” Mandie told him.

And they walked and walked—down halls, up stairs and down again, and no door appeared to lead into the house at all. Instead, they found a panel in the wall slightly ajar.

“Look, that wall is open a little,” Mandie whispered.

As Mr. Bond reached to touch it, the panel closed back into place and they could not even tell it had been open at all.

“Well, looks like it's not meant for us to get through,” Mr. Bond said.

“I wonder how that panel got loose,” Polly speculated.

“You girls probably knocked something loose on your travels down through here,” Mr. Bond laughed.

“Guess we'll just have to go back out the way we came in,” Mandie muttered. “But we're not going to give up.”

“Nope, we're not,” Polly confirmed. “Must be somebody on the other side of that wall, the way it closed so fast, and I know it was open, 'cause I saw it.”

“Probably one of those ghosts we've been trying to catch up with,” Mandie teased.

“Maybe we can find the other side of this tunnel now that we know the panel opens,” Mr. Bond told them.

They left the tunnel the way they had entered. Mr. Bond locked the door and put the key in his pocket.

The three of them went back into the house and were climbing the steps to the third floor when they met Bayne Locke coming down. He grinned at them and would have gone on down the steps, but Mr. Bond stopped him.

“Look here, fellow, where have you been up that way?”

“Why, I've been up to the third floor,” Bayne sarcastically replied. “Where'd you think I'd been?”

“What reason did you have to go up to the third floor?” Mr. Bond wanted to know.

“Hey, mister, you just work here. I am the nephew of the man who owned this house.” Bayne was not grinning any longer.

“And I also happen to be in charge of Mr. Shaw's affairs until the will is located,” Mr. Bond replied.

At that moment, Mrs. Snow and Ruby appeared at the top of the stairs to the third floor.

Mandie turned to them, “And what were you doing on the third floor?”

Mrs. Snow hurried down the steps, with her daughter at her heels. “What business is it of yours? I have as much right as you do to this house and everything in it. So, don't bother asking me any questions, because you certainly won't get any answers.” She kept right on going down to the second floor, her daughter following and turning to make faces at the girls.

“That woman is no relative of mine!” Bayne Locke loudly proclaimed.

The woman turned back. “And Mr. Locke is no relative of mine.” She and her daughter disappeared down the hallway below.

“Well, why don't you throw her out? She's certainly not kin to John Shaw!” assured Mr. Locke.

“Same reason I'm not throwing you out right now. I have to prove you're no kin before I can oust you from this house. But that day will come. You can be sure of that.” Mr. Bond passed the younger man and went on up the stairs, Mandie and Polly following.

“Guess we won that time,” Mandie remarked.

“Yeh, but who's gonna win the final say-so?” Polly replied.

They climbed the stairs all the way to the attic. It was dark and spooky, even though there were gabled windows to let in the daylight. The floor was covered with boxes, old furniture, trunks, dishes, clothes, and even an old organ.

“Now, the best thing to do is to go around the wall like this and tap on it to see if it will move,” Mr. Bond told them as he rapped the wooden wall with his hand. “You two go around that way and I'll go this way.”

Mandie and Polly did as he told them, laughing as they went, banging on the wall. They were almost all the way around the attic when they realized Mr. Bond was no longer with them.

“Polly! Mr. Bond! He's gone!” Mandie cried. “Where did he go?”

“I don't know. He was here just a minute ago. Maybe he's behind some of that old furniture. You go that way and I'll go this way and maybe we can find him,” Polly told her.

As they worked their way around the room, they kept calling, “Mr. Bond! Mr. Bond! Where are you?”

Finally they met again.

“He's not here!” Mandie gasped.

At that moment, something scampered across the floor and both the girls screamed.

“Let's get out of here.” Polly shouted, running for the door to the steps. Mandie, her heart pounding, followed close on her heels, and then she stopped suddenly as she looked back and saw Snowball beating an old piece of wood around with his paws.

“Oh, Snowball! Polly, it was Snowball!” She picked up the kitten.

“Well, anyway, let's get out of here.” Polly ran ahead to the door.

They came down the steps into the front hall so fast they almost collided with Liza who was passing through with her arms full of bed linens.

“Hey, where you two going?” Liza stepped out of their way just in time.

“Liza, have you seen Mr. Bond? He disappeared,” Mandie told her.

“I ain't seed him since he went up the steps with you two,” Liza answered. “Why? What's wrong? Something wrong?”

Mandie immediately tried to compose herself, knowing the black girl would become frightened if they told her what had happened.

“Oh, nothing, we just missed him, I guess,” Mandie said.

“Yeh, we stayed too long in the attic,” Polly helped out.

“You been in the attic? Lawsy mercy, what you two done been doin' in that spooky place?” Liza's eyes widened. “Ain't you'ns askeered to go up there?”

“We just went up there looking for something, Liza. Come on, Polly, let's go out in the yard.”

Once the two girls were out of Liza's sight they ran for the entrance to the tunnel.

“He's gotta be in the tunnel. He must've found the panel that opened up,” Polly declared.

“Right. Maybe we can find the way in from the tunnel now,” Mandie said as she ran on ahead and pushed at the door. “Oh, no, Mr. Bond locked it when we left, remember? And we don't have the key!”

“Guess we give up and go home and wait for him to come back from wherever he's gone,” Polly lamented.

To their amazement, Mr. Bond was sitting in the swing on the front porch when they came around the corner of the house. “Mr. Jason! Where did you go?” Mandie ran to him. “Where did I go?” the old man asked.

“Yes, when we were in the attic, you just disappeared,” Polly added.

“Oh, the attic—why, I just came on back downstairs.”

“But we didn't see you leave,” Mandie insisted.

“No, because some of that old furniture is taller than you two, I suppose.” He smiled at the girls. “Did you get scared because I left you alone up there?”

“Oh, no, Mr. Jason. We were just trying to find you. We thought maybe you had found the secret panel,” Mandie told him.

“The secret panel? Oh, the panel to the tunnel. No, I don't suppose there's an opening into the attic after all,” Mr. Bond said.

The two girls looked at him and then at each other and didn't say anything else, but they went on inside the house and up to their room on the third floor.

“I don't believe him!” Mandie was emphatic about it.

“Neither do I!” Polly flopped down beside Mandie on the big bed.

“But why would he lie to us, Polly?”

“Must have a good reason.”

“Well, after all, this is my uncle's house and Mr. Jason shouldn't keep secrets from me,” Mandie moped.

“Nope.”

“Well, don't you have any ideas?”

“I just can't figure this one out, Mandie. Everybody seems to be trying to hide something from everybody else.”

“I know. Guess it's the money my uncle has. Money makes people fight sometimes, my father always told me. He always said it was better to be poor. Then you would know who your friends really are.”

“Oh, Mandie, I don't agree with that at all. I'd just die if we were poor.” Then Polly realized what she was saying. “Sorry, I forgot. I mean, I know you told me how poor your family is. But, anyway, don't you think it's better now, with all those new dresses and so much to eat, and servants to do all the work?”

“Well, I suppose. But look at the difference in things since Bayne Locke and that Mrs. Snow and her terrible Ruby came here. They're all after my uncle's money!”

“So what are we going to do about Mr. Jason now?”

“I suppose we'll have to watch him now, along with the others.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

JOE COMES TO VISIT

The people who sat around the dining table at mealtime after that acted like enemies. There was very little conversation between any of the occupants of John Shaw's house.

Mr. Bond tried his best to carry on a conversation at the table one day at dinnertime, but Bayne Locke and Mrs. Snow and her daughter completely ignored him. The girls did not talk either, but continued to listen and watch everyone else. Mr. Bond only got curt answers to any questions he asked in an attempt to draw the girls out.

“Well, if this ain't the quietest bunch I ever seed in all my born days,” Liza remarked as she brought in the dessert. “What's the matter—cat got all your tongues?”

Mandie laughed. “No, Liza, we just can't do two things at one time. If we're going to eat, we have to eat, and if we're going to talk, we just can't eat.”

“Oh, I sees,” Liza smiled at her. “Everybody must be starved to death.” She twirled on out of the dining room with her arms full of dishes. “Most nonsense I ever heard of!”

“Well, guess she's right,” Mr. Bond remarked, looking straight at the two girls. “But if everyone's starved to death, why is everyone leaving so much food on their plates?”

“Don't include me in that. I eat whatever I'm served,” Mrs. Snow haughtily informed him.

“So do I,” her daughter piped in.

“I'm always hungry. I always eat anything I can get my hands on,” Bayne Locke said. “Food's too good to waste.”

“That leaves me to answer, I suppose,” Mandie volunteered. “My stomach doesn't feel too well lately. Too much excitement around. Besides, I'm not used to so much food at one meal.”

“Well, I think eating is a silly habit and a waste of time when you could be doing something more interesting. Therefore, I only eat enough to keep from starving,” Polly told them.

“Maybe the food will taste a little better at suppertime,” Mr. Bond said as he rose from the table. “Although I didn't see anything wrong with what we just had.”

There was a loud knock on the front door. Everyone was silent and listened. There were indistinct voices in the hall and Liza came hurrying into the dining room.

“Missy, you'se got company—the doctor man and his son,” Liza announced to Mandie.

“Joe!” Mandie rushed from the room.

She greeted Dr. Woodard and Joe in the front hallway.

She grasped the old man's hand. “Dr. Woodard, I'm so glad to see you, and you, too, Joe.” She turned a little shyly toward the boy. “Seems like ages since I saw y'all. Come on into the dining room and meet everybody. You'll probably want something to eat, anyway.”

“Wow! Your uncle sure does have a big house,” Joe commented.

“Hope you've been all right, Mandie,” the old doctor squeezed her hand.

“Everybody,” Mandie addressed all who were still at the table, “these are my friends, Dr. Woodard, and his son, Joe.”

Liza was already setting two more plates and she motioned for them to sit down.

“Jason Bond, Doctor,” Mr. Bond said, shaking his hand heartily. “Sit down, eat. You, too, young fellow.” As the two sat down, Mr. Bond resumed his seat. Mandie took her place again, and then introduced each one around the table. “This is my friend, Polly
Cornwallis. This is Bayne Locke, Mrs. Snow, and her daughter, Ruby. Now do help yourselves, Dr. Woodard, there's plenty to eat.”