The Blue Herring Mystery (11 page)

“Hello, Professor Kloop!” he said with a warm grin. “We told Aunt Candy you wanted to borrow Captain Jonas’s lances and harpoons and things, and she said she couldn’t see any objection to letting you have them!”

“That’s nice to know,” Professor Kloop said, and he grinned, too. “Did you come all the way down here to tell me that?”

“Yes, and no,” Djuna said. “We had to come over to Brookville and we thought we’d ride on out here and tell you.”

“Thanks, boys,” Professor Kloop said, and he started to close the door.

“And we thought you might let us wander around the museum for just a few minutes,” Djuna said hastily. “We won’t get in the way and we won’t touch anything.”

Professor Kloop stared at them for a moment and then grudgingly opened the door again. “Okay,” he said, “but see that you
don’t
touch anything.”

“Oh, we won’t!” Bobby assured him.

“I’m working in the back of the house,” Kloop said. “Don’t go upstairs. Just stay in these two front rooms.”

“Yes, sir,” Djuna said. And as Professor Kloop started toward the back of the house, Djuna said, “Say, Professor, are you interested in scapping?”

Professor Kloop stopped and turned and said, “Yes, I am. I’ve been up to watch them scap in the Sepasco Kill a couple of times. It’s quite fascinating.”

“I thought you were,” Djuna said, “because we stopped in the office of the
Brookville Advocate
this morning to look at their old files and find out what they do on Scapping Day — that’s tomorrow, you know!”

“Yes, I know,” said Professor Kloop.

“We checked back through the files and we saw that the accounts of all the Scapping Days had been marked with a red pencil and I sort of thought
you
had checked them because I remembered the red-and-blue pencil you had the other day,” Djuna said quite innocently.

“Well,
I
didn’t check them,” Kloop said, and then he seemed uncertain, “at least I don’t think I did. I went in there to check nature items and went through the accounts of Scapping Day. I thought I’d make a diorama for the museum of Scapping Day, because it’s indigenous to this locale.”

“Jeepers, what does that mean?” Bobby asked.

“It means,” said Professor Kloop with a smile, “that all the natives around here have been scapping in the Sepasco Kill for generations — dating back to the time of the Indians — only I can’t prove it.”

“What’s a diorama?” Djuna asked.

“It’s a scene, small enough to show in a museum, with doll-size characters, showing just what the people do on Scapping Day,” Professor Kloop explained. “I’d build a high cliff, with trees growing on the top, and the Kill itself, below, showing the shoals of herring going up it to spawn, and all the people on the beach scapping for them. The way it is on the big day, Scapping Day.”

“Golly, that would be wonderful!” Bobby said.

“Well, I’ve got to get to work,” Kloop said. “Be sure to close the front door when you go out.”

“Oh, yes, sir!” Djuna said. Then he called after Professor Kloop, “Are you going up to the Sepasco Kill tomorrow?”

“Surest thing you know!” Professor Kloop called back without turning. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

Djuna and Bobby wandered around the two rooms for a few minutes and then they met in front of the pedestal that held the white bird classified as a snowy egret, or
Ardea candidissima
.

“Golly, he was all right,” Bobby whispered. “I was kind of scared when you asked him if he had checked the scapping items in the
Advocate!
”

“So was I!” Djuna admitted. “But I couldn’t see any harm in asking.”

“But why did you ask him?” Bobby persisted. “He said he wasn’t sure whether he checked them or not.”

“Do you think it is really a snowy egret?” Djuna asked in reply.

“Search
me!
” Bobby said after a few moments of study. His forehead and face were dotted with perspiration. “I don’t really know! I saw a stuffed one, one time, up close, but I don’t remember enough about it to know if it was just like this one. It did have long legs and was white, just like this one.”

“Did it have greenish-yellow legs and feet, like this one?” Djuna asked.

“Golly, I just don’t remember, Djuna!” Bobby almost sobbed. “I wish I had paid more attention to that other stuffed one I saw.”

“Stuffed!” Djuna muttered, as he stood there staring at the bird with his forehead wrinkled into a frown.

Then, suddenly, Bobby gave an exclamation that was between a grunt and a soft shout, and his eyes began to shine brightly as he pointed and turned to Djuna.

“I’m
sure
,” he said excitedly, “that the snowy egret I saw before didn’t have that bluish color on its wing tips! Do you see what I mean? The tips of this one’s wings are a kind of grayish blue, see? The wings of the other one I saw were
pure white
, every bit!”

“You’re
sure?
” Djuna asked.

“I’m almost
positive!
” Bobby said, nodding his head.

A few minutes later the two boys went quietly out the front door and closed it carefully behind them. They wheeled their bikes down to the Landing Road, mounted, and started back toward Brookville.

When they arrived in Brookville, Djuna said, “I want to go to the library for a few minutes. I want to find out what kind of bird that is, if it isn’t a snowy egret. Do you want to go in with me, or —”

“Sure!” said Bobby. “I wish you’d tell me what you have in the back of your mind so I’d know what is going on,” he complained.

“I don’t know myself,” Djuna said. “Maybe I’ll have a better idea after we look at some bird books.”

They parked their bikes against the front of the library and went inside. They spoke to the pleasant old lady who officiated in the room where books were checked in and out, and then they went into the reading room on the right, whose walls were lined with all kinds of books.

Djuna went to the card index and soon located the section in which the bird books were kept. He selected two books from the shelf and took them to one of the long tables and began to pore through them, while Bobby wandered around idly, reading the titles of the hundreds of books on the shelves and sometimes reading a little of their contents.

After about twenty minutes Djuna came across an item that brought a flush to his cheeks as his heart began to pound. His eyes were shining as he checked the item in another book. Then he closed both books and took them back and slipped them into their proper places.

He was grinning as Bobby put away the book he had been reading and joined him. “Golly,” Bobby said. “You look like a cat with a dish of salmon.” Then he lowered his voice and said, “What did you find?”

“Nothing that’s sure,” Djuna said carefully. “I —” He had to stop talking, because Bobby interrupted him.

“You wouldn’t look like that if you didn’t know
something
,” Bobby protested. “I’m in this just as much as you are, and I don’t see why you don’t trust me.”

“Golly, Bobby, I’m not sure!” Djuna said. “I’m just following a hunch and —”

“Well, what is it?” Bobby asked. “Tommy Williams said you always acted like this. He said when you got into one of these things you pretended you didn’t know anything, and then suddenly you knew
everything!
”

“I’ll know for sure by tomorrow, I think,” Djuna said slowly. “I’ve got to call Socker Furlong again tonight and ask him to come over and help us because I’m afraid to go ahead without him!”

“Afraid of what?” Bobby asked, after they had thanked the librarian and had gone out on the street.

“Well,” Djuna said, and his eyes were worried now. “For one thing I’m afraid to tell you what I suspect, because it would be too dangerous for you to know it!”

B
OBBY’S EXPRESSION
was one of deep gloom and injured pride as they started to wheel their bikes down the street again. He resented the fact that Djuna would not take him completely into his confidence and thought that Djuna was treating him like a kid instead of an equal partner.

He sulked for a few minutes and then, as suddenly, a thought flashed through
his
mind and he began to sing.

People walking along the street smiled as they heard Bobby singing a little louder than anyone usually sings pushing a bicycle. Then the people began to laugh with them as Bobby finished the song and both he and Djuna leaned over the seats of their bikes and whooped.

“That last line,” Bobby said when he could stop laughing, “is supposed to be, ‘Hinky dinky, parlez-vous!’ But Hinckley Dinkley is
much
better.”

“Where did you hear that song?” Djuna asked.

“My uncle taught it to me,” Bobby said. “My mother’s oldest brother. He was in the First World War. It’s called ‘The Maid from Armentières,’ or something like that. There are a lot of other verses, but he wouldn’t teach me the words.”

“You know,” Djuna said, looking at the steel watch on his wrist, “I’m hungry! Let’s go over to Doc Perry’s drugstore and get a sandwich.”

“I won’t hold us back!” said Bobby. “I’m hungry, too.”

“Now, listen!” Djuna said in a low voice. “I’m going to try to get Doc Perry talking, like Mr. Boots did, and see if we can learn anything more about Kloop.”

“Okay!” Bobby whispered back.

Again they parked their bikes, this time leaning them against the front of Doc Perry’s drugstore, but under the front windows. There were a half dozen Brookville store people and a couple of other customers having sandwiches and soup and milk shakes at the lunch counter. Doc Perry was hustling around behind the counter, waiting on them; and even though he was doing a good business he didn’t seem to be very happy about it. There were dirty dishes piled everywhere behind the counter, indicating that Doc Perry must have been even busier during the regular luncheon hour from twelve to one. It was now nearly two o’clock and as the people who were eating finished and filed out, one by one, no new customers took their places. Bobby and Djuna waited patiently until Doc Perry piled up some of the dishes to make room and then each ordered a ham and cheese sandwich on rye bread and a chocolate milk shake.

“Ain’t got no cheese, n’r ham, n’r rye bread left!” Doc Perry said with evident pleasure. “I can give you egg salad, liverwurst, or cream cheese and jelly.”

“Egg salad,” said Bobby promptly.

“Me, too,” said Djuna.

“Two egg salad, an’ two choc’late milk shakes, comin’ up!” Doc Perry said to himself and then answered, “Two egg sals an’ two chocs! Right!”

“My golly!” Bobby whispered to Djuna. “He’s crazy!”

“Like a fox!” said Doc Perry, overhearing Bobby. He didn’t even lift his head as he said it. He went on spreading egg salad on two slices of bread.

“That’s what Bobby meant,” Djuna said, and he smiled a very disarming smile as Doc Perry lifted his head to look at him. All the other customers had left now. Only Bobby and Djuna and Doc Perry remained in the store.

“Well, he better learn to say what he means!” Doc Perry growled as he gave Bobby a warning glance.

“We were just down to see your museum again,” Djuna ventured. “Things seem to be kind of getting into shape. It looks swell!”

“Getting into shape, is right!” Doc Perry said. “Kloop would never get ’em there. I got to keep after him all the time.”

“That dio — dio — rama he’s planning to make about Scapping Day sounds wonderful,” said Bobby. “He sounds as though he knows what he’s talking about.”

“Oh, he’s all right,” Doc Perry conceded. “But I got to watch him like a hawk. And I do!” he added grimly.

“What did you mean,” Djuna asked boldly, “when you told Mr. Boots the other day that Professor Kloop goes around tapping walls all the time, and you said you were afraid he’d tear up all the floor boards?”

“Just what I said!” Doc Perry snapped. Djuna, watching him, saw that his eyes had narrowed a trifle and that he seemed to become more alert as Djuna asked him the question. “I don’t know just what he’s up to, but he always seems to be looking for something.”

“Maybe he’s looking for the pearls that Captain Jonas Beekman was supposed to have brought back from the South Seas,” Djuna said innocently.

“Pearls!” said Doc Perry, and his eyes were mere slits now as he stared at Djuna. “What pearls? What d’ you know about ’em?”

“Only what Aunt Candy Barnes told us,” Djuna said as calmly as he could. “She said Captain Jonas was supposed to have brought back a fortune in pearls. But she said she didn’t believe he did, because no one had ever been able to find them.”

“Oh, she did, did she!” Doc Perry snarled.

“Yes, sir,” Djuna said. “Maybe Professor Kloop heard about them some way and is searching for them.”

“Well,” Doc Perry said. “Don’t think
I’m
so dumb. I told you I been watchin’ him like a hawk!”

“Because of the pearls?” Djuna asked. “Do you think he might find them?”

“Yes,” said Doc Perry, and then he caught himself. “No! I ain’t never heard anything about any pearls. What you just told me is news to me. An’ it’s prob’ly one of those cock-and-bull stories you can’t put no dependence on!”

“Prob’ly,” Djuna agreed. He took his notebook from his pocket and laid it on the corner and opened it to a back page. Then he began to search in his pockets for his pencil. He went through all of them and then he said to Doc Perry, “Could I borrow your pencil for a couple of minutes?”

Doc Perry unclipped the pencil that protruded from a breast pocket of the white jacket he wore, and handed it to Djuna. Then he turned and muttered something about some soap chips and disappeared into the back of the store.

“See!” Djuna whispered, holding the pencil below the counter so that Bobby could see it. “It’s just like the one Professor Kloop uses. It writes red with one end and blue with the other!”