The Secret of the Golden Pavillion (10 page)

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Authors: Carolyn G. Keene

BOOK: The Secret of the Golden Pavillion
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The display case intrigued the girls. Ivory pins, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets were delicately carved in patterns of various Hawaiian flowers.
“I see just the right gift for Aunt Eloise,” said Nancy, and asked the clerk the price of a pin and earring set carved in the ginger flower design.
“Will you mail this directly to New York?” Nancy inquired.
“I’d be very glad to,” the clerk replied.
After the sale was completed, the girls returned to the convertible, and this time headed straight for Kaluakua. As they parked in the driveway, Ned greeted them with a friendly gibe.
“For Pete’s sake, where have you been? Here we boys speared the biggest fish of the season and we’ve waited and waited hours for you to come home and admire it.”
The girls laughed. “What is it and where is it?” George asked.
“It’s an ulua,” said Ned, “and what a time we had capturing the old boy. He was a real fighter and towed our outrigger along as if it were a feather.”
Only Bess was impressed. Nancy and George were sure the story was grossly exaggerated. Grinning, Nancy said, “Come on, Ned, tell us the truth. How big is this fish?”
“Follow me,” Ned suggested, and they all trooped to the kitchen.
The ulua, minus its head, tail, and fins, lay on the kitchen table and the girls had to admit that it was a good-sized fish.
“We may as well tell you the truth,” Dave spoke up. “Hero Ned speared this fish all by himself under water. But I guess it wasn’t too much of a battle.”
Ned grinningly admitted that it had not been too hard to spear the fish. “We’re going to have it for lunch,” he stated. “So we’d all better go for a swim and work up an appetite.”
Hannah Gruen smiled. “But not too big an appetite,” she said. “Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong telephoned and they’re going to serve a native feast tonight—a
luau.”
“How exciting!” spoke up Bess, who was always ready to eat.
The Drews’ housekeeper went on to say that the Armstrongs had invited the mainlanders to come to their home for the feast. But Hannah had told them that Nancy and the others probably would not want to be away from Kaluakua for so many hours because of the mystery.
“So the Armstrongs offered to come here and prepare the feast,” she announced. “Kiyabu says there is a pit in the garden where pigs were roasted for luaus years ago. ”He’s going to fix it up and heat the lava rock which is put into the pit. The pig has to be steamed.”
“Mm-m! I can’t wait,” Bess remarked, and began to lick her lips in anticipation of the feast.
As Nancy glanced toward Ned, she detected a slightly hurt expression on his face.
“It won’t taste any better than this fish,” she said quickly.
The young man beamed at her, then said, “Nancy, the undersea life offshore here is fascinating. I dare you to go skin diving with me to see it.”
“I’ll do it!” Nancy agreed. “Tomorrow!”
“It’s a date.”
Everyone enjoyed the ulua at lunch. Directly afterward, Nancy suggested that the whole group go on an exhaustive search of the premises to try learning what Grandfather Sakamaki’s secret might be. Walls were tapped for hollow spaces. Floors and ceilings were inspected for trap doors. Nothing came to light.
Finally Bess, heaving a great sigh, remarked, “I’m afraid that Grandpa Sakamaki was just spoofing. He just didn’t want this estate to go out of the hands of the family, so he made up the whole thing.”
The group was in the living room. George had crawled beneath a heavy teakwood table and was tapping the underside. Suddenly the others heard her give a squeal of amazement.
“I’ve found a hidden drawer!” she exclaimed.
At once the other young people were down on hands and knees and crowding close to her under the table.
“There’s a panel that slides. It must be a secret drawer. Yes, here it is and there are some things in it!” George cried out gleefully.
Burt helped her lift out the hidden drawer which was filled with small, dark wooden statuettes. One by one the objects were set on the table.
“What a find!” said Ned enthusiastically. “I’ll bet these are ancient and valuable.”
When Kiyabu was summoned he gazed in awe and amazement at the figurines. He had never seen them before. He, too, thought they were old and that Mr. Sakamaki Sr. would never have taken the trouble to hide them unless they were valuable.
“I know Mr. Uni at the museum,” he said. “Maybe he would come up here to look at them.”
Nancy thought this a good idea and asked Kiyabu to put in the call to Mr. Uni. In a little while the Polynesian expert arrived. The small, bright-eyed curator examined each piece carefully. Finally, he declared that the statuettes were very old and authentic but not ancient.
“The museum would like very much to have these,” Mr. Uni said. “Perhaps the estate would sell or donate them to us later. In the meantime, I believe they would be much safer locked up down there than they would be here. I understand there have been some strange happenings at Kaluakua.”
“Yes,” Kiyabu answered. “One can never seem to tell when there may be prying eyes. Now that these pieces have been found, I think they should be taken away and put into a safe.”
Nancy offered to call Mr. Dutton and ask his advice in the matter. When the executor learned of the discovery, he agreed that the museum was the place for the statuettes.
“Miss Drew, will you please write out a receipt with full description of each piece and ask Mr. Uni to sign it,” he requested. “Also I’d appreciate it if you’d send someone to the bank with it.”
“I’ll be very happy to,” Nancy replied. “I’ll ask the boys to accompany Mr. Uni to the museum, then deliver the receipt to you.”
“Very good,” said Mr. Dutton.
Kiyabu supplied paper and pen, and Nancy wrote down a detailed account of each object. Most of the statuettes represented ancient gods of the Polynesians, but others were of former Hawaiian kings.
After the boys had left with Mr. Uni, Kiyabu went back to the garden where he had been cleaning out the old fire pit in which the pig for the feast would be roasted. Near it, he had built a raging bonfire in a depression of the garden.
On the ground stood a bucket of water. Every once in a while Kiyabu would lift a sample rock from the fire in a huge pair of tongs and drop it into the water, apparently to test the intensity of the heat.
Hannah said that she was going out to the garden to sit in the shade near the picnic spot and rest. She invited the girls to join her when they finished searching.
“I think we should quit work now,” Bess stated. “If we don’t, we’ll all be worn out for the party tonight.”
Nancy was reluctant to leave her job unfinished. But she realized that since arriving at Kaluakua she had not spent much time with Hannah, so she decided to follow her to the garden. The group of four seated themselves in comfortable chairs, their backs to the area where the fire was burning.
Kiyabu left his task and walked to the house. Reaching the porch he turned to look back and stood transfixed with horror.
A furtive figure had appeared from the bushes. Quick as a flash, the man had grabbed up the huge fire tongs lying on the ground and was about to heave them toward Nancy!
CHAPTER XIV
Meeting a Shark
“Auwe! Wikiwiki!”
Kiyabu screamed from the porch of the house. Nancy and the others did not know what he meant, but instinctively they turned in the direction he was facing.
Nancy was not a moment too soon. The heavy tongs were coming straight at her. Like a flash, she leaped aside just as the tongs buried themselves in a nearby bush.
“Mercy!” Bess exclaimed, clutching her heart.
George, who had seen the man near the fire, called out, “There goes the fellow who threw them!”
In an instant she was dashing across the grass after him. Nancy and Bess followed. The fleeing man dodged in and out among the trees and shrubbery until he reached the entrance to Kaluakua. By the time the girls arrived at the spot, he was a good distance down the road. A small black car which had been parked in the bushes picked him up and sped off.
The angry girls stood still, staring after it. The automobile was too far away for them to read the license plate.
“One of the Scorps, I’ll bet,” George found her voice. “Thank goodness Kiyabu saw him and warned you, Nancy.”
“Yes,” Bess added. “Why, Nancy, you might have been killed by those heavy tongs.”
Nancy was silent. She was a bit shaken by the experience, and was puzzled as to who the man might be. He was of medium height and had thinning, dark hair.
“I wonder if he’s Jim O‘Keefe, alias Tim O’Malley,” she mused.
The girls returned to the picnic spot to find Hannah and Kiyabu extremely upset. Nancy tried to soothe them, while George asked what the caretaker had called out.
“‘Auwe’ means ‘alas!’ Woe is met And ‘wiki wiki,’ you were to ‘hurry.’ Oh, I am so glad you did.”
“Thank you for the warning, Kiyabu,” Nancy said solemnly, then added that she was going to report the matter to the police at once.
Sergeant Hawk was greatly concerned upon learning what had happened. He did not mention sending anyone to guard the place, however, and Nancy did not bring up the subject. The detective seemed to be in a hurry to report the matter and try to have the getaway car apprehended.
Soon after Nancy returned to the garden, the three boys arrived. All were wearing very gay Aloha shirts which they said they had purchased in the city after delivering the receipt to Mr. Dutton.
“These shirts are in honor of the luau,” Dave announced.
“I suppose we should be wearing muumuus or hula costumes,” Nancy reflected aloud.
Hannah smiled. “I have a surprise for you girls,” she said. “Come upstairs.”
Nancy and her chums followed Hannah Gruen to the second floor. There she handed each of the girls a muumuu—a white one for Nancy, a blue for Bess, and a pale green for George.
“How lovely!” said Nancy. “Where did these come from?”
“Emma sent them over,” the housekeeper revealed. “She thought you might want to wear them tonight.”
“How very sweet of her!” said Bess.
The girls put on the muumuus and went to thank Emma. Then they joined the boys and told them about the vicious tongs thrower.
“I’m going to stick around after this, so I can take care of you!” Ned declared, and Nancy smiled appreciatively.
A short time later Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong and their Polynesian maid arrived with the food for the Hawaiian feast and leis for the mainlanders.
“May we help with the luau?” Nancy asked.
“Yes,” she said. “I think you girls would enjoy setting the table.”
“But first,” Mr. Armstrong spoke up, “I think our guests should watch the preparation of the Pig.”
Kiyabu produced a huge piece of chicken wire which was then covered with banana leaves. The pig was laid on them. Next, he picked up one of the hot lava stones with the tongs and placed it inside the animal. Then sweet potatoes and pieces of fish which had been wrapped in ti leaves were placed around the pig.
Slowly the wire tray, with its luscious load, was lowered into the pit lined with the hot lava rocks. More banana leaves were spread over it, then large wet sacks. Finally, dirt was heaped on the top.
“This is called the
imu,
or oven,” Mrs. Armstrong explained. “The pig cooked in the imu is called
puaa kalua
and will be left for four hours to steam.”
While waiting for the food to cook, the young people told Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong about the recent mysterious happenings. Next, they took them on a tour of the house and showed them the table where the valuable old statuettes had been found. They all did some further searching, but nothing came of it.
“Let’s gather flowers for the luau now,” Mrs. Armstrong suggested.
She and the girls walked around the extensive grounds, gathering red, orange, pink, yellow, and purple hibiscus flowers. Next, long tapa mats were brought from the Armstrong car and spread on the ground, not far from the roasting pig.
Their hostess had also brought a basket of ti leaves and she now sprinkled them on the mats. Among these, the girls dropped the hibiscus blossoms.
Presently Emma appeared with luscious-looking pineapples and bananas which were interspersed with the flowers. “I never saw a prettier table decoration,” Bess murmured.
At each place the Armstrongs set a coconut shell filled with
poi.
Bess gazed at the sticky, pastelike porridge, which she was told was made from the root of the taro plant, and wondered if she dared to eat it.
Mr. Armstrong was amused. “Poi is rather flavorless, but you should at least taste it,” he urged.
Meanwhile, the Armstrongs’ maid was busy in the kitchen, grinding coconut and pounding squid. This fish would be roasted brown with sea salt and served with crushed
kukui
nuts. Emma was filling coconut shell dishes with salmon and onion and tomatoes. Dessert, she said, would be white squares of delicious coconut pudding.
By the time the pig was ready to eat, dusk had fallen. Mr. Armstrong stuck several kukui-nut torches into the ground and lighted them. As the young people gathered around the table with the others, Mrs. Armstrong smiled broadly.
“You really look like Hawaiians,” she said. “Now, everyone find his place, please.”
Her guests discovered that place cards had been set among the flowers and leaves.
“Why, our names are in Hawaiian!” Bess exclaimed. “Oh, dear, how can I ever find mine?”
Nancy was the first to discover hers. She declared it was not too hard to figure out. “Ane is a little like my American name,” she said, smiling.
Hannah was next to find her name. It was Ana Palani. “I presume that stands for Hannah Frances,” she said, turning to Mrs. Armstrong. “I wondered why you asked me earlier what my middle name was.”

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