He had made careful note of their position when Neil stopped rowing and said that this was about where he’d surfaced after his underwater swim. Then he’d plunged overboard, leaving Graham to take the oars.
Now, manning the oars awkwardly, Graham struggled to keep the dinghy opposite the same pine tree onshore – the stunted one growing out of the rock face. The little dinghy, however, was rebellious and refused to go where he wanted.
But where was Neil? Why hadn’t he come up for air? Graham berated himself for letting him go down there a second time. Why hadn’t he kept quiet about it? He might have known that conscientious Neil would feel it his duty to go.
It seemed forever before there was a sudden eruption and a form shot out of the depths, like a dolphin after a flying fish. Neil swam over, hauled himself into the dinghy, and collapsed on the floorboards. He shook his head in answer to Graham’s inquiring look. “No … luck,” he said, between pants. “Not a sign of … the shoes…. I’ll have … a rest … then try again.”
“No!” Graham said firmly, rowing away as fast as he could, the dinghy veering this way and that. “It’s too dangerous, Neil. You gave it a good shot. We’ll have to think of something else.” He paused. “Maybe you’d better take the oars, or we’ll never get back. This darned boat has a mind of its own.”
TWENTY-SIX
_
When they arrived back at the cove, Daniel was perched on the rock, watching for Charlie’s launch. Before long, they heard the putt, putt, putt of an inboard engine, and the launch appeared around the point.
Daniel jumped to his feet. “There they are! And Crescent’s with them.” The boys all waved wildly until Charlie spotted them and turned into the cove. As the launch neared the shore, he cut the motor and let her drift. “Too rocky to come any farther,” Charlie called to them.
“We’ll row out,” Daniel called back. He could see his grandparents exchanging puzzled looks, wondering, no doubt, what they were doing on Deadman’s Island.
They climbed into the dinghy and Neil rowed out to the launch. He shipped the oars and came alongside.
“Daniel,” Mrs. Lonsberg said sharply, “what on earth are you doing here?”
“We came over to look for Graham’s aunt, Gran,” Daniel said. “We didn’t find her, but a whole lot of other things happened. And guess what, Gramps? We found the secret underground passage!”
“You did?” Gramps exclaimed. “That’s exciting! So my memory was right after all.” He looked pleased.
But Mrs. Lonsberg wasn’t pleased. “You went in the castle, Daniel!” she said. “That’s private property. I hope you had permission.”
Daniel looked away. “Well, sort of …”
“What do you mean, ‘sort of’?”
“Well, uh, I mean, we didn’t have permission when we first went in, but we do now. In fact, Sergeant Simpson told us not to leave the island.”
“What! Are you in trouble with the police?”
“Not exactly,” Daniel said, at which point Graham spoke up.
“It was all my idea, Mrs. Lonsberg. It’s a long story – we found more than we bargained for – but as Daniel said, we’re not supposed to leave, so why don’t you come ashore and we can explain what happened.”
“Let’s go, dear,” Mr. Lonsberg said.
“If I can tag along, I’d sure like a chance to see the castle!” Charlie said.
So Neil rowed Graham and Daniel back to shore, then made two more trips – the first to ferry the Lonsbergs in and then Crescent and Charlie, who had set out a sturdy anchor in the meantime. “I gotta see this secret passage you boys discovered,” Charlie said, on the trip in. “I’ve always wondered if there really is one.”
“There really is,” Neil said. “In fact, Graham and I were in it a lot longer than we wanted. We were trapped.”
Crescent looked at him in alarm. “Trapped! What happened?”
“Don’t worry, it turned out all right,” Neil said, as they reached the shore. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Mrs. Ruff stared, aghast, when she saw the crowd approaching the back door of the kitchen. “If those people think they can tramp all over my castle,” she said to Leonard, “they’ve got another think coming.” As she strode to the door, Leonard slipped quickly away to avoid the confrontation.
“Hi, Mrs. Ruff,” Daniel said, before she had a chance to speak. “This is my grandmother and my grandfather.”
“So nice to meet you, Mrs. Ruff,” Mrs. Lonsberg said. “I do hope the boys haven’t been a nuisance.”
Mr. Lonsberg extended his hand. “Delighted to be here, Mrs. Ruff. I’ve heard so much about your castle.”
Mrs. Ruff put out her hand, somewhat hesitantly and Mr. Lonsberg seized it enthusiastically. “We live in New York, you see, Mrs. Ruff, and I knew the original owner of the castle, when he was building it way back when, before the poor man fell on hard times. My, but he couldn’t talk about anything else but his castle.” He stepped back to gaze up at the towering structure. “Now I can understand why. It’s so impressive. May we come in a minute?”
Mrs. Ruff’s demeanor had undergone a distinct change. “Why, uh, yes,” she said. “Come in. Come in.” She held the door open.
“This is our friend, Crescent Savage,” Mr. Lonsberg said, as they filed in, “and our invaluable fishing guide, Charlie Milton.”
“I met Crescent before,” Mrs. Ruff said. “And Charlie and I have known each other for a dog’s age, haven’t we, Charlie?”
“’Deed we have, Ruby,” Charlie said. “But what’s this I hear about finding the secret passage to the river? You’re a sly one, Ruby, you’ve been holding out on us. I hope you’re going to let us see it.”
“Why, of course, Charlie,” Mrs. Ruff said. “But you’ll get a shock when you do. Have the boys told you?”
“We haven’t had a chance yet; they just arrived,” Daniel said.
“You’d better sit down then,” Mrs. Ruff said, pulling up some extra chairs to the big kitchen table. “I’ll get some tea while they tell you what they found.”
Graham did most of the talking. He told about Daniel pulling the horse’s tail, the trapdoor opening to reveal the skeleton, who they thought it was, the POWs tying up Daniel, and Neil swimming out of the tunnel. He didn’t, however, mention the shoes Neil had seen in the water – that was something he was going to demand that Sergeant Simpson investigate. Until he found out more, though, he didn’t want to speculate about whose shoes they might be.
Then, while they waited for the sergeant to return, Mr. Lonsberg persuaded Mrs. Ruff to describe what it was like in the castle in the old days.
TWENTY-SEVEN
_
When Sergeant Simpson arrived back at the castle with the coroner, he was surprised to hear chatter coming from the kitchen, as if there was a social gathering in progress. He found a crowd of people sitting around the kitchen table drinking tea, while Mr. Lonsberg and Mrs. Ruff swapped stories about the Roaring Twenties.
“The things I could tell you about some of them high-society folks that came to the castle back then,” Mrs. Ruff was saying, when she looked up and saw the policeman standing in the doorway. “Ah, there you are, Sergeant. I kept the boys here, like you said. But these folks came looking for them, so I thought they should stay too.”
Mr. Lonsberg got up and introduced himself, his wife, Crescent, and Charlie. The sergeant nodded at each of them. Charlie said, “Hey, Simmie, how’s it going?”
“Fine, thank you, Charlie,” replied the sergeant, trying to maintain the dignity he felt his position called for.
“I’ve known Simmie since Grade One,” Charlie told them. “Never thought he’d turn out to be a policeman. He was a heller back then. Why, I remember the time –”
“The coroner’s waiting in the other room,” the sergeant said quickly. “He’s here to examine the skeleton. You’d better come with me, Ruby. He may have some questions for you.”
When he reached
the circus room, the sergeant was nonplussed to discover not only Ruby Ruff, but all the others as well, crowding in behind her. Before he could react, Daniel was explaining to the coroner how he’d accidentally pulled the horse’s tail and discovered the trapdoor, and Charlie was saying he’d been hearing rumors of a secret passage for years, but it took these boys to find it. There wasn’t much the sergeant could do but fade into the background while the coroner took over.
“Right then, open her up,” Dr. Patterson said, as if he were talking about a patient on the operating table.
Daniel yanked the tail, and those who hadn’t seen it before watched in fascination turning to horror as the trapdoor swung slowly upright, revealing the skeleton. The coroner bent to examine it.
Graham spoke up. “The trapdoor is on a timer, Doctor. The power should be turned off, or it will close again in a few minutes.”
“See to that, Sergeant, will you?” Dr. Patterson said. “And bring me a flashlight.”
Looking somewhat bewildered, Sergeant Simpson said in a quiet voice, “Do you have a flashlight, Ruby? And, uh, where exactly is the main power switch?”
“No need to shut off all the power, Sergeant,” Neil said. “Just take out the fuse for circuit thirty-three. Would you like me to show you where it is?”
“No!” the sergeant snapped. “That won’t be necessary.” He left with Mrs. Ruff, and, a short time later, the lights in the room went out. He returned with a flashlight, which he handed to the coroner. It was the one, Neil saw, that he and Graham had used in the tunnel until the batteries went dead, but he decided he’d better not mention that.
The coroner switched the flashlight on. Nothing happened. He sighed impatiently. “Dead batteries! A fine situation, Sergeant. Don’t the police have flashlights that work, for heaven’s sake?”
The sergeant reddened. “I, uh, didn’t think that –”
“It’s okay, Simmie, I always carry one with me,” Charlie said. He produced a flashlight from one of his voluminous pockets, untangled an assortment of fishhooks and line, and handed it to the coroner.
“It’s obviously a child,” the coroner said, when he finished his examination. “Hard to tell the exact age or how long it’s been there. A decade perhaps – I need to study it more thoroughly in the laboratory. I’ll send some men to pack it up properly. There’ll have to be an inquest.” He shone the light down the stairs. “Anything else I should see down there while I’m here, Sergeant?”
The sergeant shook his head. “It’s just a tunnel leading to the river.”
“You’ve been all through it?”
“Uh … no, but –”
“How do you know then? Maybe there’s some evidence down there that would tell us what happened. Or even another skeleton.”
“But these two boys said they’d been as far as they could go,” the sergeant protested. “The river end of the tunnel is flooded, you see, Doctor, and –”
“Go and look for yourself, Sergeant,” the doctor said. “And be quick about it. I haven’t got all day.” He fished a watch from his vest pocket and frowned at it.
“I’ll come with you, Simmie,” Charlie said. “You’ll need my flashlight.”
Grudgingly, the sergeant agreed, and the two of them disappeared down the stairs.
While they were gone, the coroner learned what he could about the history of the castle and the previous owners from Mrs. Ruff and Mr. Lonsberg, paying particular attention to the story of the missing boy. He kept pulling out his pocket watch and checking the time. “Taking them long enough,” he grumbled. “I’m a busy man.”
Finally the sergeant returned with Charlie.
“Well, find anything?” the coroner demanded impatiently, when the sergeant’s head popped up above the trapdoor.
“Just these shoes,” Sergeant Simpson said, and he produced a pair of low-heeled, leather woman’s shoes. “I found them in the water at the far end of the tunnel.”
“Why those are Miss Stone’s!” Mrs. Ruff said.
TWENTY-EIGHT
_
They all stared at the shoes, as if expecting them to speak up and explain themselves.
“How would Miss Stone’s shoes get there?” Mrs. Ruff said. “She’s never been in the tunnel – she didn’t even know there was a tunnel, none of us did…. Heavens, you don’t suppose …?”
“The current would have carried them in, Ruby,” Charlie said. “It sweeps right by the cave. There’s all kinds of stuff washed in down there – candy wrappers, cigarette packages, you name it.”
Graham felt sick. He turned to Sergeant Simpson. “Now will you believe me and bring in a police diver?”
“Hmm,” the sergeant said. He was running out of excuses. “Still, a pair of shoes doesn’t prove anything. They might have been accidentally kicked off the dock, or lost from a boat.”
“But …,” Graham turned to appeal to the coroner, “Doctor, don’t you think there should be an investigation?”
“Not my business,” the coroner said. “Up to the police. I only deal in dead bodies.” He looked at his watch again and briskly packed his bag.
“Your aunt is an excellent swimmer,” Mrs. Ruff reminded Graham. “She must have dropped her shoes in the water by accident, that’s all. She’s probably enjoying the sun somewhere down south by now.”
Graham didn’t look convinced. Neil could tell by his grim expression that they had more detective work on Deadman’s Island ahead of them.
“You can turn the power back on so the trapdoor closes, Sergeant,” the coroner said. “And keep it closed until my men get here. I don’t want anyone touching that skeleton.”
Neil watched the trapdoor descend over the skeleton again. The eye sockets seemed to be staring up at him in mute appeal.
As the coroner headed for the door, Neil followed him out. “Sir,” he said, when they were out of earshot of the others, “could I ask you something?”
The doctor stopped. “Yes, what is it?” Again he pulled out his pocket watch. “Make it snappy.”
“The thing is, sir, I promised the boy he would be returned to his family.”
The doctor frowned. “What boy?”
“The boy in there … you know, on the stairs.”
“You mean the skeleton?”
Neil nodded.
“Let me get this straight,” the doctor said brusquely. “You promised a skeleton, which has been lying there for a decade or so, that it would be returned to its family – whoever they are?”
“It was its … uh, its spirit, I promised. You see, sir, I have a feeling it’s still here – the spirit, I mean. Probably because the boy thought he’d been abandoned and nobody wanted him, so when he died, his spirit didn’t go wherever it is spirits go. It stayed here, sort of a lost soul…. So I was hoping, after you were through examining his skeleton, you could send it home for a proper burial.”
“I see.” The coroner’s expression softened. “Well, the police will have to locate the family in any case, so … I’ll tell you what … Neil, is it? I’ll see that the skeleton is packed up and sent to them for burial, if the family is willing. I promise you that.”
“Thank you,” Neil said.
“No, thank you,” the coroner replied. He tucked his watch back in his vest pocket and walked slowly away, turning back once to look at the boy standing in the hallway.
“I’ll need a statement from each of you,” Sergeant Simpson said officiously, producing his battered notebook. “And your addresses and phone numbers. You may be called upon as witnesses if there’s an inquest.” No one really expected that to happen, but the sergeant wasn’t taking any chances – he was already in the coroner’s bad books.
“I’ll talk to you – one at a time – in the kitchen, starting with Mrs. Ruff,” he said. “The rest of you, wait here until I send for you.”
As they left the room, Neil heard Sergeant Simpson tell Mrs. Ruff that he’d phoned two of the owners to tell them about the skeleton. Snyder and Grim
sby both denied any knowledge of the underground passage or the skeleton. However, they’d agreed to meet the sergeant there the following day for a routine interview.
While they waited their turn with the sergeant, Graham stood apart from the others, looking forlorn. Neil went over to him. “Are you all right, Graham?”
“It’s those shoes,” Graham said. “Now I’m sure something’s happened to Aunt Etta, and it’s all my fault. If I’d come sooner, I could have warned her.” He stared out the window. “She used to drop in at our house on her way to meetings. She was constantly hurrying somewhere – the Historical Society council meetings – but she always took the time to ask me about school before rushing out again.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Neil said. “You came as soon as you could. Besides, we don’t know anything for sure.”
Graham shook his head. “I knew those guys were up to something, and I didn’t warn her.”
No point in arguing with him, Neil thought. Graham would have to work this out himself. “What’s done is done,” he said. “Now we have to find out if anything did happen to her on the island, and if so, what. If we don’t do it, no one will.”
Graham turned away from the window. “You’re right. That sergeant certainly isn’t going to, so it’s up to us. And if Aunt Etta was attacked on the island, there must be clues somewhere. Which means we’ve got to keep looking – despite having to cope with Mrs. Ruff.”
“Maybe we can get her on our side.”
“That’ll take some doing, the way she feels about me.”
True enough, Neil thought. And they’d have to avoid being seen by Grimsby or Snyder when they arrived.
Mrs. Ruff came back from the kitchen and announced it was Charlie’s turn with the sergeant. Neil noticed that she then went off in a corner with Crescent and the two of them had their heads together, talking.
The Castle on Deadman's Island Page 9
