The Haunted Fountain
Page 9
CHAPTER VIII
Judy Is Warned
“Having trouble?” a sneering voice inquired.
Judy had managed to prop up the wires and slide under them by herselfwithout receiving a shock. She was about to hurry on when the dark manLorraine feared approached her. It was not hard to pretend that she,too, had been frightened.
“I—I’m all right now. I—just want to get out of here,” she chattered.“That fountain back there must be haunted. I heard moans coming fromit.”
“Is that all you heard?”
“That was enough!” declared Judy, not admitting to any curiosityconcerning the moans. “I just want to go—”
“Go, then, and don’t come back!” the man warned. “We don’t wantstrangers snooping around here.”
Judy was thankful he thought she was a stranger. Apparently he hadn’tseen Lois and Lorraine. As she hurried on, Judy kept telling herselfthat they wouldn’t leave without her. And yet, when she finally reachedthe spot where they had parked the car Lois was in the very act ofdriving away.
“Wait!” shouted Judy. “What kind of friends are you to leave me hereafter I helped you through the fence? How did you think I would gethome?”
“We didn’t think. Oh, Judy! I’m sorry,” Lois apologized. “Are we beingfollowed?”
“No, I don’t think so. He went back up the hill, but not before I had agood look at him. He’s just a man. No horns! He warned me not to comeback.”
“You won’t, will you?”
“I’m considering—”
“There isn’t time to consider now. Hop in, Judy,” Lorraine commanded,“if you don’t want us to drive off without you. It would serve you justright for getting us into this.”
Judy hopped in, but she wasn’t happy about leaving. She didn’t likerunning away from a mystery.
“I got you into it?” she asked when they were on their way. “From theway you’ve been acting, Lorraine, you were in serious trouble before Imentioned the fountain, and I suspect that man back there has somethingto do with it. I was only trying to help—”
“Well, don’t try any more. It’s no use.”
“Maybe not,” agreed Judy, and changed the subject. “It gets dark soquickly, these December evenings,” she observed. “But it’s still early.See? The lights are still on in the stores,” she added as they droveinto Farringdon.
She had planned to spend the night with her mother and go Christmasshopping with her early in the morning. Now she was rapidly changingher plans to include Horace.
“Let me off at the newspaper office,” she said to Lois when theyreached Main and Grove Streets. “Horace may be working late. I don’tcare what you girls say, I have to at least put a notice about thisdiamond in the Lost and Found column.”
“I suppose you do,” Lois agreed. “Knowing you, I’m sure you wouldn’tkeep it without advertising for the owner.”
“Do you have to mention where you found it?” Lorraine asked anxiously.
“No, but I do have to go back there. Suppose we’re needed? That moansounded as if the—the fountain hurt somewhere—”
“How could a fountain hurt?” asked Lois.
“The same way it could speak, I suppose. If I knew, I wouldn’t be soeager to explore it. As for your problem, Lorraine,” Judy finished asLois stopped the car to let her out, “I think it will solve itself ifyou just trust Arthur and put his ring back on your finger.”
“I would if I could,” Lorraine said sadly. “Good-bye, Judy. We bothwish you luck.”
“I’ll need it,” thought Judy as she headed for the _Herald_ Buildingjust opposite the county courthouse where Peter worked. The residentagency of the FBI would be located in the new Post Office as soon as itwas completed. The Ace Builders, Arthur’s company, was in charge ofconstruction.
Judy entered the front office where she received permission to hunt upHorace somewhere in back. Finally she found him pecking away at histypewriter and looking immensely dissatisfied with what he had written.
“Hi, sis!” he greeted Judy. “Why so gloomy? You look better in a smile.”
“Thanks, brother of mine,” replied Judy, smiling at him. “I wasthinking gloomy thoughts, I guess. For a girl whose wishes come true, Iought to know better. Horace, I have something to tell you.”
“I surmised as much. Well, let’s have it!”
Quickly she told him the story of the fountain, adding the informationthat their grandparents had been friends of the Brandts.
“That’s where they must have taken you all right,” he agreed, “but whatof it? Why should something that happened five or six years ago worryyou now?”
“It doesn’t—not any more. It’s something that happened today.”
Horace grinned expectantly.
“Let’s have it then. It’s time for all honest people to stop working,but newspapermen never stop. Things have a way of happening at night.Is what you have to tell me news, by any chance?”
“Not yet,” she replied, “but I think I’m on the trail of something thatwill be. I only hope it doesn’t happen at night, because I want to gothere with you tomorrow morning.”
“Where?” he asked. “Not to that enchanted fountain you were telling meabout? That’s for kids. It has to be some place important if I go onthe newspaper’s time. Not only that, I have to give a reason for going.”
Judy told him several good reasons, adding that she had been warned tostay away by a mysterious character who seemed to frighten Lorraine.
“He knows Roger Banning and a heavy-set friend of his called Cubby,”she continued. “They apparently live there. They say the Brandts leasedthe estate to them, but I don’t believe it. They said there wasn’t anyfountain, but we found not only a fountain but a diamond in the water.As Lorraine says, it’s no frozen tear. Take a look at it, Horace!” Judyuntied her handkerchief and exhibited the gem. “There!” she finished.“Now is it important? Do you think we should advertise?”
“Not yet. Jeepers, what a piece of ice! Think we can find any more ofthem scattered around that fountain?”
“We can try. Please go with me,” begged Judy. “You’ll have to think ofsome excuse—”
“Tell you what,” Horace decided. “I won’t use this story I have in thetypewriter. It’s supposed to be a writeup for my ‘Meet Your Neighbor’column, but now I have another neighbor in mind. This week the readersof the _Farringdon Daily Herald_ will meet George Banning, father ofRoger. He used to be a plumber, but he must have some more lucrativejob now if he can afford to lease the Brandt estate. I’ll just assumehe’s somebody important. Think that will get us in?”
Judy smiled. “I think so. A plumber might be employed by the Brandts torepair the fountain, but that doesn’t make sense, either, does it? Thefountain was still badly in need of repair.”
On the way home Judy told Horace more about the mysterious fountain andthe moaning cry she had heard.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just a noise in the pipes?” Horace askeddubiously.
“It wouldn’t say ‘Go away!’ would it?”
“You might have thought it did. The air would come out with a peculiarsound if someone suddenly turned on the water.”
That, in Horace’s opinion, could account for the “voice” in thefountain. He expounded his theory later around the dinner table. It hadholes in it, as Judy soon pointed out to her parents. Dr. Bolton wasespecially interested in the moan.
“Someone could be in pain. You say you didn’t have time to exploreunderneath the fountain?”
“We couldn’t, Dad, with the water turned on. I think there is a placeto go down behind those cupids that hold the pedestal, but the watershoots right over it. Lorraine acted as if she thought that man sheseems so afraid of was trying to drown us. She and Lois almost droveoff without me.”
“That was unkind of them,” Mrs. Bolton began in the overly sympathetictone she sometimes used.
“Oh, Mother! You
just don’t understand them,” Judy objected. “They kneweach other long before they met me. Besides, we’re—well, different. Wedon’t care about being proper the way a Farringdon-Pett does. RogerBanning did say a funny thing, though. It was something about Dr.Bolton’s kids winding up as the patients if Cubby would let them. Thatwasn’t just the way he said it. Dad, what do you think he meant?”
“I don’t know,” the doctor admitted, “but I’ll be at the hospitalbetween eleven and twelve o’clock. Call me there if you need me.Perhaps you’d better call anyway,” he added. “I’m a little worriedabout this haunted fountain, as you call it. I haven’t forgotten thehaunted road. Your ghosts very often need medical care.”
“I see what you mean, Dad.”
Judy had not forgotten the haunted road, either, or her terrifyingexperience at the end of it. Now she was deep in a new mystery. Thespirit of the fountain had not called for help, she reminded herfather. The voice had called, “Go away!” She was sure of that.
“Probably it was only one of those boys hiding under the fountain andtrying to frighten you,” Mrs. Bolton said. “They might have known theywould only whet your curiosity. Have you told Peter about it?”
“I haven’t seen him,” replied Judy. “Has he called?”
Judy’s mother said he hadn’t. “Perhaps you’d better call him,” sheadded. “Tell him there’s a nice chicken pie I can warm up for him if hehasn’t had dinner.”
“I think he has, Mother. From the way he spoke I think he had plans forthe whole evening. But I’ll call, anyway.” Judy dialed the number andsoon heard the telephone ringing in her own house in Dry Brook Hollow.It was right beside the door so that she could hurry in and answer itif she happened to be outside. Peter had another outside wire in hisden, and there was an extension in their bedroom. Nobody could complainthat it took too long to reach the telephone. After six rings Judydecided there was nobody at home.
“Peter may be on his way here. If he is, I hope he let Blackberry outof prison. I think I shut him in the attic by mistake,” confessed Judy.“He was up there playing with my sewing things.”
“Thinks he’s a kitten, does he?” chuckled the doctor. “I wouldn’t worryabout him if I were you, Judy girl. Cats have a way of taking care ofthemselves.”
“Blackberry does. Peter will think the house is haunted if he comes inand hears him rolling spools around up there. He will investigate thenoise, and Blackberry will be rescued—like that!” Judy finished anddismissed the matter from her mind.
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