Just then Dinah pushed open the kitchen door.
“Sam’s back,” she announced. “Now you can all stop chasing one another and eat your breakfast!”
Everyone laughed and began to eat hungrily. The clock in the hall struck five. When Freddie had finished counting the strokes, he said with a grin, “I’ve never eaten breakfast so early before!”
“Nor gone to bed right after it!” his father remarked teasingly. “We can all get a couple of hours sleep before the day really starts.”
As they started upstairs again Bert pulled his father back. In a low voice he told of seeing the flickering light in the Marden mansion. “Charlie was going to call the police as soon as he got home.”
“That’s a good idea,” Mr. Bobbsey approved. “Later on we’ll find out what happened.”
Freddie and Bert fell asleep as soon as their heads touched the pillows. Freddie dreamed that a raccoon was pulling the tent down on top of him. When he opened his eyes he saw that it was Bert trying to wake him up.
“Come on, Freddie,” Bert said, “it’s time to get dressed for school.”
When the twins went downstairs they found that Dinah had a second breakfast ready for them. “It’s a long time between five o’clock and lunch,” she explained as she set fruit and cereal before the children.
Flossie had just finished the last sip of milk when the front doorbell rang. She ran to answer it. When she opened the door, a police officer stood there.
“Good morning,” he said. “Is this the Bobbsey residence?”
“Yes,” Flossie replied. “Have you come to tell us something ’citing?”
Before the policeman had a chance to answer her, Mr. Bobbsey came into the hall. “Hello there, Officer Murphy,” he called. “What brings you here?”
The policeman explained that Charlie Mason had reported the light in the old Marden house, and had said that the Bobbseys were interested in finding out who the intruder was.
By this time Bert, Nan, and Freddie had joined the group. “Did you find anyone?” Bert asked excitedly.
“No, we didn’t,” Officer Murphy replied. “We sent two night men over when the call came in. They got a key from Mr. Tetlow and searched the house, but no one was in it.”
“I wish we’d stopped and looked ourselves,” Freddie spoke up. “Maybe we could’ve seen if anybody was there.”
Seeing the disappointed looks on all the children’s faces, the officer added, “Our men did find some muddy footprints on the kitchen floor, however. So someone had sure enough been inside the place.”
Bert and Nan looked at each other in bewilderment. Who was the intruder? How had he entered the house? Why was he there?
CHAPTER XIII
A RUNAWAY PET
“WHAT was he doing in the house at that time of night?” Bert questioned. “Do you suppose a tramp might be living there?”
“I don’t think so,” Officer Murphy replied. “If that were true, we would have found some more evidence of it. As it is, all we saw were footprints in the kitchen.”
Mr. Bobbsey walked toward the door with the policeman. “We’ll keep an eye on the Marden house and let you know if we catch anyone,” the officer promised as he shook hands with Mr. Bobbsey and left.
“Someone else must know about Mrs. Marden’s lost treasure,” Nan said slowly.
“I think you’re right, Nan,” Bert agreed. “And he’s getting into the house some way to search for the things.”
“Oh, I hope he hasn’t found the pin and the coins!” Flossie wailed. “She’s ’specting us to rescue them for her!”
“Children!” Mrs. Bobbsey called. “It’s time to leave for school! You can talk about Mrs. Marden later.”
On the way to school the twins agreed to go through the old house again in their quest for the missing articles.
“If we only had a clue!” Nan sighed.
“Let’s telephone Mrs. Marden,” Flossie suggested. “Maybe she has thought of something else which would help us.”
The others thought this proposal a good idea, so as soon as they came home to lunch Nan put in the call.
“I’m so glad to hear from you,” the elderly woman said when she answered the phone. “I’ve been trying to remember where I could possibly have hidden the heirlooms.” She paused, then went on, “Just before I moved from the house I was out in the yard burning some trash, and I’m sure I had the cameo and the box of coins in my pocket then.”
“You mean you think you may have burned them!” Nan cried in despair.
Mrs. Marden’s voice trembled. “I hope not, Nan,” she said. “Perhaps you children could look around the back yard, though. I’ve searched all my pockets, and the things aren’t in them.”
Nan promised that the twins would do their best and hung up.
At the lunch table Nan relayed Mrs. Marden’s story to her mother and the other twins.
“That’s a clue,” Flossie remarked hopefully. “Maybe she hid the treasure some place in the yard while she was burning the trash.”
“Yes,” Freddie agreed excitedly. “Let’s dig up the ground!”
Mrs. Bobbsey laughed. “That sounds like a big job. I doubt—”
At this moment Dinah came into the dining room carrying a tray with small dishes of chocolate pudding. She looked worried.
“I been callin’ and callin’,” she announced, “and Snoop hasn’t come for his dinner. He hasn’t been around all morning!”
Freddie put down his spoon. “Snoop wouldn’t run away,” he said in distress. “I’ll find him!”
But although Freddie looked under all the shrubbery and up at the low tree branches, he could not find his cat before it was time to go back to school.
Freddie was so busy thinking about Snoop that he could not pay attention to his lessons that afternoon. As soon as classes were dismissed, he told Teddy Blake, the little boy sitting next to him, all about his lovely black cat.
“I saw a black cat going into the woods on the other side of the road,” Teddy said. “Maybe it was Snoop.”
Freddie ran up to Flossie as the children were leaving the building and told her what Teddy had said. “Do you want to help me look for Snoop?” he asked.
“Of course,” Flossie agreed. “If we go now we can be back by the time Nan and Bert are out of class.”
Hand in hand the small twins ran across the road and into the woods. “Here, Snoop! Here, Snoop!” Freddie called as the two children made their way under the big trees.
Freddie and Flossie walked slowly into the woods, stopping to look under low bushes for any sign of Snoop. It was very quiet. Only the twittering of the birds broke the silence.
Suddenly Flossie stopped, her finger to her lips. “Ssh!” she said. “Did you hear a cat meowing?”
Freddie listened for a moment, then nodded. “I think it’s over this way,” he said. He turned to the right and began to run through the woods. Flossie followed.
When they had gone a little distance, Freddie stopped. The meowing was louder now. Flossie grabbed her twin’s arm and pointed. There on the lowest branch of a young tree was a tiny black kitten, much smaller than Snoop.
“Here, kitty!” Flossie coaxed. But the black kitten only moved uneasily and meowed louder.
“He’s scared,” Freddie said. “He’s so little he doesn’t know how to jump down.”
“Let’s help him,” Flossie proposed. “Can’t you get him?”
Freddie stood on his tiptoes but he still could not reach the branch. “I know what to do,” he said. “You stand on my back and lift him down.”
The little boy got on his hands and knees and his twin stepped carefully onto his back. Then, swaying slightly, she reached up and grasped the black kitten. The next minute she was safely on the ground again, the kitten in her arms.
“It wasn’t Snoop that Teddy saw at all!” Freddie exclaimed in disappointment.
“No,” Flossie agreed, “but I think this one is lost. Let’s take him
back to school and see if he belongs to anyone there.”
“All right.” Freddie turned and walked off.
“That’s the wrong way,” Flossie called after him. “We came this way.” She walked in the opposite direction.
“Oh, Flossie, I don’t think so,” Freddie said hesitatingly.
The two children stood looking around them uncertainly. Tall trees rose on every side, and all the paths looked the same.
“Which way did we come?” Flossie asked, her chin beginning to tremble. “Are we lost?”
“Don’t worry, Flossie,” her twin said stoutly. “I’ll find the way out. Just follow me.”
So Flossie, still clutching the kitten, trailed Freddie as he dodged in and out among the trees. In a few minutes she stopped. “We must be lost,” she said. “This is the same tree the kitten was in. I’m sure of it!”
Freddie looked discouraged. Then he brightened. “Let’s yell,” he suggested. “Someone will be sure to hear us.”
But, although the twins shouted time after time, there was no reply. They were just about to give up and start walking again when there came a call in the distance. “Freddie! Flossie! Where are you?”
“Here we are!” they called in chorus.
The next minute Nan appeared from among the trees. Flossie ran to her sister. “I’m so glad to see you,” she cried. “I thought we would never get out of the woods!”
“Teddy Blake told me you might be here,” Nan explained.
“We came to find Snoop,” Freddie remarked, “but we found another black kitten instead!”
Nan looked at the kitten in Flossie’s arms. “I think that’s Susie Larker’s Blackie,” she said. “Blackie has a white spot under his chin just as this one does.”
Susie was a little girl who lived near the school and sometimes played with Flossie and Freddie.
Flossie looked more closely at the black cat. “I’m sorry I didn’t rec’nize you, Blackie,” she said, snuggling the kitten under her chin. “We’ll take you home. Don’t you worry.”
Nan led the small twins out of the woods. When they reached Susie Larker’s house, the little girl ran up to them. “Oh, you’ve found Blackie!” she cried. “I was so worried. Mother said he’d surely find his way back home, but he’s so little I was afraid he’d forget!”
“I guess cats always remember where they live,” Nan agreed. Then she said to Freddie and Flossie, “That gives me an idea about Snoop!”
“What, Nan?” Freddie asked.
“Maybe he went back to that store where you got him!”
Flossie jumped up and down in excitement. “Yes,” she cried. “Let’s go see if he’s there!”
As they passed the school the twins saw Bert playing ball with Charlie Mason and Ned Brown. Nan ran over to tell him where they were going.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll wait here for you, and when you get back we can look around the yard of the old house.”
“Come on, Bert,” called Ned. “It’s your turn at bat.”
Bert ran off and the other three children started toward the shopping section of Lakeport. They had not gone far when Flossie saw Mrs. Bobbsey driving toward them.
“There’s Mother!” she shouted. “Maybe she’ll take us to the store.”
The car pulled up to the curb. “Where are you children going?” Mrs. Bobbsey asked in surprise. “And where’s Bert?”
When Nan explained that they were looking for Snoop and thought perhaps he had gone back to the store, her mother looked interested. “Hop in,” she said. “I’ll drive you down and wait while you ask about Snoop.”
She parked in front of the store while the three children ran inside.
“I wonder where Mr. Ryan the watchman would be?” Nan remarked.
“He was in the basement when he found me,” Freddie reminded her.
“We can go down in the escater,” Flossie cried in delight.
Nan saw a tall, dignified man standing by one of the counters talking to the saleswoman. He wore a white carnation in his buttonhole.
“I think he’s the manager,” she said. “I’ll ask him about Mr. Ryan.”
When she put her question to him, the man looked at his watch. “Yes, I think Ryan has come on duty. You can probably find him in the shipping room in the basement.”
The children rode down on the escalator. When they reached the basement Freddie showed Flossie the mechanical toys and told her how queer they had looked at night when he had found himself locked in.
Finally they reached the shipping room. Freddie spotted his friend the watchman seated in a corner.
“Oh, Mr. Ryan,” he called, running over to the man. “Has Snoop come back?”
“Hello there, young man,” the friendly watchman replied. “Who might Snoop be?”
“Snoop’s the black cat who found me the night I was locked in here,” Freddie explained. “You remember—you gave him to me!”
Mr. Ryan got up from his chair and walked over to the children. “Of course! The little black cat! Has he run away?”
Nan explained that Snoop had disappeared during the day and that they had thought he might have returned to his home in the store.
“That’s too bad,” Mr. Ryan replied sympathetically. “I haven’t seen him around here. But if he shows up, I’ll let you know right away!”
The children turned away in disappointment and started for the escalator. Then Nan had another thought. Running back to the shipping room, she said to the watchman:
“Excuse me, Mr. Ryan, but can you tell us where Snoop lived before he came to the store?”
“I can’t tell you much,” the watchman replied slowly. “One day a woman customer was down here, and we got to talkin’ about one thing and another. She said she was breakin’ up her home and didn’t know what to do with her cat. I sort of like company when I’m here at night so I said I’d take him.”
“Where did the woman live?” Nan asked breathlessly. “Maybe Snoop went to her house.”
Mr. Ryan shook his head. “She brought the cat in and left it. I never knew her name or where she lived.”
CHAPTER XIV
HOPEFUL HUNTERS
MR. RYAN did not know who had given him Snoop !The twins were heartsick. They had been so sure they would find the missing cat.
“Where can we look now?” Freddie asked unhappily.
When the children went out to the car, Mrs. Bobbsey had a suggestion. “Perhaps you should advertise in the paper for Snoop. Someone may have found him and not know where he belongs.”
Flossie threw her arms around her mother. “Oh, Mommy!” she cried. “That’s a wonderful idea!”
So Mrs. Bobbsey drove to the newspaper office. The children ran inside. “We’d like to put a notice in your paper about our lost kitty,” Flossie informed a young woman who sat at a desk near the door.
The woman smiled and handed Flossie a pad of paper. “Just print your ad here, and I’ll see that it gets in tomorrow morning’s paper,” she said.
Flossie eyed the paper doubtfully, then passed it to Nan. “You do it, Nan,” she urged. “You print better than I do.”
So Nan took the pad and after consultation with Freddie and Flossie she printed:
LOST: Black cat named Snoop. If found please call the Bobbsey twins at Lakeport 2-5135.
“I hope you find your cat,” the young woman said kindly as she took the paper and began to count the words.
The twins thanked her, and when Nan had paid for the ad, ran out to the car again.
“Where to now?” Mrs. Bobbsey asked with a smile as they climbed in.
“We told Bert we’d come back and search around the yard of Mrs. Marden’s house,” Nan explained.
“All right. I’ll take you there,” her mother agreed. “But don’t stay too long.”
When they drove up to the school a little later, the ball game was over and Bert was seated alone on the front steps of the old house.
“Did you find Snoop?” was his
first question as the children jumped out of the car and ran over to him.
“No, but he’s going to be in the paper tomorrow morning!” Freddie announced importantly.
Nan, Freddie, and Flossie took turns telling Bert what they had done. “It’s too bad Mr. Ryan didn’t know the name of the woman who owned Snoop,” he commented. “The kitten may have gone to the house where she used to live.”
“And the people there won’t know who Snoop is!” Flossie cried, her blue eyes filling with tears.
“Let’s see if we can find Mrs. Marden’s lost things now,” Nan suggested, trying to get Flossie’s mind off the missing pet.
The four children walked to the rear of the old mansion. The back yard was about the same size as the one at the Bobbseys’ home. It was bordered at the back and on one side by a tall hedge. On the other side near the rear was a small tool house and beyond it stretched an open field.
“Maybe she buried the jewelry and coins somewhere near the porch,” Bert suggested.
They carefully examined the rickety steps and the ground around the sagging porch, but found nothing. Then Freddie picked up a stout stick and began to dig around the roots of the hedge. After a few minutes Flossie found another stick and went to help him.
“I’ve found something,” she called after digging for a short while.
The other three ran over to see. But when Flossie succeeded in uncovering the object it turned out to be only a red brick.
Nan began to wander around the yard. Finally she stopped at a spot near the tool house. “This must be where Mrs. Marden burned her trash,” she called to the others.
When they joined her, Nan pointed to a bare area in the lawn. There were little bits of glass and wisps of half-burned cloth on the ground. Bert bent down and carefully poked around in the debris.
“Do you s’pose the things fell out of Mrs. Marden’s pocket and burned up?” Flossie asked fearfully.
“I don’t think the cameo would burn,” Bert observed, “and certainly not the coins. Part of the metal might melt but there would be something left.”
“Do you see any signs of it?” Nan asked, crouching beside her twin.
The Bobbsey Twins of Lakeport Page 8
