The Trail of the Green Doll

by Margaret Sutton

  CHAPTER XX The Statue Commands

  Judy was beginning to understand. But something was wrong somewhere. Shepuzzled over it as they walked on toward the ruined mansion.

  When they finally reached it, the scene before them appeared even moredesolate than she remembered it. The snow that had fallen the day beforewas melting fast, so that only patches of it remained in shady places.There was none left around the burned house and very little under theblackened trees. But the vault was covered with it as if the cold fromwithin had penetrated the cold without.

  “Look!” Penny cried out as they climbed the steps toward the statue.“His face is just like the face in the magazine!”

  “I don’t like him,” Paul said. “Why is he looking like that?”

  “He’s meditating,” the magician explained.

  “He isn’t alive, is he?” asked Penny. “What does that—that big wordmean?”

  “It means to think hard about the same thing over and over the way Sitadid when she thought about Rama. It’s a little like wishing. You don’talways get your wishes, but you do feel quiet and peaceful inside sothat outside things don’t hurt you any more. It’s hard for a little girlto understand,” the magician continued, “but the meditation of Sita keptall evil from her so that she was returned to Rama as pure and lovely aswhen the demon first snatched her away. It was the magic of her lover’sname that did it. When she called, ‘Rama! Rama!—’”

  “Quiet!” a voice commanded.

  They all stopped dead still to stare at the concrete face above them.The lips had not moved. There had not been a sign of life and yet thevoice stopped them so still that Judy could hear her heart beating.

  “I should have told you we would be protected,” Peter said from behindthem.

  “If this is protection,” Judy retorted, “I’d rather be thrown to thelions. Where did that voice come from? It even startled Blackberry.There he goes, up to the top of the statue to explore!”

  “I doubt if he will find anything. The voice you heard was probably thatof the chief deputy, and I believe it came from inside the vault. He andhis rangers are determined to find out who set that fire, if it was set,and how it happened that the mansion was so conveniently emptied justbefore the blaze. I knew they’d be there,” Peter explained. “They’re onthe lookout for the thieves—”

  “But you said there weren’t any thieves,” Judy reminded him.

  Again the magician and Peter exchanged glances.

  “That remains to be seen. Anyway, the magician believes somethingstrange is going on here, and he is in a position to know.”

  “How _can_ he know?” gasped Judy, and added, laughing, “Has he mysticalknowledge from the mysterious East?”

  But Peter was serious when he said, “Our plans went wrong somewhere.They may have been too obvious. At any rate, we know the police aresomewhere in the vicinity. It should be perfectly safe to explore.”

  “Do you think this mystical knowledge of yours will help us find thecave?” asked Judy. “I’m like Blackberry. I prefer to look in highplaces. I think I’ll climb up on top of the vault and see what’s there.”

  “Blackberry sure looks as if he’s trying to show you something,” agreedPeter. “Be careful, though. It may be slippery.”

  Judy was halfway up when she thought she heard a noise from the statue.It sounded like _breathing_. Then suddenly it sneezed!

  Startled, Judy lost her footing. She grabbed for one of the bushesgrowing on top of the vault, missed it, and began to slide. A momentlater she landed, dazed but unhurt, in the ivy where the others weresearching.

  They were all pulling away ivy leaves like so many excited terrierslooking for a bone. By the time Judy realized what they were doing,Peter, with the help of the magician, had turned back a flat stone whichlooked suspiciously like a tombstone. On it was chiseled a mysterioussign.

  “It’s the sign of Om,” the magician was explaining. “In India it standsfor the highest form of mysticism. He may have used it as a marker.”

  “Who?” asked Judy. “The statue?”

  Paul glanced up at it, but none of the others paid the slightestattention to what Judy was saying. They were busy removing the stone.

  “This must be the entrance to the cave,” declared Peter. “It wascompletely covered with ivy. We never would have found it if Judy’s shoehadn’t scraped against it when she fell.”

  “You were determined to find it, with or without me,” she retorted.“Isn’t anybody going to ask me if I hurt myself?”

  Apparently nobody was. The rough-hewn steps they had discovereddescending to what looked like a hole in the ground looked anything butinviting. But they caught everyone in their spell.

  “Who goes down first?” the magician asked.

  “Let me—” Judy began eagerly.

  But Peter was saying, “I think I’d better. Nobody knows what we may findat the bottom. I’ll give the signal as soon as I’m sure it’s safe.”

  It looked as if he were descending into a bottomless pit. The flashlighthe held sent a weird circle of light ahead of him. It flickered anddanced in an eerie fashion as he waved it and called out, “Come ahead!”

  Judy, followed by the magician, Penny, and Paul, had descended no morethan a few steps when a voice from the statue roared, “Stop where youare!”

  Judy stopped. It was bad enough to have a statue sneeze at her. But tohear it roar out a command was a little too much. She stood frozen. Thenshe called down to Peter:

  “Peter, come back! I’m afraid to move.”

  She was part way down the steps, but could not decide whether to go upor down. Either way held terrors for her now.

  Penny and Paul were both hiding their faces in the magician’s coat. Hisown face was noticeably whiter. But he kept on a downward course.

  Peter was very far down now. Judy suspected her voice had not carried tohim. He called back, “The jade collection is here! It is inside somesort of cabinet. It’s locked, but you can see through the glass doors.Come on down! It’s quite a sight.”

  “The jade collection is here,” Peter called]

  Peter seemed so certain it was safe that Judy obeyed. The children,big-eyed with wonder, held onto the magician’s coat to steady themselvesas they descended. Step after step they went, down, down, down!

  “Are we to the center of the earth yet?” Penny finally asked.

  Judy’s laugh sent back a strange echo. From the direction the steps hadtaken she judged they must be directly under the vault.

  “I’ve reached the bottom,” she told the children. “It’s all right. Peteris here. Didn’t you hear me?” she asked him. “What did you mean when yousaid we were protected? If that was the chief deputy or one of hisforest rangers up there, why did he tell us to stop?”

  “He may have mistaken us for the thieves,” replied Peter, “but don’tworry about it. We’ve arranged a signal. One shot from my gun and he’llcome running.”

  “You may need to fire that shot,” declared the magician. “That voice wasno forest ranger. I’d know it anywhere. It was the voice of Paul Riker.”

  “Me?” cried little Paul. “I didn’t—”

  “Of course you didn’t, little rajah. It was your old uncle Paul, my boy.But don’t be scared. We’ll have a look at his jade collection anyway.”

  “It’s right here,” Peter told him, turning his flashlight on a cabinetwhich appeared to be nothing more than one of the sections of asectional bookcase. It was of mahogany badly in need of polishing. Theglass could stand cleaning, too. But behind it Judy could see theelaborately carved little figures of many of the gods and goddesses thathad been pictured in the magazine.

  “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?” asked the magician.

  “It sure is,” agreed Peter. “A quarter of a million dollars worth ofjade buried under an old vault with nothing but a thin piece of glassfor protection.”

  “Why?” asked Judy, u
nable to understand the millionaire’s motives. “Whatgood are they down here?”