Margaret Sutton

“ Opening the door quietly, Judy beckoned to the two figures who sat in the hammock. As Dale stood up, outlined against the sky, it reminded her of that first night that she and Pauline had found them there and they had been invited to that never-to-be-forgotten dance on the hotel roof garden. She caught Irene’s hand as she entered the door. Impulsively she kissed her.
“Tell us about it now, dear,” she murmured. “The boys and I will understand and I’m sure Pauline will too. And if Emily Grimshaw gets another queer spell we’ll send her packing with her precious poetry. We have what we want—you.” ”

“ Peter had let them take his flashlight.
“It’s hard to say what they know,” the magician said in answer to her whispered question. “I think Paul suspects more than he will admit.”
“What about Penny? Does she know?” Judy asked.
“I don’t believe she does,” he replied. “She keeps staring at me with those big blue eyes of hers as if she expects me to vanish any minute. She’s such a little pretender that it’s hard to guess what she’s thinking. Neither of them has called me Uncle Paul. ”

“ Judy had never seen a real fountain. The thrill of walking up to the door of the palatial Farringdon-Pett mansion was still ahead of her. On the lawn a fountain still caught and held rainbows like those she was to see on her honeymoon at Niagara Falls. But all that was in the future. If anyone had told the freckled-faced, pigtailed girl that she would one day marry Peter Dobbs, she would have laughed in their faces. ”

“ He never paid much attention to them until, one night, a new girl came to a party. She was different from all the others. She had glamour, radiance, all the qualities a man wants in a girl. But the young chauffeur dared not hope that she would have any use for him. She only came to the one party—like a princess in her golden dress and slippers. He took her home and remembered the house. After that he would drive past it, always hoping that she would see him.
And one day she did! She waved to him from the tower window. ”

“ She was crying over more important things than a stolen typewriter, Judy knew. It wasn’t easy living with a married sister whose whole interest centered on her own husband and baby. Holly’s other sister was on her way to a teaching job at some private school in Maine. The girls’ uncle had died while Judy and Peter were in Washington. Holly said she had never felt more lost and alone.
“First it was my parents and then Uncle David. It’s always this way,” she sobbed. “I told my sisters I wouldn’t dare love them. It’s bad luck for me to love anybody. Even the things I love have to be taken.” ”

“ The clapping below the stage showed that everybody did want to see it so the Bramble Bush Man, still holding his wand, walked over to the edge of the platform where the large vase that Muffs thought she had broken stood on its stand.
“We have to say a few magic words first,” he explained, “and then wave the wand and presto! Up comes a rose bush. Why, hello, Mary! There you are. I thought you disappeared a while ago.”
Right out of the vase, if it wasn’t some strange dream, grew first the rose bush and then Mary herself smiling through the parted branches. ”

“ Judy cautioned them.
If the fountain had anything to say, she wanted to hear it. A chill came over her as she waited. Lois and Lorraine huddled together, shivering. The moan came a second time and with it the long drawn-out words, “Go-oo a-wa-ay!”
“He doesn’t need to tell me twice. I’m going!” declared Lois. “Come on, Judy! Why are you standing there?”
“I’m not afraid of a voice. If someone is trying to scare us, he will have to think of something more frightening than that. I’m just puzzled. Before, it was a woman—or a girl.”
“What was?” asked Lois and Lorraine both together. ”

“ Judy wanted to tell him Rama was safe, but a warning look from Peter stopped her. As the millionaire raved on she began to understand the warped reasoning that had cheated him out of all the things she felt enriched a life. He seemed to care more for his memorial in stone than for the living memory he could leave with those who would love him if he would only let them.
“Do you remember, Uncle Paul, how you used to accuse me of stealing Sita?” the magician was saying. “Well, I can tell you now, because, for the first time, I know what happened to her. Philip took her to give to Helen.” ”

“ As Judy listened to the explanation that her brother drew from Jasper Crosby, she found herself almost believing it. Sarah Glenn’s reaction to Irene’s sudden appearance had been similar to Emily Grimshaw’s, only more pronounced.
Jasper had been the one to open the door. Irene had inquired for her grandmother, but before he could speak the poet herself had rushed forward, almost smothering Irene in a tearful embrace.
“My Joy! My Joy! I knew you would come back.”
Then she had turned to Jasper with accusing eyes. “I told you the child wasn’t dead. Angels don’t die. My darling! Darling!” ”

“ He must be a ghost! He must be a giant! He must be the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow! He hasn’t any, any, any, any head!”
“He has so!” cried Mary. “He’s only covering it up with that coat on a hanger!”
“He’s a fake!” shouted Tommy and started running after him, waving the scary-looking broom-tailor. The other children followed. They were all laughing and shouting. None of them stopped to think how they would feel if they came with a coat to be cleaned or mended and found the tailor shop burned down. ”

“ What would a diamond be doing in an old deserted fountain?”
“It could be a piece of ice,” Lorraine ventured.
“A frozen tear, perhaps,” Lois put in whimsically. “Maybe the tear you shed, Lorraine, turned into a diamond. Maybe there are more diamonds in the pool. Maybe we’ll walk home with our hands full—”
“We’ll walk home dripping wet if we aren’t careful! The fountain is beginning to bubble!” cried Lorraine as she seized her friend’s hand and pulled her away from the water. Judy stood spellbound watching the transformation as if a miracle had taken place. Finally Lois expressed the obvious. ”

“ Judy interrupted herself, knowing too well what Peter meant. “You mean Danny’s father may have been hiding all that loot from the Roulsville flood in his boarded-up house. If the beavers hadn’t broken in—Oh dear!” Judy said again. “I almost wish they hadn’t. It spoils that beautiful romance I was dreaming up for Meta Hanley. She won’t want to marry a thief. She won’t even want this ring.” ”

“ Judy knew how it was. She had once faced the same problem. If she had married handsome Arthur Farringdon-Pett instead of Peter Dobbs, her home might have been one of the mansions they were talking about. Judy did not consider them hideous.
“I like old houses,” she told her brother. “I guess Grandma knew it when she left me her house and gave you the land. You can build your modern house on it whenever you’re ready. I like all houses, both old and new, if they’re real homes and not built just for show.” ”

“ They weren’t a bit like the expedition or the burned tailor shop or painting the house for Bunny Bright Eyes. There was no Way of Peril to walk, no make-believe creatures and no children half as nice as Mary and Tommy. Donald and Mr. Tyler were always doing wonderfully interesting things too and Mrs. Tyler was a dear. So was Great Aunt Charlotte bedtimes when she passed out pink peppermint candy pillows. Muffs’ little dream fairies slept on them. And it was nice to have a baby in the house to pet and play with. Even the cats were comforting when they sat in anyone’s lap and purred. ”

“ Helen Brandt had an idea.
“Why not have the celebration just before Judy and Peter leave for New York? We can have it in that room under the fountain. We’ll open it up and make a playroom and set up a Christmas tree.”
“Not there,” Judy objected. “I’d love to have a party at your house, Helen, and make another wish in the fountain. I’ll think of how I felt when I thought Horace was drowned, and the tears will come easy. But please, not in the tunnel. There are real ghosts down there. The fountain will always be haunted—”
“Objection!” shouted Peter. “Enchanted is the word you want. ”

“ Peter called drowsily from upstairs. “I thought I heard the doorbell. Who are all those people talking?”
“All those people,” Judy said, laughing, as she ran up the stairs, “are Horace and Honey. They just came. Holly is here, too. She’s going to baby sit for me so Horace can drive me over to the Jewell sisters’ place. Blackberry may be there. I just thought, if I were a cat—”
“That’s what I call really putting yourself in somebody else’s place.” Peter laughed. “Blackberry is as good as found. You’ll see Danny, of course. You might tell him his father is innocent.” ”

“ Judy told Peter later, “have I felt so sorry for anyone. He’s an old man and an unhappy man in spite of his wealth. He can’t have very many more years to live.”
178
“Be thankful,” Peter said, “that he has lived long enough to do this one generous act. People will remember him for his jade collection long after they have forgotten even his monument. Someone—if I were Horace I could quote him exactly—said, ‘The best thing to do with a life is to spend it for something which outlasts it.’ And whether he intended it that way or not, that’s what Paul Riker has done.” ”

“ Stanza after stanza of Sarah Glenn’s poetry forced itself upon her consciousness, and it all fitted this house—the yellow ghost in the window, the crumbling tower.
Suddenly Judy realized that she was standing stock-still in the middle of the muddy unpaved street, moving her lips and making no sound. She was doing the same thing that Emily Grimshaw had done when Dale Meredith said she was crazy. Oh! She must get control of herself, take herself in hand. ”

“ The wooden Guide bowed to another wooden Guide and suddenly everybody began to giggle.
“Why, it’s only us,” said Mary when she had stopped herself from laughing.
“Then,” said Tommy, “it must be a giant’s looking-glass.”
“Oooo!” squealed Muffs. “The Bramble Bush Man must be a giant. He’ll cook us and eat us if he finds us here!”
Mary looked hard at her. “Do you think,” she asked seriously, “that a wondrous wise man would cook and eat little children?”
“He’d be very kind,” Tommy added, “almost as kind as Daddy. ”

“ Things that puzzled Judy more and more as she and Holly watched and waited. There was no sound of falling trees as the beavers worked. Holly asked why.
“Beavers are smart,” Judy whispered back. “They only work at night. We’ll have to wait here until after dark if we want to see them working.”
“Do we have to?” Holly asked, shivering a little at the thought of being in the woods after dark.
“It will be all right,” Judy comforted her. “Horace and Honey will be here by then. I can get sharper pictures with my flashbulb after dark. There will be no other light to interfere.” ”

“ Judy’s voice trailed off in bewilderment. She moved closer to Honey, whose startled expression showed that she had heard something, too. The men had started hurriedly toward their car.
“We may be back,” the driver called as they climbed in and drove on toward Roulsville.
Judy gazed after them, her thoughts in a whirl. She was a sensible girl, not easily frightened. Before she and Peter Dobbs were married, she used to spend part of every summer with her grandparents in this very house. She knew every tree in the grove of beeches where the two girls were now standing in puzzled silence. ”

“ Judy laughed, as Horace mopped up the egg, “he isn’t calling names the way he usually does.”
“No?” asked Horace.
The egg incident had started the parrot off. Now he was sidling from one end of his perch to the other and screeching, “Cheat! Cheat! Cheat!”
This was by no means the only word in the parrot’s vocabulary, but it was the one he most frequently used. It made Judy think of Lorraine’s wish.
“She wished she could trust Arthur, and then she asked me if I could trust Peter if I believed he was a cheat. What do you think she meant by that?”
“Cheat! Cheat!” shrieked the parrot. ”

“ He said any sane person would have. But you’re sane, Judy, and you didn’t.”
“That proves there’s no truth in what he said,” Horace assured her.
It was a great satisfaction to Irene, knowing that. She sighed and went on explaining about the ghost in the tower.
“You know, the room is round and there are windows on all sides. Between the windows are mirrors that make the oddest reflections. I must have been standing in the room so that you could see the mirror but not me. I should think you would have been scared to death.” ”

“ Muffs had always thought of Mary as a big girl but now she looked very, very small. Could people shrink, Muffs wondered. Could they grow so small they couldn’t be seen and then grow big again? Alice in Wonderland did but, of course, that was only a story. Muffs couldn’t think of any other way that a girl could disappear. ”

“ Please don’t go there!” she called. “You’ll only get your father into more trouble. Wait and he’ll come for you.”
“I’ll wait,” Danny called back. “I’ll be right where I always am—at the beaver dam.”
“We’ll be there, too, won’t we, Horace?” asked Judy. “We’ll find out what this is all about or die trying.”
“We may die all right,” agreed her brother. “It was never as safe as we thought it was with the Earl and his boys hanging around. He’s armed and dangerous.”
“So is Peter,” Judy said, glad for once of the gun she had often wished he didn’t have to carry. ”

“ Lorraine retorted quickly.
“Maybe you should,” Judy began. “Peter and I do occasionally. Dad says it’s good for us. He says it clears the air, and we do love each other all the more after we make up. If you’d tell Arthur about this problem—”
“Please,” Lorraine stopped her. “Can’t you see the way it is? If I could tell him or anyone else about it, then it wouldn’t be a problem. I just want to believe in things the way I did when I was a little girl. I mean impossible things like wishes coming true.” ”

“ Irene’s feelings, however, could not easily be changed, and with both girls having such grave worries the problem bid fair to be too great a one for even Judy to solve. Solving problems, she hoped, would eventually be her career for she planned to become a regular detective with a star under her coat. Now she confided this ambition to the other two girls.
“A detective!” Pauline gasped. “Why, Judy, only men are detectives. Can you imagine anyone taking a mere girl on the police force?” ”

“ Penny and Paul stared at him as if he had performed a miracle instead of a simple magic trick. Whispers of, “He’s magic all right. He can bring anything to life,” went on between them. When they were back in the car the children told their mother Muriel was right. Magicians could do anything.
“That’s a house I intend to haunt,” announced Horace as they drove away. “Maybe I can give their magic show a little publicity. There’s room down there for quite a crowd and I certainly intend to be in it.”
“So do I,” declared Judy. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
“What about us?” asked Penny and Paul. ”

“ A big black cat darted out from somewhere in the bushes and began following them.
“That’s Thomas Junior,” Tommy explained. “He likes to go places with me ’cause I’m his master. There’s the house,” he added, pointing to it as they turned the bend in the road.
Muffs saw two houses, like twin shadows, against the white sky. A walk connected them and at the far end of the walk on a little flight of steps, sat a girl whom she knew must be Mary. She was rocking a baby carriage gently back and forth and singing a lullaby that fitted the tune of Rock-a-bye Baby, and went like this:
Go to sleep, baby. ”

“ But how are you, Lorraine? You were so frightened the last time I saw you.”
“I’m still frightened. Oh, Judy! Judy!” cried Lorraine. “How can I ever explain things to Arthur?”
“What is there to explain?” he asked coldly. “Peter has given me all the facts.”
“I don’t mean facts!” Lorraine cried. “You see, Judy, he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t want to listen when I try to tell him. He says he’s heard enough about that terrible gangster. ”

“ There was another girl reflected on the floor beside her. Judy pointed it out to Dale—that golden reflection on the polished floor.
Just then the orchestra struck up a new tune. Soon the soloist joined in, singing the latest popular song:
My own golden girl, there is one, only one,
Who has eyes like the stars and hair like the sun.
In your new yellow gown you’re a dream of delight.
You have danced in my heart on bright slippers tonight ... “It sounds as if he meant Irene,” Dale whispered. “She’s a ‘golden girl’ tonight.” ”

“ Judy could see that this trick had not been rehearsed. She was as surprised as the children were when little Paul reached in his pocket, at the magician’s suggestion, and pulled out a real live canary.
“Where will I put him?” asked Paul as he held the fluttering bird.
“What about a cage?” asked his amazing young uncle. Touching the table in front of him with his wand, he made a cage appear out of nothing. Another flick of his magic wand and it disappeared.
“Wonderful, isn’t it?” he asked. “As a rule magicians don’t explain their tricks, but this is going to be an exception. ”

“ COME ON, FOLKS! DON’T MISS IT. IT’S THE SHOW OF A LIFE TIME!”
“He’s giving a show!” cried Muffs and her eyes were like stars. “Mother! Do you hear it? The Bramble Bush Man is giving a show?”
89 “Whoops!” shouted Tommy. “Talk about a surprise party—and I thought we were just going to sit.”
“We are,” exclaimed Mary, joining them and taking Muffs’ hand. “We’re going to sit and watch the wisest man in the world and if you don’t believe it, just ask him what a tuffet is. ”

“ How do we know those men aren’t criminals hiding out here while the Brandts are away?” asked Lois.
“Roger Banning isn’t a criminal,” Lorraine objected.
“His pal, Dick Hartwell, was. Remember?”
“Wasn’t there something in the paper about him being out on parole?” asked Lorraine. “I don’t think we should label him a criminal if he is. Probably he has a good job and is no more inclined toward crime than we are. After all, we are trespassing.”
“I don’t care if we are,” Lois said recklessly as they trudged on. ”

“ A MYSTERIOUS TELEGRAM “Goodbye, Judy! Goodbye, Irene! Don’t like New York so well that you won’t want to come home!”
“Don’t keep them too long, Pauline! Farringdon will be as dead as so many bricks without them. Even the cats will miss Blackberry. Make him wave his paw, Judy!” ”

“ Helen Riker said. “For a girl who was once called Sita, I have fallen far short of the Hindu ideal of perfect womanhood. Perhaps I was fooled by Ravana, the evil one. I should have called, ‘Rama! Rama! Rama!’ more often.”
“Do you think he would have answered you?” asked Judy, still a little baffled by the mystic tale.
“Perhaps,” Helen replied, “but I waited too long. Life does not wait for indecision, Judy. ”

“ Judy finished. “I think we ought to yell, anyway, don’t you?”
Horace needed no urging. He waited until Judy was standing behind the cupids with the waterfall all around her. Then, while she called, “Help! Help! Help!” from her high perch, he joined in from below. They both shouted and called until they were hoarse, but nobody answered.
“Is it because nobody hears us or because nobody cares?” Judy wondered.
Then, suddenly, she remembered what her grandmother had once told her. “There’s always Someone who cares.” ”

“ But the third door opened into a long hall at the end of which was the stairway.
“A regular labyrinth, this place,” she thought as she climbed. “I wonder if Emily Grimshaw will be as queer as her hotel.”
There were old-fashioned knockers on all the doors, and Judy noticed that no two of them were alike. Emily Grimshaw had her name on the glass door of her suite, and the knocker was in the shape of a witch hunched over a steaming caldron. Judy lifted it and waited.
“Who’s there?” called a mannish voice from within.
“Judy Bolton. They told me at the desk that you would see me.” ”

“ The picture was all about a man with a criminal record. It made Judy think of Dick Hartwell. Honey said she had liked him, too.
“My trouble is, I like everybody,” she confessed. “Besides, I have a little theory of my own that people have to make mistakes in order to do better. I know I did.”
“I believe in that, too,” declared Judy, “and so does Peter. He doesn’t think a single conviction should brand a man as a criminal. I certainly had a better opinion of Dick Hartwell than I do of Roger Banning. He and that Cubby, as he calls him, are up to no good. ”

“ Jasper Crosby gave a dry chuckle. “Eh! heh! She can’t even stay sober at a funeral. I’ll be going now. Got to see a lawyer and sue the old lady for the loss of my sister’s manuscripts.”
“Oh, no! Wait a minute! Miss Grimshaw may have them. In fact, I’m almost sure she has,” Judy cried in a panic. Anything to stall him, keep him talking until help came.
“Then tell her to send ’em to the publishers and make it snappy! I’m going.”
Judy laid her hand firmly on his arm. “You’re not going, Mr. Crosby. You’re going to wait for Emily Grimshaw.” ”

“ Irene said she liked to think of him as talented. A dreamer, she would have called him, if it had not been for his practical interest in the business at hand—those papers and that telegram.
It was dark by the time they reached New York. The passengers were restless and eager to be out of the bus. The young man hastily crammed his typewritten work into his portfolio and Judy noticed, just as the bus stopped, that he had forgotten the telegram. She and Irene both made a dive for it with the unfortunate result that when they stood up again each of them held a torn half of the yellow slip. ”