Margaret Sutton

“ We really came in to look at typewriters. You do sell typewriters, don’t you?” Judy asked, looking around the shop to see if the driver of the green car had come in.
“New ones,” Holly added. Her typewriter was almost new.
“You came to the wrong place for a new typewriter. We sell anything and everything so long as it’s old.” The shopkeeper, a stout, balding man, looked at the two girls as if he considered them slightly stupid.
“I meant—almost new,” Holly stammered.
“Are you Mr. Sammis? Will you let us see what you have, please?” Judy asked. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Holly pointed out as they walked around to the front of the shop. “There’s a blue glass hen just like the one Cousin Cleo has in her collection. And look at those chalkware lambs and that beautiful luster cream pitcher!”
Inside the shop it was hard to move around because of all the old furniture crowded into every inch of floor space. Judy had to move a chair to reach the cream pitcher Holly had admired. Before she could touch it, a voice barked at her.
“Careful there! You’ll have to pay for anything you break.” ”

“ But doctors like Dad never get rich. Some people can’t pay him, and others won’t.”
Judy’s eyes narrowed as she thought again of Mr. Sammis. They drove on for a little while in silence.
“Is this it?” Holly asked suddenly.
Judy, startled out of her thoughts, did not reply until after they had passed the little town.
“Oh, you mean Gold? I think so. If it was you won’t see any more houses for a while,” Judy told her as the car began its long climb to a lonely plateau. “We’ll be on top of the world in a minute.”
“Oh, Judy! We are on top of the world,” exclaimed Holly. “Isn’t this a marvelous view?” ”

“ Horace offered to take them in his car. He wanted to stop and ask Honey to go along for the ride.
“She’ll be a help with the babies,” he began, but Judy objected.
“You may as well know it, Horace,” she told him, “Holly is jealous of you and Honey. She has a crush on you herself. If Honey is with us, Holly may not want to lend me Bobby’s outgrown crib, and this baby I’m holding is so lively she’ll need it.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Judy told her. “Are visitors allowed at the orphanage?”
“Of course. The children love visitors. They do react differently to them,” she admitted. “Those who want to be adopted put on their best manners. The others run and hide.”
“That’s strange,” Judy said. “Don’t they all want to be adopted?”
“Meta is so good to them,” Violetta put in, “that quite a few of them hope to stay where they are.”
“They can’t, of course,” Dorcas added. “The orphanage is too crowded. If Violetta and I were younger we might consider adopting one of them ourselves.” ”

“ Holly asked a little later as she and Judy and the matron of the orphanage were bumping along on the woods road in the green Beetle.
“Well, not perfect. Dorcas is a little too abrupt and Violetta a little too timid. I don’t want to be like them,” declared Meta. “I don’t want to grow old with nothing but memories to cherish. They aren’t enough. Of course,” she added after her car had bumped over a rough place where a tree had fallen, “the Jewell sisters have each other.” ”

“ Good things happen to everyone but me,” was Holly’s doleful comment. “I’ll probably be an old maid and live all alone without even a cat for company.”
“That’s up to you, isn’t it?” Judy hailed her brother. He and Peter’s sister came over to the side of the car.
“Holly thinks her typewriter was stolen,” Judy explained. “On top of all the other trouble she’s had, this was just too much. Have you seen a green car?”
“Several of them,” replied Horace. “They’re quite common, or haven’t you noticed? Come to think of it, a green car did roar up Main Street about ten minutes ago. ”

“ Walking is good for the constitution,” the matron declared. “I often take the orphans on hikes. They know the country around here as well as I do. Take Danny, for instance. He’s only ten, but he can tell you more about the beavers than I can. He comes down to the pond and sits for hours just watching them. The late afternoon is the best time to see them.”
Judy glanced at her watch. “It is late afternoon, much later than I thought. I hoped Horace or Honey or even Peter would be here by now. But if anyone stops and asks, you’ll direct them to the woods road, won’t you?” ”

“ Peter’s time was not his own. Working out of the Resident FBI Agency in the Farringdon Post Office, he might be sent anywhere in the territory. His assignment now was to round up the Joe Mott gang. Judy knew that much, although his work was confidential. It was also dangerous. Each time he left the house she breathed a little prayer for his safe return.
“Take care,” was what she usually said, but in her heart the words meant, “Take care of our future. Let all our dreams for our married life in this house come true.” ”

“ Horace asked Honey as they were leaving the restaurant.
Honey shook her head. “Not tonight, Horace. Take me home, please. I have to be at work tomorrow, remember? And those designs I’m doing take concentration. I can’t let myself fall asleep over them.” ”

“ Holly laughed. Then she saw that Judy was serious and asked, “Why would he want to do that?”
“He had a reason,” Judy replied, “because someone must have removed that table leg minutes after we left. When Peter looked for it he found a broken place in the beaver dam and no lady—”
“It was an apparition,” declared Holly. “I don’t believe it was there in the first place. Horace is right. It couldn’t have washed down from the Roulsville flood.”
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“But Horace saw it, too,” Judy objected.
“Are you sure?” Holly was not convinced. “Imagination plays strange tricks on people.” ”

“ Bolton’s voice was bitter. “I don’t think he intends to pay, anyway. That was just an excuse.”
“Will you tell Dad?”
“Do you think we should?” Judy’s mother asked. “He has so many worries. Probably he’ll just cross off what Mr. Sammis owes as a bad debt. If he hadn’t found that excuse he would have found some other.”
“But that isn’t fair!”
“Judy girl,” her mother said gently, “when you’ve lived as long as I have you will realize that a great many things in this world aren’t fair. You can’t right all the wrongs.” ”

“ Blackberry insisted on helping. There was a faded ribbon dangling from the souvenir booklet she had picked up in Hugh Sammis’ shop. Ribbons always tempted him.
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“Stop it, Blackberry!” Judy chided him. “You’re not a kitten any more. Books are to read, not to play with.”
Blackberry turned one of the pages with his paw, and Judy began to laugh. He acted just as if he had understood her. She was still laughing when Peter came in at six o’clock.
“Look at Blackberry!” she pointed out. “He thinks he can read that old souvenir booklet I bought for the library exhibit.” ”

“ Peter, it was Danny’s father,” she rushed on, “and he wants to see Danny right away.”
“Well, I don’t want to see him, not if he’s a thief,” Danny spoke up unexpectedly. “I’m going to stay with Ma. No house at all is better than a house with stolen furniture in it. And if he cares so much about me, why didn’t he come to see me instead of sneaking around looking for the stuff the beavers stole?”
“That’s a good question, Danny,” Peter told him seriously.
“Well, if it’s such a good question, why aren’t we over there finding out the answers?” Judy urged. “Come on!” ”

“ She’ll go in after the babies and never come out!”
“Oh, Danny! Don’t say that,” cried Judy. “The firemen will make sure that Ma and all the children are safe, won’t they, Peter?”
“They’ll do their best,” he replied, heading straight for the burning building, “but they can use all the help we can give them.”
Judy agreed. As soon as Peter stopped the car she sprang out and started toward the orphanage. The windows glowed with a weird red light. The whole interior must be ablaze. Oh, Judy hoped all the children were out! Her one thought was to find Meta Hanley and tell her Danny was safe. ”

“ Holly considered anybody over thirty middle-aged. Judy guessed Meta Hanley was about thirty-five. She said she had noticed Judy’s car as it came down the hill.
“It’s black, isn’t it?” she asked. “I guess that makes two Beetles, a black one and a green one. Danny named mine. He has names for everything.”
Danny, she told them, was one of the many orphans she mothered.
“They’ll love these apples,” she told the Jewell sisters. “We have a few apple trees, but the apples aren’t ripe yet. The older children help on the farm,” she explained to Judy and Holly. “We raise nearly everything we eat. ”

“ Look at that artist who works with Honey. He doesn’t know it, but he’s being watched every minute in the hope that he will try and communicate with others of his gang who are still at large. He will, too. Peter says there’s a pattern of behavior most criminals follow. He wasn’t sure we ought to go back to the beaver dam.”
“Why on earth not?” Horace asked in bewilderment.
“He says it may be dangerous. That furniture wasn’t carried all the way from Roulsville by beavers,” declared Judy. “There was some looting after the flood, and I think that’s how the lady table came to be there.” ”

“ Didn’t you just tell me you’re not sure he is the thief? You didn’t actually see him take your typewriter, did you?”
“No, but I did see him running toward that green car, and when I turned around my desk top was empty. Ruth said maybe Doris took it. You know the way sisters are, always borrowing things without asking. But I don’t believe it. Doris knows I need my typewriter. Please drive on, Judy,” Holly pleaded. “We can’t let that boy get away with it.”
“I’m afraid he did get away with it,” Horace told her. “If he did take your typewriter, he must be half-way to Ulysses with it by now.” ”

“ Probably it’s one of the forks of the Susquehanna, and I think this creek must be another.”
“But she said it was near the head of the Genessee,” Holly objected. “And you told me yourself that we could see three great river valleys from that watershed we crossed.”
“It was beautiful!” Judy remembered. “We could see hills and valleys for miles and miles.”
“I like open places like that,” declared Holly. “Here in the woods you get the feeling that someone is hiding and watching you.”
“Beavers, no doubt. We’re the ones who should be hiding and watching them,” Judy reminded her. ”

“ What they really said was, “What are you doing here?”
“Watching the beavers,” he replied. “I always watch the beavers. I had to stop you from taking that lady stick. You’d bust up the whole dam.”
“That lady stick,” Horace said sternly, “is a leg off our table. I’d like to know where the beavers got it.”
“They dragged it here. They drag lots of stuff here and build their dam real solid. I’m not going to let anyone bust it up,” declared Danny.
“What are you, a watchman for the beavers?” asked Judy. “The people at the orphanage were worried about you. ”

“ Holly agreed. “He probably makes most of his money charging people for things they don’t break.”
“He may make money that way, but he won’t make friends,” declared Judy. “Do you think he really intends to send Dad a bill for twenty dollars?”
“He’s so mean he might do it. How did he know your name, Judy?”
“Oh, my picture’s been in the paper,” Judy replied airily. Then her face sobered. “He must be one of Dad’s patients. Dad can’t choose them, you know. He just goes where he’s needed and hopes the people will pay.”
Holly shook her head. “Mr. Sammis won’t.” ”

“ Judy said, handing him the print. “Peter’s having the film blown up and separated—”
“Holy cow!” Horace interrupted. “I’ve seen the picture, but I still don’t believe it. The beaver dam shows right through this man’s body. Or is it a man? He has a lady’s face. Did our lady table leg come to life and decapitate him?”
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“It must have,” Judy giggled. “Seriously,” she added, “it didn’t come to life, and it didn’t walk away, either. We’ll find it when we find the man in the picture.”
“I could write up a whale of a story with a mystery angle,” Horace began, but Judy stopped him. ”