Margaret Sutton

“ 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 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.” ”

“ 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.”
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“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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Statue Commands
Judy was beginning to understand. But something was wrong somewhere. She puzzled over it as they walked on toward the ruined mansion.
When they finally reached it, the scene before them appeared even more desolate than she remembered it. The snow that had fallen the day before was melting fast, so that only patches of it remained in shady places. There was none left around the burned house and very little under the blackened trees. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Magician, because we have to go,” Penny pleaded.
“Open your eyes, little girl. All of you open your eyes. Did I forget to tell you?”
Several children laughed, but Penny let out a startled and long-drawn-out “Ooooo!” as her eyes snapped open.
The children were crowding so close, Judy couldn’t see what trick the magician was doing. But he was not one of the men she had seen in the car. She doubted if she had ever seen him before.
“Come on, children!” she whispered. “Your mother and Honey are waiting in the car. We all want to get started.” ”

“ I’m sure of it now. And more than ever I want to bring Rama and Sita together. It may not be bad luck to separate two statues, but it surely is to separate two people who love each other.”
“I know what you mean,” Peter said. “I heard you and Helen Riker talking. She’s told you something important. I can see it in your eyes.”
“Yes, Peter, she has.” Judy was still too filled with the hypnotic story of Rama and Sita to tell Peter much about it, but she did say, “She told me Philip and Paul Riker were twins and that she loved them both. It was Philip who took the statue of Sita and gave it to her. ”

“ If she doesn’t, don’t urge her. She may just want to rest. We’re leaving right now, Mom, and much as I love him, I don’t want Horace with us. We’ll give him another stick full of news. Tell him that and bless you, Motherkins, for doing a good deed and being my guardian angel.”
Mrs. Bolton sounded a little baffled as she hung up. Judy could hear a protesting noise over the telephone.
“Mom should be used to me by now,” she told Peter as she climbed in the car beside him. “I think she rather enjoys being mystified. Seriously, though, I don’t think it’s fair to make children believe in magic. ”

“ Riker,” she said, “that my brother is a newspaper reporter. He’s good at finding out things.”
“And I may as well warn you,” Horace retorted, “that my sister is known as quite a detective. She’s good at finding out things, too.”
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“Secrets?” asked Penny.
“You’d be surprised,” Honey said with a reassuring smile, for the little girl seemed suddenly frightened, “how many she’s kept and is still keeping.”
“More than even you know,” declared Judy.
“Are you keeping a secret about the talking trees?” asked Muriel. “Was it the magician? Magicians can do anything.”
“Was it a trick, Horace?” asked Judy. ”

“ CHAPTER I
“Tourists Welcome”
“It looks nice, doesn’t it, Judy?”
Honey was surveying with pride the sign she had just finished lettering. “TOURISTS WELCOME,” it said. That was all. But the sign was in the shape of an arrow. It pointed toward the private road that crossed Dry Brook and continued on through the beech grove and up a little hill to the house Judy had inherited from her grandparents. It was a simple farmhouse with a wide front porch. Never, until this moment, had it been known as a tourist home. ”

“ Now she was convinced that the superstition had started when someone in the barn had accidentally frightened Horace.
“He’s so silly,” she said fondly, “but I can’t help loving him for it. And isn’t it wonderful how things have turned out for Mrs. Riker and the magician?”
“It certainly is,” agreed Judy. “He gave her a ring just the way Rama did in the story. But, best of all, the collection is saved for future Ramas and Sitas. It’s nice to know what’s expected of the ideal man and woman, isn’t it? Peter,” she asked abruptly, “am I your ideal?” ”

“ Peter started to protest, but the magician said, “Let him pretend if he wants to. It will keep him from being frightened.”
“Lift me up!” Penny pleaded. “I can’t see anything.”
Judy smiled as she saw the magician lift her and hold her close. She was thinking what a good father he would make. Impulsively she asked, “You aren’t married, are you? I thought at first you were Mr. Dran. I know you live with them.”
“All four of them,” he said. “Mr. and Mrs. Dran and the two children. They keep my house in order and make it more like a home. ”

“ Judy retorted. “What are FBI wives supposed to do if not help their husbands?”
“They help them in other ways,” Honey began. “They stay home and take care of their families. They do secretarial work—”
“Not according to Peter,” Judy interrupted. “Oh, I know he calls me his secretary, but I’m not really in the employ of the government the way he is. Sometimes he asks me to type reports on things I already know about, or write a letter. As for taking care of the family, we haven’t any unless you count Blackberry, and cats take care of themselves.” ”

“ Brown didn’t like it, but when we went to Timmy Dran’s house the magician didn’t mind.”
“The magician!” their mother said in shocked surprise.
“Is that where you were?” asked Judy. “I might have known it! Where does this magician live?”
“With Barry and Timothy Dran. He’s the nicest man, just like Daddy, only he isn’t. It’s all right if we go there,” Paul hurried on. “Peter knows him. They got real well acquainted, and we joined the club and Penny has a part in the magic show. She and Anne changed places because now she’s the littlest. Wally said it was all right.” ”

“ Since there was no school the next day, Thursday being Thanksgiving, the children could stay up a little later in the evening. Penny was all excited.
“You just wait, Mommy!” she cried. “You’ll see I’m not making it up. The magician can even make wishes come true.”
“Wear your prettiest dress, Mom,” Paul suggested.
“Very well,” she agreed, “but I don’t want to meet this magician. You know how I feel about strangers.”
Judy did not tell her the magician was no stranger.
Judy and Peter arrived with Horace and Honey to find the Browns’ recreation room already crowded. ”

“ Judy broke in excitedly, forgetting her promise of secrecy. “That may be it, Honey! If we find the doll we may find out what the voice is, too. May I tell Peter about it?” she whispered to Penny. “He may be able to help us find it.”
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“Find what? I didn’t tell you anything,” the little girl said loud enough for the others to hear. “I was just making it up.”
“Of course she was,” Paul agreed. “Penny is always making up things. Who ever heard of a green doll?” ”

“ Quickly she changed the subject to ask, “Could the police have known about the fire when they gave you the news of the robbery, Horace?”
“Who knows?” he replied. “Everybody seems to be playing the game of secrets. The theft of your pocketbook should have been reported, Mrs. Riker. You’re protecting the thieves when you hold back information from the police.” ”

“ It’s alive, Judy. We’re afraid to go home for fear it will catch us.”
“That I would like to see,” declared Horace, and everybody laughed.
But Muriel really believed the magician had been there.
“He’s going to be at Wally’s house. He could make a tree talk if he wanted to,” she insisted.
“Maybe he could trick you into thinking he could,” Horace admitted. “Somebody is playing tricks, that’s for certain. It may be this magician.”
“I’m afraid of him,” Anne confessed. “Wally says he will pick me to disappear because I’m the littlest—”
“You won’t be if I join the club,” Penny spoke up. ”

“ Sometimes people prefer to choose their own monuments while they’re still alive, and it looks as if that’s the way your uncle felt about it. There’s no death date under his name,” Horace observed. “I think the vault is empty.”
Judy hoped it was.
“Come on, let’s go back to the car,” Honey urged. “If a voice spoke to us now, I really would run.”
“The children thought they heard one,” Judy called after her teasingly.
“It scared us,” Penny confessed. “We thought it was Uncle Paul’s ghost. It said, ‘Go away.’”
“You know, dead people do come back,” Paul put in gravely. “It’s magic, I think. ”

“ Peter said quietly. “I hate to have to say this, Mr. Riker, but your house was not burned by the forest fire, and you will have to satisfy the insurance company as well as our office that you had nothing to do with either of the fires. The law says arson on state forest land is a federal offence.”
Mr. Riker protested vehemently. Nevertheless, when the chief deputy of the rangers drove his car up to the vault, the old man got in with surprising meekness. Judy suspected that the excitement had tired him out in spite of his rambunctious spirit. ”

“ Judy did see it. The story was all that she had hoped it would be—and more. Old Uncle Paul was there to watch it. He had been cleared of the charge of arson when Peter and the police caught the three men who had stolen Sita from Helen. The thieves also admitted having set fire to the house by accident when they went back to search for the jade.
The magician, taking the part of Rama, was also the narrator. Evil, according to the ancient story, reigned supreme until the god of life, Vishnu, and his wife were born as Rama and Sita. Prince and princess, they were fated to meet and marry. ”

“ A Puzzling Robbery
“Honey, see what you make of it,” said Judy, and handed her the paper. “You say in the Herald, Horace, that the caretaker swears no one passed his cottage on Dark Hill Road for two days. Is it a private road?”
“Yes,” he replied. “But the police think the robbers could have sneaked in from the national forest which borders the estate. But the forest rangers keep pretty close watch of anyone who enters it. They have to now, with the weather so dry and windy. A forest fire would get out of control fast.” ”

“ Judy smiled, taking the dish the other had nearly dropped.
“It was just a guess. Your little daughter Penny is like her mother. She isn’t very good at keeping secrets. A green doll would be a green goddess, wouldn’t it? Possibly a jade goddess worth quite a bit to a thief who had the mate—”
“Rama!” Helen gasped. “Paul always said it was bad luck to separate them!” ”

“ Judy said thoughtfully.
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“Maybe one is the uncle of the other,” Horace teased her. “Seriously,” he continued, “I agree that there may be some connection. If this magician had been with them—”
“He isn’t a robber,” Penny interrupted. “I know he isn’t. His magic is real. You’ll see at the magic show. We can go to it, now that we’re coming back to live with you, can’t we, Judy?”
“What’s this?” Horace asked in surprise. “So you’re going to live with Judy, are you? Don’t you think Peter may have something to say about that?”
“He didn’t even know about the tourist sign,” Judy confessed. ”

“ Peter reminded him. “You were in the cave when my wife came here yesterday, and you are here again today. You went out the other exit from the cave as we came down the steps.”
“And why not?” the old man snapped. “It is my property, every inch of it, and I intended to guard it. Somebody had to,” he added. “That idiot, Abner Post, went away Thursday night and let this thieving rascal walk off with practically everything in my house.”
“I told you, Uncle Paul,” the younger Paul Riker said wearily, “I saw that your house was in the path of the fire and wanted to save your things. ”