The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent Part 13

"No. I told her she had to. I told her we had real evidence - the wrappings and the card and all. She said it wouldn't do any good. She said it might be too late, and the only thing that might help would be to give Shaitan the real necklace."

Jupiter started. "She isn't going to do that?"

"She can't," Allie told him. "She hasn't got it. I found it."

The Three Investigators looked at her, waiting.

"We saw a movie on TV a while back," Allie explained. "It was a spy picture, and the lady spy hid some microfilm in a box of bath powder. Aunt Pat doesn't have a lot of real original ideas. After you left this morning, I went into her bathroom and there it was in the powder box."

"I hope you found a good place to hide it," said Pete.

"In case I get run over by a bulldozer before my folks come home, look in the oat bin in the garage," Allie told him.

"Not bad," said Pete.

"No. Except that now I'm the one who's got to decide, and it's rough. Aunt Pat just lies there in bed and looks at the wall. I'm afraid she's really sick. I mean really, truly sick."

"She may get worse," warned Jupe. "She hasn't been well for some time, has she?"

"No. Not since Mrs. Compton's accident."

"I don't think you should be alone with her," said Jupe. "I'll call Aunt Mathilda and ask her to come and help you."

Allie brightened suddenly. "Jupe, your aunt's a strong character, isn't she? Do you think if we told her the whole story, she could make Aunt Pat talk?"

"Aunt Mathilda is made of iron," said Jupe, "but in this case, I don't think she could help. Your aunt is too terrified of Shaitan and Ariel. No, it will be better if we just tell Aunt Mathilda that your aunt is having an attack of nerves and you can't handle it alone."

"I can't," said Allie.

"Okay," said Jupe, and he went to the telephone and called the Jones house. Within fifteen minutes Aunt Mathilda was in the house. She surveyed the situation, frowned fiercely at the sight of Pat Osborne huddled in her bed, decided that Allie needed a nap and that the boys would have to leave.

"You and your uncle can eat dinner out," she told Jupiter. "I'll stay here tonight and we'll see how things are in the morning." Aunt Mathilda then disappeared into the kitchen to explore the Jamison refrigerator and the cupboards. Jupe heard a pot clang down on the stove.

"You'll have a good meal tonight," he told Allie.

"I don't like to leave," said Pete. "I mean, shouldn't we go on guard duty here to make sure nothing else happens?"

"Disaster has already struck," said Jupiter. "I don't think anyone will try anything more now. Besides, Aunt Mathilda will cope, and she isn't afraid of singing serpents or anything else that I know of."

He turned to Allie. "Even if your aunt won't talk," he said, "you can. You can call the police. You said yourself, you have to decide."

Allie shook her head. "It would be a nightmare. What could I say? That my aunt's being victimized by witches? And she's so ashamed. She thinks she's the one who hurt Margaret Compton."

The kitchen door opened. "Jupiter!" said Aunt Mathilda sharply. "Pete! Bob! You boys go on now and let that child get some rest."

The boys went, and when Jupe called the Jamison house late that evening it was a snappish Aunt Mathilda who answered the telephone. She told Jupe that Allie was sleeping and that Pat Osborne was not, and that she had the situation well in hand. She then told Jupe to go to bed and not to call again.

Jupe went to bed and lay for a long time staring at the ceiling. He finally slept, and dreamed dark dreams in which he followed a flickering candle down damp and moldy corridors while unseen things slithered at his heels. He woke in the silent hour before dawn and thought of the little serpent on the table in the Jamison living room. He thought of Pat Osborne, wasted and sickened by fear.

In his mind's eye, Jupe saw Shaitan again, with his dark cloak and his ghastly, pallid face. Two nights before, Shaitan had lounged amid his seedy black trappings and plotted leisurely plots. Now the man was in a hurry. He had come openly to the Jamison house to threaten Pat Osborne. Why?

Jupiter decided that he knew why. In the blaze of floodlights at Torrente Canyon, Shaitan and his accomplice had seen Jupiter Jones - a curious boy snooping on unusual householders. But Shaitan must also have seen the man with the mustache, Bentley. And Bentley had acted quickly to save Jupe and to defy Shaitan. In some way, Bentley had frightened Shaitan.

Jupe twisted and turned in his bed. If only he could find Bentley. But there seemed no way. The mysterious houseman might be the key to the entire affair, but Jupe could think of no strategy that would lure Bentley into the open. Meanwhile, Pat Osborne was growing more and more ill. Was her terror of Shaitan strong enough to kill her? And Hendricks, the unsuspecting owner of a delicatessen on Beverly Boulevard. What would happen to Hendricks?

Then Jupe remembered the book Bob had taken from the library - the book on witchcraft. It had been written by a professor at Ruxton University, and Ruxton was not ten miles from Rocky Beach. Jupiter suddenly smiled. Even without Bentley, he might find a way to help Pat Osborne. And if Shaitan was in a hurry now, so much the better. The Three Investigators had to fight a defensive battle, and before he dropped off again, Jupe knew what the next move would be.

Chapter 19.

The Serpent Strikes Again THE THREE INVESTIGATORS were at the Jamison house bright and early. When they arrived, Aunt Mathilda was going upstairs with a breakfast tray for Pat Osborne, and Allie was in the kitchen gulping orange juice.

"I've decided what to do about the necklace," Allie told the boys. "I'm going to return it to Van Storen and Chatsworth. Let them worry about it."

"Good!" applauded Bob.

"And you?" asked Allie. "What will you be doing?"

"There's a man in Los Angeles named Hendricks," said Jupe. "He owns a delicatessen and we think he will be next to receive the serpent. I believe it will happen quickly - perhaps today. Shaitan wants to finish up his operation. Hendricks is Noxworth's compet.i.tor, and Noxworth is due to pay tribute to Belial. We're going to Los Angeles."

"But what about Aunt Pat? She's in awful shape."

"Aunt Mathilda is here," Jupe reminded her. "You can stay. You can send for the man to come from Van Storen and Chatsworth, can't you?"

"Yes, I can. But what if Shaitan shows up?"

"He won't," Jupe predicted. "Allie, your aunt believes in the power of the serpent, and it has made her very ill. Shaitan knows her so he knows this. He won't come here. He'll wait for her to send for him."

"I don't think she can send for him," said Allie. "She can hardly move. She's almost paralyzed."

"There is a way we can help your aunt, Allie, but first we have to think of Hendricks.

What we have in mind for Miss...o...b..rne will take time, but she has some time. Hendricks may not."

"What are you going to do?" asked Allie.

"We're going to stake out Hendricks' store," said Bob.

"Then I'm going, too," declared Allie.

"You are not," said Pete. "Shaitan might get rough. That Hendricks is no weakling."

"I am going!" snapped Allie. "Listen, if Aunt Pat has time and Shaitan won't come here, the necklace is safe where it is. I will not sit here and stew while you catch the nuts who've made all this trouble. I'm going!"

Aunt Mathilda came in with the breakfast tray.

"Mrs. Jones, I'm going into Los Angeles," said Allie quickly. "I want to talk to Aunt Pat's doctor. Can Jupiter come with me?"

Aunt Mathilda looked puzzled. "I think you should get her doctor," she said. "Your aunt isn't a bit better this morning and she won't eat a thing. But why can't you telephone?

Why go all the way to Los Angeles?"

"I can't remember his name," said Allie, "and the number isn't in Aunt Pat's book. But I do remember where his office is. It's in a building on Wilshire next to a church. It's near Western. Once I get there, I can find him."

"There must be an easier way," said Aunt Mathilda. "Why don't we just ask Miss...o...b..rne?"

"Haven't you noticed?" said Allie. "She won't talk. I asked but she wouldn't tell me."

"All right," said Aunt Mathilda, "but don't dillydally. Jupiter, get Hans to drive you in the truck. It would take all day by bus, and your uncle doesn't have time."

Allie hugged her. "Thanks, Mrs. Jones!"

The boys said nothing. They followed Allie out, leaving Aunt Mathilda to sc.r.a.pe Miss...o...b..rne's untouched breakfast into the disposal.

Hans gladly got out one of the salvage yard trucks for the drive into the city. "Beverly and Third," directed Pete, and he climbed into the back of the truck along with Bob and Jupe. Allie rode in the cab with Hans.

At Beverly and Third, Jupe asked Hans to drive around a corner and park on a side street. Hans did so, then reached across the seat to open the door for Allie. "You want me to come with you?" he asked the boys.

"No," said Jupe. "You wait here and relax. We may be gone for quite a while."

"Okay." Hans took a newspaper from under the seat and prepared to relax.

Allie and the boys rounded the corner and cut across the Hendricks parking lot. "That's Noxworth's store over there," said Pete, pointing to the untidy place across the street.

Allie's nose wrinkled with distaste.

The door of the Hendricks store opened and a small boy scooted out. Hendricks was behind him. "Don't come back today," Hendricks told the child.

Jupiter reached the door just as Hendricks was putting a key into the lock.

"Sorry," said Hendricks. "I'm closed."

"You received the serpent," said Jupiter.

Hendricks straightened up, looked around and saw Pete. "You again!"

"Mr. Hendricks, we want to help," said Pete.

"You do, do you? Okay, the cops filled me in on you. You kids are a bunch of amateur private eyes and you think you're on to some big witch doctor thing. Now I think you're nuts, but I can't chance any lawsuits so I'm closing. Beat it."

"You received the serpent," said Jupe again.

Hendricks reached out and gathered up a fistful of Jupe's shirt. "Did you bring that thing?" he asked. "If you did, I'll wring your neck!"

Jupe didn't try to break away. "We didn't bring the serpent, but we know it must be a cobra with jeweled eyes. How did it arrive?"

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Hendricks studied Jupe's face, then let go of his shirt. He opened the door and pointed toward his counter. There was a gilded cobra, a duplicate of the one that had been sent to Pat Osborne.

"I went in the back room for a couple of minutes," said Hendricks. "When I came back, that thing was on the counter."

"I see," said Jupiter.

"So you see. I'm glad. Now go. I've called the cops, but I don't want anyone around just in case something does happen. So blow! Scram!"

A little girl scudded up to the store. Hendricks grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. "Go home to your mother and stay there," he ordered.

She gaped at him.

"Home!" shouted the delicatessen man.

The little girl went.

"Customers!" complained Hendricks. "They're like termites. You can't get rid of them."

A man wearing stained blue trousers and an oversized, ragged coat made his unsteady way around the corner of the building. "Coffee?" he pleaded.

Allie examined the newcomer with interest.

She had seen few panhandlers in her life, and this one was especially seedy. He must not have owned a shirt, for pink, wrinkled skin showed at the neck where his shabby coat was open. His gray hair had gone uncut for many a month, and the stubble on his cheeks was days old.

"Coffee?" he said again. "Say, mister, maybe a sandwich? I haven't eaten for two days."

Hendricks dug into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills. He peeled off one without even looking at it and thrust it at the tramp.

"I'm closed. The guy across the street will sell you a sandwich."

"You're a good man," said the tramp warmly. He took the money, turned, stumbled and fell into the rack of newspapers that stood beside the shop door.

"Blast!" cried Hendricks.

The tramp thrashed about, a jumble of arms, legs and newsprint. "S'okay!" he said. He untangled himself, lurched to his feet and ambled away.

"Hey, mister!" called Allie. "Wait a second!" She darted forward to pick up a small, square black object from amid the drift of papers that now blocked Hendricks' entrance.

"You dropped your radio."

The tramp began to run.

"Allie." Jupe kept his voice very calm. "Allie, give that to me."

"Good lord!" said Hendricks.