The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent Part 15

"That's it," said Dr. Barrister.

"Hah!" said Mara. The gypsy nodded to Allie and the boys. "We will work together,"

she told them. "You do what I say and you say nothing. Do you understand?"

"We understand," said Jupe.

"Is the woman upstairs?"

"Yes," said Allie.

"Then we will go." Mara made for the stairs, carrying the serpent.

"Merciful gracious to heavens!" At the foot of the stairs, Aunt Mathilda came face to face with Mara and seemed about to go into shock.

"It's all right, Aunt Mathilda," Jupe a.s.sured her. "Why don't you wait with Dr.

Barrister?"

"Dr. Barrister? Is Miss...o...b..rne's doctor here? Why didn't you call me? What are you up to?"

"Dr. Barrister will explain." Jupiter turned to the professor. "This is my aunt, Mrs.

Jones. She's been taking care of Miss...o...b..rne."

"Delighted to meet you, Mrs. Jones," said Barrister. "Come and sit down and I'll explain. You won't believe me, but I'll explain it all."

Aunt Mathilda stood firm. "Jupiter," she said, "I want you to tell me here and now -"

"Woman, you are in my way!" said Mara.

"What?" cried Aunt Mathilda.

"I have important work to do," said Mara. "If you stand in my way, you will regret it."

The gypsy's bold eyes locked into Aunt Mathilda's stern gaze. For a few seconds, Aunt Mathilda glared at Mara. Then, to Jupe's amazement, his aunt stepped aside. Mara did have gifts.

The gypsy went up the stairs and let Allie lead her to Pat Osborne's room. The Three Investigators followed after.

Pat Osborne did not see Mara until the gypsy stood at the foot of the bed and called out.

"Oh, cursed one!" cried Mara. "Listen to me so you may live!"

Under the covers, Pat Osborne shuddered.

"More pillows," said Mara to Allie. "Put pillows under her head so she may see."

Allie scooted out and got three pillows. She coaxed her aunt to a half-sitting position and propped her up with the pillows.

"Look!" Mara held up the golden cobra. "This is the bringer of evil!"

Pat Osborne winced. "Belial!" she whispered. "The serpent is the messenger of Belial!"

"Hah!" said the gypsy. "Ten spirits I have, each more powerful than Belial. But he who summoned Belial will feel the curse."

The gypsy came around the bed and thrust the shining cobra toward Pat Osborne. "You must take this into your hands."

"No! No, I can't."

"You must hold it, woman," ordered Mara. She took Aunt Pat's hand in her own and closed the trembling fingers around the snake. "Hold it firm if you would save yourself!"

For the first time, a spark of hope seemed to liven Pat Osborne. She grasped the serpent.

From some fold in her wide skirt, Mara took a green cloth sack. "Green is the colour of spring," she told Aunt Pat. "It is the color of life. You will put the evil thing into this green sack."

Without taking her eyes from Mara's face, Aunt Pat did as she was told.

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"Good." Mara pulled the drawstrings at the top of the sack, closing the snake inside.

"Lock the door," she said to Allie. "Then light a candle."

There was no shortage of candles in the room. They stood about on every surface - green ones and purple, red ones and white. "A red candle," said Mara. "Red has power."

Allie lit a red candle.

"Now, no one may speak," said Mara.

No one did. No one but Mara herself, and when she spoke it was in a high, reedy voice, in a language that none of them understood. She held the green bag containing the little cobra. She addressed it, chanting and crooning. Sometimes her words were a gentle lullaby, sometimes a harsh and terrible threat.

Suddenly the gypsy clutched the green sack close to her faded blouse, threw back her head, let her eyes roll wildly and fell to the floor.

Aunt Pat stared. Mara's mouth was open, and from her throat came a dreadful, gurgling sound, and then a series of high, keening notes.

Mara the gypsy was singing, and she was singing the song of the serpent.

As the frightful sound went on, Mara twitched.

Her back arched so that she touched the floor only with her head and her heels. Then she began to roll, thrashing from one side to another, cradling the sack in her arms, her open eyes sightless.

The scarfs which bound her head came undone, one after another. They slipped away and long, gray hair streamed over her face.

Still the song went on, louder and louder, higher and higher, piercing, chilling.

Pat Osborne sat up straight in the bed.

Mara gave a mighty shudder. She screamed, and her body went limp.

Allie and the boys waited. Pat Osborne watched. The gypsy woman seemed to sleep.

"Jupiter!" Aunt Mathilda's voice was loud in the hall outside. "Jupiter, what's going on in there? Open this door!"

Mara moaned and sat up. She groped at the green sack which somehow had remained in her grasp. She smiled. "I saw him," she said. "There is a man in black. His face is very white. He struggles. He is in the coils of the serpent."

"Jupiter, open the door this minute!" called Aunt Mathilda.

Mara got up from the floor. She went to Pat Osborne with the sack. "It is as I promised."

Miss...o...b..rne's shaking hands tugged at the drawstrings that closed the sack. She peered inside, felt the sack, shook it. It was empty.

"My spirits are strong," said Mara. "The serpent has returned to sting the one who sent it. The power of Belial has been broken, and Belial has turned on his master. You have nothing to fear."

She went to the door and opened it. "You can come in," she told Aunt Mathilda. "The woman in bed - she is well again."

Chapter 22.

The Last of the Snakes "IT'S LIKE A MIRACLE," Allie told The Three Investigators. "Aunt Pat had soup last night and milk and crackers at bedtime and two eggs this morning. Now she's hungry again."

Allie took two slices of toast from the toaster and began to spread them with b.u.t.ter. "I don't know what I would have done without your Aunt Mathilda," she said to Jupe.

"She's always there when you need her," Jupe informed her. "However, by this morning she has convinced herself that the entire affair of the singing serpent never happened. No matter how Dr. Barrister explained it, she can't believe it. She is now down at the salvage yard, attending to business as usual and seeing that Hans and Konrad are not idle."

Allie put the toast on a tray and poured a gla.s.s of milk. "How come you're not at the salvage yard?" she asked. "I had an idea your aunt liked to keep you busy, too."

"Chief Reynolds came to the salvage yard this morning," said Jupe. "The Los Angeles police want to see us again. We're just on our way in."

"Did the Chief have any news?" asked Allie.

"That phony tramp named Ellis is in jail, of course," said Bob.

"That's the place for a bomber," said Allie.

"Chief Reynolds said he talked his head off," Pete told Allie. "Noxworth talked, too.

The police collected Hugo Ariel and the man called Max. They were at Torrente Canyon.

Noxworth didn't know they'd paid Ellis to bomb Hendricks' store. He only thought something would happen to lay Hendricks low."

"That accounts for everybody," said Allie. "All except one."

"Dr. Shaitan," said Jupiter.

Allie sat down at the table. "They didn't get Shaitan?"

"He wasn't at Torrente Canyon," said Jupe. "He disappeared, leaving everything behind, including his car. Chief Reynolds thinks he's probably in Canada by now."

Allie tucked her feet up on the rungs of her chair. "And what do you think?" she asked.

"You're still our client," said Jupiter Jones. "We can't consider the case closed until Shaitan is safely in custody."

"You'll have a long, long wait," said a voice from the doorway.

Allie spun about in the chair. The boys froze where they were.

The man called Shaitan stood facing them, his back to the hall. He looked very much as he had the night they witnessed the ritual in the black-draped room. However, his cloak was streaked with dust and matted with burrs. In one slender hand there was a gun.

"I've gotten awfully careless about locking the doors," said Allie bitterly. "Anyone could wander in here."

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"Many people have wandered in in the past day," said Shaitan. "They're all gone now, aren't they? All except you brats and that fool of a woman."

"You're very well informed," said Jupiter Jones. "Have you been watching the house from the hill beyond the meadow?"

The man bowed to Jupe. "It was tiring," he said. "It was also tiring to walk the mountain trails to Rocky Beach. However, I decided it would be safer to abandon my car when I saw the police drive up to my front gate."

"Just for curiosity's sake, how'd you get out of that house on Torrente Canyon?" asked Pete. "The police got Ariel and Max."

"Fortunately, I was in the back garden when they came."

"So you went over the wall and left your buddies to take the rap," said Bob.

"Who wouldn't?" snapped Shaitan. "Now that stupid woman is upstairs, I suppose."

He gestured with the gun. "You four will go up ahead of me. When I've had my little talk with Miss...o...b..rne, I'll make sure that no one leaves this house for some time."

"You will not see my aunt," said Allie evenly.

"Allie, he's got a gun!" warned Pete.

"I don't care. He's done enough. He's not going to see her!"

Very deliberately, she put her hands on her hips and looked straight into Shaitan's weary face.

"I know what you want," she said.

"You want the Empress Eugenie necklace. Well, it isn't here and Aunt Pat doesn't know where it is, so get lost. You've had all you're going to get."

"If it's in a bank or at the jewelers', it can be retrieved," said Shaitan calmly. "Miss...o...b..rne will telephone. And if it's hidden here, it can be found."

"It isn't in a -"