The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent Part 16

"Allie!" cried Jupe.

Shaitan's eyes went from Allie to Jupe, then back to Allie.

"You were going to say it isn't in a bank," he said. "Is it at the jewelers'? No. Somehow I think it isn't at the jewelers'. And not in this house? Now where would one hide a priceless necklace like that?" He waved the boys back and came close to Allie. "You know. You'll tell me."

Allie drew back. "I don't know."

"Of course you know. You know all the places it isn't, so you know the place where it is." His right hand still held the gun, but his left hand flashed out. His fingers closed on Allie's shoulder. "Where is it?"

"Take your hands off her!" yelled Pete.

"I won't tell," shouted Allie. "You can go jump!"

"You'll tell." The hand tightened on Allie's shoulder and Shaitan began to shake the girl.

"Stop that!" yelled Bob.

Out beyond the back court, Allie's Appaloosa mare stomped in her stall. Her excited whicker came clearly to them.

"What's that?" demanded Shaitan.

"Only Queenie," said Allie. "My mare."

"Oh, the Appaloosa," said Shaitan. "Yes, I know about her. You care a great deal about that horse and she ... she has a stall in the garage."

No one spoke.

"Not in the house," said Shaitan. "In the garage. Yes, the necklace is hidden in the garage, where no one can get to it without disturbing the horse. That's what you did, isn't it?"

Allie pulled away from him.

"Out, all of you!" ordered Shaitan.

The horse whinnied again.

"Go on!" commanded Shaitan. "Out to that garage and show me the necklace!"

"I won't!" Allie was almost in tears.

"Do as he says, Allie," said Jupe. "You're not bullet-proof."

"He won't get far," Bob predicted.

"We'll see about that," said Shaitan. He herded them out the back door and across the court. The garage door stood partly open. Jupe swung it wide and they went in.

"Now where is it?" demanded Shaitan.

Queenie bobbed her big head up and down and whinnied at the sight of Allie.

Shaitan looked at the horse. "You wouldn't hide it in the stall," he decided. "It might get stepped on or eaten. Let me see. The hay? Perhaps. Or the oat bin?"

Allie stiffened ever so slightly.

"It's the oat bin!" cried Shaitan. "You put it in the oat bin!"

He curtly ordered the boys to stand next to the stall. He then shoved Allie toward the feed bin. "Get it!" he said. His voice was very cold. "Get your hands in that thing and dig out the necklace or I'll break your arm."

Cautiously, without looking around at the horse, Pete undid the latch on Queenie's stall.

"Get it!" said Shaitan again. He grabbed Allie's wrist and twisted her arm behind her back.

"You're hurting me!" cried Allie.

Pete stepped to one side and looked at the Appaloosa. The mare's ears were flat against her head.

"Go, Queenie!" shouted Pete, and he swung open the door of the stall.

Queenie moved like a dappled fury. Her hoofs beat briefly on the cement floor of the garage, and then she reared over Shaitan, flailing at the air and screaming as only a furious or terrified horse can scream.

Shaitan let go of Allie. "Get away!" he yelled. His gun swung to take aim at the horse.

"No!" Allie struck at his arm.

The gun went off. The sound of the shot seemed to fill the garage almost to bursting, yet the boys distinctly heard the bullet whine off the floor and splatter into the wall.

Queenie's hoofs struck the pavement. Her big head lunged forward. Her big mouth opened and her teeth clamped down on Shaitan's arm.

Shaitan screamed and dropped the gun. It skidded across the cement. Jupe crouched without taking his eyes from Shaitan, who was trying to pull away from the horse. He picked up the gun.

"It's all right, Allie!" shouted Jupe. "Get the mare away."

Allie ran and threw her arms around Queenie's neck. "Easy, girl," she said. "Let go!

Easy!"

The Appaloosa released Shaitan, and the sinister high priest sagged back into a corner of the garage, holding his injured arm close to his body.

Jupe put himself between Shaitan and the door. "Don't try to leave," he said quietly.

"I'm not an excellent shot and I might do you some serious damage without intending it."

Shaitan saw the gun in Jupe's hand. He said nothing. He sat there, holding his arm, panting.

Bob stepped behind Jupe. "I'll call Chief Reynolds," he said. "It won't take him five minutes to get here."

"No hurry," said Jupiter Jones cheerfully.

Pete grinned at Queenie. Allie was coaxing the mare back into her stall. "I always had an idea that animal might bite," declared Pete. "Only I never expected it would come in so handy."

Chapter 23.

Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k Asks Some Questions "I SENT FOR YOU," said Alfred Hitchc.o.c.k, "because my curiosity is aroused."

The famous motion-picture director tapped a heap of newspapers which were on his desk and looked searchingly at The Three Investigators. "I read of a bombing in Los Angeles. The crime was witnessed by three boys from Rocky Beach, and by a girl about your age. The names of the minors were not published."

Bob handed a file across the desk to Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k. "We were there," he said.

"On a case, eh?" said Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k. "I had an idea that might be it." He opened the file and read Bob's notes on the Mystery of the Singing Serpent.

It was quiet in the office then, except for the rustle of papers. Finally Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k looked up from the file. "It's not complete."

"I'm still working on it," said Bob.

Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k sniffed. "Astounding what people will believe," he said. "I suppose the cobra you saw at that house in Torrente Canyon was some sort of special effect?"

"They had projectors in the ceiling to throw images of the serpent on the column of smoke," said Pete. "You'd think it wouldn't work. You'd think they'd need special gla.s.ses to convince people they were seeing a real snake, but with all that movement in the smoke, it did work. It looked like a real, live, three-dimensional snake."

"Even we were fooled," said Jupiter, "and those people wanted to believe in the serpent.

Of course, the serpent had had to sing. They had to cover up the noise from the projectors." to sing. They had to cover up the noise from the projectors."

"There's usually a reason for everything," said Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k. "How did the serpent sing?"

"It was Ariel," said Jupe. "We thought he made the noise with some device. He didn't.

He used to be a ventriloquist, and he could make that noise without showing any strain whatever. With Mara, we could see who the singer was."

"Mara has talents, doesn't she?"

"Many," admitted Jupe. "She's a quick mimic. Dr. Barrister played his tape of that session in Allie's dining room as they were driving to Rocky Beach. She could sing like a serpent before they ever turned in the drive.

"Mara also did something clever with the green sack in which Miss...o...b..rne placed the serpent statue. She won't admit it, but Dr. Barrister is sure she had a second sack hidden in her skirt. She switched sacks while she was rolling around on the floor, gave the empty sack to Miss...o...b..rne and walked off with the serpent."

"That's a very old trick," said Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k. "Has Dr. Barrister told you why he was so interested in Miss...o...b..rne and the fellowship?"

"He's writing a book on the psychology of superst.i.tion," said Jupiter Jones. "He knows most of the strange cults that exist in Los Angeles because that's his subject. He's even joined many of them. And Miss...o...b..rne had joined many of them. He'd seen her often - many times before he became Bentley the houseman. Then she dropped out of all of them.

She and Madelyn Enderby."

"This intrigued him?" asked Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k.

"Yes, because it didn't seem in character. Miss...o...b..rne was obviously looking for something special in these strange groups, and so was the Enderby woman. He wondered if they'd found it somewhere else, so he asked his wife to have her hair done at Miss Enderby's shop. Fortunately, Madelyn Enderby likes to talk, and she talked a great deal about the fellowship. Dr. Barrister got actual names and places. He checked on the members and discovered that all of them were people of means."

"He was suspicious?" asked Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k.

"Not at first. He thought they were merely a group of well-off individuals who were probably paying good money to sit in that house in the canyon and listen to a serpent sing.

This isn't so odd. But he himself couldn't get into that house. Membership was by invitation only, and no one invited him - or his wife. Shaitan probably checked on him and decided he was dangerous.

"So Dr. Barrister took to watching, and when Hugo Ariel moved to Rocky Beach, he took to snooping. And he was very much interested in Pat Osborne. She's a marvelous subject for a man who wants to write a book on the psychology of superst.i.tion, and she was different from the other members who went to Torrente Canyon in that she did not have a great deal of money. Shaitan, of course, knew about her wealthy relatives."

"Was it Madelyn Enderby who pa.s.sed along the word that the Jamison maid had left?"

asked Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k.

"Yes, it was. And that's when he got the idea of putting on a walrus mustache and infiltrating the house to observe Miss...o...b..rne. Then Mrs. Compton had her accident and Miss...o...b..rne sent the necklace out and he became uneasy."

"That's when he really started hanging around that house in Torrente Canyon," put in Bob. "He was there when Allie and Pete and I went over that wall. He saw the floodlights and heard the alarm. And he was there, luckily, when Jupe ran out."

"A good man to have on your side," said the director. "Too bad you frightened him out of the Jamison house when you searched his apartment in Santa Monica. But why did he have that apartment? You said he makes his home in Ruxton."

"It was a blind," said Pete. "He wanted a place near Rocky Beach in case anyone checked on him. Also, he said it was peaceful there and he could get a lot of work done. He has four children."

Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k chuckled. "Part of the disguise, like the mustache," he said.

"He didn't really need it," said Jupe. "I don't think Pat Osborne would have noticed him, mustache or not. He has the kind of face everyone forgets."

"And when you wanted a white witch, you happened to call him," said Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k.

"It was like a miracle," said Jupe. "We had no explaining to do, and he had a tape of the serpent singing and could coach Mara. The police used his files to contact members of the fellowship and invite them to a line-up."

"You should have been there!" exclaimed Pete. "You should have seen their faces when they saw Shaitan without his cape or his cap. He looked like a lost leprechaun. His real name's Henry Longstreet, but he's also known as Harry the Dip because he used to be a pickpocket. Ariel started life as Johnny Boye and once got arrested for peddling fake chrome polish in a parking lot. The man called Max is an ex-burglar and Ellis, who did the actual bombing and sabotaged Mrs. Compton's car, has quite a record. He'll do anything for money."

"Allie told her aunt all about it," said Jupe. "It didn't help much. She's sitting on the patio now, wondering how soon she'll be able to go into Hollywood to consult with Mara."

"A hopeless case," said Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k. "But what did happen to Miss Enderby's landlady?"

"Nothing," said Bob. "She went to Dubuque because her sister invited her. Probably lucky for her, but Miss Enderby thought Belial engineered the trip and no one told her different."

"What about the man who was worried about a high rise going up next to his property?"

"The land wasn't stable enough for a high rise," said Jupe, "and they credited that to Belial."

"One nice thing," said Pete. "That crystal ball that started the trouble? Allie bought it.

Her aunt didn't want it, after what had happened, so Allie took it to the hospital to Mrs.

Compton."

Mr. Hitchc.o.c.k nodded. "A nice gesture."

"It was," said Pete. "Allie's okay, I guess, but I think I'll be glad when she goes to boarding school in the fall. We'll get to use Red Gate Rover again - and besides, she's kind of a strain to be around. Like, she can think up lies quicker than anybody I ever met, and she has this thing about getting her own way."