The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent Part 5

"Then the group must be leaving," surmised Jupe. "We'd better get to a telephone right away. Allie is supposed to be searching her house for evidence against Hugo Ariel. We don't want Ariel and her aunt to find her at it."

Worthington turned onto Sunset. "There's a telephone booth at a gas station less than half a mile from here," he announced.

At the gas station, Jupe called the Jamison house. Allie answered before the phone could ring twice.

"The meeting of the fellowship is breaking up," said Jupe. "We found out almost nothing. Have you finished your search?"

"Yes, and I didn't find a thing."

"You looked everywhere?"

"I went over this place with a fine-tooth comb. I also used a magnet. There's nothing except the dust that's piled up since Marie took off."

"Then if Ariel uses some device to make that noise, he carries it with him," said Jupe.

"Or perhaps he does have an accomplice."

"Which brings up an interesting point," said Allie brightly. "We have a new houseman."

"Oh?" said Jupe.

"Yes. Not a maid this time. A houseman. Tonight this man called and said he'd been in Rocky Beach and he heard we lost our maid and might need help, which we certainly do.

He wanted to make an appointment to come and see the lady of the house."

"So?"

"So I figured, with my mom in Europe, I'm the lady of the house. Aunt Pat hardly takes a big interest, after all."

"Allie, you didn't make an appointment with a total stranger who called up without even -"

"I did better than that," said Allie proudly. "I asked him to come here and I hired him."

Jupe waited, feeling that there was more to come.

"Aren't you going to ask me why I hired him?" said Allie.

"Why did you hire him?"

"Because he has a walrus mustache," said Allie. "You said the man who was hiding in the garage last night had a walrus mustache. Now I don't know if this is the same man. I didn't get a good look at that guy last night. But if he is the same man, he must have some special interest in what goes on here. He could be an accomplice. So let's get him where we can keep an eye on him, huh? He reports to work at eight tomorrow morning, and I hope he gets egg-sh.e.l.ls into Ariel's morning coffee."

"What will your aunt say?" demanded Jupiter.

"I'll think of something clever to tell her. See you tomorrow out by the old corral."

She hung up and Jupe returned to the car.

"Allie okay?" asked Pete.

"I don't know," said Jupe. "Either she's the smartest girl I ever met, or she's an idiot, or maybe she's both."

"How can you be a smart idiot?" asked Pete.

"Somehow, I believe Allie Jamison could manage it," said Jupiter Jones.

Chapter 8.

The Serpent Strikes WHEN THE THREE INVESTIGATORS arrived at the Jamison house the next morning, Allie was sitting on the front steps, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"A dream of a man!" she announced. "Listen!"

Jupiter, Bob and Pete listened. From inside the house came the drone of a vacuum cleaner.

"I didn't even mention it to him," said Allie. "He stowed his suitcase in Marie's room, took one look around the house, went for the broom closet and got busy. So much for Aunt Pat's cobwebs."

"Then he'll be living here?" asked Bob.

"Isn't that nice?" said Allie. "We can really watch him."

"Let's hope it will be nice," replied Jupe. "What did your aunt say when you told her you'd hired a man for the house?"

"Whose house is it, anyway?" demanded Allie. "I told her I'd asked around and this man seemed okay, and she said that was nice of me, dear, and went to bed. She's fuzzy about details."

"Where has he worked before?" asked Jupiter.

"He didn't say and I never pry," said Allie, virtuously.

"The heck you don't!" exclaimed Pete.

"Want to see him?" asked Allie. "Think you can tell if he's the same man who was in the garage?"

"I doubt if I could," said Jupe. "I hardly saw him. Bob had the best look at him."

Bob nodded.

"If he is the man," said Jupe, "don't accuse him, Bob. Pretend not to recognize him."

Allie yanked open the screen door and the boys followed her into the house. The new houseman was laboring over the green-gold carpet in the living room. He looked up, saw the boys standing in the hall with Allie and switched off the vacuum.

"Was there something you wanted, Miss Jamison?" he asked.

"Not a thing, Bentley," said Allie. "We're going to get some soda."

"Very well, Miss Jamison." The man clicked the vacuum on again and continued with his work.

In the kitchen, Allie took four bottles of pop from the refrigerator. "Is it him?" she asked.

"I couldn't be sure," admitted Bob. "He's about the same size and the mustache looks right. But it was dark when that man knocked Jupe down and it all happened so quickly."

"He doesn't look like the kind who knocks people down," said Pete. "He's sort of ...

well, sort of neutral."

"Beige," said Allie. "He's a beige person. Not too tall and not too short and not too thin and not too fat. Sandy hair and eyes that aren't any particular color. He'd be invisible if he didn't have that mustache." She took a bottle opener from a drawer and began to remove the caps from the pop bottles. "And what have you three to report?"

Jupiter quickly outlined the events of the evening before. When he finished, Allie said, "I think I'm way ahead of you. All you managed to do last night was fall off a wall, while I found a genuine, one-hundred-percent mystery man."

"You came to us to get rid of a mystery man," Pete reminded her. "By the way, aren't you afraid that vacuuming is going to wake your house guest?"

"Ariel went out," said Allie, and swallowed some soda pop.

"I thought he never went out in the daytime."

"This morning he went out. He took Aunt Pat's car and departed for points unknown."

Aunt Pat appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"Allie, who is that man in the living room?" asked Miss...o...b..rne. She was dressed in a lavender housecoat with a purple sash, and her lavender hair was perfectly arranged.

"It's the new houseman, Aunt Pat," said Allie. "We hired him last night, remember?"

"Oh, yes. How nice. What did you say his name was, dear?"

"I didn't," said Allie, "but it's Bentley."

"Bentley. Bentley. Like the car. I'll remember that." She smiled in an absent-minded way at the boys, who murmured good-morning to her.

"Can he cook?" Miss...o...b..rne asked Allie.

"He said he could cook."

"Then I'll go and talk to him about dinner." Miss...o...b..rne wandered out of the kitchen.

Allie leaned against the sink. "I don't care if he runs off with the silverware, just so we get one decent meal out of him. There's more to this pots and pans stuff than meets the eye." She turned her head and glanced out into the back court. "Speaking of things meeting the eye," she remarked, "if you'll look to the east, you'll see that creep Ariel fighting his way out of Aunt Pat's car."

The boys had to smile. It was a struggle for Ariel to get his long legs out of the purple Corvette. He wriggled sideways, slid out and pulled his black shirt straight about his thin waist.

"I'd love to know what he's been up to," said Allie.

Ariel opened the back door and came in. He let his flat, dark eyes rest on Allie for a moment, then started past her without speaking.

Allie promptly stood in his way. "Mr. Ariel, I don't think you've met my friends," she said.

Ariel looked intensely annoyed, but he stopped and permitted Allie to introduce the boys. When Bob cheerfully held out his hand, Ariel allowed his own limp hand to be shaken. He said absolutely nothing. When the introductions were completed he stepped around Allie as if she were a post and went on into the hall, pulling the kitchen door shut after him.

"How'd you like that?" demanded Allie. "I get it from him all the time. He acts like I'm some kind of a ... a thing! I'd want him out of here even if he didn't make that horrible singing."

"Mr. Ariel!" Aunt Pat's voice, high and excited, carried to the group in the kitchen.

"Has it been accomplished?"

Allie went to the door, leaned on it slightly and applied her ear to the resulting crack.

"There is no need for anxiety," said Ariel from the front hall. "The wishes of the fellowship - your wishes - will be carried out. The serpent has been delivered. All is in the hands of Belial. You have only to wait."

"But the twenty-first isn't far off," protested Aunt Pat. "Are you sure there's time? Oh, perhaps it is a silly whim, but I do want it, and if Margaret Compton gets there first ..."

"Your faith wavers?" demanded Ariel. There was an edge to his voice.

"Of course not!" said Aunt Pat quickly. "I have the most profound trust."

"Then you will excuse me," said Ariel. "I must rest now. These affairs are demanding."

"I understand," said Miss...o...b..rne.

Ariel went up the stairs.

"Sounds like he's sacking out for another day," said Allie. "What a slug!"

"The serpent has been delivered," said Jupe. "Now what did he mean by that?"

"Is somebody mailing out snakes?" asked Pete.

Allie shook her head. "Aunt Pat can't abide snakes. That's just the way they talk. They say something and it means something else. The other night they talked about the voice of the serpent coming across the miles, remember?"

"And we heard it, didn't we?" Jupiter reminded her. "We heard the singing."

"Whatever that was, it was no snake," insisted Allie. "Snakes do not sing."

"But something is going on," said Jupe. "It has to do with Hugo Ariel and the house on Torrente Canyon and that strange singing. And it may have some connection with your new houseman. There's nothing we can do at the moment except watch and wait. Let us know if something odd happens. I have to get back to the salvage yard."

"And I'm due at my job in the library," said Bob.

"And I've got to mow the lawn," said Pete.

"What a bunch of private eyes!" complained Allie. "You've all got other jobs on the side. Okay. Go do whatever it is you do when you're not falling off walls and I'll call you if anything happens here."

The boys finished their pop and went their separate ways. When Jupiter reported at The Jones Salvage Yard, Aunt Mathilda was directing Hans and Konrad, who were unloading the larger of the two trucks.

"Jupiter, I need you," said Aunt Mathilda.

"Yes, Aunt Mathilda."