The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent Part 6

"Your Uncle t.i.tus has lost his mind. Look what he bought!"

Jupiter looked. The truck was loaded with old cast-iron stoves.

"Wood-burning stoves!" said Aunt Mathilda. "In this day and age! They were in an old warehouse in East Los Angeles, and it was going to be torn down. Your uncle said they were so inexpensive he couldn't pa.s.s them up. Jupiter, however will we sell them?"

"We'll find a way," said Jupe.

"Well, help Hans and Konrad get them off the truck and put them someplace where I can't see them. The very idea!"

Aunt Mathilda stormed away, and Jupiter set to work helping Hans and Konrad unload the stoves and store them in a spot toward the back of the yard. It was slow work, since the stoves were heavy and had doors which kept dropping off. After lunch there were more ch.o.r.es. Jupe worked until three and then crossed the street to the Jones house to take a shower. He found his Uncle t.i.tus glaring at a newscast on television.

"Terrible!" exclaimed Uncle t.i.tus.

"What's terrible?" asked Jupiter.

"The things people do on the freeways. Look at that!"

On the television screen, Jupe saw a scene which was all too familiar. A sedan had crashed into a bridge abutment on the Hollywood Freeway. The highway patrol was directing traffic past the wreck.

The voice of the announcer came on over the picture. "The driver of the car, Mrs.

Margaret Compton, was taken to Angel of Mercy Hospital where her condition was reported as fair."

"Mrs. Margaret Compton!" cried Jupe.

"You know her?" asked Uncle t.i.tus.

"I've heard the name, Uncle t.i.tus," said Jupe. "Excuse me. I have to call a client!"

Chapter 9.

A Secret Meeting AT SEVEN THAT NIGHT, Jupiter left the house and went to The Jones Salvage Yard. He had told his aunt that he had unfinished work in his workshop, and that he might be late. However, when he reached his workshop, Bob and Pete were waiting for him with their bikes.

"We're to meet Allie at Swanson's Cove," said Jupe quickly.

"We exit through Green Gate One?" asked Bob.

Jupe nodded. "We'd better. It's far enough from the house so Aunt Mathilda won't see us."

Pete went to a place in the fence right by the workshop and inserted two fingers into a crack. He pulled, and two boards swung up. Pete put his head out, looked up and down the street, and reported that the coast was clear. Jupe grabbed his bike, which had been leaning against the printing press, and the three boys slipped out through the opening in the fence.

When the boards had swung closed behind them, Bob stopped to stare thoughtfully at the fence. Like the back fence of the yard, the front fence had been decorated by artists of Rocky Beach. Here along the front was a stormy ocean scene, with a sailing ship struggling through huge waves. In the foreground, almost under Bob's eyes, a fish lifted its head from the sea to stare at the ship.

"Allie caught on to Red Gate Rover," said Bob sadly. "I hope she hasn't been snooping around the front of this place. I'd hate to have her know that that fish marks the spot where Green Gate One opens."

"If she's discovered that," said Jupiter Jones, "we'll have to abandon Green Gate One and construct another entrance. Let's not worry about it now. This is an emergency."

"Right," said Pete. "Let's go."

The boys got onto their bikes and pedaled down the street, away from the Jones house and the salvage yard, and then down to the Coast Highway. A five minute ride brought them to Swanson's Cove. Allie Jamison was already there, leaning against a boulder that jutted out of the sand. Allie's horse stood nearby, its reins dangling.

"Margaret Compton got hurt on the freeway today," said Allie.

"I told Bob and Pete about it," said Jupe. He sat down facing Allie. "How is your aunt?

What's happened since I talked to you?"

"She's all upset," said Allie. "She's crying. She hasn't stopped crying since we caught the report on the news."

Bob leaned against the rock. "Things are moving, aren't they?" he said.

"And rather quickly," said Jupe. "Only this morning Hugo Ariel told Miss...o...b..rne that a serpent had been delivered, and that Miss...o...b..rne's wishes would be carried out tonight.

Mrs. Compton is in the hospital with more serious things to worry about than the auction of the Castillo estate. She won't be around to outbid Miss...o...b..rne for Ramon Castillo's crystal ball."

"This isn't the way Aunt Pat wanted it," declared Allie. "When she saw the newscast she yelled, 'She might have been killed, and it would be my fault!' Ariel helped her up to her room. They closed the door, but I was out in the hall and I listened."

"Naturally," said Pete.

Allie ignored him. "She said something about how she didn't know it would turn out like this," Allie went on. "He said it was her desire, and now it was time for her to do something. I couldn't get it all, but whatever he wants, she doesn't want to do it. He said he'd wait, but not forever. After a while he came out and went downstairs.

"I went in after he left, but she wouldn't talk to me. She told me to run along, so I did, only I didn't run far."

"You stayed in the hall," said Pete.

"You bet I did, and I heard her making a telephone call. She asked to speak to Mr. Van Storen."

"How long did it take you to get to another telephone?" asked Jupiter Jones.

"Too long," confessed Allie. "By the time I picked up the receiver downstairs, she was telling someone she'd send in her houseman with a letter of authorization, and a man said, 'Certainly, Miss...o...b..rne,' and everybody hung up."

"So then?" asked Bob.

"So then I heard Aunt Pat moving around upstairs. She called Bentley and he went up, and when he came down he was tucking a package all wrapped in brown paper into his pocket. He went out in Aunt Pat's car. Said she'd given him an errand to do."

"Did that interest Mr. Ariel?" questioned Jupe.

"It interested him plenty," said Allie. "He went up those stairs like a shot out of a cannon.

Aunt Pat was ready for him. I could hear him yelling at her and she yelled back. She said she'd sent Bentley to Beverly Hills to pick up some special face cream for her, and that's all."

"Do you believe her?"

"No, and Ariel didn't either. Only Bentley came back later with the face cream, so what could Ariel say? But it was a lie. Aunt Pat doesn't buy face cream. She makes her own out of rose petals and glycerin and stuff."

"Did you question your aunt?" asked Jupe. "Or did you speak to Bentley?"

"I didn't need to question either of them," said Allie. "I know where Bentley really went. Mr. Van Storen is one half of the firm of Van Storen and Chatsworth in Beverly Hills. He's a jeweler and a very good one. I also happen to know the combination of the safe in my mother's room, so I opened the safe. My mother's necklace was gone."

The boys sat silently on the sand for a moment, letting this news sink in.

Jupiter spoke up at last. "Do you mean that your aunt gave a necklace which once belonged to the Empress Eugenie to a man whom she scarcely knows and sent him to the jewelers with it?"

"I never said she was real bright," said Allie. "She's a grownup, so she's supposed to be responsible. So I guess that's why my mother gave her the combination of the safe - so she could get the necklace out in case the house burned down or something."

"Does she know that you know the necklace is gone?" asked Bob.

"She sure does. I nailed her the second I got her alone. She claims my mother asked her to have the necklace cleaned while she was away."

"Not a likely story?" asked Jupiter.

Allie made a wry face. "There's no emergency about having a necklace cleaned," she pointed out. "And she didn't need to send Bentley. Van Storen and Chatsworth would have come for it."

"So she went to some trouble to get the necklace to the jewelers without Ariel's knowledge," said Jupiter. "I think we can come to several conclusions."

"Such as?"

"First, from what your aunt said about the Compton woman's accident, it was caused - or she believes it was caused - because she wished the Compton woman out of the way.

She invoked the power of the fellowship. She feels guilty.

"Second, Ariel is putting some pressure on her. He has stopped playing the role of an honored guest and is trying to bully her. Did he see the houseman with the package?"

"No," said Allie. "He only saw Bentley get into the car and drive away."

"Does he know the necklace was in the safe?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. He didn't try to go near the safe. He only wanted to know why Aunt Pat sent Bentley out."

"Which brings us back to the mysterious Bentley," said Jupiter. "Is he the man who was hiding near your house the night your aunt entertained her friends from the fellowship? Or is he a stranger who happened to learn that you needed household help? If he is the man who knocked me down that night, what is he doing in the house? At least we know he can't be an accomplice of Ariel's, or Ariel would not need to be suspicious of him." Jupe sat brooding, pulling on his lip as he did when he was thinking with special intensity.

"There are several things we must find out immediately," he decided. "We must find out, first of all, whether the necklace was actually delivered to the jewelers."

"Oh, blast!" cried Allie. "Oh, why didn't I think of that this afternoon? I could have called Van Storen and Chatsworth right away!"

"In the morning," advised Jupiter. "You can call from the salvage yard, if you want, so no one will overhear. And in the morning we must find out whether Margaret Compton's accident was truly connected with the fellowship. Did Ariel deliver a live snake to her, for instance?"

"But Aunt Pat wouldn't send anybody a snake!" protested Allie. "She doesn't like Margaret Compton, but she wouldn't wish a thing like that on her. She wouldn't want her worst enemy to open a box and see a snake!"

"Then what was delivered?" said Jupe.

"I don't know."

Bob spoke up. "Ariel said that your aunt didn't need to worry because it was all in the hands of Belial. I looked that up in the library. Belial is the name of a demon. And Ariel mentioned a Dr. Shaitan the other night. I checked that, too, in the library. Shaitan is another name for Satan."

Pete shivered. "Demons and snakes! Some combination!"

Allie sat, picking up handfuls of sand and then letting the sand run through her fingers.

"What is Aunt Pat mixed up in?" she said at last.

"We don't know," said Jupe, "but it could be something very nasty."

Chapter 10.

The Golden Cobra ALLIE APPEARED AT THE salvage yard early the next morning, looking as if she had not slept at all. The Three Investigators were waiting for her near the office in the yard.

"Aunt Pat is crying," she reported. "Ariel is sleeping, just for a change. Bentley is washing the windows."

"And Aunt Mathilda is washing the breakfast dishes," said Jupe, "so you can use the telephone in the office to call the jewelers."

Allie didn't hesitate. She settled herself at the desk in the office, dialed Van Storen and Chatsworth, and gave an excellent imitation of Miss Patricia Osborne asking when the Empress Eugenie necklace would be ready. She listened for a few moments, then said, "Very good. Thank you," and hung up.

"They have the necklace," she told the boys. "They said it will take several days, and they'll hold it until they're notified to deliver it. What a relief!"

"Then it's safe," said Jupiter, "and whatever your new houseman is, he isn't a jewel thief. Now to find out whether a serpent figured in Mrs. Compton's life in any way yesterday."

"You don't suppose Ariel planted a snake in Mrs. Compton's car, do you?" asked Pete.

Allie shuddered.

"That would be enough to cause almost anyone to drive into a bridge abutment," said Jupiter Jones. "However, we shall see."

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

"I'm going to the library to look up serpents and demons and strange cults," reported Bob.

"Pete and I will go to the hospital to see Mrs. Compton," Jupiter told Allie. "Hans is taking the small truck into Los Angeles, and we can ride with him."

Allie got up and went to the door of the office. "I'll go home and keep an eye on everyone there," she said.

"We'll call you," promised Jupiter.

She nodded and went out, and Hans rattled up to the door of the office in the truck.

"Ready?" he called.