The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent Part 8

"We get creamed if we get caught," said Pete.

"We mustn't get caught." Jupe pushed the window sash up. The window opened almost without noise. A second later, Jupe was inside the apartment, with Bob and Pete close behind him.

In addition to the books on magic that Bob had spotted on the table, the boys saw shelves loaded with accounts of the rituals of primitive peoples, learned tomes on folklore and several works on black magic as it is practiced in modern cities.

"That guy must feel right at home with Aunt Pat Osborne and Hugo Ariel," said Pete.

"If he's read all these books, he's got my respect," said Bob. "I got into some of them today, and they can be tough going."

"An authority on the occult," said Jupe. "One wouldn't expect to find an authority on the occult acting as a houseman."

Jupiter bent over the work table and began to read the tags on the files that were piled there. There was a file called "Mara's Clients," and one marked "The Green Triangle."

There was also a file - a thick one - tagged "The Fellowship of the Lower Circle."

"Now I wonder if that could be our our fellowship." Jupe opened the file. "Oh, yes!" he said. fellowship." Jupe opened the file. "Oh, yes!" he said.

"What is it?" asked Bob.

Jupe picked up two sheets of paper. "Here is a set of notes on Miss Patricia Osborne.

Bentley finds her interesting. For instance, he indicates on this sheet that she has belonged to more than five unusual sects in the past ten years, that she subscribes to two astrology magazines, and that she once traveled to India to study under a philosopher there. The Indian trip didn't last long. Miss...o...b..rne did not find the plumbing adequate. There is also a note here that Miss...o...b..rne moved to the house in Rocky Beach in May, and that Hugo Ariel arrived not long ago."

"Anything else?" asked Pete.

Jupiter pulled out another sheet of paper. "Here's a report from a credit bureau," he said. "It lists Miss...o...b..rne's a.s.sets, which are adequate. She would not be considered wealthy."

"Bentley is interested in money?" asked Pete.

Jupiter turned over other papers in the file. "It seems so. There's a similar report on Noxworth, the man who owns a delicatessen. He also owns property in East Los Angeles.

He's worth a lot more than his appearance indicates."

"The lady in orange?" asked Pete.

"Madelyn Enderby, the hairdresser?" Jupe thumbed through the file. "She has belonged to a number of odd a.s.sociations. She owns her own business and her income runs to five figures a year. She has an active account with a stockbroker in the San Fernando Valley."

"Anyone else we know?" asked Bob.

"The lady with the health food shop," said Jupe. "Health food must be quite lucrative.

She has applied for a loan to open a second shop in another location. And there are a number of reports here on people we don't know."

"Magic and witchcraft." Bob touched the books on the table. "And also money."

"Perhaps they all go together," said Jupe.

Pete slid open a drawer in the table. It was empty except for a few paper clips and a miniature tape recorder. There was a tape on the take-up spool of the recorder. "I wouldn't mind having that," said Pete. "You could carry it in your pocket."

Bob picked up the instrument. "Nice," he said. "Runs on batteries. No wires to plug in." He pressed a b.u.t.ton on one end of the recorder, and a little compartment opened.

Inside was a tiny microphone. "Perfect," said Bob. "A little recorder that can be hidden anywhere, with a sensitive microphone. The Secret Service probably doesn't have anything better."

"I wonder what's on that tape," said Jupiter. "How does the rewind mechanism work?"

Bob fumbled with the recorder for a second and watched the tape rewind. Then he reversed the switch. The recorder gave out a few preliminary cracks and rustles, and then The Three Investigators heard someone say, "We can begin."

"That's Ariel's voice!" exclaimed Bob.

"We are not the full fellowship tonight," the voice continued on the recorder. "It may be that we can do nothing. Or it may be that Dr. Shaitan will send us his spirits. The voice of the serpent may speak to us across the miles."

"He bugged Allie's house!" said Pete.

"Must have hidden this near the dining-room door," deduced Bob.

The boys heard the hoa.r.s.e voice of Madelyn Enderby and the grumbling complaint of Noxworth, the delicatessen man. They heard again Pat Osborne's wish that Margaret Compton be called away.

Then, frightfully clear in the quiet of that small room, they heard the sound. They heard the singing which had frightened Marie out of the Jamison house, and which had driven Allie to ask for help.

"The voice of the serpent," said Jupe.

Bob shuddered and put the tape recorder quickly down on the table, but the dreadful, wordless song went on and on.

The tape turned slowly to its end. The terrible singing faded to a low sob and died.

When the little machine emitted only a soft hum, Jupiter Jones realized that he felt cold.

The sunlight that had streamed into the apartment was gone, and it was growing dark.

And there was a man standing in the doorway. Bentley!

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Chapter 12.

The Houseman's Sudden Move "OH MY GOSH!" exclaimed Pete.

Bob jumped, and quickly turned off the little tape recorder.

Jupiter Jones stood still and considered several possible explanations that he could offer Bentley. He decided that none would do. "We were just leaving," he said.

The man with the walrus mustache remained in the doorway. "Were you planning to go out the way you came in?" he asked. "You used the window, didn't you?" Bentley's voice was angry. There was no bl.u.s.ter in it, and no fright. Jupe saw that Bentley was no longer the meek houseman. It might take dynamite to move him out of the doorway.

Jupiter thought quickly. "Bob," he said, "give me that tape."

Bob lifted the spool of tape off the little recorder and handed it to Jupe.

"That tape is my property!" said Bentley.

Jupe held up the tape. "Tell us, Bentley, how did you record this? Did you hide the machine on the patio the night Miss...o...b..rne had guests?"

The houseman moved then. He lunged across the darkening room and gripped Jupe's wrist.

"Run for it!" shouted Jupe to his friends.

Bob and Pete rushed for the open door. Jupe let go of the tape suddenly and hooked his right leg behind Bentley's left knee.

The houseman floundered backward, cursing.

The spool of tape flew across the room. Jupe let it go and ran.

As Jupe shot out the door, Bentley grabbed the back of his shirt. Jupe tore free and bounded down the stairs.

Bentley didn't try to follow. He stood on the landing holding a piece of Jupe's shirt and watched the boys s.n.a.t.c.h up their bikes and pedal rapidly away.

The Three Investigators were blocks from Tennyson Place before they stopped.

"Are we in trouble, or is Bentley?" wondered Pete. "If he calls the police, we can tell them about that tape and those files."

"The tape and the files can easily be hidden or destroyed," Jupe pointed out. "We are are guilty of housebreaking, and Bentley has seen us with Allie. He knows where to find us if he wants to." guilty of housebreaking, and Bentley has seen us with Allie. He knows where to find us if he wants to."

"What do we do now?" asked Bob.

"We go back to the salvage yard, report to our client and wait. We may not have any trouble. We know that Bentley had to be trespa.s.sing on the Jamison property to get that recording of the meeting with Ariel and the others. We know that he has a credit report on Miss...o...b..rne. Wouldn't it be embarra.s.sing if Bentley had to explain why he has that credit report?"

"Blackmail?" asked Pete.

"Possibly," admitted Jupe. "Let's get back to Headquarters and call Allie."

"She could have warned us that Bentley would be at that apartment tonight," said Pete bitterly.

"She may not have known," said Jupe.

At Headquarters, Jupe's guess was proved correct. The telephone was ringing when the boys made their way up through the trap door into the mobile home trailer. The caller was Allie Jamison.

"Oh, you guys, I'm sorry!" she began. Jupiter put the telephone down on a loudspeaker system he had rigged up so that the other Investigators could hear the conversation.

"Bentley caught us," said Jupiter tersely.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I tried to reach you, but you'd already left. He said he'd forgotten something he needed. I couldn't tell him he had to stay in nights, could I?"

"I wish you had tried," Jupiter told her. "I am out half a shirt and he now knows we are spying on him. You may be out one houseman."

"You don't think he'll come back here?"

Jupe hesitated. "He might be brazen enough to try," he told Allie, "but we got into his apartment and we saw enough to make us suspect that Bentley might be trying to blackmail your aunt. He has a credit report on her. Also, it was Bentley who was hiding in the garage the night your aunt and Ariel met with the members of the fellowship. He has a tape recording of that meeting."

"That doesn't figure," said Allie. "You couldn't blackmail Aunt Pat. She's clean."

"If she's clean, why is she so upset about Mrs. Compton's accident?"

Allie didn't answer.

"Where is your aunt, by the way?" asked Jupe.

"She's upstairs crying."

"And Hugo Ariel?"

"He's in the library, doing whatever he does."

"Have you heard that singing again?"

"No. It's peaceful as a tomb here, and just about as cheery," said Allie.

"Well, keep your eyes open," called Pete, "and let us know if Bentley shows up."

But Bentley did not show up. Allie called the Jones house first thing in the morning to report the nonappearance of her houseman. Later in the day, Jupiter and Bob rode down to Santa Monica, to Tennyson Place. The windows in the little building behind the stucco house looked blank, and again Jupe rang the bell at the main house. A wispy woman answered the door and told Jupe that it would not be possible for him to deliver a prescription from the drugstore to her tenant in the garage, since he was no longer there.

He had moved out that morning and had left no forwarding address.

"Do you recall what moving company he used?" asked Jupe. "There's an unpaid bill at the store."

"He moved himself," said the woman. "He went someplace and got a car and a trailer and moved himself. He didn't have that much to move."

Jupe thanked her and rejoined Bob on the sidewalk. "I think we'll hear nothing at present from Bentley," he told Bob. "I don't know whether I'm glad or sorry."

Chapter 13.

The Empress Diamonds "I'M BEGINNING TO MISS BENTLEY," Allie told Jupiter on the third day after the houseman's disappearance. "He at least moved around. Aunt Pat sits in her room and broods, or she sits on the patio and broods. Ariel hovers. He hardly lets her out of his sight."

"Is he hovering this morning?"

"No. He's having his hair cut."

"What do they talk about?" asked Jupe. He and Allie were leaning on the fence in back of the Jamison house, watching Allie's horse.