Mandie Collection, The: 4 (58 page)

Mandie bent to look around and could not find him. “Snowball! Come here! Kitty, kitty, kitty!”

The meow came again, louder this time.

“He’s inside that box!” Mandie exclaimed as she stooped to examine the place where he had been clawing the straw. “The hole is bigger!” She tried to reach inside through the straw but something blocked her way. Snowball began howling.

“I think the three of us could break the box open now,” Jonathan said as he looked at it.

They gathered around the cracked place, and with each one pulling at the cracked wood the box began splintering away. Suddenly Snowball jumped out through a wad of straw. Mandie picked him up.

“You naughty kitten,” she scolded him. “You had me worried.”

“Look!” Jonathan said, excitedly pulling straw from the crushed box.

The girls watched as he uncovered what looked like several large stones in the box. As the last of the straw came out, he pulled out what was indeed a rock, then another, another, and another.

“Nothing but rocks in the box!” Mandie exclaimed as Snowball managed to break from her grasp. He ran to the rocks and began sniffing at them.

“And they do smell like fish,” Celia said.

“Why would anyone want to pack up just plain old rocks?” Mandie asked.

Jonathan was thoroughly examining the box. “I have no idea, but that is all that was in the box,” he said, standing up and brushing off his pants.

“Do you suppose all these boxes have rocks in them?” Celia asked as the three looked about the room.

“Probably so, but it would be too big a job to find out for sure,” Jonathan said.

“This is plain crazy!” Mandie exclaimed. “Do these Belgium people sell boxes of rocks or something?”

“Maybe they are some historical rocks, worth money,” Celia suggested.

Mandie reached down and picked up Snowball. “Here, Snowball, put your nose to use. Smell these boxes.” She held him in her arms as she put his nose next to each box. The cat wriggled to get down and didn’t show the least interest in the other ones.

“Evidently he can’t smell anything in the other boxes,” Jonathan said.

Mandie set him down and watched. He went straight to the crushed box and began smelling the stones that had come out of it.

“I’d say that box was the only one that smelled like fish,” Mandie said. “Come on. Now that I know he’s all right, I still want to climb up there and look through the grill.”

As soon as they were able to stack the boxes high enough, Mandie lifted her long skirts and carefully climbed up, first on the low stack, then onto a higher stack, and finally to the highest one. The grill was
a little far from her because of her short height, so she tried to stand on her tiptoes to see outside.

Suddenly the door to the room was flung open and banged back against the wall. The young people gasped as they saw the strange woman standing there. The woman had first appeared on the ship to Europe and turned up in various places they had visited since then. She was old, with gray hair showing around her black bonnet, and a diamond broach pinning her expensive black dress. Her black eyes looked directly at Mandie as she said, “You must get out of here at once. Immediately! Now!”

Mandie quickly asked, “Why?” She lost her balance at that moment. The stack of boxes swayed and she fell off. Luckily she landed on her feet. Jonathan and Celia rushed to her rescue.

“Are you all right?” they both asked.

Mandie quickly pushed them aside and looked for the woman in the doorway. She was gone. The door still stood open.

“Where did that woman go?” Mandie asked, running to look outside into the next room.

She dashed back, grabbed up Snowball, and yelled to her friends, “Come on! Let’s find her!”

Mandie ran through the outer room and into the tunnel. She looked about, but there was no sign of the woman. “Oh, where did she go?”

“And how did she know we were in that room?” Jonathan asked.

“And how did she open the door when we couldn’t?” Celia asked.

The three stood there puzzled.

“I suppose we could look for her, but we never do find her when she appears like that. It’s like she’s a ghost or something, the way she manages to evade us,” Mandie complained, holding on to Snowball.

“Well, let’s get out of this tunnel,” Jonathan said, leading the way back in the direction of the hotel.

As the three emerged into the bright sunlight, they realized everyone seemed to be staring at them. Then Mandie glanced down at their clothes. They were all filthy dirty. Her hands looked as though they’d never been washed. Even Snowball’s white fur was soiled.

“Oh, look at us! How are we ever going to get back into the hotel to our rooms without everyone seeing us?” Mandie exclaimed, stopping at the corner of the alleyway.

“Every building must have a back door,” Jonathan said. “And we can probably find one to the hotel.”

“I sure hope so,” Mandie said.

Celia quickly looked at the watch she wore on a chain around her neck and breathed a sigh of relief. “At least it’s nowhere time for your grandmother and the senator to come back. In fact, we have plenty of time to clean up before we eat.”

“Thank goodness!” Mandie said as they hurried on.

Jonathan led the way. They darted behind trees and shrubbery bushes to avoid being seen by hotel guests who were strolling outside. Finally he discovered a back door and pushed it open.

The door led directly into the huge corridor, and the young people ran for the stairs. They managed to arrive at their rooms without attracting attention.

“Jonathan, give us a few minutes to clean up and change clothes and we’ll meet you at the landing,” Mandie told him as she and Celia opened the door to their suite.

“I have to do the same,” Jonathan agreed as he went on down the corridor.

Mandie removed the leash and set Snowball down on the carpet. He immediately went to work washing his white fur.

The girls quickly bathed and put on clean clothes. They talked as they hurried.

“Things sure are getting complicated,” Mandie remarked as she slipped into a dark blue dress. “There are so many mysteries. Do you suppose they could all be connected in some way?”

“I don’t know,” Celia replied as she buttoned her brown dress. “I sure wish we’d had on these dark dresses this morning when we got so dirty.”

“When you think about it, there’s the robbery of that painting, then the man we saw with a painting here in the hotel, and the man on the old boat, and the boxes in that room we were in, and then the strange woman appearing,” Mandie said, brushing her long blond hair. “And I don’t know what else. If we could just figure out one little clue to it all, we might be able to solve everything.”

“I don’t imagine your grandmother will want to stay here much longer, because this is our third day in Antwerp and we still have other
countries to visit and not a whole lot of time left,” Celia said as she, too, began brushing her long auburn hair.

“And Uncle Ned hasn’t even gotten here yet,” Mandie said, suddenly remembering. “He did say he would be here sooner or later. I wish he’d come soon.”

“When we meet Jonathan at the landing, what are we going to do next?” Celia asked.

“Well, I just don’t know,” Mandie replied. “We’ll have to talk it over and see which angle of this mystery would be the best to follow up.”

“Whatever we do, Mandie, please, let’s be here when your grandmother gets back,” Celia said, turning to look at her friend.

“I’ve planned to do that all morning. However, sometimes circumstances prevent our carrying out our plans, like that locked room,” Mandie said, walking about the room. “That is really a puzzle to me. I just can’t imagine why anyone would pack rocks in straw and box them up in nice big, strong wooden boxes with metal bands around them.”

Celia looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, “You know, Mandie, I have heard of whole buildings being shipped stone by stone.”

“But I don’t think the other boxes had stones in them. At least Snowball wasn’t interested in sniffing them,” Mandie said, looking down at the kitten, who was pretty white again. He was now washing his paws.

“I’m ready,” Celia said, picking up the bonnet that matched her dress.

“Then let’s go talk this over with Jonathan and decide what to do next,” Mandie said. She took her dark blue bonnet from her hatbox and hastily put it on. “And I suppose I’ll have to take Snowball. Someone might let him out. And he did help us by pulling the straw out of that box.” She picked him up and fastened on his leash.

The girls hurried to meet Jonathan at the landing to make plans.

CHAPTER NINE

THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE

Jonathan was waiting for them on the stairway. The girls dropped down on the steps near him. Mandie wrapped Snowball’s leash around her wrist to keep him from getting away.

“Things are really popping!” Jonathan exclaimed. “I just heard the maids talking down the hallway there. Another painting was stolen from another museum. And the first painting hasn’t even been recovered yet.”

“Goodness gracious!” Mandie said. “This just can’t go on. Whoever is doing this will soon have a stolen fortune if we don’t find them.”

“I think we’d better let the police find them, Mandie. They could be dangerous,” Celia commented.

“But we probably know more than the police,” Mandie disagreed, as Snowball rubbed around her ankles. “I’m almost positive that’s the thief we’ve been seeing. We just have to catch up with him.”

“Well, so far that’s been impossible,” Jonathan said.

“And we also have to find out what’s in those boxes in that tunnel room and why that strange woman from the ship suddenly appeared and warned us to leave,” Mandie said.

“And who locked the door after we went into the room,” Celia added.

“I just can’t imagine why anyone would pack up rocks in a wooden box like we found,” Jonathan said.

“And the man, Alex, on the old boat. He’s a mystery that we need to solve. I kinda believe all these things must be connected. I don’t know how, but I think if we can solve one part, just any part, then we’ll be able to figure out the rest,” Mandie said.

“You know, you may be right. Just think of it this way,” Jonathan agreed. “We followed the man into the tunnel, or alleyway, and then we found the room with the boxes right along the pathway he probably took. And if this is the same man who visits Alex on the old boat, then the two of them must be crooks of some kind, stealing paintings, or whatever.”

“I wonder what the thief will do with the paintings,” Celia remarked.

“He’d probably have to ship them out of the country in order to sell them. So you see that would work out right with Alex on that old boat. He could haul them out,” Mandie said.

“Mandie, I doubt that boat could be used. It looks as though it’s not safe,” Jonathan said.

“Well, then Alex could have another boat somewhere, or some connection with another boat,” Mandie said.

“Maybe,” Jonathan said. “But what do you think causes Alex to cry so much? It isn’t normal for a big man like that to lie on a bunk all day, sobbing his heart out.”

“I know. That’s one thing I can’t figure out. Maybe he’s sick or something,” Mandie said.

“He keeps telling the man who visits him that he’s guilty,” Celia reminded her friends.

“Yes, and guilty of what?” Mandie said. “But the man who comes to the boat keeps telling him he’s not guilty. If he had anything to do with the theft of the paintings, he’d certainly be guilty, but I can’t imagine why he’d cry about it.”

“Maybe he’s sorry he did such a dishonest thing and now there would be no way for him to be forgiven without getting into trouble with the law,” Celia suggested.

“Oh, this is such a puzzle,” said Mandie, sighing loudly. “I’d just like to catch that strange woman from the ship and hold her still long
enough to make her tell us what she’s up to, following us around all the time.”

“Me too,” Jonathan agreed.

“I don’t know how she can figure out where we are going to be, the way she turns up everywhere,” Celia said. “We don’t even know from one minute to the next where we’re headed.”

“We still have time before we eat. Let’s go back toward the old boat and keep our eyes open for that man we’ve been seeing,” Mandie said as she stood up and straightened her long skirts.

“And for that strange woman, now that we know she’s here in Antwerp,” Jonathan added as he and Celia got up.

The three hurried down the stairs to the reception room. They looked everywhere to be sure the strange woman or the man was not around. Then they searched the tea parlor, the drawing room, and finally left by the front door.

Outside they stood on the sidewalk and watched passersby. No one looked familiar. Slowly strolling down the avenue, they headed in the direction of the wharf.

“We also need to keep a lookout for Uncle Ned. He may get here and we won’t know it,” Mandie told her friends. “And we sure could use him right now to help us solve all these mysteries.”

“Won’t he be staying at the hotel with us?” Jonathan asked.

“He knows where we are and he said he’d catch up with us but he didn’t know when,” Mandie replied. Snowball walked along at the end of his leash beside her.

“I think we’d better check with the clerk at the hotel once in a while to be sure he hasn’t arrived and gone on up to his room without our knowing it,” Celia said.

“We can later, but knowing Uncle Ned, he’ll find us,” Mandie said.

The young people didn’t see anyone familiar and finally made their way to the old boat. They silently climbed on board and crept behind the trash pile to watch and listen. Mandie held Snowball tightly in her arms.

“Let’s see if the man is inside,” Mandie whispered to her friends. She cautiously led the way to the broken window. They peeped inside. The man seemed to be asleep on the bunk bed. After watching quietly for a few minutes, the three returned to their hiding place on the deck.

“No telling how long he’ll sleep. Let’s go back to the room in the tunnel,” Mandie said softly.

Jonathan and Celia followed her down the ladder and up to the pier. They walked down the long plank floor to the street. Then they stopped to talk.