Mandie Collection, The: 8 (32 page)

“That’s fine. At least we didn’t hold up their supper,” Joe replied.

“I’ll be right back down as soon as I can get rid of all this mica,” Mandie said with a laugh as she followed Joe out the door.

When they came back downstairs, cleaned up for supper, the two related the events of the day to Mrs. Miller, who probably didn’t believe everything they told her.

“Uh-huh,” Mrs. Miller kept saying, glancing at Mandie and then at Joe as she served the food. “Uh-huh.”

“I know all this is hard to believe, but it really and truly happened,” Mandie told her.

“You don’t say,” Mrs. Miller muttered.

Mandie whispered to Joe, “No use telling her anything. She doesn’t believe us.”

“I know,” Joe whispered back, and then raising his voice he said, “Let’s take our coffee and sit in the parlor when we finish.”

“Of course,” Mandie replied with a grin.

When Joe’s parents came home that night and found them in the parlor, Mrs. Woodard immediately told them she would expect them to stay home the next day because she had not had any time with them and also friends had been by and missed them.

So the next day was taken up with people dropping in to say hello and with Mrs. Woodard keeping a table filled with food all day long.

Then the next day was Saturday. When Mandie got up that morning, she knew Uncle John would be coming to get her and she still hadn’t had a chance to talk to Mr. Jacob Smith. She also knew all her
friends had been working on the mica the day before and had been too busy to come by.

But Saturday was different. The first thing that morning, Uncle Ned and Sallie arrived, bringing Riley O’Neal with them. They reported that Mr. Jacob Smith had been able to go home the day before, taking Beethoven Jones with him. Then Mr. Smith himself, with Beethoven Jones in tow, showed up.

“Oh, Mr. Smith, I’m so glad you and Mr. Beethoven are recovered and came by to see me,” Mandie told them as everyone gathered in the long kitchen where Mrs. Woodard had had Mrs. Miller set out a table full of food.

“And we’re glad of that, too,” Mr. Smith said, his eyes lighting up with a smile.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Mandie began. “Do you happen to know whether my father’s rifle was still in the house when you moved in?”

“I sure do,” Mr. Smith said. “It’s hanging right over the door where he always kept it. I’ve been keeping it cleaned and oiled. I knew you would want it someday.”

With tears in her blue eyes, Mandie reached to squeeze his hand and said, “Thank you, Mr. Jacob.” She took a breath and added, “Would you keep it for me? I’ll get it one day, but I’ll know it’s safe with you.”

“That I will,” he said, squeezing her hand back.

Joe was seated nearby and said, “I heard someone else drive up outside.” He went to look out the window and turned back to Mandie. “It’s your uncle John, and guess who’s with him?”

Mandie looked at him in surprise and asked, “Who?”

Joe grinned and said, “Your grandmother, Mrs. Taft.”

“Grandmother?” Mandie repeated, and then sighing, she added, “And I know why she came. She wants to talk you into traveling this summer.”

Joe went to open the door. Dr. Woodard had also seen them and came across the room to greet them with Joe.

“Come in, come in,” Dr. Woodard told them.

“Howdy,” John Shaw said, stepping into the kitchen as he helped Mrs. Taft through the door.

“Grandmother, how did you get with Uncle John?” Mandie asked. It had just dawned on her that she had left her grandmother at Uncle
John’s house, but Uncle John had been in Asheville on business all this time, or was supposed to be.

As Mrs. Woodard came into the room and went to greet the new arrivals, Mrs. Taft explained, “He was in Asheville, so I decided to go on home to Asheville. Then he came by the house and asked if I would like to come with him to bring you home.”

“I’m so glad you could come,” Mrs. Woodard told her, and the two women went on into the hallway.

“Why did Uncle John do that?” Mandie whispered under her breath to Joe.

Later that day Mandie found that they weren’t going to be leaving until the next day, Sunday. All her friends left in the afternoon, and that night she, Uncle John, and her grandmother sat in the parlor with the Woodards, talking about nothing in particular.

Then suddenly Mrs. Taft looked directly at Joe and asked, “Would you like to come along on a vacation trip with Amanda and me this summer?”

Joe quickly replied, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Taft, but I’m not sure I’ll be having any vacation time away from school. You see, I might have to go to school all summer to catch up enough to become a full college student in the fall.”

“But the school will most likely give you some breaks over the whole summer, won’t they?” she asked.

“I don’t know for sure right now,” Joe told her.

“Well, Amanda, Celia’s mother has given permission for Celia to travel with us on a vacation to wherever you want to go,” Mrs. Taft told Mandie.

“But, Grandmother, I had already told you I wanted to visit with my friends, all of us going from one house to the other, remember?” Mandie replied.

“But that won’t take all summer, Amanda,” Mrs. Taft said. “I’ll tell you what I had in mind. Remember Senator Morton from our journey to Europe? He has invited us to visit him at his home in Florida, and you know I can’t very well go to a man’s home by myself. But if you would come along, we could also bring Celia and it would all be nice and proper. What do you say, dear?”

Mandie took a deep breath and was at a loss for words. She looked
at Joe, who kept a solemn face. She glanced around the room. Everyone seemed to be looking at her and waiting for her reply.

Finally Mandie turned to Joe and asked, “Are you sure you have to go to school all summer?”

“Mandie, I told you I was not sure, but I do know I will have to attend a class for the first two weeks of vacation. I know I won’t be home before then,” Joe told her. “And if I do come home, I thought we’d be visiting with our friends.”

Mandie looked at her grandmother and asked, “When are you planning to visit Senator Morton?”

“Well, plans are flexible. After hearing that Joe will definitely be tied up the first two weeks of vacation, I’m sure you and Celia and I could go then,” Mrs. Taft replied. “That way you’d be back home by the time Joe gets home, and you and your friends could visit as you wanted.”

Mandie looked at Joe again and then back at Mrs. Taft as she slowly replied, “All right, Grandmother. I’ll go for those two weeks.”

“Thank you, dear,” Mrs. Taft said with a big smile. “I’m sure you will enjoy Florida because you’ve never been there.”

The adults got involved in their own conversation then, and Mandie stood up and motioned to Joe. “Let’s go out on the porch,” she said.

Joe silently followed and they went to sit in rocking chairs on the long front porch. The air was cool but not really cold, and it was very dark.

Mandie had decided it was now or never. She had to ask Joe what he had been yelling back to her from the train that day in Franklin when he had left for college.

They were both silent for a few moments and then Joe said, “I suppose we need to write to Jonathan in New York and find out when he’s getting out of school so we can at least make some plans to get together.”

“But how can we make plans when you don’t know whether you’ll even be home or not?” Mandie asked.

“Just make the plans, and if I get home I’ll join in. Otherwise, the rest of you can get together,” Joe told her.

“I don’t think I like the uncertain schedules of colleges if they’re all like yours,” Mandie said.

“But, Mandie, this is just a special case because I didn’t have
all the requirements to get in full time. I’ve explained all that to you before,” Joe reminded her.

“Speaking of colleges,” Mandie began slowly, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. “Remember that day you left Franklin to go to college?”

“I sure do,” Joe said with a little laugh. “The happiest day of my life.”

“Do you also remember that you were yelling something out the train window when it pulled out of the station? I couldn’t understand what you said, except that you said you’d write and you never did write. All I ever got from you was that note saying you’d be home for the spring holidays,” she quickly finished.

Joe leaned forward to look at her and said, “But that was it. That note. I was trying to tell you I might be able to come home for the spring break. I did write and let you know.”

Mandie couldn’t believe her ears. She took a deep, deep breath and said, “Oh shucks!”

CONTENTS

MANDIE AND THE SEASIDE RENDEZVOUS

Chapter   1   Off to the Seaside

Chapter   2   The Mystery Continues

Chapter   3   The Lighthouse Visit

Chapter   4   The Old Fort

Chapter   5   Questions in the Dark

Chapter   6   Party Plans

Chapter   7   A-partying

Chapter   8   Who Is Who?

Chapter   9   What Is Juan Up To?

Chapter 10   Business in the Night

Chapter 11   Two Men and a Boat

Chapter 12   The Way It Ended

CHAPTER ONE

OFF TO THE SEASIDE

Mandie Shaw and her friend Celia Hamilton gazed in wonderment as they traveled through the beautiful seaside territory after the train left Jacksonville, Florida. Now and then they spotted the rippling ocean behind the huge dunes of glistening white sand. Clusters of palm trees waved their fronds in the wind. Sea gulls fluttered about as the noise of the train disturbed them.

“I smell the water!” Mandie declared, taking a deep breath as she leaned against the window.

Celia looked at her friend and asked, “But how can you smell it when all the windows are closed?”

“Because the doors at the ends of the cars are open,” Mandie reminded her. She looked at her grandmother, who was sitting in the next seat.

Mrs. Taft smiled at her and said, “You may open the window one inch—just one inch, now. I don’t want to blow away and get covered with dirt.”

“Oh, thank you, Grandmother,” Mandie said, quickly grasping the window latch. “Here, Celia, get the latch on your side and I’ll push on mine.”

With Celia’s help, the window slowly moved upward until Mandie
decided it was an inch, and they stopped. The girls immediately knelt down on their seats and put their faces next to the opened window.

“Oh, now I can feel the sand in the air!” Mandie exclaimed, rubbing her hands together.

“And I can almost hear the roar of the ocean above the
clackety-clack
of the train,” Celia said.

Mandie looked at her friend and asked, “Can’t you almost taste the smell of the ocean?”

Celia frowned, took a deep breath, and replied, “Why, I believe I do.”

At that moment Mandie’s white cat, Snowball, who had been sleeping on the floor, rose, stretched, and jumped up into the seat with his mistress. He stood up on his hind paws as he reached up to the opened window.

Mandie smiled at him and said to Celia, “Even Snowball is interested in the ocean.”

“I hope he’s not interested in it enough to run off from Senator Morton’s house while we’re there. You know your grandmother said the senator lives near the ocean,” Celia said.

Mandie glanced at her grandmother, who had her eyes closed and was either dozing or just resting and not wishing to be disturbed. Turning back to Celia, she said, “At least we’re only going to be at his house for two weeks out of this year. 1902 is just flying by.”

“Two weeks is long enough for you to find a mystery and solve it,” Celia teased.

“I don’t know what kind of a mystery we could find at Senator Morton’s house,” Mandie said. Then she lowered her voice, hoping her grandmother couldn’t hear her over the noise of the train, and added, “I’m just wishing the time away until we can get back home and get together with Sallie and Jonathan and Joe, I hope. It’ll be just terrible if Joe has to stay at college all summer. It will ruin our plans to visit each other’s houses this summer.”

“The rest of us could still go ahead with the plan,” Celia told her.

The train gave a sudden lurch as it rounded a curve, and both girls sat down hard on their seats. Mrs. Taft straightened up and opened her eyes.

A uniformed attendant who was pushing a tea trolley entered their
car, and Mrs. Taft beckoned to him. As he approached, she asked the girls, “Would y’all like tea or something?”

“Oh yes, ma’am,” Mandie quickly replied as she watched the man and tried to see exactly what he had on the cart.