The Mandie Collection (25 page)

“I don't think Snowball could have opened this door,” Mandie said to herself as she put her hand on the door and then stopped. The door seemed awfully easy to move. Snowball could have pushed his way into the glass room.

Mandie eased the door open just in case Snowball was on the other side. She knew she would have to sneak up in order to capture him. Cautiously moving into the room, she began searching the aisles between the plants. Finally she caught a glimpse of Snowball standing up on his hind legs in one of the huge pots, sharpening his claws on the thick trunk of the plant growing in it.

“Snow—” she started to call him as she moved in that direction, but she suddenly heard men's voices just beyond where she was standing.

Slipping between the large pots, Mandie was able to see the owners of the voices. Jens, the butler, and another man she had not seen before were standing just inside the door that opened out into the yard. She bent down and moved a little forward to get a better look. The stranger was tall, dark, middle-aged, and was wearing dark work clothes and a green beret. He looked foreign and seemed to be speaking a foreign language in a low voice.

Jens pulled an envelope out of his inside coat pocket, handed it to the man, and said, “Take this and don't let anyone know where you got it.”

The man shrugged his shoulders, accepted the envelope, slipped it inside his jacket, and spoke again in a strange language.

Whatever the stranger was saying, Jens evidently disagreed with him. “No, no, no!” he interrupted the foreign man. “That is not the way it is done here. You must be patient. Haste will ruin everything.”

Mandie's heart beat faster. These men sounded like they were planning something they shouldn't be doing. She couldn't understand a word the stranger was saying. Oh, if only Jonathan would come looking for her. He would probably be able to translate the man's conversation.

The scent of the wet soil in the pots suddenly tickled her nose and she sneezed loudly. She ducked down lower as she saw the two men look around. After what seemed like minutes, she finally heard Jens say, “I must go now.”

The stranger mumbled something in his language.

Jens replied, “I will see you then. Remember, say nothing, not one word.”

Jens quickly went out the door into the yard and the stranger followed. Mandie straightened up and quickly crept forward to look outside. The two men had vanished.

“Something strange is going on,” Mandie mumbled to herself as she looked out into the yard. Something suddenly swished by her ankles and she jumped in fright. Looking down, she was relieved to see it was only Snowball. She quickly stepped on the end of his leash. Snowball meowed angrily as he tried to pull away.

“You are coming with me,” she told him. She picked up the end of his leash and started toward the kitchen. This time she had no trouble finding her way.

“Ah, so here is that white cat,” Mrs. Cook said as Mandie pushed open the door and stepped inside the kitchen. She put a lid on a pot on the stove and came toward Mandie. “Just you leave him here with me, and I will feed him.”

“Has Jonathan been in here, Mrs. Cook?” Mandie asked as she stooped to unhook Snowball's leash.

“That he has, and he took the white dog to the little parlor,” the woman told her. “Now, we will put this white cat behind this little door here, and I will know if he gets out,” she continued, pointing toward a half-swinging door that closed off a counter at the back of the room.

Mandie picked up Snowball and took him across the room. “You know, Mrs. Cook, Snowball can jump over this door,” she said while she looked at it. “Maybe I should leave his leash on him and fasten the other end to the catch on the door.” She examined the hook holding the door in place.

“That will be fine,” Mrs. Cook said as she went toward a storage cabinet back across the room. “You secure the white cat and I will get him food. Just leave him here with me. I will see that he does not get out.”

Mandie looped the end of the leash around the door fastener while Snowball protested. “Thank you, Mrs. Cook,” she said, straightening up. “Please don't let him get outside. I'll go find Jonathan now.” She started toward the hall door.

“He will be here whenever you decide to return,” Mrs. Cook promised.

“Thank you, Mrs. Cook,” Mandie told her. She went out the door and into the hallway.

Mandie found her way back to the parlor. Jonathan was sitting by the fire, and the white dog was lying on the rug by the hearth. She
sat down across from Jonathan and excitedly told him about Jens and the stranger.

Her throat hurt terribly bad, but she managed to give Jonathan all the details. “I think it was all awfully suspicious, the way they were acting and talking,” she ended up.

Jonathan had sat still listening, and then he said, “I'm completely baffled. I can't imagine who the stranger was or what Jens was doing, giving an envelope to him and admonishing him to be secretive about it all.” He frowned thoughtfully.

“I know we can't go ask Jens anything about all this, but we could keep a watch out in case anything else happens,” Mandie said.

“But I don't see how we can even watch Jens without him knowing we are spying on him,” Jonathan replied.

“Your father will be home this afternoon. Are you going to tell him about this? Maybe he could do something,” Mandie told him.

“Yes, I suppose we should tell my father,” Jonathan said, then he grinned. “But we'll feel really foolish if it turns out to be something my father knows about.”

“But how could your father know anything about it?” Mandie asked.

“Oh, Mandie, that cold has slowed you down,” Jonathan said, smiling. “Don't you remember my father does secret work for the government?”

“But, Jonathan, I thought he had quit all that. Remember, when we were in Europe you said he was getting out of it and would be staying home because he was allowing you to stay home to go to school here rather than those boarding schools all over the world where you'd been going,” Mandie reminded him.

Jonathan laughed and said, “He did say that, and he did try to quit. But when President McKinley was assassinated and President Roosevelt was sworn into office, those people in Washington talked him into continuing his work for a while longer. He has cut back on the amount of time he works, though.”

“So that is why he went to Washington yesterday,” Mandie said. “But, Jonathan, exactly what does he do in Washington?”

Jonathan shrugged his shoulders and said, “I have no idea.”

“But he's your father. You ought to know,” Mandie said, looking at him in doubt as she stretched her feet toward the warmth of the fire.

“Mandie, that is the very reason he doesn't tell me anything,” Jonathan protested. “That way he can be sure I don't go around telling things I ought not to. Besides, if somebody managed to kidnap me, they wouldn't be able to get any information from me.”

“Kidnapped? Oh, Jonathan, the very word scares me,” Mandie said. “I think you'd better tell your father about Jens and the strange man. I just feel like something is going on, and if your father knows what it is, then that's all right, but if he doesn't, then he should be made aware of it.”

“Of course, you're absolutely right, Mandie,” Jonathan agreed. “As soon as he gets home I'll talk to him, without anyone else hearing about it, just in case it is something he is aware of, something that should be kept a secret.”

“I won't mention it to anyone else,” Mandie promised. “Maybe your father will return before Celia and her mother get back, and you'll have a chance to talk then.”

Jonathan shifted in his chair and said, “Now that that's all settled, what do you say we do? Just sit here so you can rest? Or do you feel like playing a game of chess or something?”

“I feel better than I did when I first got up,” Mandie replied. “I just can't talk too well because of my sore throat. But I'd say I'm up to whatever you'd like to do.”

“Well, what will it be?” Jonathan asked.

“I'm not much of a chess player. Uncle John taught me, and he says I talk too much,” Mandie said, laughing.

“Mrs. Hamilton didn't want you to go shopping with her and Celia because of your cold, but do you suppose it will be all right if we just walked out in the garden?” Jonathan asked.

“That's a good idea. I need some fresh air,” Mandie said, rising from her chair. “And I don't think it would hurt my cold at all. I'll get my coat and hat.”

“And I'll get mine,” Jonathan said, standing up. As Mandie started toward the hallway, he added, “And I believe Zelda took your coat and hat up to your room. She's always clearing things off the hall tree. I know she put mine in my room.” He followed her into the hallway.

“That's all right,” Mandie said. “I'll run upstairs and get it.”

“The maids are all working upstairs right now, so if you don't
find it, you can ask one of them,” Jonathan told her. “I'll meet you back here.”

“Right,” Mandie agreed as she went one way and Jonathan the other.

When she reached the top of the staircase, she could hear the maids talking in nearby rooms while they worked. She hurried to the room she shared with Celia and was glad to find her coat and hat hanging in the huge wardrobe.

“Thank goodness I don't have to hunt for it,” she said to herself as she stood before a long mirror and slipped into her warm coat and hastily pulled her tam over her blond hair. Reaching into her pocket as she started for the door, she pulled out her gloves and began putting them on as she hurried back to the parlor.

“I'm ready,” she said, rushing into the room. She stopped and looked around. Jonathan had not returned, but the white dog raised his head by the fireplace to watch her. “And I suppose you want to go, too,” she said to him.

Behind her, Jonathan had come into the room and said, “Let's leave him here. I've already had him out, remember?”

“Oh yes, and I left Snowball in the kitchen so I don't have to take him outside,” Mandie said.

“Then let's go,” Jonathan told her.

As they passed the kitchen door, Mandie stopped and said, “Let me just check on Snowball to be sure he is still here.”

Jonathan reached from behind her and pushed the door open. Mandie almost stepped on the butler lying on the floor, all tied up with ropes around his legs and his hands and a gag in his mouth. Snowball was roaming around the room.

“Jens!” Jonathan exclaimed, rushing to the butler to untie the ropes and remove the rag from his mouth. “What happened? What happened?”

As soon as the butler could speak, he said, “Thief! Stole—”

“Jonathan, there they are!” Mandie cried, glimpsing someone running down the hallway. She ran into the hallway in pursuit.

Leaving the butler with his feet still tied up, Jonathan rushed after her. “The girl!” he exclaimed as the figure disappeared down the hallway.

“And that man!” Mandie added, spotting the strange man who had been talking to Jens. He was following the girl.

The two young people chased after the girl and the strange man and saw them escape through the back door.

“Hurry!” Mandie cried to Jonathan, racing ahead through the open door.

“The cat!” Jonathan called to her as Snowball quickly followed his mistress outside.

Mandie glanced down, saw her cat, quickly scooped him up into her arms, and kept running through the garden. Jonathan caught up with her.

“There they go,” Jonathan said, pointing down the street as he and Mandie went out through the garden's open gate.

“He went that way,” Mandie said, slowing down when she saw the man go down an alley to the left.

“And the girl went that way,” Jonathan said.

Mandie could see her still running down the street in the opposite direction. “Let's go after her,” she told Jonathan.

They had narrowed the gap with the girl when she suddenly ran into a small second-hand shop. Jonathan paused, but Mandie looked back and said, “Come on. She'll get away.”

Jonathan caught up with Mandie, and together they entered the shop and looked around. An old man sat behind a small counter at the back of what looked like a used clothing store. There was no one else in sight.

“Did a girl come in here just now?” Mandie quickly asked him.

The man looked at her but gave no evidence of understanding what she was saying.

“A girl? About ten years old? Not quite as tall as I am?” Mandie continued with her questions while Snowball squirmed in her arms.

The man just looked at her and then at Jonathan.

“I think he is deaf, Mandie,” Jonathan said in a whisper.

Mandie looked at the man and decided Jonathan was correct. She began looking among the piles of clothing and narrow aisles but could find no trace of the girl.

“I don't think she is in here,” Jonathan said as he, too, thoroughly examined the contents of the store.

“Let's go back and see if we can find out where the man went,” Mandie suggested.

“He's probably long gone by now,” Jonathan said.

“He might not be. Maybe he saw us go after the girl and decided we weren't going to chase him, so he could be somewhere near where we saw him,” Mandie replied. “Come on.”

“All right, but I think you're wasting your time,” Jonathan reluctantly agreed.

“We won't know until we go look,” Mandie said.

The two young people went out of the store and hurried back in the direction they had come.

CHAPTER SIX

ON THE RUN!

“Jonathan, that man who was in your house was the same man I saw talking to the butler this morning,” Mandie managed to tell Jonathan as they ran. She was nearly out of breath.

“Why didn't you tell me so? I would have chased him instead of the girl,” Jonathan replied, slowing down so Mandie could keep up with him.