The Mandie Collection (28 page)

“Our verse? What verse?” he asked, puzzled by the question.

“Remember all those escapades we got into in Europe? We always say my favorite verse when we're afraid. Remember?” Mandie asked, looking up at him.

“Oh yes, I remember. I had forgotten about it, or I should say I haven't had the right occasion to say it,” Jonathan told her.

“Now is the right time,” Mandie said, holding his hand tightly and looking toward the cloudy sky. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Jonathan agreed.

Together they recited Mandie's favorite verse. “ ‘What time I am afraid, I will put my trust in thee.' ”

“Now I'm not afraid to look down at the street,” Mandie said, still holding Jonathan's hand as they advanced to the edge of the roof.

Peering down to the street, for a moment everything did swim around in Mandie's head, and then things straightened up when she took a deep breath. People were walking on the sidewalk below, and she felt that it must be possible to get help from someone.

“Hello, down there!” she yelled as loudly as she could and waved her arms.

“Hey, you, down there!” Jonathan called out.

No one seemed to hear them even though they stood there yelling and waving for a few minutes. Mandie almost lost her voice and had to stop, and Jonathan decided to rest.

“That's New York for you. No one pays attention to anyone else,” he complained.

“I think I'll sit down a minute,” Mandie said, practically collapsing onto the roof. She was just far enough from the edge so she couldn't see over it.

“Good idea,” Jonathan agreed as he sat down next to her.

“I wonder what time it is,” Mandie said.

“Sorry, but I didn't wear my watch. I'd guess it's around noontime,” he replied. “You can't tell by the sun because of the clouds, but my stomach is beginning to tell me that it's time to eat. All that food they're cooking in this building makes me hungry, even though it does smell to high heaven with all that seasoning.”

“If you think it's only noontime, maybe we'll be able to get down from here and back to your house before Celia and her mother return from shopping,” Mandie said in a cracked voice. She felt hot, then felt ice cold. She was just plain miserable with the cold, but she would never let Jonathan know.

“I sure hope so,” Jonathan replied.

“And, Jonathan, I almost forgot about Snowball,” Mandie told him. “I don't know where he is, and if we can ever get down from here, I'll have to find him before I can go back to your house.”

“He's probably downstairs somewhere looking for that food the people in this house are cooking,” Jonathan said with a laugh. “We don't know now where that man is that we were chasing.”

“He's probably the one who closed that door and locked it behind us,” Mandie said.

“Maybe, but most of the houses in New York have an automatic lock on the doors to the roofs. When you close them, they lock unless you release the catch on the inside before you go out. And I—”

“And you forgot to do it,” Mandie interrupted. “Oh, Jonathan, how could you forget such an important thing?”

“I'm sorry, Mandie. I really and truly am,” Jonathan said. “But I still think someone in this house will come to see what we are doing up here.”

“Jonathan, do you have any idea what that man and girl might have stolen from your house?” Mandie asked. “It must have been small because I don't remember seeing them carrying anything when they ran away.”

“I would say the girl was after the dog, but she sure didn't have him when we saw her leave,” Jonathan said thoughtfully. “Maybe we surprised them and they weren't able to take anything.”

“But your butler said they stole something. He knew what it was, I suppose,” Mandie said. “From the way things are going, whatever it was, we'll never be able to recover it.”

“Ah, now, Mandie, don't give up hope,” Jonathan said, reaching over to pull a strand of blond hair that had escaped from her hat.

Mandie pulled her hair out of his fingers and gave him a hard shove. “Jonathan, please behave,” she said. “This is a serious situation we've got ourselves into, and I don't know how we're ever going to get out.”

“I'm sorry, Mandie,” he said, straightening up. “I suppose I'm really worried silly and don't want to admit it.”

“Let's go back and bang on the door again,” Mandie said, getting to her feet.

“All right,” Jonathan agreed as he, too, stood up. “Never can tell. Someone might come and open it.”

They went back down the short staircase and began beating on the door again and yelling and stomping their feet. When they finally paused for breath, Mandie thought she heard something on the other side.

“Did you hear that?” she asked.

“What?” Jonathan asked.

“I thought I heard someone close another door inside the house,” she explained.

Jonathan listened for a moment and said, “No, I didn't hear a thing. Maybe I was making too much noise myself to hear it.”

They waited at the door for a few minutes but didn't hear another sound inside.

“Let's go back on the roof and see if we can attract someone's attention down on the street,” Jonathan said.

“All right, but you will have to do most of the yelling because I am losing my voice from this cold,” Mandie said, trying to clear her throat.

“I'm sorry you're sick, Mandie. I know you ought not be out here in this cold wind,” Jonathan said as they climbed back up on the roof and walked over to the edge.

Mandie held on to Jonathan's hand and closed her eyes. The height really did make her dizzy. She cautiously opened her eyes and looked over the edge. The clotheslines were still down there, the laundry was still on them, and people were still rushing along the street, so she was sure it must all be real. She sank down on her knees with Jonathan and dared to look down again.

“Mandie, look—” Jonathan started to say.

“Jonathan!” Mandie interrupted, anxiously gazing below. “There is Snowball, on that windowsill. Oh, Jonathan, he might fall off.”

“Are you sure it's Snowball?” Jonathan asked as he tried to see down below them.

“I know it's Snowball, and if I call to him he really will fall off,” Mandie said with tears in her blue eyes. “What am I going to do?” She kept staring below, forgetting all about her fear of the height.

“He will probably just go back inside,” Jonathan told her as he kept watching the cat below.

And at that moment Snowball did disappear back through the window.

“Oh, thank goodness, he did,” Mandie said with a big sigh of relief. She looked at Jonathan and asked, “How did you know he would do that?”

“Oh, I was just guessing,” Jonathan said. “I know most cats are afraid of heights and that if he looked down he would back up into the house.”

“You're right, but he's not a normal cat and sometimes he doesn't act like a cat should,” Mandie said with a nervous laugh. “Now I wonder where he is, where that window goes. Someone may see him and try to take him.”

“I think they'll put him down awfully fast, too, because that cat knows how to scratch if he doesn't like what you do to him,” Jonathan told her with a grin.

“You're right again,” Mandie agreed. A strong gust of icy wind made her shiver through and through. She pulled her coat around her legs and started to get up.

“Moving back from the edge?” Jonathan asked as he stood up and offered his hand.

“It's so cold up here,” Mandie said. She took one last look below and almost lost her breath. Snowball was in the window below again and his front paw was testing the clothesline strung across to the window in the opposite building. “Snowball!” she whispered.

Jonathan quickly joined her to see what was happening. He looked down and then at Mandie. “I'm sorry, Mandie,” he said. “There's nothing we can do.”

“Snowball, please, please go back inside,” Mandie whispered to herself.

Jonathan sat back down beside her. “I can't yell down to the street because that might distract your cat, but maybe I could wave and someone will see me. What do you think?” Jonathan asked.

“Yes, please don't make any sound that would cause Snowball to look up or he might fall,” Mandie said, continuing to watch the white cat who had now backed up onto the windowsill.

Jonathan leaned over and began waving his hat at the people below, but no one seemed to notice.

“Maybe if I drop my hat someone will see it,” Jonathan suggested.

“Oh, no, Jonathan, you'd freeze to death without your hat. There's no telling how much longer we'll have to stay here on this roof,” Mandie replied. She watched Snowball below as he finally sat down on the windowsill.

“Maybe I ought to go back to the door and beat on it some more,” Jonathan suggested. “It wouldn't hurt anything to keep trying.” He stood up again.

“All right, Jonathan, but please don't be too long,” Mandie told him.

“I'll be right back,” he promised and walked back across the roof.

Mandie kept watching her cat below. Snowball was evidently satisfied with the windowsill and lay down and curled up to sleep. Mandie breathed a sigh of relief. If he would only sleep awhile, maybe they would soon be able to get down from the roof and rescue him.

Then she had another thought. How would she ever find that particular window in the building in order to get Snowball? Someone must be living in the room where it was, and the house seemed full of people.

But somehow she would have to find her cat.

CHAPTER EIGHT

OUT OF COMMISSION

After what seemed like hours and hours on the roof, Mandie became so miserable with her cold she didn't even want to talk any more. She could see that Jonathan was worried and had run out of anything to say. They sat safely back from the edge of the roof, and Mandie only moved to check on Snowball now and then. He was still asleep on the windowsill.

Suddenly there was a loud noise at the door below, and both of them rushed down the short staircase to see what it was.

“Look, the door is opening!” Jonathan exclaimed, running ahead to see who was doing this.

“Thank the Lord!” Mandie managed to say as she followed. When the door came open far enough to see inside the hallway, Mandie saw the girl who had claimed the white dog, peeking out at them.

“We're glad you came—” Jonathan began as he got to the door.

“Stop!” the girl interrupted as she started to slam the door shut.

Jonathan put his foot in the way and pushed at the girl with all his might. She fell back into the hallway, jumped up, and ran down the stairs.

“Are you all right?” Jonathan asked as he and Mandie stepped inside the hallway.

“I think so,” Mandie replied weakly, but then she crumpled onto the floor.

Jonathan stooped beside her, then quickly stood up and began shouting down the stairs, “Someone get a doctor! Pronto! Doctor! Make haste!”

Mandie protested, “No, no.” She tried to stand up and fell down again. The hallway was spinning around. She bent her head, closed her eyes, and tried to breathe deeply.

Jonathan continued yelling for a doctor. Mandie was aware of many people suddenly coming into the hall, and some ventured up the steps to where she sat. In her fuzzy vision, Mandie saw what looked like an elderly, plump woman with jet black hair bend over her and feel her head.

“Sí, sí!” the woman yelled at the others.

Jonathan stooped down beside Mandie and said, “We'll get a doctor. You can't walk all the way back to my house like this.”

Mandie shook her head and said, “I don't need a doctor. Besides, the only doctor I know in New York is Dr. Plumbley. Dr. Plumbley.”

A buzz went through the crowd that had gathered, and Mandie was faintly aware of a young man rushing down the stairs. The old woman put an arm around Mandie and leaned Mandie's head against her shoulder as she removed Mandie's hat and began stroking her hair.

Mandie could not remember exactly what happened after that, but she suddenly looked up into the worried black face of her dear friend, Dr. Plumbley, and thought she was dreaming.

“My, my, Miss Amanda, what are you all doing here?” Dr. Plumbley asked as he felt for her pulse.

“I knew you'd come,” Mandie said through a misty fog. “I wanted to see you anyhow while we are in New York.”

“Well, this is a bad way to visit with me,” Dr. Plumbley said. “We need to get you back to your friend's house and into bed.”

Jonathan tried to explain to the doctor how they had ended up in this tenement building without actually telling him all the details. “We were really lost,” he said. “Then we got locked out on the roof. We've been up there for hours.”

Dr. Plumbley looked at him and said, “Never mind your explanations. We need to get Miss Amanda back to your house immediately. Do you have transportation?”

“Oh no, we walked over here,” Jonathan admitted with a loud sigh.

“Then I have my buggy down on the street. We will take her in it,” the doctor decided as he stood up.

Mandie suddenly realized what they were saying and began objecting in a weak voice. “My cat, Snowball. He's somewhere in this building. I have to find him,” she protested.

The older woman who had comforted her moved to the top of the stairs and began a loud, rapid string of words that Mandie could not understand. Then suddenly a young girl pushed her way through the crowd on the stairs, and Mandie saw she was carrying Snowball. She stooped to hand him to Mandie.

“Mandie, let me carry Snowball. I'll see that he doesn't get loose again,” Jonathan promised as he took the white cat from the girl.

Dr. Plumbley stooped and picked Mandie up in his arms, and the crowd parted to allow him to walk down the stairs.