The Mandie Collection (12 page)

The three nodded.

But other things began to happen as soon as the meal was over. They had all retired to the parlor, where they were having coffee, when someone pounded loudly on the front door.

Mandie and her friends quickly set down their cups and watched the door to the hall, hoping that whoever it was, Ella would bring the person to the parlor. They could hear excited voices. It sounded like another woman.

Mrs. Taft also looked at the door to the hall and said, “Now, I wonder what all that commotion is about.”

Suddenly Aunt Phoebe appeared in the doorway to the hall. She was excited and wringing her hands.

“Lawsy mercy, Miz Taft, Miz Prudence sent me to get y’all quick,” she said. “Somebody in de attic.”

Everyone rose. Mandie and her friends looked at each other excitedly.

“Miss Prudence sent for us?” Mrs. Taft asked, and walking toward the door, she looked back and said, “Then we must go. There must be some kind of real trouble.” She went into the hallway, snatched her hat and gloves from the hall tree, and put them on as she continued toward the front door.

Mandie caught Aunt Phoebe by the hand and asked, “Did someone break into the school?”

Aunt Phoebe looked down at her and replied, “We jes’ don’t know yet. De light be on in de attic, and de attic door won’t open, and Miz Prudence she scared.” She followed the others out into the yard. She had driven the school buggy. Now she stepped back into it as everyone else boarded the rig, which Ben had kept waiting for the afternoon.

“She said the attic door is locked,” Mandie said excitedly.

“And the light is on in the attic,” Joe added.

“I’m sure Uncle Ned will be able to catch whoever it is this time,” Mandie said, looking to where the old Indian was sitting with the senator and Mrs. Taft.

“I wonder how she knows the light is on in the attic,” Celia remarked.

“Someone must have been in the yard and looked up at the attic window,” Mandie said. “Remember, they’ve seen it on through that window before.”

Ben, excited from overhearing the conversation, quickly kept up with the buggy that Aunt Phoebe was flying through the streets in. She was in a hurry.

“Maybe we’ll be able to solve this mystery,” Mandie told her friends.

“Maybe, but I don’t think we will be allowed up in the attic,” Joe reminded her.

“We can at least stay at the bottom of the steps and listen and wait to see what happens,” Mandie said. “I don’t think the culprit is going to get away this time.”

Celia looked at Mandie and asked, “Do you suppose whoever turned off the light on us is still up there?”

“If they are, I’m sure they are going to be caught this time,” Mandie replied.

Ben brought the rig to a screeching halt by the front door of the schoolhouse, and everyone scrambled out to follow Aunt Phoebe into the house.

Miss Prudence was waiting for them in the alcove just inside the front door. She looked very worried and seemed awfully glad to see them.

“I wonder if Uncle Ned would go up to the attic and see if he can get the door open,” Miss Prudence said to Mrs. Taft as she looked at Uncle Ned.

Uncle Ned nodded and said, “Yes, I go.”

“Cal is not here,” Miss Prudence said as they all crowded into the front hallway. “He was working on the old house down the street earlier, but when Phoebe went down there looking for him, no one was around, so I couldn’t wait to find him before we investigated the attic.”

Mandie noticed the lady was very nervous and was hardly making sense. She looked at her three friends, who were also watching Miss Prudence.

“I go,” Uncle Ned repeated as everyone stood there in the front hall.

“Oh yes, of course, Uncle Ned,” Miss Prudence said.

“Shall I go with him?” Senator Morton asked.

“Oh no, please, sir, you stay here with us ladies,” Miss Prudence replied.

“Then may I go with him?” Joe asked, looking at Mrs. Taft.

“Only if you stay at the bottom of the steps to the attic. It could be someone dangerous up there,” Mrs. Taft told him.

“And may I go with Joe?” Jonathan asked her.

Mrs. Taft frowned as she looked at Jonathan and said, “All right, but you must stay at the foot of the stairs with Joe.”

As the boys started after Uncle Ned, who was quickly walking toward the main staircase, Mandie wanted to follow them but knew her grandmother would never give permission.

“Let’s just sit down here and wait,” Miss Prudence told everyone as she indicated the settees in the front hall.

Mandie managed to get a seat where she could see up the main staircase. The schoolhouse had three stories and then the attic above that. It was a long way up. However, anyone coming down had to come down the main staircase or the back stairs to the kitchen. Everyone was quiet, waiting and listening.

There was a loud cracking noise, and then Joe came running down the stairs. He stopped and called to Miss Prudence from the landing, “It’s all right up here now if you want to come look. The lock was loose, and a screw had slipped out and jammed the door.”

“Oh dear, I don’t believe I’m up to all those steps. I’ll just take your word for it,” Miss Prudence replied.

Mandie quickly stood up and asked, “Grandmother, may I go look?”

“I suppose so, Amanda, but hurry back,” Mrs. Taft said.

“Wait a minute,” Miss Prudence said quickly. Then, calling across the room to Joe, she asked, “What about the light? Had someone been in the attic?”

“If anyone had been in there, they went out the window onto the roof, Miss Prudence,” Joe explained. “We couldn’t find anyone up there.”

“Would you please ask Uncle Ned to board up that window so it can’t be opened again?” Miss Prudence asked, and looking at Mrs. Taft, she said, “That way we’ll feel safer.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Joe called back and started up the steps.

Mandie and Celia hurried after him.

When Joe asked Uncle Ned to board up the window, Uncle Ned looked around and said, “Need tools, wood.”

“Oh, I know where the tools are,” Mandie said, going to a small alcove near the door. Joe and Uncle Ned followed. “See what’s in here? Everything you need—nails, hammer, screwdriver, hatchet, pliers, and all those other things there.”

“Good, now we need board,” Uncle Ned said, turning to look around the attic.

Jonathan went across the attic and called back to them, “I’ve found a huge piece of paneling over here, Uncle Ned. Will this do?”

The old man came to inspect the paneling and said, “Just right.”

Mandie and Celia watched while Uncle Ned and the boys nailed the board across the window. It not only barred the window from being opened, it cut out light from outside.

“Nobody down in the yard will be able to see the light if it goes on again,” Mandie remarked.

“I don’t think the light will go back on again, because I believe whoever was doing it came in the window from the outside,” Joe said.

As everyone stood there surveying the work Uncle Ned had done, the light suddenly went off.

Mandie and Celia grabbed each other in the darkness and headed for the open door.

Uncle Ned and the boys cautiously moved around in the darkness.

Bumping into the cord, Uncle Ned grasped it and turned the switch. The light immediately came on.

While they all stood there squinting to see around the huge room, the light suddenly went off again.

Uncle Ned laughed in the darkness as he turned the light back on. “Light broke,” he said. “Need fix switch.”

Everyone stood there staring as he shook the cord and the light went off again and he turned it back on.

“And that’s what’s been going on all the time,” Mandie said in a shaky voice as she smiled.

They quickly returned downstairs and explained the mystery to Miss Prudence. She took a deep breath and said, “We’ll get that repaired immediately. Thank goodness it was not a burglar.”

After a discussion about the light, Mrs. Taft rose and said, “We must be going now, Miss Prudence. Please let us know if you need any more help in any way. And of course we will let you know if we learn anything regarding Miss Hope’s whereabouts. And I will keep trying to talk to Preacher Tallant.”

Miss Prudence followed everyone to the front door. Aunt Phoebe came behind her.

“I appreciate everything you are doing, Mrs. Taft,” Miss Prudence told her. “And I will certainly be in touch with you if I learn anything about my sister.”

After they were all in the rig, Mrs. Taft told Ben, “Go past the old house they’re remodeling. Maybe Uncle Cal has come back down there and we can tell him to go home.”

“Yessum,” Ben replied. He drove down the street and stopped in front of the old house.

“My, my, what a good job they have done redoing that house,” Mrs. Taft remarked as everyone stared at the house, which was now standing there in a landscaped yard, freshly painted, but still with pink shutters.

“I’m glad they left the shutters pink,” Mandie said with a big grin.

“Ben, would you please go up to the house, look around, and see if Uncle Cal is inside or anywhere around?” Mrs. Taft asked him. “I don’t see anyone at all.”

Ben jumped down, hurried up the lane, peeked in the windows of the house, and walked around the yard. He came back to report, “Ain’t nobody anywhere. But dat house done got full of furniture.”

“Then someone must have moved in,” Mrs. Taft said. “Come on, Ben, let’s go home.”

Ben jumped back up in the rig, shook the reins, and drove the vehicle down the street in a hurry. Mandie smiled at her friends when she saw that Mrs. Taft didn’t even notice the fast driving.

As soon as they entered the house, Mandie went in search of Ella or Annie to find out if Dobie was still working. She found Ella in the kitchen drinking coffee.

“Well now, did y’all git Miz Prudence taken care of?” Ella asked.

“Oh yes,” Mandie replied and explained what had gone on. “So I think everything is all right now at the schoolhouse. I’m looking for Dobie. Is she still working or has she gone home?”

“She’s gittin ready to go home. She’s upstairs finishing up,” Ella told her.

“Thanks, Ella, I’ll hurry and see if I can find her. I want to ask her something,” Mandie replied and rushed from the room.

Mandie hurried up the stairs and finally found Dobie making up a bed in a guest room.

“Dobie, I’ve been trying to catch you,” Mandie began as she stepped inside the room through the open door. She walked up close to the girl and asked, “Why were you in my room the other morning? You let Snowball out, didn’t you?”

Dobie straightened up and looked at her. “I opened de door and he run out,” she said. “Ella say I should collect dirty clothes and wash ’em, so I go looking for yours.”

Mandie was surprised to hear that explanation. “But you didn’t take any of my clothes to wash,” she said.

“I took down what you had wore and what you had hung in de wardrobe, but den I decides I’ll just start with de boys’ clothes first, considering all dem fancy clothes you girls got and all dat ironing dat would have to be done,” Dobie explained. “Now, what else you wants to know? I got to git my work done so I kin go home.”

“That skirt I had on had a paper in the pocket. Did you see it when you took the skirt down?” Mandie asked as she watched the girl’s face.

“I knows dat. I took de paper out and dropped it down in de wardrobe,” Dobie said. “But den I decides I ain’t gonna wash it dat day so I hangs de skirt back up,” the girl explained.

“You did,” Mandie said. “Thank you. I just wanted to know what happened to that paper.”

She hurried from the guest room and went to her room. Going straight over to the wardrobe, she opened the door and bent over to look in the bottom. There was a paper down there. She picked it up and recognized it as one of the account papers she had found in the attic, so Dobie must have been telling the truth.

“So it was not important after all,” Mandie said to herself as she sat down in a chair and looked at the paper.

Celia came into the room, looking for her.

“I thought you were coming right back to the parlor after you saw Ella,” Celia said.

Mandie explained what had happened. “So you see, this old piece of paper is not important after all. It looks just like the other ones up there in the attic.”

“Well, at least you know now,” Celia said, glancing over the piece that Mandie handed her. And then she added, “Joe and Jonathan are in the back parlor. Uncle Ned has gone for a walk with the senator. And your grandmother has gone to her room to rest.”

“Come on, let’s go downstairs,” Mandie said, going to open the door. She took the piece of paper to show the boys.

“All that worry for that unimportant paper,” Joe teased her.

“I didn’t know what it was when I stuck it in my pocket. I had not even looked at it, and it could have been something important,” Mandie replied. “Did Grandmother say anything about what we would do next to look for Miss Hope?”

“She was in a hurry to go and rest, but she did say we would probably check on the sheriff in the morning to see if he had done anything,” Joe said.

The next morning, Mrs. Taft announced at breakfast that they would pay a visit to the sheriff.

Mandie wasn’t surprised when they stopped by his office and found him away again. “You know, it seems that everybody we try to see just goes off somewhere or other, or gets sick, like the preacher, and we don’t even get to really talk to anyone,” she said to her friends as they got back into the rig.

Mrs. Taft decided to check the stores again, so Ben headed that way. And again they didn’t find anyone who had seen Miss Hope in the last few weeks.

“I could almost say that lady has just completely vanished off the face of this earth,” Mrs. Taft said to Senator Morton and Uncle Ned as they returned to the rig after checking three more stores that day.

“We find Miss Hope,” Uncle Ned said. “We look and look and one day we find her.”

“Let’s go sit in the park for a little while and relax under those shade trees,” Mrs. Taft suggested. “What do you all say?”

Everyone agreed, and Ben drove the rig to the square and parked it. There was no one else in the park, so they found plenty of seats on the benches.

“Uncle Ned, have you heard from your braves who are watching the farm recently?” Mrs. Taft asked.

“Not till tonight. They come after dark tonight,” Uncle Ned explained.

“I do hope they know something,” Mrs. Taft said.

“Maybe they will know where Willie took all that furniture, where he is staying, or whatever,” Mandie said.

“Yes, they will find out,” Uncle Ned said.

Mandie happened to look down the street and she quickly told the others, “Look! Where is everyone going in such a hurry?”

The others turned to stare as people began coming out of shops and stores and all headed in the same direction.

“Something must be going on down that way,” Joe said.

“But how did they all know to come out and go in that direction at the same time?” Jonathan asked.

“It is rather unusual,” Senator Morton remarked.

“Headed direction of school,” Uncle Ned decided.

“To the school? Oh my, something must have happened. Let’s go see,” Mrs. Taft said, rising from the bench.

They all quickly got in the rig, and Ben drove it down the street in the direction of the school. As they rode along, more and more people joined the crowd walking toward the school.

As Ben pulled the rig up in the driveway to the school, Mandie looked back down the road and said, “They aren’t coming to the school. They’re going down the road.”

Everyone in the rig turned to look.

Miss Prudence came out on the porch of the school to investigate the rig, and then she recognized who it was. “Do come in, Mrs. Taft,” she called.

“Miss Prudence, look at all the people down the road,” Mrs. Taft called back. “What is going on?”

Miss Prudence shaded her eyes and looked. “I have no idea. Something must have happened,” she replied.

“Come get in the rig with us and we will go find out,” Mrs. Taft told her.

Miss Prudence came down to join them in the rig but didn’t seem too interested in what was going on. “I was hoping you had come with good news about my sister,” she told Mrs. Taft as Ben drove the rig back out into the street.

They got two blocks down the street and then were unable to get through the crowd.

“Grandmother, let’s get out and walk and see where everybody is going,” Mandie said.

“I suppose we’ll have to if we want to know,” Mrs. Taft replied. “Let’s go.”

Everyone stepped down from the rig and began walking forward with the crowd.

“I can’t see through the crowd,” Mandie remarked as she and Celia stayed beside Joe and Jonathan.

Joe grinned down at her and said, “I’ll let you know when I see something worth seeing.”

The crowd slowed down, and Mandie managed to get a glimpse of where they were. They were in front of the old remodeled house. And suddenly the crowd began singing, “I Love You Truly.”