The Secret of the Sand Castle (12 page)

“I’d sort of like to stay,” the golden-haired girl confessed. “I don’t mind if the Sand Castle is haunted. I’m like you, Judy, I’ve lived in haunted houses before. I’ll stay here until Friday, if necessary, to clear up all this mystery.”

“Maybe I could stay, too, if I gave up my vacation. This is important,” declared Flo. “I think my boss will understand and my parents will simply have to accept the fact that I’m old enough to make my own decisions.”

“I wish Emily Grimshaw would be that reasonable, but it’s too much to expect,” Pauline 124

said. “I have to get over there some way, and I don’t see what anyone would have to gain by not taking me. I’m not an heir to be frightened or kept conveniently out of the way until the pie is divided,” she pointed out. “Girls, I’m willing to take a chance and ride across with Captain Ottwell if only to find out if that woman you claim you saw is aboard.”

“I’m interested in the box—and what was in it,” confessed Judy.

“I’m—not,” Flo said with an unmistakable shudder.

“We have to come to a decision before the boat leaves,” Judy continued. “Maybe it would be better if we stayed together.”

“No,” Pauline objected. “I simply have to be back to work tomorrow at the very latest. Come to the boat with me, Judy. Then you can see for yourself if this apparition or whatever it is gets aboard.”

“I do want to see. If only I were two people,” Judy lamented. “Then I could go with you, Pauline, and stay with Irene and Flo at the same time. Yes, and with little Judy.”

“You are two people,” Flo reminded her. “You’d better remember it if anyone sees you. That lawyer thinks you’re your cousin Roxy.”

“Yes, and you know what that means,” Irene added significantly.

“It means that, as a relative, I’m in danger, too.

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Well, if it turns out to be a matter of life or death,” Judy said more cheerfully, “you can always telephone Peter and get fast action. He’d call out the Coast Guard, if necessary, to rescue me.” It was agreed that a telephone call to Peter might be the only answer to the predicament in which the girls found themselves. After it was made they would be as safe at the Sand Castle as anywhere.

But how safe would Pauline be on Captain Ottwell’s boat?

“You don’t know him or anything,” Judy protested as they started off toward the dock where the boat was supposed to be waiting. “The fact that he is Walter Brand’s friend is no recommendation.

Anyway, maybe he won’t take you.”

“He will if I pay him. Stop acting so gloomy, Judy. It’s really turned out to be a beautiful day. A little foggy, of course, but you could enjoy this walk if you’d just stop worrying.”

“I’ll try,” Judy promised, seeing Pauline’s point of view.

The bay was calm, for there was almost no wind.

The water swirled and rippled as if it had never been guilty of swallowing up the plane they had seen crash into it earlier that morning. There was no sign of it now, but a police helicopter was flying low over the water, almost dipping its toes like a sandpiper.

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“It looks as if they’re still searching for something,” Pauline commented. “But there is nobody left.”

“You may end up in the bay yourself if you take Captain Ottwell’s boat,” Judy observed gloomily.

“We’re both taking chances,” Pauline replied.

“Frankly, I’d rather be on the boat than back there in the Sand Castle with who-knows-what playing ghost and scaring people half to death.” The boat was still there, but it had drifted away from the dock as had the persons who had gathered there earlier. It was as if the whole incident had been a bad dream. Only the helicopter, skimming lazily over the bay, seemed to indicate that anyone cared about the people on the plane that had crashed.

“Where did everybody go?” Judy inquired.

“You tell me. I don’t see a living soul. I guess we’ll just have to wait here until somebody comes.

You go on back to the Sand Castle, Judy,” Pauline advised her. “You can see for yourself that the woman in black didn’t come to the boat and I don’t mind waiting alone.”

“No, I’ll wait with you,” Judy insisted. “I have a sort of uncanny feeling about this boat—as if it isn’t real or something.”

Pauline laughed. “Maybe it’s a phantom ship like those you read about.”

“I’m sure Captain Ottwell is no phantom. Shall 127

we look for him on board?” Judy asked.

Pauline hesitated, measuring the distance between the dock and the deck of the boat.

“It’s too long a jump and I doubt if we have the strength to pull this boat any closer,” she said.

“We can try.”

Judy seized the mooring ropes and, with Pauline to help her, they finally moved the huge gray motor-boat close enough so that Judy felt she could jump the short distance to the deck.

“You’ll fall,” Pauline predicted. “If you thought the water was cold yesterday—”

“Watch me!” Judy interrupted.

With one mighty leap she landed on the slippery deck of the gray boat. It was a close call, but she made it. Pauline, afraid to try, stood watching from the dock as Judy made her way toward the spacious cabin. She was moving amidships when she thought she heard a slight sound from within.

“Captain Ottwell?” she called, startling herself with the sound of her own voice.

There was no answer, but again she heard the sound of something moving. It frightened her, but at the same time she knew she had to find out what it was.

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THE door of the cabin had been bolted from the outside. The bolt slid back easily, allowing Judy to push open the door.

“Captain Ottwell?” she called again.

No answer came from the dark interior of the cabin where all the curtains were drawn to shut out the sunlight. Feeling her way, Judy discovered she was in the galley. Someone had cooked a meal recently and had left the remains on the table. There were two unwashed plates in the small, round sink.

Beyond, she discovered a sort of bedroom with bunks running alongside either side of the cabin. At first she thought the thing on one of the bunks was a folded blanket. Then her fingers found damp hair fanned out on the pillow.

“Who are you?” she cried into the darkness.

A low moan came from the bunk.

Quickly Judy pulled back one of the curtains. In 129

“Who are you?” she cried

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the sudden light she could see a small fair-haired girl with frightened blue eyes. She lay there on the bunk with a gray wool blanket wrapped around her.

She was certainly not the woman in black, but when Judy asked again, “Who are you?” she heard the barely audible reply, “Agnes.”

“You can’t be!” gasped Judy. Then she remembered that the woman’s granddaughter was also named Agnes and asked, more reasonably,

“You aren’t the twelve-year-old girl who was on that plane, are you? How—”

But suddenly Judy knew how. Captain Ottwell must have rescued this girl minutes after the plane crashed and imprisoned her here, hoping everyone would believe she, too, was dead. Judy would be imprisoned, too, if he found her. He would think she was Roxy and lock her in. Then, somehow, he would frighten Flo and Irene into leaving the Sand Castle with little Judy. Even the child was in danger.

Judy saw it all now. And yet she stood there as if rooted to the spot.

“The captain fished me out of the water and wrapped me in this blanket,” the girl said. “He said he’d take me to my father.”

“Your father,” Judy repeated, unbelieving.

“Yes, your cousin John. You are my father’s cousin, aren’t you?”

“Sort of,” Judy heard herself say.

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“Will you stay here with me?”

“No, Aggie. They do call you Aggie, don’t they?”

“Yes, and you’re Roxy. I met you when my grandmother was still living. Her name was Agnes, too. Don’t you remember when we came to visit?”

“Now I do.” It wasn’t going to be easy to pretend with Aggie, but Judy still felt it might be necessary.

“I can’t stay very long,” she explained. “You see, I’m not supposed to be on this boat. The captain doesn’t know I’m here.”

“We’ll tell him then.”

“No, Aggie,” Judy objected. “You mustn’t tell anyone I was here. Promise?”

“Not even my father? Is he all right, Roxy? He was still in the plane when he told me to jump. I was afraid, but he pushed me and then everything went black.”

“
He
saved your life,” Judy said quietly, “not Captain Ottwell. Now promise me you won’t tell him anyone was here.”

Agnes Purdy hesitated only a moment. The look she gave Judy told her the child understood why her question hadn’t been answered. Did she still believe the captain would take her to her father?

“I promise,” she finally said. “Will you lock the door again when you go out?”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to—unless you come with me. Otherwise the captain will know I was here.” 132

“I can’t come,” Aggie said in the same low voice.

“I can’t move without pain. It’s my leg. I think it’s broken. Will the captain take me to a hospital?”

“He’d better!” Judy answered fervently. “Is there anyone I can call? Your mother or anyone?”

“No, my mother died when I was a baby. My grandmother brought me up, but she’s dead, too.

Didn’t anyone write to you about it? I know I mailed the letter—”

“I have a letter,” Judy interrupted quickly. “There isn’t time to explain. I just want to know if there is anyone I should call.”

“You are Roxy, aren’t you?” Aggie was beginning to doubt it. “My grandfather’s living,” she continued when Judy did not immediately answer her question. “If you see him please tell him I’m all right.”

Judy said she would. Had Aggie been told that her grandfather was in prison? She said they were going to meet him at the Sand Castle.

“Your father told you that?” Judy questioned.

“Yes, he said I had to be kind to him because he’d been away a long time.”

Judy’s thoughts whirled. Away in prison because he’d robbed a bank, or was that only another story?

“Is anyone else going to be at the Sand Castle?” she asked, thinking there must be some other relative who looked like Aggie’s grandmother, who 133

was supposed to be dead.

“Just the lawyer, Mr. Brand, and the people he asked to come. He went ashore to round up all my relatives. If you’re one of them—”

“I must go,” Judy interrupted urgently. She couldn’t wait to hear any more. There wasn’t time. It had become a question of life or death for Aggie.

“She’s being kidnapped!” thought Judy, her anger mounting as she ran.

Somehow she had to get back to that telephone by the firehouse and notify Peter. He’d get Aggie off that boat and to a hospital. What she would do if she came face to face with the captain of the boat or with the lawyer who had mistaken her for her cousin Roxy, Judy did not stop to consider. Her one thought was to get help for Aggie. But the moment she was on deck, in plain view from the shore, she was gripped in a panic of fear. Would those two men over there by the firehouse try to stop her from telephoning?

Judy could not see them clearly as the fog was rising again and a little rain that was hardly more than heavy mist was beginning to fall. But one of them was tall and thin and the other short and stocky. She could see that much. They were starting toward the boat, pulling one of those ridiculous little wagons with a load too heavy for it. Had they seen her come out of the cabin? Where was Pauline?

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Why, oh, why wasn’t she waiting as she had promised? The boat had drifted farther away from the dock and there was no one to help with the mooring lines.

“I can’t make it,” Judy told herself. “It’s too far for me to jump. I’ll just have to wait until they board the boat and take my chances.”

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FLAT against the side of the cabin where she could not be seen by the two men, Judy waited and waited.

Then, when she had just about decided the only way to bring help was to jump into the icy water, the boat began to move alongside the dock and she could hear voices.

“You’ll have to return that wagon as soon as we unload the stuff,” one of the men ordered the other.

“Right,” he agreed. “We don’t want them getting suspicious. Steady, now!”

Judy could tell from the noises she heard that they were lifting something out of the wagon. Was it the box she had seen being dragged from under the Sand Castle? Curiosity nearly got the better of her, but she knew she could not show herself and at the same time be free to telephone for help. Instead she waited until they had moved whatever it was inside the cabin and closed the door.