The Secret of the Sand Castle (13 page)

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“Now I can make a run for it,” Judy thought.

As she ran she saw a flash of yellow that could only be the yellow scarf Pauline had tied over her dark hair. Afraid to call, she kept on running until she almost collided with her friend.

“Where were you?” both girls cried at the same moment.

“I went to telephone,” Pauline confessed, answering first. “I put in a long distance call for help. You were going to telephone Peter and when you didn’t come back I was afraid something had happened to you, and so I called him and told him everything.”

“About the plane crash and all?”

“Yes, and that spooky picture. He agreed with me that someone is trying to frighten people away from the Sand Castle—”

“Which is all the more reason to stay there and find out what’s going on,” Judy interrupted.

“Yes, but he thought you were on the boat, locked in the cabin, perhaps, by someone who mistook you for your cousin Roxy. He said it wouldn’t be the first time you got yourself in a jam taking her place.

But don’t worry, Judy, the boat will be met at Bayshore. I’ll be on board—”

“You?” gasped Judy.

“Of course. That was the original plan, wasn’t it?

Peter thinks you’ll be on the boat, but instead it will be me. I do have to be back at work as soon as pos-137

sible. But what’s the matter, Judy?” Pauline broke off to ask. “What happened to you? Did you meet the captain or what?”

“No, and now I don’t want to meet him—”

“You don’t? Well, that’s a switch!” Pauline exclaimed. “You were calling him before. I heard you and then you went inside where I couldn’t see what was happening. Where were you all this time? I was petrified for fear you’d leave without me.”

“I couldn’t do that,” Judy started to explain. “I want to talk with Peter myself—”

“I’m afraid you’re too late,” Pauline interrupted.

“The line went dead while we were still talking.

Someone outside cut the wires.”

“Those men!” exclaimed Judy. “We can’t stand here where they can see us. I don’t want them to know I was on board that boat.”

“But why, Judy? Is it dangerous, or what?”

“Very dangerous,” Judy replied in so grave a voice that Pauline had to listen. “You may not want to ride across with Captain Ottwell when you hear my story. Where can we go to talk?” Under the dock seemed the safest place. There was tall grass there that would conceal them and yet they could hear everything that went on overhead.

“It isn’t like you to be afraid,” Pauline began when they were safely hidden. “There was someone on board that boat, wasn’t there?” 138

“Pauline, I’m not afraid for myself,” Judy confessed. “I’m afraid for Aggie. I don’t know how to tell you. It’s all so—so unbelievable.”

“I’ll believe it, Judy. After what happened back at the Sand Castle I’ll believe anything,” Pauline declared. “Who is this Aggie? Isn’t she the little girl who was killed in the plane crash? Don’t tell me you saw her ghost, too!”

“No, Pauline, Aggie is alive! That lawyer, Walter Brand, said she was dead. But Captain Ottwell rescued her and locked her in the cabin of the boat.

She’s the twelve-year-old granddaughter of Agnes Purdy.”

“The woman in black?”

“Yes, if she is a woman. Someone may be making a deliberate attempt to frighten all the relatives away from the Sand Castle. On the other hand, it may be a scheme to keep them there. That lawyer and Captain Ottwell have a hand in it and I’m afraid they’ll resort to violence—”

“Why?” gasped Pauline. “What can they gain?”

“A lot, I guess. Who knows what secret the Sand Castle is hiding? There’s a deadline for that foreclosure. I think it’s Wednesday. If they can keep anyone from making a down payment—”

“But Aggie couldn’t. Why would they lock her up?” Pauline insisted.

“They said it was for her own safety,” replied 139

Judy, “and she believes it. But Pauline, Captain Ottwell also told her he’d take her to her father, and we both know her father was killed in the crash!”

“Oh! You don’t mean—”

“Yes, Pauline, I do mean exactly what you’re thinking. You and I have a life to save,” declared Judy. “The question is, how do we go about it?”

“Couldn’t we get her off the boat some way?” Judy shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I forgot to tell you. Her leg is broken and it would be dangerous to move her. Besides, where would we take her? It isn’t even safe back at the Sand Castle.

There aren’t any hospitals within walking distance.”

“There’s the Coast Guard. They could take her to a hospital. Do you think it’s too far to walk?” Pauline asked.

“There may not be time. Look out and see if anyone is coming,” Judy suggested.

“Not yet,” Pauline replied after showing herself for a brief moment and then dodging back under the dock.

“Well, help is on the way,” Judy said more cheerfully. “I’m so glad you called Peter. It was just the right thing to do. He will think he’s rescuing me, of course. You’ll have to tell him about Aggie.”

“I certainly will,” agreed Pauline. “Well, I’ll have to pretend I don’t know she’s being held prisoner on the boat when I go aboard.”

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“Aren’t you afraid?”

“Petrified,” Pauline admitted, “but I’m like you, I guess. I’m more afraid for Aggie than I am for myself. The hardest part will be not letting her know I’m there.”

“I’m afraid for both of you. Oh, Pauline! Are you perfectly sure the boat is being met?”

“Yes, by Federal agents. Peter promised. I hope they’re as young and handsome as he is,” Pauline added, smiling.

She was putting on a brave front, Judy could see.

From time to time she poked her head out to see if anyone was coming. At last she dodged back with news.

“It’s both of them!” she whispered. “One has a brief case and the other is pulling the empty wagon.” The rumble of the wagon over their heads kept Pauline from saying anything more. Instead, she kissed Judy and gave her a reassuring hug before she broke away and ran after the two men.

“Wait for me!” she called loudly, waving the bag she had brought with her. “Oh, please! I have to have a ride over to the mainland. Won’t you take me over on your boat?”

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JUDY longed to see what was happening, but didn’t dare come forth from her hiding place under the dock until after the men had left the wagon there and started back toward the boat. Pauline was talking with them, her voice eager and friendly.

“You’re Captain Ottwell, aren’t you?” she was asking. “I’ve been waiting to find out who owns that boat and beg a ride. I came over with friends—”

“Where are your friends?” It was a logical question, but the way the captain asked it made Judy uneasy.

“Back at the cottage. They—”

He would not allow Pauline to finish. “I’m talking about the redhead who came with you. She’s the Zoller girl, isn’t she? Go back and see if you can find her,” he directed his companion.

“Why?” asked Pauline innocently. She was playing her part well. She spoke of how frightened 142

Flo and Roxy were, and when he mentioned the fact that Irene Meredith wanted to buy the Sand Castle, she objected.

“Not if it’s haunted! You see,” Pauline went on to explain in a voice pitched high enough for Judy to hear, “there’s a woman there. She’s a queer old duck dressed all in black clothes and they want to find out who she is. Flo thinks she’s her dead Aunt Agnes.” The captain chuckled at that. “The one that married the bank robber? And what do you think?”

“Me? Oh, I’m not supposed to think,” Pauline answered without hesitation. “I work for a literary agency on Madison Avenue and they do my thinking for me. If I’m not there by tomorrow I may lose my job and I can’t afford that.”

“You can’t, eh? You don’t mean it! You goin’

back to work tomorrow as if nothing was wrong?” the captain asked, forgetting his polished English.

“I certainly am. I should have been there today.

You will take me, won’t you?” Pauline begged, her voice sounding fainter as they walked on toward the boat. The last thing Judy heard her say was, “I’ll pay you well.”

That, apparently, was what the captain wanted to hear. Minutes afterwards Judy heard the big boat’s motor and knew Pauline must be on it. There were two men, but Judy had heard only one man’s voice.

Then footsteps sounded over her head and she real-143

ized the other man must have been looking for her and had come back just as the boat was leaving the dock.

Could it be Walter Brand? Pauline had said he was carrying a brief case. It did not take Judy long to decide it would be wise to avoid meeting him, whoever he was. She would have to go back to the Sand Castle another way.

“I must hurry,” she thought anxiously. “Who knows what may have happened while we’ve been away?”

Keeping herself concealed by tall grass, she skirted around the cottages that faced the bay. But, with no boardwalk to follow, her progress was much too slow. Her feet sank in the sand until she was literally wading, clutching at tall spears of sand grass to help her along.

Finally she came to a little beach that ended in steps going up to a walk. From the top of the wooden steps she could see the boat far out in the bay with scraggly tree branches marking the channel it was following. Filled with apprehension, Judy realized that a boat could easily run aground if the branches and the little bobbing buoys were ignored.

One had a bell on it that tinkled with a mournful sound.

Breathing a silent prayer for her courageous friend and the twelve-year-old girl she must, 144

somehow, protect, Judy’s gaze turned in the other direction where the plane had gone under without a trace. Or had it been lifted from the water? The helicopter, like a lazy dragon fly, was still skimming back and forth over the bay. Did Aggie, imprisoned on Captain Ottwell’s boat, think that the other two persons on the plane had been rescued because she was?

“Poor little girl!” Judy thought. “She will have no father now—and no mother.” She hadn’t mentioned any brothers or sisters, only her grandfather, who had been away. “Away in prison,” Judy reminded herself somberly, “because he robbed a bank.” She had forgotten to tell Pauline about it, but now she was worried. Would Aggie’s grandfather be at the Sand Castle waiting to meet her? Or was he, could
he
be masquerading as the woman in black?

This thought and a sudden movement behind a clump of long, coarse grass sent terror to her heart.

“I’m imagining things,” she scolded herself.

And yet the more she thought about it the more certain she became that the woman was no woman at all, but a man dressed up in a woman’s clothes.

That hard face in the picture had resembled a man—

and yet Flo had fainted, thinking it was her Aunt Agnes. It just didn’t make sense.

Several times during her walk Judy stopped to look back the way she had come. Somehow, she 145

could not rid herself of the conviction that someone was following her. Could it be the masquerading bank robber, or was she just frightening herself by listening to the echo of her own footsteps on the boardwalk?

“Whatever it is, I’m in no greater danger than Pauline is, on the boat with Captain Ottwell and his prisoner,” she reminded herself.

This was not the walk she had taken before. She knew her direction because of the lighthouse with its winking light. But now, on her left, instead of cottages, she could see nothing but tier after tier of grass-topped sand dunes. The cottages on her right were boarded up and obviously empty. Behind her the boardwalk back to the bay side of the island was as deserted as everything else. And yet, in spite of all this evidence to the contrary, Judy still felt she was not alone.

“I’ve lost my way,” she thought in a panic of fear.

“Now I don’t even know where the Sand Castle is.” The name on the walk she had taken was un-familiar, but now, as she hurried along, she could hear the deep boom of the ocean and knew she was nearly across the island.

From the ocean beach Judy knew she could easily find the Sand Castle. But would there be time? She couldn’t be with Pauline on the boat, but perhaps she could help just as much by keeping Flo, Irene, 146

and little Judy out of harm’s way.

With the wind behind her and the Sand Castle now in full view ahead, Judy started to run. It was a mistake, for now she could hear pounding footsteps behind her. With characteristic decision, she turned to face whoever was trying to overtake her. Instead of the tall, gaunt “woman in black” she had expected to see, the man turned out to be Walter Brand, short, red-faced, and obviously out of breath.

“Oh,” she exclaimed, “if I had known it was you .

. .” But then she stopped, for wasn’t this man as much of a threat as the masquerader she had expected to see?

“He thinks I’m Roxy,” Judy told herself. “Now if only I can play my part as well as Pauline did!” Pauline had put on an act, but Judy knew it had been an act of courage. Now it was up to her to act as quickly and as courageously as her absent friend.

“Well,” he said, still out of breath and obviously angry, “what
would
you have done, Miss Zoller?”

“I would have waited,” Judy replied calmly and without hesitation. “I need a lawyer to advise me.” 147