Mandie Collection, The: 4 (15 page)

Jonathan nodded slowly. “And now he’s deceiving his friend,” he said.

“Yes, he told the man he didn’t know anything about it,” Celia agreed.

“We’ve got to figure out what we should do,” Mandie said, cuddling Snowball. “If we could somehow let that other man know that Mr. Rushton has the ruby, they could fight it out between them.”

“They might just kill each other over such a thing,” Jonathan decided.

“But, Mandie, we don’t have to get them fighting over the stone,” Celia objected.

“Yes, we do. We have to let that other man know Mr. Rushton has the ruby because if we tell the police, Mr. Rushton will go scot-free. He’ll lie and put it all off on the other man,” Mandie explained.

“Well, if you are planning to go into his suite, count me out,” Celia told her. “I’ll wait here in the hall.”

“Jonathan, help me think,” Mandie said, turning to him.

“You’re right about Mr. Rushton, Mandie, but I don’t know exactly what we can do,” Jonathan said.

“We’ve got to think of something,” Mandie said, beginning to pace the hallway again. “Help me, Jonathan. Something has to be done, and right away.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

UNEXPECTED HELP

Several people passed along the hallway and looked at the young people. But as Mandie paced the floor, deep in thought, she hardly noticed their curious stares.

Snowball squirmed as he tried to get down.

Mandie scolded him crossly. Then suddenly, she got an idea. Hurrying to her friends, she explained what she was going to do. “Let’s listen at the door again to be sure Mr. Rushton is back in the room with the other man,” Mandie told them, hurrying toward the suite.

“This could be dangerous, Mandie,” Jonathan cautioned.

“Not if we all stick together,” Mandie replied. “Besides, there are lots of other people around. Haven’t you noticed?” She removed Snowball’s red leash from his harness, rolled it up, and put it in her pocket.

As they neared the door, they tiptoed and looked around to be sure no one else in the corridor saw them eavesdropping. Mandie stood close to the door.

The two men were talking again.

“I found the old lady’s keys and unlocked the girls’ trunks, looking for the stone, and it was nowhere to be found,” the foreigner was saying. “At least I snatched the old lady’s ruby necklace for you. That’s got to be worth something.”

Mandie and Celia gasped and looked at each other. Mandie’s face turned red with anger. She motioned to her friends, and the three walked a short distance away from the door.

“Now, I’m going to race up there and shove Snowball through the door, and run back and start calling him,” Mandie explained. “Then I’ll just nonchalantly push open Mr. Rushton’s door to look for him. Understand?”

Jonathan and Celia nodded.

Mandie hurried to carry out her plan. She ran back to Mr. Rushton’s partly opened door and pushed Snowball through the crack into the suite. She rushed back to her friends, and started calling the kitten, “Snowball, Snowball, where are you?” she called loudly. She hurried toward the door. “Snowball, did you go in there? Where are you?” She pushed the door open and looked into the room.

George Rushton and the other man were sitting in the parlor, talking. They jumped up. Snowball wandered on into the back of the room.

Mandie pretended surprise at seeing Mr. Rushton. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I think my kitten ran in here.”

George Rushton caught sight of Snowball and reached for him. “Yes, yes, here he is.”

But the kitten evaded his grasp.

Jonathan and Celia stood in the doorway. The door was now wide open.

“I’ll get him,” Mandie said. As she reached for Snowball, she noticed the jewelry case sitting on the table behind the chair where Mr. Rushton had been sitting. Instead of picking up her cat, she picked up the case and opened it. Inside was the ruby the magician had used in his second performance. “Oh, this is beautiful!” she cried.

George Rushton quickly grabbed the case from her. “Sorry, Miss, I don’t allow anyone to touch that,” he said.

“It looks so real,” Mandie exclaimed, picking up Snowball. “In fact, I think I’ve seen it before.”

The magician closed the case and held it tightly in both his hands. “Yes, you have seen it before. It’s the stone I use in my magic show,” he told her. “Now if you don’t mind, my friend and I were involved in a business deal.”

“A business deal? Oh, are you going into another business?” Mandie asked innocently. She looked at the other man. “Business like—”

Jonathan quickly cut her off. “Mandie, we’ve got to go now. Come on!” He spoke sharply.

Celia peeked out from behind Jonathan. “Yes, Mr. Rushton is busy,” she added.

The magician turned and placed the jewelry case on the table as he sat down. “It was nice seeing you again, Miss Shaw, but right now I have business to take care of.”

Mandie moved close to Celia in the doorway and handed Snowball to her. Her friend looked at her questioningly. Then Mandie quickly stepped back into the room and snatched up the case. “This is the ruby you two stole from the catacombs,” she shouted to the foreigner. “And Mr. Rushton stole it out of my bag.”

She ran from the room after her friends who had quickly exited. With shaking hands, she hastily opened the case, grabbed the ruby, and dropped the case to the floor. Racing down the hall, she glanced back. The two men were close behind her. Her heart pounded.

Just then she nearly collided with someone. It was Uncle Ned, her dear old Cherokee friend! She dropped the ruby into the sling of arrows the Indian carried on his shoulder. Uncle Ned grasped her to keep from falling and rushed along with her.

Mandie looked back and spotted the strange woman from the ship. The woman put out a sharp-toed shoe and tripped the foreigner, who fell flat on his face.

The woman smiled at Mandie and said, “You see? I am your friend.” And she quickly disappeared down the corridor.

“Papoose!” the old Indian exclaimed. “What happen here?”

“Oh, Uncle Ned!” Mandie cried. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

George Rushton caught up with Mandie. He stopped short when he saw Uncle Ned. “An Indian? What are you doing here?”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Mr. Swaggingham appeared. He quickly threw George Rushton to the floor beside the other man who seemed unable to get up.

Mr. Rushton looked up at Mandie from the floor. Now that she had protection, Mandie bent to speak to him, “You know, you broke one of the Ten Commandments: ‘Thou shalt not steal.’”

The man’s face grew pale. He didn’t reply.

Mr. Swaggingham also tied up the foreigner and then turned to the young people. “Your grandmother is going to be awfully upset
with all this,” he told Mandie. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on except that these two men were chasing all of you and seemed bent on inflicting some kind of harm.”

After quickly explaining to Uncle Ned and the detective what had happened, Mandie introduced the two men.

Mr. Swaggingham shook hands with Uncle Ned. “I’ve always wanted to see a real live Indian,” he said, smiling.

The old Indian smiled back.

“Well, I’m also one-fourth Cherokee, you know,” Mandie said proudly. Looking down the corridor she saw several uniformed men hurrying toward them. “Here come the police!”

When the policemen got within hearing, everyone started talking at once.

Mandie tried to talk to Uncle Ned amid the hustle and bustle, but the policemen were intent on questioning her and her friends.

A young policeman picked up the jewelry case and showed it to Mandie. “Do you know if this belongs to Mr. Rushton?” he asked.

“Yes, it does,” Mandie replied. Then, reaching down into Uncle Ned’s sling, she pulled out the ruby and handed it to the man. “This was inside the box when I grabbed it and ran out of his room.”

The man looked at the ruby and let out a low whistle. He spoke in rapid Italian to his fellow policemen, and they gathered around to look.

Mandie could guess what they were saying, but to be sure, she said, “Yes, that’s the ruby stolen from the catacombs.”

“Sí, sí, Signorina
,” the policeman said with a big grin. “Yes, yes.”

Some of the policemen had gone into Rushton’s suite. They came out with a bag full of jewelry, which they told her had been reported missing from various places in Italy.

“You have caught the most clever thief we have ever known,” the young policeman told Mandie as he displayed the contents of the bag.

One piece of jewelry caught her eye. She reached for it. “This is my grandmother’s ruby necklace!” she exclaimed.

The policeman looked sharply at her. “Your grandmother’s?” he asked. “How can we be sure?”

“I don’t know how to identify it except that I do know it’s my
grandmother’s and hers is missing,” Mandie insisted as she fingered the beautiful necklace.

Uncle Ned and Jonathan and Celia all spoke at once, confirming that it belonged to Mrs. Taft.

The policeman hesitated, looking from one to the other. “But we must have some means of identification,” the man insisted. He reached to take it back from Mandie.

At that moment, Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton came into the hallway from the front door. They stopped in alarm as they viewed the two men tied up on the floor and all the policemen standing around.

Mrs. Taft rushed to Mandie and her friends. “What is going on? What has happened?” she demanded.

Mandie, Jonathan, and Celia tried to piece the story together for her. The policeman patiently stood by, waiting for Mandie to give back the ruby necklace. Then Mandie realized she was still holding it.

“Grandmother, here’s your ruby necklace,” Mandie told her. “The police found it and a lot of other jewelry in George Rushton’s room.”

Mrs. Taft gasped and took the necklace from Mandie. “My, oh my, I never would have thought such a thing of the man!” she said. “Of course, I’m very glad to have it back.”

The policeman cleared his throat and reached for the necklace. “I’m sorry, madam,” he said, “but we have to have some proof that the necklace actually belongs to you, please.”

“Proof?” Mrs. Taft puzzled as the man took the necklace. “Why, that necklace has been in our family for several generations. In fact, the clasp is so old, it’s hard to fasten. Part of the little circle on it is missing.”

The policeman examined the clasp. He smiled and handed it back to Mrs. Taft. “I am sorry, madam, but I had to make sure,” he said. “Your description is sufficient proof. I am glad to return it to you.”

She thanked him and carefully put the necklace into her bag as the policemen led the magician and his accomplice away. Then she saw Uncle Ned and gasped in astonishment. “Why, Uncle Ned! Were you in on all this, too?” she asked.

The old Indian shook his head. “Man at desk tell me Papoose go to number 100. When I look, I find man chasing Papoose.”

Mrs. Taft turned to her granddaughter in shock. “That man chased you, Amanda?”

“Yes, Grandmother. After I snatched his jewelry case, he tried to catch me,” Mandie explained.

Mrs. Taft turned pale.

Mr. Swaggingham spoke up. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Taft. The young people didn’t know it, but when they left me in the dining room to go to the restrooms, I followed them. I didn’t trust them not to go meddling in something after all I had heard them talk about. I was right here behind that post all the time. And I was armed.” He patted a lump in his coat pocket.

“Thank goodness!” Mrs. Taft said.

The young people looked at him in disbelief.

“But why didn’t we see you?” Mandie asked the detective.

“Because I am trained not to be seen,” the man explained. “When you first went to eavesdrop at that man’s door, I knew you were up to something, so I just stood there ready to protect you.”

“I think we’d better find a place to sit,” Mrs. Taft said. “With all this excitement I suddenly feel faint.”

Senator Morton quickly took Mrs. Taft’s arm and led the way into the dining room. Uncle Ned stayed close by Mandie.

Mandie squeezed the old man’s wrinkled hand. “Oh, Uncle Ned, you just don’t know how glad I was to see you,” she said.

“Papoose must not do dangerous things,” Uncle Ned scolded. “What happen if I not be there... if detective man not be there?”

“I know, Uncle Ned. I’m sorry,” Mandie said. Then she brightened. “Rome has been so exciting, but we’re leaving tomorrow for Switzerland.”

“I know,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

“We’re going to stay in a real house over there,” Mandie explained. “A chalet, they call it. We won’t be in a hotel like this.”

“I know, Papoose.” The Indian nodded.

Mandie looked up at her old friend and said, “You always know everything. Tell us who that strange woman is who shows up almost everywhere we go. She always seems to be following us.”

Uncle Ned shook his head. “I not know,” he admitted.

Mandie sighed in frustration. “That woman tripped the foreign-looking man a while ago when he was chasing me, and then she looked at
me and said she was our friend,” Mandie puzzled. “It’s all so strange. Have you ever seen her, Uncle Ned?”

The old Indian shrugged. “Not know who you talk about.”

The waiter brought tea for everyone, and the conversation centered around the theft and the man they had all thought to be above reproach.

“It’s such a disappointment to learn of a person’s dishonesty,” Mrs. Taft said sadly.

One of the policemen joined them at the table and explained the situation. “Mr. Rushton’s career was failing. He was nearly bankrupt and heavily in debt. He began dealings with this thief about a year ago, from what we’ve been able to determine,” the policeman told them. “The bag of jewelry we found in his room contained some of the most valuable pieces ever to be stolen, and they are from several different countries. We can’t imagine how he was going to get rid of them unless he knew someone who could recut them. But then maybe he didn’t and that’s why he still had all the jewels.”

They all talked for a while about the theft, and the policeman apologized for any inconvenience caused them while they were guests of Rome. Finally, he told them he would have to leave and make his report. He stood, saluted them at the table, and bowed slightly. As he left the room, he called out, “
Arrivederci!
”