Mandie Collection, The: 4 (29 page)

To everyone’s surprise, the minister suddenly began speaking in English near the end of his sermon.

“We are greatly honored to have guests today and we hope that you will come back,” he said, looking directly at Mrs. Taft and the senator. “This is a most unusual occasion, because we are so isolated from tourists here. We pray the Lord will bless you and give you a safe return to your home.”

Mandie looked down the row and saw her grandmother smiling and nodding as the man spoke.

When the pastor finished his message, the worshipers rose to leave. The minister practically ran to get to Mrs. Taft and shake her hand. Amid the commotion of people moving about, Mandie couldn’t hear what her grandmother and the preacher said, but she did see her grandmother reach into her bag and hand the man a piece of paper that looked like a check.

The minister kissed Mrs. Taft’s hand and quickly moved along to shake the hands of each person in their group.

When they returned to the chalet, Senator Morton let them out at the front door and took the pony cart on to the stables. Mandie caught a glimpse of the Bagatelles hurrying around behind the chalet with their photographic equipment.

“They’re going to take more pictures,” Mandie whispered to Jonathan and Celia as they walked behind Mrs. Taft and Uncle Ned toward the front door.

Evidently her grandmother had seen them too. “Those are the most ill-bred people I have ever met up with,” Mrs. Taft said. “Never even courteous enough to come to the dinner table.”

“Grandmother, could we just look and see where those people are going?” Mandie asked.

“Amanda! You will do no such thing,” Mrs. Taft replied. “You will get upstairs and get freshened up and be back down here in fifteen minutes to eat. We’ll all meet in the main parlor.”

The young people raced up the front steps ahead of Mrs. Taft and Uncle Ned and quickly went to their suites. The girls removed their bonnets, put away their shawls, and touched up their hair while Jonathan went to his suite to wash up.

Snowball was prowling around the suite and Mandie bent down to
pet his head. “As soon as we eat I’ll take you outside, Snowball,” she told the kitten. Snowball meowed and looked up at his mistress.

“That is one way to get outside and see what those people are doing, if they’re still out there when we finish eating,” Mandie said to Celia.

“I really need some fresh air and a long walk anyway,” Celia replied, straightening her long skirt.

The noon meal was soon over because Mrs. Taft had decided she would take a quick nap and then walk in the gardens. The young people were delighted when she gave them permission to go outside. Uncle Ned and the senator were going to sit together in the parlor.

The three young people rushed around the chalet to look for the Bagatelles, but they weren’t in sight.

“Let’s look down by the pool,” Mandie suggested. Snowball was tugging on his leash.

They did not find the Bagatelles, but as the young people started back toward the chalet, they spotted the couple at the front door of the vacant cottage.

The three stepped behind some bushes in order to keep from being seen.

“That’s the direction they were looking from the servant’s room upstairs. I wonder if they were looking at that cottage,” Mandie said excitedly.

“It looks to me like they’re trying to get the front door open,” Jonathan said.

“I don’t see their camera,” Celia remarked.

At that moment Snowball managed to pull the leash from Mandie’s hand and bound off in the direction of the cottage. Mandie called out and ran after him. The Bagatelles turned and saw her. They quickly walked away from the cottage and the young people saw them retrieve their equipment from the nearby bushes.

Mandie finally caught the kitten in front of the cottage. Jonathan and Celia caught up with her a moment later.

The couple disappeared through the shrubbery. “You know, I wish the Thalers would come home, because I think those people are up to no good,” Mandie remarked.

“I agree,” Celia said.

“I have an idea—not a dangerous one this time,” Jonathan said.

“Why don’t we watch them until we know they will be busy for a little while, and then we could go upstairs and search their suite.”

“Search their rooms? For what?” Mandie asked.

“There might be something there that would give us a clue to their strange behavior, and we might be doing the Thalers a favor if we found these people were doing something wrong,” Jonathan explained.

“All right, but we’ll have to do this in the daylight,” Mandie said. “It’s too easy for someone to slip up on us in the dark. Besides, after dark we’d have to turn on lights to see inside their rooms and someone might see that.”

“All right, let’s find out if they’re in their rooms right now,” Jonathan suggested.

They hurried back into the house and up the stairs. They listened outside the door of the Bagatelles’ suite and could hear them inside.

“All we have to do is sit in the parlor at the top of the steps and watch for them to go by,” Mandie whispered to her friends. She led them back down the hall and they entered the small parlor.

“I hope we don’t have to wait long, Mandie,” Celia remarked, “or your grandmother will be up from her nap and will come right by here looking for us.”

“The Begatelles probably won’t stay in their rooms long,” Jonathan predicted.

The young people sat down to watch and wait.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ONE MYSTERY SOLVED

Mandie and her friends sat in the small parlor until tea time. Then Mrs. Taft came by on the way downstairs from her nap. The Bagatelles had not shown up.

“Time for tea,” Mrs. Taft remarked as she passed the open door and saw the three sitting in the parlor.

“Yes, Grandmother,” Mandie said, and the young people reluctantly rose and followed the lady downstairs.

After having tea, Mrs. Taft insisted they all go for a walk around the grounds. Before long it was time for the evening meal and they hadn’t been able to accomplish a thing.

“I think since it’s Sunday we should all sit and talk in the parlor for a while before we go to bed,” Mrs. Taft said at the table that night.

The three were itching to get away from the adults and check on the Bagatelles, whom they had not seen since noon. But Mrs. Taft kept them in the parlor until she said it was time to retire for the night.

“Well, maybe we can do something tomorrow.” Mandie sighed as the three went up the stairs for the night.

Mandie and Celia fell asleep quickly, still tired from their adventure the previous night. Sometime during the night, Mandie woke and heard the singing. She sat up to listen just as Celia did.

“There’s the singing. Let’s let Jonathan know,” Mandie whispered to her friend as she jumped out of bed and grabbed her robe.

Celia followed and put hers on, too. “All right,” she agreed.

Mandie led the way and quietly opened the door into the hall. They tiptoed over to Jonathan’s door and lightly knocked on it. There was only a dim light illuminating the long, dark hallway.

Not receiving any answer, Mandie knocked again and again, harder and harder. Finally Jonathan opened the door. At the same time, Uncle Ned opened his door next to Mandie’s suite.

“What is it?” Jonathan asked sleepily.

“Papoose, something wrong?” Uncle Ned asked as he stepped into the hall.

Mandie was confused at the sudden development and she stuttered as she tried to answer. “N-Nothing’s wrong, Uncle Ned. We just wanted Jonathan to hear the singing,” she tried to explain. “Do you hear it?”

She paused and everyone listened intently for a moment, but there was not a sound to be heard.

Mandie and Celia looked at each other. “I know I heard singing, didn’t you, Celia?” Mandie asked.

“Yes, I did. There was definitely someone singing,” Celia assured her.

“Singing?” the old Indian questioned them.

The young people stood there in the dark hallway and tried to explain to Uncle Ned about the singing. But when Mandie said there was a rumor that it was the voice of a young girl long dead, Uncle Ned held up his hand to interrupt.

“If girl dead, then she dead. Cannot be here and dead, too,” the old man said.

“But we don’t really believe the tale, Uncle Ned,” Mandie told him. “We’ve been trying to find out what’s going on. It has to be something human. I don’t believe in ghosts either.”

“Evidently it has stopped,” Jonathan said. With a big yawn, he said, “I’m going back to bed.”

“Yes, we all go to bed,” Uncle Ned said, turning to go back to his room. Jonathan closed his door and the girls returned to their suite.

The next day was Monday and the young people knew their visit would end soon, but they had not solved any part of the mystery. They
stayed on the lookout for the Bagatelles between meals and walks with the adults.

After supper that night they sat in the parlor while the adults were downstairs. Snowball was allowed to run loose in the room and Mandie kept an eye on him to be sure he didn’t decide to leave the room and run down the hallway.

Suddenly she saw him prick up his ears and stand still to stare at the open doorway.

“Snowball hears something,” Mandie whispered to her friends.

They watched and waited. In a couple of minutes the Bagatelles came hurrying by and went down the main staircase. The three jumped up.

“At last!” Mandie exclaimed. She listened to make sure that the couple was definitely not returning. From the hallway, she heard them reach the bottom of the steps and hurry out the front door.

“Now’s our chance to get into their suite,” Jonathan told the girls as he hurried out into the hallway in the direction of the Bagatelles’ suite.

The girls followed, Mandie carrying Snowball. Jonathan tried the doorknob—it was unlocked. The three paused in the doorway to survey the room inside. There were no personal belongings in sight; everything was neat and in order. They crept inside and looked into the bedroom. It was the same there. You’d never know anyone was using the suite.

“Where are all their things?” Mandie asked as they looked around. “They brought so much luggage, the two of them could hardly carry it, remember?”

Jonathan turned back the coverlet and examined the sheets.

“Looks like they have been sleeping in the bed. The sheets are rumpled,” he said, replacing the covers.

“I hear somebody!” Celia exclaimed and the three quickly darted back into the hallway and closed the door behind them.

There was no one in sight, but as they started back down the corridor to the parlor, the Bagatelles came into sight around the corner. The three smiled at the couple as they passed, but the strangers totally ignored them as they hurried on to their suite.

“Whew! That was a close call!” Mandie said, collapsing on the settee in the parlor. She let Snowball jump back onto the floor.

“I’ll say!” Jonathan agreed.

“I’m sure glad they didn’t catch us,” Celia remarked.

“Now we have another mystery. Where are their belongings? And why don’t they keep things in their suite?” Mandie said.

“There is definitely something wrong somewhere,” Jonathan said.

“And the only way we can solve this is to search every room in the house,” Mandie said. “Their belongings have to be somewhere. We could just follow them around everywhere they go to find out where they are keeping their things.”

“That would be next to impossible,” Jonathan said. “They’d realize sooner or later that we were watching them. I suppose we’ll just have to search for their things.”

The girls agreed. But they knew it was time to retire for the night. The search would have to wait until the next day.

As they parted to go to their rooms, Jonathan reminded the girls, “If you hear that singing again, please let me know. Good night.”

The girls promised to wake him. However, that night there was no singing. Mandie and Celia lay awake into the wee hours of the morning listening for it, but there was not a sound.

The next day the young people did solve one mystery. They were walking around in the gardens when they saw the gardener nearby with a dog on a leash. Snowball was on his leash and he spit and huffed as the dog came nearer. Mandie tried to pick him up, but he tried to scratch her.

“Snowball! Stop that!” Mandie told the kitten.

When the man was near enough to speak, his dog tried to lunge at Snowball.

Mandie spoke harshly to the man, “Would you please take your dog somewhere else? He’s disturbing my cat.”

“My dog is the watch dog for the estate,” the man told her. “He is allowed to go anywhere. I even take him through the halls of the house late at night to be sure everything is all right.” He pulled on the dog’s leash.

The three young people looked at each other. Mandie said, “Through the hallways in the house? Did you by any chance bring him down the corridor where we’re staying, the night we got here?”

“That I did,” the man said. “I open all vacant rooms and check all the halls every night. I did not know you had arrived that night.” He walked away with his dog.

“Well, Celia, that settles one mystery,” Mandie said. “It was his dog in the hallway that Snowball heard.” She held tightly to Snowball’s leash as he stared at the departing dog.

“And he turned the doorknob,” Celia said.

“Do you suppose he could have anything to do with the singing we hear at night?” Mandie asked her friends.

“I doubt it,” said Celia. “I’m sure it’s a woman I hear singing.”

“That’s right,” Mandie agreed. “But I thought maybe he might know something about it.”

“I don’t think it would do any good to ask him. He’s not very friendly,” Jonathan reminded the girls.

Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton had gone for a ride in the pony cart that afternoon and the young people were free to go where they pleased. As they walked past the vacant cottage near the house, they stopped to look at it.

“I don’t see anything unusual about this cottage,” Mandie remarked. “It’s just an old empty house. Why are the Bagatelles interested in it?”

They tried to look through the windows, but curtains blocked their view.