Mandie Collection, The: 4 (59 page)

“I don’t see any reason to go back to that room in the tunnel,” Jonathan said as they stood there.

“I’d like to find out what’s in all those boxes,” Mandie said as she put Snowball down, still on his leash.

Jonathan blew out his breath and said, “There’s no way we can get those boxes open, Mandie. You know we tried.”

“We can get some tools from somewhere to work on them,” Mandie said.

“Tools?” he questioned.

“Like a hammer. We could bust them open with a hammer,” Mandie replied.

“You can’t do that!” Jonathan objected. “You might bust open whatever is inside them.”

“Well, we could try to pull the metal bands off. That would make it easier to get the boxes open,” Mandie said.

“Don’t forget about that door,” Celia reminded them. “We got locked in there, remember? And someone might lock us inside again.”

“We can prop the door open with some of the boxes,” Mandie told her.

“But then anyone who passes by the doorway could see what we’re doing and we could get in trouble, because those boxes belong to someone,” Jonathan told her.

“Oh, Jonathan, if you’re ever going to be a detective, you’ve got to learn that you have to take chance,” Mandie said, exasperated with his objections. “Now, let’s look around until we find a hammer.”

Mandie led the way along the row of shops. She couldn’t see any business that might sell hammers. And she didn’t want to ask for one until she found the right place. No use in spreading the word that they were looking for a hammer. Best to keep their doings secret.

“There must not be any tool shops anywhere near,” she remarked as they came to the end of the street. “At home you can always find a store with all kinds of tools in it.” The three stopped to talk.

“This is a city, Mandie. They don’t need tools like the farmers do back where you come from,” Jonathan said.

“I live in Franklin, North Carolina, and that is a city, Jonathan Guyer,” Mandie said, impatiently stomping her foot. “The farmers come to town to buy their tools and supplies.”

“But this is not the United States, and these people here have their own way of doing things,” Jonathan told her. “The only place I can think of where we could possibly borrow a hammer is back at the hotel.”

“At the hotel?” Mandie questioned. Then she nodded her head. “You’re right. They have to have tools to keep everything in working order.”

“And how are we going to borrow a hammer, Mandie, from the hotel? They’ll just say they will fix whatever needs a hammer,” Celia said.

Mandie thought for a moment and then said with a smile, “We’ll just say we want to borrow a hammer to crack nuts. That’ll do. Come on.”

The three hurried back to the hotel and up to the clerk at the desk. He looked at them questioningly and didn’t speak. Mandie cleared her throat and asked, “Mister, could we borrow a hammer?”

The man raised his eyebrows and said, “Something needs hammer to fix?”

“No, no, no,” Mandie quickly replied. “We have some nuts that we need a hammer to crack.”

“Nuts, hammer crack?” the man said. He bent to reach inside a cabinet under the desk and came up with a small hammer that he held out to Mandie. “Must be big nuts that need hammer to crack.”

“Yes, sir, thank you.” Mandie took the hammer and hurried toward the stairs. Jonathan and Celia followed.

Mandie paused at the bottom of the steps and said, “I’ll go get a scarf to wrap this hammer in so the man won’t see us taking it out of the hotel. I’ll be right back.” She handed Snowball’s leash to Celia and carried the hammer with her.

She ran up the stairs two at a time, rushed into her room, snatched up a red silk scarf, and hurried back downstairs. By the time she reached her friends, she had the hammer securely covered with the scarf.

Jonathan looked at the scarf and said, “Why didn’t you get a dark colored scarf? That red attracts attention.”

“Because this is the only one I could find in a hurry,” Mandie replied. “Would you hold on to Snowball for me, Celia, and I’ll carry the hammer, like this.” She held the tool up in her arms to keep the scarf from revealing its contents. “Let’s go.”

The three hurried down the avenue and on to the alleyway where the tunnel began. They found the door, opened it, and crossed the room to open the door to the smaller room where they had found the boxes. They paused.

“We’d better be real quiet about this just in case someone is inside,” Mandie whispered to her friends as she stood there with her hand on the door latch.

“Right,” Jonathan agreed while Celia nodded her head and held on to Snowball’s leash.

Mandie pushed on the door and nothing happened. She pushed harder without any luck. Jonathan and Celia reached to help. Even with the pressure from all three of the young people the door wouldn’t budge.

“It must be locked,” Mandie whispered with a sigh. “Can y’all hear anything inside?”

The three stood there listening, but no sound came from the room.

“Let’s get bold,” Mandie said, lifting the hammer. “I’ll pound with the hammer while y’all push real hard on the door. Ready?”

“Someone will hear us,” Celia protested.

“And we’ll get into trouble,” Jonathan said.

“Oh, come on and help me,” Mandie said. “We can’t hear anything inside. Therefore, there must not be anyone in there. This whole tunnel place seems to be deserted. There’s nobody around to see or hear us.”

Jonathan shrugged his shoulders. “Well, all right.”

Celia said, “I suppose if y’all insist on doing this, I’ll have to help.” She looked around the room. “I’ll tie Snowball over here to the door we came in so I can use both hands. Wait a minute.” She hurried back to the other door, looped Snowball’s leash around the handle, and came back to help Mandie and Jonathan.

“Ready?” Mandie asked as she raised the hammer.

Her friends nodded as they pushed with all their might on the door
and Mandie began pounding on it. She kept missing the door and hitting the door facing with the hammer, but suddenly the door swung open.

“I knew we could do it!” Mandie cried, excitedly entering the room, which was still full of boxes. “Come on.”

“Not until I make sure this door can’t close and lock us in again,” Jonathan said as he looked around.

Celia had gone back to get Snowball and now she offered to hold the door open. “I could just stand here leaning against it while y’all hammer on those boxes. That way it won’t close,” she said as she stepped back to hold it open.

“All right,” Mandie agreed as she walked among the stacks of boxes. Turning to Jonathan she asked, “Which one should we start on?”

“I guess any one would do,” Jonathan said. “You’re probably going to break whatever is in it anyway.”

Mandie raised the hammer as she stopped before a box. “Here goes!” she said as she brought the tool down on the wooden box, and watched for the wood to crack.

But the box didn’t even move, much less crack. Mandie tried again, still with no results at all.

“Let me try,” Jonathan offered. “I’m a little stronger than you are.”

Mandie gave him the hammer and she watched as he swung it down again and again on the box without making a splinter.

“I don’t think this hammer is strong enough,” Jonathan said after a futile try at breaking open the box. The metal bands held tight. He laid down the hammer.

“There’s got to be some way to get these boxes open,” Mandie complained as she looked around the room. Crossing over to the box they had broken open earlier, she stooped and looked at the rocks that had been in it. “Why don’t we use these big rocks to try to smash one open?” She couldn’t lift the large one.

“Wait, I’ll help you,” Jonathan told her. He grasped one end of the rock while she took the other. Together they walked back to the box they had been pounding with the hammer.

“When I say one, two, three, let’s drop it together on the box,” Mandie said.

“Go ahead,” Jonathan told her.

“One, two, three,” Mandie repeated and she and Jonathan swung the heavy rock down on the box. They bent quickly to examine it. The wood was slightly splintered in one place. “I think it will break it open if we keep on doing this,” she said.

“There’s no telling what’s in this box, Mandie, so get prepared to jump away from it. The contents could come flying everywhere if we break it open,” Jonathan warned her as he helped her lift the huge rock again.

“One, two, three,” Mandie again said, and they threw the rock down on the box again.

“Y’all are making an awful noise,” Celia told them as she held on to Snowball, who was excited by the racket.

“I know, but we’ll soon have this open,” Mandie said as she and Jonathan once again lifted the rock and smashed the box.

This time there was a loud cracking sound, and the two jumped back as the box splintered into pieces. Then Mandie rushed forward to see what was inside. She quickly pulled at the straw stuffing. Her fingers met something hard and cold.

“There’s something in here!” she cried excitedly, digging at the straw.

“Of course there’s something in there,” Jonathan told her as he helped.

Celia moved forward to see, but she kept her foot against the door to prevent it from closing.

Mandie suddenly sat back on to the floor and exclaimed, “Rocks again! Nothing but rocks! Just like the other box.”

“All that hard work for nothing,” Jonathan grumbled as he sat beside her.

“Well, now that y’all know there’re rocks in the boxes, why don’t we go back to the hotel? It must be time to eat,” Celia said.

Mandie quickly stood up. “No, let’s try just one more box. One that’s in a different stack,” she said, walking around to look at the jumbled boxes.

Jonathan sighed. “All right, one more but no more than that. I agree with Celia. I’m getting awfully hungry.”

“This one,” Mandie said, pulling on a box at the top of a stack. “Let’s get this one down on the floor and try it.”

She and Jonathan pulled at the box but the whole stack wobbled.

“They’re all going to fall down, Mandie,” Jonathan warned.

“And that would make a terrible racket,” Celia added.

“All right then. Let’s try this one,” Mandie said, bending to look at another box that was sitting by itself on the floor. “They all look alike, the same size and shape.”

“And they probably all have rocks in them,” Jonathan added as he, too, stooped to inspect the box.

“Why don’t y’all pull a box over here to prop open the door and I’ll help you. We can tie Snowball back there out of the way behind the stacks,” Celia offered.

“Good idea,” Mandie said. “Jonathan, let’s push this box over there.”

Jonathan helped and they soon had slid the box in front of the open door. Celia went around behind the stacks and tied Snowball’s leash to one of the metal bands on a box.

“Now let’s get that big rock and try it on this box,” Mandie said, leading the way over to the rock they had used.

It was easier to lift with the three working together, and they began pounding the box with the rock. Nothing seemed to happen.

Mandie straightened up for a moment. “Should we try another box? This one seems awfully hard to crack. And not only that—” She stopped suddenly and whispered quickly to her friends. “I hear someone coming! Let’s hide!”

The three quickly darted around behind the boxes where Snowball was tied and where they would be out of sight to anyone passing the doorway. Mandie’s heartbeat quickened as she heard loud, heavy footsteps coming nearer. They paused at the open doorway. She could just barely peek through an opening between the stacks of boxes. Her heart did a flip-flop when she saw two men in police uniform standing there.

Mandie held on to Snowball to keep him from making a noise as she listened to the two men talking loudly in what she recognized as French even though she couldn’t understand a word of it. Jonathan and Celia huddled close-by and watched through the crack between the boxes.

Mandie saw the men quickly push the box away from the door and leave the room, slamming the door behind them. There was a click of
the lock. She gasped in fright. Now they would have to find a way out of this place again.

The three stood up, looked around the room, and groaned together. They were trapped!

“What did those policemen say?” Mandie quickly asked Jonathan.

“I couldn’t understand everything, but they said they didn’t know why this room was open and the door left ajar. Evidently they knew a man’s name connected with this room but I missed that.”

“So the police know about this room,” Mandie said as she looked around and picked up the hammer.

“And I imagine they’ll be going to find out from the man they mentioned why it was open,” Jonathan added.

“And we’re stuck in here,” Celia said. She had quickly moved across the room to try the door. It wouldn’t open.

Mandie rushed up behind her and also tried it.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get out somehow,” she said, not exactly believing it herself this time.

The strange woman from the ship had rescued them before. Maybe the woman would come to their aid again. Or just maybe they could force the door open somehow.

CHAPTER TEN

CAUGHT!

The three young people beat and banged on the door, but it would not open. Mandie used the hammer on it without any luck. They made so much noise it was a wonder no one heard them.

“Let’s beat on the boxes while we figure out how to get out of here,” Mandie suggested as the three looked at one another in desperation.

She went back to the box they had been working on. Then she decided to move on to the next box. She raised the hammer and pounded on the metal bands around it. Jonathan and Celia watched.

Suddenly the box caved in. “Look!” Mandie cried excitedly, stooping to investigate the contents. “Look what’s inside!” She frantically pulled at the straw stuffing, and her friends joined her. Finally they were able to pull out a smaller box. This box was not so hard to get into.

“Oh, it’s a painting!” Mandie exclaimed as she held up a small framed object.

Jonathan examined it and said, “It’s small but it is an original painting, I think.”