The Brown Fox Mystery (12 page)

When Captain Ben passed about a quarter of a mile from the spot where they were anchored, fishing for yellow perch, they saw Miss Annie sitting in the stern of the
Jolly Polly
, and waved at her, Both she and Captain Ben waved back.

“Gee, I wonder if Captain Ben has heard anything more about his insurance,” said Tommy.

“I don’t know,” Djuna replied as he watched the
Jolly Polly
chug down the lake, leaving a wake of ripples. “What I wonder is where Miss Annie is going. She didn’t say anything about leaving the cottage this morning.”

“Maybe she made some cookies to take around to the kids,” suggested Tommy.

“Maybe,” said Djuna, “but I don’t think she would have had time since we left.”

By half-past twelve they had caught fourteen ten-inch perch between them and decided they had better stop, so they wouldn’t be late for lunch.

When they got home they found Champ snoozing on the front porch, but there was no sign of Miss Annie. Puzzled, they went in the kitchen and found a note on the table that read:

“Golly, that’s funny,” Djuna said, and a puzzled frown creased his forehead.

“What’s funny about it?” Tommy wanted to. know.

“I mean, it’s funny she didn’t say anything about going after more thread before we went fishing,” Djuna explained. “That isn’t like Miss Annie.”

“Jeepers!” said Tommy. “Maybe she didn’t even know that she needed it until after we left.” Then he looked at Djuna more closely and added, “Don’t you ever get tired of wondering about things that don’t make any difference?”

“I guess it would make some difference if something
happened
to Miss Annie,” Djuna said.

“Well,
what
could happen to her?” Tommy demanded.

“I don’t know,” Djuna said vaguely. He looked at the small clock on the table beside Miss Annie’s bed and said, “It’s nearly half-past one; let’s get some lunch.”

“What shall we get?”

“Well,” said Djuna as he opened the icebox door, “here’s some cheese and some jelly, and there is some peanut butter in the cupboard.”

“Let’s make some jelly and peanut butter and cheese sandwiches,” Tommy suggested. “I mean, put all three of them together.”

“Have you ever tried them that way?” Djuna asked doubtfully.

“No,” said Tommy, “but they’re all good if you eat them alone, so why wouldn’t they be good together?”

“Well, we can try it and find out,” Djuna said.

After they had made four sandwiches that were each about an inch and a half thick, they poured themselves large glasses of milk, which they had handy as they took their first bites.

“Gee, they’re swell!” said Tommy after he had swallowed his first mouthful.

Djuna nodded his head and said, “Yeah,” but he wasn’t thinking about what he was eating or what Tommy had said. He was thinking about what, to him, had been Miss Annie’s strange behavior that morning. He didn’t quite know what was troubling him, but he knew that Miss Annie was troubled, and he suspected that she was troubled because she was afraid that
he
was going to get into trouble.

When they had finished with the sandwiches Tommy found nearly half a maple layer cake in the bread box and said, “I don’t think Miss Annie will mind if we each have a small piece of this, do you?”

“I don’t think so,” said Djuna, and he licked his lips as he looked at the cake.

So they cut the cake exactly in half and ate all of it, washing it down with gulps of cold milk.

After they had stacked their dishes and tidied up the kitchen they cleaned the fourteen yellow perch they had caught that morning, while Djuna kept looking nervously across the lake and wondering why Miss Annie didn’t return.

At half-past three he became so worried that he couldn’t stand it any longer and said, “I’m going to walk around the old road to Scatterly’s and find out where Miss Annie is. You wait here, and if she comes back, you row across to the landing and get me. I’ll wait there for you to come.”

“Okay,” said Tommy. “We’ll get an ice cream cone.”

There was no one in Scatterly’s store except Miss Winne when Djuna arrived there, and she was sitting in the office before a typewriter and had a lot of papers spread out on a table beside her.

“Hello, Djuna,” Miss Winne said very cordially as she raised her eyes to look at him. “My, but you’ve got a fine tan.”

“Tommy and I have been out in the sun enough, I ought to have one,” said Djuna as he returned her smile. Then his face sobered and he said eagerly, “Was Miss Annie in here, Miss Winne?”

“Why, yes, she was,” Miss Winne said as she turned back to her typing. “And we were talking about you. I was making out our monthly bills when she came in and she asked me if I would teach you how to use a typewriter, if she paid for the lessons.”

“She did?” said Djuna. “She never said anything about it to me.”

“Oh, dear!” Miss Winne said. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have told you, she might have wanted to surprise you. But, no, she couldn’t have, because she left a message for you that she typed herself. I don’t know what’s the matter with me, the way I keep forgetting things.”

“A
message?
” said Djuna as Miss Winne shook her head and rummaged through the papers on the table. “What kind of a message?”

“Why, she said she learned to type when she was a young girl and asked me if I minded if she typed the first sentence she had ever learned,” said Miss Winne as she held up a piece of scrap paper. “She sat down and typed this and then told me to show it to you and tell you to study it, if you came in.”

Djuna took the piece of paper and read with puzzled eyes:

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

“She said it contains every letter in the alphabet,” Miss Winne said. “Prob’ly that’s why she wanted you to study it.”

“Golly, I don’t know,” said Djuna as he continued to stare at the single sentence. “Did—did Miss Annie say where she was going when she left here?”

“Why, yes,” Miss Winne said. “She said she was going home. But that was hours ago. Did you just come from your cottage?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Djuna slowly. “She hasn’t been there since she left with Captain Ben this morning. That—that’s why I came over to ask you if you’d seen her.”

“Well, bless my soul!” said Miss Winne, and she scowled as she looked up to study Djuna’s troubled face. “You don’t think anything has happened to her, do you? She was going to walk home around that lonely road.”

“Oh, no, I don’t think anything has happened to her,” Djuna said, but his face contradicted his words. Then he swallowed and asked, “Did you and Miss Annie talk about anything else?”

“Why, n-o-o,” said Miss Winne, and then she brightened and added, “Yes, we did. She asked me about those two men who rented the old icehouse from me.”

“She did?” Djuna exclaimed, and he tried to keep the startled expression out of his eyes. “What did she want to know?”

“She just wanted to know what kind of men they were and I told her they seemed to be all right except that they must be a little touched in the head to pay me a hundred dollars for that old sawdust,” said Miss Winne, and she giggled to show that she really thought Jones and Baldwin were touched in the head. Then she sobered and said, “Don’t fuss about it, Djuna. She might have walked around the west side of the lake to see Mrs. Smith and Clarabelle.”

“Say, that’s so!” said Djuna. “I’ll go over there and see.” He turned and started to go out of the store when Miss Winne called after him.

“Why don’t you ask Captain Ben?” she said. “He’s still loading up his afternoon deliveries.”

“I will,” Djuna called back. “Thanks, Miss Winne.”

“Let me know if you don’t find her,” Miss Winne shouted.

“Yes, ma’am!” said Djuna as he went through the doorway.

He went through it so hurriedly that he almost knocked Clarabelle Smith, who had just come out of the post office, to the ground as he bumped into her.

“Gee whitakers!” said Clarabelle as she gasped to get her breath. “Why don’t you kill a person and be done with it!”

“Golly, I’m sorry,” said Djuna, and added before Clarabelle could say anything more, “Has Miss Annie been over at your cottage?”

“What’s the
matter
with you?” Clarabelle asked as she backed away from him a little.

“Nothing’s the matter with me,” said Djuna. “I just wanted to know if Miss Annie has been over visiting your mother?”

“No,” said Clarabelle. “She hasn’t been at our place today.”

“Okay!” said Djuna, and he darted around the corner of the post office and started on a run for the Scatterly dock, where Captain Ben loaded his deliveries.

Captain Ben was just loading the last of his afternoon deliveries when Djuna ran on to the dock and stopped beside the ladder that led down to the
Jolly Polly
.

“Do—do you know where Miss Annie is, Captain Ben?” Djuna gasped.

“Whew!” said Captain Ben as he looked up at Djuna’s flushed face. “You wanna be careful, young fellah, or you’re a goin’ to blow a gasket!”

“No, honest, Captain Ben,” Djuna said. “I’m awful worried about her. Do you know where she went after you left her here at Scatterly’s? Did she say where she was going?”

“Why, no, she didn’t,” Captain Ben said as he took off his blue uniform cap to scratch his head. “She didn’t say where she was a goin’ but I opined she was goin’ home, after she got some thread. I offered to run her over in the
Jolly Polly
, but she said as how she was a goin’ to walk home around by the old road.”

“But she didn’t, Captain Ben!” said Djuna. “When we stopped fishing about half-past twelve we went home and found a note asking us if we could get our own lunch if she was late. We had lunch and then cleaned our fish. By that time it was half-past three, so I walked over here to see if she had told Miss Winne where she was going. I thought she might be waiting to come with you when you made your deliveries. Miss Winne said Miss Annie told her she was going home hours ago.”

“You sure she ain’t up payin’ Mrs. Smith a visit?” asked Captain Ben.

“No, she hasn’t been there,” said Djuna. “I—I just saw Clarabelle and she said Miss Annie hadn’t been there at all today.”

“Now, lemme see,” said Captain Ben slowly. “I don’t see as there is great cause to git excited. Miss Annie’s quite a pet with all the kids aroun’ the lake, an’ their folks, too. They might a seen her walkin’ home an’ asked her in f’r a spell to rest. Nothin’ ain’t just swallowed her!”

“But—”

“You say you walked over here on the old road?” Captain Ben interrupted.

“Yes, sir,” said Djuna a little more quietly as Captain Ben’s assurance calmed him. “I would have seen her if she had walked home.”

“Not if she’d stopped in some place to pay a visit,” said Captain Ben. “Now, I’ll tell yuh what we’ll do. You just git aboard here an’ we’ll inquire at all the cottages as I make my deliveries. I bet my bottom sinker we’ll find her in no time.”

“Golly, I
hope
so!” Djuna said as he climbed down the ladder to the
Jolly Polly
. “I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to Miss Annie.”

“Now, now,” said Captain Ben, and he gave Djuna a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Nothin’s happened to her, and nothin’s a goin’ to happen to her. We’ll find her in no time. She’s prob’ly home waitin’ for you by this time.” But Captain Ben’s calm assurance began to leave him as they put in at dock after dock to ask if anyone had seen Miss Annie, and nobody had. Both Djuna and Captain Ben were nervous and fidgety as they left the last dock on the southeast side of the lake and headed for Miss Annie’s own dock.

Tommy was standing on the end of the dock as Captain Ben took the
Jolly Polly
alongside and Djuna shouted, “Has Miss Annie come home?”

“No!” Tommy said. “Didn’t you find her?”

Djuna shook his head and looked at Captain Ben who was staring at Tommy as though he couldn’t believe what Tommy had said. When Captain Ben became aware of the silent appeal in Djuna’s eyes he passed a hand over his face as though to wipe away the worried frown that was there, and then he chuckled.

“Don’t look so dod-blasted gloomy, Djuna,” he said. “We’ll find her. We on’y been one quarter o’ the way ’round the lake. We’ll just keep on an’ keep a lookin’. She’s gotta be some’res, ain’t she?”

“I—I—suppose so,” said Djuna, “but I’m awful worried, Captain!”

“Oh, fiddlesticks!” Captain Ben said. “You told me that before. There ain’t no use in worryin’. We’ll just keep on until we find her.”

“Can I go, too, Captain Ben?” Tommy asked.

“No, sirree!” said Captain Ben. “You stay right here, an’ if Miss Annie comes home you git in your rowboat an’ come tell us. Like as not she’ll be showin’ up at any minute now.” Captain Ben leaned down and lifted a delivery box up on the pier. “You just take these things Miss Annie ordered up to the house and put ’em away, Tommy. I’ll pick up the box later on.”

“Yes, sir,” said Tommy, and he picked up the box of groceries and started for the cottage as Captain Ben laid the bow of the
Jolly Polly
on the next dock and opened his throttle.

No one at any of the cottages on the northeast side of the lake had seen any sign of Miss Annie but all of the children promised to start an immediate search for her, just as they had promised to start hunting for her on the southeast side.

“When all them kids git to lookin’ for her,” Captain Ben chuckled, “she won’t be able to keep out o’ sight, even if she could hide in a thimble.”

“Oh, Miss Annie wouldn’t hide, Captain Ben,” Djuna said earnestly. “I’m just afraid—afraid—”

“I was just jokin’, Djuna,” Captain Ben said as he studied Djuna’s face. “I don’ see what you’re afeerd of. You don’t know somethin’ you ain’t told me, do you, Djuna?”

“Oh, no, sir!” Djuna said, and then he stopped for a moment before he blurted out, “You see, Captain Ben, Miss Annie is always afraid that
I’m
going to get into trouble. You see, I kind of helped the police, a couple of times, to catch some robbers and Miss Annie is afraid I’ll get mixed up in something like that again and be in danger. That’s why she brought us up here this summer, so we wouldn’t get in any trouble.”