By this time Shoie was getting interested. “How does it work, Alvin?”
“Well, with this good old invention I can sit on the porch and watch the power mower do all the work. I can even go in the house, mix up a glass of lemonade, come back out, and the mower will have been working all that time.
“Here’s how it will work. I’ll start up the mower, put it in gear, and it will go forward by itself. This rope will hold it so it won’t mow straight, but in a big circle around the post. As it goes around the post, the rope will wind up, so the circle will get smaller and smaller. Pretty soon the mower will be right in against the post and the whole lawn will be mowed, except for a little trimming around the edges.”
“Gosh!” said Shoie. “You sure do have wild ideas.”
Alvin jerked the starter rope a couple of times before he remembered that he had taken an important spring off the mower to use on his Automatic Shoe Shiner. He went inside, returned with the spring, and put it back on the mower. This time the mower started with one jerk.
He checked the long rope and the post, then put the mower in gear. It started across the lawn, pulling against the rope. But instead of moving in a straight line, it moved in a huge circle right around the post.
Alvin ran over and sat down on the front steps with Shoie. They both watched in admiration as the mower circled the post, the grass clippings flying out behind.
“Yippee!” said Shoie, leaping up and chasing the mower. For the first time that day, he seemed like the old Shoie. He ran back to Alvin and pounded him on the back. “Yippee! The Great Inventor has done it again.”
Just then — disaster!
Both boys were watching as the mower hit a bump in the lawn, gave a bounce, and jerked the post right out of the ground. Then, trailing the rope and fence post, it rolled across the lawn toward the flower bed.
Alvin and Shoie couldn’t move. They watched in horror as the mower plowed right through the flowers. Snapdragons and daisies flew in every direction. At the last minute it veered toward a new bed of pansies, clipped them neatly to the ground, hit the fence, coughed twice and stopped.
At that moment Alvin’s mother stuck her head out the door.
Alvin didn’t particularly mind being sent to his room because it gave him a chance to work on his inventions, but he always complained bitterly so his mother wouldn’t catch on. Today, he worked on his Super Robot. By late afternoon he had succeeded in making the Robot’s eyes flash on and off, and fixed it so the Robot would reach one arm jerkily across and scratch the opposite ear.
The Robot didn’t seem nearly as much fun as he’d thought it would, though, because no matter how hard he worked on it, he kept thinking about Mrs. Huntley. He remembered the time, long ago, when she had made him promise to feed all the birds around her house if anything ever happened to her. He could see her now, a kindly smile on her wrinkled face as the birds flocked around her. Well, had something happened to her? And wasn’t it up to him to find out?
Suddenly the thought struck him. Perhaps he could find out what had happened to Mrs. Huntley without his folks knowing anything about it. Then, if she was all right, his folks need never know that he had disobeyed them by going back to the old house. And if something had happened to her... Well, he’d face that problem when he came to it.
At last, when his mother relented and let him go outdoors, a plan had taken shape in his mind. He headed for the garage, climbed up the rose trellis, and clambered onto the roof. He focused the Long Distance Signal Mirror so it would catch the sun’s rays and reflect them up the street into Shoie’s bedroom window. He waggled his hand over the mirror, spelling the letters in Morse code:
By this time he’d shinnied back down to the ground Shoie was racing up the street.
“Hi, old bean,” said Shoie, a little out of breath. “So she finally let you out of prison. What’s up?”
“Need your help, old man,” replied Alvin. “Got to work fast. We’re going to need this invention tonight, so don’t waste any time. No questions. First thing I want you to do is unscrew the hose off the faucet at the back of the house and drag both ends of it around here. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“What —” began Shoie.
“No questions. Just do as I say.”
Shoie raced for the back of the house and Alvin ran for the front door. In the coat closet he tossed out sweaters, jackets, coats, and hats until he found what he wanted — an old winter cap he’d worn a couple of years before. It was made like an aviator’s helmet, with ear flaps that were held tight around his face by a strap under his chin.
Alvin raced out to the garage and found the funnel that he used to pour gasoline into the lawn mower. For a moment he stood there shuddering at the thought of the mower. He squared his shoulders and went back out the garage door. Shoie was standing there with the two ends of the hose in his hands.
Alvin handed Shoie the funnel. “Push the funnel into one end of the hose,” he said.
While Shoie was doing that, Alvin found a bit of tape in his pocket. “Wind that around the funnel and the hose, so the funnel won’t come out,” he instructed.
Alvin started working on the old winter hat. He put it on his head, checking it for size, and found that it was considerably too small. He couldn’t pull it down as far as it should be, so there was some extra space above the top of his head.
Shoie looked at him and grinned. “Room for your point, old bean,” he said.
Alvin didn’t think it was very funny. With his finger, he held the place where his ear came under one of the flaps, then took off the hat. He marked the place with a pencil. Opening his knife, he carefully cut a little X at that point.
He held out his hand, palm up, toward Shoie. Shoie looked at him with a puzzled expression, then handed him the end of the hose with the funnel.
Alvin shook his head. “The other end,” he said. “Watch what you’re doing or I’ll fire you.”
Shoie shrugged and handed him the other end of the hose. Alvin put the cut in the hat over it, and pushed down. There was a little rip as he forced the hat over the end of the hose. Then he turned the helmet inside out, puckered up the cloth around the end of the hose and tied the helmet in place with a piece of string.
When he had finished, the hat was tightly bound to the end of the hose. The hose stuck inside the hat at a point where it would touch his ear.
“There!” said Alvin, admiring his work. “A fast job, but a good one. I’ll bet it works, too.”
“What is it?” asked Shoie.
“A Supersecret Eavesdropper,” replied Alvin patiently, as though anyone should know what it was.
“What’s an Eavesdropper?”
“Why, anybody knows what an Eavesdropper is. You use it to listen to other people talk, without letting them know you’re listening.”
“Oh,” said Shoie. “How does it work?”
“I’ll show you. Take the funnel end of the hose — that’s the microphone — around to the other side of the house.”
Shoie disappeared around the corner, dragging the hose with him.
Alvin waited until he felt a jerk on the hose. He gave it a jerk to stop Shoie, then put on the hat. He could feel the end of the hose right against his ear. For three or four minutes he waited, but couldn’t hear a thing. Maybe the Supersecret Eavesdropper was a failure...
He shouted, “Well, say something!”
On the other end of the hose, Shoie heard the shout. He put his lips down to the funnel and shouted as loud as he could, “I didn’t know you wanted me to talk to you.” He waited a couple of minutes, but didn’t hear anything from Alvin. Finally he dropped the funnel and ran around the house. Alvin was stumbling around in circles, holding his ear.
“What’s the matter?” asked Shoie.
Alvin groaned. “I didn’t tell you to shout. I just told you to say something. Ohhhhh, my ear.”
Alvin sat down and waggled his head back and forth for two or three minutes. Finally he sai
d, “Okay, let’s try it again. Only this time, just whisper into the funnel.”
Shoie ran back around the house and picked up the funnel. He didn’t know exactly what to whisper. Finally, in a very low voice, he said, “My dad can beat up your dad any day of the week, blindfolded, with one hand tied behind his back and a bad case of measles.”
He heard Alvin shout back, “Don’t let my dad hear you say that, old bean.”
Shoie ran around the house, turned a cartwheel, landed on Alvin’s toe and pounded him on the back. “Gosh, it works. It works!”
Alvin hopped around, trying to hold his toe and rub his back at the same time. “Careful, oh Mighty Athlete,” he said. “You don’t know your own strength.”
“Let me try it, old bean.”
This time Shoie put on the hat and listened while Alvin whispered. Alvin’s voice came through loud and clear, “No wonder you scratch so much. You’re covered with fleas.”
They took turns insulting each other for awhile. Finally, they sat down together behind the house to admire the Supersecret Eavesdropper.
“What’s the hat for, Alvin?” asked Shoie. “Couldn’t you just hold the end of the hose against your ear and hear just as well?”
The great inventor spoke to Shoie in the same tone he frequently used on the Pest. “That’d be some invention, wouldn’t it. Every time you wanted to listen you’d have to hold a hose against your ear. Some invention!” He shook his head. “Besides, we’ll need both hands free when we use this Supersecret Eavesdropper tonight.”
“What do you mean?” asked Shoie. He knew what Alvin meant, but he didn’t want to put it into words.
“You know what I mean. We’re going back to the old Huntley place and listen to those two men. We’re going to find out what happened to Mrs. Huntley.”
Shoie shuddered. “Maybe you are. I’m not.”
“Don’t tell me the Mighty Athlete is scared.”
“Of course I’m scared. Aren’t you?”
“Well, maybe — just a little,” Alvin admitted. “But we’ve got to find out what they’re doing in that old house.”
“Why?”
“Just because it’s our duty to find out about old Mrs. Huntley. Maybe she’s hurt, or — or something.”
“Or something,” said Shoie, “something else. Maybe she’s — maybe she’s dead.”
Alvin was silent.
Finally Shoie said, “But I don’t want to go back to that spooky old house, Alvin.”
“We’ve got to. Now are you coming along, or are you going to chicken out?”
“Cluck-cluck-cluck,” said Shoie.
“Oh, come on, Shoie. With this invention —” he motioned toward the Supersecret Eavesdropper, “with this invention we’ll be perfectly safe. Why, we can lie in the bushes a long way from the house and hear everything they’re saying.”
“I don’t know, Alvin,” said Shoie doubtfully.
Alvin had an inspiration. “I’ll tell you what, old man. I’ve got a great invention all worked out in my mind. It’s a pair of Kangaroo Shoes with big springs hidden in them. You’ll be able to walk down the street in front of everybody, as though you were wearing an ordinary pair of shoes. Then, whenever you want to, you can press a button on your belt and go sailing fifteen, maybe twenty feet in the air. Why, that’s as high as a house. Think of it! If you’ll come along tonight, I’ll give you my Kangaroo Shoes as soon as I invent them.”
Shoie was fascinated. Why, with those shoes he could beat the high-jump record easily. “You’re sure we’ll be safe tonight?” he asked cautiously.
“Absolutely sure. Cross my heart.”
“Well, okay then. I’ll come along. But just for a little while.”
Before Shoie left, Alvin told him to tie a string around his wrist when he went to bed and dangle the other end out the window. That way he wouldn’t have to throw any more rocks into Shoie’s room.
As Alvin went in to wash up for supper, he saw his sister coming around the corner of the house. He groaned. He’d promised to show her every invention, and if she thought he was trying to hide the Supersecret Eavesdropper, she’d go straight to his folks and tell them everything. Well, he supposed he’d have to show it to her.
The Pest, of course, knew exactly how to get anything she wanted from Alvin. And before he knew what had happened, she not only had seen the Supersecret Eavesdropper, but knew all about his plans to find out what had happened to Mrs. Huntley by listening in on the two men that night.
“But you’re not tagging along this time,” he said as they went into the house.
“Tag along,” she echoed.
Chapter 6
UP A TREE
The three figures sneaked down the deserted street trying to avoid the pools of light beneath the street lights. Alvin, with the Supersecret Eavesdropper coiled over his shoulder, was annoyed with himself. Some magnificent brain! Why, he couldn’t even keep his kid sister from knowing everything he did.
He looked down at her in the moonlight and his thoughts softened. She was sort of appealing, all right, trudging along beside him in her jeans. He wished she hadn’t come, though. No telling what might happen.
The closer they got to the old Huntley place, the less Alvin wanted to go through with his plan. Seemed like it was darker tonight — and spookier.
They managed to climb the fence without making much noise. In the bushes on the other side they huddled together for a moment, then moved on.
As they crept through the grass, Alvin looked up and saw the big black house silhouetted against the skyline. It was a scary sight — scary enough to make a tickle run down anybody’s spine.
“Whoooooo!” The sound came from above their heads. Alvin just about jumped out of his skin.
“Whoooooo!”
The three children hugged the ground.
“Whoooooo!”
Suddenly Alvin knew what it was. “An owl,” he whispered to the others. “Only an owl. Probably Mr. Huntley, back to haunt the place — that’s whooooooo.”
On up toward the house they crept. Finally, Alvin stopped beneath a tree.
“This is our listening post,” he whispered. “We’ll stretch the hose on up to the house from here.” He looked at Shoie. “Are you coming?”
“No thanks. You promised we’d be safe, and this is as close as I’m going to get to that house tonight.”
“Scaredy!”
“Okay, I’m scared.” Shoie stretched out on the ground as though he’d never move.
Alvin handed him the helmet. “You and Pest climb up in the tree where you’ll be safe, and there’s no chance they’ll see you if they come prowling around out here. Hang onto the helmet. I’ll take the microphone up to the house alone, as long as you’re too scared to help me.”
He crept off through the grass, the hose snaking along behind him. Now that he was alone, the closer he got the spookier it seemed. At the bottom of the rickety steps he paused a minute and looked up.
There was a faint light in the window, as though it were shining into the big front room from the back of the house.
Even though the night air was cool, Alvin could feel the sweat trickle down his face. He knelt there a moment, heart pounding. Then he started crawling up the steps.
A board creaked under his knees.
There wasn’t a sound from inside the house for two or three minutes. Alvin finally crawled on up until he was lying on the porch. Then, squirming on his stomach, he made his way across the old floorboards until he was just beneath the broken window. Holding the funnel up to the window, he suddenly realized that he had completely forgotten something. How was he going to fasten the funnel in the jagged opening? He lowered the funnel, and took time to hit himself softly on his head.
Then he thought of the loose floorboards. His hands crept across the floor until they found a board that felt particularly loose. Only one nail seemed to be holding it so he pried up the board with his fingers.
Screeeeeeech!
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Alvin thought the sound of that rusty nail could be heard clear down at the fire station. Surely the two men would hear it. He held his breath.
Still there was no sound from inside. He forced himself to put the funnel back up against the window so that part of it extended over the hole. He propped it in that position with the floorboard. It was tipsy, but it seemed to hold all right.
As fast as he could, he crawled back to join the others. Shoie was hanging onto a limb with both hands, the helmet over his head. Alvin climbed up into the tree beside him.
“All set,” he said. “Heard anything yet?”
“Not a peep,” answered Shoie. “Are you sure there’s anyone in there?”
“Yep.” Alvin held out his hand. Shoie took off the earphone and gave it to him.
For a long time Alvin listened without any luck. After a while he could sense from the wriggling in the tree that the other two were growing impatient. Perhaps his plan was a failure. The ear flaps were hot around his ears, and he was just reaching up to take off the hat when he thought he heard something.
There it was again. This time he heard it distinctly. A door slamming!
Alvin touched the others on the shoulder, pointed to the earphone and nodded his head.
A voice came through a little muffled, but clear enough to be understood. “I know it’s here somewhere. Years ago, she told me it was.”
A second voice, much deeper, answered: “Yeah, we both know it’s here. But we aren’t finding it.”
First voice: “Let’s sit down and think about this for a minute.”
Second voice: “That’s all we been doing. Thinking.”
First voice: “We’ve looked in all the obvious places. Let’s use our heads. Where would you hide it if you knew somebody was going to be looking for it?”
Second voice: “She’s pretty smart. She probably located a hiding place where nobody could find it.”
First voice: “Maybe.”
A long pause.
First voice: “Once she told me it was in a paper sack.” Pause. “Now where would she hide a paper sack jammed with thousands of dollars?”
The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald Page 4