CHAPTER XIV The Missing Jade
Peter gave a long, low whistle of surprise. Then he asked Judy exactlywhere she had found the little idol.
She told him and added, “It isn’t quite the way Penny described it. Thislooks more like a hunter than a doll.”
“It may be a clue when we start hunting for the rest of the jadecollection,” declared Peter. “Have you any more clues as good as thisone?”
Judy laughed. “I’m afraid not, but it won’t do any harm to list theclues I do have.”
“First of all,” Peter said, “is that tourist sign. I’ll never understandhow you get these sudden impulses, but it certainly led Mrs. Riker andthe children to the right place.”
“That’s true,” Judy admitted, and sighed. “Naturally they were lookingforward to meeting their uncle. It must have been a terrible shock tothem to find his house destroyed.”
“What about their other uncle?” asked Peter. “Doesn’t he have a house?”
“I don’t know,” Judy replied. “Helen wouldn’t let the children talkabout him. Penny acted as if she’d never heard of him before. It was theold uncle they were expecting to visit, not the young one.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I’m not sure of anything,” confessed Judy. “There’s a big secret ofsome kind. Helen’s trained Paul to keep it, but not Penny. The troubleis, I don’t think Penny knows all of it. And she has such animagination! I actually feel sorry for her, the way they stop her everytime she wants to talk. But it may be necessary. Helen Riker may be indanger.”
“What about you?” asked Peter. “You’ve really handed yourself a problem,sweetheart. If she’s in danger, I’m afraid you are, too.”
“I know, Peter.” Impulsively she kissed away the worried frown on hisforehead, nearly stabbing him with the pencil she was holding. “But whyshould I be any safer than you are?” she asked. “You’re nearly always indanger—”
“From pencils? Only when I’m with you,” he returned, laughing.“Actually, pencils are about the only weapons I’ll be using for the nextfew weeks. Most of the time I will be sitting at an office desk doingvery undangerous routine work.”
“You weren’t today,” she reminded him. “You were fighting forest fires.”
“Today,” he said, “was a little unusual. But let’s talk about your day.I want to get the facts straightened out in my mind.”
“My day?” Judy questioned, thinking back. “For me it always begins whenI first open my eyes and say to myself, ‘Here is another mystery tosolve.’ Every day _is_ a mystery, Peter, because you never know oneminute what wonderful, beautiful, or even terrible thing will happen thenext. That’s what makes life so exciting and—and wonderful.”
“It takes a pretty wonderful person to see it that way,” declared Peter.
“You’re wonderful, too,” she told him. “How foolish I was to worry forfear you might not understand. You see, we put up the tourist signbefore Horace came with the news of the robbery. At first it was justfor fun. We didn’t really think anyone would stop. And then, just afterwe put up the sign, those three men came along. They didn’t drive downour road. Maybe it looked too steep or something. They just parked theircar by the mailbox and started to explore the grounds and ask questions.One of the men asked about the house, but I told him it wasn’t for sale.It’s _our_ house, Peter. Nothing in the world could make me want to sellit.”
“But it is a little lonesome, is that it?”
“A little,” she admitted, “when you’re at work. But today Honey was withme, and then of course Helen and the children came. Oh!” she exclaimedsuddenly.
“What now, Angel?”
“An idea I had. Penny did say something about getting into trouble whenyou didn’t tell things,” Judy remembered. “She was talking about hermother. And then she said, ‘I’d never, never steal anything after whatshe told me. Only bad people steal.’ I agreed with her and it seemed tobother her, and then she said something about it’s being different forchildren. What do you suppose she meant by that?”
“Obviously some child she cared about had stolen something. I doubt ifit was Penny herself.”
“Was it Paul?”
“Not if I’m any judge of character,” Peter said. “What else can youremember?”
“A lot of things. I’ll write them down. There were still more clues inthe paper if we only had it. I think Helen must have taken it upstairswith her.”
“We don’t need it,” Peter told her. “I’m familiar with every word in it.You see, our office released the news. Horace didn’t tell you, but hegot it from me.”
“He did? Then you know more about it than he does! Can you tell me whothe thieves were?” Judy asked. “Was it the caretaker?”
“Possibly, although it was he who reported the robbery.”
“And what about the jade collection? If this green doll was part ofit—Peter! It must have been. But why was Helen taking it there unless—”Judy kept interrupting herself as more ideas flashed through her brain.Then, suddenly, she knew.
“It was!” she exclaimed. “I remember it now! It said in the paper that apriceless Oriental jade collection had been stolen—”
“Was believed to have been stolen,” Peter corrected her. “It makes quitea difference.”
“Not in what I’m trying to say,” she continued. “I don’t remember itword for word, but it went on to say that the valuable jade pieces hadbeen collected during Paul Riker’s travels through the Far East. Theywere little statues of gods and goddesses! I had forgotten that untilthis very minute. And there was something else about their value beingeven greater if they were matched pairs. Does that mean there’s agoddess for every god? Then, if one happened to be missing, it would beworth a lot of money, wouldn’t it? And if the burglars knew where itwas, they’d try to steal it, wouldn’t they? And they’d try to find outabout the rest of the collection. Oh, Peter! That was what you meantwhen you said you were on the trail of quite a number of green dolls,wasn’t it? And this one I found may lead us to all the others.”
“It may,” Peter replied soberly. “On the other hand, it may lead us intomore trouble. If Mr. Riker himself dropped it in the vault—”
“I give up,” Judy interrupted. “But this green ‘doll’ is jade, isn’t it,and it was stolen from Mr. Riker’s collection, don’t you think, Peter?”
“Yes, I do,” Peter agreed, “but if anyone stole it I’m afraid you’re theguilty one, Angel. You’d better let me have it before it gets you intomore trouble. It may be the mate to the one Mrs. Riker had stolen fromher.”
“Oh dear!” Judy began. “I hadn’t thought of that. I didn’t mean—”
“Of course you didn’t,” Peter reassured her. “I know your motives weregood when you took it, and a great deal of good may come out of it, sodon’t worry.”
“I won’t,” Judy promised, inspiration suddenly erasing all worry fromher mind. “Oh, Peter!” she cried. “I have a wonderful idea. Come up tothe attic with me. There’s something up there I want to show you.”
The Trail of the Green Doll Page 15