“I’ll tell him, but it won’t do any good. He’s made up his mind about the Thurston property. It should be sold. The High Rise people are going to build another complex here. They have offered us a good price for this place.
“You see, these are not my children, but my grandchildren. They’re here because there’s no other place for them to go. The housing shortage is fierce. My own five children have already signed up for apartments at the Thurston place. They’ll be built first. After that my husband and I could retire on the profit we’d get for this place, and move to a smaller house.” She smiled. “Then maybe we’d have some peace and comfort.”
Nancy had a hunch she could never convince Mrs. Tabler that her husband should vote against the High Rise Construction Company’s plans. The young detective now used a completely different approach.
Turning toward the children, she said, “Have you ever been to Mr. Thurston’s zoo and aviary?”
“No!” they shouted.
“Would you like to visit it with me right now?” Nancy asked. “That is, if your grandmother will let you go.”
There were squeals of delight from the younger children and shouts from the older ones.
“Yes, yes!” they all replied.
Nancy turned to Mrs. Tabler. “Would it be all right with you?”
The woman thought a moment. “How would you get them all over there?”
“We can fit them into my car,” Nancy replied. “The younger ones can sit on the laps of the older children.”
“All right,” Mrs. Tabler said.
Nancy opened the car door and at once the youngsters began to pile in. There were a few arguments but Nancy, Bess, and George soon settled them and in a short time Nancy was ready to leave.
The children waved to Mrs. Tabler and she called, “Have a good time!”
Nancy headed in the direction of the Thurston farm. A motorcycle policeman passed her and all the children shouted and waved to him.
Five minutes later Nancy heard a siren. The sound grew louder. Looking in the rear-view mirror, she saw another policeman on a motorcycle coming at high speed toward her. Presently he pulled alongside and signaled her to stop. She did and looked at him questioningly.
“Young lady,” he said, “don’t you know the law?”
CHAPTER XVI
Nancy’s Strategy
THE children in the car sat in silence, stunned by the sudden appearance of the policeman. Bess and George gasped at the idea he evidently was accusing Nancy of breaking the law!
“I think I know the traffic laws,” she replied. “Is something the matter? Surely I wasn’t speeding.”
“No, you weren’t. But you are still breaking the law. Your car is overcrowded.” He looked inside. “My word, how many children are in here?”
Bess answered. “There are nine.”
“And three adults,” the policeman said. “By my arithmetic that adds up to twelve persons. The most your car can hold is six.”
Nancy felt very uncomfortable.
Looking at the officer, she smiled and said, “I wasn’t going far. These children are from the Tabler place. I’m taking them only to the Thurstons’ to see the birds and animals. Please let me go the rest of the way. I’ll make sure two cars take the children back.”
Silence followed. Finally one of the boys said, “Oh please, Mr. Policeman, we want to see the animals and everything.”
A little girl piped up, “And she’s a very nice lady to bring us.”
The officer smiled. “Okay, it’s obvious you’re doing a good deed and you’re not far from the Thurston place. But from now on, remember, no more than six people in this car.”
Nancy thanked him and drove on. The children cheered and clapped. A little girl in the back seat leaned forward and put her hands on Nancy’s shoulders. “I was afraid he was going to put you in jail. We wouldn’t want that to happen!”
Nancy, Bess, and George were touched by the children’s solicitude. Despite their pranks and annoyance to their grandmother, they were lovable. And with more training they could learn to act courteously to strangers.
Nancy was startled a moment later when one of the older girls asked Nancy, “Did that policeman try to jinx you?”
In amazement Nancy asked her, “What do you know about jinxes?”
“Oh,” said the child, whose name was Sue, “a man comes to Gram’s house sometimes. He told us children if we didn’t do as he says he’d put a jinx on us.”
Nancy frowned. “You know he can’t do that. It’s a lot of nonsense.”
“Is it?” Sue asked. “The man said he could have us turned into animals.”
“That’s right,” a boy spoke up. “The jinx man said he could bring us all kinds of bad luck.”
Nancy and her friends made no comment. They were convinced that the man had said this to frighten the children. But why?
Finally Nancy had an idea and asked, “What did this person want you to do?”
Sue replied promptly, “He wants us to tell Gram and Gramp that their house and the whole place has spooks and they should sell it.”
“Spooks?” George repeated. “There are no such things.”
“Oh, yes, there are,” Sue insisted. “Janie and I saw one from our bedroom window.”
The little girl named Janie added, “The spook was all white and leaped around the garden. Boy, could he jump high! Once he flew right across the big flower bed!”
The same thought rushed into the minds of Nancy, Bess, and George. The spook might be the specter who had swooped across the Thurstons’ living room!
Nancy asked the children, “What was his name? I don’t mean the spook, but the other man who told you about these things.”
“He was Mr. Mervman,” Sue answered.
“Do you mean Merv Marvel?” Nancy suggested.
The children shook their heads and Janie said, “No, Mervman.” Nancy and her friends were sure he was the ballet dancer who had been dismissed from the Van Camp troupe.
A few minutes later the car pulled into the Thurston farm. As the visitors piled out, Oscar came toward the group.
Nancy explained why she had brought the children and introduced them. “I told them of my idea for the housing development with your farm being kept as an aviary and zoo.”
Oscar winked at her and then said, “Come with me, children. I’ll show you the birds first.”
Nancy herself was intrigued by the talk which followed. As they walked past the cages of rare parrots, with green, blue and red feathers, Oscar said, “Birds have an interesting bone structure. Their bodies are lightweight for flying because the bones are hollow and those in the wings have air sacs. Have you ever watched a bird take a running start and then lift into the air just like an airplane?”
The children shook their heads no. One boy named Jimmy asked, “What’s that funny-looking bird?” He pointed.
“That’s an Atlantic puffin,” the bird owner told him. He said that the bird, which had a very puffy chest and a hooked blue-and-red bill, was not exactly cuddly.
“Oh, I see a beautiful bird!” Janie cried out, pointing to a sleek one with a yellow stomach. The rest of its body was mostly covered with lustrous green feathers.
“That’s an emerald cuckoo from Africa,” Oscar told her. “Let’s see if we can make him sing.”
Oscar made a sound like
cuckoo, cuckoo.
The bird lifted its head, looked all around and then, to the children’s delight, answered, “Cuckoo, cuckoo.”
Jimmy was so intrigued he had put his face close to the cage. He remarked, “This is a fun place. I wish I could go in there.”
Oscar said this would not be wise. “Strangers frighten the birds.”
Presently they came to a cage of various breeds of hummingbirds. Many of the dainty little creatures were fluttering in midair, sipping something from the flowers of an artificial tree. Oscar explained that he filled the cups of the flowers each day with nectar.
“These tiny birds are amazing,” he said. “They need a terrific amount of energy to make their wings work that fast.
“In proportion to its size a bird consumes a great deal more food than a man. For instance, a pigeon eats one-twentieth of its own weight daily. To equal this appetite a man would have to consume nine pounds a day, three times his average intake.”
Bess remarked, “Then the old saying that a person eats like a bird isn’t true.”
“That’s correct,” said Oscar.
When the tour of the aviary was finished, Rausch met the visitors and led them to another part of the farm. There, behind a row of tall poplar trees, was the small zoo he managed.
The children laughed gleefully over the bears, whom they were allowed to feed. Next they went to see the deer, a pair of sleepy lions, and a giraffe whose neck was so long his head stuck out over the top of his pen.
“Couldn’t he get away?” Janie asked.
Rausch said, “Not a chance. He’d have to get a running start to leap out and the pen is too small for that.”
After the visitors had seen all the animals, Oscar invited his guests to the house for ice cream and cookies. Bess and George offered to help him serve, while Nancy talked with the children.
She began by asking, “Would you like to see this place destroyed?”
“No!” they all shouted loudly.
She told them that the man who called himself Mr. Mervman wanted to do this.
“How awful!” Janie exclaimed.
Nancy said she agreed and was working hard to keep the town council from voting in favor of such a thing. “The builders want to put the apartment houses right here and destroy the Thurston farm.
“Will you do me a favor?” she went on. When they all said yes, she added, “Tell your Gram and Gramps how much you love this place and you want it to stay. Maybe you could write a letter to the newspaper and all of you sign it.”
“We’ll do it!” Janie cried out.
Just then Oscar Thurston came out of the kitchen with a tray of ice cream on sticks. Bess followed with a heaping plate of cookies.
After a while Nancy noticed that one ice-cream pop was still on the tray. “Who doesn’t like ice cream?” she asked the children.
No one answered. She began to count and presently said, “Jimmy is missing.”
At that moment they all heard a scream from the section where the birds were kept. Nancy ran outside and moments later was horrified to find that Jimmy had entered a cage.
A huge black raven, frightened and angry at the intrusion, was attacking him. Jimmy continued to scream as the bird’s huge, cruel claws kept striking at him.
Nancy did not wait. Grabbing up an empty feed sack from the ground, the young detective opened the door of the cage and rushed inside!
CHAPTER XVII
Frightening Plunge
THE raven attacking Jimmy had a twenty-four-inch wingspread. Its huge unwebbed toes were digging into the little boy’s back. The youngster was screaming and trying to reach the gate and safety.
As Nancy sped toward him, she unfolded the feed sack. The next moment she threw it over the bird’s head and yanked the creature away from his victim.
“Run!” she yelled at Jimmy.
The boy needed no urging. He made a beeline for the doorway, still crying and screaming. He was met by Oscar, who had come on the run to find out what had happened. Bess was right behind and took charge of Jimmy.
The bird owner called, “I’ll take care of the raven. Nancy, you hurry out of here!”
She paused a second to see how Oscar was going to manage the bird, which was trying with its beak and one leg to get the feed sack off its head.
Oscar spoke soothingly to the raven as he folded down its flapping wings and held the bird under one arm. He now removed the offensive sack and at once the bird stopped struggling.
“You’re all right, Blackie,” he said to the raven. “You’re not hurt, and you were bad to attack the little boy. Now behave yourself,” he added and let the bird go.
The raven immediately flew into a tree branch and gave a loud croaking call.
Nancy, eager to see how Jimmy was, hurried up to the house. Bess and George had already removed his shirt and were applying a soothing antiseptic lotion to the bleeding scratches. The child was still sobbing but Nancy was sure this was more from fright than injury.
Oscar came into the kitchen holding the tattered feed sack. “You were quick-witted to use this, Nancy.” He smiled. “I’d better keep the bag handy in case another one of my birds gets out of hand!”
Jimmy was so interested in the conversation that he stopped crying. The boy said he would never go into a cage again. “This one wasn’t locked like the others.”
He now asked to be taken home. Bess promised they would do so as soon as she put a bandage and adhesive over the scratches.
Nancy mentioned to Oscar about being stopped by a motorcycle policeman and agreeing to take the children home in two separate trips. At once the man offered to drive most of them in his large station wagon.
Nancy told them all to climb into the cars. “I’ll join you in a minute.” It had occurred to her that she should speak to Mrs. Thurston before leaving.
She went through the kitchen to the living room, expecting to find the woman in her wheelchair. It was empty and she was not in sight.
“Mrs. Thurston must be upstairs,” Nancy concluded.
When she came outside Nancy mentioned this to Oscar. He smiled sadly. “I’m afraid Martha is worse. She doesn’t want to come downstairs at all today.”
“I’m dreadfully sorry,” said Nancy. “Is she physically ill or just worrying too much?”
Oscar said that his wife was so upset over their future that she could not sleep and had no appetite.
“And now,” he went on, “she can’t face meeting anyone; otherwise, I would urge you to try consoling her. Well, let’s go!”
He and Nancy got into their cars and rode off with the others. When they reached the Tabler place, the children jumped to the ground and ran up to their grandmother. She was seated in the yard.