Norton, Andre - Novel 32 (12 page)

Just as it had
been
so noisy
yesterday morning
at the station, now it
was very quiet. The work
men had left.
Father had driven into town as
soon as
Mother had come back the day before
to
see someone at the bank. He was away a
very long time. When Christie had
gone to bed
he had not yet returned, though
when she
awoke early in the morning
the car was again
standing in the
untidy yard among the supplies
to
restore the station.

Was
what Marlene Toner had said true? Did Mr. Toner really own the station and
would the
Kimballs
have to move? Where were they going
to go—back east again?

"Chris," Perks pattered over barefooted, her
rumpled pajamas twisted about her legs, Rag
gedy Ann under her arm. Shan sat in the door
of their room
yawning, and Baron was outside
barking, announcing it was time to feed a
hun
gry dog.

"Chris," Perks repeated, tugging now at her
sister's sleeve, "do we have
to move?"

"I don't know.
Anyway—not
today."

"I don't want to go.
Parky
and Neal—they're
going
to open the treasure box. Chris, if there's
money inside that—can't we give it to Daddy
and help him keep the
station?"

All
the money in the world, Christie thought,
might
not make Mr. Toner let go of land he
wanted.
She knew that Father had been greatly
worried
yesterday—nearly as worried as he had
been
when he lost that job back in Mayfield.

"I know one
thing,
"
she said suddenly,
"Marlene
isn't going to get lady Maude!"

"But—how could she?" Perks wanted to
know. "We found her—Marlene
didn't."

"But if it's true her father owns the land
where the cave is, maybe he can
claim anything
we
found there belongs to him."

"We can hide her! Then if we have to go
away we can take her along and
that old Mar
lene
won't even know about her."

That was an idea that had already occurred
to Christie. She nodded. "We'll
try that, Perks,
if
we have to."

It seemed that this was a day of troubles.
First both Mother and Father had
to go back
into town.
The children were given orders to
stay with the
Wildhorses
.
In fact, Mother and
Father were in
such a hurry to leave they said
very little, except about what must be
done and
that Christie and Neal should take
care of the
twins and do what Mrs.
Wildhorse
told them.

Even Pinto was going with them. Perhaps,
Neal and Christie decided,
because he had lived
at
the station so long he knew more than anyone
about who it really belonged to. He did not look
like himself wearing a white
shirt and a checked
coat,
with his hat on straight instead of pushed
to
the back of his head. And he was not happy-
eyed
anymore.

"We can clean up some." Christie tried to
think of what might be done to
help out as the
car
pulled away.

"You can," Neal told her shortly, "if you
want to. I'm going to hunt in
Pinto's place for
a
big hammer and a chisel. With those we can
open the strongbox. If there's gold in that, Dad
can sure use it now."

"But it wouldn't be our gold," Christie re
minded him. "And besides,
they said for us to stay right around here. We can't go to the cave
today."

Neal hesitated. Their parents had been firm
about that.

"We can go over to
Toliver's
.
We can ask
Mrs.
Wildhorse
. If she says it's all right, we
can go."

"That—maybe that's being sneaky," Chris
tie retorted. "You heard
Mother say stay
here."

"I'm not a sneak! You take that back!" Neal
flared, his face flushing, his
hand balling into
fists.
"I want to help Dad—and you say it's
sneaky."

"Well, maybe not exactly sneaky. But you
know Mother wouldn't want us to
go as far as
the
cave."

Neal kicked a scrap of wood, sending it flying
against the corral poles. Pinto
had taken even
the
burros out to graze before he had left. The station seemed very lonely just
now.

"I don't know what good it's going to do for
us just to sit around here all
day!" he burst out.
"We could be opening that box, seeing what's
in it."

Christie wavered. Maybe if Mother had
known how important it was, she
might have said they could go. But she had not and they
were
now bound by their promises.

Neal realized that, too. He kicked at another
stick and then walked slowly toward the house.
"All right, so we clean up," he said in
a dis
couraged voice.

Christie looked sharply at the twins. "You
two are to stay right here with
Baron and Shan,
remember?"

Perks nodded.
Parky
was
squatting on his
heels
watching something on the ground with
such absorption that he did not appear to hear.

"
Parky
!"
Christie moved to stand over
him.

"Yeah, I heard you." But he did not look up
and Christie had to be content
with that much
of an
answer.

Neal cleared off the table and stacked mugs
and plates ready to wash while
Christie went to make up the bunks.

"The stove fire's out," Neal called. "But
some of the water still in the
kettle ought to be
warm
yet. I just won't put any cold in with it."

She heard a lot of splashing, which meant
Neal was washing up. But
Christie's mind was
busy
with other thoughts.

Lady Maude must be worth a lot of money,
and if they weren't going to be
able to keep the
station, then the plan
of the museum would not work. Father must have spent a lot here buying
things to turn the station into a motel. Mr.
Toner might not pay for that because, as
Toli-
ver
and Libby had said, he only wanted the
water. If they could sell Lady Maude, maybe the
money would help out a
lot,
bring enough
to take them home again. Only—she felt a kind
of pain even thinking of selling the doll.

Where could you sell her? To a museum,
Christie supposed, or to some
lady who col
lected
old dolls." But how did you discover which museum or collector would want
her?
Did you
advertise in a paper? Christie moved
more and more slowly between each fold of
blanket and smoothing of pillow.

"Hey, Chris, I'm finished washing—you
come and wipe!" Neal called.
"I'll sweep up
while
you do."

Hurriedly, Christie tidied the last bunk and
came back to find Neal vigorously
using the
broom. He
was just moving dust around instead
of out, she told him indignantly as she reached
for a dish towel.

"Just giving it a lick and a promise—that's what
Pinto says when he sweeps," Neal an
nounced. "Hurry up—we'll get the twins and
go over to
Toliver's
.
No use sticking around
here." But he did come back to put the clean mugs back on the shelf
while Christie carried
the pan of dishwater to the door and poured it
over the small bush Pinto had said
was used to
such
refreshment.

It was when she looked around that she was
aware of the unusual quiet. The twins—
There
was a sharp cry and
she saw Shan tugging to
reach to her.
His leash had been made fast to a stone. But Baron and the twins were gone.

"Perks!
Parky
!"

As there was no answer to her urgent call,
Neal came out.

"Neal—the twins—Baron—they're gone!"

"They probably ran on over to
Toliver's
.
They knew we were going there."

"They weren't to go alone, Neal. We should
have made them wait inside where we
could
watch
them!"

"Oh, it's only a little way and Baron's with
them."

"But there're snakes—and things." Christie
felt shivery inside. She ran to
Shan and gath
ered
him up. "We've got to hurry and make
sure they are there."

"Come on." Neal was already running down
the trail toward the meadow.
Surely the twins
would
have gone that way and not wandered
off, thought Christie as she stumbled along.

She had hoped to overtake the children, or
at least hear Baron's barks. But
that did not
happen.
Libby sat on the step of the truck, a
big bowl on her knees. She was stirring a mix
ture in it.

"Hi, Christie—" Then, seeing the expres
sion on the other girl's face,
Libby quickly put
down
the bowl and came to meet her. "What's
the matter?"

"The twins—they've gone! Did they come
here?"

Libby was already shaking her head. "I just
came out. Mother told me to wait
for you and
bring you
along. She's gone to paint and she
took a picnic up canyon for us.
Toliver
went
with her."

"But the twins!"
Christie looked around
wildly. They must have wandered
into the
bush. Baron—could Baron
help
? Neal already had his fingers to his lips and gave the
carrying
whistle that the big dog always
answered.

"They may have gone to the cave," Libby
suggested.

"Let's see!" Neal started on at a run.

"May I leave Shan here?" Christie detached
Shan's claws from the tight hold
on her shirt.

"Put him inside the van." Libby took up her
bowl. When it and the protesting
Shan were
shut in,
the girls pounded after Neal, who was
almost out of sight.

As they reached the far end of the meadow
Christie was startled by the
nicker
of a horse.
Tied by reins looped over a bush was a golden
mare with a creamy mane and tail.
She was switching her tail back and forth impatiently.

"That's Spun Sugar, Marlene's horse," Libby
said.

A short way beyond, the stamping, tail-
switching Spun Sugar was at the
entrance to
the
cave. A tumble of stones spilled out from
the neat pile the boys had left. The girls could
hear raised voices.

"Neal—
Parky
—•"
Christie recognized two of
those voices as she pushed between the rocks
to the cave entrance.

"Don't you dare touch
that!
"
A shrill voice
screamed.
"Everything in here belongs to my father. You take anything and he'll have
you
arrested for
stealing! You'd better get away
from here fast."

"It's ours! We found it!" Perks now wailed
loudly.

"Ouch! You nasty little boy! Bite
me,
will
you?" There came a sound
that could only be
a
slap followed by an outraged cry not of pain
but of temper.

Parky
! He used to bite—but that was
only
when he was
little. Christie scrambled on into the cave, sending rocks tumbling. One of the
camp lights was on and in its glow she
saw that
Lady Maude's box was open and the
Lady her
self partly unwrapped so she
could be clearly
seen.