The Mandie Collection (51 page)

“I'll go with you, too,” Jonathan agreed.

Mandie noticed he was still staring at Sallie and that Sallie felt uncomfortable under his gaze.

“Let's get our coats, then,” Mandie said. All of them had to go to their rooms to get their coats and hats. Sallie was sharing Mandie's room, and her things had been put in there. Mandie told the boys they would meet them back at the foot of the staircase in five minutes, but she and Sallie took less than that to get theirs. As they rushed toward the steps to go down, Mandie saw Jonathan coming from the wrong end of the hallway. His room was down the other way. However, he had on his coat and hat.

“I ... uh ... got lost again. This is a big house, you know,” he said as he quickly caught up with them.

Joe came hurrying from his room and said, “You mean you all beat me this time?”

“Slow poke,” Mandie teased, but at the same time she wondered where Jonathan had been.

Mandie led the way outside and down through the woods. She and Sallie tried hard to relate the pathway to the indentations in the box. They looked at everything, discussed everything, and still couldn't decide what was what. Joe and Jonathan went along without any real interest.

They finally returned to the house an hour or so before the noon meal. The girls stayed in Mandie's room for a while discussing the possibilities of the stuff in the box. And then they talked about what they had been doing since they last saw each other. Mandie was relating the details of her visit to New York when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Mandie called across the room from where she and Sallie were sitting by the fireplace.

The door slowly opened, and Liza entered the room and closed the door behind her. “Oh, Missy 'Manda, I not know you has comp'ny in heah right now,” she said.

“Liza, you know Sallie always stays in here with me when they come to visit,” Mandie said.

“Well, uh, I jes' come back later,” Liza said, turning to open the door.

“Wait, Liza,” Mandie said. “What did you want to see me about?”

Liza looked at Sallie and then back to Mandie. Then she said, “Missy 'Manda, I tells you later. Got to go now.”

Mandie got up and walked across the room to the girl. “Liza, please tell me why you came in here,” she said.

“Well, I guess it don't make no never mind, but I seen dat Yankee boy comin' down de steps from de attic jes' now,” Liza said quickly in a loud whisper. “Whut he doin' up in de attic?”

Mandie frowned and said, “I don't know, Liza. Did he say anything to you?”

“Nope, I ducks fast in a door to one of dem rooms dat ain't used right now, and he didn't even see me,” Liza explained.

“Where did he go then?” Mandie asked.

“He go straight in his room den,” Liza said.

Mandie thought for a moment and then said, “I suppose he was just looking around. He said he wanted to see everything, so he probably meant the attic, too.”

“I gots to go now fo' Aunt Lou be lookin' fo' me,” Liza said, and she quickly slipped out the door and closed it.

“Is anything wrong?” Sallie asked. She had overheard the conversation.

“I don't think so,” Mandie said, coming back to sit down. “I did see Jonathan coming down from the third floor today, so he might have been all the way up to the attic that time, too. I just can't imagine why he goes wandering off like that.”

“Maybe he did just want to look around the house,” Sallie suggested.

“I don't know, but it gives me a funny feeling somehow or other,” Mandie said as she rose. “Come on. Let's go find him and Joe before Jonathan wanders off somewhere else.”

They found the boys in the sitting room. Mandie wondered where Joe had been while Jonathan was strolling around upstairs. Liza didn't say she had seen Joe.

Joe looked up as the girls came into the room and asked, “What are we doing this afternoon?”

Mandie glanced at Sallie as they sat down and then said, “Whatever y'all would like to do.” She looked at Jonathan.

“Do?” Jonathan repeated as he scratched his head. “I don't know. Why don't you show me the rest of your house, like the attic and the cellar?”

“The attic and the cellar?” Mandie questioned. “Do you really want to see the attic and the cellar?”

“Sure. Why not?” Jonathan said with a big grin.

“They are both dirty and smelly,” Mandie said.

“That only makes them more interesting,” Jonathan told her.

“Well, if you insist,” Mandie finally agreed.

Snowball came into the room just then, and Joe said, “And, Mandie, please don't take that white cat with us. He'll get lost and we'll spend the rest of the day looking for him.”

Snowball meowed loudly and jumped up on a chair and curled up.

“He could catch the rats if we see any,” Mandie teased.

“You have rats in this house?” Jonathan asked quickly.

“Lots of them. Didn't you hear them running around under your bed last night?” Joe joked.

“Snowball would not allow a rat to live in this house,” Sallie added.

Later as they sat through the noon meal, Mandie wondered why Jonathan was so interested in seeing every little piece of the big house. This curiosity streak didn't seem natural for Jonathan Guyer. Maybe he was up to something. She would have to keep close watch on him and see.

CHAPTER TWELVE

SECRET REVEALED

After the noon meal was over, Polly came over to the Shaw house.

“I've had to stay home because of our company, Mother said,” Polly told the young people in the sitting room. “But I have permission to visit with y'all this afternoon.”

“That's good, Polly,” Mandie said with a slight smile. “Because Jonathan wants to see our attic and our cellar, and you can go with us.”

“What on earth for?” Polly asked Jonathan.

“I showed Mandie my house when she came to see us, so now I want her to show me her house,” Jonathan said with a big grin.

“But your house is big, like a museum or something, and ours is just a house,” Mandie said. “But if you really want to see it, let's go. The attic first.”

“To the attic, then,” Jonathan agreed.

When they arrived all the way up at the attic, Jonathan didn't seem very interested in the place. And then when they went down into the cellar, he still didn't have much to say. Mandie wondered why he really wanted to see those places.

They went back to the sitting room and talked about nothing in particular until it was time for supper.

“Polly, are you going to eat with us? We're going out caroling
afterwards with Grandmother,” Mandie explained after Liza had come to tell them, “It's on de table.”

“I have to go home for supper because my mother said I could only stay for the afternoon, but I'll ask her about joining y'all later for caroling,” Polly promised as she left.

As soon as supper was over, Polly returned to say her mother would allow her to go caroling with them and on to the church for the midnight service. The relatives were too old to go out at that time of night, so Mrs. Cornwallis would be staying home with them.

Later, as Mandie had expected, her grandmother joined right in with the young people in their walks around the town as they sang carols. And after that everyone went to the midnight church service.

When they returned to the house, they were all tired and decided to retire for the night. But Mandie, once she and Sallie were in her room, was wide awake and wanted to talk. She told Sallie she was suspicious of Jonathan's wanderings about the house.

“I have an idea,” Mandie said. “Let's go hide in the hallway and watch and see if he comes out and goes anywhere besides his room.”

“Do you think we should?” Sallie asked.

“Why not? We won't be doing anyone any harm,” Mandie insisted. “Come on. We'll have to be extra quiet.” She started for the door, looking back to be sure Snowball was curled up asleep on her bed and wouldn't follow them.

“There's a little alcove right down here on the way to Jonathan's room,” Mandie whispered as they crept quietly down the hallway. “We can wait in there and watch. If he leaves his room, he will have to come right by it.” They came to the place just large enough for two chairs and a small table, and they sat down.

Mandie and Sallie had not been there long when, sure enough, Jonathan came silently down the corridor. And he was carrying what looked like Christmas presents wrapped in red paper.

“He's probably going to put those under the tree,” Mandie whispered in Sallie's ear. But as they watched, he went up the stairs instead of down toward the parlor.

“Come on,” Mandie said. She stood up and watched until Jonathan was out of sight, and then she softly followed with Sallie behind her.

When they got to the landing on the third floor, Mandie thought they had lost Jonathan because he was nowhere in sight. Then she heard a
slight noise and realized he had entered Uncle John's office. How had he been able to do that? It was supposed to be kept locked.

While the girls stooped behind a large chair in the hallway, Jonathan came back out. He didn't even pause but immediately went to the staircase and on up to the attic. Mandie and Sallie followed silently. The halls were dark except for a lamp that was left burning for the night.

“What is he doing?” Mandie whispered as he disappeared up the steps.

When they got to the landing, Mandie could see Jonathan in the light of the moon that was coming in from the window. He opened the door to the attic, put something inside, and then started back down the stairway. Mandie and Sallie had to scramble for cover behind a tall statue as he passed them and went back down the stairs.

Mandie and Sallie followed him again. This time he went all the way down to the main floor and on to the back stairs that went down to the cellar. He walked quickly to the cellar door, opened it, and disappeared down the steps. The girls stayed hidden behind the hall tree at the back door and watched as he immediately came back out and closed the door. This time he was empty-handed. He hurried toward the staircase and went up the steps.

“He's hiding something!” Mandie whispered as they stayed a safe distance behind him and also went on up the staircase. They watched him go into his room and close the door.

“Come on,” Mandie whispered to Sallie as she started up the staircase to the third floor.

The girls went into John Shaw's office through the door that should have been locked, and in the dim light Mandie saw one of the red-wrapped packages sitting on the desk. She went straight to it, picked it up, turned it over and over, but could not decide what was inside.

“These must be Christmas presents, but I don't see any name on this one,” Mandie said in a soft voice. “I wonder what he is up to. This sure is a strange way to act.”

“Perhaps the present is for your uncle,” Sallie said.

“Maybe, but who would the presents in the attic and the cellar be for?” Mandie said thoughtfully. “He is playing tricks for some reason.”

Suddenly the answer came. Mandie looked at Sallie in the dim
light, and Sallie smiled. Together the girls said, “The treasure map! Jonathan sent the treasure map!”

“But how did he know where to hide the presents?” Sallie asked. “He has never visited here before.”

“Let's go down to the parlor and look at the treasure map,” Mandie said, quietly closing the door.

The girls rushed silently down to the parlor. Mandie took the lid off the box she had received, and together they studied the indentations in the dirt. Mandie almost screamed with excitement when she realized those little ruts were not roads outside but the hallways in her house.

“Hallways, not roads!” she told Sallie. “But we still don't know how he knew the layout of our house.”

“That is a mystery,” Sallie said as they stood there looking at the map.

Mandie yawned and said, “I suppose we'd better go to bed because everyone will be up early.”

The two girls went to bed, but it was a long time before Mandie went to sleep. How had Jonathan known the layout of her house? And why did he do such a thing? Now that she thought about it, he had not seemed anxious to join the treasure hunt outdoors. No wonder! He knew it was inside the house.

As usual, on Christmas morning everyone in the household was up early and assembled in the parlor to exchange gifts. John Shaw always gave his servants a pay increase on this day in addition to a present for each one.

Mandie watched the presents under the tree being passed around to the proper person, and she didn't see the three packages that Jonathan had put in those odd places the night before. Finally, when the last one was given out, Jonathan looked at Mandie and said with a big grin, “I brought presents for you, your mother, your uncle John, and your grandmother, but you will have to find them. That's what the treasure map is about.” He was sitting beside Joe on the settee, and the girls were seated nearby.

Mandie shook her finger at him and grinned back as she said, “Sallie and I know where every one of those presents is, but I'd like to know how you were able to draw a treasure map of the inside of our house when you've never been here.”

“That was easy,” Jonathan said, still grinning. “You see, you introduced me to Dr. Plumbley in New York, and he used to live on your property here and was familiar with the layout of the house. So I talked to him about it. He thought it was a great idea, by the way.”

“Wait till I see Dr. Plumbley again!” Mandie exclaimed.

“Well, are you going to get the presents or not?” Jonathan asked.

Mandie stood up and said, “Come on, Sallie, let's go.”

The girls left the room and Jonathan followed. When they went into John Shaw's office, Mandie asked, “Why is Uncle John's office unlocked? He always keeps it locked.”