The Mandie Collection (13 page)

The day was still cloudy, and Mrs. Taft called the girls to her before suppertime.

“I think it best if you and Celia return to your school before dark,” Mrs. Taft told them from her usual place in the parlor before the roaring fire.

Mandie was surprised. Mrs. Taft always had them stay for supper when they came to visit on Sunday. But this time she was delighted with the idea. She would get back to the school in time to talk with Miss Hope and some of the other pupils about the burglaries. They might have had some more news about this.

Ben drove them back to school with Snowball. Since the place had been securely locked up because of the trouble in town, he waited in the front driveway while Miss Hope came to unlock the front door and let the girls in. They waved good-bye as he drove away.

“I'm glad you girls came back before dark, what with all the trouble going on in town,” Miss Hope said after greeting them. “I also appreciate your bringing Snowball back. I'll take him to the kitchen,” she said as she took the white cat from Mandie.

Mandie and Celia had stopped in the foyer to remove their coats and hats. Mandie asked Miss Hope, “Has there been any news yet? Uncle Ned came to Grandmother's and said he and his men were out hunting for these thieves.”

“No, dear. We haven't heard a word from anyone,” Miss Hope told her. “In fact, I was hoping you all would have some news. I do hope things get solved and everything settles down soon. It's such a strain on everyone here having to stay indoors.”

At that moment Mandie caught a glimpse of April Snow darting around the corner of the hallway. She supposed the girl had been eavesdropping as usual.

“How is Miss Prudence?” Celia asked.

“She seems a little better, but she is still staying in her room in order not to spread any germs,” Miss Hope replied. “She will probably be out and around in a couple of days.”

“They have a list of the stolen things posted on the depot board, but we didn't get to go read it because of the weather today,” Mandie told Miss Hope. “You don't have anything missing from the school here, do you?”

“No, dear, not that we have discovered, thank goodness,” Miss Hope said. “And how is little Mollie?”

Mandie caught her breath, wondering if Miss Hope knew about the escapade up the tree. “I think Grandmother has decided she can't control her, so Mollie will be going back with Aunt Rebecca when she returns Friday. I sure would hate to have to take care of her. She is busy every minute, into something,” Mandie said, shaking her head.

Miss Hope smiled and said, “I'm sure she will outgrow all that as she gets older, especially with Celia's aunt teaching her. Now, you young ladies should get upstairs, unpacked, and ready for supper. And I'll take Snowball to the kitchen for his supper.”

“Yes, ma'am,” both girls agreed.

As Mandie and Celia started up the long, curved staircase, April Snow suddenly appeared and raced up ahead of them.

“Well!” Mandie exclaimed. “I suppose she listened to everything we had to say to Miss Hope.”

“Which didn't amount to a hill of beans,” Celia noted with a laugh.

In their room the girls quickly unpacked their overnight bags and changed into more comfortable dresses than their Sunday frocks. By that time they had to hurry downstairs to get in line for supper.

Most of the girls were fretting because they had been locked
inside the school all day, not being allowed out because of the uncertainties.

“The thieves are stealing silver, not girls, so I don't know why we can't go outside,” Thelma complained just ahead of Mandie and Celia in the line.

Thelma's friend Maybelle lowered her voice, “Oh, but I found a window that could be opened, the one at the back of the kitchen. All I had to do was unlatch it, and it's low enough I could step over the windowsill.”

“You didn't!” Thelma exclaimed.

Maybelle put her finger to her lips and looked around quickly. “Yes, I did, and if you stay on the other side of the shrubbery bushes back there, no one in the house can see you,” Maybelle explained in an excited whisper.

“Maybe I'll try it tomorrow if we are still locked in,” said Clara Mae, the girl just ahead of the two.

Mandie quickly determined that would be the way she would slip outside tomorrow night instead of checking for the key to the back door. Miss Hope was keeping Snowball in the kitchen now, and she hoped someone else didn't go out that window and accidentally let him out.

The next night, after supper was over, Mandie and Celia went back to their rooms to curl up in the two big chairs with books.

When the curfew bell in the backyard rang at ten o'clock, Celia stretched to reach the pull string to turn off the electric light bulb in the ceiling, then went to the wardrobe to begin her preparations for bed. She stopped and looked at Mandie.

“Aren't you going to get ready for bed?” she asked Mandie, who had kept right on reading by the light of the oil lamp on the table.

“Not yet,” Mandie said without looking up. “I want to read a little more.” Celia shrugged and went back to the chair to pick up her own book again.

The girls silently read their books until twenty-five minutes after ten. Then Mandie glanced at Celia and silently rose from her
chair. She went over to the wardrobe and got down her cloak and put it on.

Celia watched her, then asked, “What are you doing, Mandie?”

“Oh, I just thought I'd go back to have another look at that alley,” Mandie said, nonchalantly pulling the hood up over her hair.

“Mandie, please don't go back to that place,” Celia begged. “It could be awfully dangerous.”

“I'm not afraid,” Mandie assured her. “Besides, Tommy Patton is going to meet me at ten-thirty. Go on to bed. I'll be back soon.” She started toward the door.

Celia instantly jumped up. “Well, if you are crazy enough to go back, I suppose I'll have to go with you,” she said as she hurried to the wardrobe and took down her cloak.

“Celia, I just told you, Tommy is going with me,” Mandie insisted.

“That's all right. I'm going, too,” Celia replied.

Mandie sighed and said, “Well, come on, then. But please be very quiet. I'm going out through the window in the kitchen, and remember Snowball is in there and I don't want him following me.”

“All right,” Celia agreed.

Mandie quietly opened the door, walked down the hall, and carefully made her way down the staircase, with Celia following close behind. They slipped into the kitchen. Snowball, who had been asleep in the woodbox behind the cookstove, lifted his head to meow once but stayed where he was.

“Here,” Mandie whispered, hurrying toward the window at the back. She reached for the latch and found it was not even locked. She pushed it up, and gathering up her long skirts, she sat on the windowsill and swung her feet over the edge to touch the ground.

Celia quietly followed her, and they both reached back to close the window.

“Where is Tommy going to meet you?” Celia whispered.

“He didn't say. Let's go around to the front,” Mandie whispered back, leading the way through the shrubbery.

When the two came to the front yard beneath their room, three floors above, Mandie paused to look around through the darkness.
There was no sign of Tommy. She walked a few paces in one direction, then the other.

“He isn't here,” Mandie whispered.

“Let's get going, Mandie, before someone sees us. Tommy knows where the alley is,” Celia urged.

“All right, let me get the lantern.” Mandie hurried up the steps to the front porch and took down the lantern hanging by the door. She found matches in the tray beside it and returned to Celia without lighting the lantern.

The two girls hurried down the driveway to the road. The rain had left everything wet and muddy, and they tried to hold their skirts up.

“Keep a lookout for Tommy, just in case he does come,” Mandie told her friend.

“He probably couldn't manage to get out of his school,” Celia replied as they continued down the road.

Mandie's heart was pounding, and she silently wished Tommy had joined them. The night was cloudy and awfully dark. But she knew the way to the alley now and didn't light the lantern in order to not attract attention.

Once they came to the entrance to the alley, it was so utterly dark it was impossible to see into it. Pausing only long enough to strike a match and ignite the wick, Mandie led the way with the lantern giving out just enough light to see where they were stepping.

Celia whispered urgently, “Just where are you going in this alley, Mandie? What are you planning to do in here?”

“I don't know, Celia. Depends on whether we see anyone or not,” Mandie answered.

“Well, I sure hope we don't see anyone,” Celia replied. “Those crooks could be hiding out in here.”

“That's exactly why I came back. They may have their loot stored up in one of these old buildings,” Mandie said. She stopped for a minute. “Do you hear anything? Anyone?” she asked.

“No,” Celia whispered in a shaky voice.

They came to one of the old, dilapidated warehouses, and Mandie
held the lantern up to see the front of it. As she stepped forward, a large drainage grating in the road flipped up, and Mandie fell through, lantern and all.

“Help!” Mandie cried out as she landed below.

“Mandie, where are you?” Celia called frantically, circling around in the darkness.

“I'm under the road, Celia,” came the muffled answer. “Help me figure out how to get out of here.”

“Oh, Mandie, whatever are we going to do?” Celia cried, trying to locate where the voice was coming from.

“Walk around up there and see if you can find anyone to help me,” Mandie called back.

“Find anyone? Oh, Mandie, but—” Celia began.

“Hurry up, Celia, look around. There may be someone up there,” Mandie insisted urgently.

Mandie tried to light the lantern still in her hand, but she had lost the matches. As she groped around in the darkness, she kept bumping into things. She decided she was in a small compartment of some kind, and of all things was ankle deep in water.

“Mandie, it's so dark up here I can't see if there is anyone around,” Celia called out. “Maybe I can find where you fell through and I can come down there.”

“No, no, Celia, don't do that,” Mandie exclaimed. “Stay up there where you can get help. If you come down here, nobody will ever see us to help us get out.”

“Mandie, I'm so afraid, I don't know what to do,” Celia wailed.

“There may be someone in one of those buildings up there. Go try the doors and see if any of them will open,” Mandie urged her friend.

“I hope I don't run into that man who spit at us that day,” Celia groaned as she pulled her cloak tight and peered anxiously through the darkness.

“Just ask anyone you see up there. Walk around, Celia, don't just stand there,” Mandie told her. “Oh, why didn't Tommy Patton come with us?” she mourned under her breath.

Mandie was even more worried than Celia. She might not be able to get out of this place until daylight. And she would be in deep trouble at the school and also with her grandmother. She just had to get back up on the road somehow.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

TRAPPED!

Mandie had no idea where she was, and she was afraid to move. She could imagine rats and snakes around her in the darkness. Damp and cold, she shivered all over. She clasped her cloak tightly around herself. Then she felt something in her pocket. She quickly reached inside, and sure enough, it was a match. Now, if she could strike it somewhere, maybe she could light the lantern.

“Celia, I found a match,” she called up to her friend. She slid her hand over the lantern. It didn't feel wet. She would take a chance on striking the match on the metal base. Holding her breath, she ran the match across it. It flared! She quickly raised the shade a tiny bit and touched the lighted match to the wick. Her surroundings immediately glowed in the brightness.

“Mandie, did you get the lantern lit? I can see a light down there,” she heard Celia call from above.

“Yes, Celia, and this seems to be some kind of tunnel I'm in,” Mandie answered as she looked around. “I'm going to start walking and see if I can find a way out.” She started to the right and came to a wall. Turning, she walked the opposite way, and as the light from the lantern shone ahead, she could see several openings in the walls.

“Which way are you going, Mandie?” Celia asked anxiously, peering over the edge of the opening.

“When you stand facing the building, I am going to your left. See if you can see any way out in that direction and yell down and let me know,” Mandie instructed. “I'm moving on now.”

Carefully sloshing through the ankle-deep water, Mandie finally came to an archway in the wall. Holding up the lantern, she saw it opened into a corridor. She saw several steps leading up into the opening. Quickly walking up to that level, she found she was at least in a dry passageway. Finally out of that murky wetness, she stomped her feet to try to get as much water as she could out of her shoes. She slowly made her way down the corridor toward a faint light ahead. She stopped to catch her breath.

“This must be the basement of one of the old warehouses,” she murmured to herself. “I have no idea where I am going, but I have to go somewhere. So here goes,” she decided. She moved slowly forward.

“There must be someone with a light in there,” she noted when she saw that the light was coming from another room. “I don't think the light would be there by itself in this old place,” she finished in a whisper.

As she came closer, she could see a broken window in the wall and a narrow door farther on. The light dimly illuminated stacks and stacks of merchandise of some kind in a large room. She cautiously crept toward the window for a better look. Her breath caught in her throat. A tall, lanky man in work clothes seemed to be writing on sheets of paper as he shuffled them on top of one of the boxes. The light was a lantern placed next to him on another box. Maybe he was running a business from there, she thought for a moment. But, no, everyone said there were no businesses in the old warehouses. So this must be some kind of illegal operation. But the room was filled with boxes. How could anyone have that much illegal merchandise?