Mandie Collection, The: 4 (22 page)

“Maybe,” the Indian said. “But I not see a way from room but by steps we used.”

“Let’s go around the house and look at the observation room from the outside,” Mandie suggested as Uncle Ned turned the cart into the stable yard.

Eckart came out to take the pony and cart. After thanking him, the young people and Uncle Ned walked around to the back of the chalet to look up at the observation room and the tower. Snowball tried to race ahead on his leash.

They found they were too close to see anything that high up. Uncle Ned led them down the slope to look back up.

Mandie pointed. “There’s the observation room and there’s the tower. They don’t join each other, but there does seem to be some kind of attic or something between them. Look!”

Everyone nodded. There was a rise in the roof between the room and the tower. The rest of the house seemed lower.

“Are we going up inside that room again?” Celia asked.

“Could we, Uncle Ned?” Mandie eagerly asked.

The Indian hesitated for a moment. “We look. We not poke in house of others.”

The young people quickly led the way back through the front door and up the stairs.

“Remember,” Mandie reminded her friends as they reached the top of the stairs, “we don’t go toward the wing we’re staying in. We have to go back in the section where Grandmother and Senator Morton have their suites.”

“Quiet,” Uncle Ned warned as they rushed forward.

Mandie led the way and the others silently followed down the long corridors and through the heavy doors. When they arrived at the door to the observation room stairs, they stopped.

“Now which way?” Mandie asked. Snowball squirmed on her shoulder.

“To right,” Uncle Ned said. “Look for more steps. Must go up.”

The young people moved along the corridor, opening doors and carefully examining rooms along the way. They found only lavishly furnished bedrooms and sitting rooms. Another heavy door divided the hallway, and as soon as they passed through it, they realized they were in the servants’ quarters. The rooms appeared occupied and were meagerly furnished. The corridor dead-ended into a solid wall.

“Oh, shucks!” Mandie exclaimed.

“No way to get up there,” Uncle Ned said, looking around. “We go now. Time to eat.” They all turned to go back the way they had come.

“Wait!” Mandie said, stopping everyone. “Let’s just look out the window from one of the rooms here and see exactly where we are.” She quietly opened a door nearby and looked into the room. It appeared to be a sitting room.

“Careful,” Uncle Ned cautioned. “Papoose not disturb room of others.”

Jonathan and Celia followed Mandie as she softly slipped across the room and pulled back the curtain. They gazed outside, bending this way and that, trying to get a better look.

“Come,” Uncle Ned said quietly from the doorway. “We go.”

They obeyed him, and Mandie closed the door to the room. As
they started back down the hallway, Mandie let Snowball down on his leash.

“I couldn’t tell exactly, but don’t y’all think we were right beside the wall of the tower?” Mandie asked.

“Since the wall is flat there, I couldn’t tell for sure either, but I believe you’re right,” Jonathan agreed.

“Outside can tell,” said Uncle Ned, smiling.

“I don’t know how we could tell from the outside. All I could see from the room were a lot of trees and shrubbery,” Mandie said, holding tightly to Snowball’s leash while he strained to run ahead.

“Papoose go outside, look,” Uncle Ned said.

“All right, let’s go outside and see if we can tell where we were,” Mandie agreed.

“Must hurry. Soon time to eat,” the Indian reminded them.

They rushed back downstairs, out the front door, and around to the back of the chalet. Uncle Ned led the way down the slope far enough so they could see the high walls of the house above them. He stood there waiting, observing them while they looked.

“Let’s see, it must have been that window,” Celia said, pointing to a small window near the location of the observation room.

Jonathan disagreed. “No, it was nearer the middle of the house.”

Mandie stared at the windows, puzzled by Uncle Ned’s confidence, until her gaze traveled along the wall and stopped at the room where they had just been. “There, there, there!” she exclaimed, pointing. “We didn’t push the curtain back in place! We
were
right next to the tower!” She turned to smile at Uncle Ned.

“It’s the last window before the tower wall on that end of the house,” Jonathan confirmed.

“Well, we only found a blank wall,” Celia said. “I don’t see why you’re both so excited.”

“You’re right, Celia,” Mandie said, calming down. She looked at her friend and said, “It was a blank wall, and there’s no way to go through it.”

Jonathan suddenly gasped. “There’s someone in that room! It looks like one of the strangers.”

Mandie quickly looked up. She could see a man standing in the room, too. He looked out and then dropped the curtain into place. “You’re right, Jonathan, it was that man!”

“Yes,” Uncle Ned said, unimpressed. “Now we eat.”

“You sure must be hungry,” Mandie teased. She laughed and picked up Snowball.

“We not be late for meal,” the Indian replied. “We visit here.”

“Of course, Uncle Ned,” Mandie agreed. “We must have good manners while we are guests in someone’s house.”

When they entered the front hall, Helga was coming down the stairs.

“I went to announce to you that dinner is ready to be served, but you were not there,” the maid told them.

“Is my grandmother in the dining room yet?” Mandie asked.

“Madam is waiting in the parlor,” Helga said, reaching for Snowball. “I will take the kitten to the kitchen to eat.”

“Thanks, Helga. Please bring him back when he’s finished,” Mandie said, as she followed her friends to the parlor.

Mrs. Taft and Senator Morton rose as soon as the others entered the parlor.

“The meal is waiting,” Mrs. Taft said to Uncle Ned.

“Yes, maid tell us now,” he replied.

“We went for a ride in the cart, Grandmother,” Mandie began as the housekeeper came to the doorway to take them to the dining room. “And then we explored part of the house.”

“Yes, dear,” Mrs. Taft said absentmindedly to Mandie, and then turned to speak to Senator Morton as they walked down the hallway. “Surely the other guests will be at the table tonight. I didn’t want to ask the housekeeper again if they would be.”

“If they have any manners at all, they will be present,” Senator Morton replied.

Mandie overheard the conversation and whispered to Jonathan, “That man is probably still upstairs in that room.”

“Right,” Jonathan said.

“Are we going to tell your grandmother we saw him there?” Celia asked, softly.

“Maybe,” Mandie said, stepping ahead to take Uncle Ned’s hand. “I want to sit by you, Uncle Ned.”

The old Indian pulled out a chair for her and then sat down in the next seat. Jonathan sat next to Celia across the table from them. Mrs. Taft and the senator were near the end of the table. Mandie noticed
her grandmother looking for extra place settings again. Evidently the strangers didn’t want to be sociable.
I wonder why?
Mandie thought.
And what was that man doing in the servant’s room?

Senator Morton returned thanks and as soon as they settled down to eat, Mrs. Taft spoke. “Uncle Ned, I have some friends coming to visit tonight,” Mrs. Taft said. “They live a few miles from here. They’d like to meet you.”

Uncle Ned smiled and said, “Your friend my friend.”

Mrs. Taft smiled back at him and turned to the young people, “Now if y’all don’t want to sit through the visit, you may find something else to do. I only caution you to remember that we are guests here and you should act accordingly.”

“We’ll find something to do, Grandmother,” Mandie quickly replied.

“Yes, ma’am, I’m sure we will,” Celia said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jonathan echoed.

Uncle Ned frowned at Mandie.

He knows we’ll try to explore the house for a way into the tower, and he won’t be there to help us
, Mandie thought.

As soon as the meal was over, Mandie, Celia, and Jonathan sat on the steps in the front hall. The maid brought Snowball back and tied his leash to the bannister.

“Well, looks like this is our chance to explore!” Jonathan said, grinning at the girls.

“Yes,” Mandie agreed, “but we need to plan this thing out instead of running around all over the place without accomplishing anything.”

“Mandie,” Celia said, standing to shake the wrinkles out of her long skirt, “I’d like to go to my room and freshen up first.”

“That’s a good idea,” Mandie said, unhooking Snowball’s leash from the bannister.

“I’ll meet you girls in the hallway outside our rooms in about ten minutes,” Jonathan told them. They all jumped up and ran up the stairs to get ready.

As they rushed down the corridor in their wing of the house, Mandie suddenly slowed. “Let’s be quiet when we pass the strangers’ suite,” she whispered. “We might hear something.”

“Right,” agreed Jonathan.

But as they walked by the strangers’ door, they found it closed. Nothing could be heard from the hallway.

“Hurry!” Jonathan told the girls as they all went into their suites.

Inside the sitting room, Mandie put Snowball down and took off his collar and leash. “Snowball, I’m going to take a chance and leave you in my room,” Mandie told the kitten as he frolicked across the floor, happy to be free. “You’re a lot of work to carry around all the time.”

“Why don’t we put a note on the door saying,
Watch out for the cat
,” Celia suggested.

“That’s a good idea!” Mandie said, going for some writing paper on the desk. While Celia went into her bedroom, Mandie wrote the note,
Beware of the cat
, and held it up for Snowball to see.

“You can guard our rooms while we’re gone, Snowball,” she said to the kitten, who meowed and rubbed around her ankles.

As the girls left the suite, Mandie stuck the edge of the paper into the door frame so that it was held securely when the door was shut. Celia laughed at what Mandie had written and so did Jonathan when he saw it.

“Some watchdog that cat would make!” he laughed.

“You don’t know Snowball,” Mandie said. “He is smarter than people give him credit for.”

“Let’s go sit in the parlor at the top of the stairs and discuss our strategy,” Jonathan suggested.

“Yes, let’s do,” Mandie agreed.

At that moment the door to the strangers’ suite opened and the man looked out into the hallway. When he saw the three, he turned to the woman who was behind him and said, “Not right now.” Then he shut the door.

“Well!” Mandie said. “Let’s hurry to the parlor. If they leave their rooms and go into the other wing they’ll have to pass the parlor door.”

As they hurried down the corridor, Mandie wondered why the strangers didn’t want to speak to them.
They act as though they are trying to hide from everyone
, she thought.
Well, we’ll catch up with them sooner or later
.

CHAPTER SIX

WHAT ARE THE STRANGERS UP TO?

Mandie, Celia, and Jonathan sat in the parlor with the door almost closed. They only talked in whispers while they listened for any footsteps approaching. The room was situated across from the hallway landing of the main staircase and toward the west wing of the chalet. If anyone went into the west wing, they’d have to pass the parlor, as far as the three young people could figure out.

“We could sit here all night and those people may never come this way,” Mandie whispered to Celia and Jonathan, beside her on a settee in the room.

“I have an idea it’s going to take a lot of waiting and patience to solve the mystery surrounding those strangers and the mystery of the tower,” Jonathan said softly.

“And I have an idea they are connected,” Celia whispered.

Mandie quickly asked her, “You mean you think the strangers have something to do with the tower?”

“Yes, I do,” Celia replied. “Why would that man be in the servant’s room after we were in there? In fact, what was he doing in the servants’ quarters, anyway?”

“That has me puzzled, too,” Jonathan said.

“Well, yes, it does look like he followed us there. Maybe he thought we were searching for the entrance to the tower,” Mandie whispered.

“But why would he be interested in the tower?” Jonathan asked. But he quickly answered his own question, “Because they’ve heard the tale of its being haunted. According to Eckart, everyone around here has heard the story.”

“Of course,” Mandie agreed. “And they’re trying to find a way into the tower, just like we are.”

“Oh, goodness,” Celia exclaimed. “I hope we don’t get tangled up with those people.”

“But the housekeeper said they were from France,” Mandie said quietly. “Do you think they’d come all the way from France just to investigate a haunted tower? Besides, the housekeeper said they had a note written to them by Mrs. Thaler inviting them to stay here. But even though Mrs. Hedgewick says they are French, they were speaking English when we overheard them in their suite.”

“Maybe they knew the Thalers before the Thalers bought this chalet, and as soon as the Thalers moved in, Mr. and Mrs. Bagatelle found out about the tower and decided to come and visit,” Jonathan said.

“Anyway,” Celia said, “if we overhear them speaking in French, Jonathan can always translate for us.”

Mandie quickly stood up, shaking the folds out of her long skirt, and said, “I’m tired of waiting. Let’s go look around the servants’ quarters.”

The others agreed, and Mandie pulled the door open and stepped into the hallway. She almost bumped into the Bagatelles, who were headed for the west wing.

The woman spoke rapidly in French to Mandie as she and her husband stopped. Jonathan and Celia joined Mandie.

Mandie shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t understand French. We’re Americans.”

The woman, a tall brunette who looked like she could adorn the cover of some fashion magazine, smiled at Mandie and spoke in English, “I am sorry. I only said, ‘Excuse me for running into you.’ Good-bye.” She and her husband, also tall, dark-haired, and handsome, continued on their way into the west wing without even looking back.