The Mandie Collection (26 page)

“Oh, that's right,” Mandie replied. “I suppose we'd better go to the courthouse first and then come back and go down there to look at that house.”

“Yes, I'm anxious to find out who owns it now,” Joe said.

“But we probably won't know them,” Mandie said.

“Yes, but it might be a name that your uncle John would recognize,” he answered.

“All right, I hope it won't take long,” Mandie said as they walked up to the back porch.

Joe smiled at her and said, “Mandie, you're always in a hurry about everything. Slow down. You may breeze past something important someday without seeing it.”

Mandie laughed and said, “I hope not.”

As they entered the back hallway, Mandie thought about what Joe had said. Maybe she did move too fast sometimes, but then things had a way of moving so fast that she had to move fast to catch up with them.

She frowned as she said, “I'll just have to keep an eye out.”

CHAPTER NINE

MORE DEVELOPMENTS

When Mandie and Joe returned to the kitchen, they found Uncle Ned and Jacob Smith sitting at the table drinking coffee.

“Good morning,” Mandie greeted the two men as she walked over to the table. Joe followed.

“Good morning, Papoose,” Uncle Ned replied, smiling at her.

“Y'all are up and out early,” Jacob Smith said.

Aunt Lou brought the percolator to the table and filled two empty cups sitting there. “Sit down and drink your coffee now,” she told them.

“Thank you, Aunt Lou,” Mandie replied as she and Joe sat down with the men. “We're not really early. Uncle John and Dr. Woodard left before we got up.”

“My father always gets up earlier than anyone else,” Joe said.

“We leave, too,” the old Indian said as he sipped his coffee.

“Y'all are leaving? But you just got here yesterday,” Mandie told him. “Why do you have to leave so soon?”

“Go over mountain to Yellow Hill, see friends, be back soon,” Uncle Ned explained.

“When are y'all coming back? I'm only going to be here till the end of next week and then I have to go back to school,” Mandie reminded him.

“I'll see that he gets back in a day or two,” Jacob Smith promised, smiling at Mandie.

“My father might have gone that way. He has some patients over that direction,” Joe said. “You may catch up with him somewhere.”

“Yes,” Uncle Ned said. “People at Yellow Hill know doctor.”

Mandie looked across the room at Aunt Lou by the stove and said, “Aunt Lou, with Uncle John gone already, I can't ask him to go with Abraham to take that basket of food to that old house. Would you please wait and send Abraham after Uncle John comes back so I can ask to go?”

“Well, now, my chile, I s'pose I could wait till early afternoon,” the old woman replied. “But we shouldn't oughta wait too long 'cause whoever be in dat old house may be hungry.”

Mandie grinned at her and said, “Oh, thank you, Aunt Lou. I'll ask him just as soon as he gets back. You see, if I ask my mother, then my grandmother might get involved in it and I don't think she would ever let me go.”

“I understand, my chile,” Aunt Lou replied. “I sho' does understand.”

Liza came in the door from the dining room and announced, “I'se got de table all set now, Aunt Lou.”

“Den go look in de parlor to see if Miz 'Lizbeth be in dere and ready fo' breakfast,” Aunt Lou replied, stirring the contents of a pot.

“Yessum,” Liza replied and went out the door to the hallway.

Mandie stood up and said, “I suppose we'd better go to the parlor so Mother will know where we are.”

“Yes,” Joe agreed as he, too, rose.

Uncle Ned and Jacob Smith followed them to the parlor, where Elizabeth Shaw, Mrs. Taft, and Mrs. Woodard were sitting. They met Liza in the doorway.

“Now that we are all together, let's have some breakfast,” Elizabeth said, rising after she greeted the two men.

“And maybe we'll have a chance to discuss some plans for the summer,” Mrs. Taft added.

Mandie held her breath when she heard that. As everyone went
into the dining room and sat down at the table, she tried to listen to everything everyone said, which was mostly about nothing in particular except the dinner party planned for tomorrow night. And she noticed her mother and Mrs. Woodard did most of the talking. Mrs. Taft seemed to be deep in thought about something. Uncle Ned and Jacob Smith said very little, which was usual for them.

Then, as the meal was finished and everyone was leaving the dining room, Mandie stepped over to her mother and said, “Joe and I are going to the courthouse to look for the property owner's name for that old house down by the creek.”

“Yes, dear, I believe I heard your uncle John say you all were going to do that for him,” Elizabeth replied. “Just don't be gone too long, now.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie replied.

She and Joe followed the men out into the backyard, where Jacob Smith and Uncle Ned got into the wagon to go over to the mountain, then she and Joe walked on downtown to the courthouse.

Joe looked around as they entered the building. “This is a nice courthouse,” he remarked. “I'll go ask at the desk over there for directions to the property records.” He walked on across the hallway to where a woman was sitting behind a desk. Mandie followed.

“We would like to find the records for that old house by the creek that joins Mr. John Shaw's property, please, ma'am,” he told her.

“Oh, the McCampbell property,” the woman said, looking up at him.

“Yes, ma'am, that's right. We heard Mr. McCampbell died after he left here and we want to find out who owns the property now,” Joe explained.

“I can tell you where to look up the records, but I can also tell you it has not been sold since Mr. McCampbell died,” the woman replied. “It seems there are two distant cousins who are his closest surviving kin, and they are at each other's throats to get the property. May be a long court battle.”

That news was unexpected, and Joe looked at Mandie.

“Do you know what lawyer is handling the case?” Joe asked the woman.

“Yes, that's Lawyer Tennyson and he's out of town on business until the first of the month,” the woman told him.

“I see,” Joe said, at a loss to know what to do now.

“Can you tell us the names of those two cousins who are fighting?” Mandie asked.

“No, but the clerk in that room over there can,” the woman said, pointing across the hall to a room with the door standing open.

“Thank you,” Joe quickly told her and started toward the room. “Thanks for asking that question. The information about the house was so unexpected I didn't quite know what to ask next.”

They walked up to a long counter, where another woman was sitting sorting through papers. She didn't even look up when the two stopped in front of her.

After a minute or two Joe loudly cleared his throat and asked, “May we ask you a question, please?”

The woman still didn't look at them but continued with her paper work. Mandie looked at Joe and then leaned forward to place her hand across the counter as she said, “Ma'am, could you give us some information, please?”

Finally the woman looked up. She smiled, pointed to her ears, and pushed a piece of paper and a pencil across the counter to Mandie.

Mandie took it, frowned, looked at the woman again, and said in a whisper to Joe, “She must not be able to hear.”

Joe nodded and said, “Yes, she wants you to write on the paper whatever you want to know.”

When Mandie wrote the question and handed the woman the paper, the woman smiled and wrote back on the bottom of the sheet,
Dean White, New York, and George Littleton, Washington, D.C
.

Then Mandie had to write again and ask for the addresses to write to. The woman added that information and went back to her work.

Mandie and Joe looked over the paper together as they went back out into the hallway.

“Too bad I don't have more time at home. It'll take a while to get in touch with these people,” Mandie said.

“Yes, and the attorney, too,” Joe added.

“There is one thing we could ask that first lady we talked to,” Mandie said, smiling. “Does she know if anyone is living in that old house?”

“You're right,” Joe agreed.

They stopped back by the woman's desk and inquired. She looked up at them in surprise and said, “No one is living there. The place is unfit for habitation. The land is what those two cousins are in a fight over. They know that house will have to be torn down.”

“When did Mr. McCampbell die?” Joe asked.

“Oh, a long time ago. He hadn't lived here for about twenty years, I believe. He moved to Florida and died down there,” the woman explained.

After thanking the clerk for the information, Mandie and Joe went outside and started walking back to the Shaws' house.

“I'd say we know one thing for sure,” Mandie said, looking up at Joe as she tried to keep up with his long legs.

“What's that?” Joe asked.

“I don't believe that would be either of the two heirs living in that old house, so it must be a tramp,” Mandie replied.

“Probably,” Joe agreed. “So whoever is in there might be dangerous.”

“But we can still go watch from the arbor,” Mandie said.

When they got back to the house, they found Elizabeth, Mrs. Taft, and Mrs. Woodard had gone off in the rig. Aunt Lou didn't know where.

“Then Joe and I are going down to the arbor,” Mandie told Aunt Lou.

“Just be sho' you back in time for de noonday meal 'cause Miz 'Lizbeth say dey be back den,” the old woman reminded her.

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie replied, and looking at Joe, added, “Joe will be hungry by then.”

“I certainly will,” Joe agreed with a big grin.

Snowball jumped out of the woodbox and came running over to rub around his mistress's ankles. Mandie stooped to rub his back. “You can't go with us, Snowball,” she told the cat, then, looking up at Aunt Lou, she added, “Please don't let him out, Aunt Lou. I don't want him to follow me to the arbor.”

“I sees he stay heah,” Aunt Lou replied. “Jes' you don't be gwine close to dat house, my chile.”

“We're only going to sit in the arbor,” Mandie promised.

They watched the old house the rest of the morning, but there was no sign of anyone down there.

Liza came to get them when the noonday meal was ready. “And everybody else dun come back, too,” she told them as the three walked up the hill.

“Everybody?” Mandie asked. “Uncle John and Dr. Woodard are back, too?”

Liza nodded her head and said, “Dey sho' is.”

“Then I can ask about going with Abraham to take the basket,” Mandie said, looking up at Joe.

“And I'll go with you and Abraham,” Joe promised.

Later, when the meal was over, Mandie finally got a chance to ask her uncle, “Would it be all right if Joe and I went with Abraham to take a basket of food that Aunt Lou is sending down to that house?”

John Shaw looked down at her in surprise and asked, “Aunt Lou is sending food down there? Has someone been seen at the house? For all we know, there may not be anyone staying in it.”

“Oh, Uncle John, you know how Aunt Lou is. She worries about other people being hungry,” Mandie replied. “And suppose there is someone hungry in there?”

John Shaw smiled at her and said, “Well, I suppose it will be all right for you and Joe to go with Abraham, but, mind you, let him go first and do the knocking.”

“Yes, sir,” Mandie promised.

“But I don't imagine he will get any response,” John Shaw continued. “If there is anyone in there, I wouldn't think they would want to be seen.”

Then suddenly Mandie remembered the information they had obtained from the courthouse. “Oh, Uncle John, we forgot about this,” she said. She pulled the paper out of her skirt pocket and handed it to him. “That's what we found out at the courthouse this morning.”

“And we don't believe either of the relatives would be living in there,” Joe added.

John glanced over the scribbling as the two explained what they had written down.

“So the house is still in Mr. McCampbell's name,” John Shaw said. “You're right. I don't imagine either of these people would be living in that old shack. So it must be someone just holed up in there for some reason. I'm not sure you two ought to go down there.”

“Oh, Uncle John, please? We'll stay away from the front door and let Abraham do the knocking like you said. Please,” Mandie begged.

“If we had to we could always run away from there. There are plenty of trees and bushes nearby we could disappear into,” Joe added.

John Shaw sighed and finally agreed, “All right, but I want to know as soon as you get back.”

“Thank you, Uncle John,” Mandie said.

“We'll come straight to you when we get back,” Joe promised.

John Shaw went on toward the parlor to join the others. Mandie and Joe turned back toward the kitchen.

“Aunt Lou, we have permission to go with Abraham,” Mandie quickly announced.

Aunt Lou stopped as she carried dishes to the sink and asked, “So now both of you has got permission, is dat right?”

“Uncle John said I could,” Mandie replied.

“Well, now, whut about Joe dere?” Aunt Lou replied and then asked, “Did you ask your pa if you could go, too?”

Joe laughed and said, “Aunt Lou, I'm too old for that. My father gave me more freedom when I went off to college. He says I'm old enough to make my own decisions and that I will also have to live with the results if I make the wrong ones.”

Aunt Lou looked at him for a moment, and Mandie was afraid she was going to doubt Joe's word. But then the woman smiled and said, “Jes' you be sho' nuthin' happens to my chile dere, understand?”