The Secret of Phantom Lake - Arden William (книги бесплатно TXT) 📗

“The shed’s on fire, boys!” Mrs. Gunn exclaimed. All at once Jupiter began to feel the pockets of his jacket and to pat at his trousers. He looked at his hands as if surprised that he wasn’t holding something. Panic filled his eyes.

“The journal!” The First Investigator said in despair. “I put it down when we carried the tub! It must be in the shed!”

13

A Wild Pursuit

They ran to the old shed. The smoke was thicker now, but there were no flames reaching outside. The stone shed wouldn’t burn easily.

“Only the timber inside is burning!” Pete yelled.

Cluny ran up with a fire extinguisher. Pete and Bob tore off their jackets and, with Cluny leading the way, carefully entered the burning shed.

“It’s all in the loose timber pile!” Cluny cried.

Outside, Jupiter, Mrs. Gunn, and Professor Shay listened to the sounds of the fire extinguisher and of jackets beating at the flames inside. Moments later the smoke thinned, and then all but stopped. Pete came out triumphant. He held the thin journal.

“Barely singed, Jupe!” the Second Investigator crowed. “Lucky, too, because it was very near the fire.”

Jupiter took the journal and flipped through the pages to be sure they were all right.

Suddenly they became aware of someone running towards them. It was Rory! He was shouting and pointing off behind the stone shed.

“O’er tha’ way! The rear o’ the shed! I saw him, ye fools! Watching he was, no’ a minute ago!”

“We can stop him!” Professor Shay cried. They all ran past the shed towards the thick brush and trees at the end of the valley. Rory was in the lead.

“There! In wi’ the trees!” Rory shouted. “Making for the high road he is!”

Spread out, they all plunged in among the trees, crashing through the heavy brush. Professor Shay was over to the right in an attempt to head off the escaping arsonist. Rory was somewhere up ahead. Jupiter and Bob, bringing up the rear, stopped a moment to scan the dense undergrowth under the grey-green live-oaks.

There was a sudden silence, as if everyone had stopped the chase to listen. Up ahead a voice muttered that the scoundrel was hiding. Jupiter and Bob began to move cautiously on again. They went some fifty yards in the shadowed brush and trees. Something snapped in the brush! “Bob!” Jupiter whispered, peering around. The cry came right by Jupiter. A figure leaped out of the brush, and Jupiter went down in a tangle of arms and legs and loud yells.

“I’ve got him! Fellows! I’ve got him!” Pete called.

“Help!” Jupiter echoed.

“Pete!” Bob groaned. “It’s us! You’ve got Jupe.”

Jupiter blinked up at Pete on top of him. “What?”

“Ulp,” Pete said. “I thought… I mean heard… ”

“Get off me!” Jupiter said, struggling to get up. He brushed at his clothes. “Try to look before you jump, Second.”

Pete grinned. “Well, you thought I was a criminal too, didn’t you?”

“Boy, did you two look funny!” Bob said.

All three Investigators were laughing when Professor Shay, Rory, and Cluny came slowly back and found them. The professor’s eyes jumped with anger behind his rimless glasses. His round pink face was almost comic with frustrated fury. Rory glowered.

“Got clean away, blast him,” the Scotsman said. “I saw him clear, though. That Java Jim it was, from the way you’ve told about him.”

“Stebbins, you mean, McNab,” Professor Shay disagreed. “I saw —”

“Ye’re daft, man!” Rory snapped. “I saw the beard ‘n all the sailor garb the boys described!”

“Moustache, you mean,” Professor Shay insisted. “That black hair must have —”

“Don’t ye think I’d know that Stebbins having seen him?”

“But —!” Professor Shay began, and then seemed to think. “Well, I could be mistaken, I suppose. You saw better than my glimpse.”

“That indeed I did,” Rory said. “I ha’ nae doubts.”

“Then,” Jupiter said urgently, “there’s no time to lose! If Java Jim tried to destroy the journal, it only mean one thing — he thinks he knows all he needs to find the treasure! We’ll have to move fast now. Come on, men!”

Jupiter led the way back through the dense brush to the massive old house. Mrs. Gunn stood waiting anxiously. Hans was with her, having left the truck to investigate all the excitement. “The vandal escaped,” Rory growled. “If I’d come from the house a minute sooner, I’d ha’ collared him.”

“You were in the house, Mr. McNab?” Jupiter asked.

“That I was, boy. Smelled the smoke.”

“Arson should be reported,” Professor Shay said. I only came to warn you about young Stebbins being a parole violator, and now I must get back. But I’ll stop at the police station and report Java Jim and this latest outrage.”

“Ay, ye better,” Rory agreed. The surly Scotsman’s voice was grudgingly friendly. “It’s an apology I may be owing ye, boys. I’m not saying there is any treasure, but I know now that others besides ye yersel’s think there is.” Rory shook his head. “Dangerous men, I’m thinking. For the police to handle. It’s no’ a job for boys.”

Professor Shay nodded. “I’m afraid I must agree, boys.”

“Perhaps?” Mrs. Gunn began doubtfully. “We’re not in any danger, ma’am,” Jupiter said quickly. “It’s obvious that Java Jim thinks he has all he needs. He didn’t try to attack us. And at the island, Stebbins ran away. It’s the treasure they want, and our best course is to find it first! Bob and Pete are careful, and Cluny and I will have Hans with us.”

“I’m still no’ liking it,” Rory insisted.

“I’m sure the boys will be responsible,” Mrs. Gunn said quietly. “They’re old enough now.”

“Thanks, Mum!” Cluny beamed.

Professor Shay smiled. “I have faith in their judgment too, Mrs. Gunn. Now I must attend to my duties. But keep me informed, eh, boys?”

The little professor returned to his station wagon and drove off. Rory reluctantly helped Hans load the truck with the items Mrs. Gunn was letting Uncle Titus have. Then he walked towards Mrs. Gunn’s old Ford.

“Ye all may ha’ time to waste, but not I,” Rory said grumpily. “That fire burned the small generator in the shed. I’ll ha’ to go to ha’ it repaired.”

Rory drove the Ford back to the burned shed, and Bob and Pete got their bikes from the truck to ride to Rocky Beach.

“Look sharply,” Jupiter admonished them before they rode away. “These are the last two steps of old Angus’s course!”

Then Jupiter and Cluny climbed into the truck, and Hans started north for Santa Barbara.

14

Java Jim Again

Jupiter fidgeted on the seat of the truck as they drove north for Santa Barbara.

“Faster, Hans,” he urged. “We must get there first!”

“We get there in good time, Jupe,” Hans said placidly. “Hurry too much, maybe we don’t get there at all.”

Jupiter sat back chewing on his lip. Cluny, who had been looking at old Angus’s second journal, looked up in confusion.

“Jupiter, I just noticed this entry for Santa Barbara doesn’t say where Angus went! Where do we go when we get there?”

Hans grunted. “Santa Barbara is big town.”

“Big enough to have well-kept records,” Jupiter said a little smugly. “We’re going to find where Angus went by using the one important fact he did give us.”

“What’s that Jupe?” Cluny asked.

“That he bought something at a shop that had recently been gutted by fire!” Jupiter said triumphantly. “In 1872 Santa Barbara was small enough for the newspaper to write about any local fire!”

They reached the lush outskirts of Santa Barbara in mid-afternoon and found the imitation-Moorish building of the Santa Barbara Sun-Press on De La Guerre Plaza. The receptionist sent them to a Mr. Pidgeon on the second floor. The editor was a thin, smiling man.

“In 1872?” Mr. Pidgeon said. “No, we weren’t in existence then. There was a local paper, though, and you’re right, young man, a fire would have been reported.”