Spiderweb for Two - A Melendy Maze by Elizabeth Enright

Author:Elizabeth Enright
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250102867
Publisher: Square Fish

CHAPTER VI

Peace Is the Jewel

I guard a secret or a prayer

With equal silence. I am old.

Peace is the jewel that I wear.

Compassion is the wand I hold.

Land of the dragon and the cloud

Gave birth to me; I left that soil

And came away, serene and proud,

To watch a good man at his toil.

Randy did not feel sleepy at all. She had slept most of the day, dosed with aspirin and cough syrup, and now she was wide awake. Turning on her light quietly, she reached for the clue and studied it again.

In a flash she understood it!

About time they gave us an easy one, she thought, and, putting on her robe and slippers, she went to her door and opened it. She stood there, listening. All that could be heard was Isaac, snoring on the landing. From Cuffy’s room there was no sound, no crack of light under the door. She ventured forth on tiptoe, and each creaky board sounded like a firecracker to her anxious ears. When she walked bang into the hall chest of drawers there was a thunderous clatter, and she held her breath, expecting the worst. But nothing happened, thank goodness! Isaac rolled over, audibly, and began snoring on a different level. Randy went on, inch by inch, to Oliver’s door.

The moon was shining into his room, and he was fast asleep, a smallish hummock in the bed.

“Oliver!” whispered Randy. “Wake up!”

“N-n-n-h,” said Oliver.

“Wake up, wake up!”

Oliver put his head under the pillow.

“No,” he said.

“Yes!” insisted Randy. This time she shook him and suddenly he sat bolt upright, staring at her.

“Whassa matter?”

“Listen, I know where the clue is! I had to let you know right away, too, of course, because that’s only fair. You know Father’s statue of the Chinese goddess Kwan Yin? The one that’s in his study, always, by the typewriter? She’s got the clue, Oliver! She’s the Chinese goddess of mercy, and that’s what compassion means; it means pity or mercy! Peace is the jewel and compassion is the wand I hold. See? Do you get it? And it says she’s old, too, and the Kwan Yin is: Father says she was made in the Ming dynasty, and that was hundreds of years ago. Are you listening?”

“Uh-huh,” said Oliver.

“Well, why aren’t you excited? Come on, get up! We’ll go down to the study now and find the clue. Hurry.”

“I’m coming,” said Oliver, and with that he lay down again abruptly, sound asleep.

“Oh, dear; oh, all right,” sighed Randy. She had done her best, but temptation was strong; she knew she could never wait until the morning, and that she must go investigating by herself.

Stepping carefully over Isaac she started down the stairs. Heavens, how they creaked. Some positively groaned. Deep in the house—no doubt in the kitchen—John Doe heard the stealthy progress and barked his special nighttime bark: stern and gruff, an imitation of a mastiff’s.

“Shut up, John Doe,” hissed Randy, and he stopped.

It was terribly dark in the hall, black, but she did not dare snap the lights on.

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