The Trail of the Green Doll by Margaret Sutton

Author:Margaret Sutton [Sutton, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery and detective stories, Theft -- Juvenile fiction, Women detectives -- Juvenile fiction, Bolton, Judy (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction
ISBN: 9783965371606
Publisher: Otbebookpublishing
Published: 2015-09-18T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIV

The Missing Jade

Peter gave a long, low whistle of surprise. Then he asked Judy exactly where she had found the little idol.

She told him and added, “It isn’t quite the way Penny described it. This looks more like a hunter than a doll.”

“It may be a clue when we start hunting for the rest of the jade collection,” declared Peter. “Have you any more clues as good as this one?”

Judy laughed. “I’m afraid not, but it won’t do any harm to list the clues I do have.”

“First of all,” Peter said, “is that tourist sign. I’ll never understand how you get these sudden impulses, but it certainly led Mrs. Riker and the children to the right place.”

“That’s true,” Judy admitted, and sighed. “Naturally they were looking forward to meeting their uncle. It must have been a terrible shock to them to find his house destroyed.”

“What about their other uncle?” asked Peter. “Doesn’t he have a house?”

“I don’t know,” Judy replied. “Helen wouldn’t let the children talk about him. Penny acted as if she’d never heard of him before. It was the old uncle they were expecting to visit, not the young one.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“I’m not sure of anything,” confessed Judy. “There’s a big secret of some kind. Helen’s trained Paul to keep it, but not Penny. The trouble is, I don’t think Penny knows all of it. And she has such an imagination! I actually feel sorry for her, the way they stop her every time she wants to talk. But it may be necessary. Helen Riker may be in danger.”

“What about you?” asked Peter. “You’ve really handed yourself a problem, sweetheart. If she’s in danger, I’m afraid you are, too.”

“I know, Peter.” Impulsively she kissed away the worried frown on his forehead, nearly stabbing him with the pencil she was holding. “But why should I be any safer than you are?” she asked. “You’re nearly always in danger—”

“From pencils? Only when I’m with you,” he returned, laughing. “Actually, pencils are about the only weapons I’ll be using for the next few weeks. Most of the time I will be sitting at an office desk doing very undangerous routine work.”

“You weren’t today,” she reminded him. “You were fighting forest fires.”

“Today,” he said, “was a little unusual. But let’s talk about your day. I want to get the facts straightened out in my mind.”

“My day?” Judy questioned, thinking back. “For me it always begins when I first open my eyes and say to myself, ‘Here is another mystery to solve.’ Every day is a mystery, Peter, because you never know one minute what wonderful, beautiful, or even terrible thing will happen the next. That’s what makes life so exciting and—and wonderful.”

“It takes a pretty wonderful person to see it that way,” declared Peter.

“You’re wonderful, too,” she told him. “How foolish I was to worry for fear you might not understand. You see, we put up the tourist sign before Horace came with the news of the robbery. At first it was just for fun.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.