The Mandie Collection (70 page)

As soon as they finished their breakfast, the young people hurried to the front hallway and put on their coats and hats. Snowball followed them and sat on the arm of the coat tree, watching.

Mandie picked him up. “I'm going to take Snowball with me this time,” she decided. “He needs some fresh air.”

“I sure hope he doesn't run away,” Joe said warily.

Snowball seemed to be thankful to his mistress for allowing him to go. He stayed on her lap in the rig and then clung to her shoulder when they got to the church.

Inside the sanctuary, both stoves were cold. The fires had long since gone out.

Ben dropped into the back pew for his usual nap while the young people looked around. They left their coats and hats on a pew near him.

They checked all the basement classrooms and found nothing there. Then they went up into the gallery and opened the door to the belfry.

“I have an idea,” Mandie said, balancing Snowball on her shoulder. “Why don't we all go up into the belfry and just stay there a while? If we're real quiet, we'll be able to hear anything that goes on, and we can watch out the windows up there for anyone coming in or out of the church.”

“That's a good idea,” Joe said, reaching for the rope ladder. “I'll go first. Then you come next, Celia, so I can help you off at the top. Mandie has done it so much, I don't think she needs any help.”

“Well—” Celia hesitated. “I suppose I can go up if that ladder doesn't swing too much.”

“I'll hold on to it by the last rung down here to steady it,” Mandie promised.

Celia nodded, and Joe scrambled up the ladder, waiting at the top while Celia slowly and cautiously made her way up and Mandie held the bottom rung.

“Just don't look down, Celia,” Mandie reminded her. “Keep looking up at Joe.”

Celia was shaking so badly that she didn't answer. When she finally got to the top rung, Joe took her hands and swung her up into the belfry. She sat down on the floor quickly. “Oh, my legs feel weak,” she gasped.

Mandie hurried after her with Snowball clinging to her shoulder. About halfway up, the kitten looked down and dug his claws into the shoulder of Mandie's heavy dress. Suddenly, he jumped off her shoulder onto the rope ladder and clawed his way up by himself. At the top, he jumped into the belfry and landed at Celia's feet.

Celia laughed nervously. “I guess I'm not the only one who is afraid of that ladder,” she said, cuddling the kitten.

“Let's walk around and look outside,” Mandie said as she reached the top.

Just then the bells began ringing. The three young people instantly covered their ears at the deafening sound and began counting the rings. Snowball darted about in fear.

“Eleven rings,” Mandie said, uncovering her ears. “But it's ten o'clock.” She reached down to pick up Snowball.

“And we stood right here watching,” Joe said with a puzzled look on his face. “We know that no one else was up here ringing those bells.”

Celia made her way over to the walkway around the belfry. “I thought we were going to watch outside,” she said.

“We are,” Mandie agreed. “I'll go over on this side, and Joe, you take that side over there. There are only three of us, and there are four sides to the steeple, but we can all watch the side where the ladder is.”

They did as Mandie suggested. As Joe made his way to the other side, Snowball ran ahead of him and into an almost invisible thread of some kind. It broke.

“Look!” Joe cried, stooping to inspect the thread.

Mandie and Celia watched as he traced the piece of thread to the mechanism of the huge clock. He pulled at it, and it came free, holding a tiny magnet on the end. The girls joined him and all three excitedly examined it. At last they had a clue!

“Someone must have put that magnet on the clock to mess up the mechanism, but where did the string go from there?” Mandie asked, looking around for the other end.

They searched and searched but could not find the other piece of thread. Nor could they figure out where it had been attached. Finally they sat down on the floor, and Snowball curled up in Mandie's lap.

“Let's just have a quiet thinking session for a few minutes,” Mandie suggested.

They all became silent and did not move. Even Snowball sat quietly, content in his mistress's company.

“Why didn't we find this thread before when we were up here, and why didn't all those people who examined the clock mechanism find the magnet before?” Celia asked.

“Maybe whoever put it there took it down whenever they heard somebody coming,” Mandie reasoned. “But where could they be hiding?”

They were silent again.

Mandie's sharp eyes caught the slight movement of a panel in the wall. At first she thought she was seeing things, but as the panel moved, she got a quick glimpse of a pair of eyes staring right at her. She caught her breath and froze.

Joe and Celia looked toward the wall to see what had startled her.

Instantly, Joe jumped up and grabbed the moving panel. “Come on out, whoever you are!” he demanded, yanking at the piece of wood.

The girls jumped up to help. Snowball scrambled onto the floor. Joe reached behind the panel and grabbed hold of someone's shoulder. At first the person struggled, but then he gave up. “I'm coming out,” said a man's voice.

“All right. Then get out fast,” Joe ordered, still holding on to the panel of wood to keep it from being pushed back into place.

Slowly, from behind the paneling, a little, old, gray-looking man appeared. He fell on his knees in front of the three young people. “I'm sorry, so sorry!” he muttered.

CHAPTER TEN

PHINEAS PRATTWORTHY

The three young people stared in amazement at the gray-haired man before them. He was clean and neatly dressed, but his coat was threadbare.

“Who are you?” Joe demanded.

“Are you the one who has been making the bells ring wrong and doing all those other things around this church?” Mandie asked, putting her hands on her hips.

The old man cowered in front of them.

“Get up,” Joe demanded. “We're not going to hurt you.”

The man didn't obey. Joe got hold of his shoulders and pushed him backwards so they could see his face. The man was frightened.

He had bushy gray hair, bushy gray eyebrows, a long, thin face, a long nose and a wide mouth with thin lips. His ears stuck out instead of being flat against his head. He looked to be very old and very starved.

He blinked at the three of them as tears came into his gray eyes.

“How did you get behind that paneling?” Mandie asked.

“I think you'd better give us some explanations real fast,” Joe told the man.

The man's lips quivered as he tried to speak.

Mandie began to feel sorry for him. “Why don't we all sit down and talk,” she suggested.

The young people sat down on the floor in front of the stranger who was still on his knees.

“I-I need someone to help me,” the man said uncertainly.

“Help you do what?” Mandie asked as Snowball climbed into her lap.

“I am in great trouble that is not my fault,” the man replied, clasping his hands tightly.

“I'll say you're in trouble,” Joe said. “Just wait until the town gets hold of you.”

Mandie looked at Joe with a frown. Then she looked back at the stranger. “Why have you been messing with the bells and doing all those other things?” she asked. “You are the one responsible for the help banner on the altar, and the writing on the church wall, aren't you?”

“And tearing up the paneling to hide behind,” Celia added.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry,” the man said, hanging his head. “What else can I say?”

“Who are you, and where do you live?” Joe asked.

“My name is Phineas Prattworthy,” the stranger replied, choking back the tears. “I live way out yonder over the mountain.”

“Then why are you hanging around the church? What are you trying to do?” Joe sounded exasperated.

“I can only explain if you promise to help me,” Phineas replied.

“We can't promise to help you until we know what you've done,” Mandie said.

“But I didn't do what they think I did,” Phineas told them, his eyes still wet with tears. “I have been wrongly accused.”

Mandie leaned forward and asked, “Accused of what?”

“The grocer down on Main Street thinks I stole some groceries from him,” Phineas replied. “But I didn't. I saw the man who did it, though. He came out of the store so fast that he dropped an apple. I picked it up, and when the grocer saw me with it in my hand, he thought I was the man who stole it, but I got away before he could catch me.”

“That wasn't very smart,” Joe said, shaking his head. “Why didn't you just explain to the grocer what happened?”

“I tried to, but he wouldn't listen. He didn't believe a thing I said,” Phineas explained.

“So you came here to this church and started doing all these crazy things?” Joe asked. “Why?”

“I was only trying to get help,” Phineas said. “I waited and waited, hoping to attract someone who looked like they would help me, but no one came along who looked trustworthy.” He sniffed. “This church is the only place I could find to hide in, out of the cold.”

Mandie's heart went out to the man at the thought of his being so hungry and cold. “If you live over on the mountain, why didn't you just go back home?” she asked.

“I lived with my son, and he died last month,” Phineas explained. “I don't have any way to make a living. We don't own the house, and with my son gone, there was no one to pay the rent or buy groceries.” Nervously, he rubbed the side of his long, thin face. “I'm not begging, mind you. I'd starve to death before I'd beg for something to eat. I'm only asking for someone to help me straighten out this matter with the grocer.”

Mandie reached out and took the man's hand. “Mr. Phineas, we'll help you,” she promised. “I believe what you've told us. We'll see that you have a warm place to stay and some food to eat.”

“Mandie!” Joe exclaimed. “You can't make promises like that. We don't know this man. We'll have to check out his story.”

“But he's hungry, Joe,” Celia defended Mandie's decision.

“We can at least take him home to Grandmother and let her help us decide what should be done,” Mandie said.

“All right. If you insist,” Joe said. “But I've still got a lot of questions.” He looked directly at Phineas. “How did you get behind that paneling?”

“I worked a piece loose one day and then found that I could slide down through the wall opening into the attic,” the man explained.

“Attic?” Mandie's eyes grew wide. “Does this church have an attic?”

“It certainly does,” Phineas replied. “That's where I left my bag.” “We didn't find any attic,” Celia remarked.

“The only other way you can get into it is through the scuttle hole in the ceiling of the gallery,” Phineas told them.

“So that's why we could never catch up with you,” Mandie reasoned. “You hid in the attic.”

The man nodded. “I saw and heard you three come into the church several times. One time I was in such a hurry to get through the paneling I fell all the way through to the attic. It made such a noise and everything shook so, I just knew you girls would find me that day.”

The three people quickly looked at each other.

“So that solves that mystery,” Mandie said, with a sigh. “And I suppose you wrote on the wall at the back of the church, too.”

“I used whitewash which was supposed to be removable but I couldn't wash it off. It just got all blurred instead,” Phineas said.

“And you put the magnet on the clock, too, I suppose,” Joe said.

“You see, I used to be in the clock business long years ago. I knew I could control the mechanism with a magnet and I could withdraw it whenever I wanted to. I figured someone would come investigating the bells ringing and maybe they could help me but, like I said, I haven't seen anyone who looked trustworthy,” Phineas explained with a sigh.

“And you locked us in the basement and then unlocked the door later. And you put that ‘Help' banner on the altar and then took it away. Why did you do things and then reverse what you did?” Mandie asked.

“I guess I just had a guilty conscience,” the old man said. “I needed help but I decided the altar was not the place to put such a thing so I took it away. And I had been outside the church and didn't realize y'all were in the basement when I locked that door. Then I heard you down there and had to come back and unlock it.”

“Well, why were you locking the basement door anyhow?” Celia asked.

“I had thought I could sleep in the pastor's study on his settee that night and I wanted to be sure the basement was locked off in case anyone came prowling around. Then I found out the pastor's door was locked after all,” Phineas said. “I hope you will all forgive me.”

“But if you've been here hiding all this time, how could you live without any food?” Joe asked.

“Well, to begin with, I had the apple that man dropped, and then I had to look in trash cans,” he told them.

Mandie and Celia cringed.

“The restaurant down on Patton Avenue throws out a lot of good food,” he explained. “When I discovered that, I just went behind their building whenever I got hungry and helped myself. I don't eat much anyway.”

Tears clouded Mandie's eyes to think of this poor man having to eat out of trash cans! She jumped up, dumping Snowball onto the floor, and grabbed the man's hand to help him up. “Come on,” she said. “We're going to my grandmother's.”

Joe looked at her with concern. “If you say so,” he said.

Phineas seemed to have a bad leg. He was limping.