The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (232 page)

“You certainly are borrowing trouble, Mother! Father will be found, and everything will be the same as before.”

“I wish I could think so, Lorinda.”

“Forget about the will.”

Mrs. Rhett shook her head. “I think I shall change it. And soon. However, at this moment, I don’t know how I wish to dispose of some of my property. Nearly everything I own is tied up in real estate.”

The woman arose, and remarking that she had a severe headache, started into the house.

“I’ll lie down for a little while,” she murmured. “I feel so weak and tired.”

Lorinda waited until her mother was well beyond hearing. Then she turned to Penny with stricken eyes.

“You heard what she said! She must have learned about that hideous doll from Celeste!”

“But how did Celeste know of it? You told her?”

“Oh, no! But Celeste has a way of knowing everything that goes on in this household. What ought I to do?”

“If I were in your place I would get rid of Celeste and Antón. Send them packing!”

The suggestion seemed almost shocking to Lorinda.

“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” she answered. “In the first place, my stepfather would be furious if he returned and found them gone. Secondly, I doubt that they would go on my orders. They’re very independent.”

“Then I don’t see what you can do.”

“If only my stepfather were here! Unless he returns soon I’m afraid something dreadful will happen to Mother. Did she look well to you?”

“Well—” Penny hesitated, and then said truthfully:“She seemed pale and listless. But one can understand that, considering what she has been through.”

“I heard her give orders about her food this morning. She told Celeste she would have trays served in her room, and
no food is to be cooked with salt
.”

“Is that especially significant?”

“My stepfather once told me natives who believe a hex or
ouange
have been put on them are afraid to eat salted food. The salt is supposed to turn to poison in their bodies!”

Penny would have laughed had the matter not been so serious.

“Lorinda, you’re as superstitious as a little savage!”

“I don’t believe such a thing myself,” the girl denied. “But Mother apparently does. She always was afraid of everything remotely connected with cult practices. She never wanted my stepfather to have books on the subject in the library, yet recently I saw her reading them.”

“You said they disagreed about his interest in ancient cult practices?”

“Yes,” Lorinda admitted. “Otherwise they got on quite well together. Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you this, but two days before he went away, they had a violent disagreement. Mother wanted to discharge Antón and Celeste, and he refused. Then on the last day my stepfather was seen, Mother went to the bank to talk to him. She never told me what happened there.”

“According to Albert Potts, they had another quarrel.”

“I shouldn’t wonder,” Lorinda sighed. “And now Mother’s attitude toward Celeste is so changed—she actually clings to her. Oh dear, it’s all so upsetting.”

“You’re trying to take too much upon your shoulders,”Penny said kindly.

Conversation lagged. Lorinda could not throw aside the deep mood of depression which possessed her. Penny knew she no longer had an excuse to linger, yet she was unwilling to leave without asking a few questions about the thatched roof cottage.

“Lorinda, why did you try to keep me from visiting it the other day?” she inquired.

“Well, I didn’t know you then. My stepfather’s trophies all are kept in the cottage, and I didn’t want anyone prying about.”

“Then actually it’s not a place of evil?”

Lorinda hesitated and answered indirectly: “I almost never go to the cottage myself. Once I was badly frightened there—it was nothing—but for a silly reason, I’ve always dreaded going back.”

“You didn’t by chance hear whispering from within the walls?”

Lorinda gave her companion a quick, startled look. “Why do you ask, Penny?”

“Because I visited the cottage yesterday with Salt Sommers. We distinctly heard a voice which seemed to come from the wall itself. When we went outside to investigate, the door slammed shut and locked.”

“It has an automatic catch,” Lorinda explained. “I never heard voices there, but I had a strange feeling when I was in the room—as if the walls had eyes and I was being watched.”

“The cottage always is kept locked?” Penny inquired.

“Yes, my stepfather’s trophies are valuable, and we can’t risk having them stolen. How did you get inside?”

Penny had the grace to blush. “Well, to make a long story short, we went in through the window,” she admitted. “It was a dreadful thing to do, and I’m heartily ashamed.”

“I don’t blame you,” Lorinda laughed. “Naturally you were curious after I tried so hard to keep you away. Would you like to see the cottage again?”

“Indeed, yes!”

“I’ll get the key,” Lorinda offered.

She vanished into the house and was gone so long that Penny wondered what could be delaying the girl. When she finally appeared on the veranda, her face was as dark as a rain cloud.

“The key is gone!” she exclaimed. “It’s always been kept in the top drawer of the dresser in my stepfather’s room. I couldn’t find it anywhere.”

“Perhaps he took it with him that last day he went to the bank,” suggested Penny.

“Possibly,” agreed Lorinda, though without conviction. “I hope nothing has been stolen from the cottage.”

Alarmed at being unable to find the key, the girls walked hurriedly along the wooded path to the trophy house. From afar, Lorinda saw that the door was open a tiny crack.

“Either the place has been ransacked, or someone is there now!” she declared excitedly.

They approached swiftly but with noiseless tread. Lorinda suddenly flung open the cottage door.

The room was deserted. Trophies were exactly as Penny had seen them the previous day.

“That’s funny,” Lorinda commented, entering, “I was certain I’d find someone here. Perhaps you and your friend failed to lock the door after you left yesterday.”

“It locked itself. We tried it, and couldn’t get in. Anyway, even if we had left the door open, that still leaves the question of what became of the missing key.”

Lorinda nodded thoughtfully as her gaze swept the room.

“Everything seems to be here,” she remarked.

“What does the chest contain?” Penny inquired curiously. “Salt and I wanted to peek inside yesterday, but didn’t have a chance.”

“I’ll show you,” Lorinda offered.

Pulling out the chest, she raised the lid. The top compartment tray was empty. Looking a trifle puzzled, Lorinda jerked it from the wooden container. The lower section of the chest also was empty.

“Why, everything is gone!” she cried. “My stepfather kept an altar cloth, a feathered head dress, two carved knives, several rattles, and I don’t know what all in this chest! They’ve been stolen!”

CHAPTER 14

STORM WARNINGS

Penny dropped down on her knees beside Lorinda, peering into the empty wooden box.

“I hope you don’t think Salt and I took anything when we were here,” she murmured uncomfortably. “We never even opened the chest.”

“Of course I know you didn’t,” Lorinda replied. “Such a thought never entered my mind. But it’s disturbing to know these things are gone. Why weren’t the other trophies taken also?”

“Possibly, because the person who stole them thought the objects inside the chest would not be so quickly missed.”

Lorinda nodded as if in agreement, and closed the chest. As she straightened up, a tense, strained expression came over her face, and she stiffened.

“Listen!” she whispered.

From behind the walls of the house came a muffled dum—dum—dum of a drum. Even as the girls tensely listened, the sound died away.

“Could this cottage have a secret panel?” Penny asked in an excited voice.

“I don’t think so.” Badly frightened, Lorinda tried not to show it. “At least I never heard of one.”

Penny began tapping the walls, none of which gave off a hollow sound. The section by the fireplace appeared somewhat thicker than the others. However, if it contained a moveable panel, she could not locate it.

Her gaze fell upon the cocoanut shell lamp, its bowl nearly exhausted of oil.

“Lorinda,” she inquired, “is this room usually lighted?”

“Why, no.”

“When Salt and I were here, we saw the cocoanut shell lamp burning. A little oil is left in it now.”

“I can’t imagine how it came to be there,” Lorinda said in a hushed voice. “My stepfather may have filled it long ago, but he certainly never spoke of it.”

Hurriedly the girls left the cottage, closing the door tightly behind them. Lorinda tested it twice to make certain the lock had caught.

“The sound of those drums—” she murmured. “Penny, did I imagine it?”

“I assure you, you didn’t. I heard them too.”

“Then the sound came from the beach,” Lorinda declared firmly. “It couldn’t have been otherwise. No one is anywhere around here.”

“Let’s go to the beach and look around,” Penny proposed.

Almost at a run, they cut across the garden to the steps which led to the river’s edge. Reaching the beach they paused to listen. No sound of drums could be heard and no one was in sight.

“It couldn’t have come from here,” Penny said. “Lorinda, that drumming definitely was tied up with the cottage.”

“But the sound was muffled and far away.”

“The cottage may have a passageway connection.”

“I never heard of such a thing.”

“How long ago was the cottage built, Lorinda?”

“The summer after Mother and my stepfather were married. I remember, Mother and I went away for a month to visit a cousin. When we returned, the cottage was finished. My stepfather ordered it done while we were away. Mother didn’t like it one bit.”

“Then you actually weren’t here when the cottage was built? For all you know, a secret passageway or false panels in the walls, may have been put in?”

“I suppose it could have been done,” Lorinda admitted reluctantly.

“Who would know about the cottage except your stepfather? Did you learn the builder’s name?”

“I’m not sure there was one. I think my stepfather and Antón did most of the work themselves.”

“Let’s talk to Antón,” suggested Penny. “Perhaps he can shed light on the mystery of those whispering, drum-pounding walls!”

Antón, however, was nowhere to be found. After searching for him in the house and on the grounds, the girls abandoned the search.

By this time it was growing late, so Penny regretfully bade her friend goodbye, and returned home.

Try as she would, she could not forget the strange events of the afternoon, nor Mrs. Rhett’s obsession that she would have a long and fatal illness.

“Even now that woman is mentally ill,” she thought. “I do hope Lorinda calls in a doctor without delay.”

Although removed from the depressing mansion atmosphere, Penny found it impossible to forget the effigy and the conviction Lorinda had of its powers.

“Dad,” she said abruptly that night when dinner was over. “Do you believe in black magic?”

“I don’t believe in any kind of magic, black, red, pink or green,” he answered absently. “What’s on your mind now?”

Penny told him of her adventure at the Rhett estate. She confidently expected her father to make light of the entire affair, but to her surprise he listened with flattering attention and asked many questions.

“It’s fantastic!” he exclaimed when she finished. “Utterly fantastic! Yet I’ve read of cases where natives have been taken ill and although doctors declared not a thing was the matter with them, they weakened and died. Is Mrs. Rhett an hysterical type of woman?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Then she may be in real danger! Obviously, something underhanded is going on at the mansion!”

Pulling himself out of a comfortable chair, Mr. Parker went to the hall closet for his hat, coat and cane.

“You’re not going to the police station, are you, Dad?”

“No, I want to talk this over first with a man of my acquaintance who is better versed in cult practices and superstitions than anyone I know. He’s Professor Kennedy of Riverview College. He spent many years in Africa, Egypt and along the Amazon river.”

“May I go with you, Dad?”

“Come along,” he invited. “You know all the facts, and I may get them mixed up.”

Twenty minutes later Penny and her father were in the cozy study of Professor James Kennedy on Braemer Drive. An elderly man with a very soft voice, he greeted the Parkers cordially and displayed keen interest as they revealed the purpose of their call.

“I once met Mr. Rhett at a dinner party,” Professor Kennedy remarked. “He is a highly intelligent gentleman and we had a very animated conversation.”