The Mystery of the Talking Skull - Arthur Robert (библиотека книг бесплатно без регистрации .TXT) 📗

“Very good,” said a friendly voice. “Wait outside. I will untie the boys.”

The other men slipped quietly out the door, leaving only one inside. This one turned on his flashlight and shone it on the boys for a moment.

“Good.” He chuckled. “No one fell on you and smashed you flat. Now I set you free.”

He placed the light on the floor so it would illuminate the boys without shining in their eyes. Then he approached with a long knife. As he got closer, Bob and Pete saw a swarthy man with a fierce moustache, whom they had never seen before. But Jupiter recognized him.

“Lonzo!” he exclaimed. “The Gypsy from Zelda’s house!”

Lonzo chuckled again as he cut the ropes that bound them.

“Yes,” he said. “We meet once more.”

“But — but how did you get here?” Jupiter asked in bewilderment as he stood up, rubbing his wrists.

“No time for talk now,” the Gypsy said. “Where is the other one?”

He shone the light where Smooth Simpson had been. Smooth was missing. Two ropes lay on the floor.

“He got away!” Bob exclaimed. “He must have been quietly getting his hands free all along, and in the fight slipped out!”

“He’ll be far away by now,” Lonzo said briefly. “No matter. We have three for the police. Now come outside. Zelda wishes to speak to you.”

Zelda! The Gypsy fortune-teller! Jupiter followed Lonzo out the door, with Bob and Pete at his heels. Three old cars were parked at the kerb. The two in the rear seemed to be crowded with men — Gypsies. In the front car a woman waited.

It was Zelda. She was not wearing Gypsy clothes, perhaps to avoid attracting attention.

“They are all right, Zelda,” Lonzo reported. “Three are tied up inside. One got away.”

“No matter,” Zelda said quietly. “Get in the car, boys, we must talk.”

The three squeezed in with her. Lonzo remained on watch.

“So our paths cross again, Jupiter Jones,” Zelda said. “It was written in the stars and in the crystal. I am glad we got here in time.”

“Were you following us?” Jupiter asked as his thoughts began to clear.

“Yes,” Zelda said. “Lonzo and some of the others were. Since first you visited me. The crystal said danger, and we wanted to prevent harm from coming to you. Lonzo followed those who followed you, and when they came here tonight, he sent for the rest of us to come to your aid. But we must be brief. You have found the money?”

“No,” Jupiter sighed. “Apparently it isn’t here. Yet I was positive, the money was hidden in Spike’s sister’s house. The letter practically said so. That’s the place it would logically be.”

“Gulliver was sure the letter from Spike gave a clue to the hiding place, but he could not solve it,” Zelda said.

“Then you knew Gulliver?” Jupiter demanded.

“We are related,” Zelda told him. “In an unusual way. I am anxious to clear his name and hoped that you, being very clever, could solve the mystery. Where did you look?”

“Under the wallpaper,” Jupiter told her. “It’s a place no one would think of. But it wasn’t there.”

“Why did you think it was?” Zelda asked.

“Well, Spike knew he couldn’t actually say much in a letter,” Jupiter explained. “He knew it would be censored. So he did something quite tricky, yet the only thing he could do.”

“Well, boy, what was it?” Zelda sounded impatient. “Come, speak up.”

It was Bob who answered.

“He did something peculiar with the stamps on the envelope. He put on two stamps, a two and a four. And he put a one-cent stamp, green, the colour of money, under the four. We were positive he meant —”

“Bob, wait!” Jupiter called out.

Bob blinked. “What’s the matter, First?” he asked.

“Say that again. The final words you just said.”

“Why, all I said was that he put a one-cent stamp under the four and —”

“That’s it!” Jupiter cried. “That’s the clue!”

“What’s the clue?” Pete put in. He and Bob and Zelda stared in puzzlement at Jupiter, whose face had suddenly become pink with excitement.

“Miss Zelda,” Jupiter said, turning to the Gypsy woman, “Spike Neely had a slight speech defect. Chief Reynolds told us so. He had trouble pronouncing the letter L in some words.”

“I believe that is true, boy,” Zelda answered. “But what —”

“And his sister said Spike pronounced ‘flower’ as ‘fower’. How would he pronounce ‘floor’?”

“He’d pronounce it ‘four’,” Zelda said after a moment. “Are you trying to tell me —”

“He put the money under the floor,” Bob yelped. “He was sure Gulliver would remember his speech trouble and understand. Even if he didn’t, ‘four’ and ‘floor’ sound enough alike to give the idea if you’re looking for something tricky.”

“Only we got carried away with the idea that he meant under the wallpaper, because Mrs. Miller told us Spike had papered the downstairs during his stay!” Jupiter added excitedly. “Actually, I should have realized that pasting money under wallpaper is a bad idea — you’d never get it off again without ruining it. You’d have to scrape it off and that would be the end of it. But safe and sound under the floor somewhere —”

“Lonzo!” Zelda ordered. “Get the tools from the other car. We are going inside — you and I and the boys.”

A moment later they were crowding into the house, ignoring the three bound prisoners on the living room floor. Consulting hastily, they agreed that the living room floor was unlikely. Jupiter suggested that the right spot would either be under the floor in the guest room, where Spike had stayed, or under the floor in the little attic storage space.

They tried the attic first.

Ten minutes later Lonzo ripped up a board in one corner — and Pete gave a shout.

There, in the beam of the flashlight, lay bundle after bundle of greenbacks, neatly stacked between the joists of the first-floor ceiling!

“Under the four,” Pete said, blinking. “Under the four. What a smooth way to send a clue when you knew a lot of people were going to inspect your letter like hawks, looking for something. Jupe, you’re the most!”

“I should have thought of it sooner,” Jupiter said. “Even if I didn’t remember Spike Neely’s speech defect, I should have realized that ‘four’ and ‘floor’ sound alike. And considering that pasting money under wallpaper would ruin it, I —”

“Never mind, boy!” Zelda said. “You did a fine job. Gulliver himself did not suspect the truth. Now the money is found. The criminals are captured. The Frog has jumped high and saved himself from the hungry fish in the pond.” She chuckled slightly.

Jupiter looked as if he were suspecting a great deal that previously had been a mystery.

“You sent us that warning, Miss Zelda?” he asked.

The old Gypsy woman nodded.

“Indeed I did, boy. My Gypsies were keeping watch over you, but I wanted you to do your utmost to find the money — which you have. Now we must go. We will call the police, and the affair will be ended. You wait here for the police. They will take charge of the money and those crooks downstairs. The police will want to question us also, but they will not be able to find us. Not yet, at least.”

“Wait, Zelda!” Jupiter said as the Gypsy woman and Lonzo turned to go. “Before you leave, I wish you would tell me something. About the trunk — how did it get back to us? And about the talking skull, Socrates — did he really talk or —”

“Later, later,” the woman said. “In two weeks visit me at the old address. We will then have returned. Your questions will be answered.”

“But at least tell us about Gulliver,” Jupiter urged. “Where is he?”

“I thought he was dead,” Pete put in.

“I did not say so,” Zelda replied. “I said he had vanished from the world of men. Now, perhaps he may return from the world where he has been. For two weeks — farewell.”

With that, she and Lonzo hurried down the stairs and The Three Investigators heard the Gypsies’ cars roar away into the night. The three looked at each other, and Bob gave a sigh of relief.