The Mystery Of The Laughing Shadow Part 4

But by six o'clock not one call had come in, and the boys looked at each other in glum surprise. Not one kid in Rocky Beach even thought he had seen the strangers.

"They must be hiding," Bob said.

"If they're in Rocky Beach at all," Pete said.

"I'm sure they are," Jupiter insisted. "The Ghost-to-Ghost Hook-up just takes time.

We'll hear, but meanwhile ..."

"Meanwhile," Pete said, looking at the clock, "we had better get home for dinner."

Jupiter sighed unhappily. The limitations of being a boy sometimes made the stocky leader of the trio squirm. But he, too, would soon have to appear for his dinner.

"All right," the First Investigator agreed, "but after dinner, Bob, you go to the library and find out all you can about the Chumash h.o.a.rd. The library has a special collection of local histories, and we need to know everything about the h.o.a.rd. Also, look up Miss Sandow's brother."

"Don't tell me what I'm going to do!" Pete exclaimed.

"You," Jupiter said with determination, "are going to go back out to Sandow Estate with me. Something is going on out there, and I want to know what it is."

"But, Jupe, what can we learn out there?" Pete wanted to know.

"For one thing," the First Investigator said, "we can try to find that laughing shadow again."

Pete wailed. "Do we have to?"

"Be back here as soon as you can," Jupiter said firmly, ignoring Pete's wail. "And dress in dark clothes."

The sun was going down behind the high mountains to the west when Pete and Jupiter reached the iron gates of the estate. They hid their bikes in a grove of trees, and Jupiter took a small, bulging sack from his parcel carrier.

"The wall is too high to climb," Jupiter whispered, "and it runs round the whole estate on the main road side, so I came prepared."

Bending over to open his sack, he took out two of the small, home-made walkie-talkies he had built for the trio, and a rope with a large, four-p.r.o.nged hook at the end.

"The walkie-talkies are in case we become separated," he explained, "and the rope has a grappling hook on it. I found four of them in a batch Uncle t.i.tus bought recently."

Jupiter threw the hook up to the top of the wall, where it caught on the stone ridge.

The two boys tested it, and Pete pulled himself up. At the top he peered over. Then he hauled Jupiter up. They pulled the rope over and lowered themselves down inside the wall. Jupiter returned the rope to the bag which he hid.

"We'll go up to the house," the First Investigator whispered in the fading twilight.

"Be alert, Pete."

They made their way through the trees and brush to a small rise from where they could watch the house and barn. The estate grounds became dark and quiet as the last rays of sunlight vanished. There was light inside the big house, and shadows moved, but no one came out. All was quiet. In the distance they could hear cars pa.s.sing on the road.

The boys became stiff and cramped from lying so long in one position. Pete's leg went to sleep, and he moved to start the circulation. But Jupiter remained absolutely still. The lights went out downstairs in the house, and the moonless night grew even darker.

Suddenly, Jupiter touched Pete.

"What?" Pete whispered, startled.

"There!"

A vague, tall shape moved near the house. The shadow hesitated for a time as if listening, then began to move past the barn towards the woods to the east.

"When he reaches the woods, we'll ..." Jupiter began.

The First Investigator never finished. At that moment a wild, chilling laugh echoed through the dark night.

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Chapter 8.

Shapes in the Night THE LAUGH seemed to fill the dark night - high and crazy like a wild hyena.

"It must be him!" Pete whispered. "The laughing shadow! But he looks different somehow."

"What do you mean?"

"He's not so humpbacked-looking," Pete explained. "But that laugh sure sounded like him."

"We'd better hurry!" Jupiter warned. "We might lose him."

Quickly they left the small rise and headed towards the woods. The shadowy figure had taken a path that led through the trees. The boys followed behind as close as they dared. Fortunately the man never paused or looked back. He kept walking steadily ahead at a rapid pace. The wild laugh had stopped for the time being.

For more than a mile, according to Pete's estimate, the shadowy figure walked east, deeper into the forest. Then he turned off the main path into a smaller side path which led down into a small, bowl-shaped valley. There was a dirt road in the valley, and a low, rambling house built of logs. The house had a porch all round, shuttered windows, and a stone chimney.

"Some kind of hunting lodge," Jupiter whispered.

"Look!" Pete hissed.

A large, dark, oblong shape was moving along the road towards the lodge. As it drew closer, they saw that it was a truck with its lights out. The truck glided to a stop beside the man they had been following. A second man, short and heavy, jumped from the cab of the truck. There was a brief, whispered conversation in front of the lodge, then the short man went to the rear of the truck and lowered the tail-board.

Four more shadowy figures climbed down from the rear of the truck. The short man herded them into a line and pushed them towards the lodge. The taller man turned on a porch light, and the four newcomers stepped on to the porch, pa.s.sing through the front-door in single file.

"Yikes!" Pete whispered.

In their brief pa.s.sage through the light, the four figures had, for a moment, stood out sharply - four small shapes that had no heads!

"Where ... where are their heads?" Pete's voice quavered.

Even Jupiter was at a loss for words. "I ... I don't know. They ... they looked like headless midgets!"

The two investigators stared at each other in the darkness.

"What's going on around here?" Pete said.

"I don't know," Jupiter answered, visibly shaken by the sight of the four headless shapes. "If we could just get closer maybe we could look through one Shapes in the Night of the windows."

The boys stared down at the lodge, which was now lighted inside, trying to decide how to approach closer.

Suddenly a wild, eerie laugh burst out of the night almost beside them. Without stopping to think what they were doing, both boys headed up the path as fast as they could go!

While Pete and Jupiter were running madly through the trees and bushes of the Sandow Estate, Bob was leaving the town library, excited by the results of his research.

He hurried to headquarters. His fellow investigators were not there, however, so he left a message for them to phone him. When he got home his dad was listening to a local news broadcast. Because Mr. Andrews worked on a Los Angeles newspaper, he never missed the news reports if he could help it. Bob went on into the kitchen, where his mother gave him some milk and biscuits.

"Did you find what you wanted at the library?" Mrs. Andrews asked.

"I sure did, Mom, but Pete and Jupe are still out."

His father came into the kitchen, looking unusually upset. "I don't know what the world's coming to," Mr. Andrews said. "I just heard a report that a man was attacked in Rocky Beach this afternoon right in a public meeting hall!"

"In Rocky Beach?" Mrs. Andrews exclaimed. "How awful."

"Some fanatics, probably. The man who was attacked was the president of some vegetarian league. He was giving a lecture when two men in odd, white clothes attacked him right on the platform. Two dark men, the newscaster said."

Bob almost choked on his milk. "Dark men, Dad?"

"So it says."

"Was he hurt?" Mrs. Andrews asked.

"Apparently not, but the two men got away."

Bob said quickly, "What was his name, Dad?"

"Whose name?"

"That man who was attacked. The vegetarian."

"Let me see," Mr. Andrews said, scratching his head. "I think it was Harris. Albert Harris. They said he was president of the Vegetarian League."

It was apparent to Bob that Mr. Harris had been attacked by the same men who had stolen the amulet from Jupiter. While his parents went on talking about the outrageous attack, Bob quickly finished his milk and slipped out of the kitchen. He hurried to the telephone. One thing was certain - whoever those dark men were, and whatever they wanted, the amulet alone wasn't the whole answer.

He let the telephone ring and ring at headquarters. But Pete and Jupiter were still not back.

Pete and Jupiter crouched low in a grove of trees far from the lodge where the wild, shrieking laughter had startled the wits out of them. They were weak from running, scratched by branches and falls over roots, and shaken by their narrow escape.

Pete peered back through the night. "Do you see anything, Jupe?"

"No, I think we're safe now."

"I don't feel safe," Pete muttered. "What were those things? Midgets without heads?"

"There must be some simple explanation," Jupiter said nervously. "We didn't really get a good look. Maybe if we went back and looked in at a window ..."

"Oh, no we don't!" Pete cried. "Not with the laughing shadow on the loose."

Jupiter sighed. "I suppose you're right I didn't see him around, though, when we heard that last laugh."

"Who needs to," Pete said. "I vote we get out of here - fast! fast! " "

Jupe was quiet for a moment, apparently in deep thought. Pete waited anxiously for his decision.

"Somehow, I feel sure that the dark men and the laughing shadow are part of the same mystery, Pete."

"Sure, but how?"

"That we have to uncover," Jupiter said. "But right now I agree that it would be best for us to go home."

"That's what I like to hear!"

Grinning, Pete led them across the rugged country of the estate towards the distant road. They avoided the holes and gullies this time, but their progress was slow in the dark. Finally they reached the wall and walked along it until they came to where the bag was concealed.

Jupiter threw the grappling hook to the top of the wall, but this time it failed to catch hold on the first two tries. Pete took over for the third throw. It caught, and Pete was testing the hold when from the direction of the estate road they heard the sound of a rifle bolt clicking home!

"Come out of there, you two!"

A figure stood in the road. A tall shadow that held a rifle aimed straight at the boys.

There was nothing they could do. The two boys stepped out of the trees and bushes into the private road. Then Jupiter suddenly smiled: "Ted! It's Jupiter Jones and Pete Crenshaw!"

Ted Sandow did not smile, and he didn't lower his rifle. Instead, the tall English boy watched the two investigators with suspicion.

"What are you doing here?" Ted asked coldly.

Pete protested. "Ted, it's us! We're working for your aunt."

"At this hour?" Ted snapped. "In the dark, sneaking around? You didn't say anything about coming back here to snoop. Where have you been on the estate?"

"Looking around. We thought the amulet might have been lost near the gate, or perhaps the thief would return in the dark," Jupiter explained glibly. "We do have your aunt's permission to try to find the statuette."

Ted hesitated. "I don't know if I should believe you."

"What about us believing you!" Pete blurted out. "You knew we were investigators all along! You found our card!"

Jupiter tried to stop Pete with a kick on the leg, but it was too late. Ted Sandow stared at Pete: "How do you know that?"

Pete told the English boy about his slip in mentioning the question marks before he had, supposedly, even seen one of their cards. Ted looked rather chagrined, but at the same time it was clear that he admired the boys' keen thinking.

"I say," Ted exclaimed, "that was clever of you!" He smiled and lowered the rifle.