The Mystery Of Wandering Caveman Part 7

"You could go to the house in Hollywood," Bob suggested.

"No, I couldn't. People live there."

She got up. "I'm saving," she said. "When I have enough, I'll leave. Are you coming up to the foundation with me?"

"We'll be right along," said Jupe. "There's something we have to do at the barn first."

The boys watched her go.

"Do you suppose she'll ever get away?" said Pete.

"I don't know," said Jupe. "She doesn't want to be here, but she's afraid to be anywhere else."

Jupe turned his attention to the plaster cast. The plaster was set now, and when it was lifted from the earth, it presented the mould of a bare right foot.

"Beautiful!" exclaimed Pete.

"Hmm, the wandering cave man had trouble with his foot," said Jupe. "Look. You can see the big toe, then a s.p.a.ce, and then three smaller toes. It looks as if the second toe got squeezed up so that it didn't leave an imprint on the ground."

"A hammer toe!" said Bob. "On a cave man?"

"Seems unlikely, doesn't it?" said Jupe. "Foot problems usually come with shoes that don't fit."

Jupe took his tape measure out and measured the print. It was barely nine inches long.

"The thief who left his shoe print in the museum was a large person," said Jupe.

"The barefoot wanderer was small."

Pete gulped. "Could it have been the cave man?"

"The cave man is dead," Jupe said. "He's been dead for ages, and dead people do not get up and walk. Our criminal could be almost anyone - anyone at all. But it is not a dead man!"

Chapter 11.

The Missing Pages THE BOYS FOUND Eleanor Hess in the stable grooming the horse that had been Dr. Birkensteen's special charge. Frank DiStefano was there, too, leaning on a stall and watching.

"Hear the cave man's come up missing," he said. "Just my luck I missed it. I was home with stomach flu."

"That's too bad," said Jupe. "You okay now?"

"Oh, yeah. Fine. That stuff never lasts long."

"It was really weird in the park," said Pete. "Everyone just went to sleep."

"Figures!" said DiStefano. "That's what usually happens around here. Nap time!"

He glanced at Eleanor and said, "Take it easy. Don't race your motor." Then he went out, silent on rubber-soled shoes.

Pete stared after him. "He's wearing running shoes," Pete observed.

"Lots of people wear running shoes," said Eleanor.

She had finished grooming the horse. She let it out into the enclosure next to the stable, put away the grooming things, and started towards the house.

The boys went along with her into the workroom that had been used by Birkensteen. The chimpanzees leaped about in their cage when they saw her, screaming with delight.

"Okay! Okay!" Eleanor laughed and opened the cage, and the chimps frolicked around her.

"Too bad they don't like you," said Pete.

Eleanor smiled. "They're sweet, aren't they? And they do like me, but they miss Dr. Birkensteen."

"It would be odd if they didn't," said Bob.

Jupe said nothing. He was standing next to the dead scientist's desk, his eye caught by the appointments book there. He opened the book and idly flipped the pages, then suddenly came to attention.

Next to the page for April 28, and on the right-hand side of the book, was the page for May 19.

"More than half the pages for May are missing from Dr. Birkensteen's calendar,"

announced Jupe. He frowned. "That's interesting! Wasn't it in early May that he died? I remember that it was one of those foggy, cold days we get in the springtime."

Eleanor sat very still, her face turned away from Jupiter. "It was ... it was sometime in May," she said in a low voice.

"Why would he tear the pages out of his calendar?" wondered Jupe.

"I . . . I don't know really," she said. She was holding one of the chimps in her arms, rocking it back and forth as if it were a child. Bob and Jupiter watched, alert and curious.

"You went with Dr. Birkensteen to Rocky Beach," said Jupe. "The day he died.

Could the missing pages have something to do with that?"

"No," she said. "No, I ... I don't suppose so."

"Did the trip have anything to do with the chimps?" Jupe persisted.

"Maybe. I suppose it could have. I didn't really know much about his work. I only helped with the animals, and I went with him because ... because he was nice and he didn't feel well."

"What address on Harbourview Lane were you looking for? And who lived there?"

Jupe pressed on.

Eleanor looked worried and nervous. She cleared her throat and ducked her head, and the boys saw a tear run down her cheek.

"I'm not doing too well today," she said. "I'm sorry. Maybe you'd better go."

The boys left. In the hallway outside the workroom they met Mrs. Collinwood.

She had on a ruffled ap.r.o.n over her print dress, and she wore a dark wig with a white streak in it.

"Everything all right?" she said, smiling brightly.

It struck Jupe that Mrs. Collinwood was a bit of a busybody-and might know useful things. Jupe allowed his face to settle into a mournful expression. "I'm afraid we've upset Eleanor," he said. "I mentioned Dr. Birkensteen to her. She's crying."

"Teh!" Mrs. Collinwood shook her head. "She was fond of him. But then, we were all fond of him. He was one of the nicest people here."

"Do you know why he went to Los Angeles that day?" said Jupe. "The day he died? Did he have friends there?"

"I don't know. He wasn't one for much talk. I suppose it had something to do with those animals. You can't imagine how he fussed over them. You'd think he was raising children and getting them ready for college. And whenever one of them died, he'd carry on as if he'd lost his best friend."

"A lot of them died?" said Jupe.

"Yes. And he'd do autopsies to see why. Sometimes he did operations when they were alive too. And sometimes when they were sleeping, he'd just stand and watch them."

She looked thoughtful. "They used to sleep so much. They seem livelier now."

There was a thump and a crash from a room down the hall.

"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Collinwood. She hurried to an open doorway. "Frank, try to be more careful."

Frank DiStefano came out. He had a broom in one hand and two pieces of a white dish of some kind in the other. "No real harm done," he said in his insolent way. "It was empty."

"The next time it might not be," she said.

He ignored this and went on, nodding to the boys.

"When are you going to get those things from the market?" Mrs. Collinwood called after him.

"For Pete's sake, I'm going now!" he cried. "What do you want from me, anyway?"

Mrs. Collinwood made an exasperated noise as he disappeared through a door at the end of the hall.

When the boys went out through the front of the house, they saw DiStefano getting into an old two-door sedan that was parked in the drive. He started the engine, then waited for them to reach the driveway.

"Got to keep these women in their place," he said. He gave a c.o.c.ky grin and offered them a lift.

The boys looked at the back seat and saw a jumble of magazines, muddy boots, a crushed box of tissues, a scuba mask, and a wet suit.

"Thanks anyway," said Jupe. "We're only going to the bottom of the hill."

DiStefano nodded and the car spurted away.

"He's got a big mouth," said Pete.

Jupe only said, "Um!" for he was musing on the conversation he had just had with Mrs. Collinwood.

"I wish Dr. Birkensteen hadn't been so reserved," he said at last. "If he had told Mrs. Collinwood more about his mysterious errand in Rocky Beach, I'm sure she would have talked of it just now. She isn't a deceitful or secretive person - which I think is more than we can say for Eleanor Hess. I'm sure Eleanor is lying to us. But why? What is she concealing?"

"Something about the cave man?" Bob ventured.

"Who knows?" sighed Jupe.

When the Three Investigators reached Newt McAfee's meadow, they spotted Thalia McAfee out on the back porch.

"Have you seen Eleanor?" she called.

"She's up at the foundation," Bob called back.

"Hmph!" said Thalia. "Fussing with those animals again! She'd bring them here if I'd let her, but I told her there ain't n.o.body stays in this house that don't pay rent."

"No, ma'am," said Jupe. "By the way, one of the deputies told us earlier that the water from the sprinkler system was being tested. Do you know if they found anything in it?"

"They didn't," said Thalia. "One of the sheriffs men called a while ago. There was nothing in the sprinklers and nothing in the reservoir where the water comes from.

The sheriff thinks the whole town's suffering from ma.s.s hypnosis!"

Chapter 12.

A Noise in the Ruins JUPE SIGHED AS Thalia McAfee went back inside. "I can't believe in ma.s.s hypnosis," he said to his fellow investigators. "Also, I keep being disturbed at the thought of that dead scientist."

"I always find dead people disturbing," Pete declared.

"That isn't what I mean," said Jupe. "I was referring to the pages missing from the appointments calendar. Surely they are significant. I'd like an opportunity to go through Dr. Birkensteen's papers. I wonder if that could be arranged."

"I'll bet it couldn't," Bob predicted. "If his work was so important, those papers are probably locked up in a safe someplace."

"Hm," said Jupe. His tone was grim. But then he brightened again. "How interesting that Frank DiStefano wasn't in the park this morning," he said. "I wonder who else was missing when the cave man was kidnapped."

Bob frowned. "Everybody we know was there, except DiStefano and ... and John the Gypsy."

Pete grinned. "Hey!" he said. "How about John the Gypsy? We shouldn't forget him just because he acts like a dimwit. Maybe that's just an act, and he's really sort of brainy."

"That doesn't make sense," said Bob. "He's been here for years and years, hasn't he? If he were smart, he'd have tipped his mitt long ago."

"So he isn't smart," said Jupe. "Probably he isn't even reasonably cunning. But last night he saw a cave man walk, and we have a plaster cast of that cave man's footprint. Where did the cave man go?"