CHAPTER 17 THE STOLEN WILL

Penny darted to the open window, peering out onto the dark street. No one was in sight, although Jerry’s car with dimmed headlights still stood at the curb.

“Who could have taken the will?” Lorinda wailed. “I’m sure it didn’t blow out the window and it didn’t sprout legs and walk off either!”

“Perhaps Celeste—”

“She was upstairs all the time we were out of this room,” Lorinda interrupted.

“It seemed odd she called us just at the moment she did—particularly when your mother had not suffered a relapse.”

Lorinda did not appear to hear Penny’s remark. Half doubting that the paper could be missing, she searched on the floor near the safe, under the window and in every corner of the room.

“I suspect someone deliberately stole that will!” Penny said with conviction. “Wait here! I may be able to learn more about it!”

Hastening outdoors, she gazed about the grounds. No one was in sight. She went directly to the press car. The automobile was deserted.

“Now what became of Jerry?” she asked herself impatiently. “Just when I need him!”

Disappointed, she turned toward the house again. Then she saw the reporter coming up a dark path from the direction of the beach.

“Jerry!” she called softly.

“Hi, Penny!” he returned. “Ready to go?”

“Oh, no! Everything is in a dreadful mess here. Lorinda’s mother is very sick. She made a will, and Lorinda started to put it in the safe. Then we were called out of the room by the housekeeper, and when we returned, the paper was gone!”

“When did that happen, Penny?”

“Just now.”

“Then that fellow I chased must have been the thief!”

“You saw someone take the will, Jerry?”

“I was sitting in the car,” the reporter related. “A light was on in one of the downstairs rooms, but I was too sleepy to pay much attention. Suddenly though, I saw a man who apparently had been hiding in the shrubbery, rise up and climb through an open window.”

“A man! Could you see who it was?”

“No, it was too dark. I jumped out of the car, but before I could cross the yard, the fellow climbed out through the window again, and started off. I called to him. He covered his face and ran. I chased him, but the fellow ducked down a path and I lost him.”

“He must have stolen the will, Jerry! But how did he know about it, and why would it be of any value to him? Everything is so mixed up!”

“Maybe we ought to give the police a buzz.”

Penny nodded. “I’ll see what Lorinda wants to do,” she replied. “Until now, the Rhetts have studiously avoided telling their troubles to the police—in fact, I am afraid Mrs. Rhett hasn’t told everything she knows about her husband’s disappearance.”

“I’ll wait in the car,” Jerry said.

Penny let herself into the house again and made her way through the dark living room to the library where a light burned.

“Lorinda—” she began, only to stop short.

For it was not Lorinda who stood with her back toward the door, awkwardly turning the dials of the wall safe. Instead, Celeste whirled around, plainly dismayed by the girl’s unexpected appearance in the doorway.

“Celeste!” Penny said sharply. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” the woman muttered, her mouth sullen.

“You were trying to get into that safe! Is it the will you want, or are you after the Zudi drum?”

Penny’s words, shot blindly, struck the target. Celeste’s eyes flashed and she advanced a step toward the girl.

“You go away from here! Never come back!” she ordered harshly.

“Sorry, I’m not taking orders from you, Celeste. Why do you hate Lorinda and Mrs. Rhett? What is your little game?”

Celeste glared at Penny. She drew in her breath and expelled it with a hissing sound through her yellow, crooked teeth. Her hand clutched at an object hidden beneath her uniform and worn around her neck on a dirty cord.

With no warning, she broke into a jargon which Penny could not understand. But the meaning was clear enough even if the words were unintelligible. Celeste was calling down all manner of evil upon her head!

“Go!” Celeste cried in English. “You come here again—harm befall you!”

“Celeste, all your jungle hocus-pocus doesn’t impress me in the least. I’ll leave when I feel in the mood—not before. What were you after in the safe?”

The woman’s eyes met Penny’s defiantly. She reached out as if to strike her, but at that moment footsteps padded on the stairway. Pushing past Penny, Celeste retreated to the kitchen.

Lorinda came into the library, gazing about curiously. “Thought I heard voices,” she commented.

“You did. Celeste was here. Guess what? I found her tampering with the wall safe.”

“She may have been trying to learn if the Zudi drum was stolen,” Lorinda said absently. “I’m far more worried about the will. What became of it?”

Penny repeated what Jerry had witnessed, adding: “Obviously the will was taken by the man who climbed through the window. Could it have been Antón?”

“Antón? Why, I doubt that he even knew about the will, because Mother decided to change it at a moment’s notice. What reason would he have for taking it? Neither he nor Celeste figured in the terms of either document.”

“It seemed to me Celeste was tremendously interested,” Penny said. “Oh, well, the loss shouldn’t be of serious consequence. Your mother can draw up another will.”

“That’s exactly what she won’t do. I told her about the will being taken, Penny. She immediately decided it was another omen—a sign that she should leave everything the way it is.”

“How foolish! Celeste must have put those notions in her head!”

“I’m sure I don’t know. As for the will, I never did encourage her to change it, because not for a moment do I believe she is sick enough to die. I don’t want Mother’s money. I only want her to get well and strong and be happy again. Penny, you don’t think she is seriously ill?”

“The doctor said nothing is the matter with her.”

“Yet we both know something dreadful is wrong.” Lorinda’s finger tips nervously tapped the table edge. “Oh, Penny, I’m scared—terribly scared. I don’t explain it, but I just feel a sinister something in the air!”

“You shouldn’t be here alone with Celeste and Antón. Why not override them and hire a nurse or companion for your mother?”

“Maybe I will,” Lorinda agreed. “I’ll think it over until tomorrow.”

“You’ll report the theft of the will to the police, of course?”

“No,” Lorinda decided instantly. “They would only ask embarrassing questions.”

“Why are you so reluctant to take anyone into your confidence?”

“We’re in enough trouble now, Penny. Please, let’s not talk about it any more until tomorrow.”

Decidedly puzzled by Lorinda’s attitude, Penny said goodbye and rejoined Jerry in the car. He had seen no more of the mysterious prowler and was convinced the man had fled the estate.

“Let’s go,” he said, starting the car.

As the automobile swung down the driveway, Penny peered intently at the roadside shrubbery. The bushes were crashing back and forth in the rising wind, but no one was visible anywhere near the estate. Chilled, she closed the car window.

“Do you think that hurricane really is heading our way?” she asked her companion.

“Didn’t see the government report tonight,” Jerry replied. “Probably at the last minute, the storm will veer off and we’ll escape. Riverview never was struck by a hurricane. Too far inland.”

The car purred smoothly on, following the road which curled toward the beach. Penny became silent. As they turned a corner, Jerry reached out to give her hand a friendly squeeze.

“Why so quiet, kitten?” he teased.

“Just thinking, Jerry. There are so many things about the Rhett case I can’t understand.”

“Why trouble your little brain?”

“Because this isn’t just an ordinary story to me, Jerry. I like Lorinda, and I feel that unless something is done, her mother may die.”

“Don’t tell me you’re becoming a superstitious little heathen!”

“Certainly not! But from what the professor told us, it’s a mistake to underrate the power of suggestion. Mrs. Rhett is in real danger—”

Penny broke off, listening intently.

“What was that, Jerry?” she demanded.

“Didn’t hear anything. Only the wind.”

“No, I distinctly heard a sound like the throb of a drum!” Penny lowered the car window. “There it is again!”

This time Jerry, too, heard the sound, far away and indistinct. “You’re right!” he exclaimed, slowing the car. “From down the beach!”

Penny grasped his arm excitedly. “Stop the car!” she exclaimed. “If we can find the drummer, we may be able to solve part of the mystery!”