A Moaning Cry
“This is a real diamond,” declared Judy.
She brought her find over to the edge of the pool to examine it more
closely. Then she turned to gaze in wonder at the fountain.
Soon it was not only bubbling. It was sending great sprays of water in
all directions—from the center of the high pedestal, from the
cupid-like creatures that held it, over the cave behind them and from
the mouths of the eight stone lions that guarded the four flights of
steps going down from the fountain.
“It’s beautiful!” breathed Judy. Then, in a louder voice, she called to
her friends, who were huddled together over by the yew hedge. “See how
fast the pool is filling up! Now the little pool where I found the
diamond has vanished and everything looks just the way I remember it.
Even the cupids look alive now that they’re all wet and shiny.”
“It’s haunted with all sorts of queer noises,” cried Lorraine. “Don’t
stand so close to it, Judy. You may get wet.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” she replied, still under the spell of the fountain.
A little of the spray had wet her coat and covered her hair with a mist
that made it cling to her forehead in damp, red ringlets. She brushed
them back with a laugh and turned again to listen.
“I’m all right. This warm coat protects me,” she began.
“From the water, yes! But are any of us protected from those men back
there?” asked Lois.
“We’ve been seen. I know we have!” Lorraine’s voice was almost
hysterical. “Somebody saw us and turned on the fountain full force!”
“Look at the way it sparkles and dances as if it were filled with
diamonds!” Judy exclaimed. “You two girls may be used to fountains, but
I’m not. This one does something to me.”
“Me, too,” Lorraine said with a shiver. “It scares me. Come on away
from it, Judy. We ought to be going home.”
Judy, still reluctant to leave, walked around the fountain to where
they were. As she came nearer Lois said, “Look at your hand, Judy! You
didn’t lose the diamond out of your engagement ring, did you? That
could be the diamond you found in the fountain.”
Judy checked quickly, but the diamond in her ring was intact. She had
lost it once, but that was another mystery. Now the new prongs held it
securely. It was about the size of the stone she had found. Comparing
the two as well as she could in the fading daylight, Judy now felt
certain of her discovery.
“This is a clue to something,” she declared, tying the diamond she had
found in the corner of her handkerchief for safekeeping. “You girls
weren’t wearing diamonds, were you?”
“I wasn’t,” Lois replied.
“My ring isn’t a diamond. It’s a ruby,” Lorraine began and then broke
off abruptly, hiding her hand.
“But you aren’t wearing it!” Judy exclaimed. “Where is that gorgeous
big ruby Arthur gave you, Lorraine? I’ve never seen you without it
before.”
“Neither have I. What have you done with it?” asked Lois. “You haven’t
lost it, have you?”
“I guess—I must have,” Lorraine explained lamely.
“Where? In the fountain? Then we’ll hunt for it,” declared Judy.
“I’m sure it isn’t in the fountain,” Lorraine said hurriedly. “Besides,
it’s growing dark. If we don’t leave now we won’t be able to find the
path.”
“But we can’t go without your ring,” Lois protested.
“Of course not,” agreed Judy. “Where do you think you lost it?”
“Maybe it _was_ in the fountain? Oh dear!” Lois lamented. “Now the
water is on we won’t be able to look for it. That fountain must attract
jewels—”
“Or tears,” Lorraine said, “but it doesn’t matter. We wouldn’t find it
there, anyway.”
“Why wouldn’t we? Do you know where you lost it?”
“Did you take it off?”
“Was it loose on your finger?”
Judy and Lois were both firing questions at Lorraine. They were
questions that she seemed unable to answer. Finally she admitted that
she had removed the ring from her finger on purpose.
“Why?” demanded Lois. “I don’t think that was fair to Arthur.”
“I don’t either,” agreed Judy.
“But I did it for him,” Lorraine protested.
“You did what? Took off your ring? Why?” asked Judy. “How could that
help him?”
“I can’t tell you,” Lorraine said stiffly. “Please don’t ask me
anything more about it. We’ve all behaved like children today—me with
my wishes and you with your pretending. If that is a diamond you found,
Judy, it’s no frozen tear.”
“I know,” Judy admitted. “It belongs to someone, I suppose, and we’ll
have to report it. I remember how I felt when my diamond was lost.
Someone else may be feeling the same way.”
“If we report it,” Lois said, “we’ll have to report the fact that we
were trespassing. I’d rather find out who lost it some other way.”
“We could advertise.” Judy brightened at the thought. “We could tell
Horace—”
“And have him spread our little adventure all over the front page of
the paper. Oh, no, you don’t,” Lorraine objected. “I’ve seen what
happened to other stories you told your brother. Besides, I don’t want
my father to know. He’s editor, and he’ll look into any story that has
my name in it.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Judy admitted. “What I can’t understand,
Lorraine, is why you took off your ring—”
“Look,” Lorraine interrupted, “can’t we just forget it? My ring is
gone. It’s been gone for several days if you must know. I’ll get it
back somehow.”
“How?” asked Judy.
“Wishing, maybe. I don’t know how else.”
“Do you mean someone’s stolen it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“No, but you implied it.”
Judy soon discovered her questions were leading her nowhere. It was all
very confusing. The diamond she had found and the ring Lorraine had
lost seemed to be clues to something, but she couldn’t figure out what.
“Maybe the fountain will tell us where it is,” Judy was beginning with
a laugh when suddenly they all heard a low moan. It seemed to come
directly from the fountain.
“Wh-hat was that?” gasped Lois.
Lorraine had turned pale.
“Sh!” Judy cautioned them.
If the fountain had anything to say, she wanted to hear it. A chill
came over her as she waited. Lois and Lorraine huddled together,
shivering. The moan came a second time and with it the long drawn-out
words, “Go-oo a-wa-ay!”
“He doesn’t need to tell me twice. I’m going!” declared Lois. “Come on,
Judy! Why are you standing there?”
“I’m not afraid of a voice. If someone is trying to scare us, he will
have to think of something more frightening than that. I’m just
puzzled. Before, it was a woman—or a girl.”
“What was?” asked Lois and Lorraine both together.
“The voice from the fountain. It wasn’t a man, and it wasn’t moaning.
There it is again!”
Thoroughly frightened, Lois and Lorraine rushed ahead of Judy down the
path. It was already so dark they had difficulty following it, but the
moans that were following them gave wings to their feet. Only Judy was
reluctant to leave. She turned to the fountain, as if it were alive,
and called, “I’ll be back! I will, too,” she reiterated, catching up
with her two friends, who were determined to leave with or without her.
“I’ll be back first thing in the morning, and either Horace or Peter or
both of them will be with me. I’m not going to let any moaning fountain
keep me from finding out what’s going on.”
Lorraine stopped short. They had come to the fence. Now a voice shouted
at them from another direction.
“Who’s there? Stop where you are!”
“He’s back!” exclaimed Lorraine, panic-stricken. “That’s the man who
passed us in the car! We mustn’t let him stop us!”
“We won’t,” promised Judy, “but I’m afraid we’ll have to stop long
enough to protect ourselves from these electric wires. Here’s the stick
I used before. I’ll hold them back while you girls crawl under them.”
Lois and Lorraine quickly obeyed. But they did not wait for Judy.
Stumbling, falling, picking themselves up and hurrying on, they were
out of sight while she was still struggling to get through the fence.
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