Afterwards
Many hours later Judy opened her eyes and looked up to see Peter
standing beside her bed. His blue eyes were regarding her anxiously.
His face came into focus.
“Peter!” she gasped.
“I’m here, Angel. I’ve been waiting for you to wake up. How are you
feeling?”
“Hot,” she said. “That’s funny! I was so cold before. Is it a fever?”
She looked around the room and saw that she must be in a hospital. An
oxygen tank was also standing beside her bed, but the funny little cage
was no longer over her nose. “I guess I was pretty sick,” she concluded.
“You were pretty brave,” Peter said, his voice husky.
A nurse she knew came in quietly. Judy moved her foot experimentally
and discovered that it was in a cast.
“Oh!” she said. “No wonder I couldn’t walk. I guess I broke it against
the fountain.” Then, all at once, her nightmare experience rushed back
to her and she added sorrowfully, “It was no use. I limped back to the
tower as fast as I could and turned off all the valves I could
find—but it was all for nothing. I still can’t believe it, Peter.
Horace—drowned—”
“Who said so?” Peter interrupted quickly. “Why, Horace is in the room
right next to this one. He’s in better shape than you are. They even
let him have a typewriter. Hear it?”
Judy listened a moment. She had never heard a sweeter sound.
“That brother of mine!” she said with tears in her eyes. “I guess he’s
polishing up that story he had in his pocket.”
“Wrong again, Angel!” Peter was smiling at her now and holding her
hand. “That story is already spread all over the front page of the
paper. You’ll read it as soon as your father thinks you’re strong
enough. You have a lot of catching up to do.”
“I know. I still feel weak when I think of it. Falco said something
about two dead men, and I guess I fainted or something. Peter, he’s
hiding in the water tower—”
“Not any more,” Peter broke in gently. “He was fished out of the tank,
half drowned himself. Edith Cubberling told us where he was, but not
until after she’d turned on the pump and the tank started to fill up.
He had a taste of his own medicine. She was following his orders, she
says, when she turned on the fountain. If it hadn’t been for you and
that blessed cat of yours, Angel—”
“Please,” Judy stopped him, laughing a little and feeling more like
herself. “Angels don’t keep black cats, or go exploring under
fountains.”
“Your kind of angel,” Peter told her, “goes wherever she’s needed. I
ought to scold you for rushing headlong into danger. I’ve warned you
again and again that the FBI deals with dangerous criminals and that I
don’t want you involved—”
“Please, Peter, believe me. I didn’t know it was dangerous. I didn’t
know you were investigating anything at the Brandt estate until I found
Blackberry and heard Stanley say two government men had been there.
Then it made sense. I thought you had brought him.”
“And I thought you had.”
Judy sighed and gave up. “I guess Blackberry himself is the only one
who really knows why he went there. You did let him out of the attic,
didn’t you? I hope he’ll forgive me for shutting him up there. I
thought you’d find him.”
“I did.” Peter didn’t say when. “I went up there to investigate a noise
I heard, and there was poor Blackberry all tangled up in your sewing
things. I unwound him and let him out the front door, and away he went!
The next thing I knew he was looking at me from the front page of the
paper.”
“They photographed him? Oh, Peter! How wonderful. Whose idea was it?”
“Well, you might say it was your brother’s. He thought it would please
you. He said black cats deserved a little favorable publicity. He even
quoted what you once said about Blackberry being unlucky for criminals.
It was certainly true of Falco. The whole gang is being arraigned in
court tomorrow morning. They’re all willing to talk, even the
Cubberlings. That woman has been talking a blue streak ever since we
picked her up.”
“You know why, don’t you?”
“Well, no,” Peter replied in a puzzled voice. “I can’t say that I do.”
“She thought she had murdered two persons by turning on the fountain,”
Judy explained. “She did it on his orders. She told Falco she’d be as
free in prison as she was working for him.”
“This has taught her a lesson then.” Peter’s grip on her hand tightened
as he added, “You taught me one, too. I know now you’ll never be a meek
little housewife who will stay home and dust the furniture while I go
out solving the world’s problems. You’ll be right there solving them
with me.”
“It wasn’t the world’s problems I set out to solve,” Judy objected. “It
was only Lorraine’s. She seemed so troubled. She doesn’t trust Arthur.
It’s a terrible thing for a girl who’s still practically a bride to be
haunted with fear and suspicion the way she is.”
“I know,” Peter replied. “Arthur had told me. We had quite a talk one
night. When you went to the movies with Honey, I can tell you now, I
spent that evening with Arthur, too. We traced a telephone call from
Lorraine and confirmed his suspicions. She went back there to the
Brandt estate and gave Falco more of her jewelry.”
“So that was what happened to her ruby? Why did she do it, Peter?”
“That,” he replied, “is something I had been hoping Lorraine would tell
you herself.”
“She didn’t. Lois said she had a problem, but she wouldn’t tell me a
thing about it. I didn’t notice that her ruby was gone until I found
that diamond. Was it still in my coat pocket?” Judy asked.
“It was.” Peter looked at her a long moment and then added, “It was
still tied in the corner of your handkerchief. I found it before I
found you. But now you’ve talked enough. I’d better leave and let you
get some rest.”
“I can listen, can’t I? Tell me more, Peter. Tell me what’s in the
paper. Can’t I see Blackberry’s picture?”
Peter hesitated. Judy saw an anxious expression on his face. He went
out, and after quite a few minutes he returned with her father. He also
had a copy of the _Farringdon Daily Herald_.
“Just one peek!” Dr. Bolton said after he had checked Judy’s breathing
and given her an injection. “I didn’t expect you to recover quite this
fast,” he admitted. “You really had us worried for a while, Judy girl.”
“I know, Dad.” Judy wanted to say more, but the words wouldn’t come.
Peter spread the paper before her. She looked at the picture of her
precious pet for a long time before she asked, “What’s that white thing
on his paw?”
“It’s a cast,” Peter told her. “He wanted to imitate his mistress, so
your father put a cast on him, too. Seriously, a car hit him. Don’t
worry! Only his paw was hurt.”
“Poor Blackberry! I wonder if he walked out into the road on purpose so
someone would see him,” mused Judy. “We didn’t think he’d be much help
to us at first, Dad. But he did carry our message. Horace wrote it, and
I tucked it under his collar. We were lucky he had the collar on. I was
going to wait until Christmas to give it to him and have his name
engraved on it, but it looked so cute. Dogs have collars, and I think
collars make cats look important, too.”
“Blackberry doesn’t need to look important. He _is_ important,” Dr.
Bolton said.
“I know,” his mistress agreed. “He could tell we were in danger. Cats
hate water anyway, and when he saw us trapped by it he was right there
waiting until we needed him. It is a shame, though. We tried so hard to
save Dick Hartwell. He said he wanted to die—”
“Your father disappointed him then,” Peter broke in, smiling. “He’s
alive but still on the critical list. It looks now as if he might pull
through.”
Judy could hardly believe she had been in time to save Dick, too. “I
don’t understand this at all,” she said a little later. “Why would
Falco think they were drowned if they were really alive? Dad must have
told him they were dead. Why?”
“Perhaps he’d better tell you.” Peter kissed Judy lightly on the
forehead. “Did I tell you how brave you were, chatterbox? Did I tell
you how much I love you?”
“You showed me,” Judy said. “You came and rescued me, didn’t you? I
thought it was a dream, but after I fainted I seemed to feel myself in
your arms. Peter, is Dad—”
“He is,” Dr. Bolton interrupted before Judy could finish asking the
question.
“Then everything is all right,” Judy said, and closed her eyes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------