Another Green Car
At the next crossroads Judy came to the gas station where she and Honey
had stopped to ask directions when they first visited the Jewell
sisters.
“You knew Honey picked up their suitcase by mistake, didn’t you?” she
asked Holly. “My, what a complicated mystery that was! We didn’t know
exactly what we were looking for, and so we called it a secret quest.”
“This time we know,” Holly declared. “We’re looking for beavers, and
Horace and Honey are meeting us at the beaver dam. Maybe Peter could
come, too.”
“That would be nice. I’ll telephone him and leave a message,” Judy
decided.
She stopped at the gas station, telephoned the resident agency of the
FBI in the Farringdon Post Office, and left what she thought was a clear
message. After she and Holly were on their way again she wasn’t so sure.
“I told him we’d be at the beaver dam. But will he know where that is?”
Judy wondered.
“Do we know?” Holly questioned.
“No,” Judy admitted. “I’m depending on the Jewell sisters to direct us.
Horace knows that, but I forgot to tell Peter. Suppose there’s more than
one beaver dam!”
“That _will_ cause complications, won’t it?” agreed Holly. “But that’s
you, Judy. If you don’t have enough puzzles to solve, you make a few
more. Peter knows that. Anyway, a G-man should be able to find a beaver
dam.”
“He may enjoy looking for it. I know I will. If we’re lucky we may catch
the beavers at work. I’m going to try and get some pictures of them.
With a flashbulb it shouldn’t be difficult. You can’t depend on sunlight
in the woods.”
“It may be gone by the time we get there. I saw a clock as we drove
through that last town,” Holly began. “It’s almost four—”
“Is it?” asked Judy, glancing at her own watch to confirm the time.
“Then we won’t have much time to visit. I did want to tell the Jewell
sisters about the library exhibit. Their road turns off at the top of
this hill.”
Soon they turned off the pavement. The dirt road was in better condition
than it had been when Judy first drove along it. A week of dry, sunny
weather had helped. Ruts and mud puddles had dried up. Houses looked
more easily accessible than they had on that other ride. There were two
or three farmhouses set far back from the road and then a long stretch
of wilderness before they came to the Jewell place.
“Is this it?” Holly asked as soon as the big house with its square
cupola came in view. “It looks—haunted.”
“I thought so too, when I first saw it, and so did Honey,” Judy
admitted, “but I don’t believe the Jewell sisters are entertaining any
ghosts today.”
“They’re entertaining somebody!” Holly exclaimed as they came nearer.
“There’s a green car parked right in front of the house.”
Judy laughed. “I’m afraid you’re seeing green cars everywhere today.”
“Well, look for yourself.”
Holly sounded a little hurt because Judy hadn’t believed her. Judy
looked, blinked, and looked again.
“Maybe I’m seeing green cars, too. How would it get there?” she asked in
bewilderment. “This road ends at the creek. I know, because Honey and I
had to cross on a plank that tipped and nearly spilled us into the
water. The creek was high then.”
“Maybe it’s gone down. The car got over there some way,” Holly insisted.
“I know,” Judy agreed, mystified.
She remembered the gorge with the creek at the bottom. The banks were
too steep for any car to drive through the water. Before they came to
the footbridge that spanned the creek, Judy pointed out the place where
the Beetle had sunk into the mud.
“It’s dry now, and the creek isn’t half as high as it was, but I still
don’t see how a car could get across it. I don’t see any tire marks,
either.”
“Would they show on this dry ground?” Holly asked when they were out of
the Beetle.
Judy had parked the car at the end of the road. It did end. There was no
doubt of that. It ended at the barn where the Jewell sisters kept their
car. Holly peeked in to make sure it was there.
“Thank goodness!” she exclaimed. “It isn’t green. You didn’t tell me
they had a car. Do they drive?”
“I don’t know,” replied Judy. “They had a man to drive it for them, but
Dorcas said she was going to learn. I don’t know how they get anywhere
if she didn’t.”
“Maybe on broomsticks,” Holly suggested.
“They are sort of weird,” Judy agreed, “but they’re quite nice old
ladies, really. We’ll ask them whose car that is. Well, here we are. We
have to cross on the plank. You aren’t afraid, are you?”
Holly laughed. “I guess if two old ladies can make it, I can. It does
feel shaky, though,” she admitted as she started across the narrow
footbridge.
“Don’t worry,” Judy told her. “I’m right behind you. If you slip I’ll
catch you. There! You’re over. That wasn’t hard, was it?”
Holly didn’t answer. She was staring at the house. There were three
women busy with something on the porch. At first Judy couldn’t see what
they were doing but, as they came nearer, she could see that they were
sorting apples. Violetta was just helping her visitor lift a full basket
into the green car when she looked up and saw the girls approaching.
“Good afternoon, Judy!” she called cheerily. “You and Honey are just in
time to sample some of our sweet apples.”
“She called me Honey,” Holly whispered. “I’m not. I’m Holly.”
“She’ll soon discover that,” Judy replied cheerfully.
Violetta was coming down the path to meet them. “You picked a good time
to come,” she told Judy. “We’ve been out in the orchard picking apples
all day. An old friend of ours drove over here this morning—”
“How did she get over?” Judy asked curiously. “There isn’t any bridge
across the creek.”
“There’s another way—” Violetta stopped and looked at Holly in surprise.
“But you’re not Honey. Your hair is darker. And where’s your cat, Judy?
You promised to bring him the next time you came to visit.”
“I’m sorry I’m not a cat,” Holly said, not meaning to be funny.
They all laughed as the joke was repeated to the other two women, and
there were introductions all around. Judy explained that she and Holly
had come to see the beaver dam and that they expected Horace and Honey
to meet them there. “I didn’t bring Blackberry this time,” she ended,
“because when I left the house I didn’t know I’d be coming here.”
“He’s such a good cat,” Violetta said, with a crooning sound in her
voice. She had become very fond of Judy’s pet.
“I keep telling Violetta we should have a cat of our own,” Dorcas put
in. “Don’t you agree, Meta?”
“Don’t I agree with what?” the third woman asked in a faraway voice.
“I’m afraid I wasn’t listening. I was thinking of the Beetle and
wondering if I would have any trouble driving it back.”
“Back where?” Holly asked.
Judy said nothing. By now she was completely bewildered. Was the
stranger talking about the green car or her own?