Escape to the World's Fair (13 page)

T
HE SIGN OF THE BULL AND THE SIGN OF THE SCORPION

“M
rs. Zogbhi,” Frances began, as the crowd began to disperse. “I mean, Madame Zogbhi—”

“I insist you still call me Madame Zee. Everyone who knows me does,” the woman said. “Only strangers call me Mrs. McGee.” She motioned behind her to the entrance of the Temple of Palmistry. “And they think I must have a husband who runs this place, so they are always asking for
Mr.
McGee too.”

She winked at Frances, who turned red as she remembered that
they
had originally been looking for a Mr. McGee as well.

“But never mind that,” Madame Zee told her. “You must tell me everything about my son!”

“First we saw Mr. Zogby in a motorcar!” Harold began. “And the car was stuck in the mud—”

“Harold, not now,” Frances broke in. She looked at Madame Zee. “We have plenty to tell you, but right now there's someone looking for us.”

“I see that,” Madame Zee said as Edwin Adolphius stepped over the velvet rope and strode toward them.

“There they are!” Mr. Adolphius cried. Behind him was a young man with a curled mustache whose badge read
JEFFERSON
GUAR
D
—
OFFICIAL
SECURITY
—
LOUISIANA
PURCHASE
E
XPOSITION
.

Frances instinctively reached for Harold, while Jack and the other boys turned in every direction, searching for a possible escape. But she could see it was useless to run now.

“Very well, Mr. Adolphius,” the guard replied. “I'll whistle for more guards to help round them up.”

“That won't be necessary,” Madame Zee said. “I've already sent for the police.”

What?
Frances couldn't believe it, and she could see the shock on Jack's face, too. What was Madame Zee doing?

The fortune-teller had stepped closer to Mr. Adolphius, and she gave him a cool smile. “You are Edwin Adolphius, the great industrialist, yes?” she asked. “You have many factories. You command many steamboats.”

Mr. Adolphius smiled and stroked his beard, clearly flattered. “Why, yes. Well, I don't
command
the steamboats, but I do
own
them.”

“And you are in a charge of all that happens on them?”

“Of course!” he said proudly.

Just then two uniformed men approached their group. Frances swallowed hard at the sight of them—St. Louis police officers!

“Thank you for coming, Sergeant,” Madame Zee said to the older one as both officers tipped their caps politely.

“Ordinarily I don't have jurisdiction here at the World's Fair, but this is a special case. You said you had something important to show us, Mrs. McGee?” the sergeant asked.

“Indeed,” Madame Zee said, as she pulled out an object from her robe.

Frances recognized it right away.
The gin bottle!

“That's stolen property!” Mr. Adolphius said. “These children stole it from the
Addie Dauphin
!”

“Is that so?” the police sergeant said. “Well, we checked the cargo manifest on your steamboat when it came in today
,
and we sure didn't see any shipments of gin listed.”

“I don't see what any of that has to do with the matter at hand!” Mr. Adolphius raged. “These children are thieves, and that bottle is proof!”

The younger officer shrugged. “That's not why Mrs. McGee called us today. Seems she'd seen a bottle like this before.”

Frances looked over at Jack, who raised an eyebrow in surprise. Madame Zee didn't take the gin bottle to use against
them
—she was using it against Mr. Adolphius!

Madame Zee turned to face Edwin Adolphius. “My son, he worked on your steamboats. Before he went missing, he was working on the
Rochelle.
”

Mr. Adolphius waggled a finger. “There now, I'll have you know I
sold
that steamboat a full month before—”

“Before it caught fire and sank?” the sergeant broke in. “Those were very mysterious circumstances, Mr. Adolphius. The
Rochelle
was being used to smuggle untaxed liquor and fruit all up and down the Mississippi.”

“And we have reason to believe the same thing has been happening on the
Addie Dauphin
,” the younger officer added. “Isn't that right, Mrs. McGee?”

Madame Zee nodded and motioned toward Harold. “That's what this little boy told me,” she said.

“I told her how the gin was hidden inside the cotton on the boat,” Harold said. “And those barrels of rum, too. And they didn't want us to see them!”

“This is outrageous!” Mr. Adolphius fumed. “You have no proof!”

“You said that last time, when we were questioning you about the sinking of the
Rochelle,
” the sergeant said. “But this time”—he held up the gin bottle—“we've got evidence. And witnesses. We've got officers talking to other passengers on the
Addie Dauphin
right now.”

Alexander leaned over to Frances. “Are you following this conversation?” he whispered.

Frances nodded. “I think Edwin Adolphius is a smuggler. And the police have been trying to catch him in the act. . . .”

Jack leaned in. “And now they've got him!”

“Yes,” Frances murmured in amazement. “They've got him all right.”

Edwin Adolphius's face had turned deep red with rage as the younger police officer locked brass handcuffs onto his wrists. With his black and white beard, his face seemed to become a garish mask that Frances would have found terrifying if she hadn't been so relieved.

“Send for my lawyers!” Mr. Adolphius told the curly-mustached Jefferson Guard. “And my motorcar!”

“And take all those reward posters down,” the police sergeant said to the guard, adding, “Adolphius, maybe you were able to pay the fools at the Fair to do your bidding, but you'll get nowhere with me.”

Then Edwin Adolphius was led away down the Pike in handcuffs, the two police officers at his sides. The five children and Madame Zee watched them walk all the way past the amusements—the Water Chutes, the Pop Corn Palace, the Battle Abbey—until they disappeared around a corner.

Frances knew there were amazing things to see at the World's Fair, but as far as she was concerned, that was the best sight of all.

Jack turned to Madame Zee.

“You said I reminded you of someone you knew long ago,” he said. “Was that someone your son?”

Jack thought he had figured it out. Mr. Zogby had reminded him a lot of his brother, Daniel, so maybe Madame Zee had seen a resemblance in Jack, too.

Madame Zee nodded. “Yes, my boy. All five of you children remind me of Philander in different ways, but you and he have the same look,” she said. “You are restless, I think. My son is, too. That is why he got caught up with the bad men.” She shook her head. “I warned him to stay away from them, but he liked the money.”

The others were also listening to Madame Zee.

“Why did you think he was dead?” Alexander asked her.

She sighed. “My Philander, he told a policeman about the smuggling on Adolphius's steamboats. But he was still working on the boats, too. Of course this was very dangerous. What if Mr. Adolphius discovered my son was betraying him? That would be very bad.

“And then one night, there was a fire on the
Rochelle
. My son, he was on board.”

Madame Zee put her hand to her chest, as if she were hearing the news for the first time. “I hear rumors. They say Mr. Adolphius set the fire. But I did not know what happened. All I knew was that Philander didn't come home.”

“Maybe he's had to stay away,” Frances suggested.

“Right,” Eli said. “Maybe he hasn't come home because he doesn't want Mr. Adolphius to find him.”

Madame Zee looked down at her hands. “I do not know. I think perhaps he decided to just forget about home. Maybe that is easier for him. At least now I know he is alive.”

Jack remembered something just then. “Can I see the Amulet of the Western Sky again? Just for a moment?”

Madame Zee handed it to him.

He found the strange symbol that looked like a loop and showed it to her. “What does this symbol mean?” he asked. “And this one?” He pointed to the symbol that looked like an
M
with an arrow at the end of it. He told her how he had seen them carved into a trunk on the
Addie Dauphin.

Madame Zee's hand flew up to her face in surprise. “One of those is the sign of the bull. That is the constellation Philander was born under. And the other sign . . .” She took a deep breath and her eyes shone with tears. “That is the sign of the scorpion. It is my sign.”

“He was thinking of you,” Frances said softly. Next to her, Harold nodded in agreement.

“He didn't want to forget you at all,” Jack added. “And he gave us the amulet to give to you, so that you would know he was okay.”

“Yes,” Madame Zee said. “I think you are right.” She wiped her eyes again. “You know, I am a widow two times—the first Mr. Zogby is gone, and then Mr. McGee. But it is hardest of all when you believe your son is lost forever.”

It came to Jack suddenly—a memory from New York, in the days after his brother died. How he'd overheard his parents talking not about Daniel, but about him.

I don't want to lose him, too,
his mother had said.

And so they had sent him on the orphan train so that he could live.

Jack looked around at Frances and Harold, Eli and Alexander. Then he looked down at the amulet in his hands. So many times in the past few days he had looked at it, hoping it could tell him something.

Now, it seemed, it had.

T
HE REWARD

T
hey were still gathered in front of the Temple of Palmistry when they heard a voice.

“Elijah? Elijah Pike!”

Eli turned. “Willie?” he called back.

Jack turned to see the tall teenage boy Eli had pointed out earlier as his cousin coming up the street toward the temple entrance. He headed straight for Eli, who ran to meet him with a grin.

“I thought that was you walking by the restaurant!” Willie said. “My mama and Aunt Viola have been wondering about you ever since we got word that you left home.”

“It's a long story,” Eli told him. “But these are my friends.” He motioned over to Jack, Frances, Harold, and Alexander. “We've all been traveling together.”

“We were on a railroad handcar!” Harold told Willie. “And then in a motorcar. And then a steamboat!”

Willie shook all their hands. “I bet you have some stories,” he said to Eli. “I'm done with my shift now. How about I buy you a lemonade and you tell me all about it?”

Eli smiled. “I'll be back in a little bit,” he said to Jack. He glanced over at Madame Zee, who was still dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. “Seems like this day has been all about finding family,” he added.

As Jack watched Eli and his cousin make their way to one of the refreshment stands, he realized he still had the amulet in his hand. He took it over to Madame Zee, who was showing the others some of her fortune-telling cards.

“I am glad to have it again,” she said. “I tell you truth—these amulets, they are not real gold. They are sold as souvenirs back in Egypt! But it is good for my heart to have this one back.”

Harold looked up. “Is it time to give the reward now?” he asked.

Madame Zee's brow furrowed. “Reward?” she asked. “But . . . it is only a trinket. I have no reward to give.”

Jack felt his face grow hot. He had forgotten all about the idea of a reward, and now it seemed foolish to ask for one.

“But there is a reward, Harold,” Frances said. She crouched down to look eye-to-eye with Harold, and she pulled him close. “Did you see how very glad Madame Zee was when she found out Mr. Zogby was okay?”

Harold nodded quickly. “She was crying. But it was happy crying, and I hugged her.”

“That was really nice, wasn't it?”

A smile began to spread over her little brother's face. “Yes.”

“Well,” Frances said. “I think that was our reward, don't you?”

Harold reached up and gave Madame Zee's hand a squeeze. “Yes!”

Jack could feel himself starting to smile, too. As much as he'd wished for that reward money, maybe Frances was right and what had happened today was enough.

“But, um . . .” Alexander began. He was trying to smile, but it was strained. “The thing is, we promised Dutch and those fellows that we would share the reward with them. And, well, this has been a nice reward, but I don't know how we're going to
share
it. . . .”

“Oh, no,” Jack whispered. “Dutch and Finn . . .”

“. . . and Owney and Chicks,” Harold continued.

“We forgot about them!” Frances cried. “You don't suppose something happened to them after they gave the signal, do you?”

Alexander looked stricken. “We'd better look for them.”

“What is wrong?” Madame Zee asked them. “The four of you, you look just like you did when you came out of the Temple of Mirth!”

“We have four friends who might be in trouble,” Jack said. “They were hiding out in the Tyrolean Alps. But we don't know if they stayed there!”

Madame Zee was thinking. “I know a good way you get there fast.” She pointed down the Pike. “You go behind under and over the sea. There is a back door. Go through, and you'll be in the alley next to the Alps.”

The directions made Jack's head spin.
Behind, under, and over the sea?
He couldn't imagine what she possibly meant.

“Go!” Madame said. “Hurry!”

The four children took off running, past the Ancient Rome exhibit, Hagenbeck's Animals, and Hunting in the Ozarks. The Pike seemed to Jack like an endless river of flickering electric light and calliope music, a river that could swallow them up if they weren't careful.

Suddenly Frances skidded to a stop. “There!” she said, pointing to an arched entrance with the words
UNDER
&
OVER
THE
SEA
on it. Jack nearly laughed out loud. It was another Pike attraction!

“Madame Zee said to go behind it,” Jack said. They darted down the side of the building. They passed two women dressed as glittering mermaids, and then a man in a sea-monster costume who nearly dropped his frankfurter sandwich as they ran by.

Finally they were in a dim alleyway that ran between the back of the Pike buildings and the boundary wall of the fairgrounds. Jack could just make out the side of the fake mountain, and they began to walk toward it. But they noticed something else, too, at the end of the alley just below the mountain—something large and dark with touches of glinting brass.

“It's a motorcar!” Harold exclaimed.

It was an impressive car, with a hard top and glass windows. It was parked just around the bend and was so big they could only see the front half of it—the shining black hood that jutted out into the alley. As the children walked toward it they saw that it was flanked by a man with driving goggles and a uniform—Jack supposed he was the chauffeur—and two Jefferson Guards who stood at attention.

“That car must belong to someone important,” Alexander said. “Look at all the guards.”

But as they drew closer, Jack realized something. “They're not just guarding the car,” he said. “Someone's inside.” He could just barely make out four figures through the windows. Then one of them put his hands up to the glass in the side window and peered out at them.

“That's Owney!” Frances whispered.

After a moment they could see Dutch peering out the window too, and then the other two boys. Dutch put his fingers to his lips as if to say,
Be quiet.
Jack could tell the guards hadn't noticed their group coming down the alley yet, but they could at any moment.

“We'd better hide,” Jack whispered. He was sure that the car belonged to Edwin Adolphius.

Frances nodded. “Where?”

Jack didn't answer. Because just then another figure emerged from around the corner.

Miss DeHaven walked around the front of the car and faced them. She straightened her beautiful hat and smiled, as if she'd been waiting for them all along.