Mandie Collection, The: 8 (38 page)

“But Juan has been in our room, too,” Mandie quickly told him. “The other night when I went up there to take Snowball, I met him coming out of our room.”

Senator Morton frowned and said, “I have no idea what Juan would be doing in your room, but you can rest assured I will find out. I’m sorry, and I’ll see that it doesn’t happen again.”

“I didn’t think you would be sending Juan up to our room when you have all these maids working here,” Mandie told him.

“If it does happen again, please come directly to me,” the senator said.

Mandie looked at Celia. She was really puzzled now. If the senator had not sent Juan to their room, and Juan knew he was not allowed in there, why was he in their room? She knew Celia could read the questions in her mind.

After a quiet evening in the parlor, everyone went to their rooms early. Mandie and Celia were not sleepy, and they knelt by the open window in their room to gaze out into the darkness and discuss the day’s events.

“Mandie, do you believe Lolly really thinks she sees ghosts in the park over there?” Celia asked.

“She may just be teasing us with such stories,” Mandie replied.

“But she claims Juan has seen a ghost, too, over there,” Celia reminded her.

“Yes, and she said the ghosts might not like us because we are not from St. Augustine,” Mandie replied. Suddenly she stood up and said, “Let’s just go over there and see for ourselves what’s in that park after dark. Want to go?” She looked down at her friend.

Celia rose and said, “Mandie, do you really want to go into that dark place? Couldn’t we just walk through it again in the daytime?”

“But, Celia, the ghosts don’t come out in the daytime,” Mandie told her. “We have to go at night if we want to see them.”

“Well, even at night we might not see any ghosts. Lolly may be just making all this up, you know,” Celia argued.

“We could go find out,” Mandie said. “Come on.”

“Suppose we do see a real ghost, Mandie? What will we do?” Celia asked in a shaky voice.

“We will scare the ghost instead of letting it cause us to be afraid. Are you coming?” Mandie asked, walking toward the door of the room.

Snowball, who had been curled up and sleeping on the bed, rose, stretched, and loudly meowed at that moment.

“No, Snowball, you are not going this time, you hear? Just go right back to sleep,” Mandie told the cat as she rubbed his head.

But Snowball was insistent. He meowed louder, jumped down from the bed, and rubbed around Mandie’s ankles.

“Are you going to take him?” Celia asked, watching from across the room. “Don’t you think a cat might scare the ghosts away? I’ve heard tales about cats seeing things we can’t see.”

Mandie laughed and said, “I don’t think Snowball could scare anyone away, but he is not going with us. I’ll be sure we shut him up here in the room while we’re gone,” Mandie said, walking again toward the door. Looking back, she asked, “Are you coming, Celia? Let’s hurry.”

“I suppose I will go,” Celia replied, slowly joining her at the door. “I just hope we don’t see any real ghosts.”

“There are no real ghosts, Celia. I promise you that,” Mandie said, opening the door wide enough to step into the hallway. As Celia followed, Mandie quickly closed the door, shutting Snowball inside the
room. Putting her finger on her lips to motion to Celia to be quiet, she tiptoed down the hallway toward the staircase.

The girls slowly descended into the front hallway below, and luckily none of the steps squeaked. Mandie led the way in the darkness directly to the front door. Everyone had gone to bed or to their rooms for the night, and the house was dark and quiet.

The moon was not shining, and Mandie felt her way into the yard. Suddenly she saw two men standing not ten feet from her, talking. She motioned to Celia, and they ducked behind some shrubbery. The man who was doing the talking was speaking in such a low voice and so softly that she couldn’t understand his words. The other man seemed to be listening intently. Suddenly, from behind her, Celia stifled a sneeze, but not before she made a strange sound. Both men instantly straightened up and walked away—one went away from the house and the other man toward the house.

“Juan!” Mandie exclaimed softly when she saw him move out of the shadows and toward the front door, entering the house quickly.

Celia squeezed her hand. “It was Juan!” she whispered.

“Yes! Come, let’s follow the other man. He’s headed toward the park,” Mandie whispered as she quickly led the way.

The girls darted behind bushes along the way as they tried to keep the man in sight. He quickly entered the park, but he went in a different direction from the way Lolly had taken them. He seemed to be cutting diagonally across it to the left.

Keeping her eyes on the man instead of what was along the way, Mandie suddenly became aware of the fact that they had entered a cemetery.

At the same time, Celia reached to grab her hand and whispered, “Mandie! We are in a graveyard!” She walked as close to Mandie as she could without stumbling over her own feet.

Mandie hissed at her to be quiet and hurried on following the man. She was trying to get close enough to see what the man looked like. When they came to some large tombstones, she quickly darted in and out between them to move closer. The man paused for a moment to wipe his nose with his handkerchief, and Mandie was so close, she almost collided with him. Practically dropping behind a tombstone, she watched, hoping he hadn’t seen them.

The man cleared his throat and put his handkerchief back into his pocket.

Mandie clearly saw his face and noticed that he had a beard.

While the girls waited for the man to get far enough ahead so they could safely follow, the man suddenly disappeared right before their eyes. Mandie quickly looked around, trying to locate him. Was he the ghost Lolly mentioned? Where had he gone? There were several crypts near where they stopped, and this apparently gave him enough cover to disappear.

“Oh, where did he go?” Mandie whispered in Celia’s ear as they quickly but quietly moved around in circles, trying to locate him.

“He just ... evaporated—just like a g-g-ghost!” Celia replied in an almost tearful, shaky voice.

“Well, he had to go somewhere,” Mandie declared, still searching among the graves and monuments.

“He’s gone,” Celia told her. “Gone.”

The girls stopped to look around. They were near the edge of the cemetery.

“He just knew a quick way out of here, that’s what,” Mandie told Celia. “And that’s probably the man Lolly saw with Juan, and she thought he was a ghost here in the cemetery or in the park that she talked about.”

“Let’s get out of here, Mandie!” Celia begged.

Suddenly Mandie heard voices coming toward them, and she motioned for Celia to drop down out of sight with her behind a huge monument. She almost held her breath as she waited for the owners of the voices to come closer.

Finally two figures emerged out of the shadows and walked past their hiding place. Mandie watched and saw that it was a young girl and a young man, holding hands as they slowly walked.

“I heard that she’s one of those mountaineers and probably doesn’t know what to do with a set of silverware,” the girl was saying, “but her grandmother is dripping in wealth, so my mother says we have to be nice to her tomorrow night.”

“I heard that she is pretty, and so is her friend, so I look forward to meeting them,” the boy replied. “Anyway, we have to go. After all, Mr. Morton is our senator.”

Their voices faded away as they disappeared from sight. Mandie,
shaking with anger, rose from her hiding place, as did Celia. They grasped each other’s hands.

“Mandie—” Celia began.

“Yes, they were talking about us,” Mandie interrupted. “It was just like they knew we were here listening! Just you wait until I meet them tomorrow night! I’ll fix them!”

“What are you planning to do, Mandie?” Celia asked.

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll think of some way to get even with them,” Mandie replied.

“Maybe if we just turn on all our charms and be real sweet and nice to them, that would get away with them better than by being aloof and cold, Mandie,” Celia suggested. “You know, do good to evil.”

Mandie sighed and said, “I’m not sure, but I will be ready for them when they do turn up at Senator Morton’s house tomorrow night. I just wonder who they are that they can act so uppity.” She stood there fuming.

“Mandie, don’t you think we ought to go back to our room?” Celia asked.

“I suppose so,” Mandie agreed. “I’ve had enough for the night.” She turned and started walking back the way they had come. “But you know, Celia, that man we followed might just be the man Lolly thought was a ghost.”

“You are probably right,” Celia agreed, walking close to Mandie’s side as they carefully avoided stepping over graves.

“We can come back tomorrow night,” Mandie told her.

“No, Mandie. Remember, the party is tomorrow night. We couldn’t just leave,” Celia reminded her.

“All right, the next night, then,” Mandie agreed.

The girls didn’t see or hear anyone else as they returned to the house. The front door was unlocked, and they quietly entered and went back up to their room, tiptoeing up the staircase.

As soon as Mandie opened the door, she looked around for Snowball to prevent him from racing out of the room. But he didn’t come to greet her, and he wasn’t on the bed.

“Snowball!” Mandie called, looking around the room.

“I don’t see him,” Celia said as she helped search.

“Someone had to let him out because I know I closed the door,”
Mandie declared. “Come on. We’ll have to search the house. We can’t let him run loose all night.”

The girls quietly looked throughout the house, but Snowball was nowhere to be found.

“We can’t go in people’s rooms,” Mandie whispered to Celia. “Maybe he’s in the kitchen. The door’s closed, and I don’t know whether anyone is in there or not, but we’d better check.”

As soon as Mandie pushed the kitchen door open, Snowball came running out, loudly meowing. Mandie snatched him up. “Sh-h-h-h! You’ll wake everybody up. Let’s get back to our room before someone sees us.”

Once inside their room, Mandie put Snowball down. He ran for the bed and curled up in the middle of it.

“Somebody let him out,” Mandie said, walking around the room.

Celia went over to the wardrobe to get her nightclothes down from the hangers inside. She opened the double doors and stepped back as she said, “Just come and look! Someone has rearranged our clothes again!”

“Oh no!” Mandie said, rushing to look inside the wardrobe. She stomped her foot and said, “This has got to stop! I’m going to find out who is doing this.”

“And we should find out
why
they are doing it,” Celia added.

“You’re right,” Mandie said, beginning to rearrange her clothes. “Why are they doing it? Just to upset us? Or just to look at all our clothes? I don’t think I’ve missed anything, so they aren’t stealing.”

“Someone must have known we went out,” Celia remarked as she put her clothes in order.

“But we didn’t see anyone, so how did anyone know we went out?” Mandie asked. Then stopping to look at Celia, she said, “Do you suppose Juan saw us and pretended he didn’t, and then he came up here and did this while we were gone?”

“He might have, but I wish whoever keeps doing it would stop,” Celia replied. “This is causing a lot of trouble.”

As soon as they were finished rearranging the clothes, they went to sit by the window.

“You know, Celia,” Mandie said, “I’m almost positive that boy and girl in the park knew we were in there. So how did they know?
And who were they? Where do they live? Also, for what other reason would they have been in the cemetery at that time of the night?”

“If we find the answers to those questions, we’ll solve the mystery,” Celia agreed.

“Maybe someone is spying on us, but why?” Mandie asked thoughtfully. “I’ll just be glad to get back home. But before I go home, I will solve this mystery.”

She had no clue as to how to begin, but she would find the answers no matter what!

CHAPTER SIX

PARTY PLANS

The next day everyone stayed at the house preparing for the party that night, except for a short walk in the afternoon.

Mandie kept thinking about the girl and boy in the park. She tried to decide how she would handle the situation when she met them. She wished she had Joe Woodard to discuss the matter with. Joe always had suggestions and sometimes good solutions to problems she got involved in.

“You know, Celia, maybe I should tell my grandmother about those snobs in the park last night. But if I do, I would have to admit that you and I were out alone that late, and she wouldn’t like that,” Mandie told her friend as they lounged about in their room that afternoon after the walk.

“Oh no, Mandie, we would really be in trouble if your grandmother knew we went out when we were supposed to be getting ready for bed,” Celia replied, stretching her legs out in front of her as she sat in a big chair.

“I suppose we are guilty of doing something we shouldn’t have done,” Mandie agreed, “but if we hadn’t gone into that cemetery, we never would have heard those remarks about us.” She flopped onto another chair.

“Well, which is more important, then, slipping out at night or
overhearing those crude people?” Celia asked. “I mean, would it be worth it to tell your grandmother what we did in order to let her know she is also being talked about by someone who is coming to the party and who is going to act nice and proper, when all the time they are secretly making fun of us?”

“I just don’t know, but I do know that if my grandmother knew about this, she would get back at those people,” Mandie said with a big smile. “Believe me, she would do something that would bring them down a notch or two.”

“You are a lot like your grandmother, Mandie. More so than your mother,” Celia told her.

“I know. My mother is so sweet and kindhearted, she wouldn’t harm a fly,” Mandie agreed. “She must have taken after her father, but I never knew him. I imagine my grandmother was the boss in the family, even though Grandfather was an important man—a senator like Senator Morton.”