The Mandie Collection (69 page)

“We'll do that later,” Mandie said. “Right now, we have to keep our promise to Grandmother and get back.”

When the young people returned to Mrs. Taft's house, the place was in an uproar.

Hilda was missing! The house was being searched thoroughly for the girl.

“What happened, Grandmother?” Mandie asked anxiously.

“It seems that the nurse dozed off because she had been on duty since Friday night. The nurse who was to relieve her was unable to get through the snow,” Mrs. Taft explained. “When the nurse woke up a while ago, Hilda was gone.”

“How long has she been missing?” Joe asked.

“We don't know,” Mrs. Taft replied. “The nurse said she must have dozed off some time before daylight, and she didn't wake up until a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, please don't let any harm come to Hilda!” Mandie prayed, looking upward as she talked to God.

The young people quickly joined in the search. Every crack and corner of the huge mansion was looked into. Every inch of the grounds and the outbuildings was searched. Hilda was nowhere to be found.

“I don't understand how she got away in the weak condition she's in,” Dr. Woodard declared as they all gathered in the parlor. “This could be serious for her, I'm afraid.”

The townspeople quickly heard about the missing girl and came to join the search. Hours passed. There was no trace of Hilda anywhere!

CHAPTER NINE

DISCOVERY IN THE BELFRY

After going over Mrs. Taft's entire estate without finding Hilda, the search party fanned out all across town.

It was not snowing, but the high drifts, bitter cold temperatures, and strong north wind made things more difficult. Everyone was worried about the condition of Hilda's health.

Mrs. Taft allowed Mandie, Celia, and Joe to go with Ben in the rig to help look for Hilda. They knocked on doors and got permission to search people's yards and outbuildings. As they worked their way through the streets, they found themselves near the church about dusk.

“Ben, let's go look around the church and the grounds while we're this close,” Mandie suggested.

“Whatever you says, Missy,” Ben agreed, turning the horses in that direction.

“Do you think she could have got this far away from your grandmother's house?” Joe asked.

“Maybe,” Mandie replied. “Somebody could have given her a ride in their rig or something.”

“If she got a ride, there's no telling where in the world she could be by now,” Celia reasoned.

Ben stopped the rig in front of the church. “I jes' stay right heah and waits fo' y'all,” he said.

“Oh, no, Ben,” Mandie protested as she and the others stepped down from the rig. “Grandmother told you that you were to stay right along with us wherever we go, remember?”

“Yessum,” Ben grumbled, as he reluctantly followed them up the steps.

As soon as Joe opened the door, they all felt a great warmth from inside the church. They looked around. Someone had built roaring fires in both the big stoves in the sanctuary.

“I wonder why anyone would want to build fires in here today when there's no church service,” Mandie said. “It couldn't have been the sexton. He knew Rev. Tallant wouldn't be here today.”

Joe shrugged. “I'm not surprised at anything that goes on in this church now,” he said.

“Maybe someone came here to pray, and got cold, and decided to build the fires,” Celia suggested.

Ben plopped down in the back pew. “Now, y'all go ahaid and do whatever it is you gwine do,” he said. “I sits right heah.”

“Well, all right,” Mandie said. “We're going to search the church for Hilda. If anyone comes in or goes out, yell for us.”

“I will, Missy,” Ben promised. He stretched his long legs out to get comfortable as he slid down a little in the seat.

“Upstairs first,” Joe suggested, leading the way to the gallery.

They looked carefully in every place where someone could possibly hide. By this time they knew every nook and cranny of the building.

Joe skimmed the ladder into the belfry. “Nothing up here,” he called down to the girls.

“It seems that we never find anyone here, but we always find signs of someone having been here,” Celia remarked.

“We'll catch up with someone sometime. We've got to,” Mandie said. “It's impossible for anyone to keep on doing things here and not be caught.”

Joe slid down the ladder, and they went back downstairs. Making their way down the side aisle, they went through the door to the classrooms.

“We can go faster if we split up,” Joe told them. “You girls take the rooms on that side, and I'll go down this side.”

When they found nothing there, they went on downstairs to the basement. But a quick search of all the classrooms there revealed nothing.

“I guess we'd better get going,” Joe said, looking around the hallway. “We've covered the whole church except for the pastor's study, and it's still locked.”

“Let's go outside and look around the grounds,” Mandie suggested. When they got back to the sanctuary, Ben had nodded off. They all laughed.

Suddenly Mandie heard something. “What was that?” she whispered, looking around quickly.

“Sounded like something moving,” Joe said softly.

“It wasn't very loud, whatever it was,” Celia observed.

Moving over to the center aisle, they looked around and then started up the aisle. The two big stoves standing in the middle aisle still roared away with their fires.

As they started to walk by the first stove, Mandie glanced down to the right. “Look!” she exclaimed, stooping between the pews.

Joe and Celia huddled behind her to see. There lay Hilda, all wrapped up in choir robes and a small rug.

“Hilda! Hilda!” Mandie cried, smoothing back the girl's tangled dark brown hair.

Hilda didn't move. She looked as though she were soundly asleep.

“Is she—is she—all right?” Celia asked nervously.

Joe bent down and reached for the girl's wrist. “She's alive, but just barely, I believe,” he said. “And she does have a terrible fever.” “Ben! Come quick!” Mandie yelled.

Startled, Ben jumped to his feet. “Yessum, yessum, Missy,” he answered. Rubbing his eyes, he quickly looked around.

“Down here, Ben,” Joe called to him.

Ben hurriedly joined them and gasped when he saw Hilda lying there, so flushed and motionless.

“Quick, Ben,” Joe said. “Help me get Hilda into the rig. We've got to get her back to Mrs. Taft's house and into bed fast!”

“Oh, dear Lord,” Mandie prayed, “please let Dr. Woodard be there when we get back.”

As Joe and Ben picked up Hilda—robes, rug, and all—the girl started mumbling with her eyes closed. “God has come,” she said in a whisper. “God has come!”

Tears came to Mandie's eyes. “She's still able to speak,” she cried.

The girls followed as Ben and Joe carried Hilda outside and carefully tucked her into the rig.

“This time I give you permission to drive as fast as you can,” Mandie told Ben.

“Cain't go too fast, Missy,” Ben replied, picking up the reins. “It be slicky on de road 'cause of de snow.”

In spite of the roads, however, Ben did manage to get up some speed, and soon pulled up in Mrs. Taft's driveway.

Mandie jumped down and ran to the house. “Grandmother!” she yelled, pounding on the door.

Ella quickly opened the door, and Mandie ran right past her. “Grandmother!” she screamed. “Dr. Woodard! Come quick. We've found Hilda!”

Mrs. Taft and Dr. Woodard hurried into the hall from the parlor just as Ben and Joe were carrying Hilda into the house. Dr. Woodard directed them upstairs, and the nurse who was still there tucked the girl into bed. The young people excitedly explained where they had found her.

Mrs. Taft and Dr. Woodard listened in amazement. Then Dr. Woodard sent everyone out of the room so that he and the nurse could tend to Hilda.

“We might as well go downstairs to the parlor by the fire,” Mrs. Taft told the young people. “And you still haven't even taken off your coats and hats.”

The young people followed Mrs. Taft down the stairs, unbuttoning as they went. In the front hallway, they hung their coats on the hall tree, then headed into the parlor.

“At least one trip to the church did some good,” Mandie remarked as they pulled stools up in front of the fire.

Snowball, who was sleeping on the rug, stretched, stood up, and jumped into his mistress's lap.

Mrs. Taft sat down in an armchair. “I can't imagine how Hilda got there,” she said. “And who could have built those fires and wrapped her up in all those things?”

“Someone must have,” Mandie answered. “I don't think she could have.”

“I hope she's going to be all right,” Celia said.

“My father will do all he can. You know that,” Joe assured her. “Maybe that warm fire and all those things covering her helped.”

“Grandmother,” Mandie said. “Hilda kept whispering, ‘God has come. God has come.' She didn't open her eyes, and she didn't even seem to know she was being moved.”

“She's running a high fever, and I'm sure she's delirious, dear,” Mrs. Taft explained. “We'll just have to wait for Dr. Woodard to come back down and tell us how she is.”

After a while the doctor joined them in the parlor. “She's really sick,” he said. “She seems to be out of her head completely.”

“Let's pray for her,” Mandie suggested. “God can heal her.”

After they had all prayed for Hilda's recovery, they sat talking in the parlor. Dr. Woodard made repeated trips upstairs to check on the girl.

Mrs. Taft asked Annie, the upstairs maid, to relieve the nurse if she had to leave Hilda's room for any reason. She also instructed the nurse to check all the windows in Hilda's room to be sure they were locked and all the draperies drawn.

The young people talked with Mandie's grandmother long into the night. They still had no real clues in the bell mystery, and now they had Hilda to worry about. They even wondered if there could be any connection between Hilda's running away and the mysterious goings-on in the church, though it didn't seem possible.

There was no change in Hilda's condition that evening. Everybody finally got so sleepy that Mrs. Taft ordered them all to bed. Dr. Woodard promised to sleep in the room across the hall from Hilda's so he would be close in case of an emergency.

Mandie felt as though she had just gone to bed when she heard Annie steal softly into the room where she and Celia were sleeping.

As Annie knelt at the fireplace arranging the kindling for the fire, Mandie sat up and pulled the covers around her. “How is Hilda, Annie?” she asked.

Celia woke and accidentally kicked Snowball, who was sleeping at their feet on top of the quilt.

“Still de same,” Annie replied. “I'se jes' been in de room to tend to de fire, and she jes' layin' still. Ain't movin' at all.”

Celia sat up beside Mandie in the bed. “At least she isn't any worse then,” she said.

Annie moved backward a little and fanned the fire with her big white apron to get it going.

Snowball stretched and yawned, then jumped down to take his place by the warm hearth.

Annie started to leave the room. “Yo' grandma and de doctuh, dey be in de breakfus' room,” Annie informed them.

“Joe isn't up yet?” Mandie asked.

“Ain't seen him,” Annie replied. “I gotta git his fire goin' now.” She went out the door.

Mandie jumped out of bed. “Come on. Let's get dressed,” she said. Celia followed.

The two girls shivered a little in the cold room. They quickly grabbed their clothes and stood in front of the fire to get dressed.

Snowball followed them downstairs to the breakfast room. Joe was already there.

As they went to the sideboard, Mandie whispered to Celia, “It takes a girl longer to get dressed than it does a boy.”

Celia smiled.

The girls were glad to see the sun shining brightly through the windows where the curtains were pulled back. After exchanging morning greetings with Joe and the adults, Mandie and Celia filled their plates and joined the others at the table.

“I was just in to see Hilda before I came downstairs,” Dr. Woodard reported, “and I'm afraid she's still not doing well at all.”

The conversation turned to how the young people had found her at the church and questions about the whole puzzling situation.

“Grandmother, could we go back to the church this morning?” Mandie asked. “I'd like to see if the fire's burned out and if there's any sign of anyone there.”

Mrs. Taft smiled at her granddaughter. “Amanda, you visit that church more than you visit with me,” she said. “But then, I was the one who got you started in all this tomfoolery. I guess it would be all right for you to go as long as Ben goes with you.”

“Thanks, Grandmother,” Mandie replied.

“I suppose your school will send someone to let us know when they open back up,” Mrs. Taft said.

“I don't believe they'll open up again any time soon. All the girls who didn't go home are sick in bed now,” Dr. Woodard said. “I was there yesterday, and the only ones walking around were Miss Hope and Miss Prudence.”

“What about Uncle Cal and Aunt Phoebe?” Mandie asked quickly. “Oh, yes, they're all right,” the doctor said.

“Well, I guess we'll have a little longer, then,” Celia said.

“But we'd better use what time we have, or we'll never get this mystery solved,” Joe reminded them. “You know, I have to leave when my father does.”

“That won't be for some time yet son,” Dr. Woodard said. “I'd say about two-thirds of the town is down with the flu.”

“You young people be sure to wrap up good and wear your boots,” Mrs. Taft cautioned them. “I don't want y'all getting sick.”