Chapter IV: A Mysterious Truck

“Please, Judy, come on,” Holly begged again as Judy stopped to examine more of the used furniture piled near the front of the shop. The warped and broken table had aroused her curiosity. It seemed as if she had seen it somewhere before, but she couldn’t remember where.

“Somebody had furniture with claw feet like that,” she mused.

An old rocker looked familiar, too. It was in good condition. She was tempted to ask the price and then thought better of it. Mr. Sammis was sure to overcharge her. Then, too, there was always the danger that he might break something else and blame her for it.

“It isn’t fair,” she repeated, more to herself than to Holly, as they left the shop.

A builder’s truck bearing New York license plates drove up just as Judy and Holly got into the Beetle. The driver, a husky man with a tanned face and very light blue eyes, leaned out and called to them.

“Move your car out of there!” he said. “I’ve got heavy stuff in here. Have to park as close to the shop as possible.”

“We’re on our way out,” Judy told him, “but you’ll have to back up a little to give us room.”

“You’ve got room enough.”

He refused to move the huge panel truck. The name John Beer was lettered on the panel with the words Carpenter and Contractor below it. To Judy the truck seemed the size of a moving van. She couldn’t see what was in it but supposed he was hauling building supplies.

“Watch out that side and tell me if I’m backing too close,” she directed Holly.

“It’s pretty close.”

Judy was afraid of bumping up against the shop on the other side. One bump would be enough to spill that whole window full of glassware. Then she _would_ have a bill! But she finally made it.

“We cleared it!” she exclaimed. “Now if anybody knocks over the shop it will be John Beer, not us.”

“He and Hugh Sammis are two of a kind. There! He’s opening the door of the shop. He looks angry. Let’s wait and see what happens,” Holly suggested.

Judy laughed. “I thought you were the one who wanted to leave—Just listen to them!” she exclaimed.

Mr. Sammis was waving his arms and shouting, “You get out of here with that stuff! How can I buy any more when my shop is crowded already? Take it to some junk dealer.”

“But Sam,” the other protested in an equally loud tone of voice, “this is good furniture. I’ve sanded and refinished everything—”

“Well, you can’t move it in here!”

“He may be an old meanie,” Holly commented, “but Mr. Sammis is right. He certainly doesn’t have room for any more furniture.”

“Not unless he has an addition built on his shop. He could certainly use it,” Judy said with a last glance at the sheared-off house as they drove away.

Holly agreed. “He probably makes most of his money charging people for things they don’t break.”

“He may make money that way, but he won’t make friends,” declared Judy. “Do you think he really intends to send Dad a bill for twenty dollars?”

“He’s so mean he might do it. How did he know your name, Judy?”

“Oh, my picture’s been in the paper,” Judy replied airily. Then her face sobered. “He must be one of Dad’s patients. Dad can’t choose them, you know. He just goes where he’s needed and hopes the people will pay.”

Holly shook her head. “Mr. Sammis won’t.”

“I hope he doesn’t owe very much. Maybe he just came to the office.” Judy went on exploring possibilities. “He could have seen my picture there. You know how fathers are, always keeping family pictures around.”

“I know,” Holly agreed, now more interested in the passing scenery than in the unpleasant shopkeeper. She noticed a little stream at the lower side of the road and asked, “Is that the Allegheny River?”

“I guess so,” Judy replied. “It’s getting smaller, isn’t it? The head is just beyond our lot in Gold.”

“Your lot in Gold?”

“Gold is the name of a town,” Judy explained, laughing. “The lot was given to my father in payment of a bill. I used to think it was a gold mine and would make us rich some day. But doctors like Dad never get rich. Some people can’t pay him, and others won’t.”

Judy’s eyes narrowed as she thought again of Mr. Sammis. They drove on for a little while in silence.

“Is this it?” Holly asked suddenly.

Judy, startled out of her thoughts, did not reply until after they had passed the little town.

“Oh, you mean Gold? I think so. If it was you won’t see any more houses for a while,” Judy told her as the car began its long climb to a lonely plateau. “We’ll be on top of the world in a minute.”

“Oh, Judy! We _are_ on top of the world,” exclaimed Holly. “Isn’t this a marvelous view?”

“It certainly is. Three big rivers flow in three directions from this plateau. That’s why it’s called the watershed.”

“I don’t see any water,” Holly observed. “There’s nothing but miles and miles of wooded hills, one after the other.”

“The rivers are off there somewhere. I can’t see them either, but I know this is the watershed. The sky shed water on us the last time we drove through here,” Judy remembered. “We thought we’d never make it to the Jewell place.”

“It’s beautiful today.” Holly was really enjoying the ride. She seemed to have forgotten her disappointment at not finding her typewriter. Now, as they crossed the watershed, she said she was looking forward to visiting the beaver dam.

“Do you think the Jewell sisters will go with us?” she asked.

“They may. If they don’t, I’m sure we can find it. They said it was down the old road that passes their house. The bridge is out, and the road isn’t used any more,” Judy added.

“Then how will we get across?”

“There’s a footbridge. Honey and I crossed on a plank that floated away as soon as we were on the other side. The river was high then.”

“What river?” Holly asked. “You said the Allegheny heads back there.”

She waved her hand toward the wilderness behind them. Ahead were more wooded hills with only now and then a farmhouse and barn with a little cleared land. It was a narrow road with very little traffic going in either direction.

“That’s right,” Judy agreed. “We’ve passed the head of the Allegheny. The other two rivers are the Genessee and some remote branch of the Susquehanna, I think.”

Judy knew where the road to the Jewell place turned off just beyond the next town. They were nearly there when Holly startled her by crying out, “Move over, Judy! That big panel truck is trying to pass!”

“But that’s dangerous on this hill!”

Judy could see the truck in the rear-view mirror. It was the same one that had stopped at the used-furniture shop. Maybe she ought to move over and let it pass.

“We’ll be turning off soon, anyway,” she decided, giving John Beer and his truck plenty of room. “He seems to be in a hurry, doesn’t he?”

“Too much of a hurry,” Holly agreed. “He didn’t have time to unload his truck or do any work. I guess Mr. Sammis won the argument, and he’s taking everything back.”

“Back where?” Judy wondered as the truck sped down the long hill and out of sight.