Chapter V: 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?