CHAPTER XIV

The Missing Jade

Peter gave a long, low whistle of surprise. Then he asked Judy exactly where she had found the little idol.

She told him and added, “It isn’t quite the way Penny described it. This looks more like a hunter than a doll.”

“It may be a clue when we start hunting for the rest of the jade collection,” declared Peter. “Have you any more clues as good as this one?”

Judy laughed. “I’m afraid not, but it won’t do any harm to list the clues I do have.”

“First of all,” Peter said, “is that tourist sign. I’ll never understand how you get these sudden impulses, but it certainly led Mrs. Riker and the children to the right place.”

“That’s true,” Judy admitted, and sighed. “Naturally they were looking forward to meeting their uncle. It must have been a terrible shock to them to find his house destroyed.”

“What about their other uncle?” asked Peter. “Doesn’t he have a house?”

“I don’t know,” Judy replied. “Helen wouldn’t let the children talk about him. Penny acted as if she’d never heard of him before. It was the old uncle they were expecting to visit, not the young one.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“I’m not sure of anything,” confessed Judy. “There’s a big secret of some kind. Helen’s trained Paul to keep it, but not Penny. The trouble is, I don’t think Penny knows all of it. And she has such an imagination! I actually feel sorry for her, the way they stop her every time she wants to talk. But it may be necessary. Helen Riker may be in danger.”

“What about you?” asked Peter. “You’ve really handed yourself a problem, sweetheart. If she’s in danger, I’m afraid you are, too.”

“I know, Peter.” Impulsively she kissed away the worried frown on his forehead, nearly stabbing him with the pencil she was holding. “But why should I be any safer than you are?” she asked. “You’re nearly always in danger—”

“From pencils? Only when I’m with you,” he returned, laughing. “Actually, pencils are about the only weapons I’ll be using for the next few weeks. Most of the time I will be sitting at an office desk doing very undangerous routine work.”

“You weren’t today,” she reminded him. “You were fighting forest fires.”

“Today,” he said, “was a little unusual. But let’s talk about your day. I want to get the facts straightened out in my mind.”

“My day?” Judy questioned, thinking back. “For me it always begins when I first open my eyes and say to myself, ‘Here is another mystery to solve.’ Every day _is_ a mystery, Peter, because you never know one minute what wonderful, beautiful, or even terrible thing will happen the next. That’s what makes life so exciting and—and wonderful.”

“It takes a pretty wonderful person to see it that way,” declared Peter.

“You’re wonderful, too,” she told him. “How foolish I was to worry for fear you might not understand. You see, we put up the tourist sign before Horace came with the news of the robbery. At first it was just for fun. We didn’t really think anyone would stop. And then, just after we put up the sign, those three men came along. They didn’t drive down our road. Maybe it looked too steep or something. They just parked their car by the mailbox and started to explore the grounds and ask questions. One of the men asked about the house, but I told him it wasn’t for sale. It’s _our_ house, Peter. Nothing in the world could make me want to sell it.”

“But it is a little lonesome, is that it?”

“A little,” she admitted, “when you’re at work. But today Honey was with me, and then of course Helen and the children came. Oh!” she exclaimed suddenly.

“What now, Angel?”

“An idea I had. Penny did say something about getting into trouble when you didn’t tell things,” Judy remembered. “She was talking about her mother. And then she said, ‘I’d never, never steal anything after what she told me. Only bad people steal.’ I agreed with her and it seemed to bother her, and then she said something about it’s being different for children. What do you suppose she meant by that?”

“Obviously some child she cared about had stolen something. I doubt if it was Penny herself.”

“Was it Paul?”

“Not if I’m any judge of character,” Peter said. “What else can you remember?”

“A lot of things. I’ll write them down. There were still more clues in the paper if we only had it. I think Helen must have taken it upstairs with her.”

“We don’t need it,” Peter told her. “I’m familiar with every word in it. You see, our office released the news. Horace didn’t tell you, but he got it from me.”

“He did? Then you know more about it than he does! Can you tell me who the thieves were?” Judy asked. “Was it the caretaker?”

“Possibly, although it was he who reported the robbery.”

“And what about the jade collection? If this green doll was part of it—Peter! It must have been. But why was Helen taking it there unless—” Judy kept interrupting herself as more ideas flashed through her brain. Then, suddenly, she knew.

“It was!” she exclaimed. “I remember it now! It said in the paper that a priceless Oriental jade collection had been stolen—”

“Was believed to have been stolen,” Peter corrected her. “It makes quite a difference.”

“Not in what I’m trying to say,” she continued. “I don’t remember it word for word, but it went on to say that the valuable jade pieces had been collected during Paul Riker’s travels through the Far East. They were little statues of gods and goddesses! I had forgotten that until this very minute. And there was something else about their value being even greater if they were matched pairs. Does that mean there’s a goddess for every god? Then, if one happened to be missing, it would be worth a lot of money, wouldn’t it? And if the burglars knew where it was, they’d try to steal it, wouldn’t they? And they’d try to find out about the rest of the collection. Oh, Peter! That was what you meant when you said you were on the trail of quite a number of green dolls, wasn’t it? And this one I found may lead us to all the others.”

“It may,” Peter replied soberly. “On the other hand, it may lead us into more trouble. If Mr. Riker himself dropped it in the vault—”

“I give up,” Judy interrupted. “But this green ‘doll’ is jade, isn’t it, and it was stolen from Mr. Riker’s collection, don’t you think, Peter?”

“Yes, I do,” Peter agreed, “but if anyone stole it I’m afraid you’re the guilty one, Angel. You’d better let me have it before it gets you into more trouble. It may be the mate to the one Mrs. Riker had stolen from her.”

“Oh dear!” Judy began. “I hadn’t thought of that. I didn’t mean—”

“Of course you didn’t,” Peter reassured her. “I know your motives were good when you took it, and a great deal of good may come out of it, so don’t worry.”

“I won’t,” Judy promised, inspiration suddenly erasing all worry from her mind. “Oh, Peter!” she cried. “I have a wonderful idea. Come up to the attic with me. There’s something up there I want to show you.”