CHAPTER XXII

Blackberry’s Discovery

When Judy and the children reached the top of the steps leading up from the cave, they found a straight, tall, thin old man standing between the two forest rangers who had heard Peter’s signal and freed them from the cave. Without a doubt, the old man was Paul Riker, and he was shaking his finger angrily at the magician.

“You’re a thief just like your brother,” the enraged voice of the old man continued. “I’ll have the law on you! It was _you_ who robbed my house, and now you’re trying—”

“I only moved your things to keep them from being destroyed, Uncle Paul,” the magician declared. “But the men I trusted have tricked me. They found out that your famous jade collection was missing when they moved your other things, and they have been searching for it ever since.”

“What do you mean?” the old man demanded.

“I’ll tell you what he means,” Peter put in. “Three of the moving men he hired turned out not to be so trustworthy. They found a letter from your niece saying she was returning a piece that belonged in your jade collection. Since the collection was not moved to the warehouse, they thought it must still be in your house. They returned to the house after the police had left, and searched it.” Peter hesitated. “It’s my theory,” he went on, “that they set fire to the house either on purpose or accidentally. However, you will have to convince the insurance people that you did not do it yourself.”

“Set fire to my own house!” The old man roared with rage. “What kind of idiots am I dealing with? I simply closed the house and took a room in a place a few miles from here. And do you know why I did that? Because I had no wish to see that ungrateful girl nor the children of that scamp, Philip!”

“But you came back and watched what was going on,” Peter reminded him. “You were in the cave when my wife came here yesterday, and you are here again today. You went out the other exit from the cave as we came down the steps.”

“And why not?” the old man snapped. “It is my property, every inch of it, and I intended to guard it. Somebody had to,” he added. “That idiot, Abner Post, went away Thursday night and let this thieving rascal walk off with practically everything in my house.”

“I told you, Uncle Paul,” the younger Paul Riker said wearily, “I saw that your house was in the path of the fire and wanted to save your things. I came to the caretaker’s cottage, but it was locked and he was away. The big house was closed too. So I called up the moving company, gave them my name, and had them take your most valuable things to the warehouse. What else could I do?”

“It’s lucky for you, Mr. Riker, that he did,” Peter said, “The fire would have reached your house eventually. Then you would have lost everything.”

The old man cackled suddenly. “I wouldn’t have lost my jade collection,” he declared. Then his face darkened. “But there are two pieces missing now. And without Rama and Sita it’s hardly a collection at all. My thieving nephews robbed me of Sita years ago, and now somebody’s stolen Rama from inside the vault where I intended to keep the whole collection. I gave orders to have it buried with me, but who can I trust to carry out my orders?”

Judy wanted to tell him Rama was safe, but a warning look from Peter stopped her. As the millionaire raved on she began to understand the warped reasoning that had cheated him out of all the things she felt enriched a life. He seemed to care more for his memorial in stone than for the living memory he could leave with those who would love him if he would only let them.

“Do you remember, Uncle Paul, how you used to accuse me of stealing Sita?” the magician was saying. “Well, I can tell you now, because, for the first time, I know what happened to her. Philip took her to give to Helen.”

“And in all these years she’s never returned it!” the old man exploded.

“But Uncle, it was your own fault,” the magician pointed out. “You drove them both out and made them afraid of you. And Helen was on her way to return it to you. The thieves knew from her letter when she was arriving. They were on the lookout for her and tried to force her to tell them where the rest of the collection was. Can’t you see what they were planning? Be sensible, Uncle Paul, and let us put it in a museum where it will be under guard—”

“Never!” roared Uncle Paul.

“I think we will have to place it under guard while you are being questioned,” Peter said quietly. “I hate to have to say this, Mr. Riker, but your house was not burned by the forest fire, and you will have to satisfy the insurance company as well as our office that you had nothing to do with either of the fires. The law says arson on state forest land is a federal offence.”

Mr. Riker protested vehemently. Nevertheless, when the chief deputy of the rangers drove his car up to the vault, the old man got in with surprising meekness. Judy suspected that the excitement had tired him out in spite of his rambunctious spirit.

“I’ll have to go with Mr. Riker, Angel,” Peter said. “Do you mind driving home, or would you rather wait here for me?”

“I don’t mind driving a bit,” Judy replied. “But before we start, I want to find out why the statue seemed to talk. It’s solid cement. Nobody could possibly get inside it.”

“No,” replied Peter, “but there are hollow pipes running through it. They were probably placed there to keep the cement from cracking. Old Paul Riker, down in the cave, must have shouted through them in order to scare people away.”

“Hollow pipes,” Judy said thoughtfully. “Peter, do you think the tree talked the same way?”

“Perhaps,” he replied. “Horace told me _he_ heard it say, ‘We’re starved!’ just before you and the kids dashed in from the barn.”

“Then it carried our voices from the hayloft! But who was up there, calling, ‘Don’t look for it!’?”

Peter shook his head. He had no answer for that.

“One more question, Peter, please,” Judy begged. “Why didn’t you tell Mr. Riker we had found his jade Rama? Were you trying to protect me?”

“And why not?” he answered. “You saw how vehemently he accused his nephew. He wouldn’t have believed you were trying to help him. When we find Sita we’ll give him both pieces and his collection will be complete.”

“But how will you find her?” asked Judy.

“By finding the thieves. In the meantime,” Peter said, “we intend to see to it that they don’t find the rest of the collection.”

Two of the rangers went down the steps into the cave and brought up the cabinet containing the jade. They put it in the car with old Mr. Riker, Peter got in, and off they went.

Young Paul Riker stood watching the car disappear down the road, as Judy loaded the two children and Blackberry into Peter’s car.

“Poor Uncle Paul,” he sighed.