The Mystery of Sinister Scarecrow - M. V. Carey [16]
“Is that from something you use in your work?”
“You’re getting a whiff of oil paint or perhaps one of the solvents I use on the pictures,” said Malz. “My workshop’s on the third floor. That’s not open to visitors—
even very special ones like you boys. The third floor is also where I live.”
Bob looked around. “I should think it would get lonely here. It’s awfully quiet.”
“Sometimes it is lonesome,” said Malz. “I keep an apartment in Santa Monica, and I go there when I get tired of the quiet here. But on the whole I enjoy my own company as much as anyone’s.”
Malz moved briskly on to a gallery next to the Vermeer room, and there the boys saw the Rembrandts that he had restored — a landscape and a portrait of an old woman. They went on from one room to another. There were paintings by Reubens and Van Dyke and other great masters — and many by artists who were not quite so well known.
It was more than half an hour
before Malz announced that the tour
was over. He ushered the boys down
the stairs and out the front door.
The guard was no longer in the front
hall, so Malz locked the heavy door
behind him. Next, with a second key
he activated the alarm system. Then
he and the boys started across the
road toward the Radford house.
They were halfway across when
the screaming began. It shattered the
peace of the summer afternoon. Shrill and piercing, it went on and on.
“Not again!” exclaimed Pete, and he began to run.
Chapter 9
The Mysterious Watcher
PETE AND BOB CUT ACROSS the lawn and dashed up the brick steps to the terrace.
“It’s Letitia again,” said Malz in a weary voice as he and Jupiter followed more slowly.
Letitia Radford stood beside the pool, barefoot and in a wet bathing suit. She clutched a big towel and she screamed.
“Letitia, stop that!” cried Mrs. Chumley.
Jupe stared. So far as he could see, there was absolutely nothing the matter. Yet Letitia Radford continued to scream.
Mrs. Burroughs came striding from the house. She took Letitia by the shoulders and gave her a good shake.
Letitia stopped screaming and began to cry. Mrs. Burroughs put her arms around her. “There now, miss,” she said. “There now. It’s all right.”
Mrs. Burroughs coaxed Letitia into the mansion. The boys heard the housekeeper saying soothing things as she and Letitia went up the stairs.
“What happened?” said Gerhart Malz. Before Mrs. Chumley could answer, Charles Woolley appeared on the brick steps leading up from the lawn. “I heard screams — for a change,” he said.
Burroughs came out onto the terrace looking cool and undisturbed. “I have disposed of the animal,” he announced.
Charles Woolley scowled. “Animal? What animal?”
Mrs. Chumley sighed. “Letitia went for a swim,” she said, “and when she got out of the pool a great big hairy spider came scuttling across the terrace. It ran right over her bare foot. Of course she screamed!”
“I believe it was the spider called the tarantula,” said Burroughs. “I succeeded in capturing it by throwing a towel over it. It is now in the trash barrel — quite dead. I took the liberty of throwing the towel away along with the creature.”
“Of course, Burroughs,” said Mrs. Chumley. “You did quite right.”
“A tarantula!” said Woolley. “I can’t blame Letitia for getting upset. I wouldn’t enjoy having a tarantula run across my bare foot, and I like spiders.”
“She’ll be sure it’s part of a plot,” said Malz. “She thinks everything is part of a plot.”
Mrs. Chumley looked weary. “It isn’t good for her to spend so much time here doing nothing,” she said. “I wish she’d go back to Europe. Or at least get out of this house for a while. I think that as soon as she’s calmer, I’ll suggest that she go into Beverly Hills and stay for a few days. She could get in touch with some of her old friends and do some shopping, and of course see Dr. Wimple. I think I’d better call Dr. Wimple. He should know about this latest scare.
“He will,” predicted Malz. “Letitia will not fail to inform her psychiatrist that a tarantula has joined the cast of things that torture her.”
“You speak