The Mystery of Sinister Scarecrow - M. V. Carey [23]
“It … it had a scythe!” moaned Letitia. “Just like the Grim Reaper! It was going to cut my head off.”
“Oh, surely not, Miss Letitia!” said Burroughs.
“It was! It was!”
Jupiter, Pete, and Bob went up the steps into the hall. “It did have a scythe,” said Jupiter. “We saw it.”
“Well, now, I’ve had enough, I have,” said Mrs. Burroughs. She came bustling up from the back of the house, breathless and with her cap askew. “All this screeching and rambling about. I’ve called the police.”
“Oh, dear!” said Mrs. Chumley.
“Good!” exclaimed Charles Woolley, who had come in after the boys. “Now maybe that police chief will pay some attention to all this.”
“I should hope so,” said Mrs. Burroughs. She went to Letitia and led her toward the living room. “Come now, miss. I’ll make you a nice cup of tea. Calm your nerves.
Must have given you a proper shock, seeing that horrid thing. I looked out the window and saw it myself, with that great, nasty knife thing in its hands.”
They heard tires on the road outside. Jupe turned and saw headlights as a car pulled into the drive in front of the Mosby Museum. The headlights went off and a man got out of the car and started across the road. It was Gerhart Malz.
“What’s up?” he called. “Anything the matter?”
“It’s the scarecrow, sir,” said Burroughs, stepping to the doorway. “He was waiting in the driveway when Miss Letitia came home.”
“Oh, that!” said Malz in a disgusted tone.
“Don’t say ‘Oh, that’ as if the woman imagined it!” cried Woolley. His bald head gleamed and his eyes snapped. He looked more than ever like a highly intelligent ant.
“We all saw it and it’s a menace. Somebody could have been killed!”
From far away down the mountainside came the wail of sirens.
“Ah, the police!” said Mrs. Burroughs. “I wasn’t sure they’d come. The officer I talked to seemed doubtful about catching a scarecrow!”
“I’ll bet Chief Reynolds is with them,” said Jupiter in a mournful tone, “and I’ll bet he isn’t going to be happy to see us here!”
Chapter 12
The Night Watch
THE NEXT MORNING, The Three Investigators met in Headquarters in The Jones Salvage Yard. As Jupiter had predicted, Chief Reynolds had been highly annoyed to find the boys at the Radford estate the previous evening. He brushed aside their objection that he himself had recommended them for the scarecrow case. The chief had earlier told the boys to stay out of trouble, and here they were, once again, in the midst of a dangerous situation. The boys were ordered to go home and forget about the scarecrow.
As Chief Reynolds might have predicted, Jupiter, Pete, and Bob had no intention of abandoning their case. “But we’d better be careful,” said Jupe to his companions.
“The chief really will make trouble if he sees us at the Radford place again.”
“After last night, I’m going to be awfully careful,” Pete declared.
“You got the worst of it last night,” said Bob, “except for Letitia. At least now things should be easier for her. Now everybody in the house knows there’s a scarecrow!”
Jupe nodded. “There are few things more maddening than not being believed. It’s enough to drive anyone to a breakdown.” The First Investigator sat behind the desk in the tiny office in Headquarters and pulled at his lip in a manner that indicated he was thinking intensely. “Well, a lot of us saw the scarecrow last night. And that means we can start eliminating suspects. Woolley was with us. Mrs. Burroughs said she saw the scarecrow out the window. Her husband and Mrs. Chumley were right there on the scene. That leaves only Gerhart Malz unaccounted for.”
“Gee, he could easily have been the scarecrow,” said Bob. “Say he left his car parked on Rock Rim Drive. After scaring Letitia he would have had time to run down there, get rid of his scarecrow outfit, then drive back to the Mosby place before the police arrived.”
“It’s possible,” said Jupiter. “Malz knew of Letitia’s fear of scarecrows and insects all along. And he could have learned that she’d be returning early from Beverly Hills.
“But don’t forget our