The Mystery of the Death Trap Mine - M. V. Carey [9]
Again the sound of a shot broke the night stillness. Again the dog howled. Thurgood went to him and patted him on the head. He quieted, and Thurgood disappeared into his cabin.
“You were right about one thing, Allie,” said Pete. “It was Thurgood.”
“And it looks like your uncle was right about another,” Bob pointed out. “He must have been firing at a coyote.”
Allie made an indignant noise and flounced down the stairs.
“Allie sure has it in for Thurgood,” said Bob, as he padded back into the bunkroom.
“No matter what he does, she decides he’s up to no good.”
Jupiter got into bed. “I think that if I owned a mine, I would escort Allie Jamison on an inspection tour so that she could satisfy her curiosity,” he said. “It would be so much easier than making an enemy of her.”
Bob and Pete climbed into bed, and in a few minutes their steady breathing told Jupe that they were asleep. But Jupiter found himself oddly wakeful. The First Investigator lay in the darkness and listened to the wind rustle the Christmas trees.
Finally Jupe sat up. “Where was Thurgood when he fired that first shot?” he said aloud.
“Hm?” Pete turned over in bed.
“Who … what?” said Bob.
“Where was Thurgood when he fired the first shot?”
“The first shot?” said Pete. “In his house, I suppose.”
“Did you see him come out?” Jupe asked. “Did you see him come into the yard before that second shot?”
“No, I guess not. I was watching Allie.”
“So was I,” said Jupe. “Bob, did you see where Thurgood came from before he fired again?”
“No, I didn’t,” said Bob.
“So he could have been anyplace,” Jupe concluded. “I don’t think he was in his house.
The first shot was muffled, so much so that I wasn’t even sure it was a shot. The second one was clearer and it sounded nearer. I think Thurgood was in the mine when he fired that first shot.”
“So what?” asked Pete.
“Nothing, perhaps,” said Jupe, “except that I don’t think there was a coyote. The dog would have barked at a coyote, and we would have heard him. But the dog didn’t bark until after the shot. What if Thurgood shot at something in the mine and then came out and found that the noise had roused the neighbours. Suppose he didn’t want anyone to know he was shooting in the mine. What would he do?”
The other two boys didn’t answer.
“Wouldn’t he stand out in the open and shoot again’” asked Jupe. “Wouldn’t he want it to appear that he was shooting at a coyote?”
“You’re getting as bad as Allie,” said Bob.
“That may be,” Jupe admitted. “But it is also possible that there is something a bit odd about Mr. Thurgood. Perhaps Allie does have a case after all!”
Chapter 5
The Forbidden Mine
WHEN JUPE WOKE to see sunshine, his suspicions of the night before seemed ridiculous.
He dressed and went down to the kitchen, where Bob and Pete were already eating. Uncle Harry sat at the head of the table, and Magdalena was at the stove pouring pancake batter onto a griddle.
Pete lifted a hand in greeting. “Allie’s out riding and we were about to come up and wake you,” he said. “Today we get to do our stuff with the machetes.”
“That will be a change,” said Jupe.
“A change from what?” asked Uncle Harry.
“From moving junk around The Jones Salvage Yard!” Jupe told him.
“I hope you enjoy it.” Uncle Harry smiled. “I do. It’s kind of creative to think that you’re carving a Christmas tree. Don’t work like slaves the first day though. Just go at it for an hour or so at a time, then rest.”
After breakfast Uncle Harry took down three of the great knives that hung over the workbench in the barn. The boys followed him to a field between the ranch house and the road. They watched as he pruned a tree, bringing the machete down in quick slanting strokes to cut away branches that grew out in odd places. “Don’t get too close to the tree,”
he warned. “Stand back away from the machete, and always swing the knife off and to one side. I don’t want any accidents.”
Uncle Harry watched while each of the boys pruned a tree. When he was satisfied