The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints - M. V. Carey [4]
“It is not difficult to trace the movements of a barefooted man,” Jupe told his uncle. “He went out through the gate and down the street. Aunt Mathilda had been watering, and he got his feet wet. At the corner, he turned up towards Coldwell Hill.
There are several clear footprints in the dust on the path that leads up the hill.
Unfortunately, he left the path about fifty yards up and struck off to the north. I found no sign of him after that. The terrain is too rocky to show footprints.”
Uncle Titus heaved himself up off the running board. “Well!” he said. He tugged at his moustache and eyed The Potter’s truck. “Let’s move this wreck out of the drive.
We won’t do any business with it blocking the way. Let us also pray that The Potter returns soon to claim it.”
Uncle Titus made four vain attempts to start The Potter’s truck, but the temperamental old engine refused to turn over for him.
“Don’t tell me machines can’t think,” declared Uncle Titus. “I wager that The Potter is the only one in creation who can coax any life into this thing.”
He climbed down from the truck and motioned Jupe into the driver’s seat. Then, with Jupe steering, he and Hans pushed until the truck was safely parked in an empty space next to the office.
Aunt Mathilda had hurried across the road from the house to watch. “I’m going to put The Potter’s groceries in our deep freeze,” she decided. “If his things stand out in the sun, they’ll spoil. I can’t imagine what possesses that man. Jupiter, did he say when his guests were coming?”
“No, he didn’t.”
Aunt Mathilda took a bag of groceries from the back of the truck. “Jupiter, I think you should take your bike and ride up to The Potter’s,” she said. “Perhaps he’ll be there. Or perhaps his company has come. If they’re there, Jupiter, bring them back with you. It would be awful to come for a visit and find an empty house.”
Jupiter had been about to suggest a trip to The Potter’s himself. He grinned and hurried to get his bike.
“And don’t dillydally!” Aunt Mathilda called after him. “There’s work to be done!”
At that, Jupiter laughed out loud. He pedalled up the highway, keeping well to the right to avoid the cars speeding north, and concluded that The Potter’s young guest, if he had arrived, would doubtless be a junior helper in The Jones Salvage Yard before the day was over. Aunt Mathilda knew exactly what to do with boys who were Jupiter’s age. Aunt Mathilda put them to work.
The road curved at Evanston Point, and The Potter’s house, stark white against the green-black of the California hills, leaped to meet the eye. Jupiter stopped pedalling and coasted. The Potter’s place had been an elegant residence once. Now it struck Jupe simply as a brave house, flaunting its Victorian gingerbread on that lonely stretch of coastline.
Jupiter stopped at The Potter’s gate. A small sign on the fence proclaimed that The Potter’s shop was closed, but that The Potter would return shortly. Jupiter wondered whether he was even now inside the big white house, unwilling to cope with the usual run of Saturday morning customers. He had certainly looked ill when Jupiter had gone to fetch the water.
Jupiter leaned his bike against the fence and went in through the gate. The Potter’s front garden was paved with flagstones and crowded with tables on which were displayed huge ceramic pieces – large urns, big plaques decorated with flowers or fruit, gigantic vases on which birds hovered in constant, motionless flight.
“Mr. Potter?” called Jupe.
There was no answer. The tall, narrow windows of the old house looked blank.
The shed where The Potter kept his supplies was locked and silent. Across the road, parked on the shoulder above the beach, was a dusty tan Ford. There was no one in the car. The owner, no doubt, was on the beach below either surfing or fishing.
The lane which led from the highway up the mountain to Hilltop House was only a few feet beyond The Potter’s yard. Jupiter saw that the gate was open. Hilltop House itself was not visible from The Potter’s, but Jupe could see the stone wall which supported