The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints - M. V. Carey [40]
Jupiter’s probing fingers touched paper in the bottom of the suitcase. He lifted the clothes out, careful not to disarrange anything, and stared at a piece of folded newspaper. It was the classified section of the Los Angeles Times. An item in the
“Personal” column was circled. It read: “Nicholas. I am waiting. Write Alexis at P.O.
Box 213, Rocky Beach, Ca. ”
Jupiter lifted the paper out. There was another sheet of newsprint beneath it. This was part of the classified section of the New York Daily News, and an identical advertisement appeared there. There was also a copy of the Chicago Tribune, with the same notice. Jupiter glanced at the dates on the newspapers. They were all the April 21 editions of that year.
Jupiter frowned, put the Chicago Tribune back where he had found it, placed the Daily News back on top of that, and the Los Angeles newspaper on top of that. He then replaced the clothing in the suitcase, closed the case, and put it down again on the floor.
Whatever the jaunty fisherman had come for, Jupiter Jones decided, it had little or nothing to do with fish.
Jupiter quickly inspected the bathroom – which contained only shaving gear and clean towels – and was on his way to the door when he heard brisk footsteps on the verandah outside. A key rattled in the lock of room 113.
Jupe looked around wildly, decided that he would not be able to squeeze himself under the bed, and dodged into the wardrobe. He took shelter behind one of Mr.
Farrier’s clean jackets and held his breath.
Jupe heard Farrier come into the room. The man was humming a tuneless hum.
He crossed to the bed, stopped there for a moment or two, and then went on into the bathroom. The bathroom door closed and Jupiter heard water running in the basin.
Jupiter slipped out of the closet and sped on his toes towards the door. He had it open in a second. The water continued noisily running in the bathroom. Jupiter backed out on to the verandah, pulling the door closed as he went. The instant before it shut completely, he saw that Mr. Farrier had dropped something on the bed.
The supposedly jolly fisherman had a gun!
Chapter 15
Jupe has a Plan
PETE HAD finished mowing the lawn and was mixing a lemonade when the telephone rang.
“Pete?” said Jupiter Jones. “Can you come to Headquarters right after supper?”
“I can if it isn’t going to be another all-night thing,” said Pete. “Mum’s not going to go for that twice in a row.
“It won’t be an all-night thing,” promised Jupiter. “I have some new and interesting information which may help our client. I have left a message for Bob.
Perhaps, when he returns from the library, he will also have helpful information for us.”
“That we can use,” said Pete.
Jupiter’s hopes were well-founded. When Bob appeared at Headquarters that evening, he was almost staggering under the weight of two large books which had pieces of paper tucked in to mark various pages.
“A Lapathian dictionary,” said Bob brightly. “Lapathian-English, that is. You wouldn’t believe how hard they are to come by. We had to arrange a special loan from the big library in Los Angeles. My father picked the books up on his way home from work. The second one is a complete history of Lapathia.”
“Great!” exclaimed Pete.
“Have you been able to decipher the document we found at The Potter’s?” asked Jupe.
“Most of it. The rest we can guess,” said Bob. “Thank heavens Lapathian isn’t like Russian. They use a regular alphabet. If I had to translate from some other kind of writing, I think I’d just go shoot myself.”
“What is the document?” Jupiter asked.
Bob took the folded parchment from between the pages of the dictionary and put it down on the desk. Next to it he put a piece of paper on which he had worked out, in pencil and with many erasures and crossings out, the message of the parchment.
“It goes kind of like this,” said Bob. “ ‘Know all men that on this day, the 25th of August of the year 1920, Alexis Kerenov, having attained his majority and having sworn