The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints - M. V. Carey [41]
Bob looked up. “That’s about it,” he said. “There’s the seal with the eagle, and there’s a signature, but you can’t read it. People are sloppy about signatures.”
“And the more important they are,” said Jupiter, “the sloppier they tend to get.
Could it be Azimov?”
Bob shrugged. “It could be anything,” he said. “It probably is Azimov, or some variation, because the Kerenov family turned out to be big wheels in Lapathia. Boris Kerenov didn’t just fade away and disappear. He hung around and was ever so helpful.” Bob opened the second book he had brought to a place which he had previously marked with paper. “This book’s indexed,” he said happily, “so we don’t have to wade all the way through. Boris Kerenov, who made the crown for old Duke Federic, then advised Federic when Federic decided to be king. He helped Federic lay out the streets round the castle at Madanhoff, and he superintended things when the castle itself was enlarged. He figured that kings need sceptres, so he designed and made the sceptre of the Azimovs. Federic was duly grateful and named him Duke of Malenbad. Malenbad, by one of those interesting coincidences, happened to be the duchy which had formerly been ruled by Ivan the Bold.”
“Wait a second,” interrupted Pete. “Let’s keep track of the cast here. Ivan the Bold. Wasn’t he the guy who stood up to Duke Federic and wouldn’t swear the oath of loyalty? And he got very dead as a result.”
“And his head was stuck up on the castle at Madanhoff. He’s the one. Kerenov got Ivan’s ruby for the imperial crown, and he got Ivan’s estates for his very own, and he got himself named a duke and also keeper of the royal jewels — which makes sense since he made them — and he got very, very rich and the Kerenovs stayed that way from that day on. This book is full of Kerenovs. All the first sons of the first sons became Dukes of Malenbad, and also keepers of the crown and sceptre.”
Bob turned to another part of the book. “The Kerenovs are almost more interesting than the Azimovs,” he said. “They lived for a while in old Ivan’s castle at Malenbad, but along about 300 years ago they abandoned the castle and moved to the capital at Madanhoff, and you’re going to love the reason why.”
“Why are we going to love it?” asked Jupiter.
“It’s so pat, I can’t believe it,” said Bob. “It seems there was a bit of trouble at Malenbad. One of the Kerenov daughters — her name was Olga — was accused of practising witchcraft.”
“Wasn’t that tricky?” asked Pete. “I mean, wouldn’t it be kind of dangerous to accuse the duke’s daughter of being a witch?”
“Not as tricky as you might think,” said Bob. “It was one of those hysteria things, much like the epidemic of supposed witchcraft at Salem, and everybody was accusing everybody. The girl had had the bad fortune to fall out with her father because she wanted to marry the local innkeeper, and he did not approve. Besides, he was accused himself. He was worried about his own skin, and he had to call on the then-ruling Azimov to come to his defence. So the girl was burned at the stake.”
“Oh, wow!” said Pete.
“Burned?” Jupiter came to rigid attention. “And then the Kerenovs left their castle at Malenbad?”
“Yes. You see, after she was burned, the girl — or I guess you could say her ghost
— kept coming back to the castle and tramping around and leaving …”
“Flaming footprints!” cried Jupiter.
“Right!” said Bob. “So the castle was deserted, and is now a ruin, and the Kerenovs stayed on in the capital until that revolution we know about in 1925, when they disappeared. There isn’t another mention of them in the en tire book.”
The Three Investigators sat in silence for a moment, digesting this information.
“I will hazard a guess — a very well-informed guess, thanks to Bob — at what Mr.
Alexander Potter’s real name is,” said Jupiter at last.
“If you guess that it’s Alexis Kerenov, I’m with