The Mystery of the Magic Circle - M. V. Carey [34]
Jupe looked around. He saw the living-room, with its austere wooden chairs. He saw the dining-room, and its backless benches. He listened, but he heard no sound except the slow ticking of the clock in the living-room. “This place is like an enchanted castle,” he said. “Nothing moves here, does it? No one comes or goes.”
“Comes or goes?” said Clara Adams in her drowsy, rusty voice. “Who should come? We don’t see anyone any more. Once we were very lively here, but no more.
And when Marvin isn’t here …” She stopped and seemed to be puzzling something out. “What happens when Marvin isn’t here?” she said. “Hard to remember. He’s always here. Only where is he now?”
“She acts as if she’s been drugged,” Pete
whispered to Jupiter.
“She certainly does,” agreed Jupe. He
turned to Clara Adams. “Where is
Madeline Bainbridge?” he demanded.
Clara Adams waved vaguely, then sat
down on a chair and began to doze off.
“Something’s fishy here!” exclaimed
Bob.
The three boys searched then, peering
into all the rooms on the ground floor. It
was Pete who was the first to run up the
stairs to the first storey. In a big corner
bedroom with windows that looked out
towards the sea, he found Madeline
Bainbridge. She was lying on a homespun
coverlet on a big wooden bed. She wore a
long brown gown, and her hands were
folded on her bosom. Her face was very
quiet. It seemed for an instant that she
wasn’t even breathing.
Pete touched her on the shoulder. “Miss
Bainbridge?” he said softly.
She didn’t stir. Pete shook her, and called her name again — and again. Jupe’s words went through his mind. An enchanted castle where nothing moved. And here was the sleeping beauty in the castle.
But why didn’t she wake? Why didn’t she answer him?
“Jupe!” shouted Pete. “Bob! Come quick! I found Madeline Bainbridge, but I’m … I’m not sure I found her in time!”
Chapter 17
Conspiracy!
“MAYBE WE’D BETTER phone for an ambulance,” said Bob.
“Hold it,” said Pete. “She’s coming round.”
Madeline Bainbridge made a small, protesting sound. Then she opened her eyes, which were glazed and blurry with sleep.
“Miss Bainbridge, I made some coffee,” said Bob. “Try to sit up and drink some.”
“Madeline, dear!” Clara Adams sat down on the bed, holding her own cup of coffee. “Do wake up. These young men seem so concerned. I don’t understand it, but they say Marvin gave us something to make us sleep.”
The actress pulled herself up so that she was sitting on the bed. In a dazed fashion she took the cup of coffee that Bob held out to her. She sipped a little, making a wry face as she did so. “Who are you?” she said groggily to the boys. “What are you doing here?”
“Drink your coffee and we’ll tell you,” said Jupiter. “You need to be awake to hear our story.”
When Madeline Bainbridge looked more alert, Jupiter started explaining. “We work for Beefy Tremayne,” he said. “We’re trying to help him find your manuscript.”
“My manuscript?” said Madeline Bainbridge. “What manuscript? I don’t understand.”
“Your memoirs, Miss Bainbridge,” said Jupe.
“My memoirs? But I haven’t finished my memoirs. Why, I know you boys! You’re the ones who came down the hill the other night when we were having our …
our …”
“You were celebrating the Sabbat,” said Jupiter. “We know all about it, Miss Bainbridge.”
Jupe then held out a pill bottle to the actress. “We found this in the bathroom off the back bedroom. It’s sleeping medicine of some sort. We think Marvin Gray put it in something you ate or drank to make sure you wouldn’t answer the door or the telephone while he was away.”
The actress looked at the little vial. “Drank?” she said. “We drank some tea that Marvin made for us.”
“Has it happened before, do you think?” asked Bob.
“Several days ago I fell sound asleep in the middle of the afternoon. It was very odd. Clara slept all afternoon, too.”
“Probably the afternoon Gray brought the manuscript in to Beefy Tremayne,” said Jupe.
“You keep prattling on about