The Mystery of the Singing Serpent - M. V. Carey [46]
Allie stiffened ever so slightly.
“It’s the oat bin!” cried Shaitan. “You put it in the oat bin!”
He curtly ordered the boys to stand next to the stall. He then shoved Allie toward the feed bin. “Get it!” he said. His voice was very cold. “Get your hands in that thing and dig out the necklace or I’ll break your arm.”
Cautiously, without looking around at the horse, Pete undid the latch on Queenie’s stall.
“Get it!” said Shaitan again. He grabbed Allie’s wrist and twisted her arm behind her back.
“You’re hurting me!” cried Allie.
Pete stepped to one side and looked at the Appaloosa. The mare’s ears were flat against her head.
“Go, Queenie!” shouted Pete, and he swung open the door of the stall.
Queenie moved like a dappled fury. Her hoofs beat briefly on the cement floor of the garage, and then she reared over Shaitan, flailing at the air and screaming as only a furious or terrified horse can scream.
Shaitan let go of Allie. “Get away!” he yelled. His gun swung to take aim at the horse.
“No!” Allie struck at his arm.
The gun went off. The sound of the shot seemed to fill the garage almost to bursting, yet the boys distinctly heard the bullet whine off the floor and splatter into the wall.
Queenie’s hoofs struck the pavement. Her big head lunged forward. Her big mouth opened and her teeth clamped down on Shaitan’s arm.
Shaitan screamed and dropped the gun. It skidded across the cement. Jupe crouched without taking his eyes from Shaitan, who was trying to pull away from the horse. He picked up the gun.
“It’s all right, Allie!” shouted Jupe. “Get the mare away.”
Allie ran and threw her arms around Queenie’s neck. “Easy, girl,” she said. “Let go!
Easy!”
The Appaloosa released Shaitan, and the sinister high priest sagged back into a corner of the garage, holding his injured arm close to his body.
Jupe put himself between Shaitan and the door. “Don’t try to leave,” he said quietly.
“I’m not an excellent shot and I might do you some serious damage without intending it.”
Shaitan saw the gun in Jupe’s hand. He said nothing. He sat there, holding his arm, panting.
Bob stepped behind Jupe. “I’ll call Chief Reynolds,” he said. “It won’t take him five minutes to get here.”
“No hurry,” said Jupiter Jones cheerfully.
Pete grinned at Queenie. Allie was coaxing the mare back into her stall. “I always had an idea that animal might bite,” declared Pete. “Only I never expected it would come in so handy.”
Chapter 23
Mr. Hitchcock Asks Some Questions
“I SENT FOR YOU,” said Alfred Hitchcock, “because my curiosity is aroused.”
The famous motion-picture director tapped a heap of newspapers which were on his desk and looked searchingly at The Three Investigators. “I read of a bombing in Los Angeles. The crime was witnessed by three boys from Rocky Beach, and by a girl about your age. The names of the minors were not published.”
Bob handed a file across the desk to Mr. Hitchcock. “We were there,” he said.
“On a case, eh?” said Mr. Hitchcock. “I had an idea that might be it.” He opened the file and read Bob’s notes on the Mystery of the Singing Serpent.
It was quiet in the office then, except for the rustle of papers. Finally Mr. Hitchcock looked up from the file. “It’s not complete.”
“I’m still working on it,” said Bob.
Mr. Hitchcock sniffed. “Astounding what people will believe,” he said. “I suppose the cobra you saw at that house in Torrente Canyon was some sort of special effect?”
“They had projectors in the ceiling to throw images of the serpent on the column of smoke,” said Pete. “You’d think it wouldn’t work. You’d think they’d need special glasses to convince people they were seeing a real snake, but with all that movement in the smoke, it did work. It looked like a real, live, three-dimensional snake.”
“Even we were fooled,” said Jupiter, “and those people wanted to believe in the serpent.
Of course, the serpent had to sing. They had to cover up the noise