The Mystery of Wandering Caveman - M. V. Carey [2]
“I don’t think he was going to do anything with them,” she said softly. “Not really.
He didn’t care about smart horses and talking chimps. He wanted to help people be better. You have to start with animals, don’t you? It wouldn’t be right to start with a human baby, would it?”
Aunt Mathilda shuddered. Eleanor looked away, retreating into a cocoon of shyness. “You really don’t have to stay with me,” she said. “You’ve been great, but I’m okay now. Dr. Terreano and Mrs. Collinwood will be here soon, and they’ll talk to the doctor and … and …”
She bowed her head and the tears started again.
“There, now,” said Aunt Mathilda quietly. “Of course we’ll stay.”
And stay they did until a tall, bony, grey-haired man came into the coffee shop.
Eleanor introduced him as Dr. Terreano. He had with him a plump, sixtyish woman who wore enormous false eyelashes and a curly, flaming red wig. She was Mrs.
Collinwood, and she took Eleanor out to the car while Dr. Terreano went to find the doctor who had attended to Dr. Birkensteen.
Aunt Mathilda shook her head when she and Jupe were alone.
“Strange people!” she said. “Imagine doing things to an animal so that its offspring will be changed. That Terreano person who came in just now — what do you suppose he does?”
“Some sort of research, if he’s at the Spicer Foundation,” said Jupe.
Aunt Mathilda frowned. “Strange people,” she said again. “And that foundation
— I would not like to go there. Once those scientists start poking and prying and changing things around, there’s no telling where they’ll stop. It’s not natural! Terrible things could happen!”
Chapter 2
Bad Blood!
AUNT MATHILDA TOLD Uncle Titus that night about the scientist who had come through the fog and died in their salvage yard. She said very little about the Spicer Foundation, however, and when Jupiter mentioned the place, she quickly changed the subject. The idea of genetic experiments plainly upset and frightened her. But she did not have a chance to forget the Spicer Foundation entirely, for as the cool, grey days of spring passed, that institution for scientific research was in the news again and again.
First there were the reports on Dr. Birkensteen’s death. As the physician at the hospital had suspected, Birkensteen had suffered a stroke. There were brief accounts of his work in genetics, and the reports concluded with the information that the body was to be shipped to the East for burial.
Scarcely a week later the Spicer Foundation was involved in an astounding discovery, and newspaper people swarmed into the little town of Citrus Grove to cover the story. An archaeologist named James Brandon, a scientist in residence at the foundation, had discovered the bones of a prehistoric creature in a cave on the outskirts of the town.
“What a great mystery!” exclaimed Jupe. It was an afternoon in May, and Jupe and his friends were in the old mobile home trailer that was Headquarters for the detective firm they had started some time before. Jupe had the newspaper spread out on the desk. Bob Andrews was reorganizing the files while Pete Crenshaw was cleaning the equipment in the tiny crime lab the boys had set up.
Pete looked around. “What’s a mystery?” he asked.
“The cave man of Citrus Grove,” said Jupe. “Is it really human? How old is it?
James Brandon, the archaeologist who found it, calls it a hominid. That could mean a man, or it could mean a manlike animal. Is it prehuman, or something else?”
“Brandon is going to be on television this afternoon,” said Bob. “My folks were talking about it at breakfast. He’ll be a guest on the Bob Engel Show at five o’clock.”
Pete wiped off the counter in the lab. “You want to watch?” he said.
“You bet I do,” said Jupiter Jones.
There was a small black-and-white television set on the bookcase near Jupe’s desk.
Uncle Titus had acquired it on one of his buying trips. It had been out of commission when it came into the salvage yard. But Jupe had a knack for fixing things, and he had put the set in working order and had installed it in Headquarters.