The Secret of the Haunted Mirror - M. V. Carey [26]
“You’re back early,” said Bob. “What did you find out?”
Jupiter sat down on a straight chair across the desk from Bob, and Pete pulled a chair in from the part of the trailer which was devoted to laboratory work.
“We found out that the phantom of the looking-glass is almost certainly a vaudeville magician named Baldini, and that he has disappeared.”
“I’ll bet Santora hired Baldini to perform and scare Mrs. Darnley into giving up the glass,” added Pete.
“You could be wrong,” said Bob quietly.
“You found something?” asked Jupe. “Something about Baldini?”
Bob nodded. “I made a note about it only because the item mentioned Ruffino.”
He leafed through his papers. “I went through the microfilms of the Times and I looked at everything I could find on Ruffino and Drakestar. I knew that our ghost had to be familiar with Drakestar’s house, or he wouldn’t have known about the secret room. Drakestar gave a lot of parties, and he liked to have newsmen present, so he did get mentioned in the papers. And one of his parties was for a newcomer — a stage magician who had just arrived in the United States from the island republic of Ruffino.”
“How interesting,” said Jupe.
“It is,” Bob agreed. “Drakestar was officially retired, but he still performed for guests and he liked to give younger magicians a hand when he could. Baldini was one he tried to help. I guess Baldini never made the grade in this country, but that wasn’t Drakestar’s fault.”
“So Baldini came from Ruffino,” said Jupiter Jones. “The haunted mirror came from Ruffino, and someone in a high position in Ruffino wants the mirror and has sent Santora to try to get it. There is also our dangerous burglar, who is probably named Juan Gómez. Could Baldini have some reason of his own to want the mirror?”
“I think Santora hired him,” said Pete stubbornly. “I think Santora is from Ruffino and he knew Baldini and hired him.”
“Or Baldini could be trying to frighten Mrs. Darnley into selling the glass,” mused Jupe. “Or perhaps he could be plotting with Gómez.”
“If that Gómez wants the glass so much,” said Bob, “and if he is plotting with Baldini, why didn’t they just swipe it while no one was around? There are two of them and that house has been empty a couple of times this week.”
“No. It’s too heavy,” Pete said. “It took the three of us and Jeff Parkinson and Worthington to get it off the wall. One or two men couldn’t just walk out with it. But if Baldini was born in Ruffino he could still have friends there. He could know something about the glass. He could even know that Señora Manolos had it shipped to Mrs. Darnley.”
“So he abandons his career as a newspaper seller, rents Drakestar’s old robe, and becomes the phantom who haunts the glass,” said Jupe. “I like complicated puzzles, but we are beginning to have a few too many people involved in this one. So much for Baldini, at least for today. What did you find out about Ruffino?”
“I found four newspaper articles and one short hook,” said Bob. “Ruffino is a nice little island country where people grow sugar cane and bananas and the weather is pleasant and nothing much ever happens. It was a Spanish colony until 1872, when there was a revolution.”
“Blood spilled all over, I suppose,” said Pete.
“No. Everybody seems to have been pretty civilized about it,” Bob said. “A group of influential merchants and politicians got together and told the governor from Spain that he wasn’t welcome any more. They sent him home to Madrid. The Spanish didn’t declare war, and the Ruffinians set up a government which runs a lot like ours does. The man who’s president now, Alfredo Felipe García, has been in office for two terms. According to a story in the back pages of the Times three months ago, he’ll try for re-election again this winter. He’ll be running against a former president — a guy named Simón de Pelar. He beat de Pelar twelve years ago.”
“The presidential term of office is six years, then,” said Jupiter.
“Yes, and there is no limit to the number of terms a president