William Arden - The Secret Of Phantom Lake

When they reached the lodge, Professor Shay’s station wagon was parked in front next to the truck. The professor himself was shivering on the steps, blue from cold in his light suit.

“Too cold for California,” the professor said, and then grinned. “I came to see what you found out today, boys. Tell me now, quickly.”

In the warm living-room with its roaring fire and Christmas tree, Jupiter told the professor what they had learned in Santa Barbara.

“A brass plate? And Java Jim and Stebbins were both there?” The professor pondered. “Have you found the brass plate here?”

“Not yet, sir,” Cluny said. “We haven’t really looked.”

“We’re waiting for Bob and Pete,” Jupiter explained. He related Bob and Pete’s trip to the Ortega yard and the quarry, and looked uneasily at the clock. “Rory drove them, but… Wait, here they are now!”

The Ford drove up outside. Rory got out and strode into the house rubbing his hands. He was alone. “Where are Bob and Pete?” Mrs. Gunn wanted to know.

“Where I left them at the quarry, I’ve nae doubt,” Rory snapped. He looked at Cluny. “And what did ye find on yer wild-goose chase to Santa Barbara?”

Cluny told him hurriedly. “We haven’t looked for the brass plate here yet because Bob and Pete aren’t back, and because someone knocked down the old smokehouse at the back.”

“Smokehouse?” Rory scowled. “Ay, I’d forgot about that.” Now Rory looked at the clock. “Those boys aren’t back yet? They should ha’ been back o’er an hour ago.”

“A stone smokehouse?” Professor Shay said alarmed. “But how would someone know about Old Angus’s load of stones unless — ”

“They talked to Pete and Bob,” Cluny said.

“Or visited the Ortega yard,” Jupiter added. He explained how he had tipped off Stebbins. “What worries me now,” he went on grimly, “is that Stebbins and Java Jim could have learned about the old quarry, too. One of them might have followed Pete and Bob there!”

“What!” Professor Shay started for the door. “Then Bob and Pete may be in trouble, boys — even hurt somewhere! Hurry!”

The men and boys ran to the cars.

The old quarry gleamed faintly silver in the cold starlight, its depths fading into bottomless dark. They parked at the entrance where Rory had left Bob and Pete. There was no light anywhere in the quarry.

“Look for some trail!” Jupiter said.

They fanned out at the top of the quarry. Rory soon found the bikes.

“Just where I left ‘em,” the Scotsman said grimly. “They must ha’ gone down into the quarry. Anywhere else, they’d ha’ taken ‘em.”

Carefully they all clambered down into the quarry. Their flashlights made the terraces look like some giant’s stairs. The water in the bottom eerily reflected the flashlight beams. Professor Shay looked at the dank water far below.

“If they slipped,” the professor said with a shudder. “All the way down—?”

“Don’t even talk about it. Professor,” Cluny quavered.

Jupiter looked along the high stone sides of the terraces for chalked question-mark signs. There were none he could see.

“If they were being followed,” Jupiter said, “they didn’t know it. If they had, they would have left question-mark signs to show me their escape route. We always carry our chalk.”

“I’m not sure that’s good, Jupiter,” Professor Shay said. “It could mean they were taken by surprise.”

No one said anything to that grim thought. In silence, they continued on along a terrace halfway down the old quarry. They played their flashlights and lanterns up and down. All they saw were the stone terraces, twisted old trees clinging to the walls in crevices, and piles of fallen rock.

Small animals scurried in the dark, and twice snakes slithered across their path and under piles of stone. Far off coyotes bayed. Some large bird flew heavily through the trees up at the rim of the quarry. A hunting bird, a horned owl, searching for prey.

Still there was no sign of Bob or Pete, and no sounds in the night except the animals. They had almost completely circled the quarry to the far side when they heard the sudden noise!

“Listen!” Hans whispered.

Something metal had jangled not far ahead.

“Can you see?” Cluny whispered.

“No,” Professor Shay muttered.

Wood scraped against wood and metal.

“There!” Jupiter exclaimed softly. “A shack is down there!”

In his excitement his voice rose higher than he had intended. There was a clatter down by the shack, and someone ran. Rory shone his flashlight.

The beam picked out a thin figure running towards a small car parked near the shack.

“It’s Stebbins!” Professor Shay cried. “Stop him this time!”

“Bob! Pete!” Jupiter called.

“Head him off, ye fools!” Rory raged.

“Stebbins! Halt!” Professor Shay yelled.

The slender young man reached his green Volkswagen, jumped in, and roared off down a back dirt road before they could even reach the dark shack. “He escaped!” Professor Shay cried bitterly. “The villain!”

Jupiter wasn’t worried about Stebbins. “But where are Bob and Pete? What’s he done to them?”

Cluny swallowed hard, and the men stood silent. Jupiter stared round in the dark.

“Bob! Pete!” he called.

His voice echoed off the high walls of the quarry, ghostly in the night. The echo seemed to go on and on and changed suddenly into a different sound:

“Help! Jupe! We’re in here!”

They all froze.

“It’s them!” Cluny cried.

The voices came again. “Jupe! In here!”

“Look!” Professor Shay said. “A light in the shack!”

Cracks of light had suddenly appeared in the old shack, outlining a door and windows. Jupe scrambled down to the terrace the shack was on, followed by the others. He ran to the door and started rattling the padlock. From inside, Pete yelled,

“The front window, First! Unbar the shutter!”

Rory jumped to the window, removed the bar that held the shutters closed, and threw them open. Bob and Pete grinned out.

“Boy,” Pete said, “we thought we were stuck here for the night — or worse.”

“Someone was trying to come in after us!” Bob exclaimed. “That’s why we had the lights out. He tried the padlock, then he started to unbar the shutters.”

“Stebbins, the scoundrel!” Professor Shay said.

“He must a’ locked you in there,” Rory decided. “Was coming back for who kens what devilment when we scared him off.”

“Come out, boys,” Hans said.

Bob shook his head. “No, you climb in! We’ve got the last clue in here!”

Excited, they all climbed in one by one. Hans could barely fit in through the window. Inside the small office Bob and Pete showed them the file folder open on the desk.

“Special order number 143” Jupiter read aloud. “For A. Gunn, ship to yard, ten square-cut matched monument stones. Granite” Jupiter looked up. “Ten monument stones?”

“Adding up to a ton of stone,” Pete said. “Two hundred pounds a stone. What did old Angus want with ten big stones? Did he build some kind of monument?”

Jupiter shook his head in bewilderment.

“There’s nae a monument at Phantom Lake,” Rory said.

“Perhaps somewhere else?” Professor Shay asked.

“A monument built for Laura in some town?” Cluny guessed.

“No,” Jupiter said slowly. “I’m convinced Laura’s surprise is at Phantom Lake — somewhere. The journal couldn’t mean anything else the way Angus wrote it. He always came home to work on Laura’s surprise.”