"Carey, M.V. - The Three Investigators 15 - The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints" - читать интересную книгу автора (Carey M.V)

"I checked the almanac."

"Silly of me to ask," said Bob, and he started up the trail. Jupiter followed more slowly, panting as the going got steep, and stopping now and then to rest. But after ten minutes he had his second wind and climbed more easily. "Here it is," said Bob finally.

He turned and held out a hand to Jupe to help him up on to the trail that ran along the crest of the hill, "It'll be a cinch from here," he said. "We'll be on a downgrade all the way to Hilltop House."

Jupe stood for a few seconds, looking north along the trail. It was almost dark and the moon was not yet up. Still, the road--almost eight feet of bare earth scraped clear of growth--looked like a tawny ribbon stretching along the top of the range of hills. The scrub oak that crowded close to its sandy surface seemed black and menacing in the fading light.

"What do you expect to find tonight?" questioned Bob.

"Most certainly the two strangers who stopped at the salvage yard," said Jupiter. "One of them, we assume, is Mr Demetrieff of the Lapathian Board of Trade. The other could be almost anyone. It will be interesting to see how they are amusing themselves at Hilltop House."

Jupiter began to walk, and Bob stepped briskly along beside him. The moon edged up beyond the hills, silvering the road and throwing deep black shadows beside the boys. There was little conversation until the hulking, dark mass of Hilltop House came into sight ahead and to their left. The upper storeys of the place were dark, but a light gleamed faintly in one of the lower rooms.

"I explored that house once," said Bob. "I think that light is in what used to be the library."

"Windows could use a cleaning," murmured Jupiter, "and that does not look like an electric lamp."

"No. More like a lantern or a paraffin lamp. Well, give them a chance. They just moved in yesterday."

A little stream bed ran down the hill from the trail and curved past Hilltop House. It was summer-dry now, and the boys stepped into it silently, feeling step by step for any loose pebbles which might slide and send them tumbling. They almost crawled for the last fifty feet before the bed turned and ran beside the retaining wall that held the driveway of Hilltop House firm.

Jupiter pulled himself up over the retaining wall and on to a paved apron at the rear of the house. The big Cadillac stood outside a triple garage. Jupiter walked once around the car, saw that it was empty, and decided to ignore it.

The windows that looked out on to the rear area were black. There was a door with a pane of glass set into the upper half, and it was locked. "Kitchen," decided Jupiter.

"The servants' quarters are upstairs," said Bob.

"They have hardly had time to acquire servants," said Jupiter. "I suggest we proceed directly to the library."

"Jupe! You're not planning on going inside?" Bob's voice came in a horrified whisper.

"I think not," said Jupe. "It might lead to unnecessary unpleasantness. We can go round the house and look into the library window."

"Okay," said Bob. "Just so long as we stay outside. If anything goes wrong, we can run like crazy."

Jupiter didn't answer this. He led the way around past the dark kitchen to the lighted windows of the library. There was a narrow, paved path which made the going easy. The shrubbery that had once decorated the side of the house had long since withered away from neglect and lack of water.

The library windows, as Jupiter had pointed out, could have used a good cleaning. The boys knelt and peered in over the sill and saw, mistily, the two strangers who had stopped at the salvage yard the day before. Two bunk beds had been set up in the huge room. Cans and paper plates and paper napkins were heaped helter-skelter on shelves which had once held books. There was a fire roaring away in the fireplace, and the younger man--the driver of the Cadillac--knelt in front of the flames and toasted a hot dog on a long piece of wire. The ageless, hairless man sat in a folding chair at a card table. He had the air of a man waiting in a restaurant for the waiter to serve his dinner.

Bob and Jupe watched the younger man turn the hot dog on the improvised spit. Then the bald man made an impatient movement, got up, and walked away through the wide arch into a darkened room beyond the library. He was gone for some minutes, and when he returned the hot dog was ready. The younger man inserted it clumsily into a roll, put it on a paper plate, and placed it before the bald man.

Jupiter could hardly suppress a chuckle at the expression of the bald one as he confronted his hot dog. He had seen Aunt Mathilda look like that once when a Danish friend in Rocky Beach had served cold eels and scrambled eggs at a dinner party.

The boys backed away from the window and returned to the rear of the house.

Bob leaned on the Cadillac. "Now we know what they're doing," he said. "That's the untidiest camp-out I ever saw."

"There has to be more to it than that," declared Jupiter. "No one would rent a mansion--however aged--so that they could sleep on bunks and toast hot dogs in the library. Where did that bald man go when he walked through the archway?"