“Yes. It’s a pretty stiff hike.”
The man chortled. “I could use it,” he told the boys. “I’ve let myself get out of condition.”
The boys walked on, making good time without actually running, and in fifteen minutes were back at the inn. When they went into the living room, Joe Havemeyer was standing near the fireplace with a piece of paper in his hand.
“Looks fine,” he said to Anna, who sat on the sofa.
Anna nodded. Joe glanced at the boys, crumpled the paper, and tossed it into the fireplace. He took a matchbook from the mantle and set fire to the paper, then went up the stairs.
“Good hike?” Anna asked the boys.
“Wonderful!” said Jupe.
“I thought you would like it.” Anna got up and went out to the kitchen.
Pete darted to the fireplace and stamped at the slowly burning paper. The flame puffed and died. Pete gingerly picked the remains of the paper out of the fireplace.
There were only a few inches left uncharred, but those few inches were enough.
“What did Havemeyer think looked fine?” Bob asked.
Pete hesitated, then went out onto the front porch. Bob and Jupe followed, and Jupe closed the door behind them.
“Cousin Anna’s signature,” said Pete. He handed the paper to Jupe. “She’s been writing her name over and over.”
The Three Investigators were silent for a second. Then Jupe jumped, as if someone had hit him. “She won’t speak German with her cousins!” he said suddenly. “She won’t speak German, and her wedding ring is too big.”
“What do you mean?” asked Bob.
Jupe didn’t answer, but he started down the steps. “I’m going to talk to Hans and Konrad right away,” he said tensely. “Then we’ve got to get up to the meadow fast! All of a sudden, everything makes sense to me. If my deductions are correct, something horrible is going on!”
14
The Burning Mountain
“But why, Jupe?” asked Hans. “Why must we stay close to the inn?” He climbed up the ladder out of the swimming pool excavation, leaving Konrad below.
“I’d rather not explain right now,” said Jupe. “It would be terribly embarrassing for you — for all of us — if I were wrong. Trust me, please. Just stay here in case I need you.”
“Sure, we trust you, Jupe,” said Hans. “Okay. Have a good time at the campground,” he added uncertainly.
Jupe rejoined Bob and Pete, who had just informed Cousin Anna that they planned to be away for the rest of the day. Quickly the boys gathered what they needed for dinner from their campsite in the pine grove. As they worked, Jensen drove up and Smathers appeared from the trees across the road. Both men climbed onto the front porch of the inn and plopped onto chairs.
Jupe grunted at the sight of them. “I hope they stay right where they are,” he said. “I don’t know yet how they fit into this.”
“Into what, Jupe?” demanded Pete. “What’s going on?”
“Later, later,” said Jupe impatiently.
The boys were just leaving when Joe Havemeyer walked out onto the front porch.
“Hey, where are you boys going in such a hurry?” he called. His voice was jovial but he looked at them suspiciously.
“Blast!” muttered Jupe. He assumed his best dumb-kid expression and strolled deliberately over to the porch. “We’re going down to the campground for a cookout,” he said blandly.
“You kids sure have a lot of excess energy,” commented Havemeyer. “We ought to keep you right here at the inn and put you to work… work… ”
Havemeyer stopped talking, and his face took on a yellowish tinge. Jupe blinked. Then he realized that it was not Havemeyer who had gone yellow; it was the light which had changed. He looked up to see a thick, billowing cloud of smoke which hid the sun.
“There!” Pete pointed. North of the inn, on the pine-clad slopes beyond the campground, the smoke was thicker and darker.
All at once they could see flame. A flake of ash floated down and settled on Havemeyer’s hair. Jensen and Smathers left the porch for a better view.
“It’s blowing this way,” said Havemeyer. It was almost a whisper. The man seemed paralyzed, gripping the porch railing.
There was the roar of a car on the road. The car that had been parked in the campground when the boys came down the mountain was skidding and bumping up toward the inn. Pete raced out, wildly waving his arms, and the car screeched to a stop.
“How bad is it?” Pete shouted to the man.
“Going like crazy!” yelled the man. “You’d better get out of here. Woods are like tinder. Dropped a cigarette and the wind caught a spark and the next thing I knew the whole hillside was burning.”
Hans ran out from behind the inn. “Anna!” he shouted. “Anna! Konrad! Come quick. The mountain is on fire!”
The woman in the car cried, “Harold, let’s go!” The man stepped on the gas and started so suddenly that his wheels spun on the dusty road.
“Hans! Konrad!” Joe Havemeyer was moving now. He ran down the front steps of the inn and seized a garden hose that lay coiled near the porch. “The ladder!” he shouted to Hans. “Get the ladder. We’ve got to wet down the roof.”
A deer broke from cover across the road and ran blindly up the drive, past the startled humans, toward the ski slope.
“Dear heaven!” Mr. Smathers was so upset that his voice was almost a croak. “Those dreadful people. Criminals! Murderers!” The wildly excited little man scampered after the deer.
“Where are you going?” Mr. Jensen grabbed at Smathers’ arm.
A frightened squirrel dashed past Jensen and Smathers and up the ski slope.
“Let me go!” shouted Smathers. “Don’t you see? The animals are heading for the high country.”
“But the fire’s coming this way,” warned Jensen. “You’ll be trapped up there.”
Smathers pulled away from the younger man. “I have to go,” he said, and he sprinted toward the slope.
Cousin Anna ran from the house. “Joe!” she cried. “Joe, we have to get out.”
“No!” Havemeyer had the water turned on. He backed away from the faucet and aimed the hose toward the roof. “We have to save this place. I know we can save it if we stay with it.”
Konrad came up and took Anna’s arm. “We will take our cousin and we will get out,” he told Havemeyer. “Anna, you come with us, huh?”
Anna turned and looked at the fire. It seemed quite close now, less than a mile from the inn. The wind was hot, and ash speckled the ground.
“You come with us,” said Konrad again.
Anna nodded.
“Jupe,” said Konrad. “Pete. Bob. Get in the truck.”
“Wait a minute!” said Jupiter Jones.
“We cannot wait.” Konrad started to lead Anna to the parking area. “Get in the truck!”
“But we have to find Anna,” said Jupe.
“What?” Konrad stared at Jupe, then at the woman next to him. She froze in an attitude that had something fiercely defensive about it. It seemed to Jupe that she went pale, but he could not be sure in the murky light.
“Where is Anna?” he demanded.
Havemeyer let the hose drop. “You’re crazy!” he said.
Jupe ignored him. “You are Mrs. Havemeyer,” he said to the woman called Anna. “Where is Anna Schmid? Tell me. Quickly!”
“Where is Anna Schmid?” Jensen looked like a man who had been struck and stunned. “You are not Anna Schmid?” he said to the woman.
She straightened and seemed to get some grip on herself. “I was Anna Schmid,” she said. “Now I am Anna Havemeyer. You know that.” She looked Jensen squarely in the face. “I was Anna Schmid, and I will go with my cousins.”
“No!” Jupe took two quick steps toward her.
She broke then, and started to run toward her ear.
“Hey!” Jensen ran, too, reaching for her shoulder. “One second there.”
Anna dodged and stumbled as Jensen’s hand caught at her, and she fell. The fair hair with its circle of braids came off like some bizarre hat and rolled for a foot or two before collapsing into a limp heap. Instantly Anna was up again and running. The boys saw that under the wig she had short, bleached hair.