9 : Calling all Ghosts
PETE, BOB AND JUPITER sat round the desk in Head-
quarters, devouring the sandwiches Jupiter had brought.
They knew that as soon as lunch was over Mrs. Jones
would be putting them back to work. Over their heads
Blackbeard sat in the cage Jupiter had found for him out
in the salvage yard, and seemed to listen to every word.
“We know Mr. Claudius has Billy Shakespeare and
Little Bo-Peep,” Pete argued. “We heard him say he has
four of the parrots. We started out to get back Billy and
Bo-Peep. So I suggest we just go right to Mr. Claudius
and tell him if he doesn’t return them we will call the
police. He won’t know we promised not to, and that we
are just bluffing.”
“Hmmm.” Jupiter pinched his lower lip. Bob guessed
he was thinking about the bigger mystery of what the par-
rots meant and why Mr. Claudius wanted them so badly.
It was pretty plain Jupiter itched to solve that mystery.
“There is a complication,” Jupiter said. “It now appears
that the mysterious Mr. Silver intended Mr. Claudius to
have the parrots in the first place.”
“Maybe,” Bob put in. “But that didn’t give Mr. Clau-
dius the right to steal them from Mr. Fentriss and Miss
Waggoner. I vote with Pete. We should go and tell him he
has to give them back. We’ll take Hans or Konrad with us.
That’ll keep him from acting nasty.”
“Very well,” Jupiter said. “Here is Mr. Claudius’s
card.”
From his pocket he fished the card that Carlos had
given him. It said:
CLAUDE CLAUDIUS
Dealer in Art Rarities
London-Paris-Vienna
Under that was written the address of a big Hollywood
apartment house and the telephone number.
“You telephone him, Bob,” he said. “He has never
heard your voice. Say you have a Yellowhead parrot for
sale and wonder if he would be interested. Your mother
bought it from a Mexican pedlar. Then make an appoint-
ment to go and see him, and we will of course, all go
together.”
Bob dialled. He wondered if he could carry off the story.
But as it turned out, he did not have to. The switchboard
operator who answered told bun that Mr. and Mrs.
Claudius had moved from the apartment house two days
before.
They could all hear both sides of the conversation, of
course, over the loudspeaker Jupiter had made. Now Jupe
whispered in his ear:
“Ask if they took their parrots with them.”
Bob did so. The reply he received was that Mr. and
Mrs. Claudius had had no parrots in their apartment as
no pets were permitted in that building. He hung up, look-
ing blank.
“He’s gone. Now we don’t know where to find him after
all.”
“Great,” Pete remarked. “We’re making terrific pro-
gress. All backwards.”
“A momentary setback,” Jupiter observed. “They un-
doubtedly have another address, where they can keep the
parrots unobserved. Of course they would not take stolen
parrots into a lavish apartment house. It would be too
noticeable.”
“All right,” Pete said. “I’ve used up all my ideas. You
do the talking now.”
“Perhaps Bob has something to say.” Jupiter looked
across at the smaller boy. “He is very observant of
details.”
“Also he uses shorter words than you do,” Pete mut-
tered. “Okay, Bob, what’s your opinion?”
“Well,” Bob said, “before we start making new plans, I
think we ought to get all our facts in order, so we can see
the case more clearly. We got into it in the middle, actu-
ally, after Mr. Fentriss’s parrot was stolen. But it really
started long before that”
“Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!” screeched Black-
beard.
“Go on, Bob,” Jupiter said. “It’s very helpful to hear
the facts presented by someone else.”
“It seems to me,” Bob said earnestly, “that the case
really started with the Englishman who called himself
John Silver. When he arrived at Carlos’s uncle’s house
many months ago, he admitted that he was in this coun-
try illegally and had run away to avoid arrest in England.
Also, he had with him a flat metal box in which he claimed
he kept a valuable treasure he didn’t dare sell.”
Bob looked over at Jupiter, but Jupiter appeared satis-
fied to let him talk, so Bob continued.
“Mr. Silver was ill,” Bob said. “He was dying. Before
he died, he hid his metal box and the treasure, if there was
a treasure. But he left behind seven parrots, counting
Blackbeard as a parrot, which he had trained to utter
strange and baffling remarks.”
“Strange and baffling,” Pete muttered. “That’s putting
it mildly.”
“He told Carlos and his uncle”—Bob referred to his
notes—“to post a letter, and soon a fat man would come
and pay them a thousand dollars for the parrots. But the
fat man, Mr. Claudius, didn’t come in time. Carlos’s uncle
sold the parrots to pay for Mr. Silver’s funeral. Then,
when the fat man did come, he was in a rage because
the parrots were gone. However, he set out to try to find
them. Knowing the part of town where they were sold,
he apparently kept looking until he located four of the
parrots. We know he stole two of them, and maybe he
stole all four.
“It was because he stole Billy Shakespeare that The
Three Investigators got into the case. Now we have
Blackbeard, a bird Mr. Claudius especially wants, and we
haven’t any idea where the two missing parrots are. Nor
do we have any idea why the birds are so important to
Mr. Claudius. Mr. Claudius has moved, and apparently
gone into hiding, so we don’t know where he is. And that”
—Bob took a long breath—“is where we stand now.”
“Look under the stones beyond the bones! I never give
a sucker an even break!” shrieked Blackbeard, flapping
his wings.
“Stated with great clarity,” said Jupiter. “But I think I
can add a few deductions of my own. To begin with, Mr.
Silver was a man who knew books and probably worked
with books. First, look at the name he selected for him-
self—John Silver. I feel sure he borrowed it from the
character of Long John Silver, the pirate in Treasure
Island.”
“Well, that makes sense,” Pete agreed.
“The very fact that he named himself after a pirate
gives us a hint that this mysterious treasure of his was
stolen in the first place, which was probably the reason he
didn’t dare try to sell it.
“To confirm the fact he was a man who worked with
books,” Jupiter went on, “look at the names he gave the
parrots. Billy Shakespeare——Little Bo-Peep——Black-
beard the Pirate——Sherlock Holmes——Robin Hood
——Captain Kidd.”
“And Scarface,” Pete reminded him.
“Probably named after a character in a gangster film.
In any case, most of the names have bookish or historical
associations.”
“Hey!” Bob exclaimed. “Maybe the treasure he had in
that metal box was a rare book. Some rare books are
worth thousands of dollars!”
Jupiter frowned.
“That’s true,” he said. “But remember Mr. Silver’s
description of his treasure as being ‘a piece off the end of
the rainbow with a pot of gold underneath it.’ That doesn’t
sound much like a book.”
“No,” Pete chimed in. “So where does that leave us?
We’ve lost Billy and Bo-Peep and Mr. Claudius. We’re up
against a blank wall.”
“Not totally blank,” Jupiter said. “Yesterday we heard
Mr. Claudius himself say that two parrots are still missing.
I suggest we obtain those two missing parrots. Then, with
Blackbeard, we’ll have three of the birds and Mr.
Claudius will have four. Sooner or later he will learn we
have them, and then we won’t have to locate him. He will
come to us.”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of him coming to us,” Pete
muttered. “And I certainly don’t like the idea of going out
and stealing parrots.”
“I do not propose to steal them,” his stocky partner
said. “It is my intention to try to buy them.”
“Buy them?” Pete demanded, as Bob looked puzzled
also. “How can we buy them when we don’t even know
where they are?”
“You’re forgetting the Ghost-to-Ghost Hookup,” Jupi-
ter said. “I know at least three boys who live in this section
of Hollywood.” He put his finger on the map where Carlos
had drawn a line round a certain area. “I’ll telephone
those boys. They in turn will call others, and soon the
entire area will be blanketed by inquiries.”
Bob and Pete looked impressed.
“Jupe, you’ve got it!” Bob exclaimed. “Why, a parrot is
interesting to everybody. I mean, if a neighbour buys a
parrot, and if the parrot talks well, it’s the kind of thing
people talk about. Everybody on the block will know
about it soon. No matter who bought those parrots from
Carlos’s uncle, someone will know, and the Ghost-to-
Ghost Hookup will spot them!”
“We can’t offer a reward this time,” Jupiter said, “but
I feel sure just the excitement of helping in an important
investigation will spur our ghosts on to help us.”
“How can we buy them if we haven’t any money?”
“I shall try to get some money,” Jupiter said. “And if I
can’t, perhaps we can persuade the owners to let us make
a tape recording of what the birds say. Because it is ob-
vious now that before he died, the mysterious Mr. Silver
taught the parrots to say certain odd and bewildering
phrases for a definite purpose. And that purpose explains
why Mr. Claudius is so anxious to get his hands on all of
them. I’m sure the reason——“
Just at that moment Mrs. Mathilda Jones’s voice came
ringing across the salvage yard.
“Jupiter! Pete! Bob! Where are you rascals hiding?
It’s time to get back to work, do you hear? Back to
work!”
They didn’t linger—not when Mrs. Jones called like
that. They went out through Tunnel Two like three bullets
from one gun. Behind them as they went they heard Black-
beard croaking. “Back to work! Back to work!”
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