CHAPTER 11 : The Gipsy‘s Warning
WHAT A MESS!
It was two days since Jupiter had hurt himself. His
Uncle Titus had rushed him to the hospital, where
they had kept him a whole day, taking X-rays. Then
they had soaked his foot in some kind of bath and let
him come home. Doctor Alvarez said he would be
able to hobble about soon. In fact, he wanted him to
exercise his ankle as soon as he could.
But meanwhile there was Jupiter in bed with about
a mile and a half of bandage round his ankle.
And there was Mr. Hitchcock, maybe finding
another haunted house for his picture.
It looked as if The Three Investigators were going
to be out of business without ever being in business.
Pete and Bob, sitting beside Jupiter’s bed, felt
rather low.
“Does it hurt?” Pete asked when Jupiter moved a
little and had to grit his teeth.
“No more than I deserve,” Jupiter said,“for being
careless. Now let us proceed with our conference. The
first subject to discuss is the mysterious telephone call
we received immediately after our first visit to Terror
Castle. Worthington has said he believes we were
followed that night. Very likely Skinny Norris
followed us.”
“He could have easily enough,” Bob said.“He
knew we were interested in the place.”
“Skinny couldn’t have telephoned us and made his
voice sound like that,” Pete objected.“So low and
dead sounding. His voice is more like a pony
whinnying.”
“I agree,” Jupiter said.“But it’s the only possibility
I have been able to hit upon.”
He shifted his foot, wincing a little.
“Until I learn otherwise,” he added,“I shall refuse
to believe that disembodied phantoms can use
telephones.”
“Well, okay,” Bob agreed.“What’s next? The
mysterious person who rolled the rocks down at
you?”
“Yes,” Pete said grimly.“What about him? He’s
one guy I’d like to get my hands on!”
“For the time being, I am ignoring him,” Jupiter
said.“We are now certain he was not Skinny Norris.
He may have no connection with the case at all. It
may have been a child or a man wandering in the
canyon who started the rocks rolling by accident.”
“He had an awfully good aim for someone who
didn’t mean it,” Pete muttered.
“He must remain an enigma until further facts
emerge. I am thinking now of the untruths which Mr.
Rex told us when Pete and I visited him. Why did he
say he was cutting dry brush when it was obvious that
he wasn’t? And why did he have a pitcher of fresh
lemonade ready, as if he expected us to be calling at
that very moment?”
Both questions stumped all three of them. Pete
scratched his head.
“Whiskers!” he said.“The farther we go, the more
mysteries there are.”
At that moment Jupiter’s Aunt Mathilda bustled
into the room.
“I meant to tell you earlier,” she said.“A queer
thing happened yesterday morning just before you
came back from the hospital. I forgot all about it in
the excitement.”
“Queer thing?” Jupiter asked, and they all pricked
up their ears.
“An old gipsy woman came to the door. I don’t
know that I ought to tell you what she said.”
An old gipsy woman! Now they really were sitting
up.
“I’d very much like to know, Aunt Mathilda.”
“Well, it was just nonsense anyway. But this tiny,
little old gipsy woman knocked and in this awful,
broken accent she said she’d read about your accident
and had a warning for you.”
A warning! From an old gipsy woman! The boys
glanced at each other.
“Anyway,” Mrs. Jones said,“I finally understood
that she had been reading the cards, and three
different times they gave her a message for you. It was
the same message every time. You were to avoid the
letters T.C., or anybody who had those initials. Your
accident was caused by T.C., she said, and T.C. would
bring you more harm if you didn’t avoid them, or it,
or whatever.
“I just laughed and told her she was right―T.C.
stood for ‘too careless’―and she went away. Poor
thing, she looked so old and wild I don’t believe she
was right in the head.”
With that, Mrs. Jones went back downstairs and left
the three boys looking at each other.
“T.C.――” Bob’s voice was hollow.“Terror
Castle.”
“It might have been someone Skinny Norris hired,”
Jupiter suggested, looking a bit pale.“Except that
Skinny doesn’t have that much imagination. Bringing
me a dead rat is about his limit.”
“Somebody――” Pete began,“――correction,
something doesn’t want us fooling round Terror
Castle. First we get a weird warning over the
telephone. Then this something uses a gipsy fortune-
teller’s cards to send us another warning. I think Mr.
Something means it.
“Therefore, I propose we vote on whether or not to
stay away from Terror Castle, as warned. All in
favour, vote aye.”
“Aye!” Bob said.
“Aye!” said Pete.“That makes a majority vote.”
Jupiter looked at them.“Do you want Skinny
Norris to have the last laugh on us?” he asked.“As of
now, he’s undoubtedly convinced we’ve failed as
investigators. He’s getting ready to tell the world so.
Therefore, this is when we must act swiftly.
“Also,” he added,“is it not apparent that these
warnings add a new mystery to the case?”
“How do you mean?” Pete asked.
“No one else who investigated Terror Castle
received any warnings. We are the first to be warned
to stay away from it. This leads me to believe that we
must be closer to the solution of the mystery of the
strange terror that pervades it than we realise.”
“Even if you’re right,” Pete argued,“what good
does it do us? Here you are laid up. We can’t do
anything until you’re on your feet again.”
“That is not entirely accurate,” Jupiter said.“Lying
here last night, unable to sleep, I decided upon
another course of action. The two of you must
proceed to explore Terror Castle without me, while I
lie here and ponder the different mysteries with which
we are confronted.”
“Me explore Terror Castle?” Bob yelled.“Just
reading about it is as close to the place as I want to
come.”
“I don’t expect you to find out too much, of
course,” Jupiter said.“But I hope you will experience
the sensations of uneasiness that become extreme
nervousness and then turn into sheer terror. Then, if
you feel these sensations, I want you to test just how
far you feel them.”
“How far?” Pete yelped.“Last time I felt them
from head to foot. From inside out and outside in. All
over, in fact. What do you think―that my right hand
is going to feel nervous while my left hand doesn’t?”
“I mean how far from Terror Castle the feeling of
terror persists,” Jupiter explained.“After you depart
from the castle, how far away are you when the terror
leaves you? That is what I want to know.”
“Last time it was about fifteen miles,” Pete said.
“When I got home and got into bed.”
“This time, if you begin feeling a sensation of fear,
distress, terror, or impending doom, I want you to
leave slowly, in a dignified manner. Stop at intervals
to see if the feeling is going away at all.”
“Slowly.” Pete laughed hollowly.“In a dignified
manner.”
“Perhaps you will feel nothing at all,” Jupiter
added,“as I wish you to go tomorrow by daylight.
This time you will explore the building while there is
still light. If you desire to, you can stand just inside
the door when night comes, and see if the feeling of
fear affects you there.”
“Our pal,” Pete said to Bob.“All we have to do is
stand inside the door.”
Bob heaved a sigh of relief.
“That lets me out,” he said.“I have to work at the
library tomorrow, and the next day, too.”
“I’ll be tied down, too, come to think of it,” Pete
said.“It’s too bad, but I guess we just can’t make it.”
Jupiter Jones pinched his lower lip, putting the
gears of his mental machinery into high. Then he
nodded.
“In that case,” he said,“we’ll have to change the
plan.”
“Just what we’ve been trying to tell you,” Pete said.
“There are several hours of daylight left,” Jupiter
said.“So you will have to have an early supper and
visit Terror Castle today.”
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