Jane Carter Investigates: Episode Six
Joe ran an appraising eye over the dilapidated shelter above his
head. Today it was only a shed. Tomorrow it might be a brand new shanty boat,
housing in comparative comfort Jennie and Joe and their little brood.
Mud Cat Joe offered me the one good chair in the room, which he
explained had “come floatin’ down the river” only that morning. He chatted at
great length about The Empress, telling how he had searched everywhere along
the shore for the missing houseboat but had been unable to find a trace of it.
“What does your boat look like?” I asked.
“Oh, there ain’t another like her. She looks like a purty little
box a settin’ on a raft. She has a smoke pipe a comin’ out of her middle that’s
painted green, and her sides is covered with tar paper. Inside she has two
rooms—the settin’ and sleepin’ room, and the eatin’ room. The settin’ room is
papered real purty with sheets we took out of a mail order book.”
“There was petunias growin’ in a box on the porch,” added Jennie.
“That boat sure was a daisy.” Mud Cat Joe sighed. “Best on the
river, but she’s done vanished.”
The sun peeped out between two skudding thunderheads; the rain
fell in fitful splashes and finally stopped altogether. We could continue their
journey.
I stepped on the starter and gave a sigh of relief when Bouncing
Betsy decided to run. The Gains family gathered around to bid us goodbye.
“Thank you for giving us shelter,” I said.
“You’re right welcome, Ma’am. Where you all goin’ now?”
“Down to White Falls, if the car is willing. Is it far from here?”
“Two miles by the river. Reckon it’s quite a spell farther the way
you’re goin’.”
I shifted into reverse, but Mud Cat thought of something more he
wished to say. He crowded close, shouting above the roar of the engine:
“Say, if you see anything that looks like The Empress down that
way, I’ll be obliged if you’ll let me know. We need that boat mighty bad.”
“We’ll keep an eye out for it,” I promised.
With the Gains family waving goodbye, I backed from the shed to
the road. The pavement was wet and slippery, but already the sun had struggled
through the clouds.
“Well, that was an experience!” exclaimed Florence, when we out on
the road again. “You do have a way of getting into the strangest places, Jane.
Such as Silva’s séance parlor for example!”
“Silva’s séance parlor?” repeated Emma.
“Oh, just one of Jane’s many adventures,” Flo said. “Don’t tell me
you didn’t read about it in the newspapers?”
“I’m afraid I did not.”
“Well, everyone else in Greenville and surrounding territory saw
the account.”
“I must have missed it,” Emma confessed. “I’m not much for reading
the papers.”
“It’s too long a story to tell in full detail,” Florence said. “To
sum it up: Jane had a little spare time, so she went out and solved a mystery
about a weird looking witch doll. I shiver yet when I think of it!
Incidentally, she saved the life of the Great Silva, and aided in the capture
of an escaped convict.”
“Don’t forget the reward,” I added. “I suppose you had no part in
all the excitement, Flo?”
“Not worth mentioning. Why don’t you devote your talents to Mud
Cat Joe’s cause? He would appreciate it.”
“You mean the vanished houseboat?” I slowed Bouncing Betsy to
avoid a hard bump. “Well, that’s an idea! I can’t understand how anyone would
be so low as to steal from such poverty-stricken people.”
“Oh, the boat may have just floated off down the river,” Florence
said.
“Mud Cat said the rope had been cut.”
“That’s so. Well, Jane, perhaps you can solve the mystery of what
became of the vanished houseboat!”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t interest me deeply. I do mean to take the
Gains family food and clothing. And they should have a better place to live. That
old shed must be freezing cold at night.”
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