Chapter XXII: Promised

In the neighbor’s house Judy did find her father. Only his eyes showed surprise at seeing her.

“How’s Meta?” she asked in a whisper. “You did come to see her, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “She’s sleeping. She’ll be all right when she wakes up.”

“And the orphans? Are any of them here?”

He opened the door to an adjoining room. Four babies, all under two years old, romped on a quilt spread on the floor.

“It will make a hard bed, but it was the best we could do unless you want to take them home. There’s an older child helping Mrs. Alberts in the kitchen.”

“Of course I’ll take them—all five of them,” declared Judy in her impulsive way. “Holly will help me take care of them. Her sister’s baby has outgrown his crib, and I can put two more in the old trundle bed stored in the attic, and two in the big spare bed—”

“Now wait a minute,” Dr. Bolton stopped her. “Your mother and I have room for a baby or two in our house.”

Judy laughed. “There won’t be enough babies to go around!” she said.

On her way home in her father’s car Judy had her hands full. She was so busy with the babies that there was no time to wonder what had become of Blackberry. Two of her small charges slept, and two of them cried. The older child wouldn’t talk. She just sat in a far corner of the car holding her baby brother and looking frightened. She wouldn’t even tell Judy her name.

“I forgot it,” she confessed at last. “You can just call me Sister.”

“I’d better go inside and prepare your mother for a shock,” Dr. Bolton said when they reached Farringdon. “She isn’t expecting company for dinner. You’ll help her with the babies, won’t you, Judy girl?”

“I’ll help too,” Sister spoke up. She wanted to give her baby brother his bottle and explained his formula very carefully to Judy.

Mrs. Bolton made the children welcome, as Judy had known she would, and Horace was there eager to hear more about the orphanage fire. Now Judy could give him the latest news.

“Two boys started it by accident. Peter questioned them, but he won’t want his name mentioned. Neither will I. You see,” Judy explained, “we’re working on something else. I’m not sure, but I think we’ve found Holly’s typewriter in that house with the boarded-up windows. And you’ll never guess what else was there!”

“What was it? How did you get in? Is that where the beavers got all that stuff they used to build their dam? You didn’t find any more of those lady table legs, did you?”

Horace was asking questions too fast for Judy to answer, but she did her best. When she told him they’d found the whole lady table refinished and looking like new, he was really surprised.

“Only one leg is missing. It must be the one that was in the beaver dam. I’m sorry now that you didn’t take it,” declared Judy. “It must have been stolen right after you and I left to take Danny back to the orphanage. It was his father who let us into the house. He said the orphans could stay there, but that was before he saw all that loot from the Roulsville flood.”

“It was his own house. He must have known the stuff was there.”

“No, Horace, I don’t think he did. Danny knew it, though. He watched the beavers drag some of that stolen furniture out of the house and build it into their dam. Then, when he saw a man open the door with a key, it was easy for him to believe his father might be the thief.”

“That sounds logical,” Horace commented when Judy stopped to spoon cereal into the mouth of one of the babies. “What do you think?”

“Well, six years ago, Mr. Anderson gave a key to the carpenter he hired to board up the windows. I guessed the carpenter’s name was John Beer. You know he was doing business with Sammis, or trying to. It all hangs together, but Danny’s father can’t see it. He chased us out and called the police the minute I mentioned John Beer’s name. Peter went back there with them, and that’s all I can tell you until I see him,” Judy finished.

All the time she had been talking she had been busy feeding the baby. Its mouth opened and closed as if it were a hungry baby robin. Sister fed her own baby brother, holding the bottle so carefully that he drank every drop. The other two babies already were sleeping.

“What about that picture you took?” Horace questioned when they finally sat down to a late dinner. “You told me over the telephone that I’d have to see it to believe it.”

“Well, here it is,” Judy said, handing him the print. “Peter’s having the film blown up and separated—”

“Holy cow!” Horace interrupted. “I’ve seen the picture, but I still don’t believe it. The beaver dam shows right through this man’s body. Or is it a man? He has a lady’s face. Did our lady table leg come to life and decapitate him?”

“It must have,” Judy giggled. “Seriously,” she added, “it didn’t come to life, and it didn’t walk away, either. We’ll find it when we find the man in the picture.”

“I could write up a whale of a story with a mystery angle,” Horace began, but Judy stopped him.

“Just wait, and you’ll have your story. We’re not sure of anything, but there may be something released for publication when Peter gets home. It may be late but I want to be there—”

“With all these babies?” Horace questioned.

Two of them had slept right through dinner. These were the two that had been crying in the car.

“They were just tired, poor dears,” Mrs. Bolton sympathized. “I have milk and cereal ready for them when they wake up. Just leave them here, Judy girl. You’ll have enough to do, taking care of the other three children.”

“I will take care of Little Brother,” Sister spoke up. “They won’t take him away from me, will they?”

“I’ll see that they don’t,” Judy promised. “You’re both going to stay with me.”

Horace offered to take them in his car. He wanted to stop and ask Honey to go along for the ride.

“She’ll be a help with the babies,” he began, but Judy objected.

“You may as well know it, Horace,” she told him, “Holly is jealous of you and Honey. She has a crush on you herself. If Honey is with us, Holly may not want to lend me Bobby’s outgrown crib, and this baby I’m holding is so lively she’ll need it.”

“So that’s it!” Horace was teasing again as they started off. “Suppose Holly isn’t in the mood for baby-sitting? You’ll really be in a jam then.”

Judy couldn’t see her brother’s face from the back seat of his car where she was minding the three children. But she knew he must be smiling.

“We’ll take all three of them to my house,” she decided, ignoring his teasing. “Then you can drive over and borrow the crib and see if Holly is free to come and help me.”

“Right,” agreed Horace as he turned in the long driveway that led to the house Judy had inherited from her grandmother.

“This used to be a farm,” Judy explained to Sister as the little girl gazed about her in wide-eyed wonder. “I still have a horse and a cow and a few chickens—”

“And a pussycat?”

“And a pussycat,” Judy agreed quickly. “He isn’t here right now. He’s probably off hunting somewhere in the woods.”