“Tell you what,” Horace decided. “I won’t use this story I have in the typewriter. It’s supposed to be a writeup for my ‘Meet Your Neighbor’ column, but now I have another neighbor in mind. This week the readers of the Farringdon Daily Herald will meet George Banning, father of Roger. He used to be a plumber, but he must have some more lucrative job now if he can afford to lease the Brandt estate. I’ll just assume he’s somebody important. Think that will get us in?”
Judy smiled. “I think so. A plumber might be employed by the Brandts to repair the fountain, but that doesn’t make sense, either, does it? The fountain was still badly in need of repair.”
On the way home Judy told Horace more about the mysterious fountain and the moaning cry she had heard.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just a noise in the pipes?” Horace asked dubiously.
“It wouldn’t say ‘Go away!’ would it?”
“You might have thought it did. The air would come out with a peculiar sound if someone suddenly turned on the water.”
That, in Horace’s opinion, could account for the “voice” in the fountain. He expounded his theory later around the dinner table. It had holes in it, as Judy soon pointed out to her parents. Dr. Bolton was especially interested in the moan.
“Someone could be in pain. You say you didn’t have time to explore underneath the fountain?”
“We couldn’t, Dad, with the water turned on. I think there is a place to go down behind those cupids that hold the pedestal, but the water shoots right over it. Lorraine acted as if she thought that man she seems so afraid of was trying to drown us. She and Lois almost drove off without me.”
“That was unkind of them,” Mrs. Bolton began in the overly sympathetic tone she sometimes used.