Judy couldn’t help wondering how Miss Hanley really felt about Danny’s father. Afterwards, in the car, Judy and Peter talked over the old romance. Could something unexpected have happened to prevent George Anderson from keeping his appointment at the beaver dam?
“Meta told me she expected him to bring her wedding ring. He never brought it,” declared Judy, “and only a few months afterwards she read in the paper that he was married to the girl who became Danny’s mother. They lived in the house she had thought would be hers. There it is!” she broke off to exclaim as the house with the boarded-up windows came in sight. “Doesn’t it look lonely?”
Peter stopped the car. “Lonely, perhaps, but not deserted. You can see where a truck has been driven into the garage just recently. For all I know, it’s still there.”
“Let’s explore the place and find out!” Judy said eagerly.
Blackberry seemed eager to do some exploring, too. Before Judy could stop him, the cat was out of the car and off in the direction of the mysterious house. In a moment, he had disappeared.
“Here, kitty! Kitty! Kitty!” Peter called, but the cat did not reappear.
“He never comes unless he thinks you have food,” Judy reminded him. “Cats aren’t like dogs. They’re independent and adventurous, and I don’t blame Blackberry one bit. I wouldn’t come, either, if you called me away from a mystery, and I think he’s found one inside that house. How do you suppose he got in?”
“Let’s find out,” Peter suggested.
Judy followed him around to the back of the house where a sagging porch seemed to have been partly destroyed by beavers. Now she could hear Blackberry inside the house. Or was that Blackberry? If it was, he was playing with something that made a rolling sound along the floor.
“Maybe he’s found a spool. You’ll never get him out of there if he’s found something to play with,” Peter predicted.