“After a while,” Judy said, relieved that he had admitted it. “Naturally, it explains a lot.”
There was a lot it didn’t explain, though. Judy was about to question him further when, suddenly, a light fell across the cabinet, and she heard Peter calling her from above.
“The entrance must be clear,” she told the children. “Let’s follow the magician up the steps and see what’s happening above.”
Angry words came down to her. An old man’s voice was raised above the others.
“So you did come back, you thieving rascal! I knew you would! But that jade collection is mine, I tell you! And I mean to keep it!”
CHAPTER XXII
Blackberry’s Discovery
When Judy and the children reached the top of the steps leading up from the cave, they found a straight, tall, thin old man standing between the two forest rangers who had heard Peter’s signal and freed them from the cave. Without a doubt, the old man was Paul Riker, and he was shaking his finger angrily at the magician.
“You’re a thief just like your brother,” the enraged voice of the old man continued. “I’ll have the law on you! It was you who robbed my house, and now you’re trying—”
“I only moved your things to keep them from being destroyed, Uncle Paul,” the magician declared. “But the men I trusted have tricked me. They found out that your famous jade collection was missing when they moved your other things, and they have been searching for it ever since.”