Calamity Town by Ellery Queen Read Free Book Online Page A

and Jim stepped off the train the color of Hawaiians. Jim grinned at his father-in-law. ‘What! Such a small reception committee?’
    â€˜Town’s thinking about other things these days, Jim,’ said John F. ‘Draft registration tomorrow.’
    â€˜Holy smoke!’ said Jim. ‘Nora, I clean forgot!’
    â€˜Oh, lordy,’ breathed Nora. ‘Now I’ve got something else to worry about!’ And she clung to Jim’s arm all the way up the hill.
    â€˜The town’s just agog,’ declared Hermy. ‘Nora baby, you look wonderful! ’
    Nora did. ‘I’ve put on ten pounds,’ she laughed.
    â€˜How’s married life?’ demanded Carter Bradford.
    â€˜Why not get married and find out for yourself, Cart?’ asked Nora. ‘Pat dear, you’re ravishing!’
    â€˜What chance has a man got,’ growled Carter, ‘with that smooth-talking hack writer in the house—’
    â€˜Unfair competition,’ grinned Jim.
    â€˜In the house ,’ exclaimed Nora. ‘Mother, you never wrote me!’
    â€˜It was the least we could do, Nora,’ said Hermy, ‘seeing how sweet he was about giving up his lease.’
    â€˜Nice fella,’ said John F. ‘Bring back any stamps?’
    But Pat said impatiently: ‘Nora, shake off these men and let’s you and I go somewhere and…talk.’
    â€˜Wait till you see what Jim and I brought—’ Nora’s eyes grew big as the family limousine stopped in the Wright driveway. ‘Jim, look! ’
    â€˜Surprise!’ The little house by the big one glistened in the October sunshine. It had been repainted: the fresh white of the clapboard walls, the turkey-red of the shutters and ‘trim,’ the Christmas green of the newly landscaped grounds made it look like a delectable gift package.
    â€˜It certainly looks fine,’ said Jim. Nora smiled at him and squeezed his hand.
    â€˜And just wait, children,’ beamed Hermy, ‘till you see the inside .’
    â€˜Absolutely spick and utterly span,’ said Pat. ‘Ready to receive the lovebirds. Nora, you’re blubbing!’
    â€˜It’s so beautiful,’ wept Nora, hugging her father and mother. And she dragged her husband off to explore the interior of the house that had lain empty, except for Mr Queen’s short tenure, for three frightened years.
    * * *
    Mr Queen had packed an overnight bag the day before the newlyweds’ return and had taken the noon train. It was a delicate disappearance, under the circumstances, and Pat said it showed he had ‘a fine character.’ Whatever his reason, Mr Queen returned on October seventeenth, the day after national registration, to find bustle and laughter in the little house next door, and no sign whatever that it had recently been known as Calamity House. ‘We do want to thank you for giving up the house, Mr Smith,’ said Nora. There was a housewifely smudge on her pert nose.
    â€˜That hundred-watt look is my reward.’
    â€˜Flatterer!’ retorted Nora, and tugged at her starchy little apron. ‘I look a sight—’
    â€˜For ailing eyes. Where’s the happy bridegroom?’
    â€˜Jim’s down at the railroad station picking his things up. Before he came back from his apartment in New York he’d packed his books and clothes and things and shipped them to Wrightsville care of General Delivery, and they’ve been held in the baggage room ever since. Here he is! Jim, did you get everything?’
    Jim waved from Ed Hotchkiss’s cab, which was heaped with suitcases and nailed boxes and a wardrobe trunk. Ed and Jim carried them into the house. Ellery remarked how fit Jim looked, and Jim with a friendly handclasp thanked him for ‘being so decent about moving out,’ and Nora wanted Mr ‘Smith’ to stay for lunch. But Mr ‘Smith’ laughed and said he’d take advantage of