Spiderweb for Two - A Melendy Maze by Elizabeth Enright Read Free Book Online

third
    Â Â Â Â  Strange clue that marks the secret way
    Â Â Â Â  To rare reward and a fair summer day.
    â€œA summer day!” exclaimed Oliver. “Gosh! Does that mean we’re never going to get to the end of this thing till summer? Why it’s only just begun to be October now!”
    â€œI know,” said Randy slowly. “But I wonder—I think it’s been invented, this game or search or whatever it is, by somebody who understands the way we feel with all the others gone; someone who wants to give us something pleasant to think about instead of just groaning around the house and missing them all the time. I’m glad it’s going to last a long time.”
    â€œI guess I am too, kind of. But what can it be, do you think? And who could have thought it up? I don’t think Cuffy could write poetry like that, and I’m pretty sure Willy couldn’t either.”
    â€œIf it wasn’t for the way the things are said, I’d believe it was Rush,” said Randy. “Or it could be Father. But he’s been away so long this time I don’t see how he could have planted the clues. Mona might have written the poems, I suppose, but it’s not her handwriting and it doesn’t look faked; it looks sort of easy and dashed-off, as if it was written in a hurry by someone who’d written that way for years and years; someone very grown-up.”
    â€œYes, but what about this clue, now,” said Oliver, anxious to take up the scent again. “‘Named for a jewel, named for a bird.’ What could that mean, for cat’s sake?”
    â€œThreescore years and ten, too. That’s seventy years. Asleep for that long, it must mean somebody dead.”
    â€œI’ve heard that toads can sleep an awful long time,” offered Oliver hopefully.
    â€œNo, it’s somebody dead, I’m sure, and that means a cemetery, I should think. That must be it; a gravestone somewhere, and a certain name.”
    â€œThere’s a graveyard in Carthage, and another one—a big one—in Braxton, and there’s others around, too. I s’pose we’ll have to search them all. But what could the name be? Jewel and bird. I don’t get it.”
    â€œWell, it could be a name like Pearl-uh-Stork, for instance,” said Randy, without much conviction. “Or Opal Owl. Something like that.”
    Opal Owl struck Oliver as immensely funny; so funny, in fact, that he found it necessary to lie down on the kitchen linoleum and thrash with his heels in an excess of mirth. “Opal Ow-owl!” he yelled. “Opal Owl! Oh, gosh, oh, gee, what about Diamond Turkey, for instance? What about Emerald Eagle?”
    â€œYou’re being terribly silly,” said Randy with quiet dignity. “Sometimes I forget how young you still are. Now look, you’re all wet, you’ve rolled right into a puddle of Isaac’s bath water, and you’re going to smell terribly of flea soap.”
    Oliver arose, somewhat sobered, and Randy got the mop and removed the puddle. But there was nothing she could do about the living-room carpet which bore large damp traces of Isaac’s attempts to dry himself. Isaac himself was discovered, somewhat disheveled, under the desk in Father’s study. After Randy had hauled him out, she took him to the back porch to brush and comb him. All the time her mind was busy with thoughts of the clue: locations, and the names of birds and jewels. Evidently Oliver was similarly occupied, for now and then he called down to her from the Office window.
    â€œThere’s a family named Gull in Carthage,” he shouted. “Gloria Gull is in my class. Maybe she had an ancestor with a jewel name.”
    â€œAsk her tomorrow,” shouted Randy in reply. “Or no, don’t. Suppose she didn’t? She’d think you were crazy. We’d better just look in the graveyard.”
    Silence. Then Oliver’s