The Strange Message in the Parchment by Carolyn G. Keene Read Free Book Online Page B

that led them through the small nearby village. She pointed out the general store and said, “That’s one of our clues!”
    Nancy told Dan that she thought clue number two was about four miles away. When they reached the area, Junie turned down a side road.
    “I think it best if we are not seen near the gate or the Rocco house,” she said. “I’ll park down here, under some trees, and we’ll walk across the fields until we locate the workmen.”
    As they started off, hoping to find the Italian laborers, Dan and the girls found most of the terrain hilly. It was a long trek before they saw the first workman. The three detectives walked up to him. Dan smiled and said good morning in English, but the man did not reply, nor even smile. Were these Rocco’s orders?
    “Try it in Italian,” Junie urged Dan.
    He did so, but the man shook his head. Puzzled, Dan said a few more things to him. Finally the laborer answered but hopelessly Dan threw up his hands. “This man speaks one of the dialects used in Italy, but he doesn’t understand my college Italian, and I don’t understand his regional Italian.”
    The three visitors said good-by, although they knew the listener did not understand them, and went on.
    Nancy said, “I see another man way over at the end of this field.”
    The three trekkers headed in that direction. After a long walk in the hot sun, they reached the farmer’s side. Once more Dan tried his college Italian. All he received in reply was a blank stare.
    “This is maddening,” Junie burst out.
    The workman went on with his hoeing. In a last desperate attempt to get some information, Dan said several things to him in the Italian he knew. The laborer merely shook his head.
    “I guess we’ll have to give up,” Dan said. “I’m terribly sorry.”
    “Let’s make one more try,” Nancy suggested. “It’s possible these men are under orders from Rocco not to talk.”
    “There’s no one else in sight,” Junie Flockhart pointed out.
    “That’s true,” Nancy replied, “but how about little Tony?”
    Both Dan and Junie felt they had nothing to lose by trying, so the three set off across the field. It was a long walk to where the little boy was at work. This time he was busy with a hoe. His drawing pad and pencils were not in sight.
    As the visitors arrived, Tony politely stopped working and bowed. At once Dan said to him in his college Italian, “Good morning!”
    Tony replied, a great smile breaking over his face. Then, as he and Dan talked, Junie’s friend translated. “Tony says he is an orphan and that Mr. Rocco is his uncle, but that he has to work very hard and has no chance to play.
    “Tony tells me he loves to draw but has to do this on the sly. After you girls were here the other day, his uncle caught him and tore up a drawing pad one of the men had given him secretly. Rocco even burned the pencils.”
    Nancy was furious. There was no doubt that the boy had great talent. It was shameful that the tools for his art should have been destroyed!
    Dan translated further. “After Tony’s parents died, he was brought to this country as a baby. He has been reared by Italians from Rome and never allowed to mingle with anyone else. He has had good schooling, but only from an Italian college tutor who comes in the evening. Poor Tony says he is so tired sometimes from working hard all day that the print blurs before his eyes.”
    Dan went on to explain that Tony had never been away from the farm since the day he was brought there. “His uncle says that some day, when they get rich, the two of them will return to Italy.”
    Further conversation was interrupted when Tony cried out and spoke excitedly in Italian. Dan translated, “Run fast! My uncle is coming! He will be very angry! He doesn’t like trespassers and may harm you. But come to see me again. Oh, please come to see me again!”

CHAPTER IX
    Midnight Thief
     
     
     
    Tony started working furiously with his hoe and the visitors left